The Bowel Nosodes of Bach and Paterson: A Guide

In short: The bowel nosodes (German Darmnosoden) are homeopathic preparations made from cultures of non-lactose-fermenting organisms of the intestinal tract, isolated by Edward Bach in the 1920s and worked up clinically over three decades by John and Elizabeth Paterson in Glasgow. Most carry a keynote word (Morgan's is "Congestion") and most are read through a group of associated polychrests: Sulphur for Morgan-pure, Lycopodium for Morgan-Gaertner, Pulsatilla for Mutabile, Sepia for Faecalis. Paterson's collected papers, The Bowel Nosodes (1950), are free to read online on Similia, and this guide walks all eight nosodes with their indications and remedy groups.

Most practitioners meet a bowel nosode second-hand: on a colleague's prescription, in a seminar programme, or in a chronic case where the well-chosen polychrest keeps giving a short response. This article puts the eight pictures, the associated-remedy lists and the potency record in one place, every claim traceable to Paterson's chapters or to Boericke, and corrects two framings on the way: the bowel nosodes are not a gut-flora aftercare, and Sycotic Co. is not a miasm.

This is education for qualified homeopaths and serious students, not self-treatment advice for the public. Every indication and potency below is quoted as its author's record, not as guidance for a patient.

What the bowel nosodes are, and what they are not

Set them first against the classical nosodes. Psorinum, Medorrhinum, Tuberculinum, Syphilinum and Carcinosin are prepared from disease products and rest on provings or a long clinical record; H. C. Allen's Materia Medica of the Nosodes, published in 1910, runs to 28 remedies, not all of them nosodes, and contains no bowel nosode, because Bach's isolations came a decade later. The bowel nosodes are prepared from bacterial cultures of the stool, and their pictures were assembled at the bedside: Paterson more than once puts the word "proving" in inverted commas. Our guide to nosodes in homeopathy keeps the two groups apart for that reason.

Set them next against the gut-flora framing, in which the group is an aftercare for the intestinal flora. That is not how Paterson uses it. In his chapters the stool culture is evidence: it points to a nosode and, through the nosode, to a group of remedies, and the prescription is made on the clinical picture. Of Faecalis he writes that he has never found the nosode of much value, but "where I have found the organism in the stool, the clinical symptoms have led me to choose Sepia". The organism directs attention; the symptoms decide.

Set them, finally, against a word. Sycotic Co. is one nosode; the sycotic miasm is Hahnemann's category of chronic disease; Medorrhinum is the classical nosode of that miasm. The Sycotic Co. section separates the three.

Bach, the Patersons and the names in brackets

Edward Bach isolated the non-lactose-fermenting bowel flora in the 1920s and potentised them. John Paterson, MD (1890–1955), a Scottish homeopath practising in Glasgow, worked with Bach's original research and then, with his wife Elizabeth Paterson, extended it over three decades; the book Similia hosts is his collected papers, dated 1950. Sycotic Co. was identified in work published in the British Homœopathic Journal of April 1933, as the chapter records. Bacillus No. 7 was the seventh non-lactose-fermenting type observed in the laboratory and fitted no known group.

The nomenclature records who isolated what. Morgan, Gaertner, Proteus, Dysenteriae, Mutabile and Faecalis carry "(Bach)"; Sycotic Co., Bacillus No. 7 and the two Morgan sub-types carry "(Paterson)". Wheeler enters the record through Boericke rather than Paterson, in the Gaertner cross-reference quoted below.

How a bowel nosode is chosen: the associated-remedy principle

Every bowel nosode belongs to a group of polychrests, and nosode and group are read together. Paterson states it most fully for Morgan, which "has the greatest number of associated remedies compared to other types on the list". Each group has a prototype: "For its prototype, Morgan-Pure (Paterson) has Sulphur", and Morgan-Gaertner shares the 4 to 8 p.m. modality of "the group prototype remedy", Lycopodium. Within the main Morgan group he places "the well known trio of remedies mentioned by Kent as working in a cycle of Sulphur, Calcarea Carbonica and Lycopodium".

The principle runs both ways. A chronic case that sits in a remedy group but does not hold on the polychrest points to the group's nosode; an organism in the stool points back to its remedy group, which is why "Sulphur is outstanding among the remedies associated with Bacillus Morgan". In practice you repertorise the case and the associated-remedy picture rather than the diagnosis, then read polychrest and nosode side by side in the materia medica; the Sulphur and Lycopodium guides cover the two prototypes you will need most often.

The bowel nosodes one by one

Each section gives the keynote, the sphere of action and the associated remedies as the chapter names them. Morgan comes first because it has the largest remedy group; Mutabile and Faecalis come last because Paterson calls them "not well proved and seldom used".

Morgan (Bach), with Morgan-pure and Morgan-Gaertner (Paterson)

B. Morgan is "the type of non lactose organism most frequently found in the stool", and the keynote is "Congestion". Head: congestive headaches with flushed face, worse from a hot atmosphere, thundery weather and travelling in bus or train. Mentals: introspective, anxious about the state of health, avoids company yet anxious if left alone; depression "often with suicidal tendency". Digestive: "bilious attacks" with severe headache relieved at last by vomiting bile-stained mucus, especially at the menopause; cholecystitis, gallstone. Respiratory: a childhood history of repeated "congestion of the lungs" or broncho-pneumonia. Skin is "the outstanding action" of the group: congestion with itching eruption, worse from heat, of the type seen in the group's skin remedies, Sulphur, Graphites, Petroleum and Psorinum. He then makes a claim to be quoted as his, not ours: "There are few eczemas of the infant at the teething stage or later life, which do not require a dose of this nosode Morgan (Bach)."

The two sub-types are defined in the same chapter. Morgan-pure (Paterson) is indicated "where there is a marked symptom of skin eruption or disturbance of the liver; bilious headache, or actual presence of gallstones"; its prototype is Sulphur. Morgan-Gaertner (Paterson) covers the same ground but is more useful "where there is evidence of acute inflammatory attack, such as that found in Cholecystitis"; it has often been found in the stool in renal colic with a confirmed calculus, and it suits any case with the 4 to 8 p.m. modality of its prototype Lycopodium. Read the Psorinum guide beside this chapter, since Boericke files Gaertner under Psorinum.

Read the chapter: Bacillus Morgan (Bach).

Proteus (Bach)

No single word explains Proteus, Paterson admits, so he sets a condition: the nosode will seldom act unless there are outstanding nervous-system symptoms "which appear with degree of suddenness". For the mentals he offers "Brain Storm": outbursts of violent temper, especially if opposed, throwing whatever is at hand; the child who lies on the floor and screams. He finds emotional hysteria "suggestive of the remedy Ignatia", and reports convulsions in febrile children responding to the nosode. The peripheral side is spasm of the circulation: "dead fingers", intermittent claudication, anginal attacks, Raynaud's and Ménière's. Digestive symptoms are secondary to the nervous system, the type being the duodenal ulcer of nerve strain that announces itself with a haematemesis. Cramp is characteristic, with Cuprum metallicum among the remedies; the skin shows angio-neurotic oedema of the Apis type. Natrum muriaticum is "the outstanding member of the list of remedies I associate with the Proteus nosode".

Read the chapter: Bacillus proteus (Bach).

Gaertner (Bach)

The keynote is "malnutrition": the nosode of many diseases of childhood, but also of value at the other extreme of life, in association with malignancy, with marked emaciation as an indication. Mentals: the hypersensitive child, "overactive brain with under-nourished body". Digestion is its greatest sphere, often declaring itself when the infant is put on artificial feeding: inability to digest fat, coeliac disease, chronic gastro-enteritis, threadworms. The associated-remedy principle is stated as a recipe: combine the pictures of Phosphorus, Silicea and Mercurius vivus and "you will have before you a very good clinical picture" of Gaertner. Boericke's Psorinum chapter adds the Wheeler notes: "Pessimistic, lack of confidence, subjective troublesome eye symptoms, fear of heights. Urticaria. Use 30th and 200th (Wheeler)."

Read the chapter: Bacillus Gaertner (Bach).

Dysentery Co. (Bach)

Prepared from B. Dysenteriae, abbreviated Dys. Co. The keynote is nervous tension best described as "anticipatory", what a student feels before facing the examiners. Mentals: uneasiness in anticipation, hypersensitivity to criticism, shyness among strangers, fidgeting; headache from excitement, often on a 7- or 14-day cycle. Digestive: a selective action on the pylorus causing spasm, waking around midnight with acute stomach pain relieved by vomiting mucus. Duodenal ulcer appears here too, with a differential from Proteus worth memorising: in Dys. Co. the tension precedes the ulcer and the patient feels it, whereas in Proteus the strain is insidious and the ulcer arrives as a crisis. Cardio-vascular: palpitation before important events. The chapter closes with the associated remedies, of which these symptoms carry "something of each": Arsenicum album, Argentum nitricum and Kalmia.

Read the chapter: Bacillus dysenteriae (Bach).

Bacillus No. 7 (Paterson)

Paterson suggests "Mental and Physical Fatigue" as the keynote and places the picture beside Proteus: where Proteus is related to chlorine, Bacillus No. 7 "seems to have a closer relationship to the two halogens, Bromine and iodine, often in combination with Potassium". Mentals: unfitness for any mental effort, producing extreme physical exhaustion. Digestive: lack of nerve and muscle tone, fullness after food, enteroptosis. Respiratory: asthma and bronchial catarrh with tough sticky mucus, where he asks the reader to compare Kali carbonicum, "which is one of the associated remedies". Neuro-muscular: relaxed fibrous tissue, faintness on standing long, syncope after sudden exertion.

Read the chapter: Bacillus 7 (Paterson).

Sycotic Co. (Paterson)

Start with the disambiguation. The organism "is not of bacillary form but is a non-lactose fermenting coccus found in the intestinal tract". The keynote is "irritability", which "has special reference to mucous and synovial membrane". It is not the sycotic miasm and it is not Medorrhinum; what Paterson does say is that the coccus is "related morphologically and clinically to the Gonococcus", and that since gonorrhoea is only one catarrhal infection of mucous membrane, "the miasm 'Sycosis' may be considered synonymous with 'Catarrh'". That is a thesis about the miasm, not a claim that his nosode and Medorrhinum are the same remedy.

Mentals: nervous irritability, tempery (he compares Lycopodium), fear of the dark and of being left alone. Head: meningeal irritation, sinus headache, a persistent headache in a child (compare Hellebore), profuse night sweats of the head. Digestive: chronic irritation of the whole alimentary tract, loose offensive excoriating stool (compare Medorrhinum), nausea after eggs (compare Ferrum metallicum). Respiratory: catarrh of nose, throat and bronchi, enlarged tonsils and adenoids, an irritable cough at 2 a.m.; he regards the nosode as "a pre-tubercular remedy". Skin: sallow, oily, vesicular eruptions, warts on mucocutaneous surfaces. Genito-urinary: irritation from kidney to urethra, cystitis, urethritis, vulvo-vaginitis; left ovarian pain at the period, profuse leucorrhoea.

This chapter gives no list of associated remedies; the comparisons Paterson marks are Lycopodium, Hellebore, Medorrhinum, Ferrum metallicum and Rhus toxicodendron. It ends by calling the nosodes so far the ones "most generally called for in practice".

Read the chapter: Bacillus sycoccus (Paterson).

Mutabile (Bach)

The name records the organism's behaviour: it mutates almost as soon as it is sub-cultured, from a non-lactose to a lactose fermenter, and Paterson finds it of interest "mainly from a bacteriological point of view". Its associated remedy is Pulsatilla, and the nosode "is likely to be of value in treatment where there is alteration of symptoms", his example being a skin eruption that alternates with asthma.

Read the chapter: Bacillus Mutabile (Bach).

Faecalis (Bach)

The shortest chapter and the most candid. Paterson has "never found this nosode made from the B. Faecalis of much value in treatment"; where the organism turned up in the stool, the clinical symptoms led him to Sepia. That is the clearest statement in the book of where the prescribing weight sits.

Read the chapter: Bacillus faecalis (Bach).

The bowel nosodes at a glance

Everything here comes from the chapter linked in the sections above; where a chapter marks comparisons rather than a group, the cell says so.

Potency and repetition, as the sources record it

Readers arrive here asking which potency Paterson used, and the honest answer is that the eight chapters do not say: no chapter states a potency, an interval or a rule for repetition. The one classical figure attached to the group is Boericke's, who files Gaertner with "Use 30th and 200th (Wheeler)": a figure recorded for one nosode by one author on the authority of a third.

For the wider convention, the classical nosode chapters agree on a pattern our nosodes guide summarises as high potency and rarely repeated, with Boericke's Psorinum dose line, "two hundredth and higher potencies. Should not be repeated too often", as the type; the reasoning is in the potency guide. None of that is a prescription. It is the historical record, and nosode prescribing is advanced work that belongs in supervised practice.

Beside the classical nosodes and the miasms

The two classes answer different questions. A classical nosode is chosen on its proved or recorded picture, or on the situations the nosodes guide lists: lack of reaction, never well since, a family history. A bowel nosode is chosen through its associated-remedy group, with the stool finding as one more piece of evidence.

They touch at three points. Paterson's skin-remedy list for Morgan includes Psorinum, so the classical anti-psoric nosode sits inside a bowel-nosode group. Boericke files Gaertner as a comparison under Psorinum. And Sycotic Co. and Medorrhinum share a vocabulary but not a source: one is a coccus of the bowel, the other the gonorrhoeal nosode. Nothing in the text pairs Tuberculinum with a bowel nosode, although Paterson calls Sycotic Co. "a pre-tubercular remedy"; treat that as an observation, not a correspondence.

Reading Paterson online, and the PDF question

Many searches ask for a PDF. The full text is on Similia as nine pages, the book page and the eight chapters linked above, free to read without an account, beside Boericke, Clarke, Kent and Allen's Nosodes. Similia does not host a PDF and does not link to one.

German readers searching for Darmnosoden nach Bach will find the same eight chapters here; the English text is the primary source to check a claim against: when a secondary source gives a remedy group for Sycotic Co., the chapter shows that Paterson gave none.

Where the software fits

The next step is reading rather than a feature. Similia Free includes seven classical repertories with AI semantic repertory search, 21 classic materia medica books to read online, Paterson among them, and basic case management capped at three new cases and three analyses a month. Pro adds materia medica search across the library, which is the way to search Paterson and the associated polychrests in one query, together with the AI toolkit (Notes-to-Rubric, case analysis, live audio transcription, photo analysis), unlimited cases and analyses, and premium repertories and materia medica; AI-toolkit operations use credits. The plan comparison has the detail.

Whichever plan you are on, the habit to build is cross-reading: open the nosode chapter and its prototype polychrest side by side from the materia medica library, and let the stool finding, if there is one, be evidence rather than the prescription. The judgement stays with the practitioner.