Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries http://www.archive.org/details/medicalheresieshOOsmyt MEDICAL HERESIES: HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. A SERIES OF CRITICAL ESSAYS ON THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF SECTARIAN MEDICINE, EMBRACING A Special Sketch and Review of Homoeopathy, PAST AND PRESENT. BY GONZALVO C. SMYTHE, A.M., M.D., PE0FES80B OF THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE, CENTRAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS, INDIANAPOLIS; MEMBER OF AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, &C. PHILADELPHIA: PRESLEY BLAKISTOST, 1012 WALNUT STEEET. l88o. i ; Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, by PRESLEY BLAKISTON, the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. Press of WM. F. FELL & CO., 1220-1224 Sansom St., Phila. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Ages in Medicine ; The Mythological, Dogmatic or Em- page pirical and Rational ; Origin of Medicine ; Its Evo- lution ; Primeval Medicine ; Ancient Egyptian Civil- ization ; Influence of Epidemics upon Primeval Man 17-22 CHAPTER II. Egyptian Mythology, Isis, Osiris, Horus, Thoth, Apis, Esmion and Serapis; Diseases Attributed to the Anger of the Gods ; Priests ; Demonology ; Egyptian Mysteries ; Venesection ; Clysters ; Greek Colonies ; yEsculapius ; Chiron the Centaur ; Machoan and Podalirius ; The Asclepiadse ; Pythagoras and his School; Secret Nostrums 23-30 CHAPTER III. The Genealogy, Writings and Opinions of Hippocrates... 31-34 CHAPTER IV. The Dogmatic School of Medicine ; Prominent Characters in this School ; School at Alexandria, 32 B.C. ; Hero- philus ; Erasistratus ; Dissection of the Human Body Legalized for the First Time in the History of the World; Empiric School, 287 B.C.; Pyrrho ; Philinus ; Serapion ; Doctrines and Influence of this School ; Methodic School ; Asclepiades ; Stephanus ; Marcus Artorius ; Themison ; Principles and Influ- ence of this School 35-42 CHAPTER V. Claudius Galen ; Biography ; Education ; Distracted Condition of Medicine ; Opportunities for Distinc- tion; Revival and Revision of Dogmatism; His Writings and Opinions; The Impression They left upon the Medical World ; His Cowardice 43-50 iii IV CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. Doctrines and Influence of the Christian Church on the page Progress of Medicine ; Priestcraft; Prayers; Incan- tations; Holy Waters, Ointments, etc., etc. ; Ignor- ance and Superstition ; Reign of Justinian ; Destruc- tion of the School at Athens ; The Nestorians ; School at Edessa ; Baghdad ; Preservation of Medi- cine by the Arabians ; Schools in Spain ; Rhazes ; Hali Abbas ; Avicenna ; Albucasis ; Improvements Introduced by the Arabians 51-57 CHAPTER VII. Progress of Medicine in the West; Destruction of Roman Empire ; Ecclesiastics ; Oribasius ; vEtius ; Alex- ander of Tralles ; Paulus yEgineta ; Attempted Re- vival of Letters during the Reign of Charlemagne ; Theosophy and Astrology ; Schools at Monte Cassino and Salerno ; Cures by Prayer ; Revival of Practical Anatomy by Mondini, 1315 a. d. ; Important Events During the Century ; Cabalistic Medicine ; Cornelius Agrippa ; Jerome Cardan ; Paracelsus ; Chemical School of Medicine ; Doctrines of, and their Influ- ence 58-68 CHAPTER VIII. The Rosicrucians ; Mystery connected with the Origin of this Sect ; Their Absurd Pretensions ; The Eclectic Conciliators ; Belief in Witchcraft ; Transmutation of Metals; Demonology, etc.; Mathematical School ; Borelli ; Principles of this School ; Bellini ; Un- realized Expectations of this School 69-72 CHAPTER IX. Brilliant Progress of Surgery ; Evolution of Anatomy ; Knowledge of the Ancients upon this Subject ; Can- nibalism ; Knowledge Gained by Embalming ; Pre- judices against Dissections by the Jews, Greeks, Early Christians, etc. ; Roman Laws upon the Sub- ject ; Rufus, the Ephesian ; Galen ; Mondini's Work on Anatomy ; Carpi ; Silvius ; Michael Ser- vetus ; Andrew Vesalius ; Harvey ; Progress of Medicine and the Collateral Sciences during the re- mainder of the Century 73-82 CHAPTER X. Progress of Medicine during the Close of the Seventeenth Century and the First Half of the Eighteenth ; New CONTENTS. V Schools Founded upon the Improvements in Physi- page ology During this Period ; Expectant School ; Ernest Stahl ; Principles of this School; Hoffmann's Sys- tem ; Boerhaave ; Cullen's System ; The Brunonian System; The Last of the Dogmatic Schools 83-89 CHAPTER XI. Concluding Remarks on Ancient Dogmatism ; Medicine and Philosophy ; Materia Medica of the Ancients 90-95 CHAPTER XII. Homoeopathy as Taught by Hahnemann ; Biography of Hahnemann ; Similia Similibus Curantur ; Trans- cendental Pathology ; Quotations from Organon ; Spirit-like, Dynamic Pathology ; Dilutions, Manufac- ture and Strength of; Olfaction ; Single Dose ; Dis- ease Canceled by Removing Totality of Symptoms ; Vital Force, Rude and Instinctive ; Efforts of Nature * the Disease itself; Local Remedies Denounced ; Hahnemann's Theory of Chronic Diseases; Three Miasms, Syphilis, Sycosis and r Psora 96-123 CHAPTER XIII. Homoeopathy Continued ; Forces of Nature ; Opinion of the Ancients upon this Subject ; Unity of Force ; Nature of the vital Forces ; Sensation and Motion ; Electric Force ; Impossibility of Diseased Vital Force ; Dynamic Causes of Disease ; Material Causes ; Hahnemann's Theory of Psora as a Cause ; Allopathy, Homoeopathy and Antipathy; Law of Similars Based upon Symptoms and not Pathology ; Claimed as a Divine Revelation ; Explanation of the Modus Operandi of Cure under this Law 124-138 CHAPTER XIV. Discussion of Homcepathy Continued ; Provings ; Diffi- culties Attending this Process ; Dynamic Force Ac- quired by Dilution and Trituration ; Provings of Calcarea ; Allen's Encyclopaedia of Materia Medica ; Dynamization ; Hahnemann's New Chemical Law.; Divisibility of Metals ; Mathematical Calculations in Regard to Dilutions ; Modus Operandi of Medicines ; Effect of Medicine upon the Temperature of the Human Body ; Antipyretic Treatment of Fevers 139-158 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER XV. Discussion of Homoeopathy Continued ; Quotations from page Current Homoeopathic Literature ; Illinois Homoeo- pathic Medical Association ; Refusal to Indorse Similia Similibus Curantur ; Homoeopathic Society of New York; Resolutions of 1878, '79 and '80; Discussions and Differences of Opinion ; Sherman's Milwaukee Test of the Thirtieth Dilution; Final Report Thereon ; Internal and Avoidable Obstacles to Homoeopathy ; Discussion of Homoeopathy by a Homoepath, in the Homoeopathic Times ; Examples of Homcepathic Practice ; Ludlam's Case of Ovari- otomy ; Homoeopathic Chicanery in Connection with Hospital on Ward's Island; Homoeopathy a Divine Truth or a Huge Lie 159-196 CHAPTER XVI. Summary; Similia; Kidd's Laws of Therapeutics ; Con- trarii Contrariis ; Galen's Law; Cases from Kidd's Practice ; Totality of Symptoms and Pathological Lesions ; Similar Diseases Associated in the Same Individual ; Natural Diseases Essentially Dissimilar ; Pathology of no Use in Selecting a Remedy ; Drug- Disease ; Domain of Similia ; Propositions, Discus- sions and Conclusions ; Chemical, Mechanical and Physical Forces ; Tonics and Restoratives ; Meta- physical Discussions on Therapeutical Laws ; Slow Advance of Homoeopathy in the Old World ; Inter- national Hahnemannian Association 197-218 PREFACE. It is expected that every person who propose to in- flict a new book upon the profession should be able to give a good reason therefor. My object in producing this little work is* twofold : First, to furnish the profession a condensed history of the evolution of medicine, or, at least, so much of it as relates to the rise, progress and fall of the various schools, sects, or systems, from the earliest historical period down to the present. This I have done in as brief terms as possible, without any discussion of the contemporaneous systems of philosophy or theology with which medicine in former times has been strangely and inconsistently commingled. I have also avoided as much as possible discussing the materia medica of the ancients, especially as applied to the treatment of special diseases, which would be of interest only to the medical antiquarian. vii Vlll PREFACE. My second object is to furnish the regular profession with some much needed information in regard to homoeo- pathy. Few busy practitioners have the time or inclina- tion to investigate the claims of this school, and although they are brought in contact with it daily, know little or nothing of its real principles. I have presented the principles of this school fairly, quoting the exact words of its founders, at the expense of some repetition, in order that I might not be accused of misrepresentation. The discussion of these principles has been conducted from a scientific standpoint, and without ridicule, thus showing of what homoeopathy consisted originally ; and by quotations from the current literature of the school, with discussions thereon, showing what it is now. It is confidently believed that the condensed informa- tion contained in this little book will not be altogether without interest to the profession. G. C. Smythe. Green Castle, Ind., November, 1880. MEDICAL HERESIES HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. CHAPTER I. Ages in Medicine — The Mythological, Dogmatic or Empirical, and Rational — Origin of Medicine — Evolution — Primeval Medicine — Ancient Egyptian Civilization — Epidemics, Plagues, Black Death. In writing a history of medicine it would seem philo- sophical to divide the subject into three periods or ages, to be denominated respectively — I. The Mythological; II. The Dogmatic or Empirical ; and, III. The Rational. The Mythological age extends from the infancy of the human race to about the year 400 B.C., and includes what is known from tradition of the early evolution of medi- cine, together with the meagre facts gained from history during this interesting epoch. The history of medicine really begins with the Dog- matic or Empirical age, and includes that portion of the time between the Hippocratic period (400 B.C.) 2 17 18 MEDICAL HERESIES. and the close of the eighteenth century, A.D., or the death of the last Dogmatic system, the Brunonian. The Rational age in medicine begins where dogmatism leaves off; viz., about the close of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth. It is founded upon the ruins of the ancient dogmatic schools, together with the new facts discovered about this time by the rapid evolution of anatomy, physiology, pathology, chemistry and the collateral sciences. The latter two ages are necessarily more or less blended, and seem to overlap each other; yet a distinct line of demarkation can be discovered by the careful student; and, notwithstanding Hippocrates is said to have been the father of rational medicine, from the very nature of things existing at that time, his system could be little better than a rational empiricism. It is not my intention to write a History of Medicine, but simply to gather so much from the general history of the subject in a condensed form as relates to the rise and fall of the different schools, sects or systems of medicine from the earliest period of which we have any knowledge, down to, and including, some of the more prominent heresies of the present day. The opinion is almost unanimous among historians, upon this subject, that the origin of medicine can be traced to the ancient Egyptian civilization. This can be only partially true. The art of treating accidents, in- juries and diseases must have been brought about among all EPIDEMICS, PLAGUES. 19 primeval nations by the slow process of evolution. This process was necessarily slow, and must have extended over an immense period of time which was pregnant with danger and disaster to the race. Whole tribes or nations perished, or even continents must have been de- populated by epidemics, plagues and pestilential diseases during this long period when the race was struggling up from savagery and barbarism. What could primitive man have done to stay the ravages of such an epidemic as the one from which our Southern States have recently suffered ; or such a plague as the Black Death, which during the fourteenth century is said to have destroyed in China 13,000,000 of the population, and in the other Eastern countries 24,000,- 000 more? The loss by death from the plague in Europe only was over 25,000,000. A plague was prevalent in London as late as a.d. 1665, where it destroyed in the latter half of that year no less than 76,000 persons. Also in the city of Toulon as late as a.d. 1720, where, out of a population of 26,276 souls, 20,000 were attacked and 16,000 perished. What, I ask, could primeval man do under Buch circumstances? and we have no reason to believe that he was exempt from such calamities ; on the contrary, judging from the careless manner in which he lived he must have been oftener subjected to such pestilences than his more modern successor. We find the remains of slaughtered animals and all kinds of d6bris capable 20 MEDICAL HERESIES. of preservation, right in the cave where he dwelt, and "kitchen middings" several feet deep immediately in front of the door of his habitation. According to the recent investigations of Professor Marsh, this continent is the birthplace of the horse and the monkey. It is not likely that the means of subsist- ence were ever so precarious as to cause extinction by starvation on such a vast continent as this, but it is far more plausible to suppose that they have disappeared by the ravages of some epidemic disease. If the evidence brought to light by archaeologists is trustworthy, this continent was m once inhabited by a numerous and thrifty race of people, who have left behind them traces of civilization greatly superior to that of the inhabitants found here by its European dis- coverers. It is not likely that this superior race was conquered and annihilated by the lazy, good-for-nothing savages who succeeded them. It is much more reason- able to conclude that they perished by the ravages of plagues and epidemic diseases of different kinds which afflicted them in rapid succession. And they, having no knowledge of sanitary science, would be unable to oppose any obstacle to the progress of such calamities after the germs were once scattered in their midst. It is highly probable that the human race has been struggling against such influences for a thousand centu- ries; and it would indeed be strange if some knowledge of agents to ameliorate the condition of the afflicted ORIGIN OF THE HEALING ART. 21 were not discovered. Even the beasts of the field, guided by their sensations alone, would soon learn to bathe their fevered bodies in the cooling waters of a convenient brook. It is altogether probable that the healing art is co- existent with the race. However rude their practice may have been, with no way of preserving their experiences excepting by tradition, it is little wonder that whole tribes perished, or that continents were depopulated. It would not require much time for a primeval man with a fractured ]eg to learn that a perfect state of rest would cause him to suffer less pain, and that if the fracture was steadied with a stick or piece of bark, tied on with rawhide, he could move about with more comfort ; and after a lapse of a few weeks he would find that he could dispense with his rude splint — in fact, that his wound had recovered, crooked it might be, and perhaps too short, but still a useful limb. This experience would not be lost. He would also learn that cold water, if his limb was too hot, would keep it cool ; and if his wound was an open one, that keeping it moist would cause it to be less painful ; and hence, he w r ould naturally apply something to retain the moisture, if it was nothing but a fig leaf. But if he should happen to apply some ano- dyne plant, like stramonium, belladonna, or poppies, he would learn something more, and that something would be treasured up as a precious discovery, for the benefit of posterity. Such is the real origin of the healing art ; 22 MEDICAL HERESIES. it is not a gift of the gods. An immense period must have elapsed while the human family was emerging from this condition, and before diseases were attributed to the anger of evil spirits ; for this would necessarily signify the evolution of a moral sense, at least the knowledge of good and evil. EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY. 23 CHAPTER II. Egyptian Mythology — Isis, Osiris, Horus, Thoth, Apis, Es- mion, Serapis — Disease Attributed to the Anger of the Gods — Priests — Demonology — Egyptian Mysteries — Venesection — Clysters — Greek Colonies — JEsculapius — Chiron the Centaur — Machoan — Podalirius — The Asclepiadaz — Pythagoras and his School — Secret Nostrums. The ancient Egyptians attributed the diseases with which they were afflicted to the anger of their gods. Among their principal deities might be mentioned Isis, sister and wife of Osiris ; her son Horus, whose life she miraculously restored, and who is the same as the Apollo of the Greeks ; Thoth, the same as Hermes of the Greeks ; also Apis, Esmion, Serapis, and many others. Serapis was worshiped as a medical divinity by both Greeks and Egyptians, as late as the time of Alexander the Great. The origin of medicine is attributed by different authorities to several of these deities. Horus is said to have received his knowledge of diseases and their antidotes from his mother Isis, and he is regarded as the inventor of the art by some. Yet Apis is regarded by equally as good authority as the deity to whom this honor is due ; and there are still others who claim that Thoth is the real inventor of all the arts and sciences, including medicine. Of course, at this late date it matters little to us, and less to the gods, to whom we 24 MEDICAL HERESIES. ascribe this doubtful honor. These gods were all of human origin, but had been deified by a grateful people, for supposed benefits conferred. When the gods conde- scended to practice medicine it had to be done by proxy, and this created a necessity for middle-men, or a priest- hood, as is too often the case with the more modern gods. All diseases were regarded as caused by the displeasure of the gods, and of course, according to that view of their pathology, they could be cured in no other way than by appeasing this displeasure, and no other means could be employed by the multitude in order to approach these gods, than through the medium of the priests who administered in the temples. The sick were bewildered with imposing rites and ceremonies which were as sense- less and unscientific as the beating of the tom-tom and the frightful grimaces made by the great medicine-man of the North American Indians. If any medicines were used, their names as well as their virtues, if they had any, were carefully concealed. Their entire practice consisted in a miscellaneous conglomeration of absurdi- ties, of which the following is a good example : They believed there were thirty-six demons or gods of the air, who had divided the human body among themselves, into that many parts, and that by invoking the god who presided over the particular part affected the disease would be relieved. The sum total of all human knowledge, including what was known of medicine and the collateral sciences, EGYPTIAN MYSTERIES. 25 was supposed to be communicated to those who were initiated into the secrets of the ancient Egyptian myste- ries. This knowledge was carefully concealed from the vulgar, and those who were initiated were bound to secrecy by blood-curdling oaths, and required to go through with the most extravagant and absurd forms and ceremonies previous to and during their initiation, sufficient to eclipse by far any of the modern institu- tions of that kind, some of which are sufficiently absurd, as many of my readers well know. They used venesection, cathartics, emetics and clysters. They claimed to have been taught venesection by the hippo- potamus, which, it is said, performed this operation upon itself by striking its leg against a sharp reed and opening a vein in this way, and after the blood had flowed as long as it thought proper filled the wound with mud. The ancient hippopotamus might have amused himself in this dangerous way, but I have no doubt that his modern successor has learned more sense. They also claim to have learned the use of clysters from their sacred bird, Ibis, which is said to have administered them to itself with its bill. So much for ancient Egypt- ian medicine. Nothing has been lost to the science by our want of familiarity with it. Ancient Greece was largely colonized by the Egypt- ians. These colonists brought their deities and their worship along with them, and consequently the myth- ology of the Greeks was largely borrowed from the 26 MEDICAL HERESIES. Egyptians ; and especially was this the case with medical divinities. But the Greeks were a restless, warlike people, and soon developed a propensity for manufactur- ing gods that fairly eclipsed all previous efforts in that line, one of their finest specimens being iEsculapius; and as he was their most illustrious god in medicine, it will be well to look into his history somewhat. He is repre- sented as being the son of Apollo and Coronis. He was a student of Chiron the centaur, who, if I am correctly informed, established the first medical college mentioned in history, in a cave or grotto at the foot of Mount Pelion, where he taught medicine, music, botany and chirurgery. Efforts have been made by some etymolo- gists to derive the latter word from his name. Some of the most celebrated names of this period appear among those who were numbered as his students. But as we are concerned only with those who are most illustrious in medicine, we shall confine our attention to ^Esculapius and his two sons, Machoan and Podalirius. Chiron lived to a great age, and frequently instructed both father and son, as in the above case. He was accidentally killed by a poisoned arrow, shot at another person by young Hercules, who was also a student of his, and who is reputed as having had an uncontrollable temper. I mention this fact in order to show that the antidote to the poison the ancient Greeks were using on their arrows was unknown, for the wound itself was slight, ^SCULAPIUS AND HIS SONS. 27 being situated near the knee, and would probably not have produced death had it not been poisoned. JEsculapius distinguished himself above all others as surgeon-in-chief of the expedition of Argonauts in search of the golden fleece, and his fame has been celebrated in poetry, more as a surgeon than as a physi- cian ; in fact, he evidently knew very little about the administration of drugs as curative agents. He is reported to have raised the dead, but with as little truth, perhaps, as the same report in regard to the more mod- ern gods. He used songs, dances, incantations, amulets, etc., for the cure of disease. One of his principal medicines appears to have been a mixture of wine, meal and scraped cheese made from goat's milk. His skill in medicine has been greatly over-estimated. He was not deified until after the time of Homer ; at least, there is nothing in Homer that indicates that such was the case. Another account places his deification about fifty years before the siege of Troy, which is supposed to have been about 1184 B.C. iEsculapius was destroyed by a thunderbolt from Jupiter, at the special request of Pluto, because he was interfering with the peopling of the latter's empire. Apollo revenged the death of his son by destroying the Cyclops who forged the bolt. So it will be observed that the gods do not always constitute a happy family; a very good argument against baviflg too many. Machoan and Podalirius, the two sons of iEsculapius, 28 MEDICAL HERESIES. were at the siege of Troy, and greatly distinguished themselves as surgeons and physicians. Medical knowl- edge was retained as a secret in this family, and trans- mitted from father to son, until the time of Hippocrates. His descendants formed a priesthood called the Ascle- piadae, who administered in the temples which were erected in the principal cities to commemorate his wor- ship, much after the manner of the Egyptians. These rites and ceremonies seem rather silly and unscientific to modern physicians, but we must remember that they were not possessed of as valuable a materia medica as we are, and in the absence of such they had to make up the deficiency in pomp and show; and we ought to remember that this very circumstance contributed much in making a favorable mental impression, a thing of real value in the treatment of certain forms of disease, which I shall have occasion to demonstrate before closing this essay, in treating of another branch of this subject. During the sixth century B.C., Pythagoras, after ex- tensive travels in foreign countries, during which he is said to have learned all there was of human knowledge at that day and age of the world, returned and settled at Crotonia, where he established a school of philosophy and medicine; and owing to his venerable appearance and burning eloquence he was regarded as a messenger dfe-ect from the gods — a pious fraud which he encouraged. He soon had numerous disciples and followers, which included some of the most illustrious names among THE SCHOOL OF PYTHAGORAS. 29 the ancient Grecian philosophers, such as Empedocles, Democritus, Anaxagoras, and others. Through the teachings of these men medicine and philosophy were connected and taught conjointly, but their practice was almost as superstitious as that of the priests in the tem- ples ; in fact, Pythagoras is supposed to have borrowed his philosophy largely from the Egyptians, where he is known to have been circumcised and initiated into the ancient mysteries. His knowledge of the power of drugs must have been very vague and indefinite. He regarded the cabbage as a universal remedy for all diseases, when, in fact, it is almost worthless, even as an article of diet in health, and positively injurious in nearly all forms of disease excepting those based on a scorbutic diathesis, and even in these greatly inferior to many plants. Medicine, philosophy and religion were strangely and inconsistently commingled for centuries after the time of Pythagoras. The Pythagoreans were communists, and their prac- tices soon became obnoxious to the people who prosecuted them, and about 500 B.C. their society was disbanded and the disciples of Pythagoras were scattered through- out the cities of Greece, where they divulged the secrets of his philosophy and his practices. Had it not been for this circumstance the world would never have known anything about his system of philosophy, for he left no writings behind him. This disclosure of the Pythagorean system and its 30 MEDICAL HERESIES. propagation among the people soon built up a formidable rivalry between his disciples and the Asclepiadse, who still practiced and taught medicine in the temples, which induced them to disclose the secrets of their system; which brings us down, in the course of time, to the period of Hippocrates. It is also a fact that ought not to escape our notice, that secret nostrums were sold in the principal cities of Greece at least five hundred years before the Christian era; and still the patent- medicine-man flourishes. HIPPOCRATES. 31 CHAPTER III. Hippocrates — Genealogy— Writings of, and Opinions. The history of Dogmatic or Empirical medicine, as transmitted to us in a direct line, begins with Hippo- crates and his followers. All our information prior to this date partakes largely of the prehistoric or mytho- logical. Hippocrates was born on the island of Cos, near the beginning of the 80th Olympiad, and consequently was in the prime of life about the year 400 B.C. He was a lineal descendant, seventeen generations removed, of JEsculapius, on the paternal side of the house, and on the maternal side he traced his ancestry to Hercules; a genealogy sufficiently ancient and aristocratic to suit the most fastidious. He is the first of the ancients who left us any considerable amount of literature on the sub- ject of medicine. He is the reputed author of seventeen books or short treatises on various subjects connected with medicine, some of which are genuine, and some of which are known to be apochryphal. There appears to have been a kind of mania for writing apochryphal books, which originated about this time and continued for several centuries. The authors of some of them imagined themselves to be inspired, but they were evidently inflated only. Be this as it 32 MEDICAL HERESIES. may, the works attributed to Hippocrates perhaps give us a very accurate view of medicine as it existed at that time. Whether or not they were all the result of his handiwork, several of them are known to be genuine. It has been said that if Shakespeare's writings were subtracted from the English language and literature very little would remain. The truth of this state- ment will be readily conceded by persons familiar with the subject, for Shakespeareanisms are found permeating our literature everywhere. So much could not be said of the writings of Hippocrates in reference to medicine, at this day and age of the world, but it could have been said for several centuries after his death, without any violation of the truth. Hippocrates flourished when nothing or next to noth- ing was known of anatomy, physiology, or pathology. Chemistry was yet an unborn science. Not a single trace of chemistry as applied to pharmacy can be found previous to or during the time in which Hippocrates lived. Little was known of Botany; especially of the medicinal properties of plants. We are struck with wonder and admiration for the man who could so impress the coming ages, with such a small capital to begin with, in the shape of collateral sciences, as he possessed. He was the first who attempted to separate medicine from philosophy and start it in business for itself, and is justly entitled to be called the OPINIONS OF HIPPOCRATES. 33 "father of medicine." He recognized a certain force which he called Nature, which he regarded as the "first of all physicians" It appears that he relied greatly on this force in the cure of disease, and especially if he did not see his way clearly ; a practice which ought to be imitated by the profession of to-day much oftener than it is. He attributed a real intelligence to this force. He says, " Nature is sufficient of itself for every animal. She performs everything that is necessary to them with- out any instruction how to do it. She distributes the blood, spirits and heat through all parts of the body, by which means it receives life and sensation, nourishment, preservation and growth." He finally resolves this force into heat, which he says is immortal. Not a bad guess for a man to make twenty-three centuries ago, who was not acquainted with the fact, as now demonstrated, that force is as eternal and persistent as matter itself! His pathology was altogether humoral. He enumerated four humors — blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. He regarded imprudence in diet as a frequent source of disease. He treats of diet extensively in his writings. He also considered bad air as a prolific source of disease. He noted the direction of the wind and the irregularity of the seasons, the rising and setting of the stars, the solstices and equinoxes, and observed that these influences had a profound impression on certain diseases. Right here is a vast field for observation, which is of untold importance, and which has not been 3 • LiUzlOS COLLEGE LIEKARY 34 MEDICAL HERESIES. sufficiently explored until this day. There is less known of the meteorology of diseases than almost any field in the sciences. The suggestions made by him on this subject seem to have gone unheeded for ages after his death. I have every reason to believe that had he been possessed of the modern appliances for taking observa- tions which we have had so long, he would have laid the foundations for meteorological observations in medicine, which would have borne fruit of great value. Some of Hippocrates' divisions of diseases have scarcely been modified, and words spoken by physicians daily, in the present age, are found in his writings, with the same meanings as at present ; such as acute and chronic ; epi- demic, endemic and sporadic] malignant and benign, crisis, and so on. In prognosis he had superior tact, making some observations that have never been im- proved upon. His description of the countenance just before death takes place is so true and vivid that it has borne the name of the Hippocratic countenance until this day. His theory of disease was based on the four elements of earth, fire, air, and water; and the four humors already mentioned. He believed that some de- rangement of these elements and humors constituted the essence of diseases, and that the principle he called Nature prepared them for expulsion from the body by a process he called coction, and that they were expelled by a crisis. THE DOGMATIC SCHOOL. 35 CHAPTER IV. The Dogmatic School of Medicine— Prominent Characters in the School — School at Alexandria, 320 b. c. — Herophilus — Erasistratus — Dissections of Human Bo Hes Legalized for the, First Time in the History of the World — Empiric School, 287 years b. c. — Pyrrho — Philinus — Serapion — Doctrines and Influence of this School — Methodic School — Asclepiades — Stephanies — Marcus Artorius — Themison — Principles and Influence of this School — Thessalus Trallianus —Celsus — Hufus the Ephesian — Atheneus — Pneumatic Sect or School — E2nsynthetic or Eclectic School. It was the elaboration and propagation of the princi- ples contained in the platform of Hippocrates that led to the foundation of the DOGMATIC SCHOOL of Medicine by his disciples and successors. Prominent mention might be made, in this connection, of Thessalus, Draco, Polybius,Theophrastus, Praxagoras, Plato and Aristotle. These sages all contributed toward enriching the general stock of knowledge in anatomy and physiology, but they soon abandoned the path marked out to guide investigations by the illustrious father of medicine, and the art continued to be influenced by the absurd systems of philosophy of the age, so that little real progress was" made until the foundation of the celebrated school of Alexandria, about 320 B. c. Under 36 MEDICAL HERESIES. the patronage of the Ptolemies this school became the principal seat of learning in the world at that time. Letters, Arts and Sciences were protected and encouraged, and the most learned men of the age were numbered among its teachers. This school exerted a controlling influence for centu- ries, and is felt even at the present day in medicine, and especially in anatomy, for some of the names given to certain parts of the body are still retained. A certain portion of the human anatomy will always, perhaps, bear the name of torcular Herophili, a term derived from the name of one of the professors of anatomy, Herophilus. At this institution the dissection of human bodies was legalized, for the first time in the history of the world, and the two most illustrious names in connection there- with are Erasistratus and Herophilus, who were contem- poraries. The latter is said to have dissected seven hundred human bodies. Both were said to have opened the bodies of criminals while they were yet alive. These statements are both, probably, greatly magnified, and perhaps had their origin through the popular pre- judice that must have existed against practical anatomy at that time. Erasistratus modified the practice of medicine very much, stripping it of many of its terrors. He opposed venesection, drastic cathartics, irritating clysters, and so on. He was also opposed to what the moderns call " shot-gun" prescriptions, of which there were many in THE EMPIRIC SCHOOL. 37 existence at that time, some of which contained as many as fifty or sixty ingredients. Herophilus made several additions to the then existing knowledge of the pulse ; a subject which had heretofore been much neglected. The Dogmatic school continued to flourish without serious opposition until about the year 287 B.C., when there arose a formidable rival, which is known by the name of the EMPIRIC SCHOOL. The spread of the peculiar skeptical doctrines of Pyrrho, in philosophy, perhaps suggested to Philinus the foun- dation of this school, but although he was the real founder, it owed its success greatly to Serapion, one of his successors and disciples. It is a remarkable circumstance in the history of medi- cine, that a sect which became so numerous, extending over a period of several centuries, and exerted such a powerful influence, which is not now nor ever will be obliterated, should leave us none of their writings. Many distinguished names are mentioned among the dis- ciples of this system, and their writings were numerous and copious, yet our entire knowledge of them is gained by quotations from their works by their adversaries, who so quoted them for the purpose of refutation. Their own testimony in favor of their method of doing business is entirely lost to us, only as transmitted by their opponents in the aforesaid garbled manner, and our 38 MEDICAL HERESIES. opinion of them is necessarily made up from ex parte testimony. Whether we are able to do them justice at this late day, upon such evidence, is a doubtful question. They assailed the doctrines of the Dogmatic school with great fury, and abused Hippocrates, although they con- tinued to use his medicines. They rejected all occult causes of disease, and based their system entirely on ob- servation and experience gained through the senses. These sources of information are best arranged under three heads: 1st, personal observation; 2d, the study of the recorded observations of others ; 3d, the logical con- clusions drawn from a study and comparison of both the preceding. It will be readily seen that here are the germs of an inductive philosophy which would have led to important discoveries if its foundations had been broadened and deepened sufficiently. The Dogmatic school accused the Empirics of neglect- ing the study of anatomy and physiology. This accusa- tion must be accepted with some degree of allowance, for it is improbable that a system founded on observa- tion exclusively would neglect two such important ad- juncts. Yet there must be some grounds for the accu- sation, for it is a historical fact that no new discoveries were announced in anatomy from the school at Alexan- dria, after it passed into the hands of the Empirics, and it is quite probable that the dissection of human bodies was soon afterward abolished. This school disseminated its doctrines very rapidly, THE METHODIC SCHOOL. 39 and soon divided the honors of the profession with the Dogmatic, which gradually declined until the latter part of the second century of the Christian era, when it was revived by Galen. The Empirics regarded the entire doctrines upon which the Dogmatic school was founded, including the elements, humors, coction, crisis, occult causes, essence of disease, and the famous therapeutic axiom that diseases must be cured by contraries, as false or hypothetical and unnecessary. This school enriched the materia medica somewhat, and by their careful and painstaking manner of making observations have not failed to impress sub- sequent ages. But in the meantime another sect had arisen, which was known by the name of the METHODIC SCHOOL. The platform of principles upon which this school was founded was furnished by Asclepiades who was born in Bithynia about 96 B.C. He located in Rome, where he became famous as a practitioner. He succeeded in establishing himself firmly in that city, by adopting a course that has been successfully imitated by modern quackery, namely, by flattering the whims and humoring the caprices of his patients, until nature effected a cure of their diseases. He allied himself with the nobility, and was the friend and companion of Cicero. He entertained rather peculiar views of anatomy and physi- ology, and it is somewhat mysterious how or where he 40 MEDICAL HERESIES. found such absurd notions. He believed the body was filled with invisible pores, and that corpuscles were con- tinually passing through these pores. He thought hunger was caused by the relaxation of the larger pores, and thirst by the relaxation of the smaller. He was of the opinion that digestion was an unnecessary function ; that the food passed directly into the blood, where it was comminuted and attenuated, until it was re- duced sufficiently to pass through the pores, before it could be appropriated as nourishment. Of course, his pathology was based on his physiology, and when a person was sick he simply had trouble with his cor- puscles, or his pores. Sometimes the corpuscles were too large for the pores, and frequently the pores were too small for the corpuscles. In either case this condition was called stricture, and the opposite condition was relaxation. This was the sum and substance of all diseases, and they were treated accordingly. His treat- ment consisted in friction, wine, exercise, and bathing. Asclepiades had numerous and respectable disciples, among whom may be mentioned Stephanus, of Byzan- tium, and Marcus Artorius, physician to the Emperor Augustus. Artorius was shipwrecked and lost at sea, about 30 B.C. The most illustrious of all his disciples, and the real founder of the Methodic school, was Themi- son, of Laodicea. He amplified the doctrines of Ascle- piades, and labored to establish three divisions of disease. Those caused by stricture, those by relaxation, THE PNEUMATIC SCHOOL. 41 and those of a mixed nature ; all other causes of disease were discarded. The Methodic school was sandwiched between the Dogmatic and the Empiric schools. They aimed to avoid the vague theories and occult causes of disease of the former, and escape the laborious experimental obser- vations of the latter ; in short, they proposed to open up a royal road and make the study of medicine easy ; and, indeed, one of the followers of this school, by the name of Thessalus Trallianus, boasted of his ability to teach the whole art in six months. Soranus was one of the ablest and most brilliant practitioners of this school, and is spoken of in flattering terms, even by his opponents of the other schools. He died about 140 a.d. Celsus and Rufus the Ephesian were both inclined to the doctrines of this school. The former was noted for his pure Latin and the elegancy of his style. Neither one, however, contributed any new theory to those already in existence. This school was subdivided into several sects. Athe- neus, of Attaleia, who was a polished and skillful phy- sician, added a fifth principle, which he called spirits or air, which controlled and directed everything, and, when disturbed, was the cause of diseases ; and from this fact this was called the PNEUMATIC SECT OR SCHOOL. Areteus was one of the most famous of this sect. 42 MEDICAL HERESIES. There were eminent physicians after the rise of the three prominent schools already mentioned, who, it seems, were able to divest themselves of prejudice suffi- ciently to see that neither one of these schools contained the entire truth, but that there was some good in all of them; and like the school of ancient Eclectic philo- sophers, undertook to select from the three what seemed to them good and proper. This school called themselves the EPISYNTHETIC OR ECLECTIC SCHOOL. Of course, they made a failure, as will always be the case with an institution which has no principles of its own. The experience of the world has taught us that an extensive business cannot be safely conducted upon a borrowed capital exclusively. It is better to advocate principles of our own, even though they be erroneous. Many renowned physicians have been Eclectics, ac- cording to the true meaning of the term ; but a moment's reflection will convince any reasonable man of the im- possibility of establishing a school of Eclecticism ; for as soon as an institution attaches itself to a certain set of fixed principles, even though they be borrowed, that in- stitution becomes dogmatic. There were several prominent physicians that adhered to this school ; among them Agathinus, Philip, of Csesarea, Archigenes, who lived in the time of Trajan, although neither the Methodic nor any of its subdi- visions ever had a very extensive following. GALEN. 43 CHAPTER V. Claudius Galen — Biography — Education— Distracted Condition of Medicine — Opportunities for Distinction — Revival and Hevision of Dogmatism — His Writings and Opinions — The Impress they Made Upon the Medical World — His Cowardice. The next prominent character which arrests our attention in the history of medicine is Claudius Galen, who was born in Pergamus, in the year 131 a.d. Per- gamus was a formidable rival, as a seat of learning, to the city of Alexandria, having at one time the next largest library in existence. Galen was well schooled in philosophy, having studied, under his father's tuition, the system of Aristotle. He studied the Platonic philosophy under Gaius, who was also a stoic and an Epicurean. He wrote commentaries on philosophy before he was twenty years old. He seems to have been inclined to skepticism, both in philosophy and medicine, in his younger days. He claims # to have studied medicine by the expressed direc- tion of the gods, both he and his father having been advised by Apollo, in a vision, to that effect. He was as well educated in medicine as in philosophy. He received his instruction in anatomy from Satyrus, who had the reputation of being well qualified in this department. He received instruction from distinguished teachers in 44 MEDICAL HERESIES. both the Dogmatic and Empiric schools. After he had completed his studies in these schools he attended the lectures of Pelops, at Smyrna, after which he traveled extensively. He also visited Alexandria, which still maintained a high reputation as a medical centre, where he remained a considerable time, to complete his ana- tomical studies. It is not known certainly whether he ever dissected the human body or not; if he did so it was done clandestinely. Most of his descriptions in anatomy are drawn from the bodies of apes. He speaks of the advantages that Alexandria furnished in the study of osteology. It is a fair presumption that the only complete human skeleton accessible anywhere in the world at that time was to be seen in the aforesaid city. There was certainly none in the city of Rome at the time of his sojourn there, which was several years after his pupilage at Alexandria. He is supposed to have died about the close of the second century A.D. He is known, from his writings, to have been living as late as 197 A.D. Galen's opportunities for distinguishing himself were very great. At the time of his coming the medical world was in a singularly chaotic condition. The Dogmatic school was distracted and divided into several factions ; some following the old Hippocratic path ; others were disciples of Erasistratus, while still others were adherents of Herophilus. The Empirics, although they had been numerous and influential, were at this WRITINGS OF GALEN. 45 time declining. The Methodics were still enjoying a considerable degree of confidence. Galen undertook the herculean task of reforming medicine, for which his education had peculiarly fitted him, having studied the principles upon which all the schools were founded, as well as being well versed in all the contemporaneous systems of philosophy. He claimed in the beginning of his career to be an Eclectic, but soon proved himself to be the most bigoted and intolerant of Dogmatics. He claimed that none of his predeces- sors had understood the writings of Hippocrates, and that he alone was capable of explaining them; aud among his first efforts as a medical author are his com- mentaries on the writings of that distinguished father in medicine. Galen's writings are very extensive. He revived the principles of Hippocrates, upon which the Dogmatic school of medicine was founded, and after adding his ow r n views, impressed them so firmly upon the medical world that they reigned almost supreme for nearly six- teen centuries. He defined medicine as an art which teaches how to preserve health and cure diseases. He had three conditions for the body, Sound, Unsound and Neutral. A perfectly sound body was seldom or never met with, he thought. He described eight constitutional conditions, based upon the qualities of heat, cold, moist- ure, and still another peculiarity which is called idiosyn- crasy. Disease, said he, begins when the deviations 46 MEDICAL HERESIES. become so great as to interrupt the functions of the part. He reiterated the Hippocratic doctrine of solids, humors and spirits, also the four humors of blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. He also described three kinds of spirits, vital, animal and natural. He thought these spirits arose from the blood, which had its origin as a subtle vapor in the liver, and was modified by coming in contact with the air which was received through the lungs. The vital spirits were lodged in the heart, and the animal spirits in the brain, which pre- sided over the reasoning faculties, and by means of the nerves distributed a power of motion and sensation to all parts of the body, which regulated all the functions. This is the force which both Hippocrates and Galen called nature. He, like Hippocrates, divided diseases into acute and chronic, epidemic, endemic and sporadic. He arranged the causes of diseases under two heads, external and internal. The former were six in number, air, food and drink, motion and rest, sleeping and watching, retention and excretion, and lastly, the passions. These he called Procatarctic, or Beginning Causes, because they put in motion the internal causes which are called the antecedent or conjunct. The former are discovered only by reasoning, and must consist either in a plethoric condition of the humors or a poisoning of the blood by an undue admixture of the same. He also divided the causes into those that were manifest and evident, and those that were latent and obscure, OPINIONS OF GALEN. 47 occult or concealed, and could not be discovered at all, such as in hydrophobia. Galen defined a symptom to be a preternatural affec- tion depending upon a disease which follows the body as a shadow. He made a distinction between symptoms and signs of diseases. He divided the latter into diag- nostic and prognostic, also pathognomonic and adjunct. Some of these divisions are retained until the present time. His treatment differed little from that of Hip- pocrates. He indorsed the coction of the latter, which has caused untold misery to those afflicted with fevers in past ages. By coction is meant the process by which the morbid material constituting the cause of the disease was prepared for expulsion from the body. Heat was considered necessary to complete this process, and extra covering was piled upon the unfortunate patient, doors and windows closed, heating food and drinks were ad- ministered, and nothing of a cooling nature was per- mitted. Patients were treated for a number of days in this barbarous and inhuman manner. Through the teachings of Galen this unnatural practice was continued until a comparatively recent date. Galen's system of anatomy was accepted by the entire civilized world, until the time of Vesalius. He wrote upon all subjects connected with medicine in his day. He is the author of eighty-three treatises acknowledged as genuine; and nineteen which are questioned; the re- puted author of forty-five undoubtedly apochryphal; 48 MEDICAL HERESIES. nineteen, fragments of which only have been preserved, and fifteen commentaries on the different works of Hip- pocrates, besides a number that have been entirely lost. His books on auatomy and physiology are considered the most important of all his writings. His pathology was speculative and imperfect. In diagnosis and prognosis he laid great stress upou pulse. He placed great stress upon critical days, which he believed were influenced by the moon. His materia medica, considered in the light of recent science, is worth little or nothing. He had more faith in amulets than medicine, and he is supposed to be the author of the anodyne necklace so long in favor in some parts of Europe. His practice was based on the fundamental principle that disease is contrary to nature, and that it must be cured by that which is con- trary to the disease itself. After Galen's time the different schools of medicine then in existence gradually declined, and the entire medical world formed one vast system of Galenites, which was a revival and revision of Dogmatism. His works were translated into the Arabic during the ninth century, and were at once adopted in the East, al- most to the exclusion of all other writings. In fact, they seemed to have reigned supreme throughout the whole civilized world, until about the middle of the six- teenth century. An illustration of this assertion may be cited : — In 1559 A.D., Dr. Geynes was called before the Col- galen's cowardice. 49 lege of Physicians and Surgeons of London, for impugn- ing the infallibility of Galen, when he had to make a humble acknowledgment and recantation of his error, in writing, before he could enjoy any further privileges of the College. The darkest page in the history of Galen is that which records his cowardice. He ignominiously fled from every danger which threatened him. We first read of his fleeing from his native city, Pergamus, in conse- quence of a revolt which took place in that city early in his life. The appearance of the plague in the city of Rome again struck his soul with terror, and he retired into Greece. Soon after this he was summoned by the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus to' attend them in northeastern Italy, where they were warring against the barbarian Germanic tribes ; but another pestilence broke out, of which Lucius Verus sickened and died, when he again deserted his post and returned to Rome, where he begged to be allowed to remain, pleading as an excuse that it was the will of iEsculapius, as revealed to him in a vision. Such conduct is calcu- lated to excite derision and contempt among modern physicians, who have been schooled to brave every dan- ger and sacrifice their lives, if necessary, in order to relieve the suffering sick — two notable ^examples of which have occurred in this country within the last few vears. The first was during the War of the Rebellion. The records in the Surgeon General's office show that 50 MEDICAL HERESIES. more medical officers were killed and wounded on the field, or lost their lives from disease, in proportion to their numbers, than any other line of staff officers in the service. The other example is only too fresh in the memory of every citizen of this republic. It occurred during the recent epidemic of yellow fever which so terribly scourged our sister cities of the South. The conduct of the medical men of these cities and those persons who dared to hasten to their relief, has shed a halo of glory about the profession in that section of the country which time can never efface. And had it not been for the absolute certainty that the presence of un- acclimated persons would only add to their burdens, thousands of brave men from the North would have gone to their relief. Let us always imitate the noble example of bravery and fortitude they set us in their terrific battle with death. There will always be room in heaven for such men. They are fit companions for the gods. INFLUENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 51 CHAPTER VI. Doctrines and Influence of the Christian Church on the Progress of Medicine — Priestcraft — Prayers, Incantations — Holy Waters, Ointments, etc. — Ignorance and Superstition — Reign of Justinian — Destruction of the School at Athens — The Nes- tor ians — School at Edessa — BagJidad — Preservation of Medi- cine by the Arabians — Schools in Spain — Rhazes—Hali- Abbas — Avicenna — Albucasis — Improvements Introduced by tlie Arabians. The doctrines of the Christian Church, as understood during the early centuries of the Christian era, opposed a formidable obstacle to the progress of medicine. The idea prevailed extensively that the power of curing dis- eases by divine interposition was received from Christ by his disciples, and had been transmitted to the elders and deacons in each community where churches had been established. A belief in this power contributed more to the establishment of Christianity than any other thing connected therewith. The people had escaped from the clutches of the priesthood of the Asclepiadse — who practiced medicine in the ancient temples of iEscu- lapius more than five hundred years previous to this time — only to be enslaved by a more bigoted and intol- erant priesthood. The former, in addition to their tomfoolery, absurd rites and ceremonies, had cultivated medicine as a real 52 MEDICAL HERESIES. art, and were making some progress therein ; but the latter abandoned the use of medicinal agents and re- sorted to such means as the laying on of hands, anoint- ing with holy oils, ointments, and holy waters, prayers, incantations, relics of saints and apostles, and so on. According to this method of curing diseases a knowl- edge of the structure of the human body was unneces- sary, and consequently anatomy languished and died. It made no difference how the different organs per- formed their functions, the cure was effected all the same, and physiology was not cultivated. Pathology was not of the slightest consequence, and as little or no value was set upon the use of medicine, a knowl- edge of materia medica and chemistry was regarded as useless ; hence, a cultivation of all the sciences necessary upon which to found a rational system of medicine was neglected, and in many instances positively for- bidden. The same ignorance and superstition in a more refined form which had prevailed in Egypt two thousand years before, in regard to the influence of the gods in producing disease, was revived. All diseases, plagues and pestilences were regarded as a providential visitation for some imaginary or real sin, and although human sacrifices, or the sacrifice of animals or the first fruits of the earth, were not resorted to to appease the wrath of the offended divinities, the same methods, in the way of prayers, incantations, etc., were DESTRUCTION OF THE SCHOOL AT ATHENS. 53 adopted, but addressed to other gods. For ray own part, I have more confidence in a few barrels of carbolic acid or chloride of lime in arresting an epidemic than I have in all the petitions which ever ascended to the throne. Cures were often effected, however, in this way, principally of chronic diseases and nervous disorders, which class of cases is the most easily influenced by mental impressions, which is the real modus operandi by which they were relieved, as it was by the Ascle- piadae in the ancient temples. If the patients did not recover and pestilences cease their ravages, it was because it was not the will of Him whose servants they repre- sented themselves to be. During the fourth and fifth centuries Christianity extended its doctrines throughout the Roman Empire, and the pagan philosophers, who still taught philosophy, the arts and sciences, as well as medicine, were every- where persecuted by the bigoted and intolerant Christians; and during the reign of Justinian, 527-565 A.D., they were deprived of their annuities, which had been con- ferred upon them ages before, and were compelled to seek safety in foreign countries. The renowned schools at Athens and other places were completely obliterated. A few words by way of digression are necessary to explain how medicine was transferred from the Roman Empire to Arabia. Slight differences of opinion among Christians were sometimes sufficient to lead to the most bloody tragedies. 54 MEDICAL HERESIES. • In 429 a.d. Nestorius was elected Bishop of Constanti- nople, where he began to persecute all heretics, and invoked the aid of the civil authorities to help him free the country of them. But he was soon persecuted in turn, because he could not square his belief by the in- flexible rule of orthodoxy. His offense consisted in denying that Mary was the mother of God. He did not believe that humanity could be the parent of divinity, and that the latter could receive nourishment and suste- nance through the body of the former, or could suffer or die. He did not deny, however, that both divinity and humanity were united in the person of Christ, but claimed that Mary was the mother of the latter only — a very sensible view of the matter, and one that would not excite such a bitter controversy among the more intelligent Christians of to-day. For preaching this doctrine Nestorius was banished to Tarsus, where he was captured by the barbarians in 435 A.D., and soon afterward met with an accidental death. I give this brief biographical sketch of Nestorius because the sect of Christians which bore his name was the means by which medicine was conveyed into Persia and Arabia, and consequently the first step on the road to its preservation from total destruction. The Nestorians, after their expulsion from the Em- pire, settled at Edessa, in Mesopotamia, where they es- tablished a school of medicine which soon became re- nowned, and students gathered there from all countries BAGHDAD. 55 to be instructed in the art. They taught clinical medi- cine in a public hospital, which is thought to have been the first institution of the kind established in the world for that purpose. They found an asylum in this infi- del country, where they were protected and encouraged. They established schools at other points ; and be it said, to the shame and disgrace of the church, and to the credit and honor of the Persians, that there was more religious tolerance in the country of the latter than in all Christendom. It was by means of these schools established by the Nestorians, and the teachings of the philosophers who were expelled from Athens by Justinian, that medicine and other arts and sciences were introduced into Arabia, where they were preserved for a period of nearly ten centuries, and restored to the West after the revival of letters in the fourteenth century. During the eighth century (762-766 a.d.,) the Caliph Almansur built the city of Baghdad, which became fa- mous as a seat of learning. A medical school was estab- lished here, at which the number of students in attendance at one time is said to have been over six thousand. It was under the patronage of these schools and the authorities who protected and encouraged them that the works of the ancient Greek physicians and philosophers were translated into the Arabic. This was accomplished under the reign of the Caliph Almamun, in the first half of the ninth century. They also established num- 56 MEDICAL HERESIES. erous schools in Spain during the eighth century ; the most famous in the world was the University of Cordova, founded by Alhakem the Second. Before his death he had collected 600,000 volumes of manuscripts, of which the catalogues alone filled forty huge folios. The arts, sciences, music and medicine were taught in this university, and the inhabitants of this city were the most highly cultured of any people in the whole world at that time. Many authors in medicine appeared from time to time, among the Arabians, of which there were over two hundred and fifty in Spain alone. It is altogether foreign to my purpose to give any ex- tracts from their writings, as they produced no new theories or dogmas upon which any new sect or school was founded, which is the particular line of information sought in preparing this essay. Among their most prominent authors may be mentioned the following : Rhazes, who was famous about the close of the ninth century. He was a professor in the renowned school at Baghdad. The most valuable of his works were on the subject of chem- istry, of which there were several volumes. Hali Abbas flourished about the close of the tenth century. Among his writings his work on diet is considered a good production for the age in which he lived. Avicenna, another one of their celebrated authors, was born at Bokharra, in Chorassan, about 980 a.d. He ARABIAN IMPROVEMENTS. 57 was the author of a renowed work, called the Ca?i. He received a fine classical education, after HARVEY. 81 which he studied medicine at the University of Padua, under the tuition of Fabricius, and Julius Casserius, and other famous teachers attached to this school, which at that time was one of the most celebrated in the world. After graduating with honor he returned to England in 1602 A. d. In 1609 he was appointed physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and in 1615, Lumleian lec- turer at the College of Physicians, which position he held for forty-one years. During the early portion of his career as a lecturer he began to demonstrate his dis- covery of the circulation of the blood to his classes, but did not publish it to the world until about ten years later. This was the most important discovery of the age, and marks the beginning of a new era in anatomy and physiology, and opened up the way to other inves- tigations of great importance to the science. Strange to say this discovery met with the most violent opposition, especially from the older members of the profession. The rising generation generally espoused the cause of Harvey and truth. It was fully twenty-five years before all opposition was silenced. Harvey also made a valu- able contribution to the then existing knowledge on the subject of generation. He occupied a conspicuous place in the profession, having been chosen, in addition to his other honors, physician to Charles I. whom he accom- panied during his campaigns. Harvey was devoted to his profession, bequeathing nearly all his property to his favorite institution, the 82 MEDICAL HERESIES. College of Physicians. He died of gout, June 3d, 1657. The progress of anatomy, physiology and chemistry during the remainder of this and the eighteenth century was remarkably rapid. Previously physiology had occupied a subordinate position, owing to its intimate association with the Chemical and Mechanical sects, but now both physiology and chemistry were rapidly advanced to their proper rank in the sciences; but the most brilliant discoveries in both these departments were reserved for the nineteenth century. THE EXPECTANT SCHOOL. 83 CHAPTER X. Progress of Medicine During the Close of the Seventeenth Cen- tury and the First Half of the Eighteenth — New Schools Founded Upon Improvements in Physiology During this Period — Expectant School — Ernest Stahl — Principles and Practice of this School — Hoffman's System — Boerhaave — Cullen's System — The Brunonian System — The Last of the Dogmatic Schools. During the closing years of the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth, when physiology was still overburdened with theoretical speculations, there arose several new systems of medicine, which seemed to be a natural outgrowth of the imperfect knowledge of this science, and upon which they were principally based ; and as these theories still exert some influence in the profession it will be necessary to notice them briefly ; although the rapid advance made in the sciences soon exploded them as separate systems of medicine. The first one of these which claims our attention is the EXPECTANT SCHOOL, which was founded upon the doctrines of George Ernest Stahl, who was born at Ainspach in 1 660 A. D. He studied medicine at the University of Jena, and in 1694 was chosen professor of medicine, anatomy and chemistry at 84 MEDICAL HERESIES. the newly established University of Halle. In 1716 he was appointed physician to the King of Prussia, and removed to Berlin, where he died in 1734. Stahl's system seems to have been founded upon a union of a physiological theory, mostly borrowed from Van Helmont, and the psychological doctrines of Descartes. The gist of the system is that there is a mysterious force which resides in the body, and which is inde- pendent of and superior to matter. This force, which he calls the anima or soul, not only forms the body, but presides over it and directs all its functions, either con- sciously or unconsciously, and being subject to error by nature, this anima, by abnormal action originates dis- eases, which are cured by the functional activity of the organs; and further, that this force is sufficient to accomplish said cure without artificial aid. This theory laid the foundation for the expectant plan of treatment, which has exerted a noxious influence in some por- tions of the medical world ever since its promulgation. His theories were extensively indorsed in some parts of Europe, and continued to govern the practice, especially in France, for a number of years. He held that plethora and anaemia were the principal causes of disease, arid that in their treatment art should not be resorted to until after Nature had failed, and even then it should be so used as to fulfill the indications of the latter. The expectant plan of treatment will be referred to in treat- ing of another branch of the subject. BOERHAAVE. 85 Frederick Hoffman, a contemporary of Stahl, born in the same year (1660 A. d.), and a professor in the same university (Halle), achieved a great reputation as a prac- titioner and amassed a large fortune, I am sorry to record, a considerable portion of which was from the sale of secret remedies. The system of Hoffman was rather vague and indefinite, and was based upon the supposed influence which the nervous system exerts in the pro- duction of disease, coupled to which was a humoral pathology, some form of which seemed to prevail almost everywhere at that time. His greatest work, which he was twenty years in preparing, was published at Halle, in 1740, in nine volumes, under the title of A RaHonal System of Medicine. Neither one of the preceding professors exerted such a powerful influence, however, as Hermann Boerhaave, one of the most celebrated physicians of the eighteenth century. He was born at Voorhout, near Leyden, in 1668 a.d. He received a classical education, with a view of becoming a clergyman. He was master of the Greek, Latin and Hebrew languages, together with their litera- ture. He received his degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the age of twenty-one years, and began the study of medicine, reading carefully the works of Hippocrates from among the ancients, and Sydenham among the moderns. He received his Doctor's degree at Harder- wyck, at the age of twenty-four years, and returned to Leyden, where, at the age of twenty-nine years, he was 86 MEDICAL HERESIES. appointed lecturer on the Theory of Medicine. At different times he filled the chairs of Chemistry, Botany, and Practical Medicine, enriching them all in turn. He published several works in which his system is ex- plained. He contributed extensively toward establish- ing what is familiarly known to all physicians as the Humoral Pathology, and is ingeniously compounded from physics, chemistry and physiology. As this system is familiar to almost everybody, it is dismissed without further notice. Boerhaave achieved greater fame during his lifetime than usually falls to the lot of man. The celebrity of philosophers, poets, authors and artists is frequently posthumous; but Boerhaave, long prior to his death, was celebrated as a great physician all over the civilized world. Peter the Great of Russia is said to have been at one time his patient. A Chinese mandarin addressed a letter to " Herr Boerhaave, Celebrated Physician, Europe," which in due time was received by him. The three preceding systems were founded upon the imperfect knowledge of physiology existing at the time, and as rapid advances were made during this historical period in this science, they were soon modified or super- seded by other systems more in harmony with the im- proved condition of the science ; and especially was this the case after the publication of Haller's great work on Human Physiology (1757-1766). William Cullen, one of the most celebrated physicians CULLEN. 87 of the last century, was born at Lanarkshire, in 1710 A.D. He was educated at the University of Glasgow, and studied medicine with Dr. Paisley, a very highly edu- cated and liberal-minded man, who possessed a valuable library, of which young Cullen doubtless made good use. He was also the friend and companion of Dr. William Hunter, they having spent three years under the same roof. He graduated in Medicine at Glasgow, in 1741. He was a close student and an untiring laborer in his pro- fession during his whole life. He lectured upon the various subjects connected with medicine for several years, at the Glasgow University, until he was called to Edinburgh, to accept a position in the faculty of that University. He filled several positions 'in the faculty of this institution at different times, but was not ad- vanced to the one he was best qualified to adorn until 1773, when he was chosen professor of theory and prac- tice. He died in 1790. In Cullen's time the medical world was distracted by the prevailing systems of Stahl, Hoffman and Boerhaave. Not being satisfied with either, he proceeded to inaugu- rate a system of his own, which was compounded from Haller's theory of irritability and Hoffman's theory of nervous influence in the production of disease. His principal. objection to StahPs system was on account of the expectant practice which it encouraged. Yet he placed a very high estimate upon the Vis Medicatrix Naturce, which is the same thing, viewed from a different 88 MEDICAL HERESIES. standpoint, as Stahl's Anima or Rational Soul, or Hoff- man's Nervous Influence, or the Animal Spirits of Galen, and the principle called Nature by Hippocrates. John Brown, the founder of the Brunonian system of medicine, was born in Bunkle Parish, Berwickshire, in 1735 a.d., and was educated at the grammar-school of Dunse. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, and was for a number of 'years tutor to the children of the famous Dr. Cullen, and also his assistant in his course of lectures at the University. He became- highly offended at some imaginary slight put upon him by Cullen, and immediately began lecturing upon a new system of medicine of his own. Brown's system was founded upon what he called " Excitability," which he did not attempt to explain. He regarded man as a kind of machine which responded to certain stimulants, and, consequently, life was a forced condition. He divided diseases into tw T o great classes : those of a sthenic and those of an asthenic character, the former of which were to be treated with depressing remedies, and the latter with stimulants. This was equivalent to opening up another royal road to the study of medicine, which bid fair to eclipse that of the ancient Methodics, who boasted of their ability to teach the whole art in six months. The only thing required in Brown's system was for a practitioner to be able to decide to which class of diseases his cases belonged, and treat them accordingly. And BROWN. 89 as nearly all diseases were considered as asthenic, and consequently required stimulants, the treatment was indorsed generally by the patient, because it gratified his appetite. Such a system will always find followers in the profession, because it encourages indolence and requires little hard study. Brown was an attractive lecturer, and gained a considerable following in a very short time; but his course was essentially meteoric, a brilliant flash across the medical horizon, followed by death in darkness. He died in London, of intemper- ance, in 1788. 90 MEDICAL HERESIES. CHAPTER XL Concluding Bemarhs on Ancient Dogmatism — Medicine and Philosophy — Materia Medica of the Ancients. From the earliest period of which we have any knowledge of medicine down to the close of the eight- eenth century, certain prominent characters have at- tempted to formulate general principles upon which to base systems which it was hoped would be sufficient to explain all the various phenomena connected therewith, and at the same time furnish indications upon which the treatment of all diseases might be based. This gave rise to the various sects, schools or systems in medicine which have appeared from time to time in its history, begin- ning with the Dogmatic, 400 B.C., and ending with the Brunonian, about the close of the eighteenth century A.D. After the failure of Brown's system no further at- tempt was made to establish a school of medicine upon any specific dogma, with the exception of several minor systems of quackery. With the death of dogmatism begins the Rational age in the history of medicine. A very brief summary of the principles upon which the various ancient dogmatic schools were founded has been given, without any discussion of the contemporaneous systems of philosophy upon which they are based. Medicine, during this entire period, was continually ANCIENT MATERIA MEDICA. 91 shifting its features, in order to conform as nearly as possible to the prevailing systems of philosophy. I have also avoided as much as possible the discussion of the materia medica of the ancients or their treatment of special diseases, which in many instances was pecu- liarly absurd, or even disgusting, and of no particular interest, only to the antiquarian. All kinds of substances were used as medicines, animal, vegetable and mineral. Those drawn from the animal kingdom form the most disgusting portion of the materia medica, which consisted of the flesh of lizards, crocodiles, vipers, the brains of wolves, the heads of mice, the bodies of moles, the livers, lungs, blood and organs of generation of animals, etc. This would not have been so bad, but they used the excrements of various animals, both internally and ex- ternally. The entire bodies of patients were frequently anointed with cow-manure, for numerous diseases ; and poultices of mashed spiders were bound to the temples ; and the heart of the hare was worn upon the back of the neck, for the cure of malarious intermittents. However disgusting and irrational these external applications may appear to the intelligent people of to-day, they were doubtless as effective in relieving disease as the patent plasters and absorbing liver pads which are patronized by the idiots of the present generation. Newly-born puppies were boiled and eaten, for the purpose of pre- serving the patient from attacks of colic during the remainder of his days, and a great many similar absurdi- 92 MEDICAL HERESIES. ties. Yet it will be seen, by consulting some of their earliest works on this subject, that the ancients were not deficient in materials for use in medicine. Theophrastus, who was a pupil and contemporary of both Plato and Aristotle, and president of the Lyceum at Athens for thirty-five years, was the author of eighteen books relating to the various departments of botany, and is the first of the ancients whose works on this subject have been transmitted to us. They are more valuable, how- ' ever, to the botanist than the physician. He died at Athens (287 B.C.), at the advanced age of one hundred and seven years. The most valuable work of the ancients upon the subject, and from which nearly all subsequent authors have copied largely, is that of Dioscorides, who is supposed to have flourished in the first or second century, a.d. He accompanied the Roman armies as physician, on many of their campaigns, during which time he collected a great store of information upon the medicinal qualities of plants, which he afterwards composed into a work on materia medica. This work formed the real foundation of the science, and has been accepted as such for nearly fifteen centuries. He enumerated in his work on this subject 958 articles which were used as medicines. This is more than double the number of officinal preparations now in use. Of these substances, 700 were plants, 90 were composed of minerals, and 168 were drawn from the animal kingdom. ANTIDOTES. 93 The Arabian physicians followed Dioscorides closely, his works having been translated into their language. Rhazes describes in his writings 765 articles of the materia niedica, and Avicenna about 750, but Eben Baithar expands his materials until the number reached 1400. This would simply be appalling to a modern student of medicine. The number of articles used in medicine has been curtailed materially in modern times. Many substances upon which the ancients placed great value have been ascertained to be almost inert, while others are now considered valuable as articles of food, which were formerly used as medicines only. In this way the number of the materials used has been lessened greatly and about everything of little or no value has been weeded out, while it is to be hoped that everything of much consequence has been retained. Some few medicines of great value have been handed down from the ancient Egyptians, who used them, with- out doubt, before the beginning of the historical period. The Arabians contributed several valuable articles to the materia medica, which will continue to be used as long as the science exists. In fact, this department has been enriched all along the line. What seems to us most absurd was the peculiar manner in which the ancients compounded their medicines, under the general name of antidotes, which were composed of numerous ingredients mixed together, apparently without any view to their specific action, and of which almost every practitioner 94 MEDICAL HERESIES. seems to have concocted one for himself, which he pre- scribed for almost every diseased condition. This was particularly the case with the celebrated composition, called Theriac, which consisted of nearly one hundred and fifty ingredients, even a list of which would be too long for this essay, without describing the method of com- pounding it. I must say, however, that four or five vipers entered into this composition, and that they had to be of a tawny color, recently taken, and after their heads had been removed and four finger-breadths cut from their tails, to be boiled, after removing the skin and entrails, until the flesh dropped from the bones, be- fore they were ready to be mixed with the other ingre- dients. After this preparation had been compounded according to the directions, which I have not quoted, for want of space, it was to be kid up in silver or glass vessels, not quite full, and the covers taken off every day. In case of great emergency, when a person had been bitten by a venomous animal, or taken poison of any sort, or in case any pestilential disease made its appearance, this medicine will have acquired sufficient virtues to be used in seven years after it is compounded; but in all other cases it will not have matured sufficiently for use until ten years have elapsed ; and it is said to retain its virtues for a period of forty years. This celebrated medicine was not dropped from the British Pharmacopoeia until about one hundred and twen- ty-five years ago, and then it was rejected by one majority THEEIAC. 95 only, in a vote of twenty-seven. There was an immense number of these antidotes in use, one authority, Myrep- sus, giving formulae for compounding over five hundred of them. None of them, however, contained as many ingredients as the Theriac. 9G MEDICAL HEEESIES. CHAPTER XII. Homoeopathy, as Taught by Hahnemann. The principles of the various ancient dogmatic systems of medicine, with few exceptions, were adopted and taught by the contemporary schools and colleges. The progress of medicine was essentially slow; its strides were centennial, it required centuries to abolish an error or institute a reform. The Dogmatic school, which was formed by the immediate followers of Hippocrates, about the year 400 B.C., was without a rival for 113 years, when the Empiric school was instituted by Philinus and his disciples, 287 B.C. This school divided the honors and emoluments of the profession with the Dog- matics until about the middle of the century immediately preceding the Christian era ; then arose the Methodics, which, with its subdivisions, the Eclectics and Pneumat- ics, together with the two former, continued to flourish until the coming of Galen, who was born 131 A.D. Galen revived and revised Dogmatism, and im- pressed it so firmly upon the medical world, that it required fifteen centuries to loosen its shackles. The more modern schools, owing to the revival of letters and the advancement made in the science of physiology and chemistry, were short-lived. The systems of Stahl, Hoif- man, Boerhaave, Cullen and Brown soon melted away HOMOEOPATHY. 97 under the influence of our better knowledge of these sciences, and no further attempts to establish a system upon the basis of a specific dogma ever had any extensive following in, or succeeded in capturing the medical department of, any college or university; and although homoeopathy, which was founded by Hahnemann in the earlier years of the present century, had a considerable number of adherents, it never succeeded in gaining a foothold in any of the universities. Nearly a quarter of a century elapsed before it was introduced into this country; its progress at first was rather slow; but it has at present among its disciples numerous and respectable teachers and practitioners, who are highly cultured gen- tlemen, and who have established schools and hospitals in all the principal cities in the Union. For a long time homoeopathy was assailed by ridicule only, by the regular medical profession ; yet it has con- tinued to thrive upon it. However, the illusion, for such it is, is entitled to more serious consideration ; its fallacies ought to be met and discussed according to the ordinary rules applied to scientific investigations. This I pro- pose to do, by first showing what homoeopathy was, as taught bv Hahnemann, with the scientific objections thereto ; and secondly, what homoeopathy is now. This plan will necessarily give rise to some repetition, but as little will be indulged in as is compatible with a full statement and discussion of the subject. Homoeopathy, although originally a strictly Dogmatic school, with 98 MEDICAL HERESIES. certain fixed principles promulgated by Hahnemann, is now divided into several different sects, about as follows: 1st. Pure homoeopathists, who believe that the law of similars is the only therapeutic law, and that high dilu- tions and triturations, which have been properly dynam- ized, constitute the only proper medicines to be used. 2d. Those who believe that the law of similars is the only law, but use either high or low dilutions. 3d. Those who believe that the law of similars is not universal, although a law, and consequently use high and low dilutions, and occasionally doses of the crude drugs. Samuel Hahnemann, the originator of the Homoeopathic school of medicine, was born at Meissen, a small village near Dresden, the capital of Saxony, in 1755 a.d. His father designed him to follow the same occupation as himself, he being a painter of Dresden china ; but young Hahnemann displayed such an ardent desire for letters that this design was abandoned, and he was permitted to attend the small college of his native village gratuitously, until he was twenty years of age. He then went to Leipsic, taking his entire fortune, which consisted of forty crowns, with him, where he began the study of medicine. Pie not only paid his entire expense while at this place, by translating Latin, French and English works into German, but actually saved enough to enable him to visit Vienna, where he completed his medical studies. He returned to Dresden in 1784, where he remained for five years, being a portion of the time in HAHNEMANN. 99 charge of a large hospital. In 1789 he returned to Leipsic. In 1790 he translated Cullen's Materia Medica from the English into the German, and while engaged in this translation he was struck with the insufficiency of the explanations of the modus operandi of cinchona bark in curing ague, and it occurred to him to take a large dose, in order to see what the effect would be on the healthy body. In a few days he had well marked symptoms of ague ; and he concluded that the reason why cinchona cures ague is, because it has the power to pro- duce symptoms in a healthy person similar to those of ague. Hahnemann spent several years in studying and elaborating this subject, and, in 1797, published an article in Huf eland's Journal, proposing to apply this principle to the discovery of the proper medicine for every form of disease. He published, in 1808, his great work, the Organon, which has been translated into all the European languages and also the Arabic. The principles of homoeopathy are fully explained in this book. From 1810 to 1821 he was engaged in publishing his works on materia medica, giving descriptions of the action of medicines upon persons in health. The homoeopathic system requires the administration of medicines singly, or but one remedy at a time, and in very minute doses. This was against the interest of the apothecaries, and they prosecuted him, under the law which forbade physicians dispensing their own medicines, and he was compelled to leave Leipsic. 100 MEDICAL HERESIES. By special invitation of the Grand Duke of Anhalt- Kothen, in 1821 he took up his residence at Kothen, where he continued to reside for fourteen years. While at this place he prepared several new volumes of his Or^anon and works on materia medica. In 1835 he removed to Paris, where he enjoyed a great reputation until his death, which occurred in 1843. " Si77iilia similibas curantur" or diseases are cured by remedies which have the power of exciting a similar train of symptoms in the healthy body to the disease to be treated, is the leading principle of homoeopathy. The law of similars requires that only one medicine shall be administered at a time, and not until it has been proven; i.e. thoroughly tested by being administered to a healthy pharmacometer, and the symptoms produced thereby carefully noted. This originally was all there was of homoeopathy, Hahnemann having promulgated this law of similars, and put it into practice by way of experi- ment, several years before he saw the necessity of infinit- esimal doses. He was soon convinced that remedies administered in sensible quantities, according to this law, usually coincided with the disease, and in place of benefiting the patient nearly always aggravated the symptoms. In fact, it was taught afterward by Hahne- mann, and is the accepted doctrine of pure homoeopath ists, that a well chosen remedy of the thirtieth attenuation is capable of producing aggravations. This statement is clearly proven by reports of his own cases, one of which / ATTENUATIONS. 101 is of particular interest, and was reported in Huf eland's Journal, in 1797. This was a case of cholera morbus, for which he prescribed veratrum album, a drug which has a violent emeto-cathartic action, and, of course, coin- cided with and aggravated the disease ; but the patient reacted, and actually recovered, triumphing over both disease and maltreatment. But Hahnemann, with that strange inconsistency with which many of his conclusions are characterized, regarded, or pretended to regard, the re- sult in this case a complete vindication of the law of similars. When this case was reported he had been elaborating and perfecting this system for about seven years, and had gone too far to recede. He had staked his all on the truth of the proposition, " Sim ilia similibus curan- tur." To retreat was impossible. He w r as compelled to move forward, but had to add a new principle; and thus came about high dilutions and triturations. This prin- ciple is not one of the results growing out of his spirit- like dynamic pathology; that was an afterthought, and manufactured in order to comply with the transcendental basis of his therapeutics ; a sort of logical necessity. The law of similars had been promulgated several years before, but experience and observation had taught him that medicine could not be prescribed in sensible quan- tities in accordance with this law. Hence the attenua- tions followed. It has been the rule with all schools of medicine, and will continue to be so for all time, that the therapeutical 102 MEDICAL HERESIES. application of remedies is based upon the pathological conditions known to be, or supposed to be, present in the case to be treated. Hahnemann having announced his law of similars, and in accordance therewith having been forced into high dilutions and triturations, and recogniz- ing the absurdity of treating the material pathological changes which take place in diseases with such attenu- ated remedies, was compelled, I repeat, to manufacture an attenuated pathology, which is explained in the Organon about as follows: — Disease consists of a disordered condition of the vital, spirit-like, or dynamic force of the body, which manifests itself by certain disordered sensations or symptoms, the to- tality of which constitutes the disease or thing to be treated. Thus it will be seen that Hahnemann elevated his pathology above anything material, and placed it upon the same dynamic plane occupied by his therapeutics. This transcendental pathology is emphatically insisted upon in the Organon, as we will show by a few quota- tions from Wesselhoeft's translation of Hahnemann's principal work, which is the one used in the preparation of this essay. " Diseases will not cease to be (spiritual) dynamic aberrations of our spirit-like life, manifested by sensations and actions; that is, they will not cease, for the sake of those foolish and groundless hypotheses, to be immaterial modifications of our sensorial condition (health). These causes of our diseases cannot be material ones (What nosologist ever TRANSCENDENTAL PATHOLOGY. 103 beheld with bodily eyes such morbific matter, that he should speak so confidently of it, and make it the basis of a medical procedure?) Even if some material substance, brought in contact with the skin or a wound, had propagated diseases by infection, who can prove (as has often been asserted in our works on path- ogeny) that some material particle of that substance had mingled with, or had been absorbed by, the juices of our body? " " Is it possible to admit the existence of material morbific matter and its transition into the blood in this and all such cases? A letter written in the sick room, and sent a great distance, has often imparted to the recipient the same miasmatic disease. Can material morbific matter be thought of in this case as having: permeated the humors of the body ? " 4< That no disease (unless occasioned by entirely indigestible or other hurtful matter, swal- lowed or lodged in the primse viae or other apertures and cavities of the body, or caused, e. g., by a foreign sub- stance penetrating the skin) can be derived from the presence of any material substance, but that each disease is always and only a special, virtual and dynamical discordancy of our sensorial condition (health). . . " * " In sickness this spirit-like, self-acting (automatic) vital force, omnipresent in the organism, is alone primarily deranged by the dynamic influence of some morbific agency inimical to life. Only this abnormally modified vital force can excite morbid sensations in the organism, and determine the abnormal functional activity which we call disease. This force, itself invisible, be- comes perceptible only through its effects upon the organ- ism, makes known, and has no other way of making known, its morbid disturbance to the observer and phy- sician than by the manifestation of morbid feelings and functions ; that is, by symptoms of disease in the visible material organism "f * Pages 23, 24 and 25 of the Organon. f Page 68 of the Organon. 104 MEDICAL HERESIES. "§12. Diseases are produced only by the morbidly disturbed vital force • " § 13. Hence, disease (not subject to the manual skill of surgery), considered by allopathists as a material thing hidden within, but distinct from, the living whole (the organism and its life-giving vital force), is a nonentity, however subtile it is thought to be." * Hahnemann and his followers attached so much im- portance to their belief in the nonentity of disease, that they attempted to obliterate the nomenclature of disease as used by the physicians of former times, and in speak- ing of any particular case they would not say the patient had the rheumatism, gout or typhoid fever, but would proceed to enumerate the "totality of symptoms" as manifested by the disordered sensations in the case, as the proper thing to do. Hahnemann discouraged investigations with a view of ascertaining the causes of disease, and even ridiculed the older physicians for efforts made in that direction, saying : " They fancied they could find the cause of dis- ease, but they did not find it, because it is unrecognizable and not to be found, since by far the greater number of diseases are of a dynamic (spirit-like) origin and nature ; their cause, therefore, remaining unrecognizable." He also, in the same paragraph, reproves the old school physicians for studying practical and pathological ana- tomy, as well as physiology, and censures them for the conclusions drawn from a study of the subject, thus indi- *Page 08 of the Organon. HOMOEOPATHIC LAW OF CURE. 105 eating rather plainly that he did not approve of the study of those necessary branches of medicine, which is perfectly consistent with his views of the nature of dis- ease ; for if disease consists of disordered vital force, and is to be prescribed for simply in accordance with the totality of symptoms, a knowledge of these branches is certainly not necessary. ".SIMILIA SIMILIBUS CURANTUR." In order to effect a homoeopathic cure an artificial drug-disease must be substituted, which must be similar to but stronger than the natural disease. This artificial affection, after overcoming the natural disease, will itself yield to the vital force, and thus leave the organism free from disease. This law is crystallized into the expres- sion "Similia similibus curantur," and is considered by homoeopathists as the most important principle upon which their system is founded. Before a medicine can be prescribed in accordance with the law of similars, it is necessary that it should be proved. For this purpose the article to be tested is administered to perfectly healthy persons, who are to observe a carefully prescribed diet and regimen during the process, and observe carefully all the pathogenetic symptoms which appear while under its influence. DILUTIONS. High dilutions and triturations also form an important part of the principles of homoeopathy, and are rendered necessary because medicines prescribed in sensible quan- 106 MEDICAL HERESIES. tides, according to the law of similars, always produce an aggravation of the symptoms in direct proportions to the quantity administered. "Although a homoeopath ically selected remedy, by virtue of its fitness and minuteness of dose, quietly cancels or extinguishes an analogous disease, without manifesting any of its unhomceopathic symptoms — that is to say, without exciting additional perceptible sen- sations—it will, nevertheless, as a rule (or in the course of a few hours) produce a slight aggravation, resembling the original disease so closely that the patient actually considers it as such * " § 158. This slight homoeopathic aggravation during the first hours is quite in order, and in case of an acute disease, generally serves as an excellent indication that it will yield to the first dose. The drug-disease must naturally be somewhat more intense, in order to over- come and extinguish the natural diseases; so it is only by superior intensity that one natural disease can ex- tinguish another of similar nature." f "§159. The smaller the dose of the homoeopathic remedy, so much the smaller and shorter is the apparent aggravation of the disease during the first hours." J "A physician accustomed to close observation will ex- perience no great difficulty in distinguishing aggravation from improvement." It is claimed bv Hahnemann and his followers that during the process of dilution, trituration and agitation, these medicines so treated have imparted to them a dynamic power or force which is not possessed by them as material agents, and that this potentiality is increased by the number of shakings, as well as the dilutions. "Desirous of employing a certain rule for the devel- * Page 139 of the Organon. f Page 140 of the Organon. % Page 174 of the Organon. POTENTIATING. 107 opcaent of powers of fluid medicines, I have been led by manifold experiences and accurate observations to prefer two instead of repeated strokes of succussion for each vial, since the latter method tended to potentiate the medicines too highly I dissolved one grain of soda in half an ounce (1 Loth.) of water mixed with a little alcohol contained in a vial, two- thirds of which it filled ; after shaking this solution uninterruptedly for half an hour, it was equal in potentiation and efficacy to the thirtieth development of strength." * It is conceded by Hahnemann that these medicines act by their dynamic power only, and not as physical or chemical agencies, and that diseases, being of a spirit- like nature, cannot be reached in any other way than by a dynamic force. " Our vital force, that spirit-like dynamis, cannot be reached nor affected except by a spirit-like (dynamic) process, resulting from the hurtful influences of hostile agencies from the outer world acting upon the healthy organism, and disturbing the harmonious process of life. Neither can the physician free the vital force from any of these morbid disturbances, i. e., diseases, except like- wise by spirit-like (dynamic, virtual) alterative powers of the appropriate remedies acting upon our spirit-like vital force." f These dilutions are prepared as follows : A strong solu- tion is first made, called the" mother tincture." One drop of this tincture is agitated with ninety -nine drops of al- cohol, which is called the first dilution, and marked No. 1. One drop of this number one dilution is again agitated with ninety-nine drops of alcohol and marked No. 2, *Page 221 of the Organon. fPage 69 of the Organon. 108 MEDICAL HERESIES. and so on up to the 30tli, which is the highest power recommended by Hahnemann, although some of his followers have continued them to the 1000th potency. Great care must be used in the preparation of dilu- tions, or their dynamic force will be increased so as to render their use dangerous. Hahnemann recommended that they should be shaken but twice, while some of his disciples use twelve powerful strokes.' " Finding that our 30th gave good satisfaction to physicians, we concluded to make in like manner High Potencies, that is, prepare them by hand, with pure alcohol, giving each potency twelve powerful strokes. We have thus carried up over 250 remedies to the 200th, 150 to the 500th, and 100 to the 1000th potency." * " Finding a bottle of the 29th dilution of Plumb, ac. dried up, the cork loose and dry, the idea occurred to him (Jenichen) to potentize from the bottle up to the 200th. A patient affected with hereditary fetid perspi- ration of the feet, smelt once of a few globules saturated with this potency, and in a few days was permanently cured. (Pentseh.)" "Dr. Hering, who is the acknowledged authority on this point, confirms this statement of Rentsch, and explains further that the high potencies, i. e., up to 800, are made iu bottles four and a half inches long and weighing one-half ounce. Each potency gets twelve strokes. The highest potencies — from 900 upward — are made in bottles weighing eighteen ounces, including the contents. Each potency gets thirty strokes. The vehicle used is the water of Lake Schwerin. . . His regular proportion of medicine to vehicle for the high potencies is 1-300, for the highest potencies 2-1200. Ever since Jenichen had found the Plumb, ac. 200 (made from the dried-up bottle of Plumb, ac. 29 ) so efficient in *From Boerick & Tufel's Catalogue and Price Current TRITURATION. 109 the cure of offensive foot-sweat, he made all the high potencies of the earths and minerals, as also some others, from evaporated phials." * " In addition to this, it must be remembered that the power of homoeopathic medicine is augmented (potenti- ated) by friction and succession at each successive divi- sion and comminution. This development of powers, unknown before my time, is so great, that in latter years convincing experience has led me to make use of two succussions after each dilution, where formerly 1 employed ten." f The strength of these dilutions is as follows : — No. 1 contains the one hundredth part of a drop. No. 2 the one ten thousandth part of a drop. No. 3 the one millionth part of a drop. No. 6, the one billionth ; and No. 30, the one decillionth part of a drop. If the substance is insoluble it is to be treated as follows : — One grain of the substance is to be triturated witli ninety-nine grains of sugar of milk and marked No. 1. And in the same manner one grain of No. 1 is to be triturated with ninety-nine grains of sugar of milk, in order to form trituration No. 2 ; and so on up to tritu- ration No. 5 or 6, when, according to a supposed new chemical law claimed to have been discovered by Hahne- mann, all substances become soluble, and the attenuations are continued by dilutions in alcohol, as in the case of the mother tincture. Minute pellets of sugar of milk are saturated with * Medical Counsellor, Chicago, April, 1880. f Page 222 of the Organon. 110 MEDICAL HERESIES. these solutions, varying in strength from the one hun- dredth to the decillionth part of a drop or grain. This constitutes the armamentarium of the homoeopathic physi- cian as he goes out to conquer the world of disease. As thin as these solutions and triturations seem to be, and as little account as they are known to be as physical forces, to all scientists, the patient does not always receive the full effect, if any, that might be derived from their proper administration, for they are sometimes adminis- tered by olfaction, even for the cure of the most inveterate diseases, as will be shown by the following: — "In case of a sudden derangement of the stomach, marked by constant and offensive eructations, tasting of tainted food, and usually accompanied by depression of spirits, cold hands and feet, the efforts of the ordinary practitioner have been directed altogether against the vitiated contents of the stomach, using active emetics to effect their complete expulsion." * After criticising this practice severely, he says further : " But, if in the place of using such powerful and in- jurious evacuants, the patient will apply but once, by olfaction, the highly diluted juice of pulsatilla (smelling of a globule no larger than a mustard seed, moistened with the same), it will relieve the derangement of his condition in general, and that of his stomach in particu- lar, and restore him in two hours, f " [149] § 288. Homoeopathic remedies will act with the greatest certainty and efficacy, particularly by smell- ing or inhaling them in the form of vapor emanating continually from a dry pellet impregnated with a highly rarefied medicinal solution, and contained in a small vial. The homoeopathic physician should apply the * Page 48 of the Organon. * Page 224 of the Organon. MEDICATION BY OLFACTION. Ill mouth of the vial first to one nostril of the patient, and request him to inhale the air from the vial; and if the dose is to be somewhat stronger, the vial should also be applied to the other nostril, the patient inhaling more or less vigorously, in proportion to the intended strength of the dose, whereupon the vial should be replaced, well- corked, in his pocket-case, to prevent abuse. Hence the physician may dispense entirely with the services of an apothecary, if he chooses to do so. Globules (of which ten y twenty or a hundred weigh a grain) moistened with the thirtieth potentiated dilution, and then dried, retain their full strength undiminished for at least eighteen or twenty years (as far as my experience reaches), even if the vial had been opened a thousand times, provided, however, it had been well protected from heat and sun- light. In case the patient's nostrils were obstructed by coryza or polypus, he should inhale through the mouth while holding the aperture of the vial between his lips. A certain result may be obtained in the case of infants by holding the vial close to their nostrils during sleep. The inhaled medicinal vapor comes into immediate con- tact with- the nerves distributed over the parietes of the cavities, through which it passes, and thus stimulates the vital force into curative action in the mildest, but at the same time, in the most energetic manner. This is much superior to all other modes of administering medicines by the mouth. Every kind of internal chronic disease not entirely ruined by allopathy, as well as the most acute diseases that can be cured at all by homoeopathy (what, indeed, cannot be cured by it, except surgical diseases requiring manual skill ?), are most surely and effectually cured by this process of olfaction. But of the great number of patients who, for a year past, have sought my aid and that of my assistant, there is scarcely onewhose chronic or acute disease we had not treated successfully alone by means of olfaction. During the latter half" of this year I became convinced of the fact (which T would not have believed before), that by this process of olfaction the power of the medicine is exerted 112 MEDICAL HERESIES. upon the patient, at least in the same degree of intensity, and, in fact, more quietly, though quite as long as that of a large dose of medicine administered by the mouth, and that, consequently, the process of olfaction is not to be repeated at shorter periods than if the medicine were given in material doses by the mouth. * "Even patients deprived of their sense of smell are influenced and cured in an equally perfect manner by inhaling medicinal vapor through the nose." f Although these homoeopathic doses are so exceedingly small as to escape the most minute search for their pres- ence, the doctrine is plainly taught in the Organon, that it is derogatory to the best interests of the patient to administer a second dose until after the first has ceased to act, which, in some cases, is a period of several days, as will be shown by foot-note 126, page 213, of the Or- ganon, which we will insert here. " In the former editions of the Organon I have recommended that a single dose of a well-selected homoeopathic remedy should be allowed to terminate its operation before the same or a new remedy is repeated, a doctrine derived from the certain experience that the greatest amount of good can scarcely ever be accomplished, particularly in chronic diseases, by a large dose of medi- cine (a retrogressive measure recently proposed), how- ever well selected ; or, what amounts to the same thing, by several small doses administered in rapid succession, because a procedure of this kind will not permit the vital force to undergo imperceptibly the change from the natural disease to the similar drug disease. On the con- trary, it is usually excited to violent revulsive action by one large dose, or by the quick succession of several smaller doses, so that the reaction of the vital force, in most cases, is anything but beneficial, doing more harm *Page 224 of the Organon. f Page 225 of the Organon. NON-REPETITION OF DOSE. 113 than good. Therefore, while it was impossible to dis- cover a more salutary method than the one proposed by me, it was necessary to obey the philanthropic rule of precaution, si non juvat, modo ne noceat; in accordance with which maxim the homoeopathic physician, consid- ering human welfare to be his highest aim, was to ad- minister but one most minute dose at a time of a care- fully selected medicine in a case of disease, to allow this dose to act upon the patient, and terminate its action. I say most minute, since it holds good, and will continue to hold good as an incontrovertible homoeopathic rule of cure, that the best dose of the correctly selected medi- cine will always be the smallest in one of the high po- tencies (X) for chronic as well as for acute diseases ; a truth which is the invaluable property of pure homoeo- pathy, and which will continue to stand as an imperish- able barrier to shield true homoeopathy from quackery (Afterkiinste) as long as allopathy (and no less the prac- tice of the modern mongrel sect composed of a mixture of allopathy and homoeopathy) continues like a cancer to undermine the life of suffering men, and to destroy them by large doses of medicine. "On the other hand, practice proves to us that a single small dose may be sufficient, particularly in light cases of disease, to accomplish nearly all that could, for the present, be expected from the medicine, especially in the case of infants and very tender, susceptible adults. It also becomes evident that in many, nay, in most cases of very protracted and inveterate diseases (often aggravated by previous inappropriate drugs), as well as in serious acute affections, such a minute dose, even of our highly rarefied medicines, will be insufficient to produce all the curative effects that might, in general, be expected to result from the medicine. Hence it may undoubtedly be found necessary to administer several doses of the same medicine for the purpose of altering pathogeneti- cally the vital force to such an extent, and to raise its curative reaction to such a degree of tension, as to enable it to extinguish completely an entire portion of 114 MEDICAL HERESIES. the original disease, as far as this object could be reached by. any well-selected homoeopathic remedy. The best se- lected medicine, in a single small dose, would perhaps bring some relief in such cases, but far from enough. " A careful homoeopathic physician would scarcely dare to repeat the dose of the same remedy again and again, since no advantage was ever gained by such a course, but, on accurate observation, certain disadvantages have most frequently been seen to follow. Exacerbations have been commonly noticed, even after the smallest dose of the most appropriate remedy, whenever it was re- peated for two or three successive days. "A homoeopathic physician, convinced of the homoeo- pathic fitness of his chosen remedy, and desirous of re- lieving his patient in a shorter time than he had hitherto succeeded in doing by means of a single small dose, naturally arrives at the conclusion that, as long as a sin- gle dose is to be administered (for reasons detailed above), this dose might as well be increased ; and that instead of a single fine pellet moistened with the highest attenu- ation, six, seven or eight pellets, or even whole drops of the dilution might be given at once. But unexception- ally the result was less favorable than it should have been ; often it was actually injurious and detrimental — an evil difficult to repair in a patient treated in that manner. " Neither will low potencies of the remedy, in large doses, lead to a better result. " Experience teaches that the desired object will never be gained by increasing the single doses of a homoeopathic medicine for the purpose of raising the pathogenetic ex- citement of the vital force up to the point of sufficient curative action. The vital force would be too violently and too suddenlv affected and aroused, than that it could have time to prepare for a gradual, even, and salutary counter-action ; hence it endeavors to throw off the sur- plus of the medicinal assailant by vomiting, diarrhoea, fever, perspiration, etc. Thus the object of the inconsid- erate physician is, in a great measure, placed out of INTERVAL BETWEEN DOSES. 115 reach, or entirely frustrated. Little or nothing is accom- plished toward the cure of the disease ; on the contrary, the patient is visibly weakened, and for a long time a repetition, even of the smallest dose of the same remedy, is not to be thought of, lest it should have an undesirable effect upon the patient. "A number of small doses, repeated for the same pur- pose in quick succession, will accumulate in the organism till they constitute, as it were, one large dose, and will produce the same evil result, except in some rare in- stances. The vital force, unable to recover during the interval even between small doses, is overtasked and overpowered, incapacitated to begin curative reaction, and compelled to continue passively the predominant drug-disease forced upon it. This process is similar to that produced by the large and accumulating allopathic doses of a drug, resulting in protracted injury to the patient, an event we are daily called upon to witness. " Now, in order to avoid the errors here pointed out, to gain the desired object with greater certainty than be- fore, and to administer the selected remedy in such a manner that it may do the greatest amount of good to the patient without injury, and finally, in order that, in a given disease, the medicine may accomplish as much as could possibly be expected, I have recently adopted a peculiar course. " I perceived that, in order to pursue the correct medium course, we should be guided by the nature of the differ- ent medicines, as well as by the bodily constitution of the patient, and the magnitude of his disease. Let us take, for example, the use of Sulphur in chronic (psoric) diseases; its finest dose (Tinct. Sulph. X°), even in the case of robust persons afflicted with developed psora, is rarely to be repeated with advantage oftener than once in seven days; this space of time must be extended still more in the treatment of weakly and susceptible patients, when it will be well to administer such a dose only once in nine, twelve, or fourteen days, to be repeated until the medicine ceases to be serviceable. In such cases it will 116 MEDICAL HERESIES. be found that in psoric diseases rarely less than four, but often six, eight, and even ten such doses (Tinct Sulph. X°), administered successively at such intervals, are re- quired for the complete extinction of that portion of the chronic disease, which sulphur (to continue the example) is capable of extinguishing, provided no allopathic abuse of sulphur had occurred previously. In this manner, a newly originated (primary) itch-eruption attacking a suffi- ciently robust person, and even if it had extended, over the whole body, can be cured in ten or twelve weeks by admin- istering every seven'h day a dose of tinct. sulph. X° (that is, with ten or twelve globules) ; nor will it often be necessary to make use of a few doses of carbo veg. X° (also at the rate of one dose a week) ; the cure may, there- fore, be perfected without the least external treatment, excepting frequent change of linen and well-regulated regimen. " Although from eight to ten doses of tinct. sulph. X° may be generally considered as sufficient in other great chronic diseases, it is, nevertheless, preferable, instead of applying the doses in uninterrupted succession, to give a dose of another medicine which, next to sulphur, is most homoeopathic to the case (generally hep. sidph.) after each, or after every second or third dose of the latter ; and to allow this new dose to operate from eight to fourteen days before a second series of three doses of sulphur is again resorted to. "Not infrequently the vital force is indisposed to sub- mit to the action of several successive doses of sulphur, even at the stated intervals, and however well the medi- cine may have been adapted to the chronic evil, the repugnance of the vital power will be indicated by some moderate sulphur symptoms, which appear during the treatment. In this case it is sometimes advisable to give a small dose of mix vom. X°, and to permit this to act from eight to ten days, so that nature may again become disposed to allow sulphur in continued doses to act quietly and with beneficial result. In some cases Pul- satilla X° is to be preferred. INTERVAL BETWEEN DOSES. 117 " If sulphur had been alio path ically misapplied (even several years before), the vital force will resist the effects of that medicine, though decidedly indicated; in that case even, visible aggravations of the chronic disease will be manifested by the vital force, after the smallest dose of sulphur, nay even after smelling of a pellet moistened with tinct. sulph. X. This is a deplorable circumstance, which renders the best medical treatment almost useless; and still it is only one out of numerous instances of allopath ically maltreated chronic diseases, for which, however, we possess some means of reparation. "In such cases it is merely necessary to let the patient apply one pellet, moistened with mercur. metal 1. X to his nostrils, and to take a deep inspiration through the nose (stark riechen lassen), and to let this dose, applied through olfaction, operate for nine days, in order to make the vital force again susceptible of the beneficial effects of sulphur (at least by smelling of tinct. sulph. X°, a discovery for which we are indebted to Dr. Griesselich, of Carlsruhe). " Of the other antipsoric remedies (perhaps excepting Phoshp. X) fewer doses are to be given at similar inter- vals (Sepia and Silicea are to be given at longer intervals, where they are homoeopath ically indicated, without intercurrent remedies), in order to distinguish all that the indicated remedy is capable of curing. Hepar sulph. calc. is rarely to be administered, internally or by olfac- tion, in shorter periods than fourteen or fifteen days. " As a matter of course, the physician should be fully convinced of the accuracy of his selection of the remedy before attempting a repetition of doses. " In acute diseases the time for the repetition of the proper remedy is regulated by the rate at which the disease runs its course ; here it may often be necessary to repeat the medicine in twenty-four, sixteen, twelve, eight, four hours, and less, while the medicine, without originating new complaints, continues to produce un- interrupted improvement ; but where this improvement is not sufficiently marked, considering the dangerous 118 MEDICAL HERESIES. rapidity of the acute disease, the interval must be still further lessened. Thus in cases of cholera, the most rapidly fatal disease known to us, it is necessary in the beginning to give one or two drops of a weak solution of camphor every five minutes, in order to insure speedy and certain relief; while in the more developed stages we may be called upon to employ doses of cuprum, veratrum, phosphorus, etc. (X°), every two or three hours; or to give arsenicum, carbo veg., etc, at similar intervals. " In the treatment of so-called nervous fevers and other continued fevers, the repetition of the dose of the effective medicine is also governed by the foregoing rules. "In pure syphilitic diseases I have commonly found one dose of metallic mercury (X°) to be sufficient. But not infrequently two or three doses, administered at intervals of six or eight days, were necessary whenever the least complication with psora was visible. " In cases where one remedy or another was strongly indicated, but where the patient is very excitable and weak, the application of a remedy by olfaction is more efficacious and safe than the administration of a sub- stantial dose of homoeopathic medicine, however fine and highly potentiated. This is done by holding the mouth of the vial, containing one small globule moistened with the medicine, first to one nostril, and if the dose is to be still more efficacious, also to the other nostril of the patient, who takes a momentary inspiration, the effect of which continues quite as long as that of the sub- stantial doses; hence this process of olfaction is not to be repeated at shorter intervals than if the medicine had been given in substantial form." The absurdity of these remarkable views of Hahne- mann in regard to sulphur will be appreciated by those who know that with each meal more sulphur is taken into the system than all the homoeopathic physicians in VIS MEDICATRIX NATURiE IGNORED. 119 the world ever prescribed of this remedy when raised to the thirtieth potency. It is claimed in the Organon, that when the totality of symptoms is removed by treatment the disease is cured : — " In effecting a cure, the inner change of vital force, forming the basis of disease, that is the totality of disease, is always canceled [8] by removing the entire complex of perceptible signs and disturbances of the disease. Hence it follows that the physician has only to remove the entire complex of symptoms, in order to cancel and obliterate [9] simultaneously the internal change ; that is, the morbidly altered vital force, the totality of the disease, in fact, the disease itself. . . . " It is then unquestionably true that, besides the totality of symptoms, it is impossible to discover any other manifestation by which diseases could express their need of relief. Hence it undeniably follows that the totality of symptoms observed in each individual case of disease can be the only indication to guide us in the selection of a remedy." * No reliance was placed on nature by Hahnemann, but the cures effected by him were attributed entirely to the influence of medicinal agents employed. This invalu- able force, so highly prized by all rational physicians, was denominated by Hahnemann as " rude" and " in- stinctive," devoid of reason, and not to be relied upon. "How could the old school, calling itself rational, be justified in choosing this unintelligent vital force, this blind guide, as its best instructor in an office of such high importance as that of healing, requiring so^ much thought and power of judgment? How dared it imi- tate, without hesitation, all those indirect and revolution- * Page 70 of the Organon. 120 MEDICAL HERESIES. ary processes inaugurated in diseases by that vital force, and copy them as if they were the non plus ultra, the best that reason could devise? Did not God grant us his noblest gift, reflecting reason and unfettered power of deliberation, in order that we might, for the benefit of mankind, surpass immeasurably the effort of the un- guided vital power in bringing relief? " If, therefore, the ordinary school of medicine, in its rash imitation of crude, unreasonable, automatic vital energy, etc." * In fact, the efforts of nature were regarded by Hahnemann as the disease itself. " He does not perceive that all the above-named local symptoms, evacuations, and apparent derivative actions (begun and supported by the unthinking, unguided vital force in conquering the original chronic disease) are in fact the disease itself, " Since the crude efforts of nature for attaining relief in acute, and more particularly in chronic diseases, are extremely imperfect and in themselves a disease, . . . and still less was that vital force given to us that its imperfect and morbid efforts (to rescue itself from disease) might be imitated. "What man of sense would undertake to imitate nature in her endeavors of coming to the rescue ? Those efforts are, in fact, the disease itself; and the morbidly affected vital force is the producer of disease becoming manifest. Necessarily, therefore, every artificial imita- tion as well as the suppression of these natural efforts must either increase the evil, or render it dangerous by suppression ; the allopathist does both, and then extols this practice as healing art, as ' rational ' healing art ! " He is in the wrong. That noble innate power, destined to govern life in the most perfect manner during health, equally present in all parts of the organism, in the sensitive as well as in the irritable fibre; that untir- * Page 28 of the Organon. LOCAL REMEDIES DENOUNCED. 121 ing mainspring of all normal, natural, bodily functions, was never created for the purpose of aiding itself in diseases, nor to exercise a healing art worthy of imita- tion." * Thus it *rill be seen that the most valuable aid to the physician, the forces of nature, the so-called "Vis medi- catrix naturae," is entirely ignored by Hahnemann and his followers ; and all recoveries under their treatment are ascribed to their diluted therapeutics. Hahnemann also denounced the use of local remedies, claiming that all local diseases are only symptoms, or indications of disease of the general system, and that the proper way to remedy them was by the internal admin- istration of the properly selected homoeopathic medicine; and further, that all local applications were not only of no advantage, but positively hurtful. "When an old-school physician, acting under the impression that he is curing the whole disease, destroys the local symptom by external remedies, nature will offset it by awakening and extending the inner disease, and all the dormant symptoms which had previously co-existed with the local affection. " Many kinds of external treatment are in vogue for the removal of local symptoms from the surface of the body, without curing the inner miasmatic disease. It is customary, for instance, to remove the itch from the skin by all kinds of ointments; to destroy chancres externally by cauterization ; and locally to exterminate sycotic excrescences by excision, ligature, or the actual cautery. This method of external treatment, hitherto so common, is pernicious in its results." f "By placing into one class all protracted diseases * Pages 33 and 34 of the Organon. f Page 154 of the Organon. 122 MEDICAL HERESIES. arising from unwholesome habits of living, together with countless drug diseases (see § 74) produced by the persistent and debilitating treatment often employed by old-school physicians in trifling disorders, we shall then find that all other chronic diseases, with- out exception, are derived from the development of three chronic miasms, internal syphilis, internal sycosis, but chiefly and in far greater proportion, internal psora. Each of these must have pervaded the entire organism, and penetrated all its parts before the primary repre- sentative local symptom peculiar to each miasm (itch eruption of psora, chancre and bubo of syphilis, and condyloid excrescences of sycosis) makes its appearance for the prevention of the inner disease." * Of these three miasms, psora is regarded as the most important, as will be seen by the following : — " Before beginning the treatment of a chronic dis- ease it is necessary to inquire most carefully if the patient had been infected by venereal disease, or by sycotic gonorrhoea. In either case the treatment should be directed against the affection whose symptoms are alone found to be present ; although it is rare in modern times to meet with uncomplicated cases of these affec- tions. If such an infection is acknowledged by the patient, it should also be taken into consideration when psora is the principal object of treatment, because the latter will have been complicated with the former, a condition always indicated when the symptoms of psora are mingled with others. When a physician is called to treat what he supposes to be an inveterate case of syphilis, he will usually find that it is principally complicated with psora 7 because the inner itch miasm, or psora, is by far the most frequent and fundamental cause of chronw diseases, and is frequently complicated either with syphilis or with sycosis, if infection with the latter has taken place. But in by far the majority of *Page 145 of the Organon. PSORA. 123 cases psora is the sole and fundamental cause of chronic diseases, whatever their names may be, and these are often exaggerated and distorted by allopathic inter- ference." * The preceding is a fair statement of the principles of homoeopathy as announced by Hahnemann in his Organon, and which I propose to discuss in the subse- quent chapters of this essay. *Page 156 of the Organon. 124 MEDICAL HERESIES. CHAPTER XIII. Homoeopathy Continued. The forces of nature in their manifold manifestations have engaged the attention of thinking men from time immemorial, and the subject of life, vital force, mind and matter, have been discussed from almost every con- ceivable standpoint, and they still constitute a fruitful theme for discussion by scientists as well as theolo- gians. It is not my intention to be drawn into the discussion between the theologian and scientist, or even to review the subject, only so far as may be necessary in criticising Hahnemann's dynamic, spirit-like pathology. The question as to what influence the so-called vital force exerts in life, in health as well as disease, is one to which we cannot attach too much importance. This subject has attracted the attention of physicians from the earliest known period. I find, in looking over the history of the subject, that Hippocrates placed more re- liance upon the forces of nature in the cure of disease, than he did upon his materia medica. He claimed that this force was sufficient for all purposes of the animal economy, and also claimed that it was immortal. The Dogmatic school of medicine, which, as has been stated, was formed by his immediate followers, continued to THE VITAL FORCE IN DISEASE. 125 propagate his theories upon this, as well as other subjects. Galen recognized the same force, which he called the animal and vital spirits, and leaves us considerable literature upon the subject. Stahl, the founder of the Expectant school of medi- cine, believed the " anima," or soul, superintended the formation and growth of the body, and that the dis- turbance produced by this force was the cause of disease; so that it will be seen that Hahnemann's pathology was really an infringement upon StahPs patent. Both ancient and modern medical literature is filled with speculations upon this subject ; and we have Vital- ists, Solidists and Hu moralists in pathology ; but the evident tendency of the modern scientist is toward materialism. The scientist of the present day believes in the unity of force, i. e., that there is but one force in nature, and that this force emanates from matter, and doe^ not, and could not exist, without it; and further, that it is as per- sistent and as indestructible as matter itself, and that its different manifestations, as light, heat, electricity, etc., are interconvertible terms and mean one and the same thing under different circumstances. The modern doctrine of the correlation, conservation and unity of force is very generally accepted as true; and if the line of investigation begun by Lockyer is continued as ably as he has begun it, the time may not be far 126 MEDICAL HERESIES. distant when the unity of matter will also be estab- lished. If, then, we accept the doctrine of unity of force, the question as to the vital force is easily answered. It is simply a manifestation of this universal force which pervades all Nature, as modified by the action and reaction upon itself of the highly organized matter composing our bodies. Let us begin low down in the scale of life and see how this arrangement will work ; take, for example, the ameboid bodies, that consist of a single microscopic cell. As viewed under the microscope these bodies are among the most simple in structure of all the living organisms, yet they are endowed with sensation and motion, which seems to be the sum of their vitality. They are seen to move, to avoid apparent danger, to pursue and seize their food ; having no mouths they envelop it with their entire bodies, and absorb it in this way. They also make an opening in the cell wall, which serves as an anus, by which the discharge of effete matter is effected ; and they propagate their species by fission, i. e., by breaking into pieces, each one of which develops into a perfect organism like unto the parent cell. Here, then, we have all the phenomena of organic life performed by a single cell. As we ascend the scale, we find life becoming more complicated, and organized beings are formed by an aggregation of cell elements, and a single cell no longer performs all the necessary functions DYNAMIC PATHOLOGY REFUTED. 127 of life ; but certain cells are set apart for the perform- ance of particular functions, and thus the different organs and tissues of the body are formed. This process has been going on through the countless ages that have rolled by, until we have, as a result of this evolution, man in his present state ; his body composed of countless mil- lions of cells, and his vital force consists of the sum of the vital forces of these innumerable cell elements. The amount of electric force will depend upon the number of cells in a battery; so will the amount of heat and light depend upon the amount of combustible material consumed in a furnace. If the cells in a bat- tery are corroded and filthy and the acid needs replenish- ing, the quality and quantity of the electricity will be diminished. So it is with our bodies. If our organs are not in good working order, and our circulating fluids are de- praved, our vital force will be lowered, but will not be, and cannot be diseased. Hahnemann and his followers to the contrary, notwithstanding. It is impossible for me to have any clear conception of a diseased condition of the vital force. It is not subject to investigation by the scalpel or microscope, or any of the ordinary means by which we investigate dis- eased structure. We are able to observe diseased processes in organized matter, both before and after death, but nothing of the kind can be applied to vital force. It is modified solely 128 MEDICAL HERESIES. by the organs and tissues of the body, and its manifes- tations will vary in accordance with their condition. Hence, the natural and logical conclusion is, that Hahnemann's spirit-like, dynamic, vital force pathol- ogy has no existence, only in the minds of dreaming theorists. But Hahnemann claims, as shown by previous quota- tions from the Organon, that causes of disease are also immaterial and dynamic, and he criticises severely the Allopathic school of physicians for searching for their causes. Viewed in the light of recent science, I should have thought it unnecessary to controvert Hahnemann's views, either in the pathology or the semiology of disease, be- lieving, of course, that those absurd opinions had been abandoned by his more intelligent followers of to-day; but such is not the fact. They still permeate their literature and are taught by their authors. In the April number of the Medical Counselor (a Homoeopathic Journal published in Chicago, Illinois), will be found several questions addressed to the profes- sion by the Bureau of Obstetrics of the Homoeopathic State Medical Society of New Jersey, in regard to the pathology and treatment of after-pains. These ques- tions are answered by a prominent homoeopathic prac- titioner and author, who takes the ground that these after-pains are caused by an "abnormal condition of the vital force," and that the reason they are not present NATURE OF MIASM. 129 in primiparae and present in multipara, is because of the same abnormal condition of the same force. Many examples could be cited to prove that our brethren of the homoeopathic school are still hugging the delusion that disease consists of a " disordered con- dition of the spirit-like dynamic vital force, etc." Hahnemann was persistent in advocating the dynamic theory as applied to acute diseases, but shows his incon- sistency, or seems to have forgotten himself, in forming his theory for chronic diseases, which he bases upon three chronic miasms ; which latter word Webster defines as " Infection floating in the air ; the effluvia, or fine particles of any putrefying bodies rising and floating in the atmosphere and considered to be noxious to health ; deadly exhalation." A miasm is certainly a material substance, and is utterly inconsistent with his dynamic theory. " True, natural chronic diseases are those which owe their origin to a chronic miasm ; they constantly extend, and, notwithstanding the most carefully regulated men- tal and bodily habits, they will never cease to torment their victim with constantly renewed suffering to the end of his life, if left to themselves without the aid of specific remedies for their relief. These are the most numerous, and the source of great suffering to the human race ; the most robust constitution, the best of habits, and the greatest energy of unaided vital force are unable to resist them." " Hitherto, only syph- ilis was known to some extent as one of these chronic miasmatic diseases, which, if left uncured will become extinct only with life itself. Sycosis (cauliflower excres- 130 MEDICAL HERESIES. cences) if left to itself uncured, is likewise inextinguish- able by the vital force." " But psora, as a chronic miasm, is of incompar- ably greater significance than either of the above- named chronic miasms. While venereal chancre and the cauliflower excrescences mark the internal, specific nature of the two former diseases, psora, after complete infection of the entire organism, indicates its origin from an internal and monstrous chronic miasm, by a peculiar cutaneous eruption, sometimes consisting merely in a few pimples combined with intolerable tickling, voluptu- ous itching, and specific odor. Psora is the only real, fundamental cause and source of all the other countless forms of disease, [70] figuring as peculiar and definite diseases in books on pathology, under the names of ner- vous debility, hysteria, hypochondriasis, mania, melan- choly, idiocy, madness, epilepsy and convulsions of all kinds, softening of the bones (rachitis), scoliosis and kyphosis, caries of the bones, cancer, varices, pseudo- plasms, gout, hemorrhoids, icterus and cyanosis, dropsy, amenorrhea, haemorrhages from the stomach, nose, lungs, bladder, or uterus; asthma and suppuration of the lungs; impotence and sterility ; sick headache (hemicrania) ; deafness; cataract and glaucoma; renal calculus ; para- lysis ; deficiency of the special senses, and pains of every variety/' * Hahnemann thus classified scabies, or common itch, as a constitutional, psoric disease, and prescribed constitu- tional treatment only, for its relief; claiming that it could thereby be cured in ten or twelve weeks, f It is almost universally conceded by rational physi- cians at this time, that the causes of all the infectious and contagious diseases are material substances which are absorbed into the system, and after a greater or lesser *Page 109 of the Organon. fSee page 116 of this work. SECTARIAN NOMENCLATURE. 131 period of incubation, each, according to its kind, excites its peculiar morbid process. One disease germ produc- ing typhoid fever; another, typhus fever; another, scar- let fever; while smallpox, measles, diphtheria, relapsing fever, malarious fevers, the plague, yellow fever, cholera, erysipelas, puerperal fever, and so on, through the entire list of acute infectious diseases, each one being caused by its own specific germ, which produces that particular disease and no other. Again, who will deny that the chronic infectious diseases, such as syphilis, and hydrophobia, are caused by the absorption of noxious material into the system ? The poison from venomous serpents, or the sting of poi- sonous insects, is a material thing, which goes directly into the circulation. What stronger testimony could be required in controverting the dynamic theory of the causes of diseases. But again, we have numerous diseases which are caused by the retention in the system of septic mate- rial which the emunctories fail to eliminate, and the pa- tient is poisoned by a retention of his own secretions and excretions, or the debris of broken down tissue. In this class may be placed such diseases as rheumatism, gout, jaundice, uraemia, etc., etc. Prior to the time of Halmemann the terms allopath, homoeopath and antipath were not in common use among physicians. These terms were used by Hahne- mann to designate the three principal methods of heal- 132 MEDICAL HERESIES. iDg. The term allopathic was applied by him to the prevailing school of physicians, and according to his definition meant the substitution of a drug-disease dis- similar in nature to the affection to be treated. THomoeo- pathic was used by him to designate his therapeutic law of similars, or the substitution of a drug-disease similar in symptoms to the disease to be prescribed for. [Anti- pathic was used to express the palliative method or opposing contraries by contraries, a method used princi- pally against prominent symptoms — a treatment that was considered the most pernicious of all by Hahne- mann, and is still believed so by his followers — the pure homceopathists ; so much so that they will not pre- scribe anodynes to relieve violent pain. It is strong proof of Hahnemann's celebrity, that he has succeeded in fastening these names upon the schools, and physi- cians are now known throughout the civilized world by the names of allopaths and homoeopaths. The law of similars is the chief corner-stone of homoeopathy, and will be the last of all their principles that will be abandoned ; yet its fate is certainly sealed, and in a few short years it will be numbered with the delusions of the past. It is not claimed by the advo- cates of this law that medicines have the power of exciting diseases or diseased conditions similar to the ones for which they are prescribed, but simply symp- toms or disordered sensorial conditions similar to those present in the case to be treated. SYMPTOMATOLOGY. 1 33 It is of no consequence what pathological condition is present; whether it is an ordinary inflammation, congestion, ulceration, degeneration, tubercle or cancer, the only thing to be considered in selecting the remedy under this law is the totality of symptoms, as may be seen from the following : — " 1st. All that a physician may regard as curable in diseases consists entirely in the complaints of the patient, and the morbid changes of his health percep- tible to the senses ; that is to say, it consists entirely in the totality of symptoms through which the disease expresses its demand for the appropriate remedy ; while, on the other hand, every fictitious or obscure internal cause and condition, or imaginary, material, morbific matter are not objects of treatment. "2d. This change of health (discord of feeling) which we call disease can only be changed back (umstimmen) to the normal state by means of medi- cines, the curative power of which, consequently, con- sists in their ability to alter the state of feelings ; i. e., in the production of peculiar morbid symptoms, recog- nized most distinctly and purely by testing these medi- cines upon the bodies of healthy persons. " 3d. According to experience, natural disease cannot be cured by medicines producing by themselves, in healthy persons, a morbid condition dissimilar to and different from that of the disease to be cured. It is, therefore, incurable by allopathic treatment, and even nature herself never cures natural disease by super- adding another disease dissimilar to, though of much greater intensity than the first. "4th. Experience also teaches that only transient relief is procured by medicines inclined to generate in a healthy person an artificial symptom which is the exact opposite of certain symptoms peculiar to the natural disease to be cured. And we also learn that such medi- 134 MEDICAL HERESIES. cines can never cure an inveterate disease without always creating a subsequent aggravation of the same. On this account this antipathic, palliative process is entirely inappropriate in its application to chronic and serious diseases. " 5th. The only really salutary treatment is that of the homoeopathic method, according to which the totality of symptoms of a natural disease is combated by a medicine in commensurate dose, capable of creating in the healthy body symptoms most similar to those of the natural disease. And as diseases are only dynamic disturbances of the vital force, they are overcome with- out additional suffering, and having been perfectly and permanently extinguished, they must cease to exist/' * "All of these observable signs together represent the disease in its full extent; that is, they constitute together the true and only conceivable form of the disease.[2] "Hence the totality of these symptoms, this out- wardly reflected image of the inner nature of the disease, i. e., of the suffering vital force, must be the chief or only means of the disease to make known the remedy neces- sary for its cure, the only means determining the selec- tion of the appropriate remedial agent. In short, the totality of the symptoms must be regarded by the physi- cian as the principal and only condition to be recognized and removed by his art in each case of disease, that it may be cured and converted into health." f " It is then unquestionably true that, besides the totality of symptoms, it is impossible to discover any other manifestation by which diseases could express their need of relief. Hence it undeniably follows that the totality of symptoms observed in each individual case of disease can be the only indication to guide us in the se- lection of a remedy." % u § 22. Hence there is no discoverable part that can be removed from a disease for the purpose of restoring health, except the totality of its signs and symptoms." § * Page 103 of the Organon. f Pages 66 and 67 of the Organon. % Page 70 of the Organon. \ Page 72 of the Organon. UNSCIENTIFIC THEORY. 135 MSo it appears from the preceding quotations, that dis- ease, as considered by the practicing homoeopathic physi- cians, consists of a " totality of symptoms." ~J And under the law of " similia similibus curantur," real pathologi- cal conditions are ignored, and many practitioners in that school have confined their studies to a manual of symp- tomatology and a repertory. It is due our homoeopathic brethren, however, to say that many of the members of that school are well versed in the necessary elementary branches of medicine, and possess a high degree of cul- ture in other respects. As unscientific and irrational as the selection and administration of remedies under this law appears to be, the reasoning is good, compared with the insane idea which Hahnemann entertained in regard to the result. It has been accepted as a demonstrated fact in all ages, by philosophers, that when a cause is removed the effect will cease : ya ut Hahnemann claims that the converse of this proposition is equally true, and that when the symp- toms of a diseased process are canceled by the operation of a homoeopathic remedy, the cause will immedi- ately cease to act. J " Diseases are produced only by the morbidly dis- turbed vital force. It follows that after the cure of such manifestations of disease, and of all discoverable aberrations from healthy vital functions, their disappearance must necessarily and with equal certainty be presumed to result in 136 MEDICAL HERESIES. and to determine the restoration of the integrity of vital force, and the return of health to the entire organism." * " In effecting a cure, the inner change of vital force, forming the basis of disease, that is, the totality of disease, is always canceled by removing the entire complex of perceptible signs and disturbances of the disease. Hence it follows that the physician has only to remove the entire complex of symptoms in order to cancel and obliterate simultaneously the internal change ; that is, the morbidly altered vital force, the totality of the disease, in fact, the disease itself" f These quotations give a fair example of the reasoning of Hahnemann. Such inconsistencies abound in his writings everywhere, yet he has numerous, respectable and intelligent disciples, and they have numerous patrons who possess good business qualifications in the ordinary vocations of life, however unwise they may be in selecting a physician. Let us hope, for the credit of their intelligence, that they have adopted the system without proper investigation. tjjlahneniann claims that this law of similars is a Divine revelation to him, an inestimable boon of God to man, and that the medical world had been groping in darkness until his coming;! and he points out sev- eral examples where some of his illustrious predeces- sors had almost caught a glimpse of the great truth, but the privilege of bringing it forth in the full light of day was reserved for him. The modus operandi by which cures are effected under * Page 68 of the Organon. f Page 70 of the Organon. OPERATION OF THE LAW OF SIMILARS. 137 this law is explained by Hahnemann himself in the following words : — " We have seen that every disease (not subject to surgery alone) is based upon some particular morbid derangement in the feelings and functions of the vital force ; and thus, in the process of a homoeopathic cure, by administering a medicinal potency chosen exactly in accordance with the similitude of symptoms, a somewhat stronger, similar, aHijicial morbid affection is implanted upon the vital power deranged by a natural disease ; this artificial affection is substituted, as it were, for the weaker similar natural disease (morbid excitation), against which the instinctive vital force, now only excited to stronger effort by the drug affection, needs only to direct its in- creased energy ; but owing to its brief duration [13] it will soon be overcome by the vital force, which, liberated first from the natural disease, and finally from the sub- stUuted artificial (drug-) affection, now again finds iteelf enabled to continue the life of the organism in healths * This explanation is about on a par with that of the schoolboy who said that " although he could not whip Billy Patterson himself, he was able to whip the boy who could." It is claimed in this paragraph that a medicinal potency (which means any potency between the mother tincture and the thirtieth, or the decillionth of a drop) chosen in exact accordance with a similitude of symp- toms has the power of exciting a stronger affection than the natural disease for which it is prescribed, and al- though the vital force is unable to cope with this natural affection it is entirely competent to remove the stronger drug-disease excited by its action. * Pages 74 and 75 of the Organon. 138 MEDICAL HERESIES. This is a fair example of Hahnemann's logic, and it is certainly sufficiently attenuated to suit the most fas- tidious high dilutionist. What can be said in reply to such reasoning as I have just cited ; or what can be done in the way of criticism or controversion of the doctrines of a school which places its pathology upon such a trauscendental plane, which makes the causes of disease immaterial and dynamic, disease itself a nonentity, and bases its therapeutical procedures upon a law supported by such absurd reasons as- those referred to. The law of similars will be further discussed in con- nection with another branch of the subject. PHARMACODYNAMICS. 1 39 CHAPTER XIV. Discussion of Homoeopathy Continued. PROVINGS. The physiological action of medicines is a subject which has engaged the attention of physicians from the infancy of the science, and is one of great importance. The result of experiment in that direction from time to time has greatly enriched our knowledge of the materia medica, and formed the basis for many valuable thera- peutical applications ; and due credit must be awarded to our brethren of the homoeopathic school for their contributions to this branch of medical science ; not, however, without criticism upon their method. Numerous difficulties surround the experimenter in this business, and obstacles present themselves at every step, when man is used as a pharmacometer. It is almost impossible to find a human being who is entirely free from disease or morbid sensations of some kind. Galen was convinced of this fact as long ago as the second century, a.d., and mentions the fact several times in his writings. Other observers have reached the same conclusion. It is also impossible, in the human subject, to eliminate mental influences. The celebrated John Hunter once remarked that by directing his attention strongly to only one part of his body for a 140 MEDICAL HERESIES. few minutes he always felt a morbid sensation in that part ; and Dr. Carpenter refers to this matter in a paper upon the subject of " Spiritualism and Mesmerism," in which he discusses this subject in a masterly manner, under the head of the " Predominant Idea." This article was recently republished in this country, in the Popular Science Monthly, and is well worthy of careful perusal. The difficulty of finding perfectly healthy individuals, the impossibility of eliminating mental and other influences, and the absurd degree to which the homoeopaths have continued to record the symptoms, detracts greatly from the value of their provings. The most valuable additions made to our knowledge of the physiological action of medicines are those determined from experiments made upon the lower animals. The number of pathogenetic symptoms ascribed to some remedies is perfectly astounding ; thus, nux vomica has one thousand two hundred and nine ; carbonate of lime one thousand and ninety ; succus sepia one thousand two hundred and forty-two ; and so on, for quantity. Suppose the one thousand and four hundred medici- nal substances enumerated in the materia medica of the celebrated Arabian author, Eben Baithar, are all to be tested, and they average one thousand symptoms for each one, making a grand total of one million four hundred thousand to be remembered. This would certainly be appalling to the modern medical student, and the stoutest heart would faint before this ponderous array ; yet the PROVINGS OF CALCAREA. 141 magnitude of the task should never deter scientific men in search of truth. Beneath this immense amount of rubbish a few grains of truth lie buried ; but the task of searching for it is indeed herculean ; countless pathogenetic symptoms being ascribed to substances known to be insoluble and inert, such as the unoxidized metals, etc. Hahnemann claims, however, that by dilutions and triturations these substances become sufficiently attenu- ated to acquire a dynamic force, and thus the sextillionth part of a grain of carbonate of lime, which is prepared from oyster shells, but also abounds in the ordinary surface water of the country, which we use daily for drinking purposes, will produce over one thousand exci- tations of our sensorial condition. The ordinary lime- stone water, in portions of the States of Indiana and Kentucky, contains, in some localities, as much as two hundred grains of lime to the gallon. A person drinking an ordinary gobletful of it would take into his system about ten or twelve grains. I will enumerate a few of these symptoms, taken from his work on materia medica: — " In the evening (13 days after taking), on going out, unsteady gait." " Dizziness on walking out (at the end of 26 days)." " Sudden deafness immediately after dinner ; itching on the border of the eyelids (5 days after taking)." " Itching at the anterior part of the glans penis after urination (after 28 days)." 142 MEDICAL HERESIES. " Ardent venereal desire, especially during a walk before dinner (after 17 days)." " Great heat at the extremity of the big toe (after 21 days)." " Discharge of blood between the menses, nine days before the period, for two days." " Hemorrhage from the uterus of an old woman, who had ceased menstruating for many years, in the last quarter of the moon." " Falls asleep frequently, late in the evening." " Giddiness from scratching behind the ear." i( The hair of the head comes out, especially in lying-in women." " Stitches in the ear and temple, going off during rest and w T hen the eyes are closed." "Alternate buzzing, as of mosquitoes or cracking or breaking of dry straw, in left ear." " Cracking in ear when chewing." " Soreness of right nostril." " Painful pimple in right nostril." " Smell before the nose, as of rotten eggs, gunpowder or manure." " Stoppage of the nose by yellow, fetid pus." These quotations are made at random from the pro- vings of carbonate of lime, and they are made, not for the purpose of ridicule, but in all seriousness ; they are fair samples of homoeopathic provings. These symptoms are claimed to have been produced by an infinitesimal quantity of this substance, many million INCONSISTENCIES. 143 times less than is taken into the system with each goblet of our ordinary drinking water. In looking over the homoeopathic literature of the day we find huge, ponderous volumes filled with this sort of stuff. Allen's " Encyclopedia of Pure Materia Medica" consists of ten volumes, averaging nearly seven hundred pages each. If the nonsensical trash was eliminated one or two volumes would contain everything of value there is in it ; but even allowing that nine- tenths of these provings are entirely imaginary, there is still a considerable quantity of valuable information to be carried to the credit side of our therapeutical knowl- edge, if we had sufficient patience and perseverance to seek for it among all this rubbish. I have already declared it as my opinion, that the dilutions and triturations of Hahnemann were an out- growth of the law of similars, and were rendered necessary from the simple fact that medicines could not be prescribed in sensible, i. e., appreciable quantities, under that law, on account of the aggravation that necessarily followed from their administration in such quantities. I am willing, however, to discuss this portion of the subject from another standpoint, and concede to homoeo- pathy the more consistent position of having its thera- peutics based upon its pathology ; and I will admit that Hahnemann, after he had placed the cause of disease upon a dynamic plane, entirely above things material, 144 MEDICAL HERESIES. and also made disease itself consist of a disordered con- dition of that " spirit-like, dynamic, vital force," saw the necessity of elevating his therapeutics to the same dynamic altitude. If homceopathists were all agreed in this view of the case, the question could soon be disposed of, because when they conceded that their medicines have a dynamic power only, it would settle the whole question to de- monstrate that they have no such power ; but they are not agreed upon this point, for many of them claim that their medicines act " physiologically, chemically and mechanically ;" consequently this question will have to be discussed from more than one standpoint. Hahnemann himself says : — " Our vital force, that spirit-like dynamis, cannot be reached nor affected except by a spirit-like {dynamic) process, resulting from the hurtful influence of hostile agencies from the outer world acting upon the healthy organism, and disturbing the harmonious process of life. Neither can the physician free the vital force from any of these morbid disturbances, i. e., disease, except likewise by spirit-like (dynamic, virtual) alterative powers of the appropriate remedies acting upon spirit-like vital force. . . . Thus, healing remedies can and- actually do restore health and vital harmony only by virtue of their dynamic action upon the vital force." * This difference of opinion between Hahnemann and his followers will render it necessary to discuss the question as to whether these triturated and diluted medicines are physical agents or dynamic forces. I think I shall be able to show that they are neither. * Page 69 of the Organon. HIGH POTENCIES TESTED. 145 I have already explained the method of preparing these attenuations, and although Hahnemann insists upon their dynamization, he still claims their substan- tive presence in the highest dilutions, although there is but the decillionth part of a grain in the thirtieth potency. I have performed some chemical and micro- scopical experiments in order to test the presence of these substances in some of these attenuations. A por- tion of the preparations used in these experiments was carefully prepared by myself, according to the instruc- tions given by the homoeopathic pharmacists; others were prepared at their own pharmaceutical establish- ments. Without entering into the details of the ex- periments, I will simply state the results. 1st. In the trituration of insoluble substances no further division or attenuation takes place after the fourth or fifth, as shown by microscopical examination. Neither do they become soluble, as Hahnemann claims, after this degree of attenuation is reached. The most delicate tests known to chemistry fail to disclose their presence in the liquid ; but on the contrary, the micro- scope never failed to find the solid substances in the sediment. 2d. In the examination of the soluble substances, chemical reagents disclosed their presence in the first and second dilutions, in a majority of the preparations tested ; but in all above the latter, even the most delicate color- test failed to give any reaction. 10 146 MEDICAL HERESIES. This subject is discussed by a writer in the New England Medical Gazette (a monthly journal of homoeo- pathy, published in Boston), June number, in the year 1878, under the subject of " The Trituration of Silica." After detailing his observations and experiments with the microscope, his conclusion, in his own words, is as follows : — " As every one may easily see for himself, by repeating these observations, that the limit of divisibility of the metals is soon reached. As a rule, it does not reach be- yond the second trituration." These observations were made by C. Wesselhceft, m.d., who translated the Organon in 1878. So it will be seen that I have some very good homoeopathic authority in confirmation of my own experiments. These experiments prove conclusively that in the higher dilutions these medicines cannot be present in sufficient quantity to be of any force as physical agencies. The number of particles in any insoluble substance, no further division taking place after the first few triturations, would be exhausted long before the higher potencies were reached. And if dilutions are used after the third trituration, as directed for insoluble substances, they would contain absolutely nothing but the fluid, because of the failure of Hahnemann's law, that " All substances become soluble after the third tri- turation." These experiments also prove that no dynamic force can be developed by trituration and dilution of an DYNAMIC FOECE KEFUTED. 147 insoluble substance; for Hahnemann admits himself that dynamization is produced by division and dilution. It is claimed that in these triturations the division of the medicinal substance is kept up in direct proportion with its admixture with sugar of milk; i.e. the number of the particles formed in the first trituration is one hundred times greater in the first, ten thousand times greater in the second, and one million times greater in the third, and so on. These experiments completely disprove this fallacy, and so far as this portion of homoeopathy is concerned, ought to be and are sufficient to kill it, even if all the other proofs were wanting. These high potencies by triturations are still manufactured and sold, however, by the homoeopathic pharmacists. The subject of dilutions and triturations, together with the proposed development of a dynamic power by agita- tion, has always been assailed by ridicule by its opponents, and really no serious arguments have ever been used against it; it having been considered a delusion un- worthy of their attention. This is wrong. Homoeopathy has a respectable following, both in numbers and intelli- gence, and consequently is entitled to serious considera- tion, and its claims must be met and controverted by something in the way of arguments more solid than ridicule. The question as to whether a dynamic force is de- veloped during the process of dilution, is not so easily 148 MEDICAL HEKESIES. disposed of as the same question applied to trituration ; for in that case the division and consequent attenuation necessary to produce it (as claimed by Hahnemann) does not take place; but during the process of dilution the attenuation does take place ; but does it, or can it create or develop a dynamic power not resident in the matter itself? This is the great question in homoeopathy. The whole system hinges upon the truth or fallacy of this proposition; for if these dilutions have no effect as physical agents, and this dynamic power is not developed, the law of " Similia similibus curantur" is necessarily a piece of folly, for, as I have shown, medicines cannot be prescribed in appreciable quantities in accordance with that law. This question needs no further discussion to convince those of its falsity who believe in the correlation, con- servation and unity of force. Force is an attribute of matter and cannot be developed without it. It is also as persistent and eternal as matter itself. The amount of force present in any given case depends upon the material agencies brought into play in producing it. One hun- dred pounds of coal will produce more heat than fifty ; a thirty-cell battery will give a stronger electric cur- rent than one of twenty cells ; one hundred pounds of steam has more power than fifty, and so on ; and yet homoeopathists, in the middle of the afternoon of the nineteenth century, ask us to believe that they are MATHEMATICAL DEMONSTRATION. 149 developing a dynamic power at the same time they are diminishing their materials ninety-nine per cent, at each successive dilution. But Hahnemann says the shakings produce this power. (See page 221 of the Organon, already quoted on page 107.) If a continuous shaking of half an hour enhances the power of the medicine thirty fold, it will be neces- sary to exercise great care in its transportation from place to place, and persons who expect to practice in the country will have to calculate what the effect of a hard day's ride over a rough road, on a trotting horse, may have on their physic. Where does this force come from ? Hahnemann does not certainly claim that the force liberated by the strokes of the arm is absorbed and bottled up with the hundred drops of alcohol in the vial ! If it is, Boericke and Tafel, in using " twelve powerful strokes with each potency," would evolve sufficient force before they reached their one-thousandth potency to destroy any patient to whom it might be administered. But these " powerful strokes" are made by hand. It is an interesting calculation to those of a mathematical turn of mind to determine the exact number of strokes required to carry one drop of a mother-tincture up as high as the one-thousandth po- tency, or determine the strength of the dose which this potency contains. I began this calculation and carried it up to the thirtieth dilution, and here is the result. 150 MEDICAL HERESIES. Take, for instance, one drop of this mother-tincture ; this is mixed with 99 drops of alcohol, contained in a vial, and having received twelve strokes is called the first dilution. The second dilution will consist of 100 vials and 1200 strokes. In the third dilution we will have 10,000 vials with 120,000 strokes. With the fourth dilution we will have 1,000,000 vials with 12,000,000 strokes. The fifth dilution, will be contained in 100,- 000,000 vials and will have received 1,200,000,000 strokes. With the sixth dilution we will have 10,000,- 000,000 vials with 120,000,000,000 strokes. With the seventh dilution there will be 1,000,000,000,000 vials with 12,000,000,000,000 strokes. With the eighth dilution there will be 100,000,000,000,000 vials with 1,200,000,000,000,000 strokes. The ninth dilution will consist of 10,000,000,000,000,000 vials with 120,000,- 000,000,000,000 strokes. The tenth dilution will be contained in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 vials with 12,- 000,000,000,000,000,000 strokes. It is certainly un- necesssary to pursue the steps of this calculation any further, for it will be seen that it soon rises into infinity. When the thirtieth dilution is reached there will be on hand the enormous number of 10,000,000,000,000,000,- 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, - 000,000,000 of vials with twelve times that number of strokes. It is beyond my power to enumerate -this immense number. With no time for setting down a vial and MATHEMATICAL DEMONSTRATION. 151 picking up another, an active man can make one "powerful stroke" per second, or sixty strokes per minute, or 360 strokes per hour; and by making ten hours per day he would make in that time 3600; and by working each day in the year, including Sunday, he would in that length of time accomplish 1,314,000 strokes. To give each one of these vials containing the thirtieth potency twelve strokes, it would require him to work 661 quadrillions, 822 trillions, 919 billions, 336 millions and 1050 decillions of years. If each dilution was placed in a separate vial, on end, in a line, and each occupied a half inch of space, the line would extend 63 sextillions, 131 quintillions, 313 quadrillions, 131 trillions, 313 billions, 131 millions, 313 thousand, 131 miles and 1653 feet. Estimating the distance to the sun as 90 millions of miles, a man would be required to make the round trip 350 quintillions, 729 quadrillions, 517 trillions, 396 billions, 285 millions, 72 thousand, 961 times, in order to reach these vials, so placed. If each vial weighed a half ounce (16 ounces to the pound), the whole number would weigh, 156 sextillions, 250 quintillions of tons (2000 lbs. to the ton), sufficient to load 15 sextillions, 625 quintillions of railroad cars, of 10 tons each ; or 3 quintillions, 906 quadrillions, 250 trillions of trains, of 40 cars each. If the cars were 25 feet long, and made up into trains 100 miles long, there would be 739 quadrillions, 820 trillions, 71 152 MEDICAL HERESIES. billions, 22 millions, 722 thousand, 537 trains and 1856 cars. To manufacture the quantity contained in the above mentioned number of vials, there would be required 11 sextillions, 10 quintillions, 744 quadrillions, 186 tril- lions, 46 billions, 511 millions, 627 thousand, 906 hogsheads (of 140 gallons each), 1 pint and 2 ounces of alcohol. Suppose there were 500 millions of people living in the world at one time, and each person should use a pint of this medicine daily, it would require 123 trillions, 203 billions, 348 millions, 833 thousand, 229 years to use up the result of one drop of a mother tincture, diluted to the thirtieth potency, and still leave unused, 11,627,360 pints, sufficient to consume the time from the foundation of the world to the present time and also a very liberal slice off eternity. If this be true in regard to this potency, how can the number of years be computed which would be required to raise a remedy to the one thousandth potency ? Yet this vast number of years does not include those spent on the potencies preceding the thirtieth. Just think of it ! If Adam had begun this agitation the day God made him, and had worked faithfully ten hours per day, he would still be shaking, away below the tenth dilu- tion, and yet all this shaking is for the purpose of dynamizing one drop of the mother-tincture. In the face of this calculation the principal homoeo- pathic pharmaceutical establishment in the United States THERAPEUTIC FORCES. 153 advertise that they have carried up to the two hundredth potency two hundred and fifty remedies ; one hundred and fifty to the five hundredth, and one hundred to the one thousandth potency, by hand, giving each potency twelve powerful strokes ; and by using a steam tritura- tion apparatus they are enabled to accord two full hours to each potency. Can it be that the fool-killer has visited this planet since Hahnemann proposed this theory? To the mind of a person having any knowledge of the modus operandi of medicine, it would be unnecessary to ask the question as to whether these attenuations have any influence on the system for good or evil ? He would answer you immediately, that they were of no use whatever as remedial agencies. The fact has been de- monstrated long ago, and the subject has ceased to be discussed in our modern works on materia medica, that medicines are absorbed into the circulation and act as material substances or agents, impressing the system and acting upon the different tissues and organs of the body, in direct proportion to their- power in altering or chang- ing molecular action ; in other words, they act by their presence ; retard, arrest or promote physiological, chemi- cal and mechanical changes ; in fact, they are simply forces, and exert an influence for good or evil in propor- tion to their presence as such. Some of them retard the metamorphosis of tissue and arrest or modify the ame- boid motion of certain cells of the body, by their mere 154 MEDICAL HERESIES. presence. This class of remedies interferes with nutri- tion and lowers the temperature of the body; others accelerate these changes and have the contrary effect, in a slight degree, upon the activity of molecular change, and consequently elevate the temperature to a slight degree, though scarcely appreciable ; others combine chemically with certain tissues and organs. I cannot introduce the proofs of the statements here, but I will refer the reader to the current works on materia medica, and especially to Headland's excellent work upon the Modus Operandi of Medicine. Now, if medicines are absorbed into the circulation, and I presume no one will question it, what force can be exerted by such an infinitely small atom of matter as is contained in any of these high potencies ? An ordin- ary blood corpuscle would absorb millions of them and not sensibly increase in size or weight by the process. But, say the homoeopathists, we know that these at- tenuations do not act as physical or chemical agents, but they have a dynamic force or power, and it is to this fact that they owe their efficiency as therapeutical agents. Very well ; let us look at the subject from that stand- point. If they have a dynamic power, they ought to be able to effect the system dynamically. I have already stated that the vital force can be affected only by effect- ing changes in the molecular constituents of the body. The easiest way to measure this change will be by the thermometer, as the manifestations of force, such as heat, ANTIPYRETIC MEDICINES. 155 light, electricity and motion all mean one and the same thing. If these medicines have any power at all, they will elevate or lower the temperature of the body. It is not necessary for me to state that they have no such power ; right here this point can be settled once and forever. The clinical thermometer is alone sufficient, if all other evidences were wanting, to forever silence this nonsensi- cal twaddle of homceopathists in regard to the dynamic power of their attenuated medicines. In order to com- plete my argument, let me state what is now known to be a clinical fact. In all the acute infectious diseases, which are characterized by high temperature, the danger to life arises from the persistency of this elevated tem- perature. This causes death directly, by producing paralysis of the heart and brain ; and indirectly, by pro- ducing congestion, inflammation and degeneration of vital organs. Hence, since the discovery of this fact it has been an object of research to find remedies which would control this high febrile condition and lower the temperature as nearly to the normal as possible. Careful and numer- ous experiments conducted for this purpose have dis- closed the fact that large quantities of remedial agents have to be administered in order to accomplish this result ; ten grains of quinia will not lower the tempera- ture of a typhoid patient, neither will twenty grains ; but from thirty to forty grains will reduce it, if admin- 156 MEDICAL HEEESIES. istered at the proper time and in a proper manner, nearly, if not quite, to the normal. I challenge homoeopathy to produce a remedy, above the second potency (centisimal scale), which will reduce the temperature in well marked cases of typhoid fever below ninety-nine degrees, any time during the first or second week, or the first half of the third week of the disease ; and I will agree to furnish the patient myself, the medicines to be prepared and administered in the presence of responsible parties of both schools. I wish to stipulate, however, that this experiment shall not be continued sufficiently long to jeopardy the life of the patient. Rational treatment lowers the temperature in these cases in a few hours, say from 105° to 100° or under. Homoeopathy cannot avail itself of the antipyretic treatment in acute infectious diseases ; none of its atten- uations can lower the temperature of fever patients even the fractional part of a degree ; and as the influence on the temperature is the easiest way that we could estimate its dynamic power, the conclusion that they possess no such power is certainly not unreasonable. Neither do any of these dilutions possess the power of elevating the temperature of the body. Hahnemann says that : — " Almost every drug, in its pure effect, produces a specific, distinct kind of fever, and even a species of in- termittent fever with its alternating stages, differing from fevers produced by other drugs."* * Page 168 of the Organon. THE LAW OF SIMILARS AT FAULT. 157 This is one of Hahnemann's most serious mistakes, and has contributed largely in leading him into many of his errors. It has been shown recently, by numerous observations with the thermometer, that few drugs, if any, possess the power of elevating the temperature of the human body; on the contrary, all the drugs which were supposed formerly to do so, such as quinia, brandy, etc., have a contrary effect. Belladonna seems, however, to elevate the temperature a fraction of a degree, but further observations are necessary to confirm this state- ment, as the slight rise occasionally observed heretofore may have been owing to some other cause.* Now if no medicine, even in appreciable quantities, will elevate the temperature of the human body, what becomes of the law of similars in regard to fevers? Where will a medicine be found that will produce a similitude of symptoms in a case of fever without eleva- tion of temperature ? For certainly no disease is similar to fever without an elevation of temperature. But, says the homoeopathist, we care nothing about the elevation of temperature ; we make up our "totality of symptoms" from the "disordered sensorial condition" of the patient ; and by removing this " totality of symp- toms," we remove the cause together with the disease. My reply to this is that the disordered sensorial con- * Vide St. Louis Medical and Surgical Journal, Sept. 5, 1880. Observations by the author upon the influence of hypodermic injections of Sulph. Atropine upon the temperature during the treatment of sciatica by this process. 158 MEDICAL HERESIES. dition of the patient is a result of the fever and not the cause, and the most rational method of removing it is to cool the fever, and this, in fact, proves, by observation, to be the case ; for these symptoms always disappear with the fever, whether the result of treatment or by the unaided efforts of nature. Hence, I claim that observa- tions with the clinical thermometer, while experimenting with drugs, prove clearly that homoeopathic remedies have no influence, either as physical or dynamical agents ; and also, that it further demonstrates the folly of the so-called law of similars, so far as fevers are con- cerned ; for who ever saw a drug-disease similar to a fever without the elevation of temperature ? In fact, the only condition necessary in fever — the disease itself — consists in an elevation of temperature, caused by a rapid oxidation of the tissues of the body ; all others are superadded. HOMCEOPATHIC SCHISMS. 159 CHAPTER XV. Discussion of Homoeopathy Continued. In the preceding chapters I have presented a fair discussion of the leading principles of homoeopathy, as taught by Hahnemann himself; and in order that I might not be accused of misrepresentation, I have quoted his exact words, rather freely on some points, and have shown a few of the leading objections to his system, as they occurred to my mind. i shall now proceed to show by quotations from the current homoeopathic literature of the day that there is quite a respectable number of homoeopath ists who have arrived at the same conclusion as myself in regard to high dilutions, and that some of them have also aban- doned the law of " Sim ilia similibus curantur." There has been a war raging in the homoeopathic camp for a number of years, between low and high dilutionists, with a steady gain by the latter. In some parts of Europe even the name of homoeopathists has been discarded, and they now call their system " The Specific School of Medicine." As long ago as 1847, M. Rapou, who was a great admirer of Hahnemann, and a homoeopathist, published a work, called the " Homoeopathic Doctrine," in which he says : — 160 MEDICAL HERESIES. " The law of similars is positive, but it does not con- stitute the general law of therapeutics. Medicamental substances may operate by the law of contraries. Anti- pathy is as often in play as homoeopathy ; both are secondary and accessory modes. The great principle is the specificity, and the most important problem is not to see the similarity between the remedy and the disease, but to find, directly, the specific appropriate to each morbid state. Dynamization does not exist even where, by many, its importance has been greatly exaggerated. Dilution is incapable of developing a medicamental efficaciousness in most substances which are inert in their natural state, and which Hahnemann has put among the number of active remedies. Infinitesimal doses have no marked action ; it is necessary, ordinarily, to employ tinctures and powders, and never extend them beyond the third or fourth divisions. Our medicines may be administered without inconvenience in the ordfh- ary pharmaceutical preparations, and the various allo- pathic remedies may be employed conveniently with them. Clinics must become the principal source of indications, and concur, in the largest degree, to the formation of our pure materia medica. This last part of science is to be reconstructed; an anatomical and physiological classification of symptoms must be intro- duced into it. The theory of psora and its pretended consequences is false in all respects. We can and we must seek to combine the specific procedure with the usual indications. It is proper to fall back to the use of pharmaceutical mixtures." This question is a fruitful theme for discussion at the meeting of almost every homoeopathic association. At the meeting of the Illinois Homoeopathic Medical Asso- ciation, for 1878, a paper was read before the Bureau of Materia Medica on " The Causes of the Division in our Ranks." During the discussion of this paper a great DIVERSE OPINIONS. 161 variety of opinions were expressed in regard to the law of similars and high and low potencies, and to an un- prejudiced outsider it would seem that the cardinal principles of homoeopathy are now interpreted to mean everythiug or anything, to suit the fancy of any partic- ular individual. We quote the following from the Medical Investi- gator, of July 15th, 1878:— "The characteristic symptoms in Hahnemann's Materia Medica are those of the primary symptoms of drugs, and seven-tenths of the symptoms in the chronic dis- eases are also primary. This was what caused Hahne- mann to go higher and higher in his attenuations in order to avoid aggravations and make good cures. But secondary symptoms are just as important and valuable as primary ; and if we fully understand their import- ance we shall be just as successful when selecting remedies from their secondary symptoms as when we select them from their primary. Those who do not appreciate this fact suppose that when a material dose is used the effect is palliative or antipathic. Such is not the case. A medicine is homoeopathic to disease, whether selected from its primary or secondary effects. For example: Camphor is primarily homoeopathic to cerebral conges- tion and spasms, and in such cases high potencies should be used. The secondary effects of camphor are those resembling cholera, therefore camphor does no good in choleraic symptoms unless given in appreciable doses. Aconite is primarily homoeopathic to chill with vaso- motor spasm, secondarily to fever, active congestion and inflammation. To be successful with aconite the higher dilutions should be given in the cold stage, and low dilutions in the hot stage, of fevers. Then there are often cases of disease where the patient is suffering from such unutterable anguish and pain that no time can be ii 162 MEDICAL HERESIES. spared to select the true similium, and we are driven by every prompting of humanity to give a palliative, as opium, or some anaesthetic. Bat to cure our patients we must give a remedy that is primarily or secondarily homoeopathic to the case. No medicine can cure unless it is homoeopathic. The law of similia is the universal law of cure. All the real cures made by Allopathists are owing to the homceopathicity of the drug or drugs given. It is a mistake to claim that Hahnemann's great cures were made with high dilutions. Some of his best cures were made with crude doses, as will be seen by reference to his lesser writings. The author of this paper may suppose that opium is only palliative for diarrhoea, but opium causes diarrhoea secondarily. It often cures painful diarrhoea by its secondary action, for Hahnemann says all the pains of opium are its secondary effects. I might go on indefinitely, to show where the secondary action of drugs is not taken ad- vantage of by our school. If they understood this action, and the law of dose which belongs to it, they would not talk so much about palliatives, but claim all cures, rightfully, as belonging to us." This explanation is certainly sufficiently flexible to explain the modus operandi of all remedies, and leaves nothing further to be desired. The next speaker says : — " I was never good at splitting hairs when a young man, and I am too old to learn now. Thirty-four years ago I first adopted homoeopathic principles. My preceptor used the low potencies, from the third to the sixth, and I got to using them. I have not cured all my cases ; some died in spite of my treatment, and many got well in spite of my treatment. When sent for, I try to re- lieve, and if I know anything that will relieve, I do not hesitate to give it. I often give morphine, and after- wards give atropine or nux vom. I claim to be a strong DIVERSE OPINIONS. 163 homoeopath, but I have not cured ovarian tumors with the hundred thousandth of kali bichrvmicum, but I have cured ovaritis with atropia, and when the fever runs very high, aconite, every hour till the fever passes off or sensibly remits." • The next speaker says — " Dr. H. has expressed my sentiments exactly. It is not a question of potency ; it is a question of curing the patient When we are called to a patient it is our duty to relieve his sufferings as quickly as possible ; but should we give morphine f What is the effect of morphine f Its effect is to deaden the nervous system so that it cannot feel pain. Pain is the voice of nature crying for relief, and is the true physician's best guide to the seat and character of the cause of the pain ; deadening the nervous system by morphine, or any of its equivalents, is virtually choking off nature's voice calling to us for relief, and pointing to the spot where she suffers, thus leaving us to work in the dark." " Better let the patient suffer a little while than to complicate the troubles and retard the final recovery, or risk the patient's life by paralyzing the governor, the nervous system, with mmyhia I condemn the use of morphine in these cases. Morphine is only useful as a dernier ressort, a last means, when you acknowledge yourself beaten. In curable cases it is almost criminal to give morphia." The next speaker expresses himself to the effect that " properly selected remedies do not fail, and I have the first time to be driven to any other resort than the homoeopathic remedy." Dr. T. says : — " In my early education in the science of homoeo- pathy I was taught to use the lowest potencies ; mother 164 MEDICAL HERESIES. tinctures, etc.; also, to alternate ; and my preceptor was a strong advocate of both these features, remaining so until his death Experience soon demonstrated this method the better way. My first cure made was one of fetid catarrh, of many years' standing, with two or three doses of Silica 200 . I continued thus, mostly in the chronic cases, with much better results. I do not confine myself to the high potencies now, ex- clusively, but also use low, and exceptionally the tinc- ture, but always use the single remedy." (i The paper charges criminality, and arrogance, as before remarked, but if I can prove by practical demon- stration that I can cure diseases with the single remedy, I would ask the question: Is there not more certainty in thus prescribing, than where two or more remedies are administered ? If I impart such knowledge to a brother practitioner, and try to show him the better system, and to my mind the more certain way, am I to be charged with ignorance, arrogance and criminality ? On the other hand, should the patient die while under the administration of a high potency, well selected and according to the law of similars,' and to the best of my judgment, I do not imagine, nor am I criminal, arrogant, nor yet censurable, much less ignorant." This is sufficiently liberal to suit the most unreason- able Eclectic in the whole country. Dr. B. says : — "I wish to plead guilty to this charge. I am a homoeopath, and emphatically announce myself as such ; but I am not a homoeopath according to that paper. There are many points in Dr. Ws, paper that I would like to answer, but as I cannot do so without getting mad, I will let them pass. But I will say that a man holding the position of professor of materia medica in a homoeopathic medical college, who tells the students that fifteen minutes is all the time required to make a homoeopathic trituration, shows DIVERSE OPINIONS. 165 mighty little grace in denouncing as fools those who are trying to follow Hahnemann's teachings." Dr. T. says : — " There is one point in this paper to which I would like to call attention: That we are not to rely upon homoeopathic- treatment in desperate cases. If the homoeopathic law of cure is true, it is in just such bad cases that we should depend on the law, and see with our greatest knowledge to apply this law with exactitude. We have no time in these cases to dally w r ith empiricism, while we have a law to guide us ; less dangerous cases will answer for such experiments. If you have a severe case of pleurisy, by all means treat it homceopathically, affiliating your remedies with great care. Even in uterine hemorrhage homoeopathy has not left me in the lurch yet. I have yet to lose one case of uterine hemorrhage, and I have had cases des- perate enough to frighten any one." Dr. C. says : — "This discussion seems rather profitless. We have discussed this matter every year for twenty-four years, and w r e cannot agree any more than two men are psy- chologically alike. It is our boast that we should have liberty in certain things. I hope the committee on the president's address w r ill be allowed to report, and so close this discussion, which may last all day." The following report on homoeopathy was made : — " Your committee believe that the 'great trial of Homoeopathy' has long since been successfully passed. It has no longer danger to apprehend from its enemies. Its only dangers, if any, will proceed from its own household. Declaratory, declamatory, and defamatory resolutions concerning principles fixed as the immutable hills are impolitic, unwise and degrading. Independ- ence of thought and action is and should be as inalien- able to medical as to political citizens. 166 MEDICAL HERESIES. " The spirit of the address meets our hearty approval. Respectfully submitted, Committee." The following resolution was offered, discussed and tabled : — " Resolvedj That, as an association having for its object all investigations and other labors which may contribute to the formation of medical science, we hereby declare our firm belief in the principle " similia similibus curantur" as constituting the best general guide in the selection of remedies, and fully intend to carry out this principle to the best of our ability; this belief does not debar us from recognizing and making use of the results of any experience, and we shall exercise and defend the inviolable right of every educated physician to make practical use of any established principle in medical science, or of any therapeutical facts founded on experience, and verified by experiments, so far as in his individual judgment they shall tend to promote the welfare of those under his professional care." By tabling this resolution this body of learned homceo- pathists placed itself in the absurd position of refusing to indorse its own fundamental principle, "Similia simili- bus curantur" The same action also refuses to indorse the liberal proposition enunciated in the latter portion of the resolution ; so it is impossible to tell just what homoeopathy means in the State of Illinois. The Homoeopathic Medical Society of New York appears to be involved in the same or a similar difficulty, judging from resolutions which were reported at the meeting of 1879. It appears, from the tenor of these resolutions, that the meeting for the preceding year had passed others of quite a different character. Not hav- POSITION OF THE SCHOOL IN NEW YORK. 167 ing the published proceedings of that year in my posses- sion, I can only infer their nature from those passed in 1879. We insert the report of the committee to which was referred the preambles and resolutions adopted at the last annual meeting, brought before the society upon a motion to rescind and expunge from the records those passed the year before : — " Your committee, representing the extremes of our school, both in practice and views, have unanimously agreed to present the following paper. They ask for its careful and liberal consideration. They hope it may be received by the society, ordered to be printed, and sent to every homoeopathic physician of the State. " They suggest that the committee, or their successors, be continued during the year ; that the chairman be the medium of correspondence with any member of the profession who may desire so to do ; and that their final report be made to the society at the afternoon session of the first day of the meeting of 1880. " Whereas, The resolution passed by this society at its last annual meeting does not justly express the views of our school, and is calculated to place us in a false position before the world, " Therefore, We, the members of said society, deem it expedient to put upon record the following avowal of our position : — "First. That we adhere to the formula, 'similia simili- biis curantur,' as enunciating the great therapeutic law for the treatment of disease. Evolved by induction, formulated by the venerable Hahnemann, tested and approved by thousands of physicians during scores of years, we are assured that, with our increased knowledge of the Materia Medica, we shall be able to demonstrate more fully its universality as a therapeutic law, and show in a more perfect manner its harmony with other and cognate natural laws. 168 MEDICAL HERESIES. "Second. That we clearly and emphatically distinguish between a ' therapeutic law' and the laws of chemistry, physics, and hygiene ; and while in the treatment of disease their formula, ' causa sublata tollitur effectus, is often to be remembered and used with advantage, yet such laws and such action in no way infringe upon or in- validate the therapeutic law, l similia similibus curantur? "Third. That we have not in the past, nor do we now, yield one tittle of our rights, as physicians, to use any means or appliances of the general profession to aid in the treatment of our patients (under the homoeo- pathic law), or in the palliation of their suffering, through the application of any physical, surgical, chemical, or hygienic law, leaving the question of such use to the individual judgment of the practitioner, assured that they will be least used by those who are the best acquainted with our Materia 3fedica, and best able to wield its immense armamentarium. "Fourth. That, contrary to the opinion held by some, we most thoroughly indorse, and would most earnestly enforce, the study of pathology and pathological ana- tomy in our schools and by our students, as determina- ting in the direction of a broader medical culture. "Fifth. That the great work of our school, in the advancing of medical science, is the proving of drugs, and the enlarging, purifying and verifying of our Ma- teria Medica. "We point with just pride to the work we have already accomplished ; and though we may lament that it has not been more thorough, and less open to criticism, yet we hail the continued appropriation by other schools of the medicines, and methods of using them, that we have introduced to the profession, in those diseases where their usefulness has been indicated to us by their patho- genesis, as a virtual indorsement of our labors, and to a certain extent vouching for their substantial accuracy. " We do not look upon this action on the part of our quondam opponents with jealousy, but welcome it cor- POSITION OF THE SCHOOL IN NEW YORK. 169 dially, when credited, as the dawning of a better era. We freely yield our labors for the use of others, as only a just contribution to the general profession from which we have received so much. "Sixth. In relation to the dose of the simillimum proper to be exhibited, we discover that the most bril- liant triumphs of homoeopathy have been achieved by the use of attenuated medicines; yet, as a matter of fact, we find that even the crude drug in minute doses will exhibit power to become a remedy under our therapeutic law. "But, as we as yet have not been able to deduce a law to guide us in determining the amount of a drug to be used, or the attenuation to be exhibited, in order to meet the demands of any case most accurately, this society, while on the one hand it refuses to join with those who decry attenuated medicines, on the other will not refuse to recognize as brethren those who, governed by their honest convictions, can only exhibit crude medicines or the lowest attenuation in the treatment of the sick." At the annual meeting of the society held in Albany, N. Y., February 10th and 11th, 1880, this committee made the following Report : — " The committee found members trammeled by doc- trine, rigidly enforced, which they did not believe in. The committee have endeavored to act as peacemakers, by formulating fundamental principles on which all or at least a large majority can agree. " The committee to whom was referred the report upon the ' State of Homoeopathy/ received by the society at its last annual meeting, would respectfully report : — "That in accordance with the resolutions contained in the report, the members of the committee have during the year conducted an extensive correspondence with the profession throughout the State. 170 MEDICAL HERESIES. " They have endeavored to obtain from those who feel aggrieved a statement of their cause of complaint ; and they have attempted to write a report to the society which shall be true to the principles of Homoeo- pathy, and yet broad enough to cover the real issue which seemed to demand the resolution of 1878. " Your committee has found a general and most hearty concurrence of belief in the law, similia simili- bus curantur, " It has found a diversity of sentiment concerning the use of attenuated medicines, and as to the reliability of provings made with them. " There is also a lack of harmony prevailing through- out the profession, as to the expediency of putting upon record any expression concerning the use of extraneous appliances, when treating a patient with internal medi- cation, administered according to our therapeutic law. "It is very generally conceded, however, that the mere fact of being a homoeopathic practitioner has de- barred no one from the right to use such appliances, if, in his judgment, they are demanded. " Your committee wish to draw careful attention to the protest of those engaged in the passage of the reso- lution of 1878. " They contend that their position has been misrepre- sented and the intent of their resolution most unjustly judged. " It seems to your committee that in their attempt to place themselves in a proper position before the commu- nity, they were betrayed into expressions that appeared to be false to the principles they had so long professed, and for which they had so long contended. "Your committee remembers that words do not always convey the thought intended, and they cannot do otherwise than exercise the utmost charity toward the movers of the resolution of 1878, and to express their confidence in their protestations. We deem it expedient, however, to calmly and decidedly put ourselves upon POSITION OF THE SCHOOL IN NEW YORK. 171 record as misrepresented by it, and we wish to do this in plain and unmistakable language. "Your committee therefore suggests that the reso- lutions which they herewith present be adopted as a substitute for the preamble and resolution passed by this society in 1878, as expressing the views of this body in regard to the matter under consideration." The resolutions referred to in the preceding para- graph are the same, in substance, as those of 1879. "After considerable skirmishing the report was adopted by a vote of 33 to 15. " The arguments offered by the opposers of the reso- lutions consisted of negative qualities chiefly, the points mainly advanced being, that a formal declaration of principles was unnecessary and even harmful, as indica- tive of a want of confidence in the universality of application of the homoeopathic law. While they were willing to use any and all other measures they were not disposed to make public acknowledgment to that effect. " The argument advanced by the majority was chiefly embodied in the remarks by Dr. D. He stated sub- stantially, that there was nothing objectionable in the report or in the resolutions. They were the result of an extended correspondence on the part of the committee with homoeopathic physicians throughout the State ; they clearly and forcibly express the sentiments of a majority of the profession. By formally adopting them the con- troversy on this subject will quickly terminate. They leave the question regarding liberty of opinion and action where it ought to be left, viz., that he who believes in our law of cure, and practices according to his best ability, is a homoeopath ist. He had followed this plan since his membership in the society, more than twenty-five years. He believed the homoeopathic to be the best therapeutic system, but not the only available and useful one. He held it to be his duty at the bedside of the patient to use every known method extant, and 172 MEDICAL HERESIES. that he would do in spite of any organization under the sun. "If all the members have this privilege, as is most assuredly the case, the society ought to sustain them in the enjoyment of it. A church having a code of morals that its members could violate with impunity would lose its character and influence. We claim the right to prac- tice as we please, and some present say the society should cover the breach. Is that the best course for the society to pursue? No, let the society rest on a liberal, sound and generous basis before the world, and declare that it stands behind its members and endorses their acts. I would not give a fig for a society that cannot be as in- dependent and manly as its individual members." Thus it will be seen, by the proceedings of the homoeo- pathic societies of these great States, that there are two parties or factions in that school ; one of which not only indorses the pure homoeopathy of Hahnemann, but carries its dilutions and attenuations much higher than he recommended. The other faction is ready to abandon high dilutions altogether, and begins to question the divinity and universality of this great law of " Simi- lia similibus curantur" This division extends through- out the entire ranks of homoeopathy, and will, sooner or later, lead to an open rupture ; in fact, steps have already been taken by the liberal wing to establish a school or college in Buffalo, N. Y. The dogmatic wing of the school has designated the other party as Eclectic homceopathists. Dr. Lewis Sherman, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, made a proposition to the Academy of Medicine (homceo- A TEST PROPOSED. 173 pathic) to test the medical qualities, or more properly the efficacy of the thirtieth potency ; from which we quote : — "A TEST OF THE EFFICACY OF THE HIGH DILUTIONS. By LEWIS SHERMAN, m.d., Milwaukee, Wisconsin. " I propose a scientific test of the pathogenetic and therapeutic action of the thirtieth Hahnemannian dilu- tion. The object of this test is to determine whether or not this preparation can produce any medicinal action on the human organism in health or disease. "A vial of pure sugar pellets, moistened with the thirtieth Hahnemannian dilution of Aconite, and nine similar vials, moistened with pure alcohol, so as to make them resemble the test pellets, shall be given to the prover. The vials are to be numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. The number given to the Aconite vial shall be unknown to the prover, and it shall be his task to determine which of the ten vials contains Aconite. " These preparations are to be put up with the great- est care, in the presence of the members of the Milwau- kee Academy of Medicine, and then placed in the hands of an unprejudiced layman of unimpeachable honor, who shall number and dispense the vials as they are called for by the pro vers. " The provers must be physicians of acknowledged ability, who possess a good knowledge of the recorded symptomatology of Aconite, and who have faith in the efficacy of the thirtieth dilution. " If a hundred physicians engage in making the test, and all or nearly all single out the Aconite pellets, the inference will be that the thirtieth dilution represents the medicinal properties of Aconite. "If only about ten of the hundred succeed in the trial, the inference will be that the thirtieth dilution of Aconite possesses no medicinal properties, for according to the laws of probabilities about one in ten would guess right without making any trial. 174 MEDICAL HERESIES. " The experimenters must be physicians of acknowl- edged ability, who possess a good knowledge of the therapeutic indications of the remedies tried, and who profess faith in the efficacy of the thirtieth dilution. If in this trial there be about one hundred per cent, of suc- cesses, the inference will be that the thirtieth dilutions have curative powers. If there be only about fifty per cent, of successes, the inference will be that the thirtieth dilutions have no curative powers. " If those who advocate the use of these preparations refuse to participate in the experiment, the profession will have reason to suspect that they are insincere. " If the result of the test should be to prove that the thirtieth dilution of a drug can make the sick well or the well sick, then it must be acknowledged that in this a great discovery has been made in physics, as well as in medicine, and the science and ingenuity of the civil- ized world will be set at work to find out the useful applications of the discovery. " If the result should be to prove that the thirtieth dilution has no such powers as it is claimed to have, then the medical profession has a right to demand that the symptoms supposed to have been produced by the thirtieth and higher dilutions be expunged from our Materia Medica, and that advocates of the potentization theory shall henceforth cease to prate their ' cures ' in medical journals and before medical societies which are avowedly devoted to the interests of science." This proposition was accepted by the academy and the medicines were prepared and placed in the hands of a minister for the purpose of distribution among the provers, and perhaps in a short time we will have the published results.* This proposition has been severely criticised in the medical journals of the homoeopathic *The following extracts from the final report of the Committee on Sherman's test of the Thirtieth Dilution is hereby appended. THE MILWAUKEE TEST. 175 school, many of the high dilutionists seeming to fear the result. In a paper presented to the State Homoeopathic Medical Society, of Tennessee, and published in the American Homcdopathist, March 1878, the writer discusses the subject of internal and avoidable obstacles to homceo- Unfortunately for the high dilutionists, none of the provers suc- ceeded in finding the medicated pellets. " FINAL REPORT ON THE MILWAUKEE TEST OF THE THIR- TIETH DILUTION. " The Milwaukee Academy of Medicine, in completing the Pathogenetic and Therapeutic Test of the Thirtieth Hahne- mannian Dilution, makes the following report : — " That the unavoidable delay in making the report was due to the removal of the depositary, Rev. G. T. Ladd, from this city to Brunswick, Maine ; to his absence from home, caused by the ill- ness and death of his father ; and to the tardiness of the reports from the experimenters. "That in carrying out the provisions of the test we have adhered strictly to the details of the plan for a scientific test of the pathogenetic and therapeutic action of the thirtieth Hahne- mannian dilution, full particulars of which were published in the circular issued by this society in December, 1878. 11 We would report — " That the medicines used in making the dilutions for the therapeutic test were obtained from the pharmacy of Messrs. Boericke & Tafel, and the aconite tincture was tested by several members of this society and found to produce its pathogenetic effects. "That the dilutions were made by this society, in accordance with the Hahnemannian directions for the preparation of the thirtieth. 11 That at a regular meeting of the society, held April 1, 1879, the following resolution was unanimously adopted : — " Upon application by any Professor in a Medical College, or any other public advocate of the High Potencies, the Academy will prepare and furnish the Thirtieth Hahnemannian Dilution of any remedy in common use, for the purpose, and in accordance with the terms, heretofore pub- lished in the pamphlet entitled ' A Test of the Thirtieth Dilution.' "That in accordance with various requests of the provers we have prepared, in addition to the dilutions mentioned in the pam- phlet, pathogenetic tests of mix vomica, belladonna, and arsenicum album, and therapeutic tests of sulphur and digitalis. "That the bottles containing the thirtieth dilution, thus pre- pared, together with a bottle of the alcohol used in their prepara- 176 MEDICAL HERESIES. pathy, under the heads of, 1st. Materia Medica; 2d. Potencies; 3d. Pathology; We shall quote a portion of the article : — "materia medica. " The voluminous and unreliable materia medica forms a terrible stumbling block to the student of homoeopathy. tion, were given directly into the custody of the depositary. That he was also supplied with pure sugar pellets, vials and mailing boxes, and that he was requested to medicate the pellets, and dispense them according to orders which he might receive from the secretary. " That the application for the test cases were given directly to the depositary as soon after their receipt as possible ; that all cases given out were sent by him in response to application received by this society from the provers ; and that, in answer to our request we received from him a thoroughly sealed envelope, containing the subjoined report : — " Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me., Jan. 26, 1880. u To the Milwaukee Academy of Medicine. — Gentlemen: The report which is herewith submitted to you, I beg leave to preface with the following statements : — "The work which you did me the honor to entrust to me has been most carefully and scrupulously done ; the record has been accurately kept, and secluded from all eyes but my own. "Great pains has (have?) been taken to exclude entirely the possibility of guessing the medicated vials, instead of discovering them by scientific experiment. " Nothing has been permitted to indicate a difference in the vials tested, or to make it possible for any experimenter to detect in any way the reasons for choosing one number, rather than another, of all the vials numbered, to contain the medicated pellets. " So far as the test has been made, it has been made under the fairest conditions possible for me to secure. " With these remarks, I invite your attention to the appended itemized statement of the tests sent, the time of sending, the person to whom sent, and the numbers in each test of the medi- cated vials. "These, gentlemen, are all the vials sent out by me in accord- ance with the instructions received from your committee. "I am very respectfully yours, " George T. Ladd." " In the tabular statement, the number of the medicated vial in the cases not tested, or not reported, has been withheld by the society, for obvious reasons. The last column, giving the THE MILWAUKEE TEST. 177 It seems as though the idea was to get as many symptoms as possible for each drug — regardless as to whether they are veritable drug-symptoms, or personal symptoms pe- culiar to the prover, or symptoms arising from other causes — and to search for medicines among all kinds of matter, sometimes too foul to mention, while there are report of the experimenter, has been added, to make the report complete." 1— c X c8 as "5 ** £ c o a s p o 6 Name of Experimenter. Residence of Experimenter. Test EH O 6 1 O U s a « a, X Jan. 13 1 Dr. J. Thompson- Greenfield, Mass... Path. No Report. " «i i 2 Prof. C. B. Gatchell Ann Arbor, Mich- Ther. 5 Feb. 26 1 3 Dr. H. L. Waldo.... West Troy, N.Y...-. Path. 1 ii « " 4 Dr. W. 8. Gillett ... Ther. 5 ii U " 5 Dr. E. Lippincott... Bowling Green, Ky Path. 1 ii Mar. lj 6 Dr. W. H. Blakely.. ii ii ii ii 1 10 Number 6. " 3l! 7 Dr. W. B. Trites ... Manayunk, Pa it 1 No Report. ft ", 8 Dr. G. R. Mitchell.. Richland C, Wis... ii 1 2 Number 4. ii " 9 Dr. C. R. Muzzey... Watertown, Wis... ii 1 7 Number 1. " " 10 "11 Prof. A. Woodward Dr. J. H. Thompson ii it 1 1 1 Number 2. ii New York, N.Y No Symptoms a "12 Dr. N. S. Pennoyer ii 1 10 Number 4. June 11 ii u ii u i< ii Ther* 1 No Report. Mar. 5 16 Dr. C.H.Hall Putb. 2 ii May Dr. M. A. Reis Milwaukee, Wis... it i 1 2 Number 10. 14 «i 17 Dr. 0. W. Smith.... Union Sp'gs, N. Y.. " ! i 1 No Report. " 18 ii u ii ii ii ti Ther. 5 ii II " 19 Prof. Uhlemeyer.... Path. 1 3 Number 5. II " 20 ii it a ii Ther. 5 1 Arsenicum 1. II " 21 Dr. W. F. Morgan.. Leavenworth, Kan Path. 1 No Symptoms II " 22 u a it u ii « Ther.l 5 No Report. II " 23 Dr. 0. S. Childs Beaver Dam, Wis.... 41 I 5 " June 18 24 Path.! 1 it ",25 it ii ii ii Ther. | 5 ii i< ii 26 IDr. Wm. Eggert.... Indianapolis, Ind.. Path 1 ii it 27 ,27 Dr. Petrus Nelson.. Minneapolis, Min.. Ther. 5 July it 28 30 Dr. H. A Foster ... Buffalo N.Y .1 ' i ? ii Dr. T.L.Brown Bingbamton, N.Y.. ii 1 1 i< ii " 31 " 32 Dr. E. C Morrill... Dr. CW. Mohr ii 1 1 1 u it Philadelphia, Pa... II ii ii 33) 34 J Dr. W.M.Butler... Middletown, N.Y.. Ther. 2 j 11 ii 35) 39) " 40 Dr. L. A. Campbell. Attleboro, Mass it 5 II « Dr. J. A. Pearsall... Saratoga Sp'gs^.Y Path. 1 II u •i 41 1 " * Five vials, one containing Arson. 30. 12 178 MEDICAL HERESIES. plenty of well-known and ' respectable' drugs, which, if properly proved, would furnish all that is required for the removal of disease. The consequence is a materia medica of many volumes and almost useless in a practi- cal point of view." " POTENCIES. " The question of ' potencies' seems to have aroused a spirit of contention in the homoeopathic fraternity, almost as bitter as any between the old school and the new. These dissensions surprised me as they have many others who have turned their attention toward homoeo- pathy expecting to find the most perfect harmony. Why this feeling should exist I cannot see, for homoeopathy does not mean small doses, nor high nor low 'potencies.' These should be left to the judgment of the practitioner; all who practice under the law of similars being homoeo- paths. The question of dose or quantity is not con- sidered a cause for contention among the allopaths, each physician being considered capable of using his own judgment in such matters. " The heat of this combat seems to be greatest among ' high potency' men, they setting themselves up as the only true homoeopaths or followers of Hahnemann. "RECAPITULATION. TEN-VIAL, OR PATHOGENETIC TE8T. Number of Tests applied for and sent out 25 Number of tests on which reports have been received 9 Number of tests in which the medicated vial was found TWO-VIAL, OR THERAPEUTIC TEST. Number of tests applied for and sent out 47 Number of tests on which reports have been received 1 Number of tests in which the medicated vial was found 1 FIVE-VIAL TEST OF DR. PENNOYER. Number of tests applied for and sent out 1 Number of tests on which reports have been received Number of tests in which the medicated vial was found " By order of the Milwaukee Academy of Medicine. " Sam'l Potter, m.d., Prest. "Eugene F. Storke, m.d., Serfy. " Milwaukee, Wis., Feb. 16th, 1880." OBSTACLES TO HOMOEOPATH Y. 179 " T notice frequently, in articles by some of the advo- cates of 'high potencies/ the terra ' pure homoeopathy' applied to their system of potentizing remedies." " There can be no such thing as i pure' nor ' spurious' homoeopathy; it is well denned in three words — 'similia similibus curantur' — and all who accept this and follow it are homoeopaths, and none others, however high their 1 potencies' may be and however close their adherence to the t single remedy." " The homoeopath must employ the similar remedy ; and in order to do this successfully he must first know, from thorough and careful provings, and not from some- body's imagination, what his several remedies are found to do in the healthy human body ; second, he must give his remedy in such form and quantity as to make the impression required ; third, he must repeat his dose and regulate the circumstances of his patient as each case may demand." "pathology. " A great obstacle to the advancement of homoeopathy is the position taken and articles published by some of its would-be leaders against pathology. It cannot be possible that they wish to lower the standard of educa- tion among homoeopaths. If they do their downfall is certain. " If they drop pathology, why not drop anatomy and physiology and chemistry from the list? Why not, indeed, drop every branch from their catalogue which is taught in the allopathic colleges ? "They say that Hahnemann w T as opposed to pathology, but I think he only cautioned against it as used by the old school instead of symptomatology in the administra- tion of medicines. They say that pathology is material- istic. In this I agree with them fully. What are they dealing w r ith but matte'- f There is nothing very spiritual in a case of cholera morbus or delirium tremens; such an argument is too ridiculous to answer. To the bodily and not the spiritual ills we minister. 180 MEDICAL HERESIES. From an article contributed to the Homoeopathic Times for January, 1878, one of the leading journals of that school, I will quote the following paragraphs : — "In my judgment, we have sufficient evidence to warrant us in the belief that many diseases are removed when drugs are administered which, if taken by a per- son in health would produce certain morbid conditions resembling the existing disease ; I say morbid conditions in contradistinction to the host of symptoms gathered from the patient, which are as likely to be imaginary as real, and result as much from fancy as from medicine, for we all know that no two persons will give us the same account of their sensations and sufferings, even though they may be the subjects of the same identical disease in every particular, so far as we can determine ; any system of medication that proposes to use drugs which in their minute details resemble the endless phases of diseased action, lays down a proposition utterly repugnant to common sense, for the finite is expected to meet a demand only comprehended by the infinite, and any man who would be ready to avow that he under- stands the complications of disease and can interpret its mysterious development, so that he could apply the most attenuated atom to a remote organ passing through the complicated mechanism of the human body, which in itself is the epitome of the universe, would be declared by all men of thought either a knave or a fool. Homoe- opathy, as I understand it, is a system of medicine and not magic, and it has already done much, and is destined to accomplish still more, for mankind ; it is yet in its infancy; and inasmuch as medicine is the result of ex- perience, it is an unreasonable adventure for so young a child to push aside the accumulated proofs of past ages, for the trials of a day. Homoeopathy has done a good work, and has wrought important changes in the healing art, and is entitled to unmeasured praise ; for, in my opinion, it has played an important part in revolutioniz- KEY-NOTE FOLLY. 181 ing, to a very considerable degree, the therapeutics of medicine, and has demonstrated to the profession the fact that the curative effects of a drug can be obtained by doses so small as not to impair health or endanger life ; this fact has been established by those who have used the low attenuations containing drugs in appreciable doses ; and those who have adhered to the high dilutions are entitled to some credit, for they have demonstrated that the doctrine of the fathers was correct, and that a large proportion of the sick would recover without any medication ; in other words, would get well if not inter- fered with. "Homoeopathy has merit as a principle, and deserves study, but its materia medica is in many respects only entitled to the condemnation of scholars and philo- sophers. For example, the voluminous compilation of Professor Allen, which must have been made by ma- chinery, is entirely impracticable, and calculated to mis- lead the unwary. For every one knows that if all the homoeopathic physicians on earth could have lived and commenced experimenting upon the morning of creation and continued actively at work to this moment, they could not have proven one-half of the symptoms attri- buted to the various drugs therein contained. " We often hear men who have only had a limited experience speak of the wonderful, exact, marvelous and minute effects of drugs, with the greatest apparent con- fidence and flippancy. They tell us about certain fingers, or even portions of them, being affected by a certain remedy, at certain times, and at stated periods, after doing certain things, or they refer to a certain freak, whim, caprice, or fancy, that went flitting through the brain, and, infatuated with the idea that they have found a "key-note," they set the spiritualized atom at work to search out and remedy the existing malady, which it does to the gratification and astonishment of all except the doctor who despatched the pellet upon its glorious mission, because he was familiar with its most subtle and hidden power, and had plunged into the deep mys- 182 MEDICAL HERESIES. teries of creative wisdom. With such foolish jargon the profession is loaded down, and its burdens must be removed, or it will eventually be buried so deep beneath the popular judgment as to defy all possibility of resur- rection, and whatever good it has accomplished will be lost forever. " To prove a drug, as is claimed by the new school, upon the healthy organism, and demonstrate its exact nature and action, implies much more labor, and the whole thing is involved in far greater uncertainty than many suppose. " The evidence we have upon this point is so diffusive, profuse and contradictory, that the whole system of drug proving is not only doubted by many, but is to-day, with all the boasting of learned authors and unlearned doctors, a mooted question in the scientific world and still remains to be demonstrated. " Some excellent witnesses swear to altogether too much, and thus damage their testimony. Our thera- peutics has demanded as its due too much, and, in fact, more than men or angels can contribute or comprehend. " Let us look for a moment at the difficulties which stand in the w^ay of obtaining the effects of drugs, as claimed by the homoeopathic school, and when we have finished the task I am sure that we will be satisfied if we can obtain some general idea of medicine, and will be ready to set aside the nonsense of " key-notes/' special indications," " peculiar sensations," and act upon facts that cannot be disputed. " To give one or more persons a drug, and register all their peculiar fancies and ideas, does not furnish any reliable evidence of the real effects of the drug, evidence upon which a man is warranted to act who holds in his hands the responsibility of human life. " If the system of proving drugs is true, it is too plain for comment or controversy that in order to arrive at correct conclusions the drug must be tested upon persons having in all respects the same physical and mental qualities ; and even then the proceeding is attended with FALLACY OF DRUG-PRO VINGS. 183 doubt and difficulty, because the same agent does not always produce the same effect upon the same person, for reasons entirely unknown to the most learned among men ; for example, one may take a narcotic, to ascertain its medicinal effects, and every time he repeats the ex- periment a new train of symptoms may be developed, and in this way the experimenter may be led into fatal error ; then again, no two persons can be found so exactly alike that they can afford us proper evidence concerning the minute effects of a drug ; then, too, we all know that the same drug, in the same quantity, will produce entirely different effects upon different individuals; nor does the difficulty end here, for the smell of a rose will develop disease in some cases, while most persons delight in the delicious odors. When we claim that we are familiar with the ultimate and particular action of drugs, we only assert that which is impossible and untrue, and entitles us to a place in the front ranks among the mountebanks who impose upon the credulity of man- kind. "While I am willing to admit that experiments upon the healthy have been productive of much good, I am not ready to deny the fact that the whole weight of testimony is still in favor of those who have arrived at conclusions by repeated trials upon the sick, and I would urge that both, and all means of knowledge be embraced to aid men engaged in the healing art, for all bear evi- dence of thought, and are freighted with the invaluable testimony of experience. " Homoeopathy is a system of therapeutics, and here, as in other schools, the physician is expected to select his drug and determine its quality, according to the neces- sities of the case before him ; the heresy of high attenu- ations should have no place in our creed, nor home in our school, if we desire to advance and expand our in- fluence, and secure for it public regard and confidence, because it cannot be demonstrated by any known method that either medicinal power or presence exists in the exalted attenuations, any more than it can be shosvn 184 MEDICAL HERESIES. that intelligent beings descend to the earth in rain- drops. " Homoeopathy being a system of rational therapeutics, based upon possible conclusions, can take no part in the false and foolish doctrine of the potentization of drugs ; this delusion belongs exclusively to the province of the magician, who can produce the most astounding changes in material things by the mention of peculiar words or the direction of his mysterious wand. " The idea that a given substance can be indefinitely diluted and its power indefinitely increased by agitation, would have astonished the inhabitants of earth in the darkest and most superstitious ages of ancient Egypt. " The men who can believe such an incredible wonder should not deride those who exposed the sick in public places, or treated disease by amulets, incantations, or charms; nor should they point the finger of scorn at the good old men who rubbed black cats over the stomachs of those who were tormented with the colic. " If medicine becomes more active and efficient by diluting and shaking it, the same rule should apply to food, which under similar circumstances should become more nutritious. The principle has been tested upon milk and found to be a failure, and it is now an undis- puted fact that milk cannot be improved by dilution and shaking. " When human wants can be met by such a system of magic, when wine can be changed to the absolute blood of Calvary's victim, when bread can be transformed into the real body of Him who hung upon the cross, when the philosopher's stone shall have been found, when the laws of gravitation shall have been superseded by Yan- kee invention and genius, when the transmutation of metals can be effected, when the finite can grasp the infinite, when flourish has more potency than logic, when brass takes the place of brains, when man shall have achieved the creative ability of a God, then, and not till then, can he, by either magic or muscle, impart active life to inert substances ; then, and not till then, HIGH AND LOW DILUTIONISTS. 185 can he diffuse power throughout inanimate nature; then, and not till then, will the logic of the world allow spiritualized drugs a place in medical science." These numerous quotations are certainly sufficient to prove that the homoeopathic family is not a happy and harmonious one, as it, with certain fixed dogmatic princi- ples, should be. It contains a sufficient quantity of disturbing elements to insure its speedy destruction. Is homoeopathic practice at the bedside based upon the principles which they teach, and do the practitioners of this school prescribe these attenuations? Some of them do. One wing of the school, the high dilutionists, prescribe the thirtieth* the one hundredth, the two hun- dredth, the three hundredth and the one thousandth potencies. The low dilutionists not only prescribe the lower po- tencies, but crude drugs, in as large doses as the so-called allopathists. They also use strong local applications, in direct opposition to the teachings of Hahnemann. A few references taken at random from homoeopathic jour- nals, will be sufficient proof of this. A writer in the Medical Investigator, June 1st, 1879, (page 464) recommends the use of a strong solution of chloride of zinc locally, also the dry chloride of zinc, in the treatment of alveolar abscess. The same writer recommends, in the same article, the use of tincture of aconite rad. locally. On the same page of the same journal an item is inserted, copied from the Medical Advance, in which the writer prescribes the tincture of 186 MEDICAL HERESIES. iodine, in four-drop doses each hour, equal to ninety- six drops per day; more than three times as much as an allopath would administer in the same length of time. A writer in the same journal for February 1st, 1879, prescribed a wineglassful of a decoction of eupatorium perforatum, four times a day. In the St. Louis Clinical Review, June 15th, 1879, (page 128) five-grain doses of bromate of lithia, three times per day, are recommended. In the same journal (page 130) chloral hydrate, seventy-five grains to the ounce, is recommended to be used locally. At the Cincinnati meeting of the Western Academy of Homoeopathy, May, 1878, hydrastis canadensis and potassa fusa were recommended locally, and five-drop doses of tincture of phytolacca three times per day, by the author of a paper read upon that occasion. In the Cincinnati Medical A dvance, September, 1878, (page 248) a contributor recommends the use of fifteen grains of quinia for the cure of intermittents, with which he claims to have been successful after failing in many cases with attenuated remedies. In the same article he alludes to a homoeopathic practitioner who reports a large number of cures with high potencies, but says that " The glory of his achievement was somewhat dimmed when it became known that he used at the same time a tonic which contained large quantities of qui- nia 1 1 ! " An article was published in the Cincinnati Medical PRACTICE BY HOMCEOPATHISTS. 187 Advance for September, 1878, on the subject of malig~ nant diphtheria, in which the writer claims that this disease is identical with scarlatina. He says : " Malig- nant diphtheria becomes merely a severe scarlatina under the action of potassa chlorate The dose being relative and not absolute The quantity should be increased to the point of producing the eruption. Give the saturated solution sufficiently often and in sufficient quantities for a dose to bring out the eruption, and your patient is saved. The case is converted from a malignant diphtheria to an ordinary scarlatina, with a great tendency to recovery." In a partial report of a case, in the same article, after enumerating the symptoms, he says : " If aught is to be done here, I must work rapidly, heroically, because these symptoms point ominously to a fatal termination. Kali, chlor. sat. solution, one teaspoonful every hour from five p.m., until ten a.m., to-day. At that time at least forty grains of the drug will have been given to a babe of two years." Forty grains of chlorate of potassa in less than eighteen hours ! ! Just think of it. If these forty grains of this crude material were carried up to the thirtieth potency, and every inhabitant of the earth from its creation to the present moment had devoted his entire existence to the task of swallowing pellets, the amount consumed up to the present time would not be missed ! And if carried up to the one thousandth potency, a new 188 MEDICAL HERESIES. universe would have to be created and exist throughout an eternity to consume it. But this latter gentleman ought to be encouraged to go on. According to his opinion forty grains of chlo- rate of potassa will change one specific disease into another of less malignancy. Diphtheria, which is a specific, acute, infectious disease, and consequently propagated by its own specific contagium vivum, is changed into another specific, acute, infectious disease, which is also propagated by its own specific cause, by the simple administration of forty grains kali, chlor. (!) This young man ought by all means to continue his investigations. He may be able to discover something that will convert smallpox into itch ; typhoid fever into a mere febricula ; consumption into a bad cold ; hydro- phobia into hysteria, and so ou. Go on young man ! The medical world awaits the results of your researches with bated breath ! This man is a graduate of the "Indiana Medical Col- lege ;" has been an eclectic, and is now (1879) president of the State Institute of Homoeopathy of one of our prominent Western States; so I presume his orthodoxy in homoeopathy will not be questioned. The following extract is from the " Cincinnati Medi- cal Advance" May, 1880. In reviewing the Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Institute for the Education of the Blind, for 1879, the editor says : — HOMOEOPATHIC DRUG-BILLS. 189 " For this interesting volume we are indebted to the physician of the institution. He is a warm personal friend of ours, and has been for years a recognized member of the homoeopathic medical school. Dr. F. has been in charge of this institution about two years. He reports : ' The institution has been blessed with good health, with the exception of the month of December, when there were eight cases of typhoid fever. One ma- lignant case was fatal. Considering the feeble constitu- tion of the blind, their health is above the average/ This, we agree, is a good showing for two hundred and forty-three pupils, a small portion of whom, however, were probably on the sick list. As the report of the superintendent is very full in the matter of disburse- ments, we turn with some good degree of interest to the hospital stores, and, to our amazement, we make out the followiog : — "Arnica (tincture probably), $5.50 ; castor oil (two gallons and a jug), §2.35 ; Wheeler's elixir (quantity not stated), $47.50 ; Medicines (sundries from drug store), $15.95 ; opium tincture, $1.25 ; pills (quinia, cathartic, etc.) } $27.25 ; prescriptions (sent to drug store), .$21.65 ; bromide of chloral, $8.75 ; paregoric, $8.20 ; Rochelle salts, $4.40 ; St. Jacob's oil, 50c; syrup squills, $2.10 ; syrup ipecac, $2.25 ; Fenton's sarsaparilla, $2.00 ; alcoholic liquors, $14.25. " The total amount charged to medical stores, of which the foregoing is a part, is about two hundred and seven dollars and eighty cents. And all this in the year 1879. Our object in calling attention to this is to show Dr. F. how badly he is being imposed on. It is simply impossible that these things are being used by his order or with his knowledge. Dr. F. is a homoeopathic practi- tioner, and could make no use of such articles. An allopath might and would, but a homoeopath never. One would think constipation a raging epidemic to look at the castor oil, Rochelle salts and cathartic pills, that have been apparently poured down the throats of the poor blind children. Paregoric, eight dollars and 190 MEDICAL HERESIES. twenty cents worth ! There is no evidence in the exhibit that any homoeopathic medicine was used in the institu- tion." It is not fair to presume that this bill of drugs was bought by the Doctor's allopathic predecessor, especially after admitting that the total amount expended for drugs was $207.80 — all in 1879 ; and the Doctor having had charge of the institution for two years. A short time since the County Hospital of Sacramento, California, was in charge of homoeopathic physicians and surgeons. Quite recently they have been relieved from further attendance by the managers, and strange to say the principal charge against them was the extrava- gant expenditure of money for drugs. Among the items are to be found three pounds of salicylic acid and four thousand grains of quinia. R. Ludlam, m.d., a professor in the Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital of Chicago, reports the After-treatment of a case of ovariotomy, in The Clinique, August 15th, 1880. The report of this case extends over a period of some twenty-five days. The temperature, pulse and other symptoms are carefully recorded. The treatment pre- scribed consisted of the usual stereotyped, orthodox, homoeopathic remedies such as Bell 3 , Aconite*, Merc*, China*, Bry*, Rhus. Tox z , Verat. Vir. 2 , Ars.™, etc., together with the daily administration of six or eight grains of quinia. The patient also received once, and A HOMOEOPATHIC CLINIC. 191 sometimes twice per day, from the one-twelfth to the one- sixth of a grain of morphia hypodermically. But I will append the professor's exact words : — " . . From the seventh day, when suppuration began, to the eighteenth day, she took six grains of qui- nine daily. Then the signs of abscess appearing, she took eight grains daily. Morphia was given hypoder- mically every night, commencing with one-twelfth of a grain, and increasing it to one-sixth of a grain. A com- press, saturated with carbolized cosmoline and glycerine, has been kept constantly on the wound since the clamp dropped off. ' . . . I ought to tell you that it is not my habit to continue the use of morphine as we have done in this case. My custom has been to prescribe a single dose of it, to be given hypodermically the first night after the operation, in order to insure the necessary rest and sleep, as well as to antidote the unpleasant effects of the ether. But I have rarely found it necessary to re- peat it more than once or twice. In this case, however, it was a question whether, in her weak state, with a prospect of exhaustion from lack of nourishment, we could safely allow her to flounder about and waste her strength through worry and unrest. For she had no strength to lose, and we were obliged to economize her resources for the repair of her wound, and for her final recovery. " We were satisfied that the morphia did not disagree, or do the least harm in this case because its effect was most grateful, and in every instance she awakened in the morning thoroughly refreshed, with a falling tem- perature, a stronger pulse and a better appetite than she had at any other time during the day or night. I did not prescribe it with a view to abort or to mitigate the peritonitis ; for I am satisfied that in bryonia, bella- donna, rhus. tox. and terebinth, we have better remedies than opium for the peritonitis that is incident to ovari- otomy. ******** 192 MEDICAL HERESIES. " There were two indications for the quinine, viz.: for its tonic effect in supplementing the appetite and on account of its anti-purulent properties. Given in doses of two grains it did not produce the least degree of cin- chonism, nor did it prevent suppuration."* If the attenuated homoeopathic remedies which are interspersed throughout the report of this case were expunged, leaving nothing but the morphia and quinia, with the reasons assigned for their administration by Professor Ludlam, the treatment pursued would be accepted at a clinic of the most fastidious so-called " regulars" without serious criticism. It is the custom- ary practice now to prescribe morphia in almost every case after this operation j and in nearly all quinia is used extensively. In what few cases I have operated upon, those two articles have constituted the principal medicines used in the after-treatment.t Professor Ludlam occupies a conspicuous place in the school of homoeopathy especially in the Northwest. He is a member of the faculty in a prominent college of that faith, and is referred to with pride by the disciples of Hahnemann, as an author and teacher. Hence, his teachings and sayings carry with them the weight of authority; yet the practice pursued in this case was clearly antipathic, and not homoeopathic ; for every principle of the latter school was violated ; the law of similars, dilu- tions, the single remedy, local applications, etc., etc. * The C Unique, page 259. f See American Practitioner, May, 1880. HOMOEOPATHIC HONOR AND HONESTY. 193 I wish to call attention to a specimen of homoeopathic honor and honesty, in the management of the hospital under their charge, upon Ward's Island, taken from the New York Medical Gazette, May 22d, 1880:— For the present, however, we pass this matter by, for the purpose of calling special attention to one of the most shameful transactions that any person with a vestige of honor could be cognizant of without denouncing it in the strongest terms, or else sacrifice his self-respect. We speak of the manner of conducting affairs at the Homoeopathic Hospital on Ward's Island, narrated below. This thing has gone on for three or four years and it is about time that the responsible parties, the incompetent and ignorant Com- missioners, should be called to an account. THE HOMOEOPATHIC HOSPITAL. " Some six months ago our attention was called, by one of the inmates, to certain abuses which were being: car- ried on in the Homoeopathic Hospital, on Ward's Island. At first we thought that the statements were made vindictively, believing that no matter how much the homoeopaths might differ from us in matters purely medical, they still were gentlemen and had as keen a sense of gentlemanly honor as any of us. It seems, however, that among the lights in the homoeopathic ranks there are to be found men who will stoop to do and to sanction acts so contemptible that the greatest criminal would blush to be thought guilty of. And yet these men call themselves gentlemen. " We have of late been investigating the charges, with a view of collecting proof sufficiently overwhelming to justify us in bringing the matter before the legislature, but the ubiquitous newspaper reporter has given the whole story to the public rather prematurely for our plans. Here it is, copied from one of our leading dailies : — 13 194 MEDICAL HERESIES. " t On Ward's Island is the Homoeopathic Hospital. The building used for this hospital was originally built in the time of the Tweed Ring, and fabulous amounts of money have been squandered upon it. First it was an inebriate asylum, and $800,000 were spent upon it. Next, it was the Soldiers' Retreat, and it is supposed that a similar amount was squandered in fitting it up as such. The building being vacated by the soldiers in 1874, the friends of the homoeopathic school of medi- cine thought their turn was next. So, a tremendous political pressure was successfully brought to bear on the Commissioners to furnish the building for the homoeopaths. This was the first public hospital ever secured by the homoeopaths, and it is costing the tax- payers of the city §60,000 a year. The homoeopaths, so it is alleged, discovered that the convalescent patients at the other hospitals got passes to go to and from the city, and at once utilized this discovery. Instead of giving passes the applicant was told to go and when re- turning to call at the Commissioners' office and get a new permit. Thus, it is said the same patient often counted as two, three, four or more patients admitted. Numbers of them were sent out in this manner a dozen times. By this means the admissions and discharges (as cured) were increased 300 per cent., and the percentage of deaths of course was correspondingly low. The mortality in the three leading hospitals the first year after the ho- moeopathic started was, Bellevue Hospital, 12 J per cent.; Charity Hospital, 8J per cent.; Homoeopathic Hospital, 6 per cent. On the publication of this result homoeo- pathic organs grew jubilant. The same course was pur- sued the ensuing year, and the result (on paper) was about the same, while all the time the actual percentage, it is declared, was about eighteen". After nearly three years of this adroit management the Commissioners began to find it very troublesome to be issuing so many fresh permits to the same individuals, so an order was issued to let parties wanting passes have them. But the homoeopaths were equal to the emergency, and the next HOMOEOPATHIC PRESCRIPTIONS. 195 device, it is alleged, was to discharge the sick and keep the healthy in the building. This piece of strategy, it is said, has been carried out during the past year, and when the annual report for 1879 is published, the mor- tality report of the Homoeopathic Hospital will once more appear (on paper) astonishingly low/ Ul Comment is unnecessary. Homoeopathy has of late years made many attempts to commit suicide. Let us hope that such nefarious practices as that recorded above will save it the trouble of another attempt/ " In the Medical Press and Circular for September 15th, 1880, an English journal, is published the follow- ing extract from a correspondent of the Chemist and Druggist : — " ' Homoeopathy is either a huge lie or a Divine truth/ so its professors tell us, and I for one am willing to acknowledge it so ; but which of the two may be ex- plained by the following case : — " A lady suffering from neuralgia recently went to a celebrated ' homoeopathic' (?). physician in the West End. The following were the prescriptions given : — (1.) R. Quin. sulph. solub., gr.iv Fiat pulv. To be taken four times a day. (2.) R. Lin. belladon. (B.P.), % ss Chloroformi, % ss Nepenthe, £j. M. Fiat linim. (3.) R. Allen & Hanbury's " Perfected" cod-liver oil, Ibss. (4.) R. Quin. sulph., gr.xlviij Sp. chloroformi, ,^j Sp. vini rect., 3 j Ac. hydro, dil., q.s. Aq. , ad % iv. A teaspoonful three times a day. (5.) R. Liq. strych. nit. (1-200), ^iiss Ac. nit. dil. (1-10), .sjiiss Aq.. ad % iv. A teaspoonful three times a day, in water. 196 MEDICAL HERESIES. " The whole of these medicaments were to be used con- currently, except Nos. 4 and 5, which were to be used alternate weeks. " I myself saw the prescription in question, so can vouch for the truth of this statement. Verily i homoeo- pathy is a huge lie/ " If this is a fair example of homoeopathic practice all candid persons will be compelled to indorse the conclu- sion of the correspondent. All the important principles of the school are violated in these prescriptions. CHANGES BY EVOLUTION. 197 CHAPTER XYI. Summary — Similia — Kidd's Laws of Therapeutics — Contraria Contrariis — Galenas Law — Cases from Kidd's Practice — Totality of Symptoms and Pathological Lesions — Similar Diseases Associated in the Same Individual — Natural Dis- eases Essentially Dissimilar — Pathology of No Use in Select- ing a Remedy — Drug- Disease — Domain of Similia — Propo sitions, Discussions and Conclusions — CJiemical, Mechanical and Physical Forces — Tonics and Restoratives — Metaphysical Discussions on Therapeutical Laws — Slow Advance of Ho- moeopathy in Old World — International Hahnemannian Association. It will be seen by the perusal of the preceding pages that homoeopathy has departed widely from the original principles taught by Hahnemann. A process of evolu- tion has been going on and will continue until the most objectionable principles of the school will be eliminated. This has been effected to a great degree in regard to Hahnemann's spirit-like pathology and etiology. Also to provings, the single remedy and dilutions and tritu- rations. Dynamization by agitation has also been abandoned by homoeopathists who have any knowledge of physical forces. Psora, that " monstrous miasm," as a cause of chronic disease, is seldom mentioned now ; while the administration of medicine by olfaction has been almost entirely discarded by even those who claim to be pure homoeopathists. In truth, there is but one 198 MEDICAL HERESIES. plank remaining in the entire platform of homoeopathy, the law of similars, and even it has begun to give way. The divinity of this law, which Hahnemann claimed, is now seriously questioned by some of his followers. Dr. Kidd, in his li Laws of Therapeutics" abandons everything claimed by homoeopathy, excepting the principle of "similia similibus curantur" but does not claim even this to be a universal law : — "Twenty-seven years ago I saw that the essential truth of Hahnemann's law was totally independent of his speculations about dynamization. Adopting with great delight the law of ' similia similibus curantur' as the chief, though not the only, foundation for therapeu- tics, I learned for myself that Hahnemann's 'sober' teach- ing, the use of the pure, undiluted tinctures, was a far better guide to heal the sick than Hahnemann 'drunk' with mysticism, calling for the exclusive use of infinitesi- mal doses. The latter I gradually cast aside in toto, as untrustworthy and unjust to the sick, whose diseases too often remained stationary under treatment by globules, but were most effectually and quickly cured by tangible doses of the same medicines which failed to cure when given in infinitesimal doses."* " The physiological action of medicinal agents stands in some positive relationship to its curative action in disease. In most cases that relationship is either of similarity or of contrariety. Some few instances seem to stand out, as of no apparent relationship, but they are few, and deeper investigation brings them in amenable to one or the other. Each law has its own way or behavior, so to speak. " Looking to the observation of facts, apart from the theoretic speculations, two primary laws of therapeutics unfold themselves. As Galvani and Faraday have * Kidd' s Laws of Therapeutics, page 35. THERAPEUTIC LAWS. 199 afforded names for Galvanism and Faradism, those two laws of therapeutics may well be called Galen's law, or the antipathic, founded upon the rule of " contraria contrariis," and Hahnemann's, or the homoeopathic law, founded upon the relationship of similars. " When the relationship of the medicinal action is con- trary to the signs and symptoms of disease, it is necessary to give doses large enough to produce the full physio- logical or primary action "* " Rejoicing to enlarge the boundaries of knowledge, true science cannot ignore any law, though its sphere of action be limited and not of universal application. Galen's law of ' contraria contrariis' has its place, and a very prominent place, still in the practice of every physician. The therapeutic action of certain medicines seems to lie altogether, or nearly so, in that direction. . "t Dr. Kidd reports numerous cases from practice which he claims to be sufficient to establish the law of similars. Some of these cases are both amusing and instructive, but I must confess that my faculties of generalization are not sufficient to enable me to deduce any general law of therapeutics from a perusal of them. "Exophthalmic Goitre. — A young lady (Miss E.), aged twenty-four, was brought to me in 1850, suffering from enlargement of the neck, throbbing and distention of the eyes, which looked as if protruding from their sockets; she also complained of distressing headache. For some months she had been under the care of the family attendant at Canonbury, who administered small doses of iodine. The patient getting no better, this gen- tleman took her to the late Sir B. B., who prescribed large doses of iodide without any relief. She then con- sulted Dr. C. J. B. W., who prescribed iodide of iron ; * Kidd's Laws of Therapeutics, page 82. f Idem, page 103. 200 MEDICAL HERESIES. this aggravated the headache, and did not relieve the enlargement of the neck, nor the distended eyeballs. She then consulted me ; I recognized the disease as ex- ophthalmic goitre, from Dr. Graves's admirable descrip- tion, although up to that time I had never treated a case of it. I knew that belladonna caused, in the healthy human subject, headache, with throbbing in the head and eyes, with vascular excitement. Of this I pre- scribed four drops of the tincture three times a day. It afforded immediate relief to the headache, gradually lessened the swelling of the neck and the protrusion of the eyes. It was taken regularly for about six weeks, and the cure proved permanent, one of the most satis- factory I ever witnessed. In the treatment of exoph- thalmic goitre this case is, I believe, the first case of the successful use of belladonna in that disease. I published this case in the British Journal of Homoeopathy, vol. xxv, in 1867."* Here is a grave pathological lesion which gives rise to a certain group of disordered sensations, called the " totality of symptoms," in accordance with which the tincture of belladonna is prescribed, the real pathological condition being ignored. This totality of symptoms is not confined exclusively to this disease, but may be, and frequently is, present in other diseased conditions of the system ; and under the law belladonna would be equally appropriate. If this case was cured by the operation of a general law, the cure in all similar cases ought to be the rule and failure the exception. This case was treated by Dr. Kidd in 1850, and published in 1867; his work on the Laws of Therapeutics was published in 1879. Why did he have but one case to report ? Why * Page 94 of Kidd's Laws of Therapeutics. EXCEPTIONS TO SIMILIA. 201 have not our magazines been teeming with cures of ex- ophthalmic goitre by the administration of tincture of belladonna? The natural inference is that this case was the exception and not the rule, and that the facts are bad for the divine law of similia similibus curantur; and the truth is that the cure in this case will have to be attributed to some other influence than that of the belladonna. " Miss , aged nineteen, suffered for three years, all through the summer, from the worst form of hay asthma, producing sneezing, coryza, redness of the eyes, dysp- noea, with dry wheezing and cough. In the beginning of the summer of 1868 she consulted me. I prescribed arsenic (Fowler's solution), four drops three times a day, with immediate benefit; so much so that she was enabled to live in London (Euston Square) all the sum- mer. The occasional use, for three or four days, of the arsenic kept her in perfect comfort, although the previous three years she found no relief till she went to the sea- side.''* This is certainly another exception to the rule, for who has not habitually prescribed Fowler's solution for hay fever ? I have not treated a case of this disease, for twenty years, without, at some period during its manage- ment, having administered this remedy, and. have never succeeded in producing anything more than temporary relief, and frequently not so much as that. "A gentleman, A. S., suffered for upwards of a year from sciatica; the pain he described was an aching numbness along the course of the sciatic nerve. He had used medicines internally and externally for a year, * Page 94 of Kidd's Laws of Therapeutics. 202 MEDICAL HERESIES. baths of various sorts, galvanism, without any but tem- porary relief. I prescribed four drops of tincture of aconite three times a day. After three days there was no appreciable relief, when the dose was increased to six drops, yet without result. Satisfied with the essential relationship of the numbness which aconite always pro- duces to the numbness of his sciatica, I ordered him to increase the dose to seven drops. This quickly and per- manently cured this disease of upwards of a year's duration. ' About half an hour after I took the seven drops/ the patient said, 'a peculiar thrill shot into the thigh and leg of that side increasing the numbness.' He took two doses more, of seven drops each, and was perfectly cured ; thus, although the relationship of the medicine was similar to the disease, the small dose was insufficient to cure."* Unfortunately for suffering humanity this case is cer- tainly an exception, for to cure sciatica with aconite is not the rule. A general law should be more universal in its application. It is not claimed for this law that there is any similarity in pathological lesions between what homceopathists claim, to be the drug-disease and the natural disease to be treated. The similarity is con- fined to the "disordered sensorial condition." The real lesion is entirely ignored, and hence the same remedy is prescribed for a great variety of diseases totally different in their etiology and pathology, provided the totality of symptoms is similar to the pathogenetic symptoms caused by the provings of the drug. It is now a conceded fact that diseases (real patho- logical conditions) which have heretofore been considered * Page 109 of Kidd's Laws of Therapeutics. SIMILARS AND DISSIMTLARS COMBINED. 203 similar to each other, both in symptoms and lesions, may be and frequently are associated together in the same individual. It is certain also, that under these circum- stances neither disease has any tendency to relieve the other, but adds greatly to the danger already present. The acute infectious diseases are frequently associated in this way ; such as measles and scarlatina, diphtheria and scarlatina, diphtheria and measles, malarial and typhoid fever, relapsing fever and measles, and so on, almost through the entire list. The disordered sensations pre- sent, the subjective and objective symptoms, together with many lesions, are similar or are common in these diseases when associated in the same individual case ; yet the presence of each additional disease only adds severity to the symptoms and increases the danger to the patient. Even the same specific disease may and does differ widely in different individuals. Take scarlatina, for example, which is usually divided into three varieties, the si mplex, the angi nose and the mal ignant. In preserib- ing for this disease the homoeopath would be governed by the totality of symptoms, which would be different in each class of cases, ignoring the specific cause or special pathology of the disease and closing the door against specific treatment, although in some parts of the w r orld the name of the specific school of medicine is claimed. There can be no real similarity between natural diseases or diseased processes. They are either identical or dis- similar, and the difference is one of degree only. I 204 MEDICAL HERESIES. think the proposition might be laid down, without fear of successful contradiction, that all natural diseases are dissimilar. Suppose, to illustrate this proposition, we take a point on a circle and agree that all diseases which can be arranged upon this point are identical. Let us place upon this point scarlatina, for an example. All cases of this disease being caused by the same specific poison, we will say are identical, although they may differ widely in their totality of symptoms. Now, as we proceed to arrange our diseases around this circle accord- ing to the resemblance they are supposed to have with the one with which we began, suppose we take for the next example diphtheria, another specific disease caused by its own contagion ; and we will concede, for the sake of the argument, that this is a similar disease to scarla- tina ; yet the two are not identical, and consequently must be dissimilar. They differ in etiology, symptoma- tology, pathology, invasion, duration, termination and sequelae. Yet the similitude of symptoms made up from the " disordered sensorial condition " of the patients is similar, and forms the basis for the homceopathists' therapeutical procedure. Continuing this arrangement we would perhaps select measles, German measles, roseola, variola, etc., and place them at points upon this circle according to their sup- posed similarity or dissimilarity, until we arrive at a point directly opposite that selected for identity, and here we have the greatest degree of dissimilarity ; but SIMILARS AND DISSIMILAES. 205 all diseases between these two points are essentially dis- similar and differing only in degree. But if similarity is conceded for those diseases nearest the point of iden- tity, then all diseases are similar, the difference being one of degree only, for no man would be able to draw the line and decide where similarity ends and dissimi- larity begins. If these diseases are similar and there is any truth in the law of similars, how T easy it would be to cure scarla- tina by infecting the system with the virus of diphtheria. But where is the horuceopathist who, in his silliest day, would undertake such a hazardous proceeding? But, says the homoeopathist, " It is not the changed tissue, but the dynamic condition which produces the change. This is the thing to be treated."* " Pathology is not without its use, but that use is not in the problem of selecting the most appropriate remedy. Pathology does not, indeed, often tell us whether a new symptom is of favorable or unfavorable import, and hence whether it requires to be treated or not; but in the actual selection it is not of the slightest value, not only because it is theoretical, and hence more or less uncer- tain, but because, even at its best, it can only generalize, and not individualize." f The homoeopathists do not propose to substitute one natural disease or pathological lesion for another, but an artificial drug-disease, which must be stronger than the * President's Address at American Homoeopathic Institute, June, 1880. f From an Address by E. W. Berridge, m.d., joint editor of the Organon, one of the leading English homoeopathic journals, before the American Institute of Homoeopathy, at Milwaukee June, 1880. 206 MEDICAL HERESIES. natural disease, and although the vital force is unable to remove this natural disease, it is perfectly competent to overcome the more powerful drug-disease after it has accomplished the removal of the said natural disease ! Therefore the vital force is unable to contend with the weaker natural disease, but is abundantly able to vanquish the stronger drug-disease ! I In discussing the domain of similia, in a recent num- ber of the Hahnemannian Monthly, Doctor Dake lays down some propositions and draws conclusions there- from, which I propose to insert here ; coming as they do from a homoeopathic writer of recognized ability, they are doubly interesting. " Most of the opposition to the acceptance of the homoeopathic principle among medical men of education and candor, as well as much of the dissension among those who claim to recognize it as a practical guide, has come from a misapprehension of the field and the means embraced under its control. " Exceedingly misty, and many times absurd, have been the conceptions of it, as placed before the public by medical writers. " I am persuaded that a great number of men who assume the position of leaders in medicine, as well as in other departments of human learning, and who talk and write much of principles and laws, fail to have a definite idea of what is expressed in those terms. Some seem to regard physical principles as ' heaven-born' and revealed to man from above and beyond and independ- ently of his own studies and endeavors, as ordinances at once infallible and universal. They would require an unquestioning acceptance of such revelations, and a childlike adoration of the persons through whom they are made known.' 7 DOMAIN OF SIMILIA. 207 " It is clear that such leaders are mistaking the natural for the supernatural, and the scientific for the religious " Now, in medicine, I need not here speak of the classification of drugs and the deduction of therapeutic principles from clinical experiences, and the formation of systems and schools. "Suffice it to say that Hahnemann discovered the universality of the principles expressed in the terms similia similibus curantur; that affections in the sick are removed by agencies capable of inducing similar affec- tions in the well. " The term universality, in this connection, does not imply that Hahnemann's principle was ever supposed by him to apply to everything in the universe, nor even to all the diseases of human kind. " He knew, better than many of his followers seem to know, the limitations of his law. " Professor Jevons says : ' In a scientific point of view general principles must be universal as regards some distinct class of objects, or they are not principles at all.' " Now we come to consider in regard to what class of objects the homoeopathic principle is universal. " Advancing by the method of exclusion I may say: " 1. That it relates to nothing but affections of health. " 2. That it relates to no affections of health where the cause is constantly present and operative. " 3. That it relates to no affections of health which will cease after the removal of the cause by chemical, or mechanical, or hygienic means. " 4 That it relates to no affections of health occa- sioned by the injury or destruction of tissues which are incapable of restoration. " 5. That it relates to no affections of health where vital energy or reactive vital power is exhausted. " 6. That it relates to no affections of health the like- ness of which may not be produced in the healthy by medicines or other agencies. 208 MEDICAL HERESIES. " I need not stop to explain nor enforce these propo- sitions, since they must be apparent to every reader at all versed in the writings of Hahnemann and the general literature of homoeopathy. " Looking over the field of human ailments, now, to see what is left after the exclusion of all the classes I have mentioned, we find yet one class, namely, human affections similar to those producible by medicines and other agencies, existing in organisms having the in- tegrity of tissue and reactive power necessary for recovery \ the efficient causes of the affections having ceased to ope- rate. " Here we find the domain of similia — the distinct class of objects, the affections, regarding which it is a general principle, and in the treatment of which it is a universal law. " And looking again, this time in the direction of medicines and other agencies capable of influencing the human organism, as to health, and advancing as before, by the method of exclusion, I may say — " 1. That Hahnemann's law relates to the action of no agents affecting the organism chemically. " 2. That it relates to the action of no agents affecting the organism mechanically. "3. That it relates to the influence of no agencies affecting the organism hygienically. " 4. That it relates to the action of no agents destroy- ing the parasites which infest or prey upon the human organism. " I presume I need not spend time to demonstrate these propositions. They cannot be disputed. "Looking over the armamentarium of the therapeutist, for the agents not excluded, we find one class remaining, namely : those agents which affect the organism, as to health, in ways not governed by the laws of chemistry, mechanics or hygiene, producing ailments similar to those found in the sick. " Here we come to the domain of similia again, by a different route, and find the distinct class of agents re- DOMAIN OF SIMILIA. 209 garding the action of which, in disease, it is a general principle, and in the employment of which it is the para- mount law. " When the therapeutist comes to the use of this class of means, in the treatment of the class of ailments which I have shown to be in the domain of similia, he must recognize and faithfully obey Hahnemann's law or fail in the accomplishment of cures. "And when he employs this class alone, in affections calling for chemical antidotes, or mechanical measures, or hygienic influences only, he is invading another do- main and infringing other laws, and must experience miserable and disgraceful failures. "As well might the botanist attempt to follow a principle in optics, or the mineralogist a principle in biology, in the pursuit of his occupation. "Similia has its peculiar domain, in which it is a general principle, and its system of medical practice in which it is a universal law. " Outside of that domain it has no applicability, no meaning, and is simply nothing. _ • m " Extravagant claims in its behalf do but mislead its votaries and disgust men of learning and candor, to whom it will be in the future, as in the past, a stumbling block in the way to homoeopathy. "It may suit the cunning partisan, fattening upon sectarian differences, and the zealot, of contracted vision and enthusiasm infinite, to toss their hats and shout, in the face of all learning and honesty: 'Similia! the all in all of therapeutics ! we want nothing but SIMILIA !! " But they who appreciate principles in science and laws in nature, are sober, modest, and friendly — patient, persistent, and progressive — as ready to forsake the false as to embrace the true, and always satisfied that the right must prevail." These propositions and conclusions of Dr. Dake, if accepted, settle the entire question of homoeopathy, and concede almost every point which I have attempted to 14 210 MEDICAL HERESIES. establish j not in regard to similia similibus curantur only, but also triturations, dilutions and dynamization. It requires no evidence from my hands to prove that all medicines which have any action upon the human system act either chemically, mechanically or physically; in truth they are simply physical forces, and are strong for good or evil in direct proportion to their power of impressing themselves upon and modifying the cell action of the constituent parts of the body. It is in this way that they modify the so-called vital force. It is conceded that this law relates to no agent which affects the organism chemically, mechanically or hygi- enically, and of course, no sanitary measures can be adopted under its operations. The use of all disinfect- ants^and other chemical or mechanical means for de- stroying disease germs or disease producing agents of whatever kind, is clearly not homoeopathic. It certainly would be a piece of folly to attempt to destroy the noxious agents germinating in a cesspool, privy vault, foul sewer, or a contaminated water supply with any quantity of a dynamized drug ; for whatever may be the modus operandi of these medicines when taken into the system, they certainly are nothing but physical agents when used as disinfectants, and act chemically, mechanically and hygienically. If a dynamized drug selected under the law of simi- lia is of no force external to the body in destroying disease germs, why expect it to accomplish more by administer- HOMCEOPATHY AND THE GERM THEORY. 211 ing it internally, after the germs have been absorbed and found a lodgment in the fluids and solids of the body ? The writer further says that " the law relates to the action of no agents destroying the parasites which in- fest or prey upon the hwnan organism," Now, if the germ theory of disease should prove, upon further in- vestigation, to be the correct one in regard to the acute infectious diseases, it would place our brethren of the homoeopathic school under embarrassing circumstances, after the promulgation of this fourth proposition, which the writer says is " so plain it cannot be disputed," be- cause the establishment of this theory places this class of diseases among the parasitic, and consequently re- moves them from the domain of similia y which is a proposition so plain that I agree with him when he says it " cannot be disputed." A closer examination and analysis of Dr. Dake's propositions narrows the domain of similia, according to his own view, to almost nothing. He states (2) that "This law relates to no affections of the health where the cause is constantly present and operative." This ex- cludes from its domain all hereditary diseases and dia- theses, as well as those caused by climatic influence and occupation. No. 3 removes all cases which would recover by the unaided efforts of nature, or the vis medi- catrix naturoz. No. 4 eliminates all cases which are incurable because of such lesions as cancer, tubercle, destruction of organs from the action of chemical or me- 212 MEDICAL HERESIES. chanical agents, etc. No. 5 removes from the domain of the law all " affections of health where vital energy or reactive vital power is exhausted." The discussion of this point calls to mind one of the most serious objec- tions to homoeopathy, not only to the law of similars, but to triturations and dilutions. Food, drink and stimulants are certainly as much entitled to rank as therapeutic agents as medicinal substances, for a patient's life may depend upon the timely administration of these articles, and no homoeopathist will claim that they can be dynamized by dilution or given the patient in accord- ance with similia. The restorative or tonic plan of treatment which is so popular aud necessary to success in the treatment of a large class of diseases is a stranger to homoeopathy, and this school cannot avail itself of its advantages. There may be, and frequently is, a deficiency of some of the nor- mal elements which go to make up the tissues of the body. The salts of iron, potassa, soda, lime, phosphorus, sul- phur, the albuminous compounds derived from nitro- genous food, water and other substances, may have to be furnished in liberal quantities and introduced into the system rapidly ; even transfusion of blood may be neces- sary, or our patient perishes. How will homoeopathy, with its attenuated single remedy, under the law of sim- ilia similibus curantur, meet this emergency ? Manifestly, not at all. The conclusion of this matter is about as follows : — FOOLS AND PHYSIC. 213 The law of similars is not applicable to the cure of dis- eases where a chemical, mechanical, or physical cause is necessary for their production or relief. All therapeutic agents are chemical, mechanical or physical forces.* Therefore, the law of similars is not applicable to the cure of disease by the use of therapeutic agents. It is time all metaphysical discussions and theoretical speculations in regard to laws of therapeutics were for- ever discarded. This is an age in search of facts and not fancies. The experiences of the last twenty-five centuries have convinced us that there is no law of thera- peutics which can be universal, and there can be no specific dogmas connected with this subject sufficiently broad and comprehensive upon which to found a system or school of medicine. The foundation of scientific medicine should be laid broad and deep, sufficiently so to enable it to absorb everything good, no matter from what source it comes, and reject everything bad with the same freedom. Homoeopathy, as taught by its founders, was essentially a narrow-gauged affair, as all purely dogmatic schools always must have been. The progress of homoeopathy has never been satisfactory to its friends in any country save the United States. In this country, where the utmost freedom abounds, there is no law to prevent a man from being a fool himself, or patronizing one in any business in which he may choose to engage. * Preceding chapter. 214 MEDICAL HERESIES. "How Can we Best Advance Homoeopathy ?" was the subject of an address delivered before the American Institute of Homoeopathy, at Milwaukee, June, 1880, from which we insert some extracts: — '"' It cannot be denied that homoeopathy has not ad- vanced, and is not advancing as rapidly as we could desire, nor as rapidly as we once had just and reasonable grounds for expecting it to advance. In the United States, where it has taken the firmest root, and where its spreading branches the most widely overshadow the land with healing in their leaves, the old school is yet tri- umphant in point of numbers; and to this day the rules of medical trades-unionism, euphemistically called 'pro- fessional etiquette/ are brought to bear upon us by our opponents. In Great Britain we have but two hundred and seventy-five avowed homoeopathic physicians, and this number includes not a few who have not the slight- est claims to this honorable title ; and while there are many colleges and universities empowered by the State to grant degrees in medicine, we have not one legally recognized school of homoeopathy. On the Continent matters are in the same unsatisfactory condition. Ex- cept in the United States, and for the last few years in Great Britain, there seems to be everywhere stagnation, if not retrogression. It ought to be far otherwise. • TT More than forty years have elapsed since Hahnemann penned the fifth edition of his Organon ; more than eighty years since he first announced the law of Similia, and yet how little fruit has his life work borne in com- parison with what should have been. Why is this? To what causes are we to attribute the fact that the pro- fession and the public have not more universally accepted homoeopathy. " There are those nominally among us who have a stereotyped answer to this question. Hahnemann, they say, was too dogmatic, too uncompromising, too vision- ary ; and as a panacea for all the unbelief which now LIBERAL HOMOEOPATHY. 215 pervades the allopathic mind, the} 7 recommend that we should give up what they call our 'sectarian attitude;' that we should drop and disavow the name of homoeo- pathy ; that we should repudiate as untenable that which they term the extravagances of Hahnemann, such as his doctrine of chronic diseases, etc., and finally that we should claim for similia similibus curantur, not the posi- tion of a universal law, but only that of a very good and useful rule of practice to which there may be many exceptions. " Such has been the effect of our wavering upon the minds of our allopathic brethren ; what effect has it had on ourselves ? Ever since that fatal error was committed by one whose memory we nevertheless hold in honor, of proclaiming " absolute liberty in medical opinion and action," a change for the worse has taken place in our own ranks. Ever since that time the name of Carroll Dunham has been held to sanction every kind of empiri- cism ; forgetting that he himself in his teaching and practice was a true Hahnemannian, men have eagerly caught at his well intentioned, though mistaken, perhaps misunderstood, words, and ever banded themselves to- gether to overthrow those that remained true to the teachings of the Master. I need not recount the various phases of the struggle, they are all well known to you." Carroll Dunham's address was only the exciting cause of the schism which took place in the ranks of homoeo- pathy. It had been gathering form for a long time, and must have come sooner or later ; in fact, it could not have been delayed much longer. There are now two wings to the school, the liberals and the straight jackets. A house cannot stand which is divided against itself. The liberals will necessarily become eclectics and the straight-jackets will return to Hahnemannism, pure and 216 MEDICAL HERESIES. unadulterated. Preliminary steps to accomplish this step have already been taken. During the meeting of the American Institute of Homoeopathy, at Milwaukee, June, 1880, The Interna- tional Hahnemannian Association was formed, which adopted the following platform of principles : — " Whereas, We believe the Organon of the healing art as promulgated by Samuel Hahnemann to be the only reliable guide in therapeutics ; and " Whereas , This clearly teaches that homoeopathy consists in the law of similars, the totality of the symp- toms, the single remedy, the minimum dose of the dynamized drug, and these not singly but collectively ; and " Whereas, Numbers of professed homoeopathists not only violate these tenets, but largely repudiate them ; and " Whereas, An effort has been made on the part of such physicians to unite the homoeopathic with the allo- pathic school ; therefore "Resolved, That the time has fully come when legiti- mate Hahnemannian homoeopathists should publicly disavow all such innovations ; "Resolved, That the mixture or alternating of two or more medicines is regarded as non-homceopathic; "Resolved, That in non-surgical cases we disapprove of medicated topical applications and mechanical appli- ances as being also non-homceopathic ; "Resolved, That as ' the best dose of medicine is ever the smallest/ we cannot recognize as being homoeopathic such treatment as suppresses symptoms by the toxic action of the drug; " Resolved y That we have no sympathy in common with those physicians who would engraft on honioeo- INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 217 pathy the crude ideas and doses of allopathy or eclecti- cism, and we do not hold ourselves responsible for their 1 fatal errors' in theory and failures in practice; "Resolved, That as some self-styled homceopathists have taken occasion to traduce Hahnemann as a ' fanatic/ as 'dishonest' and 'visionary/ and his teaching as 'not being the standard of homoeopathy of to-day/ that we regard all such as recreant to the best interests of homoeopathy; "Resolved, That for the purpose of promoting these sentiments, and for our own mutual improvement, we organize ourselves into an International Hahnemaunian Association, and adopt a constitution and by-laws. The formation of this Association and the adoption of this platform of principles is a return to the pure, in- flexible dogmatic homoeopathy of Hahnemann. The adoption of resolutions seems to be a favorite amusement with our homoeopathic brethren. Each yearly gathering favors us with the usual supply, which are looked for and read with interest, in order to enable us to decide what homoeopathy is going to be for the ensuing year. This Association resolves to adopt the principles pro- mulgated by Samuel Hahnemann in the Organon of the healing art as the only trustworthy guide to therapeutics. It resolves in favor of the law of similars, the totality of symptoms, the single remedy and the minimum dose of the dynamized drug; against mixing or alternating medicines, local applications in non-surgical cases, and further, that any violation of these tenets is non-homoeo- pathic, and that the time has arrived for pure Hahne- 218 MEDICAL HERESIES. mannians to publicly disavow all connection with such innovations. This kind of homoeopathy will not stand the test of recent advances in science. INDEX. PAGE Absurdity of dilutions demonstrated 150 ./Esculapius 26 biography of; sons of ; connection with the expe-. dition of the Argonauts 27 his deification 27 his method of curing diseases ; his death 27 ^Etius... 59 After-pains caused by deranged vital force 128 Agathinus 42 Ages in medicine 17 Aggravations, homoeopathic 106 Agrippa, Cornelius 63 Ainspach : 83 Albucasis 57 Alcohol 57 Alexander of Tralles 59 Alexandria, school of 35 Alhakem the II . 56 Allen's encvclopedia of pure materia medica 143 Allopath ...:. 131 Almamun Caliph « 55 Almansur Caliph ; 55 American Homoeopathist ; discussion upon the internal and avoidable obstacles to homoeopathy, by a homoeopathist ; potencies; materia medica and pathology 175-179 American Institute of Homoeopathy 214 Amida 59 Amulets 27,48 Anatomy of Galen 48 failure of the empirics in the study of. 88 practical, at Alexandria 36 evolution of. 74 revival of, by Mondini 76 Ancient dogmatism 90 Anger of the gods in producing disease 23 Anima, or soul 84, 87 Antidotes 93 Antipath , ; 131 Antipyretic remedies ; argument against dynamic force 155 Apis 23 Apocryphal books 35 Apollo 23,26,27 219 220 INDEX. PAGE Arabia 53 Arabian authors 56 Arabs opposed to dissections 75 Archeological evidences of civilization in America in prehis- toric times 20 Archigenes 42 Argonauts 27 Aristotle 35,43, 92 Asclepiadas, the 28,30, 51 Asclepiades, the founder of the methodic school, doctrines of. 39, 74 Astrology 60 Atheneus of Attaleia 41 Athens, school at, destroyed 53, 92 Attenuations in pathology 102 Avicenna 56, 93 Baghdad 55 Basle 65 Bellini, Lawrence 71 Black death in Asia and Europe during the fourteenth century 19 Bodies of criminals dissected 36 Boerhaave, Hermann, system of 85 Boericke and Tafel 149 Bokharra 56 Bologna 61 Borelli, Giovanni Alphonso 71 Brown, John, founder of the Brunonian system ; biography of; his opinions ; death 88, 96 Cabalistic medicine, baneful influence of- 63 Caliph Almamun 55 Caliph Almansur 55 Cannibalism 74 Canon, the 57 Cardan, Jerome 63 Carpi, Beringer De 77 Casserius, Julius 81 Causes of disease immaterial and dynamic 102 Celsus 41 Challenge to homoeopathy 156 Charlemagne 60 Charles 1 81 Chemical school of medicine 63 Chemistry 68 Chiron, the Centaur 26 Christian church, influence of in retarding the progress of medicine 51 opposed to human dissections 76 Christianity and the Roman empire 53 Chrysaloras, Emanuel 62 INDEX. 221 PAGE Cicero 39 Circulation of blood 81 Clinical review, quotations from 186 Clysters 25 Coction 35, 47 College of Physicians 81 Constantine, the African 61 Contrarii contrariis, Galen's Law 199 Cordova, Spain 56 Cornelius Agrippa 63 Correlation and conservation of forces 125 Cowardice of Galen 49 Crisis , 35 Crotonia 28 Cullen, William, his system of medicine 86 Demonology among the Egyptians 24 among the eclectic conciliators 71 Descartes 84 Dilutionists, high and low 185 Dilutions 101, 105 manner of preparing 107 strength of ; 109 Dioscorides' works on materia medica 92 Diphtheria converted into scarlatina by kali chlor., a fool's theory 187 Disease a nonentity, according to Hahnemann 104 Diseases cured by Divine interposition 51 attributed to the anger of the gods by the ancient Egyptians 23 cured by prayers and incantations, etc., by the early Christians 52 Disordered condition of vital force 107 Dissections of human body legalized for the first time in the history of the world 36, 61 forbidden by the Jews, the Romans, the Greeks, Arabians and early Christians 76 Distillation introduced by the Arabians 57 Divisibility of metals 146 Dogmatic age in medicine 17 school of medicine 35, 96 homoeopathy 172 Dogmatism revised by Galen 48 Domain of similia, by a homoeopath 206 Draco 35 Drugs as physical or dynamical agents 158 Drug-disease « 137 Dynamic force developed by shaking 106 power of drugs tested by clinical thermometer 155 force refuted 147 222 INDEX. PAGE Eastern empire, disintegration of 62 Eben Baithar's materia medica 93 Ecclesiastics 58, 60 Eclectic conciliators 69 school of medicine 42, 96 homceopathists 172 Ecolampadius 64 Edessa 54 Edinburg University 87 Egyptian mysteries 24 mythology 23 Embalming the dead by the ancient Egyptians 75 Empiric school of medicine 37, 74 or dogmatic age in medicine 17 Episynthetic or eclectic school of medicine 42 Erasistratus 36 Esmion 23 Eustachius 77 Evil spirits 22 Evolution of medicine 18 of anatomy 73 Expectant school of medicine 83 Fabricius 77, 81 Faith doctors 76 Fallacies of drug-provings 183 Faust 62 Folkstone 80 Food, drink and stimulants, as medicines 212 Force and matter 148 produced by agitation 149, 107 Forces of nature in diseases 124 Gaius 43 Galen, Claudius, history of. 43 opportunities for distinction 44 writings and opinions of 45 his anatomy 47 his infallibility 48 his cowardice 49 Galenites 48 Generation, works on, by Harvey 81 Germ theory of infectious diseases 130 theory of diseases, and its relations to homoeopathy 210 Geynes, Doctor 48 G lasgow University 86 Golden Fleece 27 Greek belief in regard to the dead 75 Greek colonies from Egypt 25 Gutenburg, John 62 Gymnosophists 69 INDEX. 223 PAGE Hahnemann, Samuel, biography of. 98 his chemical law a fallacy 146 discovery of the law of similars by 99 writings of, Organon and other works 99 his theory of chronic diseases 129 local remedies denounced by 121 his transcendental views upon pathology 102 causes of disease immaterial 103 disease a nonentity 104 his views upon olfaction 110 Hahnemannians, pure 217 Hali Abbas 56 Halle, University of 84 Hallers physiology 86 Harvey, William 80 Helmont, Van 84 Hercules 26,31 Herophilus 36 High potencies, cure of offensive foot-sweat by 108 High potencies tested 145 Hippocrates, genealogy of 31 opinions and writings of. 33 theory of disease 34 Hippocratic countenance 34 period 17 History of medicine really begins 17 Hoffman, Frederick, his system 85, 96 Homoeopath, allopath- and antipath 131 Homoeopathic aggravation 100 honor and honesty 193 law of cure 105 practice not based upon pathology, but upon a totality of symptoms 133 times, a discussion of homoeopathy by a homceo- pathist 188 Homoeopathy as taught by Hahnemann 97 divisions in 98 a huge lie 195 in the old world 214 quinine and intermittents in 186 Horner 27 Horus 23 Hospital, first public, in the world 55 Homoeopathic, on Ward's Island 193 Hufeland 7 s Journal 101 Humoral pathology 85, 86 Hunter, William 86 Ignorance and superstition of early Christians 51 Illinois Homoeopathic Medical Association ; ventilation of the principles of the school by its own members ; angry dis- 224 INDEX. PAGE cussion ; refusal to indorse its own fundamental princi- ples 160-167 Improvements in physiology 83 Inconsistencies between homoeopathic teachings and prac- tice 185, 192 Infallibility of Galen 48 Infectious diseases combined in same patient 203 International Hahnemannian Association 216 Jena 83 Jews opposed to practical anatomy 75 Julian, Emperor 59 Justinian, reign of. 53 Kepler...... 72 Key-notes in homoeopathy 181 Kidd's Laws of Therapeutics, quotations from 198, 199 Knowledge of anatomy by the ancients 73 Law of similars 132 a Divine revelation to Hahnemann 136 modus operandi by which diseases are cured by it 137 Liberal homoeopathists 215 Local remedies denounced by Hahnemann 121 Lucius Verus 49 Ludlam, Prof., after-treatment of ovariotomy, quinine and morphine, by 190 antipathy and homoeopathy of. 192 Machoan, son of iEseulapius 27 Marcus Artorius 40 Aurelius 49 Marsh, Professor, investigations in archaeology 20 Materia medica of the ancients 91 Mathematical school of medicine 71 demonstration of the folly of dilutions 149 Medical investigator 161, 185 counsellor 128 Advance, quotations from 185, 186, 188 Medical Press and Circular 195 Medicinal potency 137 Medicine and philosophy 90 Medicines as chemical and mechanical agents 206, 213 as forces 153 absorbed into circulation 154 Mental impressions 53 Meteorology of diseases 33 Methodic school 39, 74, 96 Miasms 129 syphilis, sycosis and psora 122 INDEX. 225 PAGE Microscopical and chemical examinations of high potencies... 145 Milwaukee Academy 172 Modus operandi of medicines 153 Mondini 61, 76 Monks, schools established by 60 Moors 61 Monte Cassino, school at 60 Myrepsus 95 Mythological age in medicine , 17 Natural diseases essentially dissimilar 204 Nestorius and the Nestorians 54 New England Medical Gazette 146 Newton 72 New York Homoeopathic Medical Society : difference of opinion ; resolutions of 1878, '79 and '80 ; efforts to harmon- ize an unharmonious convention ; resolutions adopted by a two-thirds majority 166-172 New York Medical Gazette ; homoeopathic chicanery in the management of the hospital upon Sard's Island 193 Nostrums in ancient Greece 30 Olfaction, medicine by 110 Opinions of Galen 47 Hippocrates 32 Organon 99 Oribasius 59 Origin of medicine, belief in the gods 18, 23 Osiris 23 Ovariotomy, homoeopathic after-treatment in 190 Padua 79, 81 Pagan philosophers, expulsion from Athens 53 Paisley, Doctor 86 Paracelsus 63 Paten, Guy 68 Pathology... 179 Paulus JEgineta 59 Pelops 44 Pergamus 43 Physician, when first used 60 Physiology, improvements in, during 17th and 18th centuries 83 Plagues and pestilences 19 Plato..... 35 Pneumatic school or sect 41 Podalirius, son of iEsculapius 26, 27 Polybus 35 Potencies 178 high, tested, microscopically and chemically 145 Potency, medicinal 137 Potentiating 107 15 J26 INDEX. PAGE Practical anatomy revived by Mondini 61 Praxagoras 35 Prayer, diseases cured by 61 Prehistoric nations, cannibalism and human sacrifices 74 man 19 Priesthood 51 Principles of dogmatic school 35 empiric school 38 methodic school 40 Printing invented 62 Progress of medicine in Western Europe 58 of medicine in 13th, 14th and 15th centuries 61 of surgery 73 Provings 100, 139, 182 of calcarea 141 Psora 123, 130 Pyrrho ; 37 Pythagoras and his school ." 28 Rapou, M., his opinions of the doctrines of homoeopathy 159 Rational age in medicine 18 Religious belief of the ancients opposed to dissection of the human body 75 Report of Trustees of the Ohio Blind Asylum 188 homoeopathic drug-bill in connection therewith 189 Restorative plan of treatment 212 Revival of practical anatomy 76 Rhazes 56, 93 Riolan, John 68 Roman empire 53 destruction of 58 Roman law forbidding dissections 76 Rosenkrenz, Father 69 Rosicrucians 69 Rosy Cross 69 Rums the Ephesian 41, 76 Sacramento Hospital, drugs and homoeopaths 190 Salerno, school at 60 Satyrus 43 Sennertus, Daniel 69 Serapis 23 Servetus, Michael 79 history and death of. 80 Sherman's test of the 30th dilution 172 final report thereon 175, 178 Similar and dissimilar diseases united in same patient 202 Similia similibus curantur 100, 101, 105, 107, 198-212 a piece of folly 148 Single remedy and interval between doses 112-118 INDEX. 227 PAGE Soranus 41 Spain, schools of 56 61 Specific school 159 Spirit-like pathology 102 dynamic vital force 144 Spirits, vital, animal and natural 46 Stahl, George Ernest 83 Stephanus of Byzantium 40 Sugar introduced by the Arabians 57 Sulphur, remarkable views of Hahnemann upon 118 Surgeon-general's office 49 Sylvius 77 Symptoms, totality of being removed cancels the internal dis- ease 135 Temperature of body, effect of drugs upon 156 Themison 40 Theophrastus .*. 35 ? 92 works of 92 Theosophy 60 Theriac 94 Thessalus 35 Thessalus Trallianus 41 Thoth 23 Tinctures introduced by the Arabians 57 Tonic treatment 112 Totality of symptoms 104, 133, 135, 157, 200 removed, the disease will be canceled... 119 Transcendental pathology 102 Triturations 109 mode of preparing 109 strength of. 110 Troy, siege of 27 Unity of force 125 University of Cordova 56 Venesection, how learned 25 Vesalius, Andrew, his biography, travels, misfortunes and death 77-79 Vis medicatrix naturas 87 denounced by Hahnemann 119 Vital force in disease 125 War of the Rebellion, profession in 49 Ward's Island Homoeopathic Hospital 193 Wesselhceft, C, on the divisibility of metals 146 Western Academy of Medicine 186 Witchcraft 71 228 INDEX. PAGE Writings of the empirics 37 Galen 45-47 Hippocrates 31 Paracelsus 67 Hahnemann 99 Yellow fever in the South ; noble conduct of the profession... 50 Zante 79 Zurich 63 SELECT LIST OF BOOKS FROM THE CATALOGUE OF MR. PRESLEY BLAKISTON, 1012 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, FOR GENERAL AND SCIENTIFIC READERS. fggg* Any of the following books will be sent, postpaid, upon re- ceipt of the price, or they will be found in the stock of most book- sellers throughout the United States and Canada. HEALTH AND HEALTHY HOMES. A Guide to Personal and Domestic Hygiene. By George Wilson, m.a., m.d., Medical Officer of Health. Edited by Jos. G. Richardson, Professor of Hygiene at the University of Pennsylvania. 12mo. Cloth. 314 pp. Price $1.50. CONTENTS. PAGE Exercise, Recreation and Training, 187 Home and Its Surround- ings, Drainage, Warm- ing, etc., 221 Infectious Diseases and their Prevention, 269 NOTICES OF THE PRESS. 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The various phenomena of color, as they affect the eyes and the vision, are described in a way that will interest all readers, and the remarks relative to the treatment of the eyes of children will be found most valuable to parents, who often find fault with little ones and their vision, when they themselves are really at fault for neglecting the eyes of the little ones."— Philadelphia Bulletin. WHAT TO DO FIRST in A ccidents and Poisoning. By Charles W. Dulles, m.d. Illustrated. 16mo. Cloth. Price 50 cents. PREFACE. Whoever has seen how invaluable, in the presence of an accident, is the man or woman with a cool head, a steady hand, and some knowledge of what is best to be done, will not fail to appreciate the desirability of possess- ing these qualifications. To have them in an emergency one must acquire them before it arises, and it is with the hope of aiding any who wish to prepare themselves for such demands upon their own resources that the following suggestions have been put together. ON HEADACHES. Their Causes and Cure. By Henry G. Wright, m.d. Ninth thousand. 16mo. Cloth. Price 50 cents. ON DEAFNESS, GIDDINESS and Noises in the Head. By Ed. Woakes, m.d. Illustrated. 2d edition, I2mq. Qloth.t Price $2.50. Select List of Books. THE MANAGEMENT OF CHILDREN in Health and Disease. By Mrs. Amie M. Hale, m.d. A book for mothers. 12mo. Cloth. Price 50 cents. WHAT THE LEADING DAILY PAPER OP PHILADELPHIA SAYS OP IT. "No better book than this, on the management of children, is to be had in such a small compass and convenient form. The chapters on 'Food and Sleep,' 'How shall Children be Dressed,' on 'Infant Digestion and Diet,' are all valuable. Those on indigestion, especially, will give some new ideas to mothers whe are accustomed to nurse their children whenever they cry, thus often giving them still more to cry about, in the way of over- loaded stomachs. One subject, in particular, should be studied, as an arti- cle of religious faith, by all delicate mothers who have given their children weak lungs and tender throats to go through life with, or when babies get their consumptive tendencies from the father's side. The ounce of precau- tion in childhood goes further than many pounds of medicine or years of care thereafter. All scrofulous children, whether showing symptoms of lung troubles or other, should be taken in hand at once, and what is called a prophylactic treatment applied. In other words, give what food or medicines are needed to overcome these tendencies; do not wait until these break out, in after years, into decided symptoms. Children can learn to take cod-liver oil— if not to cry for it, at least to like it— and by taking all these agents, milk and the strengthening oils, that supply what the parents have not given by way of outfit, tone and health to th^ system, many a weak and apparently fore-doomed child has outgrown it? dreadful inheritance and lived to a healthy old age. Begin with the children. For other and the sudden diseases of childhood, Dr. Hale's book gives wise and encouraging advice. Altogether, it is a book which ought to be put into every baby basket, even if some lace-trimmed finery is left out, and should certainly stand on every nursery bureau."— The Philadelphia Ledger. BIBLE HYGIENE ; or. Health Hints. By a Physician. This book has been written, first, to impart in a popular and condensed form the elements of hygiene. Second, to show how varied and important are the Health Hints contained in the Bible, and third, to prove that the secondary trendings of modern philosophy run in a parallel direction with the primary light of the Bible. 12mo. Cloth. Price $1.25. NOTICES OP THE PRESS. " The anonymous English author of this volume has written a decidedly readable and wholesome book. Its style is so pleasant that it may be read with profit by those not specially familiar with Bible interpretation, or with the ' regimen of health,' as Bacon called it."— Philadelphia Press. "The scientific treatment of the subject is quite abreast of the present day, and is so clear and free from unnecessary technicalities that readers of all classes may peruse it with satisfaction and advantage."— Edinburgh Medical Journal. BRIGHT'S DISEASE. How Persons Affected with this Disease Ought to Live. By J. F. Edwards, m.d. 32mo, 96 pages. Cloth. Price 50 cents. The author gives, in a readable manner, those instructions in relation to hygiene, clothing, eating, bathing, etc., etc., which, when carried out, will prolong the life of those suffering from this disease, and a neglect of which costs annunlly many lives. Presley Blakistoiis THE AMERICAN HEALTH PRIMERS. Edited by W. W. Keen, m.p. Bound in Cloth. Price 50 cents each. The twelve volumes, in Handsome Cloth Box, $6.00. I. Hearing ami How to Keep It. With illustrations. By Chas. H. Burnett, m.d., of Philadelphia, Aurist to the Presby- terian Hospital, etc. II. Long: Life, and How to Reach It. By J. G. Richardson, m.d., of Philadelphia, Professor of Hygiene in the University of Pennsylvania. III. The Sit aimer and Its Diseases. By James C. Wilson, m.d., of Philadelphia, Lecturer on Physical Diagnosis in Jefferson Medical College. IV. Eyesight, and How to Care for It. With Illustrations. By George C. Harlan, m.d., of Philadelphia, Surgeon to the Wills (Eye) Hospital. V. The Throat and the Toiee. With illustrations. By J. Solis Cohen, m.d., of Philadelphia, Lecturer on Diseases of the Throat in Jefferson Medical College, etc. VI. The Winter and Its Dangers. By Hamilton Osgood, m.d., of Boston, Editorial Staff Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. VII. The Mouth :md the Teeth. With illustrations. By J. W. White, m.d., d.d.s., of Philadelphia, Editor of the Dental Conmos. ■ VIII. Brain Work and Overwork. By H. C. Wood, Jr., m.d., of Philadelphia, Clinical Professor of Nervous Diseases in the University of Pennsylvania, etc. IX. Our Homes. With illustrations. By Henry Hartshorne, m.d., of Philadelphia, formerly Professor of Hygiene in the University of Pennsylvania. X. The Skin in Health and Disease. By L. D. Bulkley, m.d., of Now York. Physician to the Skin Department of the Demilt Dispensary and of the New York.Hospltal. Xf. Sea Air and Sea Bathing. By John H.Packard, m.d., of Philadelphia, Surgeon to the Episcopal Hospital. XII. School and Industrial Hygiene. By D. F. Lincoln, m.d., of Boston, Mass., Chairman Department of Health, American Social Science Association. This series of American Health Primers is prepared to diffuse as widely, and cheaply as possible, among all classes, a knowledge of the elementary facts of Preventive Medicine, and the bearings and applications of the latest and best researches in every branch of Medical and Hygienic Sci- ence. They are not intended (save incidentally) to assist in curing disease, but to teach people how to take care of themselves, their children, pupils, employes, etc. They are written from an American standpoint, with especial reference to our Climate, Sanitary Legislation and Modes of Life ; and in these re- spects we differ materially from other nations. The subjects selected are of vital and practical Importance in every-day life and are treated in as popular a style as is consistent with their nature. Each volume, if the subject calls for it, is fully illustrated, so that the text Select List of Boohs. may be clearly and readily understood by any one heretofore entirely ig- norant of the structure and functions of the body. The object being -to furnish the general or unscientific reader, in a compact form and at a low price, reliable guides for the prevention of disease and the preservation of both body and mind in a healthy state. The authors have been selected with great care, and on account of special fitness, each for his subject, by reason of its previous careful study, either privately or as public teachers. NOTICES OF THE PRESS. "As each little volume of this series has reached our hands we have found each in turn practical and well-written." — New York School Journal. "This is volume No. 5 of the ' American Health Primers,' each of which The Inter-Ocean has had the pleasure to commend. In their practical teachings, learning, and sound sense, these volumes are worthy of all the compliments they have received. They teach what every man and woman should know, and yet what nine-tenths of the intelligent class are ignorant of. or at best, have but a smattering knowledge of." — Chicago Inter-Ocean. "The series of American Health Primers, edited by Dr. Keen, of Phila- delphia, aud published by Presley Hlakiston, deserves hearty commenda- tion. These handbooks of practical suggestion are prepared by men whose professional competence is beyond question, and, for the most part, by those who have made the subject treated the specific study of their lives. Such was the little mauual on ' Hearing,' compiled by a well-known aurist, and we now have a companion treatise, in Eyesight and How to Care for It, by Dr. George C. Harlan, surgeon to the Wills Eye Hospital. The author has contrived to make his theme intelligible and even interesting to the young by a judicious avoidance of technical language, and the occasional introduction of historical allusion. His simple and felicitous method of handling a difficult subject is conspicuous in the discussion of the diverse optical defects, both congenital and acquired, and of those injuries and diseases by which the eyesight may be impaired or lost. We are of the opinion that this little work will prove of special utility to parents and all persons intrusted with the care of the eyes." — New York Sun. "The series of American Health Primers, now in course of publication, is presenting a large body of sound advice on various subjects, in a form which is at once attractive and serviceable. The several writers seem to hit the happy mean between the too technical and tne too popular. They advise in a general way, without talking in such a manner as to make their readers begin to feel their own pulses, or to tinker their bodies without medical advice ." — Sunday-school Times. "Brain Work and Overwork. By Dr. H. O. Wood, Clinical Professor of Nervous diseases in the University of Pennsylvania. This is another volume of the admirable " Health Primers," published by Presley Blakis- ton. To city people this will prove the most valuable work of the series. It gives, in a condensed and practical form, just that information which is of such vital importance to sedentary men. It treats the whole subject of brain work and overwork, of rest, and recreation, and exercise in a plain and practical way, and yet with the authority of thorough and scientific knowledge. No man who values his health and his working power should fail to supply himself with this valuable little book."— State Gazette, Tren- ton, N. J. 6 Presley Blakiston's ON SLIGHT AILMENTS. Their Nature and Treatment. By Lionel S. Beale, m.d. Large 12mo. Cloth. Price §1.75. Among civilized nations a perfectly healthy individual seems to be the exception rather than the rule ; almost every one has experienced very fre- quent departures, of one kind or another, from the healthy state ; in most instances these derangements are slight, though perhaps showing very grave symptoms, needing a plain but quick remedy. CONDENSATION OP CONTENTS. The Tongue in Health and Slight Ailments, Appetite, Nausea, Thirst, Hunger, Indigestion, its Nature and Treatment, Dyspepsia, Constipation, and its Treatment, Diarrhoea, Vertigo, Giddiness, Biliousness, Sick Head- ache, Neuralgia, Rheumatism, on the Feverish and Inflammatory State, the Changes in Fever and Inflammation, Common Forms of Slight Inflam- mation, Nervousness, Wakefulness, Restlessness, etc., etc. OTHER BOOKS BY DR. LIONEL S. BEALE, F.R.S., f.k.c.p. DISEASE GERMS. Their Real and Supposed Nature and their Destruction. 2d edition, 117 illustrations. 12mo. Cloth. Price $4.00. BIOPLASM. A Contribution to the Physiology of Life. Illus- trated. 12mo. Cloth. Price $2.25. PROTOPLASM. Or Matter and Life. 3d edition. 16 Colored Plates. 12mo. Cloth. Price $3.00. THE MICROSCOPE. How to Work with It. A Complete Manual of Microscopical Manipulation. 4<)0 Illustrations. 8vo. Cloth. Price $7.50. THE MICROSCOPE IN PRACTICAL MEDICINE. With full directions for examining, preparing and injecting objects, the vari- ous secretions, etc. By Lionel S. Beale, m.d. 4th edition. 500 illus- trations. 8vo. Cloth. Price $7.50. WATER ANALYSIS For Sanitary Purposes, with Hints for the Interpretation of Results. By E. Frankland, ph.d , d.c.l. Illus- trated. 12mo. Cloth. Price $1.00. " Mr. Presley Blakiston has reprinted Dr. E. Frankland's excellent little manual of Water Analysis /or Sanitary Purposes, which in the com- pass of 150 pages gives clear directions for the best methods of analysis, and for the interpretation of the results. The name of the author is a sufficient testimonial to its accuracy and its practical value." — Boston Journal of Chemistry. BY THE SAME AUTHOR. HOW TO TEACH CHEMISTRY. Being Six Lectures to Science Teachers. Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth. Price $1.25. THE ART OF PERFUMERY. The Methods of Obtaining the Odors of Plants and Instruction for the Manufacture of Perfumery, Dentifrices, Soap, etc. etc. By G>. W. Septimus Piesse. 4th edition enlarged. 366 illustrations. 8vo. Cloth. Price $5.5o. Select List of Booh. WORKS ON HYGMENE, CLIMATE, ETC. SANITARY EXAMINATION OF WATER, AIR AND Food. By Cornelius B. Fox, m. d. 94 engravings. 12mo. Cloth. Price $4 00. NUTRITION IN HEALTH AND DISEASE. A Contribu- tion to Hygiene and Medicine. 3d edition. By J. Henry Bennett, m.d. 8vo. Cloth. Price $2.60. HYGIENE AND CLIMATE in the Treatment of Consump- tion. 3d edition. By J. Henry Bennett, m.d. 8vo. Cloth. Price S2.50. PRACTICAL HYGIENE. A Complete Manual for Army and Civil Medical Officers, Boards of Health, Engineers and Sanitarians. 5th edition. With many illustrations. By Ed. A Parkes, m.d. 8vo. Cloth. Price $6.00. VOCAL HYGIENE AND PHYSIOLOGY. With special reference to the Cultivation and Preservation of the Voice. For Singers and Speakers. With engravings. By Gordon Holmes, m.d. 12mo. Cloth. Price $2.00. HEALTH RESORTS of Europe, Asia and Africa. The result of the Author's own observations during several years of health travel in many lands. By T. M. Madden, m.d. 8vo. Cloth. Price $2.50. THE'OCEAN AS A HEALTH RESORT. A Handbook of Practical Information as to Sea "Voyages. For the Use of Invalids and Tourists. By Wm. S. Wilson, m.d. Illustrated by a chart shewing the ocean routes of steamers, and the physical geography of the sea. Svo. Cloth. Price $2.50. DWELLING HOUSES and Their Relation to Health. By W. H. Corfield. 12mo. Cloth. Preparing. WORKS ON MICROSCOPY. HOW TO WORK WITH THE MICROSCOPE. A Com- plete Manual of Microscopical Manipulation. Containing full descrip- tions of all new processes of investigation, with directions for examining objects under the highest powers, and for photographing microscopical objects. By Lionel S. Be.ile, m.d. 5th edition, enlarged and containing over 400 illustrations, many being colored. 8vo. Cloth. Price $7.50. MICROSCOPIC MOUNTING. A Complete Manual, with notes on the collection and examination of objects. By Jno. H. Martin. 2d edition. With 150 illustrations. 8vo. Cloth. Price $2.75. SECTION CUTTING. A Practical Guide to the Preparation and Mounting of Sections for the Microscope. By Sylvester Marsh. Illustrated. 16mo. Cloth. Price 75 cents. EXAMINATION OF DRINKING WATER with the Micro- scope. By J. G-. MacDonald, m.d. With 20 full-page lithographic references, tables, etc. Svo. Cloth. Price $2.75. 8 Presley Blakiston's Select List. WORKS ON CHEMISTRY. CHEMISTRY, INORGANIC AND ORGANIC. With Ex- periments and a Comparison of Equivalent and Molecular Formulae. 295 Engravings. By C. L. Bloxam. 4th London edition revised. 8vo. Cloth. Price $4.00. NOTES FOR CHEMICAL STUDENTS. Compiled from Fowne's and Other Manuals. By Albert J. Bernays, ph.d. 6th edition. 16mo. Cloth. Price $1.25. MEDICAL AND PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMISTRY. Synthetical, Descriptive and Analytical. 2d edition, completely rear- ranged and revised. By John Muter, h.a., m.d. Royal 8vo. Cloth. Price $6.00. HANDBOOK OF MODERN CHEMISTRY, Organic and Inorganic. By C. Meymott Tidy, m.d. 8vo. 6!i0pages. Cloth. Price$5.»o. A PRIMER OF CHEMISTRY. Including Analysis. By Arthur Vacher. 32mo. Cloth. Price 50 cents. COMMERCIAL ORGANIC ANALYSIS. Being a Treatise on the Properties, Proximate Analytical Examination, and Modes of Assaying the various Organic Chemicals and Preparations employed in the Arts, Manufactures, Medicine, etc.; with Concise Methods for the Detection and Determination of their Impurities, Adulterations, and Products of Decomposition. Vol. i.— Cyanogen Compounds, Alco- hols and their Derivatives, Phenols, Acids, etc. 8vo. Cloth, Price $3.50. MISCELLANEOUS, ON HOSPITALS AND PAYING WARDS Throughout the "World. Facts in Support of a Rearrangement of the System of Medi- cal Relief. By Henry C. Burdett. 8vo. Cloth. Price $2.25. COTTAGE HOSPITALS; Their Origin, Progress and Man- agement 2d edition, enlarged and illus. By Henry C. Burdett. $4.5o HOSPITAL NURSING. A Manual for all engaged in Nursing the Sick. 12mo. Cloth. Price $1.00. DEFECTS OF SIGHT AND HEARING; Their Nature, Causes and Prevention. By T. Wharton Jones, f.r.s. 2d edition. 12mo. Cloth. Price 50 cents. IMPERFECT DIGESTION; Its Causes and Treatment. By Arthur Leared, m.d., f.r.c.p. 6th edition. 12mo. Cloth. Price $1.50. SEA AIR AND SEA BATHING ; Their Influence on Health. A Guide for Visitors at the Seaside. By Chas. Parsons, m.d. 18mo. Cloth. Price 60 cents. COMPEND OF DOMESTIC MEDICINE, and Companion to the Medicine Chest. By Savory and Moore. Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth. Price 50 cents. THE TRAINING OF NURSES. Their Efficient Training for Hospital and Private Practice. By Wm. Robert Smith. Illustrated 12mo. Cloth. Price $2.00. This book is a preservation facsimile. It is made in compliance with copyright law and produced on acid-free archival 60# book weight paper which meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (permanence of paper) Preservation facsimile printing and binding by Acme Bookbinding Charlestown, Massachusetts 2004 DATE DUE UNIVERSITY PRODUCTS, INC. #859-5503 BOSTON COLLEGE 3 9031 025 31018 6