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ý ON HOM"IEOPATHLC MEDICINLE,
ILLUSTRATING ITS SUPERIORITY
OVER THE OTHER MEDICAL DOCTRINES,
IWITH AN ACCOUTNT OF TILE REGIMEN TO BE FOLLOWED DURING THE
TREATMENT OF DISEASES,
BY M,.ACRo0S ERIO,03.'Doctor of Medicine, President of the Hommopathic Society of Paris, Mlember
of, the French Homceopathic Society,, Physician to the Sardinian Embassy at
Paris, de l'Etablissemenet de Charitý de Saint-Vincent de Paule, de ]a Socict."
IFrotestante 4c Secours Mutuels, &c.
neaus                         I ~rt~.1speak fr-om experience,
oFlR E R A7BROUSSAIS,&c.,Ox 1'Nt (B 0P.ATRIA.
B-v C. NEIDHARD, M.- D.
PH1LaDELPHL,1:
PUBLISHED BY KIDIERLEX      TLLEE.
I'           N'o. 86. Arch Street, below Third.


18374






9N   OMCEOPATHIC MEDICIN~
f          LLUSTItAT1NG ITS SUPE RIORITY
OVER THE OHER MEDICAL DOCTRINES,
'W*ITH iLAN ACCOUNT OF THE REGIMEN TO BE FOLLOWED DURING THR
TREATMENT OF DISEASES,
BYM R OS ERI105
Doctor of 'Medicine, President of the Homoeopathic Society or' Paris, Member
of _the F1re'nch H otnceopathic Society, Physician to the 8ardinian E~mbassy at
~Pars, d 1'tablssenent de Charit,_ -de Saint-Vincent do Paulode I oiL,Protestante dc Secours Mutuels, &c.
It *ab~e Aus ~fbu~                 I speak fromn experience,
Sp a f) it nt nU.                         HAHNXEMIN.
-rUARS2q~tTE1D FROM T RTHEWrER9,WITH "NOTES, CONTAINTIN-G THE OPINIOMTS
orBR ER A, B ROU S SA IS, &c., ox 1H1E~OPATHIA.
By C. NEIDHARD, M. D.
PHILd/DELPHI.J:.)UBLISTED BY KI(IERLEN & STOLLMEYER,
No. 86. Arch Street, below Third.
1837..



P. A. SAGE, Printer, 3, La Grange Street.



SR E FAC E.


A#'TEtR having read the letter of the Royal Academy of Medicineto the Minister of Public Instruction, against Homceopathia, I
'had at first conceived the idea of critically examining the assertions which it contained; on reflecting, however, on the ignorance,
which the members of this society had shown of this doctrine,
'during the discussion, which had preceded the adoption of this
singular manifest, I thought that a rapid exposition of the fundamental doctrines and the advantages of Homceopathia, when compared with the imperfections of the old doctrine, would still better
serve the cause of humanity, by acquainting the public with the
Strue principles of the healing art, and at the same time enable them
to estimate the objections of the Academy, such is the aim of this
work: the physicians, who have not studied the classical works
oii Homnoopathia, may hereby obtain an idea of its importance. It
was besides impossible to make a serious refutation of a criticism,
devoid of all solid reasoning.
IHommopathia, repulsed by the learned and the schools of medicine, meets with the fate of all important discoveries made in this
science,-For how long a time have not inoculation, vaccination,
lithotrity and other discoveries been disowned by the Academies?
The quinihn'so generally esteemed, was it not for a long time
proscribed by them? The same is the case with antimony and
gmetin. Harvey, for having made a discovery of immense importance by its results to physiological and medical science, was so
perseuted and calumniated by his colleagues, that by their means,
his patients forsook him, and he was reduced- to the greatest distress. Galileo, because he proclaimed the great truth of the motion of the earth was assuredly not sustained by the learned of his



iv


PREFACE.


time, for he passed a part of his life in the. dungeons of the inqui.
sition. In taking a cursory view of all great discoveries, we
always see them rejected at first by persons, with whose opinions
and authority they come into collision; the obscurity in which
the name of the majority of those is enveloped, who introduced the
most useful innovations is another proof of this caprice of the human
mind.
The profound Locke said: "Where is the man, who would be
" induced by better reasons, suddenly to lay aside his old opinions,
" his acquirements, the fruits of a long and laborious life and be
" persuaded to adopt ideas entirely new. The justest and most
" conclusive reasonings, will no more convince him, than the wind
" could induce the traveller (in the fable) to quit his cloak."Never have these words been better applied, than to the discovery
of Homceopathia, which completely overthrows all the theoretical
fabrications (echaufaudages) of the ancient doctrines and forms a
new creation. Is it, therefore, at all surprising that eminent physicians should oppose with all their might the admission of these
principles? The passive resistance, which they have adopted, is,
the surest means to obtain this object; for a serious examination,
an examination by experiments, such as Hahnemann demands,
would infallibly lead them to recognize the truth; this, as least, is
what has always been the result of experimental research to this
day; it is in this manner that some of the most celebrated men of
Germany have been converted to the doctrines of Homosopathia.The experiments which they had undertaken for the purpose of
proving its falsity, demonstrated to them its solid worth, and led
to their conversion; but these experiments must not be made as
M. Andral has conducted them, without rules, without principles,
without conforming to the conditions prescribed by the Homccopathic doctrine, nor without leaving the habits of the old school
of medicine.
Homceopathia is too directly opposed to old opinions, and can
therefore not be judged by them. Being founded on experience,
it can be demonstrated by experience alone. Hahnemann does not
demand a blind belief of his doctrines, he repeatedly says in his



Missling






viii


PREFACE.


the subscriptions of its adherents; when three-fourths of the inhabitants of the North of Germany, will not be treated otherwise than
by this method, when the councils of Darmstadt have unanimously
adopted the resolution of founding a chair of Homoeopathia in the
medical schools of the Dutchy, and not hereafter to permit the practice of physic to any physician, who has not been also examined
on Homceopathia, when 500 inhabitants of Hanover petitioned the
government for the erection of a Homceopathic chair at the University of Goettingen; when 18 journals, which are exclusively devoted  to it, disseminate it in every quarter of the globe, it had
surely acquired sufficient importance, to merit an examination*~ "
* The celebrated Brera, in the Anthologia medica of 1834, after having
mentioned the great progress of Homceopathia, pronounced the following
opinion of it: " Homceopathia is decried by some as useless and by others as strange, and though it appears to the great majority as ridiculous
and extraordinary, it can nevertheless not be denied, that it has taken its
stand in the scientific world; like every otherdoctrine, it has its bookar
its journals, its chairs, its hospitals, clinical lectures, professors, and a
public, forming a most respectable auditory. Nolens volens even its
enemies must receive it in the history of medicine, for its present situation requires it.
Having attained this rank, it deserves by no means contempt, but on
the contrary a cool and impartial investigation, like all other systems of
modern date: Homceopathia is the more to be respected, as it propagates
no directly noxious errors.
If Homceopathia proclaims facts and theories, which cannot be reconciled with our present knowledge, this is no sufficient cause as yet, to
despise it and to rank it among absolute falsities. Woe to the physician,
who believes, that he cannot learn to-morrow, what he does not know
to-day.  Do we not hear daily complaints of the insufficiency of the
healing art? And are not those physicians, who honestly suspect the
solidity of their knowledge the most learned, and in their practice the
most successful? Such sentiments lave undoubtedly induced most of the
German physicians to study Homceopathia and to conquer their aversion
to the new doctrine. Let us always recollect, that the greatest discoveries have given origin to the most violent controversies. Witness the
examples of Harvey, GalileQ, Newton, Deacartes, &c,



PREFACE.,


ix


This necessity seems very well to have been felt by the minister.
The question which he put to the Academy, was it not an indirect
appeal to engage its members to an early study of it? The Academy
is, moreover, still more culpable in this decision, taken ab irato
and without examination, against a doctrine supported by such a
numerous body of facts, as the society of homceopathic physicians
Sin Paris had offered by letter of the 1st of March last, to put in its
possession, and to place at its disposal all the documents necessary
to throw light upon the subject and even to make experiments
underthe inspection of the committee.  The Academy has prefered
to pronounce judgment without a hearing, and to be guilty of a
veritable prevarication..Under these circumstances, the Homoeopathists have got justice
on their side; by the exposition of their doctrines it will be seen,
if they have not reason also.
"The injuries to which the sick are liable from the erroneous ideas
As respects the small doses, continues Brera, they are by no means to
be rejected indiscriminately.
In the year 1797, I demonstrated the fact, that salivation produced by
mercury could he quickly cured by a small dose of another mercurial
preparation. Several intermittent fevers I have cured with small atoms
of the arseniate of potash. (8. Annotazione medico-pratiche, &c. Pavia
1796-98.) In 1804, I stated that Belladonna produces in healthy persons a disease very similar to Hydrophobia, although it is a powerful
remedy in this terrible disease. In the year 1822, Idiscovered in Stramo.
nium (a few drops of the tincture) a most excellent remedy for Angina
Pectoris, although it is well known from many histories of poisons, that
it produces on the healthy subject, symptoms very much resembling this
disease. An hysterical- gastrodynia which defied for the space of two
years all antiphlogistics and derivative remedies as well as large doses of
the magisterium bismuthi was finally removed by smaller doses of this
medicine. I might enumerate a great many similar cases from the records
of my long practice. To this mode of employing medicines, I have been
led by an observation of Hippocrates to which Blumenbach of Gcettingen
has drawn my attention, it is the following; ' Diseases are sometimes cured
by medicines, capable if producing similar affections."



x


PREFACE.


of the public on medical subjects, and the obstacles which these
errors often oppose to the success of the best concerted Homceopathic treatment, have induced me to address this outline to the nonmedical part of my readers; and in order to make it of practical
utility to the sick, I have added to the exposition of the homoeopathic doctrine, details on the manner of studying and expressing
the symptoms, thereby enabling the physician to obtain an accurate
knowledge of the disease, also a chapter on the dietetic rules to be
observed during Homeopathic treatment.
I am not ignorant of the disfavour attached to a popular work on
medicine, but the present one is only in the nature of a defence,
that is, an answer to the accusations which the royal Academy of
Medicine has itself prefered against Homoeopathia, with the evident
design of influencing public opinion; it becomes therefore necessary
Another circumstance has also led me to it, namely the observation, that
the diluted and afterwards inoculated matter of small pox, produces after
some time such a powerful reaction of the organism, as to cover by ap
immense multiplication of the contagion, the whole body with innumerable pustules.
It is also to be considered, that the smaller and more subtile any substances are, the greater and deeper is their effect on the organism. The
effects of light, heat, electricity and magnetism make this clearly apparent. The observations of Spallanzani on the fructification of eggs are
also to be recollected.
"* * Dr. Dufresne of Latour, says in a letter to the editor of the Biblioth.
Homceopathique at Geneva: L Broussais addressed his audience in
the Ecole de modecine at Paris in the following terms."  "  I do not
reject an opinion, because it may be opposed to my former convictions;
they may call it ridiculous or extravagant. I never laugh about it! thus,
I do not laugh about Homceopathia (ironical murmurs by a part of the
audience.) No, gentlemen, I do not laugh, and never have laughed
about Homoeopathia; indeed it has not responded to my call, as I should
have wished, perhaps I have not questioned it rightly. Many distin,
quished persons are occupied with it, we cannot reject it without a hearing, we must investigate the truths it contains!""    Tr.



ON HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICINE.
ILLUSTRATING ITS SUPERIORITY OVER OTHER MEDICAL DOCTRINES.
CHAPTER I.
On Health and Disease.
The object of the healing art is, to preserve health and to cure
diseases.
Health, that precious gift, which is truly appreciated by those
only who have lost it, is the state of an individual, in which all the
physical and moral functions are carried on regularly, with ease
and without pain.
"Perfect health does not show itself merely by the presence of a
physical well being, by cheerfullness, good humour and moral contentment, but also by the faculty of resisting, without being affected,
the odinary external or internal morbid causes to which life is incessantly exposed, physical injuries and the action of strong doses
of poisons excepted. Even age does not change a perfect constitution; the aged man who enjoys good health, although he does
not possess the strength of the young, and the capability of fulfilling the functions proper to youth, is yet not less cheerful and less
generous, nor less exempt from suffering; he enjoys a physical
and moral well being and knows nothing of the imbecillity attached
to his age.



14


ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


It cannot be said, that an individual enjoys perfect health, if a
light current of air, the least bad weather, the changes of the season, or of the moon, a frost, a little over excitement, fatigue, somewhat prolonged vigils, the smallest excess in eating, the least vexation, or trouble, in a word the slightest deviation from his accustomed manner of living, produces indisposition and sickness.
In looking around us, therefore, we shall soon be convinced, that
very few persons, in our present state of civilization enjoy perfect
health; almost all possess it in a relative degree only, that is,
approaching more or less to the state of normal health or of disease,
which may be the consequence either of our manner of living, so
contrary to the laws of nature, or of an hereditary predisposition,
which our ancestors have bequeathed to us.
Disease may infinitely vary according to the constitution and
habits of the individual; from the slightest indisposition, from a
whitlow or wart, to a fever and the most serious disorganisations
of the viscera. A state of debility, susceptibility, lowness of
spirits or mental irritability may be a state of habitual health to one
person, while it is to another, who is generally cheerful and
healthy, a real disease.
Disease differs, then, from health, when the functions of the
various organs do not perfectly fulfill their destination. The same
force, the same principle which governs health, contributes also to
the formation of disease, if it receives an irregular impression.
Physicians have at all times endeavoured to discover the internal
changes, which were going on in the organs, stfficient to produce
disease; but as they coul) never attain a knowledge of its real
cause, or even of the principle of life in the normal state, it was
naturally impossible for them, to discover the changes, which this
cause, this unknown principle underwent during disease. How
many hypotheses, how many absurdities have arisen from these
investigations into the interior state of the disease on the part of the
physicians, who would not acknowledge the impotence of the
human mind upon this subject.   All the ideas, which have successively prevailed in the schools of different ages, are full of such
conjectures; at one time it was an evil spirit, the anger of the



ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


15


Gods; now a fire, a dessication, an internal humidity; sometimes
it was a rigidity or relaxation of the fibres, sometimes a fermentation
of humours, at others a salt, now it was an excess, now a want of
the alkaline principle, of acidity, &c., now it was the equilibrium
destroyed by certain fluids and solids, then an obstruction of the
capillaries, at another time spasm, or a spasmodic contraction of
these vessels, or of the fibres or nerves; sometimes it was also an
excess or a deficiency of Caloric, (Phlogiston,) at others, it was a
superabundance of bile, of black bile, which had penetrated into the
blood, or oppressed the digestive organs; sometimes it was an excess or want of the power of excitability or of stimulation, sometimes an irritation, or want of irritation, inflammation, subinflammation, &c, &c; aceording as the reign of religious superstitions,
alchymy, mechanics, mathematics, chemistry, spiritualism, &c. &c.
prevailed in the doctrines professed by the learned of the age.
All those theories, after having governed the opinions of physicians, have by degrees extended to persons not of the medical profession.
And the sick successively thought themselves under the influence
of divine punishment.or of an evil spirit, or believed they had a
saline principle in the body, an excess of caloric in the blood, vitiated humours, relaxed or rigid fibres, contracted or irritated nerves,
and of latter time, very nearly every thing is, according to them,
an irritation or inflammation of the stomach, because the author of
the prevailing medical theory has attributed to this cause the
majority of acute, febrile and chronic diseases.
These different theories, being the result of a species of reasoning, one necessarily succeeded another, and in proportion as the
new  opinions gained ground, the old ones were forsaken; one
theory always took the place of another-with the physicians, but,
with the public the case was different. The new doctrines which
followed, were allied to the old; new theories were communicated
to them by the faculty, the old they retained by the traditions of
ancestors and. of non medical contemporaries, who had not yet been
converted to the medical theories of the day. What a chaos, what
incongruities do we thus generally hear in the account the sick



ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


17


ological medicine was carried, more than six millions of leeches
were used in the hospitals of Paris and at the Hotel Dieu; more
than 200,000 pounds of human blood were spilled in one year. I
shall not speak of the enormous quantities of violent poisons, administered by the disciples of Rasori, as the appearance of the Broussaian doctrine has fortunately placed a check to the extension of
this doctrine of true poisoners in France.
CHAPTER II.
Origin of Horceopathia.
We have seen in the preceding chapter, how vague, uncertain
and absurd were the opinions, whichphave been promulgated to this
day on the nature of diseases, and this uncertainty has been just
as great, with respect to their treatment.
This unsettled state of theories ought necessarily to have produced doubts, as to the best means to be pursued for the cure of
diseases; hence, what incoherencies, what contradictions, among
authors in the common medicine! Some will heat, others cool,
some strengthen or weaken the fibres, some purify the blood, some
correct or neutralize the-saline, acrid, acid, alkaline or putrid principles; some evacuate the bile, or the diffused milk, some will
increase or diminish the excitability, others calm irritation or spasms,
relax the rigidity of the fibres, or increase the tone of relaxed fibres,
&c., &c.; These diversities, these uncertainties were still more
opposed to each other, when the object was to employ a curative
remedy. For, if in the mind of a conscientions physician, the
theoretical illusions of the schools have given place to practical
realities at the bedside of the patient, he soon perceives the insufficiency and uncertainty of the resources of his art, and being afraid
of injuring his patient by active medical treatment, he employs the
exspectative method, that is, he leaves to nature the cure, only
removing the causes, which might disturb her salutary efforts.
B



18


ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


These truths, which are generally acquired by physicians, only
after a number of years practice, deeply impressed Dr. Hahnemann
at the beginning of his medical career. Having been educated by
his father in an excessive, we might say, superstitious horror of
every falsehood, and to account for every thing he did, his candour
would not permit him to practice any longer an art, devoid of principles, and which he saw replete only with uncertainties; his up.
rightness and veracity were repugnant to giving daily prescriptions
to the sick, of which he neither knew the probable effects, nor the
laws, which ought to determine him in their administration. He
preferred seeking a livelihood from other departments of knowledge,
more congenial to his exalted intellect and directed his attention to
chemistry, natural history and general literature, rather than continue
the practice of medicine, although it had acquired for him a well
merited reputation.
Occupied in 1790 with the translation of Cullen's Materia Medica,
he was struck by the eulogies, bestowed by this author on cinchona, in a number of different maladies, and which seemed
contradictory, according to the prevailing ideas, on the nature of
diseases. Not being able to find a cause for effects, so oppos'd to
each other, it occurred to him, that the only means, of learning the
true effect of this so much vaunted medicine, was, to try it on an
individual in good health, before its action in diseases could be
ascertained; for this purpose he took early in the morning a decoction of bark for several hours consecutively and failed not to experience towards evening a febrile action, analogous to the fevers of
marshy countries, and he observed, that this attack occurred for
several days at the same hour. This phenomenon was to the
observing genius of Hahnemann a ray of light, it made the same
impression upon him, as did the fall of the apple upon the mind of
the great Newton.
From this attack of fever is dated the origin of TIomiopathia.
Struck with the resemblance of the disease produced by Cinchona,
with that which this medicine cures specifically, he thought, that
the cause of these curative effects consisted in this similarity of
action; in order to be assured of this, he repeated these experiments



ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


21


cinal substances taken internally, constitutes the arsenal of those
instruments which are employed in a homoeopathic cure.
From this period Hahnemann publicly professed the medical
reform at Leipsic; a considerable number of students or young physicians and even veteran practitioners congregrated around him with
the view of studying the new method and employing it in practice,
the majority, under the guidance of the master submitting to experiments for the purpose of learning the effects of new medicinal substances, and by these means of augmenting the resources of the
new medical art. They have successively brought it to a state of
perfection, sufficient to enable them, to become fully convinced of
its efficacy in all cases of disease and of its superiority over th3 old
method, as well by the certainty and quickness of the 'cure as by
the gentle, expeditious and easy manner of its performance.
If we take into consideration the obstacles, which the founder of
HIomcEopathia has had to surmount, by reason of the professional
interests, which were compromised, the self love, which was wounded, and above all, the despotic organization of the healing art in Germany, we shall not be astonished at the slow progress of this
doctrine in its native country, Hahnemann, a private individual,
by menacing the fortunes of the apothecaries and of an all powerful
medical hierarchy, which possessed an exclusive jurisdiction over
the physicians of that country, was persecuted in all possible ways
and finally even proscribed, so that it needed all the constancy of
the man of genius, convinced of the truth of his discoveries, to
persevere for so long a time in such laborious exertions, and alone
to sustain such an unequal contest. In the mean time, such great
and courageous efforts have not been put forth without success.
God has granted to its author a sufficient number of years to see
his doctrine spread over the face of the globe, and although it has
not, as yet, universally prevailed, yet all parts of the world are not
without physicians, who propagate its principles by the performance
of cures. Since the year 1822 several disciples of Hahnemann
united, to publish at Leipsic a periodical work, entitled the ".'rchives
of IlHon;eopachia," having for its object, the propagation of the new
art Since that period, its progress has been very rapid, and so to



ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


the reasons assigned in the preceding chapter, considers all these
divisions as arbitrary and inadmissible. Under the head of causes
of diseases, we shall demonstrate the justness of this principle of
Homceopathia.
The division of maladies into general and local, (according as
they attack the whole of the body or only one of its parts,) adopted
by the old school, is not more admissible by Homceopathia. The
life of the individual is indivisible in health as well as in disease;
consequently, no part of the body can be sick, without the participation of the whole organism. There exists then, properly speaking, no local disease, except very slight and very recent mechanical
injuries; for, when a serious physical injury has existed for some
time, it will have affected the organism to such a degree, that it
can no longer be regarded as a local disease. This opinion, already
expressed by Hippocrates, when he said, Consentiunt omnia-is
easily confirmed, if one will observe with attention, what happens
during the developement of the slightest as well as gravest disorders.
The diseases, produced by occassional causes, acting on one organ,
as well as those, which manifest their action on the whole organism,
are all preceded by a forming stage, more or less long, more or less
perceptible, before their development takes place in a particular
part, or in the whole body. Erysipelas, and even coryza (one of
the slightest of the diseases considered local) are they not always
preceded by general indisposition for a greater or less time, in the
same manner as the most intense pneumonia, or small pox, and
every other disease called general? This stage, which physicians
call the incipient or forming stage, is a proof of the share, which
the organism takes in the production of a malady appearing in one
part of the body, and proves also that the principle of the localization
of diseases, according to the physiological doctrine prevalent in
France, is opposed to the imprescriptible laws of nature. IHahnomann, having better studied these laws, and justly considering all
maladies as general, has rejected their division into local and general,
and has in consequence directed all'his applications of medicine to
the whole organism.
The common healing method has also established a division of



24


ON HOMEOPATHIC MEDICINE.


diseases according to their duration; it calls those acute,which terminate their course before the lapse of-six weeks, and those which
reach beyond this term, are called chronic.-It is easy to perceive,
of how little importance is this consideration of the duration of diseases, and what small influence it ought to have upon their treatment;
for the long continuance merely of a disease cannot change its nature;
a cold of eight days or six weeks will never be any thing else but a
cold, if other circumstances are not combined; a phlegmasia to-day,
will always be a phlegmasia, if its nature be not changed. IHomoopathia certainly admits of the division of diseases into acute and
chronic, but the characters, which it assigns to them do not depend
on their duration merely, but also on the cause of this continuance,
which entirely changes their nature, and requires a special consideration in the treatment.
Hahnemann calls those diseases acute, whatever may be their
duration, which, if left to themselves, are cured by the powers of
nature alone; in these diseases, the remote occasional cause is
always accidental and often susceptible of being overcome, without
the aid of art. He denominates those diseases chronic, which, if
left to themselves, have an incessant tendency to aggravation, and
generally finish by causing the death of the individual; the efforts
of nature or a palliative medicine may, it is true, produce their
disappearance for some time, but will never cure them. They can
only be cured by appropriate specifics, because, they are always
produced by an internal virus, which has a constant tendency to
extend itself and which nature alone cannot destroy. The diseases
brought on by a continued and incessantly renewed occassional
cause as excess in eating or drinking, abuse of pleasures, noxious
substances, an unhealthy habitation, excessive labours, in a word,
by an improper manner of living, may be arranged in the class of
acute diseases, (although their duration may frequently be very
long,) because they disappear of themselves on removing the occassional causes which produce them.
The virus, producing chronic diseases, according to the founder
of Homceopathia are of three kinds: The syphilitic vir'j, the sycotic virus, and thl psoric virus.



ON HOMWEOPATHIC MEDICINE.


25


The syphylitic virus was already known to the old medicine,
until, during the rage of theories, a modern sect of physicians
denied its existence, because its cure with mercury did not agree
with the ideas, which they had formed concerning the modus oper(idi of medicines; for, according to the principles of the physiological school, every medicine must necessarily be a stimulant, and
the precepts of that school did not permit them to prescribe it in a
disease, where there often existed swellings, redness and the other
characteristics of inflammation. Experience has not been slow
in doing justice to this arbitrary supposition, and the reasonable
and experienced physiological physicians no longer find any difficulty in admitting the existence of a virus. This virus, if not destroyed by a specific, remains perpetually in the organism, and if
by repellent remedies and the usual regimen, we remove the local
symptoms produced by an impure coitus, as is done by charlatans
or physicians deceived by a false theory concerning the absorption
of the virus, it identifies itself with the constitution, and is manifested sooner or later by ravages of different kinds in the organism,
viz., by whatis called secondary syphylis. Thus a disease, which
might have been cured in a few days by an atom of the proper
specific, will require years of medical treatment and assiduous care
to effect its removal.
The sycotic virus manifests its presence by the development of
excressences on the surface of the body or interior of the organs.
This virus, which the old physicians confounded with the venereal,
because the excrescences appeared on the parts of generation, or
the surrounding parts, on the perineum and anus, in consequence
of an impure connexion, is of a nature quite distinct from syphilis.
Hahnemann, having observed, that the mercury had no effect upon
these excrescences; it occurred to his penetrating mind to attribute
them to another origin, because they required other treatment, and
reproduced themselves, if they were not combatted by the proper
specific. He has ascribed them to a particular virus, to which he
has assigned the name of the visible phenomenon, which it generally produces. It is from this virus that the warts are derived,
which appear on different parts of the body, and especially on



26


ON HOMEOPATHIC MEDICINE.


the fingers, polypi of different organs, naevi materni, &c. Experimeats on the healthy subject, led him to find a specific in a vegetablk substance (Thuja occidentalis,) which has an action on this
virus, and whose effects are nearly as certain as that of mercury
in the syphilitic virus.
The third kind of virus is called by Hahnemann, the psoric, that
is to say, the virus of the itch. This virus, according to him, is
of all others the most diffused among mankind, and exercises its
ravages from the first conception of the germ to the last stage of
life. From this virus are derived the malformations of the body,
the congenital navi, crustam lacteas, worms, glandular swellings,
rachitis, and all praternatural deformities of the bones, chronic
diarrhoeas, catarrhs, chronic opthalmias, phthisis, herpetic eruptions,
biles, scirrhus, cancers, dropsies, aneurisms, hamorrhoids, chlorosis,
different nervous disorders, obstructions of the breasts, ulcers of
the uterus, of the legs, &c., varicose veins, leucorrhoeas, chronic
gonorrhceas, hysteria, melancholy, insanity, encysted ttnmours,
corns on the feet, caries of the teeth, hydrophobia, cataract,
amaurosis, rheumatism, gout, asthma, &c. &c. in a word, almost
all the chronic maladies, which afflict mankind.
If we reflect with a little attention, we will soon be convinced,
that all the diseases which we have enumerated, arise from the
same cause, because one of them often succeeds another in the
same individual, and they always have a tendency to aggravation,
if the cause be not destroyed by the proper treatment. As soon as
an individual has had a fit of the gout, we may prognosticate, without fear of contradiction by facts, that these attacks will approximate each other and become longer, that probably he will afterwards be subject to gravel, urinary calculus, or vesical catarrhs,
to deafness, etc., or that the virus will attack another system of organs, the heart, the brain, &c. The same may be remarked with
regard to all other chronic affections, and might be infinitely multiplied. From year to year the condition of the patient deteriorates,
the tolerable intervals become more and more protracted until the.dll Merciful, as the good Hahnemann expresses it, having pity
upon the excessive sfferings of the patient, releases him from



ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


27


his disease, and at the same time from the tortures inflicted upon
him by physicians.
If, by reason of the development of vigour in youth or by some
other circumstance the vital energy of the individual is so much
augmented, that nature is able to master or balance the expansive
force of the virus lodged in the system, its effects may be repressed for a.onger or shorter period, the virus will remain in that
case in the body, in a dormant or latent state as it were, without
showing a single sensible sign of its existence, and the individual
will enjoy apparently perfect health; but, if age or a casual cause
enfeeble the vital forces of the individual, the effects of the slumbering virus will renew themselves with impetuosity, and chronic
diseases of various kinds will assail him; and this, we observe, if
the psoric virus is hereditary. In infancy, when the forces of nature are not yet developed, the psoric virus exercises its ravages by
producing, what are called the different maladies proper to that age,
(and which are really nothing but the effects of an hereditary infection,) as crusta lactea, convulsions, worms, &c.
The vigour acquired by increased age commonly puts an end to
these sufferings, that is, generally after the second dentition; and
with weakly children at the age of puberty, a period of good health
commences for these psoric beings; with girls the beginning of the
menstrual discharge is considered as the natural emunctory, but
with boys there exists no such emunctory, and nevertheless this
happy change is still more apparent; to what other cause could it
be ascribed, if not to the development and increased energy of
the vital forces? But towards the age of forty, or before, if by accidental causes, as a severe acute disease or a violent moral affection caused by the loss of a person who was dear to us, or that of
fortune, an unhappy passion, jealousy, or by an unwholesome
manner of living, sexual excesses, low diet, a too sendentary life,
&c. &c., the vital power or the principle of life becomes weakened, the psoric virus becomes reanimated with renewed violence;
now asthma, hypochondriasis, heemorrhoids, partial headache,
rheumatism, gout, catarrh, &c. will begin to assail the years which
follow manhood, and which make old age so sorrowful to us by



28


ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


the infirmities, with which it is habitually accompanied, that they
appear to be a necessary consequence of advanced age, while they
are only the effects of the psoric virus which is so largely diffused
among our species, and which was never recognized, until the
penetrating genius of the founder of hommeopathia had clearly
shown the cause of these infirmities.
The psoric virus derives its origin according to Hahnemann
from the itch. This so communicative plague has been greatly
multiplied by armies and foreign wars; one of the causes of its
great extension in Europe may also be ascribed to the holy wars
of the 13th century, by the importation of the lepra. This virus,
which was never destroyed by the proper specifics, has at length
spread from one generation to another, and those who have escaped
it by inheritance, have contracted it by the contact or approach of
psoric persons; because it is not necessary that an eruption of the
itch should appear, in order that the infection may take place;
for, this virus being extremely diffusive, we cannot deteymine at
what distance a person infected may communicate the taint to another individual. The psoric virus manifests its existence only during
the increasing deterioration of the health of the individual, and
then without any signs of local itch, it no less displays all the
characteristics of a psoric malady.
The transmission of the psoric virus takes place also at the present day by an operation otherwise very useful, viz: by vaccination; the matter of the vaccine pustule is often impregnated with
the hereditary psoric virus of the individual from whom it is taken,
and in this way transmittel to a newly vaccinated person. Notwithstanding the pertinacious denial of physicians, dictated by the
laudable zeal with which they endeavour to distribute this preservative against small pox, we cannot disbelieve the evidence of
our senses, that the commencement of psoric affections may be
dated in many children from the time of vaccination, and is manifested generally by the character of scrophula. These children
had always previously enjoyed very good health, whereas, a short
time after vaccination, eruptions, tumours, scabs, &c. &c. began to
show themselves. Very frequently after this operation a more or



30


ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


the psoric virus, which is so widely disseminated among mankind,
but these researches have not been more successful than those
made on the origin of syphylis, small pox, scarlet fever, plague
and other known contagious diseases. The acarus of the itch is
only a guest in the pustules of that disorder, and it would be absurd to deny the existence of the psoric virus, because we have, as
yet, been unable to discover its origin.
CHAPTER IV.
On the causes of Diseases.
The discovery of the law similia similibus applied to the cure
of diseases, would necessarily influence the views of its author
with regard to their nature and causes, and induce him to leave
the errors and the routine of speculative medicine.
We have to consider three kinds of causes in diseases: the predisposing, the remote or occassional and the proximate cause, or
the essence of the disease itself.
The predisposing cause is the state of the living organism, by
which the individual is disposed to contract a disease by some
cause or other, which will have no effect upon a person, who does
not possess this organization; we have already seen, that this predisposition, this particular susceptibility is a sign of an imperfect
state of health., Homoeopathia consequently regards this remote
cause itself as a morbid state, deserving the whole attention of the
physician, either to remove it before a more severe form of the disease has developed itself, or if this disease exists, to manage it properly during its treatment. Hahnemann generally ascribes this
predisposition to disease to one of the internal latent causes, of
which we have spoken in the preceding chapter, and which he
advises to combat during childhood with the suitable medicines, before it has developed itself by the occasional causes, and given rise



ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


31


to a graver disease; the old medicine on the contrary pays no attention to these predisposing causes, because it has no other remedies to oppose them than a suitable regimen, always an insufficient resource to destroy them completely.
The remote causes are those, the action of which on the living
system determine the-developement of the malady: they may be
either external or internal, that is, they may come from without, a
cold air, humidity, heat, light, the distemperatures of the atmosphere, excessive fatigue, mechanical injuries, abuse of aliments, or
drinks, or their bad quality, the different poisons, or contagious
virus, &c. &c. These causes, which exercise such a great influence in the production of diseases, (since it is owing to their action that the latter are developed,) are yet very little studied or are
even sometimes entirely neglected by the physicians of the old
school: the disease; once developed, they direct their attention only
to the supposed nature of it, without troubling themselves about the
cause, which might have produced it; with them, a pleurisy is always
only an inflammation of the pleura, which was produced by a cold,
or by an abuse of stimuli, or some other cause, they always employ the same antiphlogistics to combat it, and similar views are
taken with regard to all other diseases; they direct their attention
solely to the supposed change of the organs. Homceopathists, on
the contrary, never loose sight of the remote cause, at every period
of the' treatment of the disease, because experience has taught
them, that it often impresses some different _characteristics on the
internal nature of the disease and exacts particular considerations
in the choice of the remedy, designed to combat it; a diarrhoea
caused by a cold, ought not to be treated by the same remedy as
that brought on by a fit of colic, or by the use of unwholesome
fQod; a rheumatic pain should not be treated with the same
remedy, if it has been produced by a shower of rain, by a gust of
wind, by an hereditary cause, or by fatigue. Meningitis or encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) could not be cured by the
same medicine, if it arose from a repelled erysipelas or from a
stroke on the head, or from a violent impression of the sun, or
by an abuse of spirituous liquors, or from a fiff colic, or excessive



32


ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


grief, mental anxiety, &c. The enlightened Homceopathist will always pay attention to the known determining cause of the disease in
the choice of the medicine, and if the homceopathicity is equal, he
will always prefer that one, which will correspond with this occasional cause, whilst the old medicine would see in these diseases only a
diarrhea, an encephalitis, and direct its treatment only to the disease itself, that is to the morbid changes which it supposes to have
been developed in the diseased organ, whatever might have been
the determining cause.
The proximate cause of diseases is the change which takes place
in the body by the action of the remote cause, and constitutes, properly speaking, the disease itself. According to this definition it is
clear, that it is as impossible for us, by the exercise of our senses, to
know the proximate cause of diseases as that of life itself in health;
that, what the common school represents as the proximate cause is
really nothing but the immediate effect; the augmentation of the
afflux of blood, the dilatation of the vessels, the heat, swelling, and
the pain in the inflamed tissues are only the products of the disease in phlegmasia. Its proximate cause consists in the alteration
of the vital forces, either in the whole system, or in the organ more
particularly affected, and which has occassioned these physical disorders of the tissues. This alteration of the vital force is absolutely
imperceptible to our senses, it is a secret which is not permitted to
any living being to unravel. Thus the redness, the afflux of blood, the
swelling of the tissue which we observe in the pleura and the lungs,
in pleurisy and pneumonia, the redness of the tunics of the stomach
in gastritis, the swelling of the liver in hepatitis, the serosities,
accumulated in the cavity of the peritoneum, or under the subcutaneous cellular tissue in dropsy, ascites, or anasarca, the blood diffused in the brain in apoplexy &c., are only the material productions
of the malady; they are no more the proximate cause, than the
different organic changes, which we observe in post mortem examinations: all these changes in the structure, density, or form of organs,
are only the product of the power which governs all the functions
of life, in health as well as in disease, known by the name of vital
fluid, vitality, &c. In the -same way, the expulsion of water, by



ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


33


whatever method, be it by an artificial mechanical opening, or by
the natural passages, by urine or stool, does not cure dropsy, if we
do not correct the vital alteration, which has occassioned the morbid
derangement of the exhalation: it will soon accumulate in greater
quantities, than before its discharge. In inflammations of the chest,
evacuation of sometimes enormous quantities of blood, does not
prevent the disease from running through.its course, of from two
to six weeks, if the vital force is strong enough to resist the morbid
cause, and the fatal medications of the system of medicine called
rational. The miserable and lingering life of so many people afflicted
with pretended gastritis, sufficiently proves that the accumulation
of the blood in the membranes of the stomach, was not the proximate cause of the disease; the little effect of bleeding and its bad
consequences in the majority of apoplectic cases proves, that the few
drops of blood diffused in the cavity of the cranium are not the proximate cause of this affection, but merely the effect of a much more profound alteration of the vessels and the tissue, in which it has originated; for, if apoplexy be the effect of a superabundance of blood, we
would observe it in young persons, at the age, when this fluid seems to
be superabundant, or when the turgescence of the vessels, and the
energy of their pulsations seems to demonstrate its superfluity; and
yet, apoplexy but seldom, and as an exception to general rules,
occurs at this period of life. It is in old age, when the less abundant "nutrition, the feebler and more relaxed pulsations of the blood
vessels attest a diminution of the mass of blood, that we observe it.
The curious investigations, which a celebrated professor of Montpellier has made, with regard to the alterations observed in post mortem
examinations of the brains of individuals, who had died from this
disease, do in no wise show the cause of it, but merely the changes
to, which it has given rise. The stone in the bladder cannot be
reasonably regarded as the proximate cause of lithiasis, except it
was produced by a foreign body lodged in the bladder. Operators
therefore, have, unfortunately too often been convinced, that its
extraction generally produces only a temporary relief to the patient,
and that the stone is reproduced more or less rapidly, if the vicious
sc



*     ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


37


the excessive aggravation of the fever, he thought the two enemies
were struggling against each other, the poor patient rendered up
his last breath. Another, seeing nothing but fermentation or inflammation of the blood, used the veins as an outlet, (robinet de
degagement) and let the blood flow, which he believed could not
be contained any more in the vessels, or which he supposed to be
inflamed or deteriorated by putrid fermentation, and life escaped
with the last drops of this fluid.
In these latter times of the dominion of medicine called physiological,have we not seen physicians, more zealous than their master, in their persuasion that the proximate cause of diseases existed
in an excess of energy or irritation, attack them by hundreds of
leeches, and sometimes these animals crawl over the corpse of the
unfortunate patient, of whom they had sucked the life in draining
the last drops of his blood. And what shall we say of the revulsive
method of treatment often not less barbarous, of setons from four
to six inches in length, as if intended for horses, of moxa, of red
hot iron, of sinapisms and of blisters, by which the sufferings of
the sick are so cruelly multiplied? And what of that excessive
abuse of opium, which agreeably to the presumed idea of the
proximate cause of diseases, is to calm or subdue the irritation
of the suffering part?  They were not aware of the injury they
did, in ruining irrecoverably a system of organs indispensable for
the salutary reaction of nature, that is, the brain and its dependencies. With their doses of opium they relieve for the moment the
most acute sufferings of the patient and calm his complainings,
and they are ready afterwards to attribute to the malignity of the
disorder the very severe symptoms, which result from this method
of treatment.
All the alterations of fluids, observed in diseases, and to which
their causes have been attributed, are in reality only the effect.
The buffy coat, which the physician examines with so much car,
in certain diseases for the purpose of judging of the necessity of
repeating venesection, are only an effect of the acceleration of
respiration and of the irregular action of the vital forces produced
by the disease; fluidity of the blood in scurvy is no more the



38


ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


cause of that disease, than the bile diffused over the tissue of the
skin, and which renders it yellow, is the cause of the affection of
the liver in jaundice. Happily these errors and mistakes of theories
and opinions which have been adopted concerning proximate causes,
are soon discovered in practice by intelligent physicians; we see,
therefore, very few, who after some years practical experience,
continue to be guided by them in the treatment of the sick; they
revert to the truths demonstrated by experience and observation,
and having seen the injuries which were produced by a mode of
treatment dictated in reference to these presumed proximate causes,
rather than run the risk of hurting the efforts of diseased nature
by active and hazardous means, they content themselves with
preventing its entire prostration, by removing every thing which
might retard or restrain its efforts for the cure of disease, that is,
they practice the art of healing so much recommended by Hippocrates, the expectative method, or at least, they modify very much
the precepts dictated by the theories of the schools, and these practioners are generally the most successful.
Other physicians, dissatisfied with the prevailing opinions entertained on the proximate causes of diseases, owing to the bad results they experienced from their application in practice, entered
into new theoretical speculations, with the hope of being more
fortunate than their predecessors. In this way have sprung up in
succession, the different medical theories which in their turn have
decided the fate of mankind afflicted with disease: nor have their
advocates reflected, that by following the same principles and
reasoning upon laws unknown and impenetrable, they must necessarily fall into the same errors. Thus, every foundation of a new
system of medicine, consisted of two pretty distinct parts, viz; the
refutation of the old systems and the establishment of the new.
The first part has always been made with the greatest facility and
perspicuity, even by authors of an inferior class, because, having
only to combat systems without foundation, they had only to follow
the impulse of simple reasoning to overturn them; but when it
was requisite to reconstruct the new theoretical edifice, the same
rocks on whipi their predecessors were wrecked, arrested them



ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


39


also in ther course, and they left the healing art in the same uncertainty. Three thousand years of this groping in the dark made
no real advancement in the healing art, properly so called, until a
superior genius, having followed another track, a track quite in an
opposite direction, viz: that of direct experiment and observation,
established new and more solid foundations for the study of diseases.
Hahnemann, that profound philosopher, convinced of the impenetrability of the secrets of nature to our feeble intelligence, of
the impossibility of discovering the proximate causes of diseases,
Sthat is, the internal changes which give rise to disease, has, in order to appreciate these changes, regarded only the phenomena
perceptible to the senses ol the patient or the by-standers, and
which alone, God has allowed our feeble intellect to perceive. He
entirely sets aside every definition of the causes which nature has
covered with an impenetrable veil.
Homceopathia, we cannot too often repeat it, does not then consider a disease as an over excitement, an irritation, or a want of
excitement or irritation, a decomposition of the blood or humours,
&c.: it considers them as an innormal state of life, manifested by
the sufferings and derangement of the organic functions. The homceopathic'physician possesses superior means over that of the old school,
to discover the true nature, or the proximate cause of the disease.
For, by taking into account all the antecedent circumstances in
relation to the patient, the causes which have produced the disease,
the condition of all the physical and moral functions of the individual,
the external changes, which are perceptible to him, the sufferings
and sensations which are felt by the patient, he will acquire a much
more positive and exact knowledge, than his antoganist, of the internal disease which gives rise to the actual sufferings of the individual. The latter will content himself with the investigation of the
proximate cause, according to theoretical opinions which he has
embraced. For, in good logic, an effect always indicates a cause,
and as this cause is absolutely unknown to us, the more we examine
its effects methodically, the more data we shall have of it; and if
we have a just apprehension of all of them, we shalltnecessarily be



40


ON HOMEOPATHIC MEDICINE.


possessed of the best indications of the cause itself, which we are
called upon to combat. These effects, which characterize the disease, are called symptoms.
With these arguments in view, it may be readily seen whether
the old school is not wrong, in reproaching Homceopathia with
neglecting'the proximate cause of diseases, because it only regards
their symptoms.    Homoeopathia searches into the proximate
cause, and discovers all that is possible for our imperfect senses,
disregarding no indication which might enable it to discover its
nature, it merely stops at the point, beyond which human intelligence is not permitted to go. It rather prefers to avow its ignorance,
than to throw itself into the darkness of hypotheses, while its
adversaries, content with their suppositions, neglect the true indications, to busy themselves -only with the reveries of their imagination. An example will serve to illustrate in what respect the
manner of proceeding of the hommopathic physician differs from
that of his antagonist in the diagnosis, that is to say, in the examination of the nature of a disease, and the advantages of the former
over the latter.
A patient complains of fever, and a physician of the old system
will immediately endeavour to discover the proximate cause of his
sufferings, that is, to give a name to the disease. If he belongs to
the physiological school, for example, he will investigate the organ
which principally suffers, and if it be irritated, he would know
what degree of irritation or inflammation exists in it, or whether it
be in a state of debility or want of irritation. If the pain or sensibility of the stomach and the redness of the tongue lead him to
suppose that the disease is an inflammation of the stomach, he will
have recognised a gastritis and  pursue his investigations no
farther; he will neglect, or pay little attention to the phenomena
which might divert his attention from the supposed proximate cause
which he believes he has found, and directs his treatment against
the latter. The homeopathic physician will, on the contrary, in
the same case of disease, not be satisfied with the examination of the
symptoms which might indicate an irritation of the stomach, he will
inform himselfkof the cause, to which this irritation should be at



44


ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


in particular; and, moreover, take into consideration the constitution and the previous habits of the individual, his mode of life, his
age, sex, remote causes of the disease, its type, progress; finally,
the hours of the day, when it is more or less violent, the seasons of
the year, the state of the atmosphere, the changes of the moon,
in short, all external circumstances, which may have any influence
upon it. It is only after all these investigations have been made
with the greatest possible accuracy, that the physician can acquire
a just idea of the disease in a homceopathical point of view: that
is, distinguish properly the particular case, which he has to treat,
from those analogous to it, in order to make a selection of the specific medicine.
The homoeopathic physician, who is fully penetrated with the
spirit of his doctrine, will accurately note down in writing, at the
dictation of the patient, all the symptoms of the latter and the circumstances which he mentions, together with the answers; which
are elicited by the questions, which the physician thinks himself
obliged to put to him, for the purpose of rectifying expressions or
of perfecting ideas indispensable to a good diagnosis.  Hahnemann counsels the sick, to mistrust the physician who will rely
merely on his memory to retain minutiae, which are indispensable
for obtaining an accurate idea of the disease, except in very slight
and very common cases; for this physician practices Homceopathia with the superficiality of Alloeopathia, he generalizes diseases
according to that method, that is, he will only see gastritis, meningitis, pneumonia, &e. and not the particular individualities, which
they really represent.
The necessity of minute investigations of diseases in the practice of Homceopathia will always remain one of the causes, which
will prevent this doctrine from being adopted by physicians in extensive practice, who chiefly regard their pecuniary interests. For
it is much more agreeable and especially more expeditious to come
to a patient, feel his pulse, look at his tongue, press upon his epigastrium, beat a little upon the sides of the chest, ask two or three
questions, and finally, write a prescription. In this manner one
may make six visits in an hour, whilst a conscientious Homoopa



ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


45


thist could not make a greater number during a whole day, because,
besides the time necessary for the examination of the patient, a,period equally as long must be occupied for the proper selection of
the medicine. Physicians of the former class, as soon as their
patients become numerous, prefer retaining their expeditious
routine, because, it combines the interests of their purse, with the
demands of their indolence,
CHAPTER VI.
On the Prognosis of Diseases.
Prognosis is that part of medicine, which teaches us to foresee
the course and issue of diseases.
This prognostication is founded on the knowledge of the disease
and the means which science offers, to overcome it. We have
already seen in the foregoing chapters, how much more careful
Homceopathia is in its investigations, in order to know all the circumstances and the true state of the disease, than the common
method; the general precept to consider every disease as an individuality, imposes upon the homoeopathic physician the obligation of
acquiring a much more exact notion of the nature of the morbid
alterations, than his antagonist of the old school, who contents
himself by determining to what species it belongs. We shall see
in the following chapters, that Homoaopathia is also much better
instructed as to the remedies which it employs, because it has
studied all of them in their effects on the living and healthy individual; whilst Allceopathia has only uncertain opinions of them,
which it has gained by chance or inference merely, but never by
accurate study. Homceopathia has an immense superiority over
the old medicine, in the sources from which it derives its knowledge
to establish the prognosis in diseases, consequently the probability
fE its predictions is much greater, and we indulge the hope that
D



46


ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


it will arrive at mathematical certainty, when in the course of
future ages, it will have acquired a knowledge of all the remedies
which God has placed at our disposal for the relief of diseased
humanity. In some kinds of diseases, such as are produced by an
animal virus, always identical and which run a regular course, as
the so called eruptive fevers, like measles, scarlatina, purpura,
small pox and erysipelas, &c. the common medicine is tolerably
exact in its prognosis, because it has no means of abridging their
habitual course; but this certainty turns eventually to its disgrace
and only serves to demonstrate its weakness: for, if these diseases
had been treated according to their homoeopathic indications, their
duration and their severity would have been much diminished, consequently their courses would have been modified.
The Homceopathist however, must not be less. circumspect in
the declaration of a prognosis: the human body is so complicated,
it is so difficult to discover with certainty its internal condition, and
so many unforeseen circumstances may disturb the action of a medicine, or infuence the patient, that, in the present state of our knowledge, it would be imprudent to determine in too absolute a manner
the result of the treatment, and of the issue of the disease. These
predictions, which in the case of Homceopathia, may be made with
sufficient accuracy in acute diseases, are far more difficult to be
established in chronic diseases, where the radical cure can only
be effected by the destruction of the virus, which cherished
them. The Homceopathist being possessed, however, of more
efficacious means of correcting the morbific deviations of nature,
his predictions may always be more favourable, than those of his
antagonists. In all cases generally, where the old medicine can
effect something, Hommcopathia will always perform cures in a
much more expeditious, certain and gentle manner, that is, with
less suffering to the patient. In the majority of acute diseases it
cures in as many hours or days, as the old medicine requires days
or weeks; and in many cases, where the latter can do absolutely
nothing, Hommopathia performs a prompt cure, at least a real alleviation, where the other has given up all hope. It is impossible to
fix the limits of its power in the present state of our knowledge; the



ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


47


most severe and most desperate acute cases have been cured in a
few hours: such, for example, as croup, peritonitis, puerperal fever,
brain fever, &c., and the most dangerous organic changes have
often been cured by the mild but pervading effects of its medicinal
agents, so that its power appeared only to stop at the boundaries
of existence.
The cure of diseases by Homoeopathia requires three essential
conditions: 1, The employment of a medicine corresponding wth
the disease. 2, The reaction of nature. 3, That the action of the
medicine be not disturbed by any external or internal accidential
causes: the prognosis must be pronounced according to the more
or less complete union of these three anditions.
The variety of our diseases is so great, that we may find one,
for which the specific has not yet been discovered and that among
the medicines experimented upon, none answers so exactly to the
symptoms of the disease, as to cure it; but thanks to the new
experiments made by physicians with new substances, this cause
of the want of success, is daily diminishing.
The second cause of unsuccessfullness will also much diminish,
in proportion as the study of Homoeopathia becomes more general
and as the sick resort to it before life has become exhausted, and
before they become debilitated by venesection, want of nourishment and excessive doses of medicines, administered by physicians
of the old school, which destroy sometimes for many years or for
ever the power of nature to respond in an efficacious manner to the
action of salutary medicines.
The third conditions may in a great measure be regulated by the
prescriptions of the physician and the docility of the patient.
An immence advantage of Homceopathia is, that the patient is
spared the period of convalescence in acute diseases, because, not
having been exhausted by medicines, he passes immediatedly from
the state of disease to that of health, to the regular exercise of his
functions.
This consideration ought indeed to open the eyes of those respectable persons, who-are charged with the management of the poor,,
and the.direction of hospitals. It would appear that these esta



48


ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


blishments very little merit their title, when we consider the situation
of the miserable beings who inhabit them, and the state of excessive
debility, and exhaustion in which they go out-(and are called
convalescent,) a debility, which prevents them for a long time from
working and gaining their livelihood. Poverty and miserable food,
the consequence of it, soon reduce them to a condition worse than
at first, and they are finally obliged to re-enter the Hopital, never
t return.
How much more useful would these places of refuge be, if the
attending physicians followed the.precepts of Homceopathia! Economy of medicines, economy of time, and economy of strength, would
render these houses the true asylums of consolation, the sick would
leave them, full of life and health, and in resuming their occupations.would, with grateful hearts bestow blessing on the men, who had
procured them such real benefits.
CHAPTER VII.
On the Treatment of Diseases.
The treatment of diseases may take place i1 three different ways
by medicine: 1, by the action of medicines opposed to the symptoms of the natural malady; 2, by revulsive means; 3, by medicines producing an effect, similar to the disease.
The treatment by opposition (called antipathic,) is that which
attacks maladies by means of agents having the property of producing a state, opposed to that which constitutes the disease, as
cold by the application of heat, burns by the application of cold,
over heating by refrigeration, constipation by purgatives, diarrhoea
and the other morbid evacuations, by astringents, debility by tonics,
&c. This method, always prefered by the old school, wherever it
can be employed, would on a superficial view seem to merit the
first rank, but it generally produces only a transient alleviation,



ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


times produces opthalmias and convulsions; scrophulous affections
have been cured by vaccination; herpetic and other cutaneous
eruptions and scrophulous affections were obliterated by the
measles, because this disease produces similar eruptions of the
skin and obstructions of the glands; how many obstructions of
the abdominal viscera have been cured by an attack of intermittent
fever, because these fevers are sometimes followed by similar alterations.  Obstructions in the female breasts remaining after a
first child-bed are often removed by the secretion of milk after a
subsequent delivery, a disease originating in profound grief is often
cured by a new disasterous event which befalls the individual, &c.
Homceopathi,s we have seen, makes use of this method of treatment, because, it only produces a genuine cure; the reactive force
of nature which renders the antipathic cure only transient, renders
that produced by the homacopathic action of medicines lasting and
durable, because the latter determines the vital movement necessary for the cure.
It is not medicines, however, which cure diseases, they only aid
nature in attaining the aim of her conservative efforts; the physician, who administers them according to this principle, is the only
true minister of nature, and not he who by antipathic or alleopathic agents endeavours to counteract or destroy her efforts. The
alloeopathic physician by his blood-lettings, exhausts the powers
of nature; hegrevents her reaction; he fetters and baffles her salutary efforts; much better therefore, would he merit the title of her
tyrant than her minister, and when he endeavgurs by enormous
doses of medicinal substances to produce an action opposed to that
of the disease, still better would he deserve the title of her executioner; because, already almost sinkinigunder the'action of accidental
morbid causes, she is destroyed by the additio~i of this new impression of an opposite character. The diseases, which this perturbating method of treatment leaves behind it, sufficiently attest
its impropriety. *These are the gastralgias, the different organic
injuries of the stomach-and alimentary canal, of the liver, urinary
organs,, uterus, lungs, &c. which are generally attributed to the
malignancy of the disorders, but which are frequently nothing but



52


ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


the effect of large doses of medicines given during the treatment
of the disease, or during convalescence, or the result of debility
caused by bleeding and low diet.
The necessity of accounting for phenomena which pass before
our eyes, and of uniting them by a common tie, did not allow the
author of Hommopathia to confine himself exclusively to that which
experience and observation taught him; he wished also to explain,
how-the medicines acted; although incontestable reasons have led
him to declare the nature of diseases and their proximate causes as
impenetrable to our understandings; he nevertheless, thought it
possible to understand the internal action of medicines. Hahnemann supposes that two similar diseases cannot exist at the same
time in the same individual, without the stronger extinguishing the
weaker one. But the action of the hommeopathic medicine being
always the stronger, because it is the effect of an extraneous agency,
always produces a more powerful disease which takes the place of
the natural affection; but the action of the medicine having a
tendency of itself to become extinct, this natural disposition of the
new disease and the reaction of nature excited by it, cause its
complete destruction.
This theory, which the enlightened understanding of the author
considers as a simple supposition, which he really declares it to be
and to which, as he says, no importance is to be attached, has,
during the few years, since the existence of Homoeopathia, been
already followed by many others, so true it is, that when once
engaged in the -field of hypothesis, little else but doubt and hesitation remain.
The learned Dr. Rau has supposed the homceopathic action of
medicines governed by the laws of the magnetical polarization.
The system of universal harmony has also been put in contribution; and its theories have been applied to the action of hommeopathic medicines by the philosophical minds of Germany; Dr.
Hering and other homoeopathic physicians explain by the laws of
this system the origin and cure of diseases, a doctrine also lucidly
taught by our friend Dr. Simon Leon, in his lectures on Homaeopathia. We will not proceed farther with the examination of these



ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


55


The most common source, whence Aloeopathia has gained its
knowledge of the virtues of medicines, is, ab usu in morbis, from
their effects in diseases. The slightest reflection will suffice to
convince any one, how much this process is subject to error; diseases are never perfectly similar, there never occur in practice two
absolutely identical cases, consequently, even if we admit that the
observations on preceding cases had been accurate, it would be a
matter of the greatest uncertainty, that the remedy, which was
salutary in another disease, would be precisely adapted to that
which is now under treatment, although it might be of the same
"species. The age, sex, idiosyncrasy, or temperament of the patient,
remote causes, concomitant phenomena, &c., cause so many modifications in a disease, that under these circumstances it is absolutely
impossible, to learn accurately the changes produced by a medicine;
hence it is, that so many specifics and other medicines employed
against different diseases, have failed in the hands of allceopathic physicians. One medicine, which was extolled for the cure of intermittent fever, because it had cured some affections of this kind, was
found inefficaoious in others, and on that account entirely rejected;
another for cephalalgia, diarrhaeas, &c. What eulogies has not
Ipecacuanha, obtained, and merited for the cure of dysentery? What
good results were not really sometimes obtained by it? But, as it
was necessarily ineffectual in a great number of cases, to which it
was not adapted, it was entirely abandoned in these diseases.
Allceopathia is indebted almost always to chance for the discovery
of the medicines, which it employs, (the history of all heroic medicines proves it;) at one time it conjectured the virtues of medicines
by their physical or chemical properties, by their taste, odour, exterior aspect or elements, or by their family, or natural genus.
If chance is a bad teacher, it offers us sometimes useful hints;
but if we have no laws to classify them, they may lead us as easily
to error as to truth. By chance it was discovered, that cinchona
had-cured fevers; but empiricism, which took hold of this discovery
made a wrong application of it; ignorant of the law by which the
remedy had effected a cure in the given case, it supposed, that it
would cure all analogous cases; and exhibited it in all kinds of



56


ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


fevers; but instead of a cure, this remedy often produced obstructions of the bowels, marasmus, and other diseases still more serious
than the one it was intended to cure.
The analogy of the genera and species of different substances in
nature, does not furnish us with a better indication of their medicii al
virtues, for, one plant of the same family presents us with excellent
nourishment, whilst the other is one of the most active poisons.
Thus, the potatoe of our kitchen furnishes a very wholesome food,
whilst the other species of this family (the Solanums) are the most
violent poisons.
Nor is chemical analysis any surer means of discovering the
virtues of medicines; its apparatus and processes are entirely incapable of seizing the characters of the different medicinal properties. The celebrated Davy, to whom chemistry owes so many
delicate and minute analyses, has not been able to find the difference between our culinary cabbage so innoxious and mild, and the
virulent hemlock, a poison so active and violent. Our chemists
can discern none between saliva and the virus contained in the
maxillary vesicles of the serpent, of which the smallest drop is
sufficient in a few moments to kill the stoutest man.
External impressions made upon our senses, do not offer us any
better data; the odour and the taste of substances do in no wise
determine their medicinal properties; the most insipid substances
are sometimes endowed with the most powerful virtues; arsenic
has very little taste or odour in its simple form; and the truffle so
much esteemed by our gourmands, has a very penetrating odour
and taste. These conditions are so common in nature, that one
might be almost tempted to consider these properties as negative
indications. Since direct experiments with different substances
have been repeated on a large scale, it seems to have been ascertained, that the more a substance possesses odour and taste, the
less is it endowed with medicinal properties; or at least, its effects
on vitality are less powerful, less pervading and less durable.
Homceopathia does not proceed on such data to discover the
virtues of medicines: Hahnemann believed, that in order to
appreciate fully the action of a medicine, it was necessary to



ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


57


make a trial of it on a healthy person. In this manner, with the
necessary precautions it is easy to determine what changes were
wrought by its action; by such experiments he has ascertained,
that this action was not transient, momentary, or of a few hours
duration, as had been hitherto believed, but that it was on the contrary prolonged in the case of several substances for whole months,
even if taken in the smallest doses; and that if strong doses were
taken, their action lasted for years and even sometimes during life,
as is observed in individuals, who have made an excessive use of
mercury.
In order to make a trial with medicines, a healthy person must
be chosen, or still better, we take ourselves, early in the morning,
a small dose of the substances, with which we wish to experiment,
and repeat it daily, until some sensible effect, or unusual phenomenon
supervene; we must take care to mark these sensations whenever they manifest themselves and remark also in what order, or
under what circumstances they are produced. The dose of the
medicine is to be renewed as often as these effects entirely cease.
During these experiments, we must avoid all impressions, having a
tendency to disturb its action, that is, highly seasoned dishes,
violent emotions, &c. &c. The same medicine must be tried on
persons of different ages, sexes and temperaments. When a medicine has thus been tried on a number of individuals sufficiently
great, the different effects produced by its use are classified and
such as have manifested themselves most constantly, are marked
down as the particular characteristics of the medicine. It is only
after these direct investigations undertaken for the purpose of ascertaining its virtues, that a medicine is employed by Homceopathia
in disease, and takes its place in the Materia Medica.
In viewing this mode of proceeding, every disinterested and
reasonable person will perceive, what advantages Homceopathia
has in this so important branch of its doctrines over the ordinary
medicine, leaving nothing to chance, and endeavouringby direct investigations, iade under the most favourable conditions to obtain
certain results. By these means metlicine ceases to be conjectural,
and takes its ranik among the exact and experimental sciences.



58


58   ON HOW(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


These studies of medicinal virtues the Homcaopathists have extended to the different kingdoms of nature, from man down to
minerals; and in the space of twenty-five to thirty years, the small
number of adherents of Homceopathia have already furnished us
with more than 200 well tried remedies, the effects of which
answer to an almost infinite Dumber of the most various diseases,*
*The medicines, actually composing the Materia Medica homceopathica,
are the following:
d6co-nitum,                        Calcarea carbonica,.Rethusa cynapium,                 Cannabis sativa,
S~garicus muscarius,               Cant has-ides,.6'gnus cast us,                   (Capsicumn,./lhemina,                         Carbo animalis,
SRmbra grisea,                      Carbo vegetabilis,.,qmmo-ni urn carbonicwnm,          Cascarilla,
6'mmion~iurntmuriaticum,           (Jastoreum,.1nacardiuos,                      Causticum,
Ilnisumn stellatum,                Chamomilla,
an wustura,                       (Chelidonium maj.,
26ntjmonium crudssr,               Chi n a,
/lrg-entunsfoliatum,               Cicuta virosa,.8rnica montan-a,                  nina,
arsenicum album,                   C(innabaris,.Rrum maculatum,                   Cinnamomurn,
/?sa fctida,.                      Clematis erecta,.Rsarum Euvropaeums                Coccionella septempunetata,.6'rrum foli alum,                  Cocculus,
Badiaga,                            Uoffea Cruda,
Baryla,                            C'olchicum Sui~umnale,
Belladonna,                        Colocynt his,
Berberis,                          Conium macualaurn,
Bismutitum,                       C.o paivac balsam,
Borax Venetd,                      Coral/ia rubra,
Bot.ista,'                          Crocus sativus,
Bry "ni a,                          Crolon tiglium,
Caladium seguinumv                  Juprum,     -



ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.  4


43


and if the continually increasing number of physicians, cultivating
this doctrine, imitate the zeal of its first followers we may enter

Cyclamen Europaeum,
Diadema,
Dietamnus,
-Digitalis purpurea,
Drosera rolund~foiiav
Duleamara,
Eugenia Jarnbos,
E uphorbittm,
Euphrasia (Jfieinalis,
Evonimus Europaens,
Faba Tongro,
Ferrum,
Filix was,
G~raph ites,
Gratiola,
Guaja-umn,
Ilelleborus,
Hepar sulphuris,
Hyoscyaiaus,
Jalappa,
Jatropha Curcas,
Ignatia amaara,
Indigofera Iincloria,
lodium,
Ipecacuanha,
Kali carbonicum,,
Kiali liydriodicum,
-Kreosottwm,
- Laches'is,
Lactuca vrnosa,
La-urocerasus,
Ledum palustre,
Lycopodium,
Magnesia earboriica,
Magnesia muriatica,


MAagne-sia 8ulphurica,
Ma n ganum,
Menyanth~es trifoliata,
-M3ercurius vivus,
Mercurius sublimatus,
Meze-reum,
Milhifolium,
Mosehus,
Muriaticum acidum,
Natrum carbonicum,
Natrum muriaticum,
Natrum nitricum.,
Natrum Suiphuricum,.A~ccolttin,
Nitrum,
Nitriacidum,
Nux vomica,
Oleander,
Oleznn animale,
Oleum Terebinik,
Oniscus.dselIU3,
Opium,
Paeon~ia,
Paris qtiadr~folia,
Petroleum,
Petroselinum,
Phellanciriu.7n,
Phosphorus1,
Phosphoricum acidum,
Platina,
Plurabuin,
Prunus spinosa,
P3oricum,
Puilsatilla,
Ramincu'lus bUlhostss,
RanuiculIu3 sceleratus,



ON HOMCEOPATHIC MEDICINE.


61


to debilitating and depletory means, as the only useful practice in
the majority of diseases. As the adoption of this doctrine in
-rance was the signal of an almost complete abandoning of every
pharmaceutd al prescription, it has hereby rendered an immense
service to our contemporaries in delivering them from all those disgusting and absurd amalgamations, with which the bottles of our
pharmacopolists were filled, of all those electuaries, confections,
opiates, extracts, elixirs, tinctures, wines, decoctions, prescriptions
composed of a base, of one or several adjuvants, one corrective
and a vehicle, &c. &c., with which the physicians overburdened
the bowels of their patients; this service is so important, that, if
the prevailing doctrine had not substituted its own excessively
debilitating practice, its author would have merited much praise,
becau'se in that case, nature would have had to contend against the
pure disease only, without being counteracted by a powerful medicinal action, with which the vital forces were oppressed. Butsuch
is the fabric of our minds, that when we recognize a fault, in order
to avoid it, we fall into the opposite extreme. The author of the
* Hahnemann however, was not the first to expose the absurdity of
these combinations. More than one of the elder'physicians was aware
of it. We shall only quote the opinion of Bichat, contained in his A An.tomie generale."  "There have been no general systems in the Materia
Medica. This science has been alternately ruled by the leaders in medicine. All have left their impressions upon it. From this cause arises
the uncertainty, with which it presents us to this day. An incoherent
medley of yet more incoherent opinions, it is of all physiological sciences
that, in which the perversity of the human mind has most signally manifested itself. Yes, for a mind pursuing a method, it is no science at all.
It is a formless collection of erroneous ideas, of childish observations, of
fallacious remedies, of oddly conceived and disgustingly combined formulas. It is said, tho practice of medicine is often a disgusting art. I
say more and maintain that under certain circumstances it is also contrary
to reason, if its principles are taken from our common Materia Medica."
Tr.



62


ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


physiological doctrine, by proclaiming irritation or inflammation as
the general type of diseases, has necessarily placed blood-letting
at the head of his remedial resources. The principal treatment,
of only a slight disease consists according to this doctrine in
a more or less abundant abstraction of blood, either by venesection, leeches, or cupping: the second remedial means prescribed,
is hunger or deprivation of aliments, and the third, revulsives; we
might yet add a fourth class of remedies, viz: the specifics, that is,
those medicines which cure special diseases without its being possible to explain their action by denominating it debilitating or exciting,
for example, such as mercury, cinchona, &c.
Of all these remedies none has been studied in a methodical
manner, yet the first (bleeding) frequently takes place in the healthy
individual by accident, as in the case of wounds or hssmorrhages,
and in the domestic animals in our butcheries, these examples might
have taught that the loss of blood causes that of life. Physicians
have very often an opportunity of witnessing the sad effects which
bleedings exercise on persons in health or with slight indispositions
(in the case of pregnant women venesection is resorted to without
remission on the least indisposition;) they could have seen how
weak and sickly they generally remained during the whole period
of their pregnancy and even during their confinement, and how
often blood-letting is followed by abortion, (the foetus not finding
any nourishment from the deficiency of blood in the mother). But
all these facts will not open the eyes of persons who will not see
them and who are fascinated by theories. In almost all fevers the
pulse is frequent and quick, and the skin is hot, &c. As bleeding
pushed to syncope is followed by a diminution and cessation of the
pulse, and by general coldness and weakness, it was, according to
the law of opposition, considered the best, or, to speak more correctly, the only efficacious means of opposing the fever or every
increased movement of the arterial system; they do not consider,
that if nature be not overcome by this abstraction of forces, her
movements soon revive with double force, in order to react against
thlis cause of destruction, when they will always have at command



ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.
W,               0


63


the resource of new bleedings, until death puts an end to the contest,
or until a more powerful nature grants a truce to the suffering of the
patient, by changing the acute disease into a chronic one, which
W11 render e stence a thousand times worse, than a speedy death.
"We are far from asserting, that blood-lettings and the antiphlogistic
method do not sometimes cure diseases, or at least contribute to
their cure; the existence of the present generation is a proof of it;
for there are few individuals, who have not been subjected to it,
either before or after their birth, and it cannot be contested, that in
certain purely inflammatory diseases moderate bleedings alleviate
and often cure the patient; but it is no less true, that every cure
effected by these means, is always followed by a remarkable debility
and that its effect on the living body, has never been carefully
investigated.
At no period, in the history of medicine have Therapeutics been
reduced to such a state of empiricism as under the medical doctrine
called physiological: entirely disregarding the vital forces, which
govern all the phenomena of organized beings, the physician
takes blood in every derangement of the human system. This
fluid, so precious, which some philosophers have designated as the
seat of the soul and which has been confounded with it, (so great is
its importance) he spills in the slightest as well as the gravest diseases; a fall, a wound, a haemorrhage, chilblains, haemorrhoids,
vertigos, complaints of the eye, ear, teeth, stomach, abdomen and
throat, rheumatism, menstrual derangements, palpitation, dropsy,
&c. in a word, almost every disease requires bleeding. And is it
to be wondered then, that mankind degenerates, that the human
size becomes smaller and smaller, and the limbs less strong, that
the powers of the mind become weakened, when we see a fluid,
on which depends the nutrition, growth and vigour of the body, so
rashly spilled. It was time, in order to prevent the complete degradation of the human race, that a more rational system of medicine
should succeed one productive of such pernicious practice. In order
to prevent our total destruction, God in his infinite goodness, has
raised up the founder of Homaeopathia to heal diseases with reme



ON HOMIEOPATHIC MEDICINEI


dies more in conformity with the intentions of nature, and to
re-establish health without destroying the source of life.*
Hunger, which the common medicine advises in diseases, is a
suffering, which those in the station of physicians haveseldom trie'
on themselves, yet their profession calls them pretty frequently
to prescibe it to persons, who have felt too often its terrible effects;
but have physicians not been able to convince themselves that abstinence exhausts the sources of life nearly as much as the loss of
blood itself, and produces a complete alteration in the organs of
digestion? How dare they hope for a salutary reaction of the efforts
of nature, when they exhaust all her vigour, when they weaken
her by every means in their power? And they call themselves
Ministers of nature! To witness the madness with which they persecute, exhaust and oppress her, they could with much more reason
be called the Ministers of death.
As to revulsives, there is always the sanie ignorance displayed
of their direct effects on the human body; a blister is applied, without considering for a moment the injurious effects which cantharides
may produce on the sick, besides those on the urinary organs.
The inefficacy of this systematic mode of treatment and the injuries which often thereby resulted to the sick, has given rise to
another sect of physicians called the eclectic, because they put
into practice the different doctrines of the schools, which have
preceded them.    The eclectic physicians, in retaining bloodletting with the other antiphlogistic treatment, and not having
a better knowledge of the virtues of the remedies which they
employ, than their predecessors, endeavour to restore the formulas
and pharmaceutical preparations of which professor Broussais has
* This is undoubtedly very true. Several homceopathic physicians
have already observed in their practice, that all children, born after the
parents had been subjected to homceopathic treatment, were generally
much stronger, healthier and less liable to disease than those born whilst
the parents were treated in the old way. We may therefore justly entertain the hope, that with the extension of Homceopathia, a stronger and
certainly also a more noble generation will rise up in future time. Tr.



66


ON HOMCEOPATHIC MEDICINE.


ment by homceopathic remedies takes place only by the reaction
of the vital force, excited by the medicine in the organism, we must
give it time, fully to display that reaction and not endeavour to disl
turb the salutary movementby new impressions, which might retard
or hinder the cure; these two facts have given rise to two fundamental precepts of Homceopathia in the prescription of medicines,
viz: the most minute doses and the necessary interval between
each of them.
The common medicine, always intending in its prescriptions, to
act on a healthy part in order to cure a diseased one, or rather to
excite in the latter an opposite movement, must employ a pretty
strong action to make a more vivid impression on the healthy part
than that produced in the diseased one by the malady itself, so that
the latter may at least be rendered less sensible, or as it were produce in the diseased part a movement, oppbsed to that impressed
upon it by the malady. Under all these circumstances it is indisSpensable, that the dose of the medicine should be strong; it is on
this account that the physicians of the old school cannot comprehend,
that Homceopathia can obtain any sensible results with such small
doses, they call themselves rational physicians, but their reason
does not even comprehend this remarkable difference between the
two methods of employing medicines viz: the opposite ends which
the two doctrines propose; besides, the efforts made by nature to'
overcome the action of external agents renders their repetition
necessary, if we do not wish to obtain a result quite the reverse of
what we had intended; and as living nature possesses the property
of accustoming itself insensibly to external impressions, there hence
arises the necessity, of successively increasing the quantities of these
agents: and thus it happens, that Allkeopathia is often obliged to
give such frightful doses of the most energetic substances, of which
physicians even boast, without regarding the grave and irreparable
injury which is thereby generally inflicted upon the constitution of
the patient for the rest of his days.
Homceopathia, which never administers a medicine, without being well acquainted, as we have already seen, with its virtues and
its action on the healthy system, always employs them in their



ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


67


" tfate of purity and without admixture, because, if it were to combine two medicinal substances together, it would lose all its certainty,
nor could it know, what effect they would have, when thus united;
for, two perftetly well known substances, producing different effects
(no substances possessing properties perfectly alike) would form
by their union a compound, which would have quite different properties, and as the physician ought not to judge blindly, or hypothetically, the precepts of Homceopathia will not permit their
application, before this compound has been duly tried on the healthy
system.
Physicians of the old school do not take so much trouble; not
being acquainted with the virtues of the simple substances, they
care little What may be their action in a state of combination, they
do not think it amiss therefore, to unite two, three, six or ten together as imagination may suggest; to every phenomenon of the
disease, or to every symptom  they prescribe a medicine, which
they deem capable, of combating it, the whole is then combined
under the form of a potion, electuary, or pill, and thrown into the
human body like a bomb, that each -of its fragments or pieces may
strike that part of the malady, against which it is directed and
destroy it,-this they call rational medicine! They are not aware
that the body is one, that life is one, and that every thing-is contiguous in the living body; that all the symptoms, however complicated they may be in a disease, form nevertheless, a constituent
part of the same; that it is contrary to the laws of nature, thus to
separate an entity, of which the different parts alone impress it with
its individual and proper character. If bleeding enfeebles the powers
of nature and renders more difficult her salutary efforts, which are
indispensable to the cure of a disease, the enormous doses of medicines and the compound prescriptions, besides exhausting the same
powers, render the diseases still more complicated, by the production
of symptoms proper to the different substances of which they are
composed, and produce real poisoning.                    -



68


ON HOMCEOPATHIC MEDICINE.


CHAPTER X.
On the Preparation of Homceopathic Medicines.
To prepare the medicines used by Homoeopathia, Hahnemann
directs that one grain of one of the solid medicinal substances, or
of those which are insoluble in alcohol should be taken in its state
of greatest possible purity; this is triturated with the third part of
100 grains of very pure and dry sugar of milk in a mortar of
unglazed porcelain with a pestle of the same material, for a quarter
of an hour; to this mass the remaining two-thirds of sugar of milk
are then added, half at a time, and each part triturated for a quarter
of an hour: in the intervals of the operation the mass is stirred
with a wooden or horn spatula for four or five minutes.-Again
one grain of this mixture containing the 100th part of a grain of
the medicine is taken and triturated with 99 grains of fresh sugair
of milk in the same manner as before, with the grain of the pure
inedicine. Every grain of this second trituration will contain
o,WO of a grain of the medicine; another grain of this preparation is
taken, and the trituration repeated with 99 grains of a new portion
of the sugar of milk, every grain of this third preparation will
contain,co0,00 of a grain of the medicine.
All substances in nature triturated in this manner will become
perfectly soluble in alcohol; consequently, in order to render the
subsequent attenuations more easy, the 99 grains of the sugar of
milk are succeeded, by 99 drops of a fluid, (distilled water or
alcohol) to which is added a grain of this third trituration, and
which is then strongly shaken twice. Every drop of this mixture
contains 100,oo0,000  In the same manner all farther dilutions are
made.* Of all substances soluble in alcohol, one drop instead of
* Every dilution (from the Millionth to the Decillionth,) may be employed with advantage according to the susceptibility of the patient;
sometimes, even the original tinctures will become necessary, If we
Swish to be successfull in practice, we should, however, always commence



ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


09


one grain is taken and diluted in that vehicle in the manner indicated.
Hahnemann for a long time used much stronger doses; but the
necessity which he felt to aim at perfection in his art, afterwards
led him to adopt the mode of preparation just described. The
results which he has obtained from them, demonstrate, that in proportion as the attenuations of medicinal substances were carried
beyond their crude or gross state, or in-other words, as they became
more refined, in the same proportion, to a certain degree, they were
rendered more energetic and penetrating in their effects on the
living fibre.
This remarkable phenomenon has led homoeopathists to give the
name of potential to an operation, which at first view, would
appear to constitute a mere dilution or diminution of power in the
medicine.
Physicians, accustomed to regard medicines as acting only in
virtue of the properties inherent in matter, cannot be persuaded to
believe that any active virtue can remain in'such small quantities
of medicinal substances; it is especially this part of the Homceopathic doctrine (although its essence by no means consist in it, as
experience shows, that we may cure homoeopathically by the ordinary material doses) which the most excites their incredulity, and
yet, they are daily witnesses of quite as great and even more sensible effects on the human body by agents no less imponderable, no
less incommensurable. Can these detractors of the discovery of
Hahnemann tell us, the weight in grains, or the dimensions in
square inches, of a piece of news, capable of producing the sudden death of the individual who has received it, or of recalling to
life a man who is about descending into the grave; how many
ounces or grains the rays of light weigh which are reflected from
the body of a toad, and sometimes produce syncope in the person
with the smallest doses, as a small dose will often effect what a large
will not. The alternate exhibition of higher and lower dilutions, as well
as the external application of the medicines and the solution of them in,water, will also be found sometimes very useful.      Tr.
Irw



ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


whose retina they strike; what is the weight in grains or ounces
of the luminous rays emitted from the mouth of the adder, forcing
the nightingale to throw itself into the adder's throat; but to give
some illustrations from medical observations, of which the recollection is' yet unfortunately too recent; can they tell us how many
grains or pounds of the miasma of cholera are required to communicate the disease to an individual or to a whole country? I-low
many pounds must the miasma at its departure from Calcutta weigh, -
in order to make the round of two-thirds of the earth, without
having lost an atom of its virulence in traversing all climates and
seasons, leaving every where the same mourning and desolation?
And the atom of the plague (cited by Hahnemann) imported in a
small parcel of wool, and which in a few months infected a whole
continent, what fraction of a grain ought it to weigh? The small
pox, how many pounds of the virus are required to infect a town
or a whole country? How many grains or what part of a grain of
the vaccine virus are required to protect an individual against the
small pox? The point of the lancet, moistened in the pustule, is
placed on the epidermis before penetrating the sensible or vascular
part of the skin, the blood which generally issues from the wound,
carries away a part of the matter, and yet inoculation takes place.
If from these phenomena, which may chiefly be attributed to
morbid causes, we pass to the examination of phenomena proper to
organized beings, or to nature at large, it would be necessary to cite
all the phenomena of force and of action in order to mention all the
powers not material, or, to speak more exactly, the powers which
are destitute of the proper ies of extension and weight inherent to
matter, and we should arrive at the conclusion, that all the real
powers in nature are subject to these negative conditions. What
measurable extension, for example, can we discover in the vegetative power, which governs the extraordinary phenomena of germination -and the growth of plants, their efflorescence, the maturation of
Afruits, &c., the fecundation of germs, the nutrition and growth of
all organized beings? What is the weight of the power which
governs life?  What is its measurable extent? a Io one, however,
will deny, that the power which governs all our functions, oftr



ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


71


entire being, is very great. That energy of man, tenax propositi
vir of Horace, so admirable, so powerful, which faces every danger
in the accomplishment of duty, which prefers the horrors of a prison,
exile, and even death, to the pleasures of wealth, to honour and
power, is it capable of being estimated by weight and measure?
Hoiv many more ounces or pounds was this power in Socrates than
in Anitus? How much did that of Leonidas weigh more than
that of Xerxes?
Is not the force of affinity itself in direct ratio with the attenuation of the atoms of a body? The power of nutrition in organized
beings, is it not exclusively to be attributed to the imponderable
and incommensurable divisions of the minute particles of matter?
What weight has an atom of light emitted from a light-house,
which strikes the eye at the distance of five leagues? Every point
of a circumference, comprised in this same ray, is yet equally
impregnated at the same instant with this light. Now, into how
many fractions must the drop of oil, consumed during this instant,
be divided, in order thus to fill a space of ten square leagues?
This property of medicinal substances called by its discoverer,
their dynamic property, which is -susceptible of being developed
by their trituration with inert bodies, is not without analogy in
nature. Electricity is disengaged from bodies by friction alone,
caloric is also developed by the friction of two solid bodies, and
the spark emitted from steel, of which the heat is so great as to fuse
the metal, is caused only by the simple percussion of two very hard
bodies, steel and silex. And why refuse to admit, that a similar
'action, when exercised upon various substances, may, in like
manner, develope their medicinal powers? Do we not see a piece
of amber, nearly inodorous in its natural state, fill a room with its
perfume, if it is rubbed a few moments with the hand. Gold
and silver in bars, and generally all non-oxydized metals were
considered by the old medicine as entirely inert bodies, and experience has demonstrated, that powerful inedicinal properties were
developed in them by homcsopathic preparation; the same may be
said of a great number of earths: as silicea, calcarea, and vegetable
powders such as lycopodium, &c.



72 -


ON HOMWEOPATHIC MEDICINE.


But does this development of the medicinal power take place
from the minute division of the particles of the medicine, so that
their mobility is increased and placed more in affirnity with the
fibres on which they are to act; or is it caused by the real development of a new power by the trituration, and is this power transmitted by successive infection to inert substances, with which it is
brought into contact, so that the extreme dilutions contain no other
part of the medicine, than the medicinal dynamism? Both opinions
have found advocates among the Homceopathists; we shall not be
able to estimate them in a work like the present, merely destined
to give an outline of the Homceopathic doctrine; we incline, however, to the latter opinion, when we consider the necessary affinities
between the two powers, which must act reciprocally upon each
other, the vital power and the power of the medicine; under
whatever relation we examine the first, we can never discover in
the alleged minute particles the qualities proper to matter, gravity
and extensibility. Now, in order that the medicinal power may
have a perfect affinity to the vital, the former must also be divested
of its properties of matter, and acquire the qualities of the general
imponderable powers which govern all nature; what renders us
also favourably disposed towards this opinion, is, that it is the
immaterial agents which most profoundly and sensibly affect our
organism. - The effects of grief are much severer and of longer
duration, than those arising from an injury received by a material
cause.-Joyful news, the impression of sweet melody, penetrating
the organism, produce much more agreeable sensations, than all
the physical impressions on the senses.-A word of Napoleon
imparted more strength and courage to the soldiers to support the
fatigues, the privations and the dangers of war, than all the Eau de
vie, or the opium, that, could have been distributed to them.
These abstract questions, which, as we have before remarked,
by no means constitute Homceopathia, (since its founder wishes,
that only the propositions, demonstrated by experience should be
admitted) we have brought forward for the purpose of proving, that
the physicians, cultivating this doctrine, are far from meriting the
epithet of empirics, which their antagonists have applied to them,



ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.                     76
matter; the sense of smell, if it be too strong or two weak, or a bad
odour be perceived, particularly as if of old cheese, wine, &c.
The teeth:- their colour, if they are covered with tartar or
decayed, if they are loose or drop out, from whence the pains
arise and where they terminate, the state of the gums, if they bleed,
are retracted from the teeth, eroded, swollen, &c., the causes and
"the circumstances under which the pains arise, are more or less
violent, or dissipated.
The mouth: to examine the state of its surface, the tongue, the
sensations felt in it; the saliva, the condition of the throat and the
tonsils, deglutition, &c.
The digestive organs: the condition of the taste, if it is obtuse,
if the patient perceives any extraordinary flavour, as bitter, salt,
acid, earthy, &c. if the aliments appear to him to have a flavour
improper to them; if they leave a bad taste in the mouth; the
state of the patient's appetite, if food is repugnant to him, if he is
soon satiated, what food or drink he prefers or has an aversion
to,-the thirst, if he drinks much or little at a time,-if the patient
seizes the clp with eagerness-if he pushes it back as soon as it is
brought to his lips.
If he has eructations, if they have a taste and what-if he has
hiccough-if the food rises into the throat or mouth-if there is
water-brash, on what occasions,
If he has nausea-irclinations to vomit-of what natuFe are the
matters ejected, do they consist of food, drink, green or yellow
bile, slimy matter, &c. and on what occassions.
The symptoms in the stomach and other parts, produced by
food, the different sensations in the stomach, and the abdomen, to
describe accurately, in what particular region they are seated-if
the abdomen is "hard, inflated, if there are any tumours, dropsical
effusions, borborygmi, if there is flatulency, if there are hernias,
pains in the loins, and the condition of the groins.
The 'nature and frequency of the stools, their colour, their consistence, if they contain worms or blood, &c., if they are followed
or accompanied by painful sensations, or not, and in what parts
f" th- hdy   At t the same time it is observed, if there are hemor



76


ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


hoids, their condition; if there are any eruptions, running, itching,
painful sensations, strictures, prolapsus of the rectum, &c.
The urinary organs: the nature of the urine, its quality, the
sedimeyt which it deposits, the manner in which it is voided and
the sensation by which its emission is preceded, accompanied, or
followed, as well in the urethra, as in the adjoining parts.
The sexual functions of man: besides the enquiries in relation
to the different organs connected with them, and the different
sensations the patient experiences in them, we inform ourselves of
other circumstances in reference to these functions, not necessary
here to particularize. In the case of females, enquiries in relation
to the condition of menstruation in all its particulars are of the
highest importance, viz: in regard to quantity, quality, and frequency of the discharge, and sensations preceding, accompanying,
or following.  If the patient has leucorrhea, what is its nature,
and what the acc@ompanying sensations, &c. -The state of pregnancy also merits particular enquiry with reference either to the
symptoms, with which it may be accompanied, or the morbid
phenomena, by which it may be followed; such as hemorrhoids,
premature deliveries, false labour pains, and generally all the
symptoms of pregnant women, which find no relief from the ordinary medicine, and in which Homoeopathia offers us such precious
remedies, as well as in the diseases, which may occur during
delivery, or the. time of confinement and lactation.
The respiratory organs; if there is sneezing, dry or humid
coryza; if the nose is, stopped up; the nature of the nasal mucus;
if there is hoarseness, loss of voice; tickling, pain in the trachea,
bronchia, or larynx, squeezing, contraction or suffocation. The
different sounds in the respiratory organs, rattling, whistling; the
state of the respiration, if it is difficult, what sensation or cause
seems to prevent the free exercise of it; what is the posture of the
patient, the hour of the day, or the circumstance by'which this
difficulty becomes most manifest, &c. The condition of the cough,
if it is dry or accompanied by expectoration, degree of violence,
if it occurs by fits or not, the time of the day and on what occasion
it is most violent; the symptoms by which it is accompanied or



78


ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


in the evening, before, or after midnight, or in the morning; if there
is an inclination to sleep during the day, if the sleep is heavy or
easy; if there is a difficulty of falling asleep, if in the morning
on awakening the patient be fatigued or less refreshed, than in the
evening on retiring to rest; what is the position of the body during sleep; if the arms are placed under the head, the limbs drawn
up or extended, &c.; if the patient had dreams and of what kind,
if they are easily recollected; if he suddenly starts out of his sleep
or has frightful images; if he has sonnambulism, if the patient
speaks or cries out during sleep, if he has alvine or urinary dischar.res during sleep?
Fin- lly, we have to notice his previous diseases. If his parents
have teen subject to hereditary diseases, the affections he had during childhood, crusta lactea, glandular swellings, biles, corns; if he
has had the itch'; at the period of puberty in women, how the
menses have comrhenced; if they have born children, what health
they erjoyed; if they had abortions; what medical treatment the
patients have been subjected to, and what is their customary manner of living; by what is the present disease supposed to have
originated; the temper of the patient, his complexion, the colour of
his hair and what was his temper before, or during the disease; if
he is cheerful or sad, choleric, lively, passionate, gentle, patient,
phlegmatic, morose, irritable, a scolder, grumbler, melancholic,
disposed to suicide, if he has a fear of death, if he is stupid,
gloomy, &c.
After the physician has made himself acquainted with all these
circumstances of the disease, (which we have given in detail, in
order to instruct the sick to express their sufferings fully, particularly such patients as are at a distance from their physician, and
wish to consult him with benefit,) he next examines, what are
the principal symptoms characterizing the disease, and then selects
among the medicines which have produced in healthy individuals
analogous characteristic affections, that one, the symptoms of
which correspond to the greatest part of the morbid phenomena of
the disease to be treated; that is, the aggregate of whose symptoms



QN HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


79,presents the greatest possible resemblance to the disease, and he
exhibit' it in the manner already indicated.
In an acute disease, a medicine may be taken during every hour
of the day,,as the urgency of the case requires it; in chronic disorders, Hahnemann advised (nuxvomica excepted) that it should be
taken early in the morning, the patient to keep quiet, and not breakfast
for two- urs afterwards; other Homceopathists prefer giving it in
the evening, before going to bed; they find, that the ten or twelve
hours passed in sleep and repose, exempted from every foreign
impression, physical or moral, are very favourable for the development of the action of the medicine in the organism, because the
"more or less lively moral impressions, which persons (particularly
those occupied with business) are subject to during the day, mav
disturb the action of a medicine, which may have been taken som?
moments before. We have for some time generally adopted t.is
practice, and are convinced of its practical utility by experience.
CHAPTER XII.
On IHomoopathic Diet.
The adversaries of Homceopathia maintain, that the greater
number of its cures are to be ascribed to the strictness of the regimen
prescribed to patients; we might answer, why do you not prescril e
this regimen rather, than torment and weaken your patients by.hunger, or by aliments incapable of affording nourishment? The
dietetic precepts of Homoeopathia are by no means severe; they
are comprehensive enough to satisfy any reasonable taste. Bearing
in mind, that the cure of diseases is effected by the forces of nature.
the patient must consequently receive sufficient niourishment to
sustain him; and as the suitable doses of the medicines must be
very small and not be counteracted by other medicinal substances,
or by strong impressions on the animal economy, which might
disturb their action and render thelm  ineffectual, we may easily



80


ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


form an idea of the precepts, which directs Homoeopathia in the..
prescription of its regimen, which may be summed up in these few
words:
Partake of purely nutritive and easily digested aliments, and
of the most natural drink in quantities necessary to satisfy your
appetite and quench your thirst; perform all other functions of
life in the most simple manner, and the most conformably to the
laws of nature.
In order to facilitate the application of this general and simple
rule to the sick and to prevent doubts on the subject, we shall
review the different functions and the different wants of the sick,
for the purpose of showing them what particular means they have
to pursue, that they may not overstep the limits of moderation prescribed by Homoeopathia, which are like all its other precepts,
consonant with philosophy and morality.
Food and drinks.-Nature indicates to man the necessity of
taking nourishment by the internal sensation of the appetite and
thirst; every time, that this sensation shows itself in the normal
state of the body, we must never omit to satisfy it within reasonable bounds, always avoiding substances containing medicinal properties. In acute febrile diseases the appetite is generally wanting,
we will consequently give the patient something to eat only when
this sensation recurs, and, as in such cases a small quantity is
"sufficient, warm milk, bread and butter, or farinaceous aliment, very
ripe fruits of the season, cooked or i-aw, or boiled vegetables should
be.used. In febrile diseases of long duration, we may add to these
aliments fresh meats, if the stomach is able to digest them;
Homceopathia follows in this respect the precepts dictated by the
experience of Hippocrates and which medicine has entirely disregarded.
The thirst must also be the regulator of the drink in acute febrile
diseases; if it does not exist, we dare not compel the patient to
drink under the pretext of refreshing him and calming the internal
heat; as every foreign body applied to our organs always produces
some kind of impression or other, the presence of a drink in the
stomach, if not demanded by thirst, causes irritation in it, disturbs



ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


sl81


itsfuncetions and augments the febrile heat more than it diminishes
it, (exept the patient be deprived of consciousness.) The most
proper drink is pure water; which may be sweetened to the patient's
taste with sugar, syrup of raspberry, oranges, liquorice root, the
juice of fruits of little acidity or their decoctions, as well as that
of oat.ral, rice, bread, marshmallow, or any other non-medicinal
substance; pure boiled milk is also a very good drink in acute
diseases. We must avoid giving the drinks too hot, in general it
is best to raise them  to the temperature of the room; sometimes
it is useful, to cool the drink with ice, or to give it tepid, in this
respect, we must follow the instinct of the patient.
In acute diseases, with6iot fever, or chronic diseases, the appetite,and thirst must in general also be the measure of a supply of food
and drink, but the food may be of a more substantial quality; it
may consist of meat and vegetables in suitable proportions. It is
necessary, that the patient eat meat, if it agree with him, (and in
chronic diseases he can generally digest meat better than vegetables)
at least once a day. In the selection of food, we must pay regard
to the habits and taste of the patient and choose such substances, as
he can digest the most easily. All meats are good (except pork, duck
and geese too fat, particularly in diseases of the skin,) all fresh fish
except salmon and eel, crabs and shell fish; all salt meats as well
as smoked or salted fish, must be soaked in fresh water before being
eaten. All farinaceous and other vegetables are allowed, except
those which are sour and possess medicinal properties, like garlick,
onions, celery, asparagus, and the different aromatic plants, used as
spices.
Well baked and stale bread, all farinaceous food including pastry
not too fat, all ripe fruit not too sour, or aromatic, preparations of
milk of every kind, (except old cheese) and fresh eggs are very
wholesome. The diseases of the stomach and the digestive organs
often demand the greatest precaution in the choice of aliment; besides those articles of food prohibited generally, patients with these
diseases should abstain from all dried leguminous vegetables,
(Mrs. *   otherwise very healthy, is attacked by the most violent
symptoms of cholera on taking the least quantity of these vegeG^



82


ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


tables) from the flesh of very young animals, or eggs (particularly
in diarrhoea.)  In the last case preparations of milk and fruits
should be used with great precaution.
The best drinks in chronic diseases are the same as those which
we have recommended in acute febrile diseases, but patients accustomed to wine, may continue its use by diluting it with 10 parts
of water; but children, females, and all those afflicted with indigestion, ought in general to abstain from it. There exists a universal
prejudice with regard to wine, namely, that it aids digestion, that
it strengthens the stomach, and that it is therefore necessary for
persons whose digestion is disturbed or troublesome: an experience
of twenty years, for which we are indebted to the influence of the
physiological doctrine, proves, that persons in this condition, digest
much better by drinking pure water: this is not the smallest service, which we owe to Professor Broussais, in having delivered the
sick from the use of wines, which physicians in former times, were
in the habit of prescribing to their patients. In a treatise on dietetics according to the Homceopathic doctrine, which we shall publish
forthwith, we shall give a detailed account of the effects produced
by wine, and of the cases, in which its use may be beneficial; we
will here only remark, that.the cases wherein wine is necessary,
are very few and mu-t be determined by the physician. Light
unadulterated beer and cider are also very good drinks,
Coffee is a very active medicinal substance, the effects of which
are especially felt by the nervous system, and by the gastric, urinary and sexual organs. Hahnemann has in a work devoted to
the subject, forcibly described the ravages, produced by its daily
use. Coffee is besides known to be an antidote to several Homceopathic medicines; consequently the sick have to refrain from it;
yet persons of advanced age, long accustomed to it may continue
to use it, though in diminished quantity.
Chinese tea is less active than coffee, persons therefore, who are
habituated to it, may continue to use it by taking it very weak and
mixed with milk.
Alcohol and every kind of spirituous liquor, spices aromatics,
oils and acids are prohibited.



ON, HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.


83


u Theuse of every medicinal substance or liquid, which, either
aby  akg or smelling, may counteract the effects of the medicines,
must be abstained from; this precept refers also to the habitual use
of enemata, (except with pure water or milk) smelling bottles,
scent bags, and perfumes of every kind, above all to musk, amber
and camphor, to medicinal tooth-powders, soaps and aromatic pastes.
Tobacco is one of the most active medicines; its action on
persons making use of it, is manifested in too sensible a manner,
not to consider it as hurtful to the action of medicines; but the
effects of an old habit modify this proscription; in such cases we
have only to diminish the quantity and cause the patient to abstain
from it for several hours after taking the medicine.
A sir, light and heat.-It is very evident, that it is difficult to
obtain a favourable result of the treatment, if the air in the vicinity
of the patient be not kept in a state of purity; fumigations of chlorine gas, or others which may be used in the room, will destroy
the action of the medicines. The best means of purifying the air,
is to open the windows at those hours, when the atmiosphere is the
driest. If the patient is capable of going out, he must be freely
exposed to the air: the air of the country in an elevated and dry
spot, sheltered from the north-wind, is to be prefered.
The light of the sun, which animates all nature, is necessarily
also of great advantage to patients, and in all cases of disease, (except in inflammation of the brain and cerebral congestion.)  We
may procure its influence by selecting for the patient rooms, exposed to the midday sun and sufficiently lighted by windows accessible to the rays of the sun.
The temperature of the chamber must be moderated from 12 to
18 degrees, R., in the chamber, a too great heat debilitates the
patient and too little exposes him to colds.
Clothing, attention to cleanliness.-Too warm clothes, and those
of a texture particularly apt to excite perspiration, must generally
not be used; for, besides the loss thereby sustained by excessi*
transpiration, the skin becomes debilitated and deprived of the
power of counteracting external agents, as the changes of the atmosphere, humidity, &c. The wearing of linen next to the skin is to



S4           ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.
be prefered, the other clothes must accord with the state of the
temperature, and large enough, not to interrupt the circlation or
the other functions; persons accustomed to the use of flannel may.generally dispense with it after an homceopathic treatment which
lasts long enough to render the system less sensible to cold.
The best means of preserving the cleanliness of the skin is by
simple ablutions wvith pure water and soap, or sweet almond flour.
In acute diseases of every kind, the hands and face are washed at
least once a day with tepid water and the other parts of the body
every three or four hours, exanthematous diseases excepted. In
chronic diseases daily cold ablutions of the whole body have the
advantage of powerfully assisting the beneficial action of the homceopathic medicines, especially in debilitated subjects or scrophulous
children, and females; we have sometimes seen the medicines act
only after the patients were subjected to this practice.*
The teeth must be cleaned with tepid water, or with the powder
of burned bread and a light brush.
The too frequent and long continued use of hot baths, generally
debilitates the constitution and the dermoid system particularly.
Cold baths produce a vigorous and strong impression on the whole
organism, consequently the physician only ought to determine the
cases, in which these hygieinic means may be useful. We do not
* The free external and internal use of cold water has been found particularly useful in gout, rheumatism, scrophula, haemorrhoids, paralysis,
mercurial diseases, hypochondriasis, &c., and also diseases, brought on
by excesses of any kind. Indeed, by these means alone we are often ena.
bled to effect a permanent cure. The astonishing cures performed at
some celebrated watering places in Europe, where the pure cold spring
water alone is made use of, sufficiently attest its immense utility. The
proprietor of one of those establishments (Grefenberg in Austrian Silesia)
by the astonishing cures he has performed in the most hopeless cases,
has even acquired an Europocan reputation, and has been several times
called to Vienna to treat members of the Imperial family. This celebrated
establishment is frequented every year by more than 400 visitors from
all parts of Europe.                                      Tr.



ON HOM(EOPATHIC MEDICINE.
4ipi


85


wiition the mineral or other medicated baths applied by means of
wapour,pumping, &c. because being very powerful remedies, they
ought o0*y to be employed ia particular diseases. Baths for the
purposes of cleanliness of an agreeable temperature and used
sufficiently long to wash the body (for ten or fifteen minutes) will
be very useful, and we cannot too highly recommend them.
Clean linnen is of great advantage in diseases; the patient will
be less subject to cold, if it is often changed. This precaution is
especially useful during the critical diaphoresis, by which the curative effect of medicines in acute diseases is often manifested.
Exercise, repose and sleep.-The exercise of the body ought
neveir to be neglected in the treatment of diseases. Of all species
of exercise, that of walking in the open air is to be prefered; an
'ur's walk, once or twice during the day, is indispensable in the
cure of all chronic diseases; if the patients cannot walk, riding in a
carriage must be resorted to. The vertigo, nausea, and other disagreeable effects often produced by swinging, sufficiently demonstrate that exercise of this kind may sometimes be hurtful and ought,
therefore, to be avoided during the treatment. Dry frictions must
be employed, if no other exercise can be borne. Singing and conversation, or loud reading are also very useful exercises in many
eases. If the patient cannot leave the house, he must take exercise
as much as possible in his chamber, taking care to let hi the fresh
air, by keeping the windows open; it is understood that these
precepts chiefly relate to the non-febrile diseases: in febrile diseases absolute repose is often indispensable.
The advantages of sleep cannot be too much appreciated in diseases; it is by a natural sleep more or less prolonged, that the
beneficial effects of the Homceopathic medicines ordinarily commence, and manifest themselves in diseases, and that the crisis
often takes place; the persons waiting upon the sick must do every
thing in their power not to interrupt it. In order to satisfy properly this want of nature, the patient ought to retire soon to bed
and rise early. Reading in bed upon interesting subjects, which
occupy the imagination is generally a bad habit for persons subject to sleeplessness and sometimes the only cause of it, owing to