Lectures on Materia Medica
by Carroll Dunham • 1828–1877
Careful lectures on remedy study, case-taking, and the characteristic distinctions that guide a prescription.
About Carroll Dunham
Carroll Dunham, MD (1828–1877) was an American homeopathic physician, scholar, and teacher. His work joined rigorous study of Hahnemann's sources with a practical concern for how symptoms should be observed, weighed, and compared.
Dunham wrote on the scientific basis of therapeutics as well as individual medicines, and his lectures influenced later American teachers of classical homeopathy.
About Lectures on Materia Medica
Lectures on Materia Medica was published posthumously in 1878. It opens with lectures on principles, symptom study, and taking the case before turning to detailed discussions of individual medicines.
The remedy lectures are analytical rather than encyclopedic. Dunham examines the sources and reliability of symptoms, then develops the features that distinguish one medicine from another in practice.
Because the methodological essays and remedy studies belong to the same course, the book shows both sides of classical prescribing: how to construct the case and how to read the materia medica against it.
Best for
- Learning how to evaluate and rank symptoms
- Close study of a focused set of classical remedies
- Remedy differentiation grounded in source criticism
- Connecting case-taking method with materia medica
Frequently asked questions
What is included in Dunham's Lectures on Materia Medica?
The volume combines methodological lectures on symptoms and case-taking with detailed lectures on a focused group of medicines.
When was the book published?
It was published posthumously in New York in 1878, the year after Dunham's death.
Why read Dunham alongside Hahnemann?
Hahnemann supplies the proving record; Dunham demonstrates how a careful clinician assesses that record, identifies characteristic evidence, and applies it to a case.
All remedies in this book
33 remedies — jump to a letter or scroll the list.