Reprinted with the permission of The Homoeopathic Links magazine, Volume 23, Summer 2010. Reviewed by Joe Rozencwajg, New Zealand.
I previously read the booklets Farokh Master published about snakes; they were very short and concise descriptions of the major snakes with mainly clinical indications. I was very surprised and excited to receive a massive text like this one.
This must be the most comprehensive book about the use of snake venoms in homeopathy. The first chapter is about the general anatomy of the snakes, including some of their physiology. The taxonomy, or classification follows: apparently it is impossible nowadays to escape listing this. Then we have very interesting chapters about the mythology and the symbolism of snakes, going shortly through most if not all civilisations, religions and philosophies.
Surprisingly there are only two pages about the modern use of snake venoms, whereas they are very much used especially as thrombolytics and in some instances as cardiac drugs and pain relief substances; nevertheless the interested reader is referred to more detailed websites.
After another 27 pages of a detailed list of snakes with their scientific and common names, and yet another list of classification and taxonomy of the venoms used in homeopathy, we finally are treated to practical, useful information: first a chapter of symptoms and signs common to the snakes in general, then each of the twenty-five venoms is reviewed with generalities about the snake itself, provings, cases, and symptoms. Of course some are more detailed than others: Lachesis occupies 85 pages whereas Bothrops jararacussu has only ten.
There is an important Appendix with frequent complaints, some of the major remedies used for those complaints and a comparative table allowing fast differentiation between the remedies; very practical indeed.
A first reaction when getting to the end of the book is "where is the repertory?". But then most of the homeopathic software allows for the creation of a repertorisation either with animal remedies only or even families like snakes with one or two clicks, so in reality, most of us do already have a repertory of this type on our computers.
There is a DVD included with the book but it contains only pictures of the snakes and zoological information about them; interesting to watch, not very useful.
This is an impressive work whose main emphasis is on practicality and clinical use. I certainly would recommend this book if you want to know how to use snake venoms in a competent manner.
Reprinted with the permission of The Alliance of Registered Homeopaths. From the magazine 'Homeopathy in Practice', Winter/Spring 2013 edition.
First impressions; you can't judge a book by its cover! This is very true. The subtitle of the book is Demystifying Venoms, so you could be forgiven for thinking that it only deals with venomous snakes, but fortunately both python and boa constrictor are included. However, with this book you need to put your first impressions aside; it is much better than that. Unfortunately if you're in a bookshop comparing Survival -The Reptile and Snakes to Similimum it's very likely that at first glance Survival - The Reptile has more appeal.
This book is based on provings and published cases in the classical homeopathic tradition. Many of the provings are Farokh Master's own; he is also able to wield a critical eye over earlier provings, but more of that later. The arrangement of the chapters could have been improved and the typography could have been much improved! That being said it is a very impressive and valuable book. Not only has the author conducted quite a number of provings, he has also travelled widely both in search of snake venoms and for discussions with other herpetologists. Farokh Master is the author of many books on homeopathy but, in my opinion, this is his best work; apart from, of course, a second edition in the future! Farokh Master has previously published a number of his own snake provings and this book draws on much of this information. The chapter on each snake includes information on behaviour and habitat, which certainly complements the Sensation Method information found in Sankaran's book.
The chapter on the anatomy of snakes is quite good but also short by comparison with the information found in Snake - The Reptile.
There are two snake taxonomies or classifications in this book - the first is a taxonomy of all known snakes, which might have been better as an appendix; the second is, of course, a taxonomy of all our 'homeopathic snakes':
Boa constrictor
Bothrops alternatus
Bothrops atrox
Bothropsjararacussu
Bothrops lanceolatus
Bungarus fasciatus
Cenchris contortrix
Cerastes cerastes
Clotho arietans
Crotalus cascavella
Crotalus horridus
Dendroaspis polylepsis
Echis carinatus
Elaps corallinus
Family Hydrophiidae
Hydrophis cyanocinctus
Lachesis muta
Naja naja naja
Oxyuranus scutulettus
Python regia
Toxicophis pugnax
Vipera aspis
Vipera berus
I have a particular interest in two of the snakes he covers: Bothrops alternatus and Bothrops atrox. He discovered that provings of these two snakes have been confused in the past. I myself discovered the two articles that he refers to and mistakenly thought they both referred to Bothrops atrox. So, unfortunately, the symptoms of Bothrops atrox in the Complete Repertory also include symptoms of Bothrops alternatus - because I was responsible for making the additions! In a private correspondence with Farokh Master he said that he considers both these old provings to be somewhat unreliable, which is a pity. He tells me that he has used both of them and has clinical verifications of some of the old provings. I confess I'm still not clear myself where the confusion lies with these remedies, and I believe this situation still requires some clarification. It is even more curious when you realise that Bothrops atrox is responsible for many times more envenomations than our beloved Lachesis muta which has become so popular despite being such a shy, reclusive and uncommon snake.
