LIFE, DISEASE,
AND THE
LAW OF CURFE.
BY G. W. SWAZEY, M. D.
An Address delivered before the American Institute of
Homeopathy, at New Haven, Conn.
WITH  A  LIST  OF  MEMBERS.
ublifsetis  b 3aequest
SPRINGFIELD:
G. W. WILSON, PRINTER, COR. MAIN & STATE-STS.
1852.








1
AD DRESS.
GENTLEMEN OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF HOMEOPATHY:
In the discharge of the duty which you have assigned
me, I shall offer you a few thoughts upon the'nature of
Life-the nature of Disease-and the law of Cure.
Either of these topics should fully occupy the space
usually devoted to an evening lecture, but they are so connected, that I cannot compass my object without raising
distinct points of enquiry upon each of them, for the idea
which we entertain of life, gives form to our idea of disease;
and upon these, or at least in harmony with our views of
life and disease, we naturally construct a system of therapeutics and medical philosophy - or if without any theory
of life and disease, we build a system of therapeutics upon
facts and observation merely; yet such a system  must
square with the great and immutable laws of life, whatever
they are, or it will in the end disappoint its advocates, and
prove that such facts were only of an isolated character,
and that such observation was too partial to form an enduring basis of a system.
It is not without some hesitation that we attempt, in our
humble capacity, to unbind such a bundle of mysteries, and
offer you a solution of life, while the savans even, call it an
enigma; or that we undertake to give a definition of disease,
which, as subtle as life, has been a theme of so much speculation and controversy, in the whole history of medicine.
But we do not hesitate to propose and discuss a law of cure,
which every day's observation verifies, which accords with
our plain common sense, and which has now withstood the
I




2
severest trials of more than half a century. Taking it for
granted that there is a law of cure, it may seem enough for
all practical purposes, to know how this law operates, and
to be able to apply it for the relief of suffering humanity;
but as physicians, we are called upon by most pressing and
weighty considerations, to settle principles, or at least to
propose them - as students we are bound to investigate,
fairly, deeply and constantly. An intelligent public demands
of us to know not only the how of medical practice, but
the why and the wherefore of diseases, as well as the fact
of their cure. It requires of us to be students always. A
leaf or an apple falling from a tree, is a simple fact, and
how it falls is easily observed; but why it thus gravitates is
another question, and one which once puzzled a great philosopher. How anything falls to the earth, or how various
forces act and react, we learn by observation; but why in
the economy of nature they act and react, as they do, is a
question for our deepest study.
The importance of these questions, relating to life and
health, must be acknowledgcd by all; by those on the uphill of life who have health to preserve, and by those on the
decline, who would recover the boon which they have lost;
but of greater moment, if possible, are they to the physician. He, by public confidence, has become the adviser of
thousands, and the guardian of their health; upon his
knowledge or opinions, often depend most valuable livesthe fondest hopes of parents and children, and dearest
friends; upon him unavoidably rests the heavy responsibilities which attach to the most trying scenes in life.
When our bright hopes are forever crushed, and the
grave which claims our dust, is closed upon the last mortal
remains-when the form of the loved one is committed to
the mold of the tomb and tile revelling worm, we can then
reflect, and feel how great is the value of accurate medical
knowledge, and we can then measure our contempt for a
physician, who by ignorance or indolence, or rashly, may




3
have dashed the cup of life's pleasure from our lips, and
laid the joyous head of a priceless victim in ashes; who by
any fault, or omission, which careful study might have
prevented, and which the grave can never reveal, has bowed
down our heads in sorrow and mourning.
If the God of life and nature has provided a law by
which his creatures may be healed when smitten down by
disease, it is evident that that law will be found, if it can
be found at all, in the direction of an inquiry into the nature
of Life and Disease. In order to know what life is, it must
be studied in its origin, its grades or forms, and its various
uses. In order to know what disease is, life must be viewed
in its different aspects, in its sun-side and night-side, in its
abuses, and its struggles; and by exploring the nature of life
in its different conditions, its normal and abnormal states,
we may possibly discover the law by which changes from
one state to the other are produced.  These changes from
the state of health to disease, and from disease to health,
are not the result of adcident; for in all the phases and
dependencies of nature, even in what we call her freaks,
there is no such thing as an accident.  Every change is
dependent upon some determinate law. If disease may arise
by accident, so also may our lives begin and end in blind
chance. A belief in accidents, in events or effects, not
controled by adequate causes, however insignificant such
events or effects may seem, is little short of atheism.
If health is the result of some propitious cause, so is
disease the consequence of a wrong, existing somewhere.
An antecedent evil of some kind, has by degrees invaded
the mind or body, or both, and so we conclude that the
correction, the elimination, or casting out of this evil, and
the consequent return to health, may be effected by some
law made and provided, which we call the law of cure. If
there is no such law, by which the healing art may be practised-by which the efforts of the physician may be directed
in the cure of diseases, in truth " Othello's occupation's




4
gone." But we assume, upon the credit of Homoeopathia
at least, that there is such a law, however strongly it may
be denied by the advocates of fancy dosing and helterskelter use of drugs, and that there is nothing of more
consequence to the physician - nothing which the public
should more imperatively demand of him, than that he
possess a thorough knowledge of it.
The philosophy of our interior life-the life of the soulmay be considered a fitter theme for the moralist or divine
than for a medical essay; but we cannot properly investigate
the outer, or physical life, without interrogating nature of
her laws at her inner court. In no other way can we estimate, or even account for, that dynamic power, that " vis
vita," which we well know mediately directs all the forces
of health and disease in the body.
The knowledge of first causes we shall not aspire to, for
in the nature of the case they must forever elude our search.'They are hid by a veil which wraps in its mazy folds him
who attempts to rend it,' yet we think we may press our
investigations to the inner, as well as to the outer boundaries of the finite, and learn, if possible, why any created
thing or power exists as it does.
A legitimate induction allows us in medicine, as in other
sciences, in the words of Newton, "to pass from the complex to the simple, from movements to the forces which
produce them."
Our course of reasoning in thus presenting the claims of
Homceopathia, may be stated in the form of a proposition,
viz: The nature of certain movements which involve the
idea of life being given, to find the nature of disease; —and
the nature of life with disease being given, to find the law
of cure.
We come then to the subject of our first inquiry, - Life.
The question has sometimes been raised, whether life is
the cause of organization, or the result of it. We do not
consider it necessary to discuss tile question at length here.




If a tree or plant grows and puts forth branches, and bud,
and leaf, we claim the admission of an adequate force
which underlies and produces these phenomena; and that
force we call life.  As the lifting of the hand shows the
presence and determination of the mind, so the existence of
trees and springing verdure, and all the various fotms of
animal life, show the presence and power of an invisible
force, upon which their organization, and hence that of the
whole vast universe, depends and reposes; and thus matter
becomes the medium  by which life's numberless forms are
manifested.
Wherever life is exhibited, whether in arranging the
particles of earth into crystals, in the germinating seed, in
the opening flower, in busy insects, in animals, or in the
master-work, man, we consider it one and the same,-  a
stupendous display of the orderly work of God. Though
it is inaccessible in its first elements, and its plainest features are not entirely within our comprehension, yet it is of
a nature that, by the aids at our hand, it may be analyzed in
its gradations, or successive outbirths; its forms, or modes
of manifestation, and its necessities or destiny.
By the term  form  of life, and life-forms, which we shall
have occasion to use, we do not mean so much the figure
which any living thing presents, as its essential determination or element.  The form, or shape, by which life is manifested to our senses, may or may not be determined by the
quality of the influent principle, as figures may be shaped and
modified by artificial means, and still retain the same active
quality.  Thus the shape and appearance of our bodies
may be changed by external causes, w hile the human form
was and is determined by principles, which underlie all forms.
Without discussing the question, we assume what probably
no one will deny, that God only, has life in himself; that
all other forms of life are only recipients of life from him,
either directly or through  proper mediums, and that man is
one of these recipient forms, and essentially is a living soul,
as he was pronounced at the creation.




6
The descent of the life-principle from one form into
another form, as a cause descends into its effects, as from
an interior force to an external manifestation, or from a
higher to a lower plane, by degrees, thus from a spiritual
essence to a natural or sensuous figure, exhibits to us one
phase of life. But life in man, presents another quality,
which is the life of the soul, —or inner man, in common
with,'though a little lower than the angels,'-conjoined
to the life of the body or physical life, which is in common
with, though a little above the animal creation; or what is
the same, an interior and an external form, both deriving
their life from the same source, but in different ways,-one
directly, and the other mediately.
It is evident that the life of the soul does not depend
upon the life of the body, for if it did, it would cease to
exist at the death of the body, which is not true. Again,
in that case, the purer would be subject to the grosser-the
effect would control its cause, which is impossible.  It is
also evident that the life of the body depends upon the concurrent life of the soul, as appears from the death of the
body, which passes to decay when the soul ceases to animate it.
The soul then, is the first or inmost form of life in man,
and hence from it proceeds the body as a consequent or
ultimate. But the soul is not life in itself, any more than
the body is life in itself, according to our predicate, that
the Creator is the only source of life, and hence the soul
is at once a recipient form, and a medium of life to the
body. Now the soul must have a form for the reception
and transmission of its life, for life without some basis or
form would be the mere negation of living; and as the
soul is spiritual, its form must also be spiritual; hence we
conclude, the soul has a spiritual body by which it effects a
union with, and extends its life into the material body.
Thus from reason, as well as from revelation, and the profound induction of St. Paul, we know there is a spiritual
body as well as a material body.




7
We offer no speculations about any imagined body which
is to be, intending to confine our argument to that which
actually exists. The physical body then receives its life
mediately, through the spiritual, and thus by a most intimate
union in every part, we sustain the two-fold life of a soul
and a body, and this is the position, from which we shall
view man in connection with his diseases, and the application of the law of cure.
The organs of the body and the natural senses, which
are all so perfectly adapted to their various uses, are to the
spiritual organism and its perceptions, what expression is to
thought-what execution is to design-what face is to face
in a mirror; a reflection or correspondence.
As the body is composed of many members, and organs,
and tissues, by parity of reasoning we conclude that its
spiritual basis cannot be a metaphysical abstraction, but an
assemblage and true organization of corresponding parts
and organs. Thus the spirit of man has its eye, and ear,
and brain, and throbbing heart. It sees, and hears, and
feels, and wills and acts. It is not a vitality of matter, but
a vitality within matter; in short a spiritual substance, of
which the grosser body is only the lower form - the outer
development, or covering.
The eye, although so delicately formed, and its parts so
nicely adjusted for seeing, does not itself see; the ear, an
organ of wonderful mechanism, catches sounds in every
variety and degree, and yet it does not hear. Not a single
muscle moves itself, nor does the brain of itself evolve one
thought of all these bodily senses and motions; nor is this
perfect form, with all its bones and muscles, and vessels and
nerves, and organs, the man. They serve only for man's
earthly tabernacle -  a house for us to live in.  It is our
interior and spiritual self, that commands the lips to speak,
and uses the eye to perceive through the medium of light;
and the ear to perceive, through its adapted medium; and
makes the brain its agent and monitor, over millions of
sentient nerves.




8
The science of optics explains to us the painting of an
image upon the retina, and beyond that, is at fault. It leaves
the image thus formed in an inverted position, for the soul
with its eye to correct. Acoustics tells us how a wave of
sound follows wave, till the undulating air reaches the
auditory nerve, but fails to inform us how this sentinel of
ithe soul discriminates between notes of joy and the tones
of grief.
We have spoken thus of the spiritual, as a constituent of
the humlan organization, not only that we nmay see something of thie nature of life ultimated in the body, but that
we may get a starting point from  which we may follow it
into lower formns; for in pursuing this thought we shall find,
that in thie arrangement of nature, from  the living soul to
the least monad of matter, there are distinct grades or
degrees of life; distinguished not as the greater is fron the
less-or the finer from the coarser — or the purer from the
grosser of the same sort -but in a way that every grade of
life has its own laws, and subsists in its own degree. Thus
the soul has its own peculiar life, and the body has its life,
an animal its life, a vegetable its life, and a mineral its life;
each distinct in its sphere and uses, yet connected as effects
are connected with their causes, and which can in no wise
be resolved into their causes. As a cause always exists in its
effect, and hence in all subsequent effects, so is the spiritual merged by orderly gradations into the last and least of
all material things.  Every object of our investigation
therefore, should be considered first in its own degree, and
then in its more extended relations; so far, even, that the
Divine influx may be seen in every motion, in every growing
hair, in every sparrow's fall; yet, we suggest, not as an
arbitrary power, to prevent the disastrous effects which must
naturally result from the abuses of the laws of life.
Let the higher and lower grades of life be distinguished
by degrees, which we may call degrees of altitude or discrete, and we see how the higher descends into and becomes
active in the lower, while the lower forms can by no means




be resolved or attenuated into the higher;-no more than a
subsequent can become its antecedent cause;-no more than
a thing done can return into the power which does it.
There is a species of philosophy which sublimes gross matter into subtle elements, and subtle elements into mind, and
carries mind into the higher spheres, and volatilizes it and
merges it into, and confounds it with a great positive, and
overruling mind, which it calls Deity — a synonym for
matter and motion in its first element.  But the absurdity
of the doctrine that matter may be resolved into spirit
by  some  process of purifying or  subliming, or that
spirit can become matter by some process of condensing it, may be illustrated by supposing a drop of water to
be expanded into steam and vapor, and into fluids more
subtle and more rare, till its misty sphere outreaches the
limits of our solar system. Would it thereby acquire a sentient
nature, and answer to the laws of spirit? It would rather be
an annihilating instead of a vivifying process.  And so
with the idea of materializing the spiritual. Enquire how
much of its ethereal mass, (if that be its nature,) could he
compressed into a given space measured by feet and inches,
and this refined materialism is put to a mortifying test.
When we come to speak of disease, it will be necessary
to allude to the evil and corrupt forms of life.  We do not
propose to account for the origin of evil in the world, as
the fact of its existence is sufficient for our argument, and
we allude to it merely to show that the laws of its descent
are the same as apply to life mediately derived.
That life which is derived immediately from God must
be unstained till a free will perverts its uses; and that which
is derived through already corrupted channels must bear the
stain, and may still further ultimate itself in evil forms.  In
this way only can we rationally account for the existence of
ferocious beasts, and foul birds, venomous reptiles and the
poison herb, all of which are forms of disorderly life;
for, to say in unqualified terms that any from of evil ever




10
originated in God, would be an impious imputation; and
while we cannot admit the existence of any independent
life, we conclude that such forms have had their origin
in some form of life possessing the power and will to subvert its proper uses, and that power, so far as our knowledge extends, is given only to man.
If it is said that some destructive forms, as of beasts and
birds of prey, and noxious reptiles, and poison plants and
weeds, are mercifully provided in order to prevent an unlimited increase of other species, to preserve the harmony of
creation, and not to destroy it;-we answer, in the present
state of creation this is undoubtedly true, and that the fall
of man has introduced this perverted state of things-this
dire necessity-so that now, evils are permitted, and, in a
sense, necessary, is equally evident; but we conceive the
true philosophy of such a permission to be, that no evil is
ever permitted, except for the wise purpose of preventing
the greater ones, to which a perverted life continually tends.
Let it be observed that this material earth which we inhabit must have been preceded by a spiritual creation, if
it be admitted that it was made for man, for it is an effect
in which exists its object, as well as its cause-and that object was man. And, although in the order of creation, the
earth was formed before man could be put upon it, yet as
it was made for man-just as the man's body was made to
put him into-and as it is manifestly absurd to ascribe any
creation to God, without a spiritual basis, thus, without
himself, and without life, we infer that in an important sense,
the first material creation of our earth and its forms, including man as he was, proceeded as an orderly outbirth of the
prior spiritual.  From man, therefore, as a microcosm and
chief center, the forms of life radiate to an extent in the
macrocosm altogether inconceivable.
Life, then, is an energizing principle that can never be
isolated, but is ever seeking a material substratum, or ultimate, in order to develope, in an infinity of successive grades,




11
its germinating and formative power. It is an active element that invests itself with a material covering, as a man
clothes himself with a garment.
Now, as all the external things of nature exist from
things internal, or spiritual, must they not represent them
as faithful antitypes?  And what are the internal things
which the things of external nature represent, or correspond
to, but the principles of things, —our affections and thoughts
-some state or condition of the mind?  How our affections,
good or evil, operate to produce or sustain a sensible form
in nature, we know as little as we do of the life of an acorn
which includes an oak; or how warmth vivifies the unformed chick in the egg, or bow  the sunlight of spring reanimates dead atoms of matter. What power the spiritual possesses to ultimate itself in a sensible form, or how the soul
of man can leave its impress upon the lower grades of life,
is incomprehensible to us mortals. How life can make
our muscles immensely strong, when an insignificant force
would break their unnerved fibres asunder —how affinity
like love brings some inert particles together, and repulsion
like hatred makes others fly apart, are familiar, yet mysterious results, which prove, not less than the changing seasons, or the orderly motion of the planets, that the outer
world is subject to laws and forces which only something
prior and more interior, originates and controls.
Thus, a correct view of the nature of life is as essential
to forming a correct idea of disease,-as a true chart is to
the coast-bound mariner-as a reliable telescope is to the
astronomer's observation of the stars, or as a powerful microscope is for the study of atoms; for disease can only be
known and analyzed in its relative character and effects.
Disease is to life, what the false is to the true —a perversion; what a counterfeit is to the original-a spurious product.  It is life in its abnormal aspect,-its healthy current
diverted-its end and tendency subverted.  It is the law of
order in some part of the organism, broken and inverted.




12
It will be admitted we think, that if man had by any
means preserved that harmony of relation which existed
between his physical and spiritual life at the creation, when
the aspiration of his soul joined in with the melody of the
morning stars, and there was no jarring sound from all the
teeming forms of life, there would have been no disease to
afflict our race. / From first to second childhood-from the
cradle to the cradling grave, the inner forces of man's life
would have controlled the outer forms in harmony and uninterrupted health. Instead of dying as we do, diseased and
prematurely, we should pass quietly away, as by a new
birth, into the higher spheres; as the worn pilgrim goes to
his rest; as the tireless sun sinks at close of day.  How
different from the common lot of fallen man! Instead of
order, disorder reigns in the mind and body, even the earth
is cursed and infested with the fruits of his sins.  Antagonisms are rife and deadly poisons have taken form in every
kingdom of nature. But though we are fallen and crushed
with disease, the wrong will not, cannot triumph; even the
external sources of our sufferings, the bane of our physical
life, shall become means of a deliverance from the thraldom
of our diseases.  This exemption we think must eventually
accrue from the knowledge and application for a few generations of any law by which the cure of disease is effected
without detriment-without the introduction of new diseases,
and by the discontinuance of that habit of wholesale drugging, and dosing, and poisoning by inches, which so embarrasses and hinders the more efficient work of nature, in
resisting and overcoming the ills to which we are exposed.
As health is the term by which we express that pleasurable harmony between the mind and the body, -  the inner
and the outer man, -  the "mens sana in corpore sano"when the life current of the soul flows freely and delightfully into and through all the bodily organs; so disease is
the term which we apply to the unbalanced manifestations
of life -  or more practically to the immediate causes of




13
derangement in the organic structures or functional relations. It is a dynamic force somewhere in the organism
antagonistic to life and health. It is important to distinguish
here between disease and the symptoms of disease, as
between the internal condition and the external sign - as
between an essence and an outer form - as between a
thought and the act in which the thought is ultimated.
Medical writers have usually made some such distinction,
but have generally inclined to limit our knowledge of dis —
eases by a knowledge of symptoms, barring with stereotyped
argument all enquiry into its real essence, considering the
latter to be the known, and the former, the profound and
ever-to-be unknown. But if we may search into the nature,
and causes, and conditions of life-why may we not include
the nature of disease, which is life in one of its most common aspects? The doctrine that the most palpable morbid
symptoms alone are sufficient to convey all practical knowledge of disease, we admit, in general terms, but if we can
get any farther insight into those symptoms which lie one
within the other, as wheel within wheel, we shall not fail to
make such additional knowledge practical.
One physician may end his investigation of disease in the
most prominent symptoms, while another of better judgment habitually searches further, and the deeper laid springs
and forces, and motiots and sympathies, are to him more
fully revealed —and still there is always left room to press
inquiry under the head of manifest symptoms, wuich no
one will doubt who has been accustomed to search for their
causes, or to judge of'coming events, from the shadows
which they cast before.' In exploring states of disease,
the physician, like the miner in California, must begin his
work by'prospecting,' and when he discovers the signs
which indicate the buried object of his search, with pick
and prong he must dig for it; symptoms, like sores, must
be probed before we know what is at the bottom; and
where is the limit to an analysis of our complicated and




14
interwoven sensations? Where upon the shore of a fathormless subject like this shall we fix the limit of our swelling
and as yet inadequate thoughts and say,' Thus far and no
farther?'
In iJJvast sea of worlds there are distant planets which
lie even beyond the reach of our imagination, but from the
knowledge already acquired, our minds are invited and
stimulated to further discovery, although the power of the
telescope is already exhausted.  If you would iest the
penetrating will of a true philosopher, ask him how
small is the least animalcule, when by means of every
improvement in the microscope we discover new ones and
smaller, and he answers, I will look and tell you. The
knowledge we can acquire of our spiritual organizaton, not
less than the bodily, and that only, should limit the investigation of our diseases and determine the fitness and quality
of the remedial means.
In distinguishing between a disease and its symptoms, we
consider disease as an enemy assailing the organism, and
the symptoms while they mark the track of the destroyer,
as our spies and tell-tale allies. Thus our pains are not our
enemies, but friends, whose warning voice may not always
be safely hushed. This is a hard saying, we are aware, to
those who have suffered much from such friends; but how
would it be if we had no such friend? An organ might
be destroyed by disease or external violence, and death even
might epsue-soul and body might separate without a warning if the consequent pain or other analogous symptom did
not speak to apprise us of the injury being inflicted.  It
often happens that when the ordinary means of communication between the mind and its bodily organs are lostwhen the telegraph of nerves is out of order, that a fearful
destruction is going on without our knowledge. The nerves
of sensation are our watching sentinels; and through them,
as through telegraphic wires, we are constantly informed of
the state of things in the forces more interior than their




15
own subtle fluid, as well as in the grosser parts possessed by
chronic ailments, as owls and bats possess old ruins,
In gout or neuralgia for instance, give to the nerve a
tongue, and at every twinge it would cry out, here is a
difficulty nature is trying to surmount, a threatened injury
we are trying to avert-a torturing enemy we must resistan imprisoned devil, we are trying to cast out, or conquer.
Give speech to the stomach when sickened and retching and
it would say, I feel a crushing weight of responsibility, and
my accounts must be cast up with my landlord.  It would
complain bitterly of his abuses and sourly retort upon his
rashness, his broken pledges, and eleventh-hour repentings,
and would then go on struggling as with a struggling
dragon.
The condition of which the stomach complains, is not
always from recent injuries.  It is a very patient and forbearing organ and sometimes will not complain till it is too
late for us to render assistance: hence it is sometimes very
unfortunate to have one of those'good stomachs' so
highly prized by epicures and gluttons;-so much coveted
by suicidal dyspeptics, which will bear everything without
complaining.  Such stomachs are tongues that cannot speak.
They are phlegmatic dolts who don't know when th'ey are
imposed upon.
In illustration of the process and progress of disease into
an ultimate form, or as before described, the process of the
spiritual clothing itself with the material, recent discoveries
have shown in some cases of chronic disease, that an organ
long occupied by its enemy and destroyer, has actually
exhibited under the microscope, an organized vegetable
growth, and in other cases animal forms sufficiently perfect
to be ranked in their genera and species of the visible and
material sphere.
Now if it is true as we have argued, and as Spencer
expresses it, that
From the soul, the body form doth take;
For soul is form, and doth the body make.




16
so the health, and changes of health in the body, may arise
from and depend upon the life currents which flow into the
soul according to its attractions, and through the soul, as a
dispenser of life, into the body.  But our physical life does
not depend exclusively upon the spiritual element, for the
natural body subsists also by influx or supplies from its own
sphere or plane-the material element —hence external
avenues are open, by which disease may invade the body,
which though not changing the essential nature of disease
deserve attention on account of the more appreciable character, which external causes present to the senses.  Thus
as grain has laid in the pyramids of Egypt for many centuries, preserving the germ of its life, ready to be developed
by the appropriate influence of earth, shower and sunshine,
so there exists in the human system, now universally vitiated,
certain states or tendencies to diseases, which we call'predispositions, beginning with the first inception of life and
remaining till its earthly state closes.  These predispositions
we consider diseases in their latent or ulndeveloped condition.  They are various and specific in their character. For
instance, a person may live his life long in contact with any
anti all other diseases without developing in him the small
pox; but if the variolous contagion like a small and infectious seed, (how small?) is dropped upon the ready soil of
our small.pox predisposition, it takes root and in a few
days springs up and bears its pestilential fruit.  Here we
see that two causes are necessary to the full development
of disease-the remote cause or predisposition which is a
taint hereditary and of course pertains to the interior or
spiritual forces, and the exciting cause. That the co-operation of both these causes is necessary to produce this result
is evident —for where a vicious taint or pabulum for a disease does not exist, its contagious exhalation is as harmless
as the breath of flowers.
So it is with our susceptibility to many other diseases;
such as Scarlatina, Measles, Chicken-pox, Hooping Cough,




17
&c.  Our systems furnish a congenial soil for the growth
of the foulest diseases;-as by some mysterious elaboration
of wrong acts or feelings, they supply a kind of peccant
matter to feed a variety of inscrutable miasmas and contagions in the work of death.  Some of them can affect us
but once only during life; which, in connection with what
is known of vaccination as a mild preventive of one of the
most loathsome diseases, opens a field of enquiry into the
power and rationale of prophylactics, of immense interest
to the medical profession, and of the greatest concern to
suffering   humanity.  Without attempting to defend the
common practice of vaccinating everybody, it is proper to
remark here, that this prophylactic, whose discoverer was
formally expelled from all the medical societies that could
reach him, for his heresy in believing and teaching it —this
art of modifying diseases which was spurned by the schools,
who knew of no law for such an alleged power, till by the
inherent force of its truth it prevailed and overcome their
opposition, involves the true law of cure;-that this fact,
now acknowledged from necessity by all schools, is claimed
by the Horneopathists only, as an illustration of their doctrine. This is one of the'stones which the builders rejected,' and has long since been placed in the temple we are
building.
It is well known that many persons are severely poisoned
by coming in contact, or within even a short distance of sonme
of the poisons of our fields and forests, while others can
approach and handle them with impunity.  Here the case
is different from that of infection by diseases, but front this
it appears that everfthe rankest poisons are not always active;
— they must meet a certain morbid condition of the body
to which they can assimilate./ So when the orgranism  is
ready for an impression, as it often is, in the most attenuated air may exist the active bane of our health, or the balin
for our diseases-thus quality rather than quantity is the
essential consideration when we are treating of dynamic
3




18
forces in which reside, in a practical sense, our diseases and
hence the corresponding power of their curative remedies.
Such being the nature of life and disease, it rernains to
inquire upon what principle the cure of disease is effected.
Any proposed rationale of a law of cure implies an antecedent doctrine of disease, which, as we have remarked,
must also depend upon a theory of life; so when medical
theorists search for the properties of life with the scalpel,
their knowle(lge elids with the last visible fibre;-when they
determine the curatile qualities of medicines with the retort
and chenmical re-agents;-when they measure the power of a
drug to cure the weak invalid, by its power to hill men in
health, vital dymrnaics are apt to be overlooked.  Anatomy,
Pharmacy, Anirnmal Chemistry and the speculative gyrations
of a nervous fluid, becomne the outposts and boundaries of
their therapeutic system.  When the brain hlas been skillfully unfolded, and the finest tissues in the body are spread out
under the microscope, and the last fibre of the muscles is no
longer divisible; when the least globule of blood is accurately measured and the nervous fluid, like electricity is held
captive at will, and the means are discovered of making life
sway to and fro like a swing; when sedatives can be graduated by the scales for too much life, and tonics for the life
too low; when astute doctors have invented a variety of
opiates to stifle the pains of the suffering (and otherwise
dumb) nerves;-irritants for lazy organs, deobstruents for
every clog, placebos for all nameless ills, and the stomach
can be kept from bursting or collapse upon the stop cock
and safety valve principle; —when all this is accomplished
and the requisite skill of mixing bane and antidote in every
conceivable proportion and in'secundem artem' confusion, is
so easily acquired that M. D. might as well signify made in
a day as Medical Doctor, we are fully prepared for that
cold reception which always awaits the herald of reform.
The announcement of a law of cure. which these' scribes and
elders' have not yet believed, will of course be opposed and
ridiculed.




19
We shall not here attempt to answer or forestall the
objectiotis which an innovation upon the as yet prevailing
medical practice exposes us to, but go on to deduce in as
plain tertns as possible from the premises already given, a
law of cure.  But as a correct inference will not of itself
confirm the truth of our premises-so if we make a wrong
conclusion it must not necessarily invalidate the truth of
them.  If they are found to agree logically, the position of
Homeopathy may receive new strength.  If they do not, let
it be regardled as a work left for some one more successfuil
-or some better directed effort to test the alleged truths of
our science by the application of first principles; for without such a test and support no scierice can long maintain
its claims; and whatever systein has such support, can never fail however nmuch the doctors disagree.
There is a force in the human organism which physicians
have always  acknowledged, called  the  vis medicatrix
nature.  It is commonly called the efforts of Nature, preserving and promoting health in the system.  Let us here
define Nature to be that uncorrupted force of life derived
in laws of order from God, which tends to mould and fit
and preserve every organ for its intended use.  By continued accretion and elimination it tends to keep up that harmony of action in all the parts, which we call health; and
thereby to afford a firee and unobstructed medium or channel for life to flow down frotn the Divine fountain into lower
f6rms of creation.
When this life current into and through the organism
is obstructed, the body is diseased or at once becomes so. By
this resisting state, tile proper balance of tile vital forces is
lost; some organs or parts are overworked, and hence, do
bad  work  while others are too sick to work at all; the
quality  of both  increment and  excrement is changed,
and  without some  regulating  or compensating  power,
which at times  is more than  nature, operating  under
embarrassments, can furnish,'the  silver cord is loosed,




20
the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the
fountain, or the wheel is broken at the cistern.'
Now so well satisfied are all minds that Nature is a safe
guide, that no physician can claim the confidence of his
suffering patient, without at least acknowledging that his
main effort in the cure of disease, is to asist her efforts and
to act upon her indications.  To assist nature, then, is to
make more certain the cure of all curable diseases-and it
only remains for us to know just what nature is doing in
any given case, how she does it, and what means will best
co-operate to perfect her salutary work.
If, then, the symptoms in a given case are to be regarded
as the signs of what nature is doing to preserve our lives,
as we have argued, we naturally enquire whether, in order
to co-operate with nature in the process of healing, to
which suffering may be incident, we should expose the sick
to a further aggravation of their pains?  We answer, yes,
if need be, in the act of exciting a stronger recuperative
power, or by rendering assistance in a painful work that
must be accomplished at all events, but not by producing
any additional symptoms, by drugs or otherwise.  For
instance, in the incipient stage of common fever, we encotrage complaining nature by remedial assistance, to work on
resolute and fast, in order to produce that crisis in a few
hours, which might be delayed through as many days of
suffering if left to her unassisted efforts.  So in a case of
Necrosis, or carious bone, when by violent efforts and rending pains nature is attempting thie removal of the diseased
part, we would cut down upon it, and by removing it at
once, accomplish in a few moments of aggravated pain, what
the natural and unaided process would hardly effect in as
many weeks.
But in pursuing this subject to questions concerning the
amount of medicine necessary to induce the curative action,
(which cannot be better answered than by one's own careful observation) —we shall find that in assisting nature in




21
the cure of functional diseases it is not necessary to increase
the patient's sufferings by any new impression upon the
system, while that already existing may be brought to the
most speedy termination the nature of the case admits of,
by much less medicine or' tea drinks' than are generally used.
Aggravations which we sometimes see following the minute
doses of our practice, depend mainly upon the extreme sensibility of the organism to which the remedy is applied, and
show how accurately the medicine is adapted to the disease.
Such aggravations, however, are almost entirely unnecessary
but they are fortunately of small consequence for the' vis
medicatrix' with her plastic power speedily rectifies any
small mistakes, and those made with our attenuated doses
are apt to be very small. The most lasting effect of such
aggravations is in the unanswerable argument they afford
for the activity of our extremely small and' sugared' doses.
Generally, it is as if the pain, like a faithful sentinel,
stands watching, and waiting, and calling for assistance, at
the approach of which the disease flees or surrenders, and
the pain quits its post till aroused by another emergency.
Now how otherwise can we aid in accomplishing the work
which nature has begun, but by acting in the same direction
with her own recuperative power?  Certainly not by opposing and thwarting her efforts, for that would be the same
as adding power to the disease, and if cures ever result
from such a practice, the true explanation is, that the tendency to health, or effort of nature, is the stronger force;and the cure follows i)z spite of the doses used to defeat
her, and the disease combined.
We do not say that all the phenomena of disease are
signs of nature conquering, for often in the samne case are
mingled such symptoms, with others, vwhich, with fearful
indications, show nature once strong, now exhausted and
conquered.  And without having attempted to describe disease in its many changes and phases, we briefly repeat, that
by carefully watching the efforts of nature in throwing off
YJ Y~YIY~J ~HIIIn 06




22
disease, and directing our means of cure to the same end,
guided by her unerring indications, and the profound philosophy of her laws, we do a more effectual work than we
can possibly do in any other way towards relieving the sick,
and ridding our race of diseases, else nature herself is making
a grand mistake.
Now if organized forms are the types of the life which is
ultimated in them, and consequently the organized body of
man is the type or correspondent of its life, which is the
soul, and hence is from the soul-and if, in the descent of
life, every form which it takes becomes a medium of its
active principle into lower forms; and if it is also true that
in every effect there exists its cause; hence, that in every lower and subsequent form there exists something of its antece(lent or higher form;-it is evident that in the forms of life
below man, there exits in them  all something of man, as
their mediate cause;-and furthermore that the existence
of life in all the animal, vegetable, and mineral varieties,
depend in the order of God's works and laws upon the existence of man, and thus represent in %wonderful minutive the
all of man-the quality of his affections, his joys and sorrows, not less than his physical organism and the diseases
which pertain to it —his desires not less than his deeds.
There is something more than poetic imagery in that beautiful sentiment so often woven into the poetry of nature by
her truthful bards; that the little flowers, and birds, and all
the forms of jocund life, are the forms of our loves-the
external correspondence of our passions and emotions
" In eastern lands, they talk ill flowers,
And they tell in a garland, their loves and cares;
Each blossom, that blooms in the garden bowers,
On its leaves a mystic language bears."
If one flower, or herb, or living thing by the laws of its
life represents or corresponds to something in the mind, it
may be true of all nature, in her inconceivable variety of
forms-and thus may our diseases, like all else that pertains




23
to us of life, be imaged forth in subordinate forms. The
discordant sphere tends to a material ultimate not less than
life in its original impulse.  We do not intend, nor could
we follow back the causes of disease to the first cause of
life, and mingle good and evil in the same and only fountain
whichl is pure; nor is it our purpose to enter upon any discussioOn of the origin of evil.  Its existence is sufficient for
our argument and we do not reason for those who deny it.
There is a poisonous herb called Belladonna, or deadly
ni(lhtsliade.  1tow  camne this, we ask but as the vegetable
ultimate and representative of something bad, which is of
course, some bad passion or I)rinciple?  Its poisonous quality whlich is from its life, seems to justify the inference that
it did not originate in anything good, for the same reason that
we conclude the origin of any evil thing, is not in a good
principile.
Although the species of any plant may be sustained by
the germinating power in its seeds, (which is only one of
the qualities of its life,) yet it continues not less to represent the principle from which it sprung.  Now if the nightshade is allowed to produce its effects on the human system,
we find them to be those of a violent poison, resembling most
nearly the usual symptoms of a disease, which we call Scarlatina.  We say then briefly, that it represents or corresponds to that disease, or to its comnon symptoms as is
shown by such a test of its properties, which indicates the
quality of its life, and why then may it not be the material type
and embodiment of that immaterial force or condition which
constitutes Scarlatina in its latent state?  They are at least
alike in the effects they develop in the organism. If it is
said that the poison of the nightshade or other substances is not
a positive quality but only a relative effect, inasmuch as some
animals may eat of it without harm, and some insects make it
their only food, we answer, that it is only in its relation to other
forms of life, and thus chiefly to man, that we need to consider it-that we do not expect any agent, however poison in




24
its nature, to destroy that life to which it has no inherent
antagonism.  The animal life which is sustained  by the
nightshade, is probably as poison and evil as the herb it
feeds upon.
Things false and evil as naturally assimilate as things
good and true.1 The law of attraction being universal is as
active in principles and interior forces as in outer forms, and
thus that state of life which is disease, producing certain
symptomns, and its poison counterpart, which under like circumstances wvill produce similar symptoms, cohere of necessi.
ty.  It is not a mere form of expression, when we say that
our symnpathy is drawn towards a suffering fellow; that virtue is attractive to the good andt that vice attracts the vi,
ciously inclined, for by this we mean that there is something
of the one in its instant and instinct activity that joins itself
to something of the other.  The life currents which underlie all forms, even of our thoughlts, are directed by their
attractions.'The law of cure is the law of eliminating diseases from
the body, yet not as if they were crude matters, to be drawn
out from bleeding veins, to be leaked out by setons, or ejected
from the stomach as enemies esconced in that deep and
dark cavity;-not as if they were cold and shivering things,
to be driven out by kindling the tires of blisters and moxas;_
not as fires that any amount of water can extinguish;-nor
as imps to be routed by'dead shots' or coaxed out with
placebos —but as we have argued, occult forms of evil, related to the whole body as the life is;-dynamic forces of
corrupting and destructive tendency, which bar some part
or organ for a time from  the transmission of a healthy current of life from its pure sources.
There is a case and cure, which everybody has heard of,
which is somewhat illustrative, whether we  attempt to
to account for the operation of the curative power which was
exercised upon it or not.  It is that of a poor but notable
woman who istSaid to have spent all her living upon physi



25
cians, and according to experience not uncommon, to have
suffered many things of many of them, and for twelve years
was nothing better, but rather grew worse. This diseased
woman met the sphere of one from  whom as from a pure
fountain.of life always flowed that' virtue' which the devils
even could not abide. That sphere became active upon the
willing mind, and thence upon the impressible organism, and
her disease left her. In a word, the hindrances which had so
long existed to the reception and transmission of its proper
life were removed from the diseased organ, by means which
the occasion afforded;-it began its healthy work and she
was at once made whole.
The familiar case of another woman may also instruct us
in the true nature of disease.  She was bowed together,
and for eighteen years could in no wise lift up herself.  She
too was cured like the case just mentioned by the exercise of
an unusual power, but mark the expression of the great Physician, touching the nature or rationale of the disease which
had bowed her down. He designated her as one whom'Satan has bound, lo these eighteen years.' We need not
disagree upon the term Satan, for it is unimportant in this
connection, whether it means one evil spirit or an aggregate
of them, whether a' fallen angel' without, who was commissioned to bind, or a fallen state within-a perverted force
operating to bind her.  In a general sense we consider it
to mean at least, something more than an external circumstance, something that pertains to the spiritual or inner life,
and operates in an orderly way upon the physical organism,
distorting and rending the body, not unlike some of the
diseases of our own times.
We have now briefly considered the nature of disease.
Life we have tried to scan, descending by degrees or through
successive mediums, from its pure and ineffable source,
through man, and into ultimates, till it comes to sustain the
poison and corrupt forms which man's sins have engendered.
We have considered the' vis imedicatrix naturia' as our true
4




guide and helper in the science of healing —we have shown
how the law of attraction or assimilation may apply between
similar dynamic forces, as between diseases -and their ultimates, and hence to the use of medicaments which co-operate with the efforts of nature in the system, and we think
we may fairly conclude that diseases which are cured by the
use of medicines, are cured by virtue of the power which
the medicines possess to draw diseases unto them, and
thereby, to assist nature in her effort to cast them out of the
citadel she is bound to guard.  Now that medicines of a
nature similar to any given disease, may be taken in sufficient
quantity to produce similar symptoms upon a healthy person
is very evident, and it is equally plain that disease requires a
similar force to attract it, whereby it follows that remedies
are best adapted to cure a diseased organism which will produce similar symptoms upon the healthy organismn -and this
is the law of cure.
This is the fundamental doctrine of Homeopathy. This
is the principle so ably and successfully defended by our
Hahnemann. This is the grand idea that guides the Homeopathist in the practice of his profession, and which bids fair
to revolutionize all the routine, time honored and fancy systems of drugging. It is the'little leaven' which was hid
in the archives of medicine from the time of Hippocrates to
Hahnemann.  It promises now to leaven the whole profession. The medical journals from the east and the west show
us how it ferments-even those most phlegmatic and conservative bodies-the State Medical Societies are beginning to
rise in their doughy importance.
It is proper to remark here that the distinctive doctrine of
Homeopathy is very frequently misrepresented, and altho'
we do not intend to question the motives of any one for so
doing, the occasion suggests an expression of regret, that
the standard Lexicon of our language, which this city has
the honor of presenting to the world-has not given a definition of Homeopathy from Hahnemann its erudite founder,




2'7
instead of one from a public journal, given to the unworthy
work of defaming him. Its orthography and pronunciation
we may adopt from respect to such good authority as Webster in those matters, but we can by no means admit that
Homeopathy is a system which requires us to produce in
the patient one disease in order to cure another, according
to the authority just quoted. It requires only the use of
remedies whici would produce similar symptoms, when given in larger doses than is necessary to produce a cure, and
no good Homeopathist would justify himself in giving medicine sufficient to produce a new disease in a patient already
sick enough.
How it is that medicines act upon diseased organs when
used in doses too small to produce any new symptoms will
be considered in another place.
Now  although the law of cure just stated may be an
inflexible and demonstrable truth, it does not follow that
every cure of disease must have been, or must be horneopathically produced, for that would imply that a cure could
not be effected without medicine, which is contrary to every
day's observation. We know that Nature is always working cures whether assisted by medicines and other means or
not. The term Homeopathic, we think should refer exclusively to the use of medicines in diseases. All other means
and appliances though properly within the range of our
practice and frequently affording a partial illustration of the
law of cure, lie without the pale of the homeopathic maxiim in its critical meaning. All means to promote health
which harmonize with the recuperative power of nature harmonizes with the homeopathic law if that is true, though
possibly not operative under the law; therefore we should
not disregard any useful adjunct of medicines which are
known to be non-medicinal and safe, merely because we
are not able in the present state of our knowledge to lay to it
as with square and compass, the law of' similia similibus'
and more especially when we consider that Nature herself




28
does not operate homeopathically in the cure of diseases.
This may sound oddly to the unreflecting, after what has
been said, but we have considered the'vis medicatrix naturma,'
and the disease as mutually resisting forces, while the disease and the remedy which is of a nature to produce similar results, ag harmonizing forces. The homeopathic relation is that which exists between the remedy and the disease
by reason of their similar action. The remedy operates to
develop or withdraw the disease by a kind of absorption,
while Nature is the expelling and resisting power, and by
the introduction of a remedy which is like a reinforcement
of the already existing evil, she is excited to a more vigorous
reaction agrnst it. A  stronger dissimilarity to the disease
at once takes place, which furnishes an explanation of some of
those aggravations as well as of the speedy cures we so often
witness.
Among the adjuncts of medicines which are not to be
regarded as merely palliative, we may notice water. Common experience dictates the application of cold water to
parts burning with inflammation or high vascular excitement,
and this use of water is acting in the same direction with
the vital forces. The aid which we render, is, by eliminating a greater amount of heat than would be done without
this assistance, and thereby in some cases preventing internal congestion. The resistance which the parched skin
offers, occasions a feverish restlessness, and the action of
water by virtue of its cleansing and conducting rather than
by any medicinal properties, facilitates the' similia similibus'
effect of the Aconite or other remedy which is indicated in
such cases. In the use of warm water the effects often
resemble those of cold. The warm water upon an inflamed
surface, operates continuously with its heat, and by moistening the skin its increased heat opens the pores and facilitates
the process more rapidly. It is therefore more debilitating
than the cold, which by stimulating and contracting the
skin at first, drives back this current of vital heat, which




29
soon reacts with greater energy to overcome any obstruction. In either case the more attenuated fluids which have
become foul in the course of disease, rush through the relaxed pores, and from the removal of this obstacle to the current of life outward, without offering the least impediment
in any other direction, the whole system becomes quiet.
Under such aids it is plain that any remedy which the prime
symptoms indicate, will act with more prompt and salutary
effect.
Other means of assisting the action of medicines and
affording merely temporary relief from pain, belong to the
legitimate homeopathist not less than to any other physician. In abandoning the practice of a system which in our
humble judgment has no law to guide it, higher than the
law which governs the fashion of our garments-we may
not be supposed to have abandoned the use of our common
sense; nor, having laid the selected fruits of our past experience upon the altar of-Homeopathy do we expect to abjure
the offering. Such a knowledge of the curative law and the
efforts of nature, as will protect them from any violation by
the exercise of our judgment in applying them, is all the
restraint we acknowledge in the use of water, and heat, and
cold, and some other means of palliating the pains we are
called to witness. This is a matter of too small importance
for further notice, and but for the too common impression
that Homeopathy acknowledges nothing, and allows nothing
in the way of professional' aid and comfort' but its little
pills —that the use of anything but drops and globules, in
the line of medicines, is a leaning towards other systemsa.yearning for the' leeks and onions of Egypt'-we should
not have introduced the subject at all.
We are aware of the objection that will spring up here
in the minds of some, that if Nature, who is our guide, does
not operate homeopathically, as just suggested, in her work
of cure, we are consequently upon the wrong ground in our
efforts to assist her; but there is plainly no force in the
objection. Does not a locomotive which pushes a train of




30
cars, co-operate with the one which at the other end pulls
it? So the driving force of nature, and the drawing force
of medicines, harmonize in their practical results in our
mode of practice. But it may be claimed that it would be
equally good practice, if not better, to assist nature with
a steady pushing power,-all driving and no drawing,
-to reinforce her with a strong " vis a tergo" and let the
disease shift for itself-at all events to give nature a better
chance by clearing out all obstructions.  But is there not danger that in the general sweep, even the' hooks we hang our
hopes upon' may get broken amongst the rubbish? If the
alimentary canal were nothing more than a sink drain or
a piece of old stove pipe, we might not demur to such treatment, but observation compels us to deal more carefully with
a thing so frail yet so useful to us as the body we live in.
A medical author of celebrity once wrote a book earnestly cautioning all who valued their lives and health, against
the danger of " taking the air which bloweth through a
hole"-and as we believe the old doctor wrote advisedly,
so do we, more carefully, avoid all those greater dangers
which arise from any more violent impressions upon organs
whose functions are so easily deranged, that the free air of
heaven cannot always be safely allowed to blow upon us.
But these rude and crude and violent ways of assisting
nature which are yet in common use, deserve some consideration, and more, from the sad fact that they have so many
and such worthy advocates. These are our friends of the
old school, were our colleagues and of course' honorable
men,' but of no faith in anything but'general principles,'
that great and warm  blanket of noncommittalism, under
which the fancy is apt to grow faster than the judgment, and
nature's laws become as pliable as that elastic maxim of
their school "contraria contrariis curantur". That this
maxim, indefinite as it is, defines their position as well
as anything can, we do not doubt. It means that diseases are to be treated by medicines which have a contrary




31
power, but in what should consist the contrariety is not
expressed. It seems to be well enough understood, if it be
taken to mean everything-to cover the whole ground not
included in that definite and palpable formula of the Homeopathic school —' similia similibus curantur.'
Now does this doctrine of curing diseases by contrary
forces —this' contraria contrariis' of the old school, express
a precise law, or a loose liberty?-a rule of action, or under
the broad authority to oppose diseases, a license to meet
them by any mode of attack,-by any choice of arms?  The
teaching of the maxim' similia similibus,' is to cure a disease
by a remedy which produces the most precise similarity of
action upon the healthy system, and thus by an affinity
established in the order of things, instead of attempting to
drive it out by forces suggested by an ever changing fancy.
Such habitual guessing dishonors the claim which is made
for a science. -A little of this, and a thing full of that, with
sufficient of the other, makes a dose to be sure, a very effectual dose possibly, but the professional liberty to make or
give such disgusting and hap-hazard mixtures to those who
are already sick enough, is an assumption as disgraceful to
the claims of science as it is bold.
What, in all candor, is the criterion for selecting aremedy
for the sick under such a formula?  Are they not left altogether and entirely to the empyric method? And yet that
school indulges most hearty opposition to medical empyricism. But we have only to speak of our law of cure and
exhibit that in its true light.
The doctrine of the Homeopathic school, as remarked, is
expressed in the term'simrilia' simnilibus curantur', which
means that medicines which produce upon the healthy body
certain symptoms, will cure a disease which presents similar
symptoms; and though it might be difficult to frame a phrase
more fully expressive of the law of cure,-yet by strict
interpretation it appears to be true only in a qualified sense.
When we speak of sunrise, and sunset, we express the appa



32
rent though sufficiently practical truth, but not the philo.
sophical fact; —for really the sun does not rise and set as it
appears to;-so strictly speaking, there is nothing in which
the curative power resides, but in that current of influent
and uncorrupted life which flows on and flows ever, from' Him who healeth all our diseases' and but mediately in the'vis medicatrix natural.' Medicines by withdrawing the
obstacles, provoke and support the curative power which they
do not in themselves possess. Indeed the properties of
most of them  are poison and destructive; but like instruments in the hand of the artizan, they are made
more or less efficient and useful according to one's skill in
preparing and using them. It is with a medicine at work in
the body, feelingout the region:it must occupy, and the organ
it must work upon, as it is with the terrestrial magnet,
which feels only for iron and ferruginous substances.  It is
evident that the sphere of the magnet ils constantly
upon a variety of other spheres without producing any sensible effects, and so may it be in the action of medicines
upon the diseased organs.
If a medicine havingo a specific quality by which it
becomes active, seeks a reciprocal force in the organistn, all
the other forces may remain undisturbed, unless the power
of the medicine is sufficient to disturb the healthy functions;
which we think is not only unnecessary in the cure of diseases, but embarrassing to the effort of nature.  It is well
known that different medicines operate upon different tissues, and organs and parts, and hence that every medicine
or simple substance possesses a determinate and limited
sphere in its effects. Now s'o far as there is any connection
between the disease and the remedy, consisting in its similar
action, it may cure it.
If the power of the medicine and the disease are similar,
the medicine as we have shown applies itself as if by an
elective affinity, to the disease or to so much of it as
its sphere can reach, and removes it from the body.  As the




33
vaccine virus acts specifically upon the predisposition to
small pox, (which must be regarded as a quasi-disease,)
-not yet developed,-and removes it, so that the organism
no longer stands in the same relation to that disease; why
may not other morbific or medicinal agents possess a like
power to modify or control other diseases? And if that power is exercised by virtue of a similarity between the morbid
humors and the morbific agent in one case, why may it not
be in others?
If their action is dissimilar, and the remedy is strong
enough to impress the healthy organs, it is of course at work
upon one part while the disease is at work upon another, in
which case the healthy functions may suffer as much from
the medicine, as the disordered ones do from the disease.
Homeopathists are sometimes asked whether medicines of
an action altogether dissimilar to the disease, may not in
some way assist in a cure.  We will admit they may, provided' they co-operate with the efforts of nature, not only
apparently but really, bearing in mind that the apparent
truth is not always the real truth, as we have just stated.
Now nature may appear to destroy, and cast off one
organ in order to save another, but in truth, the destructive
work is not the effort of nature.  Her power is seen only
in preserving, and if the life of the body is saved with the
loss of an organ, we behold her efficient work in opposing
the enemy that would have prostrated the whlole man, and
not in the destruction of the organ.  So if medicinal agents
are used with the intent to assist nature, how can they
co-operate with her or even act safely, if they are capable of
producing a new train of disturbing symptoms? And such
we conceive to be the case wisl all medicines whose pathogenetic effects are not similar to those of the disease, and
with them also if used in large doses.  Where is the room
then for the curative action of any remedy besides that
which is Homeopathic to the disease?
That medicines may act upon the fluids or solids of tho
5




34
body, chemically,mechanically or derivatively,we do not deny,
for such effects are always before our eyes when we come in
contact with the' old practice'; but it concerns us more in
this discussion to know how medicines act upon diseases,
than how they act in the production of drug-symptoms.
That they do not act chemically upon diseases, is evident
from the fact that disease has no appreciable chemical quality to be acted upon, and yet, the use of some alkali to cure
acidity of the stomach is very common practice; and there
the treatment ends; as if neutralizing an acid product of disease, was curing the disease itself.
A medicine may act chemically upon the product of
disease, as upon the blood which is deficient in its
oxide of iron, and restore to it, its florid hue and possibly
its invigorating qualities, but how long will it remain so
while the disease by which it became-deteriorated is not
removed?  Again, what is it but the verriest charlatanry, to
pump stuff of one kind and another into a sick man's veins
to change the chemical quality of his blood, according to'regular' practice, when all the time you are doing this and
afterwards, the disease, which is vitiating it, is as active as
ever? That medicines do not act upon disease mechanically, is equally evident, from the fact that disease has, none
of the properties of matter and accordingly does not answer
to the laws of matter.  The'mechanical obstruction' we
hear'so much about, is the product of disease, for the removal of which, Nature with wise forecast has made most ample
provision, in what may be called, the compensating organic
forces. The'derivative' treatment is a practical denial of
the specific, and it also implies the use of enough medicine
to sicken the healthy organs and therefore we object to it.
We have not time to expose its glaring absurdity, nor its
common mischief;-suffice it to say that when a patient is
salivated, or blistered or bled, he suffers a simple specimen
of the derivative treatment.
Those who have followed the fluctuating lights of the
profession, at one time embracing the' Humoral' pathology,




and at another, become' Solidists,' —once, fully committed
to the Brunonian theory, and now, advocating Broussais —are not expected to believe in the specific method of Hah,
nemann, for tle fashion of that is not liable to change; but
whoever has faith enough in tile science of medicine, to
demand of it any certain laws, must believe in the specific
power of remedies, whether he knows how to apply them or
not.
An objection to the doctrine of specifics, which arises at
once, is drawn from the fact that our curable cases are
not all cured, although we may claim  to possess specific
remedies.  The reason why they are not cured, we are frank
to acknowledge. We do not know enough yet; we have not
enough specifics that have been proved as medicines should
be proved, upon persons in health and of both sexes, to meet
the great variety of complicated cases, and interlinked symptoms, we have to contend with. If there is any fault it is
ours, and we will not deny the principle, to save making
this confession. But this is the field of our scientific labor;
and if the history of the past is any criterion by whichlto
judge of the future, we shall se-, we must see the splendid
triumph of giving to the science of medicine'a rank among
the certain sciences; a position which no one would think of
claiming for it now. If the host of willing martyrs which
our' new school' has furnished, for the proving of poison
medicines upon their own bodies, in order to know their specific effects, and thus, to confer the blessings of health upon
the sick, is any sign of success to the cause, its triumph is
certain or there is nothing reliable in the progress of medicine; and if there is not, we are at least sure of the gratitude of posterity, for such hearty and efficient labor, in
proving that the grand desideratum of medical science,
which idle votaries have from age to age hoped for, is at last
found out; though it be a mere phantom, or a bubble which
has burst upon our touching it.
But we insist for the present, at least so long as we know




36
what we do know, that all medicinal substances must in the
nature of things possess some specific properties, though
very frequently not seen on account of the common misuse to
which they are liable; and hereby we see the propriety of
administering but one remedy at the same time, whatever
our system of practice, or whatever the intent in giving it.
Now if medicines have each a specific quality and effect,
we suggaest without further argument, that the nature of that
quality, and tie groundwork of that effect, have at least been
partially explained in the foregoing remarks.  If they have
no specific action, there is to our knowledge, no certain basis
upon which the science of medicine can be founded; and if
so, must it not in the end like a pretending and unsettled
vagabond, be denied access to the hearths and houses of
intelligent people?  The'coming of the Doctor' will then
strike a dread and terror to parents as now to children, and
his' awful doses,' from going down hard as they do now, by
an effort and fortitude that would have done honor to John
Rogers or St. Stephen, will not go down at all.  Not only
the lips and teeth of the patient will be compressed firmly
against the nauseous, or poison and withall uncertain medicine, but the 6uter door of the house will be bolted against it
In thus presenting the law of cure, we have ventured to
propose a somewhat novel groundwork, for the science
of Homeopathy, but we have raised no question that
can in the least invalidate the high claims it has always
maintained. We have attempted to defend by an appeal
to the laws of our being, that doctrine which has claimed
and obtained our fullest confidence, by observation and most
rigid experiment. Whether we have furnished the true
exposition of the law of cure, or not, is a matter of comparatively small consequence to us, so long as the practical
truth of the principle remains capable of demonstration.
There are many facts which are more easily illustrated by
experiment, than explained in their legitimate connection
with other facts, especially to those whose'minds are hlabitu



37
ally occupied with other thoughts and associations.  IIomeopathy addressed to those who have not abandoned the use
of drugs, is one of them. /,lthough the Homeopathic practice is by no means a new thing, and may not appear altogether unreasonable in its pretensions, yet men's views and
habits and feelings, are apt to take form in the mould of
their father's judgement, and very properly is such an innovation questioned, and doubted, and held at a respectful
distance till its claims are more leisurely considered.
Wle have made no mention of the amount of medicine
necessary to affect the diseased and sensitive organism,
because it forms no part of the subject under discussion;
but we fear our motives would be questioned if we fail to
notice that great bugbear of small doses (infinitesimal?)
upon which so many wags have spent idle breath,
so many jokes have been lavished, and so much paper and
ink wasted. To some it would seem like dodging the
question, for us to speak any wise of Homeopathy, and not
in the same breath say something of its'little pills.' Again
a very respectable class of honest opposers want it distinctly
understood, what inefficient little pellets and powders, and
weak drops our patients are treated with., They often
declare themselves ready to prove to the astonished novices
that these little doses are so foolishly simple that a'whole case'
of them may be'swallowed at once,' without harm; so we will
briefly notice these little ('mighty little') doses.  The Homeopathic law, which by right we call the law of cure, inasmuch as no other definite law off cure has ever been proposed, as we have stated it and as far as it is yet understood, refers only to the kind, or selection of medicine,
which should be used, while we are guided in the size of
the dose by careful observation, experience, and judgment;
by the testimony of the most reliable and most successful
practitioners, by a tender regard for the good of our patient,
and with a sharp eye upon the efforts of nature.
But the all important question must be answered,-which




is, how can so little effect so much)  How can a portion
cure me, which might not at least half kill me?  How can
serious diseases be controlled by influences or powers which
we cannot perceive?-and yet does not everybody's experience prove that they are so controlled? Who perceives
the atmospheric changes which indicate an approaching
storm, so soon as those suffering from neuralgia, or rheumna
tistn, or asthma?  Electrical changes, sunshine and shade,
shifting winds, the dews of evening, vapors, and odors, are
among the most inappreciable, yet powerful agents to affect
the invalid. Pleasant and unpleasant emotions, odors and
unseen spheres are always having an effect upon the healthy
and must they not Inuch more upon the sick?  The authority of Broussais will not be doubted who says, "c there is no
secretory organ, the action of which cannot either be increased or diminished, or else the product of which cannot be
altered by the influence of thought, in that state of exaltation called passion."  Tears are more or less acrid and
burnina according to the passion that creates them.  The
various mucous secretions are increased, diminished, and
thickened or thinned, during high excitement of the feelings.
Now by disease any organ is made more sensitive to all
impressions.  The healthy eye enjoys the fullest light of
day; while disease renders it unable to bear the least ray,
without severe pain.  Again, there is nothing less sensitive
in the whole body than the bones in a healthy state, and
nothing half so tender as they are in some states of their
diseases, so that it appears not improbable, that diseased
organs may appreciate a medicine so attenuated that the
sighlt or taste cannot detect it;-and it is to be observed that
in the selection of medicines, the rule of' similia similibus',
enables us not only to aim directly at the diseased structure,
but to make an impression only upon the diseased and sensitive forces.  The administration of remedies with this
view and upon this principle, is a very different matter from
allopathic dosing and drugging.  We have no need of the




89
effect of medicines upon the healthy functions, except for
the purpose of proving their patliogenesis, and that we never
do upon the sick. It will be seen then that we need. but
little medicine to accomplish our purpose, and the question
returns, How much?  We answer, so little according to common experience, that scales nor drop glasses are of any service in measuring it. Again, medicines acquire a new and
increased power by trituration, which we believe is admnitted by all physicians, as in the case of the mercurial preparations, and we have no balance for estimating such a power,
but the unbalanced forces within the body, as indicated by
the sensations.  But if any one insists upon its weight as a
necessary proof of its power, we suggest that the'scales' which
-he may take from his own eyes will'serve him a turn' in the
investigation; at least we have found it so, but'that must
be left entirely with him who wishes to weigh the matter.
This power which we think is obtained from medicines by
trituration and succussion, has been called Medicality upon
which, retained in a proper vehicle, more than upon any sensible quantity of crude material, do we depend for a curative action.  Let it be estimated in its relation to disease
as mignetism would be if it were shown that diseases -were
controlled by the magnet, which, let it be remembered, is as
inappreciable to the senses (except in its effect) as spirit
itself. But the very existence of this power is disputed by
our opposers, and alas! is it not because we cannot weigh
it out to them?  It would indeed be a fruitless attempt to
settle the question of a dynamic power by the'scruples' of
such philosophic doctors. In like manner was the power of
prophylactics denied and ridiculed by'the craft,' and the
persecuted but now idolized Jenner, forthwith expelled from
medical societies for daring to announce its discovery.
Prophylactic, is the power of preventing a disease by means
used beforehand, as in the case of preventing small pox by
the minutest particle of vaccine matter. Through the persecution of its discoverer it has become a settled question, and




40
the prophylactic power is now so well understood that nobody
any longer denies it.  So too with the force that moves the
blood through the arteries and veins. Thlat was not known
before its discovery by Harvey, who, upon announcing it to
his colleagues, was straightway voted by them a quack and
impostor. And with other powers or forces which have from
time to time been discovered in connection with medicine,
we claim for Samuel Hahnemann the discovery of the power of Medicality, or the art of preserving the medicinal
power of drugs developed from the crude material by trituration and succussion, in a non-nmedicinal vehicle, —-not a
concentrated power, as of an extract, but a' potency' derived fromn forcible diffusion and attenuation. It is unnecessary
to show more in detail, as we might easily do by a great
variety of familiar illustrations, that we are always, in health
and in sickness, affected by many imponderable agents, for it
will not be denied-and why not then by our attenuated
medicines? To deny the existence of a power because we
cannot subject it to some palpable test for the senses, is to
deny all that is true in the works of God about us and within us.  It is true we need some demonstration of a power
supposed to exist, and when it is demanded of Homonopathia to prove the effect of her inappreciable doses, she points
to the grand results,-to the statistics of her cures, and then
to the grateful and ready testimony of thousands, who, having first tried many other means of cure, are best qualified
to judge, and if that is not enough, the objector should go
with some good physician upon his daily round, and let his
eyes be his witness.  If one class of physicians claim a curative power for their medicines and offer statistics of cures as
evidence, so may we. If they demand of us in return to
show the statistics of our slain; a fair reckoning up of the
proportion killed outright with medicines, directed by
unskillful hands;-we answer with conscious pride, that
we have handled none of that unfortunate class.  But some
are missing, who ought by some means to have outlived their




41
disease? True,possibly,and we may be charged with'letting
them die,' but then you will admit they were fortunate in
being allowed to die a natural death, and the account, in
numbers still stands largely in our favor.
It must be obvious to all who reflect upon the causes of
the great changes which are constantly going on around us,
that the mightiest powers of nature are noiseless and still;
and that we are learning to direct and manage some of these
forces. While our messages are flying over the land in the
twinkling of an eye, without so much as jarring the wires they
travel on, and the heads of students and philosophers are filled up and overrun with the new truths which come rushing
in upon their slow brains-there are a respectable number
of medical reformers, who by means of the Homeopathic
art of preparing medicines and selecting them for the sick,
are proving their curative power; and by means of a subtile
force hitherto unknown, which is so nearly allied to the magnetic,* as to elude all chemical tests, are getting such a mastery over diseases as was never obtained before.
But the arguments furnished by the experience of thousands of physicians, and hundreds of thousands of living
patients, must go for what they are worth under the circumstances they meet with. The truth is, the mass of the people do not yet believe in the efficacy of inappreciable doses
of medicines in curing the sick, and the best answer we can
offer to the question of fact, is to show by attested facts and
by analogy how it may be, that notwithstandingall the common and superfluous ridicule of the idea when we attempt
to apply it in treating diseases, these strong and muscular
frames of ours are sensibly affected by causes, subtile, intangible, and inappreciable, and as far removed from the cognizance of our senses as the spiritual is from gross matter;as the cholera miasm is from a chemical analysis by spec* See Mr. Rutter's account of Magnetoid currents and newly invented Magnetoscope.
6




42
tacled doctors. Such facts will serve at least to illustrate
our assertion that medicines do act in the minute doses to
which Homeopathists in their free judgment usually confine
themselves, though inadequate to prove fully the trith of it,
without repeated and various personal observation.
The current belief that Homeopathic physicians generally
give most, minute, almost infinitesimal doses of medicine, is
correct. It has never been denied, though from its frequent
and earnest reiteration, one might fancy it had always been
a disputed point. The strength of medicines in common
use, varies from the strongest tinctures and crude substances
to attenuations as high as the 30th, and 100th, and 1000th,
even. It is pretty generally believed that the higher dilutions are best adapted to chronic diseases and the lower
ones, to acute attacks, but this is a matter of judgment;
while we study and wait for the further developement of some
law which shall guide us as unmistakably in the use of the
different attenuations, as the maxim  "similia similibus
curantur" does in the selection of the remedy.
From the positions which different branches of the medical profession occupy, we are constrained to say in conclusion, that if any responsible physician should think best to
give no medicine at all, let him say so and do so, and there
ought to be tolerated no power on earth that would reproach
him for it,-no fetter that would bind his freest thoughts
and actions, but his conscience-and more, if a patient
chooses to die a' natural death' under the conviction that
drugging doctors'kill more than they cure,'(in favor of which
opinion so much good authority might be quoted,) it is a right
which ill becomes any intelligent or modest practitioner to
deny him.
But arguments all aside let our works prove the truths we
affirm. As reformers of the much abused art of healing, the
trammels of old prejudices must be broken, but though our
thoughts are unchained, they should not be left unguided.
Let them leave the beaten paths, which are laid in the crude




43
notions of life, in gross and material forms of disease, and in
that stoical indifference to,or denial of any certain law of cure%
but not to soar away on wings of fancy. Like the fabled
bird of Paradise, let our Philosophy live always on the
outstretched wing, except at those times, when the higher
enjoyment and more important use of brooding over her
young, calls her to a still and quiet nest. Let the home of our
thoughts and desires, be where Truth is;-let them flock
to that' tree of Life which stands in the midst of the garden' and their young shall ere long, be seen flying to all
parts of the earth, bearing its leaves abroad for the healing
of the nations,








NAMES OF MEMBERS
OF THE
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF HOM(EOPATHIIY.
The asterisk (*) denotes deceased.
A                 Bute, G. H. M. D. Philadelphia.
Barrows, George, M.D.Taunton, Mass.
Abbott, Jehiel, M. D. Westfield, Mass. Beakely, J. M. D. New York city.
Adams, Henry, M.D. Coxsackie, N. Y. Baker, George, M. D. Chelsea, Mass.
Adams, R. E. W. M. D. Cohoes, O.  Baxter, Wm. M. D. Fishkill, N. Y.
Anderson, M. M. D. Philadelphia.    Brown, J. R. M. D. Phcenix, N. Y.
Andrews, J. R. M. D. Camden, N. J. *Beard, D. H., Dr., Troy, N. Y.
Annin, J. D. M. D. Newark, N. J.    Burke, A. C. M. D. Brooklyn, L. TI.
*Atwood, M. M. D. Francistown, N.H. Beakley, George, M. D. N, York city.
Allen, Jas. H. M. D. New York city. Bigler, G. M. M. D. Hagerstown, Md.
Armor, Thomas, M. D. Baltimore, Md. Bell, H. W. iM. D. Galveston, Texas.
B                                C
Ball, A. S. M. D. New York city.    Cator, H. Hull, M. D. New York city.
Barlow, S. B. M. D. New York city. Channing, Wm. M. D. N. York city.
Bauer, A. M. D. Cincinnati, O.    Child, Amherts, M.D. Waterloo,N. Y.
Barrows, Ira, M. D. Pawtucket, R. I. Clark, Eliphalet, M. D. Portland, Me.
Bartlett, E. M. M. D. Louisiana.    Clark P., Dr., Coventry, R. I.
Bayard, Edward, M. D. N. York city. Clark, Luther, M. D. Boston, Mass.
Belcher, Geo. E. M. D. N. York city. *Cook, Geo. W. M. D. New York city.
Bell, Sanford, M. D. Philadelphia.  Cook, A. P. M. D. Hudson, N. Y.
Bell, Wm. C. M. D. Middletown Con. Collins, H. A. M. n. Conway, Mass.
Belt, R. G. M. D. Patterson, N. J.   Crittenden, W. H., Dr., Bergen Co.,
Bennett, H. Dr., Rochester, N. Y.     N. J.
Berens, Bernard, M. D. Philadelphia. Crittenden, J., Dr. Morris co., N. J.
Berens, Joseph, M. D. Philadelphia.  ICrosby, -, Dr., Akron, Summit
Bloss, Richard, s. D. Troy, N. Y.     county, 0.
Boardman, J. C. M. D. Trenton, N. J. Chase, H. L. M. D, Cambridge, Mass.
Bolles, R. M. M. D. New York city.  Clary, Lyman, M. D. Syracuse, N. Y.
Bowers, B. F. M. D. New York city. Colby, Isaac, M. D. Salem, Mass.
Bowers, Josiah, M. D. Smithtown,L.I. Cox, Geo. M. D. Williamsburgh,L. I.
Bradford, Richmond, M. D. Auburn, Cummings, J. M. M. D. Portland, Me.
Me.                           Cushing John J. a. D. Providence,
Brown, W. R. M. D. Homer, N. Y.       R. I.
Bryan, R. S. M. D. Troy, N. Y.    Chase, Durfee, Dr., Palmyra, N. Y.
Burritt, A. H. Dr., Burton, Geauga Clark, J. K. M. D. Worcester, Mass.
county,,O0.                  Cook, Simeon A. M. D. Troy, N. Y.




46
Cole, Henry, M. D. Pittsfield, Mass.              H
Cornell, Benj. F. M. D. Moran Station, Saratoga county, N. Y.    *Hale, Eben, M. D. Boston, Mass.
Hallock, L. M. D. New York city.
Harris, Z. H., Dr. New York city.
D                 Havens, S. F. M. D. Buffalo, N. Y.
Haynel, A. F. M. D. Baltimore, Md.
Dake, D. M. M. D. Pittsburg, Pa.    Helmuth, Wm. S. M. D. Philadelphia.
Dake, C. M. Dr., Genesee, N. Y.    Hempel, Charles J. H. D. N. Y. city.
Denison, Jeremiah T. M. D. Fairfield, Hering, C. M. D. Philadelphia.
Conn.                         Holt, Daniel, M. D. Lowell Mass.
Detwiller, H. M. D. Hellertown, Pa. Hoyt, D. O. M. D. Cleveland, 0.
Dubs, Samuel R. M. D. Philadelphia Hull, A. G. M. D. Newburgh, N. Y.
Dunnell, H. G. M. D. New York city. Hull, A. Cook, M. D. Brooklyn, N. Y.
Dutcher, B. C. M. D. New York city. *Humphreys, E. Dr., Utica, N. Y.
Dewolf, Jno. J. M. D. Prouidence,R. I. Hanford, L. C. M. D. Williamsburgh,
Douglass, J. S. M. D. Milwaukie,Wis.    L. I.
Dodge, Moses, M. D. Portland, Me.  Harris, C. W. M. D. Swanzey, Mass.
Donovan, T.W. M. D. New York city. Herrick, J. M. D. Lyndenborough, N.
Ham pshire.
Hoppin, Washington, M. D. ProviE                     dence, R. I.
Humphreys, Fred. M. D. Utica, N. Y.
Ehrman, B. M. D. Lancaster, Pa.
Ehrman, F., Dr., Hagerstown, Md.
Ehrman, F. Dr., Baltimore, Md.                    I
Esrey, W. P. M. D. Philadelphia.
Ingalls, Wm. sen., M. D. Worcester,
Mass.
F
Fairchild, S. M. D. Parsippany, N. J.
Flagg, Joseph F. is. D. Boston, Mass. James, D. M. D. Somerton, Pa.
Freeman, G. M. D. New York city.  James, Isaac, M. D. Holmesburgh,
Fuller, Milton, M. D. Medford, Mass.   Pa.
Foote, Elial T. M. D. New Haven,Ct. Janney, D. M. D. Loudon co. Va.
Foote, Geo. T. M. D. Syracuse, N. Y. Jeanes, Jacob M. D. Philadelphia.
Foote, Charles C. i. D. New Haven, Jones, E. D. MI. D. Albany, N. Y.
Conn.                         Joslin, B. F. M. D. New York city.
G
Gambell, Wm. P. M. D. Francestown,
N. H.                         Keep, L. M. D. Fairhaven, Conn.
Gardiner, Richard, M.D. Philadelphia. *Kern, B. J.. D,. Philadelphia.
Gardiner, W. A. M. D. Philadelphia. Kimball, D. S. Dr., Sackets Harbor,
Gilbert, James B. M. D. Savannah,     N. Y.
Ga.                           Kirby, S. R. M. D. New York city.
Gosewisch, C. M. D. Wilmington,Del. Kitchen, James, M. D. Philadelphia.
Gray, John F. M. D. New York city. Koch, A. M. D. Philadelphia.
Green, J. M. D. Washington, D. C.  Kinsley, H. x. D. New York city.
Gregg, Samuel, M. D. Boston, Mass.
Guernsey, H. N. M. D. Frankford,
Pa.                                           L
Gallup, Wm. M. D. Bangor, Me.
Guernsey, E. M. D.                Leon, Alexis, M. D. New Orleans,La.
Geist, F. M. D. Boston, Mass.     Lingen, Geo. M. D. Yellow  Springs,
Graves, S. W. M. D. Springfield,      Pa.
Blass.                        Lippe, A. M. D. Carlisle,Pa.
Guy S. S. M; D. Brooklyn, N. Y.    Loomis, J. G. x. D. Syracuse, N. Y.




47
Lovejoy, E. M. D. Owego, N. Y.    Payne, L. V. M. D. Belfast, Me.
Preston, Henry C. a. D. Providence,
R. I.
M                 Peterson, James, Mi. D. Ware, N. H.
Poole, A. Dr., Oswego, N. Y.
Martyn, Jos. Lloyd, M. D. Baltimore, Potter, E. A. M. D. Oswego, N. Y.
MXId.                         Paine, Horace, M. D. Albany, N. Y.
Munger, E. A. M. D. Waterville, N. Peck, William, M. D. Cincinnati, 0.
York.
Mairs, J. M. D. New York city.
Manchester, C. F. M. D. Pawtucket,                Q
R. I.
M'Manus, F. R. M. D. Baltimore,Md. Quin, Jas. M. x. D. New York city.
*.Matthews. Caleb B. M. D. Philadelphia.
M'Vickar, J. A. M. D, New York city.              R
Morrell, A. Dr., Concord, N. H.
Merrill, J. M. D. Portland, Me.      Rayborg, Christopher H. M. D. Ralti.
Metcalf, James W. M. D. N. Y. city.   more, Md.
Miller, Adam, M. D. Cincinnati, O.  Rhees, Morgan, I. M. D. California.
_Middleton, J. D. M. D. Wheeling, O. Robinson, --, M. D. Auburn, N. Y.
Marcy, E. E. M. u. New York city.  Romig, J. M. D. Allentown, Pa.
MIiddleton,  R. S. M.D. Burlington, Rosa, Storm, M. D. Painesville, O.
N. J.                         Rosman, Robert, M. D. Brooklyn, N.
M'.Knight, C. G. M. D. Providence,    York.
R. I.                         Royston, T. P. M. D. Lockport, N. Y.
Moore, J. D. M. D. Newton, Pa.    *Rea, Albus, M. D. Portland, Me.
Raymond, J. C. Dr., Waterviie, N.
York.
N                 Reading, J. K. K. D. Somerton, Pa.
Roberts, J. Dr., Vassalboro', Me.
Neidhard, Chas. M. D. Philadelphia.  Richardson, E. T. a. D. Syracuse,
Norton, L. H. M. D. Bridgeport, Ct.   N. Y.
Russell, George, M. D. Boston, Mass.
Roche, M. B. X. D. New Bedford,
O                     Mass.
Reichhelm, Gustavus, Da. D. Pitts
Okie, A. H. M. D. Providence, R. I.   burgh, Pa.
Orme, John, M. D. PeDnsylvania.
Osgood, David, M. D. Boston, Mass.                S
Ober, Benj. M.D. Wilkesbarre, Pa.
Sceitz, Oscar, M. D. New London, Ct.
Schmidt, J. Dr., Baltimore, Md.
P                 Schmcele, H. M. D. Philadelphia.
Schwartz, Gust. Dr., Philadelphia.
Palmer, M. W. M. D. New York city. Sherrill, H. M. D. New York city.
Paihe, Henry D. M. D. Albany, N. Y. Sheppard, David, Dr., Bainbridge, 0.
Paine, John A. M. D. Albany, N. Y. Schue, J. M. D. Hartford, Conn.
Payne, John, M. D. Belfast, MAe.  Sims, Francis, M. D. Philadelphia.
Payne, W. E. M. D. Bath, MIe.     Smith, Edward M  a. D. Burlington,
Palmer, W. C. M. D. New York city.    N. J.
Peak, J. M. Dr., Cooperstown, N. Y. Small, A. E. M. D. Philadelphia.
Pearson, Wim. M. D. South Hadley *Snow, R. A. M. D. New York city.
Falls, Mass.                  Sullivan, John L. M. D. N. Y. city.
Pehrson, J. G. M. D. Philadelphia.   Stevens, C. A. M. D. Buffalo, N. Y.
Peirson, F. D. M. D. New York city. Swazey, Geo. W. M. D. Springfield,
Piper, J. R. M. D. Washington, D. C.    Mass.
Pulte, J. H. M. D. Cincinnati, O.  Sawyer, B. E. M. D, Concord, Mass.
Petherbridge, J. B. M. D. Philadelphia. Skiff, C. H. a. D. New Haven, Conn.
Parker, H. C. M. D. Manchester,N.H. Swan, Daniel, M. D. Medford, Mass.




49
Shackford, Rufus, M. D. Portland,Me. Ward, J. M. M. D. Saratora, N. Y.
Stansbury, R. MI. M. D. California.  Ward, P. M. D. Troppe.
Stebbins, N. M. D. Clinton, N. Y.   Weld, C. M. M. D. Roxbury, Mass.
Smith, D. S. M. Chicago, II1.    Wells, P. P. M. D. Brooklyn, N. Y.
Springsteed, David, Dr., Albany, N. Wesselhceft, W. M. D. Boston, Mass.
York.                        Whitehead, C. M. D. Harrisburg, Pa.
Wild, Chas. M. D. Brookline, Mlass.
Williams, C. D. M. D. Cleveland, O.
T                Williams, T. S. a. D. Germantown,
Penn.
*Taft, G. M. M. D. New Orleans, La. Williamson, W. M. D. Philadelphia.
*Taylor, John, M D. New York city. Wilsey, F. L. M. D. New York city.
Taft, C. A. M. D. Hartford, Conn.   Wilson, A. D M. D. New York city.
Thayer, David, M. D. Braintree.Mass. Witherill, E. C. M. D Canandaigua,
Train, H. D. M. D. Roxbury, Mass.    N. York.
Tarbell, J. A. M. D. Boston, Mass.   Withby, Samnl. J., Dr., Philadelphia,
Wright, Clark, M. D. N. York city.
Walker, C. M. D Northampton, Mass.
V                Warner, L. T. M. D. New York city.
Wells, L. B. M. D. Pompey, N. Y.
Vastine, P. E. M. D. Baltimore, Md. Whittle, J. F. M. D. Nashua, N. H.
Vanderburg, Fred. M. D. N Y. city. Woolverton, A. N. a D. Canada W,
Vinal, L. G. M. D. Trenton, N. J.   Wolcott, W. G. M. D. Whitehall,N.Y.
Wheeler, John, M. D. Cleaveland, O.
W                                 Z
Ward, Walter, M. D. Philadelphia.   Zumbrook, Anthony.