Secondhand. Very good condition apart from pages 15 to 20 have a straight triangular 9 cm fold on the bottom corner -Caused by careless use. 

Two volume oeuvre prepared in collaboration with Meghna Shah.

1128 PAGES OF TEXT!

From the back cover:

The class of reptiles in the animal kingdom is an array of creatures from the lizards to the extinct gigantic dinosaurs that includes the shelled turtles and tortoises, the huge and powerfully built crocodiles and alligators, and the limbless, slithering snakes.

What do reptiles have in common? Reptiles are coldblooded. This gives them a distinct disadvantage compared to other creatures. Unlike mammals, reptiles are not able to sustain exertion in order to escape from a predator or pursue a prey. Being coldblooded, they are not able to generate heat and need to come out in the open to bask in the sun.

So what survival strategy do they adopt?

Each reptile adopts its own unique survival pattern, yet reptiles in common are often hidden, camouflaged and rely upon sudden and surprise attack.

Dr. Rajan Sankaran brought into homoeopathy a unique integration between the symptoms of a remedy and the characteristics of the source of the remedy from nature. His first book in the animal series Survival - the Mollusc clearly delineates the survival strategy of the molluscs and its representation in the symptomatology and cases of mollusc remedies. This book on reptiles does the same for the reptile remedies. Coauthored with Dr. Meghna Shah, this book studies the survival strategy of reptiles in general and each reptile in particular. This book shows how this information, integrated with traditional information of these remedies and with clinical cases from several experienced homoeopaths, makes our remedy selection far more precise than ever before.

OUR COMMENT:

Dr Sankaran continues his prolific opus with a two volume set on the reptiles. This analysis of the remedies certainly has a lot of magical thinking behind it. Provings such as those of Todd Rowe's are cited when it is possible to back up the ideas presented. It seems implicitly assumed that animal remedies can be understood in terms of their habits and lifestyle etc. This way of thinking makes it quite easy to produce books much faster than the traditional way of painstaking provings. It also makes it much easier to get a 'feel' for a remedy.

William Gutman (1903-1991) was one of the first to make such detailed parallels and his fascinating book 'Fundamentals' was published by Dr Sankaran's father many years back. Some harsh critics such as Andre Saine however ask where Gutman's cases are. Despite this, the influence of Gutman's very readable little book is difficult to exaggerate. This new publication is further evidence that the magical approach is very much alive in Mumbai.

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