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PRINCIPLES
OF
HOMOEOPATHY,

BY P. CURIE, M.D.
FORM1ERLY SURGEON IN THE MILITARY HOSPITAL OF PARIS;
MIEMBIER OF THE PARISIAN IIOMCEOPATHIC AND GALLICAN SOCIETIES,
&c. &'c. &C.

SUIMILIA SIMILIBUS CURANTUR.
IfAIINEMAN N.

LONDON:
THOMAS HURST, 65., ST. PAUL'S CHUIRCH YARD.
1837.



Vi.                DEDICATION.
most disinterested; for, not being a member of the
medical profession, self-interest can in no way
influence your conduct, nor can your motives be
misconstrued. You propagate Homoeopathy because,
having had personal experience of its effects, you
are convinced of its truth, and being well acquainted
with its merits, you can appreciate the benefits it is
capable of bestowing on humanity.
If, to these considerations, I add a personal one
-the recollection of the reception I experienced
from you on my arrival in England, and the many
marks of friendship and confidence since conferred
upon me, you will understand the gratification I
shall feel, if you will receive this dedication of my
first work in England, as a public testimony of the
gratitude and esteem of,
Your sincere friend,
P. CURIE, M.D.
21, FINSB3URY CIRCUS.



CONTENTS.
PAGE
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS...          11
CHAPTER I.
ON THE PROGRESS OF THE HEALING ART..       29
Its Past Advances.....    29
Brief View of the Present State of Medical Science    33
Various Methods of Medical Treatment..    41
CHAPTER II.
ACTUAL STATE OF THE HEALING ART, according to the
Common Practice, and generally in the words of
its Practitioners...                 53
Acknowledged Want of any General Principle.       54
Acknowledged State of Materia Medica.    56
Acknowledged State of Medical Practice.             60
3



CONTENTS.                       iX.
PAGE
Corresponding Classification of Remedies..       122
Subordinate Classification avoided by Homoeopathy.   124
Homoeopathic Investigation of Symptoms..       125
Homceopathic Investigation of Pathological Character.  131
Homceopathic Investigation of the Cause of Disease.   132
Homceopathic Investigation of Pathological Anatomy.   137
CHAPTER VI.
INFINITESIMAL DOSES....      141
Foundation of these....   141
Mode of Preparation...       142
Effects of Attenuation and Dilution...   145
Principle of their Operation...      148
Objections to Infinitesimal Doses answered..   150
The Action of these Doses on the Nervous System.      153
Variation of Doses....   158
CHAPTER VII.
HOM(EOPATHIC DIET AND REGIMEN...     161
Common Practice in this Respect...   161



X.                     CONTENTS.
PAG I
Homoeopathic Rules of Diet and Regimen.            162
These, of brief Duration in Acute Diseases.  165
Such Rules Accessory, not Curative.            166
CHAPTER VIII.
HOMCEOPATHIC EXPERIMENTS IN PARIS, &C...   173
Commission of the Academie de Me'decine..      173
Its violent Procedure and unjust Decision..   175
Reply to Dr. Bailly's Statements...      176
Remarks as to Dr. Andral....   183
Other Objectors.....      186
CHAPTER IX.

CONCLUSION

191



12

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

called  Allopathy,--the   other, the   new   science
introduced by Hahnemann, called Homoeopathy.
The former has been long known to the world,
by its acknowledged want of all principle in the
administration of medicine, its utter uncertainty, its
excessive costliness, its hazards, and its failures: the
latter, it is the business of this work to explain and
elucidate, and thereby to silence, on one hand,
the wilful and ridiculous misrepresentations of the
interested; and, on the other, to dispel the erroneous
but conscientious doubts of the more liberal, and to
assure the enlightened enquirer after truth, that at
least good and sufficient ground exists for a practical
investigation of its merits.
To those whose views are sufficiently enlarged to
perceive that, even as regards personal interest, every
advance in practical knowledge is an advance in
social condition, it may afford gratification to learn
something of the illustrious individual who discovered  and  first promulgated the principles of



14

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

In consequence of this, the head master of the
Academy at Meissen was consulted; and that individual generously procured for him a free admission
to its advantages. There, his progress was so rapid,
that, in a short time, he became one of the assistant
teachers. He early, moreover, evinced a passion for
natural history, but more especially for the botanical
department of it.    In prosecution of his favorite
pursuit, he was in the habit of quitting his youthful
companions, to explore the woods and climb the
mountains; and the plants which he there collected,
he carefully and systematically arranged in his herbarium.
When Hahnemann had reached that period of life
at which the choice of a profession is usually made,
he unhesitatingly decided in favour of Medicine; and,
as his choice met the approbation of the head master,
that kind friend aided him in the arrangements necessary for his admission into the Leipsic University, to
which he accordingly went in 1775. There, whilst



PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

15

following his studies, he supported himself principally
by giving instructions in the German language to
foreign students, and by translating English and
French works into his native tongue.
Having passed two years at Leipsic, Hahnemann
proceeded to Vienna, in order to complete his studies,
and to acquire a practical knowledge of medicine.
There, by his assiduity and talents, he succeeded in
gaining the favorable opinion of Dr. Quarin, physician
to the Emperor of Austria.    The Governor of
Hermanstadt having afterwards offered him the
situation of medical attendant to his household, he
was, in that situation, able to economise a sufficient
sum to enable him to return to Germany; and, at
the University of Erlangen, 10th, August, 1779, he
took his degree of M.D.
After having practised some time in a little town
of Saxony, Dr. Hahnemann established himself, and
commenced practice, in Dresden. There, however,
he acquired more reputation than profit; so that, as



18     PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

work was published, in two volumes, entitled
"FRAGMENTA     DE VIRIBUS MEDICAMENTORUM
POSITIVIS SIVE OBVIIS, IN CORPORE SANO:" it
contained the result of experiments made upon
himself, his family, and some of his friends, with
twenty-seven different medicines. The following year,
he published his treatise, "MEDICINE FOUNDED ON
EXPERIENCE," forming the basis of his "ORGANON
OF THE HEALING ART," which appeared in 1810.
In 1811, the first edition of a part of the "MATERIA
MEDICA PURA," issued from the press; but this
most important work was not completed until 1821.
The "Organon," perhaps the most important
medical work which has ever issued from the press,
has already passed through five editions in the
German language, and been translated into several
other languages. It is in this work that Hahnemann
employs, for the first time, the word Homoeopathy,
to indicate the fundamental principle of the science
to which his life has been devoted.



PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

19

After his establishment in    Leipsic, in   1812,
Hahnemann delivered a course of lectures on his
system.   His students, although few in number,
were inspired with an enthusiastic zeal to follow up
the discovery of their master; and it was by the aid
of experiments to which they devoted themselves,
that the world is indebted for much of the information which fills the pages of the Materia
Medica.
Hahnemann, however, had not been long resident
in Leipsic before the physicians and apothecaries of
that town united with those of Dresden to take
measures for preventing him from practising in their
neighbourhood; and, as he regarded their intrigues
with indifference, they at last succeeded in obtaining
an order from the Saxon Government for the enforcement of an obsolete or dormant Law which prohibits
a physician from preparing or dispensing medicines
himself. This occurred in 1820.
Hahnemann now saw himself compelled either to
B2



20        PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.
give up his practice as a physician, or to forego his
superintendence of the preparation of his medicaments; and, as it was upon the purity of the latter,
and the care with which they were prepared, that
the successful application of his discovery and his
own reputation depended,-he publicly announced
his resolution to relinquish his practice.
The disinterestedness of Hahnemann's conduct
procured for him, from the Duke of Anhalt C-then,
the offer of an asylum, of which he availed himself;
and, in 1821, he received a further mark of the
Duke's favour by being appointed    one of his
Councillors. In that duchy, he continued to reside
until 1835, devoting himself exclusively to those
labours which were necessary to develop and perfect his system.
It was wrhilst in Anhalt Cothen, in 1828, that
Hahnemann published his celebrated work in four
volumes, on Chronic Diseases.   Into every new
edition of that and of his other works, he of course



PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

21

subsequently introduced the observations which his
own experience and the investigations of his disciples
suggested.
In 1835, Hahnemann, having married a Parisian
lady, went to reside in Paris. There, surrounded by
his disciples, he continues his labours with a zeal
and vigour rarely witnessed in an individual at such
an advanced period of life; and he has the satisfaction
to observe that his system is daily making converts,
and is adopted by numerous physicians in almost
every country in the world.
I have now only to notice here a humbler person
-the writer of this work; for his motives will not
perhaps be altogether uninteresting to those who
may honour him by reading it.
Educated in the Ecole de M/decine at Paris, at
the period when that establishment was at variance
with the school of Val de Grace,- convinced that
right and reason were on the side of M. Broussais,
who was at the head of the latter school,-I entered



24

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

or less openly.   They were able and studious
men, who had acquired a great reputation in the
province I inhabited. I availed myself of the earliest opportunity I could find to request an explanation of a change so extraordinary; and I found
they were as willing to grant it as I was eager to
obtain it.
I was soon convinced that these gentlemen had
neither adopted Homceopathy without investigation,
nor regarded the infinitesimal doses as mystification,
or administered them as a mere mask for the concealment of a "do-nothing" practice. They explained
to me the course they had themselves pursued; and,
ever anxious for the discovery of truth, I was induced
and taught to make experiments upon myself, as
the best means of arriving at a knowledge of the
power of homoeopathic doses. The results produced
were to me extraordinary and convincing. I was
satisfied that all my former impressions were ill
founded; I repeated again and again the experiments



26         PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.
satisfactory ground on which a scientific principle
can be opposed, viz. that of experiment; and 1
hesitate not to say that the very means taken to
overturn it, will carry conviction to the minds of all
men open to its impressions.
Such are the experiences which have rendered it
my duty to declare openly and boldly, that I am
an advocate for the doctrine of Hahnemann, and
that my endeavour will henceforth be to promote,
in  one   of the   most enlightened      and  important
capitals of the world, the great art of which he is
the founder.*
It is not my wish to imply a belief that the
SIt was at Mulhausen in Alsace, that I was converted to
Homnceopathy; and it was not till after the most perfect conviction,
that I returned to Paris to propagate that science, for which
purpose I there established the Journal de la Mldecine HIomcopathique, conjointly with my friend, Dr. L. Simon, whom I had,
finally, the good fortune to convert to Homceopathy, by curing his
son, who was dangerously ill.-The journal just mentioned has
for nearly two years been united with the Archives Homoeopathiquies,
in order to avoid a useless rivalry.



PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

27

remedial powers of Homceopathy are infallible.   I
admit, on the contrary, that there may be-that
there are-cases where the disorganization of the
human frame is too far advanced to admit the
possibility of cure by any system of medicine
thus far known, and that there are individual constitutions so debilitated that it would be vain to
expect a favourable issue by any medical treatment.
Besides, our new doctrine having been scarcely
forty years promulgated, and not thirty years acted
upon in practice,-comparatively few of the medicinal
agents which nature possesses are yet known to
us, or have yet been subjected to the test which
Homoeopathy requires, that is, tried on the healthy
subject.
Homoeopathy, however, such as it even now is,
leaves far behind the old medical practice. Wherever
the common practice succeeds, Homoeopathy is always
more effective, without danger; and in a vast number
of cases, where the common practice is powerless,



28       PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.
Homoeopathy is crowned with success. The medicaments,. indeed, which it prescribes, if skilfully administered, cure the greater portion of the ills to which
mankind is exposed; and the basis on which it rests
is a law of nature-a law, immutable and infallible.
Experience and future labours may perfect and facilitate its application; but nothing can destroy or
change its fundamental law.
Thus much I venture to say in declaration of my
principles. The following chapters will exhibit the
facts and reasonings which support them.



CHAPTER 1.

ON THE PROGRESS OF THE HEALING ART.
ITS PAST ADVANCES.
THEiF historical and philosophical contemplation of
the various discoveries which the human mind has
made, demonstrates the fact that they have, without
exception, been subject to progressive development.
All have had their infancy; all have grown up into
well defined forms., in proportion to the lapse of
years; and centuries have added new facts, or discovered new relations, which were wanting to their
completeness. Not one has sprung from the mind
in a perfect state.



30

ON THE PROGRESS

The advances which are every day made in geology,
mechanics, chemistry, surgery, and other sciences
and arts, prove indeed that none of them have yet
attained their zenith.  In mechanics, for instance,
the discovery of new principles, or of new combinations, or the application of principles already known,
enable us to produce machines more and more
perfect,-the last always surpassing in ingenuity the
supposed perfection of the previous year.   Even
mathematics, a science which, above all others, had,
in an early age of the world, attained a high degree
of perfection, does not cease to make progress; for
if the axioms and laws on which it is founded cannot
vary, yet new applications of them are continually
discovered.
These remarks are applicable, in every respect,
to the medical art.
In the early ages of the world, before science had
unveiled to man the secrets of many of nature's
operations, he could have had no knowledge of his



OF THE HEALING ART.

31

own organism.   Of his physical constitution, the
functions of his different organs, and the causes of
his maladies, as well as the maladies themselves, he
must have been completely ignorant; and being so,
he must also have been entirely ignorant of the art
of medicine.
How   astonishing is the difference betwixt the
ignorance of those dark times, and the present
advanced state of that art! How widely separated
the point from which we started, and that at which
we have arrived!   Such is the feeling excited in
our minds when we look back to the early history
of the medical art and compare it with its present
condition.
Whilst struck, however, with admiration at the
immense progress which has been made in modern
times, we must not forget what is due to the
patient labours of the early physicians, to whose
researches, during many centuries, we are indebted
for a rich accumulation of facts and observations.



32

ON THE PROGRESS

Nor ought we to forget how much more laborious
and difficult are the first steps in science than those
which follow them; nay, how utterly impossible the
latter without the former.
In all arts, rude inventions become the fruitful
sources of more perfect works, and, in medicine
particularly, many of the discoveries by which the
present age is illustrated, have been derived from,
or suggested by, the labours of the first fathers of
the art.
Far, therefore, from  desiring to undervalue the
importance of the works of the medical writers who
have preceded Hahnemann, we offer them the tribute
of our gratitude and admiration, and gladly avail
ourselves of their assistance in making another step
in the progress of the science towards perfection.
In a work so circumscribed as the present, it is
impossible to review the history of medicine in all
its details, and to follow it step by step in its advance.
But, in order that the importance of the improvement



OF THE HEALING ART.

33

which Hahnemann has introduced, may in its turn
be understood and appreciated, it is necessary that
we take a
Brief View of the Present State of Medical Science.
The unwearied labours of anatomists, from the
age of Hippocrates down to the present time, have
successively thrown light on the human organization.
We will not assert that ANATOMY may not still
make much progress in minute detail, and especially
in the nervous system; but we may safely say that,
as a science, it now holds an exalted rank, and that
by means of it we have become intimately acquainted
with the human structure.
PHYSIOLOGY, or the study of the functions of the
human body in a state of health, is indeed much
less advanced. Still, physiologists, confirming the
discoveries of each other by labours performed
without concert or communication, have ascertained
the use of each organ, the influence of each upon
C



34

ON THE PROGRESS

the other, and upon the whole organization. It is
from them that we know, for instance, that the
stomach and intestines elaborate the aliments, and
that we are acquainted with the form which these
assume by the process of digestion, as well as the
means by which the chyle is thrown into the circulation and made to repair the constant waste to
which the body is subject. It is to them that we
are indebted for our knowledge of the circulation
of the blood. It is from them also that we are now
learning the functions of the nervous system.
In addition to an exact knowledge of the organs
and of the functions which they perform in a
healthy condition, the physician must also know
the changes which impair their action when under
the influence of disease. The researches necessary
to  acquire this knowledge have been     steadily
pursued, and we owe, in a great measure, to the
labours of the two last centuries, an entirely new
branch of medical science, one which has already



OF THE HEALING ART.

35

advanced far towards perfection, and to which the
name of PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY has been given.
Such are the anthropological sciences which may
be deemed the bases of medicine. Practical medicine
consists chiefly of other three-pathology, which
considers diseases; materia medica, or the means of
curing  them; and therapeutics, or the art of
employing the latter.
PATHOLOGY, or the study of diseases, has, since
the time of Hippocrates, attained a precision truly
admirable.  Not only have medical men observed
with increasing accuracy all the phenomena which
constitute disease, but they have attained to such
a degree of skill therein, that. they can determine
precisely the seat of organic derangement.  Thus,
by means of auscultation and percussion, the alterations in the organs of the chest can be exactly
ascertained.  By the aid of the stethoscope, indeed,
skilful physicians can detect with certainty, not
c2



36

ON THE PROGRESS

merely the situation, but even the nature of organic
disorders.
For diseases of the chest, as well for all other
organic affections, the dissection of subjects, and
the comparison of the appearances with observations
made during the life of the patient, have raised this
branch of science to a high pitch of excellence.
Thus a new    degree of certainty is imparted to
pathology by morbid anatomy, the study of which
is most carefully cultivated at the present day.
The investigation of the occasional causes of
disease is not the least remarkable amongst the
improvements which have been introduced; and
etiology is now, in many points, one of the most
advanced branches of the science.
Even the MATERIA MEDICA-that part of the
study of physic which relates to the properties of
medicaments, presents a great number of precious
facts.  The physical and chemical properties of



OF THE HEALING ART.

39

his art, and deficiency of the means at his command.
It is then, that he hesitates to decide which of the
different remedies, recommended by medical authorities, is most applicable, because he has no law,
of certain and universal application, to guide his
decision. The greater the number of physicians
consulted, the greater is this uncertainty; for if they
should agree on the name of the disorder, they find
themselves fearfully at variance on the question of a
remedy fitted to oppose it.
It must be admitted, then, by every enlightened
and conscientious member of the profession, that
the Therapeutic branch is, in our time, very far
behind all the other departments of the medical art.
Its importance is, however, so great, that, if it be
impossible to establish it upon certain and fixed
bases, all the other branches of the art, however
near they may approximate to perfection, would be,
as regards the good they might render, as if they
had never been. What avails it to humanity that



OF THE HEALING ART.

41

Various Methods of Medical Treatment.
Every remedy must act in one of two ways-either
indirectly or directly-either upon a different organ
from that which is diseased, or upon the diseased
organ itself. This is the first and greatest distinction.
The second and subordinate one is, that, in acting
directly upon the diseased organ, the effects of the
remedy must either be contrary or similar to those of
the disease. Hence the action of medicines may be
considered under three corresponding heads; and, on
an examination of all our medical doctrines, it will
be found that the different systems which are followed
in the art of cure may be arranged into three
classes.
1. The method which employs such means as act
upon a different organ from that which is diseased,
and which may be named revulsive, or derivative.
2. The method which acts directly upon the diseased organ, but produces effects contrary to those



42

ON THE PROGRESS

of the disease-being expressed by the axiom, contraria contrariis curantur.
3. The method which both acts directly upon the
diseased organ, and produces effects similar to those
of the disease-being founded on the law, similia
similibus curantur.
These three methods are respectively denominated
the Allopathic, the Antipathic, and the Homoeopathic.
The first method, which we have called revulsive
or derivative, and in which the medicine prescribed
affects directly, and, in reality, createsa new derangement in a different part from that which is suffering,
is founded upon the sympathy of remote parts, and
upon their antagonistic reaction.
To ensure the success of this method, the new
derangement which is created must be stronger than
the old one. It must form a powerful counterirritation. It accordingly embraces all the means
which are capable of turning the course of the blood,
and the humours formed from it, and of affecting the



OF THE HEALING ART.

43

vitality of the parts subject to the malady. The
means employed are medicines which operate on the
alimentary canal, and produce evacuation either
upwards or downwards, sudorifics, diuretics, bleeding,
blisters, setons, cauteries, &c.
In this way, some endeavour to relieve disease of
one system by that of another. Thus, disease is
temporarily transferred from the nervous to the vital
system, when mania is relieved by exciting a violent
action in the intestinal tube; and it is temporarily
transferred from the vital to the nervous system,
when inflammation of the lungs is relieved by
excitement of the skin, or when determination of
blood to the head is relieved by synapisms and
blisters to the legs and feet. Disease may also be
thus transferred from one part to another of the
same system.
These means, then, are intended to carry off the
blood and subdue the local irritation.
Thus the revulsive method does not attack the



44

ON THE PROGRESS

disease directly, but only transfers it to a less
important organ; and, by so doing, enables the vital
power to reestablish its equilibrium. The cures,
therefore, which have been wrought by the use of
such means, must be attributed mainly to the curative powers of the organism.
We cannot doubt the success of this method in
slight and transient maladies; for, in these cases,
the curative power of the organism is generally
sufficient to restore health; but, in the great majority
of important cases, this allopathic method is either
impotent or hurtful. By this method, in too many
cases, instead of assisting weakened nature, the
danger is augmented, by diminishing the strength of
the organism. It attacks the very sources of life,
by reducing the quantity of the blood and humours;
and, as the loss cannot always be repaired, the
patient receives not unfrequently a fatal blow.
If the friends of this system really believe what
they report, regarding the formidable inflammations



OF THE HEALING ART.

45

of the brain, of the chest, and of the abdominal
viscera,-if at the same time they contemplate all
those fevers which have been styled malignant, by
reason of their fatal termination, as well as smallpox, cholera and plague,-and if they will then ask
themselves, in good faith, what real service has ever
been  rendered in such    cases by bleeding, and
revulsives of all sorts, they must admit that their
application as remedies in such diseases has been
attended with very little success.
What has been just said of revulsives, when applied
in cases of acute disease, is still more applicable
when they are employed in the cure of chronic disorders, in which these methods have no salutary
effect, and to which it is always useless to oppose
them. As those means do not act directly on the
complaint, as even the temporary relief they may
afford depends on the severity with which they attack
sound parts, as the greater this is, the greater is the
injury to the constitution, as much of this arises



46

ON THE PROGRESS

from the excessive irritation kept up in the system,
and the extreme debility occasioned by the profuse
excretions generally induced by them, the patient
often languishes and expires, in consequence of the
disorganization  produced by the disease, which
revulsive medicines have not power to prevent.
The axiom, " contraria contrariis curantur," or
"diseases are cured by remedies which produce opposite symptoms," by which the second method is
expressed, has been recognized from the most remote
periods.
To carry into effect this principle, heat is opposed
to cold, warmth to congelation, narcotics to wakefulness, exciting medicines to enfeebling diseases, &c.
In this way, we see inflammatory affections cured by
bloodletting, or by purgatives, diuretics, and sudorifics; and, indeed, the successful treatment of
disease has hitherto been supposed to be very
frequently effected upon this principle.
To this, there are many unanswerable objections;



OF THE HEALING ART.

47

though these means, at first sight, appear conformable
to reason, and sometimes produce avery prompt effect.
It is evident, in the first place, that, in order to
employ this method, the proximate cause of the
disease should be known, for it is that to -which the
method should be contrary; and it happens that we
have no positive knowledge of the proximate causes
of the greater number of diseases. The greater
number of diseases have no " contraries," that the
routine practitioner is capable of pointing out.
In the second place, a close examination shows
that the relief given by such means is only momentary.
They simply palliate, and that always at the expense
of health and life, because the indirect effect of large
doses is generally the reverse of their direct effectthe organism reacts against every foreign influence,
and opposes to it an opposite state. As, indeed, each
dose only excites new reaction, the disease becomes
aggravated, or returns with redoubled strength.
Thus, when a purgative is employed as a remedy



48

ON THE PROGRESS

for constipation, alvine evacuations are produced;
but the effect is purely palliative and temporary, for
the constipation afterwards becomes only more confirmed. In the same manner, after opium, occurs
nervous irritation. Now, against such aggravations,
in order to produce even the same effect, stronger
and stronger doses, and more frequent repetition of
them, are necessary, till at length insusceptibility for
their action, or a sort of paralysis of natural function,
is induced. Thus, in those who are fond of stimulants, wine produces an unnatural gaiety, but corresponding depression ensues; and to reproduce the
gaiety, wine is not only taken again, but in greater
and greater quantities, until the constitution is
undermined. It is in this way that men become
drunkards.
Experience proves that such is always the case
when a disease is treated by contraries.
Finally, amongst the effects of every medicine, it
has justly been observed that, "there are some



OF THE HEALING ART.

51

for ever to hold. All the labours hitherto accomplished in medicine derive increased value and"
utility from the discovery of this law. Henceforth,
the bases'of all branches of medical knowledge exist
firmly established: we have but to work out their
development. The most important labours which
yet remain to be performed, are, to attain a more
perfect and extended knowledge of medicaments,
and of the art of applying them in conformity with
the homoeopathic law.

D2



CHAPTER II.

ACTUAL STATE OF THE HEALING ART,
ACCORDING TO THE COMMON PRACTICE, AND GENERALLY
IN THE WORDS OF ITS PRACTITIONERS.
IN this representation, I cannot better ensure the
most perfect impartiality, than by literally quoting
the words of a few of the ablest physicians who
have candidly acknowledged the uncertainty of their
art; and if the language of the extracts which follow
is more severe than that of the author of this work
in the preceding chapter, it will be borne in mind
that it is given merely as expressing the opinions
of others, and these practitioners according to the
old or prevalent system.



54

ACTUAL STATE

Acknowledged want of any General Principle.
Girtanner* says: "As the art of healing has no
fixed principle, as nothing in it is positive, as we
have but little sure experience, every physician has
a right to act upon his own opinions. Where there
is nothing but conjecture, one conjecture is as good
as another. In the gloom of ignorance, in which
physicians grope along, there.is no ray of light to
guide them. When two of them meet at the bedside of a patient, they can scarcely refrain from
laughing, if they look at each other."
"We feel daily," says Kriiger-Hansen,t "that we
are far from possessing a fixed and sure method
of cure. The works on therapeutics furnish the
most eminent proofs what confusion exists, even
among those physicians who stand the highest in
* Darstellung des Brownschen Systems, ii., 608.
t  Brillenlose Reflexionen, &c., p. 9.



OF THE HEALING ART.

55

their art. Its state, which has long and deservedly
been the object of the lowest jokes, demands, for
the benefit of mankind, extensive improvements."
CcWhoever," says Schweickert,* "attends to the
progress of medical science, must observe, that' its
practice has not advanced one step since Hippocrates
and Galen; but that, on the contrary, we are,
perhaps, much behind them; for, fifty years ago, the
greater number of sick persons were killed, according
to the prescriptions of their physicians, by bleedings;
forty years ago, by purgatives; thirty years ago, by
clysters; twenty years    ago, by the   Brunonian
system; and a celebrated physician asserts, that
that system has made victims of a greater number
of human beings than the whole revolutionary war
from 1793 to 1815."
" The routine practice," says Luther, t " does not
* Schweickert's Journal, iv., 120.
t Alleopathy and Homceopathy, p. 70.



OF THE HEALING ART.

57

Hoffman* says, " Perpauca sint remedia quorum
virtutes et operationes certce; plurima vero infida,
suspecta, fallacia, ficta."t
We are told by Luther,: that "Dr. Joerg, a
celebrated professor and adversary of Homoeopathy,
convinced of the uncertainty of the usual materia
medica, resolved, some years ago, to make regular
experiments on the effects of medicaments; and he
owns that he was astonished to observe that no one
of the substances tried produced such effects as
are taught by the doctrine of       materia medica.
He calls that doctrine a medical romance.
"De tout cet amas," said Montaigne, speaking
of the mixture of drugs, "ayant fait une mixture
de breuvage n'est ce pas quelque espece de reverie
*  Medicina Rationalis, t. iii., s. ii., c. iii., ~ 1.
t Few are the remedies whose virtues and operations are
certain; many are those which are doubtful, suspicious, fallacious,
false.
+ Alloeopathy and Homceopathy, p. 26.



58

ACTUAL STATE

d'espirer que ces vertus s'aillent divisant et triant
de cette confusion et melange, pour courir ' charges
si diverses?     Je   craindrais  infiniment   qu'elles
perdissent ou    eschangeassent leurs    6tiquettes et
troublassent leurs quartiers."*
"Do they consider the stomach," says Luther,t
"to be a general post-ofice, where all the drugs
arrive at once, and are thence despatched each to its
proper destination, one to the nerves, another to the
circulation, another to the lungs, another to the
brain," &c.?
"They employ," says Kriiger-Hansen,4 speaking
of violent medicines, "for the simplest diseases,
* Of the whole heap, having compounded a potion, is it not an
idle fancy to hope that its various virtues shall proceed to separate
and extricate themselves from that mixture and confusion, in order
to execute missions so diversified? I should fear excessively that
they might lose or swop their billets, and excite a riot at their
quarters.
t Allceopathy and Homceopathy, p. 52.
I Brillenlose Reflexioneu, &c., p. 9.



60

ACTUAL STATE

Acknowledged State of Medical Practice.
From what has been said, may easily be conjectured  the state of medical practice; but the
following acknowledgments place it beyond a doubt.
Imposture exercised   its rule in the time of
Hippocrates; and    this venerable old man    thus
expresses his bitter regrets: "Multos esse Medicos
famca ac nomine, re et opere paucos."*
Boerhaave says: "If we compare the good which
half a dozen true disciples of zEsculapius have
done since their art began, with the evil that the
immense number of doctors have inflicted on mankind, we must be satisfied, that it would have been
infinitely better if medical men had never existed."
"Medicine, in the hands of ignorant men and
Inl name and repute, there are many physicians; in fact and
in lractice, few.



OF THE HEALING ART.

61

impostors," says Sinbaldi,* "has contributed, particularly in Europe, to deteriorate the human race."
"The abuse,"     says the   Heidelberg   Clinical
Annals,t " that the servile herd of common doctors
make of medicaments, of the effects of which they
are ignorant, for the cure of diseases, the form of
which they seldom, and the nature of which they
never know, is indeed dreadful. It is an indisputable
truth, that many more die from the intermeddling
of physicians than are saved by them."
Pereira, a violent opponent of Homoeopathy,t
says, " We can hardly refuse our assent to the
observation of the late Sir Gilbert Blane, that, in
many cases, patients get well in spite of the means
employed; and sometimes, when the practitioner
fancies he has made a great cure, we may fairly
assume the patient to have had a happy escape!"
* Physical Education..
t Vol. v., 3.
+ Lectures on Pharmacology, Med. Gaz., 24th Oct. 1835.



62

ACTUAL STATE

Frank* says, " The medical police is restricted to
public business, and directed against contagion,
epidemics, quacks, &c.; but it is not considered that
thousands are slaughtered in the quiet sick-room.
Governments should at once either banish medical
men and their art, or they should take proper measures
that the lives of people may be safer than at present,
when they look far less after the practice of this
dangerous art and the murders committed in it,
than after the lowest trades."
Kiesert says: "In most cases, the proverb is
true, that the remedy is worse than the disease, and
the doctor more dangerous than the disorder. The
history of medicine confirms it: every method and
system has made a greater number of victims than
the most contagious epidemics and the longest
wars."
* Syst. der Mediz. Poliz. i., 6.
t System der Medizin.



OF THE HEALING ART.

65

With such authorities as these, we need not
wonder that Moliere should say, "Ces scelerats
osent tout tenter sur cette confiance, que le soleil
eclairera leurs succes et que la terre couvrira leurs
fautes."
As bearing on the treatment which Homceopathy
has received at their hands, I may add one extract
more.--"Very few of the valuable discoveries in
medicine," says Dr. Buchan,* "have been made by
physicians; they have, in general, been either the
effect of chance or of necessity, and have been
always opposed by the faculty, till every one else
was convinced of their importance.     An implicit
faith in the opinions of teachers, an attachment to
systems and established forms, and the dread of
reflection, will always operate upon those who follow
medicine as a trade. Few improvements are to be
expected from a man, who dreads that he might
* Domestic Medicine, xiii.



66    ACTUAL STATE OF THE HEALING ART.
ruin his character by even the smallest deviation
from the established rule."
The whole of these observations, it will be
observed, are in no way directed against anatomy,
physiology, and pathology-the great bases of
medical science, but solely against the therapeutics
of the routine practitioners, and that chiefly by
enlightened members of their own body.



CHAPTER III.

THE HOM(EOPATHIC LAW.
ENUNCIATION AND EXPLANATION OF THE LAW.
AN opinion has very generally prevailed that the
art of medicine is purely conjectural, and that it is
not in the nature of things that it can ever be
placed in the rank of positive sciences.   This
opinion receives support, indeed, from past experience; for, until pow, no system has been based
upon any such fixed and invariable principles as
those which form  the foundation of the sciences
called positive, and therefore the multitude of
doctrines which have succeeded and destroyed each
E2



THE HOMCEOPATHIC LAW.

69

we have seen, derived from 6aotoc, like; and 7raOog,
affection.
According to this law, disease is cured by such
remedies as in healthy persons produce a similar
state of disease, or, in other words, a medicament
must be employed which      has the property of
inducing phenomena in the healthy subject resembling the symptoms of the peculiar disease under
which the patient may be suffering.
For example: in a case of Erysipelas, the disease
must be opposed by a medicament which has the
power of causing redness of the skin and all the
other concomitant signs of that malady. In Hoopingcough-one which will produce fits of coughing,
and the symptoms characteristic of that complaint.
In Pneumonia-one which has the power of exciting.
pains in the chest, oppression on the lungs, cough,
spitting of blood, &c. In a word, to cure any
disease whatever, that medicament must be administered, which, if taken by a person in health,



THE HOM(EOPATHIC LAW.

71

in which cures have been obtained by the application
of the law  similia similibus curantur, they have
not been ascribed to it, nor has it been established
as a leading or true principle in the science.
Its Foundation in Actual Experiment.
It was in numerous and long-continued researches
that Hahnemann incontrovertibly established, by
actual experiments, the truth of the important
principle which he had detected. It is in these
labours that he has displayed the devotedness and
perseverance of true genius. He subjected himself,
his family, and his friends, to numerous and long
continued experiments; and when, to his own satisfaction, he had thus established beyond a doubt the
law of similarities, he commenced a new series of
experiments upon other substances, in order to
secure additional means of combating the many and
varied diseases to which we are subject.



72

THE HOMCEOPATHIC LAW.

Thus, it was not by the appearance of medical
substances, nor by taste or smell, nor even by their
qualities, physical and chemical, that their virtues
could be ascertained.   Neither was it by noting
their effects upon the sick that Hahnemann could
ascertain their mode of action; for the law C similia
similibus curantur?   requires  that the  remedy
should produce similar symptoms in a healthy
person.   That law, therefore, demanded labours
much more protracted and difficult. For more than
thirty years of his life, accordingly, Hahnemann
tried the effects of a considerable number of medicines
upon himself and upon his nearest connexions; and
the result of his researches and experiments completely proved and established the truth of the
discovered law.
It is by establishing  this law  as a supreme
principle in the cure of diseases, that homoeopathy
differs from the previous unsystematized and inconsistent schemes of medical art, and that now, for



THE HOM(EOPATHIC LAW.

73

the first time, medicine becomes a system, a positive
science.
The law " similia similibus curantur" being the
simple and unalterable rule which Hahnemann has
laid down for the guidance of the physician-the
text to which he must ever refer-the foundationstone of the whole edifice,-it follows as a necessary
consequence, that he who would overthrow Homoeopathy, must begin by attacking this law. If he
can show it to be false, then the superstructure
which has been raised upon it must crumble into
dust, and all the beneficial and brilliant results which
Hahnemann has promised, must "vanish into thin
air."
But this can never happen. Founded, as it is, in
nature, and confirmed, as it has been, by the sure
test of long experience,-the more it is examined,
the more will its correctness be established in the
mind of all whose object is the discovery of immu



74

THE HOMCEOPATHIC LAW.

table  principles.  Hostility directed  against the
science and its defenders will even accelerate its
progress, by leading to examination; for truth always
gains by being scrutinized.
Convinced that the cause we espouse is a holy
one, we fearlessly defend our position. Nay, we do
more -we lay ourselves open to every possible
attack, in declaring that if the Homceopathic principle be an eternal law of nature - one which
Hahnemann has not invented, but discovered, and
which, therefore, is '" not of an age, but for all time,"
-then we ought to be able to trace its operation in
everything that is daily passing before our eyes, as
well as in the history of past ages.
In point of fact, it is easily recognised and uni
versally known in every-day occurrences.



THE HOMEOPATHIC LAW.

75

Familiar Cures due to its Operation.
When a person, in consequence of severe labour
in the field, or of a painful journey beneath a burning
sun, is suffering from the effects of heat, and devoured
by ardent thirst, by what means does he, with least
danger, relieve himself? - He avoids every thing
cold, even the refreshing current of cool air. His
beverage consists of a little warm tea or coffee, or
of water in which a small quantity of some liquor
having a stimulating property has been mixed.
If, on the contrary, such a person, tormented by
thirst and heat, should swallow cold water, or pass
suddenly from a heated into a cold atmosphere,experience constantly shows us that the most detrimental consequences result from such imprudence.
Travellers, soldiers, and sailors have, in a thousand
instances, seen pleurisy, pneumonia, and cerebral
congestions, thus produced; and we all know that,
in the mirthful exercise of dancing, when the body



78

THE HOM(EOPATHIC LAW.

treatment would be attended with extreme danger.
Gangrene in the parts affected would speedily take
place, and the individual would rapidly pass from a
state of apparent to one of real death.
Mere experience points out an opposite treatment.
When only a small portion of the body or of one of
its members is frozen, that portion or member is
rubbed with snow, or put into ice-water; and when
the whole frame is affected, the person is kept from
the fire, and cold frictions and cold draughts in
small quantities only are allowed, until the moment
when an increase of his general temperature permits
his removal into a warmer atmosphere, and warm
drinks to be given him. By these means, the equilibrium of the system is restored, and life is saved.
So, also, cold feet are best warmed by being
washed with cold water.
In these examples, it will be seen that, by following the law of contraries, a temporary relief may be
obtained; but the amelioration is delusive, and the



THE HOM(EOPATHIC LAW.

79

result frequently fatal; whilst remedies, administered
according to the law of similarities, even if they
should, in the first instance, occasion a slight aggravation of the symptoms, lead to solid improvement,
and ultimate restoration to health.
The Homceopathic principle is, in this respect,
universal. Its power is shown not only in directing
us to the means of restoring the healthy equilibrium
of the body, but also to those which are applicable
to cases of mental affliction. It is not by mirth and
pleasure that grief is to be assuaged: the feelings of
those who are a prey to mental affliction would be
outraged even by the suggestion of such a remedy.
An   opposite course must be pursued: it is by
mingling our tears with theirs, by associating other
images of sorrow with those which press upon them,
by adopting the language of the poet,
" 0, let me join
Griefs to thy griefs, and echo sighs to thine,"



80

THE HOMCEOPATHIC LAW.

that their spirits are tranquillised, and that serenity
is gradually restored.
It is unnecessary that we should here enter at
greater length into illustrations of the applicability
of this law to the ordinary occurrences of life, and
to the explanation of remedies which are popular,
although their application has not arisen from
scientific induction. I proceed to show that, in a
multitude of cases cited by ancient authors, as well
as in others which have occurred in our own time,
patients have been indebted to the operation of the
law of "Like cures like" for their recovery; although,
most probably, the attending physician was altogether
ignorant of it.



THE HOM(EOPATHIC LAW.

81

Accidental Cures due to its Operation.
Under the title of 1" Cures effected by chance,"
Hahnemann has collected, in " the Organon of the
Healing Art," a series of observations from authors
in all ages, which prove, in the most decisive manner,
what has just been advanced. In this place, we shall
give only a few brief examples of them-referring
those readers who wish to be in possession of all the
important facts, to the work above named.
In a treatise upon Epidemics, which has been
attributed to Hippocrates, * the author speaks of
a cholera morbus which resisted all the usual remedies, but which was      cured accidentally   by the
administration   of white hellebore, -   a substance
which Foreest, Ledel, Raimann, t and many others,
describe as capable of producing symptoms similar
to cholera.
The sweating sickness, which appeared for the
* Book V., at the beginning.
t P. Foreest, xviii. obs. 44. Ledel, Misc. Nat. Cur. Dec. iii.
Ann. i., obs. 65, Raimann Bresl. Samnml. 1724.



82

THE HOM(EOPATHIC LAW.

first time in 1485, and which is stated by Willis to
have carried off, at first, 99 out of every 100 who
were attacked by it, being more fatal than the
plague itself, was not subdued until sudorifics, acting
on the homoeopathic principle, were administered.
But from that time few of the cases terminated
fatally.*
Hoffman celebrates the virtues of Milfoil (Millefolium), in many kinds of haemorrhage. G. E. Stahl,
Buchwald    and   Loesika, have   found   this plant
useful in excessive hemorrhoidal flux. Quarin and
the editors of the Breslaw collection mention a case
of hemoptysis which was cured by it. In a word,
Haller reports that Thomasius employed it successfully in menorrhagia.-These cures were evidently
due to the property which is possessed by this plant
of provoking bloody flux     and   haematuria, t and
especially of producing bleeding by the nose. f
* Sennert de Febribus, iv., chap. 15.
t Hoffmann De Medicam. Officin., Leyd. 1738.
f Bockler Cynosura Mat. Med. Cont., p. 552.



THE HOM(EOPATHIC LAW.

83

Muralto * tells us that jalap, independently of
the colics which it produces, cures much uneasiness
and agitation; -Weddell t with justice attributes
to it the property of often calming the sharp pains
which attack young children and cause them to cry.
Murray $ states that he has cured lippitude and
a species of ophthalmia by means of Euphrasia;Lobel ~ observed that it had the property of exciting
inflammation of the eyes.
De   Haen,11 Sarcone, ~     and   Pringle,**   state
that they cured pleurisies by means of squills; and
have observed that stitch in the side disappears under
its influence.--Wagner tt had observed, that the
* Miscell. Nat. Cur. Cap., Dec. ii., a. 7, obs. 112.
t Opilog. Lib., i. p. 1, ii., p. 38.
T Appar. Medic., ii., p. 221.
~ Stirp. Adversar., p. 219.
I1 Ratio Medendi, P. i., p. 13.
~ Geschichte der Krank. in Neapel., tom. i. ~ 175.
** Obs. on the Diseases of the Army, Ed. vii. ~ 143.
tt Observationes Clinicee. Lubeck, 1737.



84

4 THIE IIOMUEOPATHIC LAW.

action of this plant produced pleurisy and inflammation of the lungs.
One of the most general and most painful effects
of cantharides is to cause retention of urine. This
fact has been remarked by T. Camerarius, Baccius,
Fabricius de Hilden, Foreest, J. Lanzoni, Vander
Wiel, and Werlhoff. * Cantharides should, therefore, when administered with precaution, prove a
salutary remedy in analogous cures of painful dysuria; and such is found to be the case. Fabricius
de  Aquapendente,      Capo   di Vacca, Biedlin, Th.
Bartholin,t Young,j Smith,~ Raymond,11 De
Meza, ~    Brisbane, **   and  others,   have  effected
V. mes Fragmenta de Viribus Medicamentorum Positivis.
Leipsick, 1805, i. p. 83.
t Epist. iv. p. 345.
t Phil. Trans., No. 280.
~ Medic. Communications, ii. p. 505.
Auserles Abbandi. fuir Pract. Aerzte, iii. p. 460.
~ Act. Reg. Soc. Med. Hafn. ii. p. 302.
Anserics Faelle, Alienb. 1776.:3



THE HOM(EOPATHIC LAW.

87

power of producing fever,-for proofs of which I
may refer to Amatus Lusitanus, Degner, Buchholz,
Heun, and Knape.
Alexander* informs us that arsenic is a sovereign
remedy against Angina Pectoris;-and Tachenius,
Guilbert,   Preussius, Thilenius,   and   Pyl,   have
observed it produce a violent oppression of the
chest. Griseliust has seen it produce dyspnoea to
a  degree   almost   approaching    suffocation;  and
Majoult, fits of asthma provoked        suddenly by
walking, accompanied with       great prostration   of
strength.
By the few medical facts which I have quoted
from professional authorities of high character, great
research, and undoubted veracity, and which if necessary could be much extended, the reader will be
enabled to judge how far the truth and certainty of
* Med. Comm. of Edinb., dec. ii., t. i., p. 85.
t Misc. Nat. Cur. dec. i., Ann. ii., p. 149.
t Sammlung Auserles, Abhandl. vii., 1.



88 ~

THE H0IOMNEOPATHtIC LAW.

the homceopathic Law is established by them, related
as they are as the results of their own observation on
accidental cures, and consequently without reference
to the su)pport of any theory-for they had none.
Cures by )S')ecifics due to its Operation.
I shall now proceed to show this law regulating
the  administration of medicaments which    have
alrcady rceived the confidence both of physicians
and  the  public, who   recognize and  have  employed these with success--without knowingo the
l)rinciple on which they effect a cure. The substances to which I refer possess certain curative
p1ropcrties, and when a physician is consulted in
cases where they are appropriate, he hesitates not
to affirn that a cure will be effected by them. He
has confidence in them, however, not because they
are pointed out by any therapeutic law, but because
the recorded experience of' his predecessors, as well



90

THE HOMEOPATHIC LAW.

of ague or intermittent fever, produced by the
pestilential vapours of marshes.
The Vaccine Virus-preserves the human race
from the most baneful scourge to which humanity
was formerly the victim.
Arnica, Sulphur, Mercury, Quinquina, and the
Vaccine Virus, therefore, are recognized specifics in
the cure of certain diseases; but they owe their
curative virtue solely to the property they possess
of exciting in the healthy subject, symptoms analogous to those of the malady in which they are
specific.
Thus Meza, Vicat, Crichton, Collin, Aaskow,
Stoll, J. Chr. Lange, &c., tell us that Arnica
produces very similar effects to those caused by
contusions and bruises,-an inclination to vomit,
sharp and burning pains in the hypochondria,
sudden and involuntary motions, &c.
We know that Sulphur will cause an eruption of
the skin; which closely resembles that of the itch.



THE HOM(EOPATHIC LAW.

91

We know that Mercury produces effects so perfectly similar to those occasioned by syphilis, that,
in numerous instances where too powerful doses
have been imprudently administered, the physician
is in doubt whether the disease is mercurial or
syphilitic.
We also know that the smallest particle of Vaccine
matter, inserted beneath the epidermis, produces a
scab strongly resembling that thrown out by the
small-pox, and thereby destroys the exciting cause
of that dreadful disease.
By reference to the Materia Medica of Hahnemann,
it will be seen that these medicines, as well as the
others above named, do actually produce in healthy
persons the symptoms of the disorders they are
popularly given to remove; and it therefore follows
that specific remedies cure diseases only by exciting
in healthy individuals nearly similar diseases,-that
every cure performed by the common mode of
practice, has been performed    according to the
5



92

THE HOMEOPATHIC LAW.

therapeutic law of Homoeopathy,-in short, that all
specific remedies are homoeopathic, and all homceopathic remedies are specific.
Hypothesis as to the Foundation of this Law.
The value and importance of this law, discovered
as it has been by the exercise of unexampled zeal
and perseverance in making experiments upon
every medicinal substance, is unquestionable; and
we think it is not impossible to afford such an
explanation of it as will reconcile it to reason.
Such explanation, however, it must be observed, is
proposed only as hypothetical; and whether it be
true or false, it cannot affect the truth or the value
of the facts on which it is founded.
There is a property or power in the human
organism, by which, whenever it is modified or
injured by the introduction or contact of a foreign
substance, an action is exerted of a kind diametrically
opposed to the primary action or first effect produced



94

THE HOMEOPATHIC LAW.

When any part of the body, but more particularly
an extremity, is immersed for some time in extremely
cold water, the skin gradually becomes paler, sensibility diminishes, the circulation languishes, scarcely
any blood-vessels are perceptible on the surface, and
the temperature is considerably lowered. Such is
the primitive effect of the immersion. When the
limb is withdrawn from the water and carefully
wiped, effects diametrically opposite will be shortly
observed: the skin slowly assumes a greater degree
of redness than it usually exhibits, it becomes
warmer, numerous blood-vessels reappear on the
surface, and extreme sensitiveness and often sharp
pricking pain is experienced. In proportion to the
coldness of the water, will be the degree of heat which
the returning circulation develops. In this second
action, life exerts all its strength to overcome the
external agency which had depressed its natural
action.
The primitive and secondary phenomena, or, in



THE HOMCEOPATHIC LAW.

95

other words, the action of the external foreign power
or agent, and the reaction of the organism, are
invariably reproduced as often as a foreign agent is
brought to act upon the human frame, unless, indeed,
the agent be so -violent as to destroy life.
The action of opium furnishes us with another
instance of these phenomena.     Its direct action
deadens sensibility, tranquillizes pain, and induces
sleep.-When these effects have passed away, the
reaction of the system infallibly occasions an increase
of sensibility, pain, and sleeplessness. Individuals
who have recourse to this drug to alleviate pain or
to procure sleep, are forced gradually to augment the
doses, not, as they believe, because they habituate
themselves to the medicine, but in reality because,
the reaction more and more increasing the disease,
they are compelled to oppose the increased pain and
sleeplessness by doses of increased strength, in order
to obtain the desired result.
Wines and spirituous liquors, when taken too



96

THE HOM(EOPATHIC LAW.

copiously, develop an increased action in all the
functions, both mental and corporeal;- but this
excitement is speedily followed by a corresponding
degree of lassitude and drowsiness, which announce
the secondary effect of these stimulants, or the
reaction of the organism.
Coffee also communicates increased vivacity to the
mental and corporeal functions; but these phenomena, which are the consequences of the primitive
action of this extract, are succeeded by others of
quite an opposite character: the mental, equally with
the bodily functions, become languid, and sleep
becomes irresistible. To recover from this state,
recourse must be had to still stronger draughts
of coffee, which provoke only a repetition and augmentation of the effects.
This short exposition of the law of reaction, to
which the human organism is subject, will enable
the reader to understand how vital reaction, called
into play under the specific influence of the medicine,



THE HOMOEOPATHIC LAW.

97

destroys by its development both the primitive action
of the modifying power and the symptoms or effects
of the malady.
Thus, in cases of constipation, when a medicine is
prescribed, the direct effect of which is, and ought
to be, to produce constipation, the reaction of the
system overcomes both that which has been produced
by the medicine, and that which constituted the
disease itself. In cases of diarrhoea, a purgative is
administered; and, in like manner, the reaction of
the system  destroys, at the same time, both the
diarrhoea occasioned by the medicine, and that which
constituted the disease.  In a word, whenever a
medicine is administered, of which the primitive or
direct effect resembles the symptoms of the complaint
itself, that medicine will excite the curative reaction
of the organism.
Under favourable circumstances, the tone of the
organs is often sufficient, by its natural tendency to
reaction, to restore the state of health.  Under
G



100

THE HOM(EOPATHIC LAW.

react. Thus, medicines are not direct remedies, but
merely the producers of morbid symptoms, surpassing in intensity those of the disease against
which they are employed; the original disease then
yields, because it is overpowered by the artificial
disease caused by the remedies; and this, on the
discontinuance of the medicines, is in its turn
speedily overcome by the powers of the constitution.
In short, the morbific disease being destroyed by
the medicinal one, and the medicinal one by the
reaction of the organism, the patient is restored to
health.
The practice of medicine, then, has acquired, by
the application of the principle, similia similibus
curantur, or "like cures like," a great degree of
certainty and great uniformity of procedure; and
these hypothetical explanations, whether true or
false, can in no way affect its value.



MATERIA MEDICA.

103

of the diseased frame generally induces such complicated phenomena, that it is almost impossible to
unravel them; for, either there is no change, or
there follows deterioration, variation, improvement,
recovery, or death, without the greatest practical
genius being able to discover the precise part which
the disease or the remedy may have had in- the
result."--" If to this, too, is added the incongruous
and often conflicting nature of the ingredients of
which remedies are generally composed, the difficulty
would appear altogether insurmountable."
" There is," he says, "no other infallible nornatural
way of discovering the proper effects of medicaments
on the human constitution than trying them on
healthy persons, and observing what changes result
from these experiments in the state of the body and
mind, or what elements of artificial disease the
medicaments are capable of producing."



104

THE HOMCEOPATHIC

Mode of Experiment to determine these Powers.
Hahnemann, accordingly, and his friends, Frantz,
Hornburg, Stapf, &c., submitted themselves to a
course of experiments continued during above twenty
years; and their method, with little alteration, may
here be given, as at once showing the great care they
bestowed, and serving as an example for all who are
resolved experimentally to determine the truth of
Homoeopathy.
In such experiments,-as the action of each and
every substance varies according to sex, age, and
constitution, it is expedient to experiment on as
many persons as possible, and to try each substance
in various doses and under various conditions.
The essential conditions of these experiments are:
-that the experimenters be in perfect health; that
they scrupulously adhere to diet which is merely
nutritious, and in no way pathogenetic; that they



MATERIA MEDICA.

105

carefully avoid the use of fermented liquors, wine,
spirits, spices of every kind, coffee, strong tea, acid
fruits, and all vegetables, except those of a farinaceous
and mild description; that they shun all fatigue
bodily and mental, all excess, and even excitement;
and that they previously note every habitual symptom
by which they are affected.
As to medicines, those only must be used which
are genuine, pure, and of well marked action; each
must be given in a perfectly simple form; nor, during
the experiment, must any thing else of a medicinal
kind be used.
It must be borne in mind, that some medicines
act powerfully even in small doses, and others only
in large ones; as well as that the torpidity and dulness, or the delicacy and susceptibility of the constitution of the person experimented upon (both
generally and as to the particular medicines), must
be duly considered in estimating the result, in
relation to medical practice.



106

THE HOMCEOPATHIC

As, however, it is impossible, previous to experiment, to know the susceptibility or torpidity of the
person experimented upon, it is right always to
begin with a small dose. This may be taken every
night three hours after the last meal, or every
morning three hours before the first meal, and
gradually increased till its action is determined.
To increase such action, the dose must be more
rapidly increased.
All this being done, every modification of health
may fairly be noted down as resulting from the
pathogenetic action of the drug employed.
It is necessary to note the time of taking the
drug; upon what texture or organ it acts; at
what hour the symptom chiefly shows itself; what
alterations it induces; what modifications its action
suffers from waking, sleeping, moving, resting, eating,
drinking, moral emotions, intellectual activity, confined or open air, atmospheric changes, the different
times of day, and the changes of seasons; What



108

THE HOMCEOPATHIC

instance, have not afforded opportunities for tracing
the effects produced by certain medicines, they may
be deduced from the symptoms which approach most
nearly to poisoning; and subsequent observation of
particular cases will confirm their conclusions.
The value of a Materia Medica thus constructed
is evident.
It will now be seen how justly, in the course of
my observations in explanation of the homceopathic
principle, similia similibus curantur, I stated that
the powers of the medicaments had first been tried
upon individuals in good health. This is in fact the
only test which can be employed when the principle
is recognized, that to cure sickness, a medicine must
be administered which would produce the symptoms
of that particular case in a healthy subject.
Conclusions drawn from these Experiments.
These conclusions have been:
1. That all medicinal substances administered in



MATERIA MEDICA.

109

adequate doses to healthy individuals, disturb the
functions more or less in proportion to their power.
2. That their action produces two series of symptoms, primary or direct, appearing soon after taking
the substance, and secondary or indirect.
In the primary symptoms, each group, modified
by idiosyncrasy, forms a peculiar medicinal disease.
Among these symptoms, some are peculiarly characteristic  of the  medicament;    their  duration
depends on the nature and quantity of the latter;
and, in employing them, care is taken that they
correspond to the characteristics of the disease.
To the primary or direct action of the medicine,
the secondary or indirect action succeeds; and when
the former has been strong or feeble, the latter
corresponds.
3. The consequence of the direct action of some
other substances is an alternation of symptoms of
opposite character, apparently indicating oscillatory
movements between the primary, direct or patho



110

THE HOM(EOPATHIC

genetic, and the secondary, indirect or curative
effects; and this oscillation is perhaps only less
apparent in some cases than in others.
4. Substances differ as to the time of producing
symptoms--in the morning, in the evening, or at
night.
5. In proportion to the similarity of organization,
is the similarity of the pathogenetic and consequently
of the curative effects of similar doses.
6. Those effects are accidental, which are not found
to be constant in the greater number of persons;
those are certain, which are few and nearly the same
in all; and, to determine this, an analysis of many
cases is necessary.
7. Medicaments, in their pathogenetic effects,
follow fixed and eternal laws, produce certain and
positive symptoms, and, when well applied, afford
infallible remedial means.
Consistently with all this, Hahnemann     says,
"each medicament changes health in a particular



MATERIA MEDICA.

111

manner; and we are not permitted to confound one
with the other. For that reason, medicinal equivalents or substitutes are in no way admissible
in  practice; and   every   medical man    ought to
distinguish as exactly as possible the different medicaments,"-both as causes of disease and as means
of cure.
If any one dispute the facts above stated, let him
repeat the experiments,-let him try even the simplest of these. And here let me say that, in the.whole history of science and art, no event has placed
in so conspicuous a point of view, the contentedness
of habitude, or the obstinacy of prejudice, as the fact
that the old and routine practitioners of medicine do
not hesitate to spend hours or days in talking, and
weeks or months in writing, hypothetically, about
the impossibility of Homoeopathy,-when the placing
of a few globules on the tongue.would satisfy them
of its truth, and make them blush for shame at their
petty prejudice and idle talking!



MATERIA MEDICA.

113

This materia medica is further distinguished from
the common one by antidotes, employed to counteract
or merely to modify the action of the medicines
previously administered.
These antidotes 'are either general or special. The
general are such as modify or counteract the effects
of many medicaments: the special, those which
similarly affect particular ones.
Camphor, for instance, has been found to be the
antidote for a great number of medicaments, and
especially for those of a vegetable kind, wine and acids
for aconite,-and so on, for other substances.
Physicians in former times, not having the same
command of medicaments, nor any principle to guide
them in ascertaining the effects which follow their
use, fell into numnerous errors, and made but slow
advances.   It was by chance alone they could
discover true remedies: it was merely by accident
H



CHAPTER V.

DISEASES AS CONSIDERED BY IIOM(EOPATHY.
HOM(IEOPATHIC CLASSIFICATION OF DISEASES.
IT may surprise some readers, that diseases should
be here considered after the homceopathic law and
materia medica; but the propriety of the arrangement
will be evident, if they reflect that every consideration of disease in Homceopathy has an experimental
basis solely in its law and materia medica, and that
consequently an inversion of this woifld have been
a violation of natural order.
Hahnemann, then, has not given particular names
to.particular diseases, but.has adopted a classification
H2



116

DISEASES AS CONSIDERED

of them under the following general denominations:Acute diseases, which, springing from accidental
causes, attack suddenly, are often accompanied by
fever in the first instance, are short in duration,
and, consequently, rapid in their course; while the
energetic reaction of vitality, especially in the young,
if not counteracted, often leads them to a happy
termination.
These diseases are either solitary or epidemical.
The   solitary affect only detached individuals,
being caused or excited by the particular noxious
circumstances to which they have individually been
exposed.
Epidemic diseases, which, arising from a particular
state of the atmosphere, owing to unknown causes,
appear in particular places at certain seasons of the
year,-or which break out unexpectedly in different
places at once, and without reference to seasons.
Medicinal diseases, which arise from the long



BY HOM(EOPATHY.

117

continued use of active substances, such as opium,
mercury, quinquina, &c.
Chronic diseases, which   begin  almost imperceptibly, pervade the system insensibly, and degenerate it so gradually, that they can never be remedied
by its unassisted efforts.
These diseases, Hahncmann regards as originating
in a virus which assumes different forms and modifications.
"Those diseases,"   says he, "are improperly
called chronic, to which persons are subject who
are continually  exposed   to  avoidable injurious
influences - who, for instance, inhabit unhealthful
countries, are engaged in immoderate labours of
body and mind, are deprived of exercise and air, are
tormented by continued grief, or use unwholesome
food and drink, &c. Cachexies and sufferings arising
from these causes are cured by removing for ever the
exciting causes of illness, provided that no chronic
miasm is concealed in the body."



118

DISEASES AS CONSIDERED

" Real chronic maladies are those which derive
their origin from a chronic miasm, which, in spite of
the best physical and moral regimen, are always
increasing, and which torment the patient to the
end of his life, if not cured by specific remedies.
These are the most numerous and terrible enemies
of the human species; for neither the strongest constitution, nor the most perfect regimen, nor the most
energetic vital power can annihilate them."
Hitherto, the physicians of the old school have
in general recognized only a single virus, that of
syphilis. Hahnemann has ascertained the existence
of three: syphilis, sycosis, psora.
Syphilis is characterized by chancres; sycosis by
crisped or cauliflower-like excrescences; and psora
by a peculiar eruption, provoking insufferable itching:
all these external appearances being only symptoms
of the existence of internal infection.
From these three, arise the multitude of diseases
indicated by the term chronic, every one of which



BY HOMOEOPATHY.

119

is an external demonstration of one, or two, or all
of them combined.
"The first of these miasms," says Hahnemann,
" which, for the last three centuries and a half, has
been' the source of many chronic diseases, is that of
syphilis, which is difficult to be cured only when
complicated with displayed psora: it is seldom complicated with sycosis, but, in such cases, it is generally also complicated with psora.
Syphilis is very often complicated with psora,
either because the patient, before his infection with
syphilis, was already suffering from chronic disease,
or because the latent psora is excited by the usual
violent treatment. In that way, arises the complication which is called, in England, "pseudo-syphilis."
It should be observed that syphilis has long been
in some measure recognized as a source of various
chronic diseases.
"The second original cause of chronic diseases,"
says Hahnemann, "is sycosis, which nevertheless



122

DISEASES AS CONSIDERED

As, in this disease, the cutaneous symptoms are
probably an effort to turn the ravages of the disease
from more important internal organs, it is evident
that if these symptoms are repelled, various chronic
affections must ensue; and as psora is not only
easily and extensively propagated by infection, but is
likewise hereditary, it is not wonderful that it should
be very universally diffused.
Its effects in youth, indeed, may be checked and
reduced to a latent state; but, when age approaches,
and strength is reduced, or when accident enfeebles
the body, it then appears in various chronic diseases.
It cannot, any more than syphilis, be destroyed
except by a specific-that is, by a homeopathic
remedy.
Corresponding Classification of Remedies.
In conformity with the two chief kinds of disease,
acute and chronic, Hahfemann has shown that there
are two kinds of remedies, one chiefly adapted to



BY HOM(EOPATHY.

125

It follows that that which will succeed with one
patient may be unsuitable to another, although, on a
superficial examination, both may appear to       be
attacked in a similar way. A slight difference in the
symptoms must cause a different medicament to be
preferred in each case; nor does the Homoeopathist
feel bound to confine himself to the use of one
medicine, if, in the progress of the malady, new
symptoms are developed. Hence the difficulty in
the practice of Homoeopathy.
Hommopathic Investigation of Symptoms.
In regard to the symptoms of disease, the interrogation of the patient, with the view of obtaining a
clear idea, a perfect image as it were, of his malady,
is an important part of the homceopathic physician's
duty.
He enquires into the general character of the
patient, into his habits both before and after the
appearance of the disease, nay, even into the general



126

DISEASES AS CONSIDERED

state of health of his parents; whose particular complaints are noted down.
It is not enough for him that he knows the prominently marked features of the complaint: the most
minute details regarding the previous, as well as the
present, state of the patient's health, are to him of
the greatest importance-the diseases by which he
has formerly been attacked, the remedies administered, and the effects which these remedies produced.
He is not content with knowing that the patient
feels pain in a particular part of the body: he must
also ascertain the kind of pain-as whether it is
a shooting pain, or a soreness as from a fall or contusion, as well as what aggravates and diminishes it.
To a physician of the old-school, indeed, it may
seem unimportant, as a means of ascertaining the
nature of a complaint, that the particular character
of the pain felt by the patient, and the period of the
day or night when it is most severe, should be noted
in writing, together with all the circumstances which



BY HOMCEOPATHY.

127

aggravate or alleviate his sufferings. To him, these
would afford no indication of the remedy to be
selected, because it enters not into his system to
compare the symptoms of the malady with those
produced by the medicament.
It was formerly deemed suficient to register the
most striking symptoms of the malady, without
paying much, if any, attention to those of secondary
importance, from their not being deemed capable of
affording any assistance in pointing out the proper
treatment. Hahnemann, however, directs particular
attention to these secondary symptoms, as affording
the means of distinguishing differences or modifications which serve to mark the individuality of each
case.
By attending only to the most remarkable symptoms, as is the case in the common practice, we can
easily decide to what category the disease belongs;
but it is only by the minute observation recommended
by Hahnemann, and by faithfully and accurately



128

DISEASES AS CONSIDERED

uniting the whole of the symptoms into a clearly
defined, well marked, and distinct group, that we can
distinguish the individuals or species which compose
the pathological class, and obtain a complete view of
the disease.
Whatever, then, may be the degree of perfection
to which the diagnostic branch of the art had
attained previously to the time of Hahnemann, it
will be admitted that he has given it much more
exactness, by the scrupulous and detailed mode of
interrogation which he has thus recommended.
Now, indisposed to theorize as the homoeopathist
may be, he regards those invisible changes in the
organism  constituting the disease, and its perceptible external symptoms, as having a natural
and necessary connexion; so that, the medicament
which removes the entire group of symptoms must
remove the disease.
Medicaments, indeed, are not specifics for single
symptoms, but for groups of symptoms; every



130

DISEASES AS CONSIDERED

movement, repose, food, liquids, mental or bodily
exertion, &c.
The choice of a remedy is accordingly influenced
by a variety of attendant circumstances, which
render it a task of some difficulty; and therefore,
when a failure takes place, it ought to be ascribed
to some omission or neglect on the part of the patient
or of the physician, and not to any insufficiency of
Homoeopathy. Too many proofs of the truth of the
law have been obtained to justify any other conclusion.
And to demand more of the homceopathlist, is to
expect, or to pretend to expect, of him infallibility,
-where in the routine practitioner success is a mere
accident, and the relief of the patient a "happy
escape!"
It was on account of the necessity of the physician
informing himself of every thing relating to his
patient's malady, that Hahnemann discarded the
system of giving particular names to diseases.
Failures have   often  been  the  consequence  of



BY HOM(EOPATHY.

133

disease, to note all the sensations which the patient
experiences, the changes which take place in the
functions of the organs, and to keep in view all the
circumstances which influence and modify them;
for it is only by these means that we can become
thoroughly acquainted with the malady.
He has, indeed, further stated, that it is impossible for any human being to penetrate the mystery
which veils the nature or essence of disease. But,
whether this opinion be correct or not, it cannot
possibly affect the truth of facts established by
actual experiment.
It will, at all events, be seen, by the manner in
which he studies diseases, that the homoeopathist
does not make any pretension to investigate the
essence of the malady. To him all that constitutes
the disease, is, the derangement in the sensibility
and functions of the organs, the alterations in the
organs themselves, and all the modes in which these
organic changes are manifested.



* BY HOM(EOPATHY.              139
nux-vomica in derangements of the organs of digestion, and of aconite in derangements of the arterial
system.
Such are the careful and sure methods of procedure which Homoeopathy adopts.






CHAPTER VI.

ON   INFINITESIMAL DOSES.
FOUNDATION OF THESE.
THE question of the dose has been the subject of
much discussion. It is quite independent, however,
of the still greater feature of Hahnemann's doctrine,
the principle simnilia similibus curantur.
It owes its origin to Hahnemann's having observed
that, by strong doses, the more regular symptoms of
disease were aggravated, and that many less regular
and very distressing symptoms were excited. He,
therefore, gradually diminished his doses, until he no
longer observed any of the primary symptoms of the



144

INFINITESIMAL DOSES.

Vegetable juices or extracts are reduced to the
state of a concentrated alcoholic tincture, of which
1 drop is mixed with 99 of alcohol, and the medical
properties developed by shakings (twice is the number of times used by Hahnemann, and, for the sake
of uniformity, that number also is generally adopted);
one drop of this dilution being then taken, is mixed
with 99 drops of alcohol and again shaken; and the
same process is repeated until the required degree of
dilution is obtained.  In general, the dilution is
carried to the decillionth part of a grain.
When the tincture is diluted to the proper state,
generally the 30th dilution, small globules of sugar
of milk or of common sugar and starch, are made to
absorb it; and from 40 to 60 of these are requisite
for the absorption of one drop. Two globules are
the common dose; but these are so small that they.
might be lost, were they not generally inclosed in a
little powder of sugar of milk.



INFINITESIMAL DOSES.

145

Effects of Attenuation and Dilution.
The means used by the homoeopathic physician in
pteparing his medicines, the attenuations and dilutions by trituration and shaking, develope their
properties in an extraordinary manner, giving to all
of them a more penetrating action; and to some,
which before exhibited very little medical power,
this communicates important properties.
It is also an interesting fact that the third trituration of any substance is always found to be soluble
in diluted alcohol. And hence it appears that the
power of action in medicaments is developed in proportion as their cohesion is overcome.
Charcoal, lycopedium,    silex,  graphites, are
amongst the substances which      were considered
almost inert, and which, as usually prepared, have
certainly very little influence on the human organism;
but they become active agents when prepared in the
K



INFINITESIMAL DOSES.

147

nothing unreasonable, then, in supposing, that longcontinued trituration in a mortar, or shakings in a
phial, may so modify the substances thus treated, as
to develope in   them   a power over    the human
ceconomy which was before inert or latent.
From these considerations arose the doctrine of
Hahnemann, that the brute matter of medicines thus
becomes spiritualized, or the "doctrine of the development of the dynamic power of medicinal substances,
by friction and concussion."
Hence, two or three globules imbibed with the
dilution which contains only the decillionth part of a
grain, will make the patient feel very sensibly the
effect of the medicine, provided it is properly chosen
-that is, provided the symptoms which it is capable
of producing in a healthy subject, are similar to those
of the disease with which the patient is afflicted.

K2



148

INFINITESIMAL DOSES.

Principle of their Operation.
When any part of the body is affected by disease,
that part becomes extremely sensible to the action
of the most minute quantity of medicine, if that
medicine be adapted to act upon it. However powerful and robust may be the individual who is
labouring under either chronic or acute disease, he
speedily feels the impression produced by it upon
whatever part or organ may be affected by the
malady. The effect of the smallest homceopathic
dose would indeed be more felt by an adult under
these circumstances, than by an infant exempt from
them, and in perfect health, because it then affects
the seat of the complaint almost exclusively, and
that, being in a state of irritation, is predisposed
to be strongly affected by any substance having the
property of producing a like irritation.
Thus it is well known that, when the eye is in a



150

INFINITESIMAL DOSES.

of any homceopathic medicament upon a healthy
person, by giving as minute a dose as would be
administered to one suffering from derangement or
disease,-unless, indeed, the dose be often repeated.
Finally, it must be remembered, that the diet
which Homoeopathy prescribes, by rejecting the use
of all substances which could exert any medicinal
action, leaves to its minute doses, already so well calculated to act on an unerring principle, all the power
which they, by their mode of preparation, possess.
The Objections to IAftnitesimal Doses answered.
The extreme exiguity of our doses (for which no
better term than infinitesimal or atomic has hitherto
been found) has encountered much incredulity.
Those who could invent nothing to oppose to the doctrine, that " Like cures like," have made this second
discovery of Hahnemann a subject of ridicule.
An objection against the possibilitY of such



INFINITESIMAL DOSES.

151

doses being efficient, has been raised upon the
influence of imagination, by those who prefer talking
or writing about what they do not know, to that
experiment which always confers the surest knowledge: to this, the effects produced by such doses
have sometimes been imputed. But these arguers,
in the warmth of their zeal, overlook, or are ignorant
of the fact, that these doses are peculiarly effective
with children, and even with domestic animals, as
horses, dogs, &c.
It has, in the same spirit, and in the face of all
facts, been asserted, that it is utterly impossible that
medicaments so divided should produce any effect
whatever. The objectors forget that, although the
medicaments are attenuated to a point which makes
it impossible to recognize their colour, taste, or smell,
yet it does by no means follow that their qualities
should be diminished in the same proportion.  On
the contrary, they are so much    developed  and
augmented by the process already spoken of, that it



INFINITESIMAL DOSES.

153

eyes the effects of such applications. He knows
the power of the smallest atom of the serpent's
venom, and of the virus of the mad dog, of the
wasp, and of many insects. He knows that the
odour of musk, though almost imperceptible, will
powerfully affect persons of a nervous constitution;
that the slightest touch of Prussic acid will produce
instant death; and that a particle of cow-pock
matter can prevent an awful disease, which had for
ages been the scourge of the human race.
The Action of these Doses, on the Nervous
System.
The nervous system is the means by which all
parts of the body are brought into communication
with each other, in order to form one harmonious
whole; and this system is evidently the means of
transmitting the effects of the medicines which are
administered in Homoeopathy.
It is well known that it has been, and still is, the
practice of the old school to exhibit large doses of



154

INFINITESI1MAL DOSES.

medicine, and either (antipathically) to confide to
the stomach the care of conveying them, by the slow
process of digestion, absorption, and circulation,
directly to that part of the body which is attacked by
disease, or (allopathically), by disordering healthy
parts, to attack the disease indirectly. But, by the
homoeopathic method, those medicaments for which
the system has the highest aptitude, are brought into
contact with the papillae of the tongue, which is
found to be sufficient in all cases to produce the
desired effect; and, in some, smelling alone is
enough.   They. thus touch directly the sentient
roots of that nervous tree, through which their
power is conveyed to the whole system.
Mr. Walker, the author of an elaborate work on
the Nervous System, is of opinion, that the homceopathic doses cannot act either on the nerves of
taste or those of common sensation in the tongue,
(the lingual branches of the trifacial and of the
glosso-pharyngeal nerves,) because it is the general



INFINITESIMAL DOSES.

155

characteristic of nerves of sensation passing toward
the brain, to be accompanied by consciousness and
to terminate in perception, which is not the common
effect of homoeopathic    doses.  He   nevertheless
thinks that our want of consciousness and perception
of the action of these doses is still no argument
against their acting on the nervous system, because
it is much more probable that they act on the
nervous system of life than on that of mind-namely,
on the branches of the great Sympathetic. It is
certain that this system, which has its centres in
the trunk of the body, sends branches out of it,
which accompany all the great vessels, and which
may be easily seen on the external iliac arteries
where they become femoral. The necessity for such
accompaniment, he observes, is rendered remarkably
evident by branches from that nerve ascending
from the trunk even to the brain, from which, it is
obvious, that, if a cerebral nerve would have answered
the purpose, it could far more easily have been



156

INFINITESIMAL DOSES.

supplied. But it is evident that the sympathetic
and its branches are everywhere the nerves of life,
having their centres in the trunk, as those of mind
have them in the head; that these branches, as they
accompany the great trunks of the arteries, accompany also the minutest capillary arteries to every
surface of the body; and that it is upon their
extremities that the homoeopathic doses make those
impressions of which, like all the acts of the vital
system, we are necessarily unconscious.
Be this as it may, the proofs of the facts
which I advance are furnished by observation and
experience. By these alone, can be demonstrated
the form in which medicine is most efficient in
conquering disease;-these alone can   prove the
action of the medicaments;-these alone can determine the mode in which they should be administered.
The powerful operation of small doses, then, is a
demonstrable fact, and their curative effect is also a
fact, which every one is at liberty to observe and verify.



INFINITESIMAL DOSES.

157

Whether this fact be singular and surprising, or
whether it be in conformity or in contradiction to
received medical doctrines, is not the question. New
facts, new discoveries, overturn or modify hypotheses
previously admitted, and    harmonize with   facts
already known. Experience alone can be appealed
to, to decide in such cases; and, to experience, we
appeal for proof of the power of infinitesimal doses.
As connected with this portion of the homoeopathic
doctrine, which regards the nervous system, I should
here observe, that all who are acquainted with the
history of the different schools of medicine, are aware
that they form two great classes, or systems, which
have been named the vital and the organic.    The
disciples of the former starting from the principle
of the unity of life, and feeling deeply the importance of that unity as the great regulator of the functions of the human organism,-pay little attention
to the local changes which it undergoes.      The
followers of the latter, on the contrary, devoting their



158.INFINITESIMAL DOSES.

exclusive attention to the distinct function of each
particular organ,-think too lightly of the unity of life.
Hahnemann's doctrine embraces both of these
views of the human economy. None of the physicians who have preceded him have held the principle
of life in higher estimation than he has done. He
unceasingly reminds us of the singleness and complete unity of that vivifying principle; but, at the
same time he displays the most persevering anxiety
that every change which takes place in each particular organ should be carefully studied.
The physician is thus in possession of that which
affects the patient generally, and of that which affects
each organ in particular; and his remedies, prescribed
as I have indicated, reach specifically the whole
organic system, and each particular organ.
Variation of Doses.
The increase, diminution, and repetition of the
doses must depend upon circumstances.     They



INFINITESIMAL DOSES.

159

require to be varied according to the varied aspect
of the disease, the age, and the temperament of
the patient, and according to other considerations,
which will occur to the practised physician.
In the early editions of the Organon, Hahnemann
gave as a rule, that no medicament ought to be
repeated, and that no new one ought to be given
while the effects of a previous one lasted.  Latterly,
he has found that this rule admits of exceptions, and
that, in those cases, the same medicament may be
advantageously repeated.
In connexion with these circumstances, I may
observe that Homoeopathy, which may appear easy
of attainment at first, because it is founded on a few
clear and simple principles, presents increasing
difficulties as the student advances in his career,
because, in proportion as he advances, the difficulties
are more clearly defined, and because the choice of the
exact remedyfor each individual case requires a serious



CHAPTER VII.

HOMCEOPATHIC DIET AND REGIMEN.
COMMON PRACTICE IN THIS RESPECT.
IN none of the medical schools which have preceded that of Hahnemann, have the rules for the
adoption of regimen been fixed upon a sound and
invariable basis.  Each school has formed these
rules upon its peculiar views of the nature of disease,
and thus, while some prescribe an extremely low diet,
others order, or permit the use of, the most nourishing
aliments and stimulating wines. The object of the
former is to subdue that irritation, which they
consider to be the generating principle of the disease,
by an almost total abstinence from food,-whilst
L



162

HOMEOPATHIC DIET

the latter attempt to counteract, by stimulants, that
debility which, in their opinion, is often the foundation of the malady.
The examination of the doctrines and rules of each
school, will demonstrate the existence of these contradictions and uncertainties; and I do not hesitate
to affirm, that this will continue until the homoeopathic law is adopted, which, by- giving a fixed and
sure basis to therapeutics, will, at the same time,
destroy all uncertainty regarding regimen.
Homoeopathic Rules of Diet and Regimen.
The object to be attained by attention to regimen
in the treatment of disease, is to place the patient in
a condition the most favorable for the action of the
remedy; and, to accomplish this, the two following
rules are considered essential.
1st. To prohibit the use of every description of
aliment which possesses medicinal properties, or
which might destroy or modify the action of the
medicines administered.



AND REGIMEN.

163

2d. To regulate the quantity of such aliments as
are allowed to the patient, in order that the daily
waste of the constitution may be supplied, without
overcharging the digestive powers.
The homoeopathic physician prohibits his patients
from using spirituous liquors, spices, acids, strong
tea and coffee, and aromatic substances. He also
excludes from their regimen, every aliment which
his experience informs him is of difficult digestion,
and in general all fat meats and the flesh of animals
which are too young; as well as all fruits of bad
quality, or which are not perfectly ripe. He moreover recommends them not to reside in marshy
districts, nor in dark and damp streets, in which
there is no free circulation of air.  For similar
reasons, he advises them to avoid public meetings,
and large parties, where the temperature of the air is
either too elevated, or vitiated by the number of
persons breathing it.
The aliments to be preferred, are such as the
L2



AND REGIMEN.

165

lead too sedentary a life.  They ought to take exercise daily in the open air, to as great an extent as
their strength will permit; and if they are unable to
walk, they ought to be taken out in a carriage,
although this mode of exercise is less salutary than
walking. If the patient is too ill to partake of either
of these modes of exercise, the air of his apartments
ought to be frequently changed, and the greatest
attention paid to cleanliness therein.
Hot baths are not permitted in homoeopathic
treatment; but sponging with cold or slightly tepid
water is recommended in preference.
These, of brief Duration in Acute Diseases.
The regimen here pointed out is more especially
adapted to the treatment of chronic diseases.  But
it is also suitable in acute complaints; although, in
the latter, it is subject to manyparticular modifications
which cannot be detailed in a work like the present.



166

HOMcEOPATHIC DIET

I will only observe here, that rigorous attention to
diet in acute disorders, is rarely of long duration in
homoeopathic practice.   In no case is the patient
restricted from taking food, except in cases where he
has a positive disinclination to it; and whenever the
desire for food returns, he is allowed by degrees to
indulge it. Besides, the duration of acute diseases
being infinitely shorter by the homoeopathic mode of
treatment than by that of the old school, the duration
of dietetic restrictions is also shorter, and consequently the inconveniences arising from long abstinence from food are avoided.
Such Rules Accessory, not Curative.
From   the preceding   observations, an   opinion
may be formed of the rationale of the homoeopathic
regimen. It will be remarked, that we consider it
only as accessory, and not curative; and that, consequently, there is a wide difference betwixt the



AND REGIMEN.

169

has justly been asked,-if Homoeopathy has really
performed    so  many    wonderful   cures   by   its
dietetic prescriptions alone, are not the routine
practitioners criminal if they continue to torment
their patients with   bleedings, leeches, cupping,
setons, artificial ulcers, hot irons, disgusting draughts,
pills, and other kinds of dangerous and repugnant
medicines?
Assuredly, if the homoeopathic regimen contributes
to the preservation of health, it has no more power
than any other system in destroying disease. And
those who advance the opinion, that it is the strict
attention to diet exacted by the homoeopathic physician which alone produces a cure, ought to feel the
absurdity of supposing examples of such diseases as
cholera, typhus, or bilious fever, being cured by such
means;-and, as regards chronic disorders, no one
has effected their cure by a regulated diet alone.
We know, on the contrary, that by adhering for a
long time to a low diet, the organs of digestion are
6



170

HOIMCEOPATHIC DIET

weakened, the susceptibility of the nervous system
increased, and that thus new disorders may be produced. All this is so true, that it is only those of the
routine physicians who have very naturally lost confidence in their art, who have adopted this do-nothing
practice.
The argument of our opponents is the less reasonable, even allowing it to be possible to cure by
regimen alone; for, in that case, of what use are the
long and difficult studies of the medical practitioner?
and why does he devote his time to them if they lead
to nothing better than to a simple diet? This would
be placing a very low value upon the labours of those
who have devoted their lives to the advancement of
a science which they consider one of the most important: it would be placing that science itself in a low
rank, and it would leave little hope to those who
expect to derive from it some alleviation of their
sufferings.
I have given only a slight sketch of the homoeo



AND REGIMEN.               171
pathic regimen, as the details can be useful only to
the physician. This small work is destined merely
to give a popular view of the principles of the art.
The work announced, in the last page, will give a
practical one. The physician who desires to become
thoroughly acquainted with the subject, must have
recourse to the works of Hahnemann.






CHAPTER VIII.

HOMCEOPATHIC EXPERIMENTS IN PARIS, &c.
COMMISSION OF THE ACADfMIE DE MEDEC1NE.
SOME explanation may appear necessary to my
readers, for introducing here a subject which does
not properly belong to the "Principles of Homoeopathy;" but, as much misrepresentation has been
industriously  and  widely  circulated, respecting
experiments made in Paris, and their results, I think
it necessary to place the whole of the facts in their
true light; and, having been an eye-witness, I can
vouch for the correctness of what I state. I am the
more anxious that the profession and the public



174

HOMCEOPATHIC EXPERIMENTS

should understand the real merits of this question,
as the colouring which has been put upon it cannot
fail to mislead and deter the conscientious enquirer,
and may also tend to retard, though it cannot stop,
the progress of truth.
In 1834, the Homoeopathic Society of Paris memorialized the Minister of Public Instruction, to legalize
their constitution; to give them authority to found
Dispensaries, where the sick poor might be publicly
and gratuitously attended; and to sanction their
establishing a Hospital, as soon as their funds should
be able to bear the charge. The minister declined
coming to any decision on this point, until he had
consulted the Acad6mie de Medecine. That learned
body accordingly named a commission from its own
members, and gave it instructions to investigate
the claims of Homoeopathy, in order to enable the
academy to make its report to the government.
The Homoeopathic Society, persuaded that a commission so appointed would examine in all its details



IN PARIS, &C.

175

the important question submitted to its deliberations,
offered every assistance which they could afford, and
held themselves ready to co-operate with the Commissioners in making experiments, which should carry
that conviction to their minds which it was presumed
they were willing to receive. The members of the
commission, however, having beforehand made up
their minds that the science merited little attention,
did not accept their offer.
Its violent Procedure and unjust Decision.
During the period in which this subject was in
discussion, the sessions of the Academy presented
nothing of real interest to science. The passions had
been brought into play; the spirit of party had been
roused; and the meetings of this learned body were
distinguished only by taunts and outrages, launched
against a system which it did not understand, and
against men whose only offence was, that they entertained opinions different from those adopted by itself.
5



176

IIOMOrEOPATHIC EXPERIMENTS

The doctrine of Hahnemann appeared absurd to the
Academy, and wis condemned almost unanimously.
To the minister, it consequently reported that it was
unnecessary to think of authorizing the Homceopathists to establish dispensaries.
The decision of the Academy under such circumstances, ought not to produce much effect on the
public mind, nor can it greatly impede the progress
which truth sooner or later must make.
Reply to Dr. Bailly's Statements.
One circumstance connected with the proceedings
of the commission, was, however, sufficiently remarkable to excite a good deal of notice at the time, and
it seems to me proper to mention it here. I allude
to the statements made by      two distinguished
physicians.
Dr. Bailly declared that he had, for five months,
confided several of the patients in one of his wards



IN PARIS, &C.

177

in the Hospital (L'Hotel Dieu) to the care of two of
the most fervent disciples of Hahnemann, and that,
under their management, no cure, with the exception
of two, had, by such means, been effected.
The other physician, Dr. Andral, declared, that he
had made a great number of experiments to demonstrate the action of the infinitesimal doses, both on
persons in health and on patients, but had never been
able to discover, that theyproduced the slightest effect.
It is indeed true, that Dr. Bailly allowed two homoeopathic physicians to treat certain sick persons in the
H6tel Dieu; but it is also true, that the greater part
of the cases put under their care, were decidedly
incurable. Dr. Bailly was, at that time, engaged in
experiments with kreosote, and, in his quality
of member of the academic       commission, was
trying its effect upon a great number of the patients
under his care' this.might be the reasonr why he
could not furnish these gentlemen with the curable
patients, which he had promised them. They, howM



178

HOM1EOPATHIC EXPERIMENTS

ever, accepted such patients as he was pleased to
assign them, but declared, at the same time, that
almost all of them were incurable.
The homoeopathists accepted these cases; first,
because they considered it an advantage to be allowed
to appear in so great a medical theatre; secondly,
because they were persuaded that, in the end, they
should receive curable cases; and thirdly, because,
in their honest zeal for homoeopathy, they were
resolved to encounter any difficulties, however great,
-for, being themselves sure of the truth of their
doctrines, they were satisfied that, sooner or later,
they should convince the most incredulous. Such
were their motives.
It is, moreover, a fact, that Dr. Simon and I (who
were the physicians intrusted with these cases)
addressed a letter to M. Bailly, on the 6th of January,
1834,* (when about a month had elapsed after the cases
* Printed in the " Archives et Journal de la Medecine Homceopathique," Tome Troisieme, No. XII., for July, 1835.



180

HOM(EOPATHIC EXPERIMENTS

effected on a patient, who had an inflammatory
tumour on the thigh; upon another, who had intermittent fever, and that too, after a third relapse, under
the allopathic treatment; and on a third, who, having
lost the power of speech by an attack of apoplexy,
had his voice restored.
These cases are not mentioned in Dr. Bailly's
report, owing probably to the loss of his register;
but he there acknowledges the cure of two other
cases, although   the manner in which they are
reported, shows that he felt it more difficult to refute,
than to ridicule, homoeopathy.
In one of them, he says, the patient returned to
the Hotel Dieu three weeks after his discharge, and
died there in the course of a few days.
The other patient, he admits, left the hospital
perfectly cured; but he says, that it required more than
two months of homoeopathic treatment to effect it;
whilst another patient, affected with the same malady,
was cured in a few weeks, by the usual practice.



182

HOM(EOPATHIC EXPERIMENTS

mencement, declared by them to be incurable; and it
was to these last-mentioned diseases, that the patient
fell a victim, after her return to the Hotel Dieu.
I have mentioned the loss of Dr. Bailly's private
register, or note-book. That register contained a
complete description of the diseases with which this
patient was affected, the treatment which was
followed, and the changes which were remarked.
We requested Dr. B. to give us the register, or, at
all events, a copy of the observations there inserted,
with the intention of laying them before the public,
in order that they might judge whether these experiments, incomplete as they undoubtedly were, and
made under very unfavorable circumstances, proved
anything in the slightest degree unfavorable to
homoeopathy. -      Dr. B.'s reply to us was, that
"the Register had been mislaid!"
We leave the reader to draw his own conclusions
from  this fact;-the accident was certainly an
ungenerous one;-and we have only to add, that this



184

HOM(EOPATHIC EXPERIMENTS

Midecine, Dr. Andral mentioned, in course of conversation with the author of this work, that, although
he had directed his attention to the subject, his
mind was not made up as to its merits, and frankly
avowed that he knew very little about the practice
involved in the new doctrines. How, then, could
M. Andral, who acknowledged that he had scarcely
acquired the elements of homoeopathic practice,
venture to pronounce sentence on these doctrines!
What opinion would be formed of a jury which
should condemn, before it made itself acquainted
with the facts of a case? Yet such precisely was
M. Andral's position!
But there is a fact to be stated here, which is
perfectly decisive as to  M. Andral: - he   had
absolutely no guide in the prescription of homceopathic medicines, and he made a wrong application of
every one that he employed, as has been clearly shown
in the "Archives de la Medecine Homoeopathique,"
Tome Premier, No. 1, for July, 1834.-No comments
nor details can add force to this decisive fact.



186

HOMCEOPATHIC EXPERIMENTS

Other Objectors.
A recent English author, in order, if possible, to
throw ridicule and discredit on homceopathy, has
been pleased to unite, in the same pamphlet, a pretended refutation of homceopathy and another of
animal magnetism! Now, whatever opinion may be
formed of animal magnetism-whether it be a discovery or a deception, a truth or a trick, it is very
evident, that it has no kind of relation to the estimate
which ought to be formed of homoeopathic science.
The medical man alluded to, tries to prove, that
all the homoeopathic effects which were observed
at Paris, ought to be referred to the influence of
imagination; and, to attain this object, he makes
use of the two following arguments.
1st. Several students of medicine at the H6tel
Dieu, being   subjected  to experiment, took, in
successive  doses, one,   two,  ten,  and   eighty
globules, of the most active homceopathic medicines, prepared by the only homoeopathic druggist
in Paris; and, in no case, was the slightest effect



IN PARIS, &C.

187

produced.-Now, I ask of this writer, what were the
medicines employed? in what cases were they prescribed? what was the precise mode of administering
them? who witnessed them? and what do such nameless and indescribable experiments prove?-Assuredly,
no homoeopathic physician, recognized as such, presided, or was even present, at these experiments: they
were made by persons having no knowledge of homoeopathy! When we know all the difficulties attached to
such experiments,-when we know all the patience
necessary to conduct them properly,-we cannot but
wonder at the levity with which such contemptible
procedures are adduced as annihilating the great
labours of Hahnemann on the influence of medicaments on man in health!
2d. In an argument, which is curious in other
respects, he tells us that "'a number of pills, made
with inert substances, as flour, gum arabic, and
starch, were given to patients, who believed them to
be homoeopathic remedies," and who, having their
imaginations excited thereby, experienced various



188

HOMCEOPATHIC EXPERIMENTS

symptoms.-Granting, for a moment, the correctness
of this statement, which is at best a hearsay one, and
which, even if true, proves only the force of imagination, it certainly is neither logical nor just to try to
make homoeopathy accountable for such weaknesses
and follies!-But, to reply further to such things,
would be to argue seriously against the idlest gossip.
These, then, are fair specimens of the candour, impartiality, and judgment displayed throughout the work
alluded to, and put forth by a medical writer, whose
only knowledge of homoeopathy is avowedly derived
from hearsay, and who, although he has visited the
homoeopathic hospital of Leipsic, has never, in one
single instance, tried the medicines upon himself, or
even witnessed their effects upon others! for he distinctly tells us, that all he relates is from mere report.
Such are the opponents of Homoeopathy; and such,
their knowledge of the new and great science whose
progress they would thus attempt to arrest --In short,
I need only say, that the work alluded to contains no
observation or argument that the perusal of the pre



IN PARIS, &C.

189

ceding pages will not enable the least advanced
student of homoeopathy to refute!
Many other writers in the medical journals of
this country, have taken up arms against our great
truth; but, as all, evidently and confessedly, write in
utter ignorance of the subject, it would be a very superfluous task to combat their assertions.  I, therefore,
leave them to that oblivion, which is their inevitable
fate.-To investigate homoeopathy with a sincere
desire to ascertain its real merits, and to oppose it
conscientiously, would be impossible.
By these writers and some others, who know
nothing of him, has Hahnemann been proclaimed to
be a visionary!-while those who are acquainted with
the patient perseverance of his researches, and his
tardiness in putting forth any one of his numerous
and valuable discoveries till repeated trials and
severe tests had placed their truth beyond all doubt,
know how unjustly such an epithet can be -applied to
him.-But Galileo, and Locke, and Harvey, and
Jenner, and Arkwright, and Windsor, were equally



190  HOMCEOPATHIC EXPERIMENTS IN PARIS.
visionaries in their day;-and so is every man a
visionary, who is in advance of the knowledge of his
time;-and especially is he one, who, like Hahnemann, makes a complete revolution in an important
branch of science, in the existing condition of which
the interests of a large body of professional men are
unwisely supposed to be involved.
On the subject of the dose, I have only further to
notice an error often committed, in confounding
two very different things,-the highly increased
power which homoeopathic medicaments acquire
by means of trituration, &c., and the consequent
exiguity of the  doses required,-with a notion,
altogether false, that a small homoeopathic dose
is more powerful than a large one.     The very
reverse of this is true: large doses are avoided in
Homoeopathy-as too powerful-as too strongly
producing their primary effects-as causing aggravation, unnecessarily deranging the economy, occasioning suffering, and protracting the cure!



CHAPTER IX.

CONCLUSION.
IN the preceding pages, I have endeavoured to
establish the following truths.
1. That the principle of Homoeopathic medical
science--the law, similia similibus curantur, is recognized in every known popular remedy.
2. That it explains, in a striking manner, a multitude of cures selected from the practice of all the
former schools of medicine.
3. That all specifics, scientific and popular, are in
strict accordance with it.
Hahnemann has directed the whole force of his



192

CONCLUSION.

genius to raise the therapeutic branch of medicine to
the rank of a positive science, by giving it a fixed
law for its basis;-and he has succeeded.
Should this brief exposition of the principles of
Homoeopathy have the effect of directing the attention of impartial readers to the investigation of
that great discovery, my principal object will have
been attained. They will find cases in confirmation of it, in the writings of physicians of every
school; but they will no where find any reference to
the law upon which their success depends.
It is otherwise, even in the last of these respects,
with regard to the second discovery of Hahnemann;
for we find no evidence, in the works of physicians,
that they were at all aware of the efficacy of
infinitesimal doses. The reasons which Hahnemann
has adduced in support of them, and which are
shortly noticed in the chapter on that subject, joined
to the facility of verification, cannot, however, leave
the enquiring mind long in suspense.



CONCLUSION.

195

It is rarely found, that the members of a liberal
profession long continue to adhere obstinately to
error, when they have the means of ascertaining the
truth; and still more rarely is it found, that they long
resort to the influence of their recognized authority
over public opinion, in order to endeavour to put
down a system which is not, in every point, in harmony
with their own.
The disciples of Hahnemann ask only fair play.
They demand the benefit of the old English principle-"a clear stage and no favour;" and they feel
assured, that the votaries of science, whose only end
and aim is all-powerful truth,-that medical philosophers, whose sole object is the god-like one of human
health and happiness,-will not refuse their demand.
THE END.

Printed by J. and C. ADLAnD, Bartholomew Close.



BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
In the Press, and will appear in the course of June,
PRACTICE
OF
HOMCEOPATHY,
Being an illustration of the present IVork on its Principles.