UNIVERSALITY
OF THR
HOMEOPATHIC
LAW OF CURE,
BY
5/553
CHARLES NEIDHARD, M.D.
SECOND EDITION.
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ON THE
79619
UNIVERSALITY
OF THE
HOMEOPATHIC


LAW OF CURE,
BY
CHARLES NEIDHARD, M.D.,
FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF CLINICAL MEDICINE IN THE HOMEOPATHIC MEDICAL COLLEGE OF
PENNSYLVANIA-MEMBER OF THE FREE HOMEOPATHIC SOCIETY OF LEIPZIG-
CORRESPONDENT OF THE HOMŒOPATHIC SOCIETIES OF VIENNA,
PARIS, MUNICH, MASSACHUSETTS, ETC.
NEW YORK:
SECOND EDITION.
BOERICKE & TAFEL.
PHILADELPHIA:
No. 635 Arch Street.
No. 145 Grand Street.
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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by
CHARLES NEIDHARD, M.D.,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
W. HERING & Co., PRINTers.
PREFACE.
Hahnemann first promulgated his discovery of a new
law of cure, in a very humble manner, in the year 1796
in Hufeland's Journal.
Seventy-seven years have elapsed since then, and this
law has been adopted in their practice by a numerous
body of educated physicians in all parts of the globe.
Some twenty-two years ago, by invitation of the Rhode
Island Homœopathic Medical Society, we made an at-
tempt to place the truth of this law on an impregnable
and uncontrovertable basis.
Since then, numerous new facts have been collected by
the lecturer and added to his former essay. In this rc-
novated improved form, the lecture was delivered as a
preliminary discourse to the students of the Homœopathic
College of Pennsylvania, during the winter of 1872.
THE AUTHOR.
Philadelphia, 1511 Arch St., March, 1874.
2
At the annual meeting of the Rhode Island Homœopathic Society,
holden in Providence, Wednesday, May 7th, 1851, Dr. Charles Neid-
hard, Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Homœopathic Medical
College of Pennsylvania, delivered the annual address. A large and
discriminating audience listened with great interest and attention,
to this, the first popular lecture on homœopathy ever delivered in
Rhode Island. After the lecture, the following resolutions were
unanimously adopted by the society:-
Resolved, That we offer our unanimous vote of thanks to Dr. C.
Neidhard, for his able and interesting address delivered before us
this evening, and that we request a copy of it for publication.
Resolved, That a committee be appointed by the Chair, (the Chair
to consider himself one) to present the above vote to Dr. Neidhard,
and in case of his acceptance, to make arrangements for the publica-
tion of his address.
Drs. Okie, Preston, Barrows, D'Wolf and Hoppin were appointed
the committee; whereupon the following correspondence then took
place:-
DR. C. NEIDHARD:
PROVIDENCE, May 7th, 1851.
DEAR SIR:-The undersigned are appointed a committee, by
the Rhode Island Homœopathic Society, to offer you their unanim-
ous vote of thanks, for your able and interesting address, delivered
before them this evening, and to request a copy of it for publication.
Heartily coinciding with the above vote of the society, we beg
leave to add our individual requests, that an address, so useful to the
cause of homoeopathy, may have a more extended circulation, to-
gether with the very high consideration, with which we are, dear sir,
Your obedient servant,
A. H. OKIE, M.D.,
H. C. PRESTON, M.D.,
IRA BARROWS, M.D.,
J. J. D'WOLF, M.D.,
W. HOPPIN, M.D.,
The following was returned by Dr. Neidhard:
Committee.
PROVIDENCE, May 7th, 1851.
MESSRS. A. H. OKIE, H. C. PRESTON, ETC., Committee:-
GENTLEMEN:-I cannot but feel highly gratified that my ad-
dress was so favorably received by your society, and by yourselves.
It was written for you, at your request, and although I cannot but
believe that you have over estimated its influence upon the cause,
still I can but comply with the wishes of the society, so flatteringly
expressed.
Accept, gentlemen, for the society and for yourselves individually,
my kind regards.
CHARLES NEIDHARD.
ON THE UNIVERSALITY
OF THE
HOMOEOPATHIC LAW OF CURE,
BY
C. NEIDHARD, M.D.
It seems late in the day to appear as an advocate of the
truth of the Homœopathie Law of Cure.
In view however of the entire unbelief of its validity
by many eminent and worthy physicians, it becomes
clearly our duty to make another attempt to examine its
pretensions. Most people when thinking or speaking of
homœopathy always have in their mind's eye, the infinit-
esimal doses, as if homeopathy was entirely involved in
them.
It is true-homoeopathy generally requires smaller doses
than the old school, but it is by no means the most salient
point in its doctrines; for we can also cure with large
doses as Hahnemann did at the beginning of his homœo-
pathic career.
The prevailing practice of medicine, having acknow-
ledgingly no law to guide it in the selection of its reme-
dies for the cure of diseases, it becomes the duty of every
physician, no matter to what school he may belong, to
examine the pretensions of homoeopathy with regard to
the universality of its curative law.
The doctrine that many diseases are caused by vibriones
(3)
4
1
and vegetable growths, has much futurity in it. But
even if that doctrine be true, the different influences on
which these growths depend will require the use of the
homœopathic law for their eradication.
There have been of late few direct attacks against the
homœopathic doctrine or practice.
Its influence upon the old school is daily visible. Ex-
amine the present prescriptions of the most noted practi-
tioners and compare them with those some thirty or forty
years ago, you will be struck with the great changes
which have taken place. The simplicity of the modern
formulas is evident.
If this state of things is not produced by the influence
of the homœopathic school, what other influence is it
owing to? Some physicians of the old school admit to
the homœopathic practice a conditional value. Professor
Sidney Ringer of London University has accepted in his
work on Materia Medica all the best homoeopathic reme-
dies, without acknowledging the source from which he
received his information.
What we wish and must endeavor to establish and to
place on the firmest foundation, by overpowering testi-
mony from all sources, is the "Universality of the Homoeo-
pathic Law."
Not only has medical science furnished us innumer-
able facts in elucidation of this law, but also chemistry,
anatomy, agriculture and particularly the various opera-
tions of the human mind.
If this fundamental law can be overthrown, then homœo-
pathy, as a science, is as good as lost. If it is not a uni-
versal law of cure, that will shorten the natural course of dis-
eases, that will mitigate more permanently the pains of disease
than any other method of cure, it will not deserve our respect
nor our study.
But if this law be once placed on a firm basis, beyond the
doubt even of the most sceptical, its universal adoption
by the scientific world cannot be far distant.
cr
5
When Hahnemann first promulgated the homœopathic
law to the medical world, the latter were perfectly amazed.
Not a few independent medical men were struck with its
manifest truthfulness; many openly confessed their belief
in its consonance with other laws of nature, but at the
same time declared that it was by no means new; a few
vain-glorious professors at the universities, and authors of
very sublime systems of medicine, completely denied the
existence of such a law. But although many had more
or less faith in the homeopathic law of cure, few physi-
cians, at that early period, practically adopted it, be-
because it was connected with another doctrine, that
of infinitesimal doses, which they were not prepared to
adopt, although it was but a necessary consequence of
the former. Let us endeavor to grasp some of the hid-
den meanings of this law, although in our obscure human
mental vision we may never be able to unravel all its
mysteries-never fathom its whole depth. Let us ex-
amine the reasons and arguments which appear to us to
place it upon an impregnable basis. These may be drawn
from the realms of facts, of history, of familiar illustra-
tions, and of the laws of mind, and also from science,
nature and poetry.
In the first place stands the great fact, that from the
time of Hahnemann, from the time of Hippocrates, and
as far as any records are left, from the beginning of all
times, all true cures of diseases were always performed ac-
cording to the homeopathic law. This is a bold assertion,
but it needs by no means a profound analysis of all the cures
performed, and recorded in medical writings to sustain
this position. Hahnemann, in his organon, quotes about
fifty cases of such homœopathic cures, which he has
collected from the writings of different allopathic physi-
cians of all times. You will naturally ask, are these all
the cures ever performed by the adherents of the ancient
method? These are probably nearly all, where the homœo-
pathic action of the remedy could be clearly shown to
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be in accordance with the homœopathic law, especially
as Hahnemann at the same time has taken pains to
quote the pathogenetic action of these remedies from
allopathic authors. In the great majority of cases pub-
lished by allopathic authors, inasmuch as generally more
than one remedy was used for the cure of the disease, the
homoeopathic action is very difficult to ascertain. All
that we know is, that cures took place; but we claim
those cures only to be truly homoeopathic which, while
they shorten the natural duration of the disease, do not
in the least impinge upon the integrity of the vital powers.
The closest and most intimate correspondence between
the character of the remedy and the disease must be
established, in order to constitute such a remedy, a truly
homœopathic curative. All other modern systems of
medicine are founded on no universal principle of cure,
and are nothing but somewhat modified allopathic
practices. One thing has been ascertained with consider-
able accuracy by the investigations and researches of the
homœopathic school, which is that, where nature cures,
where the empiric cures, where the people or the Indian
savages instinctively gather their simple herbs for the cure
of diseases, these cures are always performed, although un-
wittingly according to this law. Had the eminent men
of science taken the same pains in investigating the
simple virtues of herbs and other substances, as they did
in constructing speculative systems of medicine, and in-
vesting certain remedies with.imaginative properties which
they had never discovered by pure experiment; had they
not disdained to gather the experience of the people, how-
ever, crude and imperfect it might be, had they not always
united two and more remedies in one prescription; even
allopathic medicine would have more nearly approached
to certainty than it does at the present day, and the
necessity for a supreme law of cure in order to arrange
the numberless fragments of facts would have been sooner
felt.
7
The evidence in favor of the homoeopathic law from
men distinguished in medical science, is not unimportant.
In the writings attributed to Hippocrates, there occur the
following remarkable words: "Vomiting is cured by
vomiting. There are diseases whose cause and remedy
are of the same nature or homogeneous."
In the case of two ladies of my acquaintance, who had
been subject to chronic sick headache, with nausea and
vomiting, a sea-voyage did not produce the artificial sea-
sickness nor sick headache. They were entirely exempt
from it, whilst other persons not liable to this disease
suffered extremely.
A Danish army physician by the name of Stahl, says
distinctly: "The rule generally acted on in medicine, to
treat by means of oppositely acting remedies 's quite false
and the reverse of what it ought to be. I am, on the
contrary convinced, that diseases will yield to and be
cured by remedies that produce a similar affection
(similia similibus)-burns by exposure to the fire, frost-
bitten limbs by the application of snow and the coldest
water, inflammation and bruises by distilled spirits, and
in like manner I have treated a tendency to acidity of
the stomach by a very small dose of sulphuric acid, with
the most successful result, in cases where a number of
absorbent remedies had been fruitlessly employed."
Dr. Saint Marie, at the head of the Lyonnese faculty,
has said in his medical formulary: "It is certain, that we
sometimes cure by acting in the same direction as nature
does, and by completing through our means the salutary
efforts which she has commenced, but which she has not
the power to accomplish. It is thus, that at an epoch,
where quinine was unknown, irregular intermittent
fevers, characterized by sopor, have been cured by opium."
He also refers to diarrhoeas as having been removed by
drastic purgatives, and epilepsies cured by an empiric by
means of a remedy which in the first twenty-four hours
caused more violent attacks of the disease. He continues:
་*
►
.
8
"It is impossible that these cures should be nothing but
lucky hits, they are undoubtedly to be ascribed to some
great therapeutic law."
Messrs. Merat and Delens have written:-"It is a
remarkable circumstance to see some remedies recom-
mended to cure nearly the same disease, which other prac-
titioners see them produce. Messrs. Trousseau and
Pidoux (Therapeutics, second edition) "Experience has
proved, that a great number of diseases are cured by thera-
peutic agents, which seem to act in the same manner, as
the cause of the evil, to whieh they are opposed," Dr.
Fodera: "A disease of irritability may be cured by irri-
tants.'
Haller, Stahl and Linnee, are of opinion, that to treat
diseases by contraries is completely false and absurd.
Descartes in his outlines of medicine has established
the fact, that "like cures like."
Professor Eshenmayer says: "Homœopathy is the direct
method, and allopathy the indirect. Of direct methods
there can be only one, of the indirect many, as the anti-
phlogistic, resolvent, revulsive, deobstruent, etc. By the
direct method an impulse is given to the specific reaction.
of the healing power, so that the disease is not only
attacked in its effects upon the different organs, or
systems, as with the indirect method, but in its origin
and seat, whereby it is prevented from passing through
its different stages. Why should this not be possible?
Why should we not be able to find agents having a direct
effect upon the specific reaction of the healing power?
There is no reasonable ground to doubt it. With homoeo-
pathy, experience has already strongly corroborated this,
by facts. To pretend to deny it, displays either ignorance,
stubbornness, indolence or dread of the new system."
Similar admissions with regard to the truth of the
homœopathic law might be quoted from the works of
Paracelsus, Van Helmont, Sydenham, Hiester, Stoerk,
Hunter, Brera, and many others.
9
2.
At a later period Dr. Amador de Rosuero, one of the
most distinguished Professor of the University of Mont-
pelier, uttered the following language:-" Practically,
homœopathy is a method which may be added to those
already existing, but generally surpasses the others. It
is one road more, but one more direct, on which one
passes with greater celerity and with more speed, and
comfort even. The new therapeutics addresses itself to
the vital forces in order to cure a disease, as the vital
pathology investigates these forces in order to understand
their growth. The doctrine of vitality has always pro-
fessed the great principle, that above all, the vital force
was the original source of the disease, and therefore it
was, above all, against these same forces, that the agent
was to be directed, which was to destroy the morbid
changes. By the great and beautiful discovery of Hahne-
mann the sphere of vitalism has been greatly enlarged,
and what is more, he has placed this doctrine on a practi-
cal basis, which will continue to exist henceforward
beyond a doubt."
In addition to the above, an advanced section of the
allopathic school, comprising some of the most eminent
physicians of modern times, acknowledges the truth of
the homoeopathic law in a limited sense, it strenously,
however, denies its universality for which we contend.
These physicians for instance could never disavow those
familiar illustrations of the homoeopathic law, which are
now known and understood by every one, such as the pre-
vention of small pox by vaccination, the cure of frost-
bitten limbs by snow, burns by application of heat, the
quicker and more permanent removal of heat from the
body by a cup of hot tea, than by a drink of cold water.
Sea-sickness is best cured by following the motions of the
ship, as every sailor knows.
Other popular experiences are the following:-It was
discovered during the last visit of the cholera in Paris,
that workers in copper were rarely attacked by it; so
10
notorious did the fact become, that copper armlets were
worn by hundreds of persons as safeguards. A similar
experience has been met with in Bagdad, when the dis-
ease was very prevalent the past year, indeed to such an
extent, that between the end of April and the end of
October about 800 persons died in a population of 80,000.
Out of this latter number about 500 men were engaged
in making or selling copper articles, and it is reported
that among them there was not a single victim to the
cholera. The superior efficacy of Cuprum in the most
severe cases of cholera is well known to the homœopathic
school.
Another experience is the following:-The proprietor
of a large bleaching establishment near Paris discovered
that his workmen were almost totally exempt from pul-
monary disease, and that newly employed men, who were
thus afflicted, speedily recovered after entering his service.
He attributed this to the chlorine gas used in bleaching,
with which the atmosphere of his manufactory was always
tainted. Now it is well known that Betzelius lost his
life by attempting to breathe chlorine gas, which produced
a violent irritation of the lungs, from which he never re-
covered. With me the chloride of lime has been of the
greatest service in chronic diphtheria and incipient
phthisis.
Third experience.-In Appleton's Journal there is an
account of a man, who was bitten by a rattlesnake. He
reached home with difficulty and his symptoms, when he
arrived, were those of a man badly intoxicated. Whisky
in large quantities is a well known frontier-man's remedy
for the bites of the rattlesnake and is often successful.
According to my experience in several cases Crotalus is
the best remedy to destroy the appetite for liquor.
Fourth experience. A friend throwing some flowers,
withered by a hot July sun, into a basin of warm water,
found them after some hours, to his astonishment as fresh
as ever, completely revived.
11
Says Hahnemann:-" Why does the
Sight and Hearing.
brilliant planet Jupiter disappear in
the twilight from the eyes of him who gazes at it?
Because a similar but more potent power, the light of
breaking day, then acts upon these organs. By what
means does the soldier cunningly remove from the ears
of the compassionate spectator the cries of him who runs
the gauntlet? By the piercing tones of the fife, coupled
with the noise of the drum. By what means do they
drown the distant roar of the enemy's cannon, which car-
ries terror to the heart of the soldier? By the deep
mouthed clamor of the big drum.-Neither the compas-
sion nor the terror could be suppressed by reprimands
or a distribution of brilliant uniforms. In the same man-
ner, mourning and sadness are extinguished in the soul,
when the news reaches us of a still greater misfortune
occurring to another.”
Taste.
To the quotation from Hahnemann
with regard to the simile of the sense
of sight and hearing, I will add that of the taste. It
is a well known fact, that the confectioner hardly ever
partakes of the dainties he prepares with so much skill.
Their very sight and odor is often disgusting to him.
The natural appetite is destroyed as soon as the sense of
taste is over stimulated by rich food.
Touch.
The nervous sensitiveness to the least
touch in some patients is often cured
by the more potent power of mesmerism or frictions pro-
ducing a similar state.
I will now review the different faculties of the mind
which strikingly illustrate this law.
We are most cognizant of our faults, and we are most
disposed to correct them, if we see another exhibit the
same fault or vice in a still greater degree, particularly if
we despise this latter for his general bad character. We
become ashamed and alter our course.
Intemperance.
What means did the Greeks devise to
disgust their young men with the vice
12
.:
of intemperance? They exhibited to them a slave in a
state of intoxication. The most appropriate lecture on
intemperance would hardly have produced an equally
salutary effect. Some East Indians keep a drunkard in
their pay for the same purpose. Neither can criminals
be cured by the annihilation of other criminals. The
statistics of crime clearly prove this proposition. That
would be an allopathic measure. He who keeps society
in fear of him must be cured by the restraints of society.
But how? Certainly, not by destroying him; this would
not mend the matter. The treatment of such a charac-
ter must consist in the constraints of a thorough physi-
cal, mental and religious education, which may be to the
delinquent worse than death, but which, however, will
finally harmonize his whole being.
The best thief-catchers and detectives are those who
formerly have been engaged in the same business,—that
is have been thieves.
Political rings, united for the purpose of plunder, are
best cured by similar rings united for the purpose of hon-
est reform.
Love.
You have often heard it laughingly
said, that the best cure for love is the
possession of the beloved object, which is quite true. Op-
position to it on the side of parents, guardians, or friends,
will only strengthen this passion, as the experience of all
ages has shown. The love of Romeo and Juliet was par-
ticularly kindled and kept alive by the opposition of their
respective families. Abelard and Heloise, furnish another
example in proof of our position.
A young gentleman afflicted with
Disappointed Love.
rheumatism and a severe cold in the
breast was on the eve of being united to a beautiful young
lady. In order to be cured and before his marriage, he
went South, visiting the most famous hot springs of Ar-
kansas, the mild climate of Florida, the genial shores of
Cuba, but all to no purpose. All the medical gentlemen
13
with whom he consulted told him he could not live.
Weary of physicians, he again went home to die. He
was carried from the boat to the hotel more dead than
alive. On the sixth day after his return he learned that
his betrothed had been married a day previous to another,
thinking her lover could not survive. All the friends of
the deceived lover thought that this would prove fatal at
once in his then state of health, but instead of their fears
being realized, in a week from the day of the reception of
the unsuspected news, he arose from his bed and rapidly
recovered and in less than a month was as well as ever.
Disappointed love can cause consumption and rheuma-
tism, but when you have it, it may also cure it—a true
homœopathic cure.
Nostalgia.
Nostalgia, home-sickness, that singu-
lar disease, with which the Swiss nation
are particularly affected, is cured by nothing but a return
to their mountain home, or the removal of the patient to
a mountainous country, similar to his own.
A Swiss lady
of my acquaintance, whose health, strength and spirits
were rapidly failing from this disease, whilst living in a
large and crowded Atlantic city-she was only the shadow
of her former self-was immediately restored by removing
with her family to a beautiful and romantic region in the
Blue Mountains, which somewhat resembled her own
Swiss home. All the gifts and wealth which may be
showered upon her will not be equal to her home.
Fear.
We can best cure a timid man of
fear, by placing him in situations of
great danger, where all his courage must be exerted,
causing him to disregard all fear. Thus young recruits
are seldom able to stand the first onslaught of the
enemy, they will only gradually become accustomed to
scenes of danger, while the veteran of a hundred battle-
fields, like the war-horse in Job, "mocketh at fear, and is
not affrighted, neither turneth he back from the sword."
Fear has paralyzed the strongest man, but we know
14
:
also of instances, when the effect of a sudden fear, e. g.
the alarm of fire, has been the means of curing paralysis.
People of the same temperaments, if
Temperaments.
they come in contact with each other,
will never agree, until one or the other is subdued, or
the stronger subdues the weaker., The Taming of the
Shrew, in Shakspeare's play, however paradoxical it may
seem, has a deep meaning in it. We must only be sure
in such cases, that we hit the right specific, and avoid
the too much or too little. Quarrelsome characters be-
come humanized with those who are like them. Do we
not see every day fencers and bullies become very gentle
and give up their overbearing humor, when in the com-
pany of their equals?
Unreasonable, imperious and fault-finding tempers are
often cured not by abject submission, but a similar be-
havior of the oppressed party. By apparently assenting
but exaggerating the unreasonable demands their ab-
surdity is made manifest. Thus the eyes of the constant
fault-finder are gradually opened. In Harper's Bazar,
March 30th, 1872, a beautiful story is related, illus-
trating this point.
ranny.
It has well been said, that the reac-
Freedom and Ty- tionary policy of the crowned poten-
tates of Europe is best calculated to pro-
mote the cause of liberty in future revolutions, rousing the
dormant energies of the people, which will at once elevate
them from their abject condition. Tyrannical laws passed
for the oppression of nations or of any peculiar race of
men, although deemed sometimes very efficient, will tend
to the discomfiture of the enemies of liberty, and we, who
are convinced of the truth of the homeopathic law even
in this respect, might well be tempted to say, God speed
to the authors of such laws, well knowing that they will
hasten the triumph of liberty.
Despotical governments must resort to state loans, in
order to obtain the means to destroy the liberties of the
15
people and it is only by the use of the people of the same
means of a people's loan, that they shall be able to con-
quer despotism.
:
But if despotism and tyranny will be in the end their
own executioners, liberty on the other hand will be crea-
tive of liberty. From free men alone will freedom spring.
It is only because our revolutionary ancestors had all the
elements of a free race within them, that they consecrated
this soil to liberty.
In the oratorical contests of our legislative halls, our
courts of justice, our congress, the power of this law is
felt. Do we not see, that violent measures will never
succeed in curing the evils under which the country
labors. It requires the wise statesman, the powerful and
sagacious mind to devise the exact and true plan for the
impending emergency.
Pride.
A proud man is never cured of his
pride by the utmost exercise of humil-
ity on the part of his dependent, but only by a dignified
and manly behaviour. The more the latter humbles him-
self, the more arrogant becomes the former.-In the inter-
course of our daily walks of life the due cognizance and
exercise of this law will save us many a heartache. Those
who do not help themselves, will never be helped by
others. "To him who hath, shall be given, and from him
who hath not, shall be taken away even that which he
hath."
Misanthropy.
The misanthrope in Schiller's play
was finally cured by the influence of
other misanthropes of a similar character.
Covetousness.
The covetous man is the first to be
tired of the riches and possessions he
has so much coveted, as soon as he possesses them. It
is well known, that hereditary wealth makes the possessor
of it most indifferent to it. The proud baron or noble
of the old world, spends his money too lavishly, only be-
cause it is not the fruit of painful toil.
16
Utilitarianism.
A French gentleman wished to con-
vert his son, who had been educated by
distant relations in utilitarian views to his love of arts,
sciences, and all that embellishes and enriches life.
Would he have succeeded in convincing his son of
the ultimate tendency of his utilitarian views by vio-
lently opposing them? He would only have roused the
spirit of opposition of the latter, and caused him to
cling with still greater tenacity to them. What course
did he pursue to change the views of his son? By
apparently seeming of his opinion, but overstepping its
limits, he opened his eyes to the folly of merely living
for the useful. For this gentleman to live, was not
merely to keep alive the spark kindled by God in us all,
but also to increase and brighten it by other sparks. He
had been at the head of every enterprise in favor of litera-
ture, science and art, and the French museums had been
enriched by his presents. He lived in the country and
his residence was such as the taste of a gifted mind was
able to make it. But in order to cure his son of his utili-
tarianism, he had the flowers in his garden uprooted and
the shrubs torn up. Two fine lilacs, which shaded the
windows with their balmy flower-tufts, were cut down to
make fire-wood. The hall in his manor was cleared of
the curiosities with which it had formerly been filled,
and in their places stands were arranged for canes and
cloaks. In the saloon all the drawings and paintings had
also disappeared, and the walls were completely bare.
The whole house had undergone the same transformation.
That which had no object but to please the taste had been
sacrificed without pity. Everything left had a daily posi-
tive use. The agreeable had entirely given place to the
necessary. His botanic garden was to become a manure
store, and the gravestones of his family cemetery were to
be used for paving the yard. But before the latter wast
accomplished, the son was already cured. The vigorous
application of his own principles did the deed. He began
17
to understand the sacred sentence, that "man lives not by
bread alone."
Vanity.
A lady of my acquaintance lately
wrote from the West Indies, that ac-
cording to her opinion ladies could be easily cured of their
love of finery by seeing the West India negresses extrava-
gantly indulge themselves in the same propensity with-
out measure or sense. The best lecture on the subject
would not have an equally beneficial effect.
Insanity.
Mental diseases of various kinds have
long been instinctively cured according
to the homeopathic law. I will give a few instances of
the kind. A lady fancied that she had swallowed a pin,
which she supposed was lying cross-wise in her throat;
under this belief she refused to receive food, saying that
it was impossible for her to swallow. Previous to the
time she supposed she had swallowed it, she was a woman
of stout constitution and strong habit, but had now
dwindled almost to a skeleton. Her throat was repeat-
edly examined by several physicians and they all agreed
there was no pin there. There was a complete absence of
inflammation in the throat, externally or internally, as
far as could be seen, and she did not complain of pressure
at the parts. After the physicians had several times told
her that there was no pin there and that they could do
nothing for her, she still continued sending for them.
They thought at last of a plan by which she might be
cured of this strange fancy. The attending physician
provided himself with several surgical instruments and a
rusty pin which he crooked for the purpose. He inserted
in her throat, several times, one or more of these instru-
*ments having a hooked point, and at his last and greatest
effort, pretended to draw out the very pin that had given
her so much pain and trouble, producing it in his hand.
This satisfied her. She knew that it was then out and
thanked the doctor with the warmest expressions for the
preservation of her life.
2
18
Dr. Cabarus, who died at Paris last year, was one of
those jovial physicians whose presence is equally sought
in the sick room as in society, and who effects more with
humor and pleasantry than by medicine. Being a brother-
in-law of Lesseps, the celebrated engineer, and nearly
related to a princely family of his native land, he moved
in aristocratic circles, which deeply feel his loss. One
cure by which, at the commencement of his career, he
achieved a great reputation, is characteristic of the man.
The Duchess of D- one of the most aristocratic
ladies of the Faubourg St. Germain, had got possessed
of the idea that she had swallowed a frog. She felt this
said frog-she declared she did and its presence robbed
her of peace of mind, sleep, and even health. The Paris-
ian physicians had the rudeness to deny the existence of
this animal, ignorant, as they were, that the poor lady
suffered martyrdom. A fortunate chance made her ac-
quainted with Dr. Cabarus, and to him she told her tale
of woe.
He felt, with a seriousness worthy of Hippocrates
himself, the pulse of the fair patient, inquired after vari-
ous symptoms, and when the charming aristocrat had ex-
hausted all her store of arguments to prove her pet delu-
sion, the youthful doctor said, after a well-feigned pause
"Madame, the frog is there, but I will remove it.'
وو
He then prescribed an innocent emetic, and went to the
nearest flower shop, where he bought a small green frog.
Armed with this confederate, he presented himself once
more before the duchess, and placed a large basin of water
in readiness. The emetic began to take effect, the duch-
ess' eyes filled with tears, and our doctor took advantage
of the opportunity to slip the green frog into the basin.
On seeing the frog a load was removed from the duch--
ess' heart, and for an instant all seemed well. The next
moment she turned pale, and, as Dr. Cabarus supported
her tottering frame, she cried in a despairing tone:-
66
Oh, doctor! I am not yet cured, for the frog has left
little ones behind her!"
19
"Stop!" cried Cabarus, without allowing a trace of em-
barrassment to be seen in his manner, "that we shall soon
see.”
He then threw a searching glance upon the frog, which
he had by this time taken in his hand, and uttered with
a certainty that settled the whole question, these words:-
"Madame, that is an impossibility, for the frog is a
male!"
The modern treatment of the insane is entirely con-
ducted on homoeopathic principles. The physician never
flatly contradicts the absurd vagaries or ravings of his
patient, but apparently enters into his feelings, and gradu-
ally seeks to draw him out of it by his own inward im-
pulse, by addressing the small portion of good sense that
is still left to him. Thus a very beautiful girl in a state
of insanity fancied she had become very ugly, and was
inconsolable. Her parents, friends and admirers did not
contradict her, but pretended that they could hardly look
at her on account of her extreme ugliness. This had the
desired effect and she again became sane.
One of my patients is the most nervous
world, when he has an attack of the gout.
the control over his mind to such an extent that you can
hear his screams for half a mile. Before he screams he
always says to his wife or daughter, "Now I am going to
scream." 'Well, father, scream," says the daughter one
time, "if you think it will make you feel better." He felt
so abashed that he has not screamed since. When for-
merly she had tried to persuade him not to scream, he
always screamed the louder.
66
man in the
He has lost
The celebrated Sir Astley Cooper had the misfortune
on a journey to be carried by mistake into an insane asy-
lum, and to be subjected to the medical treatment of a
madman, who gave himself out for a physician. His pre-
scription was the following:-First, venesection; then the
Douche-bath and starvation; finally the great shower-
bath, extraction of three teeth, bastinado and incarcera-
#
20
tion. Astley Cooper himself says:-"I trembled all over,
for such treatment would certainly have made me insane."
6
Mr. Lawrence, the Assistant Superintendent of the
Boston Insane Asylum, says: "The secret of teaching
delirious patients is to humor them. Every time you oppose
a crazy man, you just strengthen the hold of his delusion.
Only join in with him, and he soon gets quiet. One night I
had a big, strong fellow, who would weigh 250 pounds,
to get up stairs. He was brought in after the rest of the
patients were asleep, and he was inclined to be noisy, and
was as mad as a March hare. If I had asked him to go
up to bed it would have taken several men like me to get
him there, and there would have been a row likely to
disturb all the house. So I let him have his own way for
awhile. At last he mounted on a chair, and began to
personate the clown of a circus. Such frantic fun, such
mad mirth, it seems to me no one ever saw; but after a
while he became disgusted with his small stage—the
chair. Why, a fellow can't turn round here,' he said.
Then was my time. That's a fact', I answered, sympa-
thizingly. 'It just spoils the performance. I'll tell you
what I've got a place up stairs—a regular ring—a stage
that's something like a stage. Just let's go up there and
have it out! He went along, in a state of the uttermost
satisfaction, and soon I had him in an upper room, where
he was quite at liberty to stand on his head or his heels,
as best suited him. There he went on with his perform-
ance until he had tired himself out, and then I had no
difficulty in getting him to take the proper medicine and
go to bed. Another time I was summoned to the relief
of a patient who believed that rats were tearing away at
his vitals. I found him in a condition of abject terror.
They're here, under my coat; he shouted, as I went in;
three of 'em gnawing away.' 'How lucky that you sent
for me; I'll get 'em out in short meter.' So, with an ap-
pearance of desperate effort, I pretended to draw one out,
and handed it to an attendant in my rear, to be thrown
6
21
from the window. Then I tugged away at another. The
third, he said, had worked himself lower down, and was
desperate. Of course I had a struggle for him ; but at last
I cried out, triumphantly, 'They're all gone now', and
the patient sank back in utter exhaustion, with great
beads of sweat on his forehead! Yes, they are gone',
he said, with a sigh of relief; 'but
man now if I hadn't sent for you.'
system.
""
I should be a dead
This illustrates our
"And the system always succeeds?" the doctor in-
quired.
"It hasn't failed yet."
Mr. Lawrence carries his idea of freedom as an agent of
reform so far that he thinks the location of a Washing-
tonian Home should be, by all means, in a city where the
patients, having constant liberty to go out, will at all
times encounter the temptations which are likely to beset
their after lives. He takes no patients committed to him
against their will-only those who come of their own
accord, led by their own desire to reform. He seems emi-
nently the right man in the right place. The only draw-
back to the wider success of the Home he rules so wisely,
is want of sufficient room for those who fain would come
to it.
Education.
A vicious boy who pokes his um-
Homœopathic law in brella into everybody's side is cured by
letting him stand in a corner with an
immense umbrella over his head until he is tired.
Another bends his head under the table to catch at boys'
legs is told to lay with his head in a very uncomfortable
position under the table until he is cured.
A social philosopher says that he has kept children
quiet in the house on stormy days, when otherwise they
would have been crying to go out, by taking them at
once to the door, exposing them to the storm and telling
them to go-they would very soon turn back in surprise,
homoeopathically cured of wanting to go out for that
time.
:
22
On analysis of the different faculties of the mind, we
find that they are all strengthened by their due exercise
and use.
But if you wish to disgust a person with a cer-
tain profession or faculty, let him only exercise it too
much, let the scale of weight preponderate too much on
one side, he will be the first to abandon the pursuit, how-
ever dear it was to him at first. Daily experience points
out to us numerous examples. On the other hand, if a
young man be forced into a particular occupation or pro-
fession, he will seldom or never succeed; but give him one
which he has himself selected, and which suits his indi-
vidual nature, he will nearly always excel in it. You
can easily perceive how much this subject might be
extended, to furnish examples in explanation of our
homœopathic law, which throws new light upon the
workings of all professions.
Agriculture.
Agriculture furnishes some import-
ant data for our consideration. The
scientific agriculturist, in his endeavor to fertilize a par-
ticular soil, selects that manure which is best adapted to
its nature, that one which exercises the most powerful
influence on the quality of the soil, and which in conse-
quence will produce the largest and most perfect crop.
The modern system of agriculture may therefore, not
inaptly be compared with the homœopathic mode of treat-
ment, which also selects, with the nicest accuracy that
agent, which has a specific relation to the worn out or
diseased soil of the human body, in which it is to pro-
duce an abundant crop of rich and beautiful fruit, or
health, and not like the old allopathic mode of farming,
which by exhausting the field by draining all its resources
destroys its very aptitude for producing any fruit at all.
For it is now well ascertained that if a particular soil
produces a good crop of one kind of vegetable but not of
another, it is deficient in the characteristic mineral ele-
ments necessary for the development of the latter. In
other words there is a specific relation between the quality
23
of the soil and its vegetable product. But the analogy
does not rest here. This specific manure is supplied in
definite proportions to the different plants.
Thus apples have affinity for lime, pears for iron and
carbon, cherries for silex, and they will not be developed
in a perfect manner, unless the soil has these specific sub-
stances so necessary for their growths of which infinitesi-
mal quantities are quite sufficient. The minutest quantity
of Iodine is necessary for the development of the whole
species of sea-weeds.
In this way all vegetables have in nature their corre-
sponding minerals, twin-brothers of a common father—
without which they cannot exist or flourish. The chemist
has pointed out only a few of these correspondences, but
more will yet be discovered. It is the great aim of the
homœopathic school to trace these analogies from miner-
als through plants to man, and that which we have seen
in a simple state in mineral and plant, we shall find re-
united in the wonderfully and mysteriously formed man.
It will thus become clear to us, that there exists no par-
ticular plant or animal, which does not owe its dis-
tinguishing peculiarity or characteristic to some similar
substance of the mineral kingdom.
The relations of different substances in the human body
are quite similar to those of agriculture, and if it was con-
sonant to the purposes of this address, an immense num-
ber of facts might be quoted to verify this statement. A
few will suffice to show in what direction the progressive
homoeopathic school is extending the boundaries of the
great homœopathic law.
According to Hausman the propor-
Combinations of dif-
ferent substances in the tion of nearly 2,000 equivalents of car-
human body and in bon, water, nitrogen and oxygen to
their chemical relations only one equivalent of sulphur is just
as necessary a condition for the formation of the texture
of the Crystalline lens, as e. g., the proportion of two
equivalents of copper to one equivalent of sulphur, in
24
order to obtain from the melted mass of both, the sul-
phuret of copper in Octoedrons.
Light.
The laws govering the rays of light
and those of homeopathy are alike.
Professor Tyndall's assertion, that "bodies radiate and
absorb the same rays" is precisely analagous to the
homœopathic assertion that "medicines cause and cure
the same symptoms." Professor Tyndall has proved ex-
perimentally that the quality and not the quantity is the
essential point in such an action; that a ray of light whose
vibratory form is millions upon millions of times less than
another ray, will still have the decided effect, provided
its vibrations synchronize with those of the substance
upon which it falls. He tells us that his own retinal
remained totally unconscious of the pressure of rays which
had "twenty thousand million times the energy" of
others which at once affected his eye, because the "peri-
ods were not those demanded by the retina," whereas the
latter were adapted to its physiological sensibility.
In the case of the physiological action of light on the
retina, it is thus proved that quality and not quantity,
adaption and not brute-force, is that which rules the
result. Who will presume to assert that the retina in its
functions follows one law, and all the other organs quite
a different law?
Microscopical observations have shown, that disease is
something foreign, extraneous to the organic elements of
the body; something akin to crystalization, but, never-
theless, in its structure is very similar to the structure of
the body.
In the same proportion as there exist combinations of
individual minerals, there exist combinations of indi-
vidual diseases, forming distinct family groups. Hence
diseases form a complete kingdom of individualities, like
that of organic bodies or of minerals.
Decomposition.
As iron, maganese, nickel, cobalt,
copper in combination with one of the
25
chlorine group are decomposed by su'phates, in the same
way diseased ligaments or cartilaginous tissues are decom-
posed by one and the same diseased marrow of the bones.
The law "similia similibus" can never
Extinction of diseases refer to diseases which decompose each
by the homœopathic law
other, much less to such as combine;
but only and alone to those diseases, which mutually ex-
tinguish each other in the same body.
In many places of Central Europe the botanist has dis-
covered a plant which takes a middle ground between
Verbascum Thapsus (the great mullein) and Verbascum
nigrum, partaking of the nature of both. It is called
Verbascum semi-nigrum. When Kohlreuter made his
experiments with mixing plants, he found that the Ver-
bascum semi-nigrum originated in a mixture of both
plants. In the mineral kingdom precisely similar rela-
tions take place.
action.
Dynamic origin of After the formation of diseases, their
diseases as of remedial combination and homoeopathic extinc-
tion have thus been traced by the light
of these new discoveries, there still remains to be regarded
the interior life of which these forms merely are the out-
ward expression. This life, this inward individual char-
acter becomes already visible from the first germ of the
disease in the same way as we can prognosticate, however
feebly, the future man from the original character and
first budding qualities of the child. There is a power
behind all these individual formations, which, I will not
say, the chemical writers altogether disregard, but which
according to the very nature of their investigations they
have no time to examine.
If I am told by them, for example, that the oil of turpen-
tine, juniper, savine, pepper, etc., contain exactly the same
proportion of organic elements, I must ask, what consti-
tutes their difference of action, smell, color? It is their
inward nature, which cannot be analyzed by the chemist
•
+
5
•
26
and on which depends the whole difference of their action
on the human organism.
The light that chemistry may shed on the action of
remedies is only the groundwork of a vast temple in
which we can admire the harmony and beautiful propor-
tions, the regularity and justness of its structure, but
which is yet all dark, and in which we find no choir of
music, no ministering priest at its altar, no worshippers
at its shrine.
Nature, also, if left to her unaided
Nature cures homœo- exertions, will cure homœopathically.
pathically.
The microscopical discoveries of the
allopathic physician Kaltenbrunner always seemed to me
to contain the most powerful arguments in favor of the
truth of the homoeopathic law. A person receives a
wound, but leaves its cure entirely to nature. How does
the latter effect it? In all cases for the cure and dissipa-
tion of the morbid inflammation, a state perfectly similar
to it is developed, which Kaltenbrunner calls the curative
inflammation. "Driven with accelerated motion, masses
of the globules of the blood (here and there) rush by starts
from the capillaries and pour themselves into the pa-
renchyma of the inflamed part. Here they lie, as bright
red spots or islands of different sizes. Soon the whole
wound is surrounded by these islands, and the inter-
vening tissue becomes highly turgid. This process which
appears at first at the circumference of the inflammation,
by degrees also involves the centre, completely resem-
bling the morbid inflammation, and it is by its means
that the morbid changes produced by the latter, are
gradually extinguished.
""
Now the homœopathic principle cannot be more beauti-
fully illustrated than by these processes of nature. That
which is called allopathic medicine is not in the least sup-
ported by them. Thus nature itself confirms the homoeo-
pathic law.
27
nastics.
Many of the operations enjoined in
Swedish medical gym- the system of Swedish medical gym-
nastics are strikingly in conformity
with the homœopathic principles. Thus for vertigo it is
usual to use a whirling movement of the head or the
neck; for congestion to the head, pressure on the jugular
veins; for hot palms and soles, frictions on these parts;
for swelling of the extremities, ligature above the swollen
part; for hæmoptysis, percussion on the chest, etc., all of
which operations produce the same symptoms they are
employed to remove.
Dumb creation equal- If any thing, however, were wanting
ly curable by homœo- to convince us in a familiar and incon-
pathic means.
trovertible manner of the truth of the
homœopathic fundamental principle, we need only refer
to the cure of the diseases of the dumb creation by homoeo-
pathic medicines. The most confirmed skeptic could not
withhold his assent, if he saw old chronic diseases in
animals gradually yield to the influence of the proper
homœopathic specifics, particularly if he had seen the
same disease remain stationary, or gradually become
aggravated under the other treatment. Although any
allopathic physician can at any moment satisfy himself
of the truth of this assertion by attending the different
homœopathic veterinary establishments existing in this
country; he is too firmly convinced in his mind of the
folly of the homeopathic doctrine, to avail himself of
these means of information. He prefers to dwell on the
power of the imagination of the homœopathist as a reason
for opposing homoeopathy, which argument of course fails
in the case of animals. Unfortunately for him, they are
cured without knowing much about it.
Poetry.
The poets also come to our aid in
their advocacy of the homœopathic
law. The following beautiful verses are from Shakspeare's
Romeo and Juliet:-
28
Tut man! one fire burns out another's burning,
One pain is lessened by another's anguish;
Turn giddy and be holp by backward turning
One desperate.grief cures with another's languish.
Take thou some new infection to thy eye,
And the rank poison of the old will die.
The celebrated physician and poet, Paul Flemming, also
had a knowledge of homoeopathy and practised it in the
seventeenth century, as may be seen from one of his
poems, which I will here subjoin in a free translation:—
A wise physician he, who, from the self same source
Doth draw the antidote and bane.
Of this, a single grain works more efficiently
Than that long draught.
Is that physician to be praised who writes
Prescriptions yard in length to win
The thanks of the apothecary?
A Latin poet also gives the following:-
Balnea, vina,
Venus consumunt corpora nostra ;
Sed vitam faciunt Balnea, vina, Venus."
A
It has been said by a great writer,* if some one were to
tell the savages that the herbs, which every day they
trampled under foot, were endowed with the most potent
virtues, that one would restore to health a brother on the
verge of death, that another would paralyze into idiotey
their wisest sage, that a third would strike lifeless to the
dust their most stalwart champion, that tears and
laughter, vigor and disease, madness and reason, wakeful-
ness and sleep, existence and dissolution, were coiled up
in those unregarded leaves, would they not have held him
as a sorcerer and liar? Has the great Hahnemann fared
any better? Have not the savages of our times pro-
nounced him a liar, because he asserted that Staphysagria
and Lycopodium would strengthen the memory, and Nux
* Bulwer.
29
vomica particularly for words; Ignatia cause a depression
of spirits and cure the same; that Coffee may invite sleep-
lessness and also cure it, etc. To half the virtues of the
vegetable world, mankind are yet in the darkness of these
savages. There are faculties within us, with which cer-
tain herbs have affinity and over which they have power.
1
If it were important, other poetical writers might be
adduced who have raised their voices in favor of the law.
I trust I have said enough to convince you that the evi-
dence in favor of the homoeopathic law, no matter from
what point of view you examine it, is absolutely over-
powering, even without adding to it the testimony of the
numerous cures which are constantly performed by a very
numerous and daily increasing body of homoeopathic
practitioners in all parts of the world.
I have thought it might be of some importance to offer
a defence of homoeopathy, based upon the intrinsic truth-
fulness of its fundamental principle, and not upon the
number of converts, however eminent their station. I
have purposely, therefore, heaped illustration upon illus-
tration, fact upon fact, ransacking the domains of science
and art in order to make my position-the universal
applicability of the law-as strong and impregnable as
possible. But after all, how much more might be said on
this inexhaustible subject!
The homœopathic law After we have once established the
and the small doses oc- truth of the homoeopathic law, the com-
cupy the same platform.
prehension of the action of the infini-
tesimal doses becomes comparatively easy, because they
both are identical. This can hardly be controverted at the
present day, when we remember that the disease and the
homœopathic remedy are so nearly related to each other, re-
semble each other in so many points, that the medicine, pre-
scribed according to the homeopathic law, would be most
destructive in its operation, if it were taken in too large doses,
in the same way as the report of a cannon may completely
30
destroy the hearing, already sensitive from disease. You will
thus perceive that a dose of the true homœopathic remedy,
that which has some affinity to the disease, cannot accord-
ing to its nature be otherwise than small. For some
peculiar diseases the homoeopathic law requires us to give
large doses.
Allopathy on the other hand acts consistently in giving
large doses of its remedies, because these remedies generally
stand in no relation whatever to the disease; but when this
does accidentally happen, the consequences are most dele-
terious.
Idiosyncrasies.
The mineral, vegetable and animal
kingdoms contain innumerable sub-
stances, which all have some affinity to man and his dis-
eases, and this does not merely relate to what may strictly
be called medicines, but every substance, particularly
food, has some affinity to a particular constitution or
man. As certain manures will only improve certain soils,
in the same way definite articles of diet and medicines
will only be consonant to the individual nature. It is
here, where the law of idiosyncrasies becomes so closely
united with that of homoeopathy. This will explain to
us, why one person is made sick by the same diet that
agrees so well with another. If these instincts, thus
clearly imprinted on our nature by the Creator, were
more generally heeded and followed, man would attain to
a superior degree of health. But they are not, because
the natural instinct for a certain kind of food is often
mistaken for the false craving creature by artificial wants.
These may seem to be necessary, but in reality are not
required for his sustenance or the due developement of
all his forces. In the selection of our diet we must there-
fore pursue the same plan as the homœopathic physician
does with regard to the choice of the homœopathic
remedy. We shall thus sometimes find, that those arti-
cles of food or drink, which at first seem to disagree with
us, such as water or milk, are often those by which we
1
31
are most benefitted in the end, whilst others, which at
first exercise a beneficial influence, become more hurtful
the longer we use them. But then there may exist cer-
tain states of the constitution when such articles may not
only be taken without injury, but even with benefit.
Individualization is therefore as important in diet as in
the choice of the homoeopathic remedy, and the most in-
congruous food may agree with one, which in another
would be highly detrimental.
Viewing homœopathic dietetics in this light, cannot
fail to convince you that they are of equal importance to
the prescribing of remedies; as Pliny has remarked, the
true remedies often serve as daily food to the common
people. If any substance then, taken in a small quantity,
has had an unaccountable and powerful effect on a person,
depend upon it, there is some homœopathic relation be-
tween the two; and when the person thus affected has
gradually accustomed himself to its use, there is some
chasm filled up, some disharmony in his constitution
equalized. Thus have I often observed, that when at the
commencement of a homeopathic treatment certain spe-
cific remedies could hardly be taken in the smallest quanti-
ty, the more the health of the patient improved, the more
massive doses could be given. In the same way certain
articles of diet, which seemed at first very obnoxious to
the patient, but which were in themselves healthy, could
finally be used with impunity. The harmony with nature
was established.
Thus the doctrine of miasmatic diseases and homoeo-
pathy occupy the same platform. If one not acclimated,
or accustomed to a certain malaric effluvium, and inimical
to his nature, is exposed to it, he falls sick, in the same
way as he is cured by another agent similar to the nature
of the miasma. This latter will probably be some plant
growing in the neighborhood, or the poison of some ani-
mal, luxuriating, and arriving at its full growth, in the
very marshes from which the disease is generated. Do
32
1
you think that the plants which cure the malignant
fevers of miasmatic districts could grow on high moun-
tains? And why will the smallest doses be sufficient for
its cure? because there is the closest correspondence be-
tween the poison of the plant and the miasma from which
the disease takes its origin.
cured by removing to Mrs.
a miasmatic district.
Bilious complaint The following case we can vouch for:
of Arch Street, has been
subject all her life to bilious fever and
bilious complaints. On removing to a district in the sub-
urbs of Philadelphia, where malignant bilious malaria
were epidemically present, she became entirely cured of
her bilious complaints. Her husband on the other hand,
who had never been subject to these complaints any time
of his life, was so violently and frequently attacked by
bilious fevers, that it broke down his constitution.
It is a fact now well known to the homeopathic prac-
titioner, the nearer the affinity between the remedy and
the disease, the smaller need the dose be of the former for
the extinction of the latter. This experience will enable
us to distinguish between a true and false remedy. If I
am told that in New Orleans they cure yellow fever by
drachm doses of quinia, and croup by fifty grains of calo-
mel, this is a priori evidence for me, that they cannot be
the true remedies, because if they had a specific relation
to these diseases, smaller doses must necessarily suffice for
the cure of them. These large doses may suspend the
disease for awhile, but they will inevitably leave other
medicinal diseases behind them, often more difficult to
cure than the original one. A true remedy will always
produce harmonious action between itself and the disease,
and the system will almost always enjoy a superior degree
of health after recovery than before, because it has estab-
lished one more relationship between itself and nature.
Thus Hahnemann has repeatedly observed that the prov-
ing of remedies in homœopathic doses, was calculated to
33
produce a greater degree of robust health in the individual
experimenter, provided they are of that class to which his
system has an affinity.
A highly interesting science, and closely connected
with our homœopathic doctrine of small doses, is the
chemistry of organic products, particularly of the blood.
By it we are informed that the most powerful homœo-
pathic remedies are all found as ingredients in the blood
of the human body. They are all necessary for its due
development. For the present, we know this of lime,
sulphur, phosphor, silex, salt, iron, copper, manganese,
lead,* etc. New ones are almost daily discovered, and
they can only be appropriated in the smallest quantities.
It will hardly be necessary to advert in this place to
the imponderable agents, like light, electricity, magnet-
ism, the germination of plants, and other small things in
nature which are known so powerful in their final mani-
festation, and by which the action of infinitesimal doses
has so often been explained by able men in the homoeo-
pathic ranks. A full illustration of this subject on my
part would require anotér lecture.
My aim, which I hope I have at least in part attained,
was to impress upon your mind my conviction of the fol-
lowing truths:-
1. That the homeopathic law is not merely a rule devised
by man, like allopathy, hydropathy and other methods, but a
divine law of nature. It is and was practised unconsciously
by physicians and the people from time immemorial long before
Hahnemann proclaimed it to the world, and will be practised
to the end of all times.
2. That all the greatest powers of nature are of the
most subtile kind, but must have some affinity to man or
his diseases, in order to produce a powerful and striking
effect.
3. That both being thus related to each other, the dose
*Dr. Petreguin, Burin Dubuisson experiments.
34
must be necessarily small, and consequently the law
"similia similibus" and the homoeopathic dose must stand
or fall together.
One word more in conclusion: The great issue between
the ancient and new system of medicine is the old contest
between matter and spirit; and every one will be obliged
to take part in it, sooner or later, and range himself on
one side or the other. In the chemical laboratory, in
Liebig's theories, is now sought the health of mankind,
and this at a time, when all over the world the best minds
are proclaiming the advent of a more spiritual era.
In a reformatory science like homeopathy, which still
requires much cultivation to perfect it, I would, however,
rather favor a humility of spirit. Let its own inward
truth be its only weapon, and that must surely prevail.
In the distant horizon, I see a light arise, which is becom-
ing gradually brighter and brighter. The great dis-
coveries of the many good and great men who have cul-
tivated medical science will not be extinguished by it,
but the great importance of this law will be more and
more acknowledged the more its inherent truthfulness is
perceived.
For my own part, I live in the hope thus beautifully
expressed by Jean Paul Richter: "There will come
another period of time, when it shall be day, and when
man shall awaken from his lofty dreams only to realize
them, because he shall lose nothing but sleep; and upon
the eastern gate of this century is written: This is the
road to virtue and wisdom, even as upon the eastern gate
of Chersonesus stood the inscription: This is the road to
Byzantium.'
Infinite Providence! thou wilt cause the light to dawn!
as yet, however, lingers the twelfth hour of the night.
The midnight birds of prey are upon the wing, the spirits
knock, the living dream."
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
THE following passages from Dr. Neidhard's address before the
Rhode Island Society, although not the most interesting parts of this
excellent oration, cannot fail to interest our readers.-Homœopathic
Observer.
Dr. Neidhard's address is one of the best, for popular reading, ever
delivered in this country. We wish the Rhode Island Society would
issue an edition of 20,000 for gratuitous distribution. Such outlays
are like bread cast upon water, etc.-Homœopathist.
The tenor of Dr. Neidhard's address, which is original and highly
interesting, is to show, that the principle similia similibus is true not
only in medicine, but is a universal curative principle.-North-western
Journal of Homœopathy.
.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
i
Diphtheria, AS IT PREVAILED IN THE UNITED STATES FROM 1860 to
1866; PRECEDED BY A HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF ITS PHENOMENA, ITS
NATURE AND HOMEOPATHIC TREATMENT. By C. Neidhard, M.D.
Philadelphia: F. E. Boericke, 635 Arch Street. Boston: Otis Clapp.
St. Louis: H. C. G. Luyties.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
Dr. C. Neidhard published in 1867 an important and exhaustive
treatise upon Diphtheria, which has had a wide circulation. We
have been interested in the history of this terrible disease as pre-
sented by Dr. Neidhard. The work affords evidence of much re-
search and careful observation, and is worth attentive examination.
Boston Journal of Chemistry.
This may be considered the most complete monograph on Diph-
theria that has been issued.—American Homœopathic Observer.
The author of this excellent monograph is not one of those bache-
lors in medicine who croak and criticise the offspring of others, al-
beit their own literary progeny is limited in numbers and influence.
We have looked for this production with a great degree of interest,
and now that it has appeared, are not disappointed.
A careful perusal of Dr. Neidhard's timely volume, warrants our
calling attention to a few of its principal merits. Among these are
the perspicuity of its style, its absolute clinical information, its free-
dom from much of the chaff that is gathered into modern medical
works, and the absence of the customary twaddle concerning the
"glorious principle," etc., with which the majority of our writers are
wont to regale their readers.
Books are like men: their language and manner betray the culti-
vation and merit of their authors. When one has something to say,
37
and says it in a downright, straightforward, practical manner, there
is no need of a surplus verbiage. If it were an indictable offense to
employ words without meaning, Dr. Neidhard would escape all cen-
sure. This is the more remarkable, as the work before us was not
written in his native language.
The clinical facts incorporated into the text and coupled on with
modest foot-notes, are of exceeding interest and value. We recog-
nize them as the outcroppings of a real and reliable experience.
In conclusion, we wish to say frankly and unreservedly, that, in
our judgment, this is the best monograph upon Diphtheria and its
homœopathic treatment, with which we are acquainted.-United
States Medical and Surgical Journal, Chicago.
The latest, the most thorough and practically complete work on
Diphtheria yet published.-North American Journal of Homœopathy.
This is by far the most complete treatise on the subject that we
have met with. It is, in fact, exhaustive of all that can be said on
the subject, with the facts that are as yet known. We have not
only a most complete account of the history of this disease, but all
that is known of its pathology according to the most recent re-
searches. Likewise an outline of allopathic treatment; and lastly,
the most complete and detailed experience of all homœopathic physi-
cians both in America and Europe.
This is not a mere compendium made by book-makers, but an in-
telligent criticism by one who has had very large experience, and
who, while holding very decided opinions of his own, has weighed
those of others with candor and impartiality. We cannot, do better
service to our fellow practitioners than express the wish that this
book should be in the hands of every one of them.-British Journal
of Homœopathy.
It is no slight praise to say that this little volume is one of the most
valuable monographs ever published under the auspices of our school.
We would recommend this book to all who desire a thorough
and practical knowledge of this disease. It is a work of rare merit,
an honor to the author and to our school.-New England Medical
Gazette.
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