142 T H E B R I T I S H H O M ( E O P A T H I C J O U R N A L

to solve problems which have been disturbing his life and he can slowly come to the point where he accepts his illness as par t of his personal fate in full t rus t tha t there is a superior guiding force on which he can rely. Utter sincerity between physician and patient will create an atmosphere of trust. This should be the foundation for such exchanges.

Our first question has been: Can I do more for my cancer patients? Mistletoe therapy of cancer, which is being further perfected, gives us a remedy with t ruly specific action, checking cell growth and activating form-giving forces of the organism. This therapeutic effect prepares the way for healing processes.

I also hope tha t m y lecture has demonstrated how an insight into the general nature of the human being enables us to help our cancer patients on a much wider scale and how our daily work as doctors could again become a real ar t of healing.

R E F E R E N C E S

1 Steiner, Rudolf (1920). Geisteswissenschaft und Medizin. Dornach, Rudolf Steiner Verlag. English edition: Spiritual Science and Medicine. London, Rudol f Steiner Publishing Co.

2 Huxley, Jul ian (1958). Biological Aspects of Cancer. London. Vester, F., L. Bohne, and M. E1-Fouly (1968}. Zur Kenntn is der Inhaltsstoffe von Viseum album, IV. Hoppe-Seyler's Zeitschrift f~r Physiologische Chemic 349, 495-511.

4 Verein ffir Krebsforschung, Arlesheim, Switzerland. In the U.K. , information on Iscador is available in English from The British Weleda Co., Ltd. , Lit t lehurst , Eas t Grinstead, Sussex.

Homoeopathy in Brazil, 1971

DR. DAVID CASTRO

Dr. D. Castro has been Brazilian Vice-President in the International Homceo- pathic League for a number of years. He has often come to European Congresses where his cheerful, friendly manner has made him popular with those he met. I am sorry to say tha t he is retiring from his Vice-Presidency because of ill- health, although when I met him at Buenos Aires he seemed almost his usual bright self.

THE II~IVIENSITY OF BRAZIL

After travelling from Scotland to Buenos Aires, one's mind requires a little readjustment concerning the figures involved in the distance travelled and the size of South America. After regarding South America as a piece of land attached to North America one felt very humble and insular on realizing tha t South America has an area of over 7 million square miles, about sixty times the whole of the size of the British Isles, while Brazil itself, the fourth largest country in the world, is about twenty-five times the size of the United Kingdom.

H O M ( E O P A T H Y I N B R A Z I L , 1 9 7 1 143

HOM(EOPATHY IN BRAZIL

There has been a considerable expansion of Hahnemannian medicine in Brazil in the last few years, many National and International Homceopathic meetings culminated in the recent Latin American Symposium on Homceopathy. The Federal Government Medical School teaches Homceopathy as an optional subject and has its own Professor of Clinical Homceopathy.

The 100-year-old Hahnemann Inst i tu te of Brazil publishes its own journal and maintains a homceopathic hospital, recently under reconstruction, in Rio de Janeiro. This city has a monument of Hahnemann erected in 1948.

The 35-year-old San Paulo Association brings together all Brazilian homce- pathic doctors in tha t city where there is a newly-built Homceopathic Poly- Clinic and a monument to Hahnemann erected in 1962.

A lay body, the Homceopathic League of the Rio Grande which publishes its own bulletin, has helped the progress of Homceopathy and has established three dispensaries in working class suburbs of Porto Alegre where there have been more than 150 000 attendances. This city claims the first monument of Hahnemann erected in South America, i t was built in 1943.

There are some 150 homceopathie doctors in Brazil, 110 in Rio de Janeiro and 30 in San Paulo. There are five or six large homceopathic laboratories and some fifty homceopathic chemists spread throughout the country.

L E G I S L A T I O N

In 1952, a law was passed making teaching the method of potentizing homeo- pathic remedies compulsory at all Pharmaceutical Faculties in the country. In 1965, the Government issued a decree (57.577) regulating the manipulation, prescribing, industrialization and sale of homeopath ic remedies. In 1966, the Director of the Depar tment of Heal th appointed a committee to draw up a Brazilian Homeeopathic Pharmacopoea, and the Director of National Service of Fiscalization of Medicine and Pharmacy made an official provision No. 17 (August 1966) issuing instructions for installing and operating homeopa th ic drug stores.

H O M ( E O P A T H I C P O S T A G E S T A M P S

I t is interesting tha t the first postage s tamp in the world referring to Homceo- pa thy was issued in Brazil when the Four th Brazilian Homceopathie Congress was being held in 1952. This s tamp has a picture of Dr. Licinio Cardoso, a famous Brazilian homeeopath who died in 1926. Another Brazilian stamp referring to Homceopathy and bearing Hahnemann 's portrait was printed in 1954.

Reference: D. Castro 1970. Situacao Atual da Homeopat ia no Brasil Liga Homceopatica Internacional. Rio de Janeiro.

T. F E R G U S S T E W A R T