Acidum formicum Anhängsel

‡ Folgendes hat anthroposofische Einschlüße ‡

Form-ac. was given by Rudolf Steiner as a "classical example" of anthroposophically extended pharmacognosy. Steiner: Form-ac. is continually produced from Ox-ac. in the human organism. The conversion of matter was stated ultimately to lead to Form-ac. "everywhere in the body". The final step in this metamorphosis of matter, the conversion of Ox-ac. to Form-ac., releasing Carb-diox. which is then exhaled, is, according to him, the necessary basis for astral body activity in this organism. In aging individuals and also with some pathological conditions, the ability to do this is reduced, and death finally ensues when the ability to produce Form-ac. ceases altogether. With pathological conditions, it would be possible to give either the Form-ac., of which too little is produced, or its precursor Ox-ac. Rudolf Steiner said that it was not the substance itself that mattered in this, but the process of producing it.

In the 1920s this did not conflict with current knowledge of physiology. All kinds of organic acids were known to occur with the degradation of carbohydrates, fats and proteins in the human metabolism. On the other hand, the question as to how the Carb-diox. we exhale was produced was then one of the great unsolved questions in biochemistry. A hypothesison the degradation of carbohydrates and fats offered by Thunberg in 1920 that was taken up by others does not differ greatly from Steiner's description. According to Thunberg, Acet-ac. rather than Form-ac. was produced in addition to Carb-diox.; this comes next in the series of carboxylic acids. Analogous to this, Thunberg's precursor was not oxalic but pyruvic acid. Other variations on the same theme were postulated for the degradation of various amino acids, which means that the production of Form-ac. from Ox-ac. might well have been considered another possibility.

The situation is very different today. Full details of how Carb-diox. develops in the human body and which acids are involved in the process have been known for a long time. Conversion of Ox-ac. to Form-ac. has not been confirmed. In fact, one of the reasons why Ox-ac. is toxic is that unlike various plants and bacteria, humans are evidently unable in principle to metabolize it. Even if a low degree of such activity were to be demonstrated, anyone taking the scientific view would be unable to accept the statement that everywhere in the human organism the conversion of matter ultimately leads to this process, and that this would be a physiological process of such fundamental importance that it is a matter of life or death.

If we simply repeat the statements R.S. made in the 1920s today, we are clearly going against established knowledge in the field of physiology, which obviously would not have been Rudolf Steiner's intention. In this particular case he expressly hoped that the things he spoke of would also discovered in "modern physiology". He said this would not be possible,however, for as long as processes within the human being were regarded in the same way as "external processes", like the laboratory experiment he himself gave as an example. According to him, the process is different in human beings than it is in a retort, and it was not the substances mentioned that mattered but the process he characterized.

Below it will be shown that research in biochemistry and physiology has actually discovered this "Form-ac. process" a long time ago and sorted out many of the details. This resolves an apparent conflict between conventional medical research and its anthroposophically extended form.

How is Carb-diox. produced in humans?

By far the most important sources for Carb-diox. in human metabolism are the three oxidative decarboxylation processes, as they are called, in the citric acid cycle, pyruvic acid cycle and glycolysis.

All the Carb-diox. produced in the conversion of carbohydrates, fats and most amino acids arises with decarboxylation, when acid or carboxyl functions (COOH groups) are split off as CO2.

Apart from this in anabolic processes. This happens most intensively in connection with fatty acid synthesis in fatty tissue. The reduction equivalents needed are obtained by breaking down sugars by the pentose phosphate pathway. Carb-diox. is again the result of decarboxylation. Compared to oxidative conversion, however, no oxygen is used in this case. Other CO2 sources of very minor significance in terms of quantity are the biosynthesis of porphyrin (hem) and of cholesterol, in both cases with special decarboxylation processes. For the sake of completeness let me also mention the decarboxylation processes involved in fatty acid synthesis as such and in gluconeogenesis. These merely release the Carb-diox. which immediately before was bound by carboxylation. Then there is also the spontaneous decarboxylation of the "ketone body" acetoacetate to give acetone. This occurs only with starvation and in diabetics.

Oxidative decarboxylation processes

The principle of oxidative decarboxylation is most easily shown with the decarboxylation of pyruvic acid, an intermediate product of glycolysis. The process was suspected by Thunberg and has been confirmed since the 1940’s. The acid function of pyruvic acid, its carboxyl or COOH group, is released as CO2. This decarboxylation process is coupled with the oxidation of the neighboring functional group, a keto or carbonyl function (C = 0) to give anew carboxyl function. The result is that the process yields another acid as well as Carb-diox., in this special case acetic acid, or rather acetyl-CoA, abound form of acetic acid. (Mere decarboxylation without oxidation would yield acetaldehyde.)

The process is exactly the same with the decarboxylation of alpha-keto-glutaric acid in the citric acid cycle and the special decarboxylation processes in the degradation of the branched-chain ammo acids. In all these cases the carboxyl function which has been removed is immediately replaced by a new one in the process of oxidation. Even the enzymes and co-factors involved in the process are always very similar if not identical.

As already mentioned, the first decarboxylation in aromatic amino acid degradation takes a slightly different course. The above-mentioned decarboxylation processes can only be called oxidative in formal terms in so far as aketo function gains a higher oxidation level and becomes a carboxyl function.As with most biological "oxidations," it involves the withdrawal of hydrogen instead (dehydrogenation), in conjunction with the addition of water. The degradation of aromatic amino acids on the other hand is a case of genuine oxygenation, with oxygen added directly. This is a general characteristic of aromatic substance degradation. In this case the effect is the same, however, as in the previous cases. The split off carboxyl function is immediately replaced by a new one as the neighboring keto function is oxidized.

A special feature of a different kind may be seen in the other decarboxylation process in the citric acid cycle, which we have not yet considered - isocitric acid. In this case, oxidation (or rather dehydrogenation) takes place but there is no new carboxyl function. This is, however, only a very minor change from the decarboxylation processes discussed so far. With them, the starting material was always an alpha-keto acid, i.e. a carboxylic acid with a keto function immediately adjacent to the affected carboxyl function. In a way this is also the case with isocitric acid decarboxylation. Here, too, an alpha-keto acid is initially produced - oxaloacetic acid. This is not decarboxylated immediately, however, but only after binding an acetyl group to the alpha-keto function. Here substance is brought into the citric acid cycle between the production and decarboxylation of the keto acid, with the result that the cycle is maintained in spite of losses due to decarboxylation. Binding of the acetyl group means that the keto function cannot be oxidized to become a carboxyl function, but the acetyl group (= acetic acid) adds a further carboxyl function.Oxidation then leads to a new alpha-keto function instead, and the next oxidative decarboxylation step can follow immediately. Apart from these peculiarities, which are connected with the cyclic nature of the whole process,this oxidative decarboxylation is completely the same as the others that have been mentioned.

The last decarboxylation process to be considered is the one in the pentose phosphate pathway. As already mentioned, this is also oxidative, at least in formal terms, but does not even involve indirect oxygen consumption. In the citric acid cycle, glycolysis and amino acid degradation dehydrogenation causes the hydrogen which is withdrawn to be added to the respiratory chain as a reduction equivalent and hence indirectly to the oxygen. In the pentose phosphate pathway it is retained and used in reductive biosyntheses. Another particular characteristic is that no keto acid is decarboxylated- not even indirectly as in the case of isocitric acid - but a saccharic acid. The product of this oxidative decarboxylation thus is not an acid but a sugar. This process may also be cyclic, when the sugar (a pentose) reduced in length by degradation is through a series of conversions at the sugar level converted back to the original substance (a hexose).

All these decarboxylation processes may evidently be seen as variations of one single process. The most important differences have to do with the relationship to oxygen. If it is merely a matter of providing reduction equivalents for reductive biosynthesis, oxygen is not involved at all, with the cycle remaining at the relatively much reduced sugar level (pentose phosphate cycle). This process, by the way, is similar to the citric acid one in its processual details,(9) - the addition of substances to the citric acid reflecting the involvement of an anabolic aspect. On the other hand oxygen is used directly as an oxidizing agent in the synthesis of aromatics, a group of substances that characteristically show particular persistence and resistance to degradation. (Thus lignin can only be degraded by special micro organisms; other examples are tannins and sporopollenin, the most persistent of all biogenic substances.) The greater majority of oxidative decarboxylations are, however, only made possible by the indirect involvement of oxygen.

Comparison with the descriptions given by Rudolf Steiner

In humans, oxidative decarboxylation continually produces Carb-diox. in all live tissues. All organic matter, except any that is eliminated or irreversibly deposited, will enter into this process at some stage. In conjunction with the processes in the mitochondrial membrane, known to consist in electron transport and oxidative phosphorylation, this is a catabolic process which provides the basis for the life of humans and all ensouled organisms -cell respiration. It is thus evidently an essential basis for astral body activity.Numerous recent investigations have shown that around midlife the function of cell respiration begins to be reduced in vital organs such as the brain, heart and liver, gradually getting less and less. When it ceases completely, death ensues very quickly. Cell respiration thus has exactly the physiological role which Steiner ascribed to the Form-ac. process; the connection with the astral body is also the same.

Chemically, organic acids are decarboxylated in both cases, with acids produced as well as Carb-diox.. There is a difference, however, in that Ox-ac. is not a keto acid and its decarboxylation is not oxidative. Yet as Steiner himself said, the process is not exactly the same in humans as in the laboratory experiment which he gave for comparison. Considering the laboratory facilities and skills then available, the experiments actually could not have been done at the time using the keto acids physiologists now consider to be the "right" ones. Pyruvic acid, the simplest alpha-keto acid,would be sufficiently stable chemically, but one could only obtain either acetic acid or Carb-diox. from it by simple chemical means, i.e. without enzymes, and not both at the same time. One would also lose the impressive qualitative aspect of a volatile, pungent fluid and a gas evolving from crystalline Ox-ac. that is practically insoluble, pyruvic acid in itself being a pungent fluid. Oxalo acetic acid, which would be the nearest alternative, is already so unstable that it cannot exist as dead matter outside the vital chemical processes.

The kind of comparison we are making here only has meaning if we take account of one fundamental difference between spiritual and conventional scientific research. Conventional science first of all goes into detail; this provides the basis for the elucidation of progressively more complex situations. The spiritual science of Rudolf Steiner, (this refers specifically to spiritual science based on a training that is of the present day, and not to remnants of ancient clairvoyance, where the situation would be different). on the other hand starts with the greatest and most comprehensive whole picture and may then progress from these to increasingly more complex details. Thus going in opposite directions, the two approaches may meet, but cannot take each other's place.It thus shows misunderstanding (sadly common) of the situation when contents presented out of the science of the spirit are treated like findings made in conventional science or even taken in their stead. Things that are accessible to the modern empirical scientific approach, like the details of human biochemistry, for instance, cannot be investigated with anything but the methods of conventional science. Conversely, the contents presented by the spiritual scientist must be taken to be what he himself declared them to be - descriptions of events and processes that can only be presented in images.

Might cell respiration thus be the physiological process to which Steiner wanted to refer? The answer should come if we compare the given situations.Steiner chose Form-ac. as an example to indicate that for anthroposophically extended pharmacology it will be necessary to "perceive the mission substances have in the world". He characterized the world mission of Form-ac. to be such that it makes aging and decomposing matter that has dropped out of the living context available again for further development. We therefore need to examine if this also describes the world mission of cell respiration and oxidative decarboxylation respectively, or, in a wider context, if the position Form-ac. has in the world - it was described in detail to the workers building the Goetheanum - is also that of cell respiration. We shall have to limit ourselves to the central aspects.

The world mission of Form-ac.

Steiner characterized Ox-ac. as a substance produced mainly in plants but also in humans and in all organisms altogether. Plant metabolism, he said, only went as far as Ox-ac. if left to itself, but interaction with the insect world also produced Form-ac., a substance essential for the continued existence of the plant world. Form-ac. was particularly in evidence in ants, but was present in all life forms and thanks to the activities of ants also entered into the soil. There it was needed for the healthy decomposition of dying plant matter, so that new life might arise. This also reflected its significance in humans, according to Steiner, something we have already discussed.

Let us now consider each of these in turn in relation to our hypothesis.Ox-ac. is in fact a typical plant substance found in most plants, though usually only in very small amounts. Something to be noted quite generally is that plant saps always contain organic acids in high concentration, compared to human blood. It is however only rarely, in quite specific plants, that Ox-ac. really stands out. The most common plant acids are malic and citric acid, two intermediates in the citric acid cycle. In their case it is true that they are also produced in humans and (after minor changes) decarboxylated.

In the flowering region of plants anabolism based on photosynthesis is less, with cell respiration taking its place. Here the plant is quite evidently coming closer to animal nature - directly so with pollination, but also in many ways in the morphology and physiognomy and in the physiology.

Anabolic metabolism in the green leaves correlates with high-level accumulation of different plant acids, and the lamina is characteristically the part of the plant with the highest concentration of acids. Acid levels go down as one moves to the floral region, reaching a minimum in the seed. Actual conversion of Ox-ac. into Form-ac. has not been observed in this case either. On the other hand there is a definite connection with reproduction, new varieties arising by foreign pollination and the plant world thus ultimately maintained and developing further.

Cell respiration is the process in which organic matter is taken back to its most general, most open original form - Carb-diox. The significance which Carb-diox. has for the development potential of life, quite apart from photosynthesis, is evident from the fact that the development of young organs in plants, animals and humans often occurs in a milieu with noticeably high Carb-diox. levels, being actively promoted by it. An example would be our own embryonic development. In global terms (leaving aside the oceans which have their own circulation) most CO2 is produced in and on the soil in the decomposition brought about by lower animals, fungi and bacteria. It is generally known today that ants play an important role in this. (Steiner, by the way, repeatedly spoke in the same breath of Form-ac. and the venom of bees and wasps, saying this was related to Form-ac. and served the same function, only more with regard to flowers, whilst the ants were more concerned with the soil. This is remarkable in so far as bee venom does not contain any Form-ac. but is, on the contrary, highly basic. A common feature of both poisons is that they are markedly lytic, a property both strong acids and bases have in the inorganic sphere. Here it emerges quite clearly that Steiner was not concerned with Form-ac. as a substance but with a processual element).

We need not limit ourselves to the complete decomposition of organic matter, however. Recent work has shown that particularly in woodlands, which Rudolf Steiner was speaking of when talking about ants, a considerable proportion of decomposing material becomes part of the plant sphere again whilst still at the organic level; the mediators for this are soil fungi which on the one hand bring about decomposition and on the other live in close symbiosis with higher plants and supply their needs. In the same way glycolysis in humans not only brings about complete oxidation of the substances, but these processes also provide the versatile starting material for a large number of biosyntheses. The synthesis of non-essential amino acids basically starts from the three alpha-keto acids available here; glucogenesis specially from oxaloacetic acid, whilst almost all the other intermediate products enter into other biosyntheses. There is thus constant renewal of organic substance in humans, it being degraded to the level of these acids and then partly resynthesized again.

Summary

There surely can no longer be any doubt but that cell respiration is the physiological process to which Steiner was referring when he said that something similar to the decarboxylation of Ox-ac. under laboratory conditions also took place in humans. In view of the extensive agreement between the relevant situations in man as well as in the world of nature outside man, it seems of little importance that the substances involved in the physiology are slightly different from those which Steiner told his listeners he was only presenting as an image for comparison. It seems that at the time, Ox-ac. and Form-ac. made it easiest to demonstrate the principle of a process the physiological and chemical details of which were not yet fully known.

Consequences and prospects

What are the fruits of these deliberations? One immediate consequence is that we should no longer say Form-ac. is produced from Ox-ac. in humans, as this is not the case. Rudolf Steiner himself did not say so either, if we consider everything he said on the subject in context and not take individual statements that may be misunderstood if considered on their own. (Steiner, by the way, repeatedly spoke in the same breath of Form-ac. and the venom of bees and wasps, saying this was related to Form-ac. and served the same function, only more with regard to flowers, whilst the ants were more concerned with the soil. This is remarkable in so far as bee venom does not contain any Form-ac. but is, on the contrary, highly basic. A common feature of both poisons is that they are markedly lytic, a property both strong acids and bases have in the inorganic sphere. Here it emerges quite clearly that Steiner was not concerned with Form-ac. as a substance but with a processual element.)

Another consequence may well be that we should not literally think of the substance but of the process that was being characterized whenever Rudolf Steiner spoke or wrote of Form-ac. as a substance occurring in the human body. The question as to whether this process may be fully equated with cell respiration at the physiological level or if something else comes into this as well, needs to be investigated.

Questions also arise in connection with medical and pharmaceutical aspects. Steiner did on several occasions state very clearly that human beings should be given the substance which they are not able to produce in adequate amounts themselves, and depending on the given situation either Form-ac. or Ox-ac. This would mean that in the light of present knowledge on would have to give suitable intermediates from the citric acid cycle or from glycolysis, or also other substances that will easily convert to these. Such preparations are in fact available and reported to have proved effective. Suclan interpretation also seems obvious in the light of the comment that it is not the substances that matter but the process, for we give these substances in order to stimulate the process. Even the statement that we need to know the mission substances have in the world if we are to judge their actions are humans does not conflict with this, for this was expressly given as a suggestion for conventional scientific research, saying that this should no longer be limited to the chemical analysis of isolated substances, which was then still very much the custom, but that we must also consider the biochemical and physiological processes in man and nature.

Does this mean that Steiner's statements concerning Form-ac. and Ox-ac. were erroneous? That would be the case if one was considering only the"material" actions of these substances and they had in fact proved ineffective on the indications given in this context. The medicinal use of ants has been known from antiquity if not earlier, and in the case of Ox-ac., too, Steiner was apparently able to base himself on positive experience, as is especially apparent from the following: "A situation may exist where the organism puts up direct resistance to the direct application of Form-ac., but where the organism is very much inclined to produce its own Form-ac. from Ox-ac. if one increases its Ox-ac. levels. In cases where one does not get anywhere with Form-ac., it is often necessary to give a course of Ox-ac. treatment, because Ox-ac. becomes Form-ac. in the human organism. In the light of this we would need to correct not the details given about the medicinal agents but only the physiological and chemical interpretation of their mode of action from the present-day point of view.

Another question is, of course, how specific Steiner's suggestions for medicines were meant to be. As already mentioned. he would often speak of Form-ac. as almost synonymous with the venom of bees and wasps. The source for Ox-ac. he gave was not only wood sorrel but also"clover altogether, as it grows in the fields". Steiner's "Ox-ac." thus cannot simply be equated with chemically identified Ox-ac., for fodder plants such as the clovers grown for this purpose (botanically unrelated with sorrel) generally have only low levels of an acid which is poisonous to browsing animals. Steiner clearly used the term "Ox-ac." more to represent plant acids altogether; it was merely that at the time very much more was known about Ox-ac. than others, it being relatively easy to detect.

This indicates some of the issues on which further work may be done. It is quite evident that in speaking about oxalic and Form-ac. Steiner was not primarily intending to refer to specific medicinal agents nor present any kind of complete research findings. His example was given, as he said, as "merely an indication of how necessary it is to get to know not only the firmly defined organs but also the humoral, the fluid process, both in the cosmos out there and within the human organism, and this in every detail". He wanted to encourage "a different science" as the basis for pharmacognosy. One aspect of this, the detailed study of the "humoral processes" in the organism, was still in its very beginnings at the time, but has since been taken very much further. The extensive investigations Hans Adolf Krebs, a young assistant physician, started at Freiburg University and continued in England after his enforced emigration, seem almost a direct application of he suggestion made by R.S. They led to the elucidation (= Aufklärung) of the citric acid or Krebs cycle for which he received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1953.

The other aspect, something Rudolf Steiner spoke of as "taking the macroscopic view, is needed all the more at the present time. It is a matter of looking for connections of the kind briefly mentioned above when speaking of "mission in the world." Made the be-all and end-all, analytical processes going down to smaller and smaller levels will lead away from life ("not, of course, as regards reality, but for gaining insight"), even if once is convinced to be hot on the trail of the mystery of life. The findings of the"analysts" must therefore always be brought back to the reality of life by looking for a macroscopic perspective. The opposite bias, taking the macroscopic view without adequate knowledge of details, easily leads to vagueness or even illusion. Thus a "macroscopist" in his turn depends on the work of the "analysts" who provide him with the material he needs. Conventional biochemical research thus calls for the methodological expansion encouraged by the anthroposophical approach just as this in turn will need the other if it is to be properly grounded. Science will only be "complete", as Steiner once put it, if the two approaches complement one another. This is why it is so important to resolve apparent contradictions between them, for these can only arise from lack of understanding.

Following is compiled by J.H. Clarke:

Experience:

About 2 yrs and 9 months ago I added to my daily diet from 1 - 2 grains of Form-ac witch produced the following results in my body:

Polypi and fibrous matter absorbed from my nose.

Nose, tongue, lips, and some other parts greatly reduced in thickness.

Chronic catarrh of nose, throat, and intestines practically cured.

Stiff joints throughout the whole body have become loose.

Short sight diminished by 50%.

Eyes have changed in color from light slate grey to a darker shade.

Varicose veins in l. leg and others diminish

Facial and bodily appearance so altered that even my own mother is puzzled and I can meet and converse with people who formerly knew me very intimately without my identity being discovered.

I started this treatment on a sort of vague conjecture that Form-ac. might be as necessary (partially so) as I found it to be to many tropical and other creatures.

For example it figures very largely in the diet of all insect-eating creatures and the frugivori. Even bears are known, at certain season, to eat large quantities of red ants, which they search for on decayed branches of trees, etc., and thus to produce certain alterations in their tissues which make their flesh practically worthless for eating purposes.

It is true that in the case of rabbits and chickens to whom I have given Form-ac., I have not noticed this to be the case, but then the quantity supplied was small.

I have also tried its effects upon a sickly and scabby pony and found it quickly restored the animal to health as well as giving it a beautiful, healthy crop of hair. (Anyone who cares can produce this result in the case of an old pony).

Just recently, however, a well known cancer specialist has informed me that he is trying the effects of it by dosage, local application, and other means which I recommend.

I have some fears that not being able to properly grasp the theory of the thing he may bring discredit upon it, for Form-ac. is a natural and proper substance to be in human food and not a substance to be administered in terrific doses for short periods (unless for some special purpose, if at all.)

Taken for lengthy periods it has the effect of altering somewhat the consistency of the blood and gives one the "thin" blood of the tropical animal, a circumstance not perhaps entirely without its disadvantages.

Also it lowers the temperature of the body. I have also taken a good deal of Cit-ac. My age is 31 I was diseased from childhood and the only part of my life that has been entirely free from suffering is the last twelve months.

I am not suggesting that all and sundry should incorporate Form-ac. in their diet, as I am fully aware that in its crude state it is an irritant poison. I will even go so far as to say that if they will take daily fruits, honey and possibly lime juice and so forth they will be reasonably certain of getting so much of Form-ac. as the body requires.

Yours respectfully,

R. Wallace Ellison.

5th Feb., 1909.

Dear Sir,

I am exceedingly obliged for your very kind letter and the interesting information contained in it. I hasten to add what I would have mentioned before, only for fear of making too long a story of it, that the quantity taken during the last two years was not much over 1 gr. daily.

I found that 2 grs. daily was too much for regular use, though it served the purpose. If my theory be correct, perhaps 1 gr. daily would be the proper thing and best to be taken in the form of honey, raw juice of sugar cane, etc.

Owing to having no fixed base it escapes the observation of the chemist, but there are reasons which to me are satisfactory that it is to be found in the above substances as well as a whole host of others.

Apart from this, people living in tropical countries are infested by insects. It lowers the temperature and according to my view produces changes in the blood which are absolutely necessary to take place if a European is to live and survive in a tropical country.

I know certain people think that this causes malaria, but I look on it as a wise provision of nature and I do not think that malaria germs would thrive on the bodies of mosquitoes, seeing that the latter are heavily charged with Form-ac.

I believe that Lac-ac. for old age is another mirage and that it is no better than a poor substitute for Form-ac. (the natural thing.)

Yours faithfully,

R. Wallace Ellison.

John H. Clarke, Esq., M.D.

In reply to yours of the 4th inst., I am not sure that absolute Form-ac. is liquid, but I think it would be deliquescent - anyhow there is none of it to be had, as far as I know.

I get ordinary commercial Form. ac., Sp. gr 1.062.

It is 25 per cent. I mix it with 11 parts of water and take about 1 teaspoonful of this after breakfast.

When I first commenced I used to drink about a pint of water with it, but now I just put the teaspoonful of acid into a very small quantity of water and drink it. It has a pleasant, "fruity" sort of taste.

Sometimes I add a little citric acid and sugar to it and I believe this improves the effect.

Nature seems to be fond of supplying it along with carbonaceous materials and perhaps the question of Chlorophyll is bound up with it in some mysterious way which I cannot find out.

Anyhow it produces the effects and the last 12 months of my life are the only ones I can remember as being entirely free from suffering.

The last three of his family turned out "wrong uns," my elder brother having been operated upon a number of times for tuberculosis and the younger one being supposed to have it also at the time he died.

I have also been supposed to have been tuberculous myself, but a well known cancer specialist, who went closely into the matter recently for other purposes, told me incidentally that in his view all my complaints were perhaps caused by some sort of gout.

Anyhow I have seen my relations losing their lives in very painful ways from diseases which I now know to be completely curable.

For example, my father's sister died a few weeks ago from a tumor, after having suffered from stiff joints most of her life. I believe that with enlightened treatment in the proper time the unfortunate creature might have lived another 20 years !

I was formerly obliged to take great care of myself in order to survive at all. Now I smoke incessantly, I "drink" if I want to, I keep late hours, and do all the things that are injurious.

But I feel no ill effects whatever and I know that 12 months from now I shall have fewer physical defects than I have now. I find, for instance, I can now make out the time by some public clocks.

12 months ago I could not. Moreover instead of living upon milk, macaroni, and such like stuff, which I had to do, owing to gastritis, I eat any mortal thing that is produced and never feel any discomfort.

These are simple facts and people who know me well know that which I have stated is true.

If medical men don't care to investigate the subject of Form. ac. and allied substances then they themselves will have to pay the penalty (as well as the unfortunate public).

Yours respectfully,

R. Wallace Ellison.

John H. Clarke, Esq., M. D.

I think the importance of this clinical observation will be apparent to all readers. I have followed it up in a certain measure myself, but not so extensively as I could wish, so I now make it public that others may have the opportunity.

The place of Form-ac. in medicine/chemistry is great and growing one. In the form of tincture of ants - Formica rufa - it has a distinct place in homeopathic practice.

But Mr. Ellison's experience is something over and above this and capable of wide application. Apis (not true)/other insects contain Form-ac., Urt. Urt-d.

In the Homeopathic World of April, 1902, Dr. Dudgeon gave an account of the work of Dr. Edward Krull, of Güstrow, who was led to think of Form-ac. as a remedy from its constant occurrence in the internal organs and soft parts of the body.

He found it constantly present in the sweat of healthy persons, but very much diminished in or entirely absent from the sweat of persons affected with phthisis. He thought to supply the defect in phthisical subjects by introducing it into the system in material doses.

But he found no benefit when he gave considerable doses by the mouth. So he had recourse to hypodermic injections of the watery solution. After two years of experiments he found, to his surprise that the more dilute his injections were the more powerful the effects, and he ended by giving injections of a dilution which corresponds to our 3rd or 4th centesimal, and waiting five or six months before repeating the injection.

"He treated, in this way, with success," I am quoting Dudgeon, "external and internal tuberculosis, chronic nephritis, and malignant tumors. It was necessary for the success of the treatment that the nutrition of the body should be well maintained. In cachectic states the treatment is contraindicated. It will be remembered that Hering mentions one case of an anemic woman who died from the effects of an ant-vapor bath."

"The general effects which were observed in all the cases treated by Krull's method were :

Immediate increase of nutrition/appetite improved/weight increased; all this without any material change in the diet. In all the patients during the first months, sometimes every 2 - 3 days, sometimes at an interval of weeks, there occurred slight transient attacks of pain in the abdomen, on the r. and l. of the umbilicus, sometimes accompanied by urging to stool. If several copious fecal evacuations occurred, this had no bad effect on the patient, they seemed to have a critical character. After the injection the menses came on earlier and were more copious, all diseased organs and parts showed greater activity".

In the 1st and 2nd stages of Tb. cure is the rule. In the 3rd stage the treatment only does harm, rapidly diminishing the strength.

The action is most remarkable in lupus. During the first days after the injection the affected part commences to grow vividly red, rises up somewhat and discharges moderately, and is the seat of shooting pains occasionally. Curative action usually begins in the third week.

"In chronic nephritis, so long as there has been no shrinking of the renal parenchyma and no heart complication, the action of the Form-ac. injection is beneficial."

"In carcinoma of the breast and stomach, the tumor first increases in size and becomes very sensitive and the skin over it feels warmer. The shorter the term the tumor has existed and the stronger the constitution, the sooner does reaction occur and the consequent cure of the disease."

In the concluding words of Dudgeon's article :

"Tuberculosis, chronic nephritis and carcinoma are not diseases in which we can claim a great amount of success. . . . So where other remedies fail or cannot be discovered we may take Solomon's advice and -"Go to the ant!".

In the Homeopathic World, Sept., 1906, I quoted from the British Medical journal an article by Dr. L. B Couch, who thus formulates his conclusions as to the nature of rheumatism:

1. All rheumatism, acute or chronic, muscular or arthritic, is due to self-generated systematic poison.

2. It is not bacterial.

3. It is chemical.

4. It is acid and a suboxidant product.

5. It is not uric acid,

6. Uric acid is a product, not the cause of rheumatic conditions.

7. It is produced by starchy indigestion alone.

8. It is produced by fermentation.

9. It is produced by carbonic acid gas generated in the bowels and is due to drinking at meals and washing the food into the stomach without proper mastication and mixing with the proper ferments designed to digest such foods.

"Dr. Couch studied the action of Form-ac. in the treatment of rheumatic disorders by the experience of a farmer who was cured of it after being stung by bees. The remedy was found to be of the greatest value (says the Brit. Medical Journal, epitomizing Dr. Couch's article in Medical Record of June 24th), and the histories are given of several cases in which remarkable results were obtained“.

The author, who is an allopath, uses the hypodermic method and gives the following directions :

1. Always cleanse the parts thoroughly before injecting Form-ac. solution.

2. Never use a stronger solution than 3%; better 2 1/2 % 1/2.

3. Never use it without using 5 to 8 drops of a 1% solution of cocaine!, or other local anesthetic, as a preliminary.

4. Always choose exterior or outer parts for exhibiting the remedy and inject it just beneath the skin.

5. Never use more than 8 drops in any place of either cocaine solution or Form-ac. solution.

6. If larger doses of Form-ac. are used, painful lumps are formed which are slow of absorption and painful; whereas if smaller doses are used no destruction of tissue results.

7. The author makes the injections not less than z inches apart and he has never used more than 30 injections at a time(!), and it is better to use only 12 and repeat the following day in another place. Injections may be given every day or every other day, till all the pain has ceased."

Form-ac. known in homeopathy only as Form, tincture made of ants containing the acid.

Later, concerning dosage, Dr. Clarke wrote the following letter:

The Dosage Of Formicum Acidum

But I will tell you how I manage. In prescribing for case of varicose veins, polypi, and catarrh, such a condition, in short, as that described by Mr. Ellison, I order 1 ounce or 2 of a solution of Form-ac. in the proportion of 1 part acid to 11 parts of distilled water.

Of this 1 teaspoonful should be taken in 1 tablespoonful of water, 1 - 2 daily after food. I regard it so as a kind of medicinal food and I do not find that it interferes with any other indicated remedy that I wish to give at the same time.

A correspondent in Vancouver, Wash., whose name I am unfortunately unable to decipher, who is troubled with catarrh, rheumatism, and cramps, asks me if taken as Mr. Ellison suggests would cause a proving in him. I think it probably would not, I should think it well worth risking.

Any one wishing to repeat Dr. Krull's experience I should advise to use the hypodermic method advised by him, But there could be no harm in trying various homeopathic preparations of the acid on his indications if anyone likes to do so.

It should be remembered, though, that he administered single doses at long intervals. In these cases, if administering it by the mouth, I should give the dose, not after a meal as in the crude one of Mr. Ellison, but in the manner of the unit, doses of Dr. Cooper - not less than two hours after a meal, and at least an hour before any food is taken again.

That is to say, taken on an empty stomach, and allowed to act undisturbed before digestion is again set in action.

You say some of your readers ask if Form. will answer the same purpose as Form-ac?

I think most probably it would. But this is a question which experience will have to decide. It is open to anyone to try and report results, and there will be no risk to patients in making the trial.

In prescribing Form-ac. or Form. on the indications of the Form-ac. provings, I should vary the potency and frequency in exactly the same way as I do with Acon., Bell., or Bryonia.

Yours truly,

John H. Clarke.

No. 8, Bolton St., W., London

January 9, 1916.

The following was contributed by Dr. Herbert T. Webster, of Oakland, Cal., to the Eclectic Medical Journal, March, 1916:

Last August, my attention was called to this agent through reading an article in the Homeopathic Recorder. Since then I have been giving it considerable attention and have found it a valuable resort in a few chronic cases. I feel that it is destined to become a remedy of much benefit and that we are neglecting a means of relieving many stubborn chronic ailments.

Chronic rheumatism is one of its most important fields of action, though other painful states come under its influence.

Cases: A young man, who acquired syphilis about 3 years ago, came to me complaining of loss of ambition and general debility, and also, what disturbed him most, a constant pain in the right side.

He has been under treatment about two months without relief when I put him on Form-ac. I gave him enough to last a month, with instructions to report when the medicine was finished. At the proper time he appeared at the office and informed me that he was feeling much better and that the pain in his side was gone.

A middle-aged woman, cook in a large establishment, had been under treatment for some time for a severe pain in the lumber region, which ext. into the r. side at times. This was so severe that it almost interfered with work sometimes and at critical moments.

She had been operated for ovarian trouble several years before and believed that the pain was connected, some way, with the old trouble.

I was puzzled as to what to do for her finally, for the list of remedies for muscular pain had been pretty well exhausted. As a final resort I put her on Form-ac.

When she returned, about 4 weeks later, she came to pay me and was genuinely delighted with the fact that she had been entirely relieved of the severe pain that had troubled her so long.

In two cases of chronic articular rheumatism in which I have tried it results have been promising.

In one case, enlargement of the joints of the fingers became very much lessened and stiffness of the legs, which had troubled her very much in walking, was markedly relieved.

This drug is credited with a selective influence on the eyes. For a time, the writer, who has noted a considerable failure of vision within the past year, has been taking it, and has found much satisfaction from its action. I do not believe we have a more positive remedy for failing vision when the occular apparatus is not obstructed than this. Where only functional failure of the eyes is present, one can hardly go wrong prescribing it, if reports are true. I intend to give it a thorough investigation in this direction.

Dr. John H. Clarke, of London, England, has given this remedy particular attention and has published, in connection with comments of his own, some very interesting and convincing testimony by letters from a layman, a Mr. R. W. Ellison.

We find in Mr. Ellison certainly a cheerful advocate of Form-ac.. My own experience convinces me that here we have a wonderful searching remedy. I must use it considerably longer before I become well acquainted with it, but a brief knowledge of it has been a very encouraging one.

The following clinical summary is appended :

"Apoplexy, affections of brain, bruises, chorea, cough, diarrhea, dislocations, dropsies, affections of eyes/ sight, facial paralysis, foot sweat checked, consequences of gout, hair falling out, headache, nodes, complaints from overlifting, paralysis, rheuma, affections of spine, spleen, pain in throat (sore)“.

Naturally, we are interested in the subject of dosage. I incline toward the opinion that my doses have been rather excessive, though they have not disturbed one appreciably. However, I feel the effect in the stomach and head for 30 minutes or 1 hour after taking. A particularly sensitive person might be disturbed by it. I add one drachm of Merck's pure Form-ac. to two ounces of alcohol in a pint bottle, then fill the bottle with water.

Of this, a dose is half a teaspoonful, once a day, immediately after breakfast, so as to mix the drug with the food. One dose every 24 hours is sufficient, the medicine exerting its influence until the following morning. It is my intention to add a quart instead of a pint of water to the next batch and still restrict the dose to ½ a teaspoonful daily.

While the dose I am using produces no untoward symptoms, more or less drug effect follows its inhibition, and I believe that the smallest dose which will produce the desired effect is the proper one. A tablespoonful of water may be added to the dose before taking. In this way it is a pleasant acid drink.- Eclectic Medical journal.

The following letter, printed here without abbreviation, is taken from the pages of the Journal of the American Medical Association, Jan. 8, 1916

To the Editor :

In the summer, noticing that some of the dahlias in my garden failed to grow well, I went literally to the root of the matter and found there the troublesome insect, Aphis radicis, with Formica flava, the yellow ant, encouraging its depredations.

I crushed numbers of the ants with my fingers, noticing at the time the pungent odor which they emitted, which was, of course, due to Form-ac (abundant in this species).

At about this time, my hands began to present symptoms of eczema-itching (<< after salted food) and formation of vesicles, with subsequent thickening and cracking of the skin.

I did not associate these symptoms with the handling of the ants until they had recurred under the same circumstances for several seasons. I now avoid the annual attack of pseudo-eczema by avoiding the yellow ants.

The facts appear to me to suggest the dependence of genuine cases of eczema on the presence of formic add, since this acid has been detected by various chemists in the perspiration. - E. M. B. T., New Bedford, Mass.

[Anthroposofisch.]

Wer die Wirkung von Heilmitteln beurteilen will, muss ein Auge haben für die Kräftewirkungen, die sich im menschlichen Organismus ergeben, wenn eine Substanz, die außer demselben gewisse Wirkungen zeigt, in irgend einer Art in ihn eingeführt wird.

Ein klassisches Beispiel kann man in der Ameisensäure finden. Sie tritt als eine ätzende, Entzündung bewirkende Substanz im Körper der Ameisen auf. Da erscheint sie als ein Absonderungsprodukt. Ein solches muss der entsprechende tierische Organismus erzeugen, damit er seine Tätigkeit in angemessener Weise ausführen kann. Das Leben liegt in der absondernden Tätigkeit. Ist das Absonderungsprodukt erzeugt, so hat es keine Aufgabe mehr im Organismus. Es muss ausgeschieden werden. Im Tun liegt das Wesen des Organismus, nicht in seinen Substanzen. Die Organisation ist nicht ein Stoffzusammenhang, sondern eine Tätigkeit. Der Stoff trägt den Anreiz zur Tätigkeit in sich. Hat er diesen Anreiz verloren, so hat er für die Organisation keine weitere Bedeutung.

Im menschlichen Organismus entsteht auch die Ameisensäure. Sie dient der Ich-Organisation. Durch den astralischen Leib werden aus der organischen Substanz Teile ausgesondert, die dahin zielen, leblos zu werden. Die Ich-Organisation braucht diesen Übergang der organischen Substanz in den leblosen Zustand. Aber sie braucht eben den Vorgang des Überganges; nicht, was dann durch den Übergang entsteht. Ist nun das nach dem Leblosen hin sich Entwickelnde gebildet, so wird es im Innern des Organismus zur Last. Es muss entweder unmittelbar abgesondert werden, oder aufgelöst, um mittelbar hinwegzukommen.

Geschieht nun für etwas, das aufgelöst werden sollte, diese Auflösung nicht, so häuft es sich im Organismus an und kann die Grundlage für gichtische oder rheumatische Zustände bilden. Da tritt nun im menschlichen Organismus auflösend die sich bildende Ameisensäure ein. Wird sie in der notwendigen Menge erzeugt, so entfernt der Organismus die zum Leblosen zielenden Produkte in richtiger Art. Ist die Erzeugungskraft zu schwach, so entstehen die gichtischen oder rheumatischen Zustände. Führt man sie dem Organismus von außen zu, so unterstützt man ihn, indem man ihm gibt, was er nicht selbst erzeugen kann.

Man kann solche Wirkungsarten kennen lernen, wenn man die eine Substanz mit der andern in ihrem Fortwirken im menschlichen Organismus vergleicht. Man nehme die Kleesäure. Sie kann unter gewissen Verhältnissen in die Ameisensäure übergehen. Die letztere stellt in ihren Wirkungen eine Metamorphose der Kleesäure dar. Die Kleesäure ist Absonderung des Pflanzlichen wie die Ameisensäure des Tierischen. Die Kleesäure-Erzeugung stellt im pflanzlichen Organismus eine Tätigkeit her, die der von der Ameisensäure-Erzeugung im Tierischen analog ist. Das heißt, die Kleesäure-Erzeugung entspricht dem Gebiet des Ätherischen, die Ameisensäure-Erzeugung dem des Astralischen. Die in gichtischen und rheumatischen Zuständen sich offenbarenden Erkrankungen schreiben sich von einer mangelhaften Tätigkeit des astralischen Leibes her. Es gibt andere Zustände, die sich so darstellen, dass die Ursachen, die bei Gicht und Rheumatismus aus dem astralischen Organismus stammen, in den ätherischen Organismus zurückverlegt sind. Dann entstehen nicht bloß Kräftestockungen nach dem Astralischen hin, welche der Ich-Organisation hemmend in den Weg treten, sondern Hinderniswirkungen im Ätherischen, die von der astralischen Organisation nicht bewältigt werden können. Sie zeigen sich in einer trägen Tätigkeit des Unterleibes, in Hemmungen der Leber- und Milztätigkeit, in steinartigen Ablagerungen der Galle und Ähnlichem. Führt man in diesen Fällen Kleesäure zu, so unterstützt man in entsprechender Art den ätherischen Organismus in seiner Tätigkeit. Man erhält durch Kleesäure eine Verstärkung des ätherischen Leibes, weil die Kraft der Ich-Organisation durch diese Säure in eine Kraft des astralischen Leibes verwandelt wird, der dann verstärkt auf den Ätherleib wirkt.

Von solchen Beobachtungen ausgehend, kann man die Wirkung der dem Organismus heilsamen Stoffe kennen lernen. Die Beobachtung kann vom Pflanzenleben ausgehen. In der Pflanze wird die physische Tätigkeit von der ätherischen durchsetzt. Man lernt an ihr kennen, was durch die ätherische Tätigkeit erreicht werden kann. Im tierisch-astralischen Organismus wird diese Tätigkeit in die astralische übergeführt. Ist sie als ätherische zu schwach, so kann sie durch Hinzufügung der von einem eingeführten Pflanzenprodukt herrührenden verstärkt werden. Dem menschlichen Organismus liegt das Tierische zugrunde. Für dasjenige, was sich zwischen dem menschlichen ätherischen und astralischen Leibe abspielt, gilt innerhalb gewisser Grenzen dasselbe wie im Tierischen.

Man wird mit Heilmitteln aus dem Pflanzenreiche das zwischen der ätherischen und der astralischen Tätigkeit gestörte Verhältnis herstellen können. Man wird aber mit solchen Mitteln nicht zustande kommen, wenn irgend etwas in der physischen, ätherischen und astralischen menschlichen Organisation in Bezug auf ihr Wechselverhältnis zu der Ich-Organisation gestört ist. Die Ich-Organisation muss ihre Tätigkeit auf Vorgänge lenken, die nach dem Mineralischwerden hinzielen.

Deshalb ist bei den entsprechenden krankhaften Zuständen auch nur Mineralisch es als Heilmittel brauchbar. Um die Heilwirkung eines Mineralischen kennen zu lernen, ist notwendig, eine Substanz daraufhin zu untersuchen, inwiefern sie abgebaut werden kann. Denn im Organismus muss das von außen zugeführte Mineralische abgebaut und aus den organischen Eigenkräften in neuer Form wieder aufgebaut werden. In einem solchen Ab- und Aufbauen muss die Heilwirkung bestehen. Und was sich da ergibt, muss in der Linie liegen, dass eine mangelhafte Eigentätigkeit des Organismus von der Tätigkeit der zugeführten Heilmittel übernommen wird.

Man nehme das Beispiel einer übermäßigen Periode. Bei ihr ist die Kraft der Ich-Organisation abgeschwächt. Sie wird einseitig in der Blutbereitung verbraucht. Es bleibt von ihr für die Absorptionskraft des Blutes im Organismus zu wenig übrig. Der Weg, den Kräfte im Organismus gehen sollen, die nach dem Leblosen hin liegen, ist zu kurz, weil diese Kräfte zu heftig wirken. Sie erschöpfen sich auf dem halben Wege.

Man kommt ihnen zu Hilfe, wenn man dem Organismus Calcium in irgend einer Verbindung zuführt. Dieses bildet an der Blutentstehung mit. Der Ich-Tätigkeit wird dieses Gebiet abgenommen, und sie kann sich der Blutabsorption zuwenden.

Vorwort/Suchen Zeichen/Abkürzungen Impressum