These aphorisms introduce the totality of symptoms - a concept homeopaths speak about often. In aphorism 6, he hints at this by ending with “All these perceptible signs represent the disease in its whole extent, that is, together they form the true and only conceivable portrait of the disease.” But the phrase “totality of symptoms” is finally introduced in 7.

In aphorism 7, Hahnemann starts by saying we of course need to remove any OBVIOUS maintaining cause - meaning if you have a bone that needs to be set, set it, and if you have a splinter that needs to be removed, you need to remove it. If someone is bleeding out, they need a tourniquet. These issues are maintaining the disease.

But the real meat of aphorism 7 is the idea that what guides our remedy choice will only ever be the totality of the symptoms. The symptoms are the facts; they are what we know for sure. They are the “outwardly reflected picture of the internal essence of the disease”, meaning they are not the same thing as the disease. However, the symptoms are all we know of the disease. See the video for a nice illustration involving a poorly drawn human 😁

This may sound like symptomatic treatment, since we are looking only at symptoms, but what separates us is the types of symptoms and the breadth of symptoms we consider. In the second footnote, Hahnemann equates symptomatic treatment as treatment aimed at one or two symptoms. We still see this frequently in medicine today. Homeopathy, in contrast, looks at the whole of the disease symptoms. And since we consider minutiae like a chill in the evening, desire for fresh air, desire for sour foods or aggravation from coffee, our prescriptions become pinpoint accurate and holistic.

Now you may wonder, if you remove the symptoms, couldn’t you still be “diseased”? In other words, be asymptomatic, but still have something?

In aphorism 8, he argues that no, you couldn’t. He argues that if everything, including that craving for spice or that desire for fresh air, is gone, then the tendency to disease is gone too. The person who feels fine all year, but every November gets horrible bronchitis would probably disagree, but this is accounted for by the breadth of our definition of symptoms (see aphorisms 6 and 7 - see how it all ties together!). If you observe carefully, even when the person with bronchitis is seemingly asymptomatic, they will have small symptoms. Those small symptoms (back pain, heat flashes, digestive troubles, etc) guide our remedy choice as well, and when they disappear and November rolls around without bronchitis, then that person can be considered “cured”.