The California Homeopath
Journal of the California Homeopathic Medical Society

The defining of constitutional types has been connected in homeopathy to a particular school of thought more prevalent in France and explored mostly clearly in the writings of Leon Vannier in his book Typology in Homeopathy.  A summary of his work and other forms of classifications can be found in the book by Dr R.K. Mukerji, Constitution and Temperament.   One of the most common constitutional classifications has been into the 3 categories of the Carbonic, Phosphoric and Fluoric types, with similar qualities to the three main miasms of Hahnemann - Psora, Sycosis and Syphilis.  The phosphoric type is the least consistent to the Sycotic type but in the descriptions by Vannier, it shares some similarities and also explains how the remedy Phosphorus has strong qualities of all the miasms, including of course, the Tubercular miasm.  While many homeopaths don’t pay any attention to these classifications and may not even be aware of them, some of this information has become part of our general understanding of constitutional remedy images, including anatomical and physiological descriptions of remedies.  The carbonic type is described as thus: “ …rigid and straight having a stiff gait because of the closeness of his articulatory ligaments.  He is sober and has clear gestures.  The rigidity is the characteristic in every field of his life.  He is patient and tenacious, never breaks down face to face with an obstruction.  He is clear and precise and likes order and method in his works….His whole body is well proportioned.  He has square hands with short, thick, square and inflexible fingers… The forearm and the upper arm form an obtuse angle inwardly which is the result of the inflexibility of the ligaments of the joints and of the muscles….Their life is slow but regular…He continues steadily without stop until it is finished….Their intelligence is not very sharp, it is slow…he has endurance…he knows how to become orderly and to make himself discplined…He proceeds toward his aim with the tenacity of the bulldog, and with security….He likes established social, political and relgious order.  Some of these themes have found themselves expressed in the work of Jan Scholten when describing aspects of the carbon element - Giving meaning, Stating values, Self worth, Dignity, Shyness, Worker, Father.  However, what is clearly seen is the physical expression, mostly clearly expressed in the remedy Calcarea carbonica.  Following on from this, the remedies Calcarea phosphorica and Calcarea fluorica are used to example aspects of the latter two categories highlighted by Vannier, although any remedy with the phosphoric or fluoric aspects will be influenced by them.  This again relates clearly to the method of synthetic prescribing, clearly elucidated most recently by Jan Scholten but with many examples throughout homeopathic history.

By Richard Pitt

Richard Pitt | Homeopath and Educator

Richard has been practicing and teaching homeopathy in San Francisco since 1995.  He orginally trained in England and has been practicing homeopathy since 1984.  He is former Director of the Pacific Academy of Homeopathy in San Francisco and also teaches at many other schools in the United States and Canada.  He is a founding board member and past president of the Council for Homeopathic Certification, which has established professional certification for the homeopathic profession in North America.  He is in private practice in San Francisco.