Originally posted by Hahnemannian
*snip*
Hahnemann explained it in the ORGANON from having observed that when two similar diseases meet in an organism (e.g., smallpox and cowpox), the stronger one annhilates the weaker one.
Observations show that this is not universally true. It may happen in certain cases, for instance if the body's response to the stronger disease also works on the weaker one, then, obviously, the weaker disease may succumb first.
So it may be true for related diseases, that is, infectuous diseases where the causative agents are very similar, like two types of pox, but mostly a patient can very well have several diseases.
I see a caveat here though, in relation to our discussions: Allopathic medicine recognize discrete diseases, like flu and laryngitis, where we claim that the first one is caused by a virus, the latter by bacteria. However, the way I understand you, since homeopathics do not recognize individual diseases like that, you would look at the total symptom complex for that particular patient.
So what is apples for me might be oranges for you. In other words, an allopathic will say that the patient has flu and laryngitis (i.e. two diseases), thereas a homeopath will say that the patient has this set of symptoms (i.e. one disease). And in that context, with the way homeopatics view a disease, it may be proper to say that the stronger disease replaces the weaker one.
Hans