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H O M (E O P A T H Y.
PRINTED BY J. AND C. ADLARD,
BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE.



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PRINCIPLES
OF .
HOMOEoPATH Y.
* S.
cº
Av
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SN ..
sº
BY P. CURIE, M.D.
FORMERLY SURGEON IN THE MILITARY HOSPITAL OF PARIS;
MEMBER OF THE PARISIAN HOMOEOPATHIC AND GALLICAN SOCIETIES,
&c. &c. &c.
SIMILIA SIMILIBUS CU RANTUR,
HAHNEMAN N.
L ON DO N :
THOMAS HURST, 65, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD.
1837.
DEDICATION.
TO WILLIAM LEAF, ESQ.
MY DEAR SIR,
You no doubt remember, with pleasure, that
Hahnemann, in the warmth of his feelings, declared
that your name would be for ever associated with
the science of Homoeopathy. Its venerable founder
thus addressed you, because his greatest happiness
is to observe the active zeal which many of his
disciples display, and because his most anxious
desire is, that posterity should revere the memory
of those who have contended for, and advanced this
beneficent science.
You, my dear Sir, are one the most ardent and
sincere of them all—and more—you are one of the
vi. DEDICATION,
most disinterested; for, not being a member of the
medical profession, self-interest can in no way
influence your conduct, nor can your motives be
misconstrued. You propagate Homoeopathy because,
having had personal experience of its effects, you
are convinced of its truth, and being well acquainted
with its merits, you can appreciate the benefits it is
capable of bestowing on humanity.
If, to these considerations, I add a personal one
—the recollection of the reception I experienced
from you on my arrival in England, and the many
marks of friendship and confidence since conferred
upon me, you will understand the gratification I
shall feel, if you will receive this dedication of my
first work in England, as a public testimony of the
gratitude and esteem of,
Your sincere friend,
P. CURIE, M.D.
21, FINSBURY CIRCUS.
C O N T E N T S.
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONs
CHAPTER I.
ON THE PROGRESS of THE HEALING ART
Its Past Advances g * ſº
Brief View of the Present State of Medical Science
Various Methods of Medical Treatment
CHAPTER II.
ACTUAL STATE of THE HEALING ART, according to the
Common Practice, and generally in the words of
its Practitioners - ... • *
Acknowledged Want of any General Principle
Acknowledged State of Materia Medica &
Acknowledged State of Medical Practice e $.
PAGE
11
29
33
41
53
54
56
60
3
viii. CONTENTS.
CHAPTER III.
THE HomoeoPATHIC LAw . e
Enumciation and Explanation of the Law
Its Foundation in Actual Experiment
Familiar Cures due to its Operation
Accidental Cures due to its Operation
Cures by Specifics due to its Operation
Hypotheses as to the Foundation of this Law
CHAPTER IV.
THE HomoeoPATHIC MATERIA MEDICA
The Pathogenetic Powers of Medicines, its sole Basis
Mode of Experiment to determine these Powers
Conclusions drawn from these Experiments
• CHAPTER V.
Diseases As considERED BY Homoeopathy
Homoeopathic Classification of Diseases
PAGE
67
67
71
75
8]
88
92
IOI
101
104
108
115
115
CON 'I'ENTS,
Corresponding Classification of Remedies
Subordinate Classification avoided by Homoeopathy
Homoeopathic Investigation of Symptoms
Homoeopathic Investigation of Pathological Character
Homoeopathic Investigation of the Cause of Disease
Homoeopathic Investigation of Pathological Anatomy
CHAPTER VI.
INFINITESIMAL DOSEs
Foundation of these
Mode of Preparation -
Effects of Attenuation and Dilution
Principle of their Operation
Objections to Infinitesimal Doses answered
The Action of these Doses on the Nervous System
Variation of Doses
CHAPTER VII.
HoMOEoPATHIC DIET AND REGIMEN
Common Practice in this Respect
PAGE
122
124
125
131
132
137
161
161
6
X. CONTENTS.
Homoeopathic Rules of Diet and Regimen
These, of brief Duration in Acute Diseases
Such Rules Accessory, not Curative
CHAPTER VIII.
HomoeoPATHIC ExPERIMENTS IN PARIs, &c.
Commission of the Académie de Médecine
Its violent Procedure and unjust Decision
Reply to Dr. Bailly's Statements
Remarks as to Dr. Andral
Other Objectors
CHAPTER IX.
CoNCLUSION
PAGE
162
165
166
173
173
175
176
183
186
191
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.
A CELEBRATED writer has asserted that “every
thing valuable in the practical part of medicine is
within the reach of common abilities.” Be this as
it may, it is assuredly the interest of every one to
know at least as much of medicine as shall enable
him to form a general estimate of the treatment to
which he subjects himself and those who are dearest
to him, as well as to form some notion of the ability
of the practitioner who applies and administers it.
Two very opposite modes of medical practice
now address themselves to public examination and
decision—one, the common or established practice,
12 PRELIM IN ARY OR SERVATIONS.
called Allopathy, -the other, the new science
introduced by Hahnemann, called Homoeopathy.
The former has been long known to the world,
by its acknowledged want of all principle in the
administration of medicine, its utter uncertainty, its
excessive costliness, its hazards, and its failures: the
latter, it is the business of this work to explain and
elucidate, and thereby to silence, on one hand,
the wilful and ridiculous misrepresentations of the
interested; and, on the other, to dispel the erroneous
but conscientious doubts of the more liberal, and to
assure the enlightened enquirer after truth, that at
least good and sufficient ground exists for a practical
investigation of its merits.
To those whose views are sufficiently enlarged to
perceive that, even as regards personal interest, every
advance in practical knowledge is an advance in
social condition, it may afford gratification to learn
something of the illustrious individual who dis-
covered and first promulgated the principles of
PR.E LIMIN ARY OBSERVATION S. 13
homoeopathic medical science, and of the causes
which first led to that important discovery. I shall
therefore trace rapidly the course of his remarkable
life, and state briefly the means he employed to
bring this science to its present advanced state.
Samuel Hahnemann was born at Meissen, in
Upper Saxony, on the 10th of April, 1755. As his
father’s circumstances were too straitened to admit
of his being sent to a public school, his early
education was confined to what his parents were
competent to teach him; and, when he had attained
a proper age, he was apprenticed to a trade.
Thus humble was the origin of Hahnemann; but
he whom Nature stamps with her nobility, knows
how to rise above the accidents of birth and all the
titles which these may worthlessly bestow.
The master of Hahnemann, having quickly remarked
in him traces of that genius which was, at a future
period, to illustrate his name, remonstrated against
sacrificing him to the pursuits of a common trade.
14 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.
In consequence of this, the head master of the
Academy at Meissen was consulted; and that indi-
vidual generously procured for him a free admission
to its advantages. There, his progress was so rapid,
that, in a short time, he became one of the assistant
teachers. He early, moreover, evinced a passion for
natural history, but more especially for the botanical
department of it. In prosecution of his favorite
pursuit, he was in the habit of quitting his youthful
companions, to explore the woods and climb the
mountains; and the plants which he there collected,
he carefully and systematically arranged in his her-
barium.
When Hahnemann had reached that period of life
at which the choice of a profession is usually made,
he unhesitatingly decided in favour of Medicine; and,
as his choice met the approbation of the head master,
that kind friend aided him in the arrangements neces-
sary for his admission into the Leipsic University, to
which he accordingly went in 1775. There, whilst
PRELIMINARY OR SERVATIONS. 15
following his studies, he supported himself principally
by giving instructions in the German language to
foreign students, and by translating English and
French works into his native tongue.
Having passed two years at Leipsic, Hahnemann
proceeded to Vienna, in order to complete his studies,
and to acquire a practical knowledge of medicine.
There, by his assiduity and talents, he succeeded in
gaining the favorable opinion of Dr. Quarin, physician
to the Emperor of Austria. The Governor of
Hermanstadt having afterwards offered him the
situation of medical attendant to his household, he
was, in that situation, able to economise a sufficient
sum to enable him to return to Germany; and, at
the University of Erlangen, 10th, August, 1779, he
took his degree of M.D. tº
After having practised some time in a little town
of Saxony, Dr. Hahnemann established himself, and
commenced practice, in Dresden. There, however,
he acquired more reputation than profit; so that, as
16 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.
he was now married, he again found it necessary to
eke out his professional gains by the translation of
foreign works. -
It was in the year 1790, whilst translating the
materia medica of Cullen, that, struck with the
contradictory statements which were given of the
febrifuge properties of Peruvian Bark, he resolved
to make experiments as to its effects upon himself. .
The first dose produced symptoms so similar to
those of intermittent fever, that the resemblance
of those symptoms to that malady strongly arrested
his attention; and the prosecution of the experiment
at length revealed to him the law which has since
become the foundation of homoeopathy. The first
step in this new field of enquiry being made, he
next directed his awakened mind to the investigation.
of other medical substances, and, after laborious,
painful, and protracted experiments, satisfied himself
that he had discovered a curative process more
simple, certain, and complete than any previously
PIRE LIMINARY OBSERVATION S. 17
known, and at the same time less injurious to
health.
Thus convinced, Hahnemann pursued his researches
to the doses usually administered; and, taking expe-
riment for his guide in this case, as he had done
before, to ascertain the properties of medicines, he
found the effects required were produced by much
smaller than the usual quantities, and these he
continued to reduce till he finally convinced himself
that the minutest portion of medicine, scientifically
prepared, was best adapted to a safe and effectual
cure, whilst it spared the patient the sufferings and
disgust consequent upon large doses.
Although, however, Hahnemann was prompt to
observe, he was not rash to promulgate. It was
not until 1796, six years after his discovery, that he
considered his experiments sufficiently matured to
be submitted to the public; and, even then, a small
part only of his system was explained in one of the
medical periodicals of the day. In 1805, his first
B
18 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.
work was published, in two volumes, entitled
“FRAGMENTA DE VIRIBUs MEDICAMENToruM
Positivis sive OBVIIs, IN Corport E SANo:” it
contained the result of experiments made upon
himself, his family, and some of his friends, with
twenty-seven different medicines. The following year,
he published his treatise, “MEDICINE FoundED on
ExPERIENCE,” forming the basis of his “ORGANON
of THE HEALING ART,” which appeared in 1810.
In 1811, the first edition of a part of the “MATERIA
MEDICA PURA,” issued from the press; but this
most important work was not completed until 1821.
The “Organon,” perhaps the most important
medical work which has ever issued from the press,
has already passed through five editions in the
German language, and been translated into several
other languages. It is in this work that Hahnemann
employs, for the first time, the word Homoeopathy,
to indicate the fundamental principle of the science
to which his life has been devoted.
PRELIM IN ARY OBSERVATION S. 19
After his establishment in Leipsic, in 1812,
Hahnemann delivered a course of lectures on his
system. His students, although few in number,
were inspired with an enthusiastic zeal to follow up
the discovery of their master; and it was by the aid
of experiments to which they devoted themselves,
that the world is indebted for much of the in-
formation which fills the pages of the Materia
Medica.
Hahnemann, however, had not been long resident
in Leipsic before the physicians and apothecaries of
that town united with those of Dresden to take
measures for preventing him from practising in their
neighbourhood; and, as he regarded their intrigues
with indifference, they at last succeeded in obtaining
an order from the Saxon Government for the enforce-
ment of an obsolete or dormant Law which prohibits
a physician from preparing or dispensing medicines
himself. This occurred in 1820.
Hahnemann now saw himself compelled either to
B 2
20 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONs.
give up his practice as a physician, or to forego his
superintendence of the preparation of his medica-
ments; and, as it was upon the purity of the latter,
and the care with which they were prepared, that
the successful application of his discovery and his
own reputation depended,—he publicly announced
his resolution to relinquish his practice.
The disinterestedness of Hahnemann’s conduct
procured for him, from the Duke of Anhalt Cöthen,
the offer of an asylum, of which he availed himself;
and, in 1821, he received a further mark of the
Duke's favour by being appointed one of his
Councillors. In that duchy, he continued to reside
until 1835, devoting himself exclusively to those
labours which were necessary to develop and per-
fect his system.
It was whilst in Anhalt Cöthen, in 1828, that
Hahnemann published his celebrated work in four
volumes, on Chronic Diseases. Into every new
edition of that and of his other works, he of course
PRELIMINARY OESERVATIONS. 21
subsequently introduced the observations which his
own experience and the investigations of his disciples
suggested.
In 1835, Hahnemann, having married a Parisian
lady, went to reside in Paris. There, surrounded by
his disciples, he continues his labours with a zeal
and vigour rarely witnessed in an individual at such
an advanced period of life; and he has the satisfaction
to observe that his system is daily making converts,
and is adopted by numerous physicians in almost
every country in the world. -
I have now only to notice here a humbler person
—the writer of this work ; for his motives will not
perhaps be altogether uninteresting to those who
may honour him by reading it.
Educated in the Ecole de Médecine at Paris, at
the period when that establishment was at variance
with the school of Val de Grace,— convinced that
right and reason were on the side of M. Broussais,
who was at the head of the latter school, -I entered
22 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.
with zeal upon the defence of his doctrine.* For
several years, I followed the principles and the
practice of that distinguished physician; and, before
the faculty of the Ecole de Médecine, which was
then his unrelenting enemy, I presented my inaugural
thesis in favour of the principles of his school.
For nearly ten years, I continued to practise and
to propagate the doctrine of Broussais, deploring
sometimes its insufficiency, and at others its total
powerlessness, but still believing that doctrine and
practice superior to all that had preceded them.
Nor shall I ever cease to feel the warmest gratitude
and respect to my first instructor, though now a
disciple of Hahnemann.
The incredulity of some portion of my readers
will, no doubt, be excited by the simple announce-
ment of the Principle “Similia similibus curantur,” or
* I had previously studied with much care the medical practice
of other schools; and the ill results of that practice were the cause
of my preference for that of M. Broussais.
PR.E LIMINARY OBSERVATION S. 23
“Like cures like,” upon which is based the super-
structure of the homoeopathic edifice; but still more
incredible will appear the assertion that the minute
quantity of medicine which composes each homoeo-
pathic dose can have effects sufficiently powerful
to remove disease. Such were the impressions
produced upon my mind when, for the first time,
in 1823, I heard the system of Hahnemann pro-
mulgated. -
I sought, indeed, information from all sources
whence I could improve my practice, and I
met occasionally, in my studies, accounts of the
homoeopathic system; but it was always presented
to me in so ridiculous a form, and it consequently
appeared to me so absurd, that I avoided, for a long
period, an examination into its merits, imagining it
would be time lost to study what I then fancied to
be a chimera.
At last, I learned that two of my friends had
embraced that new system, and practised it more
24 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.
or less openly. They were able and studious
men, who had acquired a great reputation in the
province I inhabited. I availed myself of the ear-
liest opportunity I could find to request an explana-
tion of a change so extraordinary; and I found
they were as willing to grant it as I was eager to
obtain it.
I was soon convinced that these gentlemen had
neither adopted Homoeopathy without investigation,
nor regarded the infinitesimal doses as mystification,
or administered them as a mere mask for the con-
cealment of a “do-nothing” practice. They explained
to me the course they had themselves pursued; and,
ever anxious for the discovery of truth, I was induced
and taught to make experiments upon myself, alS
the best means of arriving at a knowledge of the
power of homoeopathic doses. The results produced
were to me extraordinary and convincing. I was
satisfied that all my former impressions were ill
founded; I repeated again and again the experiments
PRELIMINARY OESERVATIONS, 25
I had begun; the further I advanced the more the
truth of Homoeopathy took possession of my mind;
and, in witnessing and trying its power over disease,
my faith was completely established.
From that period, I witnessed the cure of diseases
which till then I had considered incurable; and those
which my former system removed by a prolonged
process of copious bleedings, revulsives and rigorous
diet, disappeared quickly under the mild treatment
of Homoeopathy, without weakening the patient or in
any way injuring his constitution. Thenceforward
I was satisfied that Homoeopathy was not a creation
of the imagination, a speculative opinion, or a mere
plausible hypothesis, but the reverse of all these, a
matter of fact, a well founded and firmly established
art, the truths of which are as practically and clearly
demonstratable as any problem in mathematics.
The first and strongest desire which the disciples
of Homoeopathy can have is, in truth, that its oppo-
nents may combat it upon the only rational and
26 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS,
satisfactory ground on which a scientific principle
can be opposed, viz. that of experiment; and I
hesitate not to say that the very means taken to
overturn it, will carry conviction to the minds of all
men open to its impressions. º
Such are the experiences which have rendered it
my duty to declare openly and boldly, that I am
an advocate for the doctrine of Hahnemann, and
that my endeavour will henceforth be to promote,
in one of the most enlightened and important
capitals of the world, the great art of which he is
the founder.”
It is not my wish to imply a belief that the
* It was at Mulhausen in Alsace, that I was converted to
Homoeopathy; and it was not till after the most perfect conviction,
that I returned to Paris to propagate that science, for which
purpose I there established the Journal de la Médecine Homao-
pathique, conjointly with my friend, Dr. L. Simon, whom I had,
finally, the good fortune to convert to Homoeopathy, by curing his
son, who was dangerously ill.—The journal just mentioned has
for nearly two years been united with the Archives Homoeopathiques.
in order to avoid a useless rivalry.
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATION S. 27
remedial powers of Homoeopathy are infallible. I
admit, on the contrary, that there may be—that
there are—cases where the disorganization of the
human frame is too far advanced to admit the
possibility of cure by any system of medicine
thus far known, and that there are individual con-
stitutions so debilitated that it would be vain to
expect a favourable issue by any medical treatment.
Besides, our new doctrine having been scarcely
forty years promulgated, and not thirty years acted
upon in practice,—comparatively few of the medicinal
agents which mature possesses are yet known to
us, or have yet been subjected to the test which
Homoeopathy requires, that is, tried on the healthy
subject.
Homoeopathy, however, such as it even now is,
leaves far behind the old medical practice. Wherever
the common practice succeeds, Homoeopathy is always
more effective, without danger; and in a vast number
of cases, where the common practice is powerless,
28 PRELIMINAT&Y OBSERVATION S.
Homoeopathy is crowned with success. The medica-
ments, indeed, which it prescribes, if skilfully admi-
mistered, cure the greater portion of the ills to which
mankind is exposed; and the basis on which it rests
is a law of nature—a law, immutable and infallible.
Experience and future labours may perfect and facili-
tate its application; but nothing can destroy or
change its fundamental law.
Thus much I venture to say in declaration of my
principles. The following chapters will exhibit the
facts and reasonings which support them.
CHAPTER I.
ON THE PROGRESS OF THE HEALING ART.
ITS PAST AIDVANCES.
THE historical and philosophical contemplation of
the various discoveries which the human mind has
made, demonstrates the fact that they have, without
exception, been subject to progressive development.
All have had their infancy; all have grown up into
well defined forms, in proportion to the lapse of
years; and centuries have added new facts, or dis-
covered new relations, which were wanting to their
completeness. Not one has sprung from the mind
in a perfect state.
30 ON THE PROGRESS
The advances which are every day made in geology,
mechanics, chemistry, surgery, and other sciences
and arts, prove indeed that none of them have yet
attained their zenith. In mechanics, for instance,
the discovery of new principles, or of new combina-
tions, or the application of principles already known,
enable us to produce machines more and more
perfect, the last always surpassing in ingenuity the
supposed perfection of the previous year. Even
mathematics, a science which, above all others, had,
in an early age of the world, attained a high degree
of perfection, does not cease to make progress; for
if the axioms and laws on which it is founded cannot
vary, yet new applications of them are continually
discovered.
These remarks are applicable, in every respect,
to the medical art.
In the early ages of the world, before science had
unveiled to man the secrets of many of nature’s
operations, he could have had no knowledge of his
5
OF THE HEA LING ART. 3 |
own organism. Of his physical constitution, the
functions of his different organs, and the causes of
his maladies, as well as the maladies themselves, he
must have been completely ignorant; and being so,
he must also have been entirely ignorant of the art
of medicine.
How astonishing is the difference betwixt the
ignorance of those dark times, and the present
advanced state of that art How widely separated
the point from which we started, and that at which
we have arrived! Such is the feeling excited in
our minds when we look back to the early history
of the medical art and compare it with its present
condition.
Whilst struck, however, with admiration at the
immense progress which has been made in modern
times, we must not forget what is due to the
patient labours of the early physicians, to whose
researches, during many centuries, we are indebted
for a rich accumulation of facts and observations.
32 ON THE PROGRESS
Nor ought we to forget how much more laborious
and difficult are the first steps in science than those
which follow them; nay, how utterly impossible the
latter without the former.
In all arts, rude inventions become the fruitful
sources of more perfect works, and, in medicine
particularly, many of the discoveries by which the
present age is illustrated, have been derived from,
or suggested by, the labours of the first fathers of
the art. -
Far, therefore, from desiring to undervalue the
importance of the works of the medical writers who
have preceded Hahnemann, we offer them the tribute
of our gratitude and admiration, and gladly avail
ourselves of their assistance in making another step
in the progress of the science towards perfection.
In a work so circumscribed as the present, it is
impossible to review the history of medicine in all
its details, and to follow it step by step in its advance.
But, in order that the importance of the improvement
OF THE HEA LING ART. 33
which Hahnemann has introduced, may in its turn
be understood and appreciated, it is necessary that
we take a
Brief View of the Present State of Medical Science.
The unwearied labours of anatomists, from the
age of Hippocrates down to the present time, have
successively thrown light on the human organization.
We will not assert that ANATOMY may not still
make much progress in minute detail, and especially
in the nervous system; but we may safely say that,
as a science, it now holds an exalted rank, and that
by means of it we have become intimately acquainted
with the human structure.
PHYSIology, or the study of the functions of the
human body in a state of health, is indeed much
less advanced. Still, physiologists, confirming the
discoveries of each other by labours performed
without concert or communication, have ascertained
the use of each organ, the influence of each upon
{C
34 ON THE PROGRESS
the other, and upon the whole organization. It is
from them that we know, for instance, that the
stomach and intestines elaborate the aliments, and
that we are acquainted with the form which these
assume by the process of digestion, as well as the
means by which the chyle is thrown into the circu-
lation and made to repair the constant waste to
which the body is subject. It is to them that we
are indebted for our knowledge of the circulation
of the blood. It is from them also that we are now
learning the functions of the nervous system.
In addition to an exact knowledge of the organs
and of the functions which they perform in a
healthy condition, the physician must also know
the changes which impair their action when under
the influence of disease. The researches necessary
to acquire this knowledge have been steadily
pursued, and we owe, in a great measure, to the
labours of the two last centuries, an entirely new
branch of medical science, one which has already
OF THE H E A LING ART. 35
advanced far towards perfection, and to which the
name of PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY has been given.
Such are the anthropological sciences which may
be deemed the bases of medicine. Practical medicine
consists chiefly of other three—pathology, which
considers diseases; materia medica, or the means of
curing them; and therapeutics, or the art of
employing the latter.
PATHology, or the study of diseases, has, since
the time of Hippocrates, attained a precision truly
admirable. Not only have medical men observed
with increasing accuracy all the phenomena which
constitute disease, but they have attained to such
a degree of skill therein, that they can determine
precisely the seat of organic derangement. Thus,
by means of auscultation and percussion, the alter-
ations in the organs of the chest can be exactly
ascertained. By the aid of the stethoscope, indeed,
skilful physicians can detect with certainty, not
C 2
36 ON THE PROGRESS
merely the situation, but even the nature of organic
disorders.
For diseases of the chest, as well for all other
organic affections, the dissection of subjects, and
the comparison of the appearances with observations
made during the life of the patient, have raised this
branch of science to a high pitch of excellence.
Thus a new degree of certainty is imparted to
pathology by morbid anatomy, the study of which
is most carefully cultivated at the present day.
The investigation of the occasional causes of
disease is not the least remarkable amongst the
improvements which have been introduced; and
etiology is now, in many points, one of the most
advanced branches of the science.
Even the MATERIA MEDICA—that part of the
study of physic which relates to the properties of
medicaments, presents a great number of precious
facts. The physical and chemical properties of
OF THE HEA LIN G. A. R.T. 37
bodies have been thoroughly considered, and their
odour, their taste, their emetic, drastic, or sudorific
qualities, clearly described. Nevertheless, before
the researches of Hahnemann, this division of the
art was the least matured of any, and it could hardly
be otherwise; for, until he applied the only true
principle to the discovery of the properties of
medicines, that of studying their effects upon the
healthy subject, all enquiries and researches were
necessarily imperfect.
THERAPEUTICs is one of the most important
branches of medical science; for it is by its means
that the physician attains his object, which is to
cure. Although, however, he studies all the other
branches of medicine with the view of arriving at
this point, yet, as already stated, has it been less
known than any of the others.
To establish this fact, it is only necessary to
observe the conduct of the physician in the sick
chamber. He would naturally be ashamed to
38 ON THE PROGRESS
appear ignorant, and he may not be ignorant, of the
evil which he is called in to arrest; he may describe
and analyze it with the utmost accuracy; he may
particularize not only the diseased organ, but the
part of the organ which is affected.
For example, if the chest is the seat of the
disease, he may indicate which lobe of the lungs is
affected and the derangement which has taken place
in its functions; and in cases of dropsy of the chest,
he can point out on which side the water is accu-
mulated. In a case of Paralysis or Apoplexy, he
may explain exactly how the brain is affected, or
in what part the extravasation of blood has taken
place. In short, he may accurately classify all
other maladies which may be presented to him under
the head of typhus or bilious fever, cholera, or any
other recognized name.
But when it is necessary to decide on the remedies
proper to subdue these diseases, then it is that a
conscientious practitioner feels all the difficulty of
OF THE HEAL ING ART. 39
his art, and deficiency of the means at his command.
It is then, that he hesitates to decide which of the
different remedies, recommended by medical autho-
rities, is most applicable, because he has no law,
of certain and universal application, to guide his
decision. The greater the number of physicians
consulted, the greater is this uncertainty; for if they
should agree on the name of the disorder, they find
themselves fearfully at variance on the question of a
remedy fitted to oppose it.
It must be admitted, them, by every enlightened
and conscientious member of the profession, that
the Therapeutic branch is, in our time, very far
behind all the other departments of the medical art.
Its importance is, however, so great, that, if it be
impossible to establish it upon certain and fixed
bases, all the other branches of the art, however
near they may approximate to perfection, would be,
as regards the good they might render, as if they
had never been. What avails it to humanity that
40 ON THE PROGRESS
physicians know how to describe the nature of
diseases and give to them names, if they know not
the means of curing them?
The Therapeutic branch of the curative art was
not, however, destined to remain stationary, when
all other departments of science were making rapid
strides towards perfection. It was requisite, indeed,
that all the other branches of medicine should have
been cultivated in a high degree—it was necessary
that the structure and functions of man, and the
symptoms of his maladies, should be known, before
Hahnemann's discovery of the Therapeutic law
could be of service, in placing the art in that
elevated position which it ought to occupy. Such
would appear to be the explanation of the fact,
that Homoeopathy has not taken precedence of Hess
important discoveries, and that it is only now
divulged to mankind, to complete the triumph of
the medical art.
A few words may not be thrown away, on the—
OF THE HEALING ART", 41
Various Methods of Medical Treatment.
Every remedy must act in one of two ways—either
indirectly or directly—either upon a different organ
from that which is diseased, or upon the diseased
organ itself. This is the first and greatest distinction.
The second and subordinate one is, that, in acting
directly upon the diseased organ, the effects of the
remedy must either be contrary or similar to those of
the disease. Hence the action of medicines may be
considered under three corresponding heads; and, on
an examination of all our medical doctrines, it will
be found that the different systems which are followed
in the art of cure may be arranged into three
classes.
1. The method which employs such means as act
upon a different organ from that which is diseased,
and which may be named revulsive, or derivative.
2. The method which acts directly upon the dis-
eased organ, but produces effects contrary to those
42 ON THE PROGRESS
of the disease—being expressed by the axiom, con-
traria contrariis curantur.
3. The method which both acts directly upon the
diseased organ, and produces effects similar to those
of the disease—being founded on the law, similia
similibus curantur.
These three methods are respectively denominated
the Allopathic, the Antipathic, and the Homoeopathic.
The first method, which we have called revulsive
or derivative, and in which the medicine prescribed
affects directly, and, in reality, creates a new derange-
ment in a different part from that which is suffering,
is founded upon the sympathy of remote parts, and
upon their antagonistic reaction.
To ensure the success of this method, the new
derangement which is created must be stronger than
the old one. It must form a powerful counter-
irritation. It accordingly embraces all the means
which are capable of turning the course of the blood,
and the humours formed from it, and of affecting the
a-
, )
OF THE HEALING ART. 43
vitality of the parts subject to the malady. The
means employed are medicines which operate on the
alimentary canal, and produce evacuation either
upwards or downwards, sudorifics, diuretics, bleeding,
blisters, setons, cauteries, &c.
In this way, some endeavour to relieve disease of
one system by that of another. Thus, disease is
temporarily transferred from the nervous to the vital
system, when mania is relieved by exciting a violent
action in the intestinal tube; and it is temporarily
transferred from the vital to the nervous system,
when inflammation of the lungs is relieved by
excitement of the skin, or when determination of
blood to the head is relieved by synapisms and
blisters to the legs and feet. Disease may also be
thus transferred from one part to another of the
same system.
These means, then, are intended to carry off the
blood and subdue the local irritation.
Thus the revulsive method does not attack the
44 ON THE PROGRESS
disease directly, but only transfers it to a less
important organ; and, by so doing, enables the vital
power to reestablish its equilibrium. The cures,
therefore, which have been wrought by the use of
such means, must be attributed mainly to the cura-
tive powers of the organism.
We cannot doubt the success of this method in
slight and transient maladies; for, in these cases,
the curative power of the organism is generally
sufficient to restore health; but, in the great majority
of important cases, this allopathic method is either
impotent or hurtful. By this method, in too many
cases, instead of assisting weakened nature, the
danger is augmented, by diminishing the strength of
the organism. It attacks the very sources of life,
by reducing the quantity of the blood and humours;
and, as the loss cannot always be repaired, the
patient receives not unfrequently a faval blow.
If the friends of this system really believe what
they report, regarding the formidable inflammations
OF THE HEA LING ART. 45
of the brain, of the chest, and of the abdominal
viscera,_if at the same time they contemplate all
those fevers which have been styled malignant, by
reason of their fatal termination, as well as small-
pox, cholera and plague, and if they will then ask
themselves, in good faith, what real service has ever
been rendered in such cases by bleeding, and
revulsives of all sorts, they must admit that their
application as remedies in such diseases has been
attended with very little success.
What has been just said of revulsives, when applied
in cases of acute disease, is still more applicable
when they are employed in the cure of chronic dis-
orders, in which these methods have no salutary
effect, and to which it is always useless to oppose
them. As those means do not act directly on the
complaint, as even the temporary relief they may
afford depends on the severity with which they attack
sound parts, as the greater this is, the greater is the
injury to the constitution, as much of this arises
46 ON THE PROGRESS
from the excessive irritation kept up in the system,
and the extreme debility occasioned by the profuse
excretions generally induced by them, the patient
often languishes and expires, in consequence of the
disorganization produced by the disease, which
revulsive medicines have not power to prevent.
The axiom, “ contraria contrariis curantur,” or
“diseases are cured by remedies which produce op-
posite symptoms,” by which the second method is
expressed, has been recognized from the most remote
periods.
To carry into effect this principle, heat is opposed
to cold, warmth to congelation, narcotics to wake-
fulness, exciting medicines to enfeebling diseases, &c.
In this way, we see inflammatory affections cured by
bloodletting, or by purgatives, diuretics, and sudo-
rifics; and, indeed, the successful treatment of
disease has hitherto been supposed to be very
frequently effected upon this principle.
To this, there are many unanswerable objections;
OF THE HEALING ART, 47
though these means, at first sight, appear conformable
to reason, and sometimes produce avery prompt effect.
It is evident, in the first place, that, in order to
employ this method, the proximate cause of the
disease should be known, for it is that to which the
method should be contrary; and it happens that we
have no positive knowledge of the proximate causes
of the greater number of diseases. The greater
number of diseases have no “contraries,” that the
routine practitioner is capable of pointing out.
In the second place, a close examination shows
that the relief given by such means is only momentary.
They simply palliate, and that always at the expense
of health and life, because the indirect effect of large
doses is generally the reverse of their direct effect—
the organism reacts against every foreign influence,
and opposes to it an opposite state. As, indeed, each
dose only excites new reaction, the disease becomes
aggravated, or returns with redoubled strength.
Thus, when a purgative is employed as a remedy
48 ON THE PROGRESS
for constipation, alvine evacuations are produced 5
but the effect is purely palliative and temporary, for
the constipation afterwards becomes only more con-
firmed. In the same manner, after opium, OCCUUI'S
nervous irritation. Now, against such aggravations,
in order to produce even the same effect, stronger
and stronger doses, and more frequent repetition of
them, are necessary, till at length insusceptibility for
their action, or a sort of paralysis of natural function,
is induced. Thus, in those who are fond of stimu-
lants, wine produces an unnatural gaiety, but corre-
sponding depression ensues; and to reproduce the
gaiety, wine is not only taken again, but in greater
and greater quantities, until the constitution is
undermined. It is in this way that men become
drunkards.
Experience proves that such is always the case
when a disease is treated by contraries.
Finally, amongst the effects of every medicine, it
has justly been observed that, “there are some
OF THE H E A LING ART. - 49
altogether irrelevant to the nature of the disease for
which it is exhibited, but which, in the large doses
necessary when administered antipathically, gene-
rally form new complications with the original
disease, so as often to distort its principal features;
and, to obviate this inconvenience, corrigentia are
frequently added, which again have the same effects,
and, by the addition of new symptoms, add to the
confusion.”
Thus we see that the value of the two curative
methods by revulsives and by contraries is entirely
palliative. By Hahnemann, the term allopathic is
applied to both of these.
The third method, which is expressed by the law
“similia similibus curantur,”
or diseases are cured
by remedies which produce similar symptoms to
those of the disease, is denominated the homoeopathic.
It is the subject of a following chapter.
It must here be mentioned that it has sometimes
happened that the medical practitioner has stumbled
D
50 ON THE PROGRESS
upon a valuable medicine by chance; but the acci-
dental success which has attended its use in some
cases, has been counterbalanced by accidental
failures and great danger in others. And certainly
we ought not to characterize as a system of cure
that which is merely an accidental success or a
defective routine.
By the reasoned application of the doctrine of
“similarities,” the Hydra Disease, even in its most
formidable shapes, is attacked in its strong holds
and vanquished, because then the actions of the
vital powers are not only left without obstruction,
but have their energy increased; and restoration to
health is the consequence.
Thus the law of mature, discovered and made
known by Hahnemann, gives to the Therapeutic art
that clearness, precision, and certainty, of which it
was wholly destitute, until, being grasped and
elucidated by his powerful mind, it was elevated to
that position which it is destined henceforward and
OF THE HEALING ART, 51
for ever to hold. All the labours hitherto accom-
plished in medicine derive increased value and
utility from the discovery of this law. Henceforth,
the bases of all branches of medical knowledge exist
firmly established: we have but to work out their
development. The most important labours which
yet remain to be performed, are, to attain a more
perfect and extended knowledge of medicaments,
and of the art of applying them in conformity with
the homoeopathic law.
D 2
CHAPTER II.
ACTUAL STATE OF THE HEALING ART,
According To THE COMMON PRACTICE, AND GENERALLY
IN THE WORDS OF ITS PRACTITIONERS.
IN this representation, I cannot better ensure the
most perfect impartiality, than by literally quoting
the words of a few of the ablest physicians who
have candidly acknowledged the uncertainty of their
art; and if the language of the extracts which follow
is more severe than that of the author of this work
in the preceding chapter, it will be borne in mind
that it is given merely as expressing the opinions
of others, and these practitioners according to the
old or prevalent system.
54 * ACTUAL STATE
Acknowledged want of any General Principle.
Girtanner+ says: “As the art of healing has no
ſtared principle, as nothing in it is positive, as we
have but little sure experience, every physician has
a right to act upon his own opinions. Where there
is nothing but conjecture, one conjecture is as good
as another. In the gloom of ignorance, in which
physicians grope along, there is no ray of light to
guide them. When two of them meet at the bed-
side of a patient, they can scarcely refrain from
laughing, if they look at each other.”
“We feel daily,” says Krüger-Hansen,f “that we
are far from possessing a fiaced and sure method
of cure. The works on therapeutics furnish the
most eminent proofs what confusion exists, even
among those physicians who stand the highest in
* Darstellung des Brownschen Systems, ii., 608.
t Brillenlose Reflexionen, &c., p. 9.
OF THE HEA LIN G. A. R.T. 55
their art. Its state, which has long and deservedly
been the object of the lowest jokes, demands, for
the benefit of mankind, extensive improvements.”
“Whoever,” says Schweickert,” “attends to the
progress of medical science, must observe, that its
practice has not advanced one step since Hippocrates
and Galen; but that, on the contrary, we are,
perhaps, much behind them; for, fifty years ago, the
greater number of sick persons were killed, according
to the prescriptions of their physicians, by bleedings;
forty years ago, by purgatives; thirty years ago, by
clysters; twenty years ago, by the Brunonian
system; and a celebrated physician asserts, that
that system has made victims of a greater number
of human beings than the whole revolutionary war
from 1793 to 1815.”
“The routine practice,” says Luther,t “does not
* Schweickert's Journal, iv., 120.
t Alloeopathy and Homoeopathy, p. 70
56 ACTUAL STATE
merit the name of a system, because it does not
satisfy the postulata of a system: it wants order,
coherence of parts, and scientific unity; it is only
an aggregate of incongruous matters, a mere
rhapsody.
Acknowledged State of Materia Medica.
The frightful state of its Materia Medica is the
result of what has just been stated—its utter want
of general principle—of every thing that can direct
the physician in investigating the effects produced
by medicines.
Girtanner” says: “Our materia medica is a mere
collection of fallacious observations. There are in
it some correct ones, founded upon experience; but
who would waste time in seeking for a few particles
of gold in that immense dunghill which physicians
have been collecting for these two thousand years?”
* Darstillung, ii., 600.
OF THE HEALING ART. 57
Hoffman” says, “ Perpauca sint remedia quorum
virtutes et operationes certae; plurima vero infida,
suspecta, fallacia, ficta.”f
We are told by Luther, that “Dr. Joerg, a
celebrated professor and adversary of Homoeopathy,
convinced of the uncertainty of the usual materia
medica, resolved, some years ago, to make regular
experiments on the effects of medicaments; and he
owns that he was astonished to observe that no one
of the substances tried produced such effects as
are taught by the doctrine of materia medica.
He calls that doctrine a medical romance.
“De tout cet amas,” said Montaigne, speaking
of the miarture of drugs, “ayant fait une mixture
de breuvage n'est ce pas quelque espèce de réverie
* Medicina Rationalis, t. iii., S. ii., c. iii., § 1.
+ Few are the remedies whose virtues and operations are
certain; many are those which are doubtful, suspicious, fallacious,
false.
: Alloeopathy and Homoeopathy, p. 26.
58 A CTU AL STATE
d'espérer que ces vertus s'aillent divisant et triant
de cette confusion et mélange, pour courir à charges
si diverses? Je craindrais infiniment qu’elles
perdissent ou eschangeassent leurs étiquettes et
troublassent leurs quartiers.”
“Do they consider the stomach,” says Luther,t
“to be a general post-office, where all the drugs
arrive at once, and are thence despatched each to its
proper destination, one to the nerves, another to the
circulation, another to the lungs, another to the
brain,” &c.?
“They employ,” says Krüger-Hansen,f speaking
of violent medicines, “for the simplest diseases,
* Of the whole heap, having compounded a potion, is it not an
idle fancy to hope that its various virtues shall proceed to separate
and extricate themselves from that mixture and confusion, in order
to execute missions so diversified ? I should fear excessively that
they might lose or swop their billets, and excite a riot at their
quarters.
t Alloeopathy and Homoeopathy, p. 52.
f Brillenlose Reflexionen, &c., p. 9.
.5
OF THE HEALING ART, 59
which nature alone, if not disturbed, would over-
come, medicines so violent, that they form the cause
of many chronic diseases.
Medical prescriptions are written in Latin.
“But this practice,” says Dr. Buchan,” “is not only
ridiculous, it is likewise dangerous.” However
capable physicians may be of writing Latin, I am
certain apothecaries are not in condition to read it,
and that dangerous mistakes, in consequence of this,
may often happen. But suppose the apothecary ever
so capable of reading the physician’s prescription,
he is generally otherwise employed, and the business
of making up prescriptions is left entirely to the
apprentice. By this means, the greatest man in
the kingdom, even when he employs a first-rate
physician, in reality trusts his life into the hands
of an idle boy, who has not only the chance of being
very ignorant, but likewise giddy and careless.
* Domestic Medicine.
60 ACTUAL STATE
Acknowledged State of Medical Practice.
From what has been said, may easily be con-
jectured the state of medical practice; but the
following acknowledgments place it beyond a doubt.
Imposture exercised its rule in the time of
Hippocrates; and this venerable old man thus
expresses his bitter regrets: “Multos esse Medicos
famá ac nomine, re et opere paucos.”
Boerhaave says: “If we compare the good which
half a dozen true disciples of AEsculapius have
done since their art began, with the evil that the
immense number of doctors have inflicted on man-
kind, we must be satisfied, that it would have been
infinitely better if medical men had never eacisted.”
“Medicine, in the hands of ignorant men and
" In name and repute, there are many physicians; in fact and
In practice, few.
OF THE HEALING ART. 61
impostors,” says Sinbaldi,” “has contributed, par-
ticularly in Europe, to deteriorate the human race.”
“The abuse,” says the Heidelberg Clinical
Ammals,f “ that the servile herd of common doctors
make of medicaments, of the effects of which they
are ignorant, for the cure of diseases, the form of
which they seldom, and the nature of which they
never know, is indeed dreadful. It is an indisputable
truth, that many more die from the intermeddling
of physicians than are saved by them.”
Pereira, a violent opponent of Homoeopathy,ſ
says, “We can hardly refuse our assent to the
observation of the late Sir Gilbert Blane, that, in
many cases, patients get well in spite of the means
employed; and sometimes, when the practitioner
fancies he has made a great cure, we may fairly
assume the patient to have had a happy escape.”
* Physical Education.
+ Vol. v., 3.
t Lectures on Pharmacology, Med. Gaz., 24th Oct. 1835.
62 ACTUAL STATE
Frankº says, “The medical police is restricted to
public business, and directed against contagion,
epidemics, quacks, &c.; but it is not considered that
thousands are slaughtered in the quiet sick-room.
Governments should at once either banish medical
men and their art, or they should take proper measures
that the lives of people may be safer than at present,
when they look far less after the practice of this
dangerous art and the murders committed in it,
than after the lowest trades.”
Kiesert says: “In most cases, the proverb is
true, that the remedy is worse than the disease, and
the doctor more dangerous than the disorder. The
history of medicine confirms it: every method and
system has made a greater number of victims than
the most contagious epidemics and the longest
wars.”
* Syst, der Mediz. Poliz. i., 6.
t System der Medizin.
OF THE HEALING ART. 63
“I know very well,” says an Old Practitioner.”
that perhaps more than seven-tenths of mankind die,
not from disease, but from the unsuitableness and
eaccess of medicine.”
Kerrüg-Hansen says,t “Medicine, as it has
hitherto been practised, is a pestilence to mankind;
it has carried off a greater number of victims than
all that murderous wars have ever done; and it
appears to be rather a means of preventing over-
population than the art of saving lives.”
“It has always appeared to me most unaccount-
able,” says Dr. Forth, “how mankind can continue
to have the slightest confidence in medicine and its
prescribers! This is explicable only by the care-
lessness with which they look at this destroying art:
they could not otherwise fail to see, that medicine
is only a subtle imposture, and physicians either
* Allgem. Anzeiger d. Deutschen, 1833, 235.
t Brillenlose Reflexionen, &c., p. 18.
f Rhapsodien über Medizin, p. 87.
64 ACTUAL STATE
impostors or ignorant. A monarch who should free
his state from the pestilent set of physicians and
apothecaries, and entirely interdict the practice of
medicine, would deserve to be placed by the side
of the most illustrious characters, who have ever
conferred extensive benefits on mankind. There is
scarcely a more dishonest trade imaginable than
the art of medicine in its present state.
But how long is it since, and how vainly, that
Bacon said, “Empirici et vetula sacpenumero in
curandis morbis felicius operantur quam medici
erudźt?.”%
And if the knowledge of a physician be more
valued in this matter than that of a philosopher
—Sydenham says, “Qua, medica appellatur, revera
confabuland, garriendique potius est ars quam
medend.”f
* Quacks and old women do often, in the cure of diseases,
succeed better than learned physicians.—De Augmentis Scientiarum.
f That which is called medicine is indeed rather the art of
prating and telling stories, than the art of healing.
OF THE H E A LING ART, 65
With such authorities as these, we need not
wonder that Moliere should say, “Ces scelerats
osent tout tenter sur cette confiance, que le soleil
éclairera leurs succès et que la terre couvrira leurs
fautes.”
As bearing on the treatment which Homoeopathy
has received at their hands, I may add one extract
more.—“Very few of the valuable discoveries in
medicine,” says Dr. Buchan,” “have been made by
physicians; they have, in general, been either the
effect of chance or of necessity, and have been
always opposed by the faculty, till every one else
was convinced of their importance. An implicit
faith in the opinions of teachers, an attachment to
systems and established forms, and the dread of
reflection, will always operate upon those who follow
medicine as a trade. Few improvements are to be
eapected from a man, who dreads that he might
* Domestic Medicine, xiii.
66 ACTUAL STATE OF THE HEALING ART.
ruin his character by even the smallest deviation
from the established rule.”
The whole of these observations, it will be
observed, are in no way directed against anatomy,
physiology, and pathology—the great bases of
medical science, but solely against the therapeutics
of the routine practitioners, and that chiefly by
enlightened members of their own body.
CHAPTER III.
THE HOMOEO PATHIC L.A.W.
EN UN CIATION AND EXPLAN ATION OF THE LAW.
AN opinion has very generally prevailed that the
art of medicine is purely conjectural, and that it is
not in the nature of things that it can ever be
placed in the rank of positive sciences. This
opinion receives support, indeed, from past expe-
rience; for, until now, no system has been based
upon any such fixed and invariable principles as
those which form the foundation of the sciences
called positive, and therefore the multitude of
doctrines which have succeeded and destroyed each
E 2
68 THE HOMOEOPATHIC L.A.W.
other, may be regarded as the inevitable conse-
quences of their hypothetic origin.
The fixed laws, or axioms of mathematics and
natural philosophy, have not, however, any more
than those of medicine, been always known. It is
not yet a great many years since Newton gave to
Astronomy the laws which govern the movements
of the planets in their revolutions. Medicine, what-
ever the world may think, is destined to follow the
march of the other sciences and it will be found
that Hahnemann has already achieved for it that
which Newton achieved for Astronomy—the disco-
very of the law which regulates the application of
medicaments in the cure of all diseases.
The basis upon which Homoeopathy is founded,
and upon which rests the whole edifice of the healing
art, is the law of similarities, expressed in the
Latin sentence—“similia similibus curantur,”—Like
cures like; and the name which Hahnemann has
given to his doctrine corresponds with it, being, as
THE HOMOEOPATHIC L.A.W. 69
we have seen, derived from 6potoc, like; and tra60c,
affection.
According to this law, disease is cured by such
remedies as in healthy persons produce a similar
state of disease, or, in other words, a medicament
must be employed which has the property of
inducing phenomena in the healthy subject resem-
bling the symptoms of the peculiar disease under
which the patient may be suffering.
For example: in a case of Erysipelas, the disease
must be opposed by a medicament which has the
power of causing redness of the skin and all the
other concomitant signs of that malady. In Hooping-
cough—one which will produce fits of coughing,
and the symptoms characteristic of that complaint.
In Pheumonia—one which has the power of exciting
pains in the chest, oppression on the lungs, cough,
spitting of blood, &c. In a word, to cure any
disease whatever, that medicament must be admi-
mistered, which, if taken by a person in health,
70 THE HOMOEOPATHIC L.A.W.
would produce the most perfect image of the
peculiar complaint.
It may be proper to explain, that when it is
announced that the medicine given must have the
power of producing symptoms similar to the disease
itself, it is not to be supposed that the quantity
given is such as actually to produce a great increase
of the symptoms, when those which exist are of an
active and dangerous kind. It is enough that it has
the power of producing similar symptoms on a
healthy person; and it is in the regulation of the
quantity and of the frequency of repetition of the
dose that the knowledge and skill of the physician are
requisite.
It is not difficult to find illustrations of the law
similia similibus curantur, nor even of its application,
in ancient medical science. Hippocrates himself
has indicated it in many passages of his writings,
and more especially in the aphorism Vomitus vomitu
curatur. And yet, in the immense majority of cases
TIME HOMOEOPATHIC L.A.W. 71
in which cures have been obtained by the application
of the law similia similibus curantur, they have
not been ascribed to it, nor has it been established
as a leading or true principle in the science.
Its Foundation in Actual Earperiment.
It was in numerous and long-continued researches
that Hahnemann incontrovertibly established, by
actual experiments, the truth of the important
principle which he had detected. It is in these
labours that he has displayed the devotedness and
perseverance of true genius. He subjected himself,
his family, and his friends, to numerous and long
continued experiments; and when, to his own satis-
faction, he had thus established beyond a doubt the
law of similarities, he commenced a new series of
experiments upon other substances, in order to
secure additional means of combating the many and
varied diseases to which we are subject.
72 THE HOMOEOPATHIC L.A.W.
Thus, it was not by the appearance of medical
substances, nor by taste or smell, nor even by their
qualities, physical and chemical, that their virtues
could be ascertained. Neither was it by moting
their effects upon the sick that Hahnemann could
ascertain their mode of action; for the law “similia
similibus curantur” requires that the remedy
should produce similar symptoms in a healthy
person. That law, therefore, demanded labours
much more protracted and difficult. For more than
thirty years of his life, accordingly, Hahnemann
tried the effects of a considerable number of medicines
upon himself and upon his nearest connexioms; and
the result of his researches and experiments com-
pletely proved and established the truth of the
discovered law.
It is by establishing this law as a supreme
principle in the cure of diseases, that homoeopathy
differs from the previous unsystematized and incon-
sistent schemes of medical art, and that now, for
THE HOMOEOPATHIC LAW. 73
the first time, medicine becomes a system, a positive
science.
The law “similia similibus curantur” being the
simple and unalterable rule which Hahnemann has
laid down for the guidance of the physician—the
text to which he must ever refer—the foundation-
stone of the whole edifice,—it follows as a necessary
consequence, that he who would overthrow Homoe-
opathy, must begin by attacking this law. If he
can show it to be false, then the superstructure
which has been raised upon it must crumble into
dust, and all the beneficial and brilliant results which
Hahnemann has promised, must “vanish into thin
air.”
But this can never happen. Founded, as it is, in
nature, and confirmed, as it has been, by the suré
test of long experience,—the more it is examined,
the more will its correctness be established in the
mind of all whose object is the discovery of immu-
74 THE HOMOEOPATHIC L.A.W.
table principles. Hostility directed against the
science and its defenders will even accelerate its
progress, by leading to examination; for truth always
gains by being scrutinized.
Convinced that the cause we espouse is a holy
one, we fearlessly defend our position. Nay, we do
more—we lay ourselves open to every possible
attack, in declaring that if the Homoeopathic prin-
ciple be an eternal law of nature — one which
Hahnemann has not invented, but discovered, and
which, therefore, is “not of an age, but for all time,”
—then we ought to be able to trace its operation in
everything that is daily passing before our eyes, as
well as in the history of past ages.
In point of fact, it is easily recognised and uni
versally known in every-day occurrences.
THE HOMOEOPATHIC L.A.W. 75
Familiar Cures due to its Operation.
When a person, in consequence of severe labour
in the field, or of a painful journey beneath a burning
sun, is suffering from the effects of heat, and devoured
by ardent thirst, by what means does he, with least
danger, relieve himself? — He avoids every thing
cold, even the refreshing current of cool air. His
beverage consists of a little warm tea or coffee, or
of water in which a small quantity of some liquor
having a stimulating property has been mixed.
If, on the contrary, such a person, tormented by
thirst and heat, should swallow cold water, or pass
suddenly from a heated into a cold atmosphere,
experience constantly shows us that the most detri-
mental consequences result from such imprudence.
Travellers, soldiers, and sailors have, in a thousand
instances, seen pleurisy, pneumonia, and cerebral
congestions, thus produced; and we all know that,
in the mirthful exercise of dancing, when the body
A-
• D
76 THE HOMOEOPATHIC LAW,
is excessively heated, cold air and iced drinks have
too often been the cause of acute and dangerous
diseases, and have not unfrequently been followed
by incurable chronic affections.
So also if a limited portion of the body be affected
—if, for instance, the hand be scalded by hot water,
a person of sufficient intelligence and courage
approaches it to the fire, and, after a few minutes’
aggravation of the pain, it is thoroughly cured.
Hence, workmen who are exposed to frequent burns,
cure these by applying to them hot spirits of wine or
oil of turpentine. And if, on the contrary, the part
were plunged in cold water, it would, indeed, yield
momentary relief, but violent pain would ensue the
moment the part was withdrawn, and the cure would
be lingering and painful.
In the case mentioned, then, two courses suggest
themselves: the first is to follow the law of contraries,
and oppose cold to heat, the other, to conform to
the law of similarities, and oppose heat to heat. We
“T H E HOMOEO PATHIC I, A.W. 77
have just shown that the former leads to the most
dangerous consequences, whilst, by drinking liquids
of a warm and stimulating mature, the desired result
is obtained, and all dangerous consequences avoided.
Let us now suppose the case of a person suffering
from extreme cold: his skin frozen and discoloured,
his whole system penetrated and benumbed by it,
and life apparently approaching extinction. If he
were made to swallow ardent spirits when in this
condition, or if he were brought near a fire, however
effective either of these means may be in restoring
warmth and circulation in slight cases, or even in
producing sudden amelioration in severe ones, yet,
in the latter, the relief afforded would be only
momentary; and, if the patient did not contract a
new and severe malady, he would at least feel in
every limb infinitely more severe effects from the
cold.
Should the case be still more severe — should
congelation already have taken place,—then such
78 THE HOM OEO PAT III C L.A.W.
treatment would be attended with extreme danger.
Gangrene in the parts affected would speedily take
place, and the individual would rapidly pass from a
state of apparent to one of real death.
Mere experience points out an opposite treatment.
When only a small portion of the body or of one of
its members is frozen, that portion or member is
rubbed with snow, or put into ice-water; and when
the whole frame is affected, the person is kept from
the fire, and cold frictions and cold draughts in
small quantities only are allowed, until the moment
when an increase of his general temperature permits
his removal into a warmer atmosphere, and warm
drinks to be given him. By these means, the equi-
librium of the system is restored, and life is saved.
So, also, cold feet are best warmed by being
washed with cold water.
In these examples, it will be seen that, by follow-
ing the law of contraries, a temporary relief may be
obtained; but the amelioration is delusive, and the
THE HOMOEO PATHIC I, A.W.
7
9
result frequently fatal; whilst remedies, administered
according to the law of similarities, even if they
should, in the first instance, occasion a slight aggra-
vation of the symptoms, lead to solid improvement,
and ultimate restoration to health.
The Homoeopathic principle is, in this respect,
universal. Its power is shown not only in directing
us to the means of restoring the healthy equilibrium
of the body, but also to those which are applicable
to cases of mental affliction. It is not by mirth and
pleasure that grief is to be assuaged: the feelings of
those who are a prey to mental affliction would be
outraged even by the suggestion of such a remedy.
An opposite course must be pursued: it is by
mingling our tears with theirs, by associating other
images of sorrow with those which press upon them,
by adopting the language of the poet,
“O, let me join
Griefs to thy griefs, and echo sighs to thine,”
80 THE HOMOEOPATHIC. L. A.W.
that their spirits are tranquillised, and that serenity
is gradually restored.
It is unnecessary that we should here enter at
greater length into illustrations of the applicability
of this law to the ordinary occurrences of life, and
to the explanation of remedies which are popular,
although their application has not arisen from
scientific induction. I proceed to show that, in a
multitude of cases cited by ancient authors, as well
as in others which have occurred in our own time,
patients have been indebted to the operation of the
law of “Like cures like” for their recovery; although,
most probably, the attending physician was altogether
ignorant of it.
THE HOMOEOPATHIC L.A.W. 81
Accidental Cures due to its Operation.
Under the title of “Cures effected by chance,”
Hahnemann has collected, in “the Organon of the
Healing Art,” a series of observations from authors
in all ages, which prove, in the most decisive manner,
what has just been advanced. In this place, we shall
give only a few brief examples of them—referring
those readers who wish to be in possession of all the
important facts, to the work above named.
In a treatise upon Epidemics, which has been
attributed to Hippocrates, * the author speaks of
a cholera morbus which resisted all the usual reme-
dies, but which was cured accidentally by the
administration of white hellebore, — a substance
which Foreest, Ledel, Raimann, i and many others,
describe as capable of producing symptoms similar
to cholera.
The sweating sickness, which appeared for the
* Book V., at the beginning.
f P. Foreest, xviii. obs. 44. Ledel, Misc. Nat. Cur. Dec. iii,
Ann. i., obs, 65, Raimann Bresl. Samml. 1724.
82 THE HOMOEO PATHIC L.A.W.
first time in 1485, and which is stated by Willis to
have carried off, at first, 99 out of every 100 who
were attacked by it, being more fatal than the
plague itself, was not subdued until sudorifics, acting
on the homoeopathic principle, were administered.
But from that time few of the cases terminated
fatally.”
Hoffman celebrates the virtues of Milfoil (Mille-
folium), in many kinds of haemorrhage. G. E. Stahl,
Buchwald and Loesika, have found this plant
useful in excessive hemorrhoidal flux. Quarin and
the editors of the Breslaw collection mention a case
of hemoptysis which was cured by it. In a word,
Haller reports that Thomasius employed it success-
fully in menorrhagia.-These cures were evidently
due to the property which is possessed by this plant
of provoking bloody flux and haematuria, + and
especially of producing bleeding by the nose. I
* Sennert de Febribus, iv., chap. 15.
+ Hoffmann De Medicam. Officin., Leyd. 1738.
i Bockler Cynosura Mat. Med. Cont., p. 552.
THE HOMOEOPATHIC L.A.W. 8:3
Muralto * tells us that jalap, independently of
the colics which it produces, cures much uneasiness
and agitation;–Weddell t with justice attributes
to it the property of often calming the sharp pains
which attack young children and cause them to cry.
Murray f states that he has cured lippitude and
a species of ophthalmia by means of Euphrasia;-
Lobel S observed that it had the property of exciting
inflammation of the eyes.
De Haen, || Sarcone," and Pringle, * state
that they cured pleurisies by means of squills; and
have observed that stitch in the side disappears under
its influence.—Wagner it had observed, that the
* Miscell. Nat. Cur. Cap., Dec. ii., a. 7, obs. 1 12.
+ Opilog. Lib., i. p. 1, ii., p. 38.
f Appar. Medic., ii., p. 221.
§ Stirp. Adversar., p. 219.
|| Ratio Medendi, P. i., p. 13.
"I Geschichte der Krank. In Neapel, tom. I. § 175.
** Obs. on the Diseases of the Army, Ed. vii. § 143.
++ Observationes Clinicae. Lubeck, 1737.
84 TIII. HOM OF O PATH I C L A VV .
action of this plant produced pleurisy and inflamma-
tion of the lungs.
One of the most general and most painful effects
of cantharides is to cause retention of urine. This
fact has been remarked by T. Camerarius, Baccius,
Fabricius de Hilden, Foreest, J. Lanzoni, Vander
Wiel, and Werlhoff. * Cantharides should, there-
fore, when administered with precaution, prove a
salutary remedy in analogous cures of painful dy-
suria; and such is found to be the case. Fabricius
de Aquapendente, Capo di Vacca, Biedlin, Th.
Bartholin, Young, Smith, S Raymond, De
Meza, “ Brisbane, *k and others, have effected
* V. mes Fragmenta de Viribus Medicamentorum Positivis,
Leipsick, 1805, i. p. 83.
f Epist. iv. p. 345.
| Phil. Trans., No. 280.
§ Medic. Communications, ii. p. 505.
|| Auserles Abhandl. für Pract. Aerzte, iii. p. 460.
"I Act. Reg. Soc. Med. Hafn. ii. p. 302.
3
THE HOMOEO PATHIC L.A. W. 85
perfect cures by its means in very severe cases of
ischuria.
Rave* and Wedekind,t have arrested memorrhagia
of a severe kind by means of Sabina, which, as
every one knows, causes in women, uterine hemor-
rhage and miscarriage.
Can we fail to recognize in these instances the
homoeopathic law similia similibus curantur?
Many physicians bear testimony to the fact of
cancers in the face having been cured by arsenic;
and amongst these I may cite Fallopius, Bernhardi,\
and Roennow;|| and, according to Amatus Lusitanus,"
this substance has the power of causing painful
and difficultly cured tubercules. Heinrich * and
* Beobachtungen und Schlüsse, ii., p. 7.
+ Hufeland's Journal, x. 1, p. 77.
+ De Ulceribus et Tumoribus, lib. ii. Venezia, 1563.
§ In the Journal de Médecine, chir. et pharm. lvii., 1752, Mars.
|| Königl. Vetensk Handl. f. a. 1776.
‘ſ Obs. et Cur. Cent, ii., Cur. xxxiv.
* Act. Nat. Cur. ii., Obs. x.
86 THE HOMOEOPATHIC L.A.W.
Knape,” state that it produces deep ulcers of a very
bad kind; and, according to Heinze,t cancerous
ulcers. According to Degner, f de Pfann,' and
Versascha,] arsenic has the property of producing
inflammatory tumours, which terminate speedily in
gangrene and malignant carbuncles and pustules.
Arsenic likewise possesses curative properties in
some descriptions of intermittent fever, of which
thousands of examples have been furnished centuries
ago by Nicholas Myrepsus, and confirmed by
Slevogt, Molitor, Jacobi, J. C. Bernhardt, Jungken,
Fauve, Brera, Darwin, May, Jackson, and Fowler;
—and almost all who have observed the effects
produced by this substance have remarked in it the
* Annalen Der Staatsarzneyk, i., 1.
+ Hufeland's Journal, 1813, September, p. 48.
† Act. Nat. Cur. vi.
§ Annalen der Staatsarzeneykunde, loc. cit. & Sammlung
Merkwuerd Faelle. Nuremberg, 1750, p. 119, 130.
|l Obs. Med. Cent, Bâle, 1677, Obs. lxvi.
'THE HOMOEOPATHIC. L.A.W. 87
power of producing fever, for proofs of which I
may refer to Amatus Lusitanus, Degner, Buchholz,
Heun, and Knape.
Alexander* informs us that arsenic is a sovereign
remedy against Angina Pectoris;–and Tachenius,
Guilbert, Preussius, Thilenius, and Pyl, have
observed it produce a violent oppression of the
chest. Griselius+ has seen it produce dyspnoea to
a degree almost approaching suffocation; and
Majoult,f fits of asthma provoked suddenly by
walking, accompanied with great prostration of
strength. .
By the few medical facts which I have quoted
from professional authorities of high character, great
research, and undoubted veracity, and which if neces-
sary could be much extended, the reader will be
enabled to judge how far the truth and certainty of
* Med. Comm. of Edinb., dec. ii., t. i., p. 85.
t Misc. Nat. Cur. dec. i., Ann. ii., p. 149.
: Sammlung Auserles, Abhandl. vii., 1.
88 TFIE HOMOEO PATHIC LAW".
the homoeopathic Law is established by them, related
as they are as the results of their own observation on
accidental cures, and consequently without reference
to the support of any theory—for they had none.
Cures by Specifics due to its Operation.
I shall now proceed to show this law regulating
the administration of medicaments which have
already received the confidence both of physicians
and the public, who recognize and have em-
ployed these with success—without knowing the
principle on which they effect a cure. The sub-
stances to which I refer possess certain curative
properties, and when a physician is consulted in
cases where they are appropriate, he hesitates not
to affirm that a cure will be effected by them. He
has confidence in them, however, not because they
are pointed out by any therapeutic law, but because
the recorded experience of his predecessors, as well
THE HOMOEO PATHIC. L.A.W. 89
as his own, lead to the selection of them. These
medicaments are called specifics; and I shall give a
few instances to illustrate what I have just stated
respecting them.
Arnica Montana—has long been in use by the
people of the Continent, and is also prescribed by
physicians of other countries, for the cure of con-
tusions, wounds, sprains, &c.; and those who use it,
are seldom disappointed in their expectations of
benefit.
Sulphur—is a popular remedy for the itch and
other cutaneous eruptions. Common people, as
well as physicians, have recourse to the use of it
in such complaints, and, with what success, the
universal employment of this remedy best explains.
Mercury—is a well known and an established
remedy in Syphilitic diseases, and when skilfully
administered, a case is rarely found sufficiently
virulent to resist its power.
Quinquina—effectually cures the majority of cases
90 THE HOMOEOPATHIC L.A.W.
of ague or intermittent fever, produced by the
pestilential vapours of marshes.
The Vaccine Virus—preserves the human race
from the most baneful scourge to which humanity
was formerly the victim.
Arnica, Sulphur, Mercury, Quinquina, and the
Vaccine Virus, therefore, are recognized specifics in
the cure of certain diseases; but they owe their
curative virtue solely to the property they possess
of exciting in the healthy subject, symptoms analo-
gous to those of the malady in which they are
specific.
Thus Meza, Vicat, Crichton, Collin, Aaskow,
Stoll, J. Chr. Lange, &c., tell us that Arnica
produces very similar effects to those caused by
contusions and bruises, an inclination to vomit,
sharp and burning pains in the hypochondria,
sudden and involuntary motions, &c.
We know that Sulphur will cause an eruption of
the skin, which closely resembles that of the itch.
THE HOMOEOPATHIC. L.A.W. 91
We know that Mercury produces effects so per-
fectly similar to those occasioned by syphilis, that,
in numerous instances where too powerful doses
have been imprudently administered, the physician
is in doubt whether the disease is mercurial or
syphilitic.
We also know that the smallest particle of Vaccine
matter, inserted beneath the epidermis, produces a
scab strongly resembling that thrown out by the
small-pox, and thereby destroys the exciting cause
of that dreadful disease.
By reference to the Materia Medica of Hahnemann,
it will be seen that these medicines, as well as the
others above named, do actually produce in healthy
persons the symptoms of the disorders they are
popularly given to remove; and it therefore follows
that specific remedies cure diseases only by exciting
in healthy individuals nearly similar diseases, that
every cure performed by the common mode of
practice, has been performed according to the
5
92 THE HOMOEO PATHIC L.A.W.
therapeutic law of Homoeopathy, in short, that all
specific remedies are homoeopathic, and all homoeo-
pathic remedies are specific.
Hypothesis as to the Foundation of this Law.
The value and importance of this law, discovered
as it has been by the exercise of unexampled zeal
and perseverance in making experiments upon
every medicinal substance, is unquestionable; and
we think it is not impossible to afford such an
explanation of it as will reconcile it to reason.
Such explanation, however, it must be observed, is
proposed only as hypothetical; and whether it be
true or false, it cannot affect the truth or the value
of the facts on which it is founded.
There is a property or power in the human
organism, by which, whenever it is modified or
injured by the introduction or contact of a foreign
substance, an action is exerted of a kind diametrically
opposed to the primary action or first effect produced
THE II OM OEO PATIII C J, AW. 93
by the foreign agent. This is called vital reaction,
the reaction of the organism.
A very imperfect illustration of this reaction of
the organism against external influence, may be
derived from mechanics. When a steel spring is
fixed at one end, forced into a curve by pressure at
the other end, and then suddenly released, the free
extremity of the spring will not merely recover its
former place in opposition to the force which acted
upon it, but will be thrown beyond it.
According to this law of reaction, it is evidently
impossible that any medicament should cure a dis-
ease by its primitive effect, since this is always
followed by an opposite effect; the final result of every
medicine being directly opposed to its primitive action.
The cure consequently can be produced only by the
secondary action, or, more strictly speaking, by the
vital reaction already described.
We may here cite one or two examples in explai
nation of this property.
94 THE HOMOEOPATHIC LAW".
When any part of the body, but more particularly
an extremity, is immersed for some time in extremely
cold water, the skin gradually becomes paler, sensi-
bility diminishes, the circulation languishes, scarcely
any blood-vessels are perceptible on the surface, and
the temperature is considerably lowered. Such is
the primitive effect of the immersion. When the
limb is withdrawn from the water and carefully
wiped, effects diametrically opposite will be shortly
observed: the skin slowly assumes a greater degree
of redness than it usually exhibits, it becomes
warmer, numerous blood-vessels reappear on the
surface, and extreme sensitiveness and often sharp
pricking pain is experienced. In proportion to the
coldness of the water, will be the degree of heat which
the returning circulation develops. In this second
action, life exerts all its strength to overcome the
external agency which had depressed its natural
action.
The primitive and secondary phenomena, or, in
THE HOMOEOPATHIC L.A.W. 95
other words, the action of the external foreign power
or agent, and the reaction of the organism, are
invariably reproduced as often as a foreign agent is
brought to act upon the human frame, unless, indeed,
the agent be so violent as to destroy life.
The action of opium furnishes us with another
instance of these phenomena. Its direct action
deadens sensibility, tranquillizes pain, and induces
sleep.–When these effects have passed away, the
reaction of the system infallibly occasions an increase
of sensibility, pain, and sleeplessness. Individuals
who have recourse to this drug to alleviate pain or
to procure sleep, are forced gradually to augment the
doses, not, as they believe, because they habituate
themselves to the medicine, but in reality because,
the reaction more and more increasing the disease,
they are compelled to oppose the increased pain and
sleeplessness by doses of increased strength, in order
to obtain the desired result.
Wines and spirituous liquors, when taken too
96 THE HIOM OEO PATH I C J, A.W.
copiously, develop an increased action in all the
functions, both mental and corporeal; — but this
excitement is speedily followed by a corresponding
degree of lassitude and drowsiness, which announce
the secondary effect of these stimulants, or the
reaction of the organism.
Coffee also communicates increased vivacity to the
mental and corporeal functions; but these pheno-
mena, which are the consequences of the primitive
action of this extract, are succeeded by others of
quite an opposite character: the mental, equally with
the bodily functions, become languid, and sleep
becomes irresistible. To recover from this state,
recourse must be had to still stronger draughts
of coffee, which provoke only a repetition and aug-
mentation of the effects.
This short exposition of the law of reaction, to
which the human organism is subject, will enable
the reader to understand how vital reaction, called
into play under the specific influence of the medicine,
THE HOM OEO PATH H C L A VV. 97
destroys by its development both the primitive action
of the modifying power and the symptoms or effects
of the malady.
Thus, in cases of constipation, when a medicine is
prescribed, the direct effect of which is, and ought
to be, to produce constipation. the reaction of the
system overcomes both that which has been produced
by the medicine, and that which constituted the
disease itself. In cases of diarrhoea, a purgative is
administered; and, in like manner, the reaction of
the system destroys, at the same time, both the
diarrhoea occasioned by the medicine, and that which
constituted the disease. In a word, whenever a
medicine is administered, of which the primitive or
direct effect resembles the symptoms of the complaint
itself, that medicine will excite the curative reaction
of the organism.
Under favourable circumstances, the tone of the
organs is often sufficient, by its natural tendency to
reaction, to restore the state of health. Under
G
98 THE HOMOEOPATHIC L.A.W.
unfavourable circumstances, it is often insufficient,
and is so enfeebled as either to offer no resistance,
or to make only an ineffective struggle and yield to
its morbid assailant, when the aid of medicine is
necessary to excite reaction or to support the “vis
medicatrix naturae.”
In explanation of these phenomena, another and
less rational hypothesis has been proposed, of which
it may equally be said that, whether true or false,
it cannot affect the truth or the value of the facts
for which it is meant to account.
It is founded on two or three laws which are
regarded as natural.
1. The affectability of the living organism by
natural morbific causes is incomparably feebler than
its affectability by medicaments.
According to this law, perpetually acting morbific
causes have no power to destroy health, except
under peculiar circumstances; but every simple
medicament, under all circumstances, and at all
T II E HOMOEO PATHIC L.A.W. 99
times, exercises its peculiar action, and affects the
organism in its peculiar manner. Morbific causes
have only an occasional and conditional power to
disturb the organism : medicinal powers have an
absolute one. -
2. Of two similar affections, the stronger invariably
extinguishes permanently the weaker.
Thus a complication of diseases may exist at the
same time; or, of two diseases which are dissimilar,
the more violent may merely suspend the weaker;
but when two diseases affect the body similarly, the
organism being unable to support both, the weaker
maturally disappears.
3. Medicinal diseases are thrown off more easily
than natural ones.
Thus the homoeopathic medicament can make a
successful diversion in favour of health; for the
artificial disease being easily removed by the patient
ceasing to take medicine, the organism, after being
long oppressed, acquires an accumulated power to
:3:... :
:
#
:
100 THE HOMOEOPATHIC L.A.W.
react. Thus, medicines are not direct remedies, but
merely the producers of morbid symptoms, sur-
passing in intensity those of the disease against
which they are employed; the original disease then
yields, because it is overpowered by the artificial
disease caused by the remedies; and this, on the
discontinuance of the medicines, is in its turn
speedily overcome by the powers of the constitution.
In short, the morbific disease being destroyed by
the medicinal ome, and the medicinal one by the
reaction of the organism, the patient is restored to
health.
The practice of medicine, then, has acquired, by
the application of the principle, similia similibus
curantur, or “like cures like,” a great degree of
certainty and great uniformity of procedure; and
these hypothetical explanations, whether true or
false, can in no way affect its value.
CHAPTER IV.
THE HOMOEOPATHIC MATERIA MEDICA.
THE PATHOGENETIC POWERS OF MEDICINEs, ITs
SOL E BASIS.
MANY substances in nature, possess the property of
disturbing the vital actions during health. This,
Hahnemann calls their pathogenetic or disease
producing power.
Distinct from this power, no substance is endowed
with any virtue for the restoration of health. It is
only when the pathogenetic power is rightly applied
to disease that it becomes curative, and constitutes
the therapeutic power.
1 ()2 THE HOM OEO PATHIC
Thus these two properties are fundamentally one
and the same; and they differ only as applied to
health or to disease. Hence it is evident that, to
know the therapeutic power of any substance, we
must first know its pathogenetic power.
Our present knowledge of drugs is mostly the
result of customary use or empirical trials in disease.
As, however, it would be impossible to try every
medicine against each disease, it is equally impos-
sible thereby to determine their specific action.
Nor, if such trials in disease were possible, could
they have any more instructive effect than it would
have to try the odorous or sapid qualities of bodies
by applying them to the organs of smell or taste
when similarly deranged. Moreover, by trying
medicines in disease, not only is the immediate
susceptibility, but the consequent sympathy of the
organs infinitely varied, even in relation to the same
substance.
“Accordingly,” says Hahnemann, “ the reaction
MATERIA MED1 CA. 103
of the diseased frame generally induces such compli-
cated phenomena, that it is almost impossible to
unravel them; for, either there is no change, or
there follows deterioration, variation, improvement,
recovery, or death, without the greatest practical
genius being able to discover the precise part which
the disease or the remedy may have had in the
result.”—“If to this, too, is added the incongruous
and often conflicting nature of the ingredients of
which remedies are generally composed, the difficulty
would appear altogether insurmountable.”
“There is,” he says, “no other infallible mornatural
way of discovering the proper effects of medicaments
on the human constitution than trying them on
healthy persons, and observing what changes result
from these experiments in the state of the body and
mind, or what elements of artificial disease the
medicaments are capable of producing.”
104 THE HOM OEOPATHIC
Mode of Earperiment to determine these Powers.
Hahnemann, accordingly, and his friends, Frantz,
Hornburg, Stapf, &c., submitted themselves to a
course of experiments continued during above twenty
years; and their method, with little alteration, may
here be given, as at once showing the great care they
bestowed, and serving as an example for all who are
resolved experimentally to determine the truth of
Homoeopathy.
In such experiments, as the action of each and
every substance varies according to sex, age, and
constitution, it is expedient to experiment on as
many persons as possible, and to try each substance
in various doses and under various conditions.
The essential conditions of these experiments are :
—that the experimenters be in perfect health; that
they scrupulously adhere to diet which is merely
nutritious, and in no way pathogenetic; that they
MATER I A M EDI C.A. 105
carefully avoid the use of fermented liquors, wine,
spirits, spices of every kind, coffee, strong tea, acid
fruits, and all vegetables, except those of a farinaceous
and mild description; that they shun all fatigue
bodily and mental, all excess, and even excitement;
and that they previously note every habitual symptom
by which they are affected.
As to medicines, those only must be used which
are genuine, pure, and of well marked action; each
must be given in a perfectly simple form; nor, during
the experiment, must any thing else of a medicinal
kind be used.
It must be borne in mind, that some medicines
act powerfully even in small doses, and others only
in large ones; as well as that the torpidity and dul-
mess, or the delicacy and susceptibility of the consti-
tution of the person experimented upon (both
generally and as to the particular medicines), must
be duly considered in estimating the result, in
relation to medical practice.
106 THE HOMOEO PATHIC
As, however, it is impossible, previous to experi-
ment, to know the susceptibility or torpidity of the
person experimented upon, it is right always to
begin with a small dose. This may be taken every
night three hours after the last meal, or every
morning three hours before the first meal, and
gradually increased till its action is determined.
To increase such action, the dose must be more
rapidly increased.
All this being done, every modification of health
may fairly be noted down as resulting from the
pathogenetic action of the drug employed.
It is necessary to note the time of taking the
drug; upon what texture or organ it acts; at
what hour the symptom chiefly shows itself; what
alterations it induces; what modifications its action
suffers from waking, sleeping, moving, resting, eating,
drinking, moral emotions, intellectual activity, con-
fined or open air, atmospheric changes, the different
times of day, and the changes of seasons; what
MATER IA ME DIC A. 107
influence sex, temperament, moral and intellectual
character, age and constitution have over it; and
how long it lasts.
Thoroughly to know the medicine, it should be
tried both in small and large doses; the degree of
reaction it causes in each should be noticed; the
relation which subsists between the action of various
substances should be observed; and their consequent
powers of diminishing, or neutralizing each other,
should be investigated.
If, before the termination of any experiment, there
occurs any circumstance modifying its result, it must
be broken off and begun anew.
It will easily be understood, that, in making
experiments on a healthy person, there are limits
which cannot be passed without endangering life.
It will be obvious that it is unnecessary to push
experiments so far as to produce poisoning, con-
sumption, cancer, or any other equally formidable
affection. Where accidental cases of poisoning, for
108 THE HOMOEO PATHIC
instance, have not afforded opportunities for tracing
the effects produced by certain medicines, they may
be deduced from the symptoms which approach most
nearly to poisoning; and subsequent observation of
particular cases will confirm their conclusions.
The value of a Materia Medica thus constructed
is evident.
It will now be seen how justly, in the course of
my observations in explanation of the homoeopathic
principle, similia similibus curantur, I stated that
the powers of the medicaments had first been tried
upon individuals in good health. This is in fact the
only test which can be employed when the principle
is recognized, that to cure sickness, a medicine must
be administered which would produce the symptoms
of that particular case in a healthy subject.
Conclusions drawn from these Earperiments.
These conclusions have been :
1. That all medicinal substances administered in
MATERIA MEDICA. 109
adequate doses to healthy individuals, disturb the
functions more or less in proportion to their power.
2. That their action produces two series of symp-
toms, primary or direct, appearing soon after taking
the substance, and secondary or indirect.
In the primary symptoms, each group, modified
by idiosyncrasy, forms a peculiar medicinal disease.
Among these symptoms, some are peculiarly cha-
racteristic of the medicament; their duration
depends on the nature and quantity of the latter;
and, in employing them, care is taken that they
correspond to the characteristics of the disease.
To the primary or direct action of the medicine,
the secondary or indirect action succeeds; and when
the former has been strong or feeble, the latter
corresponds.
3. The consequence of the direct action of some
other substances is an alternation of symptoms of
opposite character, apparently indicating oscillatory
movements between the primary, direct or patho-
110 THE HOMOEOPATHIC
genetic, and the secondary, indirect or curative
effects; and this oscillation is perhaps only less
apparent in some cases than in others.
4. Substances differ as to the time of producing
symptoms—in the morning, in the evening, or at
night.
5. In proportion to the similarity of organization,
is the similarity of the pathogenetic and consequently
of the curative effects of similar doses.
6. Those effects are accidental, which are not found
to be constant in the greater number of persons;
those are certain, which are few and nearly the same
in all; and, to determine this, an analysis of many
cases is necessary.
7. Medicaments, in their pathogenetic effects,
follow fixed and eternal laws, produce certain and
positive symptoms, and, when well applied, afford
infallible remedial means.
Consistently with all this, Hahnemann says,
“each medicament changes health in a particular
MATER.I.A. M. EDICA, 111
manner; and we are not permitted to confound one
with the other. For that reason, medicinal equi-
valents or substitutes are in no way admissible
in practice; and every medical man ought to
distinguish as exactly as possible the different medi-
caments,”—both as causes of disease and as means
of cure.
If any one dispute the facts above stated, let him
repeat the experiments, let him try even the sim-
plest of these. And here let me say that, in the
whole history of science and art, no event has placed
in so conspicuous a point of view, the contentedness
of habitude, or the obstinacy of prejudice, as the fact
that the old and routine practitioners of medicine do
not hesitate to spend hours or days in talking, and
weeks or months in writing, hypothetically, about
the impossibility of Homoeopathy, when the placing
of a few globules on the tongue would satisfy them
of its truth, and make them blush for shame at their
petty prejudice and idle talking!
| 12 THE HOMOEO PATHIC
It has, indeed, been objected that, in repeating
some of these experiments upon healthy individuals,
one or more of the symptoms announced have not
been produced. But this arises from not observing,
that greater doses are necessary in health than in
disease; that the conditions above described must be
attended to ; that the more constant and character-
istic effects of a medicine must be distinguished from
those which are accidental and unimportant; and
that peculiar constitution modifies every medicinal
effect. -
The effects produced by the same medicaments
upon the patient in disease, furnish proofs of the
correctness of the former experiments.
Thus, with the Materia Medica of Hahnemann,
and the clinical observations of other physicians, a
pharmacopoeia has been formed, which is founded
on actual experience, which is considerable in
extent, and which is equal to the task of relieving
most of the ills which afflict humanity.
6
MATERIA ME DIC A. | 13
This materia medica is further distinguished from
the common one by antidotes, employed to counteract
or merely to modify the action of the medicines
previously administered.
These antidotes are either general or special. The
general are such as modify or counteract the effects
of many medicaments: the special, those which
similarly affect particular ones.
Camphor, for instance, has been found to be the
antidote for a great number of medicaments, and
especially for those of a vegetable kind, wine and acids
for aconite,_and so on, for other substances.
Physicians in former times, not having the same
command of medicaments, nor any principle to guide
them in ascertaining the effects which follow their
use, fell into numerous errors, and made but slow
advances. It was by chance alone they could
discover true remedies: it was merely by accident
H
| 14 THE HOMOEoPATHIC MATERIA MEDICA.
that some of the virtues of sulphur, mercury, quin-
quina, and various other substances became known.
Having accidentally discovered a specific, they
could not employ it without danger to their patients,
because, being administered in large doses, acting
upon the diseased organs in the same manner as the
disease itself, it often produced a dangerous and
sometimes a fatal aggravation.
Besides, there existed no means of distinguishing
the symptoms of the disease from those produced by
the medicine; and, consequently, no sound conclu-
sion could be drawn from the effects of the latter
upon a person suffering under disease. Hence it is
evident that the only rational method of experi-
menting with medicines, is, as all I have now said
proves, to ascertain their action upon a person in
sound health.
CHAPTER V.
f) ISFASES AS CONSIDERED BY HIOMI(EOPATHY.
~~~~~~ *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*--- -----...--
HOMOEOPATHIC CLASSIFICATION OF DISE ASES.
IT may surprise some readers, that diseases should
be here considered after the homoeopathic law and
materia medica; but the propriety of the arrangement
will be evident, if they reflect that every considera-
tion of disease in Homoeopathy has an experimental
basis solely in its law and materia medica, and that
consequently an inversion of this would have been
a violation of natural order.
Hahnemann, then, has not given particular names
to particular diseases, but has adopted a classification
H 2
| | 6 DISE AS ES AS CONSIDERED
of them under the following general denomina-
tions:— -
Acute diseases, which, springing from accidental
causes, attack suddenly, are often accompanied by
fever in the first instance, are short in duration,
and, consequently, rapid in their course; while the
energetic reaction of vitality, especially in the young,
if not counteracted, often leads them to a happy
termination.
These diseases are either solitary or epidemical.
The solitary affect only detached individuals,
being caused or excited by the particular noxious
circumstances to which they have individually been
exposed.
Epidemic diseases, which, arising from a particular
state of the atmosphere, owing to unknown causes,
appear in particular places at certain seasons of the
year, or which break out unexpectedly in different
places at once, and without reference to seasons.
Medicinal diseases, which arise from the long
BY HOMOEO PATHY. 117
continued use of active substances, such as opium,
mercury, quinquina, &c.
Chronic diseases, which begin almost imper-
ceptibly, pervade the system insensibly, and degene-
rate it so gradually, that they can never be remedied
by its unassisted efforts.
These diseases, Hahnemann regards as originating
in a virus which assumes different forms and modi-
fications.
“Those diseases,” says he, “are improperly
called chronic, to which persons are subject who
are continually exposed to avoidable injurious
influences — who, for instance, inhabit unhealthful
countries, are engaged in immoderate labours of
body and mind, are deprived of exercise and air, are
tormented by continued grief, or use unwholesome
food and drink, &c. Cachexies and sufferings arising
from these causes are cured by removing for ever the
exciting causes of illness, provided that no chronic
miasm is concealed in the body.”
I [8 DISEASES AS CONSIDERED
“Real chronic maladies are those which derive
their origin from a chronic miasm, which, in spite of
the best physical and moral regimen, are always
increasing, and which torment the patient to the
end of his life, if not cured by specific remedies.
These are the most numerous and terrible enemies
of the human species; for neither the strongest con-
stitution, nor the most perfect regimen, nor the most
emergetic vital power can annihilate them.”
Hitherto, the physicians of the old school have
in general recognized only a single virus, that of
syphilis. Hahnemann has ascertained the existence
of three: syphilis, sycosis, psora.
Syphilis is characterized by chancres; sycosis by
crisped or cauliflower-like excrescences; and psora
by a peculiar eruption, provoking insufferable itching:
all these external appearances being only symptoms
of the existence of internal infection.
From these three, arise the multitude of diseases
indicated by the term chronic, every one of which
BY HOMOEO PAT II Y. | 19
is an external demonstration of one, or two, or all
of them combined.
“The first of these miasms,” says Hahnemann,
“ which, for the last three centuries and a half, has
been the source of many chronic diseases, is that of
syphilis, which is difficult to be cured only when
complicated with displayed psora: it is seldom com-
plicated with sycosis, but, in such cases, it is gene-
rally also complicated with psora.
Syphilis is very often complicated with psora,
either because the patient, before his infection with
syphilis, was already suffering from chronic disease,
or because the latent psora is excited by the usual
violent treatment. In that way, arises the complica-
tion which is called, in England, “pseudo-syphilis.”
It should be observed that syphilis has long been
in some measure recognized as a source of various
chronic diseases.
“The second original cause of chronic diseases,”
says Hahnemann, “is sycosis, which nevertheless
12() DISE A SES AS CONSIDE RED
has produced very few of them, and has prevailed
only from time to time.
Sycosis was imagined to be identical with syphilis,
in consequence of the similarity of their external
symptoms; and Hahnemann first pointed out the
difference between them.
“It has commonly been treated in a fruitless and
injurious manner by the internal use of mercury, in
consequence of its being presumed to be identical
’ or its cure has been attempted by
with syphilis;’
burning or cutting away the excrescences, without
ever imagining that the general cachexy still existed.
The extent of sycosis is not so great as that of
syphilis; and both are more easily cured than psora.
Psora, in its primitive form, the Itch, is communi-
cated by contact; in its modifications, it may be
transmitted from parents to offspring; and, if disap-
pearing from any cause, if repelled by external
applications—in short, if not cured specifically, it
exhibits itself, sooner or later, in chronic disease.
BY HOMOEO PATHY. 12I
Hahnemann assures us that this is the most
ancient of the three descriptions of virus, and that,
since its origin, it has worn innumerable forms in
its transmission through so many generations.
It is to psora, that the greater number, and the
most terrible, of our diseases may be traced. The
leprosy of the ancients, of which the most fearful
pictures have been transmitted to us, was but one of
the forms of psora. In modern times, we trace to it
all those maladies which have been denominated
scrofula, rickets, epilepsy, &c. * -
It may be truly affirmed that the old system had
no means of combating psora; for, if suppressed by it
in one form, it soon reappeared in another.
* The reader is referred to the first volume of Hahnemann's
work on the “Treatment of Chronic Maladies,” for examples and
illustrations of the fact here stated. They are taken from the works
of a host of celebrated authors, and describe many diseases as
originating in the itch, suppressed ringworm, scald-head, and other
forms of psora.
122 DISE ASES AS CONSIDERED
As, in this disease, the cutaneous symptoms are
probably an effort to turn the ravages of the disease
from more important internal organs, it is evident
that if these symptoms are repelled, various chronic
affections must ensue; and as psora is not only
easily and extensively propagated by infection, but is
likewise hereditary, it is not wonderful that it should
be very universally diffused.
Its effects in youth, indeed, may be checked and
reduced to a latent state; but, when age approaches,
and strength is reduced, or when accident enfeebles
the body, it then appears in various chronic diseases.
It cannot, any more than syphilis, be destroyed
except by a specific—that is, by a homoeopathic
remedy.
Corresponding Classification of Remedies.
In conformity with the two chief kinds of disease,
acute and chronic, Hahnemann has shown that there
are two kinds of remedies, one chiefly adapted to
T} Y II O MOEO PATH Y. | 23
acute, and the other to chronic affections. The
former are overcome, when the vital energy is insuf-
ficient, by apsoric medicaments, the effects of which,
like the diseases to which they are applied, are
immediate, brief, and transient. The latter are sub-
dued by anti-psoric medicaments, the effects of which
resemble in character chronic diseases, and, like
them, are pervading, slow and enduring.
After having studied with the greatest care the
virus of psora, and traced its course through all its
modifications in the human organism, Hahnemann
and his disciples have selected from amongst their
numerous medicaments, a certain number possessing
properties which render them efficient in subduing
this virus in all its forms and modifications.
The benefits which humanity may, in this respect,
derive from the labours of Hahnemann, are immense,
and cannot be too highly appreciated. His views, L
clear, simple, sublime, bear upon them the stamp
of genius; and the time which has been lost in
6
124 D IS E A SES AS CONSIDE RED
discussing and denying the truths which he has
taught, is deeply to be regretted.
The noble object of those who consecrate their
lives to the healing art is to relieve the sufferings of
humanity; and hitherto how often have they had to
lament the deplorable inefficiency of the means at
their command to effect it ! Hahnemann only desires
us to prove, by actual trial, the power of relieving
disease, possessed by the means which he points out
to us.
Subordinate Classification avoided by Homoeopathy.
Hahnemann has not classed maladies into subor-
dinate groups, or given them general names. He
shows that the organism of each patient modifies the
characteristic symptoms of each disease, and renders
it in some measure peculiar to himself; and therefore
that the symptoms must be studied in each indi-
vidual case, in order to ascertain what medicament
is appropriate to its cure.
BY HOMOEOPATH Y. 125
It follows that that which will succeed with one
patient may be unsuitable to another, although, on a
superficial examination, both may appear to be
attacked in a similar way. A slight difference in the
symptoms must cause a different medicament to be
preferred in each case; nor does the Homoeopathist
feel bound to confine himself to the use of one
medicine, if, in the progress of the malady, new
symptoms are developed. Hence the difficulty in
the practice of Homoeopathy.
Homoeopathic Investigation of Symptoms.
In regard to the symptoms of disease, the interro-
gation of the patient, with the view of obtaining a
clear idea, a perfect image as it were, of his malady,
is an important part of the homoeopathic physician’s
duty.
He enquires into the general character of the
patient, into his habits both before and after the
appearance of the disease, nay, even into the general
196 D ISEASES AS CONSIDE RED
state of health of his parents; whose particular com-
plaints are noted down.
It is not enough for him that he knows the pro-
minently marked features of the complaint: the most
minute details regarding the previous, as well as the
present, state of the patient’s health, are to him of
the greatest importance—the diseases by which he
has formerly been attacked, the remedies adminis-
tered, and the effects which these remedies produced.
He is not content with knowing that the patient
feels pain in a particular part of the body: he must
also ascertain the kind of pain—as whether it is
a shooting pain, or a soreness as from a fall or con-
tusion, as well as what aggravates and diminishes it.
To a physician of the old-school, indeed, it may
seem unimportant, as a means of ascertaining the
nature of a complaint, that the particular character
of the pain felt by the patient, and the period of the
day or night when it is most severe, should be noted
in writing, together with all the circumstances which
F3Y HOMOEOPATH Y. 127
Key
aggravate or alleviate his sufferings. To him, these
would afford no indication of the remedy to be
selected, because it enters not into his system to
compare the symptoms of the malady with those
produced by the medicament. #
It was formerly deemed sufficient to register the
most striking symptoms of the malady, without
paying much, if any, attention to those of secondary
importance, from their not being deemed capable of
affording any assistance in pointing out the proper
treatment. Hahnemann, however, directs particular
attention to these secondary symptoms, as affording
the means of distinguishing differences or modifica-
tions which serve to mark the individuality of each
CàS62.
By attending only to the most remarkable symp-
toms, as is the case in the common practice, we can
easily decide to what category the disease belongs;
but it is only by the minute observation recommended
by Hahnemann, and by faithfully and accurately
128 DISE ASES AS CONSIDERED
uniting the whole of the symptoms into a clearly
defined, well marked, and distinct group, that we can
distinguish the individuals or species which compose
the pathological class, and obtain a complete view of
the disease. º
Whatever, then, may be the degree of perfection
to which the diagnostic branch of the art had
attained previously to the time of Hahnemann, it
will be admitted that he has given it much more
exactness, by the scrupulous and detailed mode of
interrogation which he has thus recommended.
Now, indisposed to theorize as the homoeopathist
may be, he regards those invisible changes in the
organism constituting the disease, and its per-,
ceptible external symptoms, as having a natural
and necessary connexion; so that, the medicament
which removes the entire group of symptoms must
remove the disease.
Medicaments, indeed, are not specifics for single
symptoms, but for groups of symptoms; every
BY H O M CEO PATHY, I 29
minute circumstance which can aid in forming a
complete picture of the malady must be investigated;
all are useful, and may indeed be absolutely necessary
to direct to the proper medicament; and one fact
omitted, or neglected to be taken into account, may
prevent the physician from recognizing and applying
the specific remedy.
The medicament, them, if well chosen, should, in
its effects, correspond as closely as possible with
each individual symptom, and with the whole group
of the symptoms of the disease; and this is one of
the most important points in homoeopathic practice.
Moreover, it is not enough that the medicinally
excited symptoms be, in regard to the sensations,
of similar mature as the morbific ones: they must be
produced at the same period of the day, and be
susceptible of aggravation or diminution from the
same causes. It is for this reason that it is necessary
to take note of the influence of heat, cold, air,
I
130 DISE A SES AS CONSIDERED
movement, repose, food, liquids, mental or bodily
exertion, &c.
The choice of a remedy is accordingly influenced
by a variety of attendant circumstances, which
render it a task of some difficulty; and therefore,
when a failure takes place, it ought to be ascribed
to some omission or neglect on the part of the patient
or of the physician, and not to any insufficiency of
Homoeopathy. Too many proofs of the truth of the
law have been obtained to justify any other conclusion.
And to demand more of the homoeopathist, is to
expect, or to pretend to expect, of him infallibility,
—where in the routine practitioner success is a mere
accident, and the relief of the patient a “happy
escape!”
It was on account of the necessity of the physician
informing himself of every thing relating to his
patient’s malady, that Hahnemann discarded the
system of giving particular names to diseases.
Failures have often been the consequence of
HY HOMOEO PATHY, | 3 |
physicians being misled by the name given to a
complaint.
Homoeopathic Investigation of Pathologica/
Character.
As to the pathological character of a disease,
Rau says, “that a thirteen years’ practice of
Homoeopathy has fully convinced him of the
necessity of a rational investigation of the real
pathological character of a disease, to enable us to
treat it successfully. For example, in the indications
for the exhibition of aconite, we need not enquire
whether it ever induced an inflammation of this or
that organ, since we employ it in acute inflammation
with success, and since we know that, exhibited in
large doses to healthy individuals, it is capable of
exciting a general inflammatory diathesis, and is
consequently adapted to counteract the same state
homoeopathically. Again, under the symptoms
I 2
|32 DISE ASES AS CONSIDE RED
excited by henbane, we find great variety, as watch-
ful slumber, sleep-laughing, picking the bed-clothes,
anxious sleeplessness, quarrelsomeness, and rage:
here it is evident that we could not exhibit this
remedy with confidence for such apparently different
states, did we not know that they are all conse-
quences of different degrees of the oppression of the
cerebral functions, to which the effects of henbane
in so signal a manner correspond.”
Homoeopathic Investigation of the Cause of
Disease.
It is wrongfully made matter of reproach to
homoeopathists, that they attach more importance to
the symptoms than to the origin or first cause of
disease. We can at present trace only those effects
or consequences of disease which are obvious to the
senses. Hahnemann has observed, and recommends
us to observe, the symptoms or character of the
BY HOMOEOPATHY. 133
&T,
disease, to note all the sensations which the patient
experiences, the changes which take place in the
functions of the organs, and to keep in view all the
circumstances which influence and modify them;
for it is only by these means that we can become
thoroughly acquainted with the malady.
He has, indeed, further stated, that it is impos-
sible for any human being to penetrate the mystery
which veils the nature or essence of disease. But,
whether this opinion be correct or not, it cannot
possibly affect the truth of facts established by
actual experiment. -
It will, at all events, be seen, by the manner in
which he studies diseases, that the homoeopathist
does not make any pretension to investigate the
essence of the malady. To him all that constitutes
the disease, is, the derangement in the sensibility
and functions of the organs, the alterations in the
organs themselves, and all the modes in which these
organic changes are manifested.
134 DISE ASES AS CONSIDERED
The homoeopathist has no need to follow any
hypothesis in seeking the means of combating
diseases, as he has a therapeutic law which serves
him as an invariable guide in choosing a remedy.
The routine physician, having no invariable law to
guide him, follows hypothetic doctrines regarding
the essence or concealed cause of a malady, in order
to find a remedy which he thinks appropriate to the
case.—Those who adopt Brown’s ideas of weakness
and excitation, prescribe the most energetic stimu-
lants. Those who believe, with Broussais, that irrita-
tion is the essence of the malady, have recourse to
every means for depressing or weakening the patient.
In this manner, according to the opinion which
the different schools form of the essence of the
malady, do they choose the remedy which they
suppose to be appropriate.
We might, in this manner, pass in review the
different medical opinions of the essence or nature of
diseases, and we should invariably find that their
13Y HOMOEOPATHY. 135
treatment is founded upon the school whose opinions
the physician has adopted. But if the essence or
unseen original cause of disease be beyond the sphere
of human knowledge, it follows that all those who
base their search for a remedy upon a supposed know-
ledge of that cause, must fall into error.
Assuredly, all the knowledge which has ever been
acquired of the nature of diseases, has been obtained
by the observation of symptoms. Whatever has been
based upon conjecture or hypothesis alone, has led to
mo good result; and hence we find that all the
doctrines so based have sprung up, prevailed for a
time, and, in rapid succession, passed into oblivion.
It is not to be supposed that homoeopathists do
not extend their enquiries to the occasional or acci-
dental causes and to the seat, as well as to the prin-
cipal symptoms, of the disease. These circumstances
often decide the course which is to be pursued in
curing it. There are some medicaments which are
especially adapted to such indispositions as are
136 T) ISEASES AS CONSIDERED,
caused by a fall, contusion, or other external violence;
others which are appropriate to nervous affections
produced by a sudden fright; and others still which
are adapted to illness caused by long-continued grief.
Even “the occasional causes of disease,” it has
been observed by numerous physicians, “are often
so inscrutable in their kind, immoveable in their
nature, or permanent in their results, that we are
much more frequently reduced to combat their
consequences on the economy. The effects, there-
fore, which exciting causes have induced in the
body, are the great object of medical treatment; and
must be met, either upon general indications, by
remedies, the modus operandi of which is supposed
to be sufficiently understood, or in a few cases by
certain others, the beneficial effects of which, in
particular well-marked forms of disease, are fully
established, but of which the modus operandi is
altogether inscrutable, and which hence have been
honoured with the name of specifics.
EY HOMOEOPATHY. 137
“The treatment of disease, however, upon general
indications, so often fails, or proves decidedly injurious
in the hands even of skilful practitioners, that few
who have had a fair opportunity of judging of its
merits do not regret the want of more specific indi-
cations for the choice of remedies: indeed, the most
successful practitioners of all ages have been those
whose knowledge of the specific effects of individual
medicines has been the most extensive.”
Homa.opathic Investigation of Pathological
Anatomy.
Homoeopathists have been accused of neglecting
Pathological Anatomy; but I hesitate not to declare
that the reproach is totally unfounded. Hahnemann
and his followers differ indeed from those who make
it the basis of medical practice, and who seek, by its
means alone, to discover the cause or origin of disease;
138 DISE ASES AS CONSIDER ED
but the utility of Pathological Amatomy, as an
auxiliary, they have never denied.
This branch of medical science is, indeed, most
useful, as a means of extending or confirming our
knowledge of diseases, and of verifying opinions
formed during the illness of the patient; as pointing
out to us the seat of the organic change or derange-
ment which the malady has produced, as of con-
sumption, pleurisy, peritonitis, &c.; and as inform-
ing us what changes these diseases produce in the
organs attacked. But it cannot explain why the
usual healthy functions of the organs are disturbed;
nor can it give the slightest indication of the medi-
cines which would be efficacious in combating
them.
In regard to the seat of the disease, we, like the
practitioners of the old school, admit the special
adaptation of certain medicaments to specific Organs
and determinate symptoms; as of belladonna in
affections of the brain and the organs of vision, of
3
• BY HOMOEOPATHY, 139
nux-vomica in derangements of the organs of diges-
tion, and of aconite in derangements of the arterial
system.
Such are the careful and sure methods of pro-
cedure which Homoeopathy adopts.
CHAPTER WI.
ON IN FINITESIM AL DO SES.
FO UNIDATION OF THESE,
THE question of the dose has been the subject of
much discussion. It is quite independent, however,
of the still greater feature of Hahnemann’s doctrine,
the principle similia similibus curantur.
It owes its origin to Hahnemann’s having observed
that, by strong doses, the more regular symptoms of
disease were aggravated, and that many less regular
and very distressing symptoms were excited. He,
therefore, gradually diminished his doses, until he no
longer observed any of the primary symptoms of the
142 INFINITESIMAL DOSES,
medicament or any unnecessary aggravation. By
this cautious and prudent procedure, he found that
diseases were still cured, and that both more easily
and more speedily.
Mode of Preparation.
These considerations naturally bring us to the
mode of preparing the medicines; and it is to be
observed that homoeopathists rather prefer to prepare
their remedies themselves than to intrust this to any
other person.
With all mineral substances, then, the process
commences with trituration, by which they are redu-
ced to a fine powder. One grain of this powder is
put into a small porcelain mortar, with 33 grains of
sugar of milk; and, after being mixed with a bone
spatula, the mixture is pounded for a few minutes
(six is the number used by Hahnemann, and, for the
sake of uniformity, that number is generally adopted);
IN FIN ITES IMAI, DOSES. | 43
after which it is detached from the bottom and sides
of the mortar, and again pounded for six minutes
more; 33 grains of the sugar of milk are then added,
and the process is repeated as in the first instance;
after which another quantity of 33 grains of sugar
of milk is again added, and the same course pursued;
thus making the attenuation 1.100. The medicine
thus obtained is preserved in a phial securely stopped,
and labelled with the name and the degree of
attenuation.
In this manner the attenuation is carried to the
one-millionth part of a grain; and, when a greater
attenuation is required, the powders are dissolved in
a mixture of alcohol and water.
The medical reader will understand, without further
details, the method by which attenuations to the
millionth or the ten-millionth part of a grain may be
obtained; but, should he wish to possess more infor-
mation, he will find it in the “Organon of the Healing
Art,” by Hahnemann, or in Dr. Quin’s Pharmacopoeia.
144 IN FINITIES IMA L DOSES.
Vegetable juices or extracts are reduced to the
state of a concentrated alcoholic tincture, of which
1 drop is mixed with 99 of alcohol, and the medical
properties developed by shakings (twice is the num-
ber of times used by Hahnemann, and, for the sake
of uniformity, that number also is generally adopted);
one drop of this dilution being then taken, is mixed
with 99 drops of alcohol and again shaken; and the
same process is repeated until the required degree of
dilution is obtained. In general, the dilution is
carried to the decillionth part of a grain.
When the tincture is diluted to the proper state,
generally the 30th dilution, small globules of sugar
of milk or of common sugar and starch, are made to
absorb it; and from 40 to 60 of these are requisite
for the absorption of one drop. Two globules are
the common dose; but these are so small that they
might be lost, were they not generally inclosed in a
little powder of sugar of milk.
IN FIN ITESIM AL DOSES. l45
Effects of Attenuation and Dilution.
The means used by the homoeopathic physician in
preparing his medicines, the attenuations and dilu-
tions by trituration and shaking, develope their
properties in an extraordinary manner, giving to all
of them a more penetrating action; and to some,
which before exhibited very little medical power,
this communicates important properties.
It is also an interesting fact that the third tritura-
tion of any substance is always found to be soluble
in diluted alcohol. And hence it appears that the
power of action in medicaments is developed in pro-
portion as their cohesion is overcome.
Charcoal, lycopedium, silex, graphites, are
amongst the substances which were considered
almost inert, and which, as usually prepared, have
certainly very little influence on the human organism;
but they become active agents when prepared in the
K.
146 IN FIN ITESIM A L DOS ES.
manner just pointed out, and exert powers which
they were not previously supposed to possess.
Nor does the objection receive the slightest support
from physical and chemical facts. On the contrary,
these sciences afford striking support to the doctrine
of the action of infinitesimal doses. Trituration may
certainly be supposed to develope medical properties,
even in substances which before seemed inert and
powerless, when we know that by friction alone, the
properties of certain bodies are brought into action,
which else had remained latent or dormant.—
Caloric and electricity furnish familiar illustrations
of the effects of this; and we might prove by mathe-
matical demonstration that, however far the attenua-
tion may be carried, some portion of the medical
substances must still be present.
We might also appeal to the recognized and well-
known fact of the power of electricity and caloric—
both imponderable substances, in modifying such
bodies as are submitted to their action. There is
IN FIN ITES IMAL DOSES, 147
nothing unreasonable, then, in supposing, that long-
continued trituration in a mortar, or shakings in a
phial, may so modify the substances thus treated, as
to develope in them a power over the human
Oeconomy which was before inert or latent.
From these considerations arose the doctrine of
Hahnemann, that the brute matter of medicines thus
becomes spiritualized, or the “doctrine of the develop-
ment of the dynamic power of medicinal substances,
by friction and concussion.”
Hence, two or three globules imbibed with the
dilution which contains only the decillionth part of a
grain, will make the patient feel very sensibly the
effect of the medicine, provided it is properly chosen
—that is, provided the symptoms which it is capable
of producing in a healthy subject, are similar to those
of the disease with which the patient is afflićted.
k 2
148 INFINITIES IMAL DOSES.
Principle of their Operation.
When any part of the body is affected by disease,
that part becomes extremely sensible to the action
of the most minute quantity of medicine, if that
medicine be adapted to act upon it. However pow-
erful and robust may be the individual who is
labouring under either chronic or acute disease, he
speedily feels the impression produced by it upon
whatever part or organ may be affected by the
malady. The effect of the smallest homoeopathic
dose would indeed be more felt by an adult under
these circumstances, than by an infant exempt from
them, and in perfect health, because it then affects
the seat of the complaint almost exclusively, and
that, being in a state of irritation, is predisposed
to be strongly affected by any substance having the
property of producing a like irritation.
Thus it is well known that, when the eye is in a
INFINITESIM A L DOSES. 149
state of inflammation, light produces the most
painful effect upon it; and that a person in ill-
humour will be thrown into absolute rage by some
trifling additional annoyance, which, at another time,
he would not have condescended to notice.
And here it is important to observe, that, in the
ill-humoured person thus easily irritated by the
slightest occurrence of a similar kind, no dissimilar
event—nothing of a joyful kind, however powerful,
will appease his anger. Such precisely is the
difference, and it is an irreconcileable one, between
the practice of the homoeopathic and the allopathic
methods, with regard to the doses of medicine—a
difference which depends on the aptitude or inap-
titude for impression which the organism, in a state
of disease, manifests for its similar or dissimilar irri-
tant; and it is thus that the homoeopathic law
involves the principle of specific action.
This last observation illustrates the error of trying,
in experiment, to prove or to disprove the efficacy
150 IN FINITIESIM AL DOSES.
of any homoeopathic medicament upon a healthy
person, by giving as minute a dose as would be
administered to one suffering from derangement or
disease, unless, indeed, the dose be often repeated.
Finally, it must be remembered, that the diet
which Homoeopathy prescribes, by rejecting the use
of all substances which could exert any medicinal
action, leaves to its minute doses, already so well cal-
culated to act on an unerring principle, all the power
which they, by their mode of preparation, possess.
The Objections to Infinitesimal Doses answered.
The extreme exiguity of our doses (for which no
better term than infinitesimal or atomic has hitherto
been found) has encountered much incredulity.
Those who could invent nothing to oppose to the doc-
trine, that “Like cures like,” have made this second
discovery of Hahnemann a subject of ridicule.
An objection against the possibility of such
IN FINITESIM AL DOSES. 15]
doses being efficient, has been raised upon the
influence of imagination, by those who prefer talking
or writing about what they do not know, to that
experiment which always confers the surest know-
ledge: to this, the effects produced by such doses
have sometimes been imputed. But these arguers,
in the warmth of their zeal, overlook, or are ignorant
of the fact, that these doses are peculiarly effective
with children, and even with domestic animals, as
horses, dogs, &c.
It has, in the same spirit, and in the face of all
facts, been asserted, that it is utterly impossible that
medicaments so divided should produce any effect
whatever. The objectors forget that, although the
medicaments are attenuated to a point which makes
it impossible to recognize their colour, taste, or smell,
yet it does by no means follow that their qualities
should be diminished in the same proportion. On
the contrary, they are so much developed and
augmented by the process already spoken of, that it
15.2 IN FIN ITES IMAL DOS ES.
is unnecessary, and it would, in some cases, be
dangerous, to administer them in larger quantities.
I would ask those who thus refuse to admit the
efficacy of such medicaments, because they are not
visible to the eye, or palpable to the touch, whether
they can see, touch, or in any manner recognize the
miasm or cause of cholera,_of the small-pox,−of
scarlet fever, of the plague? The answer must be in
the negative; and yet it cannot be doubted that these
fearful scourges are produced by some cause.
Who then will deny the immense power of invi-
sible and imperceptible causes? Why should our
scepticism be reserved for the doctrine of the effects
which palpable bodies (much attenuated, it is true,
but of which a portion, however attenuated, still
remains in our preparations) are capable of mani-
festing upon the human organism?
Not only must the force of invisible causes be
admitted, but also the effects of very minute appli-
cations. The physician has constantly before his
IN FINITES IMA L DOS ES. 153
eyes the effects of such applications. He knows
the power of the smallest atom of the serpent’s
venom, and of the virus of the mad dog, of the
wasp, and of many insects. He knows that the
odour of musk, though almost imperceptible, will
powerfully affect persons of a nervous constitution;
that the slightest touch of Prussic acid will produce
instant death; and that a particle of cow-pock
matter can prevent an awful disease, which had for
ages been the scourge of the human race.
The Action of these Doses, on the Nervous
System.
The nervous system is the means by which all
parts of the body are brought into communication
with each other, in order to form one harmonious
whole; and this system is evidently the means of
transmitting the effects of the medicines which are
administered in Homoeopathy.
It is well known that it has been, and still is, the
practice of the old school to exhibit large doses of
154 INFINITES1MAL DOSES.
medicine, and either (antipathically) to confide to
the stomach the care of conveying them, by the slow
process of digestion, absorption, and circulation,
directly to that part of the body which is attacked by
disease, or (allopathically), by disordering healthy
parts, to attack the disease indirectly. But, by the
homoeopathic method, those medicaments for which
the system has the highest aptitude, are brought into
contact with the papillae of the tongue, which is
found to be sufficient in all cases to produce the
desired effect; and, in some, smelling alone is
enough. They thus touch directly the sentient
roots of that nervous tree, through which their
power is conveyed to the whole system.
Mr. Walker, the author of an elaborate work on
the Nervous System, is of opinion, that the homoe-
opathic doses cannot act either on the nerves of
taste or those of common sensation in the tongue,
(the lingual branches of the trifacial and of the
glosso-pharyngeal nerves,) because it is the general
6
INFINITESIMAL Dos Es. | 55
characteristic of nerves of sensation passing toward
the brain, to be accompanied by consciousness and
to terminate in perception, which is not the common
effect of homoeopathic doses. He nevertheless
thinks that our want of consciousness and perception
of the action of these doses is still no argument
against their acting on the nervous system, because
it is much more probable that they act on the
nervous system of life than on that of mind—namely,
on the branches of the great Sympathetic. It is
certain that this system, which has its centres in
the trunk of the body, sends branches out of it,
which accompany all the great vessels, and which
may be easily seen on the external iliac arteries
where they become femoral. The necessity for such
accompaniment, he observes, is rendered remarkably
evident by branches from that nerve ascending
from the trunk even to the brain, from which, it is
obvious, that, if a cerebral nerve would have answered
the purpose, it could far more easily have been
| 56 INFINITESIMAL DOSEs.
supplied. But it is evident that the sympathetic
and its branches are everywhere the nerves of life,
having their centres in the trunk, as those of mind
have them in the head; that these branches, as they
accompany the great trunks of the arteries, accom-
pany also the minutest capillary arteries to every
surface of the body; and that it is upon their
extremities that the homoeopathic doses make those
impressions of which, like all the acts of the vital
system, we are necessarily unconscious.
Be this as it may, the proofs of the facts
which I advance are furnished by observation and
experience. By these alone, can be demonstrated
the form in which medicine is most efficient in
conquering disease;—these alone can prove the
action of the medicaments;–these alone can deter-
mine the mode in which they should be administered.
The powerful operation of small doses, them, is a
demonstrable fact, and their curative effect is also a
fact, which every one is at liberty to observe and verify.
IN FINITESIM A L DOSES. 157
Whether this fact be singular and surprising, or
whether it be in conformity or in contradiction to
received medical doctrines, is not the question. New
facts, new discoveries, overturn or modify hypotheses
previously admitted, and harmonize with facts
already known. Experience alone can be appealed
to, to decide in such cases; and, to experience, we
appeal for proof of the power of infinitesimal doses.
As connected with this portion of the homoeopathic
doctrine, which regards the nervous system, I should
here observe, that all who are acquainted with the
history of the different schools of medicine, are aware
that they form two great classes, or systems, which
have been named the vital and the organic. The
disciples of the former starting from the principle
of the unity of life, and feeling deeply the impor-
tance of that unity as the great regulator of the func-
tions of the human organism,_pay little attention
to the local changes which it undergoes. The
followers of the latter, on the contrary, devoting their
158 IN FINITESIM A L DOSES.
exclusive attention to the distinct function of each
particular organ,—think toolightly of the unity of life.
Hahnemann’s doctrine embraces both of these
views of the human economy. None of the physi-
cians who have preceded him have held the principle
of life in higher estimation than he has done. He
unceasingly reminds us of the singleness and com-
plete unity of that vivifying principle; but, at the
same time he displays the most persevering anxiety
that every change which takes place in each par-
ticular organ should be carefully studied.
The physician is thus in possession of that which
affects the patient generally, and of that which affects
each organ in particular; and his remedies, prescribed
as I have indicated, reach specifically the whole
organic system, and each particular organ.
Wariation of Doses.
The increase, diminution, and repetition of the
doses must depend upon circumstances. They
IN FINITESIMAL DOSES. 159
require to be varied according to the varied aspect
of the disease, the age, and the temperament of
the patient, and according to other considerations,
which will occur to the practised physician.
In the early editions of the Organon, Hahnemann
gave as a rule, that no medicament ought to be
repeated, and that no new one ought to be given
while the effects of a previous one lasted. Latterly,
he has found that this rule admits of exceptions, and
that, in those cases, the same medicament may be
advantageously repeated.
In connexion with these circumstances, I may
observe that Homoeopathy, which may appear easy
of attainment at first, because it is founded on a few
clear and simple principles, presents increasing
difficulties as the student advances in his career,
because, in proportion as he advances, the difficulties
are more clearly defined, and because the choice of the
exactremedy foreach individual case requires a serious
160 INFINITES IMA L DOSES.
study, to which the routine practitioner of the old
school is unaccustomed.
I may here state, that the globules containing the
medicament are administered by placing them on the
tongue, either alone or mixed with sugar of milk, in
the shape of a powder, and by there allowing them
to be dissolved and transmitted through the system,
where they are soon found to act on the diseased
organ. It may also be proper to add, that the
activity of the medicine is always in proportion to
the activity of the malady: thus, in violent inflam-
matory attacks, the operation of the medicine on
the disease is immediate and efficient, removing
these dangerous symptoms, much more quickly and
surely than the unnecessary, debilitating, and
permicious process of bloodletting.”
* Having been formerly a pupil of Broussais, and consequently an
advocate for sanguineous evacuation, I can speak less scrupulously
of that dangerous practice than if I had originally been a disciple
of Hahnemann.
CHA PTE R V II.
HOMOEOPATHIC DIET AND REGIMEN.
COMMON PRACTICE IN THIS RESPECT.
IN none of the medical schools which have pre-
ceded that of Hahnemann, have the rules for the
adoption of regimen been fixed upon a sound and
invariable basis. Each school has formed these
rules upon its peculiar views of the nature of disease,
and thus, while some prescribe an extremely low diet,
others order, or permit the use of, the most nourishing
aliments and stimulating wines. The object of the
former is to subdue that irritation, which they
consider to be the generating principle of the disease,
by an almost total abstinence from food, whilst
L
| 62 HOM CEOPATH IC DIET
the latter attempt to counteract, by stimulants, that
debility which, in their opinion, is often the foun-
dation of the malady.
The examination of the doctrines and rules of each
school, will demonstrate the existence of these con-
tradictions and uncertainties; and I do not hesitate
to affirm, that this will continue until the homoeopa-
thic law is adopted, which, by giving a fixed and
sure basis to therapeutics, will, at the same time,
destroy all uncertainty regarding regimen.
Homoeopathic Rules of Diet and Regimen.
The object to be attained by attention to regimen
in the treatment of disease, is to place the patient in
a condition the most favorable for the action of the
remedy; and, to accomplish this, the two following
rules are considered essential.
1st. To prohibit the use of every description of
aliment which possesses medicinal properties, or
which might destroy or modify the action of the
medicines administered.
AND RE GIMEN, 163
2d. To regulate the quantity of such aliments as
are allowed to the patient, in order that the daily
waste of the constitution may be supplied, without
overcharging the digestive powers.
The homoeopathic physician prohibits his patients
from using spirituous liquors, spices, acids, strong
tea and coffee, and aromatic substances. He also
excludes from their regimen, every aliment which
his experience informs him is of difficult digestion,
and in general all fat meats and the flesh of animals
which are too young; as well as all fruits of bad
quality, or which are not perfectly ripe. He more-
over recommends them not to reside in marshy
districts, nor in dark and damp streets, in which
there is no free circulation of air. For similar
reasons, he advises them to avoid public meetings,
and large parties, where the temperature of the air is
either too elevated, or vitiated by the number of
persons breathing it.
The aliments to be preferred, are such as the
L 2
164 HOMOEOPATHIC DIET
patient digests with the greatest facility; and, in this,
experience alone can guide him. The physician can
neither predicate those which will be agreeable to
him, nor those to which he has a dislike. The patient
is allowed to drink pure water, weak beer, or a very
small quantity of wine mixed with water. Wine
undiluted, as well as tea and coffee, are allowed only
to patients who have been long accustomed to their
use, and who would suffer from privation of them.
The physician must decide in what cases they ought
to be entirely prohibited, or be only partially per-
mitted; but, even when it is necessary to allow them,
they ought to be taken in much smaller quantities
and much weaker than usual. It is also strongly
recommended to the homoeopathic patient to avoid
every thing which is calculated to excite strong emo-
tions, and all excesses either of labour or pleasure.
Exercise is likewise a very important element in
the homoeopathic regimen. It is indispensable that
patients afflicted with a chronic disease, should not
A ND REGIMEN. 165
lead too sedentary a life. They ought to take exer-
cise daily in the open air, to as great an extent as
their strength will permit; and if they are unable to
walk, they ought to be taken out in a carriage,
although this mode of exercise is less salutary than
walking. If the patient is too ill to partake of either
of these modes of exercise, the air of his apartments
ought to be frequently changed, and the greatest
attention paid to cleanliness therein.
Hot baths are not permitted in homoeopathic
treatment; but sponging with cold or slightly tepid
water is recommended in preference.
These, of brief Duration in Acute Diseases.
The regimen here pointed out is more especially
adapted to the treatment of chronic diseases. But
it is also suitable in acute complaints; although, in
the latter, it is subject to many particular modifications
which cannot be detailed in a work like the present.
166 HOMOEOPATHIC. DIET
I will only observe here, that rigorous attention to
diet in acute disorders, is rarely of long duration in
homoeopathic practice. In no case is the patient
restricted from taking food, except in cases where he
has a positive disinclination to it; and whenever the
desire for food returns, he is allowed by degrees to
indulge it. Besides, the duration of acute diseases
being infinitely shorter by the homoeopathic mode of
treatment than by that of the old school, the duration
of dietetic restrictions is also shorter, and conse-
quently the inconveniences arising from long absti-
mence from food are avoided.
Such Rules Accessory, not Curative.
From the preceding observations, an opinion
may be formed of the rationale of the homoeopathic
regimen. It will be remarked, that we consider it
only as accessory, and not curative; and that, con-
sequently, there is a wide difference betwixt the
AND REGIMIEN. 167
homoeopathic school and that which has been called
the earpectant—that which looks to the efforts of
mature for every thing, and proclaims diet, water,
and exercise, to be sovereign remedies.
No doubt, diet, water, and exercise, are excellent
things. Unquestionably, for him who has too con-
stantly remained within doors, it may be well to
prescribe exercise. To another, who has gorged
himself with the delicacies of the table, it may be
proper to recommend moderation in eating, and to
dictate such a diet as will give the alimentary system
time to recover from the effects of repletion. And,
to him, who has indulged in an excess of wine, it
may be wise to prescribe water: to deprive him for
a time of that in which he has indulged to excess, is
easily understood; and it may alone be sufficient to
reestablish the health, which the abuse of it had
deranged.
We should not have mentioned the expectant
school at all,—as it enjoys credit only with those
168 HOMOEOPATHIC DIET"
who are absurdly credulous, – had it not been
that we have always been represented as ranging
ourselves under its banner. Those who have seen
the success of the homoeopathic treatment could
not well deny it; but they have preferred attributing
this success to the regimen, and not to the principle,
and to thatcurative virtue ofhomoeopathic doses which
we proclaim. Their arguments appear to us to be
quite unfounded. It is easily seen that our regimen
is infinitely less severe than that which is com-
manded by certain other medical schools; for we
always allow to our patients a quantity of substantial
nourishment in accordance with their appetite and
digestive powers.
It is true that, even in this objection, our system
of diet is, so far, well understood; but its excellence
is dependant on this, that it does not injure the
constitution of the patient, and more especially on
its favouring the most simple and beneficent thera-
peutic which has ever existed. But, on this point, it
AND REGIMEN. 169
has justly been asked,—if Homoeopathy has really
performed so many wonderful cures by its
dietetic prescriptions alone, are not the routine
practitioners criminal if they continue to torment
their patients with bleedings, leeches, cupping,
Setons, artificial ulcers, hot irons, disgusting draughts,
pills, and other kinds of dangerous and repugnant
medicines?
Assuredly, if the homoeopathic regimen contributes
to the preservation of health, it has no more power
than any other system in destroying disease. And
those who advance the opinion, that it is the strict
attention to diet exacted by the homoeopathic phy-
sician which alone produces a cure, ought to feel the
absurdity of supposing examples of such diseases as
cholera, typhus, or bilious fever, being cured by such
means;–and, as regards chronic disorders, no one
has effected their cure by a regulated diet alone.
We know, on the contrary, that by adhering for a
long time to a low diet, the organs of digestion are
6
170 HOMOEOPATHIC DIET
weakened, the susceptibility of the nervous system
increased, and that thus new disorders may be pro-
duced. All this is so true, that it is only those of the
routine physicians who have very naturally lost confi-
dence in their art, who have adopted this do-nothing
practice.
The argument of our opponents is the less rea-
sonable, even allowing it to be possible to cure by
regimen alone; for, in that case, of what use are the
long and difficult studies of the medical practitioner?
and why does he devote his time to them if they lead
to nothing better than to a simple diet? This would
be placing a very low value upon the labours of those
who have devoted their lives to the advancement of
a science which they consider one of the most impor-
tant: it would be placing that science itself in a low
rank, and it would leave little hope to those who
expect to derive from it some alleviation of their
sufferings.
I have given only a slight sketch of the homoeo-
AND REGIMIEN. 171
pathic regimen, as the details can be useful only to
the physician. This small work is destined merely
to give a popular view of the principles of the art.
The work announced in the last page, will give a
practical one. The physician who desires to become
thoroughly acquainted with the subject, must have
recourse to the works of Hahnemann.
CHAPTER VIII.
HOMCEOPATHIC EXPERIMENTS IN PARIS, &c.
COMMISSION OF THE ACADEMIE DE MÉDECINE.
SoME explanation may appear necessary to my
readers, for introducing here a subject which does
not properly belong to the “Principles of Homoe-
opathy;” but, as much misrepresentation has been
industriously and widely circulated, respecting
experiments made in Paris, and their results, I think
it necessary to place the whole of the facts in their
true light; and, having been an eye-witness, I can
vouch for the correctness of what I state. I am the
more anxious that the profession and the public
174 HOMOEOPATHIC EXPERIMENTS
should understand the real merits of this question,
as the colouring which has been put upon it cannot
fail to mislead and deter the conscientious enquirer,
and may also tend to retard, though it cannot stop,
the progress of truth.
In 1834, the Homoeopathic Society of Paris memo-
rialized the Minister of Public Instruction, to legalize
their constitution; to give them authority to found
Dispensaries, where the sick poor might be publicly
and gratuitously attended; and to sanction their
establishing a Hospital, as soon as their funds should
be able to bear the charge. The minister declined
coming to any decision on this point, until he had
consulted the Académie de Médecine. That learned
body accordingly named a commission from its own
members, and gave it instructions to investigate
the claims of Homoeopathy, in order to enable the
academy to make its report to the government.
The Homoeopathic Society, persuaded that a com-
mission so appointed would examine in all its details
IN PARIs, &c. | 75
the important question submitted to its deliberations,
offered every assistance which they could afford, and
held themselves ready to co-operate with the Com-
missioners in making experiments, which should carry
that conviction to their minds which it was presumed
they were willing to receive. The members of the
commission, however, having beforehand made up
their minds that the science merited little attention,
did not accept their offer.
Its violent Procedure and unjust Decision.
During the period in which this subject was in
discussion, the sessions of the Academy presented
nothing of real interest to science. The passions had
been brought into play; the spirit of party had been
roused; and the meetings of this learned body were
distinguished only by taunts and outrages, launched
against a system which it did not understand, and
against men whose only offence was, that they enter-
tained opinions different from those adopted by itself.
5
176 HOMOEOPATHIC EXPERIMENTS
The doctrine of Hahnemann appeared absurd to the
Academy, and was condemned almost unanimously.
To the minister, it consequently reported that it was
unnecessary to think of authorizing the Homoeopa-
thists to establish dispensaries. -
The decision of the Academy under such circum-
stances, ought not to produce much effect on the
public mind, nor can it greatly impede the progress
which truth sooner or later must make.
Reply to Dr. Bailly’s Statements.
One circumstance connected with the proceedings
of the commission, was, however, sufficiently remark-
able to excite a good deal of notice at the time, and
it seems to me proper to mention it here. I allude
to the statements made by two distinguished
physicians.
Dr. Bailly declared that he had, for five months,
confided several of the patients in one of his wards
IN PARIs, &c. 177
in the Hospital (L’Hôtel Dieu) to the care of two of
the most fervent disciples of Hahnemann, and that,
under their management, no cure, with the exception
of two, had, by such means, been effected.
The other physician, Dr. Andral, declared, that he
had made a great number of experiments to demon-
strate the action of the infinitesimal doses, both on
persons in health and on patients, but had never been
able to discover, that they produced the slightesteffect.
It is indeed true, that Dr. Bailly allowed two homoeo-
pathic physicians to treat certain sick persons in the
Hôtel Dieu; but it is also true, that the greater part
of the cases put under their care, were decidedly
incurable. Dr. Bailly was, at that time, engaged in
experiments with kreosote, and, in his quality
of member of the academic commission, was
trying its effect upon a great number of the patients
under his care; this might be the reason why he
could not furnish these gentlemen with the curable
patients, which he had promised them. They, how-
M
178 HOMOEOPATRIIC EXPERIMIENTS
ever, accepted such patients as he was pleased to
assign them, but declared, at the same time, that
almost all of them were incurable.
The homoeopathists accepted these cases; first,
because they considered it an advantage to be allowed
to appear in so great a medical theatre; secondly,
because they were persuaded that, in the end, they
should receive curable cases; and thirdly, because,
in their homest zeal for homoeopathy, they were
resolved to encounter any difficulties, however great,
—for, being themselves sure of the truth of their
doctrines, they were satisfied that, sooner or later,
they should convince the most incredulous. Such
were their motives.
It is, moreover, a fact, that Dr. Simon and I (who
were the physicians intrusted with these cases)
addressed a letter to M. Bailly, on the 6th of January,
1834,” (when about a month had elapsed after the cases
* Printed in the “Archives et Journal de la Médecine Homoeo-
pathique,” Tome Troisieme, No. XII., for July, 1835.
IN PARIs, &c. 179
were given us), in which we declared our intention to
withdraw from the Hôtel Dieu, if cases, impartially
selected, were not assigned to us. By referring to
that journal, however, the reader will be satisfied,
that none but chronic, and generally incurable,
cases were allowed us, and that we were likewise
deprived of every facility in the treatment of them.
Dr. Bailly, however, has omitted to state (which
he might, and probably would have done, had not
his private register been lost), that the condition of
several of the incurable patients was ameliorated by
our treatment, and that the few curable ones were
actually cured!
Amongst the cases alluded to, were several which
I shall here notice; namely, three cases of chronic
catarrh of the chest, one of chronic affection of the
liver, attended with hemorrhoids, and one of excessive
emaciation produced by lead-colic. All these cases
were so considerably ameliorated, that the patients left
the hospital at their own request. A perfect cure was
M 2
| 80 HOMOEOPATHIC EXPERIMENTS
effected on a patient, who had an inflammatory
tumour on the thigh; upon another, who had inter-
mittent fever, and that too, after a third relapse, under
the allopathic treatment; and on a third, who, having
lost the power of speech by an attack of apoplexy,
had his voice restored.
These cases are not mentioned in Dr. Bailly’s
report, owing probably to the loss of his register;
but he there acknowledges the cure of two other
cases, although the manner in which they are
reported, shows that he felt it more difficult to refute,
than to ridicule, homoeopathy.
In one of them, he says, the patient returned to
the Hotel Dieu three weeks after his discharge, and
died there in the course of a few days.
The other patient, he admits, left the hospital
perfectly cured; but he says, that it required more than
two months of homoeopathic treatment to effect it;
whilst another patient, affected with the same malady,
was cured in a few weeks, by the usual practice.
1N PARIs, &c. 181
To be correct in this last instance, Dr. Bailly should
have said, that the case under his own care was that of
a patient suffering from typhus fever, unattended by
any alarming symptom; whilst the patient under the
care of the homoeopathists, was in a state of intense
delirium, which rendered it necessary to put him
under restraint. He ought also to have added, that,
in the latter, fever was accompanied with inflammation
of the lungs, and bloody and purulent expectoration;
and that the unfortunate individual had a severe relapse
during his convalescence, in consequence of being
incautiously permitted to use food directly opposed
to the advice of his homoeopathic attendants.
In regard to the first-mentioned case, some expla-
nation is necessary. It was one of destruction of
the uterus by cancer, and of suppuration of the
lungs; to which was superadded a mercurial disease,
caused by strong injections of corrosive sublimate.
The mercurial disease was completely cured by the
homoeopathists; but the others were, from the com-
182 HOMOEOPATHIC EXPERIMIENTS
mencement, declared by them to be incurable; and it
was to these last-mentioned diseases, that the patient
fell a victim, after her return to the Hôtel Dieu.
I have mentioned the loss of Dr. Bailly’s private
register, or note-book. That register contained a
complete description of the diseases with which this
patient was affected, the treatment which was
followed, and the changes which were remarked.
We requested Dr. B. to give us the register, or, at
all events, a copy of the observations there inserted,
with the intention of laying them before the public,
in order that they might judge whether these experi-
ments, incomplete as they undoubtedly were, and
made under very unfavorable circumstances, proved
anything in the slightest degree unfavorable to
homoeopathy. — Dr. B.’s reply to us was, that
“ the Register had been mislaid P’
We leave the reader to draw his own conclusions
from this fact ;-the accident was certainly an
ungenerous one;—and we have only to add, that this
*
a}
IN PARIs, &c. 183
unfortunate and ill-timed loss deprives us of the
only indisputable evidence it was in our power to offer
to the public (for it was the evidence of our oppo-
ments /), that the Experiments in Paris, even though
unfairly chosen, did by no means wholly fail, as has
been unjustly asserted.
Remarks as to Dr. Andral.
To Dr. Andral, it is quite impossible to make any
specific, precise, and critical reply, because no
homoeopathist witnessed the numerous experiments
which he states himself to have made; but, as he con-
sulted no one on the proper manner of making them,
we think it may, at first sight, be fairly presumed,
that he was not acquainted with the specific medicine
for each case, nor with the precise and essential con-
ditions on which success depended. This will speedily
receive confirmation,
A short time, indeed, previous to the discussion
of the question of homoeopathy by the Académie de
184 HOMOEOPATHIC EXPERIMENTS
Médecine, Dr. Andral mentioned, in course of con-
versation with the author of this work, that, although
he had directed his attention to the subject, his
mind was not made up as to its merits, and frankly
avowed that he knew very little about the practice
involved in the new doctrines. How, then, could
M. Andral, who acknowledged that he had scarcely
acquired the elements of homoeopathic practice,
venture to pronounce sentence on these doctrines!
What opinion would be formed of a jury which
should condemn, before it made itself acquainted
with the facts of a case? Yet such precisely was
M. Andral’s position
But there is a fact to be stated here, which is
perfectly decisive as to M. Andral: — he had
absolutely no guide in the prescription of homoeopa-
thic medicines, and he made a wrong application of
every one that he employed, as has been clearly shown
in the “Archives de la Médecine Homoeopathique,”
Tome Premier, No. 1, for July, 1834.—No comments
nor details can add force to this decisive fact.
IN PARIS. 185
If I am not misinformed, however, Mr. Andral is,
at the present moment, engaged in a fresh course of
experiments and observations, to ascertain the value
of Hahnemann’s discoveries; and if so, it adds further
proof, that his first-reported opinion was founded on
imperfect and incomplete experiments, and that he
was by no means convinced of the inefficacy of
homoeopathy. .
I have, on this subject, finally to state, that Dr.
Simon, in the name of the Homoeopathic Institute
of Paris, addressed a Letter to the Minister of Public
Instruction, in reply to the Decision of the Académie
de Médecine, on the Homoeopathic Medical Doctrine.
This Letter is printed in the “Archives et Journal de
la Médecine Homoeopathique,” Tome Troisieme,
No. XVII., for November, 1835.-It amply vindicates
the demands and the cause of homoeopathy, and it
gives a full detail of all the facts just referred to.
186 HOMCEO PATHIC EXPERIMIENTS
Other Objectors.
A recent English author, in order, if possible, to
throw ridicule and discredit on homoeopathy, has
been pleased to unite, in the same pamphlet, a pre-
tended refutation of homoeopathy and another of
animal magnetism Now, whatever opinion may be
formed of animal magnetism—whether it be a dis-
covery or a deception, a truth or a trick, it is very
evident, that it has no kind of relation to the estimate
which ought to be formed of homoeopathic science.
The medical man alluded to, tries to prove, that
all the homoeopathic effects which were observed
at Paris, ought to be referred to the influence of
imagination; and, to attain this object, he makes
use of the two following arguments.
1st. Several students of medicine at the Hôtel
Dieu, being subjected to experiment, took, in
successive doses, one, two, ten, and eighty
globules, of the most active homoeopathic medi-
cines, prepared by the only homoeopathic druggist
in Paris; and, in no case, was the slightest effect
IN PARIs, &c. 187
produced.—Now, I ask of this writer, what were the
medicines employed? in what cases were they pre-
scribed? what was the precise mode of administering
them? who witnessed them? and what do such name-
less and indescribable experiments prove?—Assuredly,
no homoeopathic physician, recognized as such, pre-
sided, or was even present, at these experiments: they
were made by persons having no knowledge of homoeo-
pathy! When we know all the difficulties attached to
such experiments, when we know all the patience
necessary to conduct them properly,–we cannot but
wonder at the levity with which such contemptible
procedures are adduced as annihilating the great
labours of Hahnemann on the influence of medica-
ments on man in health !
2d. In an argument, which is curious in other
respects, he tells us that “a number of pills, made
with inert substances, as flour, gum arabic, and
starch, were given to patients, who believed them to
be homoeopathic remedies,” and who, having their
imaginations excited thereby, experienced various
188 HOMOEOPATHIC EXPERIMENTS
symptoms.-Granting, for a moment, the correctness
of this statement, which is at best a hearsay one, and
which, even if true, proves only the force of imagi-
nation, it certainly is neither logical nor just to try to
make homoeopathy accountable for such weaknesses
and follies!—But, to reply further to such things,
would be to argue seriously against the idlest gossip.
These, then, arefair specimens of the candour, impar-
tiality, and judgment displayed throughout the work
alluded to, and put forth by a medical writer, whose
only knowledge of homoeopathy is avowedly derived
from hearsay, and who, although he has visited the
homoeopathic hospital of Leipsic, has never, in one
single instance, tried the medicines upon himself, or
even witnessed their effects upon others! for he dis-
tinctly tells us, that all he relates is from mere report.
Such are the opponents of Homoeopathy; and such,
their knowledge of the new and great science whose
progress they would thus attempt to arrest!—In short,
I need only say, that the work alluded to contains no
observation or argument that the perusal of the pre-
IN PARIs, &c. 189
ceding pages will not enable the least advanced
student of homoeopathy to refute |
Many other writers in the medical journals of
this country, have taken up arms against our great
truth; but, as all, evidently and confessedly, write in
utter ignorance of the subject, it would be avery super-
fluous task to combat their assertions. I, therefore,
leave them to that oblivion, which is their inevitable
fate.—To investigate homoeopathy with a sincere
desire to ascertain its real merits, and to oppose it
conscientiously, would be impossible.
By these writers and some others, who know
nothing of him, has Hahnemann been proclaimed to
be a visionary!—while those who are acquainted with
the patient perseverance of his researches, and his
tardiness in putting forth any one of his numerous
and valuable discoveries till repeated trials and
severe tests had placed their truth beyond all doubt,
know how unjustly such an epithet can be applied to
him.—But Galileo, and Locke, and Harvey, and
Jenner, and Arkwright, and Windsor, were equally
190 HomoeoPATHIC Expe. RIMENTS IN PARIs.
visionaries in their day;-and so is every man a
visionary, who is in advance of the knowledge of his
time;—and especially is he one, who, like Hahne-
mann, makes a complete revolution in an important
branch of science, in the existing condition of which
the interests of a large body of professional men are
unwisely supposed to be involved.
On the subject of the dose, I have only further to
notice an error often committed, in confounding
two very different things, the highly increased
power which homoeopathic medicaments acquire
by means of trituration, &c., and the consequent
exiguity of the doses required,—with a notion,
altogether false, that a small homoeopathic dose
is more powerful than a large one. The very
reverse of this is true: large doses are avoided in
Homoeopathy—as too powerful—as too strongly
producing their primary effects—as causing aggrava-
tion, unnecessarily deranging the economy, occasion-
ing suffering, and protracting the cure!
CHAPTER IX.
CONCLUSION.
IN the preceding pages, I have endeavoured to
establish the following truths.
1. That the principle of Homoeopathic medical
science—the law, similia similibus curantur, is recog-
nized in every known popular remedy.
2. That it explains, in a striking manner, a mul-
titude of cures selected from the practice of all the
former schools of medicine.
3. That all specifics, scientific and popular, are in
strict accordance with it.
Hahnemann has directed the whole force of his
192 CON CLUSION.
genius to raise the therapeutic branch of medicine to
the rank of a positive science, by giving it a fired
law for its basis;–and he has succeeded.
Should this brief exposition of the principles of
Homoeopathy have the effect of directing the atten-
tion of impartial readers to the investigation of
that great discovery, my principal object will have
been attained. They will find cases in confirma-
tion of it, in the writings of physicians of every
school; but they will no where find any reference to
the law upon which their success depends.
It is otherwise, even in the last of these respects,
with regard to the second discovery of Hahnemann;
for we find no evidence, in the works of physicians,
that they were at all aware of the efficacy of
infinitesimal doses. The reasons which Hahnemann
has adduced in support of them, and which are
shortly noticed in the chapter on that subject, joined
to the facility of verification, cannot, however, leave
the enquiring mind long in suspense.
CON CLUSION. 193
The doctrines of Hahnemann thus open a new era in
medical science, throw light on many subjects which
were previously involved in deep obscurity, and super-
sede that confused mass of opinions and formulae
which made the doctrines of theoldschooleither incom-
prehensible or untenable. They introduce order and
certainty, where formerly reigned disorder and doubt.
Medicines whose efficacy has been ascertained by
actual experiment upon healthy individuals, will
henceforth be preferred to the capricious use of those
which have gained a universal celebrity, owing
solely to their successful, but hap-hazard, application
in a few solitary cases of disease.
Whether the time be yet arrived, when the passions
and prejudices of professional men are sufficiently
allayed, to admit of their investigating this discovery
with that calmness which its importance demands,-
I shall not pretend to say; but, assuredly, the time
is now past, to meet it with such exclamations as
“impossible!” “absurd!” “too ridiculous to deserve
N
194 CON CLUSION.
notice!” &c. Experiment is in the power of every
enquirer; and, to that test, it will be put by all who
are interested in the health of mankind.
Questions, indeed, of far less importance to the
community, have been submitted to the investigation
of a Committee of enlightened and impartial indi-
viduals; and I know not why a similar course should
not be pursued in the present case. It ought to be
remembered, that this is not a matter of trivial
importance, but one which is intimately connected with
the welfare and happiness of the whole human race.
Were an hospital provided, in which the homoeo-
pathic mode of treatment was permitted to be
exclusively followed, and a committee of competent
and conscientious physicians appointed to observe,
register, and report the effects produced by it—i have
the fullest confidence, that the experience even of a
few months would be sufficient to convince them of
the truth of the principle, that “Like cures Like,” as
well as of the curative efficacy of “Infinitesimal Doses.”
3
CON C L U S I O N . 195
It is rarely found, that the members of a liberal
profession long continue to adhere obstimately to
error, when they have the means of ascertaining the
truth; and still more rarely is it found, that they long
resort to the influence of their recognized authority
over public opinion, in order to endeavour to put
down a system which is not, in every point, in harmony
with their own.
The disciples of Hahnemann ask only fair play.
They demand the benefit of the old English prin-
ciple—“a clear stage and no favour,” and they feel
assured, that the votaries of science, whose only end
and aim is all-powerful truth, that medical philoso-
phers, whose sole object is the god-like one of human
health and happiness, will not refuse their demand.
'#' H E E N I).
Printed by J. and C. Adland, BartholomewClose.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR,
In the Press, and will appear in the course of June,
PRACTICE
HOM OEO PATH Y,
Being an illustration of the present /Porſº on its Principles.
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