specificker
noun/spɛˈsɪfɪkə/
Etymology From specific (“specific remedy”) + -er, originally a calque of German Spezifiker, used by Samuel Hahnemann (1755–1843).
1
History, Homeopathy, Human sciences, Medicine, Sciences Obsolete A homoeopathic practitioner who sought to ascertain the aetiologies of diseases, focusing on the symptoms most regularly associated with their diagnosis (to the exclusion of peripheral and occasional symptoms), and who, for their treatment, selected remedies (administered in more-or-less undiluted form) on the basis of their general physiological effects, ignoring incidental and side-effects.
- Those who arrogate to themselves the appellation of orthodox Hahnemannians have travelled far away, under the guidance of Gross, into the mystic regions of the 200th, 800th, and 10,000th dilutions, while the section, by the former styled specifickers, have gradually descended to the lowest numerals in the scale of dilutions until they have attained their ultima Thule in the Schmidian tinctures and first triturations.1847, J.J. Drysdale, J.R. Russell, and R.E. Dudgeon (editors), The British Journal of Homœopathy V, № xxi, “Dr. G. Schmid’s Homœopathic Treatment with Undiluted Medicines”, pages 257–258, editors’ preamble
- Those who have been derisively termed specifickers by their opponents…usually arrogate to themselves the title of pures or Hahnemannians. Some difference there must be between the specifickers and the pures…[although it] does not, I believe, consist in any want of that spirit of individualization so necessary for the selection of the appropriate drug on the part of the so-called specifickers, but rather that they endeavour more than their rivals to bring the light of modern pathology to bear on the investigation of the morbid case, and seek to refer, when possible the array of symptoms to the derangement of some particular organ or system.1852–3, Robert Ellis Dudgeon, Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Homœopathy (1854), lecture III: “On Specific Medicine, and Attempts at a Theory of Cure”, page 54
4 more examples
- The so-called Specifickers…chiefly rely in the choice of the remedy on certain groups of symptoms, intimately related to the pathology and diagnosis of the disease, and to the so-called general character of the action of the medicine…and also allow great influence to the clinical experience in the final decision.1860, Clotar Müller, “Repertorium or Therapeutics?”, in The British Journal of Homœopathy, XVIII, № lxxii, page 179:
- The more the specificker relies on the merely general action of the drug (often, indeed, partly ascertained ab usu in morbis), the more he approaches to the allopathists, who will, ere long, equal him or even surpass him.1863, J.J. Drysdale, R.E. Dudgeon, and R. Hughes (editors), The British Journal of Homœopathy XXI, № lxxxv, “Review: Wilson, Cockburn, and Cameron on Hempel”, page 467
- It is true that there were in Germany, at that time, numbers of eminent physicians who differed greatly from Hahnemann on the question of the dose (for they administered the mother tinctures); whom he disowned, and designated “specifickers,” in terms of contempt and indignation.1865 June, Hugh Cameron (spoken participant), “On the Chemical Treatment of Disease” in Annals and Transactions of the British Homœopathic Society, and of the London Homœopathic Hospital IV (1866), № xxi, page 232
- They are…very similar to the practical observations of those of our school who draw the indications of the medicine mainly from clinical experience, guided by the more general physiological action of the medicines, i.e., those called specifickers by the more complete homœopathists, who keep in view the finer shades of the pathogenesis.1865 July, J.J. Drysdale, R.E. Dudgeon, and R. Hughes (editors), The British Journal of Homœopathy XXIII, № xciii, “Review: Treatment of Rheumatism, Epilepsy, and Fever, by Dr. J. R. Russell”, page 472
- Related terms
39 terms
ab usu in morbis, allopathy, blisterism, complex-prescriptionism, doctrine of specifics, dynamopathy, galvanism, globulism, Hahnemannian, Hahnemannic, Hahnemannism, Hahnemannist, homoeodylism, homoeodynamics, homoeopathicity, homoeopharmacopathy, homoeorganics, homoeosympathy, homoeotherapeia, idiopathy, macro-dosist, Materia Medica, médecine substitutive, mesmerism, micro-dosist, mother tincture, organopathist, pathogenesis, pilulism, pure, Rademacherian, repertorium, routinist, Schmidian, similia similibus curantur, substitutivist, therapeutics, Trousseauist, usus in morbis