Homoeopathic medicines — the fifty names of first year, and how to begin

The second chapter of first-year Materia Medica is simply called “Homoeopathic medicines”. It is the biggest chapter of the subject this year. The NCH syllabus lists fifty medicines under it, one after another. You will study each one on its own.

Fifty can sound like a lot. It is. But it helps to know exactly what the sheet gives you, and what it does not.

## What the sheet actually says

The sheet gives names. Only names. It does not list what to learn about each medicine. So this piece will not tell you what any of them are “for”. That is not on the sheet, and it is not something a study page should hand out anyway. What we can do is help you read the list well.

The list is in rough alphabetical order. It starts like this:

– Aconite
– Aethusa Cynapium
– Allium Cepa
– Aloe Soc
– Ammonium Carb
– Ammonium Mur

It ends with Silicea, Spongia, Sulphur and Symphytum. In between are names you will hear often in college, such as Arnica Montana, Belladona, Bryonia Alba, Lycopodium, Nux Vomica, Pulsatilla and Rhus Tox. We have spelled them exactly as the sheet does.

## Reading the first six

Take the first six as practice. Look at them closely before you open a textbook. A few things already stand out.

Some names are one word, like Aconite. Some are two, like Allium Cepa. Some two-word names look like the scientific names you met in school biology. That is not an accident, as the next point shows.

Some names are shortened. “Ammonium Carb” and “Ammonium Mur” both cut the second word short. The sheet uses short forms often. You will learn the full names in class. First-year Pharmacy also has a chapter on nomenclature, which means the rules for naming medicines. It covers scientific names, common names, synonyms, and even the odd cases where names do not follow the rules. Read that chapter beside this one. Names will stop feeling random.

Two names here start with the same word: Ammonium Carb and Ammonium Mur. When you see a shared first word, pause. It is a hint that the two are related in some way. Your teacher will explain how. Do not assume they are alike in every way.

## Where these medicines come from

First-year Pharmacy has a chapter on the sources of drugs. It lists the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom, the mineral kingdom, and a few more groups. As you study each of the fifty, note down which source it comes from. That one habit links two subjects at once. It also makes the list feel less like a wall of words.

## How to study fifty medicines without drowning

Here is a simple method. It uses nothing beyond the syllabus.

1. **Make one page per medicine.** Same layout every time. Name, full name, source, and space for your class notes.
2. **Group by first letter first.** The sheet is alphabetical. Learn it in blocks of five or six, like the six above.
3. **Mark the repeats.** Some names appear again in the Biochemic tissue salts chapter. Calcarea Phos is on this list, and Calc Phos is on the salts list. Silicea is on both. Natrum Mur is here, and Nat Mur is there. Note where each one shows up.
4. **Link to other subjects.** The Psychology syllabus asks how thoughts, feelings and behaviour are shown in Materia Medica. When a lecture touches the mind, write it on that medicine’s page.

## How this chapter sits in the year

The first chapter, Introductory Lectures, explains what a materia medica is. This chapter is where you start using one. The third chapter, Biochemic tissue salts, adds a second, smaller list.

The Organon syllabus for this year includes aphorisms 105 to 145. An aphorism is one numbered paragraph of the Organon of Medicine. The Pharmacy syllabus has a full chapter on drug proving. Drug proving is how the recorded picture of a medicine is built. So when you study any one of the fifty, you are reading the result of that process.

## What to take from it

The real skill this chapter builds is not memory. It is careful reading. Learn how a single medicine is laid out in your textbook. Learn what your teachers stress. Then apply the same way of reading to the next one.

If a friend ever asks you what one of these medicines “does”, remember this. A study page is not the place to find out, and neither is a friend. That question belongs with a qualified, registered homoeopath.

## Where to go next on the platform

This piece sits in the first-year Materia Medica room, next to “Materia Medica in the First Year”, which maps the whole subject. The Introductory Lectures piece in this room explains the chapter that comes before this one. For the naming rules, look in the first-year Homoeopathic Pharmacy room as it fills.