Over 200 homeopathic medicines in detail...and this is VOLUME 1 of a many volume materia medica (A to Euphrasia).
What began as a simple update to Dr Morrison’s Desktop Guide evolved into something far more profound. During the process, Dr Morrison drew from an extensive archive of cured cases—gathered over three decades from journals, seminars, personal cases, and those of colleagues—collected alongside his wife, Nancy Herrick.
Initially, these cases served to verify and refine his understanding of the remedies. However, as the project progressed, Dr Morrison shifted his approach: rather than relying on theory, he focused exclusively on what the cured cases revealed.
The result is a Materia Medica built entirely on verified, cured symptoms—offering the most accurate, comprehensive, and dynamic portrait of each remedy available today.
This ground breaking work is now presented in Clinically Verified Materia Medica.
A word from Dr Morrison on bringing Clinically Verified Materia Medica to life:
“I began work on this book in 2010 when I realized my original Desktop Guide was in need of an update. This was mainly because of the availability of many new Materia Medicas, new case books, new provings of new remedies, new work on the periodic table, plant families and countless other innovations and creative work in the field of homeopathy. I felt a need to synthesize as best I could, all of that new information. Also, for my own edification, I wanted to study in detail all of these advances to help me in my own practice. By doing so, I hoped to make my Desktop Guide more useful to the profession. Little did I realize where such an endeavour would lead me.
This book, Clinically Verified Materia Medica, includes extensive additions and insights (and even some subtractions) into each remedy picture. This information came only in small part from my own cases and over 40 years of homeopathic practice, but mainly from intensive study of thousands of cured cases from hundreds of homeopaths all over the world. I was put in a position to construct this text by two strokes of sheer luck.
The first stroke of luck was in my education, for in this, I have been the most fortunate of homeopaths. I have had unparalleled opportunity of prolonged and intimate study with two of the greatest homeopaths of our age: First with George Vithoulkas and later with Rajan Sankaran. This background gave me a breadth of understanding of remedies, of patients.and of case analysis. In short, it helped me to be able to see these thousands of cured cases.objectively and deeply.
The second stroke of luck was to have married my divinely inspired wife and partner, Nancy Herrick. In the early 1980s, Nancy began collecting and filing cured cases for every remedy and eventually convinced me to do the same. She collected cases from every journal, seminar, conference, co-worker, colleague, from our own students and our own practices. We also found every book available with large numbers of cases from authors all over the world and scoured e-journals.
By the time I began working on this text, our files were filled with almost 10,000 cured and solid cases – mainly cured by one remedy alone. The fact that these cases came from a huge number of different authors and different approaches to case analysis was in the long run one of the most important sources of strength in this book. Any one prescriber can develop a skewed view of the remedy, but when the work of hundreds of prescribers is combined, we have a more reliable set of data.
At the beginning of what I thought was an update of my existing book, I used the cured case files rather casually. After all, I was going to write what I “knew” about the remedy more or less regardless of what was in the cured cases. After I had written a remedy chapter, I read through some of the cases to see how my chapter and the cured cases aligned. The work was my best effort but there was something missing – missing because I had yet to understand the meaning and power of the cured cases.
It took some years of work before the value of the cured cases dawned on me – before I began to take this resource seriously. What I discovered in these cured cases was a startling congruence of information – patients from completely independent authors used the exact same words to describe themselves and their pathology. Eventually the evidence of my own eyes made me take stock and realize I was sitting on a goldmine of information – a goldmine that could help clarify what was most useful from the many new ideas and sometimes contradictory images of remedies – a goldmine that could help us find a path to truth.
As I spent more and more time on the cured cases while writing, one day I thought, “What if these cured cases are not just meant to assist in my writing about this remedy, what if they are more important than anything I am writing? What if these cases are The Remedy itself?” In that very moment I decided to shift to writing only what was found in the cases, exactly as if the information was presented, ignoring everything I thought I knew or had been told about the remedy. In essence, I decided to let the cured cases speak for themselves – to let myself be the instrument for their silent voices. The result was remedy chapters that were more direct and precise, without ambiguity, exaggeration or conjecture.
This meant that I had to restart the book, scrapping some years of previous effort in the process. I rewrote all of the remedy chapters from this new perspective and eventually found my new role to be more like a reporter or translator than an author. The cured cases thus became the actual author of the book, and I was merely the scribe or the interpreter.
Therefore, since this would be an entirely different book than the Desktop Guide, I decided to entitle this new book, Clinically Verified Materia Medica. I see this book as an effort at clarification of the Materia Medica as well as adding to it. Using cured cases gives us a reality check. Without such cross-referencing and reality-checking methods, homeopathy can become an elaborate echo chamber. The risk is that each new author repeats the same truths and mistakes, reinforcing both the good and the misleading and ceasing forward movement altogether. But a reporter or translator has a sacred task to be as faithful and accurate as possible to his sources. In this case, my source was the work of the entire homeopathic community – the best case work published or spoken.
Homeopathy is an evolving science. We homeopaths have been flexible. We adopted remedies from the allopaths, herbalists, native healers, wise women and basically anywhere we found them. In most (but far from all) instances, someone then performed a proving of the remedy, but how do we make progress from here?
Provings are the first step in unlocking the inner story of the our remedies. Once we have a proving, the next step is to cure somebody with the remedy. This takes the remedy from the realm of theory to reality. The cured cases eventually surpass the proving and show which proving symptoms were most reliable. They also put the proving symptoms into context. After enough cases are cured, we can begin to consolidate a picture of the remedy.
Brilliant minds often see deeply into the patients who were deeply cured (Kent, Phatak, Vithoulkas, Sankaran). This gives us the “Essence” or “Genius” images that have helped homeopaths for two centuries. Our current creative minds have then gone further – developing knowledge about groups of remedies (the periodic table, the plant and animal families, sarcodes, etc.). So while the proving is the first step, the cured cases give us the “final court of arbitration.” This current book is intended to document this final form of information.
I feel an intense responsibility in writing this book to get to the heart of the cases, to state the results as clearly and simply as possible and to put the information in a form that is pleasing to the eye and easy to reference. My whole purpose in writing this textbook is to give you, my cherished colleagues and students of our beloved homeopathy, a tool which you richly deserve.
I truly hope and believe this book will help you find remedies for your patients, will help you with your decision-making in practice and will give you more certainty and confidence in your prescriptions. May it be a companion to you on this often difficult path.
With love and respect and tenderness to all homeopaths everywhere,
—Roger “
- Author: Roger Morrison
- ISBN: 9780963536860
- 843 pages
- Hardback
- Published in 2025
- Printed in United States
Foreword by Rajan Sankaran:
It is a great honour for me to write the foreword for this modern classic, created by someone I deeply respect, admire and love.
In homeopathy, our knowledge of remedies is largely shaped by provings, toxicology and the substance’s origins. This is a more conventional, left brain way of approaching the Materia Medica. In the last four decades, a deeper, more conceptual understanding of the remedies has emerged. This development was initiated, among others, by George Vithoulkas (to whom this book is rightfully dedicated), who through his remarkable teachings and writings inspired a whole generation of homeopaths including Dr Morrison and myself.
Some of the others include Jan Scholten, Massimo Mangialavori, Jeremy Sherr, Jayesh Shah, Nancy Herrick, Anne Schadde, Misha Norland, Bill Gray, Frederik Schroyens and David Warkentin.
Over the past three decades, this group of young Turks expanded homeopathy into a more right brain understanding of remedies, each developing a specific area within it. Popular among the approaches was the Sensation Method where remedies (and patients) are viewed from the perspective of their core experience or “Sensation.” Such experience is categorized into Kingdoms, Sub-kingdoms, Miasms and more recently, Superclasses. I mention this method particularly since its ideas form an important part of this book.
Whatever the approach, for most practitioners, clinically confirmed findings – whether in the realm of Symptoms or Sensations and Themes – are of great importance. These real world confirmations separate the wheat from the chaff. Historically too, these confirmed symptoms and clinical observations have been given higher rankings in the repertory and become keynote symptoms in the Materia Medica.
What sets Dr Morrison’s work apart is his openness to both conventional and contemporary approaches. Significantly, he mentions that his two mentors are George Vithoulkas and myself. As I understand, the two of us represent these dual approaches:
Vithoulkas with his conventional or factual perspective, and myself with a more contemporary or conceptual one. Dr Morrison thus shows an openness to knowing both sides of the remedy (and patient). Consciously or unconsciously, all homeopaths use both sides. While Vithoulkas is known for his conventional approach, he has also written and spoken about the Essence of remedies, identifying the central thread that strings the various symptoms of the remedy together. While I am known for my conceptual approach, I have done detailed provings of several remedies as well as use the repertory extensively in my practice. If we merely use one side to identify the remedy, we will remain uncertain. Dr Morrison beautifully merges these views in his practice and in this book.
Mastery of case taking which requires skill, patience and training, is essential for capturing these aspects in a patient. Familiarity with advanced case taking methods, such as the Sensation Method and WISE processes, is of great value. Once all of a patient’s aspects are clear, you can approach remedy selection with greater accuracy. A book that gathers all these aspects of each remedy in one place becomes an invaluable resource for practitioners, and Dr Morrison’s book does just that.
I am glad to note that this book includes most of these aspects of each remedy and much more. It includes themes, clinical observations of patients, etc. that were recurrent in cases of the remedy. What is important to note is that these are not mere theories, but clinically verified information and thus have the authenticity needed to rely on them. Since it covers all aspects of the remedy, it will be of value irrespective of one’s way of practising homeopathy.
Clinically verified observations like these provide reassurance through real-life practice, guiding us to make more informed prescriptions. Many authors, such as Allen (Keynotes) and Phatak (Materia Medica), have emphasized the importance of verified symptoms. In my book The Soul of Remedies, I highlighted many confirmatory symptoms based on clinical experience. Some were well known; others were uncovered during practice. For example, I’ve noticed that many Calcarea Silicata cases present with cold, moist fingertips and a dark band on the margins gums – observations not found in earlier works.
For a further example, it is useful in practice to know that Thuja patients often exhibit hair in unusual places. Many Thuja cases I’ve seen have hair growing from the ears or the middle digits of the fingers. These aren’t proving symptoms but are clinical observations handed down through generations. Likewise, Thuja has been effective in cases of warts and tumours.
These observations help the clinician to identify or confirm Thuja as the remedy. Similarly, observations from a Sensation perspective can be of much value. Thuja, being from the conifer family, carries a sensation of fragility, as though easily broken. In my clinical experience, Thuja patients often fear divorce or family separation, feeling that the unity they rely on is fragile and could easily fall apart.
I can offer several more examples from my practice: Arsenicum Album patients often say “God bless you” and are suspicious of their family members, sometimes thinking they’re being stolen from. Lycopodium patients often say, “I am so grateful to you.” Stramonium patients tend to wear black, Medorrhinum patients in India crave the street food pani puri, Strontium Carbonicum patients crave pizza. Elaps patients describe an icy cold sensation in their chest when drinking cold liquids, while Ignatia patients love the scent of jasmine.
Every patient who has that symptom needs that particular remedy (not everyone who craves pizza needs Strontium Carb), nor is it mandatory that the symptom be present in every patient of a given remedy. Yet when they do, they lend confidence to the prescription.
It is valuable to collect these clinical insights from various homeopaths both past and present, and organize them into a single resource. Fortunately, Dr Roger Morrison has done exactly that in this remarkable book.
Dr Morrison’s earlier work, Desktop Guide, has long been an essential resource for practitioners. But this latest work, Clinically Verified Materia Medica, takes it to a much higher level (or should I say a higher potency!). This book builds on the foundation of the Desktop Guide and incorporates modern perspectives on remedies including Sensation, Kingdoms, Themes and clinical cases, as well as symptoms that have been clinically verified or newly discovered.
In recent years, I’ve come to realize that selecting the right remedy involves matching five key aspects of the patient and the remedy. These include Superclass, Kingdom/Sub-kingdom, Miasm, Characteristic Symptoms and Keynotes/Source Qualities. I have also found that one can categorize patient information using the “Seven Levels of Experience,” which encompass Diagnosis (pathology), Local Symptoms, Emotional/Psychosomatic Symptoms, Delusions (including dreams, fears and situations), General Symptoms, Sensations and Energy Patterns.
If one is using the Sensation Method, it is gratifying to read what Dr Morrison has seen as a recurrent feature in a particular remedy. As an example, here is what the book says about Actaea Spicata: “The patient complains of being highly sensitive – meaning easily hurt, wounded or offended.” This can be understood by knowing that this remedy is a part of the Ranunculaceae family which includes Pulsatilla and Staphysagria which are also highly sensitive, especially to being offended. That they are easily hurt is a feature of the first Superclass where small things affect them. While this aspect of Actaea Spicata can be understood, it is good to see it in this book as clinically verified information. However, there is more. Dr Morrison mentions about Actaea Spicata that, “He needs the good opinion of others and often depends upon his family – unable to be contented when alone or away from his loved ones (6 of the cases reviewed mentioned a strong need for praise and approval).” Such precise observation derived from cases is nowhere to be found except in this book, and can be a very useful confirmation of the remedy in clinical practice. It is also worth adding these symptoms into the repertory and the software, since many symptoms of remedies in the past have come from clinical observations and this is a valid source, especially if carefully and repeatedly recorded by someone, such as in this book.
Another example is of the remedy Alumina where it states, “Alumina is found at the point of the 3rd periodic row where he cannot simply accept the identity and choices his parents wish for him to assume – however much he may long to do so. Yet, he is unable to find an authentic identity from within. ‘I don’t know who I am, I have absolutely no idea!’ as one patient cried. In the early stages, this is reflected in a feeling of being lost, of constantly trying to find his niche in the world. The frequent refrain of the patient is, ‘I am trying to find myself.’” It is so reassuring to know that the conceptual idea of Alumina is confirmed in several cases. It is also very interesting to see the various expressions of this idea through the recurrent expressions in various patients. I must say that it is so very useful to see the remedy in isolation, and also to see it as a part of a larger picture (such as Alumina as a part of the 3rd row of the periodic table).
However, I must strongly suggest that to know the context of Alumina in the remedies of the 3rd row, one must also familiarize oneself with a study of the common qualities of groups of remedies in the plant, mineral and animal kingdoms, as well as sarcodes, nosodes and imponderables. One must also systematically study Superclasses and Miasms. Such a study will mean looking at the group to which the remedy belongs. In this book you can see the remedy as a part of the group. When one understands this from both sides, one can be a true master and will have a much broader view of remedies, giving the flexibility to look at other remedies in the same group to fine tune the right remedy. If one is also familiar with the prominent rubrics of the remedy, the knowledge of the remedy will be more complete. Such an approach will be synergistic. The 3rd row of the periodic table has the themes of identity, care and nourishment. The remedies on the left side such as Natrum and Magnesium lack a sense of identity and depend on others to give them one. Alumina, coming after Magnesium is in a stage of confusion, not knowing if he should adopt the identity given by someone or develop his own. Thus the rubric: “Confusion of identity” in which Alumina is the most prominent remedy. Seen in this context, the observations on Alumina given in this book fall into place and one has the flexibility to look at Natrum and Magnesium, as well as Silica in the case, as well as examine the other remedies in the rubric, “Confusion of identity.”
Such flexibility can be seen most clearly with the Superclasses paradigm. I found that a remedy shares many features with other remedies in the same Superclass across kingdoms. For example, the aggression of Nux Vomica bears resemblance to the violence in Belladonna as well as the dictatorial attitude of Mercurius and the venomous nature of Lachesis, since all these remedies belong to the same Superclass, namely the 6th. If you study the remedies of the same Superclass from this book, you will be able to see the distinct dynamic of that Superclass in each remedy. Once you understand that dynamic, you can look at other remedies in that Superclass and search for one that has the characteristic symptoms of the patient. It is here that the characteristic symptoms and verified phenomenon become the differentiating factors. In this regard, this book becomes of paramount value.
Dr Morrison has systematically scanned homeopathic literature, scrutinizing the cases of each remedy to identify the repeated symptoms and phenomena that occur most frequently. By shortlisting the most frequently recurring symptoms from clinical cases, Dr Morrison has created a valuable dimension that will guide practitioners toward more precise remedy selections. He has included the Sensation of each remedy, the miasm, the themes, the mind picture, the general symptoms and the particular symptoms, thus making the picture complete from both conventional and contemporary approaches. He has used strict standards for the inclusion and exclusion of the information and has used a precise statistical approach which he has elaborated in his “Introduction” to the book. His meticulous approach has resulted in a refined and reliable resource that homeopaths can turn to with confidence.
One remarkable aspect of this book is the surprising revelations it offers. For example, while Causticum is traditionally associated with an aversion to sweets, Dr Morrison’s clinical findings reveal that many cases show a desire for sweets – a detail that challenges our conventional understanding of the remedy. Also, he has observations from several cases that Aurum has a desire for ice cream. Insights like these make his work indispensable to homeopathy.
Dr Morrison’s book not only deepens and completes our understanding of individual remedies, but also expands the very idea of clinical confirmation. The information is precise, organized and comprehensive. I am also amazed at the number of remedies included in the book, many of which are rare remedies, some of them not finding a mention in the repertories since they have had scanty or no provings. Yet, through informative clinical cases, Dr Morrison has been able to make them accessible to the profession, pending further provings.
It is with deep admiration and excitement that I introduce this unique work to the homeopathic community. Dr Morrison’s dedication to advancing our understanding of remedies is truly inspiring. He is a person with a background of systematic learning, equipped with long years of clinical experience, a being with pure intention, high ethical standards and persistence whose (in the words of Tagore) “tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection.” I know that no one else in our generation could have accomplished such a monumental work, which will no doubt become an essential companion to all who seek to refine their clinical practice with the thorough and complete understanding of each remedy that it offers.
Homeopathy is much needed in today’s world. The holistic and deep healing it offers is invaluable. We need to sharpen its tools, add to its pool of knowledge and take it forward so that we can be more and more precise in our remedy selection and get consistent results in our practice. Dr Morrison continues to do his best to advance the cause. We look forward to further volumes of this ground breaking work.
A heartfelt thank you, dear Roger - Rajan Sankara, Mumbai 23rd October, 2024
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
About This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Abelmoschus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Abies Canadensis . . . . . . .
