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E S S A YS
ON
M E D I C I N E.
E S S A Y S
M E D I C I N E :
BEING
AN INVESTIGATION OF HOMOEOPATHY AND OTHER
MEDICAL SYSTEMS,
BY
WILLIAM SHARP, M.D., F.R.S.,
* -
FELLOW OF THE ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL Society of LonDo N, ETC, E-re.
FORMERLY SENIOR SURGEON TO THE BRADFORD INFIRMARY.
“I claim that liberty, which I willingly yield to others, the permission, namely,
in subjects of difficulty, to put forward as true such things as appear to be probable,
until proved to be manifestly false.”
WILLIAM HARVEY.
THE TENT H EDITION.
L O N DO N :
HENRY TURNER & CO., 77, FLEET STREET, E.C.
MANCHESTER : 41, PICCADILLY, & 15, MARKET STREET.
NEW YORK : BOERICKE & TAFEL, 145, GRAND STREET.
I874.
J. E. A.D.I.ARD, PRINTER, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE.
TO
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION
THESE ESSAYS
ARE
|RESPECT FULLY DE DICATED
BY THE AUTHOR,
A DEVOTEDLY ATTACHED MEMBER OF THAT
FA C U L T Y.
P R E F A C E.
WHEN we look at a picture we imagine Ourselves
standing where the artist stood, so as to look at it
from the same point of view. We endeavour to
understand the design he had in painting it, and the
impressions he wished to produce in the mind of the
spectator. In this manner we see the picture as the
painter saw it, and receive instruction and pleasure.
It is in the same manner that we should read a
book, if we would receive instruction and pleasure
from it.
Little need be said on the contents of the following
Essays — they speak for themselves. Their main
design, it will be seen, is to separate facts from con-
jectures, and to remind men that our knowledge of
individual facts is limited to the teaching of our bodily
SellSèS.
If occasionally a word is used which seems to have
a hypothetical meaning—as the word affinity, for ex-
ample—it must be understood that it is used only to
express a fact, not to explain it. An old word has
been employed in preference to the coining of a new
one, but not in any speculative sense.
With regard to the writings of others it has been
the earnest wish of the author to do justice to all ; but,
living in the country, his own library alone has been
within his reach, and it is feared that some books
which Ought to have been read have been unnoticed.
viii PREFACE.
He wishes also to say that the German language,
which he once knew, had slipped from him before the
study of Hahnemann's system was undertaken. Find-
ing such good translations as those of Dr. Dudgeon
and Dr. Hempel; time being very precious ; and the
subject large and difficult; he did not feel bound to
recover the lost language, and was glad to be spared
the toil. It is to be hoped that the time and labour
have been spent in a manner more useful to medicine;
though, doubtless, it would have been more creditable
to himself to have re-learned the language and read
the Originals.
The Essays have been preserved in their original
condition. If they have any historical value, as
containing the successive steps of the investigation,
this would have been lost by alterations. On the
other hand, having been thus preserved, they are
exposed to the charge of containing many repetitions.
But repetitions of principles are needful. They must
be repeated in order that they may be made more
easily intelligible.
The subject which has been left most unfinished is
the consideration of the question of the dose.
All authors have critics, and all have their thoughts
about them, though these are not always expressed ;
those of the present writer may be put into few
words —good critics have pleasure in pointing out
the favourable parts of a book, while bad ones find
or invent faults; the former are to be thanked, the
latter may be requested to go and do better.
HoRTON Hous E, RUGBY :
Jſay 2O, I S74.
C O N T E N T S.
ESSAY I.
P AG sº
What Homoeopathy professes to be 3. & * I
ESSAY II.
The Controversy on Homoeopathy.—Its external fea-
tures, and the reception it has met with from
medical authorities . th * n , 26
. ESSAY III.
The Controversy continued.—Its defence in reply to
medical writers 55
ESSAY IV .
The Principle of Homoeopathy.—What a principle or
law of nature is, and the proofs that homoeopathy
is such a principle . * * g 79
ESSAY WT.
The Principle continued.—Its limits with reference to
diseases ? - º s t , [ C &
X CONTENTS.
ESSAY VI.
The Principle continued.—Its limits with reference to
remedies
ESSAY VII.
Provings in Health. — The effects of medicinal or
poisonous Substances on healthy persons
ESSAY VIII.
The Single Medicine.—The administration, at one time,
of one medicine only
ESSAY IX.
The Small Dose—Proofs of its power of action
ESSAY X.
The Difficulties of Homoeopathy.—Some of these are
temporary, others permanent
ESSAY XI.
The Advantages of Homoeopathy.—The advantages to
the physician, and to the patient
ESSAY XII,
The Common Sense of Homoeopathy
ESSAY XIII.
A Review of Hahnemann's System.—The results of
the author's investigation up to the present time
FAGE
I 29
I 55
I 81
2
O
7
2
4
3
CONTENTS. xi
ESSAY XIV.
: PAGE
The Materia Medica * g * # . 367
ESSAY XV.
Medical Systems . * - * * . 399
ESSAY XVI.
The Physiological Action of Medicines . * . 4 I 5
. ESSAY XVII.
Organopathy * g g & & . 43 I
ESSAY XVIII.
The Anatomical Basis of Therapeutics . * . 497
ESSAY XIX.
The Action of Drugs.-How is the action of drugs to
be discovered 2 * * * tº . 533
ESSAY XX.
The Action of Drugs continued—What is the action
of drugs 2 . * * * & 625
ESSAY XXI.
The Action of Drugs continued.—How is the action of
each drug to be distinguished 2 e & . 675
xii CONTENTS.
ESSAY XXII.
The Action of Drugs continued.—What is the kind of
action of drugs 2 What is the action of small
doses 2 Is there a law for the dose 2
{ ESSAY XXIII.
On the Law of the Dose .
ESSAY XXIV.
Antipraxy.—The contrary action of different doses of
the same drug in health
ESSAY XXV.
What is Antipathy 2–Small doses as remedies .
ESSAY XXVI.
Organs have their own Doses
PA G.E.
691
737
743
755
783
ESSAY I.
WHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY?
“The philosopher [and the physician] should be a man
willing to listen to every suggestion, but determined to judge
for himself. He should not be biassed by appearances, have
no favourite hypothesis, be of no school, and in doctrine have
no master. He should not be a respecter of persons but of .
things. Truth should be his primary object. If to these
qualities be added industry, he may indeed hope to walk
within the veil of the temple of Nature.”
MICHAEL FARADAY.
ESSAY I."
WHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY?
--~~-e-
“True philosophers, who are only eager for truth and
knowledge, never regard themselves as already so thoroughly
informed, but that they welcome further information from
whomsoever and from whencesoever it may come ; nor are
they so narrow-minded as to imagine that any of the arts or
Sciences, transmitted to us by the ancients, are in such a
state of forwardness and completeness, that nothing is left for
the ingenuity and industry of others.”
WILLIAM HARVEY.
—º-C-e-
AMONG the many important topics of the day, none
having reference to this life only can possess higher
claims to calm inquiry and earnest attention than the
various resources which are available to mankind
when suffering from bodily disease.
In the present age of discovery and invention, it
would be remarkable if, while every branch of science
and art is rapidly improving, the resources of medicine
remained stationary. Would it not be surprising if,
while all around are sailing forward, we saw the phy-
sician alone becalmed 2 But this has not happened ;
the onward wave has reached the healer's barque, the
breeze has caught his sail, and he also is gallantly in
motion upon the mighty waters of natural science.
There are, indeed, many who would stoutly stand
upon the “old paths;” but here we have no inspired
prophets and apostles, as happily we have in an affair
* This Essay was first published in 1852,
4 WHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY 2 [ESSAY
of higher moment, upon whom to rest as upon a firm
foundation. The opinions of mere men, however
venerable by their antiquity, are like shifting sands;–
they are not stable because they are not true. The
intelligent and thinking people of the present times do
not, in physical science, remain content to echo the
sentiments of a master. Nature's laws and nature's
facts alone are able to stand the rigid scrutiny to
which all teaching is now unreservedly exposed.
Some men's minds, under such an apparently un-
settled and disorderly state of things, become sceptical
and faithless. This arises from indolence; they will
not give themselves the trouble to investigate, and
thus they throw truth and falsehood overboard to-
gether, and vainly try to rest upon a negative. But,
to the more active and industrious mind, the same
condition is stimulative to exertion. Truth is sought
after with earnestness, and, when found, is embraced
with satisfaction and delight.
Among the medical inquiries of the day, Homoeo-
pathy, in the judgment of many, is the most important
which has yet appeared, while it is condemned by the
voices of many more as a dishonest fallacy. It is
proposed to consider, in a few words, what homoeo-
pathy is not, and what it really is.
1. Homoeopathy is not a move//y. In a Sanscrit
poem called Sringara Tilaka, written by Kalidasa,
who was one of the ornaments (or gems, as they were
commonly called) of the court of Vikramaditya, king
of Ujayin, whose reign, used as a chronological epoch
by the Hindus, is placed about fifty-six years before
the Christian era, the following line occurs, which
shows that the fact involving the principle of homoeo-
pathy, had, in the East, even at that early period of
time, passed into a proverb –

WITſ. TTHEITHIETFITTFſ
“It has been heard of old time in the world that poison is
the remedy for poison.”
I.] wHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY 2 5
Hahnemann observes that “the author of the book
‘IIep: römov rôv kar’ &6porov, which is among the writings
attributed to Hippocrates, has the following remark-
able words —“Ată ră ăuota vowooc yiveral, kai 8tá rà éuota
Toogºspóueva èk vogoûvrov Jytaivovrat," &c.,"—“By similar
things disease is produced, and by similar things,
administered to the sick, they are healed of their
diseases. Thus the same thing which will produce
a strangury, when it does not exist, will remove it
when it does.”
These sentiments are thus expressed by Cornarius
in his translation in 1564: “Per similia morbus fit, et
per similia adhibita ex morbo Sanantur. Velut urinae
stillicidium idem facit si non sit, et si sit idem sedat.”
The learned Dr. Francis Adams, in his translation
of the works of Hippocrates, published in 1849, by the
Sydenham Society, thus comments upon this passage :
“The treatment of suicidal mania appears singular,
‘Give the patient a draught made from the root of
mandrake, in a smaller dose than will induce mania.’
. . He then insists, in strong terms, that, under cer-
tain circumstances, purgatives will bind the bowels,
and astringents loosen them. And he further makes
the important remark that, although the general rule
of treatment be “contraria contrariis curantur, the
opposite rule also holds good in some cases, namely,
‘similia similibus curantur.' It thus appears that the
principles both of A //opa/hy and Homayoffathy are
recognized by the author of this treatise. In confir-
mation of the latter principle he remarks, the same
Substance which occasions strangury will also some-
times cure it, and so also with cough. And further,
he acutely remarks, that warm water, which, when
drank, generally excites vomiting, will also sometimes
put a stop to it by removing its cause.”
* Organon, translated by Dudgeon, p. 106.
* Hippocratis Opera, Juno Cornario interprete, 1564, pp.
87, 88.
* Works of Hippocrates, translated by Francis Adams,
LL.D., Sydenham Society, 1849, vol. i. p. 77.
6 WHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY 2 [ESSAY
Hahnemann further observes that “later physicians
have also felt and expressed the truth of the homoeo-
pathic method of cure.” As for instance, Boulduc,
Detharding, Bertholon, Thoury, Von Störck, and
especially Stahl,—all these during the eighteenth
century. But their observations were slightly made,
and produced no permanent impression either on
their own minds or on those of others. We are in-
debted to Hahnemann for a fuller discovery and
development of the law, and for forcing it with suffi-
cient perseverance upon the attention of the world.
It has been asked if Shakspeare makes any allusion
to this method of cure. We have one in the following
passage —
y y
“In poison there is physick
HENRY IV, Part II, Act i, Scene I.
2. Homoeopathy is not guackery. The essence of
quackery is secrecy. . The individual practising it
pretends to the possession of some valuable remedy–
a nostrum—which he sells for his own private gain,
but which he will not disclose for the public good.
Homoeopathy has no secrets—no nostrum—it courts
inquiry, it entreats medical men to investigate it.
This is not quackery.
Homoeopathy, in its present form, was discovered
by a regular physician (Hahnemann), and was first
published in the leading medical journal of Europe
(Hufeland's), in 1796. It has been studied and
adopted by several thousands of regularly educated
and qualified practitioners, some of them professors
in universities, and others leading men in their pro-
fession, who urgently call upon their colleagues to
follow their example. They offer every facility in the
way of instruction, by hospitals and dispensaries, and by
private information which it is in their power to give.
This is not quackery.
Homoeopathy is no field for the St. John Longs
and Morisons—the patent-medicine vendors. The
unsettled, unsatisfactory, and unsuccessful course of
I.] whAT Is HOMOEOPATHY 2 7
the educated physician leads his patients to try quacks
and quackery, whose means, it must be acknowledged,
are very similar to his own, and sometimes more
successful. Nothing would so effectually drive away
all real charlatanry as the adoption, by the profession,
of a recognised law of healing, and the carrying this
out fully and fairly, so as to derive from it all the suc-
cess which can in reason be looked for.
3. Homoeopathy is not g/oôu/isme. Globules are a
particular mode of preparing medicinal doses, invented
by Hahnemann, and recommended by him ; but ho-
moeopathy is in no way dependent upon their recep-
tion for its successful practice. The association is
accidental, and is simply a matter of convenience.
4. Homoeopathy is not an 2/7certainty. It is sur-
prising how the opponents of homoeopathy, and even
some of its friends, bewilder both themselves and
others when they endeavour to explain what homoeo-
pathy is. The impression is thus produced that the
new doctrine is nothing more than a wild theory, very
vague, and very worthless. The most common mis-
take is thus stated : “A medicine, or a poison, which
will produce a disease, will cure it.” “If I am fatigued
with a long walk I must take a short one ſ” This is
&/ºe same curing ſhe same—not /i/ e curing /i/e.
Similis is not idem. The remark about being fatigued
was made by an eminent Greek scholar, but Greek
scholars Ought not to fall into such an error as to
confound ouðc with Öſtowoc ; they may be reminded of
the controversy between Athanasius and Arius, in
the fourth century, and the difference between 6poojavoc
and duotovoloc.
Let me try to set this matter in a clear light.
“Give,” says Hippocrates, in a particular case of in-
Sanity, “a draught from the root of mandrake, in a
smaller dose than will induce mania,” that is, if taken
in health. In both cases there is an alienation of
mind—the symptoms are similar; but the causes are
different, and the cases are not identical.
The preparation of mercury called corrosive sub-
8 WHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY 2 [ESSAY
limate is one of the most violent poisons; two or
three grains are sufficient to destroy life, as has hap-
pened when it has been given by mistake for calomel.
The symptoms it produces are well known to be those
of inflammation of the stomach and bowels, accom-
panied by diarrhoea with bloody stools; in the words
of Taylor," symptoms “like those of dysentery, tenes-
mus and mucous discharges mixed with blood being
very frequently observed.” In March, 1852, I saw
J. C., a tall spare man, about thirty, suffering from a
severe attack of dysentery; his countenance much
distressed, a great many stools for three days con-
sisting of blood and jelly-like mucus, with considerable
pain in the abdomen increased by pressure, and a
quick pulse. I dissolved one grain of corrosive sub-
limate in half an ounce of water, put four drops of this
solution into two drachms of dilute alcohol, and gave
him six drops of this tincture in four ounces of water,
directing him to take a dessert-spoonful every three
hours till the symptoms abated. He immediately im-
proved, had no other treatment, and in three days he
was quite well. Here the symptoms of the dysentery
were like those which this preparation of mercury
produces, but they had not been occasioned by corro-
sive sublimate, f/e7e/ore it was a proper remedy on the
principle of similia, that like is to be treated with like.
Every one knows that the Spanish fly, cantharides,
even when only applied externally in the form of a
blister, very often acts injuriously upon the bladder,
causing strangury and other painful symptoms con-
nected with that organ. I hold in my hand a little
book with the following title—“Tutus cantharidum in
mediciná usus internus, per Joannem Groenevelt, M.D.,
e coll. med. Lond., editio Secunda, 1703.” This book
is full of interesting cases of strangury and other
affections of the bladder very successfully treated by
the internal use of cantharides. Here is a special case
of homoeopathy—of like curing like, Or, in the words
-- ſº
Medical Jurisprudence. Article, Corr. Subl.
I.] what Is HOMCEOPATHY 2 9
of the old translator of Hippocrates already quoted,
“Velut urinae stillicidium idem facit s2 move sić, et sº sit
idem sedat”—“the drug produces the complaint ºf not
Zhere; but, if it be there (arising from another cause),
it cures it.” For this method of treatment, the author
tells us in his preface /e was committed to AWewgate, on
the warrant of the president of his own college—the
royal college of physicians of London—“Chartà quádam
manibus propriis signatá, sigilloque firmatā me Scelera-
torum carceri (Newgate vulgo dicto) malae praxeos
reum asseverantes, tradiderunt l” This happened in
1694 – just a century before Hahnemann. It is
worthy of remark, before quitting Dr. Greenfield, that
the dose of cantharides which he gave was such as to
oblige him to give camphor along with it, as an anti-
dote to correct the otherwise aggravating effect of the
fly. The present method of reducing the dose, which
we owe to Hahnemann, enables us to cure similar
cases of diseased bladder without the addition of the
camphor, and without fear of aggravating the symp-
tomS.
One instance more. Belladonna, when swallowed
as a poison, produces a Scarlet rash, a sore throat,
fever, headache, &c., all which symptoms appear in
Scarlet fever. Belladonna, as was first discovered by
Hahnemann, not only generally cures, but often pre-
serves from scarlet fever. Beſ/adonna does not pro-
duce or cause scar/ct ſever, Özzt it does produce symp-
foms similar to Z/ose of scar/et ſever. Whoever will
carefully study these examples will no longer charge
the doctrine of homoeopathy with vagueness and
uncertainty.
5. Homoeopathy is not an inſin itesima/ dose. This
is another popular mistake, diligently, though perhaps
ignorantly, fostered by the opponents of homoeopathy.
Like curing like—similia similibus curantur—says
nothing about the dose. All that is essential to the
carrying out of this principle—all that the general fact
or law of nature requires for its fulfilment—is an-
nounced by Hippocrates ; give the poison in a smaller
I O WHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY 2 [ESSAY
dose as a remedy in the natural disease, than would be
sufficient to produce similar symptoms in a healthy
person. A smaller dose — how much smaller is a
matter of experience. Twenty grains of ipecacuanha
will make a healthy person sick, and the twentieth part
of a grain may be sufficient to cure a similar sickness.
Twenty grains of rhubarb will act as a purgative, and
One grain may cure a similar diarrhoea. Two grains
of arsenic or corrosive sublimate may bring on fatal
inflammation of the stomach or bowels, and the thou-
Sandth or the ten-thousandth part of a grain may be
sufficient to cure—not the inflammation brought on by
itself—but a similar inflammation arising from other
Call SéS.
It should not be forgotten that homoeopathy, as a
principle, was discovered by experiments made with
appreciable doses, and a man may be a true homoeo-
pathist though he never prescribe any other. The
nature and effect of the so-called infinitesimal doses
are separate questions; those who make use of them
find that they are (from whatever cause) efficacious
and generally sufficient, but no man is pledged to use
them exclusively, though many do, being satisfied from
their experience that they are the safest and best mode
of administering medicine. No one will deny that they
are the pleasantest, and, if success follow their use,
why should they not be used ? Because, it is said,
they appear absurd, and their action cannot be ex-
plained. But if a fraction of a grain will cure a
disease, is it not more absurd to give a larger and,
perhaps, injurious dose 2 And who can explain the
mode of action of the large dose any more than that of
the small one 2 If diseases disappear of themselves
under suitable diet and regimen, or if the small doses
afford all the aid required, why should patients be
“encumbered with assistance,” or their recovery be
retarded or jeopardised by the unwieldly and often
hurtful interference of large doses of poisonous drugs
Why has it so often been said that “the remedy proved
worse than the disease” ”
I.] whAT IS HOMOEOPATHY 2 I I
6. Homoeopathy is not a single remedy. It does not
propose, as hydropathy does, to treat all diseases with
one panacea. It is not a remedy, but a method ; it is
not a box of tiny preparations, but a rule by which to
use all medicinal substances. The homoeopathist Says,
with the celebrated Boerhaave, “Nullum ego Cognosco
remedium, nisi quod fempestivo uszt fiat tale,”—“I know
of no remedy except that which becomes So by oppor-
tune application.”
7. Homoeopathy is not magic. It does not pretend
to charm away disease. It is not mysterious ; it does
not work through the imagination, nor by producing
moral impressions on its patients. It is not a popular
delusion, as its opponents think ; nor has it any rela-
tions with the moon, as some of its adherents imagine.
Homoeopathy has no connection with mesmerism,
though it is true that Hahnemann himself and some
of his followers have associated mesmerism and ho-
moeopathy in their practice. This proceeding is, I
think, greatly to be regretted, for it has brought upon
homoeopathy a needless addition of opprobrium and
dislike. If homoeopathy be a true branch of science, it
has a claim to be investigated by itself; and if it
possess the merits which its advocates contend for, it
is able to stand alone, and while it is on its trial it
should be permitted to do so.
8. Homoeopathy is not a disſionest /a//acy. Neither
are those who practise according to its teaching de-
ceivers. Were it a fraud, it is not likely to have had
the steady success which its opponents are constrained
to acknowledge attends its practice. A short time
would be sufficient to ~xpose its untruthfulness. An
ingenious and plausible advocate might make an hypo-
thesis popular, but he never could obtain extensive
belief in the statement of a supposed fact which every
day's observation proved to be untrue. As to abusive
words, they are not arguments, and must remain un-
answered, except by the observation that such lan-
guage generally betrays a weak cause on the side of
those who use it. Men conscious of integrity can
I 2 WHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY 2 [ESSAY
afford, under such circumstances, to remain silent.
They feel no inclination to return railing for railing;
what they wish is, that their medical brethren would
study their science, and, instead of abusing them, help
to improve it, for the benefit of their own and future
generations. When any one speaks disrespectfully of
things of which he is ignorant, he may be very fitly
rebuked, as Dr. Halley was by Sir Isaac Newton, “ ſ
/ave studied these 4/kings; you have moſ.”
9. Howzaropathy is a general yacá, a princip/e or
law of nature. All nature is exquisitely arranged and
governed by perfect laws, the result of infinite wisdom
and almighty power. The discovery of these general
facts has marked epochs in the annals of mankind.
What consequences have followed the discovery that
a magnetized steel bar, when free to move horizontally,
always turns one of its extremities towards the north
pole of the earth, as is seen in the mariner's compass 2
And what will follow from the further fact, so recently
discovery by CEersted, that, when this bar is sur-
rounded by a current of electricity, its direction is
altered at will to the right hand or to the left, as is
seen in the electric telegraph 2 Who attempts to
eap/ain or ridicule these things 2 They are facts.
Newton discovered that the force of gravity is in
direct proportion to the mass of matter in the at-
tracting bodies, and in inverse proportion to the square
of their distances. Doubtless many other proportions
are possible, but this is the one fixed upon by the
wisdom of the great God. Dalton discovered that the
elements of matter, when combining chemically with
each other, always do so in certain fixed proportions;
—for example, oxygen combines with hydrogen in the
proportion of eight parts by weight to one; this is an
interesting particular fact, but it, becomes much more
important when it is known to be a general fact, that
oxygen will combine in the same proportion of eight
parts by weight with a fixed weight of every other
element; as with six of carbon, sixteen of sulphur,
fifteen of phosphorus, thirty-five of chlorine, twenty-
I.] WHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY 2 I 3
seven of iron, thirty-one of copper, &c., and these like-
wise with each other in the same proportions in which
they combine with oxygen; as thirty-five of chlorine
with one of hydrogen, twenty-seven of iron, thirty-one
of copper, &c. &c. Here is a law of nature, absolutely
unalterable by us, and yet it is most evident that these
proportions of combinations might have been very
different;-they are so arranged by infinite wisdom—
we cannot explain why—s/a// we ridicule //e arrange-
772em; ? So we can imagine many laws of healing, but
our business is to discover, if possible, the actual One.
The evidence in favour of “similia similibus curantur” is
already great, and is increasing daily. It claims to be
received as a genera/yacá unless it can be set aside by
good evidence to the contrary. Let it be borne in mind
that ordinary medicine is without a rule, and even, as
contended for by the present president of the royal
college of physicians,” “incapable" of receiving one.
It is, consequently, in the condition of ships before the
discovery of the mariner's compass. If then a rule be
found, how great must be its value ! It is not possible
to overrate the value of a well-founded principle in
any branch of science, for “principles built upon the
unerring foundation of observations and experiments
must necessarily stand good till the dissolution of
nature itself.”
IO. Homoeopathy is a fractical facá. It is not a
speculative theory to be reasoned upon in the closet,
but a fact to be observed at the bedside ; it is no
metaphysical subject, to be logically shown by 6 priori
reasoning to be absurd ; it is no piece of presumption
and impudence to be put down “by authority,” as the
council of our royal college of surgeons happily ac-
knowledges; it is a fact to be examined, like the state-
ment of any other fact, ºfton evidence. We are not
called upon to sit down and imagine its possibility, or
its impossibility, but we are urgently pressed to observe
1 Dr. Paris.
* Emerson, in Newton's Principia, vol. iii, p. 86.
I4. WHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY 2 [ESSAY
whether it be true or not. Hundreds of credible wit-
nesses tell us that curable diseases are, for the most
part, readily cured by the new method. This is as-
serted as a fact. Is it true 2 This is the question.
Try the medicines. Why should you not ? The in-
terests of humanity require it. If they succeed, it is
a great blessing ; if they fail, publish the failures. This
is the only fair and honest way to oppose homoeopathy,
and in no other way is it likely to be opposed with
SUICCCSS.
II. Homoeopathy stands upon its comparative merits.
This must be the test of all methods of treating disease.
There is no absolute preservation from suffering in a
sinful world, nor any deliverance from death. “There
is no discharge in that war.” And as all generations
have died under the old method, so, should the new
one prevail, all generations will continue to die under
it. This consideration should render disputants on
both sides sober-minded. Medical men are engaged
in an unequal contest ; the great enemy will always
conquer at last ; but the question is a fair and a rational
one, from which class of means do we actually obtain
the greatest amount of relief from bodily suffering, and
by which is the apparent approach of death most
frequently warded off 2 This reduces the whole
matter to what would seem to be its proper shape—a
practical question—What will do me most good when
I am ill P -
12. The old meſhod is unsatisfactory. This is
admitted by almost all medical authorities. It is not
necessary to bring forward quotations in Support of
this statement; they might be had in abundance, but
the fact is so notorious that the differing of doctors has
become a proverb ; in short, there is no opposition of
sentiment, or of practice, too great not to be frequently
met with. I well remember the reply made to me by
an eminent and old practitioner when I was a pupil, who
saw the distress I was in on perceiving the uncertain
condition of medical knowledge,_“If there be nothing
true in medicine, there is in Surgery, so you must give
I.] whAT IS HOMOEOPATHY 2 I 5
your mind to that ſ” The old medicine is in the con-
dition which astronomy was in before Newton, and in
a worse condition than chemistry was in before Dalton;
many valuable isolated facts known, but no golden
thread, no law of nature discovered, by which a host
of conflicting conjectures might be dissipated, and facts
reduced to an intelligible order.
13. Homoeopathy is simple and inte//igiöſe. How-
ever absurd the rule may appear to some, it is practi-
cally a plain one, and becomes, to those who follow
it, more easy and more satisfactory every day. It is
not pretended that it can be carried out without serious
labour. The law of gravity is abundantly plain and
simple; but there are plenty of difficulties, notwith-
standing, in working out the inequalities of the moon's
In Oti O1)S. -
14. Homoeopathy gains &y comparison. It is more
successful than the old system. This comparison can
be instituted in two ways—by the statistics of public
institutions, and by those converts from the old practice
who have tried it long enough to be able to compare
with each other the results, in their own hands, of the
two methods. As an illustration of the former mode
of comparison, the following abstract, drawn from Dr.
Routh's statistics (in the ‘Fallacies of Homoeopathy'),
may be given —
HOMCEOPATHIC TREATMENT. ALLOPATHIC TREATMENT.
Deaths per cent. Deaths per cent.
Pneumonia . . 57 e e , 24
Pleuritis 3 I 3
Peritonitis 4. I 3
Dysentery 3 22
All diseases 4. IO'5
When, in 1836, the Asiatic cholera attacked, as an
awful scourge, the city of Vienna, all the hospitals were
fitted up to receive cases indiscriminately, as they
occurred ; one was a homoeopathic hospital, but under
the inspection of two allopathic physicians. The autho-
16 WHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY 2 [ESSAY
rized report, when the epidemic had done its work of
death, was this —
Mortality in the Hom. Hospital, 33 per cent.
Mortality in the Allo. Hospitals, 66 3 y
Two-thirds recovered in the one, and two-thirds died
in the other."
When, in 1849, Edinburgh was visited with this
pestilence there was a general mortality of two-thirds of
those attacked, and the proportion of recoveries under
homoeopathic treatment was three-fourths. The entire
1’eturn S Were :—
Cases. Cured. Died.
817 27 I 546
Those treated homoeopathically :
Cases. Cured. Died.
236 I79 57
Mortality under hom. treatment. General mortality.
25 per Cent. 66 per cent.
When, in the same year, Liverpool was attacked,
5,098 deaths took place between May 20th and
October 6th :—
Mortality under hom. treatment. General mortality.
25 per cent. 46 per cent.
It will be understood that, if the cases treated by the
new method had been deducted from the entire cases
in Edinburgh and Liverpool, the per-centage of deaths
under allopathy would have been greater than that
stated as the general mortality.
When, in 1853, the cholera broke out with alarming
suddenness, and with more than its usual virulence, in
Newcastle the mortality during September and the
early part of October reached 1500. Dr. Hayle has
kindly informed me that he and Mr. Elliot treated,
* See the well-known Austria and its Institutions,' by Mr.
W. R. (now Sir William) Wilde, M.R.I.A.
I.] WHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY 2 I 7
during these few weeks, eighty-one cases of cholera,
and lost sixteen, being a mortality of twenty per cent.,
or one fifth, while it is believed that the general mor-
tality considerably exceeded fifty per cent., or more
than one half of the persons attacked. A large
number of deaths took place from diarrhoea. Dr.
Hayle and Mr. Elliot treated 28o cases of diarrhoea
without one death. The royal college of physicians
has repeatedly stated that it is in this stage of cholera
that treatment is successful, and that if it be neglected
the case often terminates fatally. If f/hese 28o cases /ad
7to efficient freatment, ſow is iſ that ſ/hey aſ! recovered 2
The second mode of comparison rests in the bosom
of each private practitioner. Thus much, however,
may be stated, so far as I am at present informed,
every practitioner who has, with sufficient care and
perseverance, studied homoeopathy, has embraced it;
and I have not yet heard of one who has deserted its
ranks because he has been disappointed as to the
efficacy and superiority of this mode of treatment.
For myself, I may be permitted to say that, having
practised the old method for many years with success,
and having now devoted myself for some time to the
new mode, while I at once acknowledge that the study
is laborious and not without its difficulties, I am
persuaded that it is a change for the better, and I
venture to engage that if my medical brethren will try
So
such plants as the following, prepared as homoeo-
pathists use them, in the cases for which they are
indicated by the law of similia, they will be greatly
Surprised and gratified by their beneficial effects —
Aconitum Napellus, Atropa Belladonna,
Bryonia Alba, Arnica Montana,
Matricaria Chamomilla, Anemone Pulsatilla,
Ipecacuanha, Nux Vomica, &c. &c.
15. Homoeopathy is ſynca'ica / Arca////c/a/. It is not
the “do-nothing system” which it is represented to
be by opponents who thus Only betray their ignorance.
When fever and dysentery were desolating many parts
o
*
I 8 WHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY P [ESSAY
of Ireland, in 1847, one of the places which suffered
most was Bantry, near Skibbereen, in the county of
Cork. During ten weeks one hundred and ninety-two
cases were treated homoeopathically by Mr. Kidd, at
their own homes, amid all the wretchedness of famine;
the mortality from fever was less than two per cent,
and from dysentery fourteen per cent. During the
same period many were treated on the old method in
Bantry union hospital, with the advantages of proper
ventilation, attendance, nourishment, &c., and from the
report of Dr. Abraham Tuckey, the physician, the
mortality from fever was more than thirteen per cent.
and from dysentery thirty-six per cent.
At the same time another fever hospital was opened
for similar cases, occurring among the emigrants from
Ireland to this country, in which the medical man tells
us he abstained from all interference, and remained
passively watching the cases, ordering them free ven-
tilation, cleanliness, and confinement to bed ; water, or
milk and water, being given as drinks. He congra-
tulates himself upon the success attendant upon thus
allowing the cases to take their natural course, undis-
turbed by medicine; the deaths from fever in this
hospital were ten per cent. We have here, therefore,
an opportunity of comparing together the results of the
three methods; the ordinary system of medicine, no
medicine at all, and the homoeopathic medicine. The
deaths from fever are thus reported —under ordinary
medicine, above thirteen per cent.; under no medicine
at all, ten per cent.; under homoeopathic medicine, less
than two per cent.; a sufficient proof that f/at is doing
something and gaining by it; while by the same com-
parison, giving large doses of medicines is doing some-
thing indeed, but losing by it.
16. Homoeopathy is a practical guide. It is a rule
to direct us in the use of remedies. The medical
practitioner who, for years, has felt and mourned over
the bewildered condition of his professional knowledge,
—the contradictions of his theories, and the uncertainty
of his facts, is the only person who can fully appreciate
I.] wHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY 2 I9
the value of any principle capable of affording him a
light to guide his path. Few intelligent persons, how-
ever, can have failed to discover, from their intercourse
with physicians, that ordinary medicine is in an unset-
tled and benighted condition. It has many valuable
facts, it has many excellent remedies; but the facts are
isolated, or connected only by false hypotheses, and
the remedies are made use of in such a vague manner,
and in such destructive doses, that the value of the
one, and the excellence of the other, are either greatly
impaired or converted into injuries.
17. Homoeopathy is a guide in the choice of the
medicine, 7zoá of the dose. The dose is, as yet, a ques-
tion of experience. The law of similia is an admirable
guide in the selection of an appropriate remedy in any
case of disease; but the only information it affords in
the choice of the dose is this, that it must be a sma//er
one than would be sufficient to produce similar symp-
toms in health. Æow sma// a dose this is, must be
ascertained by trial, until some general fact or law can
be discovered, which shall constitute a guide to the
dose, as the law of similia does to the medicine. I
venture to entertain a sanguine hope that this will
be accomplished.
18. Homoeopathy aims at eradicating or permanently
curing the disease, wherever this is possible, not merely
at affording palliative relief. This constitutes another
great feature of the new method, and again points out,
in a striking manner, its superiority over the old mode.
If the symptoms of an ailment are cured by the opera-
tion of the remedy upon the constitution, the cause of
those symptoms, or the pathological condition, is, in all
probability, permanently removed. In seeking to
effect this, no other mischief is occasioned. How
often has not this case occurred 2–A patient is suffer-
ing from cough, medicines called expectorants are
prescribed ; at the next visit, the cough is somewhat
relieved, but the expectorants have unfortunately
produced nausea, and the appetite is gone ; mineral
acids are ordered to improve the tone of the stomach,
2O WHAT IS HOMOEOPATHIY 2 [ESSAY
and to restore appetite; at the following visit, the
appetite is better, but the acid has irritated the mucous
membrane of the bowels, and has produced diarrhoea;
to check this, astringents must be given, which have
Occasioned, by the time of the next visit, a return or
aggravation of the cough, and thus the round has to
be recommenced. Who does not see that there is
room for improvement in such a system P But the
greatest of all difficulties of the old mode of treatment
is this, to decide the point whether depletion and
lowering measures, antiphlogistics, as they are called,
are indicated, or the opposite remedies, stimulants and
tonics. The most eminent and experienced practi-
tioners not unfrequently differ in their opinions upon
this important point, even when, humanly speaking,
the life of the patient hangs upon the decision. Now
this acknowledged and grave difficulty is greatly miti-
gated, if not entirely removed, under the new method :
the group of symptoms has to be taken, and a similar
group found, belonging to any remedy; that is the
remedy most likely to be useful, by whatever name
it has been usual to designate it.
I9. Homoeopathy economises &/ºe vita/ ?owers. It
does not, like bleeding, and purging, and salivating,
and sweating, draw largely upon the remaining strength
of the patient, already perhaps greatly reduced by his
sufferings. Homoeopathy lets well alone. Its medicines
act only upon the diseased organ. If the head be sick,
it does not add to this sickness, a complaint in the
intestines, which strong purgatives must do; if the
lungs be inflamed, it does not also bring on an inflam-
mation of the skin, which a blister does. The bene-
ficial consequence of this method is conspicuous in the
speedy return of the patient to his accustomed health
and occupation. When the acute disease is removed,
which it often is in an unusually short space of time,
the patient is well; he has no tedious convalescence,
requiring wine and bark.
2O. Homoeopathy is gen//e and agreeabſe. If the
new mode of treatment be found, on trial, to be only
I.] WHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY 2 2 I
as efficacious as the old one, it ought to be preferred
on account of its gentleness and pleasantness; how
much more if it succeed Óeffer. The action of the
medicines, in point of fact, is found to be such as to
supersede the necessity for the severe measures and
nauseous doses hitherto had recourse to. The medi-
cines are tasteless, or nearly so, themselves, and they
do not need the aid of such formidable adjuncts as
bleeding, and blistering, and setons, and issues, and
cauterizations, and moxas. Already, indeed, the bene-
ficial influence of homoeopathy in this respect, upon
general practice, has been greatly felt, In the year
1827, I attended the military hospital in Paris, which
was in charge of Baron Larrey, senior surgeon to the
army of Napoleon. At every morning's visit, he had,
among his numerous attendants, two “internes,” or, as
they are called at the London hospitals, dressers,
accoutred in this manner : one carried a small chafing-
dish, with fire in it, and the other, a box containing a
number of actual cauteries (irons like small pokers),'
and a pair of bellows. As we passed from bed to
bed, one or more of the suffering occupants were sure
to be ordered the cautery, when one of the irons was
immediately placed in the chafing-dish, the bellows
were applied, and as soon as the intrument was brilli-
antly red hot, the Baron would take it in his hand, and
deliberately draw two or three lines on the flesh of
the patients, very like the broad arrow with which most
of us are familiar, made by the Ordnance surveyors on
Our houses and pavements during their late labours in
all parts of the country. Now, surely, to see banished
for ever, not only such painful methods as this, but
everything which approaches to it, must be a con-
summation to be wished for.
2 I. Homoeopathy administers one medicine aſ a time.
This is another great improvement. How was it possi-
ble attain to satisfactory knowledge of the powers and
properties of any drug, so long as several were com-
* See a representation of these in Essay XI.
22 WHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY 2 [ESSAY
bined together, when given to a patient 2 In the days
of Sydenham, the father of English medicine, sixty or
eighty medicines were mixed together in the favourite
prescriptions; this number has been greatly reduced
since the time of Sydenham, but, so long as two medi-
cines are given together, it is impossible to ascertain
with accuracy the effects of either.
22. The homoeopathic physician learns the properties
of drugs &y experiments upon himself, not upon his
£atients. That the contrary has been the plan hitherto
adopted is known to all. How many poor people have
been deterred from availing themselves of the aid of
Our hospitals, lest they should have “experiences” tried
upon them
It is evident that the properties of medical sub-
stances must be ascertained by some kind of experi-
ment; the question in dispute is this, is it best to try
these experiments upon sick persons, or upon healthy
ones Shall the physician get his knowledge by ex-
perimenting upon his patients, or upon himse/f? The
practitioners of the old school pursue the former method;
those of the new one the latter.
Now it is certain that the only way of learning the
real effects of drugs upon man's health is to administer
them experimentally to hea/#/y persons. None have
thought of this method, so far as appears, except
the illustrious Haller and Hahnemann —none have
attempted to carry it out except Hahnemann and his
disciples.
23. Homoeopathy is aff/icaôle to acute, as well as to
chronic diseases. When the discovery was first an-
nounced to the world by Hahnemann, he did not carry
its application further than to chronic diseases, to
ailments continuing for a long time. And the im-
pression is still general that such treatment may possibly
avail where there is abundance of Zimze, but what is to
be done in cases of emergency 2 Acute disease with
immediate danger, how can you trust to homoeopathy
them 2 The answer to this grave question, which
manifold experience gives, as indeed may be partly
I.] what Is HOMOEOPATHy P 2 3
gathered from the statistics of cholera and other acute
diseases given in the preceding pages, is this, that it
is able to grapple with the most dangerous and sudden
attacks of disease more success/u//y :/ave any other
Áſtown met/iod of treatment.
24. Homoeopathy is prepared for any view /orms of
disease far better than the old method. This fact was
very strikingly exhibited on the appearance of Asiatic
cholera in Europe. The various colleges of physicians
were quite at a loss to know how to deal with the
formidable stranger; and when called upon, in their
respective countries, to issue advice and directions,
nothing could be more painful than the visible incon-
sistencies and unsatisfactoriness of their multiform
recommendations.
On the other hand, the homoeopathic practitioners,
whether in Russia or in Austria, in France or in Eng-
land, found the true remedies without co-operation and
without difficulty, and they proved wonderfully suc-
cessful. Hahnemann himself published a tract point-
ing out the proper treatment, from a description he
had read of the disease before he had seen a case.
This point was with Sydenham a great source of
perplexity. “This at least,” says he, “I am convinced
of; viz., that epidemic diseases differ from one another
like north and south, and that the remedy which would
cure a patient at the beginnning of a year will kill him,
perhaps, at the close. Again, that when once, by good
fortune, I have hit upon the true and proper line of
practice that this or that fever requires, I can (with the
assistance of the Almighty), by taking my aim in the
same direction, generally succeed in my results. This
lasts until the first form of epidemic becomes extinct,
and until a fresh one sets in. Then / ame again in a
77tandary, and am puzzled to think how I can give
relief. . . . . . . . It is more than I can do
to avoid risking the lives of one or two of the first
who apply to me as patients.” This is the confession
* Works of Sydenham, vol. i. p. 33. Sydenham Society's
Edition. -
24. WHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY 2 [ESSAY
of a man entitled, for his truthfulness and genius, to .
the highest admiration. The difficulty, though not
perhaps always so frankly acknowledged, has been
always felt until now —it is not a difficulty in
homoeopathy.
25. Homoeopathy carries into defai/ what al/ medi-
cine is in the general. Medicines are not food, but
poisons : —not materials which of themselves can pre-
serve or produce health. They are all naturally
inimical to the human body; but, when the body is in
a state of disease, they are found, as a matter of experi-
ence, sometimes to assist in restoring it to health.
Medicine in Z/e general is poison to the healthy
frame of man, and a remedy to that frame when sick ;
this is admitted by all, and this is homoeopathy in the
general; why not then have homoeopathy in detail &
Why not first ascertain what symptoms each poison
produces, when taken in health 2 and why not give it
as a remedy for similar symptoms in natural disease ?
Medical men have been experimenting in the treatment
of diseases for many centuries, why not try // is experi-
ment P Our opponents admit, in general, what they
ridicule, and oppose, when carried out, in particulars.
26. Finally, homoeopathy re/afes on/y to the adminis-
tration of remedies, and detracts nothing from the value
of the collateral branches of the science of medicine.
It leaves anatomy, physiology, chemistry, &c., un-
affected. The homoeopathic physician Ought to be as
accomplished in these, and other departments of know-
ledge, as his fellow practitioner of the Old School; and
he is more likely than the other to turn all such know-
ledge to the beneficial account of his patient.
It may, perhaps, be objected that this Essay deals
more in assertion than in proof; if so, it is replied that
the proofs will be found in the Essays which follow.
It was necessary to ascertain first what homoeopathy
I.] WHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY 2 25
professes to be, and to give an exhibition in outline of
its leading features. Some of these features might
have been sketched with more elaborate detail, but it
is hoped they have been delineated so plainly that the
points contended for by homoeopathists cannot remain
doubtful. .*
The proofs upon which these statements rest have
been thoughtfully and carefully examined, and will be
found in the subsequent Essays distinctly explained.
Opponents should meet them with facts and arguments,
not with ridicule and abuse, for certainly any proposal,
such as is explained in the foregoing pages, even if
there be but a chance that it may be instrumental in
diminishing the sufferings of our fellow men, deserves
to be received with something more decorous than
ridicule. “Those who reject it, or who cast it out of
the way as unworthy of inquiry, must do so on their
own responsibility.” If they decline “to search all
things that may present even the shadow of a chance
of bringing them more nearly acquainted with laws
which the Creator has instituted for the government of
the world, and especially with those upon which He
has caused the preservation of health to depend, let
them recognize that it will be vain for them, in any
after hour of hopelessness, when it may be too late to
avert their own premature death, or the death of a
relative or friend, to rely on the hackneyed consolation,
that the calamity is to be regarded as a new instance
of the inscrutable ways of Providence, and not as the
penalty of having wilfully blinded themselves to any
light beneficently set before them, the reception of
which might have ensured their preservation.”
* “Truths and their reception,' by M. B. Sampson, p. 97.
London, 1849.
ESSAY II.
THE CONTROWERSY ON HOMOEOPATHY,
“The mind which is searching for truth ought to remain
in a state of suspense, until superior evidence on one side or
the other incline the balance of the judgment, and determine
the probability or certainty to the one side.” *
ISAAC WATTS.
ESSAY II."
THE CONTROWERSY ON HOMOEOPATHY.
“Read, not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and
take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh
and consider.”
LORD BACON.
THE homoeopathists are censured by their medical
brethren of the old school for bringing professional
discussions before the tribunal of the public, because,
it is said, the public are incompetent judges of such
matters. Some of their own party are disposed to
join in this censure, and all are ready to admit that,
in the present condition of medicine, an appeal to the
public is in itself an evil.
But it must be observed that this evil did not origi-
nate with the homoeopathists. Hahnemann did not take
this step ; he published his first Essay in Hufeland's
journal, a periodical strictly professional, and of the
highest character and standing in the profession. The
step was taken by the physicians of the old school, and
at the very commencement of the discussion ; for, in-
stead of meeting Hahnemann, on their common ground,
with arguments and facts wherewith to refute his
opinions, they appealed to the public authorities, and
by the aid of this professional force drove him from
city to city, and from village to village. And, more-
over, this appeal to the public by the allopathic portion
* First published in 1853.
3O THE CONTROVERSY [ESSAY
of the profession has been continued to the present
hour, and is still continued. Occasions are eagerly
sought on which to call for the inquest of the coroner,
in the hope of committing the homoeopathists to prison,
a hope which has more than once been realized ; and
the resolutions so frequently passed at public meetings
of medical men, and published in the newspapers,
declaring that they will not recognize, and cannot hold
communion with homoeopathic practitioners, whom they
Stigmatise as quacks, knaves and fools, are an appeal
to the public to aid them in their endeavours to sup-
press the unwelcome novelty.
If, then, there be folly in bringing this matter before
the public, the folly rests with the old school, not with
the new ; it is plain that the homoeopathists have no
alternative; the affair is already before the public; it
has been carried there by their opponents; they are
compelled, however reluctantly, to plead the cause of
homoeopathy before this tribunal. It is true indeed
that they do this, without fear, though reluctantly, not
doubting that, when magistrates are better acquainted
with its truth and value, they will no longer expel it
from their borders or imprison it in their gaols; nor
that the public, when well informed upon the question,
will fail to come to a satisfactory and wise conclusion.
Another justification of the course pursued by the
homoeopathists arises out of the fact that every allo-
pathic medical journal is closed to any paper containing
an argument or a fact in favour of homoeopathy." Many
medical men are not only deaf to their entreaties to
1 I deeply regret to add that this course is still pursued.
One of the latest attempts made to obtain leave to be heard
in an allopathic journal is a remarkable illustration of this.
The number of the Practitioner for August 1873, (page 140)
contains a paragraph on the chemical analysis of the pilules
made by homoeopathic druggists. It is said that these afford
“no traces of the alkaloids, even by the finest chemical tests.”
The editor (Dr. Anstie) makes the customary remarks upon
this, and concludes with these words —“We should like to
know how Dr. Sharp explains the fact 2"
II.] ON HOMOEOPATHY. 3 I
investigate the new science, but, as is most evident,
resolve, if possible, to crush it. They have imbibed a
settled hatred of the whole subject and will never
study it unless compelled áy their patients to do so.
It may be observed further, that, though this public
discussion of medical matters be an evil, good will
come out of it. The veil of mystery which has hitherto
shrouded medicine will be removed ; the elements of
the science will be expressed in plain and intelligible
terms; unprofessional men will inform themselves more
fully on these subjects than they have been wont to
do; and the result will be, not that every man will be
his own physician,—for that is neither desirable nor
possible, but that it will be in the power of every one
to possess such knowledge, and to have such an intelli-
gent appreciation of the subject, as will enable him to
choose his medical advisers for better reasons than
those by which he has hitherto been guided.
And again it may be remarked that, if medicine be
really a science, there is no reason why every educated
person may not understand its principles, as he ought
To this challenge the following letter was sent, but it was
refused admission :-
“Dear Sir, The reply to your question is this:—the
action of drugs on the living body, whether in health or in
disease, is not a chemical question at all. It belongs to
therapeutics, a branch of knowledge separated by a very
distinct boundary from chemistry.
“When chemists can tell us the chemical properties of the
contagion of Scarlet fever, or even those of the poisonous
ingredient in the venom of serpents, we shall be much obliged
to them, and they will be in a condition to undertake the
analysis of the dilutions of drugs with more hope of success.
But even then these analyses will not explain the action of
drugs on the Zizing body. As well might a carpenter's rule
be taken to measure the specific gravity of a saline solution.
“Allow me to notice one good result of the analyses you
have published. They clear the druggists from a crime of
which they have been accused, namely, that of putting much
more of the drug into their pilules, &c., than they profess to
contain.
“Believe me, faithfully yours, WILLIAM SHARP.”
32 THE CONTROVERSY [ESSAY
to know the principles of chemistry, of astronomy, of
agriculture, of mechanics, or of any other branch of
natural knowledge.
Entertaining these views, I conceive myself justified
in laying the whole case of homoeopathy, without
reserve, before //e profession, if ſ/hey wil/ /ook at it,
and, if they will not, before the public, the interests
of the latter being even more concerned in it than
those of the former. It seems to me desirable that
the matter should be clearly explained in the simplest
manner possible. Such is the object of these Essays.
In this I purpose to point out the present aspect of
what may be called the external features of the con-
troversy. This will be accomplished by the discussion
of the four following arguments—
I. From authority. III. From the majority.
II. From antiquity. IV. From improbability.
I. The argument from au//iority. This argument
on the side of allopathy may be thus stated :—various
universities, as the four in Scotland ; several royal
colleges, as those of the physicians of London and of
Edinburgh ; and many other public bodies have pro-
nounced their condemnation of homoeopathy in the
strongest manner. They have rejected students and
applicants for their degrees and diplomas, and have
passed resolutions forbidding their members to hold
any professional intercourse with those who adopt the
new system of medicine.
I will give a few illustrations of these proceedings.
The following is a letter written by the president of
the royal college of physicians of London, in reply to
an application for its licence, made by a homoeopathic
practitioner —
“Sir, The foundation of the royal college of physicians
was for the purpose of guaranteeing to the public skilful and
safe practitioners.
“The college of physicians regards the so-called homoeo-
pathists as neither skilful nor safe.
“Therefore, the College cannot, without betraying a sacred
II.] ON HOMOEOPATHY, 33
trust, give its licence to persons whom they regard as wholly
unworthy their confidence, and with whom it is not possible
they can hold any communion.
“I remain, &c.,
“JOHN AYRTON PARIs.”
I give next the declaration of the court of examiners
of the society of apothecaries in London, the only
public body authorised by act of parliament to give
a legal qualification to practise medicine in England,"
namely, that—
“In their capacity of examiners they will refuse their certi-
ficate to any candidate who professes, during his examination,
to found his practice on what are called homoeopathic princi-
3 y
ples.
As this declaration was made about two years ago,
I thought it well to learn whether the society of
apothecaries still adheres to its resolution. This I
have ascertained by the following reply to a letter of
inquiry addressed to their secretary, which I received
On the 28th of October, 1853 —
“Sir, The court of examiners still refuses to admit any
person who calls himself a homoeopathist.
“I am, Sir, yours, &c.,
“H. BLATCH, Secretary.”
An application made by a candidate to the university
of St. Andrew's Scotland, was, I understand, replied
to by the following letter —
“Sir, In answering the papers upon the practice of medi-
cine, every candidate is required to specify the mode of treat-
ment he is himself in the habit of adopting, and the average
doses that should be prescribed. This being the case, no
honest homoeopathist would seek to obtain a degree in this
university.”
The reply to a similar application made to Trinity
College, Dublin, was as follows:–
“Sir, In answer to your letter, I beg to say that I should
* “The Medical Act” of 1858 has made a new arrangement
for the qualification of medical practitioners in England.
..”
J
34 THE CONTROVERSY [ESSAY
not feel myself justified in presenting for his degree any per-
Son who adopted errors such as are introduced in the teachings
of Hahnemann. “I remain, your obedient servant,
“W. STOKES.”
Other colleges have expressed themselves in a
similar manner, and thus homoeopathy is put down
with a high hand by the medical authorities of the
United Kingdom ; and in this they are only following
the course pursued from the beginning by the similar
authorities of Germany. It is well known that Hahne-
mann was expelled from Leipsic, and from several
other places, on attempting to practise after his newly-
discovered method. This opposition still survives,
for, only a few months ago, an able practitioner, Dr.
Kallenbach, who had been invited to Frankfort-on-the
Maine by a number of distinguished citizens, was
summarily expelled by the authorities from that free
£020/72.
Such is the view of the argument on the side ad-
verse to the new method;—homoeopathy is denounced
by authority.
The reply on this argument is as follows—It is right
both to feel and to express respect for authority, and it
is a duty to render it obedience when put in exercise
within its lawful limits; but it is equally a duty to
resist it, in a lawful manner, when it is stretched beyond
those limits. The question therefore arises, Is it with-
in the lawful power of colleges, Öy a mere act of aut/o-
rity, without investigation, to denounce homoeopathy,
which professes to be a branch of natural knowledge
founded upon observed facts 2
It is easy to show that the case before us is one
which authority cannot deal with in this manner, and
consequently that, in this summary condemnation with:
out inquiry, the influence of power is misplaced, and
its exercise an act of tyranny.
For the matters are questions of Science, not of
authority; they are to be answered by observation,
not by command. A little consideration will make
this very plain. What are the questions & Such as
II.] ON HOMOEOPATHY. 35
these—Which is the best method of learning the pro-
perties of medicinal substances 2 Which is the best
mode of preparing the medicines, and the best
quantity to give for a dose 2 Is it best, in treating
disease, to combine several remedies together in One
prescription, or to give a single remedy at a time 2 Is
there any general principle in nature by which we can
be guided in the choice of our remedies 2 Does the
expression “similia similibus curantur,”—likes are to
be treated with likes, declare a natural fact, or is it
merely a fancy of Hahnemann's 2 Is the new treat-
ment, when fairly and honestly carried out, more
successful than the old 2
It is most obvious that these are not questions
which it is fitting for authorities to decide by a mere
act of power. No man is born with such intuitive
wisdom and knowledge as shall render him competent
to answer them et cathedra. They can be answered
only by interrogating nature itself, and the only possi-
ble way to obtain answers from nature is the way of
diligent and careful observation and experiment. It is
incumbent upon private individuals to pursue this
method of research before they assume themselves to
be in a condition to declare an opinion ; how much
more, then, is it the bounden duty of public bodies,
intrusted with the power of giving or withholding a
licence to practise, to take diligent heed to examine
into these matters, before they pronounce a judgment
gravely affecting, not only the profession, but the
whole community?
No post of authority, nor even any amount of know-
ledge upon other subjects, can qualify men to answer
and decide upon such questions as these, without
previous investigation. The universities and colleges
have not investigated experimentally these matters;
they are in great ignorance respecting them ; in this
ignorance they have pronounced a condemnation ; this
condemnation, therefore, while it is an act of injustice
towards men, is a harmless and insignificant proceeding
towards homoeopathy.
36 THE CONTROVERSY | ESSAY
Be it observed that the objection does not lie against
authorities for coming to a decision upon these matters,
but for deciding in ignorance; for pronouncing judg-
772ent without 7777/77 y. Such conduct cannot but be
unwise and damaging to the legitimate influence of
properly constituted public bodies. Suppose, for the
sake of illustration, that the Royal Society were to
reply to an application to be admitted a Fellow by the
following letter from the noble president —
“Sir, The foundation of the Royal Society was for the
purpose of promoting natural knowledge.
“The Royal Society regard the pretended operations of
the electric telegraph as opposed to the established principles
of natural knowledge.
“Therefore the Royal Society cannot, without betraying a
sacred trust, confer their Fellowship upon persons believing
in or practising those pretended operations, since they regard
such persons as wholly unworthy their confidence, and with
whom it is not possible they can hold any communion.
“I remain, &c.,
“ROSSE.”
Such is the position in which the royal college of
physicians has been placed by the letter of its president,
Dr. Paris.
The university of Edinburgh has still further out-
stretched its lawful authority. It is well known that
the examining bodies of our public institutions are
appointed for the purpose of ascertaining that applicants
for certificates and degrees have passed through an
appointed course of study, and have acquired a certain
amount of knowledge, and the certificate or degree,
when granted, testifies to this fact, and nothing more.
But the examiners of the university of Edinburgh re-
fused to grant this testimonial to Mr. Alfred Pope,
unless he would pledge himself never to practise
homoeopathy, but only “that system of medicine” which
he had been taught by the then professors in that
university. Now even had the subject of homoeopathy
been investigated by the examiners, and they had come
to the conclusion that, in its present aspect, it was not
II.] ON HOMOEOPATIHY. 37
a desirable mode of practise, still it cannot be doubted
by any one that to reject a student for refusing to
pledge himself for the future, would have been an
unjust and tyrannical act ; for this reason, that they
cozz/a/ 7zoſ Ánow what additional discoveries and im-
provements might be made, or what might become,
even in their own judgments, the most successful
method of relieving the sufferings of their fellow-
creatures. How great then the injustice, both towards
homoeopathy and towards the student, to require such
a pledge, not only without knowledge, but without
inquiry !
There is another light in which this question must
be viewed in order to see the fallacy of a comparison
which Dr. Simpson and others are fond of drawing
between medical and c/erica/ students. It is well
known that before admission into the ministry of the
Church, a young man is expected to profess his adop-
tion of certain articles of faith, in which he undertakes
to abide, and which his teachers have also acknowledged
their assent to, and undertaken to teach. They are
therefore bound to reject any student who refuses to
express his belief in the articles of the Church into which
he aspires to enter. In the schools of medicine there
are no such standards. Every teacher is at liberty to
adopt and teach whatever medical doctrine and practice
he thinks best ; and consequently, every student has to
make a similar choice for himself; and, provided he
pursues the prescribed course of studies, and acquires
the stipulated amount of information, he has hitherto
obtained his degree, with a mind unfettered as to the
mode of practice he may afterwards see fit to adopt.
Viewing the matter in this light, it was an unjustifiable
act on the part of the authorities to agree together to
condemn a particular mode of practice, while they agree
in nothing else except in their ignorance of what that
mode is, and of what it can accomplish.
That the greatest differences of opinion, both in
points of theory and in matters of practice, prevail even
among the teachers of the same university is admitted;
38 THE CONTROVERSY [ESSAY
but Dr. Simpson contends that they are all governed
by the “standard of common sense.” Does he mean
by this the kind of sense which decides a question in
ignorance of it 2 Which supposes the course of nature
to be subject to human authority ? Which would make
a young man pledge himself never to look at a natural
fact which may possibly stare him in the face all the
rest of his life 2 And promise never to adopt a mode
of treatment upon which his future professional success
may possibly depend, and which / is avaminers f/ie/2-
Se/wes are free to adopt any day &/ºey please ? Surely
this is the sense shown by the Inquisition when it put
Galileo into prison for discovering that the earth moves,
and for asserting his belief in it; and is this what Dr.
Simpson means by the standard of common sense 2
Paley truly observes that “one of the ends of civil
government is its own preservation ;” but is this the
mode by which the rulers of our universities and colleges
hope to preserve their lawful authority over the next
generation ? Is it by excluding from their body the
most inquiring minds, the most ardent spirits, and
forcibly ranging them in opposing ranks, that they
expect to hand down unimpaired to their successors
the venerable institutions of our country P*
* It is painful to add that these reflections are still justified.
In 1861 a special meeting of the royal college of Surgeons in
Ireland was held for the purpose of taking this subject into
consideration ; and the Council afterwards passed the follow-
ing Ordinance —
“No fellow or licentiate of the college shall pretend or
profess to cure diseases by the deception called homoeopathy,
or the practices called mesmerism, or by any other form of
quackery. . . .
“It is also hereby ordained that no fellow or licentiate of
the college shall consult with, meet, advise, direct, or assist
any person engaged in such deceptions or practices, or in any
system or practice considered derogatory or dishonourable to
physicians or Surgeons.”
And in November, 1872, the president of the college, in an
address given as president of the surgical Society of Dublin,
reproduced this Ordinance; and, in language the strongest
possible, insisted upon its observance (1873).
II.] ON HOMOEOPATHY. 39
Happily, however, for the credit of our age, the
course thus pursued by many of our public bodies /as
moſ been pursued by all. The royal college of surgeons
of London have dealt with this matter after another
manner. To the applications which have been made
to the council to join in putting down homoeopathy, the
following decisive answer has been, on each occasion
returned :—
“The council of the royal college of surgeons of England
have attentively and repeatedly considered the various com-
munications which they have received on the subject of
homoeopathy; and, after mature deliberation, have resolved
that it is not expedient for the college to interfere in the matter.”
Having had the pleasure of being a member of this
college for many years, I cannot but rejoice in this
determination of the Council. I believe it to be the
course of justice and wisdom, and venture to entertain
a confident expectation that it will not be long ere the
same course is adopted by the other colleges also,
which, for the moment, have been led into error by
their present rules. With a little time and patience a
naţional reformation may take place, under the auspices
of our established institutions; this will be far better
than any sectarian one effected by a new charter.
Such is the view of the argument, from authority, on
the side favourable to the new method. The condem-
nation of homoeopathy by magistrates, universities
and colleges, has been done inadvertently, is devoid of
force, and not likely to be long continued ; it is a con-
demnation pronounced without knowledge and without
reason, and by an exercise of power beyond its lawful
limits.
II. The argument from antiquity. On the side of
allopathy —the present, or, as it is often called, the
established and legitimate mode of treating diseases, is
the result of thousands of years of observation and ex-
perience. A succession of talented men have been
engaged through many years in the cultivation of the
profession of physic. They have laboured diligently,
4O THE CONTROVERSY [ESSAY
amidst toils and dangers and discouragements of no
Ordinary kind. There has been put in exercise a large
amount of philanthropy, of devotedness, of disinterested
Self-denial. And this labour and devotedness, extend-
ing through successive generations, has had for its great
Object the discovery of the most successful method of
mitigating the sufferings of mankind from disease and
death. And have all this labour and exposure to
danger, this philanthropy and self-denial, been in vain 3
It is incredible. Surely, the best results have already
been arrived at ; every mode of treatment must have
been tried, the faulty rejected, and the best retained
in the hands of the well-educated, legally qualified
physician. Any upstart method of the present day
must unavoidably come under the suspicion that it is
One of mere pretention ; that it seeks popular favour
by large professions, the hollowness of which is con-
cealed only by their novelty, and by the audacious
boldness with which they are put forth ; that its growth
is that of the mushroom springing up and perishing
with equal rapidity; its flash of light that of the meteor
which is no sooner seen than it vanishes into darkness.
Homoeopathy thus viewed is one of the many kindred
delusions which will have its brief existence, and then
die away to be heard of no more.
If such be the true state of the case, it is obviously
vain to expect men of standing in their profession to
investigate homoeopathy with care. It would be to call
upon them to turn aside from their legitimate pursuits,
to waste their time which might be better employed,
and to draw them into a field of labour which would
never be exhausted, for no sooner would they expose
the false pretensions of one form of quackery than
another would appear. Hence it is concluded that
homoeopathy must be contemned as unworthy of notice;
and those who, from a weak intellect or from Sordid
motives, are induced to adopt the hated novelty must
be repelled and degraded.
On the side of homoeopathy it may be asked,—Is this
the true view to be taken of the matter in hand 8
II.j ON HOMOEOPATHY, 4 I
What has been advanced relative to the meritorious
efforts of the profession during many centuries is fully
admitted. For this the meed of praise is offered with
an ungrudging hand, the expression of thanks is ten-
dered with a grateful heart; but the inference from
these efforts, that the end has been achieved, cannot be
admitted. The premises are true, but the conclusion
does not follow. The imperfection, the confusion, the
acknowledged absence of principle, of concord, of settled-
ness in the actual condition of medicine, proclaim the
fallacy of such a conclusion.
That there is room for improvement, therefore, cannot
be denied; neither can it be doubted that an improved
method is possible. It follows that the plea of waste
of time against the examination of new methods must
be looked upon as an excuse for indolence and in-
difference, and as such falls to the ground. This plea
being removed, and improvement being possible, the
leading members of the profession are held under
obligation to give their time and attention to the
investigation of new methods, and especially of one
coming as homoeopathy presents itself, and which is
pressed upon their notice by SO many voices in their
own body.
It is true that many worthless things spring up and
Soon die away, and that there are many pretenders and
much quackery in the world ; but it is not true that
homoeopathy can be thus described. It has not sprung
up with any mushroom growth, for it has been struggling
to take root these fifty years ; and, on the other hand,
though it has been asserted, times without number, that
it was dying away, by parties, doubtless, who believed
that to be true which they desired to be so, yet
homoeopathy does not die away.
But it will, perhaps, be contended that homoeopathy
has been examined and found wanting, and Professor
Andral referred to in proof. I have always entertained
a high regard for Professor Andral, having known him
long, and I cannot but regret, for his own sake, that he
was induced to undertake such a trial of homoeopathy
42 THE CONTROVERSY [ESSAY
as must be designated by every unbiassed person as
having been ignorantly and disingenuously made. I
need not describe it in detail, this has been well done
by Dr. Irvine; but, as a trial of homoeopathy it is
altogether insignificant and valueless. All other trials
which have been made, so far as I am acquainted with
them, also prove nothing but the ignorance and the
prejudice of those who have made them.
The plea that medicine has come down to us settled
of old time is a false plea.
The plea that medical men cannot be expected to
examine new methods is also a false plea.
The plea that an investigation of homoeopathy may
safely be neglected, because, like many other novelties,
it will soon die away, is also a false plea.
The plea that homoeopathy has already been examined
by competent persons, and proved a fallacy by experi-
mental demonstration, is also a false plea.
The plea of antiquity itself in support of the present
mode of treatment is a false plea, for the present times
are the ancient times and true antiquity, in matters of
this kind, as has been testified often. “What, in
common language,” says Jeremy Bentham, “is called
‘old time ought to be called ‘young or early time.’ As
between individual and individual living at the same
time and in the same situation, he who is old possesses,
as such, more experience than he who is young ; as
between generation and generation, the reverse of this
is true, if, as in Ordinary language, a preceding genera-
tion be, with reference to a succeeding generation,
called old—the old or preceding generation could not
have had so much experience as the succeeding. With
respect to such of the materials or sources of wisdom
which have come under the cognizance of their own
senses, the two are on a par ; with respect to such of
those materials and sources of wisdom as are derived
from the reports of others, the latter of the two
possesses an indisputable advantage.”
1 See ‘British Journal of Homoeopathy,' I 844, and Hen-
derson’s “Homoeopathy fairly Represented.' Appendix.
II.] ON HOMOEOPATHY. 43
Lord Clarendon says, on this subject, “If wisdom
and understanding be to be found with the ancient,
that time is the oldest from which men appeal to the
infancy of the world. . . . . The young shall have
much to answer, if, when they come to be old, they do
not know more, and judge better than they could who
were old before them.”
These eminent writers only confirm what Lord
Bacon had long before declared : — “The opinion
which men entertain of antiquity is a very idle thing,
and almost incongruous to the word ; for the old age
and length of days of the world should in reality be
accounted antiquity, and ought to be attributed to Our
own times, not to the youth of the world, which it
enjoyed among the ancients; for that age, though with
respect to us, it be ancient and greater, yet with regard
to the world it was new and less. And as we justly
expect a greater knowledge of things and a riper judg-
ment from a man of years than from a youth, on
account of the greater experience, and the greater
variety and number of things seen, heard, and thought
of by the person in years ; so might much greater
matters be justly expected from the present age than
from former times, as this is the more advanced age of
the world, and now enriched and furnished with num-
berless experiments and observations.”
Thus the argument from antiquity, when rightly
considered, turns out to be in favour of homoeopathy,
as the discovery of the latest period of the world; as
the result of long-continued labour, which was sure,
Sooner or later, to be rewarded with fruit.
The uncertain and unsatisfactory methods of heal-
ing, pursued during the early and middle ages of the
world, were adopted, not because none better could be
found, but because, as yet, none better had been
found. The better is now discovered, and as well
might people refuse to travel by the railway, or to
receive communications through the telegraph, because
they were not in use in the times of our fathers, as
44 THE CONTROVERSY [ESSAY
refuse to avail themselves of the latest improvements
in the treatment of their maladies.
III. The argument from the majority. In support
of allopathy it is urged that homoeopathy has now
been before the profession more than half a century,
and it is still rejected by a very large majority of
medical practitioners, and especially by nearly all who
Occupy places of eminence and distinction. It has met
with “a steady rejection on the part of the great body
of the profession, notwithstanding its claims have been
perseveringly urged by its advocates.” And it is to
be “remembered that the profession which has so
perseveringly and almost universally rejected homoeo-
pathy, is composed of men who have every variety of
Opinions, and are not bound together by any particular
set of doctrines.” Again, “many of those who practise
according to this system are poorly educated and
irresponsible men. Unable to get any hold upon the
profession, homoeopathy has received most of its
votaries from the people.”
The argument therefore against homoeopathy from
numbers and personal character is this ; that it is still
rejected by the majority of the medical profession, and
condemned by the most distinguished teachers and
practitioners of the art. -
On the other side, it may be remarked, that a new
fact or a new fancy must necessarily at first be known
by a small minority of persons;–nay, a fact observed
for the first time, or a fancy newly imagined, must, in
the first instance, be limited to a single individual.
Until they have been communicated to others they can
be known only to the mind which has observed or
imagined them. Truth and error are in this respect
upon an equal footing. Harvey's discovery of the
circulation of the blood, and Sir Kenelme Digby's
invention of the weapon-Salve start from the same
point, each from the mind of an individual. The
progressive reception by mankind of the one or the
other may be rapid, or it may be slow ; little can be
II.] ON HOMOEOPATHY. 45
inferred from this progress in favour of the truth of the
One, or the falsehood of the other. As therefore the
rapid progress of homoeopathy would not prove it
true, so neither does its slow advancement prove it
false. There are many reasons which account for and
explain its comparatively tardy reception by the pro-
fession, these will be noticed on a future occasion ; but
there is a force in one circumstance connected with
this argument of the highest value, the importance of
which demands the serious attention of every intelligent
person —the fact that the minority who have adopted
homoeopathy have done so after having examined and
tested it experimentally in their own hands, and have
been thus led to embrace it from conviction of its
truth; while the majority, who continue to reject it,
have not examined it, will not examine it, and con-
fessedly remain in ignorance of the nature and extent
of the evidences in its favour.
Let this last consideration have its due weight and
what becomes of the objection to homoeopathy that it
has met with “a steady rejection on the part of the
great body of the profession ?” It tells as little
against the truth of homoeopathy as the fact tells
against Christianity that, after eighteen centuries, a
large majority of mankind still unhappily reject its
evidences and its blessings.
Having said thus much, I will not enlarge upon this
topic. That numbers and great names often give us
very little help in Our Search after truth, is an old
observation. I shall discuss the difficulties which
impede the progress of homoeopathy, in a future
Essay,” Only remarking at present, that some men tell
us at Once that they studied when they were students,
and their pride is wounded by the request to “go to
school again;" Some men wiſ/ſlot give themselves the
trouble either to read, to observe, to experiment, or to
think; some men cannot do either, to any useful
purpose ; while others agree with the vicar of Wake-
* In Essay X. * Ibid.
46 THE CONTROVERSY [ESSAY
field in believing that “there are but few that can
confute them in argument.”
IV. The argument from improðaðility. This
attaches to the dose. The novelty of the announcement
that a drug may be divided, by rubbing in a mortar,
into a million or a billion of parts is startling ; but,
when it is further announced that these doses are
Sufficiently powerful to act as remedies in disease, the
statement is so incredible as to appear absurd.
The allopathist argues thus —We have here two
great improbabilities, and two observations in addition,
which claim attention. The two improbabilities are—
first, that such doses can be prepared, and, secondly,
that they can have any efficacy in curing diseases :
and the two observations are—first, that “the doses
administered in homoeopathic practice, especially at
the present time, have an exceedingly wide range.
Hahnemann himself, although he recommended the
thirtieth dilution for common use, did sometimes resort
to even allopathic doses, as for example, in the treat-
ment of cholera with camphor.” Many entertain the
idea that the dose must be regulated by the different
degrees of sensibility or impressibility of the patient ;
but, “if medicines produce, in infinitesimal doses, such
effects as are attributed to them, and if there be such
wide differences in the susceptibility of the sick, it
must be very important to fix upon, exactly, the right
dose in each case.” “If an error should chance to be
committed, 4/ke effect must Če /horrió/y destrucéive.”
And, secondly, that “if both ordinary doses and infi-
nitesimal ones cure disease, they must,” it is said, “do
it in different ways. The action of the potentised
infinitesimal upon the system must be regulated by
different principles from those which govern the action
of the same article in its crude form. Let me
illustrate this truth in a familiar manner. You See a
heavy weight raised by a rope; suppose now that
some one take from that rope a filament So Small that
it is invisible, and with this raises the same weight.
II.] ON HOMOEOPATHY. 47
We should say at once the rope and filament do not
raise the weight upon the same principles, that some
new power is given to the filament which is not pos-
sessed by the rope. “True,” says the homoeopathist,
‘that is clear enough, and we claim that a new power
is given to medicine by trituration and attenuation l’
Why then, I ask, do you not adhere to this view of
the subject 2 You are not consistent with yourself.
While you say that a new power is given to the
infinitesimal which does not belong to the medicine in
its crude state, and by this power it cures disease ;
you, at the same time, claim that the law ‘similia
similibus curantur’ is the principle on which both
infinitesimal and crude medicines effect cures, which is
as absurd as to say that the invisible filament raises
the weight upon the same principle as the rope does.”
Such is the view of the argument as advanced
against homoeopathy;-the efficacy of the infinitesimal
dose is utterly wanting, it is thought, on the score of
probability. -
In reply to the first assertion, namely, the improba-
bility that it is practically possible to divide anything
into a decillion of parts, it can be shown that nothing
is more easy. Suppose we take thirty new and clean
half-ounce bottles, and place them in a row ; and put
corks in them ; and mark the corks with the numbers
from one to thirty ; and put into No. 1 ninety-eight
drops of alcohol, and into each of the remaining
bottles ninety-nine drops of alcohol; and put into No.
I two drops of the “mother tincture” of any liquid
medicine (which consists of the juice of the plant and
alcohol in equal parts), and shake this bottle well; and
put one drop of this first dilution into the bottle
marked No. 2, and shake it well; and put one drop of
No. 2 into No. 3, and shake it; and proceed in the
same manner through the thirty bottles. By this time
we shall have divided the original drop of the medi-
cine so that the 30th dilution contains a decillionth
part of it. This proceeding will not have occupied an
hour, and the quantity of alcohol consumed will have
48 THE CONTROVERSY [ESSAY
been about six ounces; instead of the oceans of spirit
required, according to the calculations of mathemati-
cians and doctors. -
Is not this quite simple and easy 2 And for a solid
not less simple, though a little more laborious. A
grain is to be carefully triturated with ninety-nine
grains of Sugar of milk in divided portions for an
hour ; a grain of this first trituration is to be rubbed
in a similar manner for the second; and a grain of the
second for the third trituration. After this the sub-
stance becomes soluble, and the remaining dilutions
can be made as in the case of the tinctures; twenty-
seven bottles being required to obtain the thirtieth
dilution. For proofs that these dilutions retain the
medicinal properties of the drug sufficiently to act
upon disease, I must refer to Essay IX.
The accomplishment of the fact does away with the
improbability.
In reply to the second assertion, namely, the impro-
bability that these doses have any effect in curing disease,
it can be shown that nothing is more true, if the testi-
mony of every medical practitioner who is in the daily
habit of administering them in disease can be relied
upon. It is well known that the number of these
witnesses now amounts to thousands; that they have
been trained in medical studies and pursuits, as their
brethren whom they have left in the ranks of allopathy;
and it is also well known that none talk about the impro-
bability of this medicinal action but those who have
not been willing to witness it. The subject therefore
stands in this position—the efficacy of the Small dose
is a fact which “strikes the eyes of all who do not
keep them shut.”
The strong impression which exists in my own mind
of the certainty of this fact contrasts painfully with the
inability felt to convey that impression to another.
From this we may learn the great difference which
exists between physical science and mathematics or
morality; the latter admit of demonstrations, the
former does not. We cannot know the facts of natural
II.] ON HOMOEOPATHY. 49
philosophy except by the observation of our own senses.
We may believe some things to be true on the testi-
mony of others, which we have not ourselves observed,
as that there are men and trees in parts of the world
which we have not visited ; but if the things told us
are very unlike our observations, we have the utmost
difficulty in believing them, until we can observe them
ourselves; then we Azzozy to be true what before we
could not believe on any testimony from others. When
the Dutch ambassador told the king of Siam that in
his country the water, in cold weather, sometimes
became so hard that it would bear an elephant, the
king replied, “hitherto I have believed the strange
things you have told me, because I look upon you
as a sober fair man ; &lt; now / aſſº sure you /ie /"
Homoeopathists are precisely in the predicament of
the Dutch ambassador. What could he say to vindi-
cate his truthfulness 2 Nothing short of a journey to
Holland could clear him. What can the homoeopa-
thists say to vindicate theirs 2 Nothing short of a
trial of the medicines can produce in the minds of their
opponents the conviction of their honesty, and of the
truth of their assertion. My inability to produce con-
viction by argument arises out of the nature of the
case, not from its doubtfulness; great therefore as is
the importance of this point, I shall content myself
with a simple illustration.
Ruckert reports eighty-four cases of cure of headache
effected by fifty-one different physicians. Only one
remedy was given in each case, and the exact dose
used is mentioned. . Most of the cases were chronic,
and of several years' standing.
“Strong doses were used, viz., from the pure tincture
to the third dilution in twenty-one cases; one dose
sufficed to cure in five instances; one dose in solution
was repeated in One instance; repeated doses were
required in fifteen cases.
“The higher dilutions, viz., from the fourth to the
thirtieth, were used in fifty cases; one dose sufficed to
effect a cure in thirty instances; one dose in solution
4
5O THE CONTROVERSY [ESSAY
and repeated in three instances; repeated doses were
required in seventeen instances.
“The very high dilutions were used in thirteen
cases; single doses in ten instances; in solution re-
peatedly in three instances.”
Is it possible that all these recoveries can have been
mere coincidences—post /koc, not propfer /ioc & Have
each of these fifty-one physicians uttered a falsehood 2
In reply to the first observation that the doses in
homoeopathic practice have an exceedingly wide range,
it may be remarked again that the dose is, as yet, an
unsettled and difficult question. One of the main
causes of this unsettledness and difficulty is the man-
ner in which Hahnemann himself has dealt with it.
When expounding his belief in the princip/e of ho-
moeopathy, Hahnemann pursues the only scientific and
legitimate course, he gives us the proofs which have
satisfied his own mind of its truth ; we cazz cata/22/26
#/ese proofs, and if they are as satisfactory to our minds
as they were to his, we also assent to the principle, and
believe it to be true for the reasons assigned. We
believe it to be true, not because Hahnemann said it
was true, but Öecause / e / as s/own its &/ºe proofs of its
Żrzzz/.. We follow him in this as the astronomers
follow Newton, and the chemists Richter and Dalton.
Unhappily for homoeopathy, Hahnemann has not pur-
sued the same course with reference to the dose. He
/as not given us //e means of judging /ow far / is coſt-
c/usions on Z/is suðject are weſ/ ſounded. He says,
indeed, very like a dictator, “it holds good, and will
continue to hold good, as a homoeopathic therapeutic
maxim, not to be refuted by any experience in the
world, that the best dose of the properly selected
remedy is always the very smallest one, in one of the
high dynamizations (30th), as well for chronic as for
acute diseases.” Now I have no objection to adopt
the thirtieth dilution for a dose, if it can be shown me
that it is really the best, but I cannot take any man's
' ' Organon, p. 289, note.
II.] ON HIOMICEOPATHY. 5
I
mere word, without proofs, on such a point. I am
therefore under obligation to try the different dilutions
for myself. How would any one look when an in-
telligent interrogator inquired of him the reason why
he always gave the thirtieth dilution, if he could give
no better answer than this, “I follow the ipse dixit of
the master, Hahnemann said it was the best.”
Suppose the discoverer of the mariner's compass had
proved to us experimentally the magnetic action which
is its / 7-inciple, and then told us, with a mysterious air,
that the needle must always be five inches long, that
no experience in the world could refute this, or prove
that a needle four inches long, or One six inches long
would answer as well ; would it be wise and manly to
submit to such dictation as this P So with the homoeo-
pathic dose, it must remain, not nominally, but really,
an open question, until sufficient proofs can be collected
to show us which is best.
It is to be remembered that Hahnemann's own
views on the subject underwent many changes; al-
though on each occasion, when he published them,
they were delivered in the same peremptory and
oracular tone. Some would have us to follow him
with blind obedience; they would place him in that
seat in medicine which Galen occupied for fifteen
hundred years, and which Aristotle held in philosophy
for a still longer period. May we, without giving
Offence, remind them of Locke's observation, “'Tis not
worth while to be concerned what he says or thinks,
who says or thinks only as he is directed by another.”
Let me be understood. The objection is not to the
adoption of this or that dose, but to the adoption of it
wił/ou/ / roof f/at it is the Öesſ. Give us the proofs
and it shall be adopted on the instant. We are told,
indeed, by some homoeopathists, that the onus proëandi
that Hahnemann and his faithful disciples are in error
lies on our shoulders. As it respects a given dose, the
thirtieth dilution, for example, this is placing the matter
in a falsc position ; it is calling for proof of the ſlºgaſive
before any proof of the ſositive has been advanced.
52 THE CONTROVERSY [ESSAY
On this point we have had a great deal of assertion
but no proof. Now the first burden of proof clearly
lies with the teacher, to show that he is right. Had
Hahnemann given us the details of five hundred or a
thousand cases, illustrating and confirming his direc-
tions regarding this dose, the latter would have had
weight , a dogmatic assertion without an attempt at
proof, is not entitled to respect. As it regards the
fixing upon any dose in the manner done by Hahne-
mann, I accept the challenge, and point out the error.
“Hahnemann and his faithful disciples” are not en-
titled to choose a dose, and demand that every one
shall adopt it, unless they give the reasons upon which
the choice rests, in such a manner as will enable others
to judge how far those reasons are adequate to support
the choice. This is the error. A dose has been
prescribed. We wait for such evidence in its favour
as the nature of the case admits.
I am far from thinking the variety of doses an
unimportant matter ; on the contrary, I think it is the
point to which homoeopathists should very much
concentrate their attention, in the hope that a body of
facts may be collected from which we may infer, in a
truly scientific manner, which is the best dose, or
series of doses. In this we must be guided by proofs,
not by authority.
In the mean time, daily experience abundantly
testifies the value and efficacy of the various small
doses, and proves that so far from being “horribly
destructive,” no permanent evil results from their
liSC.
The second observation is one of considerable
interest and importance. It is said, “If both ordinary
doses and infinitesimal ones cure disease, they must do
it in different ways.” And this statement is illustrated
by supposing a rope and an invisible filament to raise
the same weight. Now we know that a rope and a
thread so fine as to be invisible, could not raise a
heavy weight on the same principle because we know
something of the mechanical principles upon which the
II. ON HOMOEOPATHY.
5
~)
J
rope would raise the weight, and we know that the
thread could not raise it on those principles, it could
have no mechanical power. If, therefore, the illustration
were really a parallel to the point in question, it would
make the conclusion evident; but the truth is, it is not
a parallel, and therefore no illustration at all. We do
not know the mode of action of the Ordinary dose,
neither do we know the mode of action of the small
dose, consequently we cannot know that the modes are
different—for anything we know to the contrary, the
two doses may act in the same mode—on the same
principle, and therefore the law of similia similibus
curantur may apply to both. Thus both the observa-
tion and its ingenious illustration disappear.
The objection, however, is fatal to the dynamization
hypothesis of Hahnemann, and may serve as a warning
to some homoeopathists not to advocate that untenable
notion to the extent they do. The assumptions of
Hahnemann on this subject, in his ‘ Organon' are
unwarranted, and consequently his assertions are of
little value. For example, he assumes that “spiritual
power is hid in the inner nature of medicines;” that
“homoeopathic dynamizations" (rubbing the Solid in a
mortar, and shaking the liquid in a phial), “are real
awakenings" of this power ; and hence at one time he
asserts that there must be ten shakes, and at another,
only two. He is not afraid to venture upon what is
evidently a shot quite at random, “I dissolved,” he
says, “a grain of soda in an ounce of water mixed with
alcohol, in a phial, which was thereby filled two thirds
full, and shook this solution continuously for half an
hour, and this was in dynamization and energy equal
to the thirtieth development of power ſ”
It would be very difficult for any one holding this
hypothesis of “dynamization " or “spiritualization " to
answer satisfactorily the objection now under con-
sideration. It is highly improbable that the principle
of homoeopathy can apply equally to the action of
drugs in a crude state, and in infinitesimal doses, if
y
the latter act in a “spiritual" manner, and, as supposed,
54 THE CONTROVERSY ON HOMOEOPATHV. [ESSAY II,
not after the same mode as the former. Of course the
medicinal action is meant ; a large dose of a drug, e.g.,
nitrate of silver, will have other actions, such as
chemical ones, in addition to the medicinal effect.
Other reasons will be adduced, in future Essays, why
this hypothesis ought to be abandoned."
Hahnemann has discovered facts for which the
human family owe him a debt of gratitude, but it is
impossible to defend his speculations, or to apologise
for his dogmatism. In some respects he resembles
Kepler, whose name is had in grateful remembrance
by astronomers, for his discovery of three remarkable
laws connected with the planetary system ; while all
his numerous speculations have passed into oblivion.
Those of Hahnemann must have a like fate. They
have greatly impeded the progress of homoeopathy, by
hiding its truth. I doubt not also that many intelligent
inquirers have been repelled from the study of it by
his intolerable dictation.
To separate truth from fiction is generally a difficult
and ungracious task, and seldom popular. The Senti-
ment which Plato puts into the mouth of Socrates,
“To yāp d'Anóēc ovečTors £Aéyyeral,”—“truth is never
refuted”—is the encouragement to this labour; the love
of truth is the motive which constrains to it; and the
discovery and exhibition of truth is part of its reward.
1 This must be understood to mean Hahnemann's Hypo-
thesis of the development of a new medicinal action by tritura-
tion, distinct from the action of the crude medicine. There
is a sense in which the word “dynamic” may be applied to
the action of medicine in all doses.
ESSAY I I I.
THE CONTROWERSY ON HOMOEOPATHY,
(COAV7/AWUEZ).)
“That unwarlike learning, which is nourished by ease, and
flourishes by praise and reward, which sustains not the vehe-
mency of opinion, and is the sport of artifices and impostures,
is overthrown by opposition.”
LORD BACON.
ESSAY I I I."
THE CONTROWERSY ON HOMOEOPATHY,
(COAV7/A/UEZ).)
“The thing plainly is that mankind are naturally endued
with reason, or a capacity of distinguishing between truth
and falsehood.”
RISHOP BUTLER,
THE subject of this Essay is the defence of
homoeopathy in reply to medical writers; and the
book selected to be replied to is ‘The Fallacies of
Homoeopathy,' by Dr. Routh.*
In this book Dr. Routh commences by stating that
it is “at the request of several distinguished friends,”
that he has been “induced to publish in a separate
form his researches on the subject of homoeopathy.”
His book, moreover, has been frequently referred to
by medical men attached to the old mode of practice,
as containing their arguments against homoeopathy.
It may therefore fairly be presumed, that it expresses
the present views of that portion of the profession.
A reply seems called for on the part of homoeopathy.
Dr. Routh then observes that “this system (of
homoeopathy) has unfortunately lately made, and
continues to make such progress in this country, and
the metropolis in particular, and is daily extending its
* First published in 1852.
The Fa/acies of Homaropathy,' by C. H. F. Routh, M.D.,
&c. &c, London, 1852.
58 THE CONTROVERSY [ESSAY
influence, even amongst Z/e most learned, and those
whose high position in society gives them no little
moral power over the opinions of the multitude, that
our Aro/ession is, Z &/º/, Öound ſo make it 4/e subjec/
of inguèry and investigation.” For this statement
homoeopathists are obliged to Dr. Routh. It ex-
presses in forcible words an important truth, the
rapid spread of homoeopathy among that portion of
the community best able to appreciate its value; and
it well seconds their own oft-repeated and urgent
request, that medical men would make homoeopathy
the subject of inquiry and investigation.
Dr. Routh next proceeds to remark that “violent
opposition to homoeopathy can do no good. Abuse,
intolerance, cannot be accepted by the world as a fair
and philosophical inquiry. These can only call forth
new defenders. . . . All doctrines are founded
on truth, or what is supposed to be truth. The way
to disprove a doctrine is, therefore, not by assailing it
as ridiculous or absurd, a conviction of error can only
follow when the foundations upon which it is based
are shown to be untenable. Examples of such un-
philosophical demeanour in refusing fair inquiry, or
prosecuting an ea parée investigation are not wanting.
Thus the homoeopathist has reason on his
side when he appeals to the history of the French
Academy, as exemplifying intolerance and unfairness
in inquiry. He tells us that in 1642, this assembly
declared that the blood did not circulate in the body;
in 1672, that it was impossible. In 1774, after having
opposed inoculation for fifty years, it admitted its
advantages, the moment three princes of the royal
blood had been inoculated contrary to their permis-
sion. In 1609, it expelled one of its members for
making use of, and curing his patients of ague by
quinine. Even among ourselves, the great Harvey
was persecuted for his discovery (of the circulation of
the blood). The time was when the surgeon who had
dared to bring together the edges of a cut surface to
unite by the first intention (that is to heal immediately),
III.] ON HOMOEOPATHY. 59
or who had ventured to dress wounds by water dress-
ings, in lieu of plugging by large pieces of lint and
cerate (by which means the healing of the wounds was
protracted for weeks, or even months), met with //e
2//liversa/ 7-eproſa/ion of Že /70/ession, and was accused
of 77tackery. Even in later years, with what oppro-
brious names was the discovery (of vaccination) by the
great Jenner assailed Nay, but very recently, with
what violence was the introduction of the stethoscope
Opposed and in the present year how have not certain
physician-Operators been insulted by the ascription of
motives, not certainly the most honorable.” These
parallels clearly exhibit the unfair reception which
homoeopathy has hitherto met with from the bulk of
the medical profession. We have only to thank Dr.
Routh for having so well expressed the true state of
the case.
Thus far for introduction. Dr. Routh next addresses
himself to the investigation of homoeopathy. To this
I will apply myself with all seriousness, and in such a
manner that I trust neither Dr. Routh nor my readers
will have just cause to complain of any impropriety on
my part. I agree with Dr. Routh, that “he only is
the true philosopher who can so far separate his mind
from the bias of the day as to extricate it from the
dazzling perplexities which surround him, and by
adopting only those conclusions which logical reason-
ing deduces, is enabled, out of this labyrinth, to bring
out truth.”
Instead of adopting Dr. Routh's division of the
subject, I shall prefer the following —
I. The consideration of the principle of homoeopathy
—“Similia similibus curantur.”
II. The question of small doses.
III. The statistics upon which is founded a prefer-
ence of homoeopathy, as the most successful method
yet known of treating diseases.
I. The principle of homoeopathy, or the supposed
6O THE CONTROVERSY [ESSAY
law of nature upon which it is based. Dr. Routh
observes that “this law is defined by Hahnemann as
follows—' That in order to cure in a mild, prompt,
safe, and durable manner, it is necessary to choose, in
each case, a medicine that will incite an affection
similar (6 motov rá0oc) to that against which it is em-
ployed.' It was, it is said, discovered in 1790, by
Hahnemann, while engaged in translating Cullen's
Materia Medica.”
Having endeavoured to explain this principle to
Some extent in the first Essay, while answering the
question, “What is homoeopathy P” and intending to
enter fully into the consideration of it in the three
following Essays, I will suppose for the present that
my readers understand the basis of homoeopathy, the
general fact or maxim “similia similibus curantur.”
In all controversies it is well, I think, to ascertain
first how far the parties are agreed. Let us see,
therefore, how far Dr. Routh assents to this principle,
before we consider his objections.
“Allopaths, admitting the occasional truth of this
doctrine, ‘similia, similibus curantur,' have given the
larger dose. The experiments of Majendie have
shown, that tartar emetic in doses of six to eight
grains, will produce, amongst other lesions, pneumonia,
if not rejected by vomiting. Every day's experience
proves the efficacy of large doses of tartar emetic in
curing pneumonia and other affections of the lungs.
Arsenious acid, long continued, will produce a variety
of cutaneous eruptions. The advantage of arsenic in
many of these diseases is, on the other hand, well
recognised. Certain peculiar eruptions which occur
after taking mercury, have been described as produced
by it, and which closely resemble those against which
mercury is a specific. Here then are instances of the
occasional truth of this law.” (p. 6.)
Our thanks are due to Dr. Routh for such excellent
examples of the law of homoeopathy. We have only
to go on with other instances. Hippocrates, the
father of medicine, two and twenty centuries ago, says
III.] ON II OM (EC) PATIIY. 6 I
that a drug which will produce strangury, will cure it,
when it has arisen from another cause ; and Dr.
Greenfield, a member of the Royal College of Physi-
cians in London, was sent to Newgate in 1694, by the
President of his College, for giving cantharides (the
blistering fly, which all know often produces complaints
of the bladder), with great success in cases of this kind.
Again, every one knows that cinchona (Peruvian bark),
is a specific for ague; “Now,” says Dr. Routh, “bark
certainly produces symptoms, as alleged by homoepath-
ists, very /i/ e //ose of ague.” Again, Our thanks are
due to Dr. Routh. Nitric acid is a great remedy for
salivation,-Dr. Pereira (an eminent allopathic autho-
rity) says it excites or produces salivation. Sulphur
often produces eruptions on the skin, as those who
frequent baths like Harrogate well know : it is noto-
rious as a remedy for similar affections. Thus we
might proceed, not only through the fifty medicines
originally proved in this way by Hahnemann himself,
but through upwards of three hundred which have
been proved since his day, by the persevering industry
of others. Nearly all known medicines have been
thus examined, a larger number than is included in
the Materia Medica of the college of physicians as
published in their official pharmacopoeia. A Strong
method of testing such a principle as this is to select
a poison, and note the symptoms produced by it, and
then to give it in smaller doses in cases of natural
disease which present similar symptoms, but for which
it has never before been given as a medicine; if it be
found to cure such cases, the truth of the law is greatly
maintained. This has been done in many cases, an
allusion to one instance will suffice. Belladonna, the
deadly nightshade. Children have been poisoned by
the berries of this plant, when they have met with
them in the woods and eaten them. They have
suffered from fever, affection of the brain and throat,
and a scarlet eruption on the skin. Hahnemann was
induced to test the principle which had been suggested
to his mind by an appeal to this experiment; he gave
62 THE CONTROVERSY | ESSAY
Belladonna in Scarlet fever, and found not only that it
was a better remedy than any previously known, but
that it also proved a preservative from it when given
to those exposed to the infection of the scarlet fever.
That which is merely a suspicion in a single instance,
becomes a strong probability when confirmed by so
many important examples as are adduced by Dr.
Routh ; and an established reality when it is found
not only that it is applicable to hundreds of other
Substances, but that no serious or material exception
can be brought forward against it. This law is now
ascertained to be a practical guide to the best use that
can be made of every valuable remedy we possess.
Homoeopathists put it to a continual and daily test,
and it does not fail them. The few exceptional
instances which Dr. Routh adduces against it are of
the most meager description ; he goes with us a long
way in the admission of the principle, we have only to
carry him with us a little further.
Suffer me to ask, why do astronomers rely upon the
law of gravitation ? They put it to continual tests,
and it does not fail them. So let the law of similia be
tried, and so let it be trusted £2// it ſai/s.
Thus Dr. Routh's opposition to the principle of
homoeopathy seems to have disappeared. His Own
instances have laid a foundation which only required
to be built upon, that it might become an impregnable
castle of truth. -
We may now proceed to the Second matter in dis-
cussion.
II. The small dose.
This is a great stumbling block with Dr. Routh, as
it is with many others. Let us, however, as we have
done in the consideration of the principle, first ascer-
tain how far Dr. Routh goes along with us, and then
we shall perhaps know better where we differ.
“A is certain/y frue,” says Dr. Routh, “Z/a/ s/a//
doses, and es/ccia//y in Zazge d'i/u/ion (which is the
mode in which homoeopathic remedies are prepared),
III.] ON HOMOEOPATHY. 63
wi// oſtentimes acá very sa/is/actori/y.” (p. 17.) How
does he know it 2 “Z /ave sceſe fºs,” he replies,
“rºcated/y.”
How small the doses were which he has seen act
thus satisfactorily, Dr. Routh does not inform us, but
this is of little moment. It is obvious that he has
gone a cer/ain /eng//, with the small doses, and that, so
ſaz as / e / as gone eafterime/eſa//y, they have acted very
satisfactorily in his hands. The limit then of this
Satisfactory action is the same as the limit of Dr.
Routh's experience. So far as he has tried them, they
have acted very satisfactorily, he has tried none so
small that they have failed him. Now, this is pre-
cisely what every one testifies; so far as any have
tried them, the doses becoming smaller and smaller,
Or, in other words, more and more diluted, they have
acted satisfactorily.
To this point then we are agreed ; so far as either
of us have ascertained this practical point cupcºmic/e-
Žaſ/y, we have obtained satisfactory action from our
doses. We begin to differ only where Dr. Routh's
experience ceases, and he begins to conjecture. It is
well to make this point clearly evident. -
Dr. Routh was about to define the limit of the
legitimate and satisfactory dose, smaller than which
every dose would be “a piece of affectation.” (p. 7.)
He says that what he has seen repeatedly is certainly
true : does it not, therefore, seem extraordinary that
he did not go on trying smaller and smaller doses so
long as they continued to act satisfactorily, and until
they became so small as to cease to do so P Had Dr.
Routh pursued this course, selecting his medicines in
each case in accordance with the law of similia, his
testimony would have been of weight, but instead of
proceeding thus, he has ventured to condemn every
dose less than those he has himself tried, for the
following reason—“We are compelled,” he says, “to
conclude that the infinitesimal doses, ſleifſ, ez őy awa-
/ogy, nor Z/o/, aſy //core/ica / groºvid's, can have any
power upon the human frame.” (p. 16.)
64 THE CONTROVERSY |ESSAY
But, in a case so peculiar as the action of drugs
upon a living body, what analogy or what theory have
we to guide us 2 Is it not a matter of experience 2
A question of ſacá 2 By what analogy, or theory, did
Dr. Routh ascertain that his small doses in large
dilution would act very satisfactorily P. His reply is
the only sensible one which can be given. “I have
seen it repeatedly, Z/ierefore I believe it to be certainly
true !”
Suppose then he were to try still smaller doses,
(which, perhaps, true analogy would lead him to do,)
and suppose he were to see that these also acted very
satisfactorily, will he not know that this also is certainly
true 2 What then will become of /, is analogy and
theory It is a vain pretence. These are questions
of fact, and the public have reason to be aggrieved
with Dr. Routh, for objecting, from false analogy and
theory, to a matter asserted to be a fact which he
refuses to verify by “seeing” it.
It is a repetition of the conduct of Galileo's brother-
professor, who refused to look through the newly
invented telescope, ſesſ / e S/ou/d see Jupiter's moons.
He preferred the argument from false analogy and
theory, that ſ/hey could not be there. But it is more
blameable in Dr. Routh, because the matter in hand is
still more important to the well-being of mankind.
It appears, then, that Dr. Routh's opposition to the
doses frequently given by homoeopathists rest thus:
he admits that he has repeatedly seen small doses act
very satisfactorily, and he asserts that this is certainly
true; but he asserts also that what he has not seen,
and refuses to see, cannot possibly be true though
many others, his equals, at least, in intelligence and
credit, have seen it, and testify to its truth. “Analogy
and theory compel him to conclude that such doses
can have no power.”
I conclude by observing that we value Dr. Routh's
testimony as to what he has repeatedly seen, and agree
with him in believing that it is certainly true; our only
difference on this head being that we decline to adopt
III.] ON HOMOEOPATHY, 65
his analogical and theoretical opinions, because they
are destitute of foundation. We recommend him to
carry on his experiments with still smaller doses, and
we doubt not he will repeatedly see that they also act
very satisfactorily ; he will then come to the same
conclusion with respect to them that he has with
regard to those he has already tried, and will become
convinced that the power and efficacy even of infinite-
simal doses is “certainly true.”
I must remark however, that, after all, the small
dose is not homoeopathy. It is the principle—the
law of similia similibus curantur—which constitutes
homoeopathy, in whatever dose the medicines may
be given. -
We now come to the third part of our subject.
III. The comparative success of homoeopathy, as
evidenced by the general mortality of hospitals.
We might wish that the means at our disposal were
more extensive than at present they are; but it is a
difficult subject, and we are indebted to many laborious
men for the pains they have taken in registering their
cases. We are under obligations for these labours,
and we must take them as our guide in the inquiry.
“It is to be regretted,” says Dr. Routh, “that the
statistical returns for comparison from allopathic hos-
pitals are frequently insufficient for special diseases;
On the contrary, this is a point to which the homoeo-
paths have directed particular attention, and they
have already derived benefit from it with the public.”
(p. 37.) -
Under the preceding heads I have endeavoured to
ascertain, first, wherein Dr. Routh and homoeopathists
agree, in order to lessen, as much as possible, the
grounds of controversy. I shall again seek to reduce,
within the smallest compass, the matters wherein we
differ on this most important, and, to the public, most
interesting part of our subject.
We are indebted to Dr. Routh for having taken
pains in collecting and placing in juxta - position a
5
66 THE CONTROVERSY [ESSAY
variety of public statistics. From these I will make
SO1 ne eXtraCtS :—
PNEUMONIA (inflammation of the lungs).
Admitted. Died. Mortality
per cent.
Allop. hospital, Vienna . . I 134 260 23
Hom. do. do. . . 538 28 5
This is part of the first table in the Appendix. Before
commenting upon it, it will be well to allude to another
question, the comparative success in cases in which no
medicine, either in large doses or small ones, has been
given. Dr. Routh says a great deal upon this subject;
I quote the following passage: “Dr. Dietl, the allo-
pathic physician of the Wieden hospital, in Vienna,
anxious to test the efficacy of dietetic regimen in
pneumonia, instituted a series of experiments. In the
course of three years that gentleman treated 380 cases
of pneumonia. Eighty-five of these cases were treated
by repeated bleedings; of this number 17 died, or 20
per cent. ; the remaining 68 recovered. One hundred
and six were treated with tartar emetic ; the mortality
was now 20.7 per cent., 22 dying, and only 84 re-
covering. The remaining 189 were treated by simple
dietetic means; the deaths amounted to 14, or 7.4 per
cent., 175 recovering. The above data have been
given upon the evidence of Dr. Roth ( Hom. Times,’
No. 49), an eminent homoeopathic writer.” (p. 55.)
Here then is a point upon which both sides are
agreed, seeing that this experimental investigation by
Dr. Dietl is adduced by opposing writers. My readers
will note well the information it imparts. It appears
from this statement that when cases of inflammation of
the lungs, admitted by all to be a dangerous disease,
are treated, as is almost universally done by allopathic
practitioners, by bleeding and large doses of powerful
drugs, about twenty die out of every hundred, (in the
Glasgow infirmary twenty-seven,) while under simple
dietetic management only about seven die in a hundred
CalSCS.
III.] ON HOMOEOPATHY. 67
“I think,” says Dr. Routh, “we may therefore con-
clude that nature, or very simple emollient drinks,
quiet, rest, a warm atmosphere, will often cure pneu-
monia apart from any drugging whatever.” (p. 56)
He had previously (p. 35) observed “that simple
hygienic treatment, i. e., attention to diet, regularity in
the hours of meals and of rest, exercise, change of air,
will oftentimes cure many diseases, apart from any So-
called drug, indeed in a few cases where drugs have
failed altogether, cannot be disputed.”
The inference that entire abstinence from medicines
is to be preferred to the large doses of poisonous
drugs, and to the loss of blood, would seem to be
inevitable. It is true that Dr. Routh, alarmed at this
conclusion staring him in the face from his own pages,
exclaims, “God forbid that we should assent to such a
heresy " But how can it be escaped from ? His own .
statistics in favour of diet are such a mortal thrust at
old physic that he has himself put it irrecoverably
“hors de combat.”
Homoeopathists then agree with Dr. Routh that
simple diet is better than large dosing.
Nor is this opinion a new one. “If,” says Addison,
with exquisite humour, in the ‘Spectator,' for March
24, 17 Io, “we look into the profession of physic, we
shall find a most formidable body of men ; the sight of
them is enough to make a man look serious, for we
may lay it down as a maxim, that when a nation
abounds in physicians & grows thin of Aeoff/e. Sir
William Temple is very much puzzled to find out a
reason why the northern hive, as he calls it, does not
send out such prodigious swarms, and overrun the
world with Goths and Vandals as it did formerly ; but
had that excellent author observed that there were no
students in physic among the subjects of Thor and
Woden, and that this science very much flourishes
in the north at present, he might have found a better
solution for this difficulty than any of those he has
made use of. This body of men, in our own country,
may be described like the British army in Caesar's
68 THE CONTROVERSV [ESSAY
time, some of f/hem, sſay in chario/s, and some one ſoof.
If the infantry do less execution than the charioteers,
it is because they cannot be carried so soon into all
quarters of the town, and despatch so much business
in so short a time. Besides this body of regular
troops, there are stragglers, who, without being duly
listed and enrolled, do infinite mischief to those who
are so unlucky as to fall into their hands.”
It would seem, therefore, that what the advocates of
homoeopathy have really to aim at is to prove its
superiority, not Over large doses of medicine, but over
no medicine at all. Now, in reference to the cases of
pneumonia reported above, (all of them occurring in
Vienna, and at about the same period of time, and
therefore fairly to be supposed tolerably similar,) it
will be observed that while diet lost seven in the
hundred, homoeopathy lost only five. Again, in the
Irish famine fever, referred to in my former pamphlet,
I may remind my readers that while Dr. Tuckey, in
the Bantry union hospital, with every advantage, lost
more than thirteen per cent, under large doses, and,
while in another hospital, where no medicine was given,
ten died in the hundred, Mr. Kidd treated in their own
huts, with every unfavorable circumstance, I I 2 cases
with homoeopathy, and lost only two.
To pursue this subject further would carry us away
from our present Object.
That the cases treated by Dr. Fleischmann, in the
homoeopathic hospital at Vienna, were really pneumonia,
we have the following case given us in evidence by
Dr. Routh himself: “A young girl of about twenty-
three, affected with extensive double pneumonia (the
lungs on both sides of the chest inflamed). All the
symptoms were unusually marked, accompanied with
high fever, lividity of countenance, occasional delirium ;
and yet without a single poultice, cataplasm, or other
treatment than the inert globule, rest, emollient drinks,
a warm atmosphere, and starvation, she got well.
That it was pneumonia, I convinced myself by stetho:
scopic examination. The disease attained the second
III.] ON HOMOEOPATHIY. 69
stage, but it was fully four weeks before she was
convalescent, and all the physical signs of the disease
had disappeared.” (p. 54.) But they did disappear,
which is frequently not the case after the debilitating
effects of bleeding and drugs, even in cases classed
under recovery. -
That the globule was “inert” in this case is precisely
the point under discussion, and therefore cannot “ logi-
cally” (Dr. Routh is fond of the word) be taken for
granted. The result of the case would rather appear
to prove the contrary.
The following are a few more of the statistics given
by Dr. Routh —
PLEURISY.
Admitted. Died. Mortality
- jº per cent.
Allop, hospitals . . IoI 7 I 34 I 3
Hom. ditto . . . .386 I 2 3
PERITONITIS.
Allop. ditto . . . 628 84 I 3
Hom. ditto . . . 184 8 4.
DYSENTERY.
Allop. ditto . . . 162 37 22
Hom. ditto . . . 175 6 3
FEVER, EXCLUDING TYPEIUS.
Allop, ditto . . . 9697 93 I 9
Hom. ditto . . . .3062 84 2
TYPHUS.
Allop. ditto . . . 937 I I 509 I 6
Hom. ditto . . . 1423 2 I 9 I 4
(The deaths from typhus in Vienna, where occurred
most of the homoeopathic patients, were in the allo-
pathic hospitals, 19 per cent.)
/O THE CONTROVERSY [ESSAY
ALL DISEASES.
Dr. Routh gives the statistics of hospitals in London,
Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Vienna, Leipsic, Linz,
and other places; the following appears to be the
general result:—
Admitted. Died. Mortality
per cent.
Allop. hospitals—grand
total . . . I 19,630 1 1,791 IO-5
Hom. ditto, ditto . . 32,655 I,365 4'4'
Such being the actual results given by Dr. Routh, it
will be immediately inquired, how does he get over
such a startling testimony in favour of homoeopathy P
For, evidently, on the face of these figures the question
is settled. º
It excites surprise to discover that the best way Dr.
Routh can find to obviate the conclusion thus unavoid-
ably suggested, is to bring two grave accusations against
the gentlemen having the care of the homoeopathic
hospitals, without evidence, except of a very unsub-
stantial character, to support his charge. He accuses
them of selecting their cases, that is, of wilful fraud ;
and of false diagnosis, or mistaking the nature of the
diseases, that is, of great ignorance. It will be admitted
by all that the most unequivocal facts ought to be
brought forward to justify such aspersions as these
upon the moral character and professional qualifications
of any body of men. I might answer these charges
very briefly, but it is an old observation that—
“Nihil est quin male narrando possit depravari,”
There is nothing which cannot, by an ill way of telling it,
be made to appear evil.
1 The figures in these two lines have often been quoted as
if taken from Dr. Routh's book. The preceding paragraph
shows that they were obtained by adding together the separate
statistics given by Dr. Routh. (I 873.)
III.] ON HOMOEOPATHY. 7 I
And lest it should be suspected that I have dealt un-
fairly with his arguments, Dr. Routh shall be heard
in his own words, and we will go through his reasons
seriatim.
“I. The exclusion of moribund cases is not fair.”
The only example of this kind is the following, “In some
tables published by M. Touchon, in his work on
homoeopathy, this error is committed.” I have not
seen this book, and therefore cannot say how fairly
the extracts are made from it, but Dr. Routh gives the
numbers for four hospitals in such a manner as to raise
the per centage of mortality from 4-4 to 6'7.
What Dr. Fleischmann has done in this matter is to
class the cases which die almost immediately after
their admission into the hospital, under the head
“admitted moribund,” instead of attempting to assign
them to any specific disease. They count as deaths
in the general total. I think this is no unusual pro-
ceeding. Dr. Routh does not advance another instance,
and even the one given, and made the most of, is still
favorable to homoeopathy. 6'7 is a much less mortality
than IO'5.
“2. One source whence a great difference in the
cipher of mortality would be effected, would be in a
selection of cases.” Doubtless it would, but what
proof have we that such a selection of cases is really
made It is asserted that “the serious cases are few
and far between ; the milder cases, on the contrary, of
frequent occurrence.” This assertion is supported by
finding in Fleischmann's hospital, at Vienna, between
1835–43, 622 cases of “simple diseases seldom fatal.”
It appears from the Appendix that, during those years,
nearly 8000 cases were admitted into that hospital;
—how can it be maintained that 622 mild cases scattered
among 8000, render the serious Ones few and far
between P Suppose these 622 cases entirely struck
out, the mortality in that hospital for these years would
not be raised one per cent. Had we the means of ascer-
taining it, I have no doubt that in any other hospital,
admitting the same number of patients, we should find
72 THE CONTROVERSY |ESSAY
an equal, if not greater proportion of simple diseases
seldom fatal. -
But it is argued—
“3. Another reason of the increased rate of mortality
in allopathic hospitals, is in the want of room to admit
milder cases of disease. It must be obvious where
there is more room for the admission of less serious
cases, the annual mortality will be less.” Very true,
but the allopathic hospitals are considerably larger than
the homoeopathic hospitals; the latter therefore are
disadvantageously circumstanced in this respect. This
is a “reason” which makes the favorable results of
homoeopathic treatment still more striking.
Dr. Routh next asks—
“What if it should appear that, proportionally to
their number of beds, they admit more patients, per-
haps twice as many; will this not be evidence that they
have a large number of milder cases 2" Not at all.
But rather evidence that the cases, though severe, are
more quickly cured and dismissed.
“Certainly, they seem to admit a large number of
chronic cases.” If so, how is it that the beds change
their occupants so rapidly Every one knows that
chronic cases, under the old mode of treatment, are
tedious and difficult of cure.
Dr. Routh proceeds—
“4. An important element in hospitals towards
increasing or diminishing mortality is the degree of
comfort of patients, and the ventilation of the building.”
If the old hospitals are deficient in these respects, it
is high time that such defects should be brought under
the notice of the governors of these hospitals.
“5. Another circumstance which will explain the
different rate of mortality in homoeopathic hospital
returns, is in the class of patients admitted. . . . . In
regard to Dr. Fleischmann's hospital, the patients are
not the very poorest.” Dr. Routh himself contradicts
this statement further on (p. 68), where, in endeavour-
ing to account for the large proportion of fever cases,
he says, " Fleischmann tells us he admits the poorer
III.] ON HOMOEOPATHIY. 73
classes.” It is moreover the fact that his hospital is
situated in a poor manufacturing district of Vienna,
out of which it must necessarily receive the majority
of its patients.
“6. Sex is another circumstance which exerts a
powerful influence on disease in general.” But how
this affects the general mortality of hospitals receiving
both sexes indiscriminately is not suggested.
“7. Age materially affects the cipher of mortality.
It is precisely between ten and forty that
persons are most healthy and least likely to die.
Between ten and forty, they have 2 I per cent. Or rather
less than one third too many patients; and above
forty, they have 6.8 per cent, or nearly one half too
few patients. . . . The proof of selection according to
favorable ages is perfect.” Aſow perfect this proof is
shall be shown by the following quotation from the
British Journal of Homoeopathy, [No. 40, page 347.]
“We are not told whether or not allopathic hospitals
have a sufficient number of patients above 40,—but
we can inform Dr. Routh that they have not. We do
not however on this account charge these hospitals
with an attempt at deception, but content ourselves
with the simple fact that the missing aged poor Dr.
Routh is in search of are not to be found in hospitals,
either homoeopathic or allopathic, but quietly engaged
picking oakum within the walls of the poor-houses.”
“Lastly,” concludes Dr. Routh, “the homoeopaths
prove too much. When we come to look at the
homoeopathic mortality, as collected from some of their
hospitals, we find it is considerably less than the
mortality of any given population, including the
Aea/ſ/ly as well as the diseased. . . . . A 2 per cent.
mortality is a common Occurrence. The homoeopaths
thus prove too much, since their mortality, including
their worst and most severe cases, is positively less than
that of ordinary populations in most European countries,
which average 2 to 2% per cent.” It is sufficient to say,
in reply to this, that the mortality in the hospitals is
what takes place during an average of less than a
74 THE CONTROVERSY [ESSAY
fortnight's treatment, while that of entire populations
is the mortality in a year /
Such are the arguments “on the general mortality
of hospitals” advanced by Dr. Routh to prove the
“Fallacies of Homoeopathy.” They are repeated on
“the mortality in particular diseases.” For example:
on the table for pneumonia he observes that it is
“a result most favorable to homoeopathic treatment
. to be explained by the selection of cases, the
comfort of the patient in the hospital, the age, sex,
&c.” It will be remembered that the small number of
deaths from all diseases was explained by the selection
of mild cases ; here we have the opposite complaint
that too many cases of pneumonia are “selected '''
“I find that in the two years 1848 and 1849 there
were admitted into the general hospital at Vienna
5 1,709 cases altogether. Of these, I I 34 were cases of
pneumonia, or 2: I per cent. Apply this test to Fleisch-
mann's (comparatively very small) hospital, Out of
6,551 cases, admitted between the years 1835 and
1843, there were 3OO cases returned as pneumonia, or
4.5 per cent.” I remark, 1st, That the exclusion of
diseases of the skin and other chronic diseases from
Fleischmann's hospital, which constitute a considerable
class in the general hospital, renders this comparison,
to a considerable extent, inapplicable. 2dly. That the
comparison is defective in point of time, the years
1835-43 being compared with 1848-9. We all know
how a disease like inflammation of the lungs varies in
frequency in different years; and 3dly. That the
statement proves how unfounded was the first charge
of “selection” of a too large proportion of mild cases,
and that in reality this hospital receives and cures a mucſº
/arger proportion of severe acute cases than the allopathic
hospitals.
On the table for pleurisy, Dr. Routh says, -as before,
the advantage is in favour of homoeopathy. . . . . .
“There is reason to believe the cases are either not
genuine or selected.” What reason 2 “The number
of cases admitted are at least douéle the number admitted
III.] ON HOMOEOPATHY. 75
in allopathic Institutions.” And yet it was pretended
above that the general mortality from all diseases is
reduced by the selection of too many mild cases, and
the “rigid exclusion” of such serious ones as pneumo-
nia and pleurisy are admitted to be As to the cases
not being genuine, the hospitals are constantly open to
inspection ; medical men are invited to witness the
practice; Dr. Routh has visited them, he brings
forward no sufficient evidence on which charges so
dishonorable to the whole profession should rest;
his assertions and insinuations are directly contradicted
by an eminent allopathic practitioner, who has also
visited these hospitals, and who says that the cases he
saw treated in Fleischmann's homoeopathic hospital
were fully as acute and virulent as any he had observed
elsewhere.—Wilde's Azzsária, p. 277.
Dr. Routh's further objections are equally self-
contradictory or altogether futile and frivolous. We
have seen that he asserts that because the homoeo-
pathic hospitals have a larger number of patients
annually in proportion to their number of beds,
therefore their cases are not similar to those in the
old hospitals. We infer that they are more quickly
cured. On the other hand, he complains that the
pneumonia cases remain on an average too long in the
hospital : may we not rather conclude that this appar-
ently increased time arises really from fewer of the
cases dying 2 It is deat/, which shortens the period
for these cases in allopathic hospitals. Again, from
the fact that the cases get cured quickly, it is concluded
that they are not genuine. Is not this again taking
for granted the thing to be proved 2 Is it not much
more reasonable to draw an inference in favour of the
treatment from such speedy recoveries 2 What will
be thought of attributing the cures to the “humility
and gentleness” of the sisters of charity ? Their
“calm aspect of religion ;” “the beauty observed in
their persons,” and “their melodious accents 2° What
sort of a corner has Dr. Routh been driven into, that
he must fight with such weapons as these ? Does he
76 THE CONTROVERSY [ESSAY
feel his gallant ship sinking beneath him, that he is
catching at Straws 2
The statistics are genuine. The very existence of a
homoeopathic hospital in Vienna is itself a convincing
proof of the superior value of the new treatment. It
was because Dr. Fleischmann, when the Asiatic
cholera raged in Vienna, cured double the number
that were saved under the old system, that the
emperor removed the restrictions which had previously
been imposed upon the practice of homoeopathy in his
dominions, and established the hospital which has
since been one of the principal schools of homoeopathy
in Europe. Had Dr. Routh's objections been suffici-
ently weighty to destroy our confidence and our hopes
thus excited in homoeopathy, we might indeed have
greatly regretted it for humanity's sake, but we must
have bowed to the conclusion. If, however, as I
think my readers will by this time have been con-
vinced, they have rather been “frivolous and vexa-
tious,” we may cheerfully dismiss them, and thank-
fully indulge our hopes that this improved method
of treating all our bodily ailments will become in-
creasingly beneficial to mankind. Hard indeed must
that heart be that will not rejoice at such a prospect
as this
It appears then that, with respect to the principle of
“like curing like,” it is admitted to a considerable
extent by our opponents, as indeed it was by Hippo-
crates himself, emphatically and deservedly recognised
as the Father of Medicine; and that no reason has
yet been shown, sufficient to set aside the proofs in
favour of its being received as a general rule of
universal application.
That with respect to the efficacy of small doses, this
is also admitted to the extent that it has been practi-
cally tested —so far as the small doses have been
tried, they have been found to act satisfactorily. Now,
as Dr. Routh himself contends that “we have no right
to argue & Ariori,” (page 12,) we feel justified in
asserting that d Ariori or theoretical objections to
III.] ON HOMOEOPATHY". 77
*.
doses which have not been tried, are of no force, and
may safely be disregarded, and at once rejected.
That with regard to the administration of medicines
we learn from our opponents, in the most conclusive
and self-evident manner, not only the inefficiency, but
the positively hurtful nature of the usual treatment by
large doses; and that with regard to the statistics
which speak so loudly and so unequivocally in favour
of homoeopathy, we have seen that the objections
brought against them are not of sufficient validity to
shake our confidence in their truth. -
In conclusion, the published statistics of homoeopathy
are important in themselves, and of value to medical
practitioners, either as preliminary information, to
induce them to study homoeopathy, seeing that by
them at least a primad facie case for inquiry is made
out; or as a confirmation to their own private trials on
the subject, if the information come, as it no doubt
often does, after that private examination has been
made. Still the main reliance is to be placed upon
what happens in our hands, and under our Own eyes.
Whatever charges of unfairness or fraud may be
brought against other persons, we know whether we
ourselves are sincere or not. The subject is too
serious, and the consequences too important to each
individual practitioner, to allow him to be careless in his
own proceedings. He is almost necessarily cautious,
and awake to all the sources of fallacy to which he
may be exposed. He procures the books and reads
them ; he obtains the medicines, and with intense
interest tries them ; he expects them to fail, he is
almost sure he shall be able to prove that the thing
is a delusion. He selects simple cases at first, both
for his patient's sake and his own, the remedies
apparently act beyond his expectation, at any rate
the patients quickly recover, better and more speedily
than if he had given them his usual doses. He
reasons thus : — even if the medicines have done
nothing, the patients have been gainers, they have
been spared the taking of nauseous physic, perhaps
78 THE CONTROVERSY ON HOMOEOPATHy. [ESSAY III.
the loss of blood, or the pain of a blister, and they
have speedily recovered ; so that supposing it has
been diet and regimen, it is evident that diet and
regimen do better without drugs than with them.
This point becomes settled, that drugging, and bleed-
ing, and blistering are bad. By degrees more serious
cases are tried ; cases, such as croup, where diet and
regimen are out of the question, seeing that if relief be
not speedily afforded, death must ensue; and how
does the conviction of the efficacious action of the
medicines then flash upon the mind When a violent
paroxysm of croup passes off in an hour under the
influence of mild doses of aconite and hepar sulphuris
and spongia, without the warm baths, and emetics, and
leeches, and blisters, which before were considered
indispensable; when an equally violent fit of tic dou-
loureux yields in a few moments to the appropriate
remedy; when inflammation of the brain yields to
belladonna, and inflammation of the lungs subsides
rapidly under phosphorus; when such universally fatal
diseases as diabetes (sugared urine) are, if not abso-
lutely cured, at least so greatly relieved, that life is
prolonged for years; what further proof does he
require to convince him of powerful medicinal action.
in the remedies employed 2 What then is the con-
clusion arrived at by the anxious but patient and
persevering inquirer 2 That homoeopathy is a boon
to mankind from the Giver of all good, and that it is
his duty to embrace it, and to advocate its cause to
the best of his ability.
ESSAY IV.
THE PRINCIPLE OF HOMOEOPATHY,
“The discovery of natural truth has been remarkably slow.
When the discovery is a single fact many years commonly
elapse before the next fact in connection with it is brought
to light. When it is of a more general kind, and partakes of
the nature of a law, it more commonly suggests other truths
and valuable circumstances in connection with it, by which
means a more rapid progress is, for a time, made.”
SIR JOHN HERSCHEL.
ESSAY IV."
THE PRINCIPLE OF HOMOEOPATHY.
—e-c-e--
“Experience shows many means to be conducive and
necessary to accomplish ends, which means, before experi-
ence, we should have thought, would have had even a con-
trary tendency.” BISHOP BUTLER, Azzalogy.
—e-º-e—-
“TRIAL,” says Sir William Blackstone, “is the
examination of the matter of fact in issue ; of which
there are many different species, according to the
difference of the subject or thing to be tried. * †
This being the one invariable principle pursued, that
as well the best method of trial, as the best evidence
upon that trial, which the nature of the case affords,
and no other, shall be admitted.”
“Evidence,” says the same authority, “signifies that
which demonstrates, makes clear, or ascertains the
truth of the very fact or point in issue, either on the
one side or on the other; and no evidence ought to be
admitted to any other point.”
The laws of nature are genera/º facts ascertained to
be so by inference or induction from a great multitude
of particular facts. They are discovered, and their
truth proved and maintained, by examining them as
matters of fact. They are tried by the best method,
and on the best evidence which the nature of the case
admits.
* First published in 1851.
* i.e., universal—universally applicable to the particular
facts.
6
82 THE PRINCIPLE [ESSAY
It is the distinguished prerogative of a few in-
dividuals to discover them, but when once announced
they are open to the Senses and understanding of all
men ; they are put to the test of daily experiment
and observation, and, were they not true, the facts
which contradict them would not fail to be speedily
discovered.
Every department of nature which has hitherto been
successfully studied, so as to constitute it a science, has
been founded upon one or more of these general facts
or laws of nature. They are the pole star around
which all the minor facts harmoniously turn. For
example— -
The law of specific gravity, or the relative weight of
bodies, was discovered by Archimedes, on the occasion
of plunging himself into a bath, and, as is familiarly
known, so great was his delight that he ran about in
an ecstacy, crying out, “I have found it—I have found
it ſ” It consists of two facts : 1st.—When a solid Óody
as plunged into a Ziyuid, it displaces an amount of ſizzlid
equal in Öulº to its own ſuſ4. 2ndly.—7%e solid Óody
so plunged into a liquid, Zoses in its weight an amound
exactly equal to the weight of the Ziguid whicſ, it has
displaced. *
The law which is the basis of mechanics was dis-
covered by Galileo —7%e less force equals àe greater
Öy moving throug/, more space in the same time.
The law of gravitation, upon which astronomy is
founded, was discovered by Newton ; – 4 // &odies
attract each other directly as Zºe mass, and ºversely as
the square of the distance. This is commonly regarded
as a mathematical demonstration, but it rests, in reality,
upon careful experiments and accurate observation,
like the others, it is a fact proved, when put upon its
appropriate mode of trial, by satisfactory evidence.
The law which is the foundation of the science of
hydrostatics, and which has lately been so beautifully
applied to a very useful practical purpose in the
Bramah press, was discovered by the successive ex-
periments of the three great men just mentioned,
IV.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 83
Archimedes, Galileo, and Newton. It may be thus
expressed ;-/72 a mass of Zigzaid each partic/e Aresses
equa//y in al/ directions.
The laws of Kepler, as they are called from their
discoverer, which are three important general facts in
astronomy.—Ist–7%e oróits of the //a/leſs are eſ/ºbses,
wiłł ż/he suzz in one of £/e ſoci. 2nd–7%e flameſ's move
over equa/ areas in eſºta/ Zimzes. 3rd–7%e squares of
the times of revolution of any Awo plazlets are ſo eac/.
other, in the same proportion as Z/he catóes of their meant
distances from the sun. “Of all the laws,” says Sir
John Herschel, “to which induction from pure obser-
vation has ever conducted man, this #ird ſaw of
A eff/er may justly be regarded as the most remark-
able, and the most pregnant with important conse-
quences.”
The fact in physiology that all the higher animals
are furnished with a heart and blood-vessels, through
which a dozó/e circulation of the Ö/ood is 2,72ceasing/y
carried one, ſ.rsſ &/ºrough the Zungs, and afterward's
through the rest of the Öody; this was the discovery of
our illustrious Harvey, who for his pains was set down
as crazy, and lost nearly all his practice.
The law for the knowledge of which we are in-
debted to the indefatigable labours of Richter and
Dalton, and which has given rise to the modern science
of chemistry;-Z/ementary or simple àodies comóine with
each other, to ſo?me compound Öodies, in definite or ſixed
Aroportions.
The law of storms, ascertained by Col. Reid, which
is one of the most recent of these valuable discoveries;
—7%ey move in a circle.
All these, and other similar truths, are general facás,
which have been put upon their trial, and have stood
the test. They have been supported by sufficient
evidence suited to the nature of each case. Before
they were known, the departments to which they
Severally belong were characterised by blunders and
guesswork, into which they have introduced method
and certainty.
84 THE PRINCIPLE [ESSAY
The practical value of this kind of knowledge, may
in part be learned by comparing the present condition
of the arts with that previous to the discovery of these
laws. Had the Romans known the law which regu-
lates the flow of liquids, they would have been spared
the vast labour of erecting those magnificent aqueducts
for the supply of their cities with water, whose ruins so
greatly excite Our Surprise and admiration at the pre-
sent day. Our navigation hangs upon the faithfulness
of the magnetised bar in turning towards the north ;
our steam engine depends upon the elasticity of
vapour; our railways on the laws of friction ; our
instantaneous communication at any distance on the
influence which a current of electricity exerts over a
magnetic needle,_that beautiful discovery of Oersted.
For nearly all our modern comforts, for nearly every-
thing which distinguishes the present from preceding
ages, we are indebted to the discovery of such natural
truths as these.
Many departments of human knowledge are now in
possession of such principles, and the consequence of
having them for their foundation is unanimity of senti-
ment among the cultivators of the science, and the
continual and satisfactory progress of their pursuits.
The want of such a foundation may be certainly con-
cluded, with regard to any subject upon which there is
great diversity of opinion, many hypothetical specula-
tions, and no improvement or advance toward a suc-
cessful issue.
Thus much has been said by way of introduction,
that the meaning of the expressions, law of nature,
eneral fact, or principle, may be clearly understood ;
that the high value of such knowledge may be appre-
ciated; and that the importance of ascertaining whether
the art of healing be furnished with such a foundation
or not, may be strongly felt.
With these preliminary explanations we may now
proceed to examine the actual condition of medicine.
The efforts made to relieve diseases have been,
IV.] OF HOMOEOPATHY, 85
hitherto, either superstitious, or theoretical, or em-
pirical.
Of superstițious practices many examples might be
given. Only two shall be mentioned. In China and
Japan the Ermites profess to heal the greater number
of complaints by depositing before their idols a de-
scription of the disease in peculiar characters, and
afterwards making up the paper containing it into
pills, which they give the patient to take. The
“sympathetic powder,” of Sir Kenelme Digby, was
very famous for a long period. This powder healed
all manner of wounds by being applied to the weapon
by which the wound had been inflicted. Our poets
and imaginative writers often allude to this. Sir
Walter Scott says, in the “Lay of the Last Minstrel'—
“But she has ta'en the broken lance,
And washed it from the clotted gore,
And salved the splinter o'er and o'er.
William of Deloraine in trance,
Whene'er she turned it round and round,
Twisted as if she galled his wound.
Then to her maidens she did say
That he should be whole man and sound.” +
Canto III, St. 23.
The theoretical method has always been extensively
practised. Diseases in the days of Hippocrates were
hot or cold, moist or dry. Remedies of course were
the same ; a hot remedy was to be applied to a cold
disease, a moist one to a dry, and vice versa. Hence
the favorite maxim of Galen, “contraria contrariis
3 ) tº © &
curantur,” diseases are to be treated with contraries.
* In Sir Kenelme Digby's book (“A discourse touching
the cure of wounds by the powder of sympathy,” 1658) he
protests against its being thought that there are “any effects
of charm or magic herein ;” or any “need to have recourse to a
demon or angel in such difficulties;” and affirms that the
effects are produced by natural causes. But at page 148 he
distinctly declares that “the same cure is performed by
applying the remedy to the blade of a sword which hath
wounded a person.” (1873.)
86 THE PRINCIPLE [ESSAY
Of late we have had excessive and diminished irrita-
bility to be treated respectively with calmers
and stimulants, (Brown). Spasm of the extreme
vessels to be cured by so-called anti-spasmodics,
(Cullen). All diseases attributed to local inflamma-
tion, the universal remedy being local depletion,
(Broussais). Such, and numberless other hypotheses
have been imagined by ingenious men in their closets;
have been eloquently propounded in their lecture-
rooms; have been greedily embraced by numerous
classes of admiring followers; and have, each in
succession, been supplanted by the next invention,
and sunk into contempt and oblivion.
To the empirical treatment of diseases some have
thus, in all ages, been driven. Sensible of the futility
and uselessness of hypotheses at the bedside of their
patients, these practitioners have sought to be guided
by experience only; though, in spite of this conviction
and intention, they have continued to speculate upon
the nature and causes of disease. These constitute
the eminent physicians and surgeons of the present
day. They reject all idea of a general principle for
their guidance in the administration of remedies; they
even deny its possibility. The head of our public
bodies, the present president of the royal college of
physicians (Dr. Paris), asserted no long time ago, in a
public lecture, that medicine is “incapable of generali-
zation.” The consequence of this unsettled condition
is Z/e 2//most com/usion and contradiction, and great
want of success in the present practice of //ysic. This
is admitted by nearly every writer of credit. Dr.
Adams, the learned translator of Hippocrates, says,
“one cannot think of the change in professional
opinions since the days of John Hunter (at the close
of the last century), wit/ou/ //e mosé Aain/r///ee/ºng of
distries/ in a// modes of Zrea/ment.” Again, the same
writer observes, “Now-a-days we have abandoned all
general rules of practice, and profess to be guided
* Paris's ‘Pharmacologia.’ Introduction, p. 4.
IV.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 87
solely by experience; but how variable and uncertain
are its results I myself, albeit but verging towards
the decline of life, can well remember the time when a
physician would have run the risk of being indicted for
cal/pa/e /homicide ºf Že /ad ventured to 6/eed a patient
Žn common ſever. About twenty-five years ago, vene-
section in fever, and in almost every disease, was the
established order of the day; and now what shall I
state as the general practice that has been sanctioned
by the experience of the present generation ? / came
scarcely say, so variable has the practice in fever, and
in many other diseases, become of late years.” How
like the complaint made by Hippocrates himself,
twenty-two centuries ago! “The whole art is ex-
posed to much censure from the vulgar, who fancy
that really there is no such science as medicine, since,
even in acute diseases, practitioners differ so much
among themselves, that those #/ºngs z0/ic/, one ad-
ministers, as thinking theme ſhe best f/at can be given,
another /o/a's to Öe Öad.” Galen quotes and confirms
this, and thus it is confessed, both by ancient and
modern authorities, that the science of medicine is
little better than a mass of contradiction and confusion.
A remedy is found, perhaps accidentally, to do good,
and it is therefore given in other cases which appear
to be like the One it has cured. This plan sometimes
succeeds, but it also often fails, and always when it
fails, and often when it succeeds, the constitution is
777tered &y &/ºe /a/ge doses and of/ºer severe treatment.
Such has hitherto been the miserable condition of
the practice of physic. In successive ages, reflecting
men have mourned over this condition, and earnestly
desired to discover some general and guiding fact
upon which the art of healing might be based.
How remarkable are these words of Sydenham,
justly styled the Father of English medicine : “The
method whereby, in my opinion, the art of medicine
* Adams, ‘Translation of Hippocrates,’ vol. I. pp. 278, 280,
307, Sydenham Society's Edition.
88 THE PRINCIPLE [ESSAY
may be advanced, turns chiefly upon what follows,
viz., that there must be some fixed, definite, and
consummate method of healing, of which the common-
weal may have the advantage. By fived, definite, and
consummate, I mean a line of practice which has been
based and built upon a sufficient number of experi-
ments, and has in that manner been proved competent
to the cure of this or that disease.”
At different epochs, and by various writers, from
Democritus and Hippocrates downwards, something
like the principle “similia similibus curantur”—likes are
to be treated with likes—has been feebly enunciated;
but we are indebted to Hahnemann, a German of the
last generation, for so powerfully and perseveringly
announcing it as to have gained for it the attention of
mankind.
This proposition has now been put forth in such a
strong and urgent manner, as to demand an investiga-
tion by every medical man who is conscientiously
desirous of doing all the good he can to his suffering
fellow-creatures. It does not seem to have anything
in itself which must necessarily excite disgust or
opposition ; it is no theory of disease; it does not
pretend to explain the mode of action of medicines;
it professes to be a fact upon which a method of cure
may be founded. It suggests that the true properties
of drugs can be discovered only 6y eafteriments on the
Aea/#/y Óody of man, and that w/ºatever symptoms of
disease are //ºus produced are the érºte gºddes to 4/ºe zºse
of the remedy; for that it must be given only in such
natural diseases as are attended with Symptoms like
those produced by the drug in the healthy person.
This then is “ the fact in issue,” to be put upon its
trial. And we are to remember the legal principle,
“that as well the best method of trial, as the best
evidence upon that trial, which the nature of the case
affords, and no other, shall be admitted.”
1 ‘Works of Sydenham, vol. I, p. 17. Sydenham Society's
edition.
Iv.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 89
“Likes are to be treated with likes 1’’ This is the
assertion. The only trial upon which a statement
such as this can be fairly put, is the trial by experi-
ment. This must be obvious. To argue about it
would be foolish, and a waste of time. To experiment
upon it is rational. I propose, therefore, now to give
the evidence adduced upon such a trial in my own
hands. It has occupied my attention some years; it
has been made in candour and good faith, and with, I
think, all the conditions requisite for drawing a legiti-
mate conclusion.
It has been made in many cases without the know-
ledge of the patient, and, therefore, to the exclusion
of any possible influence from the imagination.
It has been made under a much greater variety of
circumstances, and upon patients in more diversified
ranks, ages, and constitutions, than can meet together
in the wards of an hospital.
It has been made, very much, with medicines whose
injurious or poisonous symptoms, or effects in health,
were previously well known to me; these poisonous
symptoms or effects in /ea/t/, having been learned
without any reference to the medicinal or curative
effects of the same drug in disease.
It has been made with doses of all kinds, not only
with the infinitesimal one, now commonly adopted by
homoeopathists, but with palpable and ponderable
quantities of the substances so tried.
And lastly, I have had the advantage of comparing
the results of the new method so obtained, with those
in my own hands under the old practice during a
professional career of more than a quarter of a
century.
Perhaps it will surprise some of my readers to hear
of “ponderable" doses in homoeopathy, but when the
investigation of the truth of the principle of homoeo-
pathy is being made, these are the first materials for
experiment. If twenty grains of ipecacuanha will
make a strong man sick, and if the twentieth part of a
9 O THE PRINCIPLE [ESSAY
grain will cure a sick man of his vomiting, we have
two cases which can be fairly compared —we know
that we are dealing with the same physical agent.
But though large doses must, in the first instance, be
tried, the investigation cannot end wit/, //em. For if,
as is unquestionably true, an inconceivably small quan-
tity, Or, in other words, an infinitesimal dose of this
substance, ipecacuanha, can produce the symptoms of
Catarrh, or of asthma, so severe as to threaten the loss
of life;" and if similarly small doses of the same drug
can cure similar and equally violent symptoms, when
they have arisen from other causes, the trial must be
carried into these much ridiculed but highly interesting
regions. Thus the inquiry into the operation of this
principle “similia similibus curantur,”—likes are to be
treated with likes—can be pursued to a much greater
extent than at first sight would have been thought
possible. We must follow where nature leads if we
would know her truths. If minute particles of matter
can act upon the body SO as to injure health, it is
possible that similarly minute particles of matter may
also act upon the body so as to restore its healthy
state, and if this be so, the two actions may be com-
pared with each other. On these, as on all similar
subjects of human knowledge, nature is to be interro-
gated by experiments, and the answers returned, if
carefully observed, and honestly recorded, are the
evidence which “makes clear or ascertains the truth of
the very fact or point in issue, either on One side or
the other.”
What are medicines 2 They are poisons. All sub-
stances may be divided, with reference to their action
on the human body, into those which are nutritious,
and those which are more or less noxious, -into food
and poison. It is the latter class which furnishes us
with medicines. These act injuriously in health—
remedially in disease ; this is homoeopathy in the
general; the following cases will show that homoeo-
pathy is also true when carried into particulars.
1 For proofs of this statement see Essay IX.
IV.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. - 9 I
CA SES.
PO ISONS FROM THE MINERAL KIN GDOM.
ANTIMONY —INFLAMMATION.
It is known to medical men that fartarised Anti-
mony, when taken in poisonous doses, produces in-
flammation of the lungs. It has been given in large
doses by allopathic physicians as a remedy in similar
inflammations.
I have seen an infant suffering from an attack of
inflammation so severe as to threaten a very speedy
termination in paralysis of the lungs and death, recover
in a few hours, while having administered to it small
doses of this preparation of antimony.
ARSENIC–IN FLAMMATION.—ERUPTIONS.
The prominent mischief which a few grains of
Arsenic produces is inflammation of the stomach and
bowels. I have twice tried this substance as a
remedy in acute inflammation of these organs with
SUICCCSS.
Arsenic also so often produces eruptions on the skin
that they have received a name;—eczema arsenica/e.
Arsenic is often given as a remedy for similar erup-
tions by practitioners of the old school. The prepara-
tion in the pharmacopoeia is called “solution of arsenite
of potash;" it is given in doses of from eight drops to
half a drachm, which latter quantity contains about a
quarter of a grain of arsenic. Injurious effects have
often been Occasioned by these medicinal doses. Four
grains, or less, being sufficient to destroy life.' I have
seen great benefit from this mineral in obstinate affec-
tions of the skin, when given in such small doses as
* Taylor's ‘Medical Jurisprudence.”
92 THE PRINCIPLE [ESSAY
would not be at all likely to produce unpleasant conse-
quences in any constitution.
COPPER—CRAMP.
Copper produces “pain in the abdomen with diar-
rhoea ; and in aggravated cases, spasms of the ex-
tremities.”
I have seen copper quickly relieve cramp, and even
the most violent muscular spasms.
CORROSIVE SUBLIMATE–DYSENTERY.
That this poisonous substance produces slimy, green,
and bloody evacuations from the bowels, exactly re-
sembling dysentery, a disease having similar symptoms,
but which has arisen from other causes, is a fact but
too well known. I have given various doses of it,
uncombined with opium, in dysentery, with the most
satisfactory results —with better success than that
which attended my former treatment. One striking
case is given in Essay I. I could add others here.
LEAD–CONSTIPATION.—PARALYSIS.
The leading symptom produced by Zead, when
acting as a poison, is constipation.*
I have repeatedly seen chronic constipation removed
by this substance.
Another well-known effect of lead is numbness
and paralysis ; I have seen it cure a case of this
kind.
MERCURY-MUMPS–SORE THIROAT—ERUPTIONS.
It is well known that one of the first effects of
Mercury is to act upon the salivary glands ; if there-
1 Taylor's ‘Medical Jurisprudence.’ ? Ibid,
IV.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 93
fore there be any truth in the law of “similia,” mercury
ought to be a cure for mumps. I have had a great
many opportunities of putting the law in question to
this test, and can with truth affirm that in every in-
stance the result was satisfactory. I gave nothing but
mercury in various doses, both ponderable and impon-
derable, that is, both in appreciable and in infinitesimal
doses, and in every case the cure was rapid and perfect.
It must be understood that not the slightest local
application of any kind was permitted in any one of
the cases. The patients were singularly preserved
from pain, and there were seldom any of the sympa-
thetic affections which not unusually accompany this
complaint."
It is equally well known to medical men that mercury
produces affections of the throat, bones, and skin, so
like the diseases of those parts arising from other
causes, that they often find it impossible to distinguish
the one from the other, or to decide to which to
attribute the symptoms. What could be more striking
homoeopathicity than this 2 — There shall be two
patients standing side by side, with ulcerated throats,
Swellings on the bones, and eruptions on the skin, in
the one caused by mercury, and in the other not, and
the most experienced surgeon shall be puzzled to say
which is the mercurial case and which is not. Mercury
given to these cases” would aggravate the one whose
symptoms were owing to mercury, while it would
almost certainly cure the other.
PHOSPHORUS—INFLAMMATION.
Two grains, and in another case, one grain and a
* Mercury acts upon the salivary organs, which are the
seat of mumps; but the kind of action is not exactly the
same. It is probable, therefore, that a still more efficacious
remedy for mumps may be found in some drug which has not
only a local action on the same organ, but which has also a
kind of action more exactly the same. (1873.)
* That is, in appreciable doses. (1873.)
94. THE PRINCIPLE [ESSAY
half of Phosphorus have been known to kill, by causing
intense inflammation of the stomach and bowels.
In May last (1851) I was requested to visit the
following case (in Coventry), in which the most severe
inflammation of these organs existed. A lady of about
fifty years old was seized with pain in the stomach on
the Friday evening, on Saturday she took various
strong doses of medicines, which caused vomiting and
purging, but which gave no relief; the pain continued
to increase, and on Sunday night, when I saw her for
the first time, her family thought she was dying;-
there was great pain and tenderness on pressure, a
quick and small pulse, a very white tongue, with some
delirium, an anxious and sunken countenance, and
short breathing ; she had been entirely deprived of
sleep by pain from the commencement of the attack.
gave a small dose of phosphorus, and in about a
minute she felt easier :—in a quarter of an hour the
dose was repeated and she immediately fell asleep for
two hours and a half; after a third and fourth dose
she slept again ; in a few days was convalescent, and
in a fortnight well.
Among other inflammations produced by phosphorus
when it has been taken in poisonous doses, is inflam-
mation of the lungs. I have treated two most
dangerous attacks of pleuro-pneumonia with this sub-
stance ; One a young man, aged about 18, in March,
1851, who had been ill some days before I saw him,
and who continued to get worse for three days until
phosphorus was given. He had severe pain, respi-
rations from 40 to 48 in the minute, pulse I 20, cough
frequent, expectoration tinged with blood, and great
prostration, with the stethoscopic signs of inflammation
within the chest. In less than a fortnight this young
man was cured, and he continues still (July, 1853)
perfectly well,—no trace of mischief remaining in his
chest. He very nearly died, and yet the treatment
was ultimately successful, not on/y 27, affording /a/-
/iative relief Čuč in effecting a radical cure. I feel a
moral certainty that had he been treated with bleeding
IV.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 95
and blistering, purgatives, Salines and antimonials, he
would have died, if not immediately, (which most
probably would have been the case,) at any rate from
the chronic disease which by this method would have
been left behind. The time seemed long during which
my anxiety continued, but after all, it did not extend
to a fortnight, and it must not be forgotten that the
disease had been allowed to gather strength for nearly
a week before anything was done to check it. We
are justified by the results in considering this case as a
striking proof of the efficacy of the new remedies in
such an acute and highly dangerous disease as pneu-
monia is universally considered.
The other case, also a young man, aged about I 6, of
a consumptive family, was still more striking ; it
occurred to me in March, 1852. All the symptoms of
violent pleuro-pneumonia were fully and very rapidly
developed, and for some hours he was in great danger.
Almost the only remedy administered was phosphorus,
in small doses, and before the end of the week he was
quite convalescent —the physical (stethoscopic) signs
of disease disappeared in about another fortnight, and
he also has continued ever since in perfect health.
Had this young man been reduced by what is called
“active treatment,” his constitution would have been
broken down, and he would have followed his sister,
through a painful course of suffering, to an early grave.
I have also seen the most strikingly beneficial results
from phosphorus in chronic diseases of the lungs, as
well as in these acute cases.
SULPHUR—ERUPTIONS.
Those who visit Harrogate, and other places where
the waters contain Su///ºur, are well aware that erup-
tions of a very irritating character are not unfrequently
produced by drinking the waters. Sulphur is noto-
riously a remedy for similar eruptions.
I have seen it, when given in small doses, both
96 THE PRINCIPLE [ESSAY
produce and cure such affections of the skin. No one
dreams that it produces the itch insect.
POISONS FROM THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM.
ACONITE–CROUP.
Symptoms similar to those of croup are among the
ill effects of Aconife or Monk's Hood'.
The new treatment has been tried by me in several
cases of Croup with very remarkable success.
BELLADONNA—HEAD ACHE–SORE THROAT.
Among the poisonous effects of the Deadly AVågſø.
shade are heat and fever, difficulty of swallowing and
speaking, feeling of constriction about the throat,
swelling and redness of the face and other parts of the
skin, dilatation of the pupils, obscurity of vision, suf-
fusion of the eyes, singing in the ears, confusion of the
head, giddiness, delirium, convulsions, and stupor or
lethargy.
In a variety of cases, both slight and severe, of
affections similar in their symptoms to these effects,
as quinsy, ophthalmia, headache, cases threatening to
end in water in the brain, I have tested the remedial
powers of belladonna, and have not often been disap-
pointed. In two cases of threatening hydrocephalus,
–children, in different families, a child in each family
having previously died of water in the head—when I
was first consulted, it was feared that these would die
in the same manner, but they both speedily recovered.
During the spring of this year, (1853.) I have had
several opportunities of giving belladonna, in Scarlet
fever, and with very satisfactory results. It is well
known that Hahnemann was the first to point it out
both as a remedy and a preservative from Scarlet fever:
this he had been led to discover by the resemblance
which he observed between the poisonous effects of
IV.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 97
the plant, and the symptoms of that disease. The
following extract is given from the ‘London Medical
and Physical Journal’ for September, 1824, (the most
respectable allopathic journal of that period,) both
because it shows the admission of this discovery,
and also because it exhibits a better feeling towards
Hahnemann than is at present met with among my
allopathic brethren.
“Ael/adonna a preventive of Scarlet Fever.—It has been
long known that Dr. Hahnemann, of Leipsic, has asserted the
above fact ; but since the year I 818, several practitioners in
the north of Europe have repeated these experiments, and
they find them founded in truth. The first of these, Dr.
Brendt, of Custrin, affirms that all who employed this remedy
escaped the infection ; and his account is corroborated by
Dr. Musbeck, of Demmin, in Western Pomerania, who says
he has used it for seven years, and with equal success; he
administered it to all those who dwelt in the houses where
Scarlet fever prevailed, continuing its use until descuamation
of the cuticle had taken place in those attacked. Dr.
Dusterbourg, of Warbourg, has also published an account of
a series of experiments confirming these statements; and
Several Subsequent memoirs have appeared all equally cor-
roborative of this virtue in belladonna.”
Medical men of the old school are now beginning to
assert that belladonna is no preservative against Scarlet
fever, and that this “shows the utter fallacy of their
(the homoeopathists') reasoning, and the Sandy founda-
tion on which they build their views.” But it will not
fail to be remarked by impartial observers that such
assertions come from a quarter now too prejudiced to
be relied upon, and also that, even supposing them to
be correct, they prove nothing against homoeopathy,
inasmuch as it is not a system of £7"evention, but a
method of cure. The weight of evidence is still in
favour of the preventive powers of belladonna, but its
failure will bring no “fallacy” into the “reasoning,”
nor “sand” into the “foundation” of homoeopathy.
BRYONIA—RHEU MATISM.
White Bryony is one of the ancient remedies which,
*
/
98 THE PRINCIPLE |ESSAY
like hellebore, has been discarded from modern practice
on account of the violence of its action when given in
the usual large doses. Among other symptoms, it
produces those resembling rheumatism. I have my-
self twice brought on these symptoms with bryony.
It is a very valuable remedy in similar cases.
Rheumatism is generally accompanied by an acid
state of the Secretions. If litmus paper be applied to
the tongue, the moist skin, &c., while a patient is suf-
fering from rheumatic pain, it will commonly be red-
dened. Knowing this, I have been in the habit for
some time of treating rheumatism with alkalies, both
internally and externally, and with so much better
success that when formerly bleeding, &c., were had
recourse to, I was reluctant to give them up. A
case occurred in November, 1850, which first induced
me to do so. A boy about 12 years old, had a very
severe attack of rheumatic fever. The usual method
was pursued at first, but being greatly disappointed
with it, I felt justified in substituting the new remedies,
and prescribed a dose of bryony every two hours.
The next day the little patient was relieved in every
way; the pulse had fallen from 120 to 82 ; the pains,
which had been very bad in the wrist, elbows, back,
and abdomen, were gone ; as were also the swelling
and redness, and the following day he was conva-
lescent. His father, a medical man of distinction, now
arrived from a distance, together with his mother.
All that had been done was detailed to him, and,
though no homoeopathist, he gave me hearty thanks
for the benefit his boy had got from the treatment.
In a few days he was sufficiently recovered to be
taken home by his mother.
COLOCYNTH–COLIC.
The takers of violent purgatives, such as Morison's
pills, know the effects of Coſogynſ/.
I have found it, in small doses, relieve similar pains.
IV.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 99
KREASOTE—VOMITING.
A reasoče as a poison produces vomiting and other
derangements of the stomach, together with a tendency in
the fluids of the body to decomposition, and in the solids
to disorganisation. I have repeatedly seen small doses of
kreasote act beneficially in similar conditions of disease.
The following case, which occurred some years ago,
is given, because it illustrates a remark which I have
often lately made, that, on reflection, I find that much
of my former successful practice was, without my being
aware of it, homoeopathic in principle. The notes
were written by an intelligent assistant at the time —
“Miss A– H-, aet. 36, has been subject to frequent
attacks of erysipelas, accompanied by great sickness. The
last attack was during last summer, from which she recovered
about three months since. On Saturday, December, 17th,
I 836, she was attacked with vomiting and purging, accom-
pained by an acute pain in the region of the liver. Mr. H.,
who saw her, gave her calomel and Opium, and applied a
blister to the seat of the pain, but without relief; he also gave
her effervescing salines with hydrocyanic acid, and applied a
mustard poultice to the stomach, with slight but temporary
benefit. On Thursday, December 22d, the vomiting being
more violent than ever, neither food nor medicine having
remained on the stomach since the Saturday previous, Mr.
Sharp, along with Dr. Hobson of Leeds, saw her, and found
her in the following state : Vomiting excessive; pain in the
abdomen ; pain and tendernesss along the whole course of
the Spine, (to which Mr. Sharp applied a mustard poultice
with complete relief). Dr. H. thinking that the mesenteric
glands were affected, prescribed Argent. Nitrat, in small doses,
Combined with Ext. Opii Aquos, and on the following day
changed the Argent. Nitr. for Cupri Sulph., but the stomach
rejected everything. A large blister was also applied to the
abdomen, but matters grew worse, and the patient, feeling
that she must inevitably die, refused to take any more
medicine. On the 26th, Mr. Sharp suggested a trial of
kreasote. It was procured, and administered in some gruel
without her knowledge, one or two drops being put into a
* This was done before the arrival of Dr. Hobson.
I OO THE PRINCIPLE [ESSAY
small basin of gruel, and a spoonful given at a time. She has
never vomited since, She continued to take one drop daily
for a short time, and then discontinued it. She took small
quantities of light nourishment after the 26th, till her health
was re-established, and she has since been quite free from
similar attacks.”
IPECACU ANHA–VO MITING—ASTHMA–HEMORRFIAGE.
Every one knows that ſpecacuanha excites vomiting.
Among my earliest trials were several cases of vomiting
in children, arising from the ordinary causes of indiges–
tion. These were all very speedily cured by a few
doses, more or less minute, of the tincture of ipecacuanha.
Among these was a delicate child, about ten years of
age, who had been vomiting inveterately for a week,
so that everything which had been given her during
that time, whether as food or medicine, had been
rejected. She was, as may be supposed, much
exhausted. She did not vomit once after the first
dose of ipecacuanha, and very rapidly recovered her
usual health and strength.
This result surprised and gratified me much, it has
been confirmed by numerous instances, nearly equally
striking, which have since occurred to me.
The distressing nausea and vomiting from which
females frequently suffer, and which so often baffle the
medical man's best efforts, have on several Occasions
been speedily removed by the same remedy. In
one case the patient had suffered for two months from
continual sickness, vomiting bile every morning, and
her food more or less after every meal. She had had
allopathic medical treatment without benefit. A few
doses of ipecacuanha put a complete stop to this
distressing state of things.
Ipecacuanha, in infinitesimal doses, as will be amply
shown in Essay IX, produces asthma.
I have seen it, in similar doses, relieve, in the most
effectual manner, severe fits of asthma.
Ipecacuanha also causes bleeding from different parts
*
#. -
3 *
IV.] OF HOMOEO PATHY. I O I
of the body in persons previously in health. Some
very interesting cases of severe hemorrhage, cured by
ipecacuanha, are detailed in vol. I of Mr. Braithwaite's
‘Retrospect;” where, however, the beneficial effects
are wrongfully attributed to the sickness produced by
the large doses which were given.
I have had some opportunities of observing that
ipecacuanha, in such small doses as did not produce
any sickness, could arrest hemorrhage even when life
was fast ebbing away.
NUX WOMICA—SPASMODIC PAINS.
In instances of suffering from abdominal spasmodic
pains the benefit derived from AV/c lºomica has been
most obvious and gratifying. When the attack was
recent it was almost immediately removed. In a
case of long standing, where the countenance betrayed
the existence of organic disease, and in which the pain
was so severe, and had continued, when the patient
was first seen, so many hours that a fatal result seemed
not improbable, the prostration of strength being very
great, a perseverance in the remedy at short intervals
for a few hours gave complete relief. This is now
more than two years ago, and the man has continued
since comparatively free from the attacks.
Nux Vomica, when taken in poisonous doses, pro-
duces similar symptoms.
OPIUM –CONSTIPATION.—APOPLEXY-DELIRIUM TREMENS.
It is notorious that Opium constipates the bowels; I
have found it in small doses relieve constipation.
Excessive doses of opium produce in some persons coma
or apoplexy ; I have seen it of use in that alarming
state. In other persons it produces an excited state
resembling delirium tremens; it is the best remedy we
know for that fearful condition when produced by
intoxicating drinks.
I O2 THE PRINCIPLE [ESSAY
RHU BARB-SENNA.—DIARRHCEA.
As ipecacuanha is remarkably useful in many kinds
of vomiting, so Æ/ºtóaró, Senna, and other purgatives
are not less so in the kinds of diarrhoea which resemble
those produced by large doses of these drugs. I have
repeatedly tried them in varying doses, and have
obtained the relief looked for, both in children and
adults.
VERATRUM-CHOLERA.
It is a fact familiar to medical men that White
He//effore was the favorite purgative with Hippocrates,
and that it has fallen into disuse from its violent effects.
Recourse has been had to it in two extreme cases of
cholera, and in other slighter ones, with complete
success. In the first case, which occurred in the
summer of 1851, collapse had succeeded the most
violent cramps and other usual symptoms. Two or
three doses of camphor, dissolved in spirits of wine,
were given first, but with little or no benefit. The
acetate of copper and veratrum, alternately, effected a
cure in twenty-four hours. The second case, which
occurred in July, 1852, was not so severe as the former,
there being no cramp. Camphor relieved the extreme
exhaustion, and veratrum accomplished the rest. There
was not a single effort to vomit, nor a single evacuation,
after the first dose, though both these distressing
symptoms ſad &een almosé incessané for £/ºrð, Aours
Arevious/y.
PO ISONS FROM THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.
CANT HARIDES-STRANGURY.
That Cam/arides, even when only applied externally
in the form of a blister, frequently produce strangury
IV.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. - IO3
and other complaints of the bladder scarcely any one
is ignorant. That they are the most efficacious remedy
for similar complaints arising from other causes, I have
had the most satisfactory evidence.
Reference has been thus briefly made to the disease-
producing and the disease-healing powers of twenty of
the best Anown substances taken from the three kingdoms
in nature : antimony, arsenic, copper, corrosive sub-
limate, lead, mercury, phosphorus, and Sulphur; aconite,
belladonna, bryony, colocynth, kreasote, ipecacuanha,
nux vomica, opium, rhubarb, Senna, and veratrum ;
cantharides. Many other remedies might have been
noticed in a similar manner, but it would be tedious.
A large number have been tried by me, as well in
great as in small doses. The cases have occurred “in
my own hands, and under my own eyes;” the trial
has been conducted under the favorable conditions
mentioned already in this Essay, and the verdict is,
that my own mind is convinced that there is an accord-
ance between the two great powers of these poisonous
substances, their power of producing disease in the
human body, when given in certain comparatively
large doses, and their power of removing similar
diseases, arising from other causes, when given in small
doses. I state the fact, and enter into no theoretical
methods of accounting for it. I declare myself satisfied
with the proofs I have witnessed of the truth of the
principle, and feel bound to give my individual testi-
mony that the administration of remedies under the
guidance of this principle is a much more successful
mode of treating disease than any with which I was
previously acquainted.
Such is a small portion of my trial of homoeopathy.
It conveys but an inadequate idea of the amount of
industry and anxiety which have been bestowed upon
the inquiry. The cases and observations might be
greatly extended, but I think without further benefit.
Those already given exhibit the kind of evidence
IO4 THE PRINCIPLE OF HOMOEOPATHy. [ESSAY IV.
capable of being afforded, and which is the only kind
the investigation admits of The Zuantity necessary to
produce conviction in different minds will vary accord-
ing to their several constitutions, but it will surely be
considered the height of prejudice and bigotry in any
one to reject altogether, and in ſimime, such evidence
as this, or to refuse to investigate the subject for
himself.
To the objection that these examples are, after all,
very few and insufficient to establish a general principle,
it is replied, first, that in the investigation of a law of
nature, like the one we are inquiring after, it may be
almost said
“Ex uno disce omnes,”
from the behaviour of one or two substances carefully
experimented upon, the conduct of all others may be
inferred. The popular story of Sir Isaac Newton and
the falling apple, whether literally true or not, is a plain
illustration, and conveys an important lesson. And
secondly, nearly every article of the Materia Medica
has now been tested by one and another, and the
further the examination is carried, the more certain
does the conclusion appear.
The evidence, therefore, justifies the conclusion that
the desire so fervently expressed by Sydenham has
been accomplished ; and proves that this principle is a
“ſixed, deſiniće, and consummate” rule to guide us in
our endeavours to cure or alleviate the maladies of
mankind."
* It will be believed that to these might be added a very
large number of interesting cases, which have been observed
in an extensive and successful practice, during the twenty
years and more since 1851. The leisure necessary to put
them on record is not at Command, but it may be stated that
the first evidence is abundantly confirmed by the general
testimony of this enlarged experience. (1873.)
ESSAY V.
THE PRINCIPLE OF HOMOEOPATHY,
(CONTINUEZ).)
“I am so far from blaming a rational theory in physic that
I think it the basis of all just and regular practice; but then it
should be as Hippocrates adviseth kata pūouv Šewpta (a theory
according to nature). If ever physic is to be improved, it
must be in such a manner, and not by chimerical hypotheses,
nor rash unwarrantable quackery.”
JOHN HUXHAM.
ESSAY V."
THE PRINCIPLE OF HOMOEOPATHY,
(COAVZZAWUEZO.)
“The invention of the mariner's needle which giveſ/, the
direction, is of no less benefit for navigation than the inven-
tion of the sails which give the motion.”
LORD BACON.
•-e-C-e-
IT has been well said “there are truths which some
men despise, because they will not examine them, and
which they will not examine because they despise
them.” Homoeopathy is one of these. Men of large
scientific attainments, and indefatigable in adding to
their store of knowledge, think it foolish because they
are ignorant of its truth, and this notion of its folly
hinders them from becoming acquainted with the
evidences in its favour.
Nevertheless, homoeopathy embraces scientific and
practical truth of So much value, that, were it known, it
would interest alike the man of Science, and the man of
practical utility. The truth, known only as men know
other truths, imperfectly, may be mixed up with
numerous errors, but it is wiser to endeavour to
separate what is true from what is false than to reject
both.
The jealousy of power may indeed attempt to crush
the rising influence of new truth. A Galileo may by
* First published in 1853.
IO8 THE PRINCIPLE [ESSAY
force be constrained to read a reluctant recantation,
but “the earth moves notwithstanding.” Such is the
vitality of truth, that when once discovered, it seems
never afterwards to die. If, therefore, homoeopathy be
true, we may confidently expect that it will survive the
opposition to which it is exposed. If it be false, let us
have the proof. It is not to be condemned as some
people would condemn a suspected felon, without
judge or jury.
But, whatever course the opponents of homoeopathy
may pursue, it is plainly the duty and the wisdom of
those who have risked their credit and success by
embracing it, to give it a most searching inquiry; that
what there is of truth in it may be preserved for the
benefit of mankind, and that what there may be of
error intermingled with that truth may be separated
from it. Truth, beautiful truth, must be to us what
power was to the Romans. In the words of Livy, H
“Apud Romanos vis imperii valet, imania transmittentur.”
Among the Romans, he says, the power, the energy
of empire was valued, the pompous trappings and
parade were handed over to others—to the monarchs
of the east. .
Let us then once more examine the foundation of
our science, and in doing so we will consider–
I. Whether there be any probability that a law, rule,
or principle exists in nature for our guidance in the
treatment of disease. -
II. The law of homoeopathy.
III. The limits of this law.
IV. What those cases are which are &eyond the limits
of the law, and how they are to be treated.
I. Whether there be any probability that a law, rule,
or principle exists in nature for our guidance in the
treatment of disease.
V.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. IO9
It is held by some that such a law is impossible.
Among those who think thus, is the present official
head of our profession—Dr. Paris, the president of the
royal college of physicians in London.
“In tracing the history of the Materia Medica to its
earliest periods,” says Dr. Paris, “we shall find that its
progress has been very slow and unequal, very unlike
the steady and successive improvement which has
attended other branches of natural knowledge ; we
shall perceive even that its advancement has been
continually arrested, and often entirely subverted by
the caprices, prejudices, superstition, and knavery of
mankind ; unlike too the other branches of science, it is
Žncapable of successful generalization.” This extract
from Dr. Paris proves, first, that, up to the present
moment, no law, principle, or generalization has been
acknowleded by the profession as a body. It proves,
secondly, the wretched condition of the Materia
Medica, or art of healing, as exercised by legally
qualified practitioners. It further admits that this art
has not been improved and advanced as other branches
of natural knowledge are confessed to have been
advanced ; leaving the inference to be drawn, that
such wretched condition, and such want of improve-
ment, have arisen from the absence of a principle or
rule to improve by. Lastly, it asserts, Özzá it does not
prove, that medicine must for ever remain in this
hopelessly unimproveable condition, for that it is
Žncapable of such a principle ! Sad indeed,—if it be
£27te.
These are the sentiments of the leading living
physician in London ; let us now turn to the most
distinguished living physician in the capital of Scotland.
Dr. Simpson [afterwards Sir James] says, “In medi-
cine and Surgery we have many general facts or laws,
more or less correctly ascertained and established, and
the art of medicine consists in the practical application of
these laws to the relief and cure of the diseases of our
* Paris's ‘Pharmacologia.’ Introduction.
I IO THE PRINCIPLE [ESSAY
patients. These laws are some of a higher, some of a
lower type of generality. As examples of them we have,
for instance, the law that various contagious diseases,
more particularly eruptive fevers, seldom attack the
same individual twice during life, and the practical
application of this law in artificial inoculation with
small-pox and cow-pox, has already saved millions
of human lives. As a general law, cinchona has the
power of arresting and curing diseases of an intermittent
or periodic type, as intermittent fever or ague, inter-
mittent neuralgia, &c. As a general law, the employ-
ment of Opium arrests and cures irritative diarrhoea,
iron cures chlorosis, &c. &c.”
In the name of natural science I protest against such
an abuse of its expressions as is here made. If its most
valuable terms are to be applied in so vague a manner
there is an end to all precision of either thought or
language. If the term “general law” is to be under-
stood as meaning nothing more than that things gener-
a/Zy /a/pen so and so, the further discussion of the
subject will be vain and unprofitable.
Dr. Simpson, endeavouring to extricate himself from
this confusion of ideas, and misapplication ‘of words,
goes on to say, “But the law laid down by Hahnemann,
and which forms the groundwork of homoeopathy, viz.
—similia similibus curanțur-is regarded by him and
his disciples, not in the light of a general law, but as a
zzzzzz!ersa/ and infallible law in therapeutics.” Here,
it is evident, that the word genera/ is made to mean
the same as generally, as if they were connected as the
words frequent and /reguently may be ; but a “general
law'” in this sense is a contradiction in terms ; a “law
generally but not always" is no law at all in nature.
The word “general” when applied to a law of nature
means the same as “universal.” A natural law must
be universally applicable wił/ºin its s//ere of action –
a real though not an apparent exception would destroy
1 Simpson's ‘Homoeopathy, its Tenets and Tendencies,'
pp. 2, 37.
v.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. I I I
its claim to be received as a law. Homoeopathists
speak of their law as thus general or universal.
But the confusion in Dr. Simpson's mind continues
as he proceeds. “For one,” he says, “I am most
willing to admit, that if Hahnemann, or any man, could
discover a single universal, infallible law in therapeutics,
applicable to all diseases and all cases of diseases, it
would constitute the greatest imaginable discovery in
medicine. Many men have in the same way fancied
that they have discovered a single infallible universa/
remedy for all diseases. Priesnitz thought his cold
water was such. Morison averred that his pills were
such, and so on.”
How strange the confusion of thought in this sen-
tence What relation does the attempt to cure all
diseases by a single remedy, as in the instance of
hydropathy, bear to the attempt to discover, by phi-
losophical inquiry and fair induction, a general fact or
law of nature calculated to guide us in the application
of all remedies 2 An uneducated but vigorous peasant
might undertake the one, but only an accomplished
physician could hope to effect the other. And how
can Dr. Simpson place a laborious scientific inquiry,
carried on openly in the face of Europe by Hahne-
mann, side by side with the advertisements about his
secret pills and their infallible virtues by Morison P
This evidences a lack either of discernment or of
candour; if the former, it displays such a want of
discrimination as entirely unfits him for the task he
has undertaken ; if the latter, it betrays him into such
a misrepresentation of things as equally disqualifies
him on another ground.
Dr. Simpson admits that the 'discovery of a general
principle to guide us in the application of remedies in
disease would be a great discovery ; but he has no
sympathy with those who are labouring to find out
such an invaluable guide. He does not, indeed, say,
with Dr. Paris, that the discovery is impossible, but he
breathes no fervent aspiration that suffering humanity
may receive such a boon. He does not engage in the
I I 2 THE PRINCIPLE [ESSAY
Search himself any more than Dr. Paris, nor has he a
word of encouragement to induce others to engage in it.
He expresses no gratitude to Hahnemann for his inde-
fatigable exertions, nor regret that they should have
been persevered in for so many years, as he thinks, in
vain.
There is nothing enviable in a frame of mind like
this, so destitute of generous admiration of the strug-
gles of an ardent spirit to obtain some light to illu-
minate his path in the conscientious discharge of his
professional duties —so devoid of ingenuous pity and
brotherly regret while he thinks that those aspirations
and exertions have ended in a failure
But other men have had other views and feelings,
and have come to a different conclusion. Sydenham,
the father of British physicians, writes thus —
“I conceive that the advancement of medicine lies
in the following conditions,—
“There must be, in the first place, a history of the
disease, in other words, a description that shall be at
Once graphic and natural. e
“To draw a disease in gross is an easy matter. To
describe it in its history, so as to escape the censure of
the great Bacon is far more difficult. º
“It is necessary, in describing any disease, to enu-
merate the peculiar and constant phenomena, apart
from the accidental and adventitious ones; these last
named being those that arise from the age or tempera-
ment of the patient, and from the different forms of
medical treatment. It often happens that the cha-
racter of the complaint varies with the nature of the
remedies, and that symptoms may be referred less to
the disease than to the doctor. . . . No botanist takes
the bites of a caterpillar as a characteristic of a leaf of
Sage.
“The other method whereby, in my opinion, the
art of medicine may be advanced, turns chiefly upon
what follows, viz., that there must be some fixed,
definite, and consummate meet/odus medendº (law or
method of cure), of which the commonweal may have
v.] OF HOMOEOPATHY, II 3
the advantage. By ſºred, deſºnife, and consummate, I
mean a line of practice which has been based and built
upon a sufficient number of experiments, and has in that
manner been proved competent to the cure of diseases.
I by no means am satisfied with the record of a few
successful operations either of the doctor or the drug.
I require that they be shown to succeed universa/y
zºnder such and such circumstances.”
Such are the earnest thoughts of Sydenham. It is
true he looked for this “method of healing” in a
direction in which success has not yet been attained.
He hoped to find it in a £/eory of disease. “It is
known,” he says, “that the foundation and erection of
a perfect and definite methodus ſeederedi is a work of
exceeding difficulty.” In this direction two thousand
years have been spent in unsuccessful efforts. Hahne-
mann turned to another quarter, and, as Dr. Scott has
well explained, he found a method in a theory of cure.
Thus far authorities may be consulted on the ques-
tion, whether there be any probability that a law of
healing exists in nature. But authorities cannot give
the answer; it is a question of analogy; and it can be
answered only by a reference to what is found to be
true in other departments of nature.
Now all who are acquainted with the history of
natural and experimental philosophy are aware that
real progress in natural knowledge is dependent upon
the discovery of general facts or laws. A subject
appears confused, and all its parts in disorder, until
such a discovery with reference to it has been made ;
when this has been effected, everything falls into its
place, and that which seemed before a chaos becomes
an exhibition of order befitting the contrivance of an
infinite intelligence. So far have natural philosophers
gone in this direction, and so imbued are they with the
conviction that all nature is a system of wisdom, an
arrangement of perfect order and beautiful symmetry,
º
* ‘Works of Sydenham,’ vol. I, pp. 12–17. Sydenham
Society's Edition.
8
I 14 THE PRINCIPLE [ESSAY
that their energies are mainly devoted to the investiga-
tion of these laws. If we examine the labours of the
mechanician, the chemist, the clectrician, the geologist,
the botanist, the physiologist, we find that all are
working in the same spirit, all are in search of the
same objects, general laws, the guiding principles of
IIature.
“All things that are,” observed that excellent man
who has earned for himself the epithet judicious, “have
Some Operation not violent nor casual. . . . . All
things therefore do work according to law, whereof
Some Superior unto whom they are subject is author.
. . . Those things are termed most properly natural
agents which keep the law of their kind unwittingly,
which can do no otherwise than they do ; . . . . their
strict keeping of one tenure, statute, and law, is
spoken of by all, but it hath in it more than men have
yet attained to know.”
If then,
“Order be heaven's first law ;”
if there be laws regulating every department even of
inanimate nature, shall there not be laws of life and of
health P. If there be laws of storms and tempests in
the air and the Ocean, shall there not be laws of disease,
—those tempestuous motions in the living body? Shall
there be a magnetic bar to guide the affrighted mariner
out of the intricacies and dangers of a storm at Sea,
and shall there be no compass to guide the physician
in his efforts to extricate the sick man from the living
tempest within him # It cannot be; all analogy is
against it.
If it be said, the orignal constitution of nature was
indeed perfect, and arranged under perfect laws, but
disease has been since introduced in the train of sin,
and is therefore necessarily irregular and lawless, it
may be answered, the all-wise Creator was not taken
by surprise when our first parents sinned ; He had
made infinite provision for the sad catastrophe; and
* Hooker.
v.] OF HOMCEOPATHIY. II 5
while He righteously appointed disease to be the
regulated avenue to death, the wages of sin; He
mercifully provided medicines, and regulated their use
for the mitigation of this portion of our woe.
Analogy then leads us to conclude that it is froëabſe
that a law, rule, or principle exists in nature for Our
guidance in the treatment of disease.
II. The law of homoeopathy. It is obvious that
though from analogy it is highly probable, nay almost
certain, that a law of healing exists in nature, it does
not, therefore, follow that homoeopathy is that law.
The next step required is that its own truth be
demonstrated as clearly as the nature of the case
admits.
What is a law of nature ? By “law of nature” is to
be understood the will of the Great Creator in the
physical not moral government of His own works; by
“general fact” is meant the actual exhibition of that
will in the obedience of the creature ; by “principle” we
express our confidence in the unalterable character of the
law, as seen in the continual recurrence of the fact,
and we therefore make it a rule of art to guide us in
our own conduct and proceedings. These terms are
often used synonymously, and when so used all these
ideas are implied in them. They express a natural
fact, which, not in a single instance, nor occasionally,
nor generally, but always, under given circumstances,
happens; that is, so far as Our present limited know-
ledge of natural events teaches us. They express a
general fact ascertained by repeated observations, as a
particular fact is ascertained by a single observation,
which is found to be always true under certain con-
ditions.
Let us take an example ; one of Kepler's laws is
this, “the planets describe equal areas in equal times.”
When the planets are in that part of their orbit near
1 Demonstrated in the first Proposition of Newton's
‘Principia.'
II 6 THE PRINCIPLE - [ESSAY
the Sun, their motion is accelerated ; when at a greater
distance from the sun their motion is retarded; but at
every part of their course, the area described in a given
time is always the same. Now if the planets could be
detected occasiona//y moving after a different manner,
the law would not exist; it could not be said that the
planets describe equal areas in equal times, the state-
ment would be false and not true. A law of nature
cannot be a general law without being a universal
O1162. -
These considerations are applicable to all the known
laws of nature, right reason therefore dictates their
application to the law of homoeopathy. It is proved
to be a law if it possesses a constant action within a
limited sphere ; it will not operate, and ought not to
be expected to operate beyond that sphere.
What then is the law of homoeopathy, and what are
the proofs of its truth 2 To avoid repetition, my
readers are referred to the preceding Essay for an
answer to these questions.
That there is a natural relation between the disease-
producing and the disease-healing powers of drugs is,
I think, clearly made out. That a poison which
produces, for instance, inflammation of any Organ when
given in health in a large dose, will be a good remedy
for a similar inflammation of that organ, arising from
another cause, if given in a small dose, is, I think, fully
proved —hence the rule quaintly, but for brevity's
sake, expressed in the words, “similia similibus
curantur,”—likes are to be treated with likes.
That it is a stronger artificial inflammation which
permanently extinguishes” the weaker, natural inflam-
mation, as asserted by Hahnemann,' has not been
proved, and is apparently beyond our power to ascer-
tain. Why should a simple fact be obscured, and its
reception retarded by hypothetical explanations 2
Speculation and hypothesis have been the bane of
medical science in all ages; when will they be dis-
* ‘ Organon,' S Xxvi.
v.] . OF HOMOEOPATHY. I I 7
carded ? Not till then will unanimity of sentiment
prevail in the profession, and the greatest success
attainable crown its labours. -
On another ground also it is essential that homoeo-
pathists should restrict themselves to the expression of
facts in the simplest language and in terms devoid of
hypothesis. They are assailed by able, intelligent and
learned adversaries, if they undertake to defend what
is indefensible, they give their opponents a great
advantage, and may expect defeat; if they rest upon
a natural fact, free from human speculation however
brilliant, they will be able to stand.
All who are conversant with researches into the con-
stitution of nature confine themselves, when giving
expression to the laws which govern its operations, to
a simple statement of facts. We know too little yet of
what Sydenham calls “the innermost penetralia of
nature,” to enter beyond the surface. We may know
that under certain circumstances nature will act in a
certain manner, but if we are wisely modest we shall
abstain from asserting how the act is performed. With
all due respect, therefore, for the memory of Hahne-
mann, and with very grateful acknowledgments of the
benefit which by his industry and perseverance he has
conferred upon mankind, I decline to adopt the hypo-
thetical language in which he has clothed the principle
“similia similibus curantur.”
The ſacá is sufficient for all practical purposes. An
imaginative explanation adds nothing to its value,
while it perplexes the student, and affords materials
which the opponent can readily assail. There are
those who would rather give an erroneous explanation
than own their ignorance by giving none at all. I
cannot admire their wisdom. There are others who
insist on following the “Master ;” but, as Locke has
observed, “’tis not worth while to be concerned, what
he says or thinks, who says or thinks only as he is
directed by another.”
The hypotheses of Hahnemann constitute the
greatest difficulty in the 4/keory of homoeopathy; if we
II 8 THE PRINCIPLE [ESSAY
agree to reject them, that difficulty is removed. “The
taking away false foundations, is not to the prejudice,
but advantage of truth ; which is never injured or
endangered so much, as when mixed with, or built on
falsehood.”"
The law of homoeopathy, as expressed in the words
“similia similibus curantur,”—likes are to be treated
with likes, should be understood as a simple state-
ment of a natural fact, of universal occurrence under
certain conditions which are essential, and in the
absence of which it does not occur. This brings us
to the third division of our subject.
III. What are the Zimziás to this law of homoeo-
pathy 2 To what extent is it practically applicable 2
This is an important inquiry, and good service will
be done if I succeed in defining the boundary line
within which the rule of “similia similibus curantur "
applies;–within which it is a general law, a universa/
principle.
Great indistinctness of perception prevails upon this
point, which is much to be regretted. It has caused a
useless discussion on a theoretical question, whether
the law is a universa/ or only a genera / law ; it has
also given rise to a widely-extended controversy on an
important practical question, the use of so - called
azari/ia7-ics, and it has often placed medical men in
difficulties out of which they have not known how to
escape.
To make this subject plain we will first inquire what
is meant by the limits of a law of nature ? and for an
example in illustration we will Once more refer to the
law of gravitation. All bodies attract each other with
a force directly proportioned to their mass, and in-
versely to the squares of their distances from each
other. Under certain conditions this force causes
bodies to approach each other. But they often do not
approach each other; on the contrary, we often see bodies
| Locke's ‘Essay.' Epistle to the Reader.
V.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. I IQ
recede from each other; is therefore the law broken
and abolished 2 By no means. The planets gravitate
towards the sun, but in one part of their orbits they
rapidly recede from that luminary ; why P not because
they have ceased to gravitate towards that attracting
centre, but because the force of gravity is, for a time,
overpowered by another force, and thus rendered ap-
parently inoperative. In the same manner bodies
often fall to the earth under the influence of gravity,
but they often do not fall; why P because the attractive
force is interfered with by some counteracting circum-
stances, the table or the hand supports the book,+
the conditions are not satisfied ; let these conditions
be restored, let the support be removed, and the
universality of the law will be vindicated,—the book
will fall.
Acids and alkalies have a strong tendency to com-
bine with each other in definite proportions under the
influence of chemical affinity ; but if a stream of
galvanic electricity be passed through the liquid in
which they are dissolved and united, they are sepa-
rated —the force of affinity ceases to operate.
This law in chemistry of the union of bodies in
definite proportions seems not to hold in the manu-
facture of glass; at least hitherto it has not been shown
to do so. I have repeatedly tried the experiment my-
self; the ingredients have been mixed in the pro-
portions of their chemical equivalents and glass has
been obtained ; having had for these experiments the
use of a large glass manufactory; but my glass was
not finer nor better than that produced by the em-
pirical mixture made by the men. Does that invali-
date Dalton's beautiful and invaluable discovery P. By
no means; his experiments were made at ordinary
temperatures, and chemical combinations produced
under similar circumstances are obedient to this law.
The condition of so high a temperature as that re-
quired for the manufacture of glass does not appear
at present to be within the limits of the law; never-
theless, the law is perfect; it bears universal rule
I 2 O THE PRINCIPLE | ESSAY
within its jurisdiction, — within the conditions which
limit it.
In an electrical or magnetic experiment the dis-
turbing influences, preventing or interrupting the
phenomena, are more numerous and complicated. The
laws of electricity and of magnetism are not, however,
thereby considered doubtful or untrustworthy; they
are depended upon as absolutely certain to produce
their respective events within the limits of their sphere
of influence.
Such is the meaning of the limits of a natural law.
Let us apply these ideas to the law of homoeopathy.
A poison taken in health produces a certain series
of derangements; by this experiment the poison is
indicated, according to the law of homoeopathy as a
specific remedy, the best that can be obtained, the
choice one in all nature, for a similar series of de-
rangements occurring in natural disease. If this axiom
be true at all, it will be not only genera//y but zºneſ-
versa//y true within the limits of its conditions,—
within the limits of its power of action.
We are now prepared to understand the question ;
w/a/ a7-e Z/ºe /i/zifs of homoeopathy P. The answer
must consist in an enumeration of those diseases which
come wit/i7, the limits; and this answer will be made
more plain and definite when we come afterwards to
consider those cases, or parts of cases, which lie àeyond
its limits.
That the boundary is a vast one, and includes an
innumerable multitude of the “ills that flesh is heir to,”
will be manifest on due consideration. They can be
referred to only very briefly. The endless variety of
affections of the brain and nerves; the disorders of the
circulation of the blood ; of respiration ; of digestion ;
of absorption ; of secretion ; many ailments of the
bones, ligaments, joints, muscles, glands, and integu-
ments, are included within the circle of this compre-
hensive rule.
The practitioner who professes to take this law for
his guide in the treatment of disease, must obey it with
V. OF HOMOEOPATHY. I 2 I
loyalty, and trust it with confidence within this ex-
tensive territory. If he bleed and blister in simple
inflammation, if he give purgatives in simple chronic
constipation, he is without apology. The law will
guide him effectually and securely, if it be obeyed,
through all such troubles as these. Such additions do
more than, in the language of Johnson, “encumber us
with help,”—they are unnecessary and injurious.
This brings us to the consideration of so-called
attariſiaries. The term is improper, and ought never
to be applied.
Here is a magnet and a piece of iron ; when the
magnet is brought sufficiently near the iron, and the
iron is free to move, it is drawn up against gravity and
adheres to the magnet. This is a fact illustrating the
action of the magnetic force. Suppose a weight is put
upon the piece of iron, and the magnet made to
approach it as before ; now there is no apparent
action ; the magnetism of the bar has not departed,
but the conditions requisite for its visible manifestation
are not granted ; there is a mechanical impediment.
Now suppose the impediment is removed with the
hand, and the conditions thus restored, the action
again takes place. Can the / and in that case be
called an au viliary to the magnetic force : It is
Obviously an improper term ; we cannot help or assist
a natural force, though we may often remove impedi-
ments, or assist in producing the circumstances or con-
ditions under which the force naturally acts.
We must reject the term auxiliary altogether. If
applied to bleeding and purging in inflammation, both
the act and the term are wrong; such additions to
true homoeopathic treatment are not needed, they are
not azari/iaries but hindrances. If applied to what is
required to be done for those parts of cases which are
beyond the limits of homoeopathy, it is wrongly
applied –where the law does not reach it cannot act
at all, and therefore cannot be assisted.
Within the limits of the law of homoeopathy nothing
should be added to the remedy indicated, except what
I 2.2 THE PRINCIPLE | ESSAY
is manifestly calculated to promote the comfort of the
patient : appropriate food, clothing, temperature, air,
water cold or warm, and cheerful and kind attendants.
What is required where these limits are exceeded we
will now proceed to consider.
IV.-What those cases are which are beyond the
Jimits of this law, and how they are to be treated.
These out-lying cases, or parts of cases, like strag-
glers beyond the camp, are a disorderly group, which
have given a great deal of trouble to the homoeopathic
practitioner, because he has not seen clearly how to
deal with them. They have constituted a great prac-
tical difficulty. Let us try to subdue them to order
and submission. We will take them seriatim, following
the maxim of Rochfoucauld, “Pour bien savoir les
choses, il en faut Savoir le détail.” To understand a
subject we must go into particulars.
There is a class of cases of which the following is an
instance. A man is heartily and hastily enjoying his
dinner, he swallows the bone of a fish, and it lodges in
his throat;-the practitioner is sent for in great haste
—the man is choking. What dose of a “like" remedy
can help in such a case ? It is true that there are
medicines homoeopathic to the pain and incipient in-
flammation, but their action would be kept in abeyance,
just as the force of gravity cannot bring the apple to
the ground while it is supported by the twig. No, the
aſpec/anica/ impedimeeſeſ in both instances must ſºrså Öe
removed, the twig must be broken,_the bone must be
extracted—and then, the required conditions being
granted, the respective laws will operate.
Another class is represented by the following cases.
A railway accident, unhappily by no means unfrequent,
has scattered abroad a number of poor creatures with
broken arms and legs, dislocated shoulders and ankles,
and wounds of all kinds. It is true that the homoeo-
pathic medicines will be of great service, but there are
other requirements; – fractured bones must be re-
placed in their natural positions, and be retained there;
v.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. I 23
dislocated joints must be reduced ; wounds must be
closed with sutures and plasters, perhaps bleeding
vessels tied ; and bandages must be skilfully applied.
All the presence of mind and practical tact of the
medical attendant will be put in requisition. His
applications will be much fewer in number, his ap-
paratus much less complicated than were those of his
forefathers, so graphically depicted in the glorious folio
of Ambrose Parè, but something of this kind must
always be required ; to treat such cases single-handed
is plainly beyond the power of homoeopathy ; but
homoeopathy will do its own part, and do it well ;
within its own province it will ſteed ſlo /e/?.
We proceed to another class of cases. A patient is
suffering from inflammation of the bladder; the phy-
sician prescribes caſeſ/harides ;-the remedy is homoeo-
pathic to the inflammation, but it fails to afford relief.
On more careful examination, a stone is found in the
bladder; its presence is the cause of the inflammation ;
it is a mechanical impediment to the action of the
remedy. The forceps is again required, the stone is
removed, and the patient recovers. The failure of
cantharides in this case is no reproach to homoeo-
pathy ; it would have cured had there been no such
impediment.
It will be said that all these are surgical cases, and
that the homoeopathic physician is not concerned with
them. I grant that they are called surgical cases, and
that Hahnemann himself excepts them as such ; but
the distinction between the surgeon and the physician
is an artificial division of the medical staff which ought
never to have arisen. It did not exist among the
Greeks and Romans, but originated in the dark ages,
and it is to be hoped that it will cease to exist in the
future; and that practitioners will study the whole of
their profession, and seek only the distinction of su-
perior skill and experience. At any rate all should
first be physicians, and Surgery should be the Super-
added part.
In another class of cases we meet with strictures of
I 24 THE PRINCIPLE [ESSAY
the natural passages. In these cases there is the
diseased condition of the part, which can be prescribed
for homoeopathically, but there is something more; there
is a mechanical impediment to the free passage of
what Ought naturally to be allowed entrance or exit.
In the case of the Oesophagus it is clear that solid food
must be abandoned, and only liquids swallowed; in
the case of the rectum something must be done to pro-
duce liquid evacuation. Now homoeopathic medicines
restore health, their tendency is to bring a disordered
action into a natural state; but a natural state, a
healthy action is inadmissible in these deplorable
cases, and consequently something must be given to
produce an 2/7/2azz/ra/ state, as the only condition on
which life can for a short time be prolonged. The
latter case then requires an aperient, but it is evident
that the aperient is not given with any view of curing
the patient, it has no pretension of that kind, its object
is simply to accommodate nature to a mechanical
difficulty. Should homoeopathic remedies diminish
the disease, and the stricture disappear, the necessity
for a liquid diet in the one case, and for aperients in
the other, would cease. These cases are happily very
rare, but when they do occur, the medical adviser
should explain their nature clearly, and especially his
motive for having recourse to aperients.
Other cases the opposite of those last noticed will be
met with. I lately saw an elderly lady who was in
the act of losing an enormous quantity of dark blood
from the bowel; her life was in great jeopardy. The
rectum was distended with hard matter. Two things
were immediately done; the medicine thought to be
most homoeopathic to my patient's condition was given,
and by an enema of water, the mechanical impediment
to the contraction of the bowel was removed. The
hemorrhage ceased instantly, and never, returned.
Now this was acting strictly as a homoeopathist should
act. Nothing was given but the homoeopathic remedy,
but had I contented myself with this, my patient must
have died. On the other hand, removing the me-
v.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. I 25
chanical difficulty was not having recourse to allopathy,
it was in the strictest keeping with the purest homoeo-
pathy, and I took care that the friends of my patient
should understand the nature of the case.
Again, a child fills its stomach with poison-berries, or
with pastry; or a man swallows accidentally or inten-
tionally a quantity of poison in a solid state ; shall not
warm water, or an emetic, or the stomach-pump, as
may seem to be most called for, be immediately made
available to remove the offending matter P In some of
these cases magnesia, or white of egg, or camphor, or
Some other antidote may be required to neutralize
chemically or vitally the poisonous substance. The
remainder of the case will fall within the limits of the
law, and the proper homoeopathic remedies can be
given. -
Again, cases of fracture of the spine, where there is,
of course, total paralysis of all the parts below the
fracture, require a mechanical mode of relieving the
bladder, during the brief remainder of life.
Again, cases of dropsical effusion may demand the
removal of the accumulated water, not as a remedy for
the dropsy, but that the distress caused by its bulk and
mechanica / pressure may, for a time at least, be relieved.
For a similar reason it will sometimes be desirable to
remove simple tumours by an operation. Malignant
tumours, having an Origin in constitutional disease
should not, I think, be operated upon. They may be
benefited by homoeopathic treatment; the forcible
removal of them subjects the sufferer to a painful
operation, and tends to shorten, rather than to prolong
life. We have the testimony of experienced allopathic
surgeons to this fact.
It will be evident on a careful study of all these
cases that none of them are cases for which homoeopathy
is not adapted. We hear it said from time to time—
such a case is not suited to homoeopathy; there are no
such cases. Every case of disease is suited to homoeo-
pathy, and homoeopathy is adapted to every case. It
will be observed that it is for a part on/y of these cases
I 26 THE PRINCIPLE [ESSAY
that homoeopathy is not suited. It is perfectly com-
petent to act within its own sphere, in every case of
disease; that which, in any case, lies beyond this
sphere, if we follow the dictates of right reason, must
be treated by other means. They are chiefly mecha-
nical difficulties, which require to be mechanically
removed. A few are chemical.
The homoeopathist need not be ashamed of these
things; he must avow them ; he must explain them :
he must, of all men, be open and straightforward, and
do everything in public. Nothing can damage homoeo-
pathy, or the character of homoeopathists so much as
clandestine proceedings.
But what shall be done with those “bites of the
caterpillar,” to which we have seen that Sydenham,
nearly two centuries ago, compared the mischief pro-
duced by the deleterious doses of allopathic drugs 2–
The Öites of the caterpi//ar 2 What must be done with
them 2 They are very difficult to deal with. I will
describe what was done, a few months ago, with a
case of this kind.
In the beginning of November last [1852] Mr. H.,
in Coventry, aged about 38, married, of a nervous
temperament, not feeling quite well, consulted his phy-
sician, complaining chiefly of nervousness. Mercury,
hyoscyamus, and digitalis in large doses, along with
other medicines, were prescribed for him. The next
day he felt worse, the medicines were repeated, and
others added. He continued to get worse, the drugs
were continued ; he took to his bed ; another physician
was called in in consultation, and the drugs repeated.
When he had been three months in bed; was emaciated
to the last degree; was suffering from bilious diarrhoea ;
his heartbeating as if it would break his ribs, 140 times
in a minute; his head confused ; the mercury and fox-
glove being still continued, and belladonna added in
large and frequently repeated doses; his wife was told
that she must expect the worst. This was his condition
in April last [1853] when I first saw him. He had
taken mercury and foxglove for five months, together
v.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 127
with henbane, capsicum, columba, ammonia, Opium,
valerian, camphor, sulphuric acid, quinine, ether, assa-
foetida, colocynth, nitric acid, dandelion, prussic acid,
hop, poppy, cod-liver oil, rhubarb, deadly nightshade,
Epsom salts, senna, &c., &c. These medicines had
been prescribed, in the order here given, with various
salines and infusions, by these two highly respectable
physicians, between the 13th of November, and the
26th of March, in as many separate prescriptions, now
in my possession. What could be done 2 He was
advised to try to take some food, and to abstain from
all medicine for a week. At the end of the week he
was a little better, but had been greatly agitated the
day before by the stormy visit of one of his former
physicians. Sulphur was prescribed for him, and in
about two months, by attention to diet, and by taking
a few doses of nux vomica, sulphur, nitric acid, and
cinchona, I had the pleasure of leaving my patient
quite well, and he soon afterwards resumed his occu-
pation, upon which a family was dependent.
Before concluding, I must not omit to notice one
class of cases which remains, and which Hahnemann
reminds us common sense excludes, in the first stage of
their treatment, from the domains of homoeopathy.
They are, in fact, not cases of disease, but of privation
of life —I allude to suspended animation by drown-
ing, or any other kind of Suffocation. Persons in this
condition do not need healing of disease, but, if possible,
restoring to life. Whatever means are most likely to
be conducive to this end must be diligently used by
the homoeopathist. If he should happily succeed in
these efforts, and any ailment then exist in his patient,
his rule comes into action, and he treats his case ac-
cordingly.
Such, when “cleared of doubt,” is the principle of
homoeopathy. When it is remembered how many
centuries medical men have been groping in the dark
I 28 THE PRINCIPLE OF HOMOEOPATHY. [ESSAY V.
without any principle to guide them, it seems scarcely
possible to over-estimate the value, or to exaggerate
the importance of such a discovery. It might have
been expected that it would be hailed with delight by
the professional body, or that at least it would be used
thankfully till a better could be found, but it has met
with the more common treatment of new truth—re-
jection without inquiry. “Damnant quod non intelli-
gunt,” says Cicero, they condemn what they do not
understand ; the majority being “ those who prefer
custom and habit before all excellency,” who
“bring
A mind not to be changed "*
NOTE.—The following letter, received while this Essay is
reprinting, from an eminent physician in London, is an
example of what is meant by “a mind not to be changed :”—
“ -*** Dec. 4, I873.
“MY DEAR SIR,
“I thank you for sending me your Papers, and I shall
always be interested to see any publication that you may do
me the favour to send me ; but I cannot undertake to discuss
with you the action of drugs, or the law for the dose. I differ
from you in your conclusions, but even if I had abundance of
leisure, which I have not, I do not think that any advantage
would result from a discussion of the points of difference
between us. *-
“Believe me, yours very truly,
{{ y 5
(1873.)
1 Bacon, ‘Advancement of Learning.’
* Milton, ‘Paradise Lost."
ESSAY V I.
THE PRINCIPLE OF HOMOEOPATHY,
(CONTINUED.)
“The love of truth is of equal importance in the reception
of facts, and in the formation of opinions; and it includes
also a readiness to relinquish our own opinions, when new
facts or arguments are presented to us which are calculated
to overturn them.”
ABERCROMBIE.
ESSAY V I."
THE PRINCIPLE OF HOMOEOPATHY,
(CONZVNUED.)
“Ce serait faire tort au progrès des Sciences que de ne pas
vouloir abandonner des theories contraires aux observations
que présente l'état actuel de nos connaissances.”
BARON HUMBOLDT.
It would be doing an injury to the progress of Science
were we not willing to give up hypotheses which are contrary
to the observations furnished by the present condition of our
knowledge.
—º-C-e-
ON a former occasion,” the precise limits have been
pointed out within which the principle of homoeopathy
can be applied to diseases, the counterpart to that
inquiry remains;–what are the limits within which it
is applicable to remedies 2 It is proposed now to
attempt an answer to this question.
From a careful study of the ‘ Organon,' and other
writings of Hahnemann, we learn that he viewed the
law of “similia similibus curantur” as applying, first to
the power which one disease exerts over another;
secondly, to the influence of mental emotions; thirdly,
to the action of the so-called imponderable agents, light,
heat, electricity, and magnetism ; and fourthly, to the
Operation of drugs. It is necessary to study each of
these subjects separately.
I. The homoeopathic action of diseases.—Hahnemann
* First published in 1854, * Essay v.
I 32 THE PRINCIPLE [ESSAY
divides natural diseases into two great classes; the one
consisting of such as are dissimilar, the other of such
as are simi/ar to each other. And he remarks “that
no previously existing disease can be cured, even by
nature herself, by the accession of a new dissimilar
disease, be it ever so strong.” “Totally different,
however, is the result when two similar diseases meet
together in the organism, that is to say, when to the
disease already present, a stronger similar One is
added. In such cases we see how a cure can be
effected by the operations of nature, and we get a
lesson as to how we ought to cure.”
ZDissimizi/ar discases he arranges under three heads :
“ 1st. If the two dissimilar diseases meeting together
be of equal strength, or still more, if the older one be
the stronger, the new disease will be repelled by the
old one from the body and not allowed to affect it.”
The following are his examples —
“The plague of the Levant does not break out
where scuzzy is prevalent.”
“Persons suffering from herºeſic eruptions are not
infected by the plague.”
“Aachiță's prevents vaccination from taking effect.”
“Those suffering from Žuſmonary comusumption are
not liable to be attacked by epidemic ſevers of a very
violent character.” ~.
“2d. Or the new dissimilar disease is the stronger.
In this case the disease under which the patient
originally laboured, will, as the weaker, be kept back
and suspended by the accession of the stronger one,
until the latter shall have run its course or been cured,
and then the old one again makes its appearance 17t-
cured.” These are the instances given —-
“Two children affected with a kind of 6/7/e/sy re-
mained free from epileptic attacks after infection with
7-ing-worm ; but as soon as the eruption on the head
was gone, epilepsy returned just as before.”
“The iſc/, as Schopf saw, disappeared on the Occur-
rence of the scurvy, but after the cure of the latter it
again broke out.”
v1.1 of HOMOEOPATHY. 133
“Pu/monary Ż///isis remained stationary when the
patient was attacked by a violent 4%us, but went on
again after the latter had run its course.”
“If mania occur in a consumptive patient, the
phthisis with all its symptoms is removed by the
former, but if that go off, the phthisis returns immedi-
ately and proves fatal.”
“When measles and sma///or are prevalent at the
same time, and both attack the same child, the measles
that had already broken out are generally checked by
the small-pox that comes somewhat later; nor do
the measles resume their course until after the cure of
the small-pox.” Sometimes the reverse of this
takes place. So with scar/aſſina and cow-pot. The
scarlatina will sometimes suspend the cow-pox, and
sometimes the reverse will happen. The measſes
suspend the cow-pov, but do not prevent it from after-
wards running its course. So with the mumps and
cozV-fºot. -
“And thus it is with all dissimilar diseases, the
stronger suspends the weaker, but the one never cures
f/he other.”
“ 3d. Or the new disease joins the old one that is
dissimilar to it, and forms with it a com/ſet disease.”
“When two dissimilar acute infectious diseases meet,
as, for example, sma//-fºot and measſes, the One usually
suspends the other, but in rare cases the two for a
short time combine, as it were with each other, as seen
by P. Russell and others. Zencker saw cow-pot run
its regular course along with measſes and along with
purpura.” Such are the dissimilar diseases.
Let us now learn what those diseases are which
Hahnemann arranges together as similar, and of
which he asserts that they “can neither repel one
another, nor suspend one another, nor exist beside
each other.” . . . “No invariably, and in every case,
do two diseases, differing, certainly, in kind, but very
similar in their phenomena and effects, annihilate one
another, whenever they meet together in the organism.”
And as his “object is to speak about something deter-
I 34 THE PRINCIPLE - [ESSAY
minate and indubitable,” he gives the following proofs
of the assertion just quoted —
“The sma//-floa, so dreaded on account of the great
number and severity of its symptoms, has removed and
cured a number of affections with similar symptoms.”
Such as of/ºt/a/mia, amaurosis, a case of the latter,
“of two years' duration consequent on suppressed ring-
worm.” Oeafness, difficulty of Öreaffing, dysentery.
“The cow-floa, a peculiar symptom of which is to
cause tumefaction of the arm, cured, after it broke out,
a swo//eſt half-paralysed arm.”
“The fever accompanying cow-ſhot cured homoeopa-
thically an infermitten: ſever in two individuals.”
“The meas/es bears a strong resemblance in the
character of its fever and cough to the ſtooping-com/g/,
and hence it was that Bosquillon noticed in an epidemic
where both these affections prevailed, that many
citizens who then took measles remained free from
hooping-cough during that epidemic.”
“If the mecasſes come in contact with a disease
resembling it in its chief symptom, the eruption, it can
indisputably remove and effect a homoeopathic cure of
the latter. Thus a chronic /en/etic eruption was
entirely and permanently (homoeopathically) cured by
the breaking out of the measles.”
“An excessively burning miliary rasſ, on the face,
neck, and arms, that had lasted six years, under the
inſluence of weasſes assumed the form of a swelling of
the surface of the skin ; after the measles had run its
course, the rash was cured and returned no more.”
“Nothing could teach the physician in a plainer and
more convincing manner than the above, what kind of
artificial morbific potency (medicine) he ought to
choose, in order to cure in a sure, rapid, and permanent
manner, agreeably to the process that takes place in
nature.”
I have extracted thus largely from the ‘ Organon'
upon this point for severals reasons; first, that a full
account may be given of the argument as propounded
1 ‘ Organon, SS xxxv to xlvii.
AY
VI.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. I 35
by Hahnemann ; secondly, that the two lists may be
read in their connection ; this I cannot but think will
be sufficient to convince every intelligent person that
the supposed homoeopathic relation of one disease to
another is imaginary and untrue; and thirdly, to point
out how unfit the ‘ Organon, is to be held up as a text-
book to students, and how unsafe a guide Hahnemann
would prove to those who surrender themselves to him
in implicit obedience. Truly, never was hypothesis
based upon more slender materials; never did asser-
tion and inadequate proof appear more conspicuously
side by side than in these paragraphs..
It cannot be necessary to examine in detail these so-
called dissimilar and similar diseases. It may suffice
to remark that measles and small-pox, which are so far
alike, that for centuries they were supposed to be
modifications of the same disease, are classed as dis-
similar; while measles and hooping cough, with all
their visible difference, are classed as similar, and as
homoeopathically curing one another | A few months
ago, there was an epidemic of measles in this neigh-
bourhood ; some of the children had no sooner re-
covered from the measles, than they were attacked
with the hooping - cough ; whereas, if Hahnemann's
doctrine had been true, this would not have happened.
It might be thought that there was some similarity
between cow-ſhot and c/ic/en-fºot; certainly they re-
semble each other more closely than do measles and
hooping-cough. The following cases occurred to me
this summer —
On the 17th of August, 1853, three brothers were
vaccinated ; John Clarke, aged sixteen years; William,
aged fourteen ; and George, aged eleven. On the
eighth day the vaccination on William's arm had
taken effect, and was running its usual course; the
others seemed to have failed. John was re-vaccinated ;
but George presented a rash, having the appearance of
chicken-pox, which prevented his re-vaccination. At
the end of the second week, William's cow-pox was
completed ; George's chicken-pox was going on ; but
I 36 THE PRINCIPLE [ESSAY
John, instead of presenting the pustules of cow-pox on
the arms, was covered with chicken-pox ; this subsided
in due time, and then the cow-pox appeared, and went
through its accustomed stages. On the Ioth of Sep-
tember, twenty-four days after he had been vaccinated,
George was brought to me; his chicken-pox had dis-
appeared, but he had now a large cow-pox pustule on
the back of the right hand, with inflamed absorbents,
and an enlarged gland in the axilla; the pustule ran
through its usual course, when the accompanying
symptoms disappeared. Thus the resemblance be-
tween cow-pox and chicken - pox, which is certainly
greater than that between cow-ſhot and intermittent
ſever, produced no homoeopathic cure of either.
Well might Hahnemann conclude this part of his
subject with the remark, “We should have been able
to meet with many more true, natural homoeopathic
cures of this kind if nature /ad 7.0% been so deficient in
Žomedeo/aſ/ºic azari/ia7 y diseases.”
Rau, who has also written an ‘Organon,’ in some
respects more interesting and instructive than Hahne-
mann's, objects to the instances of similarity in diseases
brought forward by the latter.
He says, “in many of these cases the external
similarity is not very remarkable. If small pox is
sometimes accompanied or succeeded by a Swelling of
the arm, dysenteric diarrhoea, ophthalmia, and blind-
ness, it does not follow that there is a similarity be-
tween these diseases and small-pox.” Rau, however,
does not reject the notion as unfounded, but en-
deavours to prove it by other, and, as he thinks, by
better instances. He goes on to say, “there are other
much more instructive and convincing cases, such as
habitual headache, disappearing in consequence of a
typhus; or paralysis of the arm, as a sequel of typhus
disappearing again after the lapse of several years
under the influence of a second attack of typhus.” I do
not see that these examples are at all more “con-
vincing ” than Hahnemann's.
Such are the best proofs which have been adduced
VI.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 1.37
in Support of the application of the law of similia simi-
libus curantur to the action of diseases upon each
Other. The influence which diseases exercise upon
each other is a very curious and intricate subject, the
discussion of which does not come within the scope of
Our present business; but, from the facts now before
us, it is obvious that this influence is governed by
other laws than that of like curing like; in other
words, the principles of pathology are not identical
with the principle of therapeutics; the laws which
govern the natural course of diseases are not the same
as the law which guides us in the treatment of these
diseases by remedies. It is plain, therefore, that the
action of diseases upon each other cannot be included
within the limits of the law of homoeopathy.
II. The homoeopathic action of mental emotions.—It
would seem that man is a triune being, composed of a
body, an animal life, and a spirit. His body, the
materials of which are derived from the earth upon
which he treads, is an exquisite piece of machinery,
“fearfully and wonderfully made.” The animal life,
or vital principle, is the life which he has in common
with the lower animals. His spirit is an immaterial
and immortal essence, intelligent and moral, the pre-
siding powers of which are reason and conscience.
The vital principle and the intelligent spirit are “the
lives,” which, in the beginning, were “breathed ” by
the Great CREATOR into the prepared body. The triple
union is man. Since man's moral fall all three are
Subject to derangement; the body and the vital prin-
ciple are appointed to death. The derangements of
the one act upon the other two. The diseases of
the body act through the vital principle upon the
mind ; and, on the other hand, the disorders of the
mind act through the same medium, upon the body.
These are the only instances we are cognisant of in
which matter and spirit meet and act upon each other;
in all other cases, so far as we know, matter acts only
upon matter, and spirit upon spirit.
1 38 THE PRINCIPLE [ESSAY
The question arises according to what laws do the
mental emotions of one individual operate upon those
of another
“Mourning and sorrow,” says Hahnemann, “will be
effaced from the mind by the account of another and
still greater cause for sorrow happening to another,
even though it be a mere fiction.” In other words,
Hahnemann thinks that the law of homoeopathy, ap-
plies to the action of the mental emotions of the
physician or friend upon the mind of the patient, as it
does to the action of material poisons upon his body.
I think it does not, and for the following reasons:—
First. There is no analogy to render it probable that
the law of homoeopathy applies to mental emotions.
The laws regulating spiritual phenomena, so far as we
are yet acquainted with them, are not identical with
the laws which govern matter and its movements. Is
there any perceptible connection between the opera-
tions of mind and the laws of gravity, chemical affinity,
electrical attraction, and repulsion, &c., which regulate
the operations of matter 2 Can we, in fact, point out
any two things more different 2
Secondly. The effects produced by the emotions of
one mind upon those of another, in a healthy state do
not in any way resemble the injurious effects of poisons
upon the body. They do not, by their own nature,
engender disorders, but on the contrary, the natural
action of one mind upon another is of a beneficial and
happy tendency; otherwise social existence would be
an unmixed evil. According to the homoeopathic law,
poisons are to be “proved "upon the healthy body, in
order to learn the symptoms they are capable of pro-
ducing, which symptoms are the guide for their use as
remedies in natural disease. Can there be anything
like this undertaken with mental emotions Should
any one suggest that disordered emotions, such as
anger, for example, produce similar disorders in other
minds, I think they will scarcely have the hardihood to
assert that such disordered conditions in one mind act
VI. OF HOMOEOPATHY. I 39
homoeopathically as remedies for similar disorders in
other minds.
Thirdly. The experience of all ages down to the
present time has recommended an opposite mode of
treatment for the disorders of the mind. Seneca pre-
scribes for those in sorrow, “Precipue vitentur tristes,
et omnes deplorantes.” Sorrowful companions and all
mourners are specially to be avoided. And he adds
the following strong remark, “Si quis insaniam ab
insaniá sic curari aestimat, magis quam aeger insanit.”
If any one thinks to cure insanity by insanity, he is
more insane than the patient. A sacred writer ob-
serves, “a merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance,
and doeth good like a medicine.” Genuine sympathy
with cheerful kindness will do all the good that one
mind can do to another.
Fourthly, Hahnemann has not pointed out the
failure of the universal practice in this matter, nor the
fallacy of its principle ; nor shown that experience
down to the present time is unsatisfactory; neither has
he adduced proofs in support of his new view of the
subject. He gives the example already quoted ;-
“Mourning and sorrow will be effaced from the mind
by the account of another and a still greater cause for
sorrow happening to another.” But this does not
prove his point, for it is not a fact. The attention of
the mind may be diverſed for a time from its own
sorrow by the recital of another's grief; but his own
Sorrow will not be effaced thereby; it will remain as
before, and his mind will soon revert to it.
The careful consideration of these reasons leads dis-
tinctly to the conclusion that the laws of the science of
metaphysics and those of therapeutics are not identical;
that the influence which one mind exerts over another
is governed by other principles than that of like curing
like , it is plain therefore that the action of mind upon
mind cannot be included within the limits of the law
of homoeopathy.
140 THE PRINCIPLE |ESSAY
III. The Homoeopathic action of //ysical agents.-
The material world is a wonderful exhibition of the
Divine power. The solid earth, the ever restless
Ocean, the majestic mountain, the beautiful valley,
the boundless plain, the gliding river, the noble forest,
the lovely flower, the moving creature in every part,
and—Over all—the uplifted countenance of man. All
these are palpable and ponderable matter; but besides
these there is the genial warmth, the glorious sunshine,
the vivid flash, the rolling thunder, which constitutes
as it were the conſines of the material creation, to
which we must now return, after a brief visit to the
region of mind and immaterial spirit.
In a future Essay, facts will be mentioned which
seem to prove that the space occupied by the universe
is filled with matter;-inconceivably attenuated, it is
true, but still material. Upon this subtle form of
matter various 720/ions are impressed, producing the
phenomena which we call heat, light, electricity, and
magnetism. Each of these it is now needful to inves-
tigate, so far as relates to the subject of homoeopathy.
HEAT-It is probable that all the so-called im-
ponderable agents are peculiar motions of the infini-
tesimal particles of matter, and perhaps each of these
motions exist in two different forms, the vibratory
and the undulatory. For example, heat resident in a
body may be called vibratory, and when passing from
one body to another, undulatory. Heat in this latter
form, often called radiant heat, produces upon the
living body certain peculiar sensations which we call
hot, warm, or cold. These sensations can be produced
by degrees of heat within certain narrow limits only.
When these limits are exceeded heat causes the death
and destruction of the organised animal structure. If
in excess, we say the part has been burned ; if in
deficiency, we say it has been frozen. All Sudden
transitions from one degree of temperature or heat to
another are injurious to living bodies; if, therefore, any
part of the body has been exposed to too great a heat,
the method to be pursued, in order to suffer as little as
VI.] OF HOMOEOPATHY, I4 I
possible from this exposure, is a gradual return to a
more appropriate temperature ; and the same holds
good if any part has suffered from deficiency of heat.
Thus a burned hand may be gradually cooled by being
slowly withdrawn from the fire; while a frozen limb
may, in like manner, be gradually warmed by being
rubbed with snow.
This explanation seems sufficiently obvious and
satisfactory; we cannot but demur, therefore, when
these facts are adduced as instances of homoeopathic
action, as they are in the following sentences of the
‘ Organon.’
“In recent cases of frost-bitten limbs, frozen sour-
crout is applied, or frictions of snow are used. The
experienced cook holds his hand, which he has scalded,
at a certain distance from the fire, and does not heed
the increase of pain that takes place at first, as he
knows from experience that he can, thereby, in a very
short time, often in a few minutes, convert the burned
part into healthy painless skin.”
These are not instances of “like curing like.” The
agent which causes the mischief, and which cures it is
ſ/he same;—it is heat in different degrees; if, therefore,
the action is at all specific it is isopathy, the same
curing the same-not homoeopathy, like curing like;
but in truth, it is neither the one nor the other. The
explanation has already been given, and it is plain that
the action of heat upon the living body cannot be
included within the limits of the law of homoeopathy.
LIGHT.-This beneficent and beauteous endowment
of matter pervades, with astonishing rapidity, the vast
expanses of the universe. A cannon ball would take
a year to pass through the distance which light tra-
verses in a second. Such is the velocity of this undu-
latory movement; its other properties are equally
remarkable; witness the brilliant colours produced by
its refraction and reflection in the rainbow, and above
all, the power which it possesses of so acting upon the
' ' Organon,' Introduction, p. 100,
I 42 THE PRINCIPLE [ESSAY
eyes of living creatures as to enable them to see sur-
rounding and even distant objects. So far as we
know, light does not affect any other part of our body,
while that is in its natural condition; it produces no
action upon the sentient nerves of the skin, nor upon
the organs of the other senses. Various degrees of
light, within certain limits, (to be mentioned in Essay
IX) produce an impression upon the eye. As might
be expected, a greater degree overpowers the impres-
Sion caused by a smaller degree; hence the stars are
not seen by day. The light of the stars has much less
power to affect our eye than the light of the sun, it
therefore cannot be perceived while the latter is above
the horizon. If the sun's light be excluded, which
may be done either by descending into a deep well, or
by looking through a powerful telescope, then the stars
become visible at noon-day. Thus the perceptible
impressions produced upon the eye are dependent
upon the various degrees of light which reach the
organ,—the more powerful preventing the perception
of the weaker.
Let us now hear what Hahnemann says upon this
Subject. To the paragraph announcing the “homoeo-
pathic law of nature” is appended the following note;
—“Thus are cured both physical affections and moral
maladies. How is it that in the early-dawn the bril-
liant Jupiter vanishes from the gaze of the beholder *
By a stronger, very similar power acting on his optic
nerve, the brightness of approaching day !” And this
according to Hahnemann, is an instance of homoeo-
pathic cure
It is difficult to refrain, here, from some reflections
on the want of the power of discriminating evinced by
our medical reformer. It is true he laid hold upon a
fact when he discovered the homoeopathic action of
drugs, but how indistinctly must he have viewed that
fact, and how visionary are his speculations respect-
ing it!
* ‘ Organon,’ $ xxvi.
VI.] OF HOMOEOPATHY, I43
It is difficult to trace the remotest analogy between
the fact that a poison produces a disease, and cures
another like it, and the effect of different degrees of
light upon the eye. The light of Jupiter produces no
disease for the light of the Sun to cure ; again, if the
eye has been injured by too much light, it is not re-
stored to health by a still stronger degree of light; and
again, if it were, it would not be by a similarity of
agents, but by the same agent, acting in a more or less
powerful manner; the light of the “brilliant” Jupiter
is but the reflected light of the sun.
This deficiency in the power of discrimination in the
mind of Hahnemann becomes, if possible, still more
conspicuous in the sentences immediately following the
one last quoted. “In situations replete with fetid
odours, wherewith is it usual to soothe effectually the
offended olfactory nerves * With snuff, that affects
the sense of smell in a similar, but stronger manner
How does the warrior cunningly banish the piteous
cries of him who runs the gauntlet from the ears of the
compassionate by-standers ? By the shrill notes of
the fife, commingled with the roll of the noisy drum !
and the distant roar of the enemy's cannon, that in-
spires his army with fear 2 By the mimic thunder of
the big drum !”
Such observations as these Surely require no refu-
tation. They are entirely inapplicable as illustrations
of homoeopathy. Some writers on homoeopathy admit
that Hahnemann's illustrations are “unhappy,” and
with that admission they let the matter drop. But
why are they unhappy Simply because they are
wntrue. It is not difficult to see that there is nothing
of the nature of homoeopathic action in these examples:
and it is plain that the motions producing light, and
also those producing Sound, cannot be included within
the limits of the law of homoeopathy.
ELECTRICITY. —The attractive power of amber, called
by the Greeks 'Askrgov, an almost solitary fact known
to the ancients, has given a name to a property which
is now ascertained to belong to all bodies, The re-
I 44 THE PRINCIPLE [ESSAY
markable phenomena, and the extensive relations of
this property or force, have been successfully investi-
gated only within the present century, and even at the
present day, though a vast number of facts have been
observed, the subject is still shrouded in much mystery.
In reference to animal life, and its bearing upon the
subject before us, it may be remarked that the rela-
tions which exist between the electrical force and the
nervous influence are of the most intimate, but at the
same time of the most subtle character. They have
occupied the close attention of natural philosophers for
some time, but as yet few data have been well estab-
lished. The shock which the torpedo can communi-
cate was known to the ancients. That this shock was
electrical was discovered by Mr. Walsh, and communi-
cated through Dr. Franklin to the Royal Society in
1772. The animal was sent by Mr. Walsh to John
Hunter for examination, and its electrical organs are
described by the latter in the ‘ Philosophical Transac-
tions’ of the following year. The next discovery was
Galvani's, in 1789, that the electricity excited by the
contact of two metals can produce muscular contrac-
tions; our knowledge was further advanced by Baron
Humboldt, by his examination of the gymnotus
electricus, the electric eel of South America, a very
interesting account of which is contained in his
“Recueil d'Observations de Zoologie et d’Anatomie
comparée,’ 1811. Of late, the subject has been
pursued, especially by Professor Matteucci, who, in
his Traité des Phénomènes Electro-Physiologiques
des Animaux,’ and in a series of memoirs Communi-
cated to the Royal Society, and published in the
• Philosophical Transactions' for the years 1845, 1846,
1847, and 1850, has described an immense number of
most delicate and accurate experiments.
It will be sufficient to allude to One or two conclu-
sions resulting from these experiments, to show that
the mode of action of electricity upon the living
nervous system is very complicated and peculiar; and
that our knowledge of it is quite inadequate to enable
VI.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 145
us to prove it to be within the limits of the law of
similia similibus curantur,
In Matteucci's fourth “Memoir,’ published in 1846,
his object is to prove that the electric current
transmitted along a nerve modifies the excitability
of the nerve in a manner differing widely according
to the direction of the current. Thus, the direct
current rapidly exhausts this excitability, while the
inverse current increases zł.
In 1847, Matteucci ascertained that if an animal is
etherised, and the direct current is passed along one
sciatic nerve, and the inverse along the other, contrac-
tion of the muscles takes place with the direct current,
only on interrupting the current; while with the inverse
current contraction appears one/y one c/osing it. But
these are the phenomena with the anterior roots of
the nerves, or nerves of sensation only ;--if these be
cut, the effects are instantly reversed, contraction with
the direct current takes place on closing, and that with
the inverse on opening or interrupting the circuit.
These experiments are sufficient to make it evident
that the effects produced by the application of an
electrical current to the living body are of an intricate
and refined nature, and that we are extremely ignorant
with regard to their details. To ascribe any curative
influence, therefore, which may have happened to
follow from the use of electricity to the law of homoeo-
pathy is a premature and unwarrantable conclusion.
In fact, the application of electricity as a remedial
agent, with Our present ignorance of the effects it may
produce, resembles far more the rude proceedings of
quackery, than doings which profess to be regulated
by a law of healing.
Experiments of this kind have been related,—an
electric shock communicated to the head of a rabbit
deprives the animal of sense and motion—produces
paralysis ; a second shock restores consciousness and
voluntary motion, – removes paralysis; and these
alternate effects may be almost indefinitely produced
by successive discharges of electricity. But whatever
IO
146 THE PRINCIPLE |ESSAY
this is, it is not homoeopathy; it is not like curing
like.
I have, formerly, made use of the electric aura, (a
current from a wooden point,) in opacity of the cornea,
with Some advantage ; and have seen it, when applied
by a small galvanic battery, relieve anomalous neuralgic
pain; I have often tried it in paralysis, but with very
unsatisfactory results. Electricity has again and again
been brought forward as a remedial agent, and has
again and again been laid aside, in consequence partly
of its frequent failures, and partly from our not know-
ing how to apply it, and how to apportion the degree
of intensity to the nature of the case. For it will be
observed that electricity, like heat and light, acts
beneficially or otherwise simply in proportion to its
degree or quantity.
This last remark suggests another circumstance in
which these imponderable agents differ from drugs; a
certain condition or amount of each is, every moment,
essential to the maintenance, not only of health, but of
life itself. A certain temperature, a certain amount of
light, and a certain condition of electricity preserve life
and health, how we know not; while other degrees
or quantities of these all-pervading properties or
affections of matter may instantly destroy both ; as .
by a sun-stroke, or a flash of lightning. With all
these, therefore, the effects are dependent upon d'agrees,
—in one degree they may injure, in another degree
they may relieve; but in none of these cases can the
law of like curing like be fairly applied. Their
regulated use belongs more to the province of hygiène
than that of therapeutics. To the affairs of clothing,
exercise, and diet, rather than to medicine.
It is plain, therefore, that the phenomena of electri-
city cannot, in the present state of our knowledge, be
included within the limits of the law of homoeopathy.
MAGNETISM.–The attractive power of the peculiar
native oxide of iron called loadstone, and its use in the
mariner's compass, have been long known ; but we are
indebted to the recent discoveries of Faraday for our
VI.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. I47
knowledge of the fact that magnetism, like electricity,
is a universal property of matter. It is true that only
a small number of bodies have a polarity similar to
that possessed by iron, and which are called magnetics;
but all other bodies have a polarity acting at right
angles to that of iron, and are called diamagnetics.
The connection between electricity and magnetism is
now known to be of the most intimate nature, as is
seen in the new sciences of electro-magnetism and
magneto-electricity. Close relations are also traced
between these properties of bodies and those of heat,
light, and chemical affinity. But our present business
is the question, has magnetism any connection with the
law of homoeopathy 2 -
Hahnemann enumerates about nine hundred symp-
toms as occasioned by the touch of the magnet.
“Those symptoms which have no reference to either
pole in particular have been obtained incidentally
during the course of experiments of six months'
duration, the object of which was to find out the best
and most effective mode of magnetizing steel : a
magnetic horse-shoe, carrying fºc/ve founds, being
handled for hours in succession, and both hands being
thus in constant contact with either pole.”
“Those symptoms which have reference to one pole
in particular, have been obtained by means of a power-
ful magnetic bar being touched by persons in good
health, for eight or twelve minutes, seldom more than
once.” -
Now, without its being necessary to assert that all,
or even that many of these symptoms have been
erroneously attributed to the action of the magnet, I
cannot see that any proof can be gathered from them
that the magnetic influence on the living body is
governed by the law of similia similibus curantur. On
the contrary, I think there is sufficient evidence on the
face of Hahnemann's own report to justify us in con-
*-
* Hahnemann's ‘Materia Medica Pura,’ translated by
Hempel, vol. III, p. 22.
148 THE PRINCIPLE | ESSAY
cluding that magnetism is not governed by this law.
The following are the reasons:–
First. I have carefully studied the three series of
Symptoms, viz., those supposed to be produced by the
magnet without reference to either pole, those caused
by the north, and those arising from the south pole,
and I cannot discover that they present any picture of
disease which can be considered characteristic;-that
is, so peculiar as to distinguish the effects of the
magnet from those of other noxious agents. Hahne-
mann often insists, and with great justice, on the fact
that each poison produces symptoms peculiar to, and
characteristic of, itself.
Secondly. Notwithstanding Hahnemann's assertion
that it “will be seen from the following symptoms that
each of the two poles produces phenomena in a healthy
person different from that of the other pole,” I cannot
find any difference sufficiently striking or important to
prove that it is not accidental. Hahnemann does not
attempt to aid us in Our endeavours to distinguish
between the effects of the two poles except in one
circumstance. He says, “The South pole appears to
excite hemorrhage as its primary effect; the north pole
seems to act in the contrary manner.” Now it so
happens that under the nort/, pole he gives us the
following symptoms —“Bleeding from the left nostril.”
“Bleeding of the nose for three quarters of an hour.”
“Violent bleeding at the nose for three afternoons in
succession.” While nothing of the kind is to be found
among the symptoms supposed to be occasioned by
the sout/ pole.
These reasons might appear to be sufficient, but I
feel obliged to remark further, that, though in Hahne-
mann's works, there is a great appearance of the strict
accuracy and precision required in a philosophical
writer, there is, in reality, a great lack of those
qualities. For—
Thirdly. Many symptoms are stated to arise “from
touching the centre of the bar ;” at which part of a
magnet it is well known that the magnetic influence is
VI.j OF HONICEOPATHY, I 49
neutral, and that no effects have yet been elicited from
it. Now, whatever might be thought of these symptoms,
were the effects of the fo/es of the magnet established,
they certainly ought not to have been brought forward
as proving anything, so long as that—the main question
—remains undecided.
Fourthly. Some symptoms, as “fits of fainting,
palpitation of the heart, and Suffocation,” are put down
as having arisen “from omitting the usual imposition
of the magnet.” One cannot but marvel that such
evidence as this should be adduced to prove an im-
portant and novel fact,
Fifthly. Hahnemann himself, notwithstanding his
endeavour to lay down precise rules respecting the
magnetic influence on the body, is evidently confused
in his own mind. He says, “the contact of a pole
seems to produce alternate effects analogous to those
of the opposite poles.” “If the symptoms of a case
correspond to the general symptoms of the magnet,
without having reference to any pole in particular, in
this case that pole is to be chosen which seems to
be more closely homoeopathic to the case. If the
symptoms should then disappear suddenly, or if new
symptoms should be elicited of half an hour, or even of
a quarter of an hour's duration, this is a sure sign that
the magnet has acted enanthiopathically, and the other
homoeopathic pole is to be applied immediately for as
long a time, as the palliative had been.” “The dis-
agreeable effects of an anti-homoeopathic application of
the magnet, which are sometimes very considerable,
may be palliated by small clectric sparks; they can be
permanently cured by the flat hand being imposed
upon a large (in surface for half an hour,”—&c.
It is obvious that, in this matter, Hahnemann has
entangled himself and his students in an inextricable
maze. It seems to be impossible to gather any direc-
tions, sufficiently simple and positive to be followed in
actual practice, from the five-and-forty pages of the
‘Materia Medica Pura’ occupied with magnetism. I
think it is plain, therefore, that the magnetic influence
I 50 THE PRINCIPLE |ESSAY
on the living body is not included within the limits of
the law of homoeopathy.
But this is not all. It is an admitted rule in Natural
Philosophy that the results of experiments cannot be
received as satisfactory and true, unless they occur
again in the hands of others repeating the experiments
of the original observer. Before the conclusions of
Hahnemann can be adopted, others must experience
at least some of the symptoms he has recorded. And
on the same ground, before they can be permanently
rejected, the experiments must be repeated without his
results, sufficiently to make it evident that he has
fallen into error.
I have tried in a variety of ways to obtain some
effects, or to experience some unquestionable influence
from magnets, but am constrained to say without
Success. I have tried them on my own person, and on
that of others. It is true that, in one instance, in an
individual of a highly nervous and susceptible tempera-
ment, some symptoms were obtained, such as rumbling
of the abdomen, a feeling of faintness, and a speedy
action of the bowels; but then, on repeating the ex-
periment with the same person, a few days afterwards,
wit/, a similar Čar of unmagneſized steeſ, precisely the
same effects followed ; clearly proving that the results
of the previous trial were due to the force of imagina-
tion, and not to the force of magnetism.
To obtain a confirmation, either of Hahnemann's
results or of my own, I have communicated with the
two individuals who have had more personal and
practical experience in the handling of and experi-
menting with magnets than any others in the world ;
and by their kind permission, their replies are now
given. The first is from my friend Dr. Scoresby —
“TORQUAY, Nov. 7, 1853.
“Dear Dr. Sharp, In reply to your enquiry as to any
sensible effects on the bodily feeling or condition from the
handling of powerful magnets—I can decidedly state that no
such cffects have ever been experienced by me ; at least in
such a degree as to draw my attention to such circumstance,
vſ.] OF HOMOEOPATHY, I5 I
I have felt no sensible effect either from the magnetizing of
bars of steel, or handling the most powerful magnets, or
working with a powerful magnetic apparatus for hours
together. My largest magnet, comprising five hundred feet
of steel bars, one and a half inch broad and a quarter of an
inch thick,--and capable of sustaining four ſºundred found's
weight, (though not well adapted for lifting purposes,) pro-
duces no sensible effect on the feelings.
I am,
Dear Dr. Sharp,
Yours very faithfully,
W. ScoRESBY.”
The second letter is from Professor Faraday, to
whom I have often been indebted for kind communica-
tions, and who on this, as on all former Occasions,
promptly furnished me with the information sought of
him —
“ROYAL INSTITUTION, 19th Dec. 1853.
“My dear Sir, I have often experimented on the subject,
and my results are all negative. Having an electro-magnet
which could have the magnetic power developed and Sup-
pressed at pleasure, and which, when excited, would sustain
Some ſons weight, I have submitted the most delicate parts of
my own organization to it without being conscious of the
least influence. I have placed the ball of the eye close up to
a pole, either one or the other, and then put the power on
and off, quickly and slowly, but without the slighest con-
Sciousness of the least change in any function of the eye or
the parts about it. I have repeated the experiment with
the nostrils; the tongue; the ear; with a wound ; with a
fresh cut ;-but no effects have been produced.
Mr. Warren de la Rue constructed a beautiful electro-
magnet with pointed poles, SO arranged that they could be
brought very near each other –animalcules of various kinds
were placed between them, and then observed with a micro-
Scope. I predicted from my own experiments that nothing
would occur of an extra character ; and Such was the result.
The creatures showed no difference whether the power was
on or off, or passing on or off-the motions and appearances
of the cilia, and other parts of the little animals, remained
Constantly the same.
I have worn a magnet about my person for some time,
Without the least indication of any effect; and when I have
I 52 THE PRINCIPLE [ESSAY
worked for hours together, and day after day, with powerful
magnets, and amongst them that before referred to, I have
not been conscious of any influence.
I believe that, as yet, we have not the slightest real evidence
of the influence of a magnet, (acting only as a magnet) upon
an animal of the highest or of the lowest organization,--or
upon any plant, as a living object. Considered as incrt
matter, they are all Subject to the power, for I have found a
living or a dead mouse to be equally diamagnetic,
Ever, my dear Sir,
Very truly yours,
M. FARADAY.”
I leave my readers to draw their own conclusions
from the evidence before them. It appears to me that
this preponderates greatly against any effects whatever
being produced by magnetism upon the living body in
its ordinary condition ; but even if it should hereafter
be established that effects are sometimes produced, I
believe these effects will be found, on careful investiga-
tion, to be entirely ungoverned by the law of homoeo-
pathy.
For myself, I cannot but conclude that Hahnemann
is quite in error, when he supposes that the homoeo:
pathic law can, with any show of propriety, be applied
to the action of the physical influence of any of the so-
called imponderable agents. The only analogy which
I can discover is that of Żolarity. We know that like
electricities, and like poles of a magnet, repe/ each
other, similia similibus repelluntur; beyond this faint
resemblance, I can, as yet, trace no connection.
IV. The homoeopathic action of drugs.--It has
been more or less generally acknowledged, from time
immemorial, that, “poison is the remedy for poison.”
Some very plain proofs have been given in Essay IV.
that this “homoeopathy in the general ” is also true
when we descend into particulars. A careful review
of the examples given in that Essay, will render it
impossible for any intelligent and unprejudiced person
to deny, that a re/ation evists in nature between the
v1.] OF HOMOEOPATHY, I 53
effects of material poisons on the healthy frame, and
the effects of the same poisons on diseases resembling
those which they are capable of producing. This rela-
tion is expressed by the word homoeopathy, like
curing like.
Hahnemann's formal definition of this law of
homoeopathy in the ‘ Organon' is as follows —
“A weaker dynamic affection is permanently ex-
tinguished in the living organism by a stronger one, if
the latter (whilst differing in kind) is similar to the
former in its manifestations.”
This paragraph, instead of announcing a natural fact
which he had discovered, states a fiction which he had
imagined. He gives us no sufficient evidence to prove
that the artificial disease induced by the remedy is a
stronger one than the previously existing natural
disease. Analogy does not make it probable that this
should be the case, especially with an infinitesimal
dose of the remedy ; and if it were so, it would be still
less probable that such a mode of proceeding could
restore any one to health.
I am constrained, therefore, to reject this definition,
and venture to propose the following as a substitute —
A very material poison, gaining admission into the
/healthy Óodºy, / as a fendency to produce a diseased coſt-
dźion, evidenced āy symptoms or //, /sical signs, ſtore or
ſess fecat/?ar to itself; and every suc/, /oison is the most
appropriate remedy /or a similar diseased condition
z0/zc/, /as a risen from offer causes.
From this definition it appears that, in the present
state of our knowledge, this law is an ultimate fact.
We are ignorant of its cause, and also of its connection
or correlation with other natural facts; it can therefore
be used only as an empirical guide.” But when it is
remembered that before we became acquainted with
this fact we had no guide, and that this is an intelligible
* ‘ Organon,’ $ XXVI. -
* It is hoped that some additional light is thrown upon this
very difficult subject in the concluding Essays, (1873.)
I 54 THE PRINCIPLE OF HOMOEOPATHY,
and plain one, it will be seen that it must prove a
great gain to the practice of medicine. And when it
is further remembered that the most advanced sciences,
as astronomy and chemistry, are in the same manner
based upon ultimate facts, the causes of which are
equally unknown, we need not wonder, neither need
we be distressed, if in medicine also we find ourselves
compelled to work by a rule the construction of which
is hidden from our view.
From the evidence adduced in Essay IV, it is plain
that Zºe action of materia/foisons, or as they are com-
mºon/y called drugs, is included within the Zimits of the
/aw of ſºomaeoſačAy; and from the evidence brought
forward in this Essay, it is also plain that as yet, we
Ázzozy of 7zo offer actions z0/hicſ, az-e āmc/auded wit/ºz 27.
Thus the question proposed, what are the limits within
which the law of homoeopathy is applicable to remedies 2
has now been answered. It is applicable to drugs, but
to nothing else.
Goethe, himself a German, observes that “the
Germans have the gift of rendering the sciences
inaccessible;” certainly Hahnemann possessed the art
of making homoeopathy unacceptable. In this way
among others, by attempting to make an indiscriminate
application of the law to the action of diseases; of
mental emotions; of physical agents; and of material
poisons. Thus regarding it as a foundation of patho-
logy, of moral philosophy, and of dynamical Science, as
well as of therapeutics; a proceeding as unphiloso-
phical as if Newton had attempted to make the law of
gravitation the basis of chemistry, physiology, and
metaphysics, as well as of astronomy.
I venture to hope that this confusion is now cleared
up, the difficulty obviated, and a serious objection
removed ; and that in future both the nature and the
limits of the principle of homoeopathy will be perceived
and maintained. I shall rejoice if the subject has been
made more intelligible to my readers, and placed in a
light less repulsive to my professional brethren.
ESSAY V II.
P R 0 W IN G. S IN HEALTH,
“A very little Truth will sometimes enlighten a vast
extent of science.”
BEATTIE,
ESSAY V II.'
P R 0 W IN GS IN HE ALT H.
—º-C-6–
“But yet these truths being never so certain, never so
clear, he may be ignorant of either, or all of them, who
will never take the pains to employ his faculties as he
should, to inform himself about them.” JOHN LOCKE.
—e-C-e—
IF drugs are remedies for disease, it is obvious that
some means must be used to discover their various
properties; in others words, to learn the effects they
are severally capable of producing, upon the human
body. Let us inquire—
I. What have been the means hitherto adopted for
this purpose, and the result.
II. What new method has been suggested, and
agreed to.
III. How far this new method has been carried
Out.
I. What have been the means hitherto adopted to
ascertain the curative powers of drugs, and what has
been the result 2 r
The means hitherto adopted have been the trial of
them in every variety of disease. Through preceding
ages, both medical men and patients have been eager
to experiment in this manner, upon the large number
* First published in 1854,
I 58 PROVINGS IN HEALTH. [ESSAY
of poisonous substances of which the Materia Medica
consists.
And what has been the result 2 If a description of
the past and present condition of the Materia Medica,
and of the results of the trials or experiments made to
discover their power of healing, were given in my own
words, I might be suspected of misrepresenting the
truth ; it shall, therefore, be given in the words of
those writers who are most eminent or best known in
the profession.
In Essay IX will be found an epitome of the practice
of medicine in the words of Cullen, the most distin-
guished physician of this country of the last age, in
which he exhibits, in a striking manner, the doubts and
the confusion, the contradictions and the differences of
the successive teachers and practitioners of the healing
art.
Pinel, one of the most celebrated writers of the
Continent of the same period, expresses himself on this
subject as follows —
“La matière médicale n'a €té en général qu'un en-
tassement confus de substances incohérentes, et le plus
souvent douées d'une efficacité précaire; et rien, peut-
être, n'est plus fondé que le reproche qu'on lui a fait de
n'offrir qu'un assemblage informe d'idées inexactes, et
d'observations puériles ou du moins illusoires.”
“The Materia Medica has been nothing but a con-
fused heap of incongruous substances, possessing, for
the most part, a doubtful efficacy ; and nothing, per-
haps, is more just than the reproach which has been
attached to it, that it presents only a shapeless assem-
blage of incoherent ideas, and of puerile or at least of
illusory observations.”
It is true he goes on to express a hope that modern
chemistry will dissipate this sad confusion, but experi-
ence has disappointed this hope. No Science can
operate effectually, except within its own limits, and
1 Pinel, ‘Nosographie Philosophique,' 5th edition, page
lxxxviii. Paris, I 813.
VII.] g PROVINGS IN HEALTH. I 59
the science of healing is not, and cannot be made, a
chapter in chemistry.
But it may be said Cullen and Pinel were of a
former age; I will therefore, avail myself of the pen of
the present living official head of our profession in this
country, and in the words of Dr. Paris, the president
of the royal college of physicians, give some account of
the substances hitherto used as medicines, the mode
by which a knowledge of their properties has been
acquired, and the estimate made of their value by the
physicians of succeeding ages.
Such a method of stating the case cannot in reason
be objected to, or be suspected of unfairness; and I
ask every professional reader, and it is to my professional
brethren that these Essays are primarily addressed, I
ask him to put the question to himself as he reads, is
it ſlot true 2
The college of physicians possesses one of the most
complete collections of Materia Medica in Europe.
“Glancing at the extensive and motley assemblage of
Substances with which these cabinets are overwhelmed,
it is impossible,” says, Dr. Paris, in a lecture addressed
to the assembled college, “to cast our eyes over such
multiplied groups, without being forcibly struck with
the palpable absurdity of some—the disgusting and
loathsome nature of others—the total want of activity
in many—and the uncertain and precarious reputation
of all —or, without feeling an eager curiosity to inquire
from the combination of what causes it can have
happened, that substances, at one period in the highest
esteem, and of generally acknowledged utility, have
fallen into total neglect and disrepute;—while others,
of humble pretensions, and little significance, have
maintained their ground for so many centuries; and on
what account, materials of no energy whatever, have
received the indisputable sanction and unqualified
support of the best and wisest practitioners of the age.
That such fluctuations of opinion, and versatility in
practice, should have produced, even in the most candid
and learned observers, an unfavourable impression with
16O PROVINGS in IiBALTII. [ESSAY
regard to the general efficacy of medicines, can hardly
excite our astonishment, much less our indignation;
nor can we be surprised to find that another portion of
mankind has at Once arraigned physic as a fallacious
art, or derided it as a composition of error and fraud.
They ask—and it must be confessed that they ask
with reason—what pledge can be afforded them, that
the boasted remedies of the present day will not, like
their predecessors, fall into disrepute, and, in their
turn, serve only as humiliating memorials of the
credulity and infatuation of the physicians who com-
mended and prescribed them P”
Dr. Paris afterwards speaks of “the barren labours
of the ancient empirics, who saw without discerning,
administered without discriminating, and concluded
without reasoning.” And, passing to modern times,
he declares that we “should not be surprised at the
very imperfect state of the Materia Medica, as far as
it depends upon what is com/207//y ca//cd experience.”
Ray, he says, “attempted to enumerate the virtues of
plants from eafterience, and the system serves only to
commemorate his failure; Vogel likewise professed to
assign to substances those powers which had been
learned from accumulated experience; and he speaks
of roasted' foad as a specific for the pains of gout, and
asserts that a person may secure himself for the whole
year from angina, by eating a roasted Swallow.”
“The revolutions,” continues Dr. Paris, “and vicissi-
tudes which remedies have undergone, in medical as
well as popular opinion, from the ignorance of some
ages, the learning of others, the superstitions of the
weak, and the designs of the crafty, afford an ample
subject for philosophical reflection.
“Iron, whose medicinal virtues have been SO
generally allowed, has not escaped those vicissitudes
in reputation which almost every valuable remedy has
been doomed to suffer.
“The fame even of Peruvian bark has been occa-
sionally obscured by the clouds of false theory ; some
condemned its use altogether ‘because it did not
VII.] DROVINGS IN HEALTH, I6 I
*
evacuate the morbific matter ;' others ‘because it bred
obstructions in the viscera;’ others again “because it
only bound up the spirits, and stopped the paroxysms
for a time, and favoured the translation of the peccant
matter into the more noble parts.' It was sold first by
the Jesuits for its weight in silver, (about 1660), and
Condamine relates that in 1690 several thousand
pounds of it lay at Piura and Payta for want of a
purchaser.
“It is well known with what avidity the public
embraced the expectations given by Stöerck of Vienna,
in 1760, with respect to hemlock ; everybody, says Dr.
Fothergill, made the extract, everybody prescribed it,
but finding that it would not perform the wonders
ascribed to it, and that a multitude of discordant
diseases refused to yield, as it was asserted they
would, to its narcotic powers, practitioners fell into
the opposite extreme of absurdity, and, declaring that
it could do nothing at all, dismissed it at once as inert
and useless.”
Nearly the whole of Dr. Paris's two lectures might
be quoted, for they proceed in the same strain, but
sufficient is given to satisfy any unprejudiced mind.
Every practitioner who has reached, or passed the
middle of life, will remember instances in his own
experience, of this fickle vicissitude,-this fashionable
reputation and capricious oblivion. He will remember,
for example, the time when almost every gentleman he
met carried white mustard-seed in his waistcoat pocket.
He will not have forgotten the similar rise and fall of
many other remedies.
That the picture drawn by Dr. Paris is not one of
past times only, but is equally true of our own day, is
manifest from the perusal of the medical journals of
the present moment. Take up, for instance, the last
volume of Mr. Braithwaite's ‘Retrospect' of these
journals, and read the whole, from the opening sent-
ence to the appendix. The volume commences thus:
* Paris, ‘Pharmacologia, Introduction.
I I
I62 PROVINGS IN HEALTH. [ESSAY
-“Dr. Johnson (assistant-physician to King's College
hospital) truly observes that on few subjects is there
such diversity of opinion as upon the effects of reme-
dies in disease, their modes of action, and the best
methods of administering them.” And the appendix
On cholera is thus introduced —
“We took some pains in our 20th volume (1849) to
collect and arrange the many opinions on Asiatic
cholera, both as to its pathology, causes, and treat-
ment, which were published at that time.
“We now add some other opinions which have been
published since the epidemic made its appearance in
the present year of 1853. But we do not think it
necessary again to enter into SO minute an analysis as
we did before, because we do not perceive that there
has been any very material addition to our previous
knowledge on the subject, We will, therefore, merely
subjoin some of the opinions on the treafmejef of this
disease which seem to us to be the most sensible—
although we must acknowledge that the difference of
opinion has sometimes greatly amused us.”
To me it is not amusing, but very painful and
melancholy, that, after the earnest and conscientious
labours, during thousands of years, of tens of thou-
sands of educated men, all engaged daily in the study
and the practice of medicine, such should be the issue !
It proclaims loudly that the method pursued must be a
faulty one, and that a deſſer stafe of f/kings ought to Če
sought for, not from any imagina&ſe amount of Aer-
scºrance in the same tracá, &lt; 6, discovering, if
possić/e, some new Aaſ/.
II. Let us proceed, therefore, to inquire what new
method has been suggested and agreed to.
“Primum, in corpore sameo medela tentanda est, sine
peregriná uliā miscelā; exigua illius dosis ingerenda,
et ad omnes quae inde contingunt affectiones, quis
1 Braithwaite, ‘Half-yearly Retrospect of Medicine; July
to December, 1853.
v11.] PROVINGS IN HEALTH. I 63
pulsus, quis calor, quae respiratio, quaenam excretiones,
attendendum. Inde adductum phaenominorum in Sazzo
obviorum, transeas ad experimenta in corpore &groño.”
“In the first place, f/e remedy is to Če fried on the
Aca///y &ody, without any foreign substance mixed
with it ; a very small dose is to be taken, and attention
is to be directed to every effect produced by it; for
example, on the pulse, the temperature, the respira-
tion, the secretions. Having obtained these obvious
phenomena in Aea/t/, you may then pass on to experi-
ment on the body in a state of disease.”
Such was the suggestion of the illustrious Haller,
about the middle of the last century. And who was
Haller P He has been called the “prince of physio-
logists,” and of him it has been recorded that “no
individual, either of ancient or modern times, has
equalled him in the extent of his erudition, and the
magnitude of his labours. His fame was universal :
no person of rank or Scientific eminence visited
Switzerland without paying their respects to Haller.
Foreign countries were alike anxious to gain his
services, and to bestow upon him honours.”
Here then is a new path discovered and pointed out
to us by a man every way worthy of attention. Some
of the ancients had made experiments with poisons,
but they were undertaken for a different object, the
finding out of antidotes. This method seems now for
the first time to have been placed before the world as
the best means of learning the healing virtue of drugs.
. The method met with approbation. Among others,
Hahnemann, a German physician then rising into
notice, adopts and advocates it earnestly.
“The physician,” he says, “whose sole aim it is to
perfect his art, can avail himself of no other informa-
tion respecting medicines than—
“First—What is the pure action of each by itself on
the human body ? -
“Second—What do observations of its action in this
or that simple or complex disease teach us P”
He remarks that the last object is partly obtained in
I64 PROVINGS IN HEALTH. [ESSAY
the practical writings of the best observers. But so
many contradictions occur among the observations
thus recorded, that some natural standard is still
required, by which we may be enabled to judge of
their relative truth and value. Hence the necessity
for an answer to the first question—What are the
effects produced by a given medicinal substance on the
healthy human body ?" -
Many eminent physicians continued, from time to
time, to express their concurrence in this method, until
at length, in 1842, about a century after its proposal
by Haller, it was formally adopted. A public assemb-
lage of medical men, at the Scientific Congress held at
Strasburg in that year, announced the adoption of the
proposal in the following resolution —
“The third section (the medical) was unanimously
of opinion that experiments with medicines on Aea/A/y
individuals are, in the present state of medical science,
of urgent necessity for physiology and therapeutics,
and that it is desirable that all known facts should be
methodically and scrupulously collected, and, with
prudence, cautiousness, and scientific exactness, ar-
ranged, written out, and published.”
The proving of drugs on the Aea///y was thus admić-
ted to be not only useful, Öut of 10 gent necessiº).
III. How far has this new method been carried out 2
The plan proposed is this —Voluntarily to make
ourselves ill with poisonous doses of drugs, for the
sake of learning, in the first place, upon what Organs
they act, and the changes they produce on them, and
afterwards in what diseases such drugs may be given
as remedies. This is a painful path, of indefinite
extent, beset with obstacles, and demanding an un-
known amount of labour and self-sacrifice. Who has
had courage to walk in it 2 Not Haller himself. He
saw, but he did not come, nor conquer. Among the
1 Hahnemann's first Essay on a new principle for ascer-
taining the curative powers of drugs. ‘Hufeland's Journal,'
I796.
VII.] PROVINGS IN HEALTH. I65
few who early ventured an attempt, the most con-
siderable individual was Stöerck. As Mason Good
observes, he engaged himself “in proving upon his
own person the violent powers of colohicum and
stramonium.” Some other trials were made, but, to
quote again the last-named excellent writer, “a com-
mon fate attended the whole of these experiments.
From attracting and concentrating the attention of the
public, the medicines to which they were directed
became equally overvalued ; were employed upon all
occasions; produced frequent disappointment; and
gradually fell into disuse.”
In this almost hopeless state of things, with the zeal
and courage of a true pioneer, Hahnemann commenced
the trial or proving of drugs on his own person, and
on those of as many of his friends as he could induce
to join him in the difficult and perilous adventure.
He had been so dissatisfied with the uncertainty, want
of success, and danger of the usual mode of practice,
that he had given up his professional duties, and was
earning a scanty maintenance by translating books,
and by pursuits in chemistry. His active mind busied
itself in searching for “an easy, sure, trustworthy
method, whereby diseases may be seen in their proper
light, and medicines be interrogated as to their special
powers, as to what they are really and positively useful
for.” He must, thought he, “observe how medicines
act on the human body when it is in the tranquil state
of health. The alteration that drugs produce on the
healthy body do not occur in vain, they must signify
something. This may be their mode of teaching us
what diseases they have the power of curing.”
Hahnemann's first trial was with Peruvian bark ; he
took several Scruples, in successive doses, at a time
when he was in perfect health, and he was thrown into
a feverish condition, which had some resemblance to
the kinds of fever for which it has been usual to
prescribe this drug as a remedy. Hence again the
* Mason Good, “Study of Medicine, vol. I, Preface.
I 66 PROVINGS IN HEALTH. [ESSAY
thought that there must be a direct connection between
the disease-producing and the disease-curing properties
of drugs; and hence the resolution to try a series of
experiments upon himself, to discover the truth or the
fallacy of the thought that “likes are to be treated
with likes.”
During a long course of years all the Česſ-known
drugs were experimented upon in succession, until the
morbid effects, which each is capable of producing,
were ascertained with more or less exactitude and
completeness. The bold and novel undertaking was
persevered in with untiring industry, and at the
expense of much personal privation and suffering ;
and had the results been given to us in a narrative
detailing them as they were successively ascertained,
they would have formed an imperishable monument of
an amount of labour and self-denial such as the world
has rarely seen.
The praise of having led the way is undoubtedly
Hahnemann's. And, notwithstanding the defects in
his provings, which it will be incumbent upon us to
notice, such is the value of a true principle, they have
already guided us to a mode of treating diseases, far
more successful than any which was known before.
To facilitate, as he imagined, the use in actual
practice of the immense materials he had collected,
he invented an artificial arrangement of them, before
they were presented to the world. In this scheme or
plan, all the symptoms are detached from those origi-
nally associated with them, or which occurred in the
same experiment, and they are re-arranged according
to the anatomical division of the body. For example,
all the symptoms affecting the head, in any mumber of
provers of the same drug, are put together; then those
belonging to the eyes; the ears; the face; the throat;
the stomach; the chest; the arms; &c. Hahnemann
has given us several volumes thus curiously disjointed;
and he has withheld from us the means of arranging
them otherwise, by keeping back the original histories
of the actual provings.
VII.] PROVINGS IN HEALTH. 167
The dismemberment of the symptoms from their
natural groups is a great defect in the provings of
Hahnemann ; and, along with this lesser fault, there is
also another of considerable magnitude. This second
great defect has arisen from his anxiety to give a
perfect picture of the effects produced by the sub-
stances under trial, and consists in his having suffered
a large mass of insignificant, and often perhaps imagi-
nary sensations, and other trivial matters, to mingle
with the real and important symptoms. This error
has, like the former, greatly encumbered and confused
the representation of the action of the drug ; which,
had it been avoided, would have been much more
clear and instructive. The numerous trivialities thus
introduced not only require to be overlooked by the
student, but they also form a stumbling block to the
inquirer, and a ground of reproach for the opponent.
But if imperfection and error attach to the perform-
ance of Hahnemann, shall that be thought surprising 2
Shall the undertaking itself be condemned because the
first attempt has not attained perfection 2 Doubtless
there are defects which blemish this great work of
Hahnemann ; let it be our endeavour to discover
these defects, and to remove them ; to perfect the
work begun. It is not given to the same age, much
less to the same individual, to begin and to complete
any undertaking so vast as this. We have seen that
the old method, after a most prolonged and diligent
trial, has signally failed ; we have seen that the prov-
ing of drugs upon the healthy has been admitted to be
of urgent necessity; we have further seen that the
work has been begun, and there is now no course opeſ,
to the profession Öztá to carry it on uſef; / 24 is completed.
To restore the symptoms of each proving to their
natural connection with each other ; to discard all that
are insignificant or imaginary, and all which have
arisen from other causes than the drug taken ; to
connect with the provings the age, sex, constitution,
&c., of the prover, the dose of the drug, and its repeti-
tion, and the circumstances under which the trial has
I68 PROVINGS IN HEALTH. [ESSAY
been made ; and, above all, to discover the true patho-
Mogical condition produced āy the drug, so that the
corresponding diseased state for which the drug will
froze the Óesć remedy may be more easily recognised;—
is the task of the present and succeeding generations
of medical practitioners.
It is admitted that the knowledge we have hitherto
possessed, relative to the effects of the substances
composing the Materia Medica, is almost worthless.
Does any one deny this 2 If so, upon what grounds 2
It is admitted that to obtain an acquaintance with
these drugs of more value, their effects in Aea/#/. must
be learned, by proving them upon ourselves. Does
any one deny this 2 If so, upon what grounds 2
It appears that several physicians have begun this
difficult undertaking ; for example, Stöerck, already
mentioned, Dieffenbach and Jörg in Germany; Alex-
ander in Scotland ; Chevallier in France ; and Beraudi
and his three friends in Italy. Some of these were
before, some after Hahnemann ; none of them homoeo-
pathists; but their efforts terminated with unimportant
results.
The work was begun and persevered in by Hahne-
mann, with such an amount of self-denying labour and
perseverance as had not been thought of before ; and
his results exceed in importance every -thing which
had been accomplished during all the centuries before
him.
It is allowed that Hahnemann's provings are not
free from errors and defects; but it is contended and
this from personal observation and experience at the
bedside of the sick, that, notwithstanding these errors
and defects, they are of more practical value in the
treatment of disease than anything which had been
effected by any former physician.
And it is obvious, as it has been remarked already,
that the only path now open to professional men in
which they can pursue their career with credit, and
with any hope of obtaining more power over disease, and
consequently of being more useful to their patients, is
wn.] PROVINGS IN HEALTH. I69
this method of provings. Is not the old path of
experimenting upon the sick shut up, —in the court of
reason is it not closed for ever ?
The problem to be solved relative to those poisonous
substances which are to be used as remedies in disease,
is this —Upon what organs of the body do they act 2
and what are the changes they produce in these organs?
Each drug produces its own peculiar effects, it is there-
fore necessary that each be experimented upon alone.
This was pointed out by Haller —“The remedy is to
be tried on the healthy body wit/ou/ any ſoreign suff-
stance mºved with it.” It has been admitted by our
best writers. Mason Good observes that “there are
some practitioners who think that all the articles which
are of real use in the cure of diseases lie within a small
compass, and may be learned without burthening the
memory. This remark may be allowed to those who
are limited to a portable dispensary, as in travelling, or
on shipboard ; but when uttered under other circum-
stances, it savours less of wisdom than of indolence. We
may easily, indeed, substitute one medicine for another,
but it is very rarely [if ever] that we can hereby obtain
an integral representative ; a remedy possessing not
only the general, but the particular qualities of that
whose place is supplied, so as to be equally adapted to
the exact state of the disease or the express character
of the idiosyncrasy.”
As then each drug produces its own special morbid
effects, and is to be investigated by itself, under what
circumstances can this knowledge be acquired 2 These
morbid effects can be discovered in two ways; first, by
persons in health taking them voluntarily for this pur-
pose, or proving them ; secondly, from cases of poison-
2ng, whether accidental or intentional.
I will now give a few examples of both these modes
of obtaining the required information. They are not
adduced as exhibitions of the entire sphere of action of
* Mason Good, ‘Study of Medicine.'
I 7o PROVINGS IN HEALTH. [ESSAY
these particalar drugs, the limits of these Essays do
not admit of this, but as illustrations of the facts
which are so valuable as the foundation of an improved
method of treating diseases. According to the old
method, after having examined a patient, the mental
inquiry is, what medicines have done good in similar
cases On the contrary, those who are guided in
their choice of a remedy by the principle that “likes
are to be treated with likes,” ask themselves, what
drug produces similar symptoms 3
The cases which follow may be considered as the
converse of those given in Essay IV.
CAS E.S.
ACONITUM NAPELLUS.
This plant, besides possessing other healing powers
of importance, is now fully established as a most
valuable remedy in simple and inſ'amanzaſowy ſever.
It must entirely banish the use of the lancet, the leech,
and the blister in such cases.
“Dr. Frederick Schwarz, 29 years old, of Sanguine
temperament, with unimpaired health, commenced his
experiments with three drops of the tincture, and
gradually increased the dose until he took 400 drops
at On Ce.
“After a large dose (400 drops) : Rigor, commencing
in the legs, then going to the arms, with goose-skin :
great fatigue, indifference, irritability, no appetite, food
creates nausea. The rigor continued to increase in the
afternoon, and he became icy cold, no coverings suffice
to warm him. Afterwards, burning in the eyes, twitch-
ing and vision of sparks ; roaring in the ears, great
sensitiveness to noise. Breath hot, breathing quickened;
on breathing deeply, oppression, anxiety, and painful
stitches betwixt the shoulders; pulse strong, full, quick.
–In the evening, slight perspirations came on ; after
which nearly all the symptoms went off.”
VII.] PROVINGS IN HEALTH. I 71
Many other provings give similar symptoms, with
decided evidence of inflammation of the brain, the eyes,
the mucous and serous membranes, the larynx, the
lungs, the heart, and other organs. The symptoms of
several of these affections were experienced by the
following prover.
Professor Joseph Zlatarovich, 37 years old, robust,
Stout, dark complexion, of sanguine choleric tempera-
ment. He took from IO to 200 drops of the tincture
daily for many days; in sixty-eight days he had taken
about 5000 drops, and had symptoms of great severity,
such as—
“Shivering for several hours, general feeling of
illness, weariness and exhaustion; wandering pains;
vertigo and stupefaction ; violent headache, as if the
head was compressed with screws at both temples;
itching and burning in the eyes and eyelids; the eye-
balls feel enlarged as if coming out of the orbit;
sensitiveness of the larynx to inspired air, as if its
mucous membrane were divested of its covering ; cough
from irritation of the larynx expectoration of gelatinous
mucus. Oppression of the chest, with raw pain under
the sternum on inspiration ; stitches in the lower part
of the chest towards the false ribs; violent dry cough ;
anxiety in the region of the heart ; pains in the back
and limbs,” &c.
Aconite has acted remedially in cholera; it produces
an exhaustion of the whole frame similar to that of
cholera. In evidence of this fact the painful instance
of the late Dr. Male, of Birmingham, may be cited.
“Dr. Male, age 65, who had for two months suffered
from pains in the back and loins, took (in 1845) tincture
of aconite for four days, beginning with 5 drops, three
times a day, and increasing the dose to 6, 8, and IO
drops (taking, in all, 80 drops); on the fifth day the
extremities became cold; the surface cold and clammy;
pulse I 30, feeble ; Cramps and pains in the legs, and
spasmodic pains in the stomach. He died on the 7th
day.”
Aconite, as before observed, possesses other valuable
I 72 PROVINGS IN HEALTH. [ESSAY
properties, but in its relation to inflammatory fever
(synochus) it stands, at present, unrivalled.
ARSENIC,
This deadly poison has an action upon the human
body in many respects the opposite of the preceding
drug. The melancholy relations of its poisonous
effects are so numerous, that its characteristic properties
may be readily gathered from them. It has also been
much used as a remedy. Here is a list of cases ex-
tracted from the Index to the first 19 volumes of the
‘Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal;’ of course
these are diseases treated on the old method ; by com-
paring them with the cases of poisoning which follow,
it will be seen on how many occasions the law of similia
similibus curantur has been unwittingly adhered to ; it
is fair to infer that the benefit which has been ex-
perienced in such cases has arisen from the homoeo-
pathic action of the remedy.
“Arsenic, solution of, used in a case of angina
pectoris, (a case of carditis occasioned by arsenic is
then given);-its use in ascites —approved remedy
for the radical cure of cancer —its use in convulsions;
—its use in dyspepsia —its use in elephantiasis;–
its use in epilepsy;-its use in curing periodical head-
aches;–effects in hemicrania ; – benefit derived from
it in hooping cough —its use in hypochondriasis –
its use in hysteria;-its use in intermittent fever —its
use in lepra —its use in megrim —its use in melan-
cholia; its use in chronic ophthalmia;-its use in
palpitation of the heart;-its use in paralysis;–its use
in rachitis;–its use in rheumatism;-its use in Scirrhus;
—successful in tic douloureux;-successful effects in
lock-jaw;-its use in typhus;-useful in phagedenic,
and other ulcers ;-its use in cases of worms."
It is evident that the prevailing character of these
diseases is asthenic, prostration of strength, and a
tendency to disorganization and decomposition; brought
to a climax in malignant sore throat, gangrene, and
VII.] PROVINGS IN HEAT.TH. I 73
Asiatic cholera; in all of which, as well as in the
majority of the cases enumerated above, it has been
successfully used by homoeopathists.
Dr. Roget records the following case of poisoning
in the 2nd volume of the ‘Medico-Chirurgical Trans-
actions,’ 181 I. It exhibits a large number of the
characteristic effects of arsenic.
“A girl, aged 19, of a sanguine temperament and delicate
constitution, having met with a severe disappointment, pur-
chased 60 grains of white arsenic, strewed the powder on a
piece of bread and butter, and ate the whole. In about ten
minutes an effort to vomit took place ; in about an hour she
looked exceedingly pale, felt very ill and hastened to bed ; in
a few minutes she was seized with violent pain in the stomach,
soon followed by severe vomiting ; her mother gave her large
draughts of warm water, which immediately returned. The
vomiting continued, with griping in the bowels, and copious
watery evacuations; some florid blood was vomited. Her
anguish had now risen to such a pitch that her resolution gave
way to the urgent wish for relief, and she acknowledged the
cause of her sufferings. The following day she was suffering
intense pain at the pit of the stomach, much increased by
pressure, with frequent retching and Occasional vomiting ; the
face flushed ; respiration hurried and anxious, with frequent
hiccup; pulse I2O, Small and extremely quick ; tongue white.
At five in the evening, pain in the Stomach continued intense
(notwithstanding bleeding and a blister), a burning heat in
the throat, much thirst, also much pain in the forehead, and
intolerance of light ; frequent feeling of excessive coldness,
particularly in the extremities, although to the hand of an-
other person they appeared to be of the natural warmth. At
seven, pulse I40, very cold ; on being raised in bed, she
fainted for half an hour, with slight convulsions. At eleven,
her strength diminished, frequent hiccup, constant burning in
the throat and Stomach, extremely pale, eyes kept closed
from dread of light, pupil Contracts slowly. Next morning
she is free from pain and sickness, and bears the light better;
pulse I 12, small; the colour has returned to her lips and
cheeks ; she is anxious to recover. In the evening the head-
ache is distressing, pulse I 20. On the 3rd day vertigo, head-
ache much increased, dread of light again, oppression of
breathing, feeling of cold water running down the back, and
sense of sinking, pulse I 25 and very small. To take camphor,
which gave her much relief. The following day the symptoms
continued, and on the 5th day they increased, with pain
I 74 PROVINGS IN HEALTH. [ESSAY
under the margin of the ribs on the left side, constant and
Severe, and much aggravated by a cough which was increasing
in violence. On the 6th and 7th days this state continued,
but abated on the latter day, when at night she suddenly
went off in a fit, during which she was completely insensible,
the left arm and leg agitated with strong convulsions; con-
siderable foaming at the mouth and distortion of the features;
the violent symptoms lasted two hours, and the insensibility
all night. On the 8th day completely comatose and unable
to move, eyes closed, pupils dilated, but contracted on the
admission of light; when strongly roused she complained of
violent headache, and also of pain in the region of the spleen,
which she could not bear to be pressed. On the 9th day she
had a convulsive fit at the same hour as the preceding, and
continued in a state of torpor. On the IOth day she had a
fit which lasted four hours, from which she recovered in my
presence, as if awaking from a sound sleep, and declared she
felt perfectly well, her only complaint being a violent itching
of the skin over the whole body. The convulsions returned
in the evening. On the I Ith day she had headache, itchiness
of the skin, and burning sensation in the throat; the convul-
sions returned with violence for an hour and a half, when she
again awoke free from complaint, excepting a violent itching
of the nose, and a numbness in three of the fingers on the
right hand. On the 12th and following days the convulsions
still returned during sleep, but gradually became milder,
and at length amounted only to irregular twitchings of the
tendons ; in another week these had left her, and her
strength a good deal returned, but she continued to suffer
from occasional flatulence, Oppression of the stomach, and
difficulty of breathing.”
I have endeavoured to abridge this case, but it is so
full of instruction, in the successive changes in its
symptoms, representing so well so many distinct
morbid conditions, that it can scarcely be studied too
much.
The following case, given by Dr. Christison, in his
work on Poisons,' extends the picture of the charac-
teristic features of arsenic —
“On two successive evenings, immediately after taking
some gruel, Mr. Blandy was attacked with pricking and
burning of the tongue, throat, stomach, and bowels, and with
vomiting and purging. Five days after, when the symptoms
were fully formed, he had inflamed pimples round his lips,
VII.] PROVINGS IN HEALTH, I 75
and a sense of burning in the mouth ; the nostrils were
similarly affected ; the eyes were bloodshot, and affected
with burning pain; the tongue was swollen, the throat red
and excoriated, and in both there was tormenting sense of
burning ; he had, likewise, swelling, with pricking and burn-
ing pain of the body; excoriations and ulcers; vomiting and
bloody diarrhoea ; a low tremulous pulse; laborious respira-
tion ; and great difficulty in speaking and swallowing. In
this state he lingered several days, and died nine days after
the first suspected basin of gruel was taken.”
The next case is from Mr. Braithwaite's ‘Retrospect'
for 1852 –
“Dr. Maclagan was requested to see Margaret Davidson,
aged 35, on the 4th of November, 185 I, she having, at three
o'clock p.m., taken a desert-spoonful of powdered arsenic, in
mistake for a saline effervescing powder. No effects were
produced for half an hour, she was then sick ; at seven
o'clock she presented all the usual symptoms. Magnesia
was administered, which was generally vomited as soon as
Swallowed. November 5th.-Has vomited all night and
Still does so ; has had diarrhoea ; suppression of urine ; she
lies in a drowsy, torpid condition, eyes sunk ; face blue, and,
like the extremities, cold and clammy. S/he presents the most
Ac//ect rese/zöſance to a case of Asiafic choſera in Z/he stage of
co//apse. From this state she slowly rallied, and on the I2th
had extensive bronchitis over the whole of both lungs, from
which she ultimately recovered.”
With one more case the picture will be more com-
plete. It is from Taylor's ‘Medical Jurisprudence :’—
“A young woman procured a lump of arsenic. She began
by biting it, and then broke it up into coarse fragments, put
them into a glass of water, and Swallowed them. This was
in the morning, and she went the whole day without uneasi-
ness. In the evening there were no febrile symptoms; at
eight o'clock she suffered from pain in the abdomen; at
eleven she appeared to be more calm than ever, and had a
strong desire to sleep ; at three in the morning she sat up in
her bed, complained a little of her stomach, and then died
without the least appearance of suffering.” t
The quantities of the poison taken in these cases
were excessively large; three or four grains being, in
many cases, sufficient to cause death.
176 PROVINGS IN HEALTH. [ESSAY
ATROPA, BELLADONNA.
This also is a deadly poison. It has been exten-
sively employed as a remedy for neuralgic affections,
such as tic douloureux; for epilepsy and mania ; for
hydrophobia; for cancerous affections; by Hahnemann
it has been recommended both as a remedy for, and a
preservative from, scarlet fever, and also in some
inflammatory diseases, as of the throat, eyes, brain,
&c. The organs upon which it primarily acts are the
brain, and nervous system ; the eyes; the throat; and
the skin ; as is apparent from the following cases of
poisoning.
In the ‘London Medical and Physical Journal,’ vol.
lvii, are two cases by Mr. Smith, of Forres, N.B. :-
“Nov. 5th, 1827.-At five p.m. I was called to see two of
Mr. M 's children, both boys, the one four, the other two
years of age. They had eaten the berries of the Atropa
belladonna from a bush in the garden. It appears to have
been between one and two o'clock, for soon after two the
elder boy went to School, where the symptoms made their
appearance. When taken up to his lessons he did not speak,
but laughed immoderately, and grasped at imaginary objects;
he had previously complained of pain in his head. He was
now sent home, where the laughing continued, and he was as
talkative as he had before been silent, but he was altogether
incoherent; added to this, he was in Constant motion, run-
ning round and round the room. I found him laughing and
talking alternately ; he was kept on the knee, but the extre-
mities were in violent and almost constant action ; the eyes
fixed, and the pupils fully dilated, and insensible to the light
of a candle. The same symptoms manifested themselves in
the younger boy, and were now fully as violent. Emetics
and castor oil were administered. Notwithstanding this
treatment the symptoms became worse; the muscular move-
ments stronger and incessant, the breathing noisy and with a
croupy sound, and occasional cough ; their faces were swollen
and red ; incoherent talking continuing ; the skin became
cold ; pulse, barely perceptible in the beginning, now not felt
at the wrist ; there was lock-jaw. They were put into warm
baths, and rubbed with flour of mustard. They gradually
became warm, and the pulse more distinct. This state of
VII.] PROVINGS IN HEALTH. I 77
collapse returned on the following day more than once, and
the same means were used. On the 7th they began to dis-
tinguish objects, (they had been quite blind,) and to speak
and act rationally ; pupils were still much dilated, and eyes
red ; the younger child has had a rash, which disappeared on
the second day. They were freely purged, which brought
away the skins of the berries. From this time they continued
to mend. The noisy, croupy cough continued longest ; and
when the elder boy has a cold, the cough is still, (at a
distance of six years,) of the same nature. A third boy, who
had eaten the berries with them, was in the hands of another
practitioner, with a like result.”
The following case is from the “Edinburgh Medical
and Surgical Journal,’ vol. xxxi, 1828:—
“A gentleman who had been accustomed to take occasion-
ally a purgative mixture containing 46 grains of jalap, sent
to his apothecary, instead of his physician's French recipe, a
translation of it by himself in Latin, in which he had used
the word belladonna as the proper equivalent for the French
name of jalap, be/le-de-ſeat it. The mixture was faithfully
prepared according to the formula, and taken by the patient
about six in the morning. The first effect was most violent
headache, commencing about an hour afterwards, affecting
chiefly the orbits, and accompanied ere long with excessive
redness of the eyes, face, and subsequently of the whole
body. In a few minutes the entire skin presented a uniform
redness, cracf/y like that of scarlatina. The patient was also
affected at the same time with intense redness of the throat,
and great heat, which seemed to spread throughout the
whole alimentary canal; he had also extremely painful
irritation and suppression of the secretion of the kidneys.
Twenty leeches were applied, and he experienced much relief
in the course of a few hours. He passed a quiet night, and
next morning complained only of a general feeling of dis-
comfort. M. Jolly, the relator of this case, states that he has
repeatedly seen the powder and extract of belladonna cause
a similar Scarlet efflorescence.” — ‘Nouvelle Bibliothèque
Médicale,’ Juillet, 1828.
In the ‘Medicinishche Jahrbücher desk. k. Oesterr-
cichischen Staates,’ 1832, some cases are related,
which add the symptoms of hydrophobia to the picture
drawn in the preceding histories —
“A man, accompanied by his son, aged nine years, walk-
I 2
178 PROVINGS IN HEALTH. [ESSAY
ing one afternoon in the woods, and seeing the branches of
belladonna bearing black and brilliant fruit, resembling wild
cherries, gathered some for his son, who ate them freely on
account of their Sweetish taste ; he also ate ten berries him-
Self, and carried home a large quantity for his other children.
Another son, not quite five years old, ate a great number ;
two elder daughters ate less. All went to bed afterwards,
apparently well. All were taken ill; in the two boys the
Symptoms of poisoning appeared in all their force; restless-
ness and delirium, attempts to escape, so that they were
constantly obliged to be forcibly confined to their beds;
continual motions of the hands and fingers, and desire to lay
hold of the coverings; acute delirium, but the wanderings
Only on lively subjects; actual vision almost gone, but at the
same time both the boys fancied they beheld a crowd of
objects ; extreme dilatation and insensibility of the pupils;
the eyeballs alternately fixed and rolling ; spasmodic actions
of the muscles of the face; grinding of the teeth ; yawning ;
voice hoarse and weak ; slight swelling of the left side of the
throat, and burning sensation in the Cesophagus, (in the elder
of the two boys); decided aversion to all sorts of liquids in
both, and spasmodic attacks whenever they were forced to
swallow anything. The symptoms presented, as will be seen,
some analogy to mania (delirium without fever), for the
vascular system was neither locally nor generally excited,
and the respiration was not sensibly disturbed.”
The provings which Hahnemann has given us of
belladonna contain fourteen hundred and forty symp-
toms. Its continued daily use in homoeopathic prac-
tice testifies to its admirable powers as a remedy.
CARBON ATE OP AMMONIA.
This salt (sal volatile) is daily had sºcOurse to as a
stimulant and antispasmodic, either as applied to the
nostrils, or taken internally, diluted with water. Its
immediate, temporary effect is relied upon for these
purposes; when taken in excess it acts as a very
powerful poison ; several cases of death caused by it
are on record — one, reported by Dr. Christison,
“where a strong dose of the solution killed a man in
four minutes.” When taken in smaller quantities and
repeatedly, it has a penetrating action upon the consti-
VII.] PROVINGS IN HEALTH. I 79
tution, very different from that of aconite, arsenic, or
belladonna, but equally characteristic. This action
points it out as the most valuable remedy in similar
cases of disease; for example, in that bad form of
Scarlet fever, where the rash appears only partially, or
soon recedes, the throat is ulcerated, and the strength
rapidly fails; a form which is commonly fatal, and for
which belladonna is not at all adapted. I have seen
Carbonate of ammonia apparently save life under such
alarming circumstances.
Hahnemann tells us that this drug was proved by
himself, and by Doctors Hartlaub, Gross, Stapf, Trinks,
and Schreter. The following case, from an old author,
John Huxham, gives, in few words, a very striking
picture of the diseased condition which is characteristic
of this poison, and to which it corresponds as a
remedy —
“I had lately under my care a gentleman of fortune and
family, who so habituated himself to the use of vast quantities
of the volatile sa/fs that ladies commonly smell to, that at
length he would eat them, in a very astonishing manner, as
other people eat Sugared caraway seeds;–a 8puv paysia with a
vengeance The consequence soon was that he brought on a
hectic fever, vast hemorrhages from the intestines, nose, and
gums, every one of his teeth dropped out, and he could eat
nothing solid; he wasted vastly in his flesh, and his muscles
became as soft and flabby as those of a new-born infant; and
broke out all over his body in pustules, which itched most
intolerably, so that he scratched himself continually, and tore
his skin with his nails in a very shocking manner ; the
Secretion of the kidneys was always excessively high coloured,
turbid, and very fetid. He was at last, with great difficulty,
persuaded to leave this pernicious custom, but he had so
effectually ruined his constitution that, though he rubbed on
in a very miserable manner for several months, he died tabid,
and in the highest degree of a marasmus.”
This Essay commenced with the remark that if
drugs are to be used as remedies for disease, some
* Huxham's Works, p. 3O8.
18O PROVINGS IN HEALTH. [ESSAY VII.
means must be adopted to discover their healing
powers. The observation of the effects of these drugs in
/ealth is the best method for this purpose hitherto
made known. | -
The pictures of these effects given in the latter
pages have no pretensions to be perfect; they are
merely sketches, offered as illustrations. Among the
omissions are the moral symptoms, these forming a
subject too extensive to be entered upon in this Essay.
The details given are sufficient to explain what kind of
materials are required ; how they are to be obtained ;
and the valuable use which may be made of them in
the treatment of disease according to the principle
now under investigation.
ESSAY VIII.
T H E S IN G L E M E D I C IN E,
“So that he saw plainly that opinion of store was a cause
of want.”
LORD BACON.
ES S A Y V III."
T H E S IN G L E ME DIC IN E,
—º-C-e-
“More is in vain when less will serve, for nature is pleased
with simplicity.” SIR ISAAC NEWTON.
—C-3-º-
TRUTH was well feigned by the ancients to lie at the
bottom of a well. The progress which mankind has
made in the discovery of truth has been remarkably
slow. The department of magnetism may serve as an
illustration of this fact. The ałżraction of magnetic
iron was known to the ancients, but nothing more; its
polarity was not known, at least in Europe, till I 18O,
when it was first described by Guyot ; the practical
application of this property to navigation in the
mariner's compass lingered till about I 260 ; the varia-
tion in the direction of the magnetic needle in different
parts of the earth was unknown till I 500, when it was
discovered by Sebastian Cabot; the diff of the needle
remained a secret till noticed by Robert Norman in
1576; two centuries and a half elapsed before the
changed direction of the needle by a current of electricity
was discovered by CErsted in 1819 ; which fact, it is well
known, has now been applied practically in the electric
telegraph. It is evident from these particulars that in
this, as in many other branches of natural knowledge,
the advancement, though slow, is real; there is the
great encouragement that progress is being made; but
* First published in 1854.
184 THE SINGLE MEDICINE. [ESSAY
in the department of medicine this encouragement has
hiſ/herto been wanting. From time to time experienced
physicians have not been backward to acknowledge
that little improvement, worthy of the name, has taken
place in the practice of physic, since the days of Hippo-
crates, a period of about twenty-three hundred years.
The almost stationary condition of the science of
medicine has arisen, not only from the natural impedi-
ments to the discovery of truth, and from the difficulties
peculiar to this subject, but still more from the want of
simplicity in the method pursued.
This method has been defective in two principal
particulars, by which the progress of knowledge in the
treatment of disease has been effectually hindered.
One of these defects has been the trial of a drug only
during the existence of disease, by which its effects are
complicated and obscured ; instead of first experiment-
ing with it on the body in a state of health, when its
own symptoms would appear, unmixed with those of
disease. The other equally great defect has been the
giving of the drug in combination with others, by which
its effects are still further complicated and obscured, if
not altogether antidoted and prevented; instead of
administering it alone, so that its specific action might
be produced without let or interference. Had physicians
adopted these two proceedings, –experimenting in
health, and giving the medicine singly in disease, the
real properties of each drug might have been, ere this,
accurately ascertained.
The first of these defects in the practice of physic
was discussed in the last Essay. The second remains,
to be the subject of the present. It is necessary to
establish—
THE FACT OF COMBINATION.—All drugs being poisons,
it might have been anticipated that, in using them as
remedies, the plan to be adopted would have been to
try cautiously each one by itself; in the hope that, by
so doing, some positive knowledge might be obtained
VIII.] THE SINGLE MEDICINE. I85
respecting its medicinal virtues. This knowledge once
had, would be serviceable to all future ages, and a
stepping stone to further advances. But the fact has
not been so ; the plan universally adopted has been
that of combining several of these drugs together, and
administering them to the sick thus combined.
The mixing and combining of many drugs in one
prescription, has indeed given “an opinion of store” of
virtues; but by this method it has been impossible to
discover the distinguishing properties of any of the
Substances so employed, and, consequently, Our ac-
quaintance with the Materia Medica has been kept in
confusion and poverty;-and thus this opinion of store
has been eminently “a cause of want.” -
The extent to which the accumulation of remedies
in a single prescription has been carried would be
incredible, were it not a fact readily ascertained. Not
to notice the extreme cases which have been recorded,
such as the one mentioned by Dr. Paris, of four
hundred ingredients entering into the composition of a
single mixture, two very celebrated medicines as pre-
scribed in the London Pharmacopoeia of the Royal
College of Physicians, shall be given as examples;–
the 77teriaca Andromachi or l’en ice treac/e, and the
equally world-famed remedy called A/ithridate. The
former, as given in the Pharmacopoeia of 1682, contains
sixty-five ingredients; the latter, in the Pharmacopoeia
of 1782, consists of fifty articles as follow —
Venice Treacle. Al/?thridaſe.
B Squill lozenges, 5viij; B. Arabian myrrh,
Lozenges of vipers (flesh & Saffron,
broth), Agaric,
Long pepper, Ginger,
Opium, Cinnamon,
Lozenges of hedychroum Spikenard,
ââ 5xxv ; Frankincense,
Red roses, Seeds of penny-cress, àā 5x;
Illyrian orris-root, Cicely,
Liquorice-juice, Opobalsamum,
Navew seeds, Sweet rush,
Shoots of scordium, French lavender,
I 86
[ESSAY
THE SINGLE MEDICINE.
Verzice Treacle.
B. Balm of Gilead,
Cinnamon,
Agaric in lozenges, āā 5xij;
Myrrh,
Spikenard, or zedoary,
Saffron,
Wood of the true cassia,
Indian nard,
Camel's-hay,
White pepper,
Black pepper,
Frankincense,
Dittany of Crete,
Rhubarb,
French lavender,
Horehound,
Parsley,
Macedonian stone-parsley,
Parsley-seed,
Calamint (dried),
Cinquefoil-root,
Ginger, àā 5vj;
Carrot of Crete,
Ground pine,
Celtic nard,
Amomum,
Storax,
Root of meu,
Germander,
Pontic valerian,
Terra Lemnia,
Indian leaf,
Green vitriol,
Gentian-root,
Gum arabic,
Juice of hypocistis,
Carpobalsamum,
Seeds of anise,
of cardamoms,
of fennel,
, of cicely,
Gum acacia,
Seeds of penny-Cress,
Tops of St. John's wort,
Seeds of bishop's-weed,
3 y
yy
Mithridate.
B. Costum,
Galbanum,
Cyprian turpentine,
ilong pepper,
Castor,
Juice of hypocistis,
Storax,
Opoponax,
Indian leaf, aā āj;
True cassia wood,
Poly of the mountain,
White pepper,
Scordium,
Seeds of the Cretan carrot,
CarpobalSamum,
Lozenges of Cyphus,
Bdellium, àā 5vij;
Celtic nard (purified),
Gum arabic,
Seeds of the stone-parsley,
Opium,
Lesser cardamoms,
Fennel-seeds,
Gentian,
Flowers of the red rose,
Dittany of Crete, àā 5v ;
Seeds of anise,
Asarum, -*
Sweet-flag,
Orris-root,
Phu,
Sagapenum, àā 5iij;
Meu,
Acacia,
Skunk-bellies,
St. John's-wort tops, ää 5ij;
Canary wine enough to dis-
solve the gums and juices,
i.e. about 5xxxvi.
Clarified honey, three times
the weight of all the rest,
excepting the wine, mix
and make into an electu-
ary, secundum artem.
VIII.] THE SINGLE MEDICINE. 187
lºczzice Treache. - MŽſ/ºridate.
B. Sagapenum, àā 5iv ;
Castor,
Root of birthwort,
Jew's pitch (or amber),
Seeds of the carrot of Crete,
Opoponax,
Lesser centaury,
Thick galbanum, àā 5ij;
Canary wine (old), 5xl;
Clarified honey, (triple
weight of the powders),
mix and make into an
electuary, secundum ar-
Zë772.
Such was the condition of the Pharmacopoeias of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries ; and though
those of the nineteenth century have made great
advances towards a comparative simplicity, so that
the “luxuriancy of composition,” so much inveighed
against by Cullen, may be said to exist no longer, the
radical error still remains ; prescriptions are still notori-
ously compound. Very rarely is a remedy given alone,
very rarely, therefore, can any precise knowledge of
its properties be discovered, or the full benefit of its
action on disease be obtained. We proceed to notice—
THE THEORY OF COMBINATION. — The practice of
mixing drugs is not only continued, but defended.
The ‘Pharmacologia' of Dr. Paris, a book which has
been very popular with the profession in Great Britain,
is an elaborate treatise “on the theory and art of
medicinal combination.” The volume opens, (after an
introduction,) with this sentence;—“It is a truth
universally admitted that the arm of physic has derived
much additional power and increased energy from the
resources which are furnished by the mixture and come-
Özmation of medicinal bodies.”
For example —
“Fmetics are more efficient when composed of
ipecacuan united with tartarized antimony or sulphate
I 88 THE SINGLE MEDICINE. [ESSAY
of zinc, than when they simply consist of any one of
such substances in an equivalent dose.”
“Cad/artics not only acquire a very great increase
of power by combination with each other, but they are
at the same time rendered less irritating in their
operation.”
“APiuretics. Under this class of medicinal agents it
may be noticed that whenever a medicine is liable to
produce effects different from those we desire, its
combination with similar remedies is particularly
eligible.”
“A)?aphoretics. Our maxim “vis unita fortior,'
certainly applies with equal truth and force to this
class of medicinal agents.”
“AWarcotics. The intention of allaying irritation and
pain will be better fulfilled by a combination of these
substances in different proportions, than by any single
one, notwithstanding its dose be considerably in-
creased.” -
It is admitted that it is better not to mix Stimulants,
and it is remarked that “by multiplying the number
of ingredients too far, we shall either so increase the
quantity and bulk of the medicine as to render it
nauseous and cumbersome, or so reduce the dose of
each constituent as to fritter away the force and energy
of the combination. There is also another important
precaution which demands our most serious attention,
that in combining substances in the manner, and for
the object just related, the practitioner should be well
satisfied that their medicinal virtues are in reality
practica//y similar, or /e wiſ/ſa/ into an error of the
most fatal tendency.”
Such is the leading feature of the theory of com-
bination ; the difficulties and dangers of which, as
hinted at in the last paragraph quoted from Dr. Paris,
are so many and so great as to destroy all confidence
in its value. But the practice founded upon it is so
general that it is needful to consider–
THE Evils OF COMBINATION.—One of these I have
VIII.] THE SINGLE MEDICINE. I 89
already alluded to ; it is evident that the mixing of
different drugs, and administering them together, must
hinder the discovery of their respective properties.
Our knowledge must continue to be ignorance, as long
as this practice continues to be pursued. It is then a
serious evil which attaches to the usual method of
prescribing that it is—
A bar to progress. It is an observation of Boyle
that “there is no one thing in nature whereof the uses
to human life are yet thoroughly understood.” How
true soever this may be in reference to other matters
it is truer still in reference to medicines. There is not
a single drug of which it can be said that the character-
istic properties, and the fitting uses, are thoroughly
known ; and as long as these drugs are given only
while disease is present, and only in combination
with each other, it is evident that their properties and
uses can never be really understood. How urgent
then the call for a new method, if we would not have
our present ignorance indefinitely prolonged
A / indrance to the curative action of drugs is another
evil of combination. On this subject I need not do
much more than quote Dr. Paris.
“Simplicity should be regarded by the physician as
the greatest desideratum. I was once told by a
practitioner in the country, (Dr. Paris might have
added, that there are practitioners in London also,
who act upon the same plan) that the quantity, or
rather the complexity of the medicines which he gave
his patients, for there never was any deficiency in the
former, was always increased in a ratio with the
obscurity of their cases : “if,' said he, ‘I fire a great
profusion of shot, it is very extraordinary if some do
not hit the mark.’ A patient in the hands of such a
practitioner has not much better chance than a Chinese
mandarin, who upon being attacked with any disorder,
calls in twelve or more physicians, and Swallows in one
mixture all the potions which each separately prescribes!
“Let not the young practitioner however be so
deceived ; he should remember that unless he be well
I 9C) THE SINGLE MEDICINE. [ESSAY
acquainted with the mutual actions which bodies exert
upon each other, and upon the living system, (which no
one, as yet, is acquainted with,) it may be laid down as
an axiom, that in proportion as ſhe complicates a medi-
cine, / e does &nd mezz////y :/he chances of its ſailure.
Superflua nunquam non nocent : let him cherish this
maxim in remembrance, and in forming compounds,
always discard from them every element which has
not its mode of action clearly defined, and as thoroughly
understood.”
Yes; let the young physician follow the advice here
given by Dr. Paris, (the living official head of our
Profession in this country), and cherish this maxim in
remembrance; and he will infallibly be led to prescribe
Öztá one medicine at a time; for of no compound can it
be said that its mode of action is either clearly defined,
or thoroughly understood.
An injury to the patient is also by no means an
unfrequent evil resulting from the prevailing practice
of mixing drugs together, and thus complicating, often
beyond control, their operation on the living body, -
sometimes until it lives no longer. “The mildest
remedy,” says Dr. Paris, “may thus (by injudicious
combination) be converted into an instrument of
forture, and even of deaſ/..” -*
That patients often suffer serious injuries from drugs
is, unhappily, a fact too notorious to require proof.
Dr. Routh, the present president of Magdalen College,
Oxford, who has entered his hundredth year, takes
pains to impress upon his friends the axiom of Lord
Bacon, that “medicines shorten life,” and bids them
beware how they meddle with such injurious sub-
Stan CeS. -
It is not unusual now, when a patient has been cured
under homoeopathic treatment, for physicians to attempt
to turn the force of such evidence in favour of homoeo-
pathy, by remarking that “the patient ſºas got weſ/ &y
Žeaving off medicine /" But what a satire upon them-
selves is such an admission as this Are they really
conscious then that the medicines they are so eager to
VIII.] THE SINGLE MEDICINE. I9 I
prescribe from day to day, and for the continuance of
which they contend so earnestly,–are they conscious
that these medicines prevent the recovery of their
patients P Are they content that the matter should be
thus viewed by the public 2 That the effect of taking
their prescriptions is to lengthen out disease—to pro-
long the patient's sufferings 2 Are they so driven
into a corner by the evidence in favour of homoeopathy,
that they have no better weapon to defend themselves
with than such an argument as this 2
We proceed to consider the method now proposed
of using— -
A SINGLE MEDICINE AT A TIME.-Each drug has a
mode of action peculiar to itself, often called its specific
action; to obtain the full benefit of this action, it must
be given alone; any combination must necessarily in-
terfere with, and may altogether neutralize the effect
we wish to obtain.
It is most plain that when we speak of a drug being
thus given alone, we mean the drug as it usually exists
in nature, and especially must it be in the same state
as that in which it has been previously £7 oved in health.
The various solids —the metals for example, and the
metallic oxides, lime, silica, alumina, Sulphur, and saline
bodies, the resins, the seeds and other solid parts of
plants ; the various liquids;–the mineral acids for
example, and the vegetable juices, furnish a vast array
of drugs for medicinal purposes. Each of these, in its
turn, can be experimented upon by itself in health ;
and, in like manner, each, in its turn, can be given
as a remedy in disease. Whether in chemistry these
various Substances are at present considered elements
or compounds, can have no bearing upon their thera-
peutic use. The consideration of their chemical nature
and properties is quite another matter, and though very
important and interesting in itself, and with reference
to chemical science, can neither help nor hinder much
in respect to their action upon the living body as poisons
I 92 THE SINGLE MEDICINE. [ESSAY
or remedies. In saying this let me not be misunder-
stood, or be supposed to depreciate chemistry, or its
legitimate application to pharmacy, or to any other
collateral branch of knowledge. I am myself fond of
chemistry, and gladly avail myself of any help it can
render to medicine; what I wish to remark at present
is, that the use of a drug simply and alone, either in
proving it in health, or in prescribing it in disease, has
no reference, and it is plain caſe have no reference to the
/*g/.4 in whicſ, such drug is viewed by the chemist.
It might be safely asserted that nothing can be mor
conspicuously apparent than this ; what then must be
the character of the opposition to homoeopathy, when
a learned professor, and the most considerable writer
on the subject, is compelled to have recourse to the
following Statement as an argument against homoeo-
pathy
Professor Simpson quotes from the ‘ Organon' of
Hahnemann, “In no case is it requisite to administer
more than one single, simple medicinal substance at
one time,” and then says, “but in few or no instances
can the homoeopaths, if they follow their own laws, give
a single substance as a medicine at one time. Take One
drug as an example of this remark. Opium, according
to Jahr, is in homoeopathic practice, a medicament
frequently indicated' in disorders of various kinds.
Opium, however, is not a simple substance ; but on the
other hand, it is extremely composite in its character,
according to the researches of many excellent chemists.
It contains,’ says Christison, no fewer than seven crys-
talline principles called (I) morphia, (2) codeia, (3) para-
morphia, (4) narcotin, (5) narcein, (6) porphyroxin, and
(7) meconin, of which the first three are alkaline, and
the others neutrals; secondly, a peculiar acid termed
(S) meconic acid, which constitutes with sulphuric acid,
the solvent of the active principle ; and thirdly, a
variety of comparatively unimportant ingredients, such
as (9) gum, (10) albumen, (II) resin, (I.2) fixed oil,
(13) a trace perhaps of volatile oil, (14) lignin, (15)
caoutchouc, (16) extractive matter, and numerous salts
v1.I.I.T THE SINGLE MEDICINE. I 93
of inorganic bases.” Of these inorganic salts and
substances in opium, Schindler, in his analysis, detected
among others, (17) phosphate of lime, (18) alumina,
(19) silica, (20) magnesia, (2 I) oxide of iron, &c.
Homoeopaths, in using therefore this ‘frequently in-
dicated' medicament—Opium, employ a preparation,
which is certainly not single, but consists, at least of
some twenty different substances.”
When Essay III, “ The Controversy on Homoeo-
pathy,” was written, the best work which, up to that
period, had appeared in England against homoeopathy,
—Dr. C. F. Routh’s “Fallacies,” was selected. When
Dr. Simpson's book appeared, I thought it would
demand a reply, but after reading it, the conviction
was felt that it did not deserve one, and even my
brethren of the old practice will admit that I stand
excused in this feeling. A writer who cannot dis-
tinguish between the single medicine of the homoeo-
pathists, and the elements, organic and inorganic, of
the modern chemist; or who is so disingenuous as
knowingly to attempt to confound them in the minds
of his readers, is unworthy of notice. I will not take
upon myself the duty, which belongs to Dr. Simpson's
conscience, to decide upon which of the horns of this
dilemma he deserves to be impaled; but it is difficult
to suppress a feeling of indignation, which involuntarily
rises on reading this passage, in an author of such
pretensions, and professing to be seriously discussing
the merits of a new method of treating the maladies
of mankind. *
In homoeopathy the giving of only one medicine at
a time is a matter of necessity. The law cannot be
otherwise applied. Let me now endeavour to point
Out—
THE ADVANTAGES OF THIS METHOD.—From these
advantages it will appear that the objects acknowledged
* “Homoeopathy ; its Tenets and Tendencies,' by Dr.
Simpson, Professor of Midwifery in the University of
Edinburgh, &c., p. 47, 1853.
*
I 3
I 94. THE SINGLE MEDICINE. [ESSAY
to have been sought for, but which are unattained, and,
it may fairly be presumed, are unattainable in the
common mode of treating diseases, are not only put
within reach, but are actually accomplished by the new
treatment.
The simplicity, in vain desired by Dr. Paris for his
method, is thus obtained. A small dose of a single
medicine is to be administered, and time allowed for its
effects to be produced, before either another dose is given
or another medicine is tried. The simplicity which the
law of homoeopathy has introduced into the prescriptions
of the physician is worthy of great admiration;–the
one is a necessary consequence of the other. “So far,”
says Sir John Herschel, “as our experience has
hitherto gone, every advance towards generality has,
at the same time, been a step towards simplification.”
It deserves to be noticed, how great a step in this
direction has been taken in the present instance.
The progress in vain waited for on the old method
is rendered inevitable by the new one. The ignorance
on the subject of the properties of drugs which has
prevailed for so many centuries, will no longer continue;
a much more extensive and correct knowledge of them
has already been acquired, and this knowledge will be
daily extended. How interesting it is to collect ac-
curate details of the effects of drugs when acting as
poisons; and how satisfactory to observe their curative
action in corresponding natural diseases There is
now everything to reward, and therefore everything to
encourage, the diligent study of the properties of drugs;
and this study cannot be diligently pursued, aided as it
now is by so simple and precise a method, without
yielding the fruits of progressive knowledge. Take,
for instance, a plant like aconite, or belladonna, or
pulsatilla, or ipecacuanha, and contrast the knowledge
of it which the homoeopathist now possesses with what
was known of it before; and let it be remembered
that, in a few years, every remaining drug may be
equally well, or even better understood.
7%e cura/İze effecſ of each drug, often in vain ex-
VIII.] THE SINGLE MEDICINE. I 95
pected when other drugs are mingled with it, may
be looked for with a great degree of certainty, when it
is given alone in an appropriate dose.
It is Dr. Paris who asserts that “the file of every
apothecary would furnish a volume of instances, where
the ingredients are fighting together in the dark, or at
least, are so adverse to each other, as to constitute a
most incongruous and chaotic mass —
“Obstabat aliis aliud : quia corpore in uno
Frigida pugnabant calidis, humentia siccis,
Mollia cum duris, sine pondere, habentia pondus.”
OVID.
This error can be avoided only by resorting to the
method of prescribing each remedy singly. There can
then be no neutralizing, or counteracting, or antidoting
effects;–no “fighting together in the dark,” so aptly
described, and so ingenuously confessed by Dr. Paris.
It is true this description is intended to apply only to
the prescriptions of certain ill-informed or careless prac-
titioners; but, though not intended to do so, it really
applies, with more or less force, to every mixture or
combination of drugs.
On the other hand, the single medicine meets with
no impediment (at least none from other medicines), to
the production of its full effect. Suppose, for example,
that the action of mercury is required on an ulcerated
throat, or on the salivary glands in a case of mumps;
if given alone, a very minute quantity will almost
certainly act. The same may be said of any other
drug ; its specific effect will be produced by the small
dose, if given alone, with much more precision and
certainty, than by the large dose, if given in combina-
tion. When the small dose is used, as there is no need
to combine with it the “adjuvans” to assist, nor the
“dirigens” to direct, so neither is there need of the
“corrigens” to prevent mischief. Soap need not be
added to aloes and ſa/aft to “mitigate their acrimony;”
nor need patients be ordered to drink vinegar, to pre-
vent their being poisoned by sugar of lead, given to
stop a bleeding from the lungs.
I 96 THE SINGLE MEDICINE. [ESSAY
7%e diminution of the dose in vain attempted while
several drugs are combined, is accomplished to an
extent beyond all anticipation, by giving each drug
alone. It may be true that by adding farfar emetic to
ſpecacataſe/a vomiting is produced by a smaller quantity
of each, than would be required of either of them sepa-
rately ; but the combined dose is not only still large,
but so large as not to be secure from doing mischief.
The same may be said of the purgatives, expectorants,
diaphoretics, quoted from Dr. Paris. With our present
knowledge, such proceedings cannot escape being
viewed as barbarous; these violent effects of medicines
being altogether needless, while the specific action of
the drug, the effect which is really of value in the
treatment of disease, can be best obtained by a very
small dose. All drugs being poisons, not only is
“more in vain,” but more is positively injurious,
“when less will serve.”
7%e indications of Żreatment, in vain sought after on
the old method, are not only precise and unmistakable
on the new, but, as the medicines, SO also the indica-
tions are reduced to one.
The single remedy obliges the single indication ; for
if only one medicine is to be given, there can be but
one indication to point it out; and, if possible, the
single indication is a greater simplification, and a
greater advantage than the single remedy. In the
treatment of disease on the usual method, even when
the symptoms are simple and uniform, or consistent
with each other, the supposed indications are generally
more or less complicated ; in cases of more extensive
derangement, they are still more numerous, and some-
times even contradictory. The perplexity and anxiety
to the physician, and the additional pain and exhaus-
tion to the patient, which are the natural results of this
complication, are often greater than , can readily be
described. In illustration, a case of the simplest kind
may be taken. For example, laryngismus stridulus,
child-crowing, or spasmodic croup, an affection of con-
siderable danger, to which some infants are very sub-
vTII.] THE SINGLE MEDICINE. I 97
ject, and consisting mainly of a distressing struggle for
breath, coming on suddenly, and producing a flushed
and swollen countenance, which becomes sometimes
almost black, threatening Suffocation. -
The indications for treatment are copied from Mason
Good; of whose book it has been said, by a late
president of the royal college of surgeons, and the
most useful writer on surgery of the present day, “it
is so excellent that no other modern system is, on the
whole, half so valuable as the ‘Study of Medicine.’”
The indications are these :-to produce vomiting by
an antimonial emetic ; to cause perspiration by a warm
bed, diluent drinks, and the same medicine; to excite
the bowels by a purgative of calomel; to allay the
irritability of the nervous system by giving laudanum
in proportion to the age of the patient; and to pro-
duce counter - irritation by applying a blister to the
throat.
This is a fair specimen of allopathic treatment, let
us analyse it for a moment, bearing in mind that the
age of the little sufferer is generally on/y a few mon//s;
and that the ailment is an affection of the upper part
of the windpipe, producing such a contraction of it as
threatens suffocation, all the other parts of the body
Öeing healt/y. We cannot but be struck, in the first
place, with the terrible severity of the treatment, which
alone is sufficient, not only to expose it to just censure,
but to demand its abandonment ; and in the next
place, with the fact that all the indications of treatment
are direct and violent attacks upon the Aea/ſ/ly parts of
#/he body. “Produce vomiting by an antimonial emetic;”
—here is an attack upon the stomach, but the stomach
was previously in health, why produce such a com-
motion in it, in a baby three or four months old 2
“Cause perspiration by a warm bed, diluent drinks, and
the antimony.” Here the skin is assailed, and its
natural secretions are to be unhealthily stimulated ;
the skin was previously in a sound condition, why
interfere with and derange that state P “Excite the
bowels by a purgative of calomel.” The others were
I98 THE SINGLE MEDICINE. [ESSAY
but the wings of the invading army, this is its centre.
The poor bowels are always destined to bear the
fiercest part of the “energetic” assault. And calomel
too — that destructive weapon in the bowels of an
infant, and these bowels previously in perfect health.
The liver does not escape; mercury, it is well known,
acts powerfully on this organ. The calomel given in
infancy not unfrequently produces, as its secondary
effect, a torpor of the liver, which lasts for years, it
Sometimes destroys altogether the constitution of the
child. “Allay the irritability of the nervous system
by giving laudanum in proportion to the age of the
patient.” The effect of opium is to stupify or deaden
the sensibilities of the whole nervous system, - if
pushed far enough, to produce coma and apoplexy.
In this case it must depress the vital powers at the
moment when their vigour is needed to struggle with
the difficulty of breathing. And why assault thus the
whole nervous system, as yet remaining in health 2
“Produce counter-irritation by applying a blister to
the throat.” Alas! poor baby, the unoffending skin
is to be inflamed until it blisters And this is the con-
cluding blow for the present, of a treatment which is
called “judicious” and “active" because it is cus-
tomary ; but will it bear investigation ? -
Thus every Aea/ſ/ly part of the body is to be dis-
turbed in its natural action, to be excited, disordered,
inflamed, and stupified ; all these ailments, necessarily
more or less overpowering to the vitality of a child,
are to be artificially produced, and added to the
natural disease with which the infant is already con-
tending !”
* During the twenty years which have passed since this
Essay was written, great changes have taken place in the
practice of medicine among the leading members of the
profession. Whether these changes are to be attributed
to the influence of homoeopathy, or to other causes, they
are surprisingly in contrast to the older practice—to that
which still prevails among a large number.
As an example of this contrast, the following directions for
VIII.] THE SINGLE MEDICINE. I 99
But it must be observed further, and, were it not
familiarised to us by the universality of the practice,
we should observe it with astonishment, that moſ/king
at al/ is prescribed calculated to act, or intended to act
directly upon the affected part. No remedy whatever
is given which has any natural action on the windpipe,
the only organ where any ailment exists. Such is the
inherent awkwardness, and such is the sledge-hammer
violence of the usual method of treating diseases, that
it is, for the most part, only the healthy parts of the
body that are directly affected by the remedies pre-
scribed. On one occasion, my relative, the first William
Hey, of Leeds, saw a lady who was suffering from an
ulcer near the ankle, and he prescribed an issue below
the knee; the lady involuntarily exclaimed, “then
I shall have two sores instead of one !” Such was
Our best treatment, before the introduction of homoeo-
pathy.
Let us return to our suffering little baby, with the
new method in our minds, and all these conflicting
indications are suddenly reduced to one —to find a
drug which has the natural power of acting upon the
windpipe, and which in health will produce a similar
morbid condition of it. We give this drug alone, in
very small doses, with such repetitions as may be
required, and the complaint yields, the symptoms are
removed, and, by the blessing of God, the child is
restored to perfect health ; without either its stomach
or bowels, its skin or liver, or any healthy organ having
been disturbed or interfered with —that which was
the treatment of this child-crowing, or laryngismus stridulus,
taken from the latest edition (1871) of Sir Thomas Watson's
“Lectures,” may be given :—
“In the paroxysm the warm bath might be useful, if it
could be got ready in time. The application to the throat of
the hot Sponge is a more accessible, and often a very effectual
expedient. Sprinkling the face and chest freely with cold
water will sometimes unlock the spasm, and set the little
sufferer free.” (Lecture XL). Here we have the use of wafer,
warm, hot, or cold ; and no medicine at all ! (1873.)
2 OO THE SINGLE NIIEDICINE. [ESSAY
ailing has been cured, and that which was well has
been let alone. This has happened in my own hands,
and we are bound to testify what we have seen.
It would be easy to give examples of more compli-
cated cases, in which the indications under the common
method are still more numerous, or still more contra-
dictory. I cannot do more than allude to one of the
latter description, but it is one in which the contradic-
tion is so great as to give rise to the greatest perplexity,
and the most painful anxiety. The case is an inflam-
matory disease of any kind, occurring in a debilitated
constitution ; a combination unhappily often met with.
In this case, an antiphlogistic or reducing treatment is
supposed to be called for by the inflammation ; and
tonic or strengthening measures are imperiously de-
manded by the patient's distressing weakness. In the
treatment of such a case bleeding and brandy, or
remedies as much opposed to each other as these are,
not unfrequently find themselves in very close approxi-
mation.
On the contrary, by the new method, although a
careful examination of the case, and a diligent study
of the Materia Medica, are required, there is but one
indication to be attended to, and but one remedy to
be given, and thus perplexity and inconsistency are
banished.
In complicated chronic cases, when it is possible to
discover the original or leading feature of the ailment,
if a remedy be selected capable of meeting this primary
condition, it not unfrequently happens that not only
will this condition be greatly improved, but other
accompanying symptoms, though appearing to have
little connection with it, will also be removed. And
thus a single remedy will sometimes suit a patient for
several years, and relieve very various ailments during
that time. This I have experienced in my own person,
and witnessed in others.
The benefit to the patienz, so often in vain longed for
from the complicated prescriptions in common use,
may be expected with greatly increased confidence
VIII.] THE SINGLE MEDICINE. 2O I
from the employment of a single remedy. Dr. Paris
speaks of medical combinations, and declares that their
object is to operate, “cità, futó, et ſucunde,”—quickly,
safely, and pleasantly ; thus quoting the language of
Asclepiades as applicable to them. With how much
greater reason such language can be applied to homoeo-
pathic treatment, the foregoing observations may suf-
fice to show.
Ciſó. A medicine is much more likely to produce
its peculiar effects guickly, when given alone, than
when its action is neutralised or interfered with by
being mixed with other drugs.
7 utó. The chances that a patient will be injured by
a small dose of a single remedy, must be much fewer
than by large doses of mixed medicines. He must be
treated much more Safe/y.
77tcundé. And as to the comparative pleasantness,
I am willing to abide by the patient's decision.
By the use of a single medicine at a time, every
injury is avoided, and every benefit is obtained, to the
utmost of medical skill.
Such are some of the advantages which the law of
homoeopathy presents for Our acceptance, in the sim-
plicity of its mode of prescribing remedies for disease.
There is another consideration, of a profound and
interesting character, to which I wish now to address
myself, and to the investigation of which I earnestly
hope my professional brethren will give their serious
attentlCI).
The subject presents itself in the terms by which the
various articles of the Materia Medica are arranged
and designated. It is expressed in one word, the
intention of the treatment.
In the system of Galen, which governed medicine
for fifteen hundred years, all drugs were estimated as
hot or cold, dry or moist, in regulated degrees; and
were prescribed accordingly for diseases which were
supposed to correspond to them by contraries; as a
hot remedy for a cold disease, and a dry one for a
*-
2O2 THE SINGLE MEDICINE. |ESSAY
moist. At present they are called emetics, cathartics,
diaphoretics, narcotics, and so forth. These terms
indicate the very essence of the usual practice; the
light in which all remedies are viewed; the intention
with which they are given.
Thus it appears that drugs are not considered as they
are in themselves, but as they belong to one or other
of these modes of action. When a patient is seen,
the mental inquiry is, what are the 2ndications which
his ailments suggest ? Ought he to be 'vomited, or
purged, or refrigerated, or stimulated 2 The answer
to these questions is supposed to direct to the classes
of medicines which are to be administrated, and they
are given with corresponding intenſions. In prescribing
ipecacuanha, or tartar emetic, the physician intends to
produce vomiting ; in giving blue pill and colocynth,
followed by Senna and Epsom salts, he intends to
purge ; in applying a plaster of cantharides to the
surface of the body, he intends to produce inflammation
and blistering of the previously healthy skin.
Far otherwise are the thoughts suggested by the
law of homoeopathy. The patient is suffering in such
a manner ; the question suggested, when the examina-
tion of the case is concluded, is this, what drug pro-
duces in health a similar condition of disease ? That
drug must necessarily act upon the organs which are
diseased ; it will act upon them while under the ex-
citement of disease in a very small dose, too small to
act upon any other organs which it has a natural
relation to, but which are still in a healthy condition ;
by the use of this drug the disease will be best arrested,
the health will be best restored, and all that is well will
be let alone.
Thus the immediate object proposed by the homoeo-
pathic practitioner is, not to produce vomiting, or
purging, or perspiration, or any other. evacuation, but
simply to remove the disease from which the patient is
suffering. Of course the ultimate object of the allo-
pathic practitioner is to restore his patient to health,
but it will be seen that that object is aimed at indirect/y,
VIII.] THE SINGLE MEDICINE. 2O3
through the medium of other prior intentions; these
intentions being, not to produce health, but conditions
which are themselves more or less departures from
health. The sick man is to be cured by &eing made
7;nore sicæ; however numerous his symptoms may be
when seen by his physician, he must have some
additional ailments produced artificially, before he can
expect to be relieved. This important difference
between the two intentions must, I think, be intelligible
and plain.
It is true that certain effects are sometimes produced
by the small dose of the homoeopathist which resemble,
in some degree, the effects of the common medicines;
—for instance, when acozzite is given in a case of inflam-
matory fever with a dry skin ; at the moment when
relief is experienced by the removal of the fever, there
may be perspiration ; but the resemblance is apparent
only; the medicine was not given as a diaphoretic,
with the intention to produce perspiration, neither did
its doing so relieve the fever; these two events
happened in the opposite order; the fever was first
checked, and then, through returning health, the
previously dry skin became moist. In the same
manner, in a case of constipation from torpor of the
bowels, opium is given, and the natural action is by-
and-by restored –not because opium is a purgative,
for, as every one knows, it is classed at the head of
medicines of an opposite character, but because it
removed the torpor, by which means nature was in a
condition to proceed as in a healthy state.
The contrast of the two methods is exhibited, though
with some confusion, by Dr. Paris himself in the fol-
lowing paragraph —
“Dr. Blackall presents us with a case, on the autho-
rity of Mr. Johnson of Exeter, in which well-fermented
bread occasioned, in the Space of a few /ozers, an effect
so powerfully diuretic, as to have cured the sailors on
board the Asia East Indiaman, who had been attacked
with dropsy in consequence of the use of damaged rice;
so that diuretics in Some cases cure Öy evacuating, while
2O4. THE SINGLE MEDICINE. . [ESSAY
in others, as in the instance above cited, they evacuate
ôy curing.”
Here then is another characteristic difference between
the two systems of medical treatment; the usual
method attempts to cure by evacuating; the new
mode will evacuate, if there &e anything regatiring
vacuation, by first curing.
The reason now appears why homoeopathists do not
call the remedies they use by the names commonly
attached to them, as cathartics, sudorifics, &c. The
impropriety would be as great as it is to call good
wholesome “well-fermented" bread a diuretic, as is
done by Dr. Paris in the paragraph above quoted.
Such an appellation is a libel on the staff of life.
What the bread did, was just what the unsound rice
could not do, it nourished the body; acting, not as a
medicine, but as wholesome food, the thing needed.
The evacuation of the dropsical effusion was the con-
sequence of the restored health and strength of the
different organs of the body. What the homoeopathic
remedy, given alone, does is to restore the diseased
organ, if it be capable of restoration to health ; any
evacuations which may follow being the consequence
of that restoration. This is a refined and Scientific
proceeding, as far removed as possible from the rude
violence of large doses of poisonous drugs, given in
combination, and “fighting together in the dark.”
The considerations advanced in this Essay afford
conclusive primad /acie evidence of the great superiority
of the method of giving a single medicine at a time.
The only question which can now be raised is a ques-
tion of ſacſ. Does the plan succeed at the bedside of
the patient 2 To answer this inquiry I would gladly
produce cases from allopathic sources, and this for a
double reason ; no disposition could be felt to question
the authority; and the infinitesimal dose, which does
not form part of the subject, would not complicate the
VIII.] THE SINGLE MEDICINE. 2O5
evidence. But a sufficient number of such cases can-
not be met with, so nearly universal is the practice of
combination. A few reports, scattered through the
journals, may be found of pecacuanſa having been
given successfully in haemorrhage; of coffer in some
spasmodic affections, as chorea ; of 7tur vomica in
spinal disease; of creasoče in derangements of the
stomach ; of arsenic in some diseases of the skin; but
these—
“Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto,”—VIRGIL.
and they are not sufficient to prove the affirmative to
the answer. So far as they go, they support the state-
ment that one remedy at a time is sufficient to cure ;
they also constitute evidence in favour of the law of
homoeopathy, -as may be seen from the examples
here given;–they may at least be considered sufficient
to lead intelligent observers in the right direction.
I am constrained therefore to refer to the numerous
works already published by homoeopathists, and which
contain overwhelming evidence to prove the sufficiency
of a single remedy.
I am also bound to give my own personal testimony
to the same effect. For example, I have seen, of acute
cases, inflammation of the brain removed by Óelladonna;
inflammatory croup cured by acozzite; mumps by mer-
cury; pneumonia by //losſ/horrºs, and of chronic cases,
dyspepsia removed by puſsač://a; tabes mesenterica
by su///iur; disease of the bladder by Že/roleum ;
constipation by opium ; and so on. In other cases, a
single remedy is sufficient for a portion of the treat-
ment, or for the symptoms in a certain stage, or
during a certain period of the disease; to be followed
by another medicine, also given singly, when that
stage has passed away, or when the symptoms are
changed.
The experiment is not insuperably difficult; let
others try it, as I have done. To my own mind, to
say that one medicine at a time is practically sufficient,
and answers better than any combination, is to state a
2O6 THE SINGLE MEDICINE. [ESSAY VIII.
plain fact ; and I cannot conclude otherwise than by
expressing an earnest hope that the method will, ere
long, be universally adopted. We shall not, till then,
be able to carry out the good advice given us of old
by St. Basil, “The physician should attack the disease
and not the patient.” -
ESSAY IX.
T H E S M A LL D 0 S.E.
“Effects misimputed, cases wrong told, circumstances
overlooked, perhaps too, frejudices and partialities against
truth, may for a time prevail, and keep her at the bottom
of her well, from whence nevertheless she emergeth sooner
or later, and strikes the eyes of all who do not keep theme
S/º/f.”
BISHOP BERKELEY.
ESSAY IX.
T H E S M A LL D 0 SE,
—e-C-e-
“Knowledge is more beautiful than any apparel of words
which can be put upon it.” LORD BACON.
—e-K×o-
“GOD is my witness, and all good men know that I
have now laboured fifty years with all care and pains
in the illustration and amplification of my art; and
that I have so certainly touched the mark whereat I
aimed, that antiquity may seem to have nothing
wherein it may exceed us beside the glory of invention,
nor posterity anything left but a certain small hope to
add some things, as it is easy to add to former inven-
tions.”
So thought, about three centuries ago, the celebrated
surgeon Ambrose Parè ; and so think many in the
present day. But it is in vain. Knowledge, notwith-
standing, has increased, and is still increasing. At the
very moment when Parè was expressing his self-
complacent satisfaction, the veil which had covered
the eyes of Europe for so many ages was being torn
away ; and at the present time the limits of our intel-
lectual vision are being extended more rapidly than at
any previous period of the history of the world.
If any one would see and participate in this progress
of human knowledge, he must make an effort to free
himself from the prejudices of education, from the
* First published in 1852.
I4
2 IO THE SMALL DOSE. [ESSAY
power of pre-conceived opinion, and from the influence
of habits of thought, and resolve to admit every con-
clusion which appears to be adequately supported by
careful observation.
The subject now undertaken is one of acknowledged
difficulty. I think no one can have ſelf this difficulty
more than myself. An attempt shall be made to
reduce it within its proper dimensions. For this
purpose it is proposed, after a few remarks on the
general character and extent of our knowledge of
natural things, to state the case and its difficulty, and
then to answer the three following questions —
I. Are we acquainted with any facts which render it
probable that infinitesimal quantities of ponderable
matter may act upon the living animal body ? In
other words, what does analogy teach us *
II. Are there any facts which show the action of
infinitesimal quantities of ponderable matter on the
healthy body ?
III. What are the actual proofs in support of the
assertion that such minute quantities of ponderable
matter act remedially on the diseased body ?
Our knowledge of nature is obtained by observing
facts or events, and their succession, by our bodily
senses. Our ideas of external objects are produced by
the impression which those objects are capable of
making upon our minds, through the instrumentality
of our senses. We can observe and experiment upon
these facts or events, and the manner in which they
succeed each other, to the extent which Our senses
permit us, but no further. The limit of the powers of
our corporeal senses is the limit of our knowledge.
This limitation is absolute. For example —
Sound is produced by vibrations of the air striking
upon the organs of hearing. The various musical
notes, from the lowest to the highest, are produced by
the varying rapidity of these vibrations. The gravest
sound is produced by about thirty vibrations in a
IX.] THE SMALL DOSE. 2 I f
second, the most acute by about a thousand." Each
series of vibrations of the particles of the air is a fact
or natural event, and when it strikes our ear we
become acquainted with its existence by the sound
perceived, provided the number of vibrations is not
below thirty nor above a thousand in a second.
These are the limits of our powers of observation of
vibrations of the air. That there are vibrations slower
than thirty and more rapid than a thousand in a
second, cannot be doubted ; and that there are living
beings capable of perceiving them, is probable—the
hare for example—but to us they are as though they
did not exist.
The same is true of the eye and the observation of
colours. The vibrations of the ether, (according to
the undulatory theory of light), produce impressions
upon the Organ of seeing, and the varying rapidity of
these vibrations enables us to perceive the different
colours. The limits are still narrower than those of
Sound. The whole scale of colour, from violet to
crimson, lies between vibrations which number 458
millions of millions (or billions) and 727 millions of
millions in a second. That there are vibrations of the
luminiferous ether, varying in frequency beyond these
two extremes, must be almost certain, and that there
are eyes which can feel their impression is probable,_
the Owl and the bat, for example, but to us they are
as though they were not. We shall never, in this
life, hear new sounds, nor see new colours.
The senses of smell and touch are similarly limited.
The hound can Smell and the insect can touch what
We Callinof.
In two ways art has rendered assistance to our sense
of sight. We stand upon the deck of a ship, while
crossing the Atlantic, our eye takes in a considerable
* Savant has reduced these figures for a very deep sound
to fourteen or sixteen vibrations in a second; and has pushed
the limit of acute sounds up to 48,000 vibrations in a second,
See Ganot's “Physics, by Atkinson, 5th edition, 1872, page
I74. (1873),
2 I 2 THE SMALL DOSE. [ESSAY
prospect of the surrounding waters, the telescope
extends this prospect ; still, in either case, it has posi-
tive limits, which are dependent upon the powers of
the eye. This prospect, vast as it seems to us at the
time, bears a very small proportion to the real extent
of the ocean.
Again, bodies soon become divided till their par-
ticles are too small for the naked eye to perceive them.
That they still exist, and are susceptible of much
further subdivision, is rendered certain by the aid
which the microscope affords us; we can now follow -
them with the eye till they are millions of times less
than before ; but our vision again ceases—we lose the
particle—yet we cannot conclude that it has ceased to
exist, or ceased to be divisible. There are animals as
small as this particle, and the atoms of which they are
made up must be considerably less than themselves.
The particle we have lost may be capable of further
division indefinitely ; so that the divisions we can see
may bear a much smaller proportion to those we can-
not see, than the prospect which the deck of a ship
affords us does to the rest of the unseen ocean.
Beyond these limits our knowledge of external
things cannot extend ; they are impassable boundaries.
We see how near they approach each other, and
consequently how finite our knowledge is.
Besides these there are limits of another kind, which
require to be noticed. They will be best explained, as
the former have been, by an example or two.
On the discovery of oxygen gas it was concluded by
Lavoisier to be an element necessary to the processes
of combustion and acidification ; to be the sole supporter
of combustion and the sole generator of acids : hypo-
theses were constructed and the name given accord-
ingly. This was the limit of our knowledge on this
subject at the time. A few years later it was disco-
vered that a leaf of copper takes fire spontaneously
and burns in chlorine gas, and that hydrogen and
chlorine combine and form a powerful acid. Here
then was a real extension of our knowledge.
IX.] THE SMALL DOSE. 2 I 3
If we collect in a small vessel two volumes of hydro-
gen and one of oxygen, it is well known that the
contact of flame, or an electric spark, will cause an
explosion, the gases disappear and a drop of water is
produced. For some time it was believed that the
agency of heat or of electricity was requisite to produce
these mechanical and chemical phenomena. But it
was afterwards found that if we insert a piece of cold
spongy platinum into the mixture, that is sufficient to
occasion the gases to explode, and the drop of water
to be produced. Thus the previous limits of our
knowledge were extended.
These examples show that our knowledge of nature
has not only a fixed limit, dependent on the powers of
our bodily senses, but that it is also limited by a slid-
ing scale, dependent upon the industry with which we
use these powers. This is the boundary which has
already so often been extended ; these are the barriers
which we may still hope to throw down. -
The small dose of the homoeopathist, viewed in the
light of this double limit, may be thus considered :—
chemical tests follow the grain of medicinal substance to
the third trituration, that is, till it has been divided
into a million of parts, and a good eye, assisted by a
powerful microscope, can follow it to the fourth or fifth
trituration, beyond this it is absolutely lost to the
perception of our sight. The sense of smell can
detect musk to the fifth or sixth dilution. Everything
that we know forbids us to conclude that the division
of matter stops here, but our senses cannot follow it
further. On the other hand, our power of observing
the effects produced by these doses has no limit but
that of the sliding scale. Admitting for the moment,
what I think will afterwards be proved, that effects are
produced, it is evidently as easy for us to observe
them after a dose of the thirtieth, as after one of the
third or of the first trituration. The same cautions
are necessary, but nothing more.
Another feature in the character of our knowledge
of natural things is our ignorance of modes of action.
2 I 4 THE SMALL IDOSE. [ESSAY
This also is a result of the very limited powers of our
bodily senses. The succession of events can be traced
only for a few links, and we cannot discover how even
these are connected together.
A lucifer match is rubbed on a rough surface and
it inflames. How friction produces such a result we
know not. If it be said that friction evolves heat, and
that heat inflames the match, the question returns, how
does friction evolve heat P and ſhow does heat inflame
the match P No one can tell.
No fact is better ascertained than that the moon is
kept in its orbit round the earth, and the earth in its
Orbit round the Sun, by the same force as that which
causes a stone or an apple to fall to the ground. These
bodies are separated by immense distances, how can
they act upon each other ? How is it possible for an
inert lump of matter to influence another inert lump a
hundred millions of miles off 2 It is by the force of
gravitation ; but what is gravity ? and how does it act?
We know not.
If we throw a piece of the metal potassium upon ice,
it instantly inflames, burns itself into the ice, and
disappears. Part of the ice has been melted, the water
decomposed, its hydrogen burnt, and its oxygen has
united with the metal and formed a portion of caustic
potash, which is all that remains in the cavity of the
ice. These extraordinary phenomena are the effect of
chemical affinity, but what is that P and how does it
act P No one can inform us.
We can surround a seed with suitable proportions of
air, warmth, and moisture, and can observe the gradual
development of the germ, of the entire plant, and of the
ripening seed. How have all these wonderful changes
been effected 2 They are attributed to the vital force,
but we know not in the least what that is, nor how it
acts. We can examine the various tissues with our
microscopes, and analyse them in Our laboratories, and
thus become acquainted with many new and beautiful
facts, which have presented themselves in the course of
the growth of our experimental plant. When we have
IX.] THE SMALL DOSE. 2 I 5
reduced the mechanism to the simplest form, we find
that it consists of minute vesicles, formed by an elastic
transparent membrane composed of a substance some-
what resembling starch, and called ce//u/ose. When we
have obtained the ultimate chemical analysis, we find
certain proportions of carbon, Oxygen, hydrogen, and
a few metals or metallic oxides. We find nothing
which reveals to us what vitality is, nor how the
successive changes we have witnessed have been
brought about.
We take food and are nourished ; we take medicines
and are acted upon by them ; we take poisons and die;
but ſhow these things act so as to produce such effects
we know not.
If it be said that our food is converted into chyme
in the stomach, and into chyle in the intestines, that
this is absorbed by the lacteals and conveyed by the
thoracic duct into the blood, and that thus we are
nourished, I reply, all this is granted, but what then P
The question remains as it was, ſºow is all this done *
No one can tell.
Again, if it be said that medicines act on the nervous
system, and stimulate the stomach, that they are
sedatives and stimulants, emetics and purgatives,
sudorifics, and expectorants; what of all this 2 What
are these stimulating powers, how do they produce
their effects, and how are these effects beneficial 2 No
answer is given.
The succession of events, the steps by which an
ultimate result is produced,—these, within Zhe limits
described, may be observed and experimented upon,
but ſhow each step is accomplished is beyond our ken.
Of the recesses of nature, of the secret chambers in
which her operations are carried on, how forces are
“correlative,” how they can be changed into each
other, hów they act upon matter, how matter acts upon
them, we are profoundly ignorant. Nevertheless we
believe what we see without waiting until we can
explain it.
Such is the actual condition, the general character
2 I 6 THE SMALL DOSE. |ESSAY
and extent of our knowledge of nature, and this con-
sequence follows:–we are not entitled to reject any-
thing which professes to be a fact, if supported by a
sufficient amount of evidence, merely because it is
inconsistent with our expectations, does not coincide
with our previous opinions, or is not within the limits
of our former experience. We are not justisfied in con-
cluding against a statement of fact by d priori reasoning
or theoretical considerations. Analogies may render
an assertion probable or the contrary, but no reasoning
is conclusive against a matter of fact. The truth or
falsehood of the announcement of a fact cannot be
settled by reasoning or argumentation, it must be
decided by evidence.
The case to be stated is this —when a remedy has
been chosen in accordance with the law of homoeopathy
(explained in Essay IV), an inconceivably small
quantity is often a sufficient dose.
The difficulty lies in the incredibility of this state-
Inent.
Be it well observed that the matter in hand is not
to account for the efficacy of the small doses, but to
prove that they are efficacious. The difficulty is not
how to explain their action, but how to believe it.
A story is told of the Royal Society, that on a
certain occasion it was proposed to that learned body
to explain how it was that when a live fish was put into
a basin full of water, none overflowed. After sundry
grave hypotheses had been propounded and objections
urged, it was at length proposed to try the experiment.
So with this medical difficulty, leaving explanations,
let us first try the experiment as a matter of fact. The
whole case is embraced by the three questions already
proposed. *
I-Are we acquainted with any facts which render
it probable that infinitesimal quantities of ponderable
matter may act upon the living animal body ? In other
words, what does analogy teach us 2
IX.] THE SMALL DOSE. 21 7
Look at that bright star ! Its brilliant beams of
light strike upon the eye and convince the merest
child of its existence; and yet it is so remote that the
astronomer with his telescope cannot calculate its
distance. What a vivid flash that was, and how loud
the thunder | See yonder oak riven to its centre,
what an irresistible force; and yet the chemist, with
his most delicate balance, cannot perceive its weight.
Here is a mass of iron, weighing a thousand pounds,
moving rapidly upwards, notwithstanding the attraction
of the earth to this amount, without any visible link,
towards another small bent piece of iron a foot long,
encircled with the galvanic current;-and now falling
heavily to the ground the instant that current is arrested.
What a mysterious, albeit very visible effect from an
invisible, impalpable, imponderable power, generated
by such simple means. How warm the fire feels while
we stand at the distance of some feet from the hearth !
We can imagine how heat will go up the chimney,
because heated air is lighter than cold air, and will
therefore ascend; but how does the warmth get across
horizontally to our legs 2 Oh, it is radiant heat or
caloric which travels in right lines in every direction.
Very well, but what is radiant heat or caloric P What
is light 2 What is electricity ? What is magnetism 2
Several answers are given by philosophers to these
questions. Taking light as the example, there are two
modes of explaining it —according to Newton, light
consists of material partic/es, emitted by luminous
bodies, and moving through space with a velocity of
192,OOO miles in a second, and these particles striking
the eye produce the sensation of light. According to
the other explanation of the phenomena, light con-
sists in an undulating or vibratory movement, which,
when it reaches the eye, excites the sensation of light,
in the same manner as the sensation of sound is excited
in the ear by the vibrations of the air. It is obvious
that this theory also presumes the existence of a material
medium through and by which the vibrations can be
transmitted ; in fact it supposes that an exceedingly
2 I 8 THE SMALL DOSE. |ESSAY
thin and elastic medium, called ether, fills all space.
For our present purpose it is unimportant which
theory is regarded as the true one, inasmuch as both
assume that matter in some form is concerned in pro-
ducing the various impressions of light and colour
upon the living animal body. The effects are produced
by imponderable but not by immaterial agents. To
convey Some faint notion of excessive minuteness, it
may be mentioned that the length of an undulation of
the extreme violet ray of light is ooooor 67 of an
inch ; the number of undulations in an inch is
59,750 ; and the number of undulations in a second
is 727,OOO,OOO,OOO,OOO, (727 billions); while the cor-
responding numbers for the indigo ray are, length,
O'OOOO185 of an inch ; 54,070 undulations in an inch ;
and 658,OOO,OOO,OOO,OOO, (658 billions) in a second.
The other rays differ in similar proportions.
“That man,” says Herschel, “should be able to
measure with certainty such minute portions of space
and time is not a little wonderful; for it may be ob-
served, whatever theory of light we adopt, these
periods and these spaces have a real eacistence, being in
fact deduced by Newton from direct measurements,
and involving nothing hypothetical, but the names
which have been given them.”
Whether, therefore, light be viewed as material par-
ticles emitted continuously, and in all directions, by
luminous bodies, or as the vibrations of an elastic
material medium, it is, in either case, dependent upon
matter for its existence or production ; it is matter, but
exceedingly rare, subtle, and so minutely divided as to
be to us imponderable.
It is probable that heat, electricity, and magnetism
are motions, varying in kind, of the same ether.
That space is occupied by minute particles of matter
admits of being proved in another manner quite inde-
pendent of these observations on light. It has been
ascertained by astronomers that one of the comets,
called Emacſée's, which is a body not denser than a small
cloud of steam, for the stars are seen through it with-
IX.] THE SMALL DOSE. 2 I 9
out any diminution of their brilliancy, and which re-
volves round the sun in 1,208 days, has its period
slightly diminished during each revolution. It is
evident that its motion is impeded by a resisting
medium, by which its centrifugal force is diminished,
and consequently the relative power of gravity is
increased ; this brings the comet nearer to the Sun, its
orbit becomes contracted, and the time Occupied by a
revolution shortened. Thus, by another series of Ob-
servations, we arrive at the same conclusion that there
exists a rare, subtle, and impoſederað/e forme of minutely
divided matter.
Infinitesimal quantities of this imponderable matter
are capable of acting energetically, and Z/key do so acá
habitually, producing such impressions as those of
light, &c., upon the living animal body.
Reasoning, then, from analogy, we may conclude it
to be probable that other forms of matter, even though
reduced by the successive triturations, into similar/y
syza/Z dºmainsions, may also act, and act powerfully,
upon the living body.
II.-Are there any facts which show the action of
infinitesimal quantities of ponderable matter upon the
Aca///y body ?
The beautiful adaptation of the different departments
of nature to each other is justly adduced as a demon-
stration that the whole has been created and arranged
under the guidance of infinite wisdom and power. In
nothing is this adaptation more conspicuous than in the
appropriate fitness of the corporeal senses of man to
the surrounding world.
So far as we are cognisant of the material creation,
it is disposed under the five following forms —solid
bodies, liquids, gases or airs, imponderable ether, and
minutely divided particles of ponderable bodies. For
the appreciation of these various forms of matter we
have five senses. The sense of touch, mainly con-
versant with solid bodies ; that of taste, which is im-
pressed by liquids only ; the delicate organ of hearing,
22 O THE SMALL DOSE. |ESSAY
which can perceive the vibratory movements of gases
or airs; the still more delicate organ of the eye, capable
of receiving impressions from the undulations of the
imponderable ether ; and, lastly, the sense of smell,
adapted to the condition of the particles of bodies,
when they have become so divided as to be infini-
tesimal, that is, indefinitely small and imponderable.
It is the form of matter last named which we have
now specially to consider. The particles separated
from larger masses, which become by degrees so small
as to elude in succession the perception of all our
senses, and perhaps at length are reduced to a state
similar to the ether.
A cubic inch of platinum, the heaviest body we are
acquainted with, weighs upwards of 5000 grains. A
cubic inch of hydrogen, the lightest body which affects
our balances, weighs 2 grains. These balances, by
ingenious contrivances, are made very sensitive ; I
have one which readily weighs O'OO5, or five thou-
sandths of a grain. Others have been constructed
still more delicate ; but the particles we are now
examining are far too light for any balance to
appreciate.
Mechanical division can be carried to an almost
incredible degree. Gold, in gilding, may be divided
into particles at least one thousand four hundred
millionths of a square inch in size, and yet possess the
colour and all other characters of the largest mass.
Linen yarn has been spun so that a distinctly visible
portion could not have weighed the 127,OOO,OOO (127
millionth) of a grain ; and yet this, so far from being
an ultimate particle of matter, must have contained
more than one vegetable fibre, that fibre itself being
of complex organization, and built up of an indefi-
nitely great number of more simple forms of matter.
Chemical division is equally successful and surprising.
I have been able to show the presence of iron in
the third dilution of the sulphate ; that is, to detect the
1,000,000 (millionth) of a grain of the sulphate of iron ;
this particle was not a simple atom, but consisted, of
IX.] THE SMALL DOSE. 22 I
course, of still smaller quantities of Sulphur, oxygen,
and iron. Sir Robert Kane says that a quantity of
silver, equal to the 1,000,000,000,000 (billionth) of a
cubic line, can be readily detected."
Even organic substances, which are very compound
bodies, and therefore experimented upon with more
difficulty than minerals, can be detected in exceedingly
small quantities. Mr. Herapath has given in evidence
the following statement —“I am perfectly sure that I
could detect the 50,000th part of a grain of Strychnine,
if it were unmixed with organic matter. If I put ten
grains in a gallon, or 70,000 grains of water, I could
discover its presence in the tenth part of a grain of
that water.” Now an atom, the most minute con-
ceivable particle of Strychnine, is composed of about
3O atoms of carbon, 16 atoms of hydrogen, I atom of
nitrogen, and 3 atoms of Oxygen. Each of these par-
ticles must be very much less than the particle of
Strychnine, which contains 50 of them.
It can scarcely be needful to remark that any par-
ticle of matter, however minute, which can produce a
visible effect upon an inert chemical re-agent, must
have power to act upon the sensitive nerves of living
animals. It is therefore not surprising to hear Mr.
Herapath, after making the statement which I have
quoted, go on to say, “I made four experiments with
a large dog to which I had given the eig///, part of a
grain of Strychnine. I have discovered it by change
of colour in the 32nd part of the liver of a dog.”
That particles become divided into less portions
than is shown even in these examples is evident from
the daily observation of the sense of smell. The
violet fills a royal apartment with its sweet odour,
which is thus readily perceived, but which eludes every
other mode of observation. How inconceivably small
* “Elements of Chemistry, by Sir R. Kane, 2nd edition,
p. 7.
* The ‘Times, May 23, 1856.
3 Ibid.
222 THE SMALL DOSE. [ESSAY
must be the particles of all odours And yet they are
material."
A grain of musk may be exposed for a long period,
and be unceasingly emitting particles, easily appre-
ciated by the sense of smell, yet has it not lost
in weight what the most sensitive balance can detect.
These are instances of infinitesimal quantities of
matter acting upon the healthy body.
Contagious malaria constitute a large class of agents
whose power of injuriously acting upon our healthy
body is so greatly dreaded, and no one has yet doubted
that they are material. Who voluntarily crosses the
Pontine marshes at certain seasons of the year, or
exposes himself to the plague of Constantinople, or
the yellow fever of the West Indies 2 And yet the
microscope cannot show these terrible particles, nor
can chemical analysis detect them. Ozone perhaps
decomposes them. :
To come nearer home, a clergyman visits a patient
in scarlet fever, but does not touch him, he afterwards
calls upon a friend, and shakes the hand of one of the
children as he passes her on the staircase. The next
day this child sickens with the scarlet fever, and her
brothers and sisters take it from her; no other connec-
tion can be traced. This is no uncommon occurrence,
and no one doubts the communication of infection in
such a manner, neither is it doubted that the infection
itself is something material. What is the weight of the
particle of matter thus conveyed 2 Is it heavier than
the millionth of a grain of belladonna which, it is
asserted by homoeopathists, is sufficient, when given
at short intervals, to arrest the progress of such a
case ?
These, then, are also instances of infinitesimally
small quantities of matter acting upon the living body
in Aea/#/.
There are numerous liquids which have the power
! I express this as my belief, notwithstanding the sugges-
tion lately made that odours may be undulations.
IX.] THE SMALL DOSE. 223
of affecting the healthy body, and some of them of
taking away life, and yet in each instance the quantity
of the active ingredient is so exceedingly small
that hitherto no means have been effectual in de-
tecting it.
The vaccine matter has been so often mentioned
that it need not be alluded to further.
Several animals are furnished with poisonous liquids,
which, when injected into a wound, occasion the dis-
ease or death of the wounded animal. Serpents, bees,
scorpions, and spiders are well-known examples. In
the venomous serpents there is found an apparatus of
poison-fangs, constituting perhaps the most terrible
weapons of attack met with in the animal creation.
The poison-teeth (a) are two in number, placed in the
upper jaw, when not in use they are laid flat upon the
roof of the mouth ; but when the animal is irritated,
they are plucked up from their concealment, and stand
out like two long lancets. Each fang is traversed by
a canal, through which the poison flows. The gland
(6) which Secretes the poison, is composed of cells
communicating with a duct (c) by which the venom is
conveyed to the tooth. The poison gland is covered
by a muscle (d) which is attached to a thin fibrous line
(e). . This is part of the muscle which closes the jaw,
so that the same power which strikes the teeth into the
viper's prey, compresses at the same moment the bag

224 THE SMALL DOSE. [ESSAY
of poison, and forces it through the fangs into the
wound."
The quantity of , poison contained in the gland
scarcely exceeds a drop, but the smallest portion of
this liquid taken up upon the point of a needle, and
inserted by a slight puncture into the skin of an animal,
is sufficient to produce all its poisonous effects. From
Some serpents it produces almost immediate death.
Fontana first subjected it to chemical analysis, and
sacrificed many hundred vipers in his experiments.
Others have succeeded him in these labours, but
nothing peculiar has been discovered. The poison is
a yellow liquid, and has not been distinguished chemic-
ally from simple gum water.”
Here are examples of infinitesimal quantities of pon-
derable matter acting with frightful energy upon the
Aea/#// body.
Medicinal substances furnish other proofs. A single
example must suffice. Inappreciable quantities of
ipecacuanha give an affirmative answer to our present
question, so decisive and convincing that no apology
need be made for extracting the following cases from
that well-known and highly respectable allopathic
periodical, the “London Medical and Physical Jour-
nal :”—
“An apprentice of mine, naturally healthful, and of
an active disposition, is invariably affected with a most
distressing and protracted sneezing on the most careful
dispensing of the smallest quantity of pecacuanha. A
more continued application of it, such for instance as
happens in the preparation of the compound powder,
is followed with dyspnoea (difficulty of breathing), cough,
and spitting of blood. Having occasion some time ago
to compound the medicine for several days together,
he became seriously affected by it, in the way just
stated, and he has not enjoyed full health since. It has
! “The Animal Kingdom,' by T. Rymer Jones, p. 588.
* Thompson's ‘Animal Chemistry," p. 538.
IX.] THE SMALL DOSE. 225
evidently produced a disposition to asthma, and an
aptitude for pulmonary ailment, which he had not used
to possess.”
“In the year 1787 or 1788, in pounding the root to
make the pecacuanha wine, I was suddenly affected
with violent and reiterated sneezings, with a very
profuse defluction from the eyes and nose; these
symptoms continued without intermission for many
hours, accompanied by great heat and anguish
throughout the cavity of the thorax, and the most
oppressive dyspnoea. Exhausted by the violence of
the attack, I was conveyed to bed, where, supported,
for I was unable to lie down, I remained more or less
afflicted till the next morning. I arose extremely
weakened, and with all the usual appearances of a
severe catarrh, From this date I have been perpetu-
ally tormented by violent catarrhs. The slightest
motion of the simple or compound powder of ipecacu-
anha superinduces precisely similar, but more gentle,
effects. When weighing or mixing these powders
afterwards, I carefully guarded my mouth and nose by
a cloth ; but an incautious removal of it for inspiration,
till perhaps half an hour had elapsed, after the medi-
cine was finished, occasioned the same inconveniences.
At length I was compelled to quit the shop when
ipecacuanha was in hand ; indeed, I have frequently
entered my own, or the shop of a stranger, long after
it had been used, and by the instant recurrence of
these very distressing sensations, have been able too
accurately to ascertain the recent exposure of this
drug.
“I never designedly had recourse to ipecacuanha
for more than twenty years. Two accidents lately,
within a few weeks of each other, afforded me the
Opportunity of determining its present effects when
inwardly administered. A friend hearing me cough
in the street, presented me with a few lozenges; I
* Mr. Spencer, ‘Medical and Physical Journal, June, 1809,
vol. XXI., p. 485.
I 5
226 THE SMALL DOSE. [ESSAY
took two at once ; they were scarcely dissolved, ere I
felt a pungent roughness in every part of the mouth,
exciting a great secretion of saliva; this, it is worthy
of noting, was the reverse in the preceding attacks,
when the excretory ducts uniformly denied their
offices, and Occasioned a disagreeable dryness of the
mucous membrane. As this acrid sensation extended
to the lips, they became prodigiously swollen and
inflamed. On the fauces I experienced the like effects,
with a most teasing itching irritation ; it descended the
trachea, producing pain and dyspnoea; it likewise
proceeded down the Oesophagus, creating a slight heat
in the stomach, and passed with moderate gripings
throughout the intestinal canal.
“Soon after, a powder was brought to my house,
with an order to prepare more of the same kind. I
conveyed a few particles to my tongue to discover its
composition; I quickly experienced those feelings in
the mouth and lips which arose from the lozenges
before, but in a milder degree, and they extended no
further. Upon referring to the prescription, I found
that there was one grain of ipecacuanha and ten of
calcined magnesia. The incident gave birth to the
idea that the former strange affection had originated
from the same cause as the latter, and upon enquiry
my suspicion was confirmed ; they were //ecacuanha
lozenges which I had swallowed. . . . . Snuff and
other stimulating powders excite no more irritation on
me than on others.”
“One of the editors recollects a somewhat similar
effect produced on his father.”
“To these three cases (the two preceding and one
by Mr. Royston, alluded to in January 9, ISO9) I shall
now add two in females, who seem to have been
affected in so similar a manner by the subtle effluvia of
ipecacuanha, that to enumerate their symptoms would
only be to repeat what has already been given respect-
ing those effects.
1 ‘Medical and Physical Journal, March, 18 IO, vol. XXIII,
p. I99.
IX.] THE SMALL DOSE. 227
“The first of these cases is that of a lady, now about
fifty, the wife of a surgeon, and mother of a numerous
family. The general state of health has always been
good, her disposition lively and active, and by no
means possessing anything of that valetudinarian
irritability which marks striking peculiarity of constitu-
tion. She has been much in the habit, when the
hurry of business required it, of assisting her husband
in dispensing medicines. This gave rise to her first
discovery of the effects of ipecacuanha on her habit.
I had an opportunity of remarking this fact about
eighteen months ago, being on a professional visit at
her house, while her husband laboured under a severe
fever. She was about to dispense one of my prescrip-
tions in which some ipecacuanha had been ordered,
and the moment she saw what the composition was,
she ran from the shop to a distant part of the house,
refusing to dispense it. This excited my curiosity to
find the cause. On following her she explained it,
and with some degree of anxiety looked round, lest
some of the doors between her and the shop should
have been left open while the prescription was about
to be dispensed. As my stay was protracted some
days, I had occasion to see these fears repeatedly
excited. One forenoon in particular, while she was in
her kitchen, a considerable distance from the shop,
(two passage doors being between herself and it.)
while she could neither see nor know beforehand, that
ipecacuanha, which was the case, was weighing, she
called out with vehemence to have the doors closed,
on account of the sensations she was beginning to feel.
“The second instance came to my knowledge only
the day before yesterday. The lady who is the sub-
ject of it called on me on her mother's account, who
was indisposed, and being shown into my room, took
up your last journal, which lay on my table, to amuse
herself till my appearance. On my entering the room
she told me she had been reading my book, and the
part which she accidentally opened was Mr. B.'s com-
munication ; she added with a smile, this is far from so
228 THE SMALL DOSE. [ESSAY
uncommon a case as this gentleman seems to think,
for I myself am afflicted by it in the same manner;
and then went into a considerable detail of the symp-
toms it excited in her. The catarrhal affection and
sneezing she described as particularly distressing.
The copious flow was so acrid as to excoriate, in a few
hours, the parts over which it fell. Her upper lip and
the alae of the nostrils were swelled. But what created
in her the most alarm, was its effects on her eyes.
They became swollen and stiff, and sight was dimini-
shed. The eye-lids tumefied so that the eyes were
sunk almost out of sight, which seemed to be the chief
cause of the diminution of vision ; the discharge from
her eyes was nearly as great as that from her nose,
and little less acrid. . . . No catarrhal effects
were excited in her by snuff.”
“I know a lady who was always seized with asthma
whenever ipecacuanha root was pounded in the shop ;
so sensible was she of this effect, that it was in vain to
conceal from her what was going on in the mortar.
This occurred about thirty years ago, in the lady of
the physician (Dr. Buckham, of Wooler) to whom I
was first a pupil, and I was twice the innocent cause
of the complaint myself. I thought by her being
in a remote part of the house, she could not be
affected ; but it was almost immediately felt, and the
paroxysm lasted many hours. This lady was exqui-
sitely nervous.
“I have been informed of different cases almost
similar; they were all women ; but, conceiving the
observation a common one, I did not note them.”
Two similar cases, the wives of medical men, are
given in vol. xxiv, page 233, by Dr. Scott. One
attack, caused by being near her husband at the time
he put some ipecacuanha into a bottle, was so violent
1 Dr. Hamilton, ‘Medical and Physical Journal, April,
18 Io, vol. XXIII, p. 318.
* Dr. Trotter, ‘Medical and Physical Journal,’ July, I8 IO,
vol. XXIV, p, 6O.
IX.] THE SMALL DOSE. 229
as nearly to prove fatal. There was a remarkable
stricture about the throat and chest, with very trouble-
some shortness of breathing, with a particular kind of
wheezing noise. The symptoms were aggravated at
night. At 3 o'clock in the morning she was gasping
for breath at a window, pale as death, her pulse
scarcely to be felt, and in the utmost immediate
danger of suffocation. She became easier about 1 I
a.m. till about 1 I p.m. 7%e same scene was continated
eight days and 7zig/iſs successive/y.
“Mr. Leighton, a very eminent surgeon at New-
castle, very nearly lost his wife in a similar manner.”
Here, then, are such undeniable proofs—from odours,
from contagious malaria, from animal poisons, and from
medicinal substances, that it may be strongly con-
cluded that infinitesimal quantities of ponderable
matter do act with great, and sometimes with destruc-
tive energy upon the Aea/t/y body.
III.--What are the actual proofs in support of the
assertion that such minute quantities of ponderable
matter act remedially on the diseased body ?
The reply to the first question proposed renders it
probable that infinitesimal quantities of ponderable
matter may act upon the living animal body.
The answer to the second question embraces very
numerous and undeniable facts which prove, in the
most positive and unexceptionable manner, that such
small quantities do produce direct, and sometimes
frightfully powerful effects upon the living body in
/*ea/#/.
That similarly minute quantities will act upon the
wn/eaſt/y body is thus shown to be in the highest
degree probable, if not certain ; for it may be argued, d.
fortiori, if they can act upon the body in health, much
more will they be able to act when the nervous system
is in a state of exalted sensibility, produced by the
morbid excitement of disease. Any portion of the
surface of the body may be rubbed violently, when in
a healthy condition, without painful sensation ; but the
23O THE SMALL DOSE. | ESSAY
same part, when inflamed, will shrink from the slightest
touch.
It now therefore only remains that, by the evidence
of facts, it is proved generally, that they do act, and
particularly that their action is beneficial and remedial
in disease.
If any one were to ask a physician who has been,
for a few years, in the daily habit of prescribing these
Small doses, do they act beneficia//y 2 he would see an
expression of countenance very like that which another
person would exhibit if, while standing before a good
fire, he were gravely asked if he felt any warmth. On
the other hand, if a physician who has not been willing
to try the doses, nor to see them tried by others, be
asked, cazz they acé afton disease 2 he assumes a tone
like that of the King of Siam, when told by some
European travellers that water sometimes becomes
solid.
I do not address those who have tried the doses—
they need no further evidence; nor those who will not
try them, and who, with wonderful presumption, de-
clare that such doses cannot act—they may be quietly
passed by ; but those whose minds are open to convic-
tion, and who think the care of their health and the
prolongation of their lives an affair of sufficient moment
to require them to give attention to any information
on the subject openly and candidly set before them.
The evidence which proves the beneficial action of
the small dose is the same in kind as that which proves
any other natural fact, it is the evidence of observa-
tion and experiment, that which our senses afford us.
It is of the same nature as the evidence we have of
the relation of cause and effect in any events which
happen around us. It does not differ from that which we
have of the operation of the large doses of medicine.
A patient has a violent headache; twelve leeches
are applied to his temples ; relief follows the applica-
tion of the leeches. Had this happened but once, we
ought to conclude that the fact of the removal of the
pain following the application of the leeches was merely
IX.] THE SMALL DOSE. 23 I
a coincidence, not an instance of cause and effect; but
it has happened a hundred times, and we therefore
conclude that the relief was the effect of the loss of
blood by the leeches. Another patient has a similarly
violent headache; the millionth or the billionth of a
drop of the juice of the deadly nightshade is given;
relief quickly follows. Had this happened but once,
we ought to set it down as a coincidence—an accidental
meeting of two events having no connection with each
other—but it has happened a hundred times; shall it
not then be concluded that the removal of the pain was
the effect of the administration of the dose 2 Let any
one who doubts such a conclusion, and who would
attribute such frequent recurrences of the same succes-
sion of events to chance, take up a kaleidescope and
turn it round till he gets the same figure a second time.
We need not wish him a severer punishment.
The following statement of facts is now offered, for
the truth of which I hold myself responsible.
I am aware of “the difficulty of tracing effects to
their true causes;” and also that there are “various
sources of error in conducting medical enquiries.” It is
due to truth to observe that every endeavour has been
used to overcome the one and to avoid the other. I
cannot hope to have succeeded in doing this in every
case, but that the ultimate conclusion is a safe and
true One I can entertain no doubt.
ACUTE DISE ASE.
The effects of the small doses have been observed
with the utmost care in the following cases —
INFLAMMATION OF THE EYE.—Mr. Brodribb, in his
‘Homoeopathy Unveiled,' observes that “from the
peculiar structure of the eye, we may often actually
witness what is going on in diseases of that organ.
. . . . With the same fidelity we can observe the
232 THE SMALL DOSE. [ESSAY
effect of efficient treatment in the arrest and removal
of the disease, and that too with such unerring certainty
as to leave no doubt in our mind of the relation of the
two as cause and effect.”
I have formerly often treated diseases of the eye by
what . Mr. Brodribb would acknowledge would be
“efficient treatment,” and have often carefully watched
its results. I have now also in a considerable number
of cases, treated them with the small doses of homoeo-
pathy, and the beneficial results have been such “as to
leave no doubt in my mind of the relation of the two,
as cause and effect.” One case was cured in a few
days by the 3d dilutions of arnica, aconite, and bella-
donna, where an allopathic physician had considered
leeches to be indispensable. Other inflammatory
affections of the eye have recovered much more rapidly
and Satisfactorily than I ever saw them do under any
other treatment.
INFLAMMATION OF THE THROAT.—The remark made
by Mr. Brodribb with respect to the visibility of
diseases of the eye applies also to those of the throat.
I have very repeatedly seen the influence of minute
doses of belladonna, mercury, hepar sulphuris, and
other remedies, upon the various stages of inflammation
of the throat manifested in the most unmistakable
manner. The Rev. has had attacks of ulcerated
sore throat; on the last occasion that he had the usual
treatment of blisters, &c., he was laid up for six weeks.
I attended him lately for a similar attack; there was
a large ulcer on each tonsil ; he could scarcely swallow
or speak; he was very feverish ; and for two nights he
had been deprived of sleep. Without discontinuing
his usual duties, which are very laborious, for a single
hour, and without any local application of any kind, he
was perfectly cured in six days. In other cases where
I thought suppuration and puncture of the tonsils ine-
vitable, all the mischief dispersed, and recovery was
effected in a few days.
CROUP –It is stated in Essay IV, that several cases
IX.] THE SMALL DOSE. 233
of inflammatory croup have been treated after the new
method. I have only to add here that the medicines
were given in infinitesimal doses, and to assure my
readers that the relief afforded, without any other
treatment, not even a warm bath or a mustard poultice,
was, in every instance, most obvious, rapid, and
complete.
INFLAMMATION OF THE CHEST.-Several cases of
bronchitis and some of pneumonia have come under
my care during the last four years. They have had
no means whatever used to relieve them but the small
doses. They have recovered more quickly and satis-
factorily, and the attacks have been followed with a
much shorter period of convalescence than I ever
before witnessed, and the cure has been permanent.
ERYSIPELAS.—This is always a serious and often a
fatal complaint; it affords a good example of the con-
fusion and inconsistency of allopathic medicine. “The
practice,” says Mr. Nunneley, in his work on Erysipelas,
“pursued by different persons is of the most dissimilar
and contradictory nature ; while one party relies ºfton
ô/oodleſting, freely and repeated/y performed, as the
surest and only method of cure ; another and perhaps
larger party, certainly as respectable, so far as
authority goes, utterly repudiates the abstraction of
blood, and defends ºfton tonics and cordia/s for the
removal of the complaint. Indeed so confidently are
the most opposite remedies enforced, and so contra-
dictory are the results said to follow the application of
the same means, in the hands of different persons,
equally worthy of credit, that the impugner of medical
skill may fairly point with confidence to this part of
our field, and demand if such contradictions are worthy
of the name of a science or of trust 2"
It is not so with the homoeopathic treatment of
erysipelas. With minute doses of belladonna, rhus,
* ‘A Treatise on Erysipelas, by Thomas Nunneley.
London, 1841, p. 198. -
234. THE SMALL DOSE. - [ESSAY
and lachesis, the usual remedies for this peculiar
inflammation, I have succeeded in all the cases met
with—among them were four severe ones—beyond
my expectations. In One case, on the second day of
the attack, the inflammation had spread over the face,
ears, most of the Scalp, and part of the neck, with large
blisters on each cheek, with severe headache, and a
pulse of 150 ; this was entirely well at the end of a
week.
RHEUMATISM.–Some cases of rheumatic fever have
afforded me excellent opportunities of seeing how the
small doses relieve and frequently quickly cure this
otherwise intractable complaint—one of the opprobria
medicorum. One case, a widow lady, of 72, who had
it then for the first time, and while in a state of con-
siderable debility, was nearly well in a fortnight.
Another, a farmer, having organic disease of the
heart, left by a former attack, a most severe case, with
violent spasms of the heart threatening to terminate
life, recovered in three weeks.
CHOLERA AND DIARRHCEA.—The numerous state-
ments published in various countries of the great
efficacy of homoeopathic treatment in cholera and
diarrhoea have been confirmed by my own experience
as far as that has gone. In these cases the small
doses have always been used, except when I was
anxious to test the principle of homoeopathy by giving
ponderable quantities of the medicine indicated.
YELLOW FEVER.—The ravages which this dreadful
complaint is now making in Jamaica and other islands
of the West Indies are painfully calamitous : of course
I have not myself treated this terrible malady , but
from a trial of homoeopathy, which has just been made
in Barbadoes by Dr. Goding, it appears that, even
after the black vomit has taken place, hitherto Con-
sidered so fatal a symptom, homoeopathy can still, with
the blessing of God, rescue a victim from the grave.
This ought to attract the attention of Governments.
IX.] THE SMALL DOSE. 235
My information is from the ‘West Indian,’ of October
28th, 1852, a Barbadoes paper, which has been kindly
Sent me.
These must suffice as a specimen of the results in
the treatment of acute diseases with minute doses of
medicine only. To my own mind the efficacy of the
method is most palpable and satisfactory. The appre-
hension of an unfavourable termination in any acute
attack of disease is greatly lessened ; the duration of
the illness is much shortened ; the strength of the
patient is preserved ; and convalescence, often so
tedious and distressing, is almost annihilated.
CHRONIC DISEASE.
PAIN IN THE ELBOW.—Mr. Ker, a shopkeeper, con-
sulted me in August, 1850, on account of a ve
distressing pain in the elbow, from which he had been
suffering for twelve months. He had been under
surgical treatment, I believe, the whole of that time.
The joint was stiff and swollen, but did not appear to
me to be seriously diseased ; the pain, however, was
described as being at times excruciating. A single
dose of staphysagria, highly diluted, was given him.
In a few days I called to enquire after him, when he
told me that the night he took my dose he was very
strangely affected; he could scarcely describe how, but
it was so powerful that he would not take any more of
my medicine. “How is your elbow P” “Look 1" he
cried, and moving his arm in all directions in a rapid
manner, declared that it was well; and so it remained.
DIABETES MELLITUS.—On the 7th of March, 1850,
I was consulted by Mrs. —, a widow, of about 47,
who had been suffering for several years from various
ailments, and had been during much of that time
under the care of a physician. One of her complaints
was diabetes mellitus, which had been increasing upon
236 THE SMALL IOOSE. [ESSAY
her for the last two years. The quantity of urine in
the twenty-four hours was fifteen pints, and the weight
of Sugar contained in this exceeded a pound. It
would be tedious to report the daily progress of this
case ; it must suffice to say that under the influence of
minute doses of aconite, sulphur, nux vomica, china,
belladonna, and some other remedies, by the middle of
July she was so much recovered that the quantity of
water was reduced to below three pints, that is, to the
quantity natural in health ; and though the presence of
Sugar could still be detected, it was comparatively
Small in quantity. She then went to the sea-side for
two or three weeks. During her stay there, her son
wrote to me that his “mother was so well that she did
not appear to ail anything.” . She has since suffered in
various ways from mental causes, and has had some
return of the diabetes, but it has again yielded to the
same remedies. It may be said of this case that the
tendency to the complaint is not removed. This is
granted; but while the causes which first induced the
complaint are, in all probability, still surrounding the
patient, it is not surprising if they succeed in bringing
on second or third attacks. I have seen several cases
of sugared urine formerly, but I never saw the old
remedies afford such permanent benefit. Neither is it
reasonable to expect that the new method will always
succeed in such an untractable, and hitherto usually
fatal disease.
December 28th, 1852. I called to see this patient
to-day, when she told me she had not felt so well for
many years as she did at present. It is now nearly
three years since I first saw her in the alarming condi-
tion before described.
October 14th, 1853. She has now continued well
nearly another year.
July, 1856. It is pleasant to add to the above
reports that this patient continues well.
TABES MESENTERICA.—In September, 1852, Mrs.
H–, from Birmingham, consulted me about her baby,
IX.] THE SMALL DOSE. 237
eight months old, suffering from mesenteric disease.
The little infant was greatly emaciated, and its mother
expected that it was going to die. Excessively minute
doses of sulphur and chalk were followed by a wonder-
ful improvement in a fortnight; the medicines were
repeated, and at the end of six weeks the child seemed
nearly well,—its stomach almost reduced to its natural
dimensions, and its limbs filling up. Mrs. H- had
been at first quite incredulous, and came to me only
through the persuasion of a friend ; she was now so
much gratified that she thought it her duty to call
upon her former medical advisers, to show them the
child, and to offer a copy of one of my pamphlets.
An angry scene ensued, and the following conversation
took place —“I refuse to take the book; if Dr. Sharp
said he was doing nothing we could respect him, but
as it is we cannot.” Mrs. H-: “But, sir, my child is
cured l’ “Yes, it has got well by letting medicine
alone.” “But I had tried what letting medicine alone
would do for some time, and the child grew worse and
worse. It began to improve from the very day Dr.
Sharp's medicine was commenced ; and how was it
that two other babies of mine died of the same disease
in your hands 2 If medicines do harm, and you knew
that doing nothing would cure, why did not you re-
commend that plan 2"
DISEASE OF THE LUNGS.–Mr. W. S.–, aged 20, had
a severe attack of inflammation in the chest during last
winter, and was attended by two or three medical
men. This was followed by chronic disease, during
the spring and summer. His friends despaired of his
recovery. When I saw him, in September, 1852, he
was emaciated ; had cough and expectoration ; his
pulse I 20; Occasional flushings in the face ; no appe-
tite; the whole of the right lung returned a dull sound
on percussion, and there was a peculiar sound of the
voice through the stethoscope.
I made no alteration in his diet or habits, and gave
him nothing but infinitesimal doses of the medicines
238 THE SMALL DOSE [ESSAY
employed, such as aconite, bryony, phosphorus, &c. :
these have been continued three months. He declares
that he feels quite well; he looks well; his appetite is
good ; he has gained flesh ; he takes horse exercise,
notwithstanding the wet; he has not the slightest
cough nor expectoration; no fever ; no perspiration;
and the only symptom which remains to testify the
reality of his former danger, is revealed by the stetho-
scope; the unnatural sound of the voice, though much
diminished, has not yet ceased.
PARTIAL PARALYSIS.—Mrs. M- consulted me, three
months ago, for paralysis of the thumb of the right
hand, which had existed for some time. She had
entirely lost the use of it; for instance she could not
take up a needle or hold it; she was otherwise ailing.
The case reminded me of the condition of persons
exposed to the poisonous influence of lead, as painters
are. The billionth of a grain of lead in occasional
doses for a month was prescribed, and nothing else.
At the expiration of the month, her husband, a re-
spectable farmer, called to say that she was rather
better, and wished for more medicine; it was repeated
for a second month, and afterwards for a third, on
hearing still better accounts of her. A few days ago I
was in the neighbourhood, and called unexpectedly
to see her. She was sitting at her fire-side busily
engaged in sewing, and looking so much better that I
scarcely recognised her. She spoke very gratefully
of her improved condition.
I am not now replying to opponents, but cannot
avoid making a quotation here from Mr. Brodribb—
“Lead will give rise to all the symptoms of colic, and
produce a certain form of paralysis, but it will not cure
either of those affections.” How does Mr. Brodribb
know this 2 Has he ever tried it in these diseases in
any dose 2 And if not, how can he make such an
assertion 2
I Homoeopathy Unveiled, by W. P. Brodribb, 2d edit., p. 9.
IX.] THE SMALL DOSE. 239
HABITUAL CONSTIPATION.—It is a great bugbear
with many, especially with many amiable amateur
practitioners of the healing art, that homoeopathy
dispenses with the old-fashioned doses of Gregory and
black draught; that it professes to be able to go on its
way prosperously without the aid of calomel and colo-
cynth, Senna, salts, and jalap.
I acknowledge that at first this was difficult to
accomplish, but it is a difficulty surmounted. I now
never think of having recourse to these remedies in
the treatment of those cases in which they have
usually been considered indispensable. If they are
not necessary, they must be injurious. If they can be
safely laid aside, the patient must be the gainer.
But more than this. In a large number of cases of
habitual constipation, I have succeeded quite beyond
my own expectations in entirely removing this dis-
agreeable condition. Some had taken aperients so
long and in such increasing quantities that matters
had come to extremity; one lady had taken them ten
or twelve years; another told me she had never gone
to bed without pills for between forty and fifty years;
and another, that a pint of Senna, &c., had become
ineffectual ; and yet an entire emancipation from this
thraldom has been effected by the infinitesimal doses
of the appropriate medicine. The nauseous physic
was laid aside at once, and, I believe, for ever. I
have the pleasure of knowing one lady who did this at
7O, and she is now enjoying comfortable health at 83.
Such is a brief sketch of the results of the treatment
of chronic disease." -
This is the case of the small dose, and the kind of
evidence upon which it rests. It is right to mention
* These cases are allowed to stand as they were reported
in the Edition of 1853. The remarks which follow remain
as they were first written. For further experience on this
difficult question the later Essays are referred to. (1873.)
24O THE SMALL DOSE. [ESSAY
that the dilution of the medicines most frequently
used, in the treatment of the above cases, is the 3d—
in which the grain or the drop is divided into a million
of parts. The 2d (the IO,Oooth part) has often been
used ; and sometimes the 1st (the Iooth part) of a
grain. The 4th, 5th, 6th, and 12th have also been
used ; and beneficial effects have followed the ad-
ministration of the 18th and the 30th. Further than
this I have not gone, and do not hold myself com-
mitted to anything beyond my own observation and
experience.
We are indebted to Hahnemann for the invention of
this method of preparing and administering the remedy,
as we are for calling our attention to the rule by which
we are to be guided in its choice. -
The difficulty of the case lies in its incredibility. It
is to be hoped that this is now greatly lessened, if not
removed. It is no other than that which attaches to
every new statement—its move/fly. It is the same
difficulty as that which fastened itself upon the mind
of the King of Siam, who would not believe that water
ever became ice, because /he had never seen this effect
of cold. It vanishes before evidence. At is credió/e
that the small dose can effect “a safe, speedy, and
permanent cure" whenever a cure is possible, z0/zeſ, it
z's ſound in practice to do so.
To those who contend that, after so many tritura-
tions and dilutions, there can be nothing left in the
dose, I beg to put two questions: first, seeing that a
grain of the medicinal substance is added to ninety-
nine grains of sugar in the first trituration, in which
particular dilution has it ceased to exist P And,
secondly, if the doses contain nothing, or are “nihili-
ties,” as Mr. Brodribb calls them, how do effects such
as those referred to in these Essays follow their
administration ?
To those who attempt to quash such statements as
those made in this Essay by accusations of fraud or of
falsehood, I have nothing to say. There is no com-
mon ground upon which we can meet to argue,
IX.] THE SMALL DOSE. 24. I
To conclude, one obvious fact cannot be overlooked;
all who bear testimony to the efficacy of these doses
have tried them, either upon themselves or upon
others; while those who deny their action not only
have not tested it, but, for the most part, boast that
they have not ; they reject the proposal to try the
remedies with disdain, and continue to stigmatise
those who do so as “knaves or fools,” or “morally
attenuated dwarfs.”
A’ight reason &eing our guide, with which of these two
parties is truth mosé /i/Éely to Öe ſound 2
* “The Lancet' for Nov. 6th, 1852.
I 6
ESSAY X.
THE DIFFICULTIES OF HOMOEOPATHY,
* “The fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe.”
- MILTON.
ESSAY X."
THE DIFFICULTIES OF HOMOEOPATHY,
“Every science has its difficulties.”—JOHNSON.
WHATEVER costs little trouble is commonly of small
value, while that which is worth possessing is difficult
to obtain. As there is no royal road to knowledge, so
neither is there a smooth path for the discharge of
duty and the satisfying of conscience. If the path be
rugged, it behoves us to examine it the more warily ;
to look all difficulties in the face, and not to imitate
the ostrich, which, when pursued, buries its head in
the sands. **
The difficulties of homoeopathy are twofold :—they
are either temporary or permanent. They belong to
ourselves, rather than to it.
I. Of the difficulties, which it may be hoped are
temporary, some have a special reference to the medical
profession ;-others to Hahnemann —some arise from
the public;-others from the circumstances in which
the practitioners of the new method are at present
placed. Of these temporary difficulties the following
appear to me among the most important.
With reference to the medical profession —
I. The novelty of the system now proposed to be
* First published in 1853.
246 THE DIFFICULTIES [ESSAY
adopted. It is “véa kał Śwn,” new and strange. This
is a difficulty which unavoidably attaches itself to every-
thing which involves fundamental changes. It is a
good check upon restless minds. It may sometimes
impede a useful improvement, but it more frequently
retards and obviates mischievous alterations. The
feeling out of which the difficulty springs has its ex-
pression in the proverb “meddle not with them that
are given to change.” But in cases like the present it
must be remembered that when a discovery of nature's
truth has been made, there is no novelty in the natural
facts; they have been from the beginning;-the novelty
is in us, in our knowing now what we were ignorant of
before. When sufficient evidence of facts is presented
to us, unless blinded by prejudice, we cannot but
believe them to be true, and believe also that they
were true before we knew them, and whether we knew
them or not. It frequently happens that, on further
enquiry, we find that though the truth is new to us,
glimpses of it have been seen from time to time in
former ages, – occasionally the discovery is more
entirely new. The principle or law is of the former
kind, it has been indicated, though never practically
carried out before Hahnemann ; the action of infinitesi-
mally small doses belongs to the latter ; it is a truth of
which we had little or no intimation till it was dis-
covered by Hahnemann.
This first difficulty is inseparable from the exhibition
of new truth. It has accompanied all discoveries of
truth. It must be borne peaceably, until Zºme has
effectually removed it.
2. The prejudices of education and modes of
thought. These much more frequently operate in-
juriously than beneficially. They are wonderfully
strong among the professors of the art of healing, as
the history of every discovery in medicine testifies.
The reception of homoeopathy has not differed in this
respect from that of the most valuable additions of
knowledge and improvements of practice of former
times. How just is the satire of Molière in the
X.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 247
commendatory character which M. le Docteur Diafoirus
gives of his son Thomas “Il est ferme dans la
dispute, fort comme un Turc Sur ses principes, ne
demord jamais de Son opinion, et poursuit un raisonne-
ment jusque dans les derniers recoins de la logique.
Mais, sur toute chose, ce qui me plait en lui et en quoi
Ž/ suit moſt examp/e, c'est qu'il s'attache aveuglément
aux opinions de nos anciens, et que jamais il n'a voulu
comprendre ni écouter les raisons et les expériences
des prétendues découvertes de notre siècle, touchant
la circulation du Sang, et autres opinions de méme
farine.” “He is firm in controversy, staunch as a
Turk in his tenets, never Swerves from his opinion,
and pursues an argument to the deepest recesses of
logic. But, above all, that which delights me in him, and
w/ierein he ſo//ows may example, is that he attaches
himself blindly to the opinions of the ancients, and
has never been willing to understand nor even to
listen to the pretended discoveries of our age, relative
to the circulation of the blood, and other opinions of
the same stamp.” :-
From these prejudices in the minds of physicians
arises a wide-spread feeling of distrust in the sincerity
of the practitioners of the new system, and a disbelief
in their knowledge of disease. The men we have left
cannot but think that we are wilfully practising a hoax
upon the public, or that, where we are not deceivers,
we are ourselves deluded through ignorance. The
opinion is almost general that homoeopathy is a sort of
“ pious fraud" justified in some degree by the severity
of the old treatment, and by the restorative powers of
nature. When annoyed by the passing over of patients
to the new system, they endeavour to console them-
selves with the reflection, that, like all other kinds of
quackery, it will have its day, and be exploded. Even
in friendly conversation we are told that we who pre-
pare the small doses are wise, it is our patients who
swallow them who are the fools.
* “Le Malade Imaginaire.'
248 THE DIFFICULTIES [ESSAY
This obstacle to the progress of homoeopathy operates
powerfully at present in England. The conviction that
Our facts are true, Our sentiments just, and our inten-
tions good will sustain us. The difficulty must be
borne with patience and temper. The course of events
will remove it. For, as was well observed by a writer
in the ‘Times,” “A man's life in these days is spent in
the realization of impossibilities, in fervently denying
one week what he sees put in practice the next. So
wedded are we to custom, so hampered by precedents,
so enslaved by habit, that we cannot bring ourselves to
believe that what is wrong in our proceedings can
possibly be corrected, or what is right in the practices
of our neighbours can possibly be adopted. The
Committee of the House of Commons which pro-
nounced railways ‘impossible,' sneered at the draining
of Chat Moss, and rejected the Liverpool and Man-
chester railway bill out of mercy to the demented pro-
jectors, was too faithful a type of the English mind.
Active and indefatigable within its own range, it recoils
with a pusillanimous horror before whatever is new
and untried.”
3. Self- interest cannot be overlooked as another
difficulty. It is a serious obstacle to the general re-
ception of homoeopathy by the medical profession.
Where success has been already attained, change is
naturally dreaded, it is likely to be for the worse; and
in the less happy alternative, where “res angusta
domi,” straitened circumstances press, it is a doubtful
plunge; – it may be into a lower depth. To turn
aside from the beaten path, even where truth and
conscience seem to lead, is no easy task, when the
maintenance of a family is hazarded by the change.
Some allowance must be made for considerations of
this kind.
There are some who are deterred unnecessarily by
this motive. Men who are so circumstanced that they
could afford to give up the old method and adopt the
new, even if they were, as probably they would be,
losers for a time. They might wait for a return of
X.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 249
practice, and be supported, during the interval, by a
good conscience. A very dear friend of mine, writing
an expostulatory letter to me, two or three years ago,
among other things urged upon me this consideration,
“your success is may down/a///” Not so, my dear
friend, if you will get up and ride with me, you
may share my success, there is abundance of room for
both.
Many are wanting in moral courage. I once said to
a man of very superior sense, integrity and worldly
experience, “Do right and leave it :" “And be left in
the lurch ſ” was his instant reply; and many will agree
with him. I think they are mistaken, and that a longer
experience and closer observation would confirm the
wisdom of the Dutch maxim,
{ { * > © y 3
Doe wel en zie niet om.
“Do what you ought, happen what may.”
This, then, is a difficulty, but it is a temporary one.
It may be safely left to be removed by Zime.
4. A very pardonable indo/ence is a difficulty with all
medical men who have passed the middle of life.
They have already made one great effort to qualify
themselves for the duties of their calling. They have
spent six or seven years as students of medicine, and
since that period, many more years have rolled away
in its laborious practice. It is much too formidable an
undertaking to set sail afresh on a new ocean of
troubles, and to endeavour to guide their vessel into a
foreign port. “The trouble is immense, and I have
grown idle,” was the candid acknowledgment of the
excellent Mr Kingdon, in his paper on homoeopathy,
read before the Medical Society of London, in the
year 1836.
From the anxiety and labour of such a task as this,
the elder members of the profession must, in all reason,
be excused. It is otherwise with the junior portion ;
nothing can acquit them from the duty of investigating
the new system for themselves, and of trying its merits
in their own hands &y actual experiment. If, however,
25O THE DIFFICULTIES [ESSAY
the Seniors are to be excused, it is evident that this
very circumstance constitutes a great difficulty, and a
formidable obstacle to the progress of homoeopathy.
Great and formidable it doubtless is, nevertheless it is
a difficulty which may be patiently borne, under the
Solemn reflection that Zime is diminishing it every day,
and will, ere long, remove it.
5. The fear of forfeiting respectability, by joining a
sect so despised and ridiculed, operates as a powerful
hinderance in the minds of many in the profession.
The losing of “caste” for the sake of truth may be
thought by some to be a slight sacrifice, but those who
know human nature better will come to a different con-
clusion. It is in fact so great that perhaps scarcely
any truth except that which relates to GOD and
eternity, will be acknowledged as worthy to make the
demand. If it can be required on behalf of any truth
referring to this life only, we may venture to claim it
for the subject we have now in hand.
Great, however, as this difficulty is for the moment,
it is, I believe, a temporary difficulty. The time, I
think, is not distant when the man who has embraced
the new system of the art of healing, whose principle
of treatment is known and whose mode of practice
is simple, open, free from mystification, will be the
practitioner regarded as the most truly respectable.
6. The misrepresentation of homoeopathy by its
opponents is a difficulty which I feel great reluctance
to notice. Such disingenuous conduct reflects so much
discredit upon my professional brethren that I would
it did not exist, or that it need not be alluded to.
Charges, without proof, of quackery, of fraud, and of
falsehood; attempts to hinder the circulation of Our
books; to erase our names from college and other
lists; and to refuse diplomas to our students; accom-
panied at the same time with the unacknowledged
adoption of some of our best remedies, betray a state
of feeling greatly to be lamented. &
7. The general ignorance which prevails upon the
subject is not only a great difficulty in itself, but is also
X. OF HOMOEOPATHY. 25 I
the origin of most of those we have already noticed.
Both the profession and the public need to be better
informed as to what homoeopathy really is. How few
persons have any definite idea of the principle, and of
those who have, the great majority entertain a mis-
taken notion. They think that it teaches that what
causes a mischief will cure it, thus confounding similis
(like) with idem (the same). Some of Hahnemann's
Own illustrations may have tended to foster this mis-
take, but it is highly desirable that the point at
issue should be clearly stated and understood before it
is discussed. Many things taken into the stomach in
a state of health are found by experience to nourish
and support the body — to preserve life and health ;
these are called food. Many other things when simi-
larly taken, are found by experience to cause pain and
injury to the body—to destroy health and life; these
are called žozsons. We have also learned from ex-
perience that some of these latter substances—these
poisons—when given in natural disease, act beneficially
and remedially upon the diseased body. Homoeopathy
implies that experience further teaches us that the best
mode of administering these remedial poisons is to
give them in such cases of natural ailments as resemble
in their symptoms those injurious effects which such
poisons produce when taken in health. If a person
has suffered a bruise, he is not supposed to require a
second blow to cure him, as is often stated, in order to
throw ridicule upon the subject; but some substance is
to be sought for, which, when taken in health, will pro-
duce pains and sensations similar to those of the bruise.
A plant called arnica montana does this, and a small
dose of the juice of this plant is found by experience to
relieve the pains of the bruise far better than any other
remedy yet discovered.
It is objected that the symptoms produced by these
poisons, when taken in health, and said to be similar
to those symptoms in disease for which they act as
remedies, are not invaria&/y produced ; for instance,
that belladonna does not always produce symptoms
252 THE DIFFICULTIES |ESSAY
resembling Scarlet fever, or that mercury does not
always produce salivation or ulceration of the throat.
No One ever asserted that they did, nor is it at all
required for the truth of homoeopathy that they
should. If they have ever unequivocally done so, it
proves that they are capable of producing them, which
is all that is asserted.
8. The sma/Z dose, which is the great obstacle to the
progress of homoeopathy, the great handle of its
opponents. What may be advanced in its support I
have endeavoured to condense into a small space in
Essay IX. It must again be emphatically stated that
it is a question of yacá, to be settled only by experi-
ment ; that those who content themselves either with
ridiculing it, or with reasoning about it, will never
ascertain the truth respecting it; and that it is the
duty of every man to enquire into the evidence with
his own eyes. Great as this obstacle is at present, it
may without hesitation be classed among the tempo-
rary difficulties of the new method. Daily experience
of the effects of small doses will, after a time, render
their efficacy familiar to every one ; as with many
other marvels, the wonder will cease, and the difficulty
vanish. -
9. Among the many obstacles raised to hinder the
progress of homoeopathy, and particularly of the small
dose, ridicuſe has not been forgotten. Indeed, it has
been a main weapon, by the unsparing use of which it
has been confidently expected that the hated thing
would perish. “We cannot choose but laugh,” say
our opponents, and verily “the sneer of a man's Own
comrades trieth the muscles of courage.” I have no
wish to depreciate the power and efficacy of this
weapon. It has doubtless prevented the reception of
homoeopathy by many minds, but it has not gained its
end; homoeopathy has not quailed before it.
Ridicule has been called the test of truth. If this
be so, the new system must be true, for it has now
stood exposure to every kind of banter and jest,
whether witty or sarcastic, for more than half a cen-
X.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. - 253
tury, and it not only exists—it advances on every side,
and through every grade of society.
Ridicule, however, when boldly looked at as an
argument against the statement of ſacés, is a mean
scarecrow. That it should be brought to bear upon
a subject so sacred as the sufferings of the human
family, and the means of relieving them, is a great
reflection upon the characters of those who thus
venture to use it. They cannot be surprised if such
conduct reminds others of the proverb, “as the crack-
ling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the
fool.”
Ridicule then is a difficulty, but it cannot prove
more than a temporary one, and must at length recoil
with unwelcome power upon the quarters from whence
it has proceeded.
Io. A much more important difficulty is the grave
one which presents itself to the practitioner in Z/e
choice of Z/e dose. To explain this it may be necessary
to revert to the basis of the new science.
The properties of drugs, for the purposes of homoeo-
pathy, are discovered by healthy persons (generally
physicians) taking them experimentally, and carefully
recording all the symptoms produced. The dose must
be sufficiently large to act injuriously upon both mind
and body. By the indomitable industry and courage
of Hahnemann and his friends, a vast mass of symp-
toms have been thus collected –the most violent
effects of the substances so examined, being learned
from the cases of poisoning which unhappily occur
from time to time. The list of symptoms or effects
belonging to each drug is called the “proving ” of the
medicine. The second step in the practice is that the
physician shall very carefully investigate each case of
disease, presenting itself to his observation, noting all
the symptoms, moral as well as physical, which he can
discover; his third duty is to enquire, not as formerly,
what medicines have done good in similar cases, but
what drug has produced, when taken in health, symp-
toms resembling those of the case in hand. By this
254 THE DIFFICULTIES [ESSAY
means he is guided to the best remedy which can be
found for that particular patient. Of course that remedy
is given alone. Here is a rule, and the mode of apply-
ing it. This is the triumph of the new method. Thus,
for the first time in the history of the world, has medi-
cine been constituted a science. It was previously not
only merely an art, but a very wretched and cruel art.
Here then is an admirable guide in the choice of a
remedy, but it is evident that this guide carries us no
farther. When the remedy has been fixed upon,
another question immediately arises, in what doses must
it be given 2 The guide tells us (as was seen by
Hippocrates more than two thousand years ago), that
the dose must be less than that which produced the
symptoms in health, but ſhow mezzc/, /ess it does not
say. Here then is a practical difficulty. For some
time after Hahnemann had discovered the law, or the
mode of choosing the remedy just explained, he gave
the drugs almost in the usual doses ; but he was so
troubled with ill effects, in the shape of aggravations of
the symptoms, as to be compelled to diminish very
much the quantity given as a dose. He was then
greatly persecuted by the apothecaries, or druggists of
his native country, because he necessarily prepared his
own medicines, and perhaps partly to retaliate upon
them," and partly to carry out his views to the utter-
most, he invented the method of reducing the dose to
an infinitesimal quantity, and still found it to answer
when prescribed according to his principle. I have
put these different doses to a fair test in practice, and
have no doubt that they act; but a great difficulty is felt
in the want of a rule or principle to guide in the choice
of the dose. When ought the remedy to be given in
substance P When in the first, second, or third
dilution 2 When in the sixth, twelfth, or thirtieth 2
Some cases seem to be better treated with the lower
or larger, some with the higher or smaller doses. This
1 See the ‘biography of Hahnemann' in Dr. Dudgeon's
‘Lectures,’ p. XIV.
X.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 255
at present is a matter of experience. Several attempts
have been made to suggest rules, but as yet without
success. The next great step in the improvement of
medicine will be the discovery of a principle to guide
in the choice of the dose and its repetition, as the law
of simiſia guides us in the selection of the remedy. I
cannot but entertain a sanguine hope that this will be
permitted, and therefore venture to consider the want
a temporary difficulty. In the mean time careful
observation is not without its fruits. By experience
we get empirically at right doses, (as on the old method
the right remedy is sometimes got at,) and in the
majority of instances, if we have succeeded in our
application of the law in the selection of the remedy,
our dose hits pretty effectually, though perhaps another
might have succeeded better."
Difficulties with reference to Hahnemann :—
I I. The first of these is the hypothetical and meta-
//horica/ sây/e in which he has clothed his discoveries.
This has tended in no small degree to repel many from
his threshold who might have become enquirers ; and
to harass and perplex those who would not allow any-
thing to repel them. This remark is especially ap-
plicable to Hahnemann's chief work— 7%e Organoma
of Medicine.' I have not heard of one who has been
made a convert by the perusal of it, but have known
several who have been discouraged by reading it, and
others who, having been homoeopathists for years,
acknowledge that much of it is beyond their compre-
hension.
The error into which, in my opinion, Hahnemann
has fallen, in the composition of this work, is that he
mainly labours a 4/keoretical cap/anation, and this
error is the more remarkable because he had, in the
ſ” incipia' of Newton, a perfect example to follow.
Sir Isaac Newton, in that book, has succeeded to the
* It is believed that a law for the dose is discovered in the
later Essays. (1873). .
256 THE DIFFICULTIES | ESSAY
admiration of the world. He gives us his great dis-
covery, the law of gravitation, and proves it to us by
irrefragable evidence, but he does not attempt to explain
the nature of the force, nor its mode of action. “I
have not,” Newton says, “been able to discover the
cause of Že properties of gravity from phenomena, and
I frame no hypothesis; for whatever is not deduced
from the phenomena is to be called an hypothesis; and
hypotheses, whether metaphysical or physical, whether
of Occult qualities or mechanical, have no place in ex-
perimental philosophy. . . To us it is enough that
gravižy does rea/y exist, and act according to the laws
z0/.2c/, we have exp/ained.” Had Hahnemann been so
happy as to follow this example, he would have given
us his discovery in simple words, as a naked fact, and
Supported his assertion by a complete practical demon-
stration, free from hypothetical guesses at explanation.
Herein, I think, Hahnemann has failed. Strong as an
original observer, indefatigable in pursuing his dis-
coveries, he becomes weak as other men when he begins
to guess. His hypotheses are no better than those of
any other writer, they must share the fate of all that
have preceded them, and pass into oblivion, and as
regards the interests of homoeopathy, the sooner the
better.
That natural diseases are best treated by giving
those medicines which, when taken in health, are
capable of producing similar symptoms, is, if true, a
natural fact, easily stated, and needs neither gloss nor
explanation to make it available in daily practice.
This is expressed in the ‘ Organon' in the following
In alſ) ne1 –
“A weaker dynamic affection is permanently extin-
uished in the living organism by a stronger one, if the
latter (whilst differing in kind) is similar to the former
in its manifestations.”
“As every disease (not strictly surgical) depends
only on a peculiar morbid derangement of our vital
-
1 Close of the ‘Principia.'
X.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 257
force in sensations and functions, when a homoeopathic
cure of the vital force deranged by the natural disease
is accomplished by the administration of a medicinal
potency selected on account of an accurate similarity of
symptoms, a somewhat stronger but similar, artificial
morbid affection is brought into contact with, and as it
were pushed into the place of the weaker, similar
natural morbid irritation, against which, the instinctive
vital force now merely (though in a stronger degree)
medicinally diseased, is then compelled to direct an
increased amount of energy, but, on account of the
shorter duration of the action of the medicinal potency
that now morbidly affects it, the vital force soon over-
comes this, and as it was in the first instance relieved
from the material morbid affection, so it is now at last
freed from the artificial (the medicinal) one, and hence
is enabled again to carry on healthily the vital opera-
tions of the organism.”
This is a long extract, but it was due to Hahnemann
that his own voice should be heard. Another similar
paragraph might be given in which he attempts to
state his views by such terms as these—“Driving the
enemy out of the country by foreign auxiliary troops.”
“The vital force advances towards the hostile disease,
and yet no enemy can be overcome except by a Supe-
rior power.” “If in this manner we magnify to the
perception of the vital principle the picture of its enemy
the disease,” &c. &c.
Some of my readers will be reminded by such enig-
matical language of another great reformer of medicine,
Paracelsus, and his enthusiasm and bombast. I marvel
that it should be received as satisfactory by any body
of intelligent men. “A weaker dynamic affection is
permanently extinguished by a stronger one.” It is
obvious that, not a fact, but an hypothesis is here
stated —a mere guess as to the mode in which reme-
dies act upon disease, just about as likely to be true as
Cullen's “spasm of the extreme vessels,” or any other
previous notion on the same subject. And these are
the words in which Hahnemann formally announces,
I 7
258 THE DIFFICULTIES [ESSAY
in his ‘Organon,' the “homoeopathic law of nature.” It
must be observed also that Hahnemann constantly
uses the words “dynamic,” “spiritual,” “potency,” &c.,
by which he supposes he is accounting for vital and
medicinal action, but these are terms to which he
does not teach us to attach definite ideas, and
which tend to bewilder and mislead, rather than to
instruct.
“The diseases of man,” he says, “are solely spiritual
(dynamic) derangements of the spiritual power that
animates the human body (the vital force).” “In all
works on Materia Medica from Dioscorides down to
the latest books on this subject . . . . all idle dreams,
unfounded assumptions, and hypotheses, cunningly de-
vised for the convenience of therapeutics . . . but the
essential nature of diseases will not adapt themselves
to such fantasies, . . . will not cease to be (spiritual)
dynamic derangements of our spiritual vital principle
in sensations and functions, that is, immaterial derange-
ments of the state of health.”
It is easy to see that “spiritual, dynamic de-
rangements,” &c., are as much hypothetical assump-
tions as any of those which Hahnemann denounces.
The preparation and effects of the small doses are
rendered apparently absurd by the same mystic style.
Medicines when triturated and diluted according to the
method of Hahnemann are called by him “dynamiza-
tions,” and they are said to act “dynamically,” or
“spiritually.”
It appears to me that it has been a great mistake
to obscure two discoveries, that of the principle or
law, and that of the efficacy of the small dose, by
clothing them in such mysterious and unintelligible
words. It constitutes a great difficulty, and a real
obstacle to the progress of homoeopathy.
Let truth be held fast, let error be repudiated, and
this great difficulty will cease to exist.
12. The dogmatism of Hahnemann is also a great
stumbling-block and impediment in the way of en-
quirers. Even to many of those who have put it aside
X.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 259
for the purpose of fair investigation, and who have in
consequence embraced the new practice, it is a great
difficulty. They cannot but feel annoyed at the posi-
tive and dogmatic tone he always adopts. The bright-
est geniuses and the most gifted intellects do not
hesitate often to say with Sydenham, “Opinor,” “I
think;” but such an expression seems never to have
escaped from the lips of Hahnemann. “His intoler-
ance,” writes his biographer, “from those who differed
from him latterly attained to such an height that he
used to say, ‘He who does not walk on exactly the
same line with me, who diverges, if it be but the
breadth of a straw, to the right or to the left, is an
apostate and a traitor, and with him I will have
nothing to do ''” Such servile following as this
must be declined by every true student of nature.
How very inconsistent with Hahnemann's own early
career
“It holds good and will continue to hold good as a
homoeopathic therapeutic maxim, not to Če reſided Öy
any experience in the world, that the best dose of the
properly selected remedy is always the very smallest
one, in one of the high dynamizations (30th) as well
for chronic as for acute diseases.” He does not see
how this sentiment saps the foundation of his own
science, which can rest upon nothing but the evidence
of experience.
“That some erring physicians who would wish to be
considered homoeopathists, engraft some to them more
convenient allopathic bad practices, often upon their
nominally homoeopathic treatment, is owing to igno-
rance of doctrine, laziness, contempt for suffering hu-
manity, and ridiculous conceit, and, in addition to
unpardonable negligence in searching for the best
homoeopathic specific for each case of disease, has
often a base love of gain, and other dishonourable
motives for its spring, and, for its result 2 that they
1 Dr. Dudgeon's ‘Lectures.’ ‘Biography of Hahnemann,
p. xliii.
26O THE DIFFICULTIES [ESSAY
cannot cure all important and serious diseases, which
pure and careful homoeopathy can, and that they send
many of their patients to that place whence no one re-
turns.” No uninspired man is justified in assuming
such a tone as this.
The contrast between the spirit and temper of
Hahnemann in his later years (he died in July, 1843,
aged 89), and those of his earlier life may, I think, be
in a great measure accounted for by two considera-
tions, and which are the best apology which can
be suggested, for conduct which nothing can justify,
and few, I suppose, will undertake to defend.
The first circumstance is that which embittered the
whole life of Hahnemann, and particularly the earlier
period of it—the harsh and abusive language and un-
relenting persecution he received from his professional
brethren, and from the apothecaries or druggists of his
country.
The second is this, by the perpetual cultivation of
one train of thought, it appears to me that the mind of
Hahnemann, during the latter period of his life, had
nearly reached that condition which Johnson so feel-
ingly and so vividly portrays in the Astronomer in
Atasse/as.—“One of the most learned astronomers in
the world, who has spent forty years in unwearied
attention to the motions and appearances of the
celestial bodies, and has drawn out his soul in endless
calculations.” “I have possessed,” says this indomit-
able student, at the close of this period, “for five years
the regulation of the weather, and the distribution of
the seasons; the sun has listened to my dictates, and
passed from tropic to tropic by my direction; the clouds
at my call have poured their waters, and the Nile has
overflowed at my command ; I have restrained the
rage of the dog-star, and mitigated the fervours of the
crab. I have administered this great office with exact
justice.” The inconsiderate smile excited by this nar-
rative was thus rebuked —“Few can attain this man's
knowledge, and few practise his virtues; but all may
suffer his calamity.”
x.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 26 I
13. The want of the separate details of the origina/
ev6eriments of Hahnemann upon himself and his
friends, while learning the effects of drugs upon
healthy persons, creates a difficulty. The withholding
them from the public by Hahnemann himself was an
error in judgment, but why they are still refused to
the applications of the friends of homoeopathy by his
widow no one seems able to explain. The lack must
be supplied by the self-denying labours of others, who,
by repeating the experiments of Hahnemann, will
provide us with what he has omitted to supply.
14. The sectarian spirit of a portion of the homoeo-
pathic body, upon whom the dogmatising mantle of
the old age of Hahnemann seems to have fallen, is
also a difficulty of considerable magnitude with those
who wish to observe carefully, to think rationally and
independently, to balance conflicting evidence, and to
act conscientiously. It is a serious obstacle in the way
of enquirers, and consequently greatly retards the
progress of the reformed practice of medicine. Should
any individuals think this allusion applicable to them-
selves, it may be hoped that it will lead them to con-
sider how much it would be for the credit of homoeo-
pathy if they were less tenacious of every dictum of
Hahnemann.
From the public the two following difficulties arise:–
15. Want of conſidence dependent upon the apparent
insufficiency of the new treatment. Shortly after the
commencement of this investigation, I was summarily
dismissed by a patient, because some medicine was
sent her, which, when taken to her bed-side, looked so
much like plain water that she refused to take even a
first dose, and immediately sent for another medical
practitioner. “She could have no confidence in that
sort of medicine.” The leeches, and blisters, and
purges of the old school were preferred. “So much,”
says William of Malmesbury, “does ancient custom
please, and so little encouragement, though deserved,
262 THE DIFFICULTIES [ESSAY
is given to new discoveries, however consistent with
truth. All are anxious to grovel in the old track.”
Others, with more intelligent minds, but accustomed
to indulge in doubts rather than venture upon decision,
while they see and acknowledge the evils of allopathy,
and have experienced some of the good of homoeopathy,
endeavour to stave off conviction by the ingenious
suggestion of new grounds for hesitation.
While others again have minds so ill regulated that
they cannot believe anything for which they have
taken up a dislike ; or they have committed themselves
already so far against the new doctrines, that they are
ashamed to retract their condemnation; or they are so
in bondage to the opinions of their neighbours, and to
their previous connections, that they dare not act upon
their own convictions.
This difficulty, however, must disappear before the
successful results of the mild treatment; confidence is
daily strengthening, and hereafter, its very gentleness
and pleasantness will be reckoned among its most
obvious advantages. If a spoonful of what tastes like
simple water will really answer the purpose better than
a blister and a black draught, it will be strange indeed
if the latter continue to be preferred.
16. 7%e officiousness of friends. How often, while
watching with interest and anxiety the effect of the
remedies in a case of acute disease, we are met with the
remark that Áind friends have earnestly recommended
a change of treatment This is a formidable difficulty.
It is an engine of resistance which has been energetic-
ally brought to bear against the progress of homoeo-
S
pathy. It resembles the “Old Guard” of Napoleon,
–“it dies, but never surrenders.” It is so bent upon
its purpose that it sometimes loses sight of every other
consideration. It succeeds in individual instances, but
it must die if it will not surrender.
In speaking thus I venture not to impeach the
motives of any one ; these are doubtless often full
of kindness and the best intentions. Such conduct,
however, would be seen, by the light of a little calm
X.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 263
reflection, to be inconsistent with that liberty which
individuals ought to be allowed to exercise, in SO
personal a matter as the mode in which they or
their children shall be treated when suffering from
disease.
From the present circumstances of medical men,
who have adopted the new system, in England, these
difficulties result —
17. The isolated position of each practitioner is a
difficulty which, at present, affects both medical men
and the public. A second opinion, in cases of emer-
gency, or when sickness visits, as it often does, the
domestic circle of the practitioner himself, is often felt
to be desirable, but cannot always be obtained. His
anxiety and distress under such circumstances are
sometimes beyond description. He is more painfully
situated in this respect than he would be in the back-
woods of the “far west;”—he is not only alone, as he
would be there, but he is surrounded by opponents
ever on the watch for his halting. This is often a
trying difficulty, and calls for patience; but time is
mitigating it every day. Medical converts are in-
creasing, and at no distant period it will be spoken of
only as belonging to the past,
18. The system is made responsible for the early
failures of new converts. No sooner has a medical
man avowed his conviction that there is some truth
in homoeopathy, than he is assailed with a storm of
ridicule and abuse; and notwithstanding all his protes-
tations, if in any instance he happens to be unsuccessful,
the case is immediately heralded abroad as a demon-
stration that homoeopathy is “humbug.” The unfair-
ness of such a judgment must be evident to every
unprejudiced person. A state of transition is necessarily
a state of peculiar imperfection.
19. Homoeopathy has not sufficient schools nor any
colleges, as yet, in England. This is, of course, a great
temporary difficulty and inconvenience. For a remedy
264 THE DIFFICULTIES [ESSAY
it has been proposed to obtain a charter from the
crown, and to establish a suitable institution. I have
ventured to oppose this proposal. Were it accomplished,
even in the best manner possible, it would, I think,
bring along with it two great evils;–it would stereo-
type, as it were, the present phase of homoeopathy,
which consists of valuable truth mixed up with many
hypothetical and damaging materials, derived from
Hahnemann's imaginative mind, and from the infirmi-
ties of the latter period of his life;—and it would
perpetuate homoeopathists as a sect, permanently
dividing the profession in this country into two irre-
concilable parties. Whereas, if the temporary incon-
venience be submitted to, the two opposite advantages
may be hoped for ;-time being allowed to investigate
the new method more thoroughly, the chaff may be
winnowed from the wheat, and the truth based upon
sufficient evidence to maintain it;-this being accom-
plished, the enlightened portion of the profession cannot
do otherwise than adopt it, and thus it will become
incorporated in our present schools and colleges, and
the reformation in medicine, like the English reforma-
tion in religion, will become a national act.
Such are the temporary difficulties of homoeopathy.
They are sufficiently formidable sometimes to produce,
in minds not naturally sanguine, a feeling bordering on
despondency; but laborious perseverance, and generous
courage, founded upon conscientious convictions, will
surmount them all.
II. The difficulties which it may be expected will
attach permanently to the new science are those which
arise from the present condition of humanity, and which
belong more or less even to those old sciences whose
fundamental principles are best ascertained and under-
stood. They are such as the following —
2O. A serious difficulty will always exist in the
Żużricacy of the mechanism of the human Čody, and in
the mystery of /i/e. The derangements in the healthy
x.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 265
structure and functions of the various organs of the body
must be hopelessly hidden from those who have not
learned what that healthy structure, and those natural
functions are. A limited knowledge of these things
may be acquired by the study of anatomy, but this
study has not only the unavoidable difficulties attaching
to it which need not be described, but it has, in this
country, both law and popular prejudice against it.
As regards the law, such is the anomalous position of
a medical practitioner in England that he is liable to
punishment for culpable ignorance of that knowledge
for endeavouring to obtain which he is also liable
to be punished."
21. If the knowledge of diseases be hard to acquire
the Azzowledge of remedies is scarcely less difficult.
Almost every object in nature may claim to be inves-
tigated as a remedy for disease. Having a principle
to guide us in the choice of remedies must surely be
a great advantage, the old method confessedly having
none,—nevertheless, even with the help of this principle
the choice will always require labour, care, and study.
In proving a drug (that is, in experimenting with it
in health), to obtain a distinct notion of its sphere of
action, and of the actual groups of symptoms it is
capable of producing in the previously healthy body;-
to distinguish between the different actions of a drug
in proving it, and to regulate the use of it, in accord-
ance with these frequently opposite modes of action, in
prescribing it —to learn in what constitutions, tempera-
ments, and ages, each remedy acts most successfully,–
is knowledge which can never be acquired without
difficulty. The principle is simple, but to apply it
skilfully in practice will always require serious and
persevering labour. The choice of the dilution, and
the repetition of the dose, even should a principle be
discovered for Our guidance, will in like manner always
call for patient and diligent research. -
22. Great responsibility and anxiety are inseparable
* This evil is mitigated now. (1873).
-º-º:
266 THE DIFFICULTIES [ESSAY
from an attendance upon dangerous illness; and great
difficulty and annoyance also accompany the care of
all cases of indisposition not severe enough to compel
a cessation from the usual business and habits of life.
Generally, either these habits must be interfered with
beyond what the patient is willing to submit to, or the
Other alternative must happen, the medical treatment
is rendered abortive by their continuance. By the
first, both patient and physician are fretted and
annoyed ; by the second, both are disappointed. It
need scarcely be added that these difficulties belong to
any mode of treatment whatever, which can be had
recourse to in disease.
23. Other difficulties were well enumerated by a
lady, on my asking her, a short time ago, if she in-
tended any of her sons for the medical profession ; she
said emphatically, No ; and for these reasons —
“The condition of medicine is unsettled and un-
satisfactory. It may be hoped that this may not be
permanently the case, but it is so at present.
“The practice of it entails great wear and tear of
both mind and body.
“It is an occupation for which persons with anxious
dispositions, which my children have, are entirely
unfitted.
“It requires great bodily health and strength, which
my children have not.
“To be constantly occupied in seeing people suffer
and in hearing them complain, is objectionable, on
account of the depressing effects it is likely to have
upon their minds.
“And the selfishness and unreasonableness of many
patients and their friends, and the caprice with which
they act, are almost intolerable.
“With these views,” she added, “you cannot wonder
if I shrink from booking them for such a life of trouble
and toil.”—No, the wonder is that more parents are not
of her way of thinking. It would be better both for
the public, and for the profession, if the number of
young men who are annually forced into our over-
x. OF HOMOEOPATHIY. 267
stocked ranks were very greatly diminished. I shall
never forget the first words I heard Abernethy utter;
on entering the theatre of St. Bartholomew's Hospital,
to give his introductory lecture, in the year 1825, he
stood with his hands in his pockets, and looking round
wistfully on the crowded audience, he exclaimed,
“God bless you ! what is to become of you all P”
24. Finally, since disease and death are inevitable
in a sin-stricken world, it follows that, with the best-
directed efforts, and with the most efficacious remedies,
the patient must sometimes suffer a great deal, be
seriously ill, and at length die. The physician with all
his anxiety, labour, and skill, will sometimes only im-
perfectly succeed, and must always in the end fail,
since it is “appointed unto all men once to die.” This
must always continue to be a painful and often a
discouraging consideration.
The work of a physician is encompassed with dif-
ficulties, his path beset with obstacles, the struggle he
is engaged in, whatever advantages he may at times
gain, will always end in his defeat. How happy to
meet with any knowledge by which some difficulties may
be diminished, some obstacles removed, some new
advantages enjoyed Enough will still remain to try
to the uttermost his patience and temper, his industry
and perseverance.
Were these difficulties, which at times almost lay
prostrate the honest labourer in the art of healing,
better known and felt, they would enlist on his behalf
the sympathies of his fellow men. They are touch-
ingly alluded to by the father of medicine in his first
aphorism—
“‘O 3íoc Boaxic, ſi è Téxvm uaxpil,
ô & Kapòc Öğüc, ſi è Teipa opaxsoil,
ii & Kptote XaXETú.”
“The life is short, and the art long ;
the Occasion fleeting ; the experience fallacious,
and the judgment difficult.”
268 THE DIFFICULTIES OF HOMOEOPATHY. [ESSAY X.
They were no doubt present to the mind of the son of
Sirach when he said, “Honour the physician with the
honour due unto him, for the Lord hath created him.”
3% # # # % Sk
“Imlac was proceeding to aggrandize his own
profession, when the prince cried out, ‘Enough thou
hast convinced me that no human being can ever be
a poet; proceed with thy narrative.’ f
“‘To be a poet’ said Imlac, ‘is indeed very dif-
ficult.’ ‘So difficult, replied the prince, ‘that I will at
present hear no more of his difficulties.’”
* Rasselas.
ESSAY X I.
THE ADVANTAGES OF HOMOEOPATHY,
“It is clear, that just as it is a crime to murder a man, so
is it the part of virtue and honesty to save our fellow-beings
when we are able, as well as to arm others with such safe-
guards as we have ourselves learned. And these we may
leave to the world after our death. Those who hold that it
is no matter what happens after them, hold a wicked and
inhuman doctrine.”
THOMAS SYDENHAM.
On the other side, a beautiful Greek Fragment is given, and
a Translation which has been written at my request for this
Essay, by my valued friend the Rev. Charles Oakley, who,
at the time of writing it, was a Demy of Magdalen College,
Oxford.
Mr. Oakley died in 1865, while Rector of St. Paul's,
Covent Garden, London. (I 868.)
O DE TO HEALT H.
'Y'Yieta Tpsoſłtara Makápov,
Merå goû vaſopu
Tö \eutrówevov (3torac.
>ö 86 uot Tpóppov givoukoc tinct
El yáp Tic TAoûrov Xápic m rekéwu,
Tâc sirèatuov6c tº avboºmouc
Bagºnföoc àpxac à tróðov,
Oückpuptote 'Apooëttnc àokvalv 0mpeñouév,
*H & tic àAXa 0sé0sv &v0p6trouc Tápipic,
^H tróvov autvoa Trépavrat
Merå osſo, uákalpa Yytsia,
Té0mAs Távra kai 'Ādate, xaptrov gap'
>{{}ev & Xopic, ovosic sū8atuſov TréAct.
-º-C-e---
(TRANSLATION.)
HEALTH ! Eldest-born of all
The Blessed ones that be,
Through life's remainder, howe'er small,
Still may I dwell with Thee!
And Thou with me,
A willing guest,
O take thy rest
For all man hath on earth, Blest Health,--
Each nobler gift—as children, wealth,
The bliss of kingly government,
With that desiring uncontent
We fain would seek, we fain would move,
In th’ undiscovered toils of love ;
These—or each other utmost pleasure
Man hath from heaven, his dearest treasure.
And amid all his earthly moil
The sweet forgetfulness of toil –
With Thee, Blest Health ! Health ever young !
With Thee they grew, from Thee they sprung;
Spring of all gifts from Heaven that fall,
Thou art the sunshine of them all !
Yet all are turned to misery
For him that lives bereft of Thee.
C. E. OAKLEY.
ESSAY X I."
THE ADVANTAGES OF HOMOEOPATHY,
-º-O-º-e-
“What tortures inflicted on patients might have been
dispensed with, had a few simple principles been earlier
recognised.” SIR JOHN HERSCHEL.
-º-C-e-
HAD such of our medical brethren as remain attached
to the old methods of prescribing for their patients
been content to rest in their satisfaction with such
methods; or had they simply given expression to their
doubts as to the adequacy and trustworthiness of the
new system, our duty would have been a much more
courteous one to them, and a much more agreeable
one to ourselves, than it is permitted to be by the
course which the opponents of homoeopathy have
actually pursued.
The writers and speakers on behalf of the usual
treatment have indulged in so much invective and
abuse, and have condemned their brethren so unre-
servedly, both as to their ability, knowledge, and ex-
perience, and also as to the honesty of their motives,
and the sincerity of their convictions, that it becomes
necessary to say a few words on the defects and dis-
advantages of practices which nothing but long custom
could have made tolerable, and nothing but unacquaint-
ance with a better method could justify. This will
show how ill it becomes men SO circumstanced to write
* First published in 1853.
I
S
274. THE ADVANTAGES |ESSAY
and speak as they do in the spirit of the boastful pro-
verb, “We are the men, and wisdom shall die with us.”
Allopathy, to express the usual practice by a single
word, is lamentably characterised by ignorance, un-
certainty, and cruelty.
The ignorance of allopathy is darkness which may
be ſe/#,-and that it is felt, the confessions of its most
eminent professors testify. It has been described,
with as much truth as satire, as “the art of putting
large doses of poisonous drugs, of which we know
little, into living bodies of which we know less.” For
fifteen hundred years the sole guide in medicine was
the authority of Galen, who taught the crude notion
that all diseases were hot or cold, dry or moist, and
that all remedies must correspond to these diseases by
contraries. Early in the sixteenth century the Galenical
physicians were assailed with rude impetuosity by
Paracelsus, who introduced chemical preparations as
medicines; and their Overthrow was completed, soon
afterwards, by anatomical discoveries. Since the days
of Paracelsus, we have had many more medical hypo-
theses than there have been generations. All these
have One character, they are imaginary and speculative,
and incapable of proof, as matters of fact. They all
betray the ignorance in which physicians have hitherto
been plunged.
The uncertainty of allopathy is worse than can
readily be credited. A gentleman, a neighbour of
mine, lately wrote of it as “the regular steady practice
according to rule.” What rule 2 I know of none.
There are commonly two or three leading medical
doctrines or systems which are contemporary with
each other, and in direct opposition ; as, for example,
the doctrines of Stahl, Hoffman, and Boerhaave, in the
beginning of the last century, the two former of whom
were professors in the same university ; the doctrines
of Cullen and of Brown, towards the close of the
century; those of Broussais, Clutterbuck, and Arm-
strong, in the early days of the present generation.
“There is no truth in physic,” said an experienced
XI.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 275
practitioner to me many years ago, and there can be no
doubt that many have painfully shared in his conviction.
The cruelties of allopathy are also very great. They
are perpetrated from good motives and with the best
intentions, but they are such as nothing but the fear of
death and the force of custom, more powerful than a
second nature, could have induced mankind to submit to.
But it is not my purpose to dwell upon the igno-
rance, the uncertainty, or the cruelty of the old practice.
One might, indeed, be provoked to do so by the con-
duct of the disciples of this school, who appropriate to
themselves exclusively the title of “regular ’’ and
“legitimate;” as if the adoption of a principle, where
there was none before, and the adaptation of the dose
to a standard of safety and efficiency, constituted a
practice irregular and unlawful. Dr. Paris or Dr.
Simpson may “draw a bow at a venture,” and give a
quarter of a grain of arsenic at a dose, but a brother
practitioner may not, under the guidance of a rule,
give the hundredth or the thousandth part of a grain
of the same poison, without being charged with irregu-
larity and quackery. Such conduct betrays great igno-
rance both of their own position and of that of homoeo-
pathists. It would be very easy to show from the
pharmacopoeia of the royal college of physicians, and
from the daily prescriptions of the self - designated
“regular " practitioners, on which side real quackery
prevails. This at least must be obvious, that whatever
prospect of czaring either party may have, there will
be greater risk of Áilling the patient with the large
dose of arsenic than with the small one.
But truſ/, takes no cognisance of abusive appellations.
They may for a time hide her beauty and cover her
with disgrace, but they cannot change her character,
nor transform her into falsehood. The consciousness
of possessing her gives true courage, and teaches the
physician to take his place beside his patient with
dignified benevolence and intelligent confidence. An
adequate knowledge of the new system will enable him
to administer Some simple means which, in acute
276 THE ADVANTAGES [ESSAY
disease, will often give relief in a few moments, and in
chronic cases, will also frequently, after reasonable per-
severance, restore the long-afflicted patient to health
and usefulness.
Who can estimate the value of /ea/#/. 2 A measure
of its worth may be seen in the multitude of resources
to which men flee in the hope of recovering it when lost.
Its preciousness is still more vividly reflected from the
page of inspiration, where we see, in so many instances,
the Divine power mercifully exerted to restore it.
It is the business of the present Essay to show
that homoeopathy is the safest and best human method
to be used for the recovery of health which has yet
been discovered ; that it is superior to all other modes,
whether professional or empirical, which have ever
before been tried.
The object of the Essay is to produce the conviction
that the claims of this new medical treatment, alike on
the physician and on the patient, are too strong to be
wisely resisted ; and that it is both the duty and
the interest of all men, without exception, to adopt it.
The preceding Essays are referred to for proofs of
the truth of the statements here made, and the conclu-
sions drawn from them.
It is a noble theme. It is difficult to do it justice.
I. The advantages to the physician are threefold ;
they are these :—
1. The emancipation of his mind from doubt and
confusion.
2. The provision of a guide.
3. The simplicity of the means.
II. The advantages to the patient are likewise
threefold; they are as follow —
1. The banishment of nauseous drugs, and painful
and debilitating applications.
2. Greatly increased efficacy and success.
3. Deliverance from medicinal diseases, and other
XI.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 277
destructive consequences of former methods of treat-
Inent.
I.—THE ADVANTAGES TO THE PHYSICIAN.
1. The emancipation of his mind /rom doubé and
confusion.
Interest often conceals, if it does not deny truth, and
it would not be surprising if the world had been kept
in ignorance of the confusion and uncertainty in which
medical men are involved. They have, however, been
frequently acknowledged by men of integrity and re-
putation. No exception can be taken to the evi-
dence of such a witness as Cullen to the erroneous
doctrines and conflicting practices of legitimate physic,
previous to the discovery of homoeopathy.
Now Cullen, in the introduction to his great work
on the Materia Medica, gives an outline of the history
of medicine, which may be briefly epitomised as
follows:–
The AEgyptians. Medicine “is known to have been
under such regulations as must have been a certain
obstacle to its progress and improvement.” These
regulations were, that the treatment of diseases was
directed by fixed rules written in their sacred books;
while these rules were observed, the physician was not
answerable for their success, but if he tried other
means, a failure cost him his life. Many of the “regu-
lar " physicians of our time must have visited the
pyramids—they have imbibed so much of the Egyptian
Spirit.
The Greeks. Hippocrates. These writings afford
“a precarious and uncertain information.”
Dioscorides “has been transcribed by almost every
writer since ; but that this has been owing to the real
value of his writings it is not easy to perceive.”
Galen. “We find nothing in his writings sufficient
to excuse the insolence with which he treats his prede-
cessors, nor to support the vanity he discovers with
regard to his own performances.” His theory is “false
278 THE ADVANTAGES [ESSAY
and inapplicable,” yet “implicitly followed by all the
physicians of Asia, Africa, and Europe, for at least
I 500 years after his time.” This “particularly marks
out how much a veneration for antiquity has retarded
SC162 In Ce.
The Aračians. “It does not appear that they made
any improvements.”
A'evival in Europe. “Nothing new appeared among
the physicians of Europe while they continued to be
the servile followers of the Arabians.”
On the taking of Constantinople, in 1453, the
Greek writings were dispersed, and the Greek party
prevailed.
In more recent times physic has “made very little
progress among persons who are almost entirely the
bigoted followers of the ancients.” So far Dr. Cullen.
It is true that since this last period we have had
many novelties in the theory and practice of physic;-
Stahl, Hoffman, Boerhaave, Cullen himself, Brown, and
Broussais, with many others, have striven to throw
some light upon the dark subject, but in vain. The
discovery of a principle to guide us in the use of medi-
cines is the first ray which has illumined the gloom.
It has turned night into dawn. By this discovery con-
fusion has been reduced to regularity, habitual doubt
has been converted into a prevailing confidence, a
random shot into a careful aim, a hazardous and
empirical experiment into a safe and methodised
proceeding. The physician who has investigated and
embraced this principle feels conscious that his mind is
cleared of useless and endless speculations, and filled
with a truth applicable every moment, and of high
practical value.
That the physician remaining in the old School is
bewildered with opposing theories, and oppressed with
an accumulation of heterogeneous and unarranged
materials, is known and acknowledged ; that the
homoeopathic physician is freed from all these burdens
is obvious : that this is a great advantage must be
seen, and ought to be confessed. -
XI.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 279
2. 7%e provision of a guide.
Those who have traversed the dark mountain with
a trusty guide, or who have crossed the trackless
Ocean with the mariner's compass, can in some measure
understand the feelings of the physician who has found
a principle to assist him in the choice of remedies for
his patients; but it is so great an advantage that it
cannot be sufficiently appreciated by those who are
not practically acquainted with it.
Liebig affirms that the discovery of combination in
fixed proportions called chemical equivalents, “which
regulates and governs all chemical actions, is acknow-
ledged to be the most important acquisition of the
present century, and the most productive in its re-
sults.” He ascribes the first discovery of it to Richter
(a German), and the “extending and completing our
knowledge” of it to Dalton (an Englishman).
The law of similia similibus curantur, which “regu-
lates and governs" all medicinal actions, is of still
greater importance to the well-being of man.
The physician who commits himself to its guidance
will find it simple and intelligible, safe and merciful;
and, moreover, that it secures a certainty of knowledge
by requiring that only one remedy be given at a time;
that it is not dependent upon any theory of disease,
nor upon any hypothetical explanation of its mode of
action, for its easy and successful application ; that it is
applicable to all cases of disease, and in all countries
and climates, all ages and circumstances.
My readers are referred to Essay IV, for many
examples of the modes of applying this principle in
practice. Room shall be found here for a brief
notice of two cases which have lately occurred to me.
(1853.)
In Essay IX, the disease-producing powers of ipe-
cacuanha, in minutely divided doses, are described ;
among the morbid effects thus produced are asthma
and /*a-morrhage.
* ‘Letters on Chemistry,' second series.
28O THE ADVANTAGES [ESSAY
Miss W- consulted me for a severe attack of spasmodic
asthma, to which she was very liable; a few drops of the
second dilution of ipecacuanha were prescribed which gave
her immediate relief, and in a little while permanently re-
moved the attack.
Miss S-, who had been long ill with disease in the chest
with a large abscess in the posterior part of the left lung, was
suddenly seized, while on a journey at a distance of seventy
miles from me, with a copious spitting of blood. This infor-
mation was sent to me by telegraph, and some ipecacuanha
was immediately forwarded to her by railway. The following
morning another telegraphic message, followed shortly after
by a letter from her mother, stated that the first dose had
arrested the bleeding, and that her daughter had not coughed
once all night, and only once in the morning ; and that she
had enjoyed some breakfast. There has been no return of
the haemorrhage, and under the influence of phosphorus this
very severe case of disease has been going on favorably for
above two months. The young lady can now walk a mile or
more without fatigue.
1856. This patient still enjoys comfortable health.
Those who have experienced the comfort and
benefit of such a guide as the principle here contended
for, will not be easily induced to venture without it
into the pathless wilderness of medical treatment.
One additional extract will, perhaps, impress more
strongly on the mind, the distressing uncertainty with
which the instructions for treatment are given by the
teachers of the old school. The cure of dropsy is thus
laid down by the first physician of France of the last
age —
“The cure may be begun by bloodletting in certain
conditions; but in others it cannoá če employed without
danger. It gives relief in difficult breathing; áut after
# is practised the symptoms are aggravated and rendered
more offstimate. It is not to be concealed that some
persons have been cured by repeated bloodlettings or
spontaneous haemorrhages ; &ué it is at #e same time
Ánown that such a remedy, ino/portune!y employed, has
Žn many instances hasſened on the fatal event.”
1 Leutaud, “Synopsis Universa Medicinae.'
XI.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 28 I
Every one familiar with the literature of his pro-
fession will admit that this is a fair Sample of the
general result of his reading. How delightful to pass
from this state of uncertainty, arising from conflicting
human authorities, to the absolute and invariable direc-
tion of a natural guide
That the physician of the old method has no
principle to guide him is known and acknowledged ;
that the homoeopathic physician has such a principle is
obvious : that this is a great advantage, must ere long,
if truth is to prevail, be acknowledged also.
3. 7%e simplicity of the means.
“Look! what will serve is fit,” says nature's poet;
and the nearer we approach to simplicity, in the means
we use, the nearer we approach to nature's perfection.
Physicians have been vigorously wielding the club of
giant despair, while they ought to have been observing
and endeavouring to imitate the operations of nature,
in which mighty effects are continually being brought
about by apparently insignificant but really efficacious
11) ea ſlS.
Among the many examples which surround us, let
me mention one. Little grains of sand are unlikely
materials wherewith to roll back the encroachments of
the mighty waters; but practically they are found to
be more permanently effectual for this purpose than
cliffs of solid earth. In like manner, small doses of
medicine, however improbable it may appear before-
hand, and without experience, are found practically to
be more efficacious in arresting the progress of disease
than the complicated mixtures and poisonous doses of
former methods.
To borrow an expression which Dr. Thomas
Chalmers often used in conversation, both these are
instances of the “power of littles.”
The sight of all the materials in the hands of the
old physician and Surgeon “is enough to make a man
serious.” These are lancets, cupping-glasses, and
leeches; blisters, Setons, issues, moxas, caustics and
282 THE ADVANTAGES [ESSAY
cauteries; emetics and purgatives, sudorifics and
sialagogues, diuretics and expectorants, anodynes,
tonics, and stimulants, with all the “luxuriancy of
composition,” of which Cullen so often speaks.
The whole course of medical treatment, as usually
practised, is a rude and rough procedure, as far as
possible removed from the delicacy required from us
when we would try to regulate the exquisite machinery
of the living body. It is the blacksmith undertaking
with his pincers to repair a watch.
The new method, it is well known, discards all these
complex and formidable weapons, and prescribes a
single remedy at a time, and that to be chosen accord-
ing to an invariable rule, to be prepared with the
greatest care, and given in the smallest dose.
That the means made use of by the physicians
following the old treatment are complicated, unwieldy,
and violent, is known and acknowledged ; that the
means used by the physicians adopting the new
treatment are simple and easy of application, is
Obvious : that this is a great advantage, must be
true.
I recommend these three advantages to the serious
consideration of my medical brethren."
* Since this was written, great changes have been brought
about in the practice of the best educated physicians of
England. Complicated prescriptions and violent measures
have been laid aside ; often only a single medicine is given
at a time; and the main objects of attention seem to be good
nursing, and change of air. Moreover, some of the best
remedies of the new system have been introduced, without
acknowledgment, into the old practice. -
But the principle which should guide the use of these new
remedies is still rejected ; and as long as this rejection is
persisted in, the good effects of these excellent medicines will
be casual and uncertain.
So that the old method still remains empirical, and is as
liable as ever to rapid transitions from one extreme to its
opposite; and, were homoeopathy out of the way, there would
be no security against a return to the severe treatment of
former times. (I874.)
XI.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 283
II.—THE ADVANTAGES TO THE PATIENT.
I. 7%e Öanishment of nauseous drugs, and painfu/
and deſi/itating applications.
4.45|QTOWSF
A representation is here given of the old chafing-
dish and actual cautery, as the red hot iron was called,
and which has been used for a long period. I witnessed,
it is to be hoped, the expiring embers of this fire in the
military hospital in Paris, under the care of the Baron
Larrey, as described in Essay I. In the next genera-
tion I trust it will be necessary to represent several
other processes yet had recourse to, as well as to
describe the calomel pill, the black draught, the steel
mixture, the bark decoction, the opium bolus, and the
bitter infusion, of which no description need be given
to the present age.
Now, notwithstanding that some people cling to
their torments, as the Prince did to his Falstaff, I
cannot but think that, by the majority of patients, the
banishment of all these painful operations and nauseous
doses must be felt to be a great deliverance.
The avoiding of bloodletting, and the weakness

284 THE ADVANTAGES |ESSAY
caused by such loss of the vital fluid, is of itself a
sufficient triumph for the new system ; but when it is
remembered that every painful and debilitating process,
along with every disagreeable dose, is for ever
abandoned, how great is the emancipation, how sub-
stantial the triumph
It is now contended by some medical men, that
during the last few years the character of diseases
has become so altered that bleeding is no longer
necessary. One of these practitioners urged this
remark upon a patient of mine the other day, and
added that homoeopathy had derived great advantage
from this change in the character of diseases.
But let me ask any unprejudiced person which of
these two suppositions is most likely to be true —that,
contemporaneously with the introduction of homoeo-
pathy, the course of nature was suddenly altered, and
the character of diseases changed, so as greatly to
favour that system ; or that from various considera-
tions, and among them the success of the new method,
physicians have been induced to lay aside the lancet,
and to try a milder treatment, and finding this succeed
better than severe measures, they have invented the
former supposition to save themselves from the ac-
knowledgment of error.
It is true that diseases do, from time to time, undergo
changes in their type and character. We are indebted
to Sydenham for impressively teaching us this fact.
He says, “Nothing in my opinion strikes the mind that
contemplates the whole domain of medicine with
greater wonder than the well-known varied and in-
consistent character of those diseases which we call
epidemic. It is not so much that they reflect and depend
upon different conditions of climate in one and the
same year, as that they represent different and dis-
similar constitutions of different and dissimilar years.”
Suppose, then, it were admitted that the type of
disease now prevalent is of an asthenic character, Ha
* ‘Works of Sydenham, vol. I. p. 32.
XI. OF HOMOEOPATHY. 285
character of depression and debility, rather than of
excitement;-allopathy substitutes tonics for bleeding
and antiphlogistics; the new treatment is as much
opposed to this practice as to the other; it rejects
“tonics” as much as it rejects “antiphlogistics,” and
has better success without them than the old treatment
has with them.
Notwithstanding, however, the amelioration which
has taken place in the severity of the usual practice
since the introduction of homoeopathy, and which is a
tacit admission of its superior success, the difference
between the two in respect to this comparative severity
and mildness is still very great. A few instances will
make this sufficiently apparent.
In apoplexy, locked-jaw, and other similar cases,
where the power of Swallowing is lost, and large doses
of medicine cannot possibly be given, and where con-
sequently the allopathic physician, if he does not bleed
and blister, is able to do scarcely anything; the homoeo-
pathist is at no loss how to proceed, his drop or
globule placed within the lips has still power to act, as
I have witnessed, to the complete restoration of the
patient.
In cases of acute inflammation, in delicate persons,
where the local disease seems to call for depletion
and lowering treatment, and the constitution at the
same time urgently requires to be strengthened, the
practitioner on the old plan is placed between Scylla
and Charybdis, his efforts to relieve the inflammation,
in proportion to their activity, increase the general
weakness; while the homoeopathist meets with
nothing to perplex him, and can do good without
doing harm.
Again, the suffering spared to children is immense,
and must call forth the grateful feelings of all parents.
Their beautiful bodies, uninjured by previous dosing,
are susceptible of all the actions of the new remedies,
and capable of deriving all the benefits which such
actions Can Impart.
That patients treated after the old method are still
286 THE ADVANTAGES [ESSAY
often severely handled by their physicians is known
and acknowledged ; that they wholly escape this rough
usage under the new method is obvious; that this is a
great advantage must need no proving.
2. Greatly increased efficacy and success.
Some object to the possibility of this under any
treatment, and contend that the duration of life is not
within the power or control of man. This is true in
the highest sense of the expression, but if a lower
meaning be attached to it, then it is not true, and life
may be prolonged by our own endeavours. In Eng-
land, a hundred and fifty years ago, one out of every
twenty-five of the population died each year. Fifty
years ago the proportion was one in thirty-five ; now
it is less than one in forty-five. So that the number of
deaths in proportion to the number of people is only
about one half what it was a while ago. This addition
to life is to be attributed mainly to more wholesome food,
warmer clothing, greater cleanliness, and better habits;
so much having been thus accomplished, it is not
unreasonable to hope that still more may be effected
by the blessing of God on these and other means, and
among these means improved medical treatment will
not be the least.
It must next be observed that all success in medical
treatment is comparative. In London about a thou-
sand persons, of all ages, die every week; for the most
part these have died under allopathic treatment. Now
if any mode of medical relief can be devised which
shall diminish, however slightly, this rate of mortality,
it deserves to be substituted for the older methods.
The amount of general sickness greatly exceeds the
amount of mortality; whatever treatment diminishes,
however little, the number of deaths, will diminish
very much the quantity of sickness.
The new mode of treatment is capable of being
universally adopted, and should it be found on trial
only to equal in efficiency former methods, for the
reasons given under the last head, it is much to be
XI.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 287
preferred. Should such a trial prove it to possess
superior efficacy, how greatly is that preference en-
hanced |
These comparative results are obtainable in two
ways: by public hospital reports, and by individual
trials in private practice. Through the industry of Dr.
Routh, we have been furnished with a considerable
collection of European hospital returns, and how much
these tell in favour of homoeopathy may be seen in
Essay III. The results of an individual trial in
private, as made by myself, are given in Essays IV
and IX. This trial also testifies to the great supe-
riority of the new treatment. If my readers will give
these results their thoughtful contemplation, my belief
is that the conclusion that the new treatment is followed
by greatly increased success will be irresistibly forced
upon their minds.
It is granted that it is difficult to produce a convic-
tion of this increased success. But this difficulty arises,
not from the increased efficacy and success being slight,
or such as can be readily denied, but from the in-
genuity exercised by opposing parties to evade the
force of the evidence in support of it, by suggesting
other modes of accounting for and explaining it.
Many reject this evidence because they reason about
it and conclude it improbable ; forgetting that experi-
ence will often teach us what reason cannot. Others
neglect it because they will not take the trouble, or
think they have not time to examine it. Others again
require an amount of demonstration which the subject
does not admit of. For myself I have as much cer-
tainty upon this point as Locke expresses in the follow-
ing sentences —
“Though it be highly probable that millions of men
do now exist, yet whilst I am alone writing this, I have
not that certainty of it, which we strictly call know-
ledge; though the great /ī/.e/ihood of it puts me past
doubt, and it is reasonable for me to do several things
upon the confidence that there are men, (and men also
of my acquaintance, with whom I have to do,) now in
288 THE ADVANTAGES | ESSAY
the world. Whereby we may observe how foolish and
vain a thing it is for a man of narrow knowledge, who
having reason given him to judge of the different evi-
dence and probability of things, and to be swayed
accordingly ; /low vain, I say, it is ſo expect demonstra-
Zion and certainty in things not capable of it, and refuse
assent to very rational propositions, and act contrary
to very plain and clear truths, because they cannot be
made out so evident as to surmount even the least (I
will not say reason, but,) pretence of doubting. He
that in the ordinary affairs of life would admit of
nothing but direct plain demonstration, would be sure
of nothing in this world Özd of Żerishing guickly.”
Were the method more disagreeable and painful
than the old one, a reluctance to yield to the evidence
in its favour, at least on the part of patients, would not
be surprising ; and it would be reasonable to expect
that any class of medical men endeavouring to persuade
the public into its adoption would meet with great
difficulty in doing so ; but when the case is conspicu-
ously the reverse of this, it seems unnatural and
strange that its introduction should be so strenuously
resisted.
Again, were the practice of homoeopathy one which
the profession could not possibly adopt, and which
transferred the treatment of disease to another class of
persons, it would not be surprising to find that medical
practitioners opposed its progress; but when the case
is otherwise, it is deeply to be lamented that, through
ignorance, they set themselves so strongly against the
new method, and are unwilling to undertake even its
patient investigation.
Nevertheless, I am fully persuaded that every fair
trial of homoeopathy will confirm all previous trials,
and lead to the same conclusion as to its Superior
efficacy and success; and, therefore, cannot but believe
that it will be universally adopted, and that neither the
1 Locke's ‘Essay on the Human Understanding,' chap. xi,
§§ 9, IO.
XI.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 289
fears of the public, nor the prejudices of the profession,
however they may retard this consummation, can ulti-
mately prevent it.
For that patients often die, suffer much from their
ailments, and have long convalescences under the old
treatment is known and acknowledged ; that they less
frequently die, suffer less, and have shorter convales-
cences under homoeopathic treatment, (from the cases
reported in these Essays,) is obvious ; that this is a
great advantage cannot be denied.
3. Deliverance from medicina/ diseases, and other
destructive consequences of former methods of £reatment.
The pernicious effects of poisonous drugs, as ad-
ministered in the usual manner, are of two kinds;
some are immediate, others are more remote. The
immediate mischief produced by some medicines is so
visible that it must strike the eye of both physician
and patient ; indeed there are few persons who are
not aware, from their own observation, that injurious
consequences not unfrequently follow the taking of
Ordinary physic. This circumstance is so notorious
that Molière asserts that “Presque tous les hommes
meurent de leurs remèdes, et non pas de leurs mala-
dies.” Most people die of their remedies, and not of
their diseases.
As an illustration of the mischievous effects of the
ordinary practice, we will take the medicine which at
present is most popular both in the profession and out
of it, namely, mercury. This poison, in the form of
grey powder, Ö/ue pill, calomael, or some other prepara-
tion, is given and taken every day by a multitude
of people. The accumulated ill consequences of
this formidable medication, whether supplied by a
professional or a domestic hand, it would be quite
impossible to detail; a few testimonies must suffice.
Samuel Cooper in his admirable ‘Surgical Dic-
tionary,’ while describing the best modes of giving
mercury, observes that when thus given it “occasion-
ally attacks the bowels, and causes violent purging,
I 9
29O THE ADVANTAGES [ESSAY
even of blood. At other times it is suddenly deter-
mined to the mouth, and produces inflammation,
ulceration, and an excessive flow of saliva.” “Mercury
when it falls on the mouth, produces, in many constitu-
tions, violent inflammation which sometimes terminates
in mortification.” I have seen it cause, in a young
lady who had taken blue pill for an attack of fever, the
mortification and separation of the greater part of the
/ozwe?" ſazv.
Mercury sometimes produces an eruption, called
Aczema /l/ercuria/e, for the treatment of which Dr.
A. T. Thompson prescribes, and then adds, “under
this treatment the disease (produced by the mercury)
generally disappears, but sometimes the morbid symp-
toms increase under every mode of treatment, and a
fatal termination of the disease ensues.”
Death sometimes follows from what are considered
very small doses. The following facts are from Pro-
fessor Taylor —
“Dr. Christison mentions a case in which two grains
of calomel destroyed life by the severe salivation in-
duced, as well as by ulceration of the throat. Another
case was mentioned to me by a pupil, in 1839, in which
five grains of calomel killed an adult by producing
fatal salivation. In another instance, a little girl, aged
five, took daily for three days three grains of mercury
and chalk powder, (grey powder,) her mouth was
severely affected, mortification ensued, and she died in
eight days. In another case, three grains of blue pill
given twice a day for three days, making eighteen
grains, were ordered for a girl aged nineteen, who
complained of a slight pain in her abdomen. Severe
salivation supervened, and she died in twelve days.”
These extracts show that the ill effects which some-
times follow immediately from an ordinary dose of
mercurial medicine are extreme, even to the taking
away of life. It will be readily understood that every
* Cooper's ‘Surgical Dictionary,’ art. “Mercury.”
* Thompson's ‘Dispensatory,’ art. “Mercury.”
* Taylor's ‘Medical Jurisprudence,’ art. “Mercury.”
XI.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 29 I
less degree of mischief must happen much more
frequently.
The more remote consequences arising from the
presence of a deleterious drug depend upon the absorp-
tion of the poison, and its retention in the body.
This fact of the absorption and retention of medicines
in the body, and that for years, is not so well known
as the evils last described, but it has been often proved.
The following case proves it with respect to the drug
now taken for an example:—
“A gentleman rubbed five grains of corrosive sub-
limate (by mistake for white precipitate), made into an
ointment, over the abdomen for a slight ailment. From
this application he suffered very severely; cold water
and flour were applied to assuage his torment. Next
morning the pain was lessened, and shortly after a
tingling sensation only remained. No further symptom
followed. Seven days after, when trying to polish the
ring on his hand with one of his fingers, he was
astonished at discovering an appearance of mercury on
the gold, and proceeding to burnish the metal all over,
he readily covered the entire surface with a plating of
quicksilver. The circumstance was made known to a
medical gentleman, and the discs of three sovereigns
were also mercurialised. The following morning the
relator of the case saw the party, and by rubbing the
handle of a gold eye-glass upon the inner surface of
the arm a similar result was obtained. A portion of
the milled edge of a sovereign was also thus so com-
pletely coated with mercury, that no glimpse of the
gold could be seen through it. The mouth was
strictly examined, but not the slightest salivation, en-
largement, unusual redness, or looseness of the teeth,
was discernible, or had for a moment been experienced;
the health was as usual, personal appearance un-
altered.”
It is thus proved that the compound preparation of
mercury which had been applied to the skin, had been
* ‘London Medical and Physical Journal, vol. LXV. p. 463.
292 THE ADVANTAGES |ESSAY
absorbed ; had subsequently been reduced to the
metallic state; and had pervaded all parts of the body.
This gentleman had not, when the account was
given, suffered permanently from the presence of the
metal in his system ; but in other cases there has been
much suffering for many years, and even for the re-
mainder of life, from the presence of mercury.
Similar evidence might be adduced respecting other
medicines in daily use, such as lead, arsenic, iodine, &c.
That the ill effects which have followed the taking of
them are really to be attributed to the remedies, and
not to the progress of the disease for which they were
given, admits of the most positive proof. Thus that
medicinal diseases and destructive consequences follow
the use of the ordinary doses cannot be doubted."
Now let us enquire what are the effects of homoeo-
pathic doses 2 The objection ever on the lips of the
Opponents of homoeopathy is this, there is nothing
in the dose, there are no effects; then if 7zo effects
follow, it is plain no ević effects follow ;-ex nihilo
nihil fit.
But that effects of a beneficial kind follow the admini-
stration of the homoeopathic doses is proved by the
successful results which have been detailed in former
Essays ; and also by the testimony of every medical
man who has honestly and fairly tried them. The
facts relative to the various effects of these doses are
too numerous and interesting to permit me to give
them now ; they may, perhaps, furnish materials for a
future work. We must content ourselves at present
with the remark, that did injurious effects follow the
use of the small doses, either immediately or remotely,
as they follow the use of the large ones, the opponents
of homoeopathy would not omit to make the most of
such a fact against it.
That patients are often immediately greatly injured
by the large doses of medicines ordinarily given, and
1 The records of hydropathic establishments afford curious
confirmation of these facts.
XI.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. - 293
also often suffer long from the contamination of their
constitutions with such poisonous drugs, is known and
acknowledged; that they do not thus suffer from small
doses, from the objection just quoted from opponents,
is obvious; that this is a great advantage must be
above suspicion and beyond dispute.
Such I believe to be a faithful and unexaggerated
picture of the advantages of homoeopathy over, every
other form of medical treatment; and it is laid upon
the conscience of every individual among my readers,
who believes this with me, to extend the knowledge of
it, according to his ability, until these benefits are
shared in by the whole world.
1856. Some years have elapsed since the above
Essay was written. The interval has been occupied
by an anxious observation of facts, as exhibited in
daily practice. Circumstances have brought before
my notice a great variety of the worst chronic diseases,
as well as a considerable number of cases of the most
acute. In none of these cases, chronic or acute, has
recourse been had to any treatment but that which the
principle of the new method has suggested ; and the
medicines have been given in the small doses. No
hydropathic appliances, nor any auxiliary resources,
which could, in any fairness, be supposed to be the
active remedial measure, have been made use of. No
strictness in diet, beyond what the nature of the case
seemed reasonably to demand, has been required ;
indeed, care in regard to food has been much less
insisted upon with the new, than formerly with the
old treatment. Successful results have not been sought
through impressions on the imagination by precise par-
ticularities, nor through medical faith by confident
assurances. On the contrary, all these agencies and
influences have been carefully abstained frcin, and it
has often been said that unless homoeopathic remedies
can stand alone, and do good work for themselves,
294 THE ADVANTAGES [ESSAY
they are not worth the labour of using them, or the
trouble of contending for them.
The results of this enlarged experience not only
confirm what has been said in this Essay, on the
advantages of homoeopathy to the physician, and to
the patient ; they demand that an advantage which
may be considered as belonging to both physician and
patient, should be brought into more prominent notice;
namely, that homoeopathic remedies not unfrequently
cure cases which have been despaired of, or, at least,
which have not been cured by well-informed and skilful
practitioners prescribing after the usual method.
What kind of cases these are may be understood
from the following brief outlines —
CASES.
DIABETES MELLITUS.
In Essay IX, a very dangerous case of diabetes mellitus
is described, which had been treated two years by an
allopathic physician. When this patient came under my
care, more than a found of solid sugar was being manufac-
tured by the kidneys every twenty-four /iours. Her son was
on the point of Sailing for Australia, his passage money was
to be paid that day in London ; I told him his mother was,
almost certainly, going to die; he gave up his intended voyage,
and by the help of the telegraph just saved his passage
money. According to the opinion of my old medical friends,
nothing was done for this patient; I did not prescribe an ex-
clusively animal diet, and gave her only such small doses of
medicine as are supposed to be incapable of acting ; in a few
months, however, she was very nearly rid of all ailment;
afterwards a relapse took place ; a recurrence to the same
doses removed this, and she has now kept well six years.
It will be pretended that this was an accidental natural
cure ; I have had another case, almost precisely similar, but,
if possible, at first in a more hopeless condition. The Rev.
T. C–, in an adjoining county, who consulted me on June
16th, 1854. The quantity of sugar was quite equal to that of
Mrs. W-, and the debility and distress were much greater,
the suffering from thirst was almost intolerable. I held out
scarcely a hope that he could live. Nevertheless, the small
XI.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 295
doses were tried again, for several months, and to my great
surprise and gratification he recovered ; he still lives, and
has resumed his usual duty.
IVas Z/ºis a/so a natural cure ? It is to be remem-
bered that this is a disease which terminates almost
invariably in death. Some French writers call it
“phthisie sucrée,” partly because disease of the lungs
often accompanies it, and partly because of its fatal
termination. It is a disease on which the profession
is remarkably unsettled as to its nature and treatment.
“An infinity of hypotheses,” says Mason Good, “have
been offered” as to the nature of the disease, “and
without keeping the grounds of these distinct opinions
in view, nothing can be more discordant or chaotic
than the remedial processes proposed by different
individuals. Tonics, cardiacs, astringents, and the
fullest indulgence of the voracious appetite in meals of
animal food, with a total prohibition of vegetable
nutriment on the one side; and emetics, diaphoretics,
and venesections to deliquium, and again and again
repeated, on the other : while opium in large doses
takes a middle stand, as though equally offering a truce
to the patient and the practitioner.””
SCY BALA.
Mrs. — had suffered from a great variety of distressing
symptoms, and had been under the care of Several able prac-
titioners for eight years, when she consulted me, about six
years ago, not long after the commencement of this investiga-
tion of homoeopathy. I ascertained that one principal source
of her distress was an immensely enlarged caecum, containing
a great collection of Scybala. By perseverance with several
homoeopathic remedies, all in Small doses, the accumulation
was removed ; the Scybala were about the size of walnuts,
Some bigger, covered with a white, tenacious, unctuous matter,
and very hard. Her painful symptoms disappeared, and she
became very well and active. I suppose the caecum in this
patient is so large that it has lost the power of contraction, for
* Mason Good's ‘Study of Medicine,’ vol. v. pp. 483, 499,
3d edition.
296 THE ADVANTAGES [ESSAY
since that period the collection has formed again several times,
during the six years, but has always hitherto been removed
by the same means."
CAN CER.
It is so much the custom for advertisers of nostrums
to pretend to be able to cure cancer, that I feel afraid
to relate this case ; but, as I have not yet shrunk from
speaking the truth in the face of reproach and ridicule,
this fear must be overcome, and the case be given as
seen by me. It is not supposed that any known
homoeopathic remedies will cure many cases of cancer,
and most probably the remedies used in this case will
fail in the next in which they are tried, because every
case is more or less peculiar, and has to be dealt with
individually.
Mrs. York, a poor woman living near Pailton, was brought
to me by the Rev. Ellis Everett, early in 1855. Many years
ago, she hurt the right breast with a piece of coal ; five years
ago, she discovered a small lump, about the size of a pea, and
felt pain shooting like needles; has had six children, but none
of them would nurse at that breast. The tumour increased ;
the nipple became retracted ; and, a little before I saw it,
ulceration had taken place, and the ulcer had bled occasion-
ally. On examination, the tumour has a scirrhous or stony
hardness; there is complete retraction of the nipple ; and a
foul-looking ulcer about the size of a sixpence. The pain is
at times excruciating ; she had passed the night, before I saw
her, in walking about her room, not being able to lie down.
She has been in the Leicester Infirmary, and was there told
not to do anything with the disease ; other medical men had
told her that it must be removed by operation or get worse.
In a few months she was so much relieved that she ceased
coming to me for about half a year. In January, 1856, she
came again, and resumed the remedies, having found the pain
and discharge getting worse.—March 26th. She came think-
ing herself quite well ; and again on the 7th of May. The
ulcer is quite healed, and the tumour connected with it has
disappeared ; she has no pain whatever internally, and only
1 This lady has been for many years and still is in the
enjoyment of excellent health. (1874)
XI.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 297
an occasional Soreness externally in the cicatrix. A small
lump can be felt, about the size of a currant, in another part
of the breast, but she was not aware of it, as it gave her no
pain ; the nipple of course remains retracted."
These are chronic diseases; the following acute
ones are briefly described :-
INFLAMMATION OF THE BLADDER.
On the 1st of May, I856, I was consulted about a little
boy, four months old, who was suffering intensely from stran-
gury, and other symptoms of inflammation of the bladder ;
the mother thought he could not live till the next day. The
symptoms had been gradually coming on for three months.
The medical attendant was giving spiritus aetheris nitrici and
laudanum. Tincture of cantharides was prescribed in the
small dose. Five doses were given at intervals of two hours;
the baby had a good night, without passing any water; he
cried for an hour in the morning, from seven till eight o'clock,
passing only a few drops ; at ten, a good deal was passed
without pain ; and no more difficulty or suffering arose, nor
was any more medicine required, except a little sulphur for a
disordered state of the bowels, which occurred some days
afterwards. The child has continued until now (July) quite
well.
Let us ask which was the more scientific, the more
rational treatment in this case ? On the side of the
old method a remedy is given which acts on the
kidneys, and increases the flow of water into the
bladder, already so irritated with the natural quantity,
as to cause agonies of pain, from its efforts to expel it ;
what sort of sense is there in doing that P The
kidneys are healthy, why should they be stimulated to
increased secretion 2 The bladder is inflamed, and
consequently irritated by the presence of the water;
why should the quantity of that irritant be increased ?
As usual, nothing is prescribed which has any special
action upon the diseased organ ; for the opium cannot
* It is worth while to add that this poor woman is still
living and quite well. (1874.)
298 THE ADVANTAGES [ESSAY
be said to have this ; it acts upon the nervous system
at large, and sometimes, in that manner, allays pain,
but it cannot cure inflammation of the bladder. The
principle of the new method, on the other hand,
directed me to select a medicine which acts upon the
organ affected. Every one knows that cantharides
act, upon the bladder, and often produce strangury,
and sometimes inflammation of that organ. A minute
quantity was sufficient to cure; fewer doses even than
were actually taken would have donesbetter; the hour's
pain might probably have been avoided, if only two or
three doses, instead of five, had been given. It is
observed, in Essay I, that Dr. Greenfield was com-
mitted to Newgate in 1694, on the warrant of the
president of the royal college of physicians in London,
for prescribing cantharides in a similar case.
CONGESTION OF THE BRAIN.
On the Ist of November, 1855, I was summoned by tele-
graph to visit the child of a clergyman ; he had been ill ten
days, and had been attended by a physician and surgeon, who
gave a very unfavorable prognosis ; in fact, they despaired of
the child's life. He was completely comatose, and had the
symptoms of gastric or typhus fever. In my opinion, the
primary mischief was in the brain ; I thought the gastric
symptoms had been produced by the Calomel and other reme-
dies which had been administered. Rhus and belladonna
were given, and, as it was a great distance from my residence,
the surgeon obligingly volunteered to watch the case for me,
so that I might have a daily report. These reports were ex-
ceedingly interesting, causing at the same time a great deal
of anxiety; the gastric symptoms Soon disappeared, but the
coma continued many days ; at one time it was accompanied
with violent screams, which were removed by Stramonium.
Other remedies given were hellebore and hyoscyamus. The
medical attendant was most urgent every day in pressing his
belief that the child must die, if something more were not
done. However, the remedies were persevered in, and at the
end of the month I saw the little boy, free from disease,
dressed, and seated on his mother's knee; not indeed able to
stand, and very thin ; but his mind quite clear, and conversa-
tion good. In a few weeks more, he was strong and Stout.
XI.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 299
ASTHMA.
Miss H-. August 19th, 1855. For the last three years
has been subject to most severe attacks of asthma. The fit of
difficult breathing comes on at one, or at three o'clock in the
morning, with a tightness in the chest, and a hacking Cough ;
it is then impossible to lie down ; she sits up in a chair; the
cough convulses the whole body, which has to be held and
rubbed. Her parents thought she would have died each night
during the last week; she had not been in bed for many
nights. She is emaciated and weak to the last degree ; and
suffers also from distracting headaches. A great variety of
remedial measures have been tried without success. The
medicines I used were ipecacuanha, Sambucus, and arsenicum.
On my visit, on the 24th of September, the patient herself
met me at the door ; she had then recovered, and has con-
tinued well. The ipecacuanha subdued the fit; the sambucus
removed the cough ; and the arsenicum restored the appetite
and strength." -
* Such were the advantages of homoeopathy when this
Essay was written. What are they now 2 Some great
changes, which look like approaches on the part of ordinary
practitioners, have been made ; such as discontinuing severe
treatment, giving much less medicine, and adopting several
homoeopathic remedies. But fundamentally the difference is
as great, and the advantages of the new method, from its further
development, are greater than they were twenty years ago.
It must be added with regret that the opposition is as violent
and unjustifiable as ever. (1874.)
ESSAY X II.
THE COMMON SENSE OF HOMEOPATHY,
“For myself, I here publickly profess, that I will, to the
end of my days, acknowledge it as the greatest obligation
that any person can confer upon me, if, in the spirit of meek-
ness, he will point out to me any error, or enthusiastical
delusion into which I have fallen, and by sufficient arguments
convince me of it.”
THOMAS SCOTT,
ESSAY XII.
THE COMMON SENSE OF HOMOEOPATHY,
—º-º-º-
“The God of truth, and all who know me, will bear testi-
mony that, from my whole soul, I despise deceit, as I do all
silly claims to superior wisdom and infallibility, which so
many writers, by a thousand artifices, endeavour to make
their readers imagine they possess.” LAVATER.
–0-->e-
ON coming down to breakfast one morning, soon
after the commencement of this experimental investi-
gation of homoeopathy, one of my little daughters, a
child about seven years old, complained of feeling sick,
and lay herself down upon the sofa. I gave her some
globules of ipecacuanha. We sat down to breakfast,
leaving her chair empty. Before the repast was over
the child appeared on her seat, and her mother handed
her some breakfast without remark. She ate with
evident enjoyment, and having finished, she said, “I
feel quite well.” Her mother asked her what she
thought had done her good. Her reply was this, “If
I thought that such medicine could do me good, I
should think it was the medicine, but I suppose it was
the breakfast,” having forgotten that before she had
taken the medicine she was not able to take the
breakfast.
* First published in 1854.
3O4. THE COMMON SENSE [ESSAY
Here we have the grand impediment to the reception
of the new system of medicine. It is in vain to explain
clearly what the statement professes to be, or to con-
tend earnestly that the facts stated are true, so long as
there is a previous obstacle to be removed, namely, a
persuasion that the statement asserts what is im-
possible.
In this question of impossibility, the principle that
a remedy is to be given, which, as a poison, produces
similar symptoms—is not included. It may be thought
improbable, but it cannot be set down as absurd.
Neither is the small dose, within certain limits, exposed
to the same charge. That the tenth, or the hundredth,
or even the thousandth part of a grain can act in disease
as a sufficient remedy, may, like the principle, be
thought improbable, but can hardly be thought absurd
or impossible. The doses which follow—the millionth
and the billionth of a grain, or, as they are called, the
third and the sixth dilutions—are separated from these
by a gulph, to bridge over which is the real difficulty.
So far from being anxious to conceal this, I wish to
state it in all its force, and to meet it with all fairness,
face to face.
The objection is founded upon the supposition that
the means are inadequate to produce the result. The
infinitesimal dose is pronounced to be a non-entity—it
cannot remove disease. Hence homoeopathic cures
are judged impossible. *>
Every effect must have a cause sufficient to produce
it. This is universally admitted. When we expect to
cure disease by doses of medicine so small as to be
inappreciable, we are accused of looking for an effect
without a cause, and to do this would be opposed to
right reason and common sense. “The patient is
certainly better, but it is contrary to common sense to
suppose that the small dose can have done him good.”
My purpose in the present Essay is to endeavour to
remove this great obstacle to the adoption of homoeo-
pathy.
XII.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 3O5
Now, it appears to me that the objection thus raised
is deprived of all force by the following considera-
tions :—
The objection is merely an assertion. It is couched
in various terms, such as, the dose is a non-entity, and
can do nothing—ex nihilo nihil fit—the cause is in-
adequate to the effect; the thing is contrary to common
Seſh Se.
It will be observed that these statemants prove
anothing ; they are only an assertion, or expression of
the opinion of those who make them. That this
assertion is groundless, devoid of proof, and worthless,
appears from this — -
It is made in ignorance. What do those who make
it know of the matter 2 Nothing. Where are their
experimental investigations 2 Nowhere. What time
and pains have they bestowed upon the inquiry 2
None at all. They do not even profess to have
studied the subject; they would not condescend to
study it; they have too much sense. Would you have
them study quackery, and listen to “humbug P” Alas!
we are all far too ignorant of the operation of natural
causes, and the production of natural effects, to be
justified in using such language as this. How often
are we compelled to exclaim—
“Causa latet, res est notissima.”
The cause is hidden, the effect most plain.
And the reason of our ignorance is this, we know
7lof/ling of nature except what our bodily senses teach
7ts. We have no innate knowledge of the works of
God. We enter upon life without ideas concerning
the external world. Our minds are a blank as it
respects everything in the material creation around
us. But we are endowed with bodily senses capable
of receiving impressions from external objects, and
with mental faculties capable of acknowledging the
impressions thus produced.
2O
306 THE COMMON SENSE [ESSAY
The impressions made upon the bodily senses by
surrounding substances become ideas in the mind, which
it perceives, remembers, and reasons upon, comparing
one with another, and observing resemblances and
differences; especially the mind is engaged in remarking
the influences which natural substances exert upon each
Other, and in tracing the connection of these influences
as cause and effect, and thus the bodies and their
actions, which together make up the natural world,
gradually furnish the mind with a large variety of
thoughts.
Seeing, then, that it is through the bodily senses of
sight, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching, that the
mind obtains a knowledge of matter and its motions, and
that we have no other means of adding to this know-
ledge, it must follow that we know not/ing Öeyond the
mere surface of Žings—of the internal actions of bodies
upon each other we are wholly ignorant; hence we are
not in a condition to form a correct opinion, much less to
pronounce a true judgment upon any substance or
operation in nature concerning which our bodily senses
have, as yet, taught us nothing.
The truth of these propositions is evident upon
reflection. In what department of nature do we know
anything beyond what our senses teach us 2 What
should we know about the moon if we had never seen
it 2 What do those know of music who are born deaf
or those of colours who are born blind P. We have an
instructive lesson, which sets this matter in its true
light, in the answer of the blind man who was asked
this question, “What is scar/et like P” “It is like Z/e
sound of a frumpet,” was the ready reply. The associa-
tion in the mind of an Englishman of the Soldier's
scarlet coat with military music is obvious enough, but
the inability to conceive right/y, (for a wrong conception
was quickly formed), without the aid of the bodily
sense, is not less obvious. We have no innate know-
ledge of the objects and operations of the natural or
material world.
Again, the ideas of nature which exist in men's
XII.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 3O7
minds have come to them through their bodily senses.
We all think and reason about objects we have seen,
sounds we have heard, odours we have smelled, food
we have tasted, and bodies we have touched. Our
bodily senses receive impressions which our mental
faculties acknowledge.
Thus we gain our knowledge of nature from our
senses, and from no other source; for, though there is
in men's minds an undefined notion that the powers of
reason, or the mental sense, can discover things hidden
from the bodily senses, and so can gather opinions and
form judgments concerning natural substances without
being dependent upon or indebted to the eye or the
ear, this notion is an error. The workings of the
mind may indeed produce guesses or imaginings re-
specting external things, but how can they perceive the
reality ? Such speculations cannot be more than
dreams; such labours but the weaving of a fanciful
garment wherewith to cover our ignorance. “For the
wit and mind of man, if it work upon matter, which is
the contemplation of the creatures of God, worketh ac-
cording to the stuff, and is limited thereóy; but if it
work upon itself, as the spider worketh his web, then it
is endless, and brings forth cobwebs of learning,
admirable for the fineness of the thread and work, but
of no substance or profit.”
These propositions are true; the conclusion drawn
from them is true also. We have no original know-
ledge of nature; the knowledge we acquire is obtained
through our bodily senses; we have no other means
of adding to this knowledge; it must follow that we
cannot know anything beyond what our bodily senses
teach us; that we are not in a condition to form
correct opinions or true judgments concerning any
substance which may exist, or any event which may
happen, any cause or any effect of which we have not
been informed by our external or bodily senses.
Hence we are not justified in pronouncing any un-
* Lord Bacon.
3O8 THE COMMON SENSE [ESSAY
investigated phenomenon impossible, or any unoffserved
fact contrary to common sense.
The assertion, therefore, that the action of the small
dose is contrary to common sense, is nothing more
than the cry of ignorance, and, as such, is unworthy of
attentlC)1).
Similar assertions have often been made in similar
ignorance. It is no new thing for novel truth to be
met by the same ignorant cry, “It is contrary to
common sense !” Take, for example, the following
account given by Professor Baden Powell, of the
invention of the telescope, and the discovery of the
moons of the planet Jupiter —“Galileo having suffi-
ciently improved upon his instrument, now began
assiduously to direct it to the heavens. . . Jupiter
formed the next object of examination, and no sooner
was the telescope pointed to that planet than the
existence of the satellites was detected, and their
nature soon ascertained. (February, 16IO.) These
and other observations were described by Galileo in a
tract, entitled ‘Nuncius Siderius, which excited an
extraordinary sensation the moment it appeared.
Many positive/y denied f/e possićz/ity of such dis-
coveries ; others hesitated ; all were struck with
astonishment. Kepler describes, in a letter to Galileo,
the impression made on him by the announcement.
//e considered it fo/a//y incredió/e, nevertheless, his
respect for the authority of Galileo was so great that
it set his brain afloat on an Ocean of conjectures to
discover how such a result could be rendered com-
patible with the order of the celestial orbits as deter-
mined by the ſive regular solids. Sizzi argued seriously
with Galileo that the appearance mezsé Öe /a/acious, since
zz zvozz/a/ invalidate //eperſection of Z/*e number 7, which
applies to the planets, as well as throughout all things
natural and divine. Moreover, Z/ese sate//ites are
Žºvisió/e to the ma/ted eye; therefore &ey can exercise
mo influence on Z/e eart/ ; /*erefore they are use/ess ;
#/erefore they do not evi'sé.
“Others took a more decided, but still less rational
XII.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 3O9
mode of meeting the difficulty. The principal pro-
fessor of philosophy at Padua, (in which university
Galileo himself was also professor,) perúnacious/y
7-efused to look 4/ºrough #e fe/escope. Another point-
edly observed that we are not to suppose that Jupiter
had four satellites given him for the purpose of
immortalising the Medici (Galileo having called them
the Medicean stars). A German, named Horky,
suggested that the telescope, though accurate for
terrestrial objects, was not true for the sky. He
published a treatise, discussing the four new planets,
as they were called ; what they are 2 why they are 2
and what they are like 2 concluding wit/, attributing
Z/eir alleged existence to Ga/i/eo's Zhirst of go/a.”
I might give many other examples of the same
melancholy kind, but the description of this one
instance by Professor Powell is so clear, and touches
upon so many points in which the opponents of astro-
nomical discovery resemble the opponents of homoeo-
pathy, that further illustration is needless. In each
successive age the discovery of new truth has had a
similar reception,--it is always declared to be impos-
sible, incredible, and contrary to common sense.
That the small dose should be thus treated is,
therefore, only just what might be looked for. The
announcement of its efficacy is startling, but not more
so than that made by Galileo—“the succession of day
and night is occasioned by the rotation of the earth,
and not by that of the Sun and stars,”—an announce-
ment for making which it will ever be remembered
that he was imprisoned in the Inquisition.
How much does the statement—that the earth
moves—seem to contradict the common sense and
common observation of all men It is true, notwith-
standing, as is proved by careful enquiry; and so is
the action of the small dose, as is demonstrated by
similar careful observation. “ The works of the
Creator, in every department of observation and
| Baden Powell's ‘History of Natural Philosophy.’
3 IO THE COMMON SENSE [ESSAY
science, present not only mysteries, but a world of
wonders; yet the reality of these wonderful things,
mysterious as they may be, is not, cannot be denied.”
Zº is an assertion made in indolence. The facility
with which the matter in question may be tested,
and ignorance respecting it be removed, is proof of
this.
Every medical man, engaged in actual practice, has
opportunities of putting both the principle and the
dose upon trial every day. Let any practitioner
resolve to look at the question with his own eyes, and
he can immediately do so. Let him begin with those
drugs with whose poisonous action he is already well
acquainted, and in fairness, till he has more skill, give
them in the lower dilutions (the first and second), and
afterwards, when he has become more familiar with
their use, in the higher or infinitesimal ones.
Such indolence as leads a man to pronounce an off-
hand sentence of condemnation against any statement
largely affecting the interests of the human family,
because it is novel and startling, admits of no apology,
when it is in his power, to put the statement to a
practical test. “We are to strive,” says William
Harvey, “after persona/ experience, not to rely on the
experience of others, without which indeed no one can
properly become a student of any branch of natural
science.”
Zá is an asser/ion made in ſo//y. We should shrink
from using such a strong expression as this, had not
the wise man said “he that answereth a matter before
he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.”
When a medical man tells his patient that homoeo-
pathy is “humbug,” let it be said to him, “As you
express yourself so decidedly, of course you have
studied the subject experimentally ; may I ask you
how many months you spent in the practical investiga-
tion P” A child in such a situation would have red
* Scoresby's ‘Magnetism.’
XII.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 3 II
cheeks; whether an adult would feel ashamed or not I
cannot tell.
When a non-professional person gives utterance to
similar language, let him be told that it is unwise to
condemn without knowledge; that when he comes to
suffer from disease, and to experience the happy
results of the new treatment in his own person, his
opinion will be altered. .
Such a change has just been expressed to me in the
following note –
“Thanks to you, I am now enabled to look forward
to spending a happy holiday, and, under God's bless-
ing, many a happy and useful year, in the enjoyment
of a degree of health both for my wife and for myself,
which, a few months ago, I should scarcely have
believed possible. And for us, and our child, if
disease itself has not lost its terrors, at least we can
look without dread and misgiving on the remedies for
meeting it.”
Zł is an assertion made in enmity. The question is
not viewed simply with reference to its truth or false-
hood. It is an “obnoxious" subject, looked upon
with repugnance and contempt. There is no desire
to investigate it, but on the contrary a strong determi-
nation to banish it, to crush it, to do anything to get
rid of it. * ... •
And yet it is the medicine of mercy; it proposes to
emancipate the suffering invalid from every disagree-
able, harsh, and cruel proceeding, to which he has
been so long exposed ; it professes to be able to cure
more quickly, safely, and pleasantly than is possible by
any other means;–it promises to the physician him-
self the satisfaction of a scientific method, in place of
vague experiments.
But it is an “obnoxious system,” “false and bad,”
and as such it is hated and opposed, and that to such a
degree as to prevent the majority of medical men from
testing it experimentally, even with the view of prov-
ing the errors they so vehemently assert it to contain.
3 I 2 THE COMMON SENSE [ESSAY
And what shall be allowed to be the weight of an
assertion made so ignorantly, so indolently, so foolishly,
and with such hostile feeling 2 Is it of force to dissi-
pate the convictions produced in the mind by an
honest trial of the new method, and a careful observa-
tion of the actual results 2 Can they be relinquished
at such a bidding 2 That would indeed be opposed to
reason, and “contrary to common sense.” Was it not
truly said, this assertion is groundless, devoid of proof,
and worthless 2 Entertaining enough in the mouth of
a child, but unbecoming in persons who have attained
to years of discretion.
On the contrary;-
That homoeopathy is true—and I now include in
that word the principle, the moderately small dose,
and also the infinitesimal dose—is substantiated by the
evidence which has been brought forward in these
Essays, and which shall be briefly epitomised.
It is a statement made Öy competent witnesses. It is
observed (in Essay IV,) that the best evidence which
the nature of the case admits Ought to be required,
and when obtained it has a claim to be received.
Hence the method of enquiry must be adapted to the
nature of the truth we are in search of.
Now, the true action of remedies is learned partly
by experiments upon the healthy, and partly by obser-
vation at the bedside of the sick ; therefore, in the
matter we are at present discussing, the //ysiciazz can
be the only competent witness. The question arises,
What is the kind of medica/ evidence which can be
produced, and how far does it establish, a credible
testimony P For, “the strength and validity of every
festimony must bear proportion with the authority of
the testifier; and the authority of the testifier is
founded upon his ability and integrity; his ability in
the Anowledge of that which he delivereth and asserteth ;
XII.] OF HOMOEOPATHIY. 3 I 3
his integrity in delivering and asserting according to
his knowledge.”
The medical evidence in support of the truth of
homoeopathy is such that it is impossible to withhold
assent to this testimony, if the number, the ability, and
the integrity of the witnesses are permitted to have
the consideration they deserve.
It is due to Hahnemann, the propounder of the
system, to mention him first and alone, and to remem-
ber that he occupied a place in the best-qualified circle
of his profession, and was acknowledged by many of
his colleagues, as one of the accomplished physicians
of his age.
Then, as regards the numóer of the witnesses. The
medical men who have avowedly embraced homoeo-
pathy are now to be met with in every civilised
country throughout the world. In many of these
countries it is true they form, as yet, only a small
minority, but the aggregate number must constitute a
considerable body. In this country there are at
present more than two hundred.” In the United
States of America there are already two homoeopathic
universities, and upwards of three thousand legally
qualified homoeopathic practitioners.
And as regards ability, it will be sufficient to ob-
serve that, for the most part, they are converts from
the ranks of regularly educated physicians and sur-
geons. They had been engaged, for a longer or
shorter period, in the practice of their profession
according to the usual methods, and it may be fairly
presumed that they possess at least an average amount
of professional skill and experience. In support of
this opinion it may be remarked that among them
there are nearly thirty professors in various European
universities; nearly fifty medical and court Council-
lors; and at least twenty court Physicians. These last
are attached to members of the courts of Austria,
* Pearson. * In 1856.
3 I4. THE COMMON SENSE [ESSAY
Prussia, Russia, Spain, Naples, Belgium, Hanover,
and the smaller German States.
And lastly, as regards integrity. Perhaps the best
mode of testing this is to enquire into the reasons
which have led individuals to study and embrace the
new method. Now, some of these have been induced
to investigate the subject, because patients whom they
had failed to benefit by the best resources of allopathy,
had been afterwards cured by homoeopathy. Among
these is Dr. Chapman. He says, “It happened that,
during my absence from Liverpool, some of my
patients had been induced to try the homoeopathic
treatment. Some of the cures could be explained
away, but several of them could only be honestly
accounted for by admitting the full efficacy of the
treatment that had been pursued. It will be sufficient
to mention one of these. A gentleman had been
subject to haemorrhoids for some years, and the loss
of blood was sometimes fearful. His bowels were
habitually and obstinately constipated, and any medi-
cine but the most gentle laxatives brought on the
haemorrhoidal flux. Astringents were of no use during
the discharge : they produced mischief when taken
internally. He had been under the care of several
eminent men in London, and had tried many medical
men in Liverpool. His condition was made rather
worse than better by the efforts of all and each of us
to relieve him. His life was a misery. Two or three
months after he had been under homoeopathic treat-
ment, I met him one day in the street, and was
astonished at the alteration in his appearance. From
being emaciated, he had grown stout, and was alto-
gether in excellent condition. I asked him what he
had been doing, and thereupon he told me of his
having swooned away in London from the loss of
blood; that a homoeopathic physician had attended
him ; that he had suffered no loss of blood since; that
his bowels were regular; and that he no longer suffered
any incºyſvenience from the trying, and, in his case,
dangeróus complaint he had suffered from a dozen
XII.] OF HOMOEOPATHIY. 3 I 5
years or more. This and several other concurrent
cases of my own patients, successfully treated by this
method at the same time, induced me to lay aside my
prejudice against the apparent absurdity of the doses,
so ſaz as ſo fest Öy actua/ eafferiment their efficacy and
value. I was immediately convinced the doses were
efficacious, and conviction of the truth of the doctrine
followed.” Many “urged their eager remonstrances,
but my duty was plain so soon as I became convinced ;
and it was Z/e sincerity of may conviction w/ic/ gave me
Z/ºe courage to persevere.”
Others have been persuaded to examine the new
system by the representation of medical friends who
had previously become converts, and whom they re-
spected as honest and conscientious men. Of this
number I am one ; having been urged to undertake
the investigation described in these Essays, by my
friend Dr. Ramsbotham. It was represented to me
that I had had ample experience of the usual methods,
which would enable me to compare the new one with
them ; that, having retired from the laborious part of
my professional duties, I had leisure and Opportunity;
and, in short, that it was my duty. I hesitated at first,
but it had been laid on my conscience, and after some
consideration, I determined to take two years and to
give it a full investigation. I had no other wish than
to discover the truth.
Others again have engaged in the laborious task
expressly for the purpose of proving homoeopathy to
be a fallacy. Dr. H. V. Malan is one of these. He
has favoured me with the following account —
“After having lived for Some years in the house of
a homoeopathic physician in Germany, and seen his
practice, and heard him speak and teach, I went to
Paris in 1840, and located myself very near Hahne-
mann's residence; I called on him almost the next
morning, and told him at once that I had come to him
with the desire and intention to study and know
thoroughly homoeopathy, in order to write, if possible,
the best book against it. He received me and listened
3 I6 THE COMMON SENSE [ESSAY
to me most kindly, and immediately put me in the way
of best studying, but he added, with his usual benevolent
Smile, ‘You never will write your book.' Most gener-
ously he directed my studies for more than a whole
year, and I need not add his word was true—I never
wrote the book.”
The number, the skill, and the integrity of the
medical witnesses to the truth of homoeopathy are
amply sufficient to make the statement credible.
The two arguments in Professor Simpson's book
against homoeopathy are the dishonesty of the men
who have adopted the new treatment, and the fallacy
of their observations. The first argument I shall not
condescend to notice. If Dr. Simpson thinks proper
to take upon himself the responsibility of questioning
my sincerity, or of asserting that I have treated my
patients “fraudulently,” I am content to wait till we
both appear before another, and at our time of life, no
very distant tribunal. The second agument is so often
advanced by medical men that it claims more attention.
It is thus stated—
“The mere successful natural termination of a case,
or of a series of cases, is no sufficient criterion of the
successful medical treatment of them ; or, in other
words, of the reality of their cure. Every quack
medicine, from the universal panacea of the old elixir
of life, or Berkeley's tar-water, or Perkin's tractors,
down to Solomon's Balm of Gilead, or Mr. Lee's
brandy-and-salt, or Parr's, or Morison's, or Holloway's
pills; or every quack system of medicine, from the
doctrine of charms and signatures, down to the modern
thirst-cure, hunger-cure, and grape-cure of the Germans,
or the prevailing system of chronothermalism, coffinism,
kinesipathy, hydropathy, isopathy, &c., &c., -has, as
every one knows, its hundreds or thousands of supposed
cures or coincidences to boast of. Of the propounders
and patrons of these diversified universal cures, and
systems of cures, one and all, confidently appeal to the
results of so-called eafterience in proof of the special
efficacy and success of their own special and exclusive
XII.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 3 I 7
system of treatment; and it would be strange indeed,
and a very unusual exception to a very general law, if
homoeopathy had not also its numerous alleged cures,
and its results of experience also to adduce and boast of.”
Without noticing the sneering manner in which this
argument is expressed, it may be remarked in reply—
First. The argument of eafterience is in itself a good
argument. Upon what else does Dr. Simpson rest
the claims of chloroform 2 Is it not simply on ex-
perience 2 Upon what is all legitimate medical treat-
ment founded ? Is it not on experience 2 It is true
that, ever since the days of Hippocrates, experience
has been acknowledged to be deceitful, and a true
judgment of what it testifies, difficult; but, in the
absence of any better test, it is our duty to appeal to
it. What else can be done in an affair in which we
have no other guide 2
Secondly. It is clear that the value of any appeal
to experience depends upon the qualifications and
capability of judging possessed by the persons by
whom the appeal is made. Every unprejudiced person
will see the necessity for this distinction. A landsman's
opinion or testimony on a nautical affair will scarcely
be relied upon ; and for the same reason a tradesman's
evidence on medical treatment cannot have much
weight with it. Now the recommenders of the vari-
ous remedies and modes of treatment referred to by
Dr. Simpson were, with scarcely any exceptions, unpro-
fessional persons;–a powerful advocate of one of them
was a respectable shoemaker, whose opinion on the
merits of a pair of shoes we should be willing to take,
but we are not therefore obliged to receive with equal
respect his testimony upon a medical question, about
which his information must necessarily be limited.
The witnesses in favour of homoeopathy are medica/
witnesses. All remedies must depend, for their credit,
equally on experience, and the only reason why we
adopt one with confidence, and view another with
* Simpson's ‘Homoeopathy, pp. 78, 79.
3 18 THE COMMON SENSE [ESSAY
distrust, is the difference in the character of the wit-
nesses for each, – their competence, or their incom-
petence.
Thirdly. If to reason thus, a bishop has over-
estimated a valuable remedy, other non-medical persons,
as a money speculation, advertise the cures performed
by their nostrums, &/ºerefore the experience of //ysicians,
who are testing homoeopathic remedies daily in their
practice, is false and of no value;—if this be good
logic and sound reasoning, then chloroform, and every
other remedy which medical men can possibly use, are
equally condemned by the same argument. This con-
sideration shows the folly of the argument.
Fourthly. When Dr. Simpson sneers at Parr's and
Morison's pills, &c., why does he not add to the
catalogue of quack remedies, Plummer's pills, Griffith's
mixture, Dover's powder, Ward's paste, James's
powder, &c., &c. P. Because all these “quack” medi-
cines have been adopted by legitimate physicians, and
are to be found in the Pharmacopoeias of the Royal
Colleges In due time we shall see homoeopathy
recognised in a similar manner.
At is a statement made upon sufficient evidence. If
the witnesses are competent, so is their evidence com-
plete. What does it amount to ? It amounts to this,
that, being medical practitioners, regularly educated
and duly qualified, and having had more or less ex-
perience—this experience in some cases equalling that
of any other of their professional colleagues—they have
tried the new practice experimentally, with every pre-
caution in their power to avoid mistake : they have, in
this practical manner, been persuaded of its actual and
positive superiority over their former methods, and they
have had the honesty and the courage to avow their
conviction of its truth and value. It amounts to this,
that cases of every description have been published by
hundreds, with all the accuracy and precision of
diagnosis and treatment with which the profession is
familiar, and which, in accordance with the progress of
XII.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 3 I 9
modern science, it demands;–cases of the most acute
and dangerous character ; cases of the most familiar
and well-known diseases; cases of the most obstinate
and refractory chronic ailments; cases of diseases in
children, in adults, in old age ; cases in public hospitals,
and in private practice; cases in courts and in cottages :
cases from among the most intelligent and the most
illiterate; and all affording evidence of Superior success
to that which has been presented in the similar reports
of any other kind of treatment. It amounts to this,
that if the evidence upon which the truth of homoeo-
pathy now rests, be not sufficient to establish it, then
nothing can be established as true upon any evidence
whatever; and without faith in human testimony, how
are we to proceed in the ordinary affairs of life 2
“There is no science taught without original belief,
there are no letters learned without preceding faith.
There is no justice executed, no commerce maintained,
no business prosecuted, without this; all secular affairs
are transacted, all great achievements are attempted,
all hopes, desires, and inclinations are preserved by
this human faith, grounded upon the testimony of
man.”
The question is a question of evidence; the evidence
is sufficient ; reason and common sense demand our
aSSent.
And why not 2 Similar statements have been re-
ceived upon similar evidence. The ground on which
the reception of homoeopathy is advocated, is that which
is the basis of all experimental philosophy; it is on the
plea of observation—on the testimony of our senses.
Every department of Science contains numerous in-
stances in which the most unexpected and important
results arise out of apparently insignificant and in-
adequate causes. A few examples may be given —
In Magnetism, take a poker, or bar of iron, not
previously magnetic, hold it in a position parallel with
* Pearson.
32O THE COMMON SENSE [ESSAY
the earth's axis, and strike the upper or northern
extremity a rather smart blow with a hammer, the
poker or bar will have become a magnet; it will now
attract particles of iron, and it will attract and repel
the poles of other magnets. Now hold it horizontally,
and strike the opposite or southern end a similar blow,
and it will cease to be a magnet, it will no longer
attract iron, nor attract and repel other magnets.
What marvellous effects from such a simple action
In Chemistry : every experiment is an illustration.
It is impossible to anticipate the results of a single
case in which elements combine, or in which com-
pounds are decomposed. The effects are always
startling. It is this which gives to lectures on chem-
istry their exciting interest. You place a piece of
metal (potassium) upon a lump of ice,—it bursts into
flame, and produces a solution of potash ! You apply
an electric spark to a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen
gases, you have, on the instant, an explosion like that
of a magazine of gunpowder, and a drop of water re-
sults | You mix colourless liquid ingredients and
obtain, in a succession of instances, Solids having all
the colours of the rainbow -
In A/ec/anics : as an example on a small scale, take
some biniodide of mercury, spread it upon a sheet of
paper, and hold it over a lamp, in a moment or two,
the brilliant red, equal to vermilion, becomes a fine
yellow, and remains so, even after it has been allowed
to cool;-take a knife or spatula, and pass it over the
yellow powder with a little pressure and friction, and
the beautiful vermilion is instantly restored. In these
metamorphoses there is no chemical change, but
simply a difference in the mechanical arrangement
of the particles of the compound of mercury and
iodine.
As an example on a larger scale, look at a railway
train, and marvel how a smooth iron wheel passing
over a smooth iron bar can, by what is called the
resistance of friction, drag after it a weight of many
tons in carriages and luggage.
xII.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 32 I
In Botany, the grafting of fruit trees may be ad-
duced as an example. What a childish proceeding it
would appear when first attempted, and how unlikely
to be productive of important results | And yet the
evidence of facts has overcome the apparent absurdity,
and the practice is universally adopted.
Moreover, the ground upon which the claims of
homoeopathy rest, is the ground upon which all the
common affairs of life necessarily rest. Whatever
may have been the previous notion of probability, it is
the actual fact which determines the point. Just now
all are noticing the sudden changes in the weather.
We go to bed under the canopy of heaven glittering
with stars, and there is a hard frost ; we expect the
roads will be dry and clean in the morning, and the
boys think of their skates. We get up and find only
clouds, rain, and dirt. And so of every thing. “That
will probably happen which to all human calculation
seems the most unlikely.”
Hahnemann, in his ‘Organon,' keeps in the back-
ground the practical fact, and labours to establish a
speculative explanation of it. His followers do not
agree in adopting his explanation, but, so far as I am
acquainted with their writings, they all have some
hypothesis of their own. I have been condemned for
not accepting any of these. I respectfully decline them
all, and offer no explanation. By this course, homoeo-
pathy is placed upon a foundation which it has not yet
fairly occupied ; and henceforward it will be in vain
for its opponents to attack it as they have hitherto
done. It is presented as a fact, supported 69 sufficien?
evidence, and to assail it as such will be found a task
much more difficult than to criticise speculations how-
ever ingenious.
The question is thus greatly simplified, and reduced
to one alternative. Either the thing is true, or the
testimony is false. To settle this point both reasoning
and assertion are alike impertinent. The testimony
has a claim to be received, the thing is true “according
to the evidence,” until facts—the result of trials at
2 I
322 THE COMMON SENSE [ESSAY
least as numerous, on the testimony of witnesses at
least of equal ability and integrity—are brought for-
ward to support the opposite probability.
Zł is a statement beyond previous experience, but not
opposed to reason, or contrary to common sense. I will
not attempt a definition of “common sense.” A term
in daily use must often be applied indefinitely. It
sometimes signifies merely former knowledge or pre-
vious experience; at others it implies the highest
exercise of human reason. Many things may be Öeyond
common sense, in the first meaning, but not contrary
to it; and many things may be above common sense,
in the last signification, but not opposed to it.
Taking common sense to mean, as it often does,
previous experience, then every new discovery or in-
vention is beyond, though not contrary to, common
sense. The first use of the mariner's compass would
be quite beyond all previous knowledge, and doubtless
was ridiculed as contrary to reason ; it would be said
of it that though true upon the land, it was false upon
the water. With the first use of everything, it has
been as we have seen it was in the case of the telescope
and the satellites of Jupiter. And so with the small
dose. It had never occurred to any one to try it
before. It was new to experience; it was beyond
former knowledge, but it was not contrary to either.
There had been no previous experience ; there had
been no knowledge to which it could be contrary.
The experiment discovered a new fact. The observa-
tion of the new fact simply became knowledge in the
place of ignorance. When it was said, therefore, that
“the patient is certainly better, but it is contrary to
common sense to suppose that the small dose can
have done him good,” it meant only that a cure by the
small dose was beyond that person's previous experi-
ence ; he had not known such a fact before ; it was new
£o him, but he will scarcely presume to say, on reflection,
that therefore it could not be true.
This statement is beyond previous experience, but
XII.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 323
before any one can with justice say it is contrary to
common sense, he must try the doses sufficiently to
gain from experience the knowledge that they do no
good. Those who have hitherto used this language
have not tried these experiments. It has been uttered
in ignorance. A few years ago, a book was written
to prove the impossibility of steamships navigating the
Atlantic, it was contrary to common sense ; the answer
to which, as every one knows, was the immediate per-
formance of the impossible undertaking ; it was simply
beyond previous experience ; the experiment had never
before been made. When Mr. Stephenson had in-
vented his locomotive engine, to move upon smooth
iron rails—having discovered that the resistance of
friction would be sufficient to prevent the rotation
without progression of the wheels—he did not venture
to propose a speed of more than twelve miles an hour,
and even this proposition was laughed at as contrary to
common sense; had he said forty milés, his discovery
would have been Scouted, and railway travelling, per-
haps, a thing yet unknown.
To drag forward common sense in this manner, as
opposed to new experiments and investigations of
nature, is greatly to dishonour it. Where there is no
experience, what common sense does, in such a case, is
to urge enquiry, and to dictate a suspension of judg-
ment until enquiry is completed.
Again, taking common sense in its other signification,
as the highest human reason, the new fact may be
aôove this reason to understand or explain, but it can-
not be opposed to reason if it exist, nor can it be
Opposed to reason for us to believe in its existence, if
that is proved to us by sufficient evidence.
I have observed that we know nothing of the objects
in nature beyond their surface; the knowledge which
our bodily senses give us not extending beyond that.
Even if our intellectual vision could penetrate below
the surface, and show us something of the interior
mechanism, our circle of knowledge would still be a
3.24. THE COMMON SENSE [ESSAY
contracted one. All nature being the handiwork of a
Being infinite in wisdom and power, it must, of
necessity, be beyond the grasp of a finite intelligence
like the human mind. But the internal movements of
the particles of all bodies, and their mode of acting on
each other, are not within our ken, however much we
may long to know them. Everything therefore is a
mystery, and it is the attribute of the highest reason to
be chiefly employed in the discovery of facts. We are
surrounded by marvels which we cannot explain ; I
will mention only three. The sun will take your
likeness in a moment of time; a message may be sent
hundreds of miles still more instantaneously; any one
may breakfast at Rugby, be in London (82 miles) in
two hours, spend six hours in that city, and be at home
to dinner. Now these are marvels which even our
own fathers never dreamed of ; had we talked to them
about such things, they would have thought us insane,
and yet they are true. It is not the less a fact because
it is a marvel, that the sun will take your picture in a
moment. It is not the less a fact because it is a marvel,
that a message may be sent instantaneously any distance
by a wire of metal. It is not the less a fact because it
is a marvel, that any one can travel forty miles an
hour. And if we have marvels in the science of light,
why may we not have a marvel in the science of medi-
cine 2 If a marvel of electricity, why not in medicine 2
If in mechanics, it is asked again, why not in medicine 2
If in the things which concern inanimate bodies, why not
much more in the things which belong to living beings 2
The works of God are for ever setting our reason
at defiance. If we attempt to take one step beyond
the evidences of our bodily senses, except to draw a
few useful inferences, with a view to make some prac-
tical applications, we lose ourselves at once in con-
jecture. “Things perceived by sense are more assured
and manifest than matters inferred by reason ; inasmuch
as the latter proceed from and are illustrated by the
former.”
* William Havey.
XII.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 3.25
It results from these remarks that if the statement
of a new marvel bears the rigid scrutiny of careful
observation, common sense or reason at Once admits its
truth ; and thus the common sense of homoeopathy
lies, where the common sense of everything else lies,
—in the truth and value of the fact.
It is a statement which admits of ready com/?rmation.
“Is there anything more difficult than the establishment
of a fact P” said a very intelligent neighbour to me the
other day. My reply is, that though the establishment
of a new fact may be difficult, it is not impossible. Any
fact may be established by evidence, but some men
may not like to see the evidence. “Dissatisfaction
with evidence may possibly be men's own fault.”"
The confirmation of the fact we are now considering
is open to the observation of any medical practitioner
every day, and that without reading books on homoeo-
pathy. He knows well that pecacuam/ha causes sick-
ness; when he is requested to prescribe for a child
who is suffering from sickness and vomiting from a
disordered stomach, let him give a few small doses of
this drug. He will thus at once test both the principle
and the dose ; and unless there is something more about
the case than I have supposed, he will find his patient
very quickly cured. He knows that mercury acts upon
the salivary glands; let him give it in a case of mumps,
and he will find his patient recover more rapidly than he
has been accustomed to observe. He knows that
corrosive suff/imate produces dysentery; let him give
this substance in an ordinary case of dysentery, and
the disease will most probably yield more speedily
than if he had adopted any other mode of treatment.
He knows that white he//eóore is a most powerful pur-
gative ; let him give it in a purging, if chilliness or
collapse be an accompanying symptom, and he will per-
haps be surprised at the beneficial result. He knows
that arsenic and //hosphorus produce inflammation of
the stomach and bowels; let him have courage to try
* Butler,
326 THE COMMON SENSE [ESSAY
either of these poisons, and he will probably see severe
sufferings subside under the influence of the small
dose. He knows that cazz//ia7-ides act upon the bladder,
and readily cause strangury; let him give them in a
similar case, and his patient will most likely need no
Other remedy. He knows that 7zza womaica acts very
much upon the spinal marrow, and upon the organs
dependent upon the spinal nerves, and those of the
great sympathetic ; let him try it in various affections
of these Organs, and he will often succeed in curing
his patient. He knows that Zead often causes paralysis
of the extremities; let him give it in cases resembling
those of poisoning by lead, but which have arisen from
some other cause, and he may find a very difficult and
troublesome affection considerably relieved.
If the practitioner is acquainted with the literature
of his profession, he will know that coffer and strayeo-
zzizome produce muscular spasm ; ºftecacuazz/a, symptoms
resembling asthma ; coccuſats, paroxysms of vertigo
with nausea ; antimony, derangement of the stomach
and chest; su///ºur and arsenic, affections of the skin.
From the same sources he will know the injurious
effects of other substances, when acting as poisons
upon persons previously in health.
So far as I have yet learned, every medical man
who has thus examined the subject, with candour and
perseverance, has seen and acknowledged the confir-
mation in his own hands of the truth of the statement.
Nothing remains but for others to pursue a similar
course; but if men will not look through Galileo's
telescope, it is not surprising if they do not see
Jupiter's moons.
Before concluding this Essay another topic must be
noticed. There is a strong feeling in the minds of pro-
fessional men that homoeopathy is only a species of
quackery, and that its practitioners are nothing better
than charlatans. This is not true. It is granted that
there are a few persons practising homoeopathy whose
temperaments are somewhat tinctured with the spirit
XII.] OF HOMOEOPATHY. 327
of quackery, as there are in the ranks of our opponents,
but there are many wholly free from it; and, as regards
homoeopathy itself, it is as far removed from quackery
as light is from darkness. What is quackery 2 A
pretension to some sovereign remedy, to be purchased
of such a person. The exclusive sale of this nostrum,
the composition of which is carefully concealed, being
often secured to the vendor, by her Majesty's letters
patent; or it is “fifty thousand cures without medi-
cine,” by some article of diet, sold exclusively in a
similar manner. What is there in homoeopathy at all
resembling this 2 Where are its secrets P its nostrums?
its exclusive sales 2 They are not found ; and the
person who calls homoeopathy quackery, must be con-
tent to be condemned as either very ignorant, or guilty
of knowingly uttering untruth.
In laying before my professional brethren the results
of this independent investigation, I have fulfilled a
duty, and given an honest testimony ; and it is now
laid on the conscience of every practitioner, as it was
laid upon my own, to investigate the matter for himself.
“I therefore whisper in your ear, friendly reader, and
recommend you to weigh carefully in the balance of
exact experiment all that I have delivered in these
exercises. I would not that you gave credit to aught
they contain, save in so far as you find it confirmed and
borne out by the unquestionable testimony of your
own senses.”
* William Harvey.
ESSAY XIII.
-->C-tº-
REVIEW OF HAHNEMANN'S SYSTEM,
“He (Sir Isaac Newton) wanted no other recommendation
for any one article of science than the recommendation of
evidence, and with this recommendation he opened to it the
chamber of his mind, though authority Scowled upon it, and
taste was disgusted by it, and fashion was ashamed of it.”
THOMAS CHALMERS.
ESSAY XIII.'
REVIEW OF HAHNEMANN'S SYSTEM.
—º-Ç-e-
“In natural science there is one language universally in
telligible, the language of facts, it belongs to nature, and it
is permanent as the objects of nature.” – SIR HUMPHRY
DAVY.
—e-º-o-
Most of the preceding Essays were first published
three or four years ago. They were written during the
two years which I originally allowed myself for the in-
vestigation of the new system of medicine to which the
name of homoeopathy has been given. As some time
has elapsed since that period, and as I continue to
practise exclusively according to the principle of the
new system, it may be expected that some further
account of the progress of the enquiry should be given.
In this Essay, therefore, the results of the investigation,
up to the present moment, shall be briefly stated.
These results are presented to my professional
brethren with all due respect; but at the same time in
all sincerity and earnestness. I beg them to listen to
me as a witness of what I have seen ; or, if the lan-
guage of another profession may be adopted, of what I
know of my own knowledge.
I. First, some account shall be given of those things
* First published in 1856.
3.32 REVIEW OF [ESSAY
in the system and teaching of Hahnemann which are
rejected. -
II. A recapitulation shall be made of what the prac-
tical trial of homoeopathy has led me to acknowledge
and accept as true. -
III. It shall then be stated what those parts of the
usual method of treating diseases are, the discontinuance
of which is involved in the adoption of the new system.
IV. Lastly, it shall be pointed out what those parts
of the usual method are, which still remain available
and useful, and are retained.
I. The following are statements of Hahnemann
which are rejected.
I. The explanation of the principle of homoeopathy
thus announced in the ‘ Organon':-
“As every disease (not strictly surgical) depends
only on a peculiar morbid derangement of our vital
force in sensations and functions, when a homoeopathic
cure of the vital force deranged by the natural disease
is accomplished by the administration of a medicinal
potency selected on account of an accurate similarity
of symptoms, a somewhat stronger but similar artificial
morbid affection is brought into contact with, and as it
were, pushed into the place of the weaker, similar,
natural, morbid irritation, against which the instinctive
vital force now merely (though in a stronger degree)
medicinally diseased, is then compelled to direct an
increased amount of energy, but on account of the
shorter duration of the action of the medicinal potency
that now morbidly affects it, the vital force soon over-
comes this, and as it was in the first instance relieved
from the material morbid affection, So it is now at last
freed from the artificial (the medicinal) one, and hence
is enabled again to carry on healthily the vital opera-
tions of the organism.”
* ‘ Organon,’ $ xxix.
XIII.] HAHNEMANN's SYSTEM. 333
This explanation of the principle is fanciful and
illusory, and as such is necessarily rejected.
2. Not only is Hahnemann's exposition of the prin-
ciple an imaginary hypothesis, but the very statement
itself of the homoeopathic law, which he gives, has no
trustworthy evidence to support it. On the contrary,
his statement is open to an insuperable objection, so
that if it really expresses the principle of homoeopathy,
that principle itself must be rejected.
“The following,” says Hahnemann, “is the homoeo-
pathic law of nature, some vague presentiment of
which has indeed occasionally been entertained, but
which, until now, has not been acknowledged, and on
which depends every real cure that has ever taken
place.
“A weaker dynamic affection is permanently extin-
guished in the living organism by a stronger one, if
the latter (while differing in kind) is similar to the
former in its manifestations.”
This has been already rejected in Essay VI. “The
medicinal disease,” he says, “must naturally be some-
what stronger than the malady to be cured, if it is to
overpower and extinguish the latter;” and thus “the
instinctive vital force is compelled to direct an in-
creased amount of energy" to overcome this artificial
morbid affection, which has been “as it were pushed
into the place of the weaker, similar, natural, morbid
irritation.”
This definition of the principle is wholly rejected ;
for the adoption of it would compel me to believe
that the vital force can overcome a stronger disease
when it is not able to overcome a similar but weaker
OI) e.
3. As the explanation of the principle given by
Hahnemann is an imaginary hypothesis, and his defini-
tion of it a mere assertion without proof, so his view of
the extent to which it applies is vague and erroneous.
He was apparently so enamoured with his discovery,
* ‘ Organon,’ $ xxvi. * Ibid., § clviii.
334 REVIEW OF [ESSAY
and his imagination was so unrestrained by reason and
judgment, that he could not brook the idea of any limi-
tation of his law; he would have it to be of universal
application. Do the symptoms of a disease on any
Occasion subside while those of another ailment arise 2
—this must be homoeopathy; “invariably and in every
case (such is the dogmatic assertion) do two diseases,
differing certainly in kind, but very similar in their
phenomena and effects, and in the sufferings and
Symptoms they severally produce, annihilate one an-
other, whenever they meet together in the organism.”
Does “the brilliant Jupiter vanish in the early dawn
from the gaze of the beholder,”—this must be homoeo-
pathy. The weaker light is annihilated “by a stronger
very similar power acting on his optic nerve, the
brightness of approaching day.” Fetid odours are to
be homoeopathically cured by taking snuff The cries
of battle are to be homoeopathically banished from the
ear “ by the shrill notes of the fife, and the roll of the
noisy drum !” The fear inspired by the roar of the
enemy's cannon is to be homoeopathically destroyed
“by the mimic thunder of the big drum !” And so
of the physical agencies, heat, electricity, and mag-
netism ; all, with the most extraordinary confusion of
thought and boldness of assertion, all are pressed into
the service, all are compelled to be subservient to the
favorite discovery, the law of “similia similibus curan-
tur.” Nor does Hahnemann stop here; he rushes
with reckless impetuosity to measure mental emotions
and moral feelings with the same material rule. For,
says he, “thus are cured both physical affections and
moral maladies.” “Mourning and sorrow will be
effaced from the mind, by the account of another and
still greater cause for sorrow happening to another,
even though it be a mere fiction.” Even nations, in
their political career and national developements, are
not to be exempted from the universal law, they are
* “Organon,' S Xlv. * Ibid., § xxvi, note.
* Ibid., § xxvi, note.
XIII.] HAHNEMANN's SYSTEM. 335
to progress homoeopathically, and not otherwise.
“Nations, like the Germans, who have for centuries
been gradually sinking deeper and deeper in soulless
apathy and degrading serfdom, must first be trodden
still deeper in the dust by the Western Conqueror,
until their situation became intolerable ; their mean
opinion of themselves was thereby overstrained and
removed ; they then became [being homoeopathically
cured alive to their dignity as men, and then for
the first time they raised their heads as Germans !”
These successive assertions seem to me a climax of
folly. In Essay VI, reasons are given for rejecting
them all. On careful investigation they appear
nothing better than grave trivialities. I believe that
the law of “similia similibus curantur" has no power
nor influence whatever in these departments of nature.
Several homoeopathists have strongly remonstrated
with me for excluding these things from the operation
of this law, but the belief is still retained.
The result, then, of the examination of the manner
in which Hahnemann teaches the principle of homoeo-
pathy, is this —I think him in error in his explanation
of it, in his definition of it, and in the extent to which
he applies it.
Hahnemann's notion that “the medicinal disease,
produced by the appropriate drug, must naturally be
somewhat stronger than the malady to be cured, if it
is to overpower and extinguish the latter,” involves
him in another doctrine which is also rejected —that
of medicinal aggravation as essential to cure. He
expresses this doctrine thus —
“A dose of an appropriate homoeopathic medicine,
not the very smallest possible, does always, during the
first hour after its ingestion, produce a perceptióle
/lomaeopathic aggravation.” I have seen nothing to
justify such a statement; and do not believe that it is
founded upon careful or extensive observation. On
the contrary, phenomena which can reasonably be
! Ibid. * ‘ Organon, S clx.
336 REVIEW OF [ESSAY
called medicinal aggravation are, according to my
experience, not common. This notion, therefore, is
rejected.
5. The doctrine of Hahnemann, that the sum of the
symptoms is the sum of the disease is, at least, indis-
tinctly announced, and very liable to be understood in
a sense which is not true. If he meant to exclude
pathology, or the morbid changes of structure from
rendering aid in the choice of remedies, which the
condemnatory language he uses with reference to that
science would seem to indicate, and his method of
arranging his provings confirms, it is entirely dissented
from. I am “well aware of the nullity of trans-
cendental speculations which can receive no confirma-
tion from experience;” but I never read any author
more addicted to transcendental speculations than
Hahnemann himself. His writings are filled with
what William Harvey would have called “phantoms
of darkness.”
6. Connected with the last subject is the dismem-
berment of the symptoms observed in the description
of Hahnemann’s “provings,” or experiments with
drugs upon the healthy body, which has already been
alluded to. These provings are contained in two
works, the ‘Materia Medica Pura,’ and the ‘Chronic
Diseases.’ The symptoms are broken up and artifici-
ally arranged in this manner —
“Head.
Face.
Eyes.
Ears.
Nose.
Jaws.
Mouth,” &c., &c.
By this arrangement the real and distinctive features
of each case of proving are so disfigured and concealed
as to defy detection; and any attempt to connect the
symptoms with the internal pathological condition of
the prover is rendered hopelessly impossible. Were a
XIII.] HAHNEMANN's SYSTEM. 337
physician to report a series of cases of fever, or of any
other disease, with the symptoms dislocated in a
similar manner, how absurd it would appear ! It is
quite clear that the reports of cases of provings must
be given in the same manner as reports of natural
disease; how otherwise can the two pictures be com-
pared with each other
7. The statements of Hahnemann relative to a
supposed “primary and secondary action of medicinal
substances,” are too vague and doubtful to claim
assent. He says, “most medicines have more than
one action, the first a direct action, which gradually
changes into the second, which I call the indirect
secondary action. The latter is generally a state
exactly the opposite of the former.” Afterwards he
alters his expressions, and calls them “alternating ”
actions. At one time, he lays great stress upon this
distinction, and declares that the primary action is the
one which is homoeopathic to a disease, while the
secondary is only palliative, at other times, he loses
sight of the distinction he has attempted to establish,
and at last seems tacitly to abandon it altogether.
8. When announcing the efficacy of the small dose,
Hahnemann falls into his usual error. He speaks of
it as the “spiritual power which lies hid in the inner
nature of medicines.” Of the mechanical processes of
rubbing and shaking, in the preparation of the medi-
cines, he says, “Such a mode of preparation develops
a/most all the properties that lie hid in the essential
nature of the medicinal substance, which thereby alone
can attain any activity.” He calls the processes them-
selves “dynamizations;” the earlier divisions of the
grain of medicine he calls lower, and the further
subdivisions higher “potencies.”
The hypothetical style of expression, uniformly
indulged in by Hahnemann, is greatly disliked ; and
any faith in such pretended explanations of natural
phenomena, is disclaimed. Such fanciful speculations
* “Lesser Writings,’ p. 312,
338 REVIEW OF [ESSAY
are not true Science, nor sound philosophy; they are
not real knowledge; and they come with a bad grace
from one who, on the adjoining page, sneers at “the
prevailing school of medicine, which,” he unjustly
asserts, “affects to possess a supernatural insight into
the inner nature of things.”
Sir Humphry Davy remarks of the homest professors
of alchemy, that “they had discovered a light capable
of guiding them in that dark night of ignorance, but
they mistook their path. The light, however, was not
extinguished, and it became subservient to the ends
and the views of the chemical philosophers.” It
seems to me that Hahnemann is precisely in the
position of the speculative alchemists, such as Van
Helmont and Helvetius; he discovered a light, but
could not walk steadily in the path which it illumined.
May this newer light subserve the ends of future
physicians, as the older light has done that of the
chemical philosophers
9. Hahnemann has fallen into the same kind of
exaggeration in the use of the small dose, as he has
done in the application of the principle. He says —
“The best dose of the properly selected remedy is
always the very smallest one in one of the high dyna-
mizations (the 30th), as well for chronic as for acute
diseases.”
This is entirely rejected ; experience abundantly
testifying that the dose must vary. At present I
think that the dose ought to be regulated by the
susceptibility of the patient's constitution ; by the
nature of the disease; and by the character of the
drug. The nervous system of some individuals is
much more sensitive to the action of medicines than
that of others; some diseases increase, and others
diminish this susceptibility; and some drugs act best
in comparatively large doses, and others in small ones.
Io. In connection with the small dose, it may be
* ‘Works of Sir H. Davy,’ vol. i., p. 145.
* “Organon, Š ccxlvi, note.
XIII.] HAHNEMANN's SYSTEM. 339
remarked of the practice of od/action, or allowing the
patient only to smell the medicine, adopted and recom-
mended by Hahnemann in his old age, that I have not
tried it, and do not intend to do so, except with such
Substances as camphor, musk, or ammonia.
II. Hahnemann's doctrine of the “psoric " or itch
origin of most chronic diseases. There is nothing
against which Hahnemann exclaims more loudly than
against pathological hypotheses. “Physicians,” he
says, “wished by d ?riori reasoning to find out an
undiscoverable source of disease in regions of specula-
tion which are not to be penetrated by terrestrial
mortal. Our system - builders delighted in these
metaphysical heights; where it was so easy to win
territory; for in the boundless region of speculation
every one becomes a ruler who can most effectually
elevate himself beyond the domain of the senses.”
He speaks of “the maniacal principles of Broussais ;”
and condemns the attempts of other physicians to
explain the nature and connections of disease as
“castles in the air.”
It is not a little remarkable, after perusing such
effusions as these, to find Hahnemann adopt a specu-
lative pathological hypothesis in no way superior to
those he has so vehemently condemned. Observation,
he says, “left me no doubt about the internal enemy
which I had to combat in my medical treatment.
This internal enemy I shall designate by the general
term psora. It is an internal disease, a sort of
internal itch,-and may exist either with or without
an eruption upon the skin.” “I found that thousands
of tedious ailments, which we find enumerated in our
pathological works under distinct names, originate,
with a few exceptions, in this widely ramified psora.”
This “is the common mother of most chronic diseases,”
and it is to be treated by a peculiar class of remedies,
which he calls “antipsorics.” Thereby departing, as it
* “Lesser Writings, p. 482. * ‘ Organon,' Introduction.
* “Chronic Diseases, vol. i., p. 2 I.
34O REVIEW OF [ESSAY
seems to me, from the very basis of homoeopathy;
forsaking the principle of “similia similibus curantur,”
embarking in the old allopathic ship, and placing his
remedies side by side with the antispasmodics of
Cullen, one of his great rivals in medical speculation.
It is asserted by one of Hahnemann's most indefati-
gable disciples that, “it is absurd for any one who
professes to have a clear perception of homoeopathy, to
reject the doctrine of an hereditary morbific miasm
(psora). Both these doctrines must stand or fall
together.” Notwithstanding this assertion, I decline
to adopt this psoric hypothesis. It cannot be verified
as a fact, and the reasoning of Hahnemann respecting
it is not satisfactory. That a case is one of psora is, he
thinks, proved if it has been cured by one of the
remedies which he calls antiffsoric ; and that a medi-
cine belongs to his class of antipsorics, he considers
proved, if it has cured a case he has called psoric.
This is a mode of reasoning in a circle not character-
istic of an enlightened or philosophic mind.
That psora is “a miasmatic chronic disease,” to
which belong nine-tenths of all chronic cases, is rejected
as an unproved hypothesis.
12. The re-introduction of astrological considerations
among the reasons for prescribing remedies for disease,
is entirely repudiated. Some of Hahnemann's symp-
toms in the ‘Provings’ manifested themselves “at the
new or full moon,” and some “when the moon is
waning.” It has been said in apology, “as in Hahne-
mann's early days the moon was generally thought to
be a very influential personage, he may be pardoned
for connecting a new moon with certain symptoms he
noticed to be simultaneous with her appearance.”
Perhaps we may be disposed to admit this apology,
though the fact that he made such references detracts
much from his credit as a careful and discriminating
observer, and greatly diminishes Our confidence in his
inferences and conclusions. But it is high time that
1 Note by Hempel in ‘Chronic Diseases,’ vol. i. p. 2.
XIII.] HAHNEMANN's SYSTEM. 34 I
those who call themselves homoeopathists in the
present day should disavow such untenable notions;
and as some of his disciples, so far from doing this, are
even more given to them than Hahnemann, I must
needs deliver myself from the imputation. “Give a
dose of su///iur when the moon is on the decline;”
says Jahr, “at the next full moon give a dose of
mercury.” “If the distress should return at new or
full moon, su///zer should be given, either during the
decline or increase of the moon,” &c., &c." Now I
am “ready to adopt whatever is demonstrated, or
concede whatever is rendered highly probable, how-
ever new and uncommon the points of view may be in
which objects the most familiar may thereby become
placed.” But I am as yet unacquainted with any
reliable series of facts which demonstrates, or even
renders probable, the lunar influences on the action of
poisons in health, or of remedies in disease. These
references to the supposed influence of the moon are
therefore rejected. - -
13. While on the subject of other departments of
science, a supposed connection between homoeopathy
and magnetism entertained by Hahnemann, and lately
asserted to have been proved by a new philosophical
instrument contrived by Mr. Rutter, of Brighton, may
be noticed. I have not yet met with any evidence
which renders a connection between homoeopathy and
magnetism probable, beyond the facts which go to
show that a union or “correlation ” exists between all
physical forces, and perhaps between physical and vital
forces. The movements of the instrument contrived
by Mr. Rutter are simply mechanical. Some homoeo-
pathists contended that it was able to show physically
the action of the infinitesimal doses by its movements.
Dr. Quin gave lectures upon it to this effect, in London.
I published a letter at the time, containing an account
of some experiments which proved that this instrument
Jahr's ‘Clinical Guide,’ article “Worm Affections.”
I
* Herschel's ‘Treatise on Astronomy, p. 2.
342 REVIEW OF [ESSAY
has no connection whatever with magnetic forces, and
that it can prove nothing as to the action of the small
doses. -
I4. The use of preparations of disgusting substances,
such as products of disease, &c., which some homoeo-
pathists have attempted to introduce as remedies, are
disliked and rejected. It is very true that such things
have been greatly resorted to in old time, but their use
is very much laid aside, and must not be again revived.
The tendency of an improved system of medicine
should be to get rid of the objectionable things which
still cling to the old method.
I5. Having just now spoken rather of the disciples
than of the master, this opportunity may be taken to
say that the mingling of medical facts and theories
with the doctrines of revealed religion, is entirely
condemned and protested against. I cannot sympa-
thise with such writers as the Rev. Thomas Everest
in this country, and Dr. Mure and others abroad.
Mr. Everest says, in a published sermon, “When the
old system (of medicine) shall have quite vanished
from the earth, and the new one (homoeopathy) shall
be established, then, for the first time, will the gospel
of the kingdom of grace be preached . . . . and
received as God intended,” &c.; with other sentiments
still more objectionable.
I thankfully believe the Holy Scriptures to be the
word of God, and nature to be His work; but the
study of the one is to be kept distinct from the study
of the other; and for the reason assigned long ago by
Lord Bacon, “because of the extreme prejudice which
both religion and philosophy have received, and may
receive, by being commixed together; as that which
undoubtedly will make an heretical religion, and an
imaginary and fabulous philosophy.”
16. To return to Hahnemann. The rancour and
animosity which he exhibits towards his professional
brethren are deeply regretted and repudiated ; and the
mean and vulgar language he condescends to adopt
when speaking of them is greatly disliked. Not
XIII.] HAHNEMANN's SYSTEM. 343
more than a single specimen shall be given : “The
old school dreamed of effecting causal cures by
endeavouring to remove these imaginary and pre-
sumed material causes of disease. Hence their as-
siduous evacuation of the bile by vomiting ; . . . their
diligence in purging ; . . . and more especially all
their varieties of bloodlettings; . . . following the
precepts of a well-known &/oodž/ºrsáy Parisian physi-
cian [Broussais, as a flock of sheep follow the bell-
wether, even into the butcher's slaughter-house.”
I 7. I am shocked and astonished at the effrontery
with which Hahnemann announces his dogmatic
assertions. Some examples of this are given in the
Essay on the Difficulties of Homoeopathy; I will add
a few more; at the same time it is to be remarked
that this disagreeable tone pervades the whole of his
principal works; the ‘ Organon' more especially.
Everything is “unerring,” “infallible,” “invariable,”
“unquestionable,” “incontrovertible,” and “not to be
refuted by any experience in the world.” “A//
experiments and observations demonstrate in the most
convincing manner that among medicines—that one
alone which can produce in the healthy individual a
similar morbid state, is capable of transforming a
given case of disease, rapidly, gently, and permanently
into health ; indeed, that such a medicine will never /ai/
to cure the disease.” Again, “If physicians would but
approach the cholera patient, in order to treat him at
the commencement of his sickening with this medicine
(camphor dissolved in alcohol), whicſ, alone is efficacious,
and which most certainly destroys the miasm about the
patient, by giving him, as I have taught, every five
minutes one drop of it, if they would but do this, then
every patient would not only be infal/ióly restored within
a couple of hours (as the most undeniable facts and
instances prove), but by the cure of the disease with
pure camphor, they would at the same time eradicate
* “Organon,’ pp. I I, I2. * “Organon,’ passim.
* “Lesser Writings of Hahnemann, p. 81 I.
344 REVIEW OF [ESSAY
and anizi/hi/afe the miasm.” The tone of Hahne-
mann's writings, and the style which he adopts, tend
to associate him with the class of bold and ignorant
empirics, rather than with that of able and conscienti-
ous physicians.
Every feature of Hahnemann's exposition of his
system has, I think, now been noticed ; and there is
not one which is to be admired or adopted, in the terms
in which they are propounded by him. As expressed
in his writings, they all, without exception, excite in
the mind a strong repugnance. Every detail is
presented in so distasteful a manner as to produce
a feeling of absolute dislike; so that, had I read
Hahnemann's works &efore making a practical trial of
the method, I never should have been induced to
begin it. They are filled with unproved assertions,
illogical arguments, fanciful speculations, and obvious
contradictions.
It is due to myself to have made these statements.
Having adopted the practice of homoeopathy, I may
be supposed to be a disciple of Hahnemann, and be
held responsible for his follies. Such relationship and
responsibility are altogether disclaimed.
On the other hand, nothing has been met with in
the writings of Hahnemann which would lead me to
suspect him of dishonesty. Before the controversy
respecting homoeopathy commenced, he was acknow-
ledged by his professional brethren to be a man of
talent and reputation, and I think he is still entitled to
this character; I admire his untiring industry and per-
severance, and believe his efforts on behalf of suffering
humanity were sincere; these efforts were requited
with derision and ill-treatment, and it is not surprising,
though it is much to be regretted, that he was driven
to retaliate in kind.
II. I will now endeavour to recapitulate what the
practical trial of homoeopathy has led me to acknow-
* Ibid., p. 854.
XIII.] HAHNEMANN's SYSTEM. 345
ledge and accept as true. The results of a personal,
industrious, and honest investigation of the subject,
having for its one object the discovery of truth for the
benefit of the sick. And I earnestly entreat my medical
brethren to lay aside the prejudices of their education,
and their preconceived opinions, to follow my example,
and to give such points as these a Searching investiga-
tion and a fair trial in their own hands—
I. Zhe Principle.—I think these three propositions
may be demonstrated as plain facts —
That each drug selects certain portions or organs
of the body upon which to produce its injurious
action.
That the injurious action produced upon the parts
or organs of the body thus selected, is more or less
peculiar to each drug ; that it is characteristic; so that
by this action each drug may be known from the rest.
That drugs are to be given as the best remedies for
the diseases which affect the same parts or organs
of the body which such drugs affect; and specially
when the symptoms manifested by the affected parts
or organs resemble the symptoms produced by the
drugs.
There does not appear to be any disposition on the
part of the profession to deny the first and second of
these propositions. They were tacitly admitted, with-
out question or doubt, by a large number of eminent
medical men, and equally eminent chemists, on the
late trial of Palmer for the murder of Mr. Cook.
On that trial one of the leading questions was a
question of Science ; – were the symptoms which
preceded the death of Mr. Cook the symptoms of
strychnine 2 Now, unless the first and second of these
three propositions were admitted as true, this question
would have been a useless one. It was not thought
useless, but was entertained, and answers given to it,
by Sir Benjamin Brodie, Dr. Todd, Mr. Solby, Pro-
fessors Brande, Christison, and Taylor, Mr. Herapath,
Dr. Letheby, and many others. Some thought the
symptoms were those of Strychnine, and others thought
346 REVIEW OF [ESSAY
they were not ; but none denied that strychnine affects
Organs and produces symptoms peculiar to itself; and
if this be true of strychnine, it can be true of it only
because it is true of all drugs, that they select the
Organs of the body upon which they prefer to act, and
also because they act upon those organs in a more or
less peculiar and characteristic manner. It would seem,
therefore, unnecessary to advance proofs of these two
propositions.
Of the third proposition it is far otherwise. This is,
as yet, almost universally denied, at least in part, for it
is admitted that drugs are remedies for disease. The
denial of the remainder of the proposition raises this
question, for what disease is each drug to be given as
a remedy ? The medical profession have been labour-
ing earnestly for many centuries to discover the an-
swer to this question, and the best answer, in my judg-
ment, and according to my own personal observation
and experience, which has yet been found, is the answer
given by the law of homoeopathy, as expressed in this
third proposition.
Some proofs of the truth of this proposition are
given in Essays IV, V, and VI, on the Principle of
Homoeopathy. It is not my intention to add others in
this place, as I hope to have another and a better
opportunity of doing so. At present it is stated as a
practical fact, of the truth and value of which any one
may have daily experience. And medical men are
again called upon to test it for themselves; to try it as
a practical guide in the opportunities afforded them
every day; and to accept it as a fact without wasting
time in speculations as to its modus operand?.
2. 7%e Provings. The method of learning the pro-
perties of drugs by proving them on healthy persons is
entirely approved and heartily recommended. A prac-
tical acquaintance with this subject commends it to the
mind, as the foundation of all real knowledge in thera-
peutics, and as the only method yet pointed out by
which medicine can become a science. Nor are the
objections to its adoption so formidable as they may at
XIII.] HAHNEMANN's SYSTEM. 347
first sight appear, while the advantages can Scarcely be
overrated.
The objects aimed at in proving any drug are con-
tained in the first and second propositions of the pre-
ceding paragraph. They are to ascertain its sphere of
action (first proposition), and the mode in which that
action is manifested (second proposition); in other
words, to learn what organs of the body are affected
by it, and the manner in which the functions of those
organs are deranged, or their structure altered. This
may commonly be accomplished without pushing the
experiment to any serious extent; while, with respect
to a large number of important medicines, we learn the
more formidable symptoms and alterations of structure
they have the power to produce from the numerous
cases of poisoning which either accidentally or inten-
tionally occur.
The adoption of this method of discovering the pro-
perties of drugs is necessitated by the acknowledgment
of the third proposition of the preceding paragraph,
the principle of homoeopathy. Independently of that
principle, it has strong claims upon the attention of
physicians, but homoeopathy cannot exist practically
without it.
In the Essay on this subject, some of the provings
of monkshood (Aconitume AWape//us) are given. In the
symptoms there detailed we have a perfect picture of
synocha, cauma, or inflammatory fever. The com-
mencement by a chill, sense of fatigue, loss of appetite,
nausea ; the chill increasing to shiverings, goose-skin,
icy coldness. Then the second stage, heat, violent
headache, burning in the eyes, roaring in the ears,
quickened breathing, with cough, oppression of the
chest, acute pain, and a full, strong frequent pulse.
Then, after a few hours, the third stage, perspirations,
followed by a remission, and this by the disappearance
of all the symptoms. Such is the proving of aconite;
such the picture produced by the drug, and which is a
close resemblance or epitome of the cases called simple
348 REVIEW OF [ESSAY
or inflammatory fever, which are met with so often in
daily practice.
That aconite is an admirable remedy for simple and
for inflammatory fever, has been abundantly experi-
enced and testified to by homoeopathists, but the wit-
ness adduced at present is my opponent, Dr. Routh.
In the ‘Journal of the Provincial Medical Association'
for June 8, 1855, is a paper on the treatment of ſºmew-
amonia by Dr. C. H. F. Routh. In this paper Dr.
Routh says, “The pulse must be reduced in frequency.
The Szerest means to effect this is, Z &e/ieve, acozzife.” “I
seldom if ever bleed (in inflammation of the lungs);
bleeding fails in 53 per cent. of pneumonia.” “Aſere
(in aconáče) is a remedy to Če preferred to 6/ood/etting,
ôecause, while it is equa//y power/u/ in its action, it has
#/e advantage of sparing 4/ke patient's &/ood for the
future comżingencies of Zhe disease.”
The following is a proving of another plant, the
sumach or poison oak (Rhus Zoricodendron). Mrs.
took the fifth part of a drop of the tincture of
rhus tox. about seven o'clock in the morning; in about
an hour a feeling of great depression, with shiverings,
coldness of the hands and feet, to which she is not
naturally prone, confusion of the head, and little appe-
tite for breakfast. In three hours she felt so ill as to
be obliged to go to bed, the symptoms being an in-
describable feeling of depression, alternate heats and
chills, aching pains in the back and limbs, dryness of
the mouth and tongue, with disagreeable taste, entire
loss of appetite, feeble pulse, temperature of the skin
below the natural standard, though well covered in
bed, cold clammy perspirations, secretion of the kid-
neys scanty and high coloured. This state of things
continued on the following day, and to it was added
considerable discharges of dark blood, which, along
with the continuance of the typhoid symptoms, was
repeated, but in less quantity, on the third and fourth
days. On the fifth day all the symptoms disappeared.
st-
* Braithwaite's ‘Retrospect,' vol. xxxii. pp. 96, 97.
XIII.] HAHNEMANN's SYSTEM. 34.9
This proving of rhus was an epitome of typhus
fever.
I know no remedy so efficacious, in many cases of
typhus and typhoid fevers, as this same rhus, given in
the low dilutions."
By such experiments as these, the two plants, monks-
hood and sumach, are shown to have characteristic re-
lations with two opposite kinds of fever. The former
both produces and cures the fever of excitement or
exaltation; the latter causes and is a remedy for the
fever of depression.
It must not be inferred from these remarks that
these two plants have no other relations. By carrying
the experimental provings further, new features are
discovered in each of them, by which they are indicated
as remedies for some other serious diseases. .
This method of proving drugs in health may be
extended to every article in the Materia Medica; and
thus, perhaps, a counter-part may be found for every
diseased condition to which the human body is liable.
It has been already so extended, after the fashion of
Hahnemann; it requires to be done again with more
discrimination and judgment.
3. The Single Medicine.—The third point which a
practical trial has led me to approve is the use of a
single medicine at a time. Like the preceding subject
—the proving of drugs upon the healthy—it has strong
recommendations of its own, independently of its con-
nection with the principle of homoeopathy; but the
adoption of this principle as a guide in the selection of
the remedies to be given for disease, and the adoption
of the method of provings, as the best way of learning
the properties of drugs, render it imperative to pre-
scribe each medicine by itself. The same preparation
of the drug which has been taken by the prover to obtain
the symptoms, should be given to the patient to remove
similar symptoms. The dose alone should be varied.
* Baptisea has been discovered since, as another valuable
remedy for typhoid fever. (1874.)
350 REVIEW OF - [ESSAY
An Essay is devoted to this subject to which my
readers are referred. The advantages of the method
are daily felt more strongly. Suppose a case to be
well studied, and the remedy carefully selected ; at the
next consultation disappointment is experienced on
finding that the patient has derived no benefit from
the remedy. It is clear either that something has
been overlooked, some error in diagnosis has been
committed, or that there is some idiosyncracy or
peculiarity in the constitution or habits of the patient.
If there has been a mistake in the diagnosis, a further
and more sifting investigation of the case may correct
this, and lead to the choice of a more appropriate
remedy. If the other alternative has happened, and
the patient's nervous system has not responded satis-
factorily to the medicine, in the dose which has been
given, the same remedy has to be repeated in a differ-
ent dose.
Or, as happens more commonly, the remedy has
succeeded, and the patient is better. How very much
greater is the satisfaction felt on learning this result,
when it can be traced to a known remedy used alone,
than it was formerly, when a mixture of perhaps a
dozen ingredients had been given, and when con-
sequently it was impossible to say with precision to
which the benefit was owing. This doubt attaches
to every combination of drugs, whether of many or of
few.
The force of truth in this matter has already pro-
duced a strong impression on the minds of the leading
members of the profession. They are rapidly adopting
this peculiarity of homoeopathic practice. Already,
also, many of the best remedies of the homoeopathists
have been extensively introduced into the prescriptions
of allopathists. Several examples of both these state-
ments have lately come under my own observation.
Such circumstances prove that notwithstanding all the
contempt of the new system which such individuals
have professed to entertain, and notwithstanding all the
ridicule they have expressed, and the indifference they
XIII.] HAHNEMANN's SYSTEM. 35 I
have pretended, at the increasing popularity of the un-
welcome novelty, it has so commended itself to their
judgment and their conscience, that they have been
constrained to adopt, or to approach towards the
adoption of many of its remedies and some of its
peculiarities. In the present attitude of the profession
towards homoeopathy, these things are done with an
ill grace, and in the eyes of observing and intelligent
lookers on are highly discreditable to men of education,
and quite unworthy of their known respectability.
It is acknowledged that the difficulties in the way of
respectable practitioners, if they contemplate embracing
homoeopathy, in its present aspect, are almost insur-
mountable; but it is hoped that by this investigation
these difficulties have been very much diminished.
Physicians will learn from it that they are not required
to commit themselves to what they may unavoidably
dislike about Hahnemann ; that they are not called
upon to pledge themselves to any hypotheses, or to
any speculations whatever; that what is required of
them is a reasonable service, namely, to open their
eyes to see, and their mouths to acknowledge what is
true and useful as...a matter of fact.
The difficulties in the way of embracing homoeopathy
thus simplified, and freed from a dress which has
rendered it so repulsive to the English mind, are not
great. Such an adoption of it would be an easy way
to escape from the false position in which many physi-
cians must be sensible they are at present placed ; a
way by which they may again honestly perform their
duties as members of an honourable profession ; a way
by which they may put themselves right with their
countrymen, satisfy the demands of Science and of
truth, and deliver themselves from the reproaches of a
dissatisfied and uneasy conscience.
4. The Sma// /Oose. — I adopt the small dose.
Nothing else has been used for five years. This is
the part of homoeopathic practice which brings upon
those who embrace it ridicule and contempt; but we
are not to be ashamed to avow anything which we
352 REVIEW OF [ESSAY
conscientiously believe to be true. Prove to us that
we are mistaken, and we will gladly retract the
€1 rC)r. - -
‘The Athenaeum ' takes high ground in its literary
and scientific pretensions, the attempt, therefore, which
has been made by that journal to convince me of my
folly, requires to be noticed, but, as will be learned from
the remarks upon the effort, it has failed of success.
Indeed, I am persuaded that others will be convinced,
though not the writer of the criticism, that he is more
in error than the individual he has undertaken to con-
demn, and that the subject is one which calls for his
re-consideration before he again pronounces so dog-
matically upon it.
In a review of the ‘Tracts on Homoeopathy,' the
writer observes —
“The foundation of all inductive science is the law
that effects are increased with the increase of their
causes, decreased by the decrease of their causes, and
changed with the change of their causes. Unless
causes and effects answer to these laws, they are not
regarded as such by sane people. In the face of these
fundamental truths, homoeopathy says effects are in-
creased by the decrease of their causes, and decreased
by the increase of their causes, and, therefore, asserts
a folly which it is not worth the while of a man in his
senses to look into. Moreover, we may add, the man
that is inclined to investigate this folly already betrays
unsoundness of mind, and we would warn him against
experimentation on the subject, which will be almost
sure to end in his adopting the delusion. We feel
ashamed to see so intelligent a man as Dr. Sharp the
victim of so weak a delusion as the evidence of cure in
homoeopathy. Does he not see that an equally im-
posing array of figures and facts could be brought
forward in favour of charms and amulets, the king's
touch, the magnets of Mesmer, and the , pills of
Morison and Holloway 2 No amount of fine writ-
ing can explain away this fact, nor get him out
XIII.] HAHNEMANN's SYSTEM. 353
of the unscientific position in which he has placed
himself.”
I cannot avoid remarking, in the first place, the
disingenuousness of this writer. In the ſirst Essay it
is stated that “Homoeopathy is not an infinitesimal
dose,” and this statement is frequently repeated.
Stress is laid upon the principle, the provings, and the
single medicine, as the parts of homoeopathy which are
to be first investigated, and most earnestly contended
for ; and though the small dose has been used in my
own practice, and has answered, it is remarked that
“Homoeopathy, as a principle, was discovered by ex-
periments made with appreciać/e doses, and a man may
be a true homoeopathist though he never prescribe
any other.” The reviewer, therefore, in ignoring
these main features of homoeopathy, and assailing only
the small dose, betrays the mea/us andments of a pre-
judiced mind. Nothing short of such prejudice could
deliver any one up to be content to make use of the
inconclusive arguments advanced in this article of the
“Athenaeum.” We will, however, examine them.
The whole of the evidence in proof of the action of
the small dose is thought to be disposed of by a knock-
down blow. “Effects are increased with the increase
of their causes, decreased by the decrease of their
causes,” and so forth. I grant the truth of this pro-
position as readily as the writer in the ‘Athenaeum’
does. What then 2 So do two and two make four;
and the inability of small quantities of triturated drugs
to act upon the living nervous system of man may as
reasonably be inferred from the latter proposition as
from the former. There never was a weaker sophism;
there never was a conclusion more illogically drawn
from any premises. I think this can be shown very
plainly to all whose eyes are not shut by prejudice.
Let it be remarked that homoeopathy does not say
that “effects are increased by the decrease of their
* Extracted from the ‘Athenaeum’ of December 30th, 1854.
* Essay I, page I.O.
2 ~)
J
3.54 REVIEW OF [ESSAY
Causes, and decreased by the increase of their causes;”
what is said on this subject, (for homoeopathy, as I
have stated in Essay I, “says nothing about the dose,”)
is this —by diminishing the mechanical adhesion of a
drug, or by dividing it into exceedingly minute parti-
cles, a very small quantity, so divided, is capable of
acting on the vital principle with sufficient energy to
cure diseases, even in respect to substances which,
when not so divided, but retaining the mechanical cohe-
Szome of their particles, have little or no effect. This is
asserted simply as a matter of fact; the proof being
daily observation of its truth. The witnesses who
testify to the truth of this fact are the medical men who
observe it.
It shall now be shown from unexceptionable sources,
that the opponents of homoeopathy practise, in type or
embryo, the same thing, and teach and believe the
same truth. My authority for the practice shall be the
‘Pharmacopoeia' of the royal college of physicians, and
for the teaching and believing, the ‘Pharmacologia' of
the present president of that college.
In the ‘Pharmacopoeia' of the royal college of phy-
sicians of London, we find the following prescription:—
“Take of Mercury, two drachms,
Confection of Red Rose, three drachms,
Liquorice, powdered, a drachm ;
“Rub the mercury with the confection until globules
can no longer be seen; then, the liquorice being added,
beat the whole together until incorporated.” Other
colleges give similar prescriptions.
It is well known that mercury, in its ordinary state
as quicksilver, has no effect upon the human body
beyond what is due to its gravity. In mercury, there-
fore, we have the type of the inert drugs used by
homoeopathists; and in this process of the trituration
1 Pharm. Lond,’ article “Pil. Hydr.,” Phillips's Translation.
XIII.] HAHNEMANN's SYSTEM. 355
of mercury we have the type of the trituration of all
other drugs.
Thus then the type or embryo of the whole practice
of homoeopathists, as regards the mode of preparing
their remedies, is to be found in the Pharmacopoeia of
the royal college of physicians. The elementary fact,
the germ of the whole discovery, has laid dormant
many years in the Pharmacopoeias of the colleges, and
the writer of the article in the ‘Athenaeum’ might, with
as much justice, condemn himself as insane, for pre-
scribing or for taking two or three grains of blue-pill,
because a large quantity of mercury would have no
action on his liver, as adjudge others to be thus insane
for prescribing or taking small doses of other inert
substances, which have been rendered active by an
exactly similar process of trituration. If the axiom
proposed by the critic,+“effects are decreased with
the decrease of their causes,”—be applicable to the
condemnation of the practice of homoeopathists, it is
equally applicable to the condemnation of the practice
of all the physicians of the civilised world. -
So much for the practice; now let us examine the
teaching and belief of physicians on this subject, and
from a source equally unexceptionable. The president
of the royal college of physicians of London delivers
himself thus :—
“The doses of medicinal substances are specific with
respect to each, and can therefore be only learnt from
experience. The young and eager practitioner, how-
ever, is too often betrayed into Z/ie error of supposing
f/at A/e powers of a remedy always increase in an equal
7-aſſo with its dose.”
Dr. Paris goes on to say, and the italics are his, not
mine, “Substances perfect/y inerſ and use/ess in one dose,
may froze in another, [meaning a smaller one', active
and valuable. Hence may be explained the great
efficacy of many mineral waters, whi'i, the ingredients
which impart activity to them are found comparatively
inert,” when they are given in large quantities.
Again on the mode of preparation by triturating in
356 REVIEW OF |ESSAY
a mortar, Dr. Paris say, “I think it may be laid down
as a general rule, that extreme pulverization assists the
operation of a// Suðstances whose active principles are
7104 easily so/uð/e.”
Thus the teaching is in accordance with the practice,
and by the sentence of the ‘Athenaeum,' I go to an
asylum in good company; having under one arm as
many Pharmacopoeias as I can carry, and leaning with
the other on that of the President of the royal college
of physicians.
There are, I think, only two remarks which can be
made in opposition to the reasoning here pursued. It
may be said that by triturating mercury a chemical
change takes place, and an oxide of mercury is pro-
duced, which is the active ingredient in blue-pill. The
answer is ready –“The mercury in this preparation,”
says Mr. Phillips, the translator of the ‘Pharmacopoeia
Londinensis,' and the best pharmaceutical chemist of
our day, “the mercury in this preparation is probably
Žn the state of minuſe division on/y.” I well remember
how Mr. Phillips dwelt upon this in his Lectures, and
how he assured us he had taken every pains to detect
an oxide in blue-pill without success. But suppose it
to be so, and that some chemical change has taken
place during trituration ; what this process effects for
one substance it may effect for others, they also may
undergo chemical changes, while being pulverized, as
well as mercury. Nevertheless, the question is not
one belonging to the science of chemistry, but to thera-
peutics; it is not about chemical changes, but whether,
when substances have been minutely divided by tritu-
ration and solution, they are capable of acting as
remedies in disease ? I submit to the ‘Athenaeum’
that this question is not answered by his proposition,
and that it can be answered only by experiment. I
have made the experiment, and believe that they are
so capable of acºg. -
1 Paris's ‘Pharmacologia, pp. I 52-3, 16I, 4th edit.
* “Translation of the P. L.,’ article “Pil. Hydrarg.”
XIII.] HAHNEMANN's SYSTEM. 357
The second remark which may be made is this —
the practice of the Pharmacopoeia, and the teaching of
the Pharmacologia, are not applicable to such very
minute quantities of the drugs as are contained in the
small doses of the homoeopathists. By what authority
is this said 2 The practice and the teaching apply SO
far as the college and its president have experience ;
their small doses act so far as they have tried them ;
they are not qualified to pronounce beyond their
experience; others have tried the small doses further;
they find that these doses act, and their experience
must needs overbalance the mere opinion without
experience of any number of their colleagues.
The plain truth upon this point is, that with respect
to the action of material agents upon the living body
of man, medical men are not in possession of Sufficient
knowledge to enable them to judge of what is greater
or less, or in what way such agents increase or decrease
in their power of action. We are not able to say
beforehand whether a grain of any substance, or the
tenth part of it, shall act most powerfully ; the experi-
ment must be tried before the answer can be given.
The proposition laid down by the reviewer is therefore
altogether irrelevant and inapplicable to the matter in
hand. It leaves the evidence of observation unim-
peached, and the insanity of the witness unproved.
The writer goes on to say that “an equally imposing
array of figures and facts could be brought forward in
favour of charms and amulets,” &c., &c. I think not,
and am persuaded that he could not prove this assertion
to be true; but suppose its truth were admitted, we
have yet to learn how that admission would prove that
we are in error on a question which has no connection
whatever with charms and amulets, or with the royal
touch, or with the pills of Holloway or Morison.
Look at the logic of this reasoning —an imposing
array of facts and figures can be brought forward in
favour of the efficacy of charms and amulets, acting
through the imagination of their patients ; therefore,
what medical men, accustomed to the observation of
358 REVIEW OF [ESSAY
disease and the effects of remedies, have seen in their
own practice, of the action of small material quantities
of drugs, not acting through the imagination of the
patient, is a delusion.
Again, an imposing array of figures and facts can be
brought forward in favour of the pills of Holloway and
Morison ; therefore, the results observed by physicians,
with very small quantities of the same drugs, is a weak
delusion. By this mode of argument anything may be
proved. It may be proved that modern chemists are
deluded because the alchemists who preceded them
were enthusiasts; that Faraday is in error because
“Elias the artist” was a rogue.
This is the best reasoning which has yet appeared
against the efficacy of the small dose, which efficacy is
attested as a fact by every one who has been willing to
observe it. Certain other parties are presumed to
have been mistaken about certain other things; there-
fore, medical men who testify what they have seen,
and which their opponents will not take opportunities
of seeing, are in a weak delusion
Such is the miserable refuge of the opponents of
homoeopathy | Does it not excite feelings of indigna-
tion to see men, who have been told by their col-
leagues an observed fact, and have been requested to
observe it themselves, hide themselves under such
flimsy subterfuges as these, under pretence of argument
and science 2
The truth upon this second point is this :—Many
erroneous notions on the cure of diseases have pre-
vailed among mankind; which fact proves that great
caution is needed to avoid being misled into other
errors on the same subject, but which proves nothing
more; least of all does it prove that observations made
with a full consciousness of this liability to be deceived,
and therefore made with every reasonable precaution
against deception,-least of all does it prove that such
observations are erroneous. -
The ludicrous timidity,+the cowardice exhibited in
the warning given “against experimentation on the
XIII.] HAHNEMANN's SYSTEM. 359
subject, which will be almost sure to end in adopting
the delusion,” might be noticed, had not more atten-
tion to this writer than his observations deserve been
already given.
It shall now be shown how the small dose, thus
theoretically opposed, is practically adopted ; which
will again bring into notice the lack of candour
and honesty exhibited by the Opponents of homoeo-
pathy.
It has already been remarked that many of the most
valuable homoeopathic remedies have been adopted
without acknowledgment, and the recommendation of
aconite in inflammatory fever by Dr. Routh has been
adduced as an example. We know that Dr. Routh
has studied homoeopathy, and has visited Dr. Fleisch-
man's hospital at Vienna. He must therefore be well
acquainted with the fact that aconite is in daily use
among homoeopathists; yet in the paper quoted from,
he does not own this fact, but implies that he has
obtained his knowledge of aconite from “a work of Dr.
Fleming's.” -
Dr. Routh goes on to say, “Unfortunately, aconite
is feared and avoided in England, as an internal thera-
peutic agent, because believed to be most uncertain in
its effects; and Zhis opinion is justifted if we emp/oy //e
ordinavy (incture of Z/ºe Zondon Pharmacopoeia ; but it
is a prejudice to apply it to the tincture of the alcoholic
extract of the root of the aconitum napellus.” “The
tincture I use contains one grain of the alcoholic
extract of the root to twenty drops of alcohol; and the
dose for an adult varies from half a drop to three
minims. I have given up to five drops, but in this
case poisonous Symptoms Supervened. . . . . I
therefore use it with great care, especially with chil-
dren. Thus, if one or two drops be added to eight
ounces of water, although only half an ounce be the
quantity given for a dose, i. e. from one thirty-
second to one sixteenth of a drop, from the 61sº
to the 320th part of a grain of the extraº
repeated every two hours, an effec


36O REVIEW OF [ESSAY
manifested on the feverish excitement in a very few
hours.” -
Here we have a physician well acquainted with the
details of homoeopathy, and the daily practice of ho-
moeopathists with reference to aconite, its mode of pre-
paration, and its dose, advancing all these, the drug
—the new mode of preparation (slighting the Pharma-
copoeia of the royal college of physicians),-and the
Small dose up to the 640th of a grain, as novelties of
his own The only item of homoeopathic practice not
adopted is the use of the fresh juice of the plant with
which to make the tincture. When this purer prepara-
tion is made use of, it will be found that a still smaller
dose will be sufficient. It is to be hoped that educated
men of respectability and character will no longer
pursue such a suicidal course as this, but that they will
take courage to act as honest men —honesøy is 4/ke Öes/
fo/icy.
To conclude ; my earnest appeal to my professional
celleagues is, that they will investigate the principle,
adopt the method of proving, prescribe the single
medicine, and try the small dose ; which last I have
used exclusively during five years, and which I shall
continue to use, without wishing to bind either myself
or others, on no Occasion to depart from its use.
5. 7%e P/armacy.—The method of preparing drugs
for medicinal use. I think the method proposed by
Hahnemann better than those followed in the pharma-
copoeias of the college of physicians. In the place of
the decoctions, infusions, extracts, mixtures, tinctures,
pills, powders, syrups, &c., &c., it is proposed to adopt
a single and uniform preparation. Minerals and other
dry substances being prepared by pounding or tritu-
rating a small quantity with some non-medicinal sub-
stance, as sugar of milk, and by subdividing this by
repeating the triturations with fresh portions of sugar
the required number of times; and vegetable juices by
mixing them with pure alcohol, and dividing these
ithwaite's ‘Retrospect,' vol. xxxii, p. 97.

XIII.] HAHNEMANN's SYSTEM. 36 I
tinctures by mixing small portions of them with fresh
quantities of alcohol, as often as required. This
method is explained in detail in Essay II. The pre-
parations are kept either as powders or tinctures, or
small pellets or pilules of sugar of milk are Saturated
with the tinctures, and kept in that state. The medi-
cine in this last form has these advantages,—it does
not evaporate, it is less liable to be injured by light,
and it can be administered, especially to children, with
little trouble."
The new mode of preparing drugs for use as medi-
cines is, therefore, adopted.
III. It shall now be stated what those parts of the
usual method of treating diseases are, the abandon-
ment of which is involved in the adoption of homoeo-
pathy.
I. All modes of abstracting blood from a patient.
The lancet, the leech, and the cupping-glass are laid
aside. So far as my experience has yet gone, they are
never required. It is true this has been to me much
less of a change than it would be to many practitioners.
As a student I was taught that nearly all acute diseases
might be benefited by loss of blood ; at that time, as
Dr. Adams has remarked, “venesection in fever, and
in almost every disease, was the established order of
the day.” As years rolled on in practice, observation
taught me that this mode of proceeding was often
fraught with mischief, and the lancet had been laid
aside before I had heard of homoeopathy. Leeches
were still applied. With the remedies to which the
principle of homoeopathy directs, no wish is felt even
for a leech. On the contrary, great satisfaction is
experienced at the quick recovery, avoidance of debility,
and shortening of convalescence, experienced by adopt-
* We are much indebted to the leading homoeopathic
chemists of England for the pains they have taken with their
preparations of the drugs, which are admirable, and may be
relied upon with confidence..
* Adams's ‘Translation of Hippocrates, vol. i., p. 307.
362 REVIEW OF [ESSAY
ing these remedies and abstaining from all abstraction
of blood.
2. The blister, the moxa, the issue, the seton, and
all means of producing inflammation, vesication, sup-
puration, or mortification of the sound and healthy skin
are abandoned. The rule of homoeopathy, to let well
alone, not to meddle with healthy parts so as to make
them ill, necessarily leads us to avoid all such applica-
tions as these. It can be truly said these things are
never wished for now, and I am persuaded that my
patients never suffer for the want of them. They are
more quickly and more effectually relieved by remedies
directed to the diseased organ, and they are spared all
the pain which the use of such means unavoidably
Occasions.
3. All mixing and compounding of drugs is discon-
tinued. The mischievous “luxuriancy of composition”
complained of by Cullen is abandoned. This practice
has been, for centuries, one of the stoutest barriers
against improvement, one of the greatest difficulties in
the advancement of knowledge, so that no regret need
follow it to its burial. The adoption of a single medi-
cine opens the door of instruction to the physician, and
is a great gain to the patient.
4. All poisonous doses of drugs. We shall never
learn the amount of mischief done, by even the most
careful and observing amongst us, with the large doses
we have been accustomed to give. Not to mention
the sudden deaths which annually occur from the
mistakes of druggists and compounders of medicines,
the effect of over-dosing in all our hands has, I fear,
often been disastrous.
It will be said, in reply to this, if we have formerly
injured our patients by excess of physic, we shall by
adopting the small dose of homoeopathists, allow un-
checked disease to injure them still more. On the
ground of sufficient observation this is denied, it is not
true. The doses used by homoeopathists may always
be such as will check disease as far as drugs can
c/accá it.
XIII.] HAHNEMANN's SYSTEM. 363
5. The multiform preparations of the pharmacopoeia.
The infusions, decoctions, extracts, &c., &c., by which
the active principles of many drugs are more or less
injured or destroyed. The loss of all this variety need
not be regretted. It is a Pandora's box, better shut
up.
6. The things hitherto noticed are external and
visible, open to the cognisance of patients, indeed,
which cannot be concealed from them, and which have
led them to take great interest in the medical reforma-
tion. There is a greater change, which the adoption
of the new method produces, of an internal character,
and which belongs to the operations of the mind. It
lies in the mode of thought and reasoning pursued by
the physician at the bedside of the sick.
On being consulted by a patient the physician in-
vestigates the symptoms, and aims at a true diagnosis;
he has been accustomed then to ask himself what are
the indications, and what remedies he has seen answer
those indications best, in other similar cases; or, if he
is young and inexperienced, to ask himself what eminent
practitioners have taught him, orally or in their writings,
to do for such a case ; and he prescribes according to
this experience or teaching. The question he is re-
required to ask himself now is this, -what drug, when
taken in health, acts upon the Organs he sees affected
in this case, and produces similar symptoms 2 The
answer to the question indicates the remedy to be
used. This is a real and a great change; one which
astonishes and perplexes the mind; a true Öou/everse-
ment; and which time only can render natural and easy.
It is described in the Essay on the single medicine.
It is so great that I think no medical man can carry
on the two modes of reasoning successfully at the
same time,
IV.-Lastly, it shall be pointed out what those parts
of the usual method are which still remain available
and useful, and are retained.
I. The preliminary study of anatomy and physiology
364 REVIEW OF |ESSAY
remains, of course, as important as ever. A medical
man cannot be too accurately acquainted with the
structure and functions of the different organs of the
body. The more minute his knowledge on these
subjects is, the better.
2. Morbid anatomy and pathology are made more
valuable, because more useful to the new, than they
were to the old methods. The morbid changes pro-
duced by poisons on the one hand, and by diseases on
the other, are to be carefully compared ; and thus an
interest is thrown into this painful study which could
not attach to it before.
3. Toxicology, hitherto studied only for the discovery
of antidotes, and for the requirements of medico-legal
investigations, is advanced into a science of the first
importance. Cases of poisoning are studied with deep
interest, because they are required to complete the
picture, obtained by voluntary provings, of the charac-
teristic properties of all drugs intended to be used as
remedies in disease.
4. The operations of surgery and midwifery remain
unaffected, except in so far as they are frequently
rendered unnecessary by the success of internal treat-
ment. It may be remarked here that the small dose
of secale cornutum has, I think, all the beneficial effect
sought for from large quantities of that drug, while its
injurious action on the infant seems to be avoided.
5. Any advantages which may be derived from the
collateral sciences, such as botany, chemistry, &c., re-
main as they were. It is highly proper that all medical
students should be well instructed in them.
6. Diagnosis. The value of a correct knowledge of
the nature of the case, of the actual condition of the
patient, cannot be estimated too highly. All prelimi-
nary studies should be subservient to these two ends—
to qualify the physician to detect disease, and to enable
him to prescribe for it in the best possible manner. If
diagnosis was important before, under the old régime,
it is doubly so under the new. I cannot find words
to express the value which a physician should set upon
XIII.] HAHNEMANN's SYSTEM. 365
the knowledge of disease, nor the pains he should take
to increase that knowledge.
7. Diet. Much has been said, on both sides, upon
the subject of diet. Homoeopathists have laid so much
stress upon it, as almost to justify their opponents in
saying that all the cures are brought about by diet;
and one or two individuals have carried their restric-
tions in regard to the allowance of food so far in some
cases as almost to have caused the death of their
patients.
For my own part, scarcely any change has been
made in the advice given on this subject. It has
always seemed to me that the nature of the case, not
the kind of medicine to be given, should determine the
appropriate supplies of food. With the exception of
excluding articles which may Operate as antidotes to
the medicine, the same diet has been advised under
the new treatment which I was accustomed to advise
under the old.
8. Everything relative to the hygienic and moral
treatment of invalids remains unaltered. Suitable
clothing, exercise, sleep, Sea-air, sponging, bathing,
travelling, are as available as before. It need scarcely
be added that every aid which cheerful and affectionate
friends can render, and every consolation which religion
can minister, are as acceptable, and may be as bene-
ficial, as they have ever been.
ESSAY X IV.
THE MATERIA MEDICA,
“HE giveth medicine to heal their sickness.”
PSALM czlvii.
ESSAY X IV."
THE MATERIA MEDICA,
-º-º-º-
“IT is best, as has been often said and demonstrated, to
determine the powers of each medicine by exact experiment,
for by this you cannot be deceived.” AETIUS.
-º-º-º-
FooD and medicines are the gift of God. “He gives
food to all,” and “He gives medicine to heal their
sickness.” He has also given us bodily senses and
powers of mind; and He expects us to exercise our
senses and our reason in regard to His other gifts; so
that these may be used and not abused.
As respects medicines these powers of observation
and thought have not, hitherto, been well employed.
The articles of the Materia Medica, as they have
been accumulating for centuries, are grotesque and
countless. They may be called, as the baggage of the
Roman army was, impedimenta. The student who
wishes to become acquainted with them is bewildered
by their incongruity, and his progress is impeded by
their multitude. The useful articles are like corn
before it is winnowed, buried in chaff. The precious
ones are like diamonds hidden in their native sand.
* First published in 1861. Extracted, with additions, from
‘A Letter to Sir B. C. Brodie, Bart., P. R. S.,’ in reply to his
Letter in ‘Fraser's Magazine’ for September, 1861.
24
37O THE MATERIA MEDICA. [ESSAY
It is not the design of this Essay to unpack the
baggage, to winnow the corn, or even to pick out the
diamonds. Its purpose is much more modest. It will
be confined to some reflections on the Materia Medica
of Hahnemann, and to the suggestion of what appears
to be an improvement.
Medicines are the chief means by which physicians
attempt to restore the sick to health. They are the
instruments by which the sacred harp of man's body is
to be brought back to harmony, when this has been
disturbed by disease. This use gives medicines them-
Selves a degree of sacredness which they would not
Otherwise possess.
Their virtues have been sought after, up to our time,
by experiments on the sick.
We are now encouraged by the example of Hahne-
mann to learn these virtues by experiments on the
healthy.
It may be expected that the arrangement of the
articles of which the Materia Medica consists, and
the manner in which their properties are described,
on this new method, will differ from the arrangements
and descriptions of former teachers.
With respect to the arrangement of the articles,
however, Hahnemann has not departed from the plan
generally followed by writers on the Materia Medica
before him. He has arranged them alphabetically; if,
indeed, this can be called any arrangement at all.
But with respect to the description of their pro-
perties, he has signally departed from all former pre-
cedents. In paragraph six of the last Essay his
manner of giving the results of experiments in health
has been briefly mentioned. Its importance demands
a fuller examination. -
In his preface to the ‘Materia Medica Pura' Hahne-
mann says — - -
“In my Organon of the healing art, I teach the
principle that diseases can only be cured by remedies
which produce analogous symptoms upon the healthy
XIV.] THE MATERLA MEDICA. 37 I
organism, and I moreover assert and prove, that every
system of therapeutics, in order to become a safe guide
in the treatment of disease, ought to exclude all empty
assertions and conjectures, as regards the supposed
virtues of medicines, and ought to furnish a correct
description of the symptoms by which remedial agents
manifest their action upon the healthy organism.
“The symptoms of those remedies which have been
studied with more care, have been arranged in a
certain order. This facilitates the finding of the
desired symptom. Among similar symptoms of dif-
ferent remedies, some ought to have been pointed out
as parallel passages. My time did not permit me to
attend to this.
“The symptoms have been arranged in the following
order:—
Vertigo.
Obnubilation.
Defects of the mind.
Defects of the memory.
Headache, internal, external.
Forehead, Hair.
Face.
Eyes and Sight.
Ears, Hearing (articulation of the jaw).”
&c., &c., &c.
Hahnemann's arrangement is thus seen to be one of
symptoms merely, without an attempt to trace or indi-
cate any connection between them ; indeed, it renders
the discovery of such connections impossible. Its use
can scarcely be other than a mechanical enumeration
of the symptoms of the patient, and a comparison of
them with those of drugs.
If diseases were described in this manner, no one
could recognise them.
Dr. Dudgeon, in one of his Lectures, gives us a
witty simile —
* Hahnemann's ‘Materia Medica Pura’ by Hempel, vol. i.,
p. 8.
372 THE MATERIA MEDICA. [ESSAY
“The Hahnemannic schema is as unnatural and
artificial an arrangement of the features of many allied
morbid portraits as though an artist should paint a
family group, arranging all the eyes of all the members
of the family in one part of the picture, all the noses in
another, the ears all together, the mouths all together,
and so on. . From such a picture, correct though each
feature might be, it would be a difficult matter for us
to build up each separate portrait, and it is equally
difficult for us to ascertain the various morbid portraits
from the Čač/eaua Hahnemann has presented us with
in his Materia Medica.”
Dr. Drysdale had previously made the following
remarks –
“The same method must be followed in observing
and describing the effects of medicines as in observing
and describing natural diseases. . . . . Take the
example of any disease arising from a morbid poison
—a specific cause acting from without, and therefore
quite analogous to the effects of medicines. Let any-
One take a case of such disease and write out the
symptoms carefully, but instead of doing so in their
natural order and connection in the form of a narrative,
let him arrange them in the form of the ordinary
schema, or register of symptoms in which our medicines
are usually arranged, and then show it to another
person well versed in the diagnosis of the disease. It
is almost certain that the latter will fail to recognise it,
and will view it with somewhat of the curiosity one
would display towards a Chinese puzzle, to which we
have not the key.”
Hahnemann's Materia Medica is a huge curiosity
shop, in which are ingeniously displayed upon their
respective pedestals and tripods, all imaginable signs
and sensations, whether tragic or comic ; and in which
all are doing their best to attract the notice of those
who are willing to inspect them.
1 Dr. Dudgeon's ‘Lectures, p. 233. I 854. de
2 * The Hahnemann Materia Medica,’ Part I, Introduction,
p. 1, by J. J. Drysdale, M. D. 1852.
–)
XIV. THE MATERIA MEDICA. 373
And yet this method, eccentric and even absurd as
it appears, has not been, in a practical sense, without
great merit. This is proved by the fact that, up to
this time, homoeopathists have worked out their success
by its use, in spite of its eccentricities; and have won a
large amount of respect, both for themselves and their
system, by its help, in spite of its absurdities.
Moreover, Hahnemann's example has been followed
by almost every new prover since his time; and a large
number of ‘Clinical Guides’ and “Repertories' have
been prepared with intolerable labour, to facilitate the
use of this singular arrangement, and to bring this
bewildering catalogue of scattered members into com-
prehensible limits.
Nevertheless, Hahnemann's scheme must be looked
upon as a temporary and transitional arrangement, and
not as a finished or abiding basis of therapeutics; and
researches must be undertaken in different directions,
to find a better and more lasting foundation.
A great effort towards the discovery of this truer
foundation was made in 1852, by Drs. Drysdale,
Dudgeon, and Black. This effort was a step in
advance, and in the right direction. Whereas Hahne-
mann's arrangement was one of separate and individual
symptoms, theirs is one of “groups” of symptoms. In
the new plan, all the symptoms in a proving which have
a manifest connection with each other, are put together.
So that while Hahnemann's numbers simply count the
symptoms, the numbers in this scheme count the
groups."
By this method it becomes possible to form a notion
of the pathological condition from which the symptoms
arise; by Hahnemann's method this was not possible.
Is it impossible to advance any further 2 It is
acknowledged that the Materia Medica arranged upon
Hahnemann's scheme is already overwhelming in the
multiplicity of its details, and extends far outside the
* “The Hahnemann Materia Medica,’ Part I. 1852.
374 THE MATERIA MEDICA. [ESSAY
limits of any memory. And will not this be true of
the “group " method, if carried out to the same ex-
tent Assuredly it will. This picture, as well as Dr.
Dudgeon's, will resemble the family group of the Vicar
of Wakefield, of which we are told that when finished
it “was so very large that there was no place in the
house to fix it ;” so that it “leaned in a most morti-
fying manner against the kitchen wall, where the
canvass was stretched and painted, much too large to
be got through any of the doors, and the jest of all our
neighbours.” It seems imperative, therefore, to go in
search of some other plan which, even when completed,
will be confined within manageable limits.
A suggestion is adventured upon. -
Let it be premised, however, and be clearly under-
stood that, in the first instance, provings should be
recorded in the same manner as cases of disease have
always been described. Some volumes of simple
descriptions of the effects of drugs in health, showing,
without note or comment, their connection and suc-
cession, would be a treasure house for study and
reference; then—
The suggestion is this—that an endeavour should
be made to arrange these effects anatomica/ſy; that is,
to refer, as far as is possible, each symptom to its seat,
to the organ or part of the body in which it originates
and to which it belongs.
When this has been done, it will be possible to
arrange the articles of the Materia Medica themselves
under the several organs of the body on which they
have either a primary or subordinate action.
This will surely facilitate their use, and help to
secure their application to the diseases of the same
parts of the body. And we cannot have too vividly
impressed upon our minds that the first element of
success in prescribing a remedy is this, that it has the
power of acting where the disease exists.
The following is given as a specimen of the sugges-
tion now made; or as an illustration of the manner in
xIV.] THE MATERIA MEDICA. 375
which it is thought that a useful and moderately-sized
compendium of the Materia Medica may be constructed.
It does not pretend to be perfect : in the present state
of our knowledge it cannot be. Indeed, having quoted
the ‘Vicar of Wakefield’ already, the best preface
which can be put before this undertaking is the first
sentence of Goldsmith's advertisement —
“There are a hundred faults in this thing ; and a
hundred things might be said to prove them beauties;
but it is needless.”
THE METALS.
More than forty metals are now known to chemists ;
with some of these little has yet been done beyond
discovering a few of their chemical relations; with
many we are familiarly acquainted as drugs. It has
been ascertained that each of these has its own sphere
of action in the living body. The details proving this
are so numerous and unequivocal that it is impossible
to avoid the inference that it will be found to be true
of the rest, as our knowledge of them extends.
It is also now fully established that each metal,
when minutely divided by trituration, possesses active
powers, so that the remark often made in works on
Toxicology, that such and such metals are inert in
their metallic state, can no longer be received as true.
Further, it is certain that the various compounds of each
metal with other bodies, possess their own distinguish-
ing characteristics, while these different preparations of
the same metal bear a family likeness. These minuter
shades of difference are not at present meddled with ;
the properties named under each metal are those best
known, whether they belong to the substance in its
metallic state, or to its compounds.
In the description now given of the action of each
metal, for the most part only what is best established,
is admitted ; so that there is much room left for addi-
376 THE MATERIA MEDICA. [ESSAY
tional observations, and, doubtless also for many
COrreCt1OnS.
GOLD–as a poison.
Professor Christison, quoting from Orfila, writes
thus of gold —“Its poisonous properties are powerful,
and closely allied to those of the chlorides of tin and
nitrate of silver. In the state of chloride it occasions
death in three or four minutes when injected into the
veins even in very minute doses; and the lungs are
found after death so turgid as to sink in water. But
if it be swallowed corrosion takes place, the salt is so
rapidly decomposed that none is taken up by the
absorbents, and death ensues simply from the local
injury.” “Even doses so small as the tenth of a grain
have been known to produce an unpleasant degree of
irritation of the stomach.” (Majendie.) This is the
chloride. “In the state of fulminating gold this metal has
given rise to alarming poisoning in former times, when it
was used medicinally.” “It excites griping, diarrhoea,
vomiting, convulsions, fainting, salivation ; and some-
times has proved fatal.” (Plenck.) “Hoffman likewise
repeatedly saw it prove fatal, and the most remarkable
symptoms were vomiting, great anxiety, and faint-
ing. In one of his cases the dose (which caused death)
was only six grains.”
Metallic gold was pulverized or triturated by the
Arabians. Several modern physicians have experi-
mented with it, thus reduced to minute subdivisions,
upon themselves, taking, in divided doses, one or two
grains. The result of these experiments shows that
gold acts upon—
1. The mind and the Örain ; producing in the
former great melancholy and depression of spirits, in
the latter congestion, and affecting also the eyes.
* Professor Christison on ‘Poisons,' page 493. Fourth
Edition. I 845.
XIV.] THE MATERIA MEDICA. 377
2. The chest; causing dyspnoea, expectoration of
viscid phlegm (like kali bichromas), palpitation of the
heart, congestion of the lungs.
3. The digestive organs; fetid odour from the
mouth, putrid smell, putrid taste, salivation, nausea,
flatulence, vomiting, constipation at first, afterwards
diarrhoea, with burning in the rectum.
The domes generally, particularly the nasal, palatine,
and facial bones; giving rise to inflammation, exos-
tosis, and caries.
It is thus seen that gold has a penetrating or deep-
seated action ; commencing in the brain, and affecting
very specially the mind, passing through the chest and
abdomen, and, finally, concentrating its energies on the
bones in general, and particularly on those of the face.
GOLD–as a remedy.
Gold was much used as a medicine some centuries
ago. It was thought to promote the production of
animal heat, to strengthen the heart, to restore the
blood, to expel noxious humours, and, particularly, to
exhilarate depressed spirits. For some time gold has
been abandoned as a medicinal drug, it is now begin-
ning to be employed again.
Triturated gold has been prescribed by me with
success in the following, among other, cases —
1. A case of extreme melancholy and despondency;
the patient was in a most distressing state ; after
various other remedies had failed, the first trituration,
(one hundredth of a grain), was prescribed ; he wrote
after this, “I felt better at once.”
2. A case of ozaena of long standing ; the ulcer in
the nose was discharging a fetid purulent matter,
accompanied with caries of the bones, and the consti-
º greatly deranged ; the boy was permanently
CUll eCl.
378 THE MATERIA MEDICA. |ESSAY
3. A child in a hopeless state of disease; one
feature was a Severe ophthalmia with ulcers on the
cornea in both eyes, which had resisted the prolonged
and varied use of many excellent remedies; the poor
child was emaciated and exhausted with suffering and
fretfulness; and the mother was almost as bad from
nursing, anxiety, and want of rest. The quantity
taken was a minute fraction of a grain, in divided
doses. The little patient was restored, by God's
blessing, to perfect health.
4. A case of exostosis of the tibia, just below the
knee, a boy; the first trituration was given with
benefit ; I believe a cure was effected, but, as often
happens when that is the result, the patient's friends
did not think it worth while to convey this intelligence
directly to me.
Gold is an antidote to mercury; it relieves the
neuralgic pains and other mischievous effects of that
metal, especially when the bones have been injured by
it. And vice versä mercury is an antidote to gold.
The organs selected by gold upon which to produce
its effects are distinct, and its action profound; and
whether it be given in health or in disease, as a
poison or as a remedy, the Organs upon which it acts
are, in both cases, the same.
SILVER—as a poison.
Silver in a state of minute division, that is, after
trituration, acts both as a poison and as a remedy.
Its best known compound is the nitrate, which is
universally used by Surgeons as a caustic application to
ulcers. The nitrate of silver possesses the singular
recommendation for this purpose, that when applied in
substance it acts with difficulty beyond the part which
it touches; the reason of this is that on coming in
contact with animal matter chemical changes take
place both in the nitrate and in the animal tissue to
XIV.] THE MATERIA MEDICA. 379
such an extent that the salt is immediately decom-
posed, and the part which has been touched instantly
loses its vitality. When given internally in Small
doses nitrate of silver is absorbed. “It is not easy,”
says Professor Christison, “to account otherwise for
the singular blueness of the skin sometimes observed
after the protracted use of lunar caustic as a remedy
for epilepsy and other diseases.” The same authority
states that in one instance of poisoning with this drug
“the whole internal organs were more or less blue.”
Metallic silver, from the decomposition of the nitrate,
has been found in the choroid plexus of the brain, in
the pancreas, the liver, and the spleen, and in the
urine.
The post-mortem appearances are a 6/ue colour of
the organs, softening of the mucous membranes, and
ulceration.
Metallic silver has been found to act upon :-
I. The joints; causing severe pain and lameness.
The action of silver upon the articulations is said to be
very uniformly the same, and very certain.
2. The muscles, tendons, and ligaments in the neigh-
bourhood of joints.
3. The cartilages; particularly those of the ears,
nose, Eustachian tube, and false ribs.
4. The Öones; especially the long bones.
5. The glands; as the salivary glands, the testes.
6. The ſheará; probably as a muscle.
7. The Örain and nerves ; slightly, producing giddi-
ness and stupefaction, and spasmodic jerkings, like
electric shocks, in different parts of the body.
8. The Kidneys and the uſerus; slightly."
The prominent symptoms of an overdose of the
nitrate of silver are —
Nausea and inclination to vomit (this is sometimes
* For the action of silver I have ventured to rely a good
deal upon Jahr, who is indebted to Huber.
38O THE MATERIA MEDICA. [ESSAY
relieved immediately by hearty eating), heart-burn,
water-brash, and pain in the stomach ; intermission in
the heart's action ; catarrh ; in one very severe case,
after an ounce of nitrate of silver in solution had been
taken “the individual was found insensible, with the
eyes turned up, the pupils dilated, the jaws locked,
and the arms and face agitated with convulsions.”
(Christison.) Common salt was given as a chemical
antidote, and the patient recovered after vomiting a
large quantity of chloride of silver.
Dr. Huber, who has experimented upon himself to a
great extent with silver, thinks that a principal effect
of silver is to produce congestion and increased sensi-
bility of the nerves; this argues a direct action upon
the blood vessels and nervous system.
Silver causes a less profound alteration in the
condition of the body than is produced by gold.
SILVER—as a remedy.
Silver, as well as gold, was much used in medicine a
few centuries ago. Its powers are thus described in
the debased Latin of that period; “Capitis corro-
borans perhibetur specificum, Spiritusque animales
confortare, unde et Omnibus capitis affectibus peculiaris
efficaciae censetur, quales imprimis epilepsia, apoplexia,
et similes.”
The nitrate of silver is still extensively used in
epilepsy, but with very partial success. Pereira indeed
says it “occasionally, perhaps more frequently than
any other remedy, proved successful.” But epilepsy
has, hitherto, been seldom cured. There is little in
the action of silver on the healthy brain to recommend
it as a remedy for epilepsy, though it is not without
action on that organ, and may be adapted to some
cases. It is thought that silver is best Suited to
epilepsy arising from moral causes. ... Other, drugs are
much more efficacious in curing epilepsy than silver,
such as belladonna, opium, and, in minute doses, the
chloride of Sodium.
XIV.] THE MATERIA MEDICA. 381
Metallic silver has been found useful in diseases;–
I. Of the joints; as in rheumatism, coxalgia, and in
some affections of the elbow and knee. A very long-
lasting and severe case of coxalgia in a young woman,
and another nearly similar affection of the knee, have
been cured by it in my hands.
2. Of the muscles; particularly of the psoas muscle,
and in spasm of the heart. - -
3. Of the bones, cartilages, and synovial membranes;
of a congestive or inflammatory character.
4. In chorea.
Nitrate of silver is much used for certain gastric
diseases, as gastralgia, and for ulceration of the mucous
membrane of the bowels. It is closely connected with
these ailments, as may be learned from the post-
morſem appearances. I have frequently found it very
beneficial in such cases.
COPPER—as a poison.
Copper, when reduced to minute division by tritura-
tion, acts in its metallic state. The compounds of
copper best known are the sulphate, or blue vitriol ;
the acetate, or artificial verdigris; the carbonate, or
natural verdigris; and the hydrated peroxide, or
mineral green. These and other preparations of
copper are used as pigments in the arts ; the two
first mentioned are often employed in medicine and
Surgery.
Copper acts upon—
1. The organs of generation. (Taylor.)
2. The liver; producing jaundice.
3. The a/imentary cana/; causing nausea, vomiting
colic pains, purging, and sometimes salivation. The
evacuations are green.
4. The muscles; throwing them into violent cramps.
382 THE MATERIA MEDICA. [ESSAY
5. The heará; the action of the heart becomes
feeble and the pulse small.
6. The Örain and nerves ; epilepsy, palsy, insensi-
bility, are produced.
7. The Séin , pimples and scaly patches.
8. The respiratory organs; spasmodic cough.
Copper acts in whatever manner it is introduced
into the body. It is found after death in the blood, in
the liver, spleen, heart, kidneys, and lungs; particu-
larly in the liver. It imparts a green colour to many
internal organs; the skin is yellow ; other appearances
are those which usually accompany similar disease
from other causes. Copper may prove fatal by
external application alone.
COPPER—as a remedy.
“Praeterguam quod partes generationes peculiariter
confortare creditur. Majoribus ac precipuè Hippo-
crati frequentissimo in usu fuit.” Such has been the
opinion of the virtue of copper for upwards of two
thousand years. Hahnemann omits almost entirely
its action upon these Organs." I am quite sure, from
my own observation, that copper acts powerfully as a
remedy in diseases of the organs of generation, and
particularly in obstinate menorrhagia. In the follow-
ing case the red or sub-oride of copper, (perhaps not
before used in medicine,) was successful —
1. Menorrhagia. Case. Mrs. —, the mother of
several children, who has resided some years in India,
is now in a state of extreme debility ; scarcely able to
walk from one room to another ; face very pale ; lips
livid; pulse feeble and small; an anaemic state arising
from excessive catamenia. A very patent OS uteri
with jagged edges. The sub-oxide of copper, tritu-
1 Hahnemann’s “Chronic Diseases,’ by Hempel; vol. III,
art. ‘Cuprum.'
XIV.] THE MATERIA MEDICA. 383
rated, and given in doses of the hundredth part of a
grain twice a day for some months, moderated the
catamenia, and restored this lady to a comfortable
state of health.
2. Jaundice. Copper has been useful in one or two
cases of jaundice.
3. Cholera. In severe cases of vomiting, purging,
and cramp of the muscles; and in Asiatic cholera,
with rice-water evacuations, loss of voice, cessation of
pulse at the wrist, cold tongue, and such cramps as
had produced large bruises in the legs, thighs, and
abdomen, a condition apparently moribund, I have
seen the acetate of copper, in doses of the hundredth
part of a grain in Solution, alternated with veratrum
album, in similar doses, subdue every sympton in a
few hours; the violent cramp yielding specially to the
copper. This experience is simply a confirmation of
that of all who have used these remedies in cholera.
4. Spasm of muscles, or cramp seems to be more
effectually relieved by copper, than by any other
remedy ; except when it arises directly from irritation
of the spinal cord, when nux vomica is better.
5. Paralysis. Case. Numbness and pain in the
right arm and hand; the limb “going to sleep;” and
the thumb becoming stiff; the attack coming on
suddenly at uncertain intervals for many years ; with-
out manifest cause or connection with any other
ailment. The nerves both of sensation and motion
were primarily affected in this case; the muscles
secondarily. Metallic copper was the first remedy
tried, and it effected an immediate and permanent
Cllre.
6. Copper is also a remedy for some cases of
epilepsy, chorea, spasmodic cough, and for some
cutaneous affections; all which corresponds with the
observations made on its action as a poison. Nothing,
in fact, can be clearer than that there is a connection
between the physiological action of copper as a poison,
and its curative action as a remedy. Jaundice is an
affection which, according to Christison, distinguishes
384 THE MATERIA MEDICA. |ESSAY
copper as a poison, from arsenic and corrosive subli-
mate. Silver dyes the organs blue; copper dyes them
green. -
IRON−as a poison.
Metallic iron is now used in medicine, after having
been minutely divided by trituration with an inert
powder. In this form it acts powerfully upon the liv-
ing body. The compounds of iron best known are the
Oxides, chlorides, carbonates, sulphates, and iodides.
Iron being contained in sensible quantities in the
blood, a supply of it must be required for this purpose;
this is afforded by our ordinary food, which contains
iron in small portions. Iron is thus one of the links
between food and drugs. The supply of it in the food
may sometimes be insufficient, and may be artificially
increased by its being given as a medicine.
When iron is taken in quantities beyond this require-
ment of nature, or in a form not adapted to the
purpose, it acts as an injurious or poisonous substance
upon—
1. The 7zztárifive function ; producing a degeneration
of the blood, and a condition of the body called
anaemic. The symptoms are great paleness of the
face, lips, and surface of the body, or sallowness of the
skin; loss of appetite; sense of oppression after taking
small quantities of food ; gripings; black fetid evacua-
tions; perspirations; swelling of the feet; and general
weakness and emaciation. Also haemorrhages from the
various orifices of the body, are effects of iron.
2. The atterine function ; greatly facilitating concep-
tion. This fact I have repeatedly verified.
3. The stomac/, and Öowe/s; disagreeable eructa-
tions; nausea; sense of oppression and tightness of
the stomach ; vomiting of infty &/acé matter ; colic ;
diarrhoea, with Ölack evacuations. These affections of
the alimentary canal may be produced without the
anaemic state before described.
xIV.] THE MATERIA MEDICA. 385
4. The Aidneys and Ö/adder; urine high coloured ;
Strangury.
5. The lungs; loud breathing as in sleep ; cough
haemoptysis.
6. The muscles; cramp, and contraction of the
limbs.
7. The Örain ; severe headache; throbbing ; giddi-
Il CSS.
Post-mortem appearances; a more or less diseased
state of the alimentary canal, which is found of a
reddish brown, or intensely 3/acé colour, or lined with
a thick layer of jet-black mucus; the spleen, liver,
and kidneys similarly stained 6/acé; congestion of the
brain.
IRON−as a remedy.
Two hundred years ago, this metal was frequently
employed as a remedy. In our own time it has been .
asserted that “metallic iron exerts no action on the
living system.” This is now ascertained to be an
error, and iron, minutely divided, is again coming into
use in medicine. I have prescribed it with success for
some years. The oxides, and the salts of iron are
administered daily.
Iron is given—
I. As the principal remedy for chlorosis, and other
anaemic conditions. These conditions of the blood and
nutritive function correspond exactly with those which
iron itself produces.
2. For diseases of the uterus, and its appendages.
3. For diseases of the digestive organs, dyspepsia,
diarrhoea; and for the debility arising from these de-
rangements.
4. For affections of the kidneys and bladder; parti-
cularly for strangury.
5. In some cases of haemorrhage from the lungs
25
386 THE MATERIA MEDICA. [ESSAY
I have found iron succeed better than any other
remedy.
The connection between the effects of iron as a
poison, and the employment of it as a remedy, is
so obvious that no special evidence is needed to
prove it.
LEAD–as a poison.
Lead, when reduced to minute division, acts power-
fully in its metallic state. Its principal preparations
are the acetate, or sugar of lead, the oxides, iodides,
and sulphurets. Galena, the common ore, is the native
sulphuret.
Lead acts upon—
I. The gums, a 6/ue line along the edge of the
gums is a visible and characteristic effect of lead,
and a constant premonitory symptom of the lead
colic.
2. The Öowels; producing a peculiar and character-
istic colic, to which it gives its name, colica plumbea,
or painters' colic. Constipation is also a primary and
very characteristic effect of lead ; this constipation is
sometimes extreme. Very large doses of the salts of
lead will occasionally produce something like inflamma-
tion ; but there is so little tendency in the direction of
inflammation in the natural action of lead, that when a
case of this kind occurs, it is marked by the rare
peculiarity of a pulse falling to forty or even to thirty
pulsations in a minute ; so much does the case differ
from inflammation produced by other metals.
It is well known that arsenic selects the stomach,
small intestines, and rectum, passing by the colon; lead
selects the colon and leaves untouched the other por-
tions of the alimentary canal. Again, the action of
arsenic is on the mucous coat of the stomach and
bowels, while that of lead is on the muscular coat, the
mucous membrane being left unaffected.
XIV.] THE MATERIA MEDICA. 387
3. The muscles; paralysis of the muscles is a well-
defined peculiarity of lead. The palsy is not general,
as in apoplexy ; nor of half the body, as in hemiplegia
and paraplegia; but partial, as of the muscles of the
forearm, thumb, or fingers; it is generally preceded by
numbness and trembling, and accompanied by wasting
of the muscles ; there is a liability to a sudden
dropping of the arm. The action of lead upon the
muscular system is the opposite of that of copper, and
of some other metals, which produce spasms or exces-
sive contractive efforts.
4. The Zungs; haemoptysis sometimes occurs in lead
poisoning, accompanied with slight cough and dyspnoea ;
as in some of the following cases.
In July, 1856, I was consulted by a religious house
consisting of about forty persons. Nearly all were
suffering from loss of appetite, impaired digestion, con-
stipation, emaciation, and palpitation of the heart on
slight exertion; and several had, in addition, tightness
of the chest on taking a deep inspiration, and haemo-
ptysis. These symptoms had gradually appeared and
spread among the community for during nearly two
years. The extensive prevalence of such serious affec-
tions led me to suspect, and to search for, some common
cause. Lead was found in the water. Of course the
leaden cistern and pipes which supplied the buildings
were removed, and other materials were substituted ;
and during the following year all these ailments
vanished. (And have not returned. 1874.)
5. The Örain ; after severe attacks of colic, apo-
plexy and sudden death in a state of coma, sometimes
happen.
LEAD–as a remedy.
Of lead it is said in the old books, “refrigerat,
adstringit, incrassat;” in modern ones it is called an
astringent and sedative. The acetate is used to re-
press bleeding from the lungs, and from the bowels;
388 THE MATERIA MEDICA. | ESSAY
and externally as a lotion for inflamed eyes, &c.
According to the teaching of the new system, it must
be used with reference to the physiological effects just
described.
I. The bowels; I have found lead remarkably useful
in many cases of chronic constipation from torpor of
the bowels. The preparation prescribed is the tritu-
rated metal. A case of monomania was cured by lead
in conjunction with gold. The indications for lead
were—most obstinate constipation, depraved appetite,
weakened digestion, and excessive emaciation. The
aberration of mind was on the subject of food, she
thought it sinful to eat. On my first visit, in Decem-
ber, 1853, this lady sat alone, could not see any member
of her family, and was in great distress. She took
occasional doses of gold and lead in trituration, for two
months. On my second visit to the house, (in Liver-
pool,) for the purpose of seeing another patient, in
April, 1854, she was so well that, though elderly, there
was not a more active person in the house. This re-
storation to health continued uninterrupted for more
than a year.
2. The muscles; paralysis; I have found metallic
lead equal to the task of removing partial paralysis in
some cases. The first in which it was tried was
paralysis of the thumb of the right hand, which had
existed for some time, and the use of the thumb was
entirely lost. When lead had been taken in minute
doses for three months, the paralysis had disappeared,
and the patient, besides being greatly improved in her
general health, was able to sew. Lead has since been
as useful in other cases.
TIN–as a poison.
Metallic tin, the oxide, the protochloride, and the
perchloride, are the forms of this metal best known.
The two latter are extensively used in the arts, in
XIV.] THE MATERIA MEDICA. 389
dyeing, and in the manufacture of colours; the oxide is
used in staining glass. The chlorides are highly poi-
Sonous and produce acute symptoms from inflammation
of the stomach. They cause a peculiar tanning of the
mucous membrane. The pure metal, and its oxide have
been supposed to be inert, or nearly so, except that
the metal has been much given for the expulsion of
taenia, and as a general vermifuge. More careful ex-
periments show that tin acts upon —
I. The Zungs; producing great oppression and
dyspnoea, pain ; cough ; copious expectoration, more
or less purulent in its character; with corresponding
febrile symptoms. The respiratory organs are those
most prominently affected by this metal.
2. The digestive organs ; in these, pain ; pressure ;
nausea ; vomiting ; haematemesis ; incarceration of
flatulence ; constipation, or diarrhoea; the whole ali-
mentary canal is more or less affected, without any
decided selection of portions of it, as by arsenic and lead.
3. The Örain and nerves; vertigo; headache; nervous-
ness; the spirits are a bow unstrung, or over-stretched;
convulsive attacks; the disposition desponding or
irritable.
4. The liver: functional derangement.
5. The organs of generation ; excitement, and
mucous discharges.
TIN–as a remedy.
Formerly, tin was believed to act mainly upon the
liver and uterus ; and it was given as a remedy for
diseases of these organs. Later, it came into exten-
sive use as a vermifuge. Now, experiments upon healthy
persons have led to the discovery of its action upon
the lungs and bronchial tubes. This last is, in fact,
its primary seat of action, though the belief in its other
powers was not without foundation, as is seen in the
experiments just referred to. I have given tin in-
39C THE MATERIA MEDICA. [ESSAY
I. Diseases of the chest; characterised by copious
discharges of mucus, or muco-purulent matter, with
considerable benefit, even when there was extensive
disease of the lungs, with the discharge of softened
tubercles ; and when the secretions were from the
bronchial membrane, without disease of the pulmonary
tissue, the result has been complete recovery. In
catarrhus senilis tin has also been very useful.
2. In some affections of the alimentary canal with
mucous discharges.
MERCURY—as a poison.
The last of the seven metals known to the ancients
is mercury; afterwards known to the alchemists as
Ziguor mineralis. Both in its metallic state, and in its
chemical combinations, it is a highly interesting and
important substance. The Oxides, chlorides, sulphurets,
and iodides, and the salts of mercury, are well known
bodies, both in the arts and in medicine; some of
them have been used as drugs for a long period, and
to an ethorn OuS eXtent.
Among the preparations of mercury for use in
medicine, none has been in greater demand than the
triturated metal, in the form of grey powder, and 6/ue
pill. The effect of trituration upon the pure metals,
that is, of rubbing them in a mortar with an inert
powder, until divided into exceedingly minute particles,
has, therefore, been witnessed, in the example of mer-
cury for a long time. When mercury is swallowed in
large quantities as quicksilver, it has little or no effect
beyond what may be attributed to its specific gravity.
When a grain or two have been finely divided by
trituration, the metal then possesses great physiological
power, and acts in its own manner upon nearly all the
important organs of the body. Eminent chemists
believe that the triturating process simply divides, and
does not alter the chemical condition of the metal.
There is no reason why this mode of minutely dividing
xIV.] THE MATERIA MEDICA. 39 I
the particles of mercury may not be applied to most of the
other metals; and now that this has been attempted, it
is found that their power also of acting upon the living
body is, by this means, greatly increased.
Mercury produces its characteristic effects, in what-
ever way it is introduced into the body. It acts
upon—
I. The salivary glands, mouth, throat, and bones of the
jaw and face; stimulating to increased secretion, in-
flaming, and destroying the soft parts by ulceration and
sloughing, and the Osseous ones by caries and necrosis.
I have seen the lower jaw entirely destroyed by álue-
fi/Z.
2. The a/imentary cana/, /izer, spleen, Áidneys, and
mesentery : these and others organs of the body are,
every day, irritated, inflamed, enlarged, and thrown
into a variety of morbid conditions, by the abuse of
this drug.
3. The Zungs and air passages; these are inflamed.
4. The organs of generation ;
5. The Öones;
6. The skin, the effects of mercury upon the three
last-mentioned portions of the body, are very similar,
if not identical with those produced by the syphilitic
contagion.
The bichloride, or corrosive sublimate inflames and
ulcerates the mucous membrane of the stomach and
bowels, and produces a condition and symptoms identi-
cal with dysentery.
MERCURY—as a remedy.
Three hundred years ago it was written of mercury,
“Internë mundificat sanguinem ab in Tuinamento, pre-
cipué venereo.” It is well known that mercury has
been almost universally used in such diseases ever
since. The remarks made in the preceding section
392 THE MATERIA MEDICA. [ESSAY
give the reason why it has been found efficacious in
curing them ; and, as yet, no better remedy has been
found. The great evil which, from the introduction of
mercury into medicine until now, has attended its use,
has been the administration of excessive quantities.
Large doses unavoidably produce the morbid effects of
the drug, in addition to, if not to the prevention of the
curative action. Medical men have not yet been
penetrated with the conviction that they ought to
regulate the doses of drugs, so as to get the good
effects without the evil ones; that the dose ought to
be sufficient to act as a remedy, but not enough to
become a poison.
In giving mercury this great mistake has always been
committed ; and to such an extent that, after it had been
in use a hundred years, Sydenham denied that it could
with propriety be called a specific. Peruvian bark, he
said, is a specific because it “dispels the disease
(ague), without any sensible evacuation.” On this very
ground it was objected to, for it was contended that
“as there is something which ought to be expelled,
and which is not expelled, such a something must
needs remain in the system—imprisoned, as it were,
by bark, and liable to create fresh troubles; so that
the patient is not free from the disease, but still drags
his chain.” Sydenham replies to these objections by
showing from experience that bark does often cure
ague, and yet acts neither by smothering anything, nor
as an obstruction, nor as an astringent ; but in an
insensible manner, and, therefore, he pronounces bark
to be a true specific.
But of mercury he says, “There is no specific by
which lues has been cured, unless evacuation have
preceded. Mercury is no specific, nor yet are the so-
called drying woods. Before they can be considered
such, cases must be brought of a lues being cured by
either, without salivation on One side, or diaphoresis
on the other.”
1 ‘Sydenham's Works,” volume II, pages II and 37.
xIV.] THE MATERIA MEDICA. 393
For nearly two hundred years longer these excessive
doses of mercury have been continued ; so that Syden-
ham's remark might have been repeated until now.
So lately as during the last generation, in the London
hospitals, basins were placed at the bed-side of the
patients, and they were bid to take mercury until these
basins were filled daily with saliva.
After all this unhappy overdosing with mercury,
which has been prolonged through three centuries, it
is at length discovered that the curative effects it is
capable of producing, may be obtained without any
of the mischief which has, thus far, accompanied them,
and even without any sensible evacuation whatever.
This proves that mercury is a true specific according
to Sydenham's definition. I can testify to the truth of
this observation, having seen it effect cures in this
II) 2.111 leſ.
Mercury acts as a remedy also in—
I. Affections of the salivary glands; gums ; lining
membrane of the mouth and throat; and in diseases of
the facial bones. It is a specific in mumps. Ulcera-
tions in the mouth and throat are cured every day by
mercury; SO are also many cases of toothache, face-
ache, and painful affections of the bones of the face.
2. The alimentary canal, liver, spleen, kidneys, and
mesentery. In a variety of diseases of these organs
mercury acts beneficially. The injuries done daily by
mercury in such cases arise altogether from the exces-
sive doses given.
3. Affections of the serous, as well as of the mucous
membranes, are often healed by mercury, given in
small quantities.
4. Some diseases of the bones and periosteum yield
to mercury.
5. Some eruptions on the skin are also benefited.
Though diseases of the skin, according to my experi-
ence, baffle treatment more than any other.
394. THE MATERIA MEDICA. [ESSAY
TITANIUM-as a poison.
Titanium was discovered by Gregor in 1791 ; but
we are indebted to Wollaston's experiments in 1822,
for a better acquaintance with it. This rare metal is
obtained chiefly from the bottom of the large smelting
furnaces in iron works. Several years ago, when one
of these furnaces at the Low Moor Iron Works, in
Yorkshire, which had been burning without inter-
mission for many years, was blown out for the purpose
of undergoing repairs, Mr. Wickham sent me a
considerable lump of titanium. The metal was in
beautiful cubic crystals, a good deal resembling copper,
but of a deeper red, and having a brilliant metallic
lustre. Some of these crystals were triturated by the
late Mr. Turner, of Manchester, but with difficulty, on
account of their extreme hardness, and I experimented
with this trituration upon myself in 1856. The pro-
portion was one grain to ninety-nine of sugar of milk.
I am not aware of any other proving.
From these experiments it appears that titanium has
a powerful action upon the human body. After taking
the preparation described in doses of two grains, twice
a day for a week, I became greatly disordered, and felt
and looked wretchedly ill. The details, or diary of
such experiments belong to the volumes of provings
which have been spoken of before. The summary
belongs to this Compendium. The action of titanium
is upon—
1. The stomach; bringing on nausea, loss of appetite,
and feeling of discomfort.
2. The Örain and nerves ; giddiness, imperfect
vision, the peculiarity being that only half an offect
could be seen at once; the division was vertica/ (that
caused by gold is /horizontal); and a desire to keep
the eyelids closed.
3. The Ölood; and through this a perceptible de-
rangement of the system.
xIV.] THE MATERIA MEDICA. 395
TITANIUM-as a remedy.
The usefulness of titanium seems limited to a few
cases; but I have found it a most valuable remedy for
certain cases for which no good remedy was known
before. They are cases of degeneration of the blood.
A time will come when, with a more refined chemistry,
our knowledge of the constitution of the circulating
fluid which is the life of man's body, and the changes
it undergoes in disease, will be better understood than
they are at present. We can now speak of the morbid
conditions of the blood only in a crude and general
manner. We know that the blood is altered from its
healthy state in typhus, in chlorosis, in jaundice, in
cholera, in inflammatory fever, and in some other
diseases; and we can describe, in an imperfect man-
ner, some of these changes; but there remains an
inexhaustible field of research in this department of
physiology and pathology. The morbid condition of
the blood, which may be called the titanium condition,
will be understood with some degree of accuracy by a
careful study of the following case, which was the first
in which it was given as a remedy.
1. Blood disease. Mr. C. F-, a middle-aged and
formerly stout and healthy man, had an attack of
typhus fever, seven years ago. He recovered im-
perfectly, and has not been well since. During the
last five years he has gradually but steadily become
worse. He vomits a great deal, but not food; the
matter rejected is a sour watery phlegm ; he has
diarrhoea, the stools consisting of a yellow, frothy,
slimy matter; the secretion of the kidneys is high
coloured and thick (in some other cases it has been
albuminous); he spits blood, and sometimes has hae-
morrhage from the bowels; he has pain in the region
of the liver and kidneys, and also in the lower bowels,
with much cramp ; the eyes are slightly jaundiced ;
there has been great loss of strength and flesh, and of
396 THE MATERIA MEDICA. [ESSAY
two stones (twenty-eight pounds) in weight. The
tongue is not much furred, and the pulse is 80. This
gentleman tells me he has had a great deal of medical
advice, but has derived no benefit either from medi-
cines, or from careful diet, or from change of air, having
during the five years paid three long visits at the sea-
side and also one on the Welsh mountains. This
account was given me on the 28th of April, 1858.
Half a grain of the first trituration (one grain in a
hundred), three times a day for a week was prescribed,
being moved to this by the vivid recollection his narra-
tive produced in my mind of the condition I was falling
into while proving titanium nearly two years before. At
the end of the week he wrote to me that he was “alto-
gether a different man;” and without any repetition of
the remedy, and without the use of any other means,
in a very short time he regained perfect health. He
continued well a year. In the spring of 1859, he made
himself ill by hunting too much, and some of the former
symptoms showed themselves again, but they were im-
mediately removed by the same remedy. He has con-
tinued generally well since.
The remainder of the metals, so far as they have
been introduced into medicine, and a large number of
plants, have been treated in the same manner; but
sufficient is now given as an example of the plan."
* This endeavour to ascertain the localities of the action of
drugs was made with considerable diligence about fourteen
years ago. Nearly all drugs which, up to that time, had been
experimented with or proved in health, were included in the
enquiry. The first conclusion arrived at was that all drugs
act locally or on particular parts of the body, in preference to
other parts.
The second, that this local action ought to constitute the
basis of their use as remedies.
The third, that the majority of these drugs will require to
be proved again in order to learn with precision the organs
on which they act, and whether in a primary or in a subordi-
XIV.] THE MATERIA MEDICA. 397
nate manner. So that the Compendium of these actions which
can be given at present is only tentative, and probably often
€ITOIlêOUIS.
The fourth, that a similar enquiry must afterwards be
made as to the Äänd of action of each drug upon the organs
or parts where its action takes place. And that new
provings will be required for this branch of the investigation
also.
The fifth, that the settlement of doses must be postponed
till these stages of the journey have been travelled over ;
when it will become not only necessary but practicable to
undertake this settlement ; and that then success may be
reasonably expected.
It will be seen by the careful reader of the subsequent
Essays, that all these subjects come successively into view,
and that those which to some extent are mixed together in
the specimen of the Compendium here given, are separated
from each other, and investigated with more precision by
themselves : particularly will this be noticed with respect to
the seat and the kind of action of drugs. The dose has its
share of attention at the close. There is wisdom in trying to
do one thing at a time. (I874).
ESSAY XV.
ME DICAL SYSTEMS,
“It cannot be denied, that with respect to the universe of
things, we in this mortal state are like men educated in
Plato's cave, looking on shadows with our backs turned to the
light. But though our light be dim, and our situation bad,
yet if the best use be made of both, perhaps something may
be seen.”
BISHOP BERKELEY'S ‘SIRIS.’
ESSAY X V."
MEDICAL SYSTEMS,
—e-C-e—-
“If the object of the student is to learn only what has
been said on a subject, the pursuit of knowledge is an easy
task; but if his object is to learn what is true on a subject
the pursuit of knowledge is the task of a life.”
*. DR, ROBERT GOOCH.
OUR life is so short, and filled up with so many
duties; we are surrounded by so many objects worthy
of our pursuit, and soliciting our attention; and the
art of medicine is so copious and difficult, that it is not
possible for any man, by his own unaided efforts, to
labour in the many departments of this art, so as to
clear up the doubts, and overcome the difficulties, and
to settle the principles of each.
We must therefore gladly avail ourselves of the
results of the labour of those who have lived before
us. We are not indeed to follow any one's teaching
with an admiration bordering upon idolatry, or a
routine which may be charged with indolence, but to
profit by the discoveries of all with a grateful heart.
We are not to adopt the conclusions of our predecessors
with a thoughtless haste; but to accept them if, after
patient and intelligent enquiry, they seem to be true,
* First published in 1865; being the Presidential Address
given in that year, at the first Meeting of a Medical Society
at Birmingham. -
26
4O2 MEDICAL SYSTEMS. [ESSAY
or at least to have truth in them. We are then, with
humility and labour, to endeavour to add to the truth
already discovered, or to remove the errors which still
cling to it. w
It is in this manner that we have learned from
Hippocrates, from Harvey, and from Sydenham ; and
it is thus that we must learn from Hahnemann.
Having tried to labour in this spirit, I think myself
happy to be called upon, on the present occasion, to
offer a few remarks upon the subject which has drawn
us together. And, as no claim is laid to infallibility, I
trust that what is said will be received with the courtesy
with which I desire to present it. -
Time need not be occupied by a repetition of Hahne-
mann's own explanations of the principle to which he
has given the name of homoeopathy, and the motto
“similia similibus curantur.” We take the work upon
which he bestowed so much care and pains, the
“Organon of Medicine,” with an occasional reference
to his lesser writings, as the exposition of his views
upon which he himself wishes us to rely.
It will be remembered by some of you that, thirteen
years ago, in 1852, I endeavoured to show that this
principle needs to be confined within much narrower
limits than those to which Hahnemann extended it.
It was remarked then that—
“From a careful study of the ‘Organon' and other
writings of Hahnemann, we learn that he viewed the law
of ‘similia similibus curantur' as applying, first, to the
power which one disease exerts over another; secondly,
to the influence of mental emotions; thirdly, to the
action of the so-called imponderable agents, light, heat,
electricity, and magnetism ; and fourthly, to the opera-
tion of drugs.”
To the Essay from which this sentence is an extract
I beg to refer you for proofs which have met with no
refutation that I am aware of, and which show, I think,
* Essay VI., p. 13 I.
xv.] PATHOLOGY. 4O3
conclusively, that the principle called homoeopathy has
no application to any of these four classes of subjects,
except the last; and that, in fact, it must be strictly
confined to the action of what are called drugs.
In the 13th Essay, published in 1856,” and in the
Reply to Sir Benjamin Brodie in 1861, an advance is
attempted in the expression of the principle. It is
well known to you that in the “Organon” the know-
ledge of disease is limited to the observation of symp-
toms, to the exclusion of pathology, or the internal
organs, and their condition in connection with the
symptoms. “For the physician,” Hahnemann says,
“the disease consists only in the totality of its symp-
toms.” In like manner, in all his provings of drugs,
symptoms alone are noted.
In Hahnemann's lesser writings, one, on the “Value
of Medical Systems,” is devoted to the condemnation in
the strongest terms of pathology, and on many other
occasions he advocates the observation of symptoms
only.
Suffer me to remark upon this that Hippocrates
was, perhaps, the greatest observer of symptoms the
world has seen. Nothing has surpassed his description
of the approach of death in the “Hippocratic face.”
It might be thought, therefore, that Hahnemann was
returning to Hippocrates, and that in advocating the
limitation of observation to symptoms, he has the
Father of Medicine for his pattern and approver.
If, however, we look at this matter more justly, we
shall see that Hippocrates was constrained by the force
of circumstances to this limitation, and by no means by
choice or judgment. In his time morbid anatomy
could not be cultivated ; the superstition and prejudice
of his fellow men forbade it. He made the best of his
bondage, but that he felt it to be bondage appears
from the story of his visit to Democritus, at the request
of the inhabitants of Abdera, who feared their great
man had become insane. Hippocrates found Demo-
* Essay XIII. p. 345.
t
4C)4 MEDICAL SYSTEMS. [ESSAY
critus dissecting an animal to discover the seat of the
bile, and pronounced him the wisest man in Abdera.
In Our times there is no such prohibition, and morbid
anatomy may be, and has been, diligently cultivated.
To follow Hahnemann in his rejection of this is to
ignore the labour of centuries, and voluntarily to place
Ourselves in the bondage of the ancients. It is manifest
to any one who observes and thinks on the events of
our time, that to bring about a general acquiescence in
this backward step would be impossible.
I believe the rejection of pathology by Hahnemann
has been one of the main hindrances to the reception,
by the medical profession, of his homoeopathy; and it
will, I think, remain an insuperable obstacle. Know-
ledge is increasing in our time, and apparently will not
retrograde. The unwearied labour bestowed upon
morbid anatomy, a labour in itself disagreeable and
painful, cannot be forgotten, and its results must be
embraced by any system of medicine, any method of
therapeutics, of which a reasonable hope can be enter-
tained that it will be generally adopted.
In the publications just referred to it is proposed
that, instead of confining ourselves to the observation
of symptoms only, a mode of proceeding Open to the
charge of being a superficial, unsatisfactory, and retro-
grade movement, we shall go deeper, and look at the
organs of the body from which these symptoms arise,
both when they spring from diseases, and when from
drugs.
These thoughts were expressed in two proposi-
tlOnS – ~,
“I. All drugs given in health act partially, or select
certain portions or organs of the body upon which
their injurious action is produced.
“II. Drugs are to be used as remedies for diseases
of the same parts or organs as those upon which they
act as poisons in health.”
1 : A Letter to Sir B. C. Brodie, Bart., P.R.S.,’ p. 84, 2nd Ed.
xv.] PATHOLOGY. 4O5
Other thoughts and propositions follow, which need
not detain us now.
Having troubled you, by way of introduction, with
these references, that what follows may be intelligible,
I beg to lay before you some further thoughts upon
this subject.
We will now, if you please, consider the same facts
in another aspect. We have hitherto looked only at
the drugs, and regarded them as selecting different
organs, upon which to produce their specific effects :
and thus, in the language of Professor Christison, they
are said “to act on one or more Organs only, not on
the general system.” Let us now take a different
point of view, and look at the living organs of the
ôody, and we see each of theme selecting their own drugs,
as these are circulating in the blood, and separating
them from that fluid ; so that each particular drug may
be found deposited in the tissue of one or of several
organs; and thus the specific effect of the drug upon
the organs which have appropriated it, whether as a
poison, or as a remedy, are in part accounted for.
That drugs when taken into the stomach, or other-
wise brought into contact with the living organism, are
aôsoróed, and mixed with the blood, and so circulated
in that fluid throughout the entire body, is, I suppose,
now generally admitted. That these drugs can be
detected by chemical analysis, in the various tissues
and organs of the body after death, is also well
ascertained. Therefore, instead of attributing, by the
expressions frequently used, a sort of life and intelli-
gence to inanimate drugs, we may reverse the meta-
phor, and speak of the effects of drugs as brought
about by the action upon them of the Ziving organs of
the body, rather than by the action of the dead
materials upon the living organs. Our language will
still be metaphorical, but it will have the advantage of
being of a less violent or extreme character.
Looking at the facts under this aspect, the proposi-
tions may be stated in this manner —
* Christison's ‘Treatise on Poisons, p. 19, 4th Edition.
4O6 MEDICAL SYSTEMS. - [ESSAY
I. Each organ of the body appropriates certain
drugs; and its functions, or structure, or both, are in
consequence altered.
II. An organ disordered in its functions, or diseased
in its structure, may often be restored to a healthy
state, by such drugs as it can thus appropriate.
From this point of view we look at the living body,
and at the countless living actions which are simul-
taneously and unceasingly going on, with amazing
vigour and activity, in the living organs. We see
food assimilated and converted into blood, and by this
process the entire frame continually restored ; we see
substances which cannot be thus assimilated, but
which, nevertheless, are taken up into the blood, and
appropriated by certain organs, and then follow effects
sometimes evil, sometimes good.
To some, perhaps, it would seem to be a better way
than either of these, to try to put the facts into words,
which are free from metaphor, as, for example, into
such expressions as these :—
Drugs taken into the stomach, or otherwise intro-
duced into the body, are absorbed, that is, taken into
the blood, and conveyed, by the circulation of this
fluid, to all parts.
The organs have the power to appropriate the
particles of these drugs thus circulating, that is, to
separate them from the current of the blood, and to
deposit them in their own tissue.
This is not done indiscriminately, but some organs
take some drugs, and others take different ones.
The particles of a drug being thus placed in the
substance of an organ, the manner in which that organ
erforms its functions is altered.
If the organ was previously in health, disorder, or
disease is produced ; if not in health, the alteration
effected is, frequently, the restoration of a healthy
State.
xv.] PATHOLOGY. 4O7
These views are the more earnestly dwelt upon,
because I think the true antagonism between the best
part of the old practice, and the best part of the new
will be found in them.
No doubt, a large portion of the usual practice of
medicine is empirical, and mere routine, founded upon
the supposed good effects of former experience ; still,
in all ages attempts have been made to introduce a
principle, having a show of reason, in addition to
experience.
Indeed, it seems scarcely possible to divest our
minds of theoretical or hypothetical speculations.
Hence, some system, however wild and chimerical,
has always prevailed ; one succeeding another, with
greater or less rapidity, according to the general
activity or torpor of the human understanding. The
earliest notions of which we have authentic informa-
tion were those of the four elementary qualities, hot
and cold, and dry and moist; with the four humours,
blood and bile, and phlegm and black bile ; the coction
of these humours, and the critical days on which this
occurred. These hypotheses prevail in most of the
essays or writings forming the Hippocratic collec-
tion; though they are vigorously opposed in one of
them, the treatise on “the Ancient Medicine,” in
which this substantial maxim seems to be laid down,
that nothing should be affirmed concerning nature,
until the certainty of it is proved by the observation of
the senses.
The system of Themison, and the methodists
followed. In this view all diseases were arranged in
two categories — the constricted and the relaxed,
“strictum et laxum.” The former, or constricted,
included such diseases as apoplexy, lethargy, convul-
sions, angina, ileus, epilepsy, mania, jaundice, &c.
The relaxed embraced gastralgia, cholera, haemor-
rhages, &c. Two therapeutic rules were adequate to
meet these views, namely, to relax when there is
constriction, and to constringe when there is relaxa-
tlOn.
408 MEDICAL SYSTEMS. [ESSAY
Methodism, by its easy simplicity, gained many
admirers, and made rapid progress, until it was
demolished by Galen, whose talents and learning
did not preserve him from stooping to ridicule the
disciples of this school, whom he called the “asses
of Thessaly.”
Galen restored the Hippocratic doctrines, and
established the school of the dogmatists, which
continued for fifteen hundred years, the dogma or
maxim being “contraria contrariis curantur.”
In recent times we have been again captivated by
the charm of simplicity. Cullen introduced the “spasm
of the extreme vessels,” and its opposite relaxation.
This was generalised to the uttermost by his pupil
Brown, who distinguished only two pathological
states, the st/hemic and the ast/teſtic. The former
included only a small number of diseases, the latter
or asſ/emic was made to embrace all the rest ; and
these were to be treated indiscriminately with stimu-
lants; than which a more mischievous doctrine could
not be put forward.
All these systems, it will be observed, adhered more
or less distinctly to the maxim “contraria contrariis
curantur;” and it is in opposition to these that
Hahnemann contended for his method, “similia simili-
bus curantur.”
But among the many efforts, successively made, to
establish a theory, one of the latest, and the one
having most to recommend it, is the method of avoid-
ing the diseased organs, and acting upon the healthy
ones, the principle of revulsion or counter-irritation.
This principle, and the principle of homoeopathy, as
interpreted in this, Essay, are based upon the same
general fact, namely, the local action of drugs, or the
specific action of each drug upon special organs, to the
exclusion of other parts of the body. -
The older notion professes to relieve or cure a
disease situated in one locality, by giving such drugs
as act upon another; or, by producing an artificial irri-
tation or morbid condition in one or more of the healthy
xv.] PATHOLOGY. 4O9
parts, by means of which the original ailment,
affecting some other part, shall be mitigated or re-
moved. *
One of the most talented and energetic advocates of
this method was the late Dr. Armstrong; whose Lec-
tures on the Practice of Medicine attracted enthusiastic
audiences in London forty years ago.
It is obvious that this method, and the one
now advocated, start at the same point, or rest upon
facts admitted by, and essential to both, namely, the
local action of remedies; but in the next step they are
diametrically opposed to each other;-the one acts
upon the healthy parts, and avoids the diseased ones;
the other acts upon the ailing Organs, and carefully
leaves the healthy ones untouched. Or, the one adds
an artificial disease to the natural one ; the other lets
well alone, and endeavours to cure by direct action
upon the diseased part.
It is, I think, not less obvious which of these two
methods commends itself most to our common sense.
The only question which is likely to be asked is a
practical one; if the latter plan is adopted, that is,
homoeopathy, or as it might be called, taking our
present view of it, Organopathy,' is it practicable 2 and
if so, is it successful ?
That this plan is both practicable and successful, all
who have met me here to-day bear witness. For,
though most of you may have followed Hahnemann in
observing and prescribing for symptoms only, yet it is
clear that, if the symptoms of the drug given as a
remedy be really the same as, or very similar to, those
of the disease for which it has been prescribed, the
organs acted upon by the drug must generally be
the same, or nearly the same, as those in which
the disease is seated ; that is to say, in the cases
which have been best observed and best prescribed
for.
* I dislike sectarian names, but it is impossible to avoid
them.
4 IO MEDICAL SYSTEMS. [ESSAY
For the satisfaction of those who have not practised
according to the homoeopathic method, it will be re-
quired to lay before them well-selected and important
cases -cases in which there cannot be much doubt as
to the seat of the disease, nor as to the organs which
have the power of selecting the drugs given; and from
which it shall plainly appear that the organs which
are affected by disease, and which appropriate the
drugs given, and are benefited by them, are the
same."
This, it is believed, is the true Öasis of medicine.
It was the conviction of Boerhaave, than whom
modern Europe has not seen a greater physician, that
he knew no remedy but that which was made such by
being opportunely used ; (“Nullum ego cognosco re-
medium nisi quod tempestivo usu fiat tale”). Now, to
discover, by a careful diagnosis, the affected organs,
and to prescribe, by an intimate toxicological acquaint-
ance with drugs, that which these organs will appro-
priate, is to use the opportune remedy; and this may
be adduced, if you please, as an illustration of the say-
ing of Pittacus, one of the seven wise men of Greece,
that “opportunity is everything.” -
Study symptoms as much as you can, the more
accurately and minutely the better, but do not rest
satisfied with this; trace them to the internal parts
whose morbid condition has produced them, - be
pathologists. And so with drugs; the profession is
deeply indebted to Hahnemann for setting the example
of proving drugs on healthy persons; let this be done
* I am aware that men brought up with a severe mathe-
matical education are apt to be dissatisfied, unless they can
have a demonstration. This perhaps arises from want of
more reflection, and of a more extended acquaintance with
other branches of knowledge. It may be suggested that
questions in Physiology and Medicine have too many
elements in them to admit of such demonstration ; and
further, that if the received practice met with similar
doubts and objections, it would be shattered to pieces at
O11CC.
xv.] PATHOLOGY. 4 II
again and again, with all the helps that modern science,
particularly chemistry, can afford ; but do not stop
with the observation of symptoms; try to get at the
internal morbid state : for this purpose such works as
that of Professor Christison, “on Poisons,” will be use-
ful. By joining these two arches together the gulf
which has hiſ/herzo separated diseases and remedies may
ôe àridged over."
You shall be detained with only one remark further
on this part of my subject. With a good pathological
diagnosis, when the organs which are the seat of
disease are well ascertained; and with a good know-
ledge of the preference of certain organs for certain
drugs, it is clear that it is possible to prescribe so as to
act either upon the healthy parts or upon the diseased
ones. In deciding which method, of these two, ought
to be adopted, there is a precept of the Father of
Medicine which will help to guide us. He says, “The
physician Ought to do good to his patient :—or at least
he should do no harm.” Now the counter-irritant
plan, if carried out beyond a mustard poultice, or some
innocent proceeding like that, transgresses this wise
precept. For, it creates an additional ai/ment, by
irritating or inflaming some previously healthy part. I
remember an old lady, when it was proposed to put an
issue under the knee for an ulcer on the ancle, exclaim-
ing, “then I shall have two sores instead of one !”
Let us be content with nature's one sore, and do our
best to heal it ; and if homoeopathists will accept these
views, and put them forward with good sense and
good manners, their adoption by the entire medical
profession need not be despaired of.
We may now understand the work in which, accord-
* During the discussion after the reading of this Address, I
was informed that it has been objected to these views, that the
careful observation of symptoms has been forsaken for the
study of morbid appearances : this, assuredly, is a great mis-
apprehension of my meaning.
4 I 2 MEDICAL SYSTEMS. [ESSAY
ing to the notions I have had the pleasure to suggest
to you, we have steadily to be engaged.
There are three ways in which disease is to be
studied, in order to ascertain the organs which are
affected, in what manner, and to what extent.
Ist. In the symptoms which are produced by them.
The science of Semeiotics. This has been very dili-
gently pursued since the days of Hippocrates, and
specially and very minutely by Hahnemann, and those
who consider themselves as forming his school.
The deficiency in this department is the want of the
power of discriminating between such symptoms as are
peculiar to, or characteristic of, each organ, or set of
organs, and such as are not.
2nd. In the morbid conditions, and appearances after
death, connected with the symptoms. The science of
Pathology. This department has also been laboriously
toiled in from the time of Morgagni, by all schools
except that of Hahnemann. The deficiency to be noted
is the want of a closer connection of the symptoms with
the morbid changes belonging to each organ.
These two branches of science have been well
studied separately. Both would be made more useful
in practice, if the link which binds them together
were made stronger, and brought more prominently
into view. -
3rd. In the changes in the material composition of
the organs affected. The science of Chemistry. This
is more difficult, and consequently less advanced than
the other two. Nevertheless, a start has been made,
and not without meeting with good encouragement to
proceed. It calls loudly upon the younger members of
the profession to engage in its pursuit.
And there are three similar ways in which we
may learn the local action of drugs, by which to be
guided in their use. The art of 7%erapeutics.
1st. By the symptoms they produce when given to
healthy persons. The world is greatly indebted to
Hahnemann for taking the lead in this research ;
others have since devoted themselves to it, and have
xv.] PATHOLOGY. 4 I 3
accumulated a vast bulk of details. Two deficiencies
are to be noted; the symptoms which are essential and
characteristic need separation from such as are trivial
and unimportant; and the connection between symp-
toms and the organs whose maladies give rise to them
requires to be made plainer.
2nd. By the moróid conditions, and appearances after
death. This has been accomplished to some extent
by toxicologists in connection with jurisprudence. It
needs to be much further developed, and to be brought
into contact with therapeutics.
3rd. By the presence of the drug in the organs
affected by it. What knowledge we possess on this
subject we also owe to the students of toxicology.
It is little advanced, and will reward further re-
search.
Such is a brief record of thoughts which, in obedience
to your request, I am happy to lay before you. It is
hoped that it may prove both suggestive and stimulat-
ing : should it do so, your happiness, as well as mine,
will be increased.
The remarks on pathology in this Essay have been met
by some critics with the assertion that the internal con-
ditions, as well as the Outward signs, are to be enumerated as
symptoms. This is to obliterate the distinctive meaning of
words, and to Stultify all serious discussion. Symptoms are
signs. There must be the thing signified. An inward inflam-
mation shows itself outwardly by a quickened pulse, a hot
skin, loss of appetite and strength, &c., and the patient says
he has pain. These are the Symptoms of the inflammation.
The inflammation is the pathological condition, and the cause
of the symptoms. When one of the orifices of the heart is
narrowed, or when the rush of blood through it is much
increased, on listening to the heart's movements we hear the
bellows sound. The former is the pathological condition;
the latter is the symptom which is caused by it.
No branch of knowledge can be extended, unless the
writers upon it agree to give the words they use a definite
meaning, and adhere to the use of these words in the sense
which has been given them. (1874.)
ESSAY XVI.
THE PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION OF MEDICINES,
“Among all the gratifications of life, I know of none
greater than learning some new mode of curing diseases or
relieving pain.”
DR. CORRIGAN.
ESSAY X VI."
THE PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION OF MEDICINES,
—ºxº-
“It is foolish to make that a matter of discussion which
any one may decide by experiment.” STAHL.
-—º-Cº-
MEDICINEs are substances belonging to the mineral,
vegetable, or animal kingdoms, which are not nutri-
tive, or which are not assimilated by the process of
digestion, and therefore cannot, in this sense, contribute
to the preservation of the living body.
For the purposes of this paper they may be described
by three characteristics; characteristics well known
and admitted, but hitherto unexplained —The first,
that their action is more or less partial or local ; the
second, that this action in disease is often curative;
the third, that in health it is always more or less
injurious.
I. The action of medicines received into the body is
local ; to borrow an old chemical phrase, there is a sort
of elective affinity between certain organs of the body
and certain drugs. This fact is as well known, though
as unexplained, as the parallel fact that each organ
selects from the same current of Ölood the elements of
its own nutrition ; organs differing as much as the
brain, the muscles, the bones, the ligaments, the skin,
* First published in 1866. This Essay was read at the
Meeting of the ‘British Association for the Advancement of
Science,’ at its Meeting in Nottingham in August, 1866.
27
418 THE PHYSIOLOGICAL |ESSAY
the organs of the senses, appropriate from the same
liquid the materials for their own construction and
Constant reparation ; SO with respect to medicines, one
organ appropriates one, and another organ a different
one ; and this fact is proved both by the effects pro-
duced upon the organs during life, and by chemical
analysis after death. Upon this fact is founded the
use of drugs as medicines by all schools and upon
every doctrine. This is the first characteristic.
II. The second, drugs used as medicines in disease
often have a curative effect. This also is an admitted
but unexplained fact.
On these two characteristics you need not be
detained longer by any further observations.
III. To the third characteristic I beg leave to call
your serious attention. It is this, the action of drugs,
when taken in health, is always more or less injurious,
—hence the name of poisons given to the more active
among them. This also is a notorious fact, and alas !
one which often produces consequences inflicting
severe grief and irreparable loss. Consequences so
painful, that they have hitherto directed men's atten-
tion almost exclusively to the discovery of antidotes
for their prevention or removal.
But it has been again and again suggested that
there is another aspect in which the action of drugs in
health must be contemplated, namely, with reference to
the employment of them as medicines. Drugs have
been diligently investigated by the students of toxico-
logy and medical jurisprudence ; they require to be as
diligently studied with regard to therapeutics.
The first who suggested this view of the subject and
its importance, so far as I can discover, was HALLER,
about a century and a quarter ago. These are his
words —
“In the first place, ſhe remedy is to be fried on the
Aea/thy body; without any foreign suðstance mired with
zz, a small dose is to Če takene, and attention is to Če
directed to every effect produced by it, for example, on
XVI.] ACTION OF MEDICINES. 4 IQ
the pulse, the temperature, the respiration, the Secre-
tions. Having obtained these obvious phenomena £7.
health, you may then pass on to experiment on the
body in a state of disease.”
Eminent physicians, from time to time, have ex-
pressed their approval of this suggestion ; and in 1842,
about a hundred years after its proposal by Haller, it
was more formally recognised. A public assemblage
of medical men, at the scientific congress held at
Strasburg, in that year, announced the adoption of the
proposal in the following resolution —-
“The third section (the medical) are unanimously
of opinion that experiments with medicines on Aea///y
individuals are, in the present state of medical Science,
of urgent necessity for physiology and therapeutics;
and that it is desirable that all known facts should be
methodically and scrupulously collected, and with
prudence, cautiousness, and Scientific exactness, arran-
ged, written out, and published.”
Such was the resolution, passed unanimously, at the
scientific meeting at Strasburg. Twenty-three years
after the passing of this resolution, namely, at the
meeting of the British Association at Birmingham last
year, Dr. ACLAND introduced the subject from the
chair of the section, and the following resolution was
agreed to, and was afterwards presented as a Memo-
rial to the General Medical Council, by Dr. Acland,
on the 17th of May of this year —
“Having regard to the observations of the Presi-
dent, Professor Acland, in his inaugural address, the
* “Primum, in corpore sazzo medela tentanda est; sine
peregriná ullā miscelä ; exigua illius dosis ingerenda ; et ad
omnes quae inde contingunt affectiones, quis pulsus, quis
calor, quae respiratio, quaenam excretiones, attendendum.
Inde adductum phaenominorum in sano obviorum, transeas
ad experimenta in corpore a groto.”
42O THE PHYSIOLOGICAL | ESSAY
Committee of the sub-section of physiology, desire
respectfully to intimate their opinion of the great
advantage which would accrue to physiological (and
thereby to medical) science, if the General Council
should think fit, by pecuniary grants and the appoint-
ment of suitable persons, to undertake investigations
into the physiological action of medicines. A few
agents when administered in poisonous doses have
alone been made the subjects of such research ; and
whilst the remedial effects of even such well-known
agents as quinine have been admitted for ages, their
modes of action are still unknown. Even to this
moment our knowledge of the action of remedies rests
only upon ordinary observation and general inferences.
The Committee is well aware of the extreme difficulty
of prosecuting exact physiological enquiries in states of
disease, and, above all, of the necessity of devising new
modes of investigation ; but, bearing in mind recent
researches of an analogous nature in Aea///, they do
not doubt there are physiologists and physicians of
approved ability in such researches, who would be able
to devise the methods, and bring the results to a
satisfactory conclusion. The Committee also venture
to suggest that no experiments should be regarded as
satisfactory which (in addition to others) are not made
in ordinary medicinal doses in the diseases for the
relief of which the remedies are administered, (as well
as in poisonous doses,) and which are not performed
with all the care and exactitude known in modern
physiological research. That this resolution be signed
by the President, Vice-President, and Secretaries, on
the part of the Committee, and that the President be
requested to present it to the Medical Council.”
The presentation of this Memorial to the Medical
Council was followed by an animated discussion, in
which the importance of the subject was admitted on
all sides; and though the adoption of the proposal was
negatived by sixteen votes, on the ground that to
undertake the task suggested would be to exceed the
xvi.] ACTION OF MEDICINES. 42 I
powers given to the Council by the Act of Parliament,
five members voted in its favour. -
Such have been the suggestions and resolutions to
make experiments with drugs upon healthy persons, up
to the present hour, The subject is now in the hands
of Dr. Acland, whose good commencement reflects
upon him high praise, and I trust he will prosecute his
undertaking with vigour. Let it not be supposed that
I wish to hinder, or in any way to interfere with his
work; on the contrary, the motive which has urged
me to read this paper is the hope of offering some
assistance. Having myself been deeply interested in
this subject for many years, I could not be altogether
silent now that it has been formally and officially
brought before the British Association;–a society of
which I have been an attached member almost from
its origin ; a society which has so many claims to the
gratitude of England, for the helping hand which it
has held out to all lovers of science; a society which,
if it now inaugurate a new investigation into the
properties and uses of drugs as medicines, will add
another claim to this gratitude, the magnitude of which
cannot easily be exaggerated. -
Thus experiments to ascertain the physiological
action of medicines have been suggested ; a question
now arises, have they been attempted 2 They have, by
several hands; and before a fresh series of experiments
is commenced, it will be well to examine the labours of
our predecessors.
Haller was the first to make the proposal; but he
did not attempt the work. Probably the first who did
so was Stoerk, of Vienna, physician to the Emperor.
Just a hundred years ago, he undertook to investigate
the action of several powerful drugs upon himself; for
example, comium, colo/”cume, aconife, Sáramonium. His
experiments attracted wide attention...; the subjects of
them were rapidly introduced into extensive use as
medicines; unfortunately, they were too highly praised,
and healing powers beyond the truth were attributed to
422 THE PHYSIOLOGICAL [ESSAY
them ; as a natural consequence they, and the worthy
author of the experiments upon them, passed into
neglect and almost into oblivion.
Some thirty years later, another German physician
took up the subject with great energy and persever-
ance; and, after having devoted to it many years
of untiring labour, produced a whole Materia Medica
of drugs, with which he had experimented upon
himself, and upon numerous friends, whom he had in-
duced to share with him the trouble, the suffering, and
the risk.
These volumes have now been studied, day and
night, by some thousands of medical practitioners,
and have been their almost solitary guide through
a successful practice of their profession, for nearly
seventy years, and in every region of the civilised
world. -
This is an undeniable fact, and of itself gives the
experiments of Samuel Hahnemann a claim to respect-
ful consideration.
In support of these experiments it may be stated —
1. That they were made by a considerable number
of intelligent persons, of different ages and tempera-
ments, and of both sexes. ~.
2. That they were made by these persons in heal//.
Haller's first requirement.
3. That each drug was experimented upon by itself,
without any foreign substance being mixed with it.
Haller's second requirement.
4. That the doses made use of were generally small
ones. Haller's third requirement.
5. That the results of the experiments were diligently
and conscientiously observed, and written down.
Haller's fourth requirement. This was carried so far
that even details apparently insignificant were in-
serted, lest any real effect of the medicine should be
omitted.
6. That the mental and moral conditions, as well as
the bodily symptoms, were carefully noted.
xvi. ACTION OF MEDICINES. 423
7. That a novel, and, I think, an excellent method
of preparing the drugs for experiments was adopted.
Plants were bruised while fresh and in perfection, and
the sap, obtained by straining, was mixed with alcohol,
(to prevent fermentation and decomposition,) and used
in this condition. Infusions, decoctions, dried powders,
extracts, and other complicated preparations being re-
jected. Minerals, and other insoluble substances,
were reduced to a state of minute division by being
triturated with an inert material. In this way, it may
be remarked, an admirable reform was introduced into
pharmacy.
8. That, lastly, a strict regimen was adhered to by
each person, during the time the experiments were
being made.
These are conditions which, as it appears to me,
must be observed in any future experiments upon the
physiological action of medicines. It will be possible
to add to their completeness by availing ourselves of
mechanical inventions such as the stethoscope, and of
the processes of modern chemistry.
What I think are defects not in Hahnemann's ex-
periments, but in the record he has given us of them,
and which it will be necessary and quite possible to
avoid in reporting further investigation, shall now be
pointed out. It is to be regretted that those who have
followed Hahnemann, and who have repeated and
greatly increased his observations, have also, for the
most part, repeated his defects.
These defects consist –
I. In, commonly, not stating the doses of the drugs
which were taken in the experiments.
2. In not recording the daily progress, so that a case
of experiment might be reported in the same way as a
case of disease.
3. In breaking up the connection of morbid pheno-
mena, in order to arrange the symptoms under headings
made of the different parts of the body, as the eyes,
ears, nose, mouth, throat, chest, stomach, arms, &c. &c.
4.24 THE PHYSIOLOGICAL [ESSAY
4. In mixing, in this arrangement, the symptoms
which had been experienced by a dozen or more
Separate persons.
5. In adding to the symptoms of the experimenters
those of accidental, and even of fatal cases of poisoning,
without indicating which symptoms belong to these,
nor the doses by which they were produced.
6. In recording, without discrimination, every trivial
sensation and every slight circumstance occurring after
the dose of the drug had been taken. In this
manner Symptoms have been accumulated to such an
extent, that with many drugs it is very difficult to lay
hold of their characteristic effects.
Such are the deficiencies in the reports; but there
is one defect, which belongs to the experiments them-
selves, as well as to their record—though Hahnemann
himself and many of his admirers regard it as one of
the great excellencies of his system—namely,– -
That he limits himself to the observation of symp-
toms, and does not endeavour to connect them to-
gether, so as to represent a pathological condition.
But as I read a paper on this subject last year at
Birmingham," it need not be enlarged upon now.
Notwithstanding these defects, obvious and grave as
I think they are, the work undertaken and accomplished
by Hahnemann was a mighty work, and it was nobly
done; and I trust the time will come when he will
receive the grateful thanks of the profession, as well as
of the world.
The time which can be reasonably claimed for this
paper is so limited, that it would be impossible to give
even a sketch of what has been done in this province
of labour by others since Hahnemann's time. But a
great deal has been accomplished, with which those
who are willing to begin the work afresh should make
themselves acquainted. There are upwards of three
thousand medical men of this school on the North
* ‘Medical Systems." Essay xv.
xvi. ACTION OF MEDICINES. - 4.25
American Continent alone, and many among them are
able and industrious men. I will content myself with
one extract from an address delivered not long ago at
New York. Dr. W. H. Watson spoke to this
effect :—
“If Hahnemann had done nothing else he would be
entitled to the lasting gratitude of mankind, for his
suggestions in regard to acquiring a knowledge of the
medical powers of drugs, by experimenting with them
on the healthy subject. This is the glorious mission of
our school. While our brethren, under the guidance
of Rokitansky and his colleagues, are rendering great
service to the world by elucidating the effects of disease,
through their researches in the domain of pathology, to
us belongs the honour of discovering and applying those
remedies which will relieve the diseased conditions
brought to light by the knife of the pathologist. It is
only by large numbers of persons that reliable provings
of drugs can be carried on. The constant symptoms,
obtained by hundreds of individuals from the adminis-
tration of the same drug, must necessarily be its
characteristic symptoms; whereas many of the symp-
toms obtained by a single prover may be purely
imaginary, or the result of some accidental cause, and
have no relation of cause and effect to the drug which
has been admistered. But when a hundred persons in
good health are affected in a certain manner, after
taking a particular drug, the conclusion is irresistible
that the symptoms thus produced are the effects of the
drug which has been administered.”
I will now, with your permission, venture upon some
suggestions which may be of use to those who shall
undertake the further prosecution of this great work.
I. On the offects to be pursued.
II. On the mode of proceeding.
III. On the utilisation of the results.
I. On the objects to be pursued.
426 THE PHYSIOLOGICAL [ESSAY
- These, I think, are the three following —
I. To ascertain the organs affected by each drug.
(i) By careful diagnosis.
(ii) By chemical investigations in cases of fatal
poisoning.
2. To learn the effects produced upon these
organs, the pathology and morbid anatomy.
(i) By observation of symptoms.
(ii) By post-mortem examinations.
3. To discover, if possible, the modus operandi.
This object, I think, must of necessity be post-
poned, until the two former have been consider-
ably advanced.
In attempting to ascertain the organs affected by
each drug, a great deal of care will be needed with
respect to the doses with which the experiments are
made, Tartarised antimony may be mentioned as a
familiar example of what is meant. This, as you are
all aware, in one dose acts on the lungs, in another on
the skin, in a third on the bowels, and in a fourth on
the stomach.
Another point of importance is to discover the organ
which, in a given dose of the drug, is the first to
appropriate it, and so to be acted upon by it ; then
that which is second, third, and so on. In this way the
several organs which have an affinity for the given
drug may be made out, and their relative power of
attraction. As an illustration of this point the heart
and its strong affinity for the following drugs may be
referred to :—
Acozzite,
Sølgeſia,
Aozista,
ZDigita Zis.
The primary action of these drugs, in certain doses, is
on the heart; but if we enquire after the secondary
one, that is, after the organ which, in the second place,
xvi.]
ACTION OF MEDICINES. 427
or in a subordinate manner, appropriates each of them,
we shall find that it is different for each, e.g. :-
Aconife, after the heart, affects the brain and nerves.
Spige/ia, 5 * } } the eyes.
Aovisła, 3 ) 3 y the skin.
ZJigita/is, 5 * y 5 the kidneys.
It would be easy to enumerate a large number of
drugs, whose affinities with certain organs have been
already ascertained with some precision ; but enough
has been said to indicate the direction the investigation
should take, and to show how attractive and useful it
must necessarily become to those who are disposed to
given to it their time and attention.
II. On the mode of proceeding.
I. The experimenters should be intelligent men,
and the more of them the better, especially of
medical men.
2. The best known drugs should be experi-
mented upon first; next, the commonest wild plants
of our native country : as the daisy, buttercup,
dandelion, furze, white and black thorn, &c. &c.
3. The committee of experimenters should agree
to try, at one time, one and the same drug.
4. The doses should be agreed upon. Three
classes have been recommended—
(2) Poisonous.
(ii) Medicinal.
(iii) Infinitesimal.
The first to be used only upon animals. These
experiments I beg leave to protest against; any
advantages to be derived from them do not com-
pensate for the cruelty; the effects of poisonous
or semi-poisonous doses may be learned from
cases in which they have been accidentally or wil-
fully taken.
The second, (medicinal doses) which may vary
considerably as to magnitude, are those which
should be taken by the experimenters.
THE PHYSIOLOGICAL [ESSAY
The third, (infinitesimal doses,) should, I think,
be postponed till sufficient positive information
regarding the second has been obtained.
It is a question whether the experimenters
should know what they are taking, and it has
been recommended that they should not know.
I think they should sometimes know, and some-
times not. When the drug is a poison, and the
doses considerable, then, I think, the person
taking them should always know.
5. The experimenters should be in health ; a
moderately careful regimen should be observed ;
the drug should be unmixed with others; and the
mental and moral state should be recorded, as well
as the bodily condition.
6. The reports should be drawn up just as
cases of natural disease have been reported by
physicians since the days of Hippocrates; the
symptoms conscientiously written down day by
day; and a careful diagnosis and pathology at-
tempted.
7. An analysis should be made of all the cases
thus reported of experiments with the same drug,
and conclusions drawn—
(i) As to the organs which have shown an
affinity for the drug ; the degrees of
this affinity; and the doses required
for each organ.
(ii) As to the changes produced in the several
organs—the pathology.
If an earnest investigation be undertaken, with these
objects in view, and pursued in the manner proposed,
information will be gradually accumulated, which may
be drawn up in a compendium, or in Čač/es ; showing the
several organs and tissues of the body, and the drugs,
and their doses which each can appropriate ; the physio-
logical or pathological changes occasioned in conse-
quence; and the characteristic symptoms, mental,
moral, and physical.
XVI.] ACTION OF MEDICINES. 429
III. On the utilisation of the results.
No doubt the love of truth for its own sake should
be the strongest stimulus to the efforts of the experi-
mental philosopher; still the question of usefulness,
how to turn the discovery of truth to practical advant-
age, is a lawful one, and, in the case before us, one of
pressing interest and importance to the well-being of
mankind. What then is the practical end of these
investigations into the action of drugs in health 2
Suppose the tables just now mentioned were com-
pleted, (would that they were !) how are they to be
utilised It seems to me that this would be by a com-
parison being instituted between the // ysiologica/ and
the 4/ierapeutica/ action of medicines; a comparison
between the effects of drugs in health, and the effects
of the same drugs in disease. When this comparison
has been made, the further question will arise how far,
and in what manner can the physiological action guide
the therapeutic use 2 How can these experiments in
health be made use of to direct the employment of the
same drugs in disease ? It is in the highest degree
probable that the result of this aggregate of experiments
and enquiry will be the establishment of a principle
which shall be, for all time coming, a settled rule in
therapeutics, the compass, the guiding star to the
medical practitioner.
One concluding observation—
Diseases are more or less local ; the action of drugs
is also local ; it follows that there are two ways in
which drugs may be used as remedies : they may be
given, in any case of illness, so that the action shall be
upon those organs which remain healthy, or upon those
which are affected by disease. The former of these
methods has been longest in use; the latter, in my
judgment, presents the most successful results. Both
these methods rest upon the same fact, namely, the
local action of medicines; both may be theoretically
explained ; both have observation to justify them ; and
there cannot be a more interesting, or more useful
problem for the younger medical men of the present
43O PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION OF MEDICINES. [ESSAY XVI.
generation to seek to solve, than this —the investiga-
tion of the physiological action of medicines, with the
view to determine their therapeutic use."
* The reading of this paper was followed by an interesting
discussion, in which several medical men took part, and which
was closed by the President, Professor Humphry, who observed
that the paper had been well characterised as a suggestive one,
for that, in reality, our knowledge upon the Subject was as yet
small. (1866.)
It seemed due to Professor Acland to learn from him
what he has done further in this direction. His reply to
a letter of enquiry this month is that he is sorry to say
that unceasing pressure of work has hindered him from
writing more on the subject. (February, 1874).
ESSAY XVII.
--->e-
0 R G A N 0 P A T H Y.
“Every man, from the highest to the lowest station, ought
to warm his heart and animate his endeavours with the hope
of being useful to the world, by advancing the art which it is
his lot to exercise; and for that end he must necessarily
consider the whole extent of its application, and the whole
weight of its importance.”
SAMUEL JOHNSON.
ANALYSIS.
I. Review of the Past and Present State of Medicine.
. Authority—routine.
. Reason—dogmatism.
. Experience—empiricism.
. Nature—scepticism.
Physical Science—philosophy.
. A principle—homoeopathy.
.
II. A Practical Investigation of Homaopathy.
I. The principle separated from the dose.
2. The principle restricted to drugs.
3. The local action of drugs.
4. Organs the seat of symptoms—Organopathy.
5. Component parts of Organs.
6. The dose. *
III. Address to the different Sections of the Profession.
I. To those who appeal to authority.
2. To the dogmatists.
3. To the empirics.
4. To the sceptics.
5. To the philosophers.
6. To the homoeopathists.
Conclusion.
ESSAY X VII."
ORGANOPATHY,
--~~~e–-
“If it be hard to think and write justly, it is harder yet to
bring others to one's own taste.” RICHARD MEAD.
*-º-º-º-º-
PLINY, in his day, complains that those who have
attempted to draw pictures of plants have shown
nothing clearly but the difficulty of their undertaking.
Physicians, in all ages, have busied themselves in
writing books on medicine; but the only point they
have concurred in proving is the perplexity of their
task.
In our day artists have succeeded in producing pic-
tures of plants which well represent the elegancy of
their forms, and the beauty of their colours. In the in-
terests of humanity it is to be hoped that medical
writers may be permitted to approach a similar perfec-
tion, and be able to describe disease as it is, and its
treatment as it ought to be.
There is, indeed, an impression prevalent even
among educated people, that medicine has long been
settled, if not in its principles, at least in its practice;
and this makes them prefer what they call “the
regular steady practice according to rule,” or even
what they allow to be the mere repetition of routine,
to the views and treatment of any new school,
* First published in 1867.
28
434 MEDICAL PROGRESS. [ESSAY -
simply because they are new and comparatively un-
tried.
Let us therefore look at the progress of medicine in
past times, and at its present condition.
If in doing this what seem to be errors are pointed
out, let me disclaim improper motives and uncharitable
feelings, and offer a protest against being supposed
desirous to hold up any one to ridicule or contempt,
when sayings are quoted, or doings are referred to,
in themselves ludicrous or foolish. I would gladly
make no reference to the common modes of practice,
past or present, if, without this, it were possible to do
justice to my subject. But when the matter under dis-
cussion is the comparative merit of rival claimants,
it is an unavoidable, though it may be a painful
duty, to represent fairly not one side only, but both.
My readers are asked first to look at the difficulties
and perplexities of medical affairs up to our time, as
Pliny looked at the botanical pictures of his time; and
having seen these, to turn with pleasure to that side of
the subject which begins to resemble plants painted by
a modern artist. -
Authority-–routine. We are told that the beginning
of medicine among the ancients was the exposing of
the sick in public, so that any passer by, who had
been similarly attacked and cured, might give his
advice. Later than this, all who were cured were
required to go to the temples, and there record the
symptoms of their disease, and the remedies which were
thought to have cured them. For a time every one had
the privilege of going to consult these registers, and
choosing for his sickness, or for that of his neighbour,
the medicines of which experience had seemed to show
the value. Afterwards these facts were collected. Then,
the priests attached to the temples seized the practice
of the art, and formed a medical code which was called
the sacred book. From the directions of this book the
priests who followed were not permitted to vary; if,
in obeying the rules there laid down, they could not
xvi.I.] ORGANOPATHY. 435
save their patients, they were not held responsible ;
but if, after departing from them, the result did not
justify their course, they were punished with death.
Thus, on the plea of authority all further progress
in the healing art was arrested, and the tyranny of
routine established; and it is worthy of note that with
this wretched state of things the ancient public seem
to have been satisfied.
At a later period, in the best times of Greece, medi-
cine was delivered from priest-craft by Hippocrates
and others, and became a profession of its own.
During the general decay of learning and liberty in
the middle ages, it fell again into the hands of the
priests; and this led to the separation (a misfortune I
think) of surgery from medicine. At the period of the
Reformation the treatment of the sick was again sur-
rendered by the priests to a medical faculty; but the
separation of surgery from medicine continued, and in
this country was perpetuated by the charter of king
Henry VIII.
For about three centuries medicine has belonged to
men exclusively devoted to its study and practice. It
has made progress during this period, and notably in
some of its branches, as anatomy, physiology, animal
chemistry, and pathology. But in respect to therapeu-
tics, or the actual treatment of the sick, this progress
has been checked by two characteristics apparently
opposite to and inconsistent with each other—violent
changes on the one hand, and unthinking routine on
the other. Men of energy and industry have succes-
sively pushed themselves forward as leaders; so that
doctrines the most contradictory, and practice the most
Opposite, have been in vogue, not only in succeeding
ages, and in different countries, but in the same age,
and in the same country. And yet, no sooner has a
teacher etablished a reputation, and formed a school,
than routine reigns among his followers. The excuse
offered for this being the authority of the master.
Sometimes routine is even more unthinking than
this —a physician of some eminence lately prescribed
436 MEDICAL PROGRESS. |ESSAY
for a patient not far from me, and on being asked why
he had written the prescription, he replied, “because I
think it will do good.” But, said the questioner, you
must have some reason why you think so, and the
Second reply was, “I don't know at all !”
Among the ancient priests there was but one
routine ; among the modern medical practitioners
there are many; but the opposition and contradiction
of the teachers has, until lately, remained within the
pale of the faculty. And the public in Europe have
had very much the same feeling, on medical matters,
that the public in Chaldea or Egypt had in old time;
they have liked what they thought was the regular
steady practice according to rule, or they have made
up their minds to be content with routine.
That it is not a mistake to represent the educated
people in England as in the condition of the same
classes three or four thousand years ago, will appear
from the following letter which I had lately the pleasure
to receive —
“The art of healing is in reality so complex and varied that
a very large part of it appears to me to rest on an unexamined
routine. Certain medicines are usually given to certain cases
because they have always been given. Even if a medical
attendant has no reason whatever to give for using them, he
continues to use them, because he knows no better. He feels
that in the beaten track the responsibility is not his, but the
profession's. But if he stir out of the beaten track the whole
responsibility becomes his. And this he dares not face.
“All honour is therefore due to those who set themselves to
force this routine to give an account of itself. In most cases
it can give no account. But even when it can give no account
it always dies hard.
“The ordinary allopathic treatment often reminds me of
those savages who, at the time of an eclipse, beat kettles to
drive away the monster that is devouring the Sun. The
medical men find that with their treatment the patient often
recovers: the savages find that the Sun always reappears.
The logic of both is often nearly on a par.”
This view of professional routine, taken by intelli-
gent laymen, is bad, but it is not so bad as the reality.
XVII.] ORGANOPATHY. 437
It would be much worse if they saw that medicines are
given, not because they have always been given, but
because they have been lately recommended by some
authority; while other medicines of an opposite
tendency are given in similar cases by others, because
they have been praised by another authority; and this
not for one disease or two, but for all. Bleedings and
purgatives are had recourse to by this practitioner;
stimulants and tonics are given by that, for the same
maladies.
The treatment which the investigators of homoeo-
pathy have met with from the profession is, to some
extent, undeceiving the public on this topic, and laymen
are beginning to understand that, up to this hour,
there is nothing settled in the art of healing ; that, on
the contrary, the most discordant doctrines, and the
most antagonistic methods of treatment are advocated
by contemporary teachers, are adopted by their pupils,
and become parallel lines of routine.
The professional body may therefore be divided
into the teachers and the taught, or into those who
occupy posts of authority, and those who follow routine.
We need not concern ourselves further at present
with the latter; but if we carefully examine the former
we shall find that they are composed of the following
SeCt1OnS :—
A'eason—dogmatism. If we look back upon the
noble minds of antiquity, we find Hippocrates, indeed,
endeavouring to limit himself to the observation of the
phenomena of diseases, and the effects of remedies.
But, immediately after him, we see the staff of teachers,
headed by Thessalus and Polybius, and, at a later
period, by Galen, trying to use their reason in assign-
ing the causes of morbid phenomena, and so becoming
bewildered in pathology and therapeutics in which
both diseases and remedies are hot, or cold, or wet, or
dry ; and we find them, especially Galen, misled by a
maxim derived from these imaginary qualities, and
teaching that diseases are cured by their contraries.
438 MEDICAL PROGRESS, [ESSAY
This was the dogmatic school of the ancients, and it
reigned without a successful rival for many centuries.
If we look at the men who have been teachers since
the revival of learning in Europe, we see with surprise
how the medical chemistry of Silvius, and the medical
need/anics of Borelli, have had their triumphs and
defeats; how Stahl established, as he thought, his
vital dynamics or autocrateia ; Hoffmann his medicina
rational's systematica : Boerhaave, among other doc-
trines, that de g/uſenoso spontaneo; Cullen his Spasm?
of the extreme vessels; Brown his two classes of disease,
the Sé/ºenic and the asſ/emic; and how these and other
systems have been, as Etmuller expresses it, succes-
sively “hissed out of doors.”
And we look with wonder at the fact that the same
tendency to speculate still misleads the best minds of
our own time. A single instance will illustrate my
meaning. A familiar doctrine of fever has just been
mentioned. Cullen's spasm of the extreme vessels;
a doctrine at one time widely received, but in itself
nothing more than a conjecture resting upon no solid
foundation, and now everywhere rejected. Yet, in
a review lately published, written by a physician of
authority and eminence, we find a similar doctrine of
spasm, which is advanced by the writer of the book
reviewed, and applied by him to the explanation of
cholera, spoken of thus, “surely this seems a reason-
able theory !”
The author of the book “supposes that a spasme, or
cramped state of the muscular fibres which embrace the
minute pulmonary arteries, [Cullen's extreme vessels,
7s caused by the choleraic poison, and bars these slender
channels against the advancing blood.” “Surely this
seems,” says the reviewer, “a reasonable theory e
and we may understand /low &/eeding may /e/ &y 7 e-
/awing the spasm.” And so we still have suppositions
as explanations and guides in practice, laid before us
by acknowledged teachers, instead of observation,
analysis, and induction. An old friend of mine wrote
in the margin of his “Cullen,” more than fifty years
XVII.] - ORGANOPATHY. 439
ago, opposite the words “relax the spasm,”—“It is
sad indeed that a head so clear as the author's should
thus be haunted by spasm l’ -
Truly Hippocrates said well “the art is difficult l”
These are the mistakes of faithful men, of men who
have the strongest claims upon our respect and admira-
tion. They are men who have mourned over the im-
perfections of their calling, and who have spent a long
life in earnest efforts to remove them ; men of genius,
learning, and industry; men who, when other people
went to bed, lighted a fresh candle. Moreover, they
are men who have ever made a ready response to the
calls of duty, whether those calls have come from
patients needing succour, or from medical men seeking
information.
Faperience—empiricism. As there was among the
ancients, so there is among moderns, another class of
worthy men in the faculty, men of strong minds, good
sense, and simplicity of purpose, who distrust authority,
and who are convinced of the failure of reason when
employed in speculation. These men take up another
position, and, rejecting hypotheses of all kinds, rely
upon eafterience. Dr. Stokes recently gave expression
to this view in the Medical Council of the Empire, on
seconding Professor Acland's motion."
“There can,” he said, “be no doubt that medicine
requires to be placed on a much more scientific basis
than it at present possesses. It is now simply empiri-
cism, and that empiricism is only tolerable and useful
because it is wielded by thoughtful men.”
In the opinion of this section of physicians no true
theory of diseases and their treatment is yet known.
They look upon the explanatory contrivances of the
dogmatists as belonging to the evils which flew out of
Pandora's box. They limit themselves therefore to
the observation of what the senses can teach, and in
prescribing rely upon what chance, or what experi-
ments made on the sick, has taught them.
* This motion is noticed in Essay XVI, p. 419.
44O MEDICAL PROGRESS, [ESSAY
I remember a distinguished physician, to whom I
was then a pupil, prescribing carbonate of iron in large
doses for every patient, (and they were many) that he
saw for some days; and this notwithstanding the wide
disparity in the nature of their cases. He wished to
learn what iron could do, and he made the sick his
subjects. This is empirical experiment. -
A few months ago a gentleman from an adjoining
county consulted me for the usual symptoms of indi.
gestion brought on by hard study. For eleven months
he had been under the care of the leading physician of
his town and neighbourhood, and during those eleven
months he had received from this gentleman separate
prescriptions of the following drugs; the “adjuvantia,
corrigentia, et caetera” with which they were com-
bined, being omitted.
1. Triticum repens. I I. Chloric Ether.
2. Phosphoric Acid. I 2. Liquor Potassae.
3. Rhubarb. I 3. Taraxacum.
4. Iron and Quinine. I4. Bismuth.
5. Capsicum, I 5. Salicine.
6. Prussic Acid. I6. Cascarilla.
7. Gentian. 17. Spirit of Nutmeg.
8. Nitric Acid. 18. Henbane.
9. Quassia. I9. Carbonate of Magnesia.
Io. Bicarbonate of Potash. 20. Aloes.
This is empirical practice.”
“Empiricism is only tolerable because it is wielded
by thoughtful men.” There are thoughtful men
1 Perhaps it will be expected that it should be said what
became of this patient. In six weeks he was well, with the
exception of some swelled glands which, of course, could not
subside in that time. This result will be accounted for in
various ways, according to the bias of men's minds; some
will say he got well from leaving off medicines, no slight
reproof to the physician who prescribed them —others will
believe that the 7tua vomica and su/p/ºur given him wrought
the cure ; for myself I think both these causes contributed to
his recovery.
xvi.I.
ORGANOPATHY. 44 I
among us, perhaps as many as in any other profession,
and they deserve to be honoured. But such an
example as the one just given, and which is a
representative one, shows that empiricism, even in the
hands of thoughtful men, is a poor and feeble thing.
What must it be in the hands of those who do not
think, but follow empirical routine P In England
alone twenty thousand men are going their daily
rounds visiting the sick, many with benevolent hearts,
many with liberal hands, more benevolent and more
liberal than they commonly receive credit for ; but,
alas, how many with empty heads ! heads, that is to
say, having nothing in them but a catalogue, more or
less lengthy, of the names of diseases linked to another
catalogue of poisonous drugs. . . . . “Plus, un
petit clystère insinuatif, preparatif et remollient, pour
ramollir, humecter et refraichir les entrailles de mon-
sieur. Plus, dudit jour, un bon clystère detersif,
composé avec catholicon double, rhubarbe, miel rosat,
et autres, suivant l'ordonnance, pour balayer, laver, et
nettoyer le bas-ventre de monsieur. Plus, une bonne
médicine purgative et corroborative, composée de
casse récente avec séné levantin, et autres, pour
expulser et evacuer la bile de monsieur. Plus, un
clystère carminatif, pour chasser les vents de mon-
sieur. Plus, dudit jour, une potion anodine et astrin-
gente, four faire reposer monsteur,” — pour faire
reposer monsieur ! It will be granted that this satire
is not even an exaggeration of the truth.
AWature—scepticism. It is not surprising that the
failure of dogmatic and speculative medicine to
establish a true theory, and the poverty of empiricism,
and the meagre success in actual practice of both,
should have deprived some men of their faith in both
the science and the art of healing. These are the
medical sceptics of all ages.
The prevalence of scepticism among the learned
men of the profession is no small difficulty and dis-
couragement to those who are anxious to fulfil the
4.42 MEDICAL PROGRESS. [ESSAY
duties of their calling, and to heal the sick in the best
possible manner. The greatest modern historian of
medicine, Kurt Sprengel, who with untiring industry
has studied it from its origin down to the nineteenth
century, and has filled nine volumes with the results
of his researches, has arrived at this conclusion,--
“scepticism in medicine is the top stone of the science,
and it is the wisest part to regard all opinions with
indifference, and to adopt none l’ This talented and
laborious German is thus driven by what he has seen
of the confusion and opposition which every where
prevails, to blank despair
Nor are the vigorous intellects of France less
unhappily circumstanced. Their able medical his-
torian, P. V. Renouard, has travelled over the same
ground, and has reached a goal scarcely less discourag-
ing than Sprengel's. He asserts this, as the only
reliable guide,-" those remedies which have cured
one case of disease will cure all cases analogous to it.”
This is the old Babylonian and Egyptian routine; it
leaves us the few remedies which chance has dis-
covered, but supplies no means of increasing them.
If we are thus driven back to the ancient temples, and
to their sacred book, it will not be long before we are
ready, in the blindness of ignorance, and the intoler-
ance of prejudice, to put to death any who dare to
depart from the beaten track.
Nor are our best known English teachers more
encouraging. Sir John Forbes, “having been actively
engaged in the practice of medicine for the long period
of fifty years,” leaves a book as a legacy, and the
burden of it is this —
“Alas ! it is hardly a legitimate ground for exulta-
tion that we can control and extinguish a few of the
more trifling diseases, while nearly all the huge
remaining mass of human maladies must be left to the
chances and uncertainties of a treatment which is
neither precise in its indications, direct in its action, nor
positize in its results."
xvi.I.] ORGAN OPATHY. 443
This despairing scepticism of the learned has had
its influence on the profession, and has led to the
formation of a school called the “expectant.” This
school is much older on the continent than in England;
its characteristic is reliance upon nature, or upon what
is called the “wis medicatria: 7latura.” When a
brother of mine was taken ill in Rome, now fifty
years ago, a well known physician was sent for, and
when he arrived, he carefully examined his patient,
and gravely said to him, “Ah! drink barley water,
and I will come again to-morrow and see what it turns
to " The French I think were the first to give this
method a name; they called it “Ala medicine eaftecſante.”
It is from this school we are learning with Some pre-
cision what nature, as it is called, can do unaided by
art, except as nursing and regimen can lend a helping
hand. It has been ascertained that, in acute disease,
the proportion of recoveries is greater than when
active treatment is used. Still even under this curative
power of nature, the per centage cf deaths is consider-
able; there is an uneasy feeling in the minds of
these practitioners, or rather lookers-on, and they are
coming to the conviction that “Zaisser /aire" is a better
maxim for the guidance of commerce, than for the
treating of disease, and that doing nothing cannot be
the me //us w/tra of medicine.
This scepticism has also partially infected the lay
public. Some educated people are now indifferent as
to receiving any prescription of medicines when they
consult their physician ; they prefer direction as to
travel, diet, exercise, and clothing; they think that
medicines are generally useless. In the letter already
quoted this loss of confidence is thus expressed —
“I think no one has yet exhausted, or even approached to
exhausting the investigation of the curative power of nature.
I am quite sure that in far the majority of cases the work has
been done, not by the drugs which the physician has pre-
scribed, but by the condition of air, temperature, diet, exercise,
that he has ordered. I do not at all deny that in one case
out of a hundred the drug has done the work, and that with-
444 MEDICAL PROGRESS. [ESSAY
out the drug nature would not have done it. But I doubt if
the proportion is more than that.”
This is the Swing of the pendulum in the opposite
direction. Too much has been expected from drugs;
they have been used too much ; the expectation has
been disappointed; that which has often been the fate
of single medicines is now the fate of them all, the
belief in them is gone. -
This mistake is as great as the old one, and will
lead to evils as great. I will content myself by
putting one before the minds of my worthy but
sceptical friends.
They will fall into the hands of the surgeon. It is
Obvious that, from circumstances, it is not always
possible to travel ; and also, alas! severe illness will
come, when exercise cannot be thought of, and when
diet can do little to ward off painful or protracted
suffering, or to diminish the danger of a fatal termina-
tion.
“Let the head be shaved entirely, and have the patient
brought near the right side of the bed; raise the head by a
hard pillow, and put a towel round his neck to receive the
blood ; let an assistant keep his head steady ; at the same
time draw the Scalp downwards in all directions, so as to
strain the calvarium as much as possible ; the scalp will
divide with so much more ease. In this your own left hand
will materially assist, by placing it at the upper and back part
of the head ; commence the incision between your thumb and
forefinger, as far back as the lambdoidal suture; press the
scalpel sufficiently down so as to divide the Scalp entirely
through at once ; carry on the incision directly along the
sagittal suture as far as the hair grows on the Scalp, and
which will cover the cicatrix after the issue is healed up.
The length of the incision thus made will be, in the adult,
about seven or eight inches; take care that the Scalp be
divided entirely and perfectly through, so that the edges of
the incision will separate so far as to enable you to introduce
a dossil of lint, rolled up hard, as thick as two fingers, and
which should be well soaked in Spirit of turpentine.”
The cases in which this painful and hazardous under-
xVII.] ORGANOPATHY, 445
taking is recommended, be it observed, are not surgical
ôut medica/, they differ widely in character; they are
inflammation of the brain, epilepsy, paralysis, delirium
tremens, and fever. The operation has been performed
many times, upon patients from Žree years old and
upwards, by the surgeon who proposed it. The re-
sistance made by friends of the patient is to be “over-
come by remarking quietly that ‘it is only intended to
make an issue,' an insignificant trifle.”
It is not many years since this operation was intro-
duced ; and now, to the scalpel there is added the
actual cautery. The red-hot irons of the old surgeons,
which it was believed had been discarded for ever, are
now again taken in hand, with this difference only, they
are made white ſhot.
To be cut and burnt after this fashion may be
“insignificant trifles” in the estimation of enterprising
Surgeons; but patients and their friends will think
them as bad as the former evils, when too much
medicine was given by speculative physicians.
Physical Science—//hi/osoft/hy. Let me next notice a
Section of the medical teachers which is of modern
Origin, but which is now affecting to take the lead in
medical affairs. These are the medical philosophers
or men of science. They are talented, industrious, and
aspiring. Professor Acland speaks of this school in
these terms, “there never was an age when there were
so many students, in the best sense, of biology and of
medicine, actuated by a simple love of truth ; and
never a time when, as a class, they were so free from
prejudice, so candid, and SO patient.”
I am willing to hope that this may become a true
representation of the spirit of the age. I have been
putting its truth to a practical test for some years, and
am doing so still. Experience hitherto has not been
re-assuring, but I shall rejoice if the Essays now offered
to the notice of my profession are received in this candid
and patient manner. Less cannot be expected from
Dr. Acland himself than that he will set the example.
446 MEDICAL PROGRESS. |ESSAY
That the application of the collateral sciences to the
improvement of medicine is a move in the right direc-
tion cannot be doubted. Animal chemistry is a noble
pursuit ; and advantages are also to be derived from
the observation of the specific gravity of fluids; from
the application of acoustics in the stethoscope; of optics
in the ophthalmoscope and laryngoscope; and of
thermotics in the thermometer.
Far be it from me to undervalue any of these
sciences; they are lines of investigation worthy of
being followed; but they can be of use to medicine
only within their own proper limits. They may help
in diagnosis, and they may now and then suggest a
new remedy; but they can never teach a law of thera-
peutics. It is not in them to do this. On the con-
trary, they become hindrances and ignes ſałuń when
they are lifted up out of their proper and subordinate
sphere. The modern medical chemists especially err
in this matter; they are like their predecessors the
alchemists in the 16th century, who sought to trans-
mute the baser metals into gold. The aim of both is
an unattainable object; as that of children who plant
stones, and expect trees to grow out of them.
That these sciences have failed as trustworthy guides
in the treatment of disease is manifest both from the
books which have been written under their dictation,
and from the practice of the able men who have
devoted themselves with assiduity to their cultivation.
As a specimen of the books one may be mentioned
by Dr. Owen Rees on the Piseases of 4%e Aºdhey coſt-
mected zwith A/61/minous Orine, (Moróus Brightii.) In
this book, as in others by the same class of authors, the
anatomy, the pathology, the chemical analysis, the
symptoms, and the complications are carefully detailed,
but the therapeutics are a failure. The remedies sug-
gested are avowedly not specific, nor are they scientific;
the old “indications” and “intentions” are perpetuated.
For acute cases, &leeding ; ſa/a/ and creamt of Čardar to
purge; antimony to excite perspiration; mercury, but
that it does so much harm; digita/is and opium. For
xVII.] ORGANOPATHY, 447
chronic cases, iron and elaterium ; the former to
increase the red globules of the blood, the latter to
purge away the dropsy. These remedies are fenced
about with so many cautions and warnings that it is
difficult to see how a “thoughtful man” can use them.
“We are obliged,” says Dr. Rees, “to have recourse to
very active measures, which, though we are driven to
them by necessity, must yet be used with the greatest
care, for the reason that the secondary conditions
Ánown to occur during the progress of the disease are
such as will &e greatly aggravated by the constitutional
effects of active and depletory treatment.” We are to
fear “producing serious mischief by inducing that
watery condition of the blood which speedily assists
the disease to a fatal termination.” It may become
“absolutely necessary to have recourse to the lancet,”
but “the difficulty of discriminating” when this may be
done without placing “the patient in a most unfavour-
able position for recovery,” and when bleeding will not
“especially tend to accelerate death,” is strongly insisted
Oil.
Of antimony it is said, “We shall do well, if possible,
to urge antimony as a remedy. This cannot always
be done owing to the nausea induced.”"
Of digitalis : “When discreetly exhibited there
seems much apparent benefit from its use.” “The
dose should be small, however, and its effects on the
pulse narrowly watched,” “we so often have a morbid
condition of the /eart present.”
Of opium : “We may occasionally use opium with
great advantage; ” “the dose should at first be small,
and its effects must always be closely watched. This
is necessary Owing to the liability to ſtead symptoms,
* It would be a good service if any one would re-prove
antimony, specially with regard to its action on the kidneys.
It is probable (from the old provings) that albuminuria would
be one of its effects, and this would shew it to be a specific
for one stage of Bright's disease; and when given in small
doses, there would not be the difficulty Dr. Rees experiences
arising from nausea.
448 MEDICAL PROGRESS. [ESSAY
(apoplexy,) which characterises this disease, an evil
occasionally arising in a most unexpected manner.”
Of mercury: “We shall do well to avoid mercurials
entirely.” “Even a single purgative containing calo-
mel has been known to induce dangerous salivation.”
There is to be no direct action upon the diseased
organ; “the state of the kidney must never be lost
sight of, and every thing tending to determine to that
organ, either in the form of medicines or articles of diet,
should be studiously avoided.” -
The only remedy suggested by science is iron, which
is “exhibited with a view of supplying red corpuscles
to the blood.” But in albuminuria—the disease under
consideration—the loss is not of red but of white parti-
cles; it is albumen which needs to be replaced.
All who are well acquainted with modern medical
literature will acknowledge that this is a fair instance
of the failure of science in books. The following cases
may be taken as fair examples of its failure in practice.
In May, 1858, I was consulted by an elderly lady
who was seriously ill. The opinion was given that
she had an abscess in the right kidney; that much
hope of her recovery could not be held out; but I should
be happy to use such means as were in my power. In
consequence of this opinion her friends took her to
London. She was seen by Dr. Bence Jones, who was
requested to write his diagnosis. He wrote “abscess
of the kidney,” and prescribed effervescing salines to be
taken when feverish, 7teinine for debility, to be taken
when not feverish, and ſa/apine to be taken when the
quinine confined the bowels. It will be observed that
none of these prescriptions are the suggestion of Science.
He owned he had no remedy, and he anticipated a
fatal result. The patient was brought back to me.
At this time the abscess was discharging, by the blad-
der, immense quantities of pus. I gave her ſycopodżum.
The discharge of pus was considerable for some weeks,
but gradually diminished; and in the beginning of
September it had disappeared, the patient was well,
and remained so. She spent the summer of 1859 in a
xvi.I.] ORGANOPATHY, 449
succession of visits to friends in Ireland, and through-
out the year 1860 continued well.
In November, 1865, a young lady was taken to
London to another philosopher physician, her friends
being greatly alarmed at her condition. Their fears
were confirmed by this consultation. The physician
wrote as follows to the surgeon in the country —“The
urine is highly coagulable, and every symptom charac-
teristic of Bright's disease is present in her case.”
Among these symptoms was extensive dropsy of the
body and lower limbs. Acetate of ammonia with wine
of iron and saffron, and cream of farfar with ſa/a/ and
capsicum were prescribed on the 13th November, 1865.
In January, 1866, she was brought to me in the state
above described, but getting worse. The quantity of
albumen was great, and the dropsical swelling of the
body and limbs formidable ; it was painful to look at
her pallid face. Titanium was given her. Improve-
ment began from that time, and in October she was to
her own feelings, and to all appearance, well ; the
dropsy had entirely disappeared. A small quantity of
albumen remained, but she considered herself not
needing further treatment, and I did not see her for
some time. During the severe weather of the follow-
ing winter there was some return of the symptoms.
Iron was given her, but this had no effect. Zitanium
was again had recourse to, and in a week there was
already great improvement; the dropsy again gradu-
ally disappeared, and the albumen which had increased
was again much reduced in quantity. As I have not
seen her since May, 1867, I cannot say that the
albumen is no longer present, but in August she wrote
to say that she was well.
The conclusion arrived at with respect to the
philosophers is that they are in much the same
predicament as the dogmatists, the empirics, and the
Sceptics, whose circumstances we have already re-
viewed.
Thus it appears that the majority of medical men
are content with an unthinking routine; that among
29
45O MEDICAL PROGRESS. [ESSAY
those who try to think, some are dogmatists lost in
speculation; some are empirics holding by nothing but
a rope of Sand ; some are sceptics without belief in
their art; and some are philosophers vainly expecting
to learn from non-medical sciences what these can
never teach.
The great fact which has been the permanent
barrier to progress in therapeutics remains to this day:
—a direct connection between diseases and their remedies
Žas not &een discovered in any of these schools of medi-
C2%.
A principle—homasoffathy. There is yet another
section of the medical faculty which we have not
noticed. These have formed a new school professing
to have found a principle or law of therapeutics.
By a principle is meant a general fact discovered by
induction from a number of particular facts. The most
eminent example of this is the law of gravitation
discovered by Sir Isaac Newton.
This general fact or principle has been promulgated
in a peculiar form by Samuel Hahnemann; the basis
of his system is the action of drugs taken in health;
and the rule or law is to give the drugs as remedies
for the symptoms of disease similar to those which the
drugs themselves produce in health. “Simi/;a simi/;-
&zes curantzer” is the motto expressing the method of
Hahnemann, and its opposition to the methods of
the old school, expressed by the motto “comżraria.
com/rariis curančur.”
An investigation of this method will be recapitulated
in the second part of this Essay, and should the con-
clusions arrived at be confirmed by future observations
and experiments, they will appear to be the “missing
link” between diseases and drugs; they will exhibit
that direct connection between diseases and their
remedies which exists in nature, but which had not
been previously known or taught. . .
Ever since there has been a profession of medicine,
men have anxiously yearned after a dogma, a rule, or
XVII.] ORGANOPATHY, 451
principle, by which the treatment of the sick should be
theoretically governed. All former attempts to dis-
cover this have failed. Hahnemann has made another
effort, and even if it be viewed hypothetically, as a
door opened for a new path of research, most assuredly
it has already effected more than any preceding
hypothesis, and it promises, if loyally, and at the same
time critically dealt with, to result in such a “reason-
able theory” as all may adopt with Satisfaction.
The method is still youthful, but the facts brought
to light by practical trials in the hands of educated
physicians are so numerous and instructive that there
is already an amount of eafferience which reduces into
comparative insignificance the former experience of
ages.
This mode of practice, moreover, avails itself of the
wis medicatriºt matura to the full extent consistent with
the acknowledgment that art also has a duty to
perform.
It opens a wide door to all the collateral branches of
science, and gladly accepts any assistance which they
can tender.
During about fifteen years previous to the year
1850, several physicians in England, talented, well
educated, and zealous men, had professed themselves
disciples of the German medical reformer, and were
putting forth a claim to superior success in the treat-
ment of the sick.
To investigate this new method seemed to me to be
a duty. The subject presented itself as one of the
deepest interest alike to the profession and to the
public. I saw that the investigation of it was spurned
by those in authority, and that to undertake it would
place me in a painful position towards my medical
friends and colleagues, and would also involve the
sacrifice of the prospects then before me. But I
determined to perform it in the best manner I could,
and, from time to time, to publish the results.
452 MEDICAL PROGRESS. [ESSAY
I have endeavoured to compel homoeopathy “to
give an account of itself,” as I had before done with
other systems of medicine; and the attention of my
profession to the results of seventeen years of research,
is now earnestly requested.
The first labour was to separate, in Hahnemann's
system, what was found to be supported by observa-
tion from all that was destitute of that foundation—the
former to be adopted, the latter to be be rejected; and
the next, to attempt to advance further in the path of
investigation so begun, in the hope that, ultimately,
medicine may be placed on that “more scientific
º ” which Dr. Stokes and many others are longing
O1".
7%e Principle separated from the ZXose.
After two years of careful study and many experi-
ments, the first Essay was published in 1852. In this
an attempt was made to explain what the new system
professes to be. Several things were mentioned whicſ,
Žá is not, and then what it is, or claims to be considered.
It was asserted that homoeopathy is not an infinites?-
mal dose, óut a general fact or principle which is to
guide our therapeutics. -
The infinitesimal dose has received attention during
the course of the Essays, but it has always been treated
as a separate and subordinate enquiry. It is remarked,
in the first Essay, that “homoeopathy as a principle
was discovered by experiments made with appreciable
doses, and a physician may be a true homoeopathist
though he never prescribe any other.”
This is a point of much importance, and deserves
further illustration ; but instead of giving additional
cases of my own, some shall be recorded which have
been treated by another hand. I may remark that,
from time to time, medical men write to me to ask
information and guidance on their commencing a
practical trial of the new method, and the following
XVII. ORGANOPATHY. 453
cases, which will be read with great interest, have
been sent to me in this manner.
The writer, in his first letter, says, “I have been a
medical practitioner for sixteen years, and, like most
others, I fear, who have been for such a length of time
acquainted with and much employed in the practice of
medicine, have been often, very often, much disap-
pointed at its uncertainties, not to use a stronger term.
. . . I am anxious to go into the subject thoroughly,
being quite satisfied by a recent re-perusal of your
‘Investigation' that I have left, and am leaving a
great duty unfulfilled, so long as I do not give homoeo-
pathy a patient practical trial.”
In June and Sept., 1866, I received from this
physician “reports of cases,” from which the following
are extraCtS :—
“Arsenic.—I have frequently used arsenic in skin affec-
tions, both before and since reading your ‘Investigation,’ but
never before perusing your book should I have thought of
using this medicine in the treatment of stomach and bowel
complaints. Since then I have used it frequently in what
may be called chronic gastritis, or congestion of the stomach,
with very marked good results; and of one case, which made
a great impression on my mind, I cannot forbear giving you
a short history.
“In January, 1865, I was called to attend a lady about
fourteen miles from my residence. I found her in the eighth
month of pregnancy, Suffering from great pain in the epigas-
trium much aggravated by pressure, constant vonniting (nothing
being retained), accompanied with an apthous state of throat,
tongue, cheeks and lips, from which, and from the gums,
which were separated from the teeth (all the latter being
quite loose), there was a discharge of tough fetid mucus.
Such having been her condition for about three months before
I saw her. She was, of course, much exhausted and ema-
ciated, and was subject to fainting fits on raising the head or
on any exertion, the pulse being, at the time I first saw her,
almost imperceptible. I was at a great loss how to deal with
such a case, the poor woman looking more like death than
life ; but on consideration, I ventured to prescribe one drop
of Fowler's solution thrice daily. She had one dose on the
night I visited her. I was summoned by telegraph the
following morning to see her, and on visiting her found she
454. MEDICAL PROGRESS. [ESSAY
had had ‘a most dreadful night,’ with pain in the bowels,
which was attributed to the medicine, so, of course, she had
taken only one drop. I found her, as I thought, somewhat
better, and got her friends and herself to consent that the
medicine should be continued in half doses (half a drop of
Fowler to each dose), morning and evening, in a little thin
arrowroot. She vomited no more from this time, and, on
visiting her in five days afterwards, I found her sitting upon
a Couch, able to be up for a few hours, and to take food in
Small quantities often repeated with relish, all of which she
retained without pain or difficulty. Tongue clean, cheeks
and lips healthy, as well as the gums, and the teeth were again
firm. I may mention that she had never taken mercury in
any form. In ten days after this, or rather over a fortnight
from my first visit, she gave birth to a healthy male child,
which with the mother did remarkably well; she is now, and
has been ever since, quite well.
“Had labour taken place at the time I first visited her, I
cannot think she could have got over that ordeal in safety.
“I suppose the ‘dreadful night' after the first dose of the
medicine was owing to the dose being too large.
“Within the last few years I have often used arsenic,
(always Fowler's solution), in a sort of gastritis in children,
and within the last month I have treated four cases of such,
(the youngest being eight weeks and the oldest three years of
age,) the chief symptoms being vomiting, great weakness,
and feverishness, accompanied by loaded tongue, (which was
also somewhat swollen,) with red patches all round the edge,
the centres of which were raised into blisters, the cheeks and
lips being similarly affected, so that the child could not use
the tongue or lips in sucking, nor without indications of pain,
and there was evidently pain in Swallowing. All these cases,
and many others, have done well under the use of arsenic,
and so quickly as to be very remarkable.
“Tartar Emetic.—I have frequently used this in pneumonia
with the best results, the dose being about the go of a grain
for adults.
“A week ago I was called to see an infant, five weeks old,
suffering from severe inflammatory action of the lungs. When
I first saw the child I thought it beyond medicine—in short,
that it would be dead in an hour or two ; it was livid, almost
pulseless, a little flicker being all that could be felt, and only
now and then, respirations about 45 per minute ; it was
altogether as helpless-looking an object as one could see. I
happened to have tartarized antimony by me, so I took about
half a grain, which I dissolved in four ounces of water, with
XVII.] ORGANOPATHY, 45.5
instructions to give a small teaspoonful every four hours, I
heard of the child's improvement the following morning, after
three doses of the medicine, and the day after that (about
thirty-eight hours after my first visit) I found the little thing
almost well, and able again to take the breast ; and I am glad
to say it is now quite well.
“Copper.—Within the last month I have used the suſp/afe
of copper, (Tly of a grain every six hours), in a case of what
I may call, ‘crampy Sciatica,’ with the result of giving the
most complete relief in the course of twelve hours, or after
the third dose. This man has often had attacks of the same
kind, which in some instances lasted for weeks.
“Ipecacuanha.-I have used this frequently in haemorrhages
from the lungs, and with marked good effects.
“Careſharides.—I have often use this medicine in diseases of
the bladder with the best results.
“Bi-chloride of Mercury.—Since perusing your ‘Investiga-
tion' I have frequently used this medicine in dysentery, both
in young and old, with excellent results. I have also used it
in ulcerated sore-throats—several cases. I am at present
(June 1866) using it in two cases of scrofulous enlargement of
the ends of the long bones, in one the humerus, and in the
other the femur ; and I think the former already shows im-
provement. The doses are tº of a grain."
“Belladonna.-I have used this with the best results in
Scarlatina, Sore-throats, headaches, hydrocephalus, and erysi-
pelas. In hydrocephalus I have seen no cures from its use,
the disease being of a tubercular nature in all the cases that
I have seen ; but it appeared to me, in Some cases, to possess
great power in Controlling and preventing the convulsions
which give so much distress in that disease, and are so
painful to witness. In two cases it arrested such fits alto-
gether, So far as I could judge. I have had no opportunity
of testing its power in this disease, except in the tubercular
variety, which I fear may be considered, without exception, a
fatal disease.”
“In erysipelas I have used it in only two cases, and that
within the last six weeks ; one of them, a very severe case,
commencing in the right eyelid from a small wound caused
by a piece of percussion-cap striking the part while the
* Note written in August 1867. “The case of the disease
in the humerus is now quite well. The other case Suppurated,
but ultimately under the same treatment healed up, and the
girl is now strong and healthy.”
* We have better remedies than belladonna for these cases.
456 MEDICAL PROGRESS. [ESSAY
gentleman was rifle-shooting, on a cold day with a strong
east wind. The attack was very severe, extending all over
the face, head, neck, chest, as low as the mammae, before and
behind, and the upper extremities. What was strange to me
in the case was that little or no vesication took place over
the affected parts. In less than three weeks the gentleman
was able for his duties again, and continues quite well.
“The second case of erysipelas, also of the head and face—
a lady who had had three previous attacks, the last about
two years ago, was seized with rigor, and in a few hours the
heat, redness, and swelling commenced on the forehead and
nose. I found her, the next day, with the disease generally
over the face, and extending to the ears, temples, and over
the scalp. She had small doses of Sol. ext, bell. (about two
grains in six ounces of water), and in three days the disease
was almost gone, and in three more she was quite well, had it
not been for the descluamation of the cuticle on the forehead
and nose.
“Aconife.—I have used aconite in two cases of inflam-
matory croup of a very violent nature, with the result that
both cases did well ; being the only recoveries from this
disease—pure inflammatory croup—that I have met with, and
am sorry to say I have seen a good many lost.
“Lead.—A lady about fifty, who for a year and a half had
suffered from numbness and want of power in the muscles of
the forearm. I saw her about the middle of July 1866, when
I immediately prescribed for her small doses (tº of a grain)
of the acetate of lead, night and morning, which she took for
a week, when the numbness had all but disappeared, but the
power of muscle was not improved. She continued for
another fortnight taking the plumbum only at night, when I
found her better ; and in the course of another fortnight she
informed me that she was quite well, but that she had been
frightfully annoyed with the heat and itching of the affected
arm. I ordered the medicine to be discontinued, and I
understand she is now (September, 1866) not suffering in any
way. This lady had been seven times blistered at the nape
of the neck, and had otherwise been most heroically treated
before I saw her, which I did when she was threatened with a
seton in the neck for the rest of her life.”
All these, and many other cases, have been treated
by this able physician with small quantities of the
1 For a case corresponding in some measure to this, See
Essay IX, on The Smaſ! Dose.
xvi.I.] ORGANO PATHY. 457
ordinary preparations of the Pharmacopoeia. He is
putting the principle of homoeopathy to a trial in his
own practice, and separating it from the question of
the infinitesimal dose. I cannot but think that every
physician ought to be found doing the same thing. If
medical men are so circumstanced that they cannot
conveniently do otherwise, let them use small doses of
their own drugs; where there is no hindrance it is
better to obtain them from a homoeopathic chemist,
because the doses are more manageable, and the pre-
parations are more reliable and more uniform in
strength.
Hahnemann discovered the principle of rule, as ex-
pressed by him in the formula “similia simi/iózes
curanțur,” by experiments, in health and in disease,
with common drugs in ordinary doses. Having after-
wards found, as he thought, that infinitesimal doses
acted better than larger ones, he, very unwisely I
think, tied the principle to the foot of the dose. This
he did in language so arbitrary as to set aside the
foundation upon which his whole system professedly
rested, namely experience.
I heard no murmurings against these “words of the
master” in 1850, but I took the liberty to protest
against them for myself. There are still some practi-
tioners who think homoeopathy is inseparably united
with the infinitesimal dose, but the majority now agree
with me in asserting that there is no necessary con-
nection between the two, that the principle is the bond
of union in the new school, and that the dose is “an
open question.”
It is now well understood that homoeopathy con-
tains two distinct branches of enquiry —the principle
or rule by which medicines are to be prescribed ; and
the doses in which they are to be given.
But it is still the practice of the opponents of the
new method to confound these two branches together;
and in this manner, on the plea that the infinitesimal
dose shocks the common sense of the profession, the
whole subject has been covered with ridicule, and its
458 MEDICAL PROGRESS. [ESSAY
advocates with contempt. Such conduct is inconsistent
with science, and is unworthy of educated and honest
IT) ell.
Each division of the subject claims to be investigated
by itself, and medical men are recommended to follow
the example of the physician whose cases have just
been reported. Until their minds are settled as to the
principle, the consideration of the small dose may be
postponed.
7%e Principle restricted to Drugs.
The future historian of medicine will see with sur-
prise and regret a blot upon the pages devoted to the
nineteenth century. He will be compelled to record
the fact, for it is too conspicuous to be passed over,
that the profession as a body condemned homoeopathy
without examination.
This examination might have been made in two
ways : Hahnemann's books might have been read
and fairly criticised ; or the doctrine taught by him
might have been put to a practical test at the bed-
side.
If only the first, the reading and the criticism, had
been done, there would have been a show of reason in
rejecting the system.
Hahnemann had a visionary, unscientific mind, easily
led away by loose analogies and imaginary resem-
blances; and consequently his writings contain uncriti-
cal observations, unproved assertions, unsound conclu-
sions, and hasty generalisations. Moreover, even in
his principal work, the Organon of Medicine, he cannot
refrain from applying abusive epithets to his profes-
sional brethren, or from ascribing base motives to their
conduct.
From the first all this has been acknowledged, and
in the course of the Essays it has been shown how he
has applied the principle of homoeopathy to matters
with which it has no connection, how he has obscured
-,
XVII.] "ORGANOPATHY. 459
its truth and diminished its value by the hypothetical
language in which he has clothed it, and how he has
undermined confidence in his statements by asserting
conjectures and even contradictions of himself with the
same positiveness and naïveté that he does things which
may be proved. So that if the question were one
which could be settled by reading his books, I should
have gone along with those who, after this examination,
had agreed in rejecting his system altogether.
Homoeopathy, as represented by Hahnemann, is
vague, indefinite, and unproved. But the investigation
is one which rests on evidence, not on logic ; on offser-
zation, not on argument; its only real test is a practical
trial.
Such a trial in my own practice has convinced me,
as I believe it has convinced every one who has made
it fairly, that there is something in homoeopathy, or
rather something underlying it, which, when laid hold
of and separated from all which has disfigured and con-
cealed it, is a great discovery in medicine and a great
benefit to mankind.
The search for this underlying truth was begun
seventeen years ago, and it has never been intermitted.
The progress made may have been slow and “rather
the offspring of time than of wit:” but it has been pro-
gress, and its successive steps have been honestly and
I hope modestly placed, as they have been taken, before
my contemporaries. In this summary of them the first
of these steps has been explained, and we now proceed
to the second —the limitation of the principle.
Nothing can be more disturbing to a sober mind
than the loose manner in which Hahnemann explains
and applies the doctrine of “similia simiſióus curanțur.”
It soon became evident to me that unless this principle
could be reduced to a more distinct and substantial
form, it could not retain more than a very partial
and temporary hold upon “thoughtful men.” Three
Essays were devoted to this part of the enquiry, and to
these my readers are referred for details. The nature
of a principle, and how this therapeutic one has its
46O MEDICAL PROGRESS, [ESSAY
limits with respect both to diseases and to remedies is
shown in them.
Hahnemann first endeavours to prove that nature
teaches us homoeopathy by causing similar diseases to
cure each other; but he totally fails in being able to
bring forward one tolerable example. He tries to get
out of this dilemma by remarking with singular sim-
plicity, “We should have been able to meet with many
more true natural homoeopathic cases of this kind, if
nature had not been so deficient in homoeopathic
auxiliary diseases l’ He proceeds thus : “mighty
nature herself has, as we see, at her command, as
instruments for effecting homoeopathic cures, little more
than the fixed miasmatic diseases, the itch, measles
and small-pox Which, as curative agents, are either
(namely small-pox and measles) more dangerous to
life, and of a more frightful character than the disease
they are to cure; or of such a kind (like the itch) that
after they have effected the cure, they themselves
require curing, in order to be eradicated in their turn ;
both circumstances that make their employment
as homoeopathic remedial agents difficult, uncertain,
and dangerous. And how few diseases are there to
which man is subject, that find their analogous re-
medial agent in small-pox, measles and itch l’ To
propose to inoculate with small-pox as nature's remedy
for an inflamed eye, would be as unreasonable as to
prescribe submersion for some minutes as a cure for a
cold caught by getting wet; without doubt both would
be “dangerous.”
In the Essays referred to it will be seen that Hahne-
mann also applied the principle of homoeopathy to the
action of mental emotions upon each other; but to
prove that it does so apply there is neither analogy
nor evidence. -
He would also have us believe that the effects on the
human body of the physical forces of inanimate nature,
—heat, light, electricity, and magnetism—are governed
by the same law. -
I have examined (in the Essays) each of these forces
XVII.] ORGANOPATHY, 46 I
in detail, and end with this remark : “For myself, I
cannot but conclude that Hahnemann is quite in error
when he supposes that the homoeopathic law can, with
any show of propriety, be applied to the action of the
physical influence of any of the so-called imponderable
agents.” .
Only drugs remain; but as regard these there is
sufficient evidence to compel the admission that “a
7"elation eacists in mature between the effects of material
poisons on the healthy frame, and the effects of the
same poisons on diseases resembling those which they
are capable of producing.” (Essay VI.)
In the same Essay, Hahnemann's definition of the
principle is rejected, and the following is suggested in
its place :- -
“Every material poison gaining admission into the
healthy body has a tendency to produce a diseased
condition, (evidenced by symptoms or physical signs,)
more or less peculiar to itself; and every such poison
is the most appropriate remedy for a similar diseased
condition which has arisen from other causes.”
Again, (in the first Essay on the Principle) the same
conclusion is stated in these words —
“That there is a natural relation between the disease-
producing and the disease-healing powers of drugs is,
I think, clearly made out.”
This criticism on the wide application of the prin-
ciple of homoeopathy by Hahnemann was strongly
objected to by his school on its first appearance; but
the limitation to drug action as then suggested is now
generally received.
7%e Zocal Action of Drugs.
A diseased condition, whether arising from drugs or
from other causes, may be supposed to have been pro-
duced either by a general or by a local action.
Hahnemann looked upon all diseases as derange-
ments of the vital force or life of the body; and he
462 MEDICAL PROGRESS. [ESSAY
asserts that the action of drugs is also upon this force
or life. . This view implies a general action both by
morbid influences and by drugs.
The practical consequences of this doctrine are seen
in his /l/ateria Medica, in which he records the effects
of drugs taken in health, or the physiological action of
medicines. In these “provings” each drug has symp-
toms attached to it connected with every organ of the
body.
I do not adopt this view. It is simply a conjecture
that “in disease the vital force only is primarily mor-
bidly deranged,” (Organon); a conjecture like those
made by the Dogmatists, against which Hahnemann
declaims so fiercely as idle dreams. Not only does it
not rest upon any facts which prove it, but, as it
appears to me, it is incapable of proof.
That each drug acts in the same manner, and so
produces symptoms or effects over the whole body, is,
I think, also a mistake.
It will be useful to reflect further on this question,
with reference both to disease and to drugs.
Cullen, whose Nosology was the best of the last cen-
tury, divides all diseases into four classes :—Pyrexiae,
Neuroses, Cachexiae, Locales. The last would seem
to imply from its name, that the rest are general and
not local diseases. But the names of the others are
sufficient to refute this inference. Pyrexiae or fevers
are diseases of the blood and of its circulation. Neu-
roses are disturbances of the nervous system. Ca-
chexiae a vitiated condition of the fluids.
Mason Good has given the best Nosology of the
present century; he arranges all diseases thus:–
Coeliaca—diseases of the digestive function.
Pneumatica—diseases of the respiratory function,
Haematica—diseases of the sanguineous function.
Neurotica—diseases of the nervous function.
Genetica—diseases of the reproductive function.
Eccritica—diseases of the excernent function.
Now these, and all noSological arrangements, are
founded upon the fact that the phenomena of diseases
xvi.I.] ORGANOPATHY. 463
are loca/; and this fact proves the local action of their
Call SeS.
It is true I have often heard patients say, “I am ill
all over !” And no doubt they feel so. But physicians
by careful enquiry can separate such general malaise
into local ailments; just as astronomers, by the tele-
scope, can resolve nebulae into separate stars.
Diseases, then, in their causes, origin and seat, are
local. That the same may be said of the action of
drugs is, I think, equally certain.
As works on NoSology are founded on the local
character of diseases, so treatises on Materia Medica
and Pharmacology are based on the local action of
drugs.
We have no writers of greater eminence on these
subjects than Pereira and Christison.
Pereira, in his Mažeria Medica, gives, among others,
the following arrangement of drugs, which it will be
seen corresponds, except in the order in which they
are given, with Dr. Mason Good's classification of
diseases —
a. Acting on the blood © * e , Haematica.
ſ3. Acting on the respiratory organs . . Pneumatica.
y. Acting on the nervous system * . Neurotica.
8. Acting on the digestive organs * . Coeliaca.
e. Acting on the excernent system . . Eccritica.
Ż. Acting on the reproductive organs . . Genetica.
All these are obviously local actions.
Christison is decided in taking the same view. In a
former Essay part of a sentence is quoted from him on
this question. His words so exactly express my notion
that the whole passage shall be given —
“Of the organs affected by the remote action of poisons.—
Having now taken a general view of the mode in which
poisons act on distant parts, I shall next consider what
organs are thus brought under their operation. Poisons have
been often, but erroneously, said to affect remotely the
general system. A few of them, such as arsenic and mer-
cury, do indeed appear to affect very many organs of the
body. But by much the larger proportion seem, on the con-
464 MEDICAL PROGRESS. [Essay
trary, to act on one or more organs only, not on the general
System. . . . Some act chiefly by enfeebling or paralysing
the /eart, others principally by obstructing the pulmonary
capillaries, others by obstructing the capillaries of the general
system/2, others by stimulating or depressing the functions of
the brain or of the spinal chord, others by irritating the
a/?mentary canal, others by stimulating one or another of the
glandular organs, such as the salivary glands, the liver, the
Æidneys, or the lymphatic glands.”
Christison here speaks of “poisons;” but what he
says of them is true of all drugs, whether they be
called poisons or medicines; for “medicines,” as was
said by Linnaeus, “differ from poisons not in their
nature, but their dose.”
It may seem unnecessary to give instances of the
appropriation of individual drugs by particular organs,
inasmuch as every drug and every organ are examples.
Nevertheless, it may be useful to some minds to have
the fact thus distinctly exhibited. Half-a-dozen well-
known metals from the mineral kingdom, and as many
plants from the vegetable kingdom, shall therefore be
mentioned as illustrations:—
Go/a/ acts on the brain and the bones.
Si/ver on the joints, their ligaments and cartilages.
Copper on the muscles, producing cramps and con-
vulsions.
Zead on the muscles, producing paralysis.
Azazimony on the stomach, bowels and lungs.
Aismut/, on the spinal chord, heart and alimentary
canal.
Opium acts on the brain—the venous circulation.
Ae/ladonna on the brain—the arterial circulation.
AVux vomica on the spinal chord.
Aconife on the heart and arterial circulation.
Digitalis on the heart and kidneys.
A/oes on the rectum." -
Some drugs (especially mercury) have been given in
such large quantities, and the giving of them persevered
1 It is not meant that these are all the organs acted upon
by the twelve drugs here named.
XVII.] ORGANOPATHIY. 465
in for such a long time, that it may be supposed that
the organs which have a specific relation to them have
been more than saturated by them, so that the over-
flowings have found their way into other organs, pro-
ducing further mischief and strong natural efforts to
expel them.
Other drugs appear to act more generally because
they are blood poisons, such as Secale, Sumach, &c.;
others because they have a profound action upon the
ganglionic system of nerves and vegetative life, as Sul-
phur, lime, &c.
The remarkable action of bichromate of potash on
the septum of the nose, through which it bores a hole;
of cantharides on the bladder; of ruta on the wrist;
and of many other drugs on special Organs might be
dwelt upon ; but the general fact seems to me to be so
obvious, that I cannot suppose a larger number of
individual examples can be required.
It is concluded therefore, that the action of drugs
upon the human body, whether taken in health or in
disease, is local, - -
Organs the Seat of Symptoms.
Another step next presented itself. Having satisfied
myself that the investigation of the principle of homoeo-
pathy is limited to the action of drugs, and that this
action is local, the next duty was to enquire if a better
application and consequently a better definition of the
principle could be found.
It is well known that Hahnemann insists upon symp-
ſomes as the sole object of attention. With him “the
disease consists only of the fo/a/ićy of Z/ke symptoms.”
A similar totality of symptoms is to be searched for
among the provings of the drugs in health, and the
<>
drug under which all these symptoms can be found, is
the best medicine the patient can have. Hahnemann
says he “takes note of nothing in every individual
disease except the changes in the health of the body
3O
466 MEDICAL PROGRESS. [ESSAY
and of the mind (the symptoms), which can be per-
ceived externally by means of the senses.”
It will not be denied that this is a superficial view,
but it is one still very earnestly contended for by many
homoeopathists. A distinguished author “severely cem-
Szºes those practitioners who attempt to treat their
patients in accordance with the general and pathological
clinical indications, instead of adhering strictly to the
‘totality of the symptoms.”
I remember being present, now more than forty
years ago, during a conversation between two elderly
medical men, great practical observers and eminent
men in their day, which concluded with these words:
“After all, we must generally be content to prescribe
for symptoms.” This made a deep impression on my
mind at the time, and turned the suspicion I already
entertained into a conviction of the imperfection of the
art of healing. If we are not to look beyond the
Outward sign, how often must we be misled ! Well
might Hippocrates exclaim that he “would give great
praise to the physician whose mistakes are small.”
As opportunities for observation increased, I found
the prescribers for symptoms were common ; while
those who were not content with such a superficial
mode of practice, but who endeavoured by reasoning
on the phenomena to penetrate into the mystery of
disease and to guess at its nature, were soon lost in
a bewildering labyrinth.
On meeting with Hahnemann I found the symptom
practice, which hitherto medical men had scarcely
acknowledged even to themselves, openly defended
and boasted of as an essential part of the only true
method.
If the alternative were this, either adopt one of the
many hypotheses upon which a method of treatment
has been based, which hypotheses may be as beautiful
but certainly are as unsubstantial as mountains of
clouds; or be content to prescribe for symptoms;
then I grant that my two old friends, and Hahnemann,
and those who follow him, sit on the best horn of the
XVII.] ORGANOPATHIY. 467
dilemma. The experience of three thousand years
has rendered hopeless the attempt to discover the
inner nature of diseases, and has justified the inference
that a pathology of this kind can never be a safe guide
to therapeutics.
But there is a third path which, while it cannot be
objected to as superficial, cannot, on the other hand,
be condemned as speculative and hypothetical. By
this path a search may be made after the seat of
diseases—the organs in which the symptoms have their
origin. For symptoms are outward signs of something
signified within. We may not be able to find out what
that something is, but we may learn where it is, and
that it is a step beyond the sign.
I could not but try to learn this. Speculation as to
what diseases are, has long been a wardrobe to furnish
to those who enter into it a cap and bells, and I have
felt no inclination to follow them. But to ascertain the
seat of the symptoms seems practicable, because it
admits of being enquired into as a ſacá.
This then is the step which homoeopathists are
recommended to take. It will be real progress. It
will preserve the new school from the danger which
threatens it of falling into routine; and when it is taken
the mine of medical science will again resound with
axes and hammers.
If it be objected that there are many cases in which
we cannot find the seat of the symptoms, it is replied
that this is more than the objector knows till he has
tried; but it is admitted that till we have found this
out, there is no better way of prescribing than for the
symptoms themselves. Our present ignorance ought
to stimulate exertion, not to stifle it. Already we
know the seats of some symptoms; we must labour
till we know the seats of them all.
This enquiry into the seat of symptoms is rendered
possible and useful by two facts; the one, that diseases
ſave a local habitation, the other that drugs have a
Zoca/ action. - -
That diseases are not merely derangements of the
468 MEDICAL PROGRESS. | ESSAY
vital principle, but that they affect special organs or
constituent parts of the body, and so are local, and that
drugs act locally also, has, I think, been sufficiently
proved in this and former Essays; and I have no
doubt will in due time be generally accepted as true.
The organs which are affected by different diseases
must be discovered by observations on the sick.
The organs which are affected by different drugs
must be discovered by experiments on the healthy.
By these observations and experiments the natural
connection between diseases and drugs is made known.
This is the “missing link.” From this knowledge a
therapeutic rule, based on nature, is possible and may
be thus expressed :—
Z27-249s to Če remedies must affect the same organs as
&/ºe disease affects.
This is Organopathy. It has for its foundation not
merely the resemblance of the symptoms in the disease
and in the drug, but the identity of their seat.
Among the advantages of this view over that of
Hahnemann's are the following:—
Zł is more definite. The principle, as expressed by
Hahnemann (simi/ia sºme?/iózes, &c.), is necessarily
indefinite, for resemblance admits of degrees. The
greater the similarity, says Hahnemann, the greater
the homoeopathicity of the remedy, and the smaller is
the dose that is required. I believe this is true; but
then it implies that there is less and less similarity, and
a less and less homoeopathicity; and who shall say
where similarity ends and difference begins 2
These considerations show that, admitting Hahne-
mann's proposition to contain a truth, it can be received
only pro tempore, as a transitional expression of the
truth it contains. There is primad facie evidence in
support of it sufficient to demand a trial. After such
a trial, anxiously and perseveringly carried on, my
judgment is a definite one —Look at the organ which
is diseased, and seek a drug, as a remedy, which is
known to be appropriated by, or to act upon that
Organ.
XVII.] ORGANOPATHY, 469
It recognises loca/ action. In Hahnemann's Mažeria
A/edica Pura, as it has been already remarked, symp-
toms are put down as belonging to every organ, and
produced by every drug. He has overlooked this very
obvious property of drugs, and has attributed to them
a sort of general or universal action. It seems to me
impossible to prescribe medicines at all, either accord-
ing to the practice of the old school or to that of the
new, except by taking advantage of the partial or local
effects produced by all drugs.
Zá £urns diagnosis to Čečer account. A physician
cannot perform his duty, in the examination of a patient,
unless he strive to obtain a distinct notion of the
situation and extent of the malady. Without a careful
diagnosis he cannot give a probable prognosis. The
friends of every sick person urgently desire a prognosis;
it is due to them to be told the probable issue of the
illness. Now, if the therapeutic rule be accepted in
the form here given to it, a good diagnosis answers an
additional purpose, not less important than the first—
it becomes the true guide in the choice of the remedy.
It helps to remove a difficulty. It is well known
that many symptoms have opposites to them ; and in
the provings of drugs which we have at present,
these symptoms and their opposites belong to all the
more powerful medicines. This fact is necessarily
perplexing to those who wish to select a remedy
according to the rule “similia simiſióus,” &c. This
perplexity almost disappears when we adopt the view
now proposed.
Zá prevents the accumulation of useless symptoms.
This accumulation of symptoms is a growing evil.
Already many drugs have more than a thousand
symptoms attached to them in the provings ; these no
memory can retain. Every new experiment adds to
this number, and increases the labour of prescribing,
and the perplexity attending the selection of a remedy.
On the plan now recommended, every proving which
decides the locality of the action of a drug, is a definite
gain; hundreds of recorded symptoms may be blotted
47O MEDICAL PROGRESS. [ESSAY
out as useless; and, to the medical man skilled in
pathology and diagnosis, the toil and difficulty of
prescribing is greatly diminished. -
Zá is a step in advance. The observations already
made are a sufficient proof of this. All who take the
step will be conscious of real progress, a progress so
real, that none will deny it but those who, from what-
ever motive, refuse to take it.
Such is the method I have been led to adopt. Such
also are the grounds upon which it rests, and some of
the advantages which recommend it. A few remarks
On cases which present little more than the commonest
Symptoms may be offered in illustration.
Cases in which nausea and vomiting, with a con-
sequent loss of appetite and strength, are the only
Symptoms, are common ; such symptoms are also
produced by a numerous class of drugs; so that, if the
selection of the remedy is to be made from a simple
Comparison of the symptoms, it must become either a
matter of routine or a matter of chance. But if an
endeavour be made to discover the organ from the
disturbance of which these common symptoms proceed,
something may be done which will be much more
satisfactory. For example, it may be ascertained that
the seat of the ailment is in the mind ; or in the brain ;
or in the spine ; or in the uterus; or in some other
organ of the body; or it may be in the stomach itself.
In this way the indication for ignadia ; or Óe//adonna ;
or 7zza womaica, or Sefta, or ºftecacuaze/a, or some
other drug, may become very plain.
In like manner, a headache, or a palpitation of the
heart, or a pain in the shoulder-blade, needs a patho-
logical investigation, before we can fix with satisfaction
upon the remedy.
Again, it is well known that coughs are very various.
It has been said that there is no remedy for a cough.
A principal reason why coughs are thought incurable
is that the seats of the irritation which causes them are
different, and often difficult to discover.
xvi.I.] ORGANOPATHY, 47 I
Sometimes coughs have their origin in the stomach ;
these I have repeatedly seen cured in a few minutes
by a dose of pulsa/i//a. Other coughs originate in the
liver; these, after “cough medicines" have entirely
failed, are often cured by mercurius. There are also
throat coughs; and laryngeal coughs; and tracheal
coughs ; and bronchial coughs; and lung coughs; and
coughs from affections of other organs still. Some of
these are really incurable in the present state of our
knowledge, particularly when the cause is tubercle or
cancer in the lungs; and some, though not incurable,
are necessarily tedious, from the mere extent of the
bronchial or other affection ; the rest are cured or not,
just as the physician discovers or not, the organ where
the irritation exists, and selects, or not, the drug for
which that organ has a specific or elective affinity.
In 1860 I was consulted by a married lady who had
a chronic dry cough, being otherwise in excellent
health. The cough had followed an attack of hooping-
Cough in 1855; it was spasmodic, and the fits were
excessively violent at times, but did not resemble
hooping-cough at all. Many doctors had been con-
sulted during the five years, and all had failed even to
relieve the cough. I could not discover the local
origin of the irritation ; several remedies were tried, as
if firing shots without a mark, and I failed also. I do
not know what further means have been tried, but the
cough has continued seven years longer.
In 1866 Miss consulted me for a cough which
had troubled her for fifteen years, which was more
than half her life. She described it as a tickle in the
throat which produced a dry cough without expectora-
tion ; the fits of coughing were at times severe, and
prevented her from going into company, and almost
from going to church, on account of the disturbance
they occasioned. She was otherwise in good health.
Several physicians, some of the old school, others of
the new, had been consulted during this long period,
but she had derived no benefit from any one. After
some enquiry the conclusion was arrived at that the
472 MEDICAL PROGRESS. s: [ESSAY
seat of the irritation, which caused the cough, was the
uterus, and I gave her sepia. In a few days the cough
ceased, and there was no return of it for more than a
year. When it did come again it was quickly removed
by the same remedy. -
Component Parts of Organs.
We have seen that in every case of disease it is
necessary to discover what organs are primarily and
chiefly affected ; and that in the proving of drugs a
similar discovery is required to be made. We have
next to consider that important organs are not simple
but complex structures. Hence two questions arise,
one in respect to the disease, what part of the ailing
organ is affected 2 and one in respect to drugs, (when
more than one act upon this ailing organ), which acts
upon the affected Žard 2 The former question obliges
an accurate diagnosis in disease; the latter a similar
accuracy in experiments in health.
In the diagnosis of disease, physicians have already
made considerable progress towards answering the
question. For example, in diseases of the chest ;
affections of the covering of the lungs (such as pleurisy
and hydrothorax), of the pulmonary substance (as
pneumonia and tubercle), and of the lining membrane
(as bronchitis), have been well separated from each
other. In diseases of the abdomen, affections of the
coverings of the intestines (as peritonitis), of the
middle or muscular coat (as colic), and of the lining
membrane (as enteritis), and also diseases of the
mesentery and its glands, have been distinguished with
precision.
But towards furnishing an answer to the question
len applied to drugs and their therapeutic use, little
has Sbeen attempted. On the contrary, even when
much jºbour has been spent in examining a case, and
a careful Siagnosis has been made, we commonly hear
it said that “the Nºreatment is to be conducted on


xvi.I.] ORGANOPATHY. 473
general principles.” This means either that the anti-
phlogistic plan is to be adopted, as leeches, purgatives,
and refrigerants; or tonics are deemed necessary, as
quinine, porter, and wine.
Pereira, expressing the prevailing sentiment of the
old school, says: “In the present state of our know-
ledge, a physiological classification of medicines cannot
be satisfactorily effected.”
Hartmann, one of the best practical writers of the
new school (speaking of brain disease), says: “We
shall' include the symptoms of the different varieties
in one group, for the reason that it is scarcely
possible to separate them from each other, and
that such a separation would have no practical
value.” ---
And so we are apt to think of knowledge of which
we are not at present in possession, either that it is
unattainable, or that it is worth little ; which know-
ledge, when discovered, we may be compelled to own
is of the highest value. We ought neither to despair,
nor to underrate. Nothing hinders progress so much
as desponding about, or despising what is not known ;
and, as to the subject in hand, even Pereira admits
that “it cannot be doubted that had we a more inti-
mate acquaintance with, and precise knowledge of, the
acſion of remedies, the therapeutical properties of medi-
cines would no longer appear incomprehensible and
mysterious.”
This precise knowledge of the action of remedies is
to be obtained by careful provings; that is, by experi-
ments on the physiological action of medicines, experi-
ments in health, by which the exact locality of the
action of each drug may be learned. And this
not only as to the Organ acted upon by each
drug, but also as to the particular part of each
Organ.
In proportion as this is done, the use of medicines
will be transferred from a method resting on con-
jecture to one based on Science, and possessing a
degree of accuracy hitherto unknown.
474 MEDICAL PROGRESS. [ESSAY
In illustration of this advancing step in diagnosis
and treatment, it may be remarked that
The Örain may be the ailing organ; but the part
affected may be the arteries, or the veins, or the
cerebral substance, or the membranes. And the drug
should be made to correspond ; and so this may be
acozzite, or òe//adonna, or opium, or //iosphorus, or /ie/le-
ôore, or hyoscyamus, or stramonium, or some other.
Or the heará may be the seat of disease; then it
may be the pericardium, or the muscular fibres of the
auricles or of the ventricles, or the lining membrane,
or the nerves, or the valves. And the remedy may
be acozzite, or òryony, or arsenic, or òromine, or digita/is,
or AEa/mia, or Óismut/, or spage/ia, or Čovista, or some
Other perhaps yet unknown drug.
Or it may be a large ſoint, as the Ánee; and the
part affected may be the cellular membrane, or the
muscles, or the ligaments, or the cartilages, or the
bones. And the remedies may be armica, or öryony,
or 7%us, or silver, or mercury, or some other.
Or it may be one of the organs of the senses. Look
at the eye, and it is required to find drugs which act
upon the conjunctiva, the cornea, the iris, the lens, the
humours, the retina and optic nerve, the Sclerotic coat,
the muscles. The organs of hearing, smell, and taste,
and in fact all the parts of the body ask for similar
attention.
We arrive at the conclusion that the goal which phy-
sicians should have before them is a perfect knowledge
of the diagnosis of disease—not of its nature, but of
its symptoms and its seat; and a similarly perfect know-
ledge of the local action of drugs. When those can
be placed side by side, the true relation between them
(the missing link) will be recognised. And when, in
addition, the doses in which the medicines are to be
given can be adjusted, the art of prescribing will have
attained all the" perfection it is capable of. The part
of the subject, therefore, which remains to be considered
is the dose.
xvii. ORGANOPATHY, 475
7%e /Dose.
Many are the pleasant phantoms which are joyously
pursued by lively people, which others must neglect;
many are the subtle questions, mirage like, which are
debated with eagerness by imaginative people, which
others must refuse to notice. Doses of medicines are
neither a pleasant phantom, nor an attractive mirage;
they are a painful reality; they command attention and
make men grave and thoughtful, for they come before
them on grave and thoughtful occasions, in the presence
of suffering and in the prospect of death.
“Be assured,” said Quincy, at the beginning of the
last century, “that the true and only secret in physic
is how to give a medicine.” This secret contains the
choice of the remedy and its dose. We have passed
in review the selection of the drug, it remains that we
consider how much of it is to be given at one time.
There is a preliminary difficulty which must be
removed before this subject can be discussed to a
useful purpose between the members of the old school
and those of the new.
In the old school professional men are thoroughly
impressed with the notion that a medicine must be
given in such doses that some observable effect is
produced by it. There must be an “opus operans.”
The dose must produce vomiting, or purging, or
Sweating ; or it must blister or otherwise notably
punish the patient. Every case is supposed to present
certain indications for one or more of these unpleasant
operations, and medicines are prescribed with the in-
tention to perform them. The medical conscience is
distressed with the sense of a dereliction of duty if
these enterprises are omitted ; and when patients re-
cover it is believed that good has been done by this
rough and roundabout process.
This notion is so tenaciously held by the medical
mind that it is very hard to expel it ; nevertheless, it
must be expelled before the argument can be com-
476 MEDICAL PROGRESS. |ESSAY
menced and conducted on the same platform and on
equal terms.
Fortunately, the first step to this platform has
already been taken by the whole profession. It is
allowed that “alterative” doses of medicine may be
given. These are doses too small to produce the dis-
turbances commonly designed, but they are acknow-
ledged to be capable of affecting, “ in an impercepſió/e
meanzler,” diseased organs, so as to promote their
restoration to health. In the estimation of the elder
branch of the medical family these are the light
troops which are intended to assist the heavy ar-
tillery.
Z77%erceptióſe action, viewed as a principle, is ad-
mitted, and it is frequently adopted in practice. The
proposal, therefore, that this principle should govern
all, or nearly all treatment by drugs ought not to shock
the medical sentiment. When the thin end of a wedge
has found an entrance, it is always possible to drive it
further.
In a former Essay this imperceptible action on
diseased organs is called direct treatment, in opposition
to the violent action on healthy organs, which is in-
direct. Sir John Forbes, in his last publication, has
adopted the same designations."
It is to be understood, therefore, in the present dis-
cussion that, as far as the use of drugs as remedies is
concerned, they are to be given in such doses only as
shall be followed by no effect but that of restoration to
health.
Drugs taken in health in order to learn their physio-
logical action, must of course be taken in doses
sufficient to produce symptoms showing that certain
organs have been disturbed ; and these symptoms are
noticed and recorded as the natural effects of the doses
taken.
Drugs given in illness in order to cure the patient,
are to be given in such doses as will be followed by a
* “Of Nature and Art in the Cure of Diseases,’ p. 206.
XVII.] ORGANOPATHY. 477
cure only. And, when prejudice does not blind us,
the removal of disorder or disease in this manner will
generally be as obviously the effect of the drugs, as
the production of disturbances is their effect in the
provings. It is true that nature accomplishes cures
sometimes, or, in other words, people “get well of
themselves;” but it is also true that an unprejudiced
and careful observer, guided by a reasonable scepti-
cism, will seldom be at a loss to distinguish these
natural recoveries from the cures effected by re-
medies.
Reason and common sense will admit that doses
which are followed by a cure and by nothing else are
perfect doses; and yet this very perfection is the
traitor which substitutes hesitation for confidence, and
deters the public from a hearty reception of homoeo-
pathy. The impression that medicines to do good
must produce some violent effects, is so deep and has
been so long continued, that it is difficult to believe
that good is being done without these effects; and
medical men are tempted to take an ungenerous
advantage of this impression where it exists, and
to do their best to reproduce it where it has lost its
hold.
Truths are like mechanical solids, they have more
sides than one. For our present purpose the subject
before us has two aspects; one looking towards the
patient, the other towards the drug.
The side towards the patient has been already
diligently examined by the elder school. Among
others, Dr. Paris has enumerated the points to be
attended to. With respect to the patient, he
Says —
“The operation of medicines is influenced by cer-
tain general circumstances, which should be kept in
mind when we apportion their dose, e.g. age—sex—
temperament—strength of the patient—habit—diet—
climate—duration of the disease—state of the stomach
—idiosyncrasy.”
478 MEDICAL PROGRESS. [ESSAY
This aspect of the question, therefore, need not
detain us. It must be remarked, however, that good
sense has not always been the guide in its considera-
tion ; for example, the mechanical physicians of the
last century determined (as quoted by Dr. Paris), that
the dose must be according to the constitution of the
patient, and be governed by a mathematical formula
thus expressed —“The doses are as the squares of the
constitution / " The absurdity of this does not
appear to have struck Dr. Paris sufficiently, for he
himself gives another mathematical formula, which,
he says, has been proposed by Dr. Young.
We turn to examine the aspect which is towards
the drug, and we shall assume that the prover or the
patient is an adult without peculiarities or idiosyncrasies.
This again has two sides; one exhibits the doses re-
quired for proving in health, the other those employed
for healing in sickness.
The questions connected with the first side—the
doses for provings — have scarcely been suggested,
much less have they been investigated, or their details
determined. This is a region unexplored as yet,
even by the section of the profession which is most
advanced. I venture to offer the following observa-
tions :—
We have seen that drugs are characterised by acting
locally; every drug being appropriated by one or more
organs of the body. This local action produces dis-
order or disease, and thus each drug may be dis-
tinguished from the rest.
It is surprising to find that different doses of the same
drug are sometimes characterised in this manner also.
They differ from each other by acting upon different
07 gazes.
It follows from the discovery of this fact, that
these different doses need proving in health, as if
they were so many different drugs. To this
extent organopathy applies to doses as well as
to drugs.
Hahnemann has taken no notice of this fact. He has
XVII.] ORGANOPATHY. 479
not even thought it necessary to tell us the doses which
were used in his experiments.
In many provings which have been made since his
time, the doses taken have been mentioned ; and Some
knowledge of the subject may also be gleaned from
the writings of Christison and Pereira. But for the most
part it is a mine unworked which will reward labour.
I have mentioned, on a former Occasion, as examples:—
Tartarized antimony, which in one dose acts on the
skin; in another on the stomach; in another on the
bowels; and in another on the lungs.
Oxa/ic acid, which in one dose acts like opium on
the brain; in another like Strychnine on the spinal
chord ; in another like prussic acid on the heart ; and in
another like a mineral acid on the stomach (Christison).
When different doses of the same drug act upon the
same organ, they often act in a manner opposite to each
other. Familiar examples are— -
Opium, which acts upon the brain in different doses;
one dose will excite, and another stupify.
ZJigita/is, which acts on the heart in different doses;
one dose will retard and another accelerate its movements.
A/hatóaró, which acts on the bowels in different
doses; one dose will purge and another constipate.
In Hahnemann's /l/ateria Medica, which is the
history of his provings, this antagonistic action is
everywhere apparent. For instance, the secretions of
the different secreting organs are both diminished and
increased by the same drugs. These opposite effects
are not connected, as I think they should be, with
different doses; SO that, as matters stand at present, a
medicine might often be prescribed ostensibly on the
principle of “contraria contrariis curantur” quite as
well as on that of “simi/ia, &c.” The opponents of
homoeopathy have not yet advanced this fact as an
objection; should they do so the reply is ready; this
apparent inconsistency arises mainly from the use of
different doses.
The doses which should be taken in the physiological
experiments are briefly indicated in the paper read
48O MEDICAL PROGRESS. [ESSAY
before the British Association for the Advancement of
Science." Experiments with poisonous doses upon
alºma/s are there protested against, because “any
advantages to be derived from them do not compensate
for the cruelty.” Moreover, they are calculated to
mislead rather than to guide aright ; the action of
drugs upon animals being often very different from
that upon man.”
Some drugs act safely and sufficiently in small
quantities of the crude substance or in tincture, as
rhubarb ; these may be taken both by provers and by
patients in this form.
Some require to be minutely divided to render them
safe ; as arsenic.
Some require to be minutely divided to make them
active; as mercury.
The majority of the metals it is well known are inert
in their ordinary metallic state. Before being experi-
mented upon they require to be reduced to a state of
very fine pulverisation. This is done by triturating
them with a small quantity of a convenient substance,
such as sugar of milk. Of this trituration so much
may be taken that a grain, half a grain, or quarter of a
grain of the metal shall be contained in each dose.
These doses may be repeated at fixed intervals. Such
doses will be found to be capable of producing physio-
logical effects—they will make the prover ill. These
are to be considered large doses. In the same manner
by trituration, a grain of metal added to ninety-nine
grains of sugar of milk, can be divided into a
*–
1 Essay XVI.
* This fact has been known for many centuries, at least
since the time of Lucretius —
“Praeterea nobis veratrum est acre venenum,
At capris adipes et coturnicibus auget.”
Lib. iv., 640.
And again —
“Quippe videre licet pinguescere Saºpe cicuta
Barbigeras pecudes homini quas est acre venenum.”
Lib. v., 899.
XVII.] ORGANO PATHY. 48 I
hundred parts ; a grain of this triture can be
divided again into a hundred parts, and the process
may be repeated a third time. These are called
the first, second, and third centesimal triturations. A
grain of either of these is to be understood as a small
dose.
Other substances, also inert in their crude form, as
carbonate of lime, silica, carbon, &c., and some chemical
compounds of the metals, are to be treated in the same
II].3.I] [] CT.
Soluble substances, as salts, and vegetable juices are
generally to be dissolved in either water or alcohol;
the solutions must vary in strength in proportion to
the poisonous activity of each substance, for the large
doses ; and the small ones should correspond in
strength with the tritures; a grain of a salt or a drop
of the vegetable sap in a hundred drops of water or
alcohol, forming the first centesimal dilution ; from
this the second, and from the second the third, being
made in the same manner.
It may be added that while, on the one hand, in
provings, doses should be as large as can be safely
taken, that is, without serious or permanent injury to
the health of the experimenter; on the other hand,
they should extend to these first, second, and third
triturations and dilutions, for the reason that in
them the drugs can still be recognised either by
the senses, or by chemical analysis, and therefore
it is certain that they are present, and it may
be expected that they will produce physiological
effects.
All these doses are included in the term “medicinal.”
It is not only possible but very easy to prepare still
smaller doses, called infinitesimal, and they also may
be experimented upon.
This is the side of the doses for proving in
health.
Let us now look at the other side, that which
relates to the doses to be employed for healing in
sickness.
3 I
482 MEDICAL PROGRESS. [ESSAY
This is a very important subject, for, in the words of
Dr. Paris, “the dose alone very often determines the
Specific action of the remedy.” At the same time it is
a very difficult subject, and therefore much allowance
must be made for any observations upon it which may
be offered.
I think it is clear that the only direction in which
the various questions connected with doses can meet
with satisfactory answers is that towards the drugs,
and the provings of them in health. All efforts made
in the direction of the patient have failed. And I
believe that a rule for the dose will be obtained from
Žežnowings of different doses, in the same manner as a
rule for the remedy has been found from the provings
of different drugs."
It is certain that drugs act upon the same organs in
sickness that they act upon in health. -
It is also certain that different doses of some drugs,
given in disease as in health, act upon different organs.
In so far as this is the case they must be treated as if
they were different drugs under the guidance of organo-
pathy. Nearly all the details belonging to this part of
the subject require to be better ascertained by new
experiments. -
Moreover, it is certain that different doses fre-
quently act, as in health, on the same organ, but in
opposite directions. To take opium and arsenic as
examples — d
I suppose no one will doubt that some doses of opiume
given in apoplexy would increase the mischief; or that
a similar result would follow some doses of arsenic in
gastritis.
But it will be found upon trial that some doses of
opium will cure even apoplexy, when that dreadful
malady can be cured at all; and that some doses of
arsenic will cure gastritis, even when, from ample
experience, it is most probable that the patient would
have died under other treatment.
1 See Essay XXII.
xvi.I.] ORGANOPATHY. 483
It has been repeatedly observed, in this and preced-
ing Essays, that Zocal action is the characteristic of
drugs; and that the different organs upon which this
local action is exerted distinguishes one drug from
another. I think the Áind of action on the same organ
characterises the dose; but additional provings are
needed to establish this."
What I mean by Áind of action will be best explained
by examples. It is well known that Óel/adonna dilates
the pupil, and that opium contracts it. But these
effects follow only certain doses of these drugs; other
doses produce the opposite effect, so that Óel/adonna
sometimes contracts the pupil, and opium Sometimes
dilates it. When the doses which, respectively, pro-
duce these effects have been better determined, this
knowledge will help in the choice of the dose. If the
dose of Öe/ladonna which dilates the pupil is larger
than the dose which contracts it, then the dilated pupil
will indicate a larger dose, as a remedy, than the con-
tracted pupil. And if opium, reverses this action, and
a larger dose contracts the pupil than that which
dilates it, then the indications for the dose of opium,
as a remedy will also be reversed. This will be
organopathy as regards the iris—the seat of the local
action ; and homoeopathy as regards its contraction
or relaxation — the Áind of action. Possibly, this
may apply generally and become the rule of the
OSC.
I think that the more violent action of some
drugs and doses points them out as the suitable
remedies in acute disease ; and that the slower,
less obvious, but more permanent action of others
indicates them as remedies in chronic disease.
It is to be understood that a suitable repetition of
the dose is included in these observations. Some
doses, to produce their effects, require to be frequently
repeated. This is known in the older school. Dr.
Paris remarks that “the action of alteratives may be
* See Essay XXII.
484 MEDICAL PROGRESS. [ESSAY
more effectually answered by exhibiting small doses at
short intervals.”
But this repetition is not to be indefinitely pro-
longed. Here again a direct contrast occurs between
the old and the new method; in the older school,
when a prescription is believed to have done good,
it is usual to advise its continuance on that
account; in the new school, when a remedy has
acted beneficially, it is generally best to discon-
tinue it.
Another fact of interest and importance requires to
be noticed —a drug which has power to act upon
several organs, when given in Small doses will act upon
the one which is diseased, and will pass harmlessly
through the healthy ones, e.g. ôe//adonna acts on the
brain, the eyes, the throat, and the skin; it may be
given to one patient for ophthalmia, and to another for
sore-throat, and cure both without affecting the other
organs in either patient. If a headache has been pro-
duced the dose has been too large. This fact is a great
recommendation of the small doses, and the reason of
it I take to be that the dose is large enough to make
its presence felt by the morbidly excited part, but not
by the healthy ones. -
If we aim at certainty in Our practice, the Zimziţs of
our range of doses as remedies should be nearly, they
cannot be exactly, the same as those adopted in Our
provings. Larger doses may be taken in health than
can be given in disease; and smaller doses have
ower to act in disease than can be satisfactorily proved
in health, unless it be by very sensitive individuals.
Each organ as well as each drug has its own range of
doses. We depart from Our principle when we give
doses very far removed from those which have been
proved.
During the discussion on the Paper read at the
meeting of the British Association at Nottingham, one
speaker objected to the use of provings as recom-
mended in the Paper, that drugs sometimes require to
be given in much larger doses in disease than is
xvi.I.] ORGANOPATHY. 485
necessary in health to produce the same effect. Offzume
was mentioned as an example, and the very large
doses which were sometimes required to procure sleep.
The reply to this objection is that the subject is the
a/terative action of drugs when used as remedies; and
therefore the fact alluded to has no bearing upon the
matter in hand, which does not include the prescribing
of any doses for such purposes. As has been already
remarked, doses taken in health as experiments in
physiology, or as they are now more frequently called
provings, must be large enough to produce obvious
effects—effects sufficient to characterise the drug. In
this way medical men may gratify their inclinations in
favour of large doses to the full; they may make them-
selves suffer from medicines as much as they like ; but
when doses are prescribed for patients the object should
be to give them just large enough to cure the ailment,
not large enough to produce any effect characteristic of
the drug.
I have hitherto, in the successive Essays, restricted
my observations to matters of fact ; I will add here,
that such of my readers as are of a speculative turn of
mind may engage in a series of experiments to dis-
cover, if possible, whether the mechanical force de-
veloped in the trituration of drugs has any effect upon
them besides the minute division of their particles;
whether any drug-force is generated, after the theory
of Mr. Grove, which he calls “the correlation of
forces;” and whether the nerve force of Dr. Carpenter
has any special relations with this drug force. It
is a well ascertained fact, hitherto quite without expla–
nation, that drugs act upon organs which have no
very apparent connection with each other ; for
example, ºftecaczean/ta acts on the stomach and the
lungs, one organ in the abdomen, the other in the
chest; if there is a relation between the drug force
of ipecacuanha and the nerve force of the pneumo-
gastric nerve, the junction of the stomach and
lungs in the action of this medicine may be accounted
for.
486 MEDICAL PROGRESS. [ESSAY
It may be possible to connect the action of other
drugs in the same manner through the distribution of
nerves; this will not be a barren speculation, for it
will become a check to test the accuracy of provings,
and will aid in the selection of remedies. Certain
drugs may thus be found to be connected with certain
nerves, and this may be the cause of local action.
I now beg leave to address the different sections of
the profession which have been spoken of in the early
part of this Essay.
To those who seem to constitute the majority, who
are content with a practice of routine, and who justify
their conduct by an appeal to aut/iority —If you would
observe what passes before you more carefully and
reflect upon it more seriously, you would, I think, by-
and - by, be alarmed at the amount of mischief you
have unconsciously and unintentionally done. It is
not to reproach you, but to awaken you that you are
asked to consider what evil has arisen, during many
years, from indiscriminate bleeding and from universal
purging ! and more recently, from the excessive use of
stimulants what injury from calomel, blue-pill, grey-
powder, and other forms of mercury dealt out to almost
every patient what mischief from steel and quinine,
given for debility, without regard to the nature of the
disease or the cause of the weakness How many
have been sent to a sleep, from which they have never
awoke, by Opium !
Routine must be acknowledged to be an evil, but it
may be greater or less; and if there must be a routine,
the new school can offer one which is much less destruc-
tive than the old ones. Adopt this practice, and
though you may often fail to do good with small doses
of aconife and Öe//adonna, you will do less harm than
with large doses of calome! and opium. You may
still appeal to authority, for you will be obeying half
xVII.] ORGANOPATHY. 487
the precept of the Father of Medicine:-"The physician
must do good to his patient, or at least /ke must do no
/ia7-772.”
The difficulty of avoiding useless speculation, and of
being contented with accurate observation ; the diffi-
culty of enlarging experience; the difficulty of dis-
covering what nature can do without the assistance of
art, and when and how such aid can be really useful
the discouragement arising from the loss of faith in
medicine among modern teachers; added to the most
urgent and pressing difficulty of all—the necessity for
daily, hourly action, by a large body of medical men at
the bedside of innumerable sufferers; all these dif-
ficulties have made it almost impossible to avoid falling
into certain customs or routine, very varied in different
hands, but each exercising a pernicious and tyrannical
influence over freedom of thought and conduct.
But I would fain hope that a growing sense of the
responsibilities of professional life, notwithstanding all
these impediments, will diminish, day by day, this
numerous class, until the individuals composing it have
passed over, one by one, to join those who do their
best to exert the intelligence and to improve the
opportunities which have fallen to their lot.
To the Dogmatists, (this term is used in its original
and good meaning, not in its modern and condemna-
tory one,) who respect 7 eason and insist with great
propriety upon its exercise, and who are earnestly
searching after a theory of medicine —Nothing secular
can be more valuable than a true theory of medicine,
and all who seek it deserve to be commended. But the
fact that the search has been continued for more than
two thousand years without success suggests that the
method of search is wrong, and that some other method
should be attempted. Hitherto hypotheses have suc-
ceeded each other, and have disappeared because
they have been schemes invented first, and then facts
having no relation to each other have been gathered
together to support them. The schemes have been
488 MEDICAL PROGRESS. [ESSAY
like spiders' webs, and the facts like so many flies
entangled in them.
But the object of a thoughtful physician should be
to discover, not to invent; to find out something, not
to create it to ask what the cases he sees teach, not
what they may be made to prove.
It should be his endeavour, by patiently observing
the natural phenomena of disease, to discover the laws
by which God is pleased to govern them; not to
imagine hypotheses and then to compel the phenomena
to prove his guesses to be true.
He should be fully persuaded that observation and
induction are true guides, and be content to abide
within their boundaries. He should limit hypotheses
to their proper use, for they have a sphere of useful-
ness, which is to suggest new observations and new
experiments, which may lead to the discovery of new
truths. *
I shall rejoice if the intelligent minds I am now
addressing, can be persuaded to reflect that the system
of medicine which they are urged to investigate is a
subject to be decided, not by argument, but by
evidence; and to remember that prejudice sometimes
blinds even wise men, so that they cannot understand
that the earth moves, and sometimes makes them so
wilful that they will rather deny the existence of Jupiter's
moons, than look through a telescope to see them.
Homoeopathy may not be the final expression of a
true medical theory, but it is the best approach to it
which has yet been made. This should be enough to
charm a dogmatist, and to induce him to dismiss all
the hypotheses of the schools; in the language of Lord
Bacon, to throw away the idols of the theatre, and to
embrace, with a thankful heart, what is a matter of
observation, induction, and common sense.
To the dogmatists, therefore, is offered a £/eory of
medicine. -
To the Empirics, (and this word also is used in its
good meaning, that in which Dr. Stokes uses it,)—
xvi.I.] ORGANOPATHY. 489
Fażerience is indeed good, in truth there is nothing
good in medicine which is not founded upon experi-
ence; but you will own that the experience hitherto
accumulated is meagre and defective. Now, in the new
school, though the time is yet so short, there are facts
and experience already collected enough to delight
any empiric. It was well named by Hahnemann, when
the work was new in his hand and fresh before his
mind, “the medicine of experience.”
Every proving of a drug upon the healthy, and
every case of disease treated by a drug in accordance
with the proving of it, adds to this experience; the
sum is accumulating every day. Five years of active
practice after this method will give a medical man
more positive knowledge in his profession than fifty
did before. -
To the empirics, therefore, is offered eaſerience.
To the Sceptics, whose uppermost thought is reliance
upon nature, and who, along with the homoeopathists
have done good in diminishing the violence and
destructiveness of “active treatment:”—While trusting
to nature you perform half your duty, but only half.
Assuredly, a patient should not die and it be reported
that “all has been done for him that could be done,”
when art has done nothing.
You must not forget that the physician's art as much
binds him to assist nature, as it forbids him to em-
barrass and hinder her. His reward is to be found in
the satisfaction of having done positive good, and not
only in the cold comfort of having done no harm. The
only scepticism which we can afford to cherish is that
reluctance to trust remedies which may be false, which
springs from believing firmly that God has provided
remedies which are true.
Embrace homoeopathy, and your dependence upon
natural efforts at recovery will still have the fullest
opportunity of being justified, consistent with the
faithful discharge of your duty as physicians. This
duty comprises, not only “la médecine expectante,” but
49C) MEDICAL PROGRESS. [ESSAY
also all the succour which can be safely rendered to
your patient by art. -
To the sceptics, therefore, is offered to the utmost
extent lawful, the vis medicatrix maturae.
To the Philosophers —Everything is beautiful in its
Season and in its place, and science is no exception.
When its various branches are restricted to their own
domains it is excellent. The stars for astronomy, and
machinery for mechanical science; but it is not good
to look to one branch of science for help in the province
of another. For example, chemistry can teach us a
good deal about the chemical changes which take
place in animal life, both in health and in disease; but
it is a mistake to suppose that it can ever teach a
therapeutic law. You expect too much from the
collateral departments, and you are thus led to neglect
the study of medicine as an independent science.
You are now taking up Hahnemann's work, the
proving of drugs in health, or experiments to ascertain
the physiological action of medicines. This is a noble
work, but you are engaging in it without acknowledg-
ing his example, and consequently without profiting by
his labours, and by those of many others who have
already followed him in this line of investigation.
Moreover, you are pursuing this good work in a
wrong direction ; you propose to make your experi-
ments on dogs, which you consider the best adapted
for the purpose. Poor creatures what intimate con-
nections you have traced between the human species
and the canine, which give them this special adaptation,
does not appear. A favourite hypothesis of our day
would rather suggest affes as Standing in the nearest
relationship."
* This undertaking has not even novelty to recommend it.
My readers will, no doubt, remember Addison's Paper on the
Medical Profession (Spectator No. 2 I. March 24, 1711), in
which he says:– “There are, besides the above-mentioned
[practitioners], innumerable retainers to physic, who, for want
of other patients, amuse themselves with the stifling of cats
xvi.I.] ORGANOPATHY. 49 I
These experiments, if carried out, will be a gigantic
failure; and the sooner your attention is directed into
the only useful channel—the investigation of the action
of drugs upon yourselves——the better will it be for the
sick.
I must not shrink from calling your attention to
another defect which operates as a bar to the success
of your school. You suffer your horizon to be limited
by considerations of orthodoxy, of position, of etiquette.
The end you profess to aim at, and I believe sincerely
aim at, will never be attained as long as information
from any quarter is ignored or rejected.
“It is the work of a philosopher,” says the Spectator,
“to be every day subduing his passions and laying
aside his prejudices.” Vindicate your claim to the
title by overcoming whatever evil influences have
hitherto withheld you from entering upon an investiga-
tion of homoeopathy. The study of nature admits of
no artificial or social restraints; those who pursue it
must breathe a pure air, they must walk with unfettered
feet, they must work with untied hands, they must be
neither respecters nor contemners of persons, and they
must be free from the framme/s of station. When this
study is thus reverently approached, the God of nature
will own the labour and crown it with success.
It will have been observed that throughout these
Essays speculation has been resolutely abstained from,
and attention has been devoted to a dry narration of
facts. Let me urge upon you to consider this
series of facts and the evidence upon which their
credibility rests, and to go in search of similar
facts, and I feel assured you will not be dis-
appointed.
To the philosophers, therefore, is offered a scientific
ôasis of medicine.
I have now the pleasure of addressing the Homoeo-
in an air-pump, Cutting up dogs alive, or impaling of insects
upon the point of a needle for microscopical observations.”
* Spectator, No. 564.
492 MEDICAL PROGRESS. [ESSAY
pathists :—With very few exceptions, you have been
educated in the Old School, and most of you have
worked after the fashion of your fathers. You have
thought it your duty to examine and to test
Hahnemann's doctrine and practice, and in an
independent, not in a slavish manner, you have
adopted it. You have claimed the liberty which is
due to honesty of purpose and independency of
thought. I am sure you will accord me the same
liberty, and will listen to me while the results
arrived at, up to the present time, are briefly
recapitulated.
The ordinary practice has been departed from-
By the rejection of what are technically called
the indications; such as to evacuate and lower, or
to stimulate and build up. -
By the rejection of the intentions with which
remedies are prescribed ; as to produce vomiting,
purging, Sweating, &c.
By the rejection of counter-irritation ; as blisters
Setons, cauteries, &c.
By the rejection of compound prescriptions,
and also of poisonous doses and other violent
111622.SUl1 €S.
At the same time Hahnemann's doctrine and practice
have been modified—
By separating the principle from the infinitesimal
dose. -
By limiting the principle to drugs, to the
exclusion of all other applications of it.
By preferring the view of local to that of general
action.
By directing attention to the organs which are
the seat of the symptoms, as well as to the
symptoms themselves ; and this both in the
proving of drugs in health, and in administering
them as remedies in disease.
By recommending the study of the action of
drugs on the component Aarts of an organ.
XVII.] -- ... ORGANOPATHY. 493
And by pointing out the necessity which exists
for proving the more powerful drugs in differené
doses.
To the homoeopathists, therefore, this modification
of Hahnemann's system, called Orgazzopathy, is
offered.
To conclude. If any one will do me the honour to
read attentively this and former Essays, and will test
each statement, step by step, in his own practice, I
think he will come to a succession of conclusions
similar to mine. He will observe that there has been
no going back; change in a certain sense there must
be, for he that moves must change; progress implies
change, but it does not imply turning back; from
Essay to Essay there is progress. I therefore
commend these exercises to the attention of my
professional brethren, and press upon them the duty
of engaging in similar researches.
In this Essay the routinists are spoken of, and it is
admitted that respect for authority is good, but it is
contended that the abuse of it renders their practice
mischievous and unworthy of men of education ; and
they are appealed to, to shake off their indolence and
rouse themselves to partake in the pleasure of observ-
ing, and in the privilege of thinking.
The dogmatists are spoken of, and it is acknowledged
that the exercise of reason is good and that a theory is
necessary, for if men cannot discover, they will
speculate; but they are reminded that medical systems,
for many centuries, have been mistaken and ephemeral,
and they are appealed to, to examine practically the
doctrine of the new school as a sound basis for a theory
of medicine. -
The empirics are spoken of, and it is granted that
experience is good; but they know that their experi-
ence is defective, and, in the language of Hippocrates,
“deceitful;” and they are appealed to, to observe and
to make use of the many facts which the new school
has already collected, and above all to take hold of the
4.94 MEDICAL PROGRESS. [ESSAY
guide to the discovery of many more which this school
possesses. w
The Sceptics are spoken of, and it is shown that
reliance upon nature is good; but that their confidence
in it is excessive, and that reliance upon nature is not
sufficient to meet the requirements of their office; and
they are appealed to, to turn their attention to the
practice of a School which relies upon nature without
ignoring the powers of art.
The p/hi/osoft/lers are spoken of, and, while freely
admitting the utility of the collateral sciences to
medicine, I have endeavoured to convince these
practitioners that they are pursuing by-paths instead
of the one which lies straight before them ; and they
are appealed to, to keep each Science within its proper
bounds. They are also entreated to break off the
chains in which they are bound by the fear of losing
their social position.
The ſºomaeoſač/.ists are spoken of, and it is contended
that they have the advantage over their fellow-
physicians, because they have entered upon a path
and have laid hold upon a guide which, if they loyally
follow it, will lead them more and more into medical
truth. But they are warned lest, from an undue
regard to authority, they follow Hahnemann instead of
truth, and so fall into routine and lose their pre-
eminence. They are shown how reason, and experi-
ence, and reliance on nature, and the collateral Sciences
contribute to the improvement of their method, to
the advancement of their cause, and to the strengthen-
ing of their claim upon the confidence of the world.
I desire to take a bright view of the future, and to
believe that the integrity and conscientiousness of the
profession will prove equal to the occasion. I trust
that, under the influence of a sense of duty, medical
men will throw away their prejudices and exercise the
self-denial which is demanded of them. I am bound
to say that the effort required of them is a mighty and
& Sºy
a painful one, and the sacrifice they will have to make
XVII.] ORGANOPATHY. 495
is greater than some will know how to bear ; SO that,
if they do adopt the proposed change, it will be a great
and lasting honour. In this manner the unity of the
profession will not only be restored, it will become
more real than it ever was ; the position of the
profession towards the public will be put right; and
all will rejoice to find that though homoeopathy made a
great rent, and kindled a flame of enmity, the rent has
not been to the foundation, and the flame has died out.
But should this not happen, we may expect that the
public will take the matter into their own hands. They
will become conscious that a small number of their
medical advisers have been fighting a battle on their
behalf, and that the final victory depends upon
themselves. They will see that the struggle has been
in the interests of the public, and not in those of the
profession. To be cured more quickly than before
must be more to the advantage of patients than of
doctors. This is common sense. And those who have
received the benefit will feel that it is incumbent upon
them to be firm in the support of the system through
which they have received it; to have courage to own
it : and to have courage to abide by it in the hour of
doubt and fear. When the laity are true to themselves
the profession must yield.
ESSAY X VIII.
-C-C-e---
THE ANATOMICAL BASIS OF THERAPEUTICS,
“He that would not deceive himself, ought to build his
hypothesis on matter of fact, and make it out by sensible
experience.”
JOHN LOCKE.
32
ANALYSIS.
sºmºmºmºsº
Introduction—Sir Thomas Watson's Address.
Homaeopathy the law of similars.
Three definitions:—
I. Similar symptoms.
The homoeopathy of Hahnemann.
And of some homoeopathists.
Its difficulties.
2. Similar diseases.
The word “symptom" defined.
A pathological basis desired by many homoeopathists.
Their efforts to obtain it.
Its difficulties.
3. Similar organs.
Introduction.
Identity—Organopathy.
All diseases local or partial.
Action of all drugs local or partial.
Two opposite rules of practice drawn from these facts.
Anatomical basis proposed.
Its difficulties.
ESSAY X VIII.'
THE ANATOMICAL BASIS OF THERAPEUTICS,
—e-C*-
“The art of healing has scarcely hitherto had any guide
but the slow one of experience, and has yet made no illus-
trious advances by the help of reason.”
WILLIAM HEBERDEN.
THERAPEUTICs, the art of healing, to be any thing
better than speculation or empiricism, must have a
basis or foundation to stand upon. -
It is acknowledged by all the best writers on
medicine that this foundation has not yet been suc-
cessfully laid. The memorable words lately uttered
by Sir Thomas Watson, in his Address on the in-
auguration of the new Clinical Society, are a sufficient
testimony to this fact. The entire Address is remark-
ably interesting to us, but I must content myself now
with a single extract.
“Certainly the greatest gap in the science of medi-
cine is to be found in its final and Supreme stage—the
stage of therapeutics. The anatomy of the human
body is sufficiently well known. Its material patho-
logy, also, has been, I will not say completely, yet very
amply and fruitfully ransacked. . . . I say its
material pathology; for the condition of doctrinal
* First published in 1868. It was written at the request of
a Medical Society, and read at Birmingham, Oct. 5, 1868.
5OO THE ANATOMICAL tº [ESSAY
pathology must necessarily partake of whatever im-
perfection may be found in the correlative science
of physiology. Again, we have attained to a great
degree of certainty in the detection and discrimination
of disease in the living body. We know tolerably well
z0/.at it is that we have to deal with ; but we do not
know SO well—nor anything like so well—/ow to deal
with it. . . . We want to learn distinctly and
clearly what is the action of drugs, and of other out-
ward influences upon the bodily organs and functions.
º To me it has been a life-long wonder, how
vaguely, how ignorantly, how rashly, drugs are often
prescribed. We try this; and not succeeding, we try
that; and baffled again, we try something else; and it
is fortunate if we do no harm in these our tryings.
Now this random and hap-hazard practice, whenever,
and by whomsoever adopted, is both dangerous in
itself, and discreditable to medicine as a science. Our
profession is continually fluctuating on a sea of doubts
about questions of the gravest importance. Of this
the evidence is plentiful and constant. . . . I say
this uncertainty, this unseemly variation and instability
of opinions, is a standing reproach to the calling we
profess. . . . Of therapeutics, as a trustworthy
science, it is certain that we ſave, as yeſ, on/y :/te
ea/ectation.”
I repeat, these are memorable words; worthy of the
speaker, and of the occasion. They demand to be
seriously pondered by every member of the medical
profession. They form such an ample justification of
the honest labours of homoeopathists as to leave
nothing further to be desired. It is true that the
worthy baronet has not courage to own us, or to
propose us as members of the Clinical Society; we
will, nevertheless, claim to be the pioneers in the
difficult and tangled road, which, according to his
admission, in another paragraph of his Address, is
to lead to the goal of a scientific therapeutics.
Thus encouraged we proceed.
XVIII.] BASIS OF THERAPEUTICS. 5O I
The doctrine of homoeopathy is the prescribing of
drugs in disease according to the law of similars. It
admits of three definitions —
The remedy for each individual patient must have,
in its provings, similar symptoms; or,
It must be capable of producing a similar disease;
Or,
It must affect similar organs or parts of the body.
This last is, in fact, not a similarity, but an identity;
and hence the necessity for a change of name, in
respect to what belongs to it.
The first definition is the final homoeopathy of
Hahnemann. His writings contain many contra-
dictions, and some passages may be quoted which
seem to contradict this statement; but, if anything
may be proved as distinctly his teaching, this can be ;
and as it is a matter of importance, I must beg leave to
remind you of a few passages which seem to establish
it without dispute. It is essential to make this method
of practising homoeopathy clear and unequivocal.
I repeat the definition :- -
The remedy for each individual patient must have,
in its provings, similar symptoms.
“Symptoms” being here taken in the sense generally
accepted by the profession ; as the signs of the disease,
as produced by it, and manifesting its existence.
In an essay On the Value of Speculative Systems of
Medicine, published in 1808, Hahnemann says:—
“Besides a historical acquaintance with the constitu-
tion of the human frame in a healthy state, the phy-
sician needs Öztá to Know the symptoms of the particular
malady in order to remove it, supposing he then knows
the right remedy.”
In his letter to Hufeland, in 1808, On the Great
Mecessity of a Regeneration of Medicine, he says:–
“Take the medicines according to the symptoms care-
ful and repeated observation has shown they produce
5O2 THE ANATOMICAL º [ESSAY
in the healthy body, and administer them in every case
of disease that presents a group of symptoms comprised
in the array of symptoms the medicine to be employed
is capable of producing in the healthy body; thus will
you cure the disease surely and easily. Or, in other
words, find out which medicine contains most perfectly,
among the symptoms usually produced by it in the
healthy body, the sum of the symptoms of the disease
before you ; and this medicine will effect a certain,
permanent and easy cure.”
In the Preface to his Materia Medica. Patra, Hahne-
mann says —
“The day of the true knowledge of remedies, and a
true system of therapeutics will dawn, when physicians
shall abandon the systems and opinions which have
heretofore swayed the minds of the profession; when
they shall act upon the principle that every single
medicinal substance is capable of curing a case of
disease the symptoms of which shall be exactly analo-
gous to those which the medicinal substance is capable
of producing upon a healthy Organism.”
In the first volume of his Chronic Ozseases, in the
preliminary chapter on “Treatment,” Hahnemann
says —
“The homoeopathic physician should not pay any
attention to the names which he finds arrayed in works
on pathology, he should, above all, study the symptoms,
and select a remedy in harmony wit/, theme.”
Lastly, in many paragraphs in the Organon of A/ed:-
cine, Hahnemann expresses this view so strongly that,
if his words have any meaning at all, they can mean
nothing else; and it will be remembered that Dr.
Dudgeon, the translator of this book into English, says
of it, in his Preface —“Perfect and complete in itself,
it leaves no point of doctrine unexplained, no technical
detail untouched, no adverse argument unanswered.”
We are bound, therefore, to take the explicit declara-
xvi.II.] BASIS OF THERAPEUTICS. 5O3
tions of this book as the mature and final teaching of
Hahnemann.
Now, in paragraph VI, page I I I, he says —
“The unprejudiced observer, let his powers of
penetration be ever so great, takes note of nothing,
in every individual disease, except the changes in the
health of the body and of the mind, (moróid phenomena,
accidents, symptoms,) which can Öe perceived externally
by means of the senses.”
After repeating this statement in other words, in
paragraph VII, page II 3, he concludes by saying —
“Thus, in a word, the totality of the symptoms must
be the principal, Zhe sole Zhāng, the physician has to
take note of, in every case of disease, and to remove
by means of his art, in order to cure and to transform
into health.”
Again, in paragraph XVIII, p. 120 —
“From this indubitable truth, that, besides the
collective symptoms, nothing can be discovered in any
way in diseases, wherewith they could express their
need of aid, it undeniably follows that the sum of all the
symptoms, in each individual case of disease, must be
#/e sole indication, ſhe sole guide to direct us in the
choice of a curative remedy.”
Once more, in paragraph XXVII, p. 126 :—
“The curative power of medicines, therefore, depends
on their symptoms.”
The only qualifications of these strong declarations
which are admitted by Hahnemann are, that “the
probable causes; the most significant points in the
history of the case; the apparent physical constitution
of the patient; his moral and intellectual character;
his occupation ; mode of living and habits; social and
domestic relations; age; &c., are matters useful to the
physician in assisting him to cure.” It is well known
5O4 THE ANATOMICAL • . [ESSAY
that he declaims vehemently against investigations into
the pathology of disease.
Is it not, then, beyond contradiction that the law of
similars, as taught by Hahnemann, is the similarity of
symptoms 2 w
And that his practice was in conformity with this
teaching is put equally beyond dispute by the arrange-
ment of the provings of drugs which he has adopted
both in his /l/ateria /l/edica Patra and in his Chronic
ZDiseases. These books contain symptoms only, and
symptoms so disjointed and scattered over the various
parts of the body, as to make it impossible to use them,
for the purpose of prescribing, in any other manner
than the single one of comparing the symptoms of the
patient with those of the drug.
That Hahnemann's practice was regulated in this
manner is also manifested beyond question in each of
the cases treated by himself which he has published.
To put this matter still further beyond dispute, if
that is possible, your attention must be detained a few
moments longer, while I make two short extracts from
the English translator of Hahnemann's works, and one
from an American edition of them. The former,
Dr. Dudgeon, in his Zectures on Homaeoſathy,
says —
“It has been stated by the enemies of homoeopathy
disparagingly, and by some friends of the system
eulogistically, that homoeopathic practitioners in general,
and the more strict Hahnemannians in particular,
neglect or despise the advances of modern pathological
and physiological science ; and this is, to a certain
extent, true; for, as ſong as /ás /l/ateria //edica is coſt-
fined to a bare enumeration of symptoms, arranged in
defiance of accredited physiologica/Arinciples, so Zong
must the practice of f/he homacopathisć Če mainly made
tº of an almost mechanical comparison of symptoms.”
Dr. Dudgeon says again —
* The sum, therefore, of the practitioner's duties, in
kVIII.] BASIS OF THERAPEUTICS. 5 O5
regard to the selection of the remedy, according to
Hahnemann, resolves itself into a purely empirical act
—an almost mechanical comparison of the drug-symp-
tomas Zvić/, //e disease-symptoms; and the medicine
found to present the greatest similarity in respect of its
symptoms with those of the disease is the most appro-
priate, the most homoeopathic remedy.”
Dr. Constantine Hering, in his preface to the
American edition of Hahnemann's Chronic /)?seases,
in the same explicit manner, testifies to this statement.
He says:—
“Hahnemann teaches that the remedies should be
chosen according to the symptoms of the patient.
Both in the Organon and in his 7 reaſise on the Chronic
Diseases, Hahnemann insists upon the remedies being
chosen in accordance with the symptoms.”
It is very possible to study cases of disease, and also
provings of drugs in health, so as to notice symptoms
only; and it is also possible to draw a comparison
between the symptoms of the disease and the symptoms
of the drug. This can be done without reference to
what the symptoms may signify, either as regards the
nature of the disease or its seat.
That this was the mode of practice Hahnemann
wished to recommend, I think no candid student of his
writings will attempt to question.
That this is what a proportion of homoeopathists still
continue to practise is, I think, also certain.
Then the first definition of homoeopathy must now
be sufficiently clear—namely, that the law of similars
may be carried out in practice by a simple mechanical
comparison of the symptoms of diseases with the symp-
toms of drugs, without any physiological or pathological
notions; and it must also be clear that this is the
homoeopathy of Hahnemann.
That the symptom-method of prescribing drugs as
remedies in disease has merit—great merit—is evi-
506 THE ANATOMICAL [ESSAY
denced by the best of all proofs, the practical proof
of success—success in the face of the most powerful
and most determined opposition that any thing medical
was ever exposed to.
Let it be understood, therefore, that I, for one, am
quite willing to acknowledge this merit, and do ac-
knowledge it. Nevertheless, there are great difficulties
in this method, and some of these must now be briefly
mentioned.
I. It has led to an arrangement of the symptoms
produced by the provings of drugs which prevents
their true character, as signs of the diseases which
they represent, being discovered. In the words of
Dr. Dudgeon —“It would indeed be hard enough to
recognise a well-known disease, of fixed character, if
all the symptoms were disunited from their natural
connections, and the whole complex of symptoms
arranged, not according to the period of their occur-
rence, but according to a most artificial, topographical
plan, commencing at the head and going down to the
feet. . . . Would it not puzzle CEqipus himself
to discover the different features of any one disease
among the confused and unconnected jumble of several
Others P’’
2. This arrangement of the symptoms in the prov-
ings often leads to the selection of a remedy for insuf-
ficient, or even for frivolous reasons. Examples of
this need not be given ; they are familiar with all who
are acquainted with homoeopathic practice. So long
as symptoms are looked at, unconnected with the con-
dition of which they are the sign, this evil cannot be
altogether avoided.
3. To carry out this method with the minuteness its
advocates require, to a man engaged in extensive prac-
tice, is impossible. He is necessarily driven into a
slovenly routine. Look at the manner in which fifty
or sixty patients have to be seen, talked to, and pre-
scribed for, in the course of the morning, and think
how the multitude of medicines in the present Materia
Medica, and their tens of thousands of symptoms, are
xvi.II.] BASIS OF THERAPEUTICS. 507
to be placed by the side of the symptoms of the various
patients, with the individuality demanded, and you
must own it to be impossible. I have heard of an
amateur who gave two or three days to the study
of each case, but no medical practitioner can do so.
4. The symptom-method ignores anatomy, physi-
ology, pathology, and diagnosis, and renders them
useless. All the departments of medical science which,
as Sir Thomas Watson has observed, have been
carried a considerable way towards perfection, are
rejected. No benefit, either to patient or physician,
can be derived from the enormous labour which has
been so patiently and perseveringly bestowed upon
these difficult and often painful studies, by successive
generations of medical men. Whereas, it seems plain
that therapeutics ought to rest upon a foundation which
these labours have helped to lay.
5. In consequence of the rejection of pathology and
diagnosis, the prescriber must be liable to overlook the
distinction between idiopathic and sympathetic affec-
tions; between symptoms which arise from diseases of
the organs they are connected with, and those which
are the effect of sympathy with some other diseased
organ. For example, in two cases of headache and
sickness; the headache may arise from a disordered
stomach, in the one case, and in the other, the vomiting
may proceed from an affection of the brain—perhaps
produced by a blow—and in this manner inappropriate
remedies may be administered.
6. The imperfection of the method is acknowledged,
not in words, but in deeds, by Hahnemann himself.
After following it for some years, he found that he
could not in this manner cure chronic diseases; and he
was compelled so far to forsake his symptom-
treatment, with respect to them, as to invent a
pathological hypothesis, which was to underlie the
symptoms, and to help in the selection of the remedy.
All chronic diseases were supposed to have for
their essence one of three miasms—sycosis, syphilis,
or psora. In this manner Hahnemann was com-
508 THE ANATOMICAL - [ESSAY
pelled to contradict one of his most positive declara-
tions — that contained in paragraph VIII. of the
Organon —
“It is not conceivable, nor can it be proved by any
experience in the world, that, after removal of all the
morbid symptoms of the disease, and of the entire
collection of the perceptible morbid phenomena, there
should or could remain anything else but health, or
that the moróid alterations in the interior could remain
2/72eradicated.”
In a note to this paragraph he adds, “and yet the
chief of the old School, Hufeland, asserts that ‘homoeo-
pathy can remove the symptoms but the disease
remains.’ ” And this assertion Hahnemann attri-
butes to an evil motive in the Nestor of medicine
—“mortification at the progress made by homoeo-
pathy.”
It is worthy of notice here, that this declaration of
Hahnemann's, has been repeated by one, and con-
tradicted by another, of our best English writers on
homoeopathy.
Dr. Black (in his Treatise on the Principles and
Practice of Æomacopathy) says:—
“To cure disease it is merely requisite to remove
the entire symptoms, paying due attention to the
fundamental cause, and other circumstances that are
analogous. When all the symptoms have disappeared,
£he disease is cured. True as this statement is, it has
been cavilled at, upon the ground, that, though
symptoms may be removed, the cause may still exist.
But if the entire morbid phenomena be removed, if no
trace of disease exist, can we not with truth state,
that the cause, the origin of the symptoms, has also
disappeared P’’’
But, as has been already observed, Hahnemann's
* It is an agreeable duty to add that this was written so
long ago as 1842. --
xvi.II.] BASIS OF THERAPEUTICS. 5O9
hypothesis of latent psora contradicted this statement;
and the contradiction has been re-asserted just now by
Dr. Drysdale, who says —
“Formerly we were told that diseases were cured by
medicines corresponding to the totality of the symp-
toms, and that without that correspondence a cure
could not take place. But now it appears that a
medicine can correspond to all the cognisable symp-
toms of an active disease, and homoeopathically cure it
to all appearance, without, however, removing the real
essence of the disease, which is only reduced to its
dormant state; and unless now treated with other
medicines (hypothetically called anti-psoric), may break
forth again from slight accidental causes. Strange as
it may appear, and inconsistent as it certainly is with
the original theory of homoeopathy, this, I believe, we
must recognise to be the fact, and to be an advance on
the previous principle.”
It follows that, as far as this is true, and in
proportion to the number of cases it applies to,
symptom - treatment must fail as a basis of thera-
peutics. -
7. Lastly, the symptom-method of treatment renders
the medical profession itself almost unnecessary. The
mechanical comparison of symptoms, without reference
to internal morbid conditions, puts the layman on a
level with the physician. It is this which has given
rise to an endless number of books of domestic
practice; it is this which has so altered the relative
position of patient and physician as to make both
feel uncomfortable ; and it is this which has tended
more, perhaps, than anything else, to perpetuate the
indignant opposition of the medical faculty.
If the public can be really benefited by the ruin
of the profession, by all means let this be accom-
plished. But it is impossible for any sober mind to
entertain such a notion. The division of labour lies
at the bottom of social life, and, so long as society
is afflicted with disease and death, it must be for
the interests of society that a body of men be
5 IO THE ANATOMICAL [ESSAY
educated for, and exclusively devoted to, the care of
the sick and dying.
A system of medical practice which diminishes
in the public mind the feeling of dependence upon
the medical profession is, for that reason alone,
shown to be defective, and one to which the public
themselves, when rightly informed, must object.
From all these difficulties it appears plainly, as a
matter of fact, symptomatology alone cannot be laid as
a permanent basis for therapeutics.
Let us now consider the second definition of the law
of similars.
The remedy must be capable of producing a similar
disease.
Before we can proceed with this enquiry, a misuse
as to the meaning of a word must be explained.
The difficulties of all medical systems are un-
avoidably great, and homoeopathy is not exempt
from these ; but to these one has been added which
might have been avoided, and that is the indefinite
meaning with which important words and phrases have
been used, both by Hahnemann, and by some of his
followers.
This difficulty met us at the beginning of the in-
vestigation, in the wide application of the law of similia
made by Hahnemann, and which I endeavoured to
clear up in the earlier Essays. It meets us now in the
unusual meaning which is attached to the word
“symptom.” -
Let it not be thought a waste of time to give some
attention to this matter. In all controversies it is
essential to define with care the meaning of words;
many controversies would be settled by such defini-
tions.
It is remarkable that some of the best writers on
homoeopathy apply the word “symptom " to the
diseased condition, as well as to the signs of this con-
dition. For instance, they would call hepatization
of the lung a symptom, as well as the difficulty of
xvi.II.] BASIS OF THERAPEUTICS. 5 II
breathing, and the absence of respiratory murmur
which it causes. In ordinary medical language, and
in the writings of the eminent men of the older
school, the hepatization would be called the disease,
and the dyspnoea and dulness symptoms or signs of it.
But
Dr. G. M. Scott says —
“By pathology . . . I understand simply the whole
amount of symptoms presented by a disease, recondite
or superficial, but certainly discoverable; and however
far our researches may be carried, whenever we can
adduce a new symptom, whether functional, organic, or
chemical, this symptom is to be added to the rest, to
complete the pathology of the disease. Thus the
pathology of each disease is immutable, that is to say,
each case of disease comprises essentially a certain
amount of symptoms, neither more nor less.”
Again :—
“If we have always associated a certain superficial
symptom, as cough, with a supposed state of the lungs,
so long as this state is merely supposed, we theorise;
if a sufficiently extensive induction prove the connec-
tion, the state, not now supposed but discovered,
Öecomes a symptome.”
Dr. Black uses similar language; he says —
“Great misconception has arisen from the undue
consideration of the term ‘totality of the symptoms;’
by totality we are to consider not only the symptoms
which the patient may describe, but also all those which
the tact of the physician can discover. Thus it is
not to be imagined that the homoeopathist neglects the
employment of the stethoscope or percussion. The
indications afforded by these are surely symptoms; for
example, if tubercles existed on the skin, would they
not be ranked among the symptoms 2 [certainly not,
by the generality of medical men.] Then why should
they not also be so considered when existing in the
5 I 2 THE ANATOMICAL [ESSAY
lungs, made appreciable to the physician not by sight
but by hearing 2*
Our worthy colleague's conclusion, though rightly
drawn, is wrong, because it is drawn from mistaken
premises. Tubercles, wherever found, are a disease
and not a symptom. To write in this manner is to
destroy the meaning of words.
Some have gone even further than this, and have
called the seat of the disease, as well as the disease
itself, a symptome. Such a confusion of terms, if con-
tinued, will render all discussion of the subject fruitless.”
Symptoms are signs, the thing signified is the
morbid state or condition which produces them.
The word “symptom” is used in these Essays in
this definite and limited sense. Hahnemann's rejection
of pathology, his Materia Medica, and his practice,
alike testify that he also used the word in this limited
sense. If we would speak intelligibly and accurately,
such limitation is necessary.
The morbid state which is the cause of the symptoms
* “Principles and Practice of Homoeopathy,' by Francis
Black, M.D., p. 94.
* Dr. Russell Reynolds, in his (allopathic) System of
Medicine, inclines towards the opposite side. Instead of
resolving the disease into a symptom, he considers the Symp-
toms part of the disease. He regards symptoms “as integral
parts of the malady;”, “as much parts of the disease as the
structural conditions.” Still he recognises symptoms as
“signs by which we recognise the presence” of disease ;
which is enough.
The truth is that in nature there are no abrupt lines of
separation in such matters as these ; the disease and its symp-
toms together constitute the illness from which any of us is
suffering. But in writing books definition becomes necessary,
if books are to be intelligible ; and this is one of those ques-
tions relative to the interpretation of words which it is needful
to have settled. Generally, the less the meaning of words
is altered the better, and therefore, I think, the old distinction
between symptoms and diseases should be maintained.
Whoever uses words in an unfamiliar sense places himself at
a disadvantage with his readers.
xvi.II.] BASIS OF THERAPEUTICS. 5 I 3
is the pathological condition, i.e. the disease. This is
to be distinguished from the symptoms. It is this
which we have now to investigate as the second defini-
tion of the law of similars, which, as already stated, is
this :—
The remedy must be capable of producing a similar
disease.
Under the first definition of the law of similars we
have seen that to look only at the symptoms, and to
make an enumeration of them, for the purpose of a
mechanical comparison with a similar enumeration
taken from the symptoms produced by drugs, is the
method finally adopted and taught by Hahnemann ;
that it is the method for which his Mažeria Medica is
specially prepared; and that it still characterises the
practice of some homoeopathists.
Others, however, are not satisfied with this method.
Dr. Dudgeon (in his Zecktres) says:—
“Believing as I do, that it is greatly for the interest
of homoeopathy that it should have a scientific patholo-
gical basis, which it must be confessed was not procured
for it Öy Hahnemann, I have no hesitation in intro-
ducing an outline of general pathology, as introductory
to our subject.”
Again, speaking of the mechanical comparison of
symptoms, he says —
“Surely this is not the perfection of the medical art
we Ought to aim at.” We ought, he adds, to treat
“pathogenetic provings in a thoroughly physiological
manner.”
Dr. Black says —
“In addition to the totality of the symptoms, the due
za/ue of the symptoms is also to be considered, which
can only be arrived at by a correct acquaintance with
physiology and pathology. It is an error to suppose
that the homoeopathic school neglect pathology.
Aſa/nemann has probably too strongly condemned it.”
33
5 I4 THE ANATOMICAL [ESSAY
Dr. Henderson, Professor of Pathology in Edinburgh,
(in his Reply to Sir James Y. Simpson), opens the first
chapter with what he calls “an apology for Hahnemann”
for his “contempt for morbid anatomy.”
Dr. G. M. Scott (in a paper “On the Special
Relation of Pathology to Homoeopathy,” in the Britis/:
}ournal), says:
“So far is it from being true that the practice of
homoeopathy dispenses with a knowledge of pathology,
strictly so called (that is the actual discoverable condi-
tion of the morbid parts, as distinguished from theore-
tical speculations), that the probability of success is
precisely in proportion to the completeness and accuracy
of such pathological knowledge, in combination with
that of the properties of medicines in relation to these
pathological conditions.” -
Our talented colleague, Dr. Drysdale, (in his Intro-
duction to the Zahnemann Materia Medica,) expresses
his discontent with the present arrangement of symp-
toms, and then adds :— -
“Now this shows us at once the defect and the merit
of the ordinary arrangement. On the one hand this
arrangement of the symptoms favours that accurate
adaptation to the minuter shades of the case of the
disease which is before us, which is necessary in
homoeopathy; while, on the other, it deprives us of
that general and connected view of the whole action
of the medicine which shows us in what diseases it is
to be used at all.”
The need of physiology, pathology, and diagnosis is
thus strongly felt by a large body of homoeopathic
practitioners. They also see the need of provings of
drugs in health which give the history of each experi-
ment in its natural connection. For when they come
for help in this sense to the Materia Medica of Hahne-
mann, they find that it fails them. It was not intended
for such uses. It does not and cannot supply this need.
XVIII.] BASIS OF THERAPEUTICS, 5 I 5
Let us then see what attempts have been made to
“treat the pathogenetic provings in a thoroughly
physiological manner;” so as to supply materials for
this scientific physiological basis of homoeopathy;-the
basis which Dr. Dudgeon and others believe it should
possess.
Dr. Dudgeon himself has given us an octavo, the
first volume of a Pathogenetic Cyclopædia. This, how-
ever, contains only symptoms after the manner of
Hahnemann. The object of this book, he says:—
“Is to furnish the practitioner with a work in which
he may at once, and with the least possible trouble,
discover whether any and what medicines of our
Materia Medica contain, in the recorded provings, Symº-
toms similar to those of the diseases he is called on to
treat.” -
No attempt is made in this volume to treat
the pathogenetic provings in a physiological manner.
Another publication of extraordinary labour and
ingenuity, especially in the matter of types and cyphers,
has been carried on for some years by Dr. Drysdale
and others. It is called A A'efferſozy, or Systematic
arrangement and analysis of the Aſomalopathic Materia
Medica. But this does not extent beyond symptoma-
tology.
In another work called 7%e A/a/..nemazem Materia.
Medica, Dr. Drysdale has attempted something in the
direction we are looking at. He proposes a schema
consisting —
“Only of groups of symptoms, however large or
however small, even if consisting of one single
symptom, which occurred independently, so that when-
ever we have a symptom or a group of symptoms to
which a number is attached, we shall know that it oc-
curred alone; and otherwise the individual was in
perfect health.”
Dr. Drysdale has arranged one medicine, the
ôic/tromate of potasſé, in this manner; Dr. Dudgeon
516 THE ANATOMICAL [ESSAY
has done the same for aconife; and Dr. Black for
arsenic."
In France, 7%e Homoeopathic Materia Medica,
arranged systematica//y and practica//y, by M. Teste,
gives us groups of drugs which are associated together
as having more or less affinity with each other in their
action. . He has made twenty groups, each headed by
a typical remedy, e.g.
Type—Arnica.
Analogues. Ledum palustre. Rhus toxicodendron.
Croton tiglium. Spigelia anthelmia.
Ferrum magneticum.
Other attempts have been made, but the most con-
siderable effort yet put forth in this direction is that by
the Azts/rian Proving Society, which undertook the re-
proving of some of the best - known medicines, and
published these as Materials for the Physiological
A'econstruction of f/he A/omatopathic Materia Medica.
It is well known that Professor Acland, in the old
School, has lately proposed the proving of drugs to the
British Association for the Advancement of Science,
and to the Medical Council; and an attempt has been
made by Some of us to form a society for this purpose,
which should comprise members of both schools, but
as yet without success.
Moreover, many fathological hypot/aeses have been
put forward by writers on homoeopathy, particularly in
Germany. A history of these, and of their several
refutations, has been given us in so much detail by Dr.
Dudgeon (in his Zectures), that no one else could
attempt it at present without exposing himself to the
charge of plagiarism. At the close of this account, he
says:—
“Having freely criticised the opinions of my prede-
cessors, I do not hesitate to take my turn on the
oracular tripod, and to submit my theoretical views to
the judgment of my colleagues.”
* See Essay XIV, p. 373.
xvi.II.] BASIS OF THERAPEUTICS. 5 I 7
These views, as Dr. Ryan has lately observed, are
identical with those contained in the Zectures one
Pathology by Dr. John Fletcher, of Edinburgh, who
was not a homoeopathist, and which have recently been
again put forth, with much ability, by Dr. Reith, of
Aberdeen.
It is plain, then, that many homoeopathists are not
content with symptomatology alone ; that they are
pursuing the law of similars under this its second
definition ; that many suggestions as to the action of
particular drugs have been made ; and that there have
been many attempts to frame a theory; but what has
been accomplished P
In the writings of homoeopathic physicians we
frequently meet with a reference, in general terms, to
physiology and pathology, and Some individual facts
have been pointed out which belong to these subjects;
but no system, nor even any special pathological &asis
of a system, has yet been generally received or adopted
by this section of the medical profession. This, I am
sure, they will admit. The fact is that writers on
homoeopathy, and practitioners also, are confused and
inconsistent on the subject. The same authors at one
time insist upon attending only to the totality of the
symptoms, and at another speak of pathological condi-
tions as if they were the chief features to be observed.
And even those who are stout in refusing to acknow-
ledge in words pathological considerations, in their
practice, as I have noticed, often really think, and
sometimes speak, of organs—as the liver, the kidney,
the brain—as if they were prescribing specifically for
diseases of these organs. -
How is this self-contradiction to be accounted for 2
Dr. Dudgeon tells us that Hahnemann used to say,
“He who does not walk on exactly the same line with
me—who diverges, if it be but the breadth of a straw,
to the right hand or to the left—is an apostate and a
traitor, and with him I will have nothing to do.” Is it
to save appearances, and that they may still be con-
sidered disciples of Hahnemann 2 And may this be
518 THE ANATOMICAL |ESSAY
the reason why the meaning of the word “symptom"
has been stretched till it includes both the disease and
its seat, so that the sign and the thing signified are
confounded together ?
Now, it is well for men to understand their position;
and, if they think themselves right and in the path of
duty, then with a good grace to accept it. All
physicians who advocate pathological knowledge in
the practice of homoeopathy are, in Hahnemann's sight,
“apostates and traitors, and he will have nothing to do
with them.” They must well understand this, and if
they will still be pathologists, let them, by all means,
be content to be apostates and traitors. I think they
are right."
In one of the earlier Essays this second definition of
homoeopathy was expressed in these words —
“Every material poison (i.e. drug or medicine)
gaining admission into the healthy body has a tendency
to produce a diseased condition, evidenced by symp-
toms or physical signs, more or less peculiar to itself;
and every such poison is the most appropriate remedy
for a similar diseased condition which has arisen from
other causes.”
I think there can be no doubt that if a true
physiology and a true pathology, both as regards
diseases and drugs, could be attained, the view set
forth in this definition, when practically carried out,
would be the highest attainable perfection of thera-
peutics. It would not, indeed, enable us to cure every
disease, nor always to prolong life, but it would
justify, to a far greater extent than it has yet been
justified, the favorite expression : , “Everything has
been done for the patient which could have been done.”
1 If the account given of the present State of the patho-
logical section of homoeopathists is a representation more
meagre than the truth justifies, I shall feel indebted to any
one who will furnish me with the information necessary to
correct it, (1868.)
* Essay VI, p. I 53.
xvi.II.] BASIS OF THERAPEUTICS, 5 IQ
Unhappily, the following difficulties stand in the way:
I. A physiological difficulty. This arises out of the
fact that, though encouraging progress has been made,
specially since the discovery of the circulation of the
blood by Harvey, physiology is still often doubtful and
imperfect. Our physiological knowledge is not nearly
so far advanced as our anatomical. We know the
structure of several organs much better than we know
their functions; and even in regard to those organs
with whose functions we are tolerably well acquainted,
we are much in the dark as to the manner in which
these functions are performed.
2. A pathological difficulty. If we are ignorant of
the healthy function, it is unavoidable that we must be
in doubt as to the disordered function ; and when we
know the function, but do not understand the mode in
which it is performed, we cannot know the mode of its
diseased action.
3. Hahnemann's provings of drugs. The form in
which we possess these is so opposed to pathological
considerations that it is very difficult to use them for a
pathological purpose.
4. The deficiency of re-provings. The drugs which
have been re-proved, and some others which have
been added since Hahnemann's time, are in a better
condition to be used for this purpose, and this list will
be gradually extended, but at present it is a small one.
5. But if the re-provings were even tolerably com-
plete, though this would be an immense advance upon
our present position, and one which is greatly to be
desired, yet, so long as physiology and pathology are
imperfect and doubtful as regards the diagnosis of
diseases, they must also be imperfect and doubtful as
regards the provings of drugs,
It follows, therefore, that not only must the provings
of drugs in health be arranged in a different form, but
that also the auxiliary sciences of physiology and
pathology must be further advanced before we can
have, as a matter of fact, a pathological system of
therapeutics.
52O THE ANATOMICAL [ESSAY
It is in the hope that this desirable end will one day
be attained, that what may be said under the third
definition of the law of similars is respectfully offered.
It is not proposed as a finished system, but as a pre-
liminary step, as, in fact, what it professes to be, a basis
or foundation afton which a physiological and patholo-
gical structure may afterwards Öe erected. -
“Every part of Science,” said Cullen, a century ago,
“is still imperfect, and must for ever remain so, if
attempts be not made to improve it.”
Many attempts to improve the medical sciences have
been made, both before this was spoken and since.
Among these attempts that made by Hahnemann is
one of the most conspicuous. The great merit of
Hahnemann, to my mind, is the vigorous and sustained
effort made by him to experiment with medical sub-
stances, upon himself and upon his friends in a state of
health. No lover of justice will ever refuse to accord
to him, cheerfully and heartily, this great merit.
Moreover, the remarkable results of these experi-
ments, and the remarkable form in which they are
given to us in the provings contained in his /l/ateria
Medica and Chronic /97 seases, will, I firmly believe,
long remain available and useful in practice, whenever
we are compelled to have recourse to Symptom-treatment.
But additions of the same kind are not to be wished
for. If further improvements are to be made, they are
not to be made in this direction ; for, as Dr. Drysdale
asks, “are we merely to pick out all the fresh symptoms
[of new provings], and incorporate them with Hahne-
mann's schemas [which has already been too much
done], and thus overwhelm them with a fresh load of
details which would ºut the ſize:s/ºng stroke to the
already almost insufferable difficulty of learning the
general action of the medicine when described in that
way 2”
No : it is not in this direction, but in some other,
that we must seek to bring the practice of homoeopathy
nearer and nearer to perfection. To do our duty as
XVIII.] BASIS OF THERAPEUTICS, 52 I
others have done theirs, we must each of us do our
best. This sometimes may not amount to much ; in
my own case I am conscious that it amounts to very
little; but every one must do something, so that we
may be able to adopt the language of Sydenham —
“Nevertheless, how great soever the efforts of others
may have been, I, for my own part, have always con-
sidered that the breath of life would have been to me
a vain gift, unless I, working in the same mine with
them, contributed my mite to the treasury of physic.”
What then, in our present circumstances, are we to
aim at 2 Not to help symptom-treatment, though we
are not to discard it. When we look at the ample
provision for this in the Materia Medica now possessed
by homoeopathists, it seems to be a full vessel; before
more can be put into it some must be poured out.
This is true not only of new symptoms, but of new
remedies also ; in order to use these some of the old
ones must be laid aside.
But we are, if we can, to help pathology. This is
the direction in which to search for a further improve-
ment of therapeutics. At present this department of
knowledge in all medical schools, new as well as old,
is a dark and troubled sea, and those who are Sailing
upon its waters are tossed about and have no compass.
To such medical practitioners as are conscious that
pathological therapeutics are in this condition, the
following suggestions are respectfully offered. For, it
seems to me, that if we will first labour to perceive the
localisation of disease and of the action of drugs, we
shall then be in a better position to pursue our en-
quiries into the pathological actions, or the changes of
functions and structure, produced both by diseases and
by medicines.
Let us then consider the third definition of the law
of similars.
The disease and the remedy must affect similar
organs.
Similarity is here changed into identity. To me it
522 - THE ANATOMICAL |ESSAY
is a fact of daily observation, that diseases, at least in
the beginning, do not visibly affect the whole body,
but certain parts in preference to others; and it is
another fact, that drugs, in a similar manner, are
appropriated by certain parts of the body, and act
upon them in preference to others. Some organs take
One drug, and are affected by it ; other organs take
another drug, and are acted upon by it. The action
of the causes of disease and the action of drugs are
alike in this—the action of both, in the beginning if
not to the end, is local or partial. Whatever hypothe-
tical objections may be raised against this statement,
I am persuaded that it is practically true.
From these two facts two opposite rules of practice
have been drawn. The first, that drugs are to be
prescribed for diseases of those parts upon which such
drugs are known to have little or no action. The
Second, on the contrary, that they are to be prescribed
for diseases of those parts upon which such drugs are
known to have the power of acting, or for which the
parts affected by disease have a known affinity.
The first rule directs us to avoid the diseased organs,
and to act upon the healthy ones.
The second rule directs us to avoid the healthy
organs, and to act upon the diseased ones.
The first practice produces an artificial ailment in
addition to the natural one, and is called acting in-
directly by revulsion or counter-irritation.
The second practice leaves the healthy parts of the
body undisturbed, and aims at curing the diseased parts
by acting directly upon them.
Both are inferences drawn from the two facts of local
action just now stated. They are in antagonism with
each other. On the face of them the first appears to
be wrongly drawn, and the second rightly; the first
can be submitted to only as a painful necessity, the
second commends itself at once to the unprejudiced
mind. Success or failure in practice must decide
whether this judgment is true.
The first method comprises a large part of the usual
xvi.II.] BASIS OF THERAPEUTICS. 523
medical practice. It was very explicitly insisted upon
by the late Dr. Armstrong, in his Zectures on Z/e
Practice of Physic.
To explain and to advocate a trial of the second
method is the object of this Essay.
It is true that the division of diseases into two classes,
called “general” and “local,” is that commonly adopted.
It is the division adopted in the last System of Medicine
published. In this book Dr. Russell Reynolds divides
diseases into—1st. Those in which the whole organism
appears primarily and prominently deranged; and 2nd.
Those in which special organs, or systems of organs,
are in like manner affected. But, as if to show that
this division amounts to nothing practically, he gives
us influenza, diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera, mumps,
croup, and hooping-cough in the first class, as general
and not local diseases; diseases in which the whole
organism is primarily and prominently deranged
In the same manner drugs have been divided into
two classes, namely, those which act generally and
those which act locally. Paracelsus and Rademacher,
men with whom few can sympathise, are adduced as
having specially put forward this view. To show the
entire absence of practical value in such a division it is
sufficient to mention the three drugs which Paracelsus
specified as having a general action, or, to use his own
words, as being universal remedies, and to which it is
said Rademacher owned that he was not able to add a
fourth. These universal remedies were copper, trome,
and nitrate of soda ; drugs which, it is well known, are
characterised by local actions in the same manner as
all other drugs are characterised.
I repeat, therefore, that the causes of disease attack,
in the first instance, certain parts of the body in pre-
ference to others; and that drugs, in like manner, affect
certain parts of the body in preference to others; and
the practical rule recommended to be drawn from these
two facts is, that drugs are to be prescribed for diseases
of those parts upon which they are known to have the
power of acting,
524 THE ANATOMICAL [ESSAY
If this rule be adopted then an amatomical Časis of
therapeutics is established. This is the most certain
and stable foundation which can be laid.
It is to be remembered that this is a foundation
only, and that upon it a superStructure has to be raised.
This implies that whatever advantages can be obtained
from the two previous definitions of the law of similars
are available. When the locality is determined, then
there arise physiological and pathological questions,
which, perhaps, may be studied in future Essays;
and when these are answered, then the individual
symptoms of each case present themselves for con-
sideration.
And, when a case comes, in which our anatomy is at
fault, perhaps our physiology may help ; but if both fail,
then we are compelled to be guided by the symptoms
alone.
I am persuaded that when this notion is rightly
apprehended, it will commend itself to every unpre-
judiced and thoughtful mind.
But it is reiterated, again and again, that diseases
are not all local, nor is the action of all drugs.
Now let us think. When we have enumerated all
the diseases of the digestive organs; of the respiratory
organs; of the blood and its circulation, and the organs
belonging to them; of the brain, the spinal cord, and
the nerves, cerebral, spinal, and ganglionic; of the
organs of the senses; of the glandular apparatus, the
secreting and excreting organs; of the reproductive
organs; of the bones, joints, and muscles, and their
appendages; of the cellular membrane; and of the
integuments; — diseases necessarily and undeniably
local—what remains 2
And when we have counted all the drugs which act
upon one or more of these sets of organs, in preference
to others, how many remain *
Why then may we not conclude that all diseases are
local, or, to use another word, partial 2 And that all
drugs have a local or partial action 2 And why may
we not make the search after the Seats of disease and
xvi.II.] BASIS OF THERAPEUTICS. 525
the localities of the action of each drug our first
pursuit *
Again it is contended that, even if diseases are local,
“it would puzzle CEqipus himself to tell which was the
organ whose derangement caused the array of symp-
toms they present.” Perhaps CEqipus might be puz-
zled, but a physician of ordinary ability and education,
who takes all the pains he ought to take, will not often
be unable to arrive at a satisfactory diagnosis. It is
granted that this will occasionally happen, but it is
contended that the proportion of these unknown cases
in daily practice is small; and that further pathological
investigations will discover them, and add them to the
list of those already known. -
Any physician may convince himself that the pro-
portion of unknown diseases is practically small, if he
will make a list of the cases he has himself treated
during a given time—Suppose a hundred cases—and
ascertain the percentage in which he has not been able
to satisfy himself as to the organs primarily or prin-
cipally affected. He will see, in this manner, how few
cases there are in his daily practice concerning which
he is obliged to confess that he cannot tell where the
ailment is.
It is possible, then, to lay an anatomical basis of
therapeutics; and it is easier to lay this foundation
than any other. -*.
This basis, like other foundations, will have four
sides. - -
On the first side these words may be engraved —
Diseases have a seat or locality; to be ascertained
in each case by a careful diagnosis.
On the second side —
Drugs have a local action ; to be learned in re-
spect to each by experiments on the healthy.
On the third side –
Drugs, to act remedially, must be so selected as
526 THE ANATOMICAL |ESSAY
to act upon the same organs as the disease has
affected.
On the fourth side —
These drugs must be given in such quantities only
as will bring about a cure without producing
other visible effects.
Looking at the first side, diseases are local and not
general. . This is distinctly proved by the examples
produced by those who hold the contrary opinion. If
influenza, diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera, mumps, croup,
and hooping - cough are “general” and not local
diseases—not diseases of “special organs, or systems
of organs " — what other ailments are so 2 Even
specific fevers, which seem to affect the body more
extensively than other morbid conditions, are evidently,
in the first instance, diseases of the blood only;
the affection of other parts following in succession.
It may be worth while to allude to a few cases of
almost sudden death, which occur during the prevalence
of Some epidemics; as, for example, of scarlet fever, or
of cholera. These are either cases in which the ner-
vous system receives a sudden shock, perhaps akin to
that produced by lightning, and from which there is no
rally; or they are cases of virulent blood-poisoning,
like that caused by the bites of some serpents, against
which also there is no reaction, no struggle for life. It
is obvious that these are partial or local affections, for
the nerves and the blood are parts only of the body;
but it has to be acknowledged with grief that in these
cases all known remedial measures are powerless.
There is then not only sufficient evidence to prove
that diseases are local, but there is none at all on the
other side; and it is contended that it is best to notice
in every case, the parts of the body which are most
disordered or diseased ; and in prescribing, to act
directly upon these parts. I offer no explanation; I
do not speculate on the reason why, but am content to
State the fact. Sickness and death are painful and
Solemn facts; and everything which is thought or said
XVIII.] BASIS OF THERAPEUTICS. 527
in their presence should be serious and true. For
practical purposes all diseases are local."
With regard to the second side, that of drugs or
medicines; one example will explain what I think we
need for each of them. For this purpose I cannot do
better than give you the admirable summary of the
physiological action of the Öic/aromate of potas/; drawn
up by Dr. Drysdale, who was himself the prover of it.
It is an account of the local action of a drug as com-
plete as we are likely to obtain —
“This substance may be classed as a pure irritant to
the Organic tissues. It does not appear to act directly
on any of the functions of animal or organic life—
except, perhaps, to a certain extent on those of the
stomach—but only indirectly through its action on the
tissues that compose the organs. Its action is of a
profound and intense character, producing inflammation
which goes on to the formation of morbid products,
even in parts on which it acts only by sympathy. The
specific tendency of its action to certain organs and
tissues is well marked, and much more circumscribed
than that of arsenic or mercury. Its influence is con-
fined almost wholly to the tissues of organic or vegeta-
tive life, and is most marked on the mucous membranes
of the stomach and bowels, and of the air passages
and nose; next the eyes; then it affects, with about
equal intensity, the skin, the liver, and the kidneys,
and lastly the fibrous and muscular tissues, and the
periosteum, and probably the bones. It seems to have
little or no specific relation to the serous membranes,
to the genital organs of either sex, to the cerebro-
* It can Scarcely be necessary to remark that the terms
“local diseases” and “local treatment,” used in these Essays,
are not to be interpreted in their surgical meaning ; they do
not refer to topical or external applications. Congestion of the
veins of the brain is a local disease, and if opium is given for
it that is a local remedy, and its action is on the part diseased.
When camſharides are prescribed for strangury, the disease
and the action of the remedy are both local ; and it is the
same organ which is affected by both,
528 THE ANATOMICAL [ESSAY
spinal nervous system (except neuralgic affection of
certain individual nerves), or to the mind.
“Its action is rapid, and also long continued—even
after the moderate doses of the provers its action could
be traced beyond four weeks after the last dose was
taken. When swallowed in dangerous doses, the effects
have been known to last in a serious form for four
months.”
Such is the series of local actions given us of this
drug. It is worthy of notice that Dr. Drysdale has
headed the statement with the words “general action.”
This is another expression which requires better defini-
tion and more careful use, to prevent misunderstanding
and needless controversy. -
It appears to me that the words “general action,”
cannot be used with propriety with reference either to
diseases or to drugs. There is no evidence to prove a
general action of either. Some diseases and some
drugs have local actions upon several organs; but,
when the word general is used in opposition to local,
no number of local actions can become a “general one.”
Dr. Drysdale has given us an excellent summary of
the various local actions of Öic/aromaže of potasſé, some
medical men are disposed to add one or two more ;
but if several more were added, the whole would still
remain only a catalogue of “local” actions: there is no
general action, in the proper sense of the term, con-
nected with any one of them.
With regard to the third side of the foundation. We
are to select such drugs, in prescribing, as are appro-
priated by the organs primarily and chiefly diseased.
The difference between this method, and that of mere
symptom treatment may, perhaps, be better illustrated
by an additional case or two than by a lengthened ex-
planation—illustrated, not proved—the proof of the
truth and wisdom of the rule must be sought for by
each physician in his own practice.
* “Hahnemann Materia Medica,’ p. 36.
xvi.II.] BASIS OF THERAPEUTICS. 529
Spigelia, and its action on the heart and brain.
Weuralgia.
Mrs. “suffers very much from headache, is scarcely
ever one day free from it; it is no new affection, she has been
troubled with it for years; a wind invariably brings it on ; it
is never relieved by going into the fresh air, but generally
made worse; she has no trouble with stomach, or bowels, or
Other organs, except the heart ; suffers from palpitation,
which is brought on by going up stairs, or by excitement.
The pain comes on in fits for an hour or two at a time ; Some
days it comes on waking, and again after breakfast, and in
the evening ; other days not until towards dinner time ; but
it is quite an event to be one day free from pain; she cannot
remember such a day for months. The pain is not stationary;
it is frequently just above the eyelids, in the bone under the
eyebrows; sometimes it is in the nose, and in the cheek
bones; then at the top of the head ; sometimes at the back
of the head ; and often, shooting from one temple to the
other; it is a pain very bad to bear.”
This was a letter from a distance. I did not see the
patient, but it appeared to me that the condition of the
heart might be the principal cause of the suffering, and
this suggested Spige/ia, which was given, to be taken
night and morning.
After three weeks, the report is, “feels much better;
head really bad only one day all the time.” Medicine
continued.
After another month, “has received very great
benefit.” Medicine discontinued.
No medical treatment had been of service in this
case before; a year has elapsed since, and she has had
very few returns of the pain.
Bismuth, and its action on the spine.
Asthma.
Miss —— for several years has suffered very much from
asthma, for which she has had a great deal of advice. The fits
come on from very slight causes, and are alarmingly violent,
almost amounting to Suffocation, and lasting for several hours;
the intervals between the fits are of uncertain duration, some-
times of a day only ; occasionally the attack more resembles
34
53C) THE ANATOMICAL [ESSAY
bronchitis or pneumonia. She has had homoeopathic treat-
ment frequently, from which she has derived benefit. She
has lived in different parts of England, some airs appearing
to suit her better than others, still the attacks have always
returned after a longer or shorter time. In a letter dated
June 15, 1868, after describing these sufferings, she adds:
“I can never rest flat on my back for more than ten minutes
without its immediately affecting my breathing, and making
it heavy and wheezing. Also, if during a severe spasmodic
attack, a hand is firmly placed on my spine (just in the right
spot), my breathing is instanly quieted and very much re-
lieved.” As I did not see her, I could not ascertain which
were the vertebrae which were described as the “right spot,”
but I could not doubt that the primary ailment was not
pulmonary but spinal, and bismuth was prescribed to be
taken three times a day.
More than a month afterwards, on July 18, she wrote as
follows:– “The powders that you sent suited me admirably,
and I have been so well since that I have not written, as
there seemed no necessity for more medicine. Now, however,
the effect has a little past off, and I should be very glad to
have some more of the same medicine. After the first two
Spoonfuls I could lie down on the sofa quite easily, and have
had good nights ever since, though I have been obliged, every
now and then, to eat an indigestible dinner. I have also been
free from sick headache, and from any feeling of fainting.”
I have not heard again, but should have done had the
attacks of asthma returned.
With regard to the fourth side of the foundation,
which is dedicated to the dose. All medicinal substances
being necessarily more or less of a poisonous nature,
it is the dictate of common sense that, when these sub-
stances are used as remedies, no more of any of them
should be given than is sufficient to effect a cure.
Daily experience testifies that this can generally be
done, and that the violent effects of drugs—the effects
of medicines as commonly given—so far from being
necessary, are injurious.
Let it not be supposed that I underrate the question
of the dose, because hitherto less has been said about
it than about the principle. It is necessary to investi-
gate these questions separately, and it is for the interests
of both that the question of the principle should take
XVIII.] BASIS OF THERAPEUTICS. 53 I
precedence of that of the dose, and be settled first.
Afterwards, the dose will have a claim to the same
Serious attention.
Such is a brief outline of the third definition of the
law of similars, that the disease and the remedy should
affect the same organs, and for which the name of
Organopathy has been proposed.
The difficulties which, at present, stand in the way
of the adoption of this rule, as a basis of therapeutics,
or the objections which have been raised against it,
are chiefly two —
I. The first applies to disease, and asserts that
“most diseases do not appear to be localised in any one
organ.”
This difficulty has been anticipated, and already
sufficiently considered.
2. The second applied to drugs, and the Materia
Medica of Hahnemann. A lay gentleman met me, the
other day, and stopped me to say, “I have read your
last Essay (Organopaſ/y) with very great interest; it
seems to speak the truth ; but then } a/ºr will be of no
use !” This remark shows how intelligently the Essay
had been read; for though the Materia Medica, (Jahr
is a collection of Hahnemann's and of some of the
additions which have been published since), would still
be retained, and be referred to by medical men, patho-
logy, or disease as distinguished from symptoms, would
in future take precedence of it, and this is a source of
knowledge scarcely accessible to laymen.
This altered position of the laity would, however, be
cheerfully acquiesced in by them, when it was found
that the old confidence in the family medical adviser
would not only again be needed, but would again be
justified, as formerly, by a better acquaintance with
their ailments, and with the remedies to be used for
them, than they could aspire to,
An argument of another kind has been advanced,
but which scarcely deserves notice. It has been said
that as astronomers do not complain of endless addi-
532 ANATOMICAL BASIS OF THERAPEUTICS. [ESSAY xviii.
tions to their catalogues of stars and planets, nor
Zoologists of the frequent addition of new animals, nor
entomologists of new insects, nor botanists of new
plants, so homoeopathists ought not to object to an
endless addition of new symptoms to the provings of
drugs. -
A little consideration will show, and a little candour
will acknowledge, that there is no analogy between the
Occupations of the astronomer and the naturalist, and
those of the physician. The former busy themselves
in simply making observations, and when these have
been recorded they are only occasionally referred to.
The latter makes a register of the effects of drugs,
which is to be retained, as far as possible, in his memory,
so as to be a practical guide to him, day by day, while
prescribing remedies at the bedside of the sick.
It has also been objected that this basis of therapeu-
tics is defective, inasmuch as it contains no reference to
the different Áinds of action of drugs; and so makes it
doubtful whether they are to be prescribed homoeo-
pathically or antipathically. It should be sufficient to
remark in reply, that this is a question which belongs to
the superstructure, and not to the foundation. It has
not been reached yet; I hope to arrive at it in due
time. In the meanwhile, nothing which may be said
with respect to it can affect the foundation which under-
lies it.
Having now endeavoured to survey this subject a
second time, with all the care and freedom from pre-
judice I am able to command, the conclusion is again
arrived at that, of the different foundations which have
been proposed for therapeutics, an anatomical one is
the easiest, and safest, the most practical, and the one
likely to be the most permanent, and so, in every way,
the best.
It is, nevertheless, not to be forgotten that this is a
foundation only.
ESSAY XIX.
THE ACTION OF DRUGS,
“I will follow that system of treatment which, according
to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my
patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and
mischievous.” - º
HIPPOCRATES. The Oath.
ANALYSIS,
In what way is the action of drugs to be discovered 2
3.
IO.
II.
I2,
.
. Drugs have been regarded superstitiously.
They have been viewed astrologically.
They have been studied with reference to their sen-
sible properties, such as form and colour, taste and
odour. - -
They have been studied chemically;
Mechanically; - - - *
Botanically ;
Pathologically;
Empirically;
. And for their indirect action.
By experiments on animals.
By experiments on the sick.
By experiments on the healthy.
Conclusion.
ESSAY XIX."
THE ACTION OF DRUGS
--0-C-Q- .
“It is a part of Science to make judicious enquiries.”
LORD BACON.
THIS subject comprises several questions, among
them the following —
I. In what way is the action of drugs to be dis-
covered 2
II. What is the action of drugs 2 -
III. How is the action of each drug to be dis-
tinguished from that of all others ?
IV. What is the kind of action of drugs 2
V. What is the action of small doses 2
VI. Is there a law for the dose P
PART I.
In this Essay the first question is considered —
IN WHAT WAY IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS To BE DIS-
COVERED F
Nothing more clearly betrays the extent of the
weakness and infirmity into which the human mind
* First published in 1873. Partly read at a Congress in
York in 1872.
536 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
has fallen than the perverted ingenuity it has shown,
and the mistaken ways it has followed, in respect to
the ends at which it has aimed.
On most, if not on all subjects which man's
mind has attempted to investigate, many erroneous
methods, perhaps all possible ones, have been pursued
before the true method has been found.
We shall see an eminent illustration of this fact if we
now consider the action of drugs, and take up the first
question proposed, namely, in what way is the action
of drugs to be discovered 2
If we look back through the avenue of five-and-
twenty centuries, we shall find that the knowledge
of the action of drugs has been sought for in very
various ways. We shall see that some of these ways
are manifestly wrong, and that the rest are more or
less imperfect. The orthodox school of medicine
acknowledges that all have failed.
Let us briefly examine these ways.
1. Drugs have Óeen regarded sufferstițious/y.
Every kind of virtue has been attributed super-
stitiously to the action of drugs. They have been
given with incantations of every character. They
have been worn as amulets and charms of every form,
and of every material. And these things have been
done in all ages, and in every country, to avert or to
remedy disease. Alas! that such a method of dis-
covering the action of drugs should have existed,
should still exist in the world. It is checked only
where, and so far as, the influence of pure Christianity
is felt. -
We may dismiss the further consideration of it here;
but we should not do so without a blush; for we may
well blush for the ignorance, for the folly, and for the
sin which all such practices reveal.
2. They have Óeen viewed astrologically.
For many centuries a belief has been maintained
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED F 537
that the action of drugs is under the government of
the Sun, moon, and stars.
All the details of this misbelief are given with
perfect good faith, and with entire confidence, so
lately as the middle of the seventeenth century, in
one of the most popular medical books of the time
—by “popular” I here mean among medical men ;
this is the Pharmacopoeia of John Shröder. (1656)
From the ninth chapter of this celebrated book, “De
influentiis Stellarum”—a book, let me again observe,
received and used by the orthodox physician of the
time—we may learn the puerile story of the “star-
gazers.”
A short extract will show the character of the state-
InentS :—
“Saturnus est planeta malignus, diurnus, masculinus,
summè frigidus, Martis amicus, reliquis inimicus; /iend
microcosmo correspondens.
“Res Saturninae—plumbum, antimonium, aconitum,
cannabis, agnus Castus, hyoscyamus, helleborus niger,
opium, Sabina, &c.
“Jupiter est planeta benevolus, moderatē calidus,
&c., effati correspondens.
“Aes }oviales sunt Stannum, argentum, berberis,
mentha, quercus, Symphitus, &c.
“Mars est planeta summè calidus, atque siccus, &c.
“Aes /l/artia/is Sunt cinnabar, arum, carduus,
plantago, urtica,” &c.
And so through the planets, and also through the
twelve signs of the zodiac.
These fancies having been received and assented
to by the profession until times so recent, it is not
wonderful that they still survive in “Culpepper's
Herbal.”
This starry method of discovering the action of
drugs is wholly destitute of proofs; indeed, it rests
upon the wildest conjectures. It may be dis-
missed without hesitation, notwithstanding its preva-
lence and popularity, as altogether erroneous and
wrong.
538 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
3. Zºrlºgs have been studied with reference to their
sensióle/roperties, such as form and colour, faste and
odour.
From the form and colour the “doctrine of signa-
tures” was invented. Those who taught and practised
according to this doctrine believed that “every natural
Substance which possesses any medical virtue indicates,
by an obvious and well-marked external character, the
disease for which it is a remedy, or the object for which
it should be employed.”
Dr. Paris," from whom I have copied this definition
of the doctrine, observes that “traces of its existence
may be discovered in ancient authors . . . . . but the
conceit did not assume the importance of a theory
until the end of the fourteenth century, at which period
we find several authors engaged in the support of its
truth.” Dr. Paris then gives several examples of the
doctrine; such as “Turmeric, which has a brilliant
yellow colour, which indicates that it has the power of
curing the jaundice; for the same reason fo/pies must
relieve diseases of the head; agaricus those of the
bladder.” &c., &c.
Dr. Dover, writing on jaundice, in 1732, has this
paragraph —
“Paracelsus, in his treatise ZXe Signatura rerum,
very much commends the inner bark of barberries,
turmerick, rheubarb, and all plants of a yellow cast, in
the cure of this disease. But they are too weak, as
has been sufficiently experienced long since. He like-
wise commends the arðor tremula in agues; the pºt/-
monaria maculosa in consumptions, trachelium in Sore
throats and quinseys, and so goes on. I mention this
to show on what weak foundations we often venture
our lives.”” -
The unsatisfactory nature of conjectures like these
is, happily, now well acknowledged ; and it is not
necessary to pursue the subject further, either in the
way of explanation or of refutation.
* Pharmacologia' (1820), p. 34. * Ibid., p. 44.
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED 2 539
Nor can much that is less unsatisfactory be gathered
from the taste and odour of drugs. A bitter taste has
long had associated with it the idea of a tonic. A
disagreeable odour has been supposed to indicate that
the drug which is so distinguished is a remedy for
hysteria.
It need scarcely be remarked that such indications
as these are very little, if at all, better than those
gathered from form and colour.
4. ZJrugs have Óeen studied chemical/y.
Chemistry is an enchanted castle. When a man has
once entered its captivating chambers it is seldom that
he has even a desire to escape from them. The stress
of circumstances or the sense of duty must be mighty
indeed to drag him out of them. No wonder that
medicine has been more than once made a pri-
soner in this castle, at one time by medical chemists, at
another by chemical physicians.
Chemistry had its origin in cupidity. The dream of
the alchemists was the transmutation of that which was
base into that which was noble—in plainer English,
the conversion of lead into gold—the cheaper into that
which was worth most. The votaries at this altar of
lucre sacrificed themselves; and the only recompense
of their wasted time and misemployed talents was
hopeless disappointment. Mankind gained from them
the invention of furnaces, retorts, alembics, and other
useful apparatus, since employed to better purpose.
In its aspect towards medicine chemistry has passed
through three phases. First, as an art, in the hands of
the alchemists, who spent much of their strength in
experiments to discover the elixir of life. Secondly,
as a science, in the hands of the physicians who were
its discoverers and founders. Thirdly, as a theory, in
the hands of modern medical and non-medical chemists,
who have laboured with much zeal to establish a
chemical physiology, a chemical pathology, and a
chemical therapeutics, -
54O HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
We need not be detained by the labours of the
alchemists, notwithstanding that great names are
among them : such as Hermes Trismegistus, Geber
(hence gebrish or gibberish), Albert of Cologne, Arnold
of Villanova, Raymond Lully of Majorca, and even
Isaac and John of Holland. -
The physicians who discovered chemistry as a
science succeeded in laying a foundation upon which
a noble edifice has since been erected; but they failed
in their application of chemistry to medicine. Their
physiology was fermentation; their pathology was an ex-
cess of acid or alkali; their therapeutics, neutralisation.
It had been found that drugs refused to reveal their
hidden virtues by their external features of form and
colour and taste and odour; and it was seen that a
further examination of them must be made. They
were therefore put into the fire; a sort of torture
which it was expected would compel them to confess.
Hence these physicians — the iatro-chemists — were
nick-named “furnace philosophers” by the iatro-me-
chanics of the next age. Basil Valentine of Erfurth,
Van Helmont of Brussels, Glauber of Amsterdam,
Sylvius of Leyden, and Thomas Willis of London,
are eminent names as the founders of chemistry and
its application to medicine. They fought a hard battle
with the Galenists or orthodox physicians of their time,
the rude blows of Paracelsus both helping them and
hindering them. We have relinquished their medical
hypotheses; we have retained a vast number of their
chemical remedies.
The efforts of modern chemists claim a larger share
of attention, and among these one non-medical name
stands pre-eminent, that of Baron Liebig. It is neces-
sary to notice some of his views with care. On the
subjects of physiology and pathology briefly; on those
connected with therapeutics more fully.
One or two sentences applicable to each of the
former will be sufficient to show how completely
chemical are the physiology and pathology of Liebig.
With reference to the first he says —
xix.] TO BE DISCOVERED 2 54 I
“Viewed as an object of scientific research, animal
life exhibits itself in a series of phenomena, the con-
nection and recurrence of which are determined by the
changes which the food and the oxygen, absorbed from
the atmosphere, undergo in the organism under the
influence of the vital force.
“All vital activity arises from the mutual action of
the Oxygen of the atmosphere and the elements of the
food.”"
In pathology Liebig’s “theory of disease” is as
follows:— .*
“Every substance or matter, every chemical or
mechanical agency which changes or disturbs the
restoration of the equilibrium between the manifes-
tations of the causes of waste and supply in such a way
as to add its action to the causes of waste, is called a
cause of disease. Zisease occurs when the sum of vital
force, which tends to neutralize all causes of disturbance
(in other words, when the resistance offered by the vital
force) is weaker than the acting cause of disturbance.
“A deficiency of resistance in a living part to the
causes of waste is obviously a deficiency of resistance
to the action of the oxygen of the atmosphere.” "
So, health is the chemical equilibrium between waste
and supply; disease is the chemical disturbance of this
equilibrium. At the same time Liebig admits the ex-
istence of a vital force distinct from chemical affinity.
A careful student of physiology and pathology will
not find it difficult to discover that this hypothesis,
though it brings to his notice a crowd of interesting
and valuable facts, for which he will be grateful, is far
too contracted and one-sided to embrace and explain
either the operations of healthy life, or the phenomena
of disease,
We now arrive at our own department, therapeutics
and drug-action, and must go a little more into Liebig's
details.
He gives the following classification of drugs —
* Animal Chemistry, by Justus Liebig, edited by Dr. Gregory,
p. 9. * Ibid., pp. 254, 256.
542 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS |ESSAY
“Medicinal and poisonous substances form a most
extensive class of compounds, the elements of which
are capable of taking a direct or indirect share in the
processes of Secretion and of transformation.
“They may be subdivided into three great orders.
“The first (which includes the metallic poisons) con-
sists of substances which enter into chemical combi-
nation with certain parts or constituents of the body,
while the vital force is insufficient to destroy the com-
pounds thus formed.”
It will be observed that the metallic salts are here
intended; and, with the exception of nitrate of silver
and one or two others, as surgical applications, this
order may be altogether dispensed with in medical
treatment. They need never be given in such doses
as shall distinguish them from the third order by their
having any chemical action.
“The second division (consisting of the essential
oils, camphor, empyrheumatic substances, and anti-
septics) possesses the property of impeding or retarding
those kinds of transformation to which certain very
complex organic molecules are liable ; transformations
which, when they take place out of the body, are
usually designated by the names of fermentation and
putrefaction.”
We are here reminded of the chemistry of the 17th
century. It seems to me that this description is a mis-
application of terms, which can only increase obscurity
and misunderstanding.
“The third division of medicinal substances is com-
posed of bodies the elements of which take a direct
share in the changes going on in the animal body.
When introduced into the system they augment the
energy of the vital activity of one or more organs;
they excite morbid phenomena in the healthy body.
All of them produce a marked effect in a comparatively
small dose.” -
I apprehend that this division includes all sub-
stances which are truly entitled to be called medicinal.
And it describes their two sets of properties. As
XIX.] To BE DISCOVERED 543
poisons “they excite morbid phenomena in the healthy
body;” and as remedies “they augment the energy of
the vital activity of one or more organs.” In other
and safer words, as remedies they tend, in the organs
where their actions take place, to diminish morbid
phenomena, and to restore health. It will be observed
that Liebig’s words are hypothetical; they give an
explanation which is merely a conjecture. To say that
“they augment the energy of the vital activity” may
be highly poetical language, but it is not the expression
of a fact which can be proved. Aconite or digitalis,
in certain doses, can bring down the beats of the heart
from 120 to 40. Whether, in doing so, they augment
the energy of the vital activity of the heart, may be
questioned; they certainly diminish very notably its
mechanical activity. -
Liebig then makes an observation which will be
readily agreed to. “None of the substances in this
class (of medicines) can be said to take a decided share
in the nutritive process, or to be employed by the
organism in the production of blood; partly because
their composition is different from that of blood, and
partly because the proportion in which they must be
given to exert their influence, is as nothing compared
with the mass of the blood.”
He concludes with an endeavour to give a chemical
explanation of the action of drugs —
“Medicinal or remedial agents may be divided into
two classes, the nitrogenised and the non-nitrogenised.
“The nitrogenised vegetable principles, whose com-
position differs from that of the proper nitrogenised
elements of nutrition, also produced by a vegetable
organism, are distinguished, beyond all others, for
their powerful action on the animal economy.”
It is not necessary for others to undertake to show
that this classification of medicines is of no practical
utility to the physician; Liebig does this himself. He
goes on to say that
“The effects of these nitrogenised substances are
singularly varied ; from the mildest form of the action
544 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
of aloes, to the most terrible poison, strychnia, we
observe an endless variety of different actions.
“The medicinal or poisonous action of the nitro-
genised vegetable principles . . . cannot be supposed
to be independent of the nitrogen they contain, but is
certainly not in direct proportion to the quantity of
nitrogen. Solanine and picrotoxine, which contain
least nitrogen, are powerful poisons. Quinine contains
more nitrogen than morphia. Coffeine, theine, and
theobromine (coffee, tea, and cocoa), the most highly
nitrogenised of all vegetable principles, are not poi-
sonous.”
We may, therefore, safely conclude that a chemical
theory of the action of drugs, even when attempted by
those most competent to give it, is a failure,
Chemical analysis has furnished physicians with an
immense number of interesting and useful facts. It
has made us acquainted with the elements of which
Organised bodies are constructed. It has taught us
that these elements are the same as those which con-
stitute non-organised bodies or minerals: that the
vegetable kingdom is the producer of organic com-
pounds: that the animal world is dependent upon
vegetables for these organic compounds, as the prepared
materials for its sustenance : that during the life of
vegetables oxygen is set free, and the atmosphere is
replenished with it, and refitted for the respiration of
animals : while during the life of animals a continual
absorption of the Oxygen of the air takes place, and its
combination with carbon forming carbonic acid, and
with hydrogen forming water, is effected ; these com-
pounds of carbon and hydrogen are restored to the
atmosphere in expiration, and by them vegetables are
nourished. It has also taught us the composition of
drugs, and it has separated, in Some of them, their
active from their inert components. It has, moreover,
shown us the presence of many of these drugs, when
* Ibid., p. 177.
xix. TO BE DISCOVERED 545
they have been taken either as poisons or as remedies,
in the organs of the body where their action has taken
place.
Chemical analysis has made surprising advances
towards teaching us, not only the ultimate elements,
but also the organic compounds of which vegetable
and animal tissues are composed. But chemical analysis
has its limits, and at present it stops just where we
wish it could go further. It stops where we cannot
but feel sure that it falls short of the objects desired
to be attained ; and so leaves upon the mind an im-
pression of unsatisfactoriness which is painful. In
proof of this, we need only to be reminded of such
facts as these :-
The most careful analysis tells us that there is no
difference in composition between thein, caffein, and
theobromine—the active ingredients of tea, coffee, and
cocoa ; that the composition of fibrine and albumen is
identical ; and that it can find nothing in the deadly
poisons of serpents which it does not also find in the
innocent gum-arabic. *
When statements like these are made, the mind
simply does not believe them ; it prefers to conclude
either that chemical analysis is as yet imperfect, or that
the solution of such problems as these is not within its
limits.
Chemical affinity is a mighty power in nature.
Within its proper province it acts with irresistible
force, and brings about the most surprising changes :
sometimes slowly, as in the rusting of a Sword, some-
times rapidly, as in the firing of gunpowder. But
chemical affinity also has its limits, though they have
not yet been experimentally defined. Temperature
determines one of its boundaries, as is seen in the
manufactures of glass" and of steel.”
* Chemists speak of glass as a true chemical, and therefore
a definite combination, and suppose flint-glass to be a silicate
of potash and oxide of lead ; crown-glass a silicate of soda
and lime ; and so of other kinds of glass. But this has not
35
546 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
Heat, indeed, often excites the action of chemical
affinity, or brings it into play; but in the instances
given, it produces compounds independent of the con-
trolling power of chemical affinity, as that force is at
present understood. The components are not com-
bined in definite proportions, and yet the properties of
the compounds greatly differ from those of the com-
ponent parts.
Life has a still greater power in limiting the action
of chemical affinity, which, however, it does not destroy
nor Supersede.
As regards the action of drugs, chemical analysis
helps us when we can show the presence of the drug
in the organ in which its action has taken place; but
chemical affinity renders us no assistance in the inves-
tigation of the action.
A final remark on chemistry.
The forces in nature with which we are best ac-
quainted are those of attraction and repulsion. Among
attracting forces are gravitation, which acts between al/
particles of matter at sensible (sometimes at incon-
ceivably great) distances; coſłesion, which acts between
similar particles of matter at insensible distances; and
chemical affinity, which acts between dissimilar particles
of matter at insensible distances. Chemistry is the
branch of science which occupies itself with the pheno-
been established by experiment. Many years ago, having at
the time free access to, and ready use of, some large glass
furnaces, I availed myself of the opportunity to try a series
of experiments, in order to test this point. The ingredients
were carefully combined in the proportions of their chemical
equivalents, coming as near to the empirical proportions used
by the manufacturers as calculation permitted. My glass was
made at the same time, and in the same furnace as the other.
But the glass whose ingredients were mixed by “rule of
thumb” far surpassed in all its properties that mixed by rule
of equivalents. •º.
* Steel, the properties of which, it is well known, differ
much from those of iron, is a compound of iron with a variable
percentage of carbon.
XIX.] To BE DISCOVERED 547
mena belonging to this last kind of attraction. It is
an experimental science. The results of its experiments
are surprising and beautiful, and have been made
eminently useful to man. When occupied with organic
Substances, chemistry affords very interesting informa-
tion to the physician, and puts him under obligations
which he should always be ready to acknowledge. But
chemistry cannot analyse Ziving substances; and, there-
fore, when it attempts to give a chemical explanation
of Ziving Operations, whether healthy or morbid, it has
trespassed beyond its province. Chemistry can teach
the physician many interesting things, which he could
not otherwise know, concerning the composition of
dead organic bodies, and can throw light upon some
Aarts of living processes; but physiology, pathology, and
therapeutics—the functions of life, the aberrations of
disease, and the action of remedies—can never be
included as chapters in a treatise on chemistry.
5. AJrugs ſave Óeen studied mechanica//y.
The eccentricities of the human mind have been
strange, but few have been more strange than that
which led physicians to apply the mathematical
principles of mechanics to the primary phenomena
of living beings; to such actions, for example, as
the circulation of the blood by the heart, and
the production of the various secretions by the
glands.
Men were drawn aside into this path of error by
the notion, which has prevailed in all ages, that
the progress of medicine is dependent upon the
progress of Science. Dr. Quincy, a great promul-
gator of the mechanical doctrines, and the most
popular English medical writer of the last century,
Says —
“The study of medicine has in all ages been in-
fluenced by the philosophy in vogue, because the
theory thereof is inseparable from a good competency
of knowledge in natural causes. . . . . .
548 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
“I say physics (physical science) and medicine,
because the latter cannot subsist without the
“And because what is brought from physics and
mechanics takes up so much room here, it may
be necessary to inform the reader that there is
no knowledge in medicine but by such means.
Experience without theory will never make a
physician. . & 3
“If there be anything of science in medicine, it is
conducted by demonstration, because conversant with
Objects cognizable only by the evidence of sense; but
without this it is chance and confusion, and the en-
thusiast and the empiric are upon as good a foot as
the scholar and the physician.”
This opinion is still adhered to in our time.
The conviction is thus expressed by Professor
Acland — -
“A profession dependent on science must vary with
that on which it depends; and if it does not advance
with the advance of science, that fact proves it to be in
error.”
I am not of this opinion, but believe that the
prevalence of it has been a stumbling-block in the way of
the real improvement of medicine. This improvement
can be brought about only by the study of medicine
per se; by its workmen quarrying in its own mine. It
is not necessary to depreciate any branch of Science,
and the physician may gladly admit that Occasional
assistance of a valuable kind may be got from col-
lateral sciences, and further help may be expected as
these make further advances; but not one of them can
be made a safe basis to rest medicine upon. We have
seen how true this is of chemistry. We shall now see
that it is equally true of mechanics. *
And that not for want of the devotion of talent and
1 ‘Lexicon Physico-Medicum,’ by John Quincy, M.D.
9th ed. I775.
* ‘Medicine in Modern Times.’ Discourse II, by Dr.
Acland. I 869. -
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED F 549
labour. The iatro-mechanics of the 17th and 18th
centuries, like their predecessors the chemists, were
men of great ability, and they took incredible pains in
the direction of their research. Borelli, professor of
mathematics in the University of Pisa, the founder
of the school, Baglivi, called the Roman Hippocrates,
and the illustrious Boerhaave were a noble trium-
virate on the Continent; nor were Dr. James Keil
and Dr. Richard Mead mean representatives in
England. -
It has been readily admitted that chemistry gives
the physician very interesting information. It is as
readily conceded that mechanics do the same. That
the size, form, strength, and situation of bones, and
the number, position, power, and insertion in or attach-
ment to the bones of muscles, are regulated with infinite
skill upon mechanical principles cannot be doubted.
But the attempt made by these eminent men to apply
these principles was far more ambitious than this. All
the vital processes of the living economy were explained
by mathematical formulae; diseases were an excess of
relaxation, or an excess of tension ; and drugs acted
according to the laws of mechanics, by their spicula
and angles, and by their gravity.
To carry out this mechanical hypothesis a vast
variety of geometrical diagrams and algebraic formulae
are given. Some of these measure the power of the
muscles, others estimate the force of the heart in the
propulsion of the blood, others calculate the work done
by the glands in the production of their secretions,
which is “performed by a composition of two motions,
direct and transverse.”
Borelli's demonstration of the power of the heart's
action brings him to the conclusion that its exercise is
equal to the pressure of 18O,OOO lbs. weight to move
20 lbs. of blood.
Keil gives two different calculations, founded upon
two different sets of experiments. The result of one is
that the heart's force is equal to 5 Oz, and of the other
that it is equal to 8 Oz,
550 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
The outrageous divergency between the demonstra-
tion of Borelli and that of Keil arises mainly from the
different data taken by each. Borelli treats the column
of blood as stationary; Keil as already in motion;
“which, how it first came by,” says Quincy, “seems
out of human capacity to determine.”
The difficulty of ascertaining the data from which to
commence calculations, which is here made apparent,
is a “glaring instance,” in the words of Lord Bacon,
of what will always be an absolute hindrance to any
useful application of mathematics to these subjects.
For a mathematical demonstration which shall be
reliable, the data must be few and certain. In
physiological questions, such as those we are con-
sidering, they are not only numerous, but very im-
perfectly ascertainable, a consideration which should
have been sufficient to deter men from pursuing this
path.
That the necessary data are too numerous, and
of too uncertain a character to be successfully
managed by geometry and algebra will be very
evident, if the experiments of Keil are briefly
related.
“Having uncovered the iliac artery and vein in the
thigh of a dog, near to his body, and having passed
convenient ligatures under them, he opened the whole
diameter of the vein, and received into a cup all the
blood which ran from it in the space of ten seconds of
a minute; after that the same was done by the artery
for the same space of time, and both the quantities of
blood were exactly weighed. . . . . . This experi-
ment was repeated, until the quantity of blood which
runs from the artery, to the quantity of blood which
runs from the vein, was found to be, in the same space
of time, nearly as seven and a half to three.
“Now, the velocity of the blood in the iliac artery,
so near the aorta, is nearly the same as that in the
aorta, and consequently the velocity with which it
flows out of the iliac artery cut asunder, is the same
with which it would flow out of the heart unresisted ;
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED 2 55 I
or the blood runs through a wound in the iliac artery
with all the velocity it received from the heart. Now,
all the blood which runs along the iliac artery returns
again by the iliac vein, and consequently the quantities
of blood which pass through both, in the same space of
time, are equal. The quantity of blood, therefore,
which runs out of the iliac vein cut asunder, is the
same which runs through the iliac artery before it was
cut, in the same space of time. Having therefore the
quantity which runs through the iliac artery when it is
cut and when it is not cut, we have their veloci-
“Now, if the heart throws out two ounces of
blood every systole (as is most probable), then
the blood moves through the aorta at the rate of
156 feet in a minute, and, therefore, the absolute
velocity,” &c.
The mathematical part I need not repeat; it
is worked according to the second corollary of the
36th Proposition of the 2nd book of Newton's
Principia.
The second series of experiments was founded on
the properties of the paraćola. “Upon opening the
iliac artery of a dog laid in an horizontal direction, and
28 inches high from the ground, he found that the
blood moving in the parabola A.F.C. touched the
ground at C., which is about three feet distant from the
perpendicular A.B. let fall from the heart.” . . . . .
The reasoning then gives I; of an ounce = force of this
dog's heart. “Now, the heart of this dog weighed
two ounces; and hearás Óeing to one another as their
weights, and supposing that the weight of an ordinary
human heart is 12 ounces, then its force will be almost
equal to 8 ounces.”
It cannot be necessary to point out how uncertain
many of these data are, or how wide of the mark any
calculations depending upon them may be. But,
besides these, there is one datum strangely overlooked
by all these eminent physicians, which, of itself, is
sufficient to paralyse every effort in the direction of
552 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
geometry as applied to living beings. This is the
energy of Zife, an energy which admits of no calcula-
tion. Though the power of life has limits of its own,
it ranges itself outside the boundaries of mechanics,
and entirely refuses to submit to be measured by
mathematics. Think of the living heart of a body
strapped down to a table, and whose iliac artery is cut
asunder and is bleeding it to death ! Who can calcu-
late the force of its convulsive beats 2 Who can even
compare them with those of the same heart in a state
of rest and peace P And how can the force of a living
human heart be known to be to that of a dog's Ziving
heart, as the weight of one when it is dead is to the
weight of the other when it is dead 2 Vain, indeed, is
such science as this -
But, it will be said, this is physiology; and it behoves
us to return to our subject, therapeutics.
The same mechanical principles were applied to
all medicinal substances. Dr. Quincy, in his ZDis-
pensatory, a book as popular as his Zeticon, makes
this application throughout. Let me give one example,
and copy what he says upon iron. After speaking
disparagingly of the astrologists and the chemists, he
proceeds:—
“We shall therefore enquire by what manifest pro-
perties this metal comes to afford so much of moment
(momentum) in medical preparations. And to this pur-
pose thus far in common may be concluded, as from all
other metalline particles, that such as can be mixed
with the blood and made part of the circulating fluid,
must, of course, by the necessary laws of motion, from
their superior gravities, be of great force to break their
way where particles of less gravities cannot get
through. For mechanics teach nothing more plainly
than that the momenta of all percussions are as the
rectangles under the gravities and celerities of the
living bodies. By how much more gravity, then, a
metalline particle has, more than any other particle in
the blood, if their celerities are equal, by so much the
greater will the stroke of the metalline particles be
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED 2 553
against everything that stands in its way than of any
other not so heavy; and therefore any obstruction in
the glands and capillaries will be sooner removed
by such particles than by those which are lighter. Z%is
is a way of reasoning which is plaine to the meanest
capacity.
“But, if iron has this property by virtue of the
specific weight of its particles in common with some
other metals, it has also a further advantage of
being a powerful deobstruent, from the shape of
its component parts; for both our taste and sight
convince us of their pointed angular forms, especially
if we view them in their shoots or crystals, in
making the vitrio/ or salt of iron. From the sharp
and pointed figures of the particles of iron, will they
be efficacious to cut their way through many hin-
drances.”
This is doubtless a sufficient illustration of the
mechanical theory of therapeutics of the eighteenth
century. But let me also remind my readers of one
of the essays of Dr. Mead. It is the first in his
collected works, and is entitled, “A Mechanical Ac-
count of Poisons,” first published in 1702, and finally
in 1747. It contains original experiments with the
poison of the viper, the “saline spicula" of which do
all the damage, in the first edition by pricking the
blood, and in the latest edition by pricking the “nervous
fluid.”
The “Aphorisms” of Boerhaave have much in them
of the same mechanical type. He treats first of “the
diseases of a simple solid fibre”; then of those “of a
weak and lax fibre”; then of those “ of a stiff and
elastic fibre.”
This leads me to a final remark upon the views
and principles of these famous men; they were dis-
tinguished from those of the ancients, which were
humoral, by the prominence given to the solids of the
body, and from those of their immediate prede-
* Quincy's ‘Dispensatory,’ 10th ed, 1736.
554. HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
cessors, which were chemical, by their mathematics and
mechanics.
A few years ago it was said of these mechanical
speculations that they exist only in history. This can-
not be said now, for they have been strangely revived
in our time. It will be necessary, therefore, to notice
this revival; and the essays of the Rev. Professor
Haughton may be taken as the representatives of this
“school of thought.”
‘Medicine in Modern Times’ (1869) contains a dis-
Course “on the relation of food to work,” or, “on
physics in relation to medicine in modern times,”
which puts the views of this school very accurately
before us.
A few extracts will show what these are :—
“Man and other animals possess a double life,
animal and organic, presided over respectively by two
distinct though correlated centres of nervous force; of
these, one thinks, moves, and feels; the other merely
cooks, receiving the food supplied, changing and
elaborating it into elements suitable for the use of the
animal life.” . &
“In the higher forms of animals, and more especi-
ally in man, the animal life dominates over the organic
life, which becomes its slave, and exhibits the remark-
able phenomena of mechanical force, of geometrical
instinct, of animal cunning, and, finally, in man himself
produces intellectual work, rising to its highest form in
the religious feeling that recognises its great Creator,
and bows in humility before Him. It is a simple
matter of fact and of everyday observation, that all
these forms of animal work are the result of the
reception and assimilation of a few cubic feet of
oxygen, a few ounces of water, of starch, of fat, and
of flesh.” . , .
“The food consumed in twenty-four hours, including
air and water, undergoes a series of changes of a
chemical character before leaving the body, in the form
of one or other of its excretions. Some of these
XIX.] to BE DISCOVERED 2 555
changes develope force, and others expend force, but
the algebraic sum of all the gains and losses of force
represents the quantity available for work. This work
must be expended as follows:–
. The work of growth.
. The work of maintaining heat.
. Mechanical work.
. Vital (intellectual) work.” . , ,
“Let us take, as illustrations, the muscles and brain,
regarded as the organs by means of which mechanical
and intellectual work is done. These organs resemble
the piston, beam, and fly-wheel of the steam-engine,
and like them only transmit or store up the force
Communicated by the steam in one case, and by the
products of the food conveyed by the blood in the
other case.”
Then follow nearly fifty pages of mathematical
calculation on the several relations between the food
taken, the air breathed, and the work done.
To my mind such calculations as these, when sup-
posed to represent the sum of vital phenomena, are a
delusion, and as great a delusion as that which misled
the talented physicians of the last century. In proof of
this the following observations are offered :— -
It is required for the solution of a problem by
figures,
I. That all the factors be included.
2. That all admit of being numbered, measured, or
weighed.
3. And that this numbering, measuring, and weigh-
ing has been accurately done.
Now, not one of these indispensable conditions has
been fulfilled by Prof. Haughton's calculations.
I. The data, elements, or factors, in living opera-
tions, are too numerous for all of them to be taken
into account. Moreover, the one which is the most
essential, namely the vital force or life, is wholly
omitted.
2. This vital force refuses to be either counted,
measured, or weighed.
I
:
556 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
3. And even the counting, measuring, and weighing
of those elements upon which the calculations are
actually made, are at the best only approximations,
falling more or less short of accuracy.
All this is true of calculations based upon experi-
ments made upon animals. In man another element
presents itself, and one which exercises a mighty
power Over the body, and the action of its several
organs. ... This is the MIND, in its double influence, by
its intellectual and its moral faculties. Hear what
King Harry said to Cardinal Wolsey —
{ { Read o'er this,
And after, this ; and then to breakfast, with
What appetite you have.”
It should be gratefully acknowledged that the infor-
mation which is obtained by such pursuits as those of
Prof. Haughton, when confined within their proper
limits, are highly interesting, and sometimes of value.
But they are worse than useless when they are ambi-
tious of representing the circle of living phenomena.
Mathematical calculations may be applied to the
action of muscles and bones where the elements are
few, and the mechanical arrangements are obvious.
When, therefore, Professor Haughton undertakes to
prove the following propositions, he may be more
safely listened to :—
“ I. Each muscle is constructed in relation to its
joint, in such a manner as to perform one kind of work
only, and it performs that work to a maximum advan-
tage.
“2. The number of muscles employed is determined
by the number of distinct actions required from the limb.
“3. The shape and form of the bones employed are
the necessary consequence of the shape and power of
the muscles in action.
“4. The smallest muscle in the combination is as
carefully adapted to its conditions of maximum work
as the largest muscle.”
1 British Medical journal, April 20, 1872, page 416.
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED 5
557
These, no doubt, are propositions in mechanics, to
which mathematical calculations may be applied. But
when these muscles contract, and these bones are
moved, a force comes into play, which sets all calcula-
tions at defiance. For it must be borne in mind that
every movement is dependent upon, and is regulated
by, the presence of Zife. This is a force which is
absolutely unmeasurable by any methods we possess.
The “necessary consequence " which Prof. Haugh-
ton says follows from these propositions is—
“That a foreseeing mind planned the type of the
limb and of its actions.”
This remark brings to my recollection a charming
Essay on 7%e P/easures of Science, written nearly fifty
years ago, by Lord Brougham ; in which he gives,
as examples proving this “necessary consequence ’’
(among many others which I have forgotten), the
curve of the head of fishes, this being the solid of least
resistance; and the hexagonal form of the cells of a
bee-hive, and the roof and floor of the hive ; these
being formed upon the truest mathematical principles.
On other living processes, or vital work, such, for
example, as respiration, all that can be truly said is,
that during this process certain chemical changes take
place, which it is in our power to examine qualitatively,
and to some extent, quantitatively; and also certain
mechanical actions are performed, which we can
observe, but cannot measure their force. So, in the
living process of digestion there are chemical changes,
and there are mechanical actions; but neither respira-
tion nor digestion can be defined as a chemical or as a
mechanical Operation.
Prof. Haughton goes on to apply the physical
“theory to diseased conditions of the body.” I must
not follow him in his details. Difficulties and objec-
tions, like those we have considered in physiology, but
in increased degrees, will be found ; and the practical
excesses which have resulted from the adoption of
such views, show how mistaken and dangerous they
558 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DIRUGS [ESSAY
are. The “furnishing of fuel in the form of wine and
beef-tea " in fevers, to the extent to which it has been
carried, may be mentioned as an example. -
The application of similar calculations to therapeu-
tics and the action of drugs, has not, so far as I am
aware, been yet made in our time.
The mention of “fuel” makes it almost necessary
that something should be said upon “innate’’ or
“animal heat,” as handled by Professor Haughton.
This is the more readily done, because it offers
another opportunity of opposing medical hypotheses,
and of endeavouring to eradicate them from medical
literature.
The subject is introduced thus –
“Hippocrates was well aware of the connection
between food and animal heat, although he errone-
ously regarded the animal heat as the innate property
of the body that caused an appetite for food, instead of
being itself produced by food ; if we transpose his
cause and effect, mutatis meat/aſadis, all his maxims as
to animal heat are true. Thus he says——
“‘Growing animals possess most innate heat, hence
they require most food ; . . . . but the old have least
heat, and therefore require the least fuel." (Aph. I, 14.)
“The doctrine of ‘innate’ heat taught by Hippo-
crates and Galen, ruled in medicine for I 500 years
after Galen's death, until it received its death-blow
from the genius of Lavoisier, who demonstrated, in his
celebrated memoir read before the French Academy
of Sciences in 1783, that the source of animal heat is
to be found in the combustion of the carbon of the
body by the oxygen of the air received into the lungs
by respiration.”
Lavoisier's memoir was founded upon experiments
with a guinea-pig; and the hypothesis put forth by
him, in opposition to that of Hippocrates, now rules in
medicine.
Let me first speak, and speak reverently, of the
Father of Medicine.
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED 2 559
The first section of his matchless book contains
twenty-five Aphorisms. The majority of these are as
true and as important now, as when they were written.
They begin with that most suggestive and Solemn
O1162 ...— -
Life is short, and the Art long ; opportunity fleet-
ing; experience deceitful; and judgment difficult.
The physician must not only be prepared to do what
is right himself, but also to make the patient, and
attendants, and externals, co-operate.”
Then follow excellent declarations of simple facts
concerning diet, regimen, and the use of aperients.
And it seems to me that the only blot in the first
section of the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, is the intro-
duction in three of them of hypotheses. Two of these
refer to innate heat, the other to the concoction of
humours.
The 13th is as follows:–
“Persons of advanced years endure a spare diet
most easily; next adults; young persons not nearly so
well; and especially infants, and of them such as are
of a lively spirit.”
Then follows the 14th, quoted by Prof. Haughton:-
“Growing persons have the most innate heat, they
therefore require the most food, for otherwise their
bodies are wasted. In old persons the heat is feeble,
and therefore they require little fuel, as it were, to the
flame, for it would be extinguished by much.”
To have expressed this truth consistently with the
tenor of the other Aphorisms, it should have been
worded thus –
“Growing persons require the most food. Old
persons require less.”
And I venture to think that the opposite hypothesis,
founded upon Lavoisier's celebrated guinea-pig, and
which forms the basis of Prof. Haughton's elaborate
calculations, may be dispensed with in like manner, to
the great advantage of practical medicine. It will
receive its “death-blow,” and be superseded by some
others; indeed, it is already giving way to the “mode
560 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS |ESSAY
of motion” hypothesis; a notion, I presume to say,
not one whit more worthy of adoption than any of its
predecessors. -
Let physicians learn and remember facts. They
have not time to spend over the pros and cons of con-
tending hypotheses. “Life is short, and the Art
long.”
Aristotle seems to have thought that the mind is
composed of two parts; one by which we contemplate
those things which cannot be otherwise than they are,
and one by which we consider those things which can
be otherwise than they are." It is not necessary to
cut the mind in two in this manner; nor is it necessary
to seek a foundation for mathematics different from
that of the other branches of natural knowledge. One,
two, three, four, a point, a straight line, an angle, a
circle, are as much objects of our senses as a tree or
an animal. The only difference is in the simplicity of
the elements of the former, and the number and com-
plexity of those of the latter. This difference, however,
is so great, that what is possible to us in the one case,
is impossible in the other. The simple cases may be
handled mathematically, the complex ones cannot be
so handled. -
It might have been expected that these considera-
tions would have been sufficient to prevent any one
from engaging in the hopeless undertaking of applying
mathematical reasoning, or even mechanical principles,
(except to the limited extent noticed), to such com-
plicated problems as occur in physiology, pathology,
and therapeutics. But nothing can restrain the in-
genuity of men when they are pursuing an object by a
false route.
6. /Prugs have been studied bočanically.
The Greeks marred their therapeutics by introduc-
ing the philosophy of their times into medicine, and this
* Ethics, Book VI.,-kai útroketabw 800 rà \óyov čxovra, &c.
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED 2 56 I
in two ways; first, the philosophies themselves being
erroneous, their introduction into medicine was the
introduction of errors; and secondly, the attempt to
apply philosophical speculations to therapeutics was
a misapplication even of any truth they might contain.
The early physicians were not content with this
double damage. They invented medical philosophies
themselves, such as those of the temperaments, and of
the humours, and in this third way disfigured and
depreciated their really useful medical knowledge.
But they had neither the chemistry nor the
mechanics, nor the botany which we have, and there-
fore, happily for themselves, could not make a further
misapplication of science by misapplying these branches
of it to medicine. This was left to the moderns, and
it has been thoroughly done by them.
We have seen to what extent by the chemists and
by the mathematicians. The botanists have followed
in train, though they have not been able to effect
nearly so much mischief. -
Scientific botany, like scientific chemistry, is indebted
to physicians for its beginning. One of its earliest
friends was Leonhart Fuchs, a physician of Tubingen,
about three centuries ago. For a long time it was
studied as a branch of natural history only ; that is, its
descriptions were confined to the outward forms of
plants; now it embraces the internal structure of the
Organs, or constituent parts, which is called organo-
graphy, and the functions of these Organs, or their
physiology. At first the description of plants was
connected with their supposed medical virtues, but
now, like chemistry, it is an independent science, and
the chemist and the botanist are no longer physicians.
It is, however, one of the collateral sciences with
which the physician ought to be acquainted. The
knowledge it can impart adds very much to the interest
of the study of the Materia Medica, and it is occa-
sionally useful; but it cannot fulfil such promises as
those made by Professor Lindley when he says —
“This science it is which teaches the physician how
36
562 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
to discover in every region the medicines that are best
adapted for the maladies prevalent in it, and which, by
furnishing him with a certain clue to the knowledge of
the tribes in which particular properties are or are not
to be found, renders him as much at ease, alone and
seemingly without resources, in a land of unknown
herbs, as if he were in the midst of a magazine of drugs
in some civilised country.” :
We shall see that these flattering promises cannot
be realised.
There are two ways in which they might be fulfilled :
first, in the plants themselves there might be evidence
or information from which the physician might learn
the medicines best adapted for special maladies. Or,
secondly, the classification or arrangement of plants in
the various systems of botany might furnish this
evidence. -
Let us ask, then, is there anything in plants them-
selves which indicates their medicinal properties 2
Not in themselves. The most careful examination,
whether of their form, appearance, colour, taste, or
smell, or of the different parts of them, or of the
climates or regions in which they grow, or of the
seasons in which they bloom, only forces upon the
mind the conclusion that the medical virtues of plants
cannot, in this way, be learned at all.
No : but, says Professor Lindley, it is the science of
botany which teaches the physician this knowledge.
Let us look at the Science.
The view must be a brief one, but it is hoped that it
may be clear and correct. The representative men of
the modern systems of botany are Coesalpinus, Ray,
Tournefort, Linnaeus, the two Jussieus, De Candolle.
Andreas Coesalpinus of Arezzo, about 1580, was the
first who accomplished a Scientific classification of
plants. He was a /ructicist. He says —
“If we take the root, or stem, or leaves, or blossom,
as our guide in classification, we shall separate plants
obviously alike, and approximate those which have
merely superficial resemblances.”
XIX.] To BE DISCOVERED 2 563
His system, therefore, is founded upon the difference
in the number or covering of the seeds. He has ten
classes formed in this way —
“Some have, under one flower, one seed, as amyg-
daſa ; or one seed receptacle, as rosa ; or two seeds, as
ſeru/aria ; or two seed receptacles, as 7tasſuräume, or
three seeds, as the Zizhy/pa/u/2 ; or three receptacles,
as the 67//ðaceae; or four seeds, as marratózume, or four
receptacles, as Siler, or more seeds, as cicoraced ; or
more receptacles, as finits.”
A strong testimony in favour of this arrangement is
that it is consistent with natural orders, with many of
which Coesalpinus was acquainted.
John Ray, a century later—about 1680—the father
of English Scientific botany, based his system in part
upon the fruit, and in part upon the ſlower. The
vegetable kingdom being necessarily first divided into
plants which have flowers and plants which have not
flowers—ft/laſterogames and cryptogames—the flowering
plants are simple or composite. The simple flowers
have the seeds maſſed, or in a Žerican?. Those with
naked seeds are arranged according to the number of
the seeds. Of those which are surrounded by a peri-
carp, or fruit, some have the first large and soft, as
apples; some have it small and juicy, as gooseberries.
If this fruit is not juicy but dry, it is simple or multiple.
The simple are the pea-tribe, leguminosac, the multiple
are arranged according to the differences in the flowers,
monopeſa/otts, &c.
The composite flowers are those which have many
florets, in the same ca/ja. They are divided into
those having complete florets, and those having only
half florets.
This system was in use through the 18th century.
Like its predecessor it had the advantage of embracing
some natural families.
Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, of Paris, published his
“Institutio rei Herbariae" in 17Oo. He was a coro//ist.
His system is based upon the different forms of the
corol/a. Thus not only departing from the seed alto-
564 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
gether, but not even including the whole flower.
Tournefort's first division is into herbs and trees; herbs
are divided into seventeen classes, according to the
presence or absence of the corolla, and its form, regular
or irregular, single or numerous petals. His second
division of trees is divided in the same manner into
five classes. -
Even this arrangement, feeble as it would seem to
be, includes some natural families also, as the ladiats,
cruciforms, uměe//iſers, Zegºtments, &c.
Karl Linné, one of Sweden's greatest ornaments,
had become celebrated half a century later— about
1750. Linnaeus chose also only a part of f/e ſlower,
as the foundation of his system—not the corolla but
the stamens and Žisſils, the former for the classes, the
latter for the orders. He was a stamenist. In this
manner he arranges the phanerogams or flowering
plants in twenty-three classes, and the cryptogams, or
flowerless plants in one class.
Linnaeus thus returned to 7270/26ers, retracing steps
in the path opened by Caesalpinus, but quitted by
Tournefort for one much less precise and fixed—that
of forms. There was also in the system of Linnaeus a
tinge of physiology, which was a new feature. It
grievously separates the members of some natural
families. -
This defect, by which plants manifestly closely
related in nature were artificially detached from one
another, became more and more felt, and in about
another quarter of a century the two Jussieus, uncle
and nephew, were able to gain attention to a method
which is justly called the natural method.
It is not founded upon the consideration of a single
organ, but the characters presented by every part of a
plant concur in fixing its position in the scheme.
And, further, anatomy and physiology are intro-
duced. There are fifteen classes, which include 164
natural orders. These are arranged in three divisions.
Acotyledons, which correspond to the cryptogams,
mushrooms, lichens, lycopods, &c., eleven orders;
XIX.] To BE DISCOVERED F 565
monocotyledons, embracing thirty orders; and dicotyle-
domes 123 orders. These three divisions are taken
from the seed as germinating. Coesalpinus took the
seed as perfected ; Jussieu takes it as beginning to
grow. It has then either one lobe from which one
little leaf springs—monocotyledons—or two lobes from
which two little leaves spring—dicotyledons.
This natural method was a great improvement upon
the artificial systems of Tournefort and Linnaeus.
De Candolle—from 1824 to 1840—adopts the same
method, but carries it further, availing himself of the
discovery which in the meantime had been made by
Des Fontaines of the distinct structure and growth of
the stem one portion of flowering plants increasing
from zvițhim, the other from zwiſ/sout, or on the external
surface. De Candolle adopts this as the basis of his
arrangement, and calls those growing from within
endogens, and those growing from without exogens.
The first correspond to Jussieu's monocody/edoms, the
second to the dicoty/eaſons. The cryptogams or acoty-
ledons are called acrogens.
This method is the one which prevails in our time,
It is not founded, as the earlier systems were, upon
external characters only, but very much upon the
anatomy and physiology of plants. It is, So far, more
likely to be permanent, but it is not without its
difficulties, nor is it free from vagueness; for it brings
many plants together which have no very obvious
resemblances. This will be acknowledged to be no
unimportant matter when it is remembered that the
great object of science in classification is to bring
together things which are alike, and to separate things
which differ. -
The latest improvement is that made by Professor
Lindley, who has introduced into English botany the
use of English names.
Of these six methods of classifying the vegetable
kingdom the four first belong to natural history, the
similars and dissimilars being exclusively external,
566 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
They are asked to tell us anything they know about
medical virtues. They answer plainly, “it is not in us!”
The two remaining methods advance into the
interior of plants, and examine the structure and the
functions of each part. This is a great increase of
knowledge. Let us ask them the same question;
what can you tell us of medical virtues 2 They reply
as distinctly as the former, “it is not in us!”
How is it, then, that many medical writers, Pereira
among them, have adopted a botanical arrangement of
the Materia Medica 2 thus apparently confirming the
opinion of Professor Lindley that botany “teaches the
physician how to discover medicines,” and implying
that the “natural orders” of plants contain some rule
as to their medical virtues.
The examples of any rule of this kind are, at least,
equally matched by the exceptions, both in number
and importance; hence the rule is useless, and falls to
pieces. Plants gathered together as they are at
present, in natural orders, differ both as regards food
and medicine, some in the same order being nutritious,
and others poisonous—as carrots and hemlock—and
among those which are poisonous, and therefore
medicinal, there are very great differences of drug-
action.
And as regards the example of Pereira, he acknow-
ledges that he has adopted this method in despair;
“on account of the great difficulties attending any
other method, especially that founded on the physio-
logical effects of medicines”—the only true method.
There are two ways of looking at this question.
Either to suppose that the botanical arrangements yet
made are not perfect, or the best that can be made :
and that some botanist, perhaps yet unborn, may make
an arrangement of plants which will put those which
are nutritious and those which are poisonous in more
consistent groups; or to believe that the arrangements
of the physician have nothing to do with those of the
botanist. This latter view seems to me to be the true
One,
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED 2 567
It would be obviously unreasonable to ask a botanist
to arrange his plants according to their action, nutritive
or poisonous, upon animals which it does not come
within his province to observe. To me it appears
equally unreasonable for the physician to adopt the
method of the botanist, and arrange his drugs ac-
cording to those characters only which are open to the
botanist to observe.
It may be safely concluded that there is no observed
connection between either the external form of plants
or the internal structure of the organs or their functions,
and their action as drugs. Neither the outward appear-
ance, nor the structure of any part, nor its function, nor
the mechanical power, nor the chemical composition of
vegetables, throws any light upon their therapeutic
aC£1On.
I shall be charged with being an enemy to science.
I contend that whosoever points out the true limits of
its several branches is one of its best friends. What,
then, are the uses of botany to the medical man P
Several ; at present I will mention only one. That
the English practitioner may be taught how he may
substitute English species of medicinal plants for
foreign ones. For instance —
There are three principal species of daff/ºne. The
D. g7, idium (flax-leaved daphne) of Hippocrates; the
ZD. muezerium (spurge Olive) of Dioscorides; and the
Z). Zaureo/a (Spurge laurel) of Gerard and Parkinson.
The first and Second are natives of Greece, and, I
believe, are still to be found in the Greek Pharmacopoeia.
The second is indigenous in Germany, and was proved
by Hahnemann ; and it was probably brought into this
country, along with other medical plants, by the
Romans. The third is indigenous in England. This
last I have used instead of the mezerion, with good
success, especially in Some skin diseases. In the same
manner the Öryonia of England is the AE. dioica, that of
Germany is the B. alòa, the latter being the species
proved by Hahnemann. For many years I have used
568 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
the English species instead of the German, and with
great satisfaction. The same result may, perhaps, be
expected if the acto a spicada (herb Christopher), an
English species, be substituted for the actora racemosa
(or Cºmici/?ga racemosa, black cohosh) of America. It
grows on high chalky ground in Yorkshire, and it
deserves to be carefully proved. The same remarks
will apply to many other foreign plants with equal
force, and the attention of the younger members of
the profession is earnestly invited to the investigation.
Before quitting the subject of botany let me ask
leave to point out a comparison which may be made
between the progress of the classification of plants and
the progress of homoeopathy,
Hahnemann's homoeopathy is very exactly com-
parable with Tournefort's botany. The system of
Tournefort, as we have seen, was founded upon the
similar and the dissimilar in the form of the coro//a.
It put together the similar forms and separated the
dissimilar. Hahnemann did the same with the symp-
toms of diseases and the symptoms of drugs; similarity
put them together, dissimilarity separated them.
Linnaeus added some physiology to this external
system of botany, but it still remained in his hands
what it had been in Tournefort's hands, a comparison
of similars. -
So modern homoeopathists, feeling with Dr. Black
how bare and unsatisfactory a medical system is with-
out pathology, have tinged Hahnemann's external
homoeopathy with pathology, by adding the internal
condition as so many additional symptoms to the
external ones. They then carry out as before the
doctrine of similars, and “still hold to the old empirical
formula of Hahnemann drawn from the totality of the
3 y 1
symptoms.
1 Dr. Black, Monthly Homatopathic Review, Oct. 1868, and
my Reply, Nov. 1868. Dr. Black endeavours to take advant-
age of the expression “tubercular cachexia.” This expression,
like many similar ones, serves only to hide our ignorance from
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED 2 569
Jussieu and De Candolle took a great step in advance
when they made anatomy the basis of their method.
It was nothing less than the substitution of a natural
for an artificial system.
Though not suggested by this progress in botanical
science, the thought I have breathed resembles that of
Jussieu's. Make anatomy the basis of therapeutics ;
endeavour to discover the organs which are the seat
of disease, and the organs which are acted on by drugs,
and prescribe a drug which acts upon the organ where
the disease is seated." In this manner similarity is
exchanged for identity. The difference between the
two methods is the difference which exists between
sºme?/7s and idemz—between similar symptoms and the
Same Organ.
The next step—the Äänd of action and the connec-
tion between the kind of action of disease and of drug
—shall receive all the attention it claims in a future
Essay. -
Linnaeus, by the tinge of physiology in his system,
added a charm, but gave no real help ; so the pathology
of Dr. Black is comforting to the educated medical mind.
But so long as its conditions are viewed as so many
symptoms to be added to the outer ones, and similarity
is to be aimed at in the selection of the remedy, the
benefit is more imaginary than real. On the method
proposed it is substantial and fundamental. Similarity
of symptoms exhibits some mysterious relationship
between disease and its remedies; but an anatomical
connection brings them into actual contact. It is the
substitution of a natural for an artificial system.
ourselves. It may be used, for brevity's sake, as summing up
the local diseases and the symptoms of such cases; but if any
one thinks that it contains knowledge beyond this, he deceives
himself.
* When there are several acting on the same organ, the
Žind of action will decide which. The kind of action of
drugs will take its turn for consideration in a future Essay,
57O How IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
- 7. /), ugs have been studied pathologically.
Drugs studied pathologically means that they have
been prescribed in accordance with some pathological
doctrine.
The methods pursued for the discovery of the action
of drugs which we have hitherto noticed have been
either entirely mistaken and vain, as the three first,
or have rendered very partial service, as the three last.
We now come to a method which ought to have
proved a good one ; and, in proportion as a true patho-
logy is established, it may become a good one. So far
it has been a mistaken one, and, as carried into practice,
has done more harm than good; because the patholo-
gical doctrines successively in vogue, and especially
those among the ancients, have been erroneous.
There is one grand therapeutic axiom which has ruled
in medicine for thousands of years, and has been sup-
ported by a succession of pathological doctrines, which
claims to be considered in every medical investigation.
This is the treatment of diseases by their contraries—
contraria contrariis curanțur. It will repay the
trouble if we look, for a short time, at these successive
doctrines.
The first was old in the days of Hippocrates, and
notwithstanding that it was vigorously opposed in one
of the Hippocratic writings, continued to hold its
supreme authority till two centuries ago, and this
mainly because it was founded upon, and was supported
by, the prevailing philosophy of the times.
The doctrine of the ancient philosophers, which pre-
vailed amid many conflicts, was substantially this —
There is a primary matter which has neither form nor
quality. This first becomes apparent to us by being
made to assume in the hands of the Great Creator
the form and qualities of four elements—fire, air, earth,
and water. From these all other forms and qualities
are elaborated.
To suit this doctrine of the philosophers the medical
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED 2 57 I
doctrine was invented of four femperaments—hot, cold,
dry, and moist—health being a combination in due
proportion of these, and sickness being a preponder-
ance of one or more of them, and so constituting an
intemperament.
Hence followed the therapeutic doctrine that drugs
are possessed of similar qualities; and the arrange-
ment of the Materia Medica in eight divisions—
hot, cold, dry, and moist ; and their combinations hot
and dry, hot and moist, Cold and dry, and cold and
moist.
All the details of diseases and of remedies being thus
arranged to the entire satisfaction of every one, it is
easy to see how charming the treatment by contraries
must be. As a matter of Course a hot intemperament
must be treated by a cold remedy, and a cold intem-
perament by a hot one.
I have remarked that this doctrine was ancient in
the time of Hippocrates, that is, four centuries before
Christ; it was brought to perfection, and established
upon the ruins of every other medical doctrine, by
Galen, in the second century after Christ; and it
reigned without a rival for fifteen centuries more. It
would be disrespectful, therefore, to the men of so
many generations did we not acquaint ourselves to
some extent with this wonderful hypothesis—wonder-
ful indeed it must have been to bind down the
medical profession as one man, to receive it without
question as the only Orthodox method, for So long a
time.
In addition to what has been already said of the four
elements, a few details relative to the four tempera-
ments, the intemperaments, and the classification of
drugs, will give us an intelligent understanding of this
mighty system of medicine.
The temperaments are four simple and four com-
pound ones, as already enumerated.
These temperaments are either of the whole body,
or of some part of it, e.g. the brain, the heart, the
liver, &c.
572 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
A bone is the most dry and cold.
A cartilage less so.
A ligament less than a cartilage.
The heart is most hot.
The liver next to the heart.
Muscles are moist, and hot.
The skin is less so.
The spinal marrow is colder and moister than the
skin.
The brain exceeds this in moisture.
There are, in the same manner, eight kinds of in-
temperaments. When it is said a man has a hot liver,
it is meant that his liver is hotter than a justly tem-
pered one should be. -
Then there are four humours — the blood, the
phlegm, the yellow bile, and the black bile. And
from these, according to the predominance of any
one of them, we have a sanguine person, a phleg-
matic person, a choleric person, or a melancholic person.
A disease is defined to be an affection against
nature, by itself hurting and depraving the action of
the part in which it resides. It is sometimes called a
distemper.
By symptoms are meant that change which the disease
brings, and which follows a disease as a shadow follows
the Öody.
A medicine is defined to be that which has power to
change the body according to one or more qualities,
but which cannot be changed into our nature—cannot
zzouris/.
They are possessed of the four simple qualities—heat,
cold, &c., and the four compound ones — heat and
moisture, &c.
Medicines are hot, cold, &c., in four degrees, e.g.
warm water is temperate; that which is a little hotter
is the first degree of heat; if manifestly hot, it is the
second degree ; if it heat more vehemently it has
come to the third; if it scald, it has arrived at the
fourth degree of heat. The following are a few
examples —
xix.] TO BE DISCOverED 2 573
Simple Medicines hot in the
First degree—Absinthium. Althaea. Amygdala dulc.
Beta.
Second degree—Ammoniacum. Artemisia. Ane-
thum. Salvia.
Third degree—Abrotanum. Agnus castus. Anisum.
Sabina.
Fourth degree—Allium cepa, Euphorbium. Sinapis.
Ruta.
Simpkes cold in the
First degree—Atriplex. Hordeum. Malva. Pyra.
Pruna. Rosa,
Second degree
num hortense.
Third degree—Hyoscyamus. Solanum somniferum.
Mandragora.
Fourth degree—Cicuta. Papaver. Opium.
Acacia. Cucumis. Plantago. Sola-
Simples moist in the
First degree—Buglossum. Viola. Rapum. Spinacia.
Second degree Lactuca. Cucurbita. Melones. Por-
tulacca.
Simples dry in the
First degree—Thus. Chamaemelon. Brassica. Cro-
cus. Faba.
Second degree—Pix arida. Nux moschata. Mastiche.
Myrrha.
Third degree—Abrotanum ustum. Myrtus. Galla.
Sabina. -
Fourth degree—Piper. Allium. Nasturtium. Eu-
phorbium.
This arrangement of the qualities, Galen says, is
in order to proportion them to diseases. For example:
To a disease hot in the second degree no other
574 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
medicine must be used than that which is cold in the
like degree.
So much for the first qualities or faculties of
medicines; now for the second. Those are termed
second faculties which are dependent upon the first.
It is the part of heat to rarify, attract, open. Of cold
to condense, repercuss, shut up. Of moisture to soften,
relax. Of dryness, to harden, stiffen.
Hence, that is termed an attractive medicine
which has an attractive faculty; as, on the contrary,
that a repercussive which repels. So of emollients,
relaxers, &c.
The third faculty of medicines depends upon the first
and second, sometimes conjoined, at other times sepa-
rate. Its operations are to agglutinate ; to fill with
flesh ; to cicatrize; to assuage pain; to promote or
diminish the secretions of the kidneys, skin, uterus, &c.
Thus the generation of flesh is produced by the con-
course of dryness and cleansing. Coldness joined with
Some moisture procures rest; this is the sleepy faculty
of opium.
But the fourth faculty of medicines does not depend
upon any of the foregoing qualities, or upon any other
manifest quality. This depends upon an occult property
of the whole substance, by means of which it works
rather upon this than that part; upon this rather than
that humor. Wherefore physicians cannot ſized out &/ºis
faculty &y reason, Čuč only 6, etperience. Hence it is
that names have been given to medicines from those
parts which they chiefly respect. For they are termed
ce//a/ics which respect the head, as betony, marjoram,
sage, rosemary ; pneumonics which respect the lungs,
as liquorice, sweet almonds, elecampane ; cordia/s that
strengthen the heart, as saffron, cinnamon, citrons (chiefly
the rinds), bugloss, coral, ivory; Stomac/tics, which
respect the stomach, as nutmegs, mint, anise, mastic,
pepper, ginger; /e/aſſics, which respect the liver, as
wormwood, agrimony, succory, Sanders ; S//enefics,
which have relation to the spleen, as thyme, broom
flowers, capers (the bark of their roots), the bark of
xix.] TO BE DISCOVERED 2 575
tamarisk; diuretics, such as respect the kidneys and
urinary passages, as the roots of smallage, asparagus,
fennel, butcher's broom, turpentine, plantain, Saxifrage;
art/ºritics, such as strengthen the joints, as cowslips,
elecampane, calamint, hermodactils, &c. And to this
rank is referred purging medicines, which, furnished
with a “specific property,’” show their efficacy on one
humor more than on another, and that impact more in
one part than in another. For thus agaric draws
phlegm from the head and joints; 7%uðaró draws
choler from the liver, and hurts the kidneys.
Such is a sketch of the most famous of all medical
systems. It has often been remarked that no hypo-
thesis becomes popular unless it has some truth mixed
up with its fancies; and it is not difficult to see that
this system, though it begins very high up in the
clouds of imagination, descends at length to very
practical matters of common observation. That, in
fact, it is constrained to acknowledge itself compelled
to abandon its boasted reasonings, and to take up with
the previously despised testimony of experience derived
from the observation of the senses.
It is a melancholy fact that even Hippocrates him-
Self could not prevail to put away the vain fancies
of this system, and persuade men to be content with
the truth of facts. The treatise “On Ancient Medi-
cine,” which is acknowledged by competent judges
to be a genuine work of Hippocrates, commences
thus :—
“Whoever having undertaken to speak or write on
medicine, have first laid down for themselves some
hypothesis to their argument, such as hot, or cold, or
moist, or dry, or whatever else they choose, are all
clearly mistaken in much that they say , and this is the
more reprehensible as relating to an art which all men
avail themselves of on the most important occasions,
and the good operators and practitioners in which they
hold in especial honour.” He goes on to refute these
speculations, and remarks with wonderful sense and
576 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
precision, “Z /ave not thought f/at medicine stands in
need of an empty / ſpot/ºcsis.”
This is the system of treatment by contraries of
the dogmatists, ancient and modern. Another system
having the same maxim, “contraria contrariis citraſzáz/7”,”
was maintained with much talent among the ancients
under the title of med/odism. This system, after a
vigorous struggle, was overpowered by dogmatism,
and in consequence its books are nearly all lost.
Asclepiades of Bythinia, a disciple of Epicurus, gave
to the elements the name of atoms, and taught that the
human body is formed of tissues every way permeable,
Or pierced with invisible holes which he named pores,
through which atoms continually pass and repass.
Health depends upon the symmetry of the pores and
the atoms. Disease on their disproportion. The aim
of medicine is to enlarge the pores when they are too
contracted, and to close them when they are too open
—-" contraria confrazzi's curazzfur.” His remedies made
him a popular practitioner ; they were chiefly
physical exercise, such as walking, riding on horse-
back or in a carriage, and boat rowing ; frictions; and
wine.
Themison of Laodicea, a disciple of Asclepiades, but
not quite so visionary, separated diseases into three
orders, the constrictive or contracted; the flexionary or
relaxed ; and the mixed.
It follows from this division of diseases that with the
methodists there were only two kinds of therapeutic
indications to fulfil, viz. to relax when there was con-
striction, and to constrict when there was a flux or re-
laxation. All remedies therefore are either astringents
or relaxants. Among the former are darkness, fresh
air, cold or acid drinks, decoction of quince, red-wine
vinegar, and solution of alum. Among the relaxants
are bleeding, emollient poultices, warm and laxative
drinks, sudorifics, warm air, sleep, and exercise carried
to fatigue.
* “The Genuine Works of Hippocrates, by F. Adams,
LL.D. Sydenham Society's Edition, Vol. I., p. 16I.
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED 2 57.7
The works of Coelius Aurelianus are the only writings
which have not been lost, of the physicians belonging
to this school. But many extracts have been preserved
by other authors."
A modern edition of methodism was made popular
for a time by Dr. John Brown, a pupil of Cullen's.
“Life,” he said, “is only sustained by incitation. It is
only the result of the action of incitants on the incita-
bility of organs.” Consequently st/emia and asſ/emia
were the only divisions necessary; “contraria contrariis
ci/randur’ being the rule of treatment, and nearly all
diseases being asſ/lenic, wine became with Brown al-
most the only remedy. As a serious commentary on
this method of treatment, I cannot avoid quoting the
following passage from the French Aſistory of J/edicine
of Renouard :—
“This doctrine, so seductive in its exposition, so
easy in its application, is one of the most disastrous
that man has been able to imagine, for it tends to
propagate the abuse of diffusible stimulants, of which
spirituous liquors make a part, an abuse excessively
injurious to health in general, and the intellectual
faculties in particular—an abuse to which man is too
much inclined naturally, and which the sophisms of
Brown may have contributed to spread in all classes of
English society.”
There is yet another form of the doctrine of con-
traries. This was held partially by Hippocrates him-
self, and it is very prevalent among modern physicians.
It is a comparatively limited and feeble doctrine, but,
so far as it goes, it is very firmly maintained. Its
principal expression is in giving purgatives in constipa-
tion, astringents in diarrhoea, refrigerants in fever, and
stimulants in debility.
The more ancient and prevalent doctrine was perfect;
all diseases were hot, cold, dry or moist, or a combina-
tion of these ; all remedies were possessed of exactly
similar qualities; SO that it was always possible, by the
* See the ‘History of Medicine,' by Dr. Renouard.
37
578 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
hypothesis to prescribe a contrary. The defect of the
doctrine was that it was imaginary—the whole story
was a fiction, But a fiction of such beauty and attrac-
tiveness, that mankind were fascinated by it for thou-
Sands of years,
The Hippocratic and modern doctrine is lame in
comparison, Many diseases, as viewed at present,
have no contrary condition, by inducing which, they
can be opposed. Many drugs have no recognised con-
dition at all according to which they can have contrary
actions. It is a fragmentary doctrine, embracing
only a small number of particulars. No doubt, there
is some truth and reason in it, but it has been carried
out to an extent which has buried this truth under
mountains of error,
Hahnemann's doctrine of “similia simiſióws carantzu,”
is opposed to this modern doctrine of contraries, and
not to that of Gaien,
There is yet another pathological and therapeutical
doctrine of contraries, of great importance and of wide-
spread influence in the practice of physic, which claims
to be noticed as one of the methods by which the action
of drugs has been studied. It is the doctrine of deriva-
tion, revulsion, or counter-irritation. Its contrariety to
the disease lies in the action being produced in a
healthy part. This has been brought before us on
former occasions, and it is not necessary to go into its
details now. It may be remarked, however, that its
greatest justification, as it appears to me, is contained
in one of the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, which says:–
" Of two pains occurring together, not in the same
part of the body, the stronger weakens the other."
(Section II. 46.)
The arguments against it are, that it makes two
sores instead of one, and that it is practically possible
to cure by acting upon the diseased parts, and leaving
the healthy parts to remain healthy.
* This subject is further investigated in the Essays on
‘Antipraxy' and ‘Antipathy.’
NIN. To BE DISCOVERED 5
579
he method which is opposed to it has been called
organopathy, and is that which is advocated in these
Essays,
with quackery, that an explanation is ar
was not always so used, nor is it so on the present
Occasion.
God has endowed us with reason, and has given us
five bodily senses. With the former we can study the
operations of mind ; with the latter we can ob
the phenomena of the universe, and upon these obser-
vations of Our Se --- a - -º-º: -
Reason and sense (or the senses) are not always
employed together. Sometimes men *
the outer world Inenta W
observation—this is reason without
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towards doctors, another towards diseases, and another
towards drugs.
Empiricism looks at doctors with two expressions:
one gracious, and recognising their position, the other
Scornful, and treating them with contempt. As already
remarked, the word is used in this Essay with refer-
ence to medical men in its favorable sense. In this
Sense, to distinguish it from quackery, it has been
called methodical empiricism. This is empiricism
with a rule or method which implies knowledge:
quackery is without rule and without knowledge.
The aspect of empiricism towards diseases is dis-
tinguished by the absence of all speculations as to
their essence or internal nature. It rejects equally the
humoralism of the dogmatists: the pores and fibres of
the ancient methodists, and the modern Brunonians: the
* † : *- : * ~ * } ~~~ ~ : - - ; T .. ~~~ : - .
the spasms of Cullen and the phlegmasies of Broussais :
and contents itself with a simple but careful observa-
tion of the symptoms, their progress, and their apparent
connection with the internal organs of the body.
Empiricism looks at drugs, and stores up the know-
ledge of them which has been acquired by what is
called accident or chance, or by whatever other means,
This empirical knowledge of drugs consists of a very
large amount of useful facts, but which are not con-
nected together by any chain of reasoning.
The story of the discovery of . .
as a medicine, in t º,
Valentine, is one instance of many for which medical
men are indebted to persons outside the profession
For the introduction of iodine, and some others. We
are indebted * = & . f phy
At different periods of time, a large part of the
medical prºfession has discarded the prevailing hypo-
theses of the age, and has used nearly all medicines
empirically. This is especially the case at the present
XIX. TO BE DISCOVERED 2 5
SI
The student of medical history may well be driven
to despair. It is not surprising, though it is very
melancholy, to see the greatest historian of medicine
of modern times, Kurt Sprengel, end his laborious
investigations by becoming a sceptic. Hear his final
convictions —
* The history of medicine shows us that a blind
confidence in our opinions is almost always a proof of
their falsehood, or of the weakness of the foundation
upon which they rest. In studying this history º
rrho, that the wav to fathom it is
1
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suspend one's judgment, and that the wisest part
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look upon all opinions with indifference
adopting any'.”
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582 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS |ESSAY
though it appears just and natural, is only a subtle
Sophism, which clinical experience contradicts at every
step. There is a crowd of diseases whose nature
escapes our researches, yet which we know how to
cure; and there are others whose mode of formation is
better known to us, whose treatment is, nevertheless,
little improved by that knowledge.”
Empiricism, then, rests upon the observation of the
senses, and rejects all elaborate reasonings upon the
nature of diseases and the action of remedies. In this
respect empiricism is sense without reason.
In another respect, however, it is not without reason ;
for it has framed for itself, from the observation of the
senses, an axiom or rule by which it is guided. And
the rule is this —
“Those remedies which have cured one case of
disease will cure all cases analogous to it.” Or,
“Diseases must be treated by remedies which have
been experimentally recognised as the most efficaci-
ous.”
Empiricism was first raised to a high position in the
school of Alexandria, and it retained an honourable
distinction till the time of Galen. But its fall was
complete then, and its name became an epithet of
reproach for fifteen hundred years. . It was the
produce of rare intelligence and great labour, but it
had two fatal defects : one, the want of a chain to
connect its numerous but isolated facts; the other, the
absence of an element of progress; for it possessed no
means whereby new remedies could be discovered, and
the treatment of disease be made more successful. In
this way its ruin became inevitable.
Modern empiricism must share the same fate. Its
many facts are like a handful of separate grains which
the first shake will scatter to the winds. They are
unstrung beads which are easily lost; and there are no
effectual means either of gathering them up or of add-
ing to their number.
1 Renouard.
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED P 583
This latter defect, the want of some means of
discovering new remedies, is honestly confessed by the
most strenuous advocates of empiricism. Renouard,
after having demolished all other systems, and deliber-
ately taken refuge in empiricism, has this remarkable
passage —
“It must be avowed that the fundamental axiom of
empiricism does not furnish any light to direct us in
such researches; it does not at all indicate the route to
follow for the discovery of curative means.”
This surely is to pronounce its condemnation. A
system which must for ever stand still, and that in the
face of manifest and daily failures, without adequate
means of improvement, cannot be accepted as the final
system of medicine.
We have now seen that the grand medical systems
of the ancients, the Dogmatism of Galen, the Metho-
dism of Themison, and the Empiricism of Serapio,
were either mischievously erroneous or fatally defec-
tive. Modern systems, which are, for the most part,
physiological doctrines, do not offer much truer satis-
faction, or much greater success. So that Empiricism
is again prevalent, notwithstanding its acknowledged
deficiencies.
Empiricism collects the assemblage or totality of
symptoms, prescribes some remedy already known,
and falls to pieces from vagueness; from the too great
multiplication of details; from the want of a cement to
bind the details together and to make them manage-
able; and from the absence of any definite means of
improvement, or of making the addition of new
remedies.
The general conclusion from this rapid sketch of
medical history, and the lesson to be learned from it,
seems to be this : that reason and the senses are twin
handmaids, whose office it is to guide man into the
knowledge of natural truth; and that they must be
allowed the privileges claimed by each. If a partiality
be shown to either, the consequences are ruinous : if
584 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
to reason, by being led into error; if to the senses, by
the arrest of progress.
Let us now for a moment, before passing on to the
next part of the subject, look at Hahnemann's
Homoeopathy in the light which we have derived
from medical history.
It is evident that Hahnemann's system is another
form of empiricism; inasmuch as he limits himself to
collecting the totality of the symptoms, both of diseases
and of drugs.
Instead of the rule of past experience, he adopts
that of resemblances—similar symptoms of drug and
disease.
It has one great advantage over all other forms of
empiricism : it possesses the means of adding new
remedies, by the proving of drugs in health. This is a
glorious gain.
But it is not freed from the other great defect of
empiricism ; for the system is made to rest upon the
observation of symptoms only. Unless some chain of
reasoning can be found, by which the details, as so
many separate links, can be united together, it must
expect the fate of other forms of empiricism, and fall
to pieces from its very progress; that is, from the
accumulation of an unmanageable amount of detached
facts.
Homoeopathy, indeed, is already becoming cumbrous
and vague in this manner. The numbers of cases and
of provings are now SO vast that, like a hand too full
of beads, they must be scattered and lost for want of a
binding string.
But if, by some successful effort of reason, a thread
can be discovered, by which these beads can be strung
together, permanency may be safely predicted for it.
Physiology and pathology have been pressed into
this service, but without success. The thread I have
proposed is not a physiological, nor a pathological,
but an anatomica/ One. The Sea/ of the symptoms
generally admits of being observed almost as clearly
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED 2 585
as the symptoms themselves; and what reason has to
do is to connect the two observations together. This
union becomes the thread which will preserve the
symptoms, like so many single beads, from dispersion
and oblivion. -
It will sometimes be found that the same symptom
belongs, in different cases, to different organs; and the
precision and success of treatment will depend upon the
organ which is its true seat in each case being carefully
ascertained.
For example, palpitation, besides belonging to the
heart, as it may do in the majority of cases, in others
may have its origin in the brain, in the stomach, in the
uterus, or in the muscles. Cough may have its cause
in the stomach, or in the uterus, as well as in the
various parts of the respiratory organs. It is well
known that pain in the right shoulder-blade sometimes
belongs to the liver; and that pain in the knee is
sometimes caused by disease in the hip-joint.
But if we take anatomy for a basis, instead of phy-
siology or pathology; if we study the Organs of the
body, and attach to each organ the symptoms of
diseases and also the symptoms of drugs which belong
to it; we shall unite diseases and their remedies
together, as so many links, in a golden chain; and
this system of medicine will remain, and be perma-
nently useful.
9. Drugs have been studied mainly for their indirect
action.
The indirect method of treatment has been a pre-
vailing error from the earliest times that reasoning has
been applied to medicine. It embraces a large part of
the practice of physic of the present day.
This subject was discussed in a previous Essay, the
title of which is 7%e Single //edicine," and which was
first published in 1854. In the year 1857 the late Sir
1 Essay VIII.
586 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
John Forbes published his interesting, but to his own
school, most discouraging book, Of Aſature and Art in
the Cure of Disease, which he calls “the legacy left
by him to his younger brethren after fifty years of
practice."
Probably many of my readers are familiar with the
book ; if not, it may be respectfully suggested that the
three concluding chapters (x., xi., and xii.) well deserve
a careful study. I dare not occupy much time in giving
extracts from them, but must beg leave to produce one
or two. In the opening of the tenth chapter we read
thus :—
* They [medicines] would seem all capable of being
arranged in two main classes, according to the more
or less direct way in which they influence the morbid
State.
“In the first class we would comprehend all those
means which, in producing their effects, act or are sup-
posed to act directly on the disease itself, or on the
disordered parts and functions constituting it, or on its
immediate and still persistent cause, and which may
therefore be called ZXirect means.
“In the second class we place all the remaining
means, those, namely, which, possessing no special
relation with the morbid state itself, act on it merely
in an indirect or vicarious manner, by modifying some
other organs or functions or the system generally, and
so influencing the disease. These may therefore be
named Indirect means.”
After a careful examination of these two classes of
means, the conclusion is thus expressed —
“In only a very minute proportion of the numerous
diseases presented to us in practice—and these few, for
the most part, of slight importance—are we able to act
positively or certainly, that is directly or specifically, on
the diseased part, or on its morbid condition; while the
whole huge remainder of diseases can, as we have seen,
be only indirectly, and distantly, and slightly touched
by our agents in any case,_and in a large proportion
of cases, cannot be touched at all. . . . ."
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED F 587
“From the survey in the last chapter, it appears
that, with the exception of a very few, and those
comparatively insignificant diseases, the Medical Art
does not possess the power of curing diseases in a
direct and positive manner. In the few diseases in
which it may be said to do so speaking generally, it
not seldom fails to do so in individual instances.
“In all other cases—that is, in the vast majority of
diseases—the Medical Art, even when exerting its
powers most successfully, can, in strict language,
hardly be said to cºre diseases at all. All that it
professes to do, and all that it does, is to influence
diseases in an indirect and partial or imperfect manner,
by modifying, to a greater or less extent, the functions
of certain organs, with the view and in the hope of
thus modifying the processes in which the malady
consists."
“The degree to which the Medical Art can fulfil
even this humble office, we have seen to be infinitely
less, generally speaking, than the public and even than
the members of the medical profession have always
believed, and still believe.”
It was necessary and fair, after this overwhelming
condemnation, to insert a Saving clause, and it is added
in these words —
“The Medical Art, when it condescends to leave its
imaginary heights of power, and take up its true
position as a helper in man's infirmities, proves itself to
be not simply useful, but most valuable in almost every
case of disease, slight or severe, curable or incurable.
s Nature can almost always be helped, in some
slight degree at least, either negatively or positively, if
not in both ways, by those who possess the necessary
knowledge and skill.”
In this farewell testimony of Sir John Forbes, as the
final result of a very long practice, in which great
abilities, industry, and opportunities were united, we
have his frank confession of the general prevalence of
the indirect method of treating diseases, and of its
painful inefficacy.
588 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
When a patient has been examined by a physician,
and the symptoms have been observed and noted, they
are viewed in three aspects. One is for the purpose
of forming an opinion of the seat and nature of the
disease—for diagnosis. Another is to judge of its
probable progress and termination—for prognosis.
The last is for treatment. All the symptoms are not
of equal value in each of these points of view; some
tell the seat and nature of the disease better than
Others; some guide the prognostications; and some
give what are called the indications of treatment. It
is with the indications of treatment that we have now
to do. These indications, according to long prevailing
notions, are many and diverse. They are nearly all
embraced by two thoughts—elimination and counter-
irritation.
As regards the first—elimination,-turning the com-
plaint out of doors—the indications supposed to be
supplied by the symptoms are many ; for example, the
practitioner sees in the case before him what suggests
to him reasons for bleeding; or for purging ; or for
emetics; or for diaphoretics, to produce perspira-
tion; or for diuretics, to act on the kidneys ; or for
anodynes or Soporifics, drugs possessing the sleepy
property, the fashionable one just now being ch/ora!
Aydrate.
It will be noticed that none of these indications
suggest a direct cure of the malady, but the production
of some effect, commonly a discharge or increase of
some secretion, which it is presumed will indirectly
mitigate the force of the disease.
The other thought is revulsion or counter-irritation.
This contemplates acting on healthy parts with the in-
tention of relieving, in this indirect way, the diseased
parts. For example, a congestion of the brain im-
mediately suggests to the physician that the healthy
bowels must be irritated with purgatives such as Colo-
cynth or gamboge (see these drugs in Pereira's Al/ateria
Al/edica); the healthy skin must be inflamed by a
blister; the healthy kidneys must be set to do increased
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED 2 589
work; and so on. An artificial disease being thus
necessarily added to the natural One.
The medical profession since the times of Hippo-
crates has been so indoctrinated with these notions of
eliminating the essence of the disease by driving it out
in some discharge, or of frightening it away by the
perturbative practice of counter-irritation, that it has
always been with extreme difficulty that any remedy
could be introduced which offered to cure a patient in
a less offensive manner.
Renouard, when describing the introduction of cin-
chona, tartar-emetic (at one time proscribed by a decree
of the Parliament of Paris), ipecacuanha, belladonna,
digitalis, vaccination, &c., has a very vigorous passage
on this point. He says —
“An important remark on the subject of all these
beautiful improvements remains still to be made, which
is, that they were all accomplished, not in virtue of
prevailing theories, but in spite of them ; and the
greatest obstacles they had to surmount to become
established, came from these very theories. What
was the reproach that the adversaries of cinchona
brought against that medicine It was this, that it
produced no sensible evacuation. In their opinion,
founded on the authority of Galen and others, the
proximate cause of intermittent fevers could be nothing
else than vitiated bile or phlegm so that a medicine
which expelled neither the bile nor the phlegm, could
not, according to their doctrine, cure an attack of
ague.”
Many excellent remedies, which exert no power but
the power of healing, have passed, mainly through the
hands of homoeopathists, into general use. And yet,
so inveterate is the habit of inventing hypothetical
explanations, that medical men will not acknowledge
this power of healing simply as a fact. They will
use terms which imply an explanation of the manner
in which this power is exerted, Indeed, hypotheses
* Renouard's ‘History,’ Reform Period, Ch. V.
590 How IS THE ACTION OF DRUGs |ESSAY
and their invention are nothing less than a medical
111a111a. *
Take, as an example, the following paragraph about
copper, from Pereira –
“If the cupreous preparations be used in very small
doses, they sometimes give relief in certain diseases,
without obviously disordering the functions; in other
words, in these instances the only apparent effect is the
modification observed in the morbid condition. These
are the cases in which these preparations have been
termed tonic, antispasmodic, or alterative, according to
Zºe nature of the disease; thus, in ague they have been
termed tonic, in epilepsy antispasmodic, in dropsy,
alterative.”
And so the tonic property, the antispasmodic
property, the alterative property — and why not all
Other properties 2–reside, not in the drugs, but in the
diseases | Such reasoning as this ought to require no
refutation.
The conclusion seems to be irresistible that this
indirect method of using drugs as remedies must
be abandoned, and a better method must be sought
for.
IO. Aafferiments one animea/s.
In the paper on “The Physiological Action of Medi-
cines" which I read before the British Association for
the Advancement of Science, at its meeting at Notting-
ham in 1866,” a protest was made against experiments
for medical purposes on living animals. The objections
to the practice are of two kinds: one set of objections
arises out of considerations of its cruelty; the other
comes from the evidences of its inutility. In my
opinion any advantages which have hitherto been
derived from such experiments are not sufficient to
remove these objections.
Since this protest was made before the British Asso-
1 Pereira's ‘Materia Medica,’ Vol, I., p. 869, 4th Ed.
* Essay XVI.
xix.] To BE DISCOVERED 2 59 I
ciation, the subject has been considered by the General
Committee of that scientific body, and the result of
their deliberations is thus stated in the “Report” for
I871 —
“A committee, consisting of ten individuals, having
been appointed at the last meeting of the British
Association, held at Liverpool in 1870, to consider the
subject of Physiological Experimentation, in accordance
with a resolution of the General Committee hereto
annexed, the following Report was drawn up and
signed by seven members of the Committee —
“REPORT.
“I. No experiment which can be performed
under the influence of an anaesthetic Ought to
be done without it.
“ II. No painful experiment is justifiable for the
mere purpose of illustrating a law or fact
already demonstrated ; in other words, ex-
perimentation without the employment of an-
aesthetics is not a fitting exhibition for teach-
ing purposes.
“III. Whenever, for the investigation of new
truth, it is necessary to make a painful ex-
periment, every effort should be made to
ensure success, in order that the suffering
inflicted may not be wasted. For this reason
no painful experiment ought to be performed
by an unskilled person with insufficient in-
struments and assistance, or in places not
suitable to the purpose—that is to say, any-
where except in physiological and patho-
logical laboratories, under proper regulations.
“IV. In the scientific preparation for veterinary
practice, operations Ought not to be per-
formed upon living animals for the mere
purpose of obtaining greater operative dex-
terity.
592 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
“Signed by
“M. A. LAWSON, Oxford; G. M. HUMPHRy,
Cambridge; JoHN H. BALFOUR and ARTHUR
GAMGEE, Edinburgh ; WILLIAM FLOWER,
Royal College of Surgeons, London ; J.
BURDON SANDERSON, London ; GEORGE ROL-
LESTON, Secretary, Oxford.”
The resolution of the General Committee annexed
to this Report contains the following clause —
“That the said Committee be further requested
to consider from time to time whether any steps can
be taken by them, or by the Association, which will
tend to reduce to its minimum the suffering entailed
by legitimate physiological enquiries; or any which
will have the effect of employing the influence of
this association in the discouragement of experi-
ments which are not clearly legitimate on live
animals.” "
A new committee was appointed to carry out this
suggestion. -
At present, perhaps, it may be said that the subject
is open to two opinions. Those who doubt the pro-
priety of such experiments will not be willing to make
them ; but they may lawfully learn—indeed they can-
not but learn—what may be taught by the results of
the experiments made by others, whose convictions
allow of their being made.
A remarkable series of experiments was undertaken
by an Edinburgh Committee of the British Medical
Association, presided over and reported upon by Pro-
fessor Hughes Bennett, in 1868, which deserves careful
notice. The subject of enquiry was the action of mer-
cury on the liver. The experiments were performed
by Drs. Rutherford and Gamgee. They occupied
two years. Thirty-three dogs were operated upon.
* “Report of the British Association for the Advancement
of Science.’ 1871.
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED 595
Satisfactory observations could be arrived at in only
eight of these. The conclusions drawn by the
Committee from these experiments are given as
follows:–
“Ist. The relation of food to the biliary secretions
is not so invariable as previous experimenters appear
to think.
“2nd. The relation supposed to exist between the
amount of biliary secretion and the size or weight of
the animal has not been supported by the foregoing
observations. -
“3rd. Although an animal will live for a certain
time without any bile passing into its alimentary canal,
it would appear that, even when a fistula has been
established without accident, the health begins to suffer,
in periods varying from a few days to a few months.
tº e & (contrary to the opinion of some former
experimenters.)
“4th. Various circumstances apparently diminish
the annount of bile secreted. The chief of these, as
shown by the preceding observations, are starvation,
diarrhoea, and mercurial poisoning. &
“5th. As to anything that enables us to increase
the amount of bile, beyond the giving food and sup-
porting health, we are unacquainted with it. Perhaps
there is no opinion in medicine more widely spread,
and certainly there is none more universally acted
upon, than that mercury does so ; in short, that it acts
as a cholagogue. Yet not only have the few experi-
menters who have directed their attention to this sub-
ject, invariably observed that mercury rather diminishes
than increases the secretion of bile, but the general
results of the trials made by your Committee fully con-
firm this conclusion. We have seen that in whatever
form or dose it may be given, such as continuous
moderate doses of blue pill, minute and frequently-
repeated doses of calomel, or large doses varying from
IO to 15 grains, it utterly fails to stimulate the liver.
Its constitutional action has been excited slowly and
38
594 How Is THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
rapidly by means of corrosive sublimate with a like
result. In poisonous doses it produces a marked
diminution in the flow of bile. In all these varied
attempts, carefully repeated, under every varying
circumstance that could be thought of, no evidence
was obtained that mercury acted specially upon the
liver at all. The exact measurement of all the bile
Secreted in eight dogs, first without and then with
mercury, tends rather to show that, so far from
increasing the flow of bile, it causes its diminution,
through its general depressing action on the entire
organism. This fact seems now to be so certain and
thoroughly established, that the Committee consider it
unnecessary to make any further researches on the
subject.”
In the corresponding Report presented to the British
Association for the Advancement of Science, at its
meeting at Norwich, in 1868, the methods of performing
the experiments are related; all details are given; and
additional experiments with Žodoff/id//ine and Zaratacºme
are described. The conclusions drawn from these
experiments are that podophilline diminished the
biliary secretion, and that taraxacum did not influence
the biliary secretion in any way whatever. The Report,
in conclusion, observes that—
“On this and many other topics connected with
therapeutics, what we require are not unfounded as-
sumptions and vague speculations, but positive know-
ledge based on unquestionable data ; these we have
furnished, and consider them amply sufficient to
demonstrate the fallacy of the opinions everywhere
prevalent as to the cholagogue action of mercury.”
These extracts are long, but I trust their importance
will justify me in giving them ; and they will make the
conclusions I have presumed to draw from the experi-
* “Medicine in Modern Times,’ p. 229, 1869.
* “Report of the British Association for the Advancement
of Science.' Norwich, 1868.
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* * • * * * * *
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XIX.] To BE DISCOVERED 595
ments of the Edinburgh Committee, and from their
inferences, intelligible in few words:–
I. Mercury does acá loca//w upon the liver; the result
of the action is a diminution, and not an increase, in the
secretion of bile.
2. Zºis action is the one which takes place in Žea/ē/y
livers.
3. Prof. Bennett is not entitled to infer from this
action in health what may be the action in ºtiu/ea/#/y
livers. There is nothing in the experiments to show
that this may not be the opposite of its action in health.
4. Experiments in disease are necessary, as well as
experiments in health, to learn the action of drugs.
5. There is evidence, from experiments on the sick,
that mercury increases, that is, restores when it is
deficient, the secretion of bile, in some cases of disease.
This may, and probably does, arise from the restoration
of a more healthy state of the organ.
6. The conclusion drawn from these experiments by
the committee, or the principal fact ascertained by them
in reference to the action of mercury, is directly in
accordance with the teaching of homoeopathy and
organopathy concerning the action of drugs.
Other experiments upon animals are being carried
on at present. One series is conducted by Drs. A.
Crum Brown and T. R. Fraser, the object of which is
to prove the connection between chemical constitution
and physiological action. Numerous experiments have
been made upon rabbits and frogs. Another series is
conducted by Dr. B. W. Richardson, partly with the
view of introducting new anaesthetics, but mainly with
“the idea of studying the action of substances which
are to become remedies, not by the old and faulty
method of so-called experience, but by proving physio-
logical action and the relation of chemical constitution
to physiological action.” With the same object, there-
fore, as that of Drs. Brown and Fraser.
Dr. Richardson is very bold in his expectations. He
says —
596 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
“I am certain the time must soon come when the
books we call ‘pharmacopoeias’ will be everywhere
reconstructed on this basis of thought, and when the
chemist and physician will become one and one.”
He even expresses the earnest hope that this “huge
reform” will be commenced by Act of Parliament.
Enough has been said in the chapter on chemistry
to damp such expectations as these, but all can sympa-
thise with Dr. Richardson in the concluding words of
his Report —
“We cannot pretend, in reports like these, to vie
with our more fortunate brethen in other departments
of Science. The physiologist has no ground of pleasant
work in common with the astronomer, the geographer,
geologist, ethnologist, or chemist. His researches are
hard (unrelenting, I had almost said), excessively
minute, laborious, and at all times, however absorbing,
painful; many of them can, in fact, only be carried on
under a sense of duty amounting to necessity, and with
the sincerest, the most solemn feeling that they are
being conducted for the ultimate benefit of all the
higher classes of animal existence. In the preparation
of this report I have held on throughout by this sense
of duty, and earnest faith that good must come Out of
the labour.”
II. Žafteriments on 4/ºe Sică.
These bring us to a debating club of contention. In
every age, but especially in ages of freedom and activity
of thought, partly from good motives and partly from
bad ‘ones, a hot warfare of disputation has been
carried on, and it has been continued without other
change than that which fashion has made in the means
in use. It is commonly asserted of opponents that
they kill their patients, whether the doses given are
poisonous on the one hand, or infinitesimal on the
other.
They entangle us in a labyrinth of confusion. There
* “Report of the British Association.' Exeter, 1870.
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED 2 597
is just light enough to make its darkness and chaos
visible. The very various means which have been
pressed into the service; the very different quantities of
those means which have been made use of ; and the
multiplicity and diversity of the effects which have
been produced by them—and this during a period of
more than two thousand years—are more than enough
to bewilder and discourage the most Sagacious and pains-
taking student. Many times the same medicines are
given in the most dissimilar diseases, and with opposite
intentions; and yet hypotheses are never wanting to
explain and vindicate these contradictory prescriptions.
They usher us into a chamber of horrors. On
entering it we see first the “helleborism " of the
Greeks; on looking round, one set of violent measures
presents itself after another, till we end with the
intoxicating stimulants of the present day. It has one
great redeeming character—the chamber is paved with
good intentions. But the traditionary reference of this
character to another place Ought to teach us the stern
lesson that good meanings and wishes do not justify
bad works; and that, therefore, it behoves us all to
see to it that we be found, not only influenced by good
intentions, but also wisely practising right things. We
are to remember that the anxiety of the patient for a
cure, and the desire of the doctor for success, though
they have encouraged, do not justify, the frightfully
painful, and not unfrequently fatal experiments which,
in every age, have been performed upon the sick.
What are experiments on the sick P Every dose of
medicine which is given to a patient is an experiment.
This is self-evident. A grave responsibility, therefore,
rests on the physician who prescribes them, and he
ought to be able, on every occasion, to give a sufficient
reason for their administration.
Let us enquire what occupies the mind of the
physician when he prescribes a dose of medicine.
His mind has been running in one of three grooves.
The first has been cut out for him by hypotheses; and
598 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
so deeply has this been cut, that a mind once fairly in
it cannot, without the greatest difficulty, be got out of
it. These hypotheses extend to the nature of the
case, to the indications supposed to be furnished by
the symptoms, and to the properties supposed to be
possessed by the medicines. Such hypotheses are
speculations congenial to man's nature (Lord Bacon's
idols of the tribe), or they are pleasant reveries of the
individual man (idols of the den), or they originate in
intercourse with other men (idols of the market), or
they are the teachings of popular professors (idols of
the theatre). How these hypotheses have prevailed
for a season, how each in its turn has been supplanted
by another, how erroneous and mischievous they have
all been, has, to some extent, been considered already
in this Essay.
The second groove is that of empirical experience.
This leads the practitioner simply to give again that
which has been given before in cases presumed to be
similar. When we reflect how wanting in plain evid-
ence of success the giving of medicines has hitherto
been, and consider what a multitude of diseases occur
for which we have no known remedies at all, it becomes
painfully conspicuous that the empirical method is
defective and unsatisfactory beyond description.
The third is the groove of enterprise. This tempts
the earnest-minded physician to try some new thing.
It is not wonderful that the dissatisfaction arising from
the actual condition of medicine should urge men
forward in search of something better. And so new
drugs are tried, or old ones are tried afresh, after a
random manner, without rule or principle, in the hope
that, by chance, some better remedies may turn up.
In this way, while I was a student at Guy's and
St. Thomas's Hospitals (then adjoining each other),
Dr. Elliotson, at the latter, gave large doses of car-
bonate of iron (rust) for some time to every patient
he had in the hospital, in the hope that it would
cure some of them.
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED 2 599
After all, very little has been learned, during two
thousand years, from all these experiments upon the
sick —
Because pure observation has been clouded and
distorted by the hypotheses of the speculating phy-
sician, or has been made vague and objectless by the
want of a principle to guide the empirical practitioner.
Because, almost always, several drugs have been
mixed together in the same prescription, and given at
the same time; so preventing the effects of each being
distinguished. And
Because the symptoms or effects of the drug given
to a sick man are necessarily obscured by being
complicated or mixed up with the symptoms or effects
of the disease.
To have a distinct notion of what experiments on
the sick have been, it is necessary to go into some
details; and yet the subject is so vast that it is not
easy to select any details which shall be sufficiently
brief, and at the same time so illustrative of the whole
as to give a distinct notion.
Perhaps this can be best done by selecting a single
disease, and by going briefly, but with care, through
the history of its treatment. For this purpose, I
think, goºd may be chosen as a representative disease.
This also is an extensive subject; so that its history
must be limited to the last two centuries, and to
English writers.
Let us begin with Syden/am," who tells us, in 1683,
in the introduction to his Treatise on the Gout, that
he had himself been a great sufferer from it for thirty-
four years.
As to the nature of gout Sydenham is very explicit.
He says —
“Its only forerunner is indigestion and crudity of
the stomach, of which the patient labours some weeks
before.
“The more closely I have thought upon gout, the
* “Tractatus de Podagra et Hydrope,' per Thos. Sydenham,
M.D. 1683,
6OO HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
more I have referred it to indigestion.” This indiges-
tion he calls the antecedent cause.
The result of the indigestion is a foreign product in
the humours. This he calls the causa continens. It is
now called the materies morói.
On the treatment he says:–
“In gout but three methods have been proposed for
the ejection of the causa continens—bleeding, purging,
sweating. Now, none of these succeed.”
“Bleeding is clearly contrary to that indication
which is required by the antecedent cause, which is
indigestion.” .
“Sure I am that all purging above or below, mild or
sharp, is mostly injurious.”
“Evacuation by Sweats, although less mischievous
than the other two forms, is still prejudicial.”
“I confidently affirm that the greater part of those
who are supposed to have died of gout, have died of
the medicine rather than the disease.”
“If evacuants are out of place in gout, what are the
indications of treatment 2 Two points are most par-
ticularly to be considered. The first is the causa
antecedens, or the indigestion of the humours. The
other is the causa continens, or the heat and exa-stua-
tion of the same, when they have become putrid and
acrid. These two are as far as the poles asunder.
What helps one hurts the other. Hence the difficulty
of treatment. If we strive by heating medicines to
subdue the indigestion, we run the risk of inflaming
the humours; whilst moderate diet and cooling medi-
cines, which allay the heat and acridity, cause indigestion,
and impair the natural warmth.”
But as medicines must be given, the following are
recommended as digestives:–roots of angelica, elecam-
pane, leaves of wormwood, lesser centaury, germander,
ground-pine, &c., &c. And the an/scorõutics horse-
radish, scurvy-grass, water-cress, with the remark that
these last are too acrid and pungent.
Then a prescription is given containing thirty
simples, with this very interesting comment —
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED F 6OI
“Different species of these herbs, in the form of a
skilful mixture, do better than any particular ones alone.
However much the rule of the simpler the Čečer may
apply to specifics, as often as we purpose to cure the
patient by Satisfying any particular intentions, a variety
is best.”
It need scarcely be pointed out how remarkably
this vindicates by anticipation the single medicine of
homoeopathy; each medicine which is given according
to this method, having the character of a specific.
Sydenham says no external remedies are known ;
and then adds: “We must look beyond medicine.”
For, “in gout the cause is a change and new nature of
the system ;” and to be cured the patient “must change
his whole habit of body.” This is to be attempted
mainly by diet and exercise. “Moderation in meat
and drink, so that the stomach receive no more food
than it can digest.” “The other extreme, as I have
found in my own person, is equally injurious.” “The
palate of the patient must be consulted.”
Salt and spices are injurious; he is not to take sup-
pers, bed being “for the digestion of the humours, not
for the concoction of the food.” But a free draught of
small beer may be taken, for this is an excellent pre-
ventive of renal calculi. “It cools and washes out the
kidneys.”
A milk diet, he says, has prevailed for the last
twenty years. It does good while continued, but when
left off the gout returns worse than ever.
London Small-beer, hopped or without hops, is the
best drink; if this cannot be taken, then weak wine
and water.
Wine does harm, and increases the pain. Water is
bad, unless taken always through life. Over-cooling
draughts do not cause pain as wine does; they cause
death.
If wine has been long taken it must not be left off
suddenly and entirely. Sherry is better than Rhenish
or French wines.
Late hours are bad—next to bleeding and purging.
6O2 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
Tranquillity of mind is essential.
But far above everything else is bodily exercise; but
unless taken daily, even exercise will be useless. This
also must not be excessive. -
The exercise of driving should be taken in the fits;
riding on horseback, except in old age or when there is
calculus, out of the fits.
All these things, however, will not absolutely prevent
the recurrence of fits. A radical cure of gout “lies,
like truth, aſ the Óoſtom of a well.” “Some such
remedy may at some future time be discovered.”
The very great value of these remarks of Sydenham
will, I hope, be a sufficient apology for the space they
have occupied. Nothing could more distinctly show
the failure of drug treatment, up to that time, of a
disease only too well known in every age of civilised
life.
The next author to be noticed is Dr. Cheyne," who,
in 1721, advances a step further in the discovery of the
nature of the causa continens of gout. He declares it
to consist in tartarous and urinous salts introduced into
the blood by the food ; the former from the wine drank,
the latter from the animal food eaten. Dr. Cheyne's
hypothesis is that in gouty persons the capillaries or
“smallest vessels are narrower and more stiff or tense
than those of others.” That a fit of gout is caused by
the obstruction which these salts meet with in the
capillaries where they are compressed in the joints, and
thus pain, inflammation, and fever arise from “an effort
of nature to throw off these salts through the stiff and
narrow strainers.”
“Hence it is evident there can be only two direct
ways of treating the gout with any prospect of success.
The one is by stretching and widening the capacities
of the smaller vessels, and relaxing their fibres. The
other is by lessening the quantity of the salts intro-
duced into the fluids by the food.”
1 ‘An Essay on the Gout,' by Geo. Cheyne, M.D., F.R.S.
3rd Edition. I72 I.
XIX.] To BE DISCOVERED 2 603
The first intention can be best answered by “wisely
managed exercise”—not too violent, and “moderation
in eating and drinking being joined with it.” And
“There be two distinct ways of lessening the quantity
of the salts which produce the gout. The first is, by a
total abstinence from, or a great abstemiousness in,
flesh, fish, and strong liquors, which introduce those
salts into human fluids. But this requires great
caution, because an entire vegetable diet weakens all
the digestive powers and all the functions of life; and
because this diet once entered upon is never after to
be changed under the danger of certain death.”
“The other direct way of banishing the salts out of
the habit is by evacuations. Sydenham, otherwise a
most accurate observer of nature, and a most judicious
practitioner, has been the Occasion, I think, of a great
mistake in the management of the gout, by forbidding
almost all evacuations.”
“The secondary or less direct methods of relieving
the gout are first, dilution by proper liquors; secondly,
strengtheners of the instruments of the digestion.”
The first are Bath and other waters; dwarf-elder tea;
trefoil tea ; light, quick, green tea; and Small spicy
bitters in water.
For the second, “the Žesuit’s Öaré (cinchona), in
generous claret is the most powerful strengthener of
relaxed fibres in the instruments of digestion and the
greatest antidote of the urinous salts.” Cha/yöcaſes
and the “g/ans guercina or acorn,” may be added.
“Mercury, by its weight, seems to offer fairest for
breaking the gouty salts, for relaxing the fibres, and
for enlarging the small vessels, and the fact is, that by
a full and free salivation gouty people have been freed
from all its symptoms for several years. But it is also
matter of fact that the body becomes in a worse state
in respect of the future fits, than it would have been
under the common symptoms; the man is seldom or
ever the same as he was before the salivation.”
During the fit several medicines are to be given,
“Such as Gascoin powder, Goa stone, bezoar, Sir
6O4 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
Walter Raleigh's cordial, diascordium, confection of
Alkermes, and the like.”
In the intervals a succession of specifics are to be
administered. The first is,
“A'Auðará, taken regularly, once, twice, or oftener a
week, in such dose as to procure two or three motions.”
“It is worth taking notice that all the preparations of
this medicine serve only to spoil it.”
“Next to rhubarb, and even far before it, I would
recommend sulphur. It is but in little use at present
in physic, except in the itch and the piles, and yet in
the whole extent of the Materia Medica I know not a
more safe and more active medicine.”
“I have known half a drachm of powered sulphur,
taken regularly twice a day, in a spoonful of milk,
prevent the fit for many years, and lessen both its pain
and duration when it happened, for it moved the body
gently once or twice a day.” “Especially if to these
(rhubarb and sulphur) be added plentiful dilution by
some blood-warm infusion of a spicy and diuretic plant
in water, so as to provoke a gentle breathing Sweat,
and pass freely by urine. Thus large draughts of
sage, dwarf-elder, buck-bean, or green-tea ; but especi-
ally of weak whey made on Old Mountain, drunk
blood-warm, and on an empty stomach, and joined to
any of the now mentioned medicines.”
“But beyond all other things, a well ordered course
of Batſ; waters, with chalybeates, and warm bitters,
and a frequent and regular use of Stomach purges, will
be found to succeed best.”
“For a concluding observation,” Cheyne, like
Sydenham, says —
“Temperance only, divine, innocent, joyous temper-
ance, can cure or effectually relieve the gout. For let
us, or our brethren the quacks, brag what we will,
“Tollere nodosam nescit medicina podagram.”
It would have been well for the sufferers from gout,
if the moderate counsels of Sydenham had never been
further departed from than they were by the rhubarb
xix.] TO BE DISCOVERED 2 6O5
*
and sulphur of Cheyne. But this did not happen.
The more violent measures continued to be the
favourite plans.
Dr. Dover, in 1732, gave the result of forty-nine
years of practice, as a legacy to his country. His
treatment of disease is not unfairly represented by a
patient who was “very weak in a consumption,” and
who recovered after having been “blooded at least
fifty times;” and by his favourite prescription, an
ounce of quicksilver to be taken every morning, for a
month, as “the most beneficial thing in all the world.”
On Gout, he says —
“There have been so many unsuccessful attempts
made to master this disease, that patients have very
little faith left, and, as they commonly say, have no
hopes from any thing but patience and warm flannel :
but with submission, keeping the part warm is wrong,
because it is proprium caloris ałłraſhere ; and does,
beyond doubt, attract gouty matter to the part.”
He then prescribes tamarinds, Senna, rhubarb, manna,
purging syrup of roses, syrup of buckthorn, and elixir
proprietatis, with posset-drink between the motions;
and Opium, Saltpetre, tartar vitriolated, ipecacuanha
and liquorice on going to bed—“covering up warm
and drinking a quart or three pints of posset-drink
while sweating.”
“Mynsycht's elixir of vitriol taken often in large
quantities, most certainly destroys gouty matter, yet
for some time it may cause pain ; but taken in its due
latitude, if water will quench fire, it must in the end
have its desired effect.”
Dr. Cadogan (1769) and his opponents’ appear
next in a very lively discussion on gout and its treat-
ment. I must content myself with a single extract
* “The Ancient Physician's Legacy to his Country.' 1732.
* “A Dissertation on the Gout, by William Cadogan, Fellow
of the College of Physicians. Sixth edition. 1771.
* ‘Observations on Dr. Cadogan's Dissertation on the Gout,’
by William Falconer, M.D. Second edition, 1772. &c.
6O6 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS |ESSAY
from his book, as a specimen of the style in which the
subject is handled :—
“The gout is so common a disease that there is
scarcely a man in the world, whether he has had it or not,
but thinks he knows perfectly what it is. So does a
cook-maid think she knows what fire is as well as Sir
Isaac Newton. It may therefore seem needless to
trouble ourselves to say what it is : but I will venture
to say what I am persuaded it is not; though contrary
to the general opinion. It is not hereditary, it is not
periodical, and it is not incurable.”
Cullen' in 1780, after trying all plans and meeting
with nothing but disappointment, fell back upon
“patience and flannel alone.” His discouraging ex-
perience makes him say :— -
“I am much disposed to believe the impossibility of
a cure of the gout by medicines; and more certainly
still incline to think, that whatever may be the possible
power of medicines, yet no medicine for curing the
gout has hitherto been found.”
A/efferden" who was at the head of his profession in
London while Cullen was flourishing in Edinburgh, on
the contrary, writes, in 1782, against flannel and rest,
and says —
“I have known several, who instead of nursing a
beginning gout with warmth and repose, have used the
utmost resolution and exertion in moving and exercising
the limb, which they found themselves gradually able
to do more and more, till at last they recovered its
perfect use, free from any feelings of pain, and without
manifest ill consequences.” w
“The great Dr. Harvey, as I have been told by
some of his relations, upon the first approach of gouty
pains in his foot, would instantly put them off by
plunging the leg into a pail of cold water.
1 : First Lines of the Practice of Physic,’ by William Cullen,
M.D. Ed. of 1812. -
* ‘Commentaries on the History and Cure of Diseases,’ by
William Heberden, M.D. Second edition. 1803.
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED F 607
“I do not recommend Dr. Harvey's example as
proper to be imitated, though it is known he lived to a
good old age; but I am not warranted by any experi-
ence to condemn the practice of endeavouring by
exercising the limb to prevent the gout from Settling
there.” “I never could see any reason for adding at
all to the usual covering of the limb.” Heberden gave
a variety of stomach medicines, but he adds, “we are
still greatly in the dark about the causes and effects of
gout, and the right method in which it should be
treated.”
Mason Good," who was also himself a great sufferer
from gout, contends, in 1822, that when the constitution
is otherwise healthy and vigorous, what is called the
antiphlogistic treatment may be fully carried out, with-
out fear of a metastasis to an internal organ. For
several years he obtained, in his own person, great
benefit from the external use of cold water; but after-
wards, as his general health became weaker, he con-
fined himself to the wine of colchicum.
ZOr. Todd,” in 1843, prescribed moderate purging
with blue-pill and salines, as Epsom salts, and al/a/ies.
In sthenic gout Colchicum in small doses, so as zeof to
excite ſeazlsea, vomiting, or £2/7377 g. In 1851 he
gave opium and Sesqui-carbonate of ammonia, with
free counter - irritation by mustard and turpentine
and blisters, and says, “ lemmon - juice is a valuable
remedy.”
AJr. W. Gairditer,” on the other hand, in 1849,
thinks that the watery evacuations of neutral Salts are
injurious, and that the warm aperients are far better—
such as Senna, rhubarb, aloes, jalap, and Scammony,
with warm aromatics, which is consistent with the
older writers. But he also recommends small bleedings,
which he says, “act as a tonic ſ” With regard to
* “The Study of Medicine,' by John Mason Good, M.D.,
F.R.S. Third edition, edited by Samuel Cooper, 1829.
* ‘London and Edinburgh Medical Journal,' I 843. ‘Medi.
cal Gazette,’ 1851.
* ‘Medical Times,’ 1849.
608 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
Colchicum, he agrees with Dr. Todd, that it “never
more effectually relieves the patient than when it acts
silently and peaceful/y, without producing any evacua-
tions whatever, or in any way disturbing the patient's
comfort and ease.”
A/r. Anthony White' approaches to Sydenham as a
writer on gout. In 1818 Mr. White was surgeon to
Westminster School, where I had the pain of knowing
him, for he ordered Mapleson to cup me, and followed
the cupping with a blister, for inflamed eyes from
hooping-cough, when I was a boy in the school; he
was afterwards President of the Royal College of
Surgeons. In 1848 he had been a subject of gout for
forty years. He gives us in his paper, first, “the actual
state of our knowledge as to the intimate nature of
gout,” from Dr. (now Sir Henry) Holland. This is—
I. That it is hereditary. 2. A materies morói. 3.
Has a relation with lithic acid and the calculous dia-
thesis. 4. Is in the blood. 5. An attack is the re-
moval of this matter. 6. Both liver and kidneys are
implicated.
Mr. White considers the cardinal principle to be “a
materies morói circulating with the blood.” He thinks
Dr. Holland is wrong in blaming the kidneys; on the
contrary, their action is beneficial in removing the
offensive matter. He thinks the gouty poison is not
identical with lithic acid, because the paroxysm may
occur without excess of this acid in the urine, and vice
wersä. (We shall see this explained by Dr. Garrod.)
But the remarkable fact in Mr. White's personal ex-
perience is the part played by the liver in his case.
Whenever he adopted the patience and flannel method,
the fit always ended in a violent discharge of bile from
both the stomach and bowels. This he could always
prevent by taking four medicines, viz. calomel, colohi-
cum, aloes, and ipecacuanha. It was very natural for
him to conclude that the principal seat of the gout is
the liver. It was so in his case, and such a case may
1 * On the Nature and Treatment of Gout,' by Anthony
White, Esq., ‘Medical Gazette,’ 1848.
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED 2 609
therefore be met with again. But it remains true that
Sydenham's experience is much more common, and
that the stomach is generally the organ chiefly dis-
turbed.
We now come to ZXr. Garrod,” whose analyses
of the fluids in gout have been persevered in for so
many years, and who seems to have told us what the
causa continens of Sydenham, the materies moróz of
Sir Henry Holland, the gouty poison of every body,
really is.
In 1848 Dr. Garrod ascertained that the Ölood in
gout always contains uric (or lithic) acid; and that it is
diminished in quantity, or is absent in the urine àefore
a fit. So that the failure in its excretion by the
kidneys seems to be connected with the accession of
a paroxysm, when the uric acid is thrown upon
the joint. No uric acid is found in the blood in
rheumatism.
In 1858 Dr. Garrod is still more definite in his
ann Oun CementS.
In acute gout:—
I. The urine is small in quantity, and the
uric acid contained in it is diminished.
2. As the attack is mitigated, much larger
quantities are passed.
3. The uric acid becomes again less, but not
So little as at the beginning.
In chronic gout :-
The uric acid in the urine is very much
diminished; there is a small amount of albu-
men ; the urea remains as in health.
Between the attacks —
The uric acid excreted is less than in health.
As to the influence of colchicum (between 50 and
6O analyses) –
In healthy cases either a slight diminution of
* ‘Medical Gazette,’ 1848. ‘Medico-Chirurgical Transac-
tions,’ 1848, &c. &c.
39
6 Io HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
urine and uric acid; or a notable diminution of
urine, with an increase of uric acid.
In recovering cases, no positive change; or
both urine and uric acid diminished.
The conclusions of Dr. Garrod respecting the action
of colohicum are :-
I. That there is no evidence to prove that colohicum
produces its effects upon the system by causing an
increased excretion of uric acid. -
2. That colohicum is not always a diuretic.
3. That colohicum has no marked influence on the
U11 Ga.
Dr. Garrod's treatment in 1859 was as follows:––
In acute gout—to give some simple a/Kaline saline
with moderate doses of Colchicum ; if necessary, pur-
gatives, and to take away a few ounces of blood. If
the patient is low, sesquicarbonate of ammonia, and no
colohicum ; cotton wool and oiled silk, and a small
blister, with amylaceous diet and diluents. f
In chronic gout—to augment the various secretions;
restore the digestive organs; attend to the local mis-
chief; to regulate carefully the diet; and to give a
new remedy, carðonate of Ziężia, which forms soluble
salts with uric acid.
Mr. Alexander Ore," in 1841, proposed as a chemi-
cal remedy, Čenzoic acid. This forms hippuric acid
and hippurate of soda in the urine, in the place, as he
supposed, of uric acid and urate of Soda. In 1849 Dr.
Garrod, after giving benzoic acid, found, indeed, hip-
puric acid in the urine, but that the amount of uric
acid was not thereby altered. The effect of the fixed
alkali /ățhia has not yet been sufficiently examined to
be fully ascertained; but Dr. Jas. Tuncan * says, in
1865, that dilute hydrochloric acid with cascarilla is of
more service than potash or lithia water.
The contradiction on the subject of an alkaline, or
! ‘Medico-Chirurgical Transactions,’ 1841,
* “Dublin Quarterly Journal,’ 1865.
XIX.] TO BE DISCOverED 2 6 II
an acid treatment, is very remarkable. Dr. Todd, in
1843, Dr. Garrod, and others strongly advocate alkalies;
Dr. G. O. Rees, Dr. Todd, in 1851, and Dr. Wm.
Moore, give lemon-juice, and Dr. Duncan, as just
noticed, hydrochloric acid. Monsieur Trusseau (if I
may mention a Continental writer), contends that as to
alkaline preparations, such as Carlsbad, Vals, and
Vichy waters, there is not a more dangerous medication
in the world. On the other hand, he does not advo-
cate acids, but Peruvian bark, quoting a sentence of
Held, who said, “Uno verbo, cortex Peruvianus in
podagră divinum est remedium.” He calls flannel an
evil habit, and recommends washing in cold water in
Summer, wet sheets, &c., to accustom the body to resist
cold.
Amid all this confusion and contradiction there is
but one thing respecting gout in which all authors
agree, namely, that it rarely, “if ever,” Occurs in young
persons. Perhaps, therefore, the following fragment of
personal history may be sufficiently interesting to
justify its introduction. My family has been subject
to gout. William Sharp, my uncle, whom I succeeded
as a surgeon at Bradford, died in about two hours
from gout transferred from the ball of the thumb to
the stomach. While on a visit to this uncle I had a
fit of gout in the great toe, when about ten years old,
and have never had another. This entire freedom
since from gout I attribute, under God, to the abun-
dance of exercise taken every day. Sydenham pre-
ferred riding on horseback; this I practised for sixteen
years, but was compelled to give it up from the
indigestion it caused; since that time all my exercise
has been on foot. It may perhaps be useful to add
that though always living temperately, I have never
lived abstemiously, unless drinking only water till I
was twenty-five be considered abstemious living ; and
that I have been greatly indebted to pulsatilla as a
remedy for indigestion.
On looking back upon this brief survey of our
6I 2 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
medical knowledge of gout, a crowd of reflections force
themselves upon the mind. Some of these must be
noticed before the subject is left.
The hereditary predisposition does exist in some
families.
It may be successfully kept in abeyance.
Full living, indolence, and vexation may induce gout
in any one, whether predisposed to it or not.
The peccant matter, gout poison, or urate of soda,
should be viewed as a product of the disease,
rather than as the meateries moróz or disease itself.
There is a previous derangement of the digestive
organs, particularly of the stomach, more rarely of
the liver.
It is of less consequence to treat cases of gout as
acute or chronic, than to consider whether the
patient is in an entonic or atonic condition.
To eliminate the poison of gout should not be the
primary object of treatment.
Treatment by evacuations of any kind is a mistake,
and in the end does harm.
Chemical treatment, up to the present time, is a
failure.
Dr. Garrod's analyses, confirmed by Dr. Harley's,
are positive as to the presence of uric acid or
urate of soda in the blood of gouty persons; but
they are negative as to the action of Colchicum
upon these substances.
Colchicum is as useful in rheumatism as in gout ;
and there is no uric acid or urate, but lactic acid,
in rheumatism.
The manner of acting, therefore, of small doses of
colohicum, is as entirely unknown to us as is that
of all other specifics.
The treatment which does most good is specific
treatment, which is siſc/uſ and scored. We do not
know its nature now, and I believe we shall never
know it.
The specifics for the relief of the gouty paroxysm
XIX.] To BE DISCOVERED 6 I 3
which we know are bryonia, colohicum, rhus, and
cinchona.
There are probably others, such as ash-leaves or
seeds, germander (teucrium chamaedrys), ranun-
culus, winter-cherry (physalis alkakengi), veratrum
viride, piper methisticum.
The experience of Drs. Todd, Gairdner, and Gar-
rod, as to the efficacy of the “silenzá and peaceful"
action of colchicum, is strong testimony in favour
of homoeopathic or specific treatment.
The advice to regulate or augment the secretions is
very plausible, but it is fallacious. If we cure
disease the secretions will regulate themselves.
To restore the functions of the digestive organs to a
healthy state, in the intervals of the fits, should be
the first object in the treatment of gout. Pulsa-
tilla must not be forgotten in cases like Syden-
ham's ; nor chamome?//a in a case like Mr. Anthony
White's.
Much may be done by specific medicines; but even
these must in the end fail, unless they are seconded
and supported by a suitable manner of life as
regards food, exercise, and peace of mind.
This history of experiments on gout is a fair sample
of experiments on the sick. And it is a sufficient
proof that these experiments, which have been carried
on for three-and-twenty centuries, have failed to
establish a principle for the treatment of disease by
medicines.
12. Experiments on the healthy.
The truest vindication of these experiments, and
therefore the most becoming introduction to the
subject, is contained in the first sentence of “The
Great. Instauration" of Lord Bacon —
“Francis of Verulam
thought thus—
“Of the state of learning.—That it is neither
6 I4 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS |ESSAY
prosperous nor greatly advanced, and that an entirely
different way from any known to our predecessors
must be opened to the human understanding, and
different he/s be obtained, in order that the mind may
exercise its jurisdiction over the nature of things.”
If we substitute the word “medicine” for “learn-
ing,” the sentence will still be true of this branch of
knowledge. It is the unanimous confession of those
best acquainted with medicine, that as a science it is
“neither prosperous nor greatly advanced ;” though it
has not hitherto been their conviction that “an entirely
different way” must be opened, if it is to make any
great advance. Without experience to the contrary,
it would have seemed natural that such a conviction
would necessarily follow the confession. But this has
not happened. -
It is the truth of this sentence of Lord Bacon
which justified Hahnemann, and which justifies us,
in his and in our endeavours after the discovery of an
entirely different way from any known to our pre-
decessors. -
And the way proposed and entered upon by
Hahnemann, and pursued by ourselves, is the way
of learning the properties of medicines by experi-
menting with them, not only on the sick, but also on
the healthy.
As two Essays (on “Provings in Health,” and
on the “Physiological Action of Medicines”) have
already been occupied with this subject, I will con-
tent myself, on this occasion, with offering only a few
remarks.
1. Let us not aim at impossibilities. In undertaking
these experiments on the healthy, it is of great im-
portance that we limit our endeavours within the
bounds of what is possible to us. If we neglect this
precaution, much time and effort will be thrown away,
and we shall reap disappointment. For example, if
we propose to ourselves to find out the manner in
z0/kic/ drugs act, we shall soon get out of our depth,
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED 2 615
and our labour will be lost. I know that some do not
agree with me in this persuasion. The discussion of
it cannot be entered upon at present, but I commend
to those who differ from me on this point the following
sentence of Sydenham —
“However much, by seriously inclining our minds,
we may discover what nature does, and by what organs
she does it, the way in which she does it will always
be unknown to man.” -
2. Let us not stop short of what is possible to us. It
is not surprising to find that the first efforts to make
progress in a new path are defective. And many are
now disposed to agree with me that the limitation of
these experiments on health, by Hahnemann and his
followers, to the enumeration of symptoms, is not
doing all that it is needful to do. For if, on the one
hand, it is a mistake to attempt what is beyond our
power; it is, on the other hand, also a mistake to
neglect to aim at doing all that is within our power.
It has often been contended in these Essays, that
when experiments with drugs in health are under-
taken, besides the phenomena or appearances pro-
duced, called symptoms, being noted, the seat of these
symptoms, or the organs to z0/kick &/ºey &elong, should
be noted also. It is freely granted that the connection
between a symptom and its origin may sometimes be
very difficult to trace; but it will not be argued that it
is impossible to trace it—that it is beyond our natural
powers; and if it be granted that it is within our
power, it must immediately be granted that it forms
part of Our duty.
3. We are pursuing “an entirely different way from
any known to our predecessors.” It has been earnestly
contended that, with very few exceptions, the only
action of drugs which is required of them, as remedies
in disease, is that which they perform “silently and
* “Sydenham's Works, by the Sydenham Society, Vol. II,
p. 84. -
6I 6 How IS THE ACTION OF DRUGs [ESSAY
peacefully.” This is the action which was formerly
called “alterative,” and now “specific.” These
terms imply two things —that it is unaccompanied
by signs perceptible by our senses ; and that
we know nothing of the manner in which it is
performed.
The general adoption of this method of prescribing
drugs would bring about a greater revolution in the
practice of physic than has ever yet been dreamt of
And yet it is obviously in the right direction. “Nature
is pleased with simplicity,” said Sir Isaac Newton, and
“ more is in vain where less will serve.” All real
improvements in art are in the direction of greater
simplicity.
When it is considered that this method leads to the
ignoring of all established indications; to the renouncing
of all former intentions; to the laying aside all that is
usually called “active" treatment; it is not surprising
that it is very repugnant to the majority of the pro-
fession, or that from them it meets with very determined
opposition.
To see, in our future works on Materia Medica, no
more catalogues of drugs arranged under the heads of
“emetics” and “purgatives,” “ diaphoretics” and “diu-
retics,” “sialagogues " and “deobstruents,” is an
anticipation too astounding to be contemplated with
equanimity — too impossible to be realised. But
this is the future which we humbly hope is before the
profession.
And when the prejudices of education and the power
of present habits have been overcome by the force of
truth and the evidence of facts, what a beneficial change
will have been brought about ! Medicines, instead of
being nauseous draughts, will have become pleasant
charms; and physicians, instead of being shunned and
dreaded, especially by children, will be welcomed and
loved. -
This silent and peaceable action of medicines,
secret and hidden from our knowledge as to its
manner, but very visible in its beneficial effects,
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED : 617
*
is the “entirely different way from any known to our
predecessors” which it is our happy privilege to advo-
cate and defend. Instead of all the perturbative
methods of the past, this is the curative method of the
future. - -
4. The experiments with drugs in health are the
“different helps ' which Lord Bacon says must be
obtained, in order that this entirely different way may
be opened.
We want to learn of a drug, not whether it is a pur-
gative or a diuretic, but what is its specific action—that
action which is a disturbing action in health, and a silent
and peaceful action as a remedy in disease. Experi-
ments in health are /ie/ps in the acquirement of this
knowledge. The specific action of a very few drugs
has been discovered accidentally. The experiments in
health which have already been instituted have helped
to increase this number greatly; a continuance of them
may reasonably be expected to add many more to the
list, and to make our knowledge of them much more
perfect.
5. The help which Hahnemann got from these
experiments was obtained by observing the simi-
larity of the symptoms produced by them to those
of diseases; and he prescribed according to this
similarity.
The help which I am now seeking to obtain is by
observing the seat of the action of drugs, and its
identity with that of diseases; so that a drug may be
prescribed which has its action where the disease is
principally situated.
There cannot be a question that this is more
definite knowledge than that obtained by the mere
observation of symptoms. And if more definite,
then in the same proportion must it be more
valuable.
6, When this identification of the seat of the action
6I 8 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
of the causes of disease, with the seat of the action
of each drug, has to some extent been accomplished,
a further he// may be sought from experiments
in health, by the discovery of the similarity and
contrariety in the Áinds of action of diseases and
drugs.
After observing the symptoms, or signs of an
action ; and after discovering its seat, or the
organs in which it is taking place; we may try to
learn what sort of action it is. This is a further
step in advance, and consequently the difficulties will
increase.
In the study of nature our first task is the observa-
tion of facts. This belongs to our bodily senses, and
the value of the performance of the task is determined
by its accuracy. The difficulties which beset the duty,
are the imperfections of our senses, and our hastiness
in using them. Our next task is the interpretation
of these facts, the learning their true meaning. This
belongs to the mind. The difficulties which hinder its
being rightly performed, are the weakness of our
mental faculties, and the strong tendency which exists
in us to invent hypotheses, that is, to guess at inter-
pretations, rather than wait till the mind can observe
them.
When, therefore, we endeavour to discover the kind
of action which a disease or a drug is producing in an
organ, we cannot exercise too much caution. The
observations must be wary and prolonged to learn the
facts; and it is absolutely necessary to confine Ourselves
to the use of words which simply express the facts
observed, and which do not suggest any hypothetical
explanation. For instance, if we see vessels become
smaller or larger than they were before, instead of call-
ing this a stimulant, an astringent, or a relaxant effect,
let us be content to say of the vessels, as we say of the
pupil, that they are contracted or dilated. . The same
caution is, if possible, still more imperatively required,
when the mind attempts to interpret the meaning of
the facts.
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED F 619
7. It may be noted in this place, that the fact which
lies at the foundation of the difference between the dis-
turbing action in health and the peaceful action in
disease, is the difference in the dose. Organs in a state
of health are, generally, not disturbed by a dose which
is found by experience to be sufficient to act upon them
curatively in disease.
Different doses of the same drug sometimes act
upon different organs of the body in health; but doses,
smaller than those given in health, can always be
found, which act upon the corresponding organs in
desease.
The subject of doses is a wide and interesting field
for dispassionate and very careful enquiry and obser-
vation ; but it is one of extreme difficulty and
obscurity. The motto for it Lord Bacon has given us
in these words —
“In all our investigations of nature we must observe
what quantity or dose of the body is requisite for a
given effect; and must guard ourselves from estimating
it at too much or too little.”
8. Let us also note, once more, the direct object
and the use of these experiments in health. They are
these :—
First. To learn the action of each drug by itself,
unmixed with other drugs.
Second. To learn the action of drugs, uncomplicated
with the symptoms of disease. -
Third. To discover the specific action of each
drug ; that is, to learn the organs upon which it, acts,
and the kind of action.
Fourth. To apply these discoveries to the treat-
ment of disease ; experience having taught us that the
same organs which are disturbed in health by certain
doses, are silently and peacefully cured in disease, by
certain smaller doses.
9. Let us observe the indirect uses of these experi-
ments. One branch of knowledge can generally throw
62O How IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
Some light upon another, and this indirect use is not
wanting in experiments upon the healthy. If we take
the drugs which are known by experience to have a
useful specific action in a particular disease, and make
comparative experiments with them in health, we are
Sure to gain some information as to the seat or nature
of the disease in question. -
We have lately been studying gout. I may suggest,
in illustration of the last remark, that if we were to take
up this disease, and examine the drugs given for it as
remedies, it is obvious that, at Starting, we must lay
aside the remedies given on the evacuating plan; we
must also lay aside such disputes as whether cold pur-
gatives, like Epsom Salts, or warm ones, like jalap, are to
be employed ; or, whether alkalies or acids are to be
preferred ; and, for the present at least, we must lay
aside the tentative experiments of the chemists, such
as the benzoic acid of Mr. Ure, the alkaline lithia of
Dr. Garrod, and the phosphate of ammonia suggested
by Liebig. Only the specifics remain ; these may be
taken, and a comparative examination be made, in
order to discover what there is in common in their
action in health. The reflex benefit would be a better
knowledge of the nature of gout.
The drugs are such as bryonia, Colchicum, rhus, and
cinchona ; pulsatilla, nux vomica, rhubarb, and Sulphur.
Let me propose as a subject of study, the question—
How far do these drugs agree in their symptoms, and
in the seat and nature of their specific action 3
In the same manner the principal known remedies
for other ailments may be studied, e.g. ipecacuanha,
sambucus, and arsenic, for asthma.
The curative action of even a single remedy in a
disease, the pathology of which is obscure, may throw
considerable light upon that obscure pathology, simply
in consequence of the experiments made with the
remedy in health. To my mind chamomilla has done
this for some cases of diabetes.
Io. Another indirect use of experiments with drugs
XIX.] To BE DISCOVERED F 621
upon the healthy. It awakens attention to the possible
difference of cases whose symptoms are similar. It is
a fact that cases of disease present themselves, the
Symptoms of which are so similar that they may
readily be considered cases of the same disease ; but
the causes of which are so different that, to confound
them in this way, would be to make a serious mistake.
For example: Belladonna may be so taken in health
as to produce all the symptoms of scarlet fever. This
has often happened. But this similar of scarlet fever
has never been communicated to others in the manner
that real scarlet fever is. It is wanting, therefore, in
the infectious or contagious element, which is the true
cause of genuine Scarlet fever.
II. It may be worth while to repeat that the infor-
mation sought from these experiments is derived
mainly from two sources. The more severe effects of
drugs are learned from cases of poisoning, in whatever
way brought about; the less severe from voluntary
provings. On this account Christison on Poisons, and
other similar publications, are very valuable, in a
direction not contemplated by these writers on “Legal
Medicine.”
12. Some of the effects of drugs can be obtained by
the topical application of them; and these become
striking proofs of local action. For example: The
pupil of one eye may be dilated to the uttermost by
Ócſ/adonna ; and at the same time, in the same person,
the pupil of the other eye may be contracted to the
size of a small pin's head, by the Caſadar Čeam. But
generally the experiments are made by the drug being
taken internally. In many instances the effects are
the same, whether the drug is swallowed or introduced
through a wound in any part of the body. On the
other hand, of animal poisons, it is remarkable that
even those which are most deadly when inserted by a
wound, may often be swallowed without any injurious
effect.
622 HOW IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
I3. Many drugs act powerfully upon more organs
than one; and the more there are of points of contact
between the drug and the disease, the greater is the
confidence with which it may be prescribed. For ex-
ample: For a feverish headache belladonna may be
given as a remedy. If, in addition to the headache,
there is an inflamed conjunctiva, the belladonna may
be given with increased expectation of good. If further,
the throat is inflamed, the probability of success is still
greater. If, to all these symptoms there is added a
Scarlet rash, the probability becomes almost a certainty;
provided that the inflammatory condition of these
Several parts is not complicated with grave symptoms
of some other kind, which may, in fact, be such as to
change essentially the character of the case.
In like manner, a patient suffering from colic, or
spasmodic pain in the bowels, may be relieved by nux
vomica. If there are also cramps, or twitchings in the
extremities, it will almost certainly succeed. So, in
cases pointing to ipecacuanha, if, in addition to the
other symptoms, there is nausea or sickness, it may be
given with great confidence. Again, some affections
of the heart are cured by spigelia; the cure will be
more likely to be effected, if there is also in the case
neuralgic pain about the eyes.
14. These remarks cannot be concluded without the
expression of regret that many provings of drugs have
been published, in which a great want of seriousness
and distinctness of object is apparent. Others are
disfigured by a multitude of insignificant sensations
and observations, calculated rather to bring disgrace
upon the physician than benefit to the patient.
The undertaking is one which should be promoted by
every member of our body, but it should be warily
done, with a clear purpose in the mind, with thoughtful
gravity, with active suspicion of error, and with free-
dom from bias towards any foregone conclusion.
We are now able to answer the question with which
XIX.] TO BE DISCOVERED 2 623
this Essay commenced. How is the action of drugs
to be discovered 2 Not in any of the ways hitherto
commonly pursued; but in a new way. First, by ex-
periments made upon ourselves and our friends while
in a state of health. By these experiments we learn
the power of which drugs possess to disturó the health
of the different organs of the body; and also how each
drug may be characterised, and distinguished from all
the rest. And secondly, by giving them to the sick
under the guidance of the results thus obtained in
health. In this way we learn their healing powers.
The only difference, in respect to the drug, between
the experiments in health and the prescriptions in sick-
ness, is the quantity or dose to be taken. In the ex-
periments the dose must be large enough to produce
symptoms of disturbance in some organs of the body.
In the prescriptions the dose must be small enough to
avoid causing such symptoms, but large enough to act
curatively, though peacefully, upon the diseased parts.
May I without presumption conclude this Essay by
addressing a few words of encouragement to those of
my medical brethren who have toiled through a practi-
cal trial of homoeopathy, amidst much discouragement
and obloquy ; and also to those who are beginning to
find themselves mistaken in the condemnation of
homoeopathy in which they have hitherto joined 2
Our medical authorities, and the great bulk of our
colleagues, headed by the late Sir Benjamin Brodie,
have 'not been ashamed to speak of homoeopathists
and to treat them as impostors or fools; forgetting
that they are men educated like themselves, that they
have investigated Hahnemann's system with a free
spirit and in a practical manner, and have con-
Scientiously adopted what in it they believe to be true.
It is a great and unjust indignity, and, unless it is
624 ACTION OF DRUGS-HOW DISCOVERED P [Essay xix.
repudiated, it will one day recoil with heavy severity
upon themselves.
Let us not desire the evil day. Let us rest assured
that it is sufficient for ourselves to know that the self-
denial, discomfort, and pain undergone, and the
amount of time and thought expended on such
experiments in health, as were begun by Hahnemann,
and have been carried on since by many others, are a
sufficient testimony of our honesty; and that the
successful results with which these labours have been
crowned, are a good proof of at least an average
amount of intelligence and sense.
While many have thus spoken disparagingly of the
labourers, they have not been afraid to appropriate the
labours. But the attempts which have been made,
during the last few years, to introduce homoeopathic
remedies as new discoveries, or accidental observa-
tions, are surprisingly puerile. The authors must
have forgotten the declaration which we have on the
highest authority, “There is nothing hidden which
shall not be known.”
Happily, the tide is now turning. Some of our
eminent men, who, through unacquaintance with the
facts, were carried away by the strong current of
condemnation, have gained this information, and are
beginning to acknowledge their mistake.
These, I doubt not, will be followed by others, and
in the end, useful truth will prevail and patient Con-
scientiousness will triumph.
This useful truth may not be Hahnemann's homoeo-
pathy unaltered, but a system of therapeutics springing
out of it—a system matured by degrees, freed from all
hypotheses, and founded upon a sure basis,
ESSAY XX.
THE ACTION OF DRUGS,
(CONTINUED.)
“God hath created medicines out of the earth ; and he
that is wise will not abhor them.”
ECCLESIASTICUS xxxviii. 4.
4O
ANALYSIS.
What is the action of drugs
What is Life 2
What is the action of drugs 2
I.
i
The action of drugs is injurious in health.
It is curative in disease.
It is consecutive.
It is local or partial.
It affects the same part in disease as in health,
It is characteristic of each drug.
It differs with the dose.
ESSAY X X."
THE ACTION OF DRUGS,
(CONTINUED.)
–0-C-6-
“We want to learn distinctly and clearly what is the action
of drugs.” SIR THOMAS WATSON.
“We want to learn distinct/y and c/early what is #he
action of drugs.” It is implied in this sentence from
Sir Thomas Watson's recent inaugural address to
the Clinical Society of London, that, up to the present
time, the action of drugs is not distinctly and clearly
known.
Sir William Gull, in his address on “Clinical Obser-
vation,” lately delivered at Oxford, makes the acknow-
ledgment itself. “My subject,” he says, “lies on the
confines of human knowledge; and too often the
* First published in 1872.
Since this Essay was printed, I have had the privilege of
hearing the second of Dr. Bristowe's Croonian Lectures at
the Royal College of Physicians, on “Disease and its
Remedial Treatment,” and of reading a report of the three
lectures (in the ‘Lancet' for March 23, 1872.)
These Lectures, I regret to say, are melancholy and
discouraging. At the end Dr. Bristowe says, “It is easier
to pull down than to build up ;” which testifies what the
tenor of his Lectures has been. And truly a more ruinous
pulling down of all so-called orthodox treatment is scarcely
possible.
Another London physician, Dr. Alfred Meadows, lately
628 WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 [ESSAY
highest effort of the clinical student is to arrive at
Some feeble probability, in the presence of uncertain,
or even delusive evidence.” Again he says: “We
have no ignorance to cloak, for we confess it.”
Any effort, therefore, to remove some of this ignor-
ance, and to make our knowledge of drugs, and their
therapeutic use, more distinct and clear, by whomso-
ever made, and howsoever slight its success, may
claim to be received with courtesy, and to be criticised
with forbearance. -
If we enquire what facts are known which help to
furnish an answer to Sir Thomas Watson's question,
several subjects require investigation —
I. In what way is the action of drugs to be dis-
covered P - •
II. What is the action of drugs 2
III. How is the action of each drug to be dis-
tinguished from that of all others ?
IV. What is the kind of action of drugs 2
V. What is the action of small doses 2
VI. Is there a law for the dose P
PART II.
The first question has been answered in the preced-
ing Essay; the second is now taken up —
published a Paper, (in ‘The Practitioner' for May, 1871,)
which begins with this sentence —
“It is undeniably true that the present state of therapeu-
tics is one of chaotic Confusion. Probably at no time in the
history of medicine have there been greater differences of
opinion in regard to the healing power of drugs than exist in
our day.”
The unbecoming and unfair part which the authorities of
our Colleges, and indeed the great bulk of Our profession, are
acting towards the small body of men who are diligently and
faithfully, though with all human infirmities, labouring to
build up something more substantial upon these ruins, and to
extract some order out of this chaotic confusion, and the
truth and usefulness of the results of these labours, will be
perceived and acknowledged by another generation. (1872.)
XX.] WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 629
WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2
How difficult it is to find an answer to this question
may be gathered from the fact that a multitude of
intelligent and educated men have been diligently
engaged, for two thousand four hundred years, in
searching for it without success. After all these
generations have come and passed away, the head of
the present one exclaims, “We want to learn distinctly
and clearly what is the action of drugs.”
The difficulty will be diminished if we first enquire,
What is there about the subject which is not know-
able, which we cannot learn ? Our faculties being
finite, our knowledge must have limits. After ascer-
taining this, we may, with more hopefulness, ask,
What is there we can, and ought to know
Before we come to the question directly proposed,
What is the action of drugs 2 the present state of the
enquiry renders it necessary to ask another question,
physiologically speaking,
IWat is Zife 2
This word, more frequently used, perhaps, than any
other, passes in ordinary conversation and reading
without question. Every one attaches to it an idea,
more or less vague, of his own ; and this is sufficient
for the common intercourse of men. But knowledge
can make no progress so long as words are used with
vague meanings. Knowledge has to do with things;
and unless words distinctly express things, instead of
teaching, they only conceal ignorance. There have
been many attempts to explain and define the meaning
of the word /ă/e.
It would occupy me too long to state, even in the
briefest manner, the efforts of the ancients on this
subject; many summaries of them are contained in the
works of modern writers.
The philosophers and physicians of the seventeenth
century, beginning with Van Helmont and Sylvius,
63O WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS P | ESSAY
were excited and charmed by the birth of chemistry;
and it is not surprising that living bodies were trans-
formed into brewing vats and alembics, living pheno-
mena into fermentations and distillings, and /ø/e meant
chemical affinity. -
In the eighteenth century all this was changed by
Borelli, Baglivi, and Boerhaave, and mechanics and
mathematics sat upon the throne from which chemistry
had been driven. Living bodies became hydraulic
machines ; arithmetical calculations and algebraic
equations filled the pages of books on medicine, living
phenomena were the working of the pump, and /ă/e
meant the laws of mechanics.
In the Croonian Lecture, delivered before the Royal
Society in 1788, Dr. George Fordyce endeavoured to
prove that life is an affraction similar to the attraction
of gravitation. He says —
“If two simple particles of matter, not farther distant
from one another than the Sun is from the earth, were
both at perfect rest, these two particles would instantly
begin to move towards each other, if no other particles
of matter whatever existed. . . . Motions produced
in this way I call original motions; other motions are
communicated motions. . . . It happens frequently
that the motions in the animal body are increased
without any alteration of external applications to it, as
the increase of the circulation. This motion must,
therefore, be original and not communicated.”
So the contraction of a muscle is an original motion,
caused by the attraction of its particles drawing them
nearer to each other. This attraction operates at
distances, like the attraction of gravitation, without
intermediate means of communication; it is the “ aſ-
traction of life,” and that is the meaning of the word.
Others have endeavoured to identify vital phenomena
with electrical operations, and so to understand /º/e to
mean electricity.
Before the end of the eighteenth century, it was
discovered that neither chemistry, nor mechanics, nor
1 Phil. Trans,’ abridged, vol. xvi, page 362.
XX.] whAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 63 I
the other forces acting upon inorganic matter, were
adequate to the task assigned them ; and vigorous
efforts were made by Stahl, Hoffmann, and others, to
personify a vital principle, and to make this the mean-
ing of life.
Three different kinds of vital principles became rival
competitors for pre-eminence. One was an immaterial
or spiritual principle; another was neither spirit nor
matter, but an inconceivable something between the
two ; a third was material, but subtle and refined.
Stahl supposed that the Soul of man governs the
whole economy of his body; he even thought that all
motion requires the aid of a spiritual motive agency;
and with him /i/e meant the rationa/ and imamzałeria/
Sou!.
Hoffmann, his colleague in the same university,
refuted Stahl, and maintained that “the principal of
life which animates a man is of a medium nature
between the soul and the body.” He called it eſ/aer,
thought it was present everywhere (was it a “mode of
motion” in the ether ?), and with him this was the
meaning of Zife.
Fleming (in Holland) and many others have imagined
“vital spirits” or a “nervous fluid” absolutely material.
It was said to be an exhalation from the blood, and
that it circulated through the nerves, which were
imaginary cylinders. With these physicians the 7tery-
ous ſluid was the meaning of life.
Sir William Lawrence ranks John Hunter among
these. He says: “Mr. Hunter has a good, substantial
sort of living principle ; he seems to have no taste for
immaterial agents, or for subtle matters. His materia.
viſa is something tangible.” This is a mistake. John
Hunter's notions of the vital principle are generally
given in negatives. For example—“Life is not ac-
tion.” This is said with reference to his well-known
| ‘Lectures on Physiology' by W. Lawrence, F.R.S. 1872,
page 73.
<)
* ‘Lectures on the Principles of Surgery.’ The works of
John Hunter, F.R.S., 1835, vol. I, page 224.
632 WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
experiments with eggs. “Life is not organisation :
they are two different things.” Again : “The living
principle in itself is not in the least mechanical ; neither
does it arise from, nor is it in the least connected with
any mechanical principle.” In the same manner he
denies that it is in any sense chemical. Again he says :
“Animal matter may be in two states : in one it is
endowed with the living principle; in the other it is
deprived of it. From this it appears that the principle
called /ă/e cannot arise from the peculiar modification
of matter (in organised bodies), because the same
modification exists when this principal is no more.”
On the positive side Hunter says little more than this :
“Animal matter is endowed with a principle called, in
common language, life. This principle is, perhaps,
conceived of with more difficulty than any other in
nature, which arises from it being more complex in its
effects than any other.” And once more he says: “It
may be thought necessary I should give a definition of
what I call the living principle. So far, then, as I
have used the term, I mean to express that principle
which preserves the body from dissolution with or
without action, and is the cause of all its actions.”
The experiments which proved to him that the blood
(as well as solids) possesses this living principle are
well known. cº-
Another line of thought and research has also been
followed with no better result as to its primary object,
but which has led to the discovery of some very useful
facts. These investigations have entwined themselves
round the word “irritability.” This word was first
used by Francis Glisson, Professor in the University
of Oxford, in the middle of the 17th century. He
recognised in the living solid tissues a force which he
regarded as a sufficient cause of all the phenomena of
life, and he called it “irritability.” His views were
not supported by experiments, nor was living irritability
distinguished from dead elasticity till about a hundred
years later. Then Haller published the results of his
indefatigable labours on this subject, and plainly proved
xx.] WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 633
as facts the irritability of living muscles, and the Sensi-
bility of living nerves. These investigations of Haller
laid the foundation of a useful physiology—that is, a
physiology of facts. But the inveterate tendency to
speculate soon showed itself again, and the word
“irritability” and its synonym “excitability" became,
in the imagination of John Brown, the meaning
of /ī/e.
This view has been adopted by Dr. Fletcher, of
Edinburgh—a teacher who ranks high in the estima-
tion of some of our contemporaries. He says —
“It was not till the time of John Brown — the
vagabond and despised, but talented John Brown—
that both humoralism and autocrateiaism (the doctrine
of Stahl) were entirely exploded, and that the true
influence of irritability or excitability, as he called it,
was pointed out. As life has been shown to consist of
certain //emo/acyla resulting from the action of certain
powers upon a cer/ain suscepſióility, the balance of
which constituted health, so a loss of this balance was
shown for the first time to constitute disease.” “‘Health
and disease,’ says John Brown, “are the same state,
depending on the same cause — that is, excitement,
varying only in degree : a sentence which should be
indelibly impressed on the minds of pathologists.”
“Brown was wrong in considering his excitability as
imparted to every man in a certain proportion at birth,
and not rather continually renewed; he was wrong in
making it in every part of the body of the same nature,
and not everywhere different ; and, above all, he was
wrong in allowing his doctrine concerning asthenic dis-
eases, including most cases of inflammation and fever,
to lead to the most pernicious employment of general
stimuli to the neglect of blood-letting in practice.” Dr.
Fletcher concludes thus: “It has been sufficiently
shown that every organ of the body has a peculiar
kind of irrićačičićy, adapting it to be acted upon by
certain stimuli more remarkably than by others; and
that it is owing to this peculiar susceptibility in certain
organs of certain impressions, that particular exciting
634 WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS P [ESSAY
causes, e.g. contagions, however applied, produce always
particular diseases; and precisely the same eaft/anation
must be given of the more or less specific action of all
medicines.”
I beg leave to remark upon this explanation that it
explains nothing at all. It is simply a manner, and
not a good One, of Stating a fact ; not a good One,
because in addition to stating the fact, it professes to
explain it, which it does not.
Early in the present century the inadequacy of all
former meanings of the word life emboldened some to
deny its existence altogether as a cause of living actions.
They asserted that life was not a play of chemical affini-
ties; that it was not a mechanical arrangement ; that to
imagine a vital principle of any kind was gratuitous and
unnecessary; that irritability was only a property and
not a principle ; for that life was nothing more than
the sum of the phenomena of living beings, or that it
was the effect or res?//Z of organisation, and this was
the only meaning to be attached to the word. Thus,
according to Bichat, life is “the assemblage of functions
which resist death.” According to Lawrence, “The
primary or elementary animal structures are endued
with vital properties;” and life is “the result of the
mutual actions and reactions of all parts.” Though
with remarkable inconsistency he acknowledges, in
another place, that “this language does not explain
how the thing takes place; it is merely a mode of
stating the fact. To say that irritability is a property
of living muscular fibres, is merely equivalent to the
assertion that such fibres have the power of contraction.
What, then, is the cause of irritability ? I do not know,
and cannot conjecture.” So, because he does not know
the cause of living actions, and cannot conjecture
what it is, he thinks himself entitled to deny its
existence.
But neither has negation given contentment and
j
1 ‘Elements of General Pathology,
M.D., 1842, pp. 46, 478.
by John Fletcher,
XX.] WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 35
satisfaction. And now we are busily returning to the
various agencies in nature of which we know anything
at all, or of which we know nothing. These are
summed up in one word Aorce, which is said to be
distinct from matter, “though only conceivable as
acting upon it.” This force “comes from the sun,”
and is motion, “one and indestructible.” “It acts
upon matter, calls its properties into exercise, and
the result is in every instance regulated by the nature
of these properties.”
From this inconceivable force or motion it follows
that “ life is a mode of motion ;" and this is the true
meaning of the word. This seems to me the most
feeble of all the inadequate meanings which have been
attached to a word of so much dignity and value.
The hypothesis at present accepted as explaining
- the essence of such agencies as light, heat, electricity,
magnetism, and chemical affinity, is that they are all
various forms of motion, and that they are mutually
convertible into each other. The latest physiological
notion of life is that it is another form of these motions;
derived from them, and returning into them again.
This mode of motion is supposed to be one in which
“all ordinary chemical affinities are suspended.”
This again is supposed to be occasioned by the
rapidity of its changes, so that ordinary chemical
compounds have not time to be formed. This latter
supposition is not only unnecessary, if the hypothesis
of correlation is carried out, but is inconsistent with it.
When light becomes heat, the motion of light, and of
course the phenomena of light, according to the hypo-
thesis, are extinguished ; So if chemical affinity be-
comes life, the operations of chemical affinity must
CCCLSC.
Thus the circle of hypotheses is completed. At first
every action in living bodies was a chemical one, and
1 ‘On the Relation of Therapeutics to Modern Physiology,’
by Dr. HENRY R. MADDEN, An Address delivered at
Oxford, Sept. 27, 1871 — Monthly Hom. Review,’ Oct. 1871.
* Op. cit.
636 WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS P [ESSAY
life was chemical affinity. Having passed through
every phase which the imagination has been able to
depict, life ends in a mode of motion, without any
chemistry at all — “all ordinary chemical affinities
being suspended.”
But where, it may be asked, are the proofs that
molecular motions can originate sensibility in nerves,
or contractility in muscles 2 Until satisfactory evi.
dence is given that these motions are the cause of
sensation and of contraction, and of other living
actions, the assertion that “life is motion” is not
proven. Even if it be granted that these molecular
motions do form part of the condition of living bodies,
this is no more an admission that these motions are
/i/c, than that the chemical changes which take place
in that condition are a proof that chemical affinity is
life.
For that ordinary chemical operations are con-
tinually going on in living bodies is manifest. Witness
the combination of Oxygen and Carbon in the lungs
during respiration ; and the decomposition of common
salt in the digestion of every meal; when its chlorine
takes hydrogen to form hydrochloric acid for the gas-
tric juice, and its sodium unites with oxygen to form
soda for the bile.
The statement that life is a correlative of chemical
affinity, in other words, that the mode of motion called
chemical affinity is changed, in Organic matter, into
another mode of motion called life, is an hypothesis
towards the proof of which no facts, either of observa-
tion or experiment, have been adduced. And as the
onals Aroſand; rests with those who make the asser-
tion, others are justified in withholding their assent
until such proofs can be given. It is a departure from
true science to say that “the inexplicable of to-day
will, by the discoveries of to-morrow, be rendered
perfectly explicable."" º
“Life is motion.” These appear to me vain
1 : A Critique on Dr. Beale's Theory of Life,' by James
Ross, M.D. The Practitioner, May, I851.
XX.] WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 637
words, which fall as far short of the truth as they
fall below the dignity of the subject. Another genera-
tion will look back upon this physical definition of life,
as we now look back upon the chemical ferments of
the 17th century, and upon the mathematical calcula-
tions of the 18th.
But justice will not have been done to the meanings
put upon “life” and “living” unless notice is taken of
Dr. Lionel Beale's persevering labours with the micro-
scope, and the views put forward by him. His own
books and beautiful drawings must be referred to for
details; the results are thus expressed by him —
“Every tissue may be divided anatomically into eſc-
mueſlåazyżarfs. Each elementary part consists of Ziving
matter or òiop/asm, and the Zife/ess formed matter (cell-
wall, envelope, tissue, intercellular substance, periplastic
matter), produced at the moment of the death of the
particles of the first.” "
This Öiop/asſy, or ge/7/23/22/ ſºad/cy is pulpy, translu-
cent, colourless, homogeneous, without visible structure;
it forms all structures; and every structure (cell-wall,
tissue, &c.), when thus formed, is considered by Dr.
Beale as no longer living,
The life of this living, structureless matter, which he
calls bioplasm, is Something having no relation to
mechanical or chemical forces. He believes it to be a
distinct power. He is therefore at issue with Pro-
fessors Owen, Tyndall, and Huxley, Sir William Gull,
and others, who look upon life as a force correlated
with, or converted from heat, chemical affinity, &c.
When Dr. Beale says of the physical hypothesis of
life, “It may Óe #77te that chemistry ceases in our
living tissues under that form, to ‘appear under some
higher correlative;' but it has not been proved, nor has
any step been made towards proof.” I think his
position is impregnable. Until the connection of vital
with physical or non-organic forces can be proved by
experiment, the hypothesis of their identity is an
assertion which ought not to be accepted.
* ‘Life Theories,’ 1871, page 42.
638 WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS P [ESSAY
I admire very much the labours of Dr. Beale, but he
will forgive me the remark that when he calls the
structureless part /iving, and the part having structure
dead, it appears to me that his line of separation
between the living and the dead is drawn in the wrong
place. To him now belongs the burden of proof, and
having no facts nor experiments, he falls into the same
error as the physicists with whom he has been con-
tending. He asks,
“Is it not incorrect to speak of the action of a nerve
or muscle, as being due to wifa/ energy, seeing that the
energy in question may Óe simply physical and chemical,
although it is manifested in the tissues of a living
being P”
This question may be answered in his own words:
“Those who argue concerning the possibility of life
being a correlate of ordinary force, should bear in
mind that nothing can result from the mere assertion
that vitaſ force may Óe another form or mode of heat,
or motion, unless facts and arguments can be advanced
in support of the supposed possibility.”
Dr. Beale would be quite safe if he called the two
constituents of the elementary parts of a living organ
the constructive and the constructed (or gave them
some such names), admitting that both are ſºng.
His objection to this is, that he cannot find any
definite line of separation between living and dead
parts, except the one he has drawn. Under these
circumstances I think it would be better to say that we
do not know where the line should be drawn.
It is quite true that there are many arrangements of
parts in man's living body which are mechanical, e.g.,
in the structure of joints; in the action of muscles;
and in the strength of bones. The circulation of the
blood may also in part be considered as a hydraulic
process. The structure of the eye and the ear are
wonderfully adapted to the laws of light and sound.
It is equally true that a crowd of chemical opera-
1 * The Mystery of Life,’ 1871, page 62.
xx.] whAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 639
tions are being carried on every moment both among
the solids and liquids of the human body, e.g., in the
stomach during digestion ; in the liver and alimentary
canal; in the kidneys; and, indeed, in every organ of
the body. Chemical affinities are not suspended, but
are in exercise, as mechanical powers are in exercise ;
and just as they are in inanimate bodies. The results
are different, because the circumstances are different in
which these chemical affinities have to play their part.
In the same manner the other agents known as
light, heat, gravitation, electricity, &c., are not sus-
pended, but are in existence, and perform their
functions in organised and living—as in inorganised
and dead—bodies.
The mistake lies, not in asserting the operation of
any or of all these forces, but in /asſy genera/İzations
respecting them. It lies in supposing that because
there is some chemistry, therefore life itself is chemi-
cal ; or because there are mechanical contrivances and
processes, therefore life is nothing but the laws of
mechanics; or because heat, and light, and electricity
are recognised as acting a part in living bodies, and
are hypothetically treated as motions mutually con-
vertible into each other, therefore life is derived from
these ; and is itself nothing but a mode of motion.
All these forces, or, if it is preferred to call them so,
modes of motion, are operative in living bodies; and
are themselves subject to the same laws which govern
them in lifeless bodies; but not one of them need be
life—no, nor all of them together.
The many medical writers referred to in this sketch,
with two or three exceptions, have fallen into this
error of drawing hasty conclusions. The prominent
exceptions are Haller and John Hunter. These able
and industrious men sought truth in facts; and were
generally content with the consciousness that their
knowledge was bounded by these facts. But so
difficult is it to be content with this, that even Haller
was seduced from it when he was led, by his Opposition
to the then prevalent notion that the nerves are cords
64O WILAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS | ESSAY
in a state of tension, and that sensations are trans-
mitted by a vibratory motion of these cords, to adopt
the opposite notion of a nervous fluid, or vital spirits,
circulating through the nerves. Haller was drawn into
this error by the statement of Lewenhoeck, that he
could demonstrate by the microscope the tubular struc-
ture of the nerves. Hunter, as I have already observed,
contents himself with negative statements. I think he
nowhere says what life is.
There is another complication which requires to be
cleared up, for it has added much to the difficulty of
this investigation. It is a dispute about the words
“forces” and “properties,” as if they were things and
not words.
Gravity, electricity, chemical affinity, elasticity, living
action, and other agents in nature, have long been
called “forces.” Some of them are still called forces,
but others are called “properties;" and it is thought to
be an advance in knowledge to say that elasticity, for
instance, is not a force, but a property; and to deny the
existence of the “vital force;" and to call the thing so
named, “vital properties.”
I am sorry to see that Dr. Madden has been carried
away by the popular current. In his recent Address
at Oxford, he says: “There is absolutely no proof
whatever of the existence of such a thing as wiła/ſorce;
neither is there the slightest need for the conception
of such a force. Living matter differs from dead
material in its ſºrofferſies; and these alone are sufficient
to explain all the phenomena; hence we must be
careful to speak and think of viſa / Aroßerſies, and to
abjure altogether the false and misleading term of vita/
ſorce.” ! :
Alas! we are deceiving ourselves greatly if we think
this is progress in knowledge. To formulate such dis-
tinctions as these, so far from being a step in advancing
to light, is to carry back a difficult subject into greater
obscurity. It is very needful that such words as
“force” and “property " should be well defined, and
xx.] WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 641
that they should be kept to their proper use; but this
mode of distinguishing them creates confusion only.
If gravity be the force which moves a clock, elasticity
is equally the force which moves a watch, and so of the
others. Or, if it be preferred to call elasticity a property,
then gravity is a property, and more emphatically so,
for, while elasticity is found in a few bodies only,
gravity is met with in all.
Whether, therefore, we call life “vitality,” “vital
principle,” or “vital force,” as we have hitherto done, or
speak of it as “irritability,” “irritable matter,” “germinal
matter,” or “vital properties;” whether we exalt it into
“metabolic complexity,” or simplify it into a “mode of
motion,” the important thing for us to remember is this,
that we only vary our manner of expression, while our
knowledge, or rather our ignorance, remains where it
W2.S.
In like manner, if we deny the existence of the vis
7/pedicatria: 7tatura, as Dr. Madden does in the same
Address, “there cannot exist,” he says, “any true re-
sistance to disease, or any real vis medicatrix matura,”
and substitute for these words, as he does, “the tendency
of germinal matter to resort to its original mode of
motion,” we have not increased our knowledge, we
have only altered our language.
Such alterations of language, with the discussions
they engender, the time they waste, and the attention
they divert from worthier and more useful objects of
study, are deeply to be deplored. “Words, when
established to a certain point, become part of the social
mind; its powers and very existence depend upon the
adoption of conventional symbols; and were these
suddenly departed from, or varied according to indi-
vidual apprehensions, the acquisition and transmission
of knowledge would cease.”
There may be in living bodies a “mode of motion,”
but life is surely something more, and something else.
* Grove, ‘Correlation of Physical Forces,’ p. 91, 2nd Ed.
4. I
642 WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 [ESSAY
What that something is we do not know, and let us
not try to conjecture. I think it is not knowable.
Let us be content to speak of the unknown thing as
Æfe; and of the bodies which are blessed with it, as
Ziving bodies.
Living nerves have sensibility, and living muscles
have irritability ; but neither sensibility nor irritability
are life. To say that nerves are sensitive, and that
muscles contract on the application of a stimulus, is to
state facts, not to explain what it is which makes
nerves feel and muscles contract. We do not know
what this is ; and when we call it life, we shall, I think,
do well to believe that it is an unknown and unknow-
able thing. It may be reverently owned that “such
knowledge is too wonderful for us; it is too high, we
cannot attain to it.”
We are now better prepared to consider the question,
IV/hat is the Action of Drugs 2
Let us enquire first what there is about the action
of drugs which we cannot know. This will help us to
learn more distinctly and clearly what we can and
ought to know.
There are three things about the action of drugs
which, in my opinion, we cannot know —
The nature or essence of the action, what it is.
The modus operandi, or its manner of acting.
The reason why it acts in one manner and not in
another. $.
This ignorance need not disquiet us. It is not
greater than our ignorance in respect to the action of
all natural forces. And this ignorance of the nature,
manner, and reason of their action, does not prevent
us making very practical use of them every day.
For instance — -
We do not know what gravity is, nor how it acts,
nor why in the way it does, but we make clocks, and
xx.] what Is THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 643
put them in motion; that is, we obtain a mechanical
effect by using the force of gravity.
We are equally ignorant of elasticity, but we make
watches, and obtain a similar motion or mechanical
effect by using the force of elasticity.
The mechanical movement of the ship's compass ac-
cording to which the ship itself is steered, is obtained
by using the unknown force of magnetism.
In like manner long and heavy trains are rapidly
conveyed upon railways by availing ourselves of two
forces; of heat, which gives the motion, and of friction,
which gives the progression.
And to obtain the mechanical motion of the needle in
the telegraph, we employ three forces, chemical affinity,
electricity, and magnetism, of the essence of which we
know nothing.
In the same manner a hundred chemical processes
are daily carried on, and most important effects regu-
larly obtained, by making use of the force of chemical
affinity.
We see that all these and other forces of nature are
intimately connected with each other; that they are
apparently correlated or mutually convertible into each
other. At present they are spoken of as so many
modes of motion ; but it must be remembered that this
is not a fact, but a speculation or hypothesis.
We know the organization of living bodies so far as
our senses reveal this to us; but I think we cannot
know that vital force, that “breath of life,” which must
be added to it to make them living bodies. We can-
not know its essence, nor how it acts, nor why it acts
as it does.
When we give a drug to a living body, whether in
health or in disease, some observable effects are pro-
duced by its action on particular parts of the body.
We know that these effects are produced through the
medium of the Zife existing in the parts where the
action takes place, for there is no action in dead parts.
In the words of John Hunter : “The living principle
is susceptible of impressions which may be productive
644 WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS P [ESSAY
of action either diseased or healthy, i.e., productive of
restoration ; each of these may be brought about by
medicines.” Of the nature or essence of this action,
of its manner of acting, and why it acts in one manner
and not in another, we know nothing. This knowledge
we do not and, I believe, cannot know.
What is the énowledge which we can and ought to
Ánow 2 and /low are we learne it 2
It is agreed that the material universe consists of
matter and forces (or motion, as the latter is now some-
times called). All bodies are composed of matter, and
are subject to various forces. There being more bodies
than one, and these of different sizes, and the forces
which act upon them varying in greatness or power,
two additional subjects for consideration arise, namely,
numbers and magnitudes.
We have five bodily senses by which we become
acquainted with these bodies, and with the forces
which act upon them ; and we have reason, by which
we compare and contrast the ideas with which we are
furnished by our senses; and by which we calculate
numbers and measure magnitudes.
It is found that numbers and magnitudes may be
dealt with by the understanding or reason alone, with-
out reference to any particular bodies or forces. When
we reason correctly about these, we can come to con-
clusions respecting them to which the understanding is
compelled to assent as necessarily true, because the
contrary would be absurd and impossible. These
sciences of numbers and magnitudes are called mathe-
matics; the conclusions are processes of reasoning,
and they are called demonstrations, a title to which
no other conclusions can put in a claim in the same
Seſ) Se.
But the word is often used—and used with pro-
priety—in another sense; and the reference then is
not to our mind or reason, but to our five bodily
senses. Bodies and their forces produce impressions
XX.] WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS P 645
on these senses; and whatever is plainly presented to
any of them, so that it is impossible to doubt the
impression, or the thing which produced it, brings the
mind to a conclusion which may be called a demon-
Stration—it is an observed fact. Such demonstrations
(or showings), are quite different from the former; or
mathematical ones; but, like them, they compel the
assent of the mind. They are a testimony of the
bodily senses which refuses to be denied, or even to be
questioned. -
When we reason about natural phenomena beyond
these limits, that is, when the question is not one of
number or magnitudes, and when it is not one which
can be resolved by an appeal to any of Our Senses,
then, whatever conclusions we may arrive at, we must
never forget that these conclusions are nothing more
than hypotheses, guesses, conjectures, or speculations,
which by no form of words can claim to be called
demonstrations in either of the senses in which alone
that word should be used.
Further, it is an unimpeachable truth that these
hypotheses, how charming Soever they may appear,
add absolutely nothing to our knowledge. Nor do the
hard names which are given, sometimes for brevity to
express facts, sometimes for beauty to adorn hypo-
theses, add, in any sense or degree, to our real know-
ledge. They sometimes cloak or hide our ignorance;
they sometimes impose upon the ignorance of others;
they are sometimes useful, and sometimes mischievous;
but, whatever else they may be, they are never
additions to our knowledge of things.
We can observe the organization of living bodies.
We can experiment upon it with food, stimulants, and
drugs. The knowledge thus acquired through our
senses is the knowledge of observed facts. It is of
great value. The connecting link, that which makes
the organization living, that which makes such experi-
ments possible, is a fertium guid of which we know
nothing.
Of the subtle agencies of nature we can observe
646 WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 FESSAY
many phenomena, and experiment upon them, as, for
example, those of light, heat, electricity, &c.; and these
also are observed facts. Even the undulatory theory
of light, beautiful and perfect as it is, as well as the
notion that the other forces are also different forms of
motion, are hypotheses and not facts.
The thing to be desired for those whose duties are
to heal the sick—duties so practical and responsible—
is, that we leave off the pursuit of objects apparently
unattainable, and that we devote our energies to the
acquirement of real—and therefore useful—knowledge,
The powers of our senses and of our minds—the
powers of observation and reason—are given us to
acquire knowledge and experience; and if we pass
these boundaries, and roam about as our imagination
tempts us, we mistake our duty, exceed our powers,
and lose ourselves in darkness.
Of the action of drugs in its essence, what it is, how
it acts, and why, I forbear to enquire further. To the
effects or results of this action I would give, and ask
others to give, the most patient and persevering atten-
tion. These effects are observable by our senses; and
they concern us, as physicians, in practical matters of
the highest importance. -
We may now try to learn what is the action of
drugs; it being understood that only the perceptible
effects of this action are under contemplation. These
we can and ought to know. If the expressions, “vital
force” or “drug action” are at any time used, they
mean nothing more than that unknown power by or
through which the drug given acts upon the organ
which appropriates it. In the same manner we speak
of “gravity” as the unknown power or force by which
the pendulum moves the clock; and "elasticity” as
the unknown power by which the spring moves the
watch.
Yet again, before we can proceed, two additional
thoughts force themselves upon our attention, and
demand expression. How very much more intricate
XX, WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 647
and delicate is the machinery of the human body, upon
which our drugs are intended to act, than that of the
clock or the watch And how indefinitely removed
we still are from that precision with which we can fix
the length of the pendulum in the clock, and the
strength of the spring in the watch
With these necessary explanations we again ask
What is the Action of Prugs 2
s it
r t
e for
#
2.
S
Having reminded ourselves that science itself h
Zimits, beyond which it is in vain for us to labo.
pass; that there are things which it is impossib
us to know ; and having left these unknowable things
behind ; we start, with a cheerf
Łl
O
1.
1
!
ul heart and with a
steady step, to pursue the path of observation which
lies open before us. If many others will do the same,
Sir Thomas Watson's desire will be accomplished, and
we shall, ere long, learn distinctly and clearly what is
the action of drugs.
We ought to know, because it is possible for us to
learn I. What the observable effects are, in health and
in disease, which each drug produces. 2. Where, that
is, in what parts or organs of the body these effects are
produced. 3. How they are varied by varying doses,
or by other influences.
No doubt the task is a laborious one, and attended
with difficulties; but labour is man's duty, and diffi-
culties are things to be overcome, and ought to stimu-
late to exertion. When this attainable knowledge has
been attained, then we shall understand what is the
action of drugs; for “men may be said to understand
any subject when they agree that they see all that can
be seen of it at present by man.”
I. Zhe action of drugs is injurious in health.
I have fomerly observed that drugs may be classed
* Dr. John Hey's ‘Lectures. Vol. I, page 6.
648 WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS [ESSAY
among the causes of disease. It is true that the most
useful things—things not only conducive to health,
but necessary to life—may, by their abuse, become
causes of disease. People may be made ill by too
much food, or by too much air ; by too much clothing,
or by too much bed ; by too much exercise, or by too
much rest. Drugs are not causes of disease in this sense.
They rank with malaria and contagions; and, taken at
all in health, they are causes of disorder and disease.
They differ from malaria and contagions by being
remedies in sickness.
The injurious action of drugs in health is proved or
demonstrated by three different or independent series
of facts —
Many persons are killed by drugs, given or taken in-
tentionally or accidently, as poisons. It has been stated
that about 250 deaths are caused in this manner every
year in England alone. Socrates was so put to death
by hemlock.
In addition to these sudden and violent deaths
caused by drugs used as poisons, an incredible number
of persons have their health injured and their lives
shortened, by the excessive use of drugs as medicines.
(The habit of taking medicines is so inveterate that
many persons take them even when they are in health.
They cannot do this without injury,
A third series of facts has been ačcumulating annually
for 75 years. These are provings, or experiments,
voluntarily made for the express purpose of learning
the injurious action of each drug when taken in health.
These experiments are still in progress, and must be
continued for a long time to come.
Two former essays have already been devoted to
this subject. One on ‘Provings in Health,’ the other
on ‘The Physiological Action of Medicines.”
The injurious action of drugs is, in part, characterised
as follows:–
I. As acute and chronic. The former implies a
* Essays VII and XVI.
XX.] WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 649
quick and violent action, which manifests itself, as
other causes of disease do, in a severe illness. Some
drugs are much more capable of acting in this manner
than others. In all the dose or quantity is an essential
element. This dose may be very much less with some
drugs than with others. Aconite and arsenic, opium
and corrosive mercury, hemlock and copper, are ex-
amples of drugs which, in comparatively small doses,
can excite sudden and violent suffering even to death.
Effects called chronic are slow and insidious in their
Origin and progress; but they are often profound and
long-lasting. The preparations of lime, silica, carbon,
and sulphur are examples of this class of drugs.
John Hunter expressed his view of this twofold, or
acute and chronic action, thus:—
“Medicines have visible and invisible effects. The
visible may be divided into two, the constitutional and
the local; the local are vomiting, purging, &c.; as an
instance of the constitutional, the effects of mercury
may be mentioned. Their invisible effects are com-
monly the specific effects, for we find that their
curative action does not always depend upon their
visible effects; and, indeed, their specific effects are
often greater when they have no visible effects, as
mercury in Syphilis, bark in intermittents; but others
cure by their visible effects. . Medicines given slowly
and continued long will produce effects very different
from those produced on their sudden application ; and
thus it is that even stimulants and irritants may
produce weakness.”
It may be well to offer a few remarks upon this
extract. The effects called “constitutional” are really
local. Is not the action of mercury (the example
given) on the salivary glands, the throat, the liver, the
bones, and the skin 3 And are not these localities, or
separate parts of the body ? Again, “others cure by
their visible effect.” It is now known that these
effects are generally unnecessary to the cure. And I
* ‘Lectures on Surgery,’ chapter xvi.
65o WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS P [ESSAY
venture to add that it would be well if all the effects
which any drug produces were called specific, that is
belonging to, or forming part of its character.
2. As action and re-action. Hahnemann has called
these primary and secondary, and sometimes alternate
actions. All these terms are intended to mean that
the action of many drugs is at first in one direction,
and afterwards in an opposite direction. For example,
cold is often followed by heat; purging by constipa-
tion; excitement by depression ; increase of secretion
by deficiency of secretion.
Both are sometimes the direct effect of the drug;
sometimes the re-action seems to be an effort of life
resisting the action of the drug; sometimes it looks
more like exhaustion or weakness.
In the provings of drugs these opposite effects are
very conspicuous, and ought to be of great therapeutic
value. As they occur in the provings as arranged by
Hahnemann, and by those who have followed his
example, they often become, in practice, a serious
difficulty. This indicates a great defect in Hahne-
mann's arrangement.
3. As primary and secondary, or principal and
subordinate. The term primary or principal here
means the action upon those organs or parts of the
body, where the strongest effects of the drugs are
produced ; and secondary or subordinate, the action
upon those parts less powerfully affected. These
terms are also applicable to the differences in the kind
of action, and to the symptoms which indicate them.
These subjects occupy much of the Essay on the
‘Action of Drugs,” read in 1870 at Birmingham.
It is worthy of notice that the secondary or subor-
dinate action is often upon parts which have little
apparent connection with the parts principally acted
upon, e.g., chamomilla acts upon the stomach, the liver,
the nerves, and the lymphatic glands. Rhus acts in
typhus, and upon the ligaments and the spleen.
* Essay XXI.
xx.] WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 8 651
Bovista upon the heart and skin. Spegelia upon the
heart and eyes.
Perhaps these facts may be accounted for, in part
by difference of dose; in part by the action being
upon particular nerves, as in the case of ipecacuanha,
which acts upon the stomach and the lungs, probably
through the pneumo-gastric nerve; in part by the kind
of action, as with aconite and belladonna, which act
upon the arteries everywhere, and as with lycopodium,
which acts upon the suppurative process in any organ;
but probably there is also some undiscovered cause.
4. As functional and structural. The action of
some drugs is comparatively weak, and seldom goes
beyond the derangement of the functions of the organ,
that is, it causes disorder only. The action of other
drugs can be limited to the production of disorders
only by making the doses sufficiently small. Rhubarb
is an example of the first class, arsenic of the second.
But the action of many drugs may be carried
much beyond the production of functional disorder.
The structure of the organs acted upon may be
altered, or even destroyed. This is disease in its
strictest sense, though this word is often used with
more latitude, and as synonymous with any kind of
illness.
Such are some of the characteristic effects of drugs
taken in health. Others will be noticed as the Essay
proceeds. It has been sufficiently proved that the
action of drugs is injurious in health.
Historical accuracy ought to be dear to every one,
and with this feeling I cannot forbear halting for a few
moments here to correct a misrepresentation of the
history of this subject.
Dr. Pereira, speaking of the physiological effects of
medicines, has this paragraph —
“Formerly no distinction was made between the
effects which medicines produce in health, and those
which they give rise to in disease; and the terms,
virtues, properties, faculties, and powers were applied to
652 WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 [ESSAY
both classes of effects. But Bichat, and subsequently
Barbier and Schwilgué, pointed out the propriety of
considering them separately.”
It is well known that to Hahnemann is due
the credit of carrying out the proving of drugs
in health to an extent which eclipses the labours
of all others; and these experiments were begun
by Hahnemann in or before 1790, when Bichat was
a boy.
That Pereira was well acquainted with Hahnemann's
labours is proved from the following sentence and re-
ference, which occur only four pages before the quota-
tion I have just given. He says:—
“The homoeopathists assert, and with truth, that the
study of the effects of medicines in the healthy state is
the only way of ascertaining the fºre or pathogenetic
effect of medicines — since, when we administer our
remedies to invalids, ‘the symptoms of the natural
disease then existing, mingling with those which the
medicinal agents are capable of producing, the latter
can rarely be distinguished with any clearness or pre-
cision.’—(Hahnemann's ‘Organon,' translated by C. H.
Devrient, p. 190).”
It is not to be understood that experiments in health
were first suggested by Hahnemann. The truth on
this point was stated in the Essay on ‘ Provings in
health’” (first published in 1854), in which the words
of Haller are quoted. Nor were they first begun
to be made by Hahnemann, as is also shown in that
Essay. What Hahnemann did was this: he under-
took and accomplished them on a much more extended
scale, and persevered with them in a much more
indefatigable manner, than any other; and did not
cease till he had attracted to them the attention of the
world.
1 ‘Materia Medica,’ Vol. I. p. 93. 4th Ed.
* Ibid., p. 89. * Essay VII.
XX.] WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 653
2. The action of drugs is curative in disease.
This is a result of experience very contrary to what
a priori reasoning would have led us to expect.
A thing which does harm in health would be ex-
pected, without experience, to do still more harm
in sickness. The fact which we are now considering
is an example of the old maxim, “that will happen
which is least likely.” It is one of many which should
suggest care in observing, and should check presump-
tion in reasoning, on matters in which we are in-
experienced.
The fact that drugs are curative in disease has been
established by abundant experiment. It has been ac-
knowledged and acted upon without doubt of its truth,
for thousands of years; and that notwithstanding all
the mischief which has been done by over-drugging,
and over-dosing, under the plea of active and energetic
treatment.
These Essays contain many illustrations of its truth,
in the various cases which, from time to time, have
been given in them. Others might be added now, but
they would make this Essay too long.
The fact is thus expressed by John Hunter:-
“There are many substances which, when applied to
a healthy State of the body, may injure as poisons;
yet when applied to an unhealthy state, they will
counteract that state, and keep up health as long as
they have the power of irritation. The healthy action
being a ter/ium guid of the unhealthy and the
poisonous. Each disease has its own peculiar specific.”
“There is no disease but what has a peculiar mode of
cure of its own, and every particular part a particular
mode of curing its own diseases.”
It seems to me more dignified and becoming, both
to the human mind and to true science, thus simply
to state the fact, with an acknowledgment of our
* ‘Lectures on Surgery,’ ch. xxiii.
654 WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 [ESSAY
ignorance of the manner of its production, than to
attempt to hide our ignorance by clothing the state-
ment in metaphors which imply an understanding and
an explanation of the cause or manner of the action.
The definition of this medicinal action which has
been given by Dr. Drysdale is of the metaphorical
kind. He defines a specific to be “a remedy which
cures by the absorption of its whole physiological into
its therapeutic action.” What is the meaning of the
word “absorption ” in this sentence 2 To “absorb"
literally means to suck up ; a sponge absorbs water,
but a therapeutic action is not a sponge. A piece of
black cloth “absorbs " the rays of light, but a thera-
peutic action is not a piece of black cloth. A substance
can absorb, but an action cannot be said to absorb,
except in a metaphorical sense ; and the use of a
metaphor, in the definition of a physical act, teaches
nothing. As Dr. Drysdale's definition can have only a
metaphorical, and not a literal meaning, we fail to learn
anything from it.
It is surely better to say that each drug has an
action in health which produces disorder or disease
of certain parts of the body; and, when given in a
different dose, a curative action in disorder or disease
of the same parts. This is to make a plain state-
ment of fact. It is intelligible, and of great practical
usefulness. When the statement is put into Dr.
Drysdale's words, it becomes less intelligible, and not
more useful. I think it is better to be content with
the confession of ignorance, the tertium guid of John
Hunter.
Our expression of fact, however, must include all
the elements which belong to it, which are necessary
to make it true, and it must not exceed our know-
ledge. In the “Address” of Dr. Madden, already
referred to, he states, “as the invaluable discovery of
Hahnemann’’:—
“That a drug invariably produces, in the diseased
organism, a series of changes precisely opposite to
those which it produces in health.”
XX.] WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 655
I venture to say that this aphorism is not true,
because it is not the whole truth. It requires a quali-
fying element to be added to it, namely, the drug
being given in different doses. Moreover, it expresses
more than we know, for we do not know that the two
“Series of changes” are “precisely opposite ” to each
other.
The characteristics of the curative action of drugs
which may be noticed here, are such as these :—
I. It is commonly most efficacious when it is least
visible. This is strangely at variance with the notions
and practices which have prevailed for a long period of
time. We have seen, however, that it was partially
acknowledged by John Hunter, and it may now be
safely stated as a fact,
2. In disorder (or functional disturbance), the effect of
the appropriate drug in suitable doses, is a perfect cure.
In disease (or structural change), the cure is less and
less possible as the diseased structure advances towards
destruction.
3. If the medicine is not discontinued when
its beneficial effects have been obtained, it begins
to act injuriously. This, also, is very contrary to
long established thought and practice; but it may
be proved by a careful observation of daily ex-
perience.
4. In acute disease the curative effect is often
marvellously prompt and conspicuous. In chronic
disease it is generally slow and little perceptible,
though ultimately not less successful. The rapidity
with which croup and cholera are sometimes cured
may be mentioned as examples of the former, Mesen-
teric disease in children, and long-standing dyspepsia
in adults are instances of the latter.
5. Drugs are said sometimes to cure by what has
been described as their direct action, and sometimes
by their re-action, but these different effects probably
belong more to the action of different doses of the
same drug.
656 WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 [ESSAY
6. In sickness what is called the primary or
principal action will take place in the deranged organ,
notwithstanding that, in health, the action on that
organ may have been a secondary or subordinate one;
e.g. the principal action of Čel/adonna in health is upon
the brain, eyes, and throat; that is upon the arteria/
circulation in these organs; its curative action may be
seen in similar arterial excitement (inflammation) in
almost any organ.
I cannot leave this part of the subject without again
expressing my regret on account of the harm still done
by what is considered necessarily active treatment.
To explain my meaning I will briefly mention two
cases which came to my knowledge not long ago.
A respectable farmer was suffering from an obstruc-
tion of the bowels. He was treated in the usual way,
with strong purgatives, for some days, at the end of
which diarrhoea came on, and he immediately died.
A lady, in good general health, had two or three
restless nights from rheumatism in the shoulder. For
this an opiate was prescribed. The draught was taken
at bed-time ; the pain was relieved, and sleep obtained.
She died in the morning, without awaking from this
sleep.
These are not solitary cases. Taking away blood
has been considered an essential part of this active
treatment. This is at present laid aside in England, but
it is continued in other countries, and it may be revived
in this. It will not be amiss, therefore, to preserve the
following
“Reuter's Telegrams.
“Turin, June 3rd, I S61.
“His physicians declare Count Cavour's illness to
be a zery mild form of typhus fever, without any
alarming symptoms,
“He was bled this evening for the sixth time.”
“Turin, June 6th,
“Count Cavour died this morning at Seven o'clock."
xx. WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 657
The civilised world concluded that Count Cavour
did not die of the fever, but of the bleedings.
No doubt in all these cases, and in others like them,
physicians act conscientiously, and believe that they
are doing the best that can be done for their patients.
The treatment at the time is orthodox. The intentions
aimed at are often accomplished. In the first of the
two cases mentioned above, the obstruction was over-
come. In the second, relief from pain, and sleep in
the place of restlessness, were obtained. It is true
that in one case it was the relaxation of death ; and in
the other the stupor of apoplexy. But it is by no
means certain that these reflections would occur to the
physicians; they certainly did not to the friends of the
sufferers. That which has been said of surgeons, and
of some of their operations, might be said of such
physicians : “ The operation was most successfully per-
formed, and the patient died two hours after "
3. 77.6 action of drugs is conscrufºzc.
There is a “following in train” of effects, which occu-
pies time. It may be that only one dose of a drug has
been taken, or there may have been a repetition of
doses : in either case, when action takes place, there is
a combination and succession of symptoms sufficient to
characterise at lease one morbid condition, just as there
is in the action of other causes of disease.
This consecutiveness is of two kinds.
There may be a series of derangements in the health
of an organ, producing symptoms which indicate a
definite pathological state, to which a name can be
given ; in other words, a specific disease, or something
very like it, may be caused by the drug. For in-
stance, a few doses of rhus are sufficient, in some
constitutions, to develope a condition of ill-health
resembling an attack of typhus fever. The change in
the blood is followed by the combination and succes-
Sion of symptoms which characterise that disease. In
42
658 WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 [ESSAY
a former Essay" a proving of rhus of my own is given,
which is an example of this. p
Or, there may be a succession in the organs affected,
e.g., in poisoning by lead there will sometimes be, first,
Spasmodic pains in the bowels, or colic; then, dizziness
and other symptoms of disturbance of the brain ; then,
local paralysis, as of the hand.
Mercury generally acts first on the salivary glands,
then on the liver, then on the throat, afterwards on the
skin, and finally on the bones.
Dr. Roget has placed on record” a remarkable case
of successive morbid conditions caused by arsenic.
An epitome of it is given in the Essay on ‘Provings in
Health.” In this case there is not only the combina-
tion and succession needed to make up a distinct
morbid state, or nameable disease, but there is a
succession of different morbid states, representing so
many different diseases. All these followed one another
after only one dose of the poison.
These combined and successive series of symptoms,
in all diseases arising from a single cause, have been
recognised from very early ages. More than sixteen
hundred years ago, it was remarked by Aretaeus that
“When inflammation occurs in the membrane called
succingens (the pleura), and there is heat, with cough, and
parti-coloured sputa, the affection is named //eurisy.
But all these symptoms must harmonise and conspire
together, as all springing from one cause ; for such of
them as occur separately from different causes, even if
they all occur together, are not called pleurisy.”
In the emphatic language of Lord Bacon, “it is
order, pursuit, sequence, which is mighty in nature;
which, although it require more exact knowledge in
prescribing, and more precise obedience in observing,
yet is recompensed with the magnitude of effects.”
1 Essay VII, ‘Provings in Health.'
* ‘Medico-Chirurgical Transactions' for ISI I.
* “–xpi) & raira àAAñ\otot—” &c. IISpi IIAévpiríðoc.
* “Advancement of Learning.' Bacon's works by Basil
Montagu, vol. ii, page 168.
xx.] whAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 659
The importance of studying the “order” or combina-
tion of symptoms, is great indeed. It may be illustrated
by the action of aconite and rhus. Both these drugs
produce a feverish pulse; but the combination of
symptoms which is found grouped around each feverish
pulse, is so entirely different, that to give aconite or
rhus indiscriminately, would be a grave mistake. To
the pulse of aconite is attached simple or inflammatory
fever only; while to that of rhus, quite as character-
istically, belongs typhus fever.
The value of observing the “pursuit, sequence,” or
succession of symptoms is not less. The following
may be given as examples —
Belladonna and ipecacuanha cause, in common with a
large number of drugs, headache and sickness; but, as
indicating their proper selection as remedies, with this
very urgent difference, the headache from belladonna
precedes the vomiting, while that from ipecacuanha
follows it. The sympathy between the brain and the
stomach, as shown in these instances, is not greater
than that between the brain and the heart. I have
seen the taking of an ounce of laudanum followed
immediately by fright, and soon afterwards by violent
palpitation of the heart; whereas some doses of digitalis
will cause first excessive action of the heart, which shall
be followed by anxiety and fear. They thus point to
themselves as remedies for very different conditions
having the same symptoms.
AVosology, or the doctrine of the classification and
naming of diseases, is founded upon this fact—the
harmony and succession of conditions and symptoms
produced by the common causes of disease — and
could not exist without it. The action of drugs is
similar.
This combination and succession of symptoms, and
of pathological conditions, cannot be neglected with
safety. They ought to be noticed and registered in
the account of the provings of each drug upon the
healthy. They indicate a characteristic feature in the
action of each drug, and point out the drug as a specific
66O WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 [ESSAY
remedy for corresponding conditions of diseases. It is
obvious from this consideration that cases of proving
should be recorded exactly in the same manner as it
has been customary to describe cases of disease.
It is a great defect in Hahnemann's Materia Medica
that, from the peculiar arrangement adopted by him,
the opportunity of recording this combination and
Succession, and consequently the benefits to be derived
from the record, are lost.
Time is an important element, not only in the diag-
nosis of diseases, but in the study of the action of
drugs.
4. 7%e action of drugs is loca/ or partia/.
So much has been said upon this point in former
Essays, that it can scarcely be entered upon again
without incurring blame for needless repetitions. Yet
it is too important to be passed over without giving it
some further careful thought.
The action of drugs upon the living body is peculiar
and wonderful. Food, unless bad, or taken in excess,
nourishes the body, supports life, and preserves health;
air, unless impure, purifies and invigorates the blood,
and so maintains life and health ; exercise, unless
immoderate, gives strength to the body, and fits it
for labour. But drugs, taken in health in quantities
sufficient to produce any effect at all, produce disease;
and when taken in disease in other quantities, restore
health.
The action of drugs, therefore, viewed in this light,
is singular. It it also singular when looked at in
another light; the action of each drug is partial or
local. Some parts of the body (solid or liquid) are
affected, and others are not, or only in a much slighter
degree.
We do not know any drug which has a universal
and equally powerful action upon all parts of the body.
If such a drug could be found, and we were able, by
regulating its dose, to direct at will its action upon any
XX.] WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 66 I
specified diseased part, we should, perhaps, need no
other medicine.
We have no such general action in any drug. If
any one thinks that we have, he has only to name the
drug.
Each drug has its own locality for action—hence the
great variety of medicines in use. Each drug has also
its own kind of action in that locality.
For details upon this local action, I must refer to
the Essay, ‘How is the action of each drug to be
distinguished from that of all others 2'"
Drugs, though apparently singular in this local
action, have associates in their singularity. All the
Ordinary causes of disease act like them in a partial or
local manner, and each cause acts in a manner peculiar
to itself.
Having now for a long time advocated that it is
best, in a practical sense, to view the action of diseases
and of medicines as local rather than general in their
seat, it seems right to state distinctly my object in
doing so. It is for the sake of increased clearness and
accuracy. As long as the “general" notion prevails,
there will be vagueness and want of precision, both in
diagnosis and in treatment.
That this view is true as regards diseases, and
embraces all the facts of the case, needs no further
proof than a careful consideration of the following
extract from Sir Thomas Watson's admirable “ Intro-
ductory Lecture :”—
“Diseases themselves, in the mass, are sometimes
distinguished, according as they are general or ſoca/.
This distinction is convenient, though it may not be
very exact or logical.
“General diseases are those in which the whole body
appears to partake in the morbid process going on.
Strictly speaking, they are diseases in which some one
syséeſt of the body, distributed through every part of it,
* Essay XXI.
662 WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS P |ESSAY
is primarily or principally affected : for example, dis-
eases in which the blood, which visits and circulates
through every part and organ, is in an unnatural or
unhealthy condition, or carries with it some noxious
material; or again, in which the nervous system,
throughout the whole or the largest part of its extent,
is deranged.
“Local diseases, on the other hand, are those in
which certain definite parts of the body are alone
concerned, and which do not extend beyond, or much
beyond, those parts, but leave the remaining parts, and
the system at large, healthy both in texture and in
function. -
“There are, indeed, diseases which, occupying a
definite portion only of the body, do nevertheless
produce manifest and serious disturbance in the
functions of various other parts, and (it may perhaps
be said), of the whole system. Inflammation of a
small portion of the frame may give rise to much
Secondary fever ; yet here, also, we properly speak of
the disease as being local, the secondary general
disorder resulting from the local and primary, following
it in point of time, and subsiding upon its cessation.”
For the practical purposes of the physician, the
blood and the nerves are “definite parts of the body”;
and it will promote Sir Thomas Watson's object
(which ought to be the object of every physician), and
help us “to learn distinctly and clearly what is the
action of drugs,” to view all diseases in this light.
The same reasoning applies with equal force to the
effects produced by drugs, as a little consideration will
show.
It is true, then, to say that diseases are local ; and it
is of practical value to look upon them in this light.
It tends to make diagnosis more accurate. It is true
to say that the effects of drugs are local ; and it is of no
•=-
! ‘Lectures on the Principles and Practice of Physic, by
Sir Thomas Watson, Bart., M.D., F.R.S., &c. Fifth edition,
I87 I, p. 9.
xx. WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 663
less practical value to view them in this light also. It
tends to make treatment more careful. Now it may
be humbly hoped that whatever tends to make
diagnosis more accurate, and treatment more careful,
will contribute towards making the result more suc-
cessful, and patient and physician more happy.
5. 7%e action of drugs affects the same parts in disease
as in health.
The truth of this can be demonstrated by the evid-
ence of both schools of medicine, but in opposite ways.
By the testimony of the old school.
It has been the practice from “old time" to treat
diseases very much on the principle of revulsion or
counter - irritation. To carry this practice out, a
certain amount of knowledge of the local action of
drugs is indispensable, in order that the diseased parts
may be avoided, and that the sound parts may be
acted upon ; so that an artificial irritation or disorder
may be set up, and the revulsion desired may be
brought about.
This practice proves that the parts or organs of the
body which are not acted on in health, are not acted
on in disease. The physician, knowing the local
action of the drug he intends to prescribe—knowing
that is, the parts where its effects take place, and the
parts which are left undisturbed, can give it with
confidence when the parts where it does not act are
unsound, because we know that the drug will not
affect them.
Every day's practice furnishes illustrations of this
truth, e.g., when purgatives are given for diseases of
the head, there is no fear lest they should have an
injurious action on the diseased parts.
Pereira says —
“Colocyn//, in diseases of the brain. In apoplexy,
or a tendency thereto, in paralysis, insanity, violent
headache, &c., cology/l// is sometimes employed with
664 WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS P | ESSAY
good effect on the principle of revulsion or counter-
irritation.”
On the contrary, this fear is very present when a drug
is known to have an action where the disease exists.
Pereira Says again —
“Opium is undoubtedly the most important and
valuable remedy of the whole Materia Medica.
“In diseases of the brain and spinal cord. In some
cerebro-Spinal diseases great benefit arises from the
use of opium ; while in other cases injury only can
result from its employment. The latter effect is to be
expected in inflammation of the brain, and in apoplec-
tic cases. In other words, in those cerebral maladies
Obviously connected with, or dependent on, an excited
condition of the vascular system of the brain, offiume
acts injuriously.”
Sometimes the action which is feared is guarded
against by the regulation of the dose, e.g., arsenic is
known to inflame the stomach, and to be a remedy for
some diseases of the skin. When arsenic, therefore, is
prescribed for the skin, the physician is careful to
make the dose too small to act injuriously upon the
stomach. Tartar-emetic, in the same manner, acts
upon the skin, the bowels, the stomach, and the lungs;
and the dose can commonly be selected which shall
act where it is designed to do, and shall avoid the rest.
But “modern medicine” will not bind itself to any
principle ; and now it is often the intention to act upon
a diseased part. When this is done the practice
approaches the principle of the new school ; and drugs
can always be chosen which are known to act upon
the desired part, whether in disease or in health.
This is the experience of the old school.
By the testimony of the new school.
This is still more decided ; for the practitioner puts
the fact to the test in every case he is called upon to
treat. It is his express design to select such remedies
The Elements of Materia Medica and T herapeutics, by
Jonathan Pereira, M.D., F.R.S., &c. Fourth edition, 1857,
p. 2 I 5. * Ibid., pp. 633, 636.
xx.] WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 3 665
as will not act upon the sound or healthy parts, but
which will act upon the parts which the symptoms tell
him are diseased. The provings of drugs in health
declare which organs each drug avoids, and which it
acts upon. And the results of this daily practice
prove that the parts or organs of the body which are
acted upon in health, are also acted upon (however
different the kind of action), in disease.
In full confidence of the truth of this general fact —
Opium is given in threatened apoplexy.
Arsenic is given in gastritis.
Cant/barides in inflammation of the bladder.
Phosphorus in pneumonia and enteritis.
Zpecacuan/a in asthma, and in some cases of
vomiting.
Bichromate of potasſ, in ulceration of the carti-
lages of the nose. &c., &c.
This is the experience of the new school; and the
conclusion seems irresistible that the action of drugs is
upon the same parts in disease as in health.
How surprising, therefore, to meet with the follow-
ing sentence in Dr. Madden's recent “Address”:—
“A drug may be perfectly incapable of acting on a
certain organ while it remains healthy, and yet be
capable of modifying to a great extent any morbid
changes which it may be undergoing !”
If this be so, the provings of drugs in health is of
little use. The labour, the suffering, and the loss of
time which they entail, are endured in vain. The
sooner, in such case, the proving of drugs is aban-
doned, the better.
But this is distinctly shown, by the facts just referred
to, not to be so. Therefore the proving of drugs is
useful. Therefore the prescribing of drugs to act upon
the diseased parts, and not upon the healthy Ones, is
possible, and may continue to succeed, as it has hitherto
done.
I should not like to think what would become of
homoeopathy if Dr. Madden's statement were correct.
Surely the sentence has been written inadvertently.
666 WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 [ESSAY
6. The action is characteristic of each drug.
Nothing more emphatically declares the infinite skill
and almighty power of God than the wonderful combi-
nation of uniformity and variety which is exhibited in
the works of creation and providence. How alike all
men are, and yet how different Every man has a face
of his own, and a character of his own, by which he is
readily distinguished from all other men. Shepherds
tell us the same of a flock of sheep. We meet with
illustrations on every side. There is the same uniformity
and variety in a Materia Medica of drugs. They all
possess certain features in common ; and each has a
character by which it may be distinguished and sepa-
rated from the others.
The subject will occupy the next Essay.
This would seem to be the fitting place to offer
some observations on the classification of drugs.
If we look back to see what has been done
in order to discover the best arrangement of the
resemblances and differences among drugs, we shall
find three sets of writers earnestly engaged in the
search.
We have the writers on poisons — toxicologists.
The older of these adopted the plan of ranging
the different articles under the heads of minerals,
vegetables, and animals. It is evident that this
classification threw no light upon them as poisonous
substances; and, therefore, though useful to the natu-
ralist, it rendered no assistance to the toxicologist.
Orfila was the first to depart from this method,
and to endeavour to arrange them according to their
manner of acting as poisons. He made four classes:—
“Poisons irritans”; “Poisons narcotiques”; “Poisons
narcotico-àcres”; et “Poisons septidues Ou putré-
fians.”
1 Leçons de Medicine Legale,' par M. Orfila, Deuzième
Ed. 1828. Tome III, pp. 14, I 5.
xx.] whAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 8 667
Professor Christison rejected the fourth class with
the remark that, “assuredly no substance can cause
putrefaction in the living body.” He adopted the
other three —irritants, narcotics, and narcotic-acrids.
Dr. Alfred Taylor says —
“Poisons may be divided into three classes, accord-
ing to their mode of action on the system, namely,
irritants, narcotics, and narcotico-irritants. This classi-
fication is a modification of that Originally proposed
by Orfila, and is almost universally adopted by toxi-
cologists.”
But Professor Christison is very candid in ad-
mitting the insufficiency and great imperfection of this
method of arranging and distinguishing poisons. He
says:—
“The classification of poisons has hitherto defied the
ingenuity of toxicologists. . . . It is evident that the
only sound basis of arrangement is their action on the
animal economy : for such a classification is the only
one which can be useful in practice. Now, when we
consider what has been said on their mode of action, .
or the symptoms produced in consequence of that
action, it must at Once be perceived that no system
founded on either of these circumstances can be logic-
ally correct. It would be very desirable if their mode
of action could be adopted as the basis of arrangement;
but both reasoning and experience have proved this to
be impracticable. . . .
“It would be even more fruitless to attempt an ar-
rangement of poisons according to their medium of
action ; for no sure criterion is known, by which a
poison, acting through direct transmission of an impulse
along the nerves, can be distinguished from one that
acts by entering the blood.
“Neither is the embarrassment of the toxicologist
materially less, if he attempts to classify poisons
* ‘A Treatise on Poisons,’ by Robert Christison, M.D.,
F.R.S.E., &c. 4th Ed., 1845, pp. I IO, I I I.
* ‘A Manual of Medical Jurisprudence,' by Alfred S.
Taylor, F.R.S. 2nd Ed., 1846, p. 12,
668 WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 [ESSAY
according to the symptoms they induce in man. This
is the principle now (4th Edition) generally followed;
and which, in common with others, I shall pursue.
But the reader will be at no loss to discover
that the partitions which separate the classes are
exceedingly slight; and that very many poisons might
be arranged without impropriety in either of two
classes.
“The preceding statements show the impossibility
of founding a good system of arrangement on the
only basis which can be acknowledged philosophical
and practical ; and consequently that, as the science of
toxicology now stands, we must altogether despair
of forming one that shall be even moderately satis-
factory.”
We next turn to writers on the materia medica.
These lead us to the same conclusion as that to which
we have been brought by Professor Christison.
No method is yet known to them by which the
agreements and differences among drugs can be satis-
factorily arranged ; so that commonly, substances are
put together alphabetically “without any regard to
their affinities as natural objects, or their medicinal
virtues.” ... .
A summary of all the methods hitherto proposed
may be found in the first volume of Pereira’s “Materia
Medica.” He notices –
“I. Ampèrica/ arrangements. -
“These are independent of the nature of, and have
no real relation or connection with, the substances to
be arranged. An aſphabetical order, since it is founded
on names which are arbitrary, and have no relation to
the bodies they are intended to designate, is of this
kind. . . . It brings together substances of the most
incongruous natures, and separates those which agree
in most of their properties; and, from its want of Order,
* Christison, pp. IO9, 1 IO.
* A. T. Thompson, “London Dispensatory,’ 3rd Ed., 1822,
p. I9.
xx.] WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 669
it distracts the attention of the student; and is, there-
fore, totally unfitted for an elementary work.” Pereira
then speaks of -
“2. Aºaziona/ arrangements.
“These have an actual relation with the bodies for
which they are used, and are the classifications, pro-
perly so called. They are founded on the properties
of the substances treated of; consequently are as
numerous as there are classes of properties. Thus
medicines may be arranged according to their–a.
Sensible properties (colour, taste, smell). 3. Natural-
historical properties (external form and structure). y.
Chemical properties. 8. Physiological properties. e.
Therapeutical properties.
“Classifications founded on the colour, taste, and
odour of plants, are necessarily very imperfect;” and
“objectionable, dissimilar bodies are brought together,
and similar Ones separated.
“Classifications founded on the Natural-historical
properties.
“I mean those made use of in natural history. . . .
I have preferred this mode of arrangement principally
on account of the great difficulties attending any other
method, especially that founded on the physiological
effects of medicines.”
. This is the method which, since the time of Orfila,
has been rejected, as we have seen, by toxicologists, as
rendering no assistance.
“Classifications founded on the chemical con-
stituents.
“The difficulties attending the analysis of organised
substances present a great obstacle to the formation of
a chemical classification.”
Moreover, if formed, it would not indicate the phy-
siological or therapeutical properties of the substances
it arranged.
“Classifications founded on the physiological effects
of medicines.
“As the ultimate object of all our enquiries into the
Materia Medica is to obtain a knowledge of the mode
67o WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 [ESSAY
of operation of medicinal substances, it follows that the
most desirable and useful, because the most practical,
classification of these agents, would be that founded on
the similarity of their effects. But so many difficulties
exist in the way of producing such an arrangement . . .
that it must be evident to every one who attentively
studies the subject, that in the present state of our
knowledge, no such classification can be satisfactorily
effected.
“Classifications founded on therapeutical properties.
“The curative and remedial powers of medicines are
not absolute and constant, but relative and conditional ;
so that we have no substance which, under every cir-
cumstance, is a remedy for a particular disease. This
will explain why no modern author has attempted to
classify remedies according to their therapeutical pro-
perties.
“Strictly speaking, there are no substances to which
the term specific can be properly applied.”
There remain writers on medicine. It is well
known how the older writers luxuriated in their ample
classifications of medicine, as “ Nervina : Corrobor-
antia : Stomachica : Balsamica : Diuretica : Diaphor-
etica : Emetica: Cathartica : Hipnotica : Refriger-
antia:” &c.
These have dwindled down until Dr. Billing sums
them up under four heads—“Stimulants : Sedatives :
Narcotics : and Tonics.” The enumeration of in-
dividual medicines belonging to each of these groups
shows plainly how unsatisfactory it is. The dose is
often sufficient to remove a drug from one class to its
opposite. “A stimulant increases the action of the
heart . . . and excites the sensorium to hilarity, if
there be no latent disease there ; but in too great a
quantity it produces stupor.” “A sedative is that
which diminishes the action of the heart and other
Pereira, Vol. I, p. 137 et seq. º * * * *
2 : First Principles of Medicine' by Archibald Billing, M.D.
Third edition, page 73.
xx. whAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 671
organs by repressing the nervous influence; for example,
digitalis and green tea.” That the kind of action of
both these, whether stimulant or sedative, also depends
upon the dose, is well known. “The narcoſic principle
in drugs is that which, by diminishing the sensibility of
the nervous system, allays pain and procures sleep.
Narcotics must be distinguished from stimulants on
the one hand, and from sedatives on the other; and
the distinction is the more necessary, because in nature
the narcotic principle is generally combined with one
or other of these.” “Opium contains stimulus com-
bined with narcotic.” “Hyoscyamus contains the
sedafize combined with the narcotic,” &c. “Tonics
are substances which neither immediately nor sensibly
call forth actions,” &c. The substances mentioned are
very diverse in their individual properties, and their
“tonic” action is clearly dependent upon the disease
for which they are given, and upon the dose. Mercury,
arsenic, nitrate of silver, bark, colchicum, copper, meze-
reon, dulcamara, &c., have no natural tie of connection;
an alphabetical arrangement would be as good a one.
Dr. Billing himself says —
“As I set out with observing, it may be seen that
tonics must always be considered in reference to
disease : thus different substances which, considered
physiologically, or in health, belong to opposite classes,
become, in disease, tonic. Even narcotics frequently
become most useful tonics"—hence tonic is merely
another word for citratizic.
It follows, I think, from all these strong observations
of eminent writers, that nothing satisfactory has yet
been done in the way of arranging the resemblances
and the differences of drugs, in a medical point of
view.
It may seem presumptuous to say, in the face of all
these confessions, that something may, nevertheless, be
attempted which can give satisfaction. And, therefore,
the method which Organopathy suggests, and of which
a summary will be given in the next Essay, ought to
672 WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 [ESSAY
be offered with diffidence. It is desired so to offer it,
and to put it on its trial, in the hands of unprejudiced
and impartial physicians.
7. 7%e action of drugs differs with the dose.
As I hope to be able to write Essays on the Dose,
I will content myself at present with a few detached
observations.
It is much to be regretted that, in introducing the
infinitesimal division of drugs, fifty years ago, Hahne-
mann should have thrown the subject of doses into such
great confusion ; and this very much by his manner
of doing it. He put his followers into a pillory where
they have been compelled to stand ever since.
It is refreshing to see the courage with which Dr.
Black has spoken, in the papers he has read in London
and Oxford, in 1870 and 1871, upon the dogmatism
Hahnemann has given way to in this manner.
Nevertheless, the subject of doses is one full of
interest; and it admits of some things being said of
it with a considerable degree of distinctness and cer-
tainty : e.g.,
I. The taking of different doses of drugs, both in
health and disease, shows how the character of the
action of each drug can be varied or extended.
2. In this way it becomes evident that the action of
different doses of the same drug is sometimes upon
different organs; often of a different kind; and occa-
sionally in an opposite direction; and this occurs both
in health and disease.
3. The opposition in the direction of the action of
different doses is most clearly manifested, when a.
larger dose is given in health, and a smaller one in
sickness.
4. The action of the smaller dose in disease is com-
monly curative, when the disease exists in the organs
which are acted upon by the drug in health, and when
the kind of disease for which it is given as a remedy is
xx.] WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS 2 673
similar to that which is producible by it when given as
a poison.
5. Infinitesimal doses take their place among other
causes of disease which are themselves infinitesimal,
e.g., the contagions of small-pox, Scarlet fever, &c.
We should have no knowledge of the existence of
these contagions, but for their powerful action upon
the living human body. At present we have no proof,
besides that on the living body, of the action of infinite-
simal quantities of drugs. The spectroscope has given
us its testimony to the existence of some of them, which
it has not yet given for contagions.
6. Hahnemann attempted to limit the use of the in-
finitesimal dose, so that the dilutions should not be
carried beyond the 30th, for the reason that we must
stop somewhere. This is an arbitrary rule, which
must fail. And it has failed, for many practitioners
have gone very much beyond it. Dr. Black is now
attempting to persuade us, though only for the sake of
experiment, not to go beyond the 3rd. This attempt
must fail also. Men will not be bound by arbitrary
rules.
It has been suggested in these Essays, that the only
way by which the confusion and perplexity in which
the subject of doses is now involved, can be removed,
is Z/ie/roving of them in /ea/#/. This must be done in
the same manner as drugs have been proved, but with
more care and precision. Hahnemann's provings give
us no information about the doses made use of in them.
Some later provings by other experimenters do give us
this information, and we can avail ourselves of it, but
almost everything yet remains to be done.
For in the provings already made, in which the
doses are given, no special attention has been paid to
the difference in the action of different doses. The
object has been to obtain the largest results as to the
entire action of the drugs. These provings are, on
this account, much less useful than might have been
expected.
43
674 WHAT IS THE ACTION OF DRUGS P [ESSAY xx.
We want to learn, in addition to the entire action of
each drug, the special action of each dose.
Here is employment for the genius of industry for
more than one or two generations.
ESSAY X X I.
•-e-C-C-
THE ACTION OF DRUGS,
(CONTINUED.)
“A man is not permitted without censure to follow his
own thoughts in the search of truth, when they lead him ever
so little out of the common road.”
JOHN LOCKE.
ESSAY X X I."
THE ACTION OF DRUGS,
(CONTINUED.)
“All created beings are not only different from each other
in their classes, races, and kinds, but are also individually
distinct.” JOHN CASPAR LAVATER.
PROFESSOR TYNDALL commenced a letter to the
Zimmes, a few months ago, with this remark: “Zºe theory
of disease was never discussed with more earnestness,
or with greater precision, than at the present time.”
This is true of the old school of medicine. I hope it
may be said with equal truth that, in the new school,
the theory of cure is discussed with the same earnest-
ness and with the same precision. The thing to be
desired is, that each school would lay aside all exag-
gerated condemnation of the other, and that they
should work in harmony together. Each school might
render valuable help to the other.
There are many ways in which a patient may be
assisted in his recovery from illness; but when we
speak of the cure of disease, we commonly mean a cure
effected, more or less, by the administration of drugs
or medicines. A true theory of cure, therefore, cannot
* First published in 1870. This Essay was written before
the two preceding ones. It was read at a Congress in
Birmingham in 1870.
678 HOW IS THE ACTION OF EACH |ESSAY
be propounded until a clear account has been given of
the action of drugs.
What are drugs 2
If we look at all material things which surround us,
with reference to the life and health of man's body,
they arrange themselves in three classes. One class
constitutes food, and contains all substances which,
when digested, form blood, and so nourish the body,
and sustain its vital power. Another class consists of
stimat/ants, which do not make blood, nor nourish, nor
Sustain, but which help in the use and concentration of
the living power previously possessed. Another class
is composed of a number of remarkable substances
which are not food, nor diffusable stimulants, but which
act injuriously in health, and curatively in disease—
these are drugs. When taken in health they are often
called poisons; when taken in illness they are com-
monly called medicines.
A few words about food and drugs. Drugs may be
said to be the opposite of food. They cannot nourish
nor support life. When taken in health they are
injurious to it, and many of them have power to
destroy life. But it is known, and apparently it has
been known in all ages, that when in sickness they are
opportunely taken, they have power to relieve pain,
and often even to remove disease, and to restore
health. -
The difference, therefore, between food and drugs is
very great. Food is required to make blood, to pro-
vide materials for the growth of the body, and for the
repair of its daily waste. It must be taken daily, and
in considerable quantities. Drugs are not needed in
health, but in sickness; and then only in such small
quantities as shall be found sufficient to alter morbid
action in the direction of health.
That drugs, which are poisons to the healthy, are
remedies to the sick, is a statement suggestive of many
enquiries. An active imagination may speculate on
the questions why, and how, to an indefinite extent,
XXI.] DRUG TO BE DISTINGUISHED F 679
but probably with little profit. Medicine is a science
of fact. It has been made the sport of speculation.
To place it in its true position should be the aim of its
students.
Facts are living verities, and he will be the best
physician who has the largest acquaintance with facts
in medicine, and the happiest tact in remembering
them, as they are needed to guide him in the treatment
of his patients.
And what is the action of drugs 2
Sir Thomas Watson, the present head of the pro-
fession in England, lately said, in an address to the
Clinical Society of London, “We want to learn
distinctly and clearly, what is 4/ke action of drugs.”
To answer Sir Thomas Watson's question, these
subjects require investigation —
I. In what way is the action of drugs to be
discovered P .”
II. What is the action of drugs 2
III. How is the action of each drug to be dis-
tinguished from that of all others ?
IV. What is the kind of action of drugs 2
V. What is the action of small doses P
VI. Is there a law for the dose 2
PART III.
The two first questions have been considered ; our
attention shall now be directed to the third —
HOW IS THE ACTION OF EACH DRUG TO BE DISTINGUISHED
FROM THAT OF ALL OTHERS P
First, in health.
The primary fact, forming the basis of the investiga-
tion, is this—all drugs have a partiality in their action;
a preference to some parts of the body above others.
The next fact—this preference varies with each
drug; and sometimes even with different quantities of
68O HOW IS THE ACTION OF EACH - |ESSAY
the same drug. In other words, an affinity exists
between different parts of the body and different drugs,
or doses of drugs, which affinity produces actions
which are more or less characteristic in each case.
This affinity, together with its effects, lies at the
bottom of the use of drugs as medicines; and of every
theory which has been advanced in explanation of that
use. All schools of medicine avail themselves of it
alike. It gives rise to some of the most surprising
and interesting phenomena in nature.
How wonderful that a few drops of the juice of one
plant should, when taken by a healthy person, produce
a morbid affection of the brain, and a few drops of
another, a disordered condition of the lungs; that a
third plant should act upon the stomach ; that a fourth
should attack the heart; a fifth, the liver; a sixth, the
muscles ; a seventh, the joints; and so on, through
every part of the body.
In this manner a first line of separation between one
drug and another is drawn distinctly.
But several drugs are found which act primarily and
powerfully upon the same part or organ of the body.
In this case a distinguishing feature lies in their
manner of acting. Generally this is very different,
sometimes it is directly opposite.
This is a second line of separation.
Again, drugs which select the same parts for their
primary action, act also upon other parts or organs in
a secondary or subordinate manner. And this subor-
dinate action turns out, for the different drugs, to be
upon different organs. Hence we have, for those
drugs whose primary action is on the same part, but
whose subordinate action is on different parts, a Z/2Zrd
/ime of separation. This forms an easy method of dis-
tinguishing them from each other.
A careful observation of these three differences—the
organs acted upon primarily or most powerfully—the
kind of action—and the organs acted upon Secondarily
or less powerfully, will be found to be sufficient to
distinguish one drug from another.
XXI. DRUG TO BE DISTINGUISHED 2 68 I
Time will not permit me to give examples, but they
will be familiar to you.
Let us turn for a moment to look at the diseases for
which we use these drugs, and at the various causes
which produce them, and we shall see three facts.
The common causes of disease act with a partiality
or power of selection. The primary or most powerful
action being on some particular parts or organs of the
body.
This action is special in its kind or direction.
Other organs are acted upon in a secondary, subor-
dinate, or less powerful manner. -
Here are two parallel sets of phenomena. Drugs,
in fact, act upon the healthy body very much as other
causes of disease are seen to act; and they differ from
each other as other causes differ. They are to be
numbered among the causes of disorder or disease in
healthy persons."
Such, I venture to think, is the answer to the ques-
tion, How is the action of each drug to be distinguished
&
from that of all others when taken in /ea/#/ 2
We will next consider the question with reference to
medicines, or drugs taken in sickness, and we shall
observe a similar series of facts.
Drugs taken in sickness show a partiality in their
action ; their primary effects appearing in some parts
of the body, and not in others. They differ from each
other in the parts selected for this primary or most
powerful action. In this manner they are distinguished
from each other.
They differ also in their Kind of action. It may be
remarked generally, that large doses act as medicines
in the same direction as that in which they act as
poisons, and small doses in an opposite direction.
They differ from each other in their suðordinate or
less powerful action.
* It is an obvious inference from this ſact that, except for
scientific experiment, healthy persons should never take
medicines. -
682 HOW IS THE ACTION OF EACH [ESSAY
Here is a series of phenomena parallel with that
produced by drugs taken in health. They are parallel
but not identical phenomena.
The link which connects the proving of, or experi-
menting with drugs in health, with the use of them as
remedies in disease, is this fact, that—
Drugs select &/ºe same parts in disease that they do
in health, both for their primary and for their second-
ary or subordinate actions.
This, I hope, is a satisfactory answer to the question
in the second aspect. How is the action of each drug
to be distinguished from that of all others, when taken
in sickness.
Suffer me now to offer three remarks —
The fact of selection itself opens the door to pre-
scribe drugs as medicines with two opposite intentions.
They may be given to act upon the healthy, or com-
paratively healthy parts, and so as to avoid the diseased
parts. Or, they may be given to act upon the diseased
Organs, and so as to leave the healthy ones untouched.
The fact that the direction of the action of medicines
is sometimes similar, and sometimes opposite to that
of poisons, according to the dose given, renders it
possible to use them antipathically or homoeopathi-
cally.
While the fact that the actions of a drug are on the
same parts, whether given in health or in disease,
greatly facilitates the choice of the remedies for the
individual patient.
This is the outline of the subject; but before it is
exhausted, other parts of it will require to be settled.
One of these is the peculiarity in the character of
each drug, which lies in the guanſity or dose in which
its various actions are produced. Unhappily, this part
of the subject is yet involved in much perplexity."
Another point is an enquiry into the limits within
* This perplexity is removed to some extent, in the follow-
ing Essays.
XXI.] DRUG TO BE DISTINGUISHED 2 683
which the curative action of each drug is confined.
Certainly the power of drugs over disease is limited.
This fact seems to have had little attention bestowed
upon it, having been forgotten by physicians as well as
by patients and their friends.
Again, a bye-path in this search after the knowledge
of drugs would lead us to the observation of some
curious facts relative to the mode of app/ying drugs
(as well as to the preparing of them for application), in
order to obtain their action. Some drugs act when
applied to the skin, as azºvica, 7%als, ran unculus,
can//ia7-ides; others when applied to the mucous
membranes, but not when put upon the skin, as
acozziće, 67 vony, Žzz/sa/7//a; others require to be intro-
duced by a wound into the circulation, as vaccine, and
some other animal poisons. Bel/adonna, if rubbed
round the orbit, will dilate the pupil; Calabar 6can,
similarly applied, will contract it."
It may be asserted that the primary actions of drugs
is upon the “vital principle.”
Hahnemann was a vitalist, following in this the
school of Van Helmont and Barthez. He announces
his adoption of these views at the commencement of
his Organon of A/edicine :
“In the healthy condition of man the spiritual vital
force, the dynamis that animates the material body rules
with unbounded sway, and retains all the parts of the
organism in admirable, harmonious, vital operation,
with respect to both sensations and functions, so that
our in-dwelling reason-gifted mind can employ this
living, healthy machine for the higher purpose of our
existence.” Six.
“When a person falls ill, it is only this spiritual, self-
acting vital force, everywhere present in his organism,
that is primarily deranged by the dynamic influence
* I have applied a considerable number of powerful drugs
in the same manner, without being able to add to these two
another which produced either dilatation or contraction of
the pupil.
684 HOW IS THE ACTION OF EACH |ESSAY
upon it of a morbific agent inimical to life; it is only
the vital force, deranged to such an abnormal state,
that can furnish the organism with its disagreeable
Sensations, and incline it to the irregular functions
which we call disease.” S xi.
Medicines cure by also possessing a spiritual
power —
“This spiritual power, capable of altering man's
health, (and hence of curing diseases), which lies hid
in the inner nature of medicines, is not, of itself, dis-
coverable by us in any way by a mere effort of reason;
it is only by experience of the phenomena it displays.”
§ XX.
This is imaginary. It is acknowledged to be so by
Barthez himself. These are his words —
“We can only give negative assertions, doubts, and
conjecture on the nature of the vital principle in man.”
Such speculation appears to me unpractical and
useless; if I may venture to Say SO, worse than use-
less; because it is covering ignorance with the clothing
of knowledge.
Let me not be misunderstood. I do not doubt that,
in addition to an immaterial and immortal soul, man
has an animal life in common with the brute creation.
But I doubt the utility of speculations on this animal
life in a medical sense ; and especially when a similar
kind of spirit is ascribed to drugs. We know too little
of this animal life for a profitable discussion of it at
the bedside of the sick.
It may be asserted that the primary action of drugs
is molecular, and that we Ought to start from molecules
or atoms, and their movements.
I believe that molecules, and molecular movements,
are real existences, and that infinitesimal doses, and
their action, belong to this category; though we cannot
follow them with the eye, even aided by the micro-
scope. This subject is entertained in the Essay on
‘the Small Dose,' written eighteen years ago. It has
been well handled, just now, by Professor Tyndall, in
his lecture before the British Association, at Liverpool,
XXI.] DRUG TO BE DISTINGUISHED 2 685
on the 16th of this month.” “There is,” he says, “a
world of matter and of motion to which the microscope
has no passport, and in which it can offer no aid.”
“The first marshalling of the atoms, on which all
subsequent action depends, baffles a keener power
than that of the microscope.”
Possibly the spectroscope may be an instrument
better fitted to tell us something about these atoms
and their movements. But, up to the present time,
we know little or nothing about them, much less can
we distinguish one from another. We cannot, there-
fore, penetrate thus far into the action of drugs.
When we descend into more visible and tangible
regions, it may be asserted that the primary action of
drugs is on the blood and its heterogeneous particles,
upon which each drug produces its particular change.
I believe it is ; but here also, except to a very limited
extent, both our microscopes and our chemistry fail
us. Notwithstanding the wonderful minuteness and
delicacy to which both these methods of research have
attained, they are not yet able to compete with the
subtlety of these changes. There is sufficient en-
couragement both to the microscopist and to the che-
mist to carry on the enquiry; but it cannot yet be
made the starting point to the therapeutist in his ex-
planation of the action of drugs.
Once more; it may be asserted that all drugs act
primarily upon the nervous system, each drug selecting
particular nerves; e.g., ipecacuanha the vagus; platinum
the trigeminus; colocynth the Sciatic. This assertion
may be true. I heartily wish our present provings of
drugs were complete enough to put us in a position to
investigate it thoroughly, and to master its details.
This would be a vast stride in advance in the patho-
genesis and therapeutic use of drugs. And further,
we are indebted to Sir Charles Bell for teaching us
that all nerves have special powers, some being nerves
of Sensation, others nerves of motion ; and that when
* September 1870.
686 HOW IS THE ACTION OF EACH [ESSAY
an Organ performs several functions, it receives nerves
from several sources. To be perfect in our method of
prescribing drugs, on the theory of nerve action, we
should know how to act upon each of these several
kinds of nerves. But our present knowledge in this
direction is far too limited to be practically useful.
Finally ; we are shut up to the conclusion that, if
we would advance a step beyond the mere mechanical
enumeration of symptoms, and prescribing for them
—a method which satisfies some, but which is very far
from satisfying all—we must look to the seat of these
symptoms, the part of the body whence they proceed.
We must look, in other words, to the pathology of our
cases, and try to discover the organs morbidly affected,
and the kind of affection. And seeing that, with our
present means, we cannot go beyond this in the ex-
amination of drugs, we must be content to concentrate
our attention upon the organs themselves, as supplied
with nerves and blood, and to learn the action upon
these organs of the several drugs we use.
And, assuredly, to determine as correctly as is
possible, the locality and the nature of the action of
every drug; and also the limits of its curative action,
are problems of the highest importance.
With these limitations, how is the action of each
drug to be distinguished from that of all others :
The answer, as we have seen, involves the observa-
tion of phenomena of various kinds. We have to learn
1. The organs, (solid and liquid), of the body upon
which each drug acts primarily.
2. The parts of the organs in which this action occurs.
. The Aiud of action, or the result produced.
. The organs which are affected subordinately.
. The quantifies or doses required.
The /i/ai/s of the therapeutic action.
As an example of the practical carrying out of these
views, so far as regards the first four of these series of
phenomena, I beg to invite your attention to the
diagram before you. It is necessarily brief and im-
i
XXI.]
687
DRUG TO BE DISTINGUISHED F
perfect, and probably, in some respects, erroneous;
but I hope it will convey an idea of what I think is
required to be done for every organ, and for every
drug.
LOCAL ACTION OF DRUGS.
BRAIN. ITS PARTS. RIND OF ACTION. SUBORDINATE ACTION.
Belladonna. Arteries. Inflammation. Throat, eyes, &c.
Opium. Veins. Congestion. Heart, nerves.
Hellebore. Absorbents. Effusion. Serous membranes.
Hyoscyamus. Cerebral substance. Visions. Eyes, heart.
Cannabis. Do. Convulsions. Urinary organs.
Narcissus. Do. Pain, insensibility. Stomach, uterus.
MIND.º.
Anacardium. | Memory. Failure of memory. Nerves of the five senses.
Aurum. Imagination. Dread of evil. Reproductive organs.
Oleander. Thought. Inability to think. Motor nerves.
Cotyledon. Emotions. Suppressed emotions. Heart, lungs.
Ignatia. DO. Sorrow. Rectum, spleen.
Mercurialis. Do. Excitement. Mucous membranes.
HEART.
Aconite. Arteries, muscle. Excitement, depression. Arteries, larynx.
Digitalis. Left Side. Depression, excitement. Kidneys.
Bovista. Walls. Hypertrophy. Skin, uterus.
Spigelia. Valves. Valvular disease. Eyes, ears.
Lachesis. P Chronic disease. Throat, bowels.
Bromine. P Do. Larynx, eyes.
BLOOD.
Ferrum. Red globules. Red globules increased. Heart, arteries.
Rhus. P Typhus. Joints, muscles.
Lycopodium. P Pus. Liver, intestines.
Titanium. P Albumen. Eyes.
Uranium. P Sugar. Kidneys.
Petroleum. P Mucus. Do., intestines.
Before concluding, suffer me to offer a few remarks
on the different forms of antagonism, with respect
to the use of medicines, which exist between the
1 So far as this is influenced by the brain.
688 HOW IS THE ACTION OF EACH [ESSAY
two Schools into which the medical profession is now
divided. .
Both schools take advantage of the local action of
drugs.
The first antagonism, briefly stated, is this —
The Old School says :—
Avoid the diseased organs, and act upon the
healthy parts. This is called revulsion, and counter-
27-7-zzazzotz.
I copy from my notes the conclusion of one of Dr.
Armstrong's lectures—the most eloquent and popular
teacher of the practice of physic in London forty-five
years ago—
“Practical application.
“I. Make out the internal conditions, by investigat-
ing minutely the combination of symptoms.
“2. Restore the diseased parts, by acting upon the
sound ones.”
This method is carried out in the Materia Medica
of Dr. Pereira. To give one example —
“Gamóoge—USES.–It is a remedy well adapted for
acting as a stimulus to the abdominal and pelvic viscera
to give them preternatural activity, and thereby
to relieve some distant organ, on the principle of counter-
irritation.”
The new school says:
Avoid the healthy organs — let well alone — do
not make artificial diseases — act upon the diseased
Organs :
e.g. give opium in apoplexy, cant/arides in inflamma-
tion of the bladder.
The second antagonism lies in this —
The old school now not unfrequently says:
You may act upon the diseased organ, but antipathi-
cally;
e.g. Dr. Graves recommends Öe//adonna to be given
to counteract that condition of the brain which is
accompanied with contraction of the pupil.
The new school says:—
Act upon the diseased part homoeopathically ,
XXI.] DRUG TO BE DISTINGUISHED F 689
e.g. give Óeſ/adonna for a dilated pupil, opium for a
contracted one.
The third opposition. It is now said, in effect :—
Prescribe homoeopathically, but give large doses, and
discover a pathological explanation.
This looks like an unwilling testimony to those who
Say – -
Prescribe homoeopathically, and give small doses;
acknowledge the obligation, and bear the odium.
I will detain you with but one further remark; it
will bring us back to the sentence with which we com-
menced.
Dr. Gull, in a discourse “One c/inical offservation in
7"elation to medicine in modern Zimes,” delivered at a
meeting of the British Medical Association, at Oxford,
in 1868, and published last year, in the “Medicine
of Modern Times,” gives an elaborate review of
pathology and diagnosis — the theory of disease.
He then sums up what he has to say on therapeutics
—the 4/keory of cure — in words of serious import
—I might almost say, of melancholy confession—
as showing how little, in what is vainly called “or-
thodox medicine,” the conclusion of the whole matter
alm OuntS to.
“The surgeon,” says Dr. Gull, “is contented to
place a wounded part under the conditions of physical
and physiological rest, and, after attention to hygienic
Conditions, to abide the result. This, no doubt, ex-
presses the largest part of our treatment of common
acute disease. We now Anow that we cannot directly
control the morbid processes in pneumonia, pleurisy, or
pericarditis; we know furt/er, that the means formerly
considered essential to the cure of these diseases, tested
by better clinical observations, were either useless or
pernicious.”
Now the new school, with a consciousness of the
Solemn responsibility of the statement, and denying
vain-glorious assumption, deems it its duty to say
—we do know that we can, when we have a fair
opportunity, often “directly control the morbid pro-
44
690 THE LOCAL ACTION OF DRUGS. [ESSAY XXI.
cesses in pneumonia, pleurisy, and pericarditis,” and
many other forms of acute, as well as of chronic
disease.
Thus encouraged, let us persevere in the daily
study of the local action of drugs, not forgetting
any longer the limits of their curative action. How
much over - drugging — how much useless and even
hurtful medication—how much unavailing effort and
bitter disappointment will such knowledge put an
end to .
ESSAY XX II.
THE ACTION OF DRUGS,
(CONTINUED.)
“The patient leaders of the Institute
Taught them by Facts.”
TENNYSON.
AN A LYSIS.
The knowledge of the right use of drugs is yet to be
sought for.
I. Homoeopathy in the general.
2. Homoeopathy in the individual.
3. Organopathy.
4. The kind of action of drugs.
5. The action of small doses.
6. A law for the dose.
Conclusion.
ESSAY X X II.'
THE ACTION OF DRUGS,
(CONTINUED)
“I wish you to get into the habit of contemplating the
whole science of medicine under its simplest and plainest
form.” SIR THOMAS WATSON.
PART IV.
IN this Essay it is attempted to find answers to the
remaining questions —
IV. What is the kind of action of drugs 2
V. What is the action of small doses 2
VI. Is there a law for the dose 2
A KNOWLEDGE of the action of drugs is certainly
one part of the Science of medicine. Let us try
to follow the advice of Sir Thomas Watson, and
seek this knowledge in “its simplest and plainest
form.”
The use of drugs as remedies in disease is so
ancient, that the history of its origin has faded away
from the human memory : it is a subject which, on
account of this antiquity, claims to be approached with
* First published in 1873. Being the Presidental Address
delivered at the Congress of British Members of the Medical
Profession practising Homoeopathy, held at Leamington,
September I Ith, 1873.
694 THE ACTION OF DRUGS. [ESSAY
respect. The use of such medicines is co-extensive
with the families of mankind ; the subject deserves, on
this account, to be handled with care. Above all,
the use of drugs as remedies is needed only during
human suffering, and in man's last agony on earth :
it demands, therefore, to be discussed with serious-
Il CSS.
Let us, to-day, approach this subject with respect ;
let us handle it with care, and discuss it with serious-
ness; and let us hope that a blessing from God will
rest upon Our endeavours.
The first thought which arises in the mind is a
question which cannot be asked without surprise :
how is it that, after so many centuries of the use
of drugs, the knowledge of the right manner of
using them is yet to be sought for 2 What is the
answer 2
With reference to all knowledge men are ignorant
from two conditions : in one of these knowledge is
placed; in the other, men themselves. The condition
in which knowledge is placed is, that much of it is
shrouded in darkness. God is light, and there is no
darkness in Him ; but he has seen fit to surround
much knowledge with a darkness which is impenetrable
by the eyes of men. These are hidden things whether
corporeal, intellectual, or spiritual, which belong to
God. - - -
The condition in which men are placed is, that there
are things upon which the light shines—whether the
light of the material sun, the light of reason, or the
light of revelation—but we do not see them because
our eyes are blinded. This knowledge is attainable,
but we are ignorant of it. These things belong to
man, and he ought to know them. What his eyes can
see, if he will use them aright, he may and Ought to
learn. Truth, then, is like the Sun; God may hide it
from us by placing clouds before its face; or it may
shine brightly, and we may not be able to see it be-
cause we are blind.
XXII.] THE ACTION OF DRUGS. 695
Now, in the department of medicine there is much
which is hidden in darkness, and which we cannot
know ; but there is also much upon which the light
shines, and it is our blindness alone which prevents us
seeing it.
Let us try to use our eyes both of body and mind,
for the power of seeing is strengthened by use. We
have to exercise our bodily senses in observing what is
presented to them ; and we have to engage our minds
in remembering, thinking about, and comparing the re-
semblances and contrasting the differences of the things
we have observed.
Before we can so use our eyes much dust has to be
removed. A great blinder of the eyes is prejudice,
another is self-interest, another is indolence, another is
pride, another is self-conceit ; all these throw dust into
the eyes, and prevent us seeing things upon which the
light shines. Let us wipe away this dust. These are
evil conditions which beset us all, like so many cuttle-
fishes spirting out their inky juices, and preventing the
mind seeing and feeding upon the objects provided
for its nourishment and growth. Let us labour to
get rid of these evil conditions, always remembering
that it is a great mistake to try rather to penetrate
into God's darkness than to remove our own blind-
IlêSS.
Some portions of the impenetrable darkness have
been pointed out in former Essays. For instance, that
the efficient cause, or the essence of the action of drugs
cannot be known to us, has been argued. Again, the
great evil of feigning /ypotheses to explain this hidden
thing has been insisted upon. And here, to prevent
a misunderstanding, suffer me to say that this word
“hypothesis” is used in two senses; in one sense it is
useful to the progress of Science; in the other it is the
bane of science. “Hypotheses” or conjectures are of
great use to suggest further enquiries and experi-
ments; to eaf/ain unknown things they are hurtful and
obstructive. -
696 HOMCEOPATHY IN THE GENERAL. |ESSAY
We will now make an effort to open our eyes, and
to look at the action of drugs in “its simplest and
plainest forms.”
To this end we will first notice briefly three pro-
positions respecting the action of drugs which may
be considered as proved, and, I think, as accepted
by the assembly I have now the privilege of address-
ing. This, for the purpose of making the proposi-
tions which are to follow more easily understood.
I. Homoeopathy in the genera/.
What are remedies P Poisons are remedies. “It
has been heard of old time in the world, that poison
is the antidote to poison.” This is as the proposi-
tion was expressed three or four thousand years
ago. In modern times, and in the language of
Shakspeare, it is expressed in the words “In poison
there is physic.” This is startling. How contrary
to anticipation, to a priori reasoning, that that which
does harm in health should do good in sickness
The human mind would never have discovered this
by ages spent in cogitation and reasoning. Our
knowledge of it is wholly due to observation. It is
a fact, not contrary to reason, but beyond its reach.
Nevertheless, our knowledge of its certainty is such
that, as a proposition, it is indisputable. BRODIE
himself could not doubt it. Arsenic and aconife,
mercury and Öe//adonna, copper and verałrume are
among the most deadly poisons we are acquainted
with ; and are they not also among the best re-
medies we possess 2 This lies before us as a plain
fact of observation, admitting of no question—much
less open to any denial. - -
But how have mankind acted upon and carried
out in practice this great principle 2 Truely with
many blunders. Enormous doses of powerful poisons
have been given, under the guidance of false views,
in all ages, to the grievous detriment of the sick.
Even HIPPOCRATEs himself sometimes killed his
XXII.] HOMOEOPATHY IN THE INDIVIDUAL. 697
patients with /he//eóore. Men in modern times have
been misled in the same manner. Mr. Annesley's
magnificent quartOS, On the Diseases of /ndia, are filled
with scruple doses of calome/. Dr. Rasori boasts of
giving half-dram doses of tardar-emeſic in pneumonia,
and others follow in his wake.
Such abuses as these have tended to bring the use
of medicines into discredit; this tendency has been
much increased since the manifest failure of the or-
dinary treatment of disease has been placed besides
the success of the small doses of homoeopathy, and so
the expectant or nothing-do method is becoming the
prevailing one of our time.
The abuse of a thing is not a good argument against
its use; moreover, that which is true in the general
must be true in its particulars. If all poisons are re-
medies, then each poison is a remedy, and the question
arises, a remedy for what 2
After ages of blundering and guessing, or to speak
with more professional propriety, after the reign of a
succession of hypotheses, we are indebted to SAMUEL
HAHNEMANN for giving us the first part of the
true answer. This brings us to the second pro-
position.
II. Homoeopathy in the individual.
Drugs, when taken in health in certain doses, pro-
duce symptoms which are peculiar to, and character-
istic of, each drug; and when given in Smaller doses
in diseases having similar symptoms, they are the best
remedies for those diseases. Homoeopathy in the
individual. This is Hahnemann's homoeopathy—
“similia similibus curantur.”
Whoever will look with open eyes at the experi-
ments which have been made on healthy and on sick
persons, during the present century, will be constrained
to admit that the detail of facts summed up in this
second proposition makes a Statement as undeniable
698 HOMCEOPATHY IN THE INDIVIDUAL. [ESSAY
and as indisputable as is the general fact expressed in
the first proposition.
Does not arsenic in certain large doses produce
inflammation of the stomach and bowels 2 In certain
Small doses it cures both. Does not //iosphorus cause
congestion and inflammation of the lungs and bowels 2
We see it in smaller doses cure these diseases in a
Surprising manner. Does not of intma in certain doses
bring on congestion of the veins of the brain—one
form of apoplexy 2 We see it in certain small doses
cure such congestion, and stave off attacks of apoplexy
threatening to be fatal. Do not cantharides cause
strangury P And was not Dr. Greenfield sent to
Newgate by the President of the College of Physicians
for curing strangury with these spanish flies 2 And
this notwithstanding that Hippocrates, more than
twenty centuries before, had said that “what causes
a strangury will cure it º’ And thus of all the rest,
for it is so true of every known drug, that it may
safely be predicated of every unknown drug. There-
fore, it is a true induction. Does not vera/ru/m2 in one
dose produce cholera, and in another cure it 2 Does
not be/ladoſzyna inflame the brain, eyes, and throat, and
does it not cure similar inflammations every day 2
And Öryony cause rheumatism, and cure it 2 And
ſpecacuanha sickness, and rhubarð diarrhoea, and cure
them P But where shall we stop 2 There is no known
exception to this rule. We might as well be asked
if we can distinguish light from darkness, as be asked
if we can doubt this proposition of Hahnemann,
The proposition has, indeed, been denied, misrepre-
sented, and ridiculed in an amazing manner, and with
amazing perseverance; but it is true notwithstanding,
and its reception by the medical profession as a
body cannot be long deferred. The real difficulties
which surround it, the substantial objections which
may be urged against it, we will notice by-and-
bye, and I think it will be our privilege to see them
removed.
XXII. HIOMCEOPATHY IN THE INDIVIDUAL. 699
The various ways in which the discovery of the
action and use of drugs may be sought for have so
recently been studied in these Essays, they need not
detain us now. Here we are agreed that the true
method of making this discovery is, first, to observe
the effects produced by drugs upon health, and then to
observe their effects upon disease.
By pursuing this method Hahnemann was led to
make the announcement of the dogma, “similia
simiſióus curanțur,” which he explains in these
words —
“Take the medicines according to the symptoms
careful and repeated observation has shown they
produce in the healthy body, and administer them
in every case of disease that presents a group of
symptoms comprised in the array of symptoms the
medicine to be employed is capable of producing on
the healthy body; thus will you cure the disease surely
and easily.”
This was the first modern statement of a guiding
principle. The first view of the pole-star in medicine.
Like the pole-star in the heavens, when first viewed
by the naked eye it appeared to be but one star;
moreover, as so seen it was nebulous, hazy, and
indistinct.
It has just now been remarked that there are diffi-
culties which beset this proposition as stated by
Hahnemann, and which are true objections to it.
The first of these is the haziness or indistinctness
which surrounds it. This defect robs it of its bright-
ness in a scientific point of view.
It is a two-fold defect, for this indistinctness or in-
definiteness belongs to it in two directions. One of
these is Zhe ºldeſ:/liteness of its app/ication. Hahnemann
made his principle applicable to an unlimited extent.
For example, he imagined it to apply to the physical
agencies of light, heat, electricity, and magnetism :
again, to the moral feelings; and again, to the action
* “Lesser Writings,' page 587.
700 ORGANOPATHY. |ESSAY
of one disease upon another. These obscurities were
fully discussed, and, it is hoped, cleared away in the
early Essays of this investigation; and do not require
to be noticed now beyond the remark that it seems to
be proved in those Essays that the principle called
homoeopathy is limited in its application to the action
of drugs.
The other direction of this defect lies in the indeft-
miſſeness of similarity itself. The term “like" or
“similar ’’ is too vague to satisfy scientific accuracy.
In this sense also, as well as in the one just noticed,
astronomers would call it nebulous, that is, wanting
the defined lustre of a star. How is this defect to be
removed P *-*-
When we have looked at the pole-star in the
heavens through the telescope of the astronomer, we
have seen that it is not a single but a double star.
When we have looked at the principle of homoeopathy
through the telescope of time we see that it also is not
single but double. Similarity still remains as be-
longing to the symptoms, but identity makes itself
visible as belonging to the seat of the symptoms.
The first star, though hazy, continues to shine as
before, but the second star shines also, and is less
nebulous, less hazy, less indistinct. And this is the
third proportion —
III. Organopathy.
The symptoms which each drug produces, when
taken in health, are assignable to certain parts of the
body as their seaf; and they are remedies for the
diseases of those parts. This is Organopathy. The
word is intended to express the identity of the seat of
drug action and the seat of disease.
This proposition has been so fully stated and ex-
amined in former Essays that it does not need to be
explained or vindicated now.
Like Hahnemann's proposition it has met with
vigorous denial, opposition and ridicule; and it has
XXII.] THE KIND OF ACTION OF . DRUGS, 7OI
been declared to be an old and exploded doctrine of a
German called Rademacher, notwithstanding that the
epitome of his notions given in the British Journal of
Homoeopathy’ (1850, Vol. viii, page 253) plainly con-
tradicts this accusation. But at our Congress at York
last year we were told by Dr. Drysdale that now
“nobody doubts it.”
Let me repeat. The principle of the founder of
homoeopathy, when limited as has been pointed out,
remains in all its vigour. The comparison between
the symptoms produced by large doses of drugs in
health, and the symptoms presented to our observation
in disease—all that Hahnemann meant to express by
the phrase “sºme?/ia simzi/zóws curantzer,” or by the
word homoeopathy, steadily abides.
And it may also be asserted that the identity of the
seat of action of drugs, and of the seat of diseases for
which they are remedies—which is the proposition
meant to be expressed by the word organopathy—
also remains unshaken by all that has been said
against it.
We are now prepared to advance from these three
propositions, which are known and received, to others
with which we are less familiar.
IV. The Aïnd of Action of Drugs.
There is another difficulty or defect which belongs
to Hahnemann's homoeopathy which it is important
that we should perceive clearly. It may be thus
stated —
The two portions of Hahnemann's method are the
outside links of a chain of causes between which there
are several unknown links. These two portions are
the symptoms of diseases and the symptoms of drugs.
That drugs produce when taken in sufficient doses
in health, symptoms similar to those produced by other
causes of disease, is a fact which does not require
further proof at the present day. But the collocation
702 THE KIND OF ACTION OF DRUGS. | ESSAY
or placing side by side of the symptoms of drugs and
the symptoms of disease, so as to perceive their
similarity, as is done by Hahnemann, is an empirical
arrangement; and consequently the rule of practice
that the drug having similar symptoms is the remedy
for the similar disease, deduced from this arrangement,
is an empirical law.
It is to be observed that these symptoms or detached
facts, thus placed side by side, are separated from each
other by a considerable distance, and that there must be
several links of unobserved facts between them, and
by which, as so many intervening causes, they must be
joined together. The two outside links are recognised
by us, but the connecting links are not yet seen dis-
tinctly. It is a duty to endeavour to discover these
intermediate links.
The first has already been pointed out; it is the
identity of the seat of action of drugs and diseases.
The second has now to be stated ; it is the identity
of the 42nd of action of drugs and diseases.
The third will be indicated by-and-bye.
Drugs are distinguished not only by their symptoms,
and by the seat or origin of the symptoms, but also by
the Kind of action by which the symptoms are pro-
duced. -
It has often been stated in these Essays that each
cause of disease has an action peculiar to itself, by
which it is characterised, and by which it is distin-
guished from others. Drugs are a cause of disease,
and the same is true of them. Each drug has an
action peculiar to itself, by which it is characterised,
and by which it is distinguished from every other drug.
We are now considering the action of drugs on healthy
persons.
This difference consists partly in the action being on
different organs of the body, and partly in its being of
a different kind. The characteristic symptoms being
the joint effect of these two differences.
Organopathy, the subject of the last proposition,
XXII.] THE KIND OF ACTION OF DRUGS. 7O3
deals with the different localities of the action. For
the most part its details are sufficiently intelligible.
The kind of action is a more subtle existence,
harder to identify and distinguish. Where does it
begin 2 w
The phenomena of life are a circle, and there is no
visible beginning in a circle; but since we must begin
our research somewhere, and since the blood is emi-
nently the life, we may safely take the beginning of
action to be in the blood. We will presume, therefore,
that the first difference consists in a difference in the
condition of the blood.
Each drug by its own presence produces this dif-
ference. This seems obvious. As each drug is a
peculiar thing, its presence in the blood must be suf-
ficient to constitute a peculiar condition of the blood.
The living fluid, and the life of that living fluid, are
affected by the presence of this foreign and peculiar
thing.
The next stage is the action of this changed blood
upon the living solids of some particular organ, or
organs of the body; the part acted upon has been
called the protoplasm or, by Dr. Lionel Beale, the
bioplasm.
This action on the bioplasm produces the objective
symptoms—the symptoms which can be perceived by
the physician.
Simultaneously with this action on the bioplasm
impressions are made on the nerves of the part.
These impressions are conveyed to the brain, and give
rise to the subjective symptoms—the morbid sensa-
tion felt by the patient.
Suffer me to place these ideas before you in other
words —
“The blood is the life,” and we may believe that
the first contact between life and the causes of disease,
including drugs, takes place in this living fluid. Here
is the first meeting, the first impression, the first action,
the first change from health, the first morbid pheno-
menon ; the link in the chain which connects the
704 THE KIND OF ACTION OF DRUGS. [ESSAY
exciting cause with all the successive phenomena of
any disease whatever.
From this beginning arise inflammatory conditions
of the arteries, congestions of the veins, obstructions
in the glands, irregular contractions and paralysis of
the muscles, derangements of the digestive and
respiratory processes, morbid nutrition, altered struc-
ture, disease of all parts. f
From this also spring all kinds of painful sensations
and morbid feelings.
The condition of the blood, therefore, admits of as
many alterations as there are kinds of substances which
can enter into it and act upon its life.
If we take this condition of the blood as included in
our present enquiry into the kind of action, there will
be as many different kinds of action as there are causes
of disease, or kinds of drugs.
Of many of these kinds of action, and even of the
existence of their causes, we should have no know-
ledge, but for the differences in their subsequent
effects. For example : the causes of some contagious
diseases are so subtle as to elude our observations.
They act upon the same parts but give rise to very
different symptoms; proving that the Áined of action is
different. They require different remedies, and the
difference in the symptoms both points out the differ-
ence in the kind of action, and directs us in the choice
of the remedy.
These remarks apply only to material causes of
disease and material remedies. The mind has also
power to disturb health, and even to destroy life. It
may act upon the blood through the brain and nerves.
It can derange the functions of any vital Organ.
Thus it appears that drugs have many kinds of
actions. How are we to become acquainted with them
Let us first have a clear perception that the action
itself in its essence, that is, the link which joins the
proximate cause to the proximate effect is one of the
unknowable things; and let us not be ashamed to
XXII.] THE KIND OF ACTION OF DIRUGS. 705
confess this. There are many things which we cannot
do : such were the dreams of the alchemists, who tried
in vain to turn lead into gold, and to discover the
elixir of life; and there are many things which we
cannot Amozy, and we waste our time if we try to find
them out. God's way of working in this sense is
hidden from us.
Man's pride has made him labour to hide this
unavoidable ignorance from himself by the invention
of explanatory hypotheses or conjectures. Suffer me
to repeat once more my protest against such hypotheses
in medicine. They are the greatest barrier to progress
which exists. Facts are grains of gold, and hypotheses
are the mountains which cover them.
Another protest I ask leave to make against the use
of words and phrases which are either void of meaning,
or to which only undefined ideas can be attached.
They are counterfeit coins of no intrinsic value, and
serve only to deceive. True words are the current
money of the mind. The word “catalysis” in che-
mistry is an example of a meaningless word : and in
“The Nomenclature of Diseases,” published by the
Royal College of Physicians, the first division of
“General Diseases” is a vague and undefined phrase
from which nothing is learned. What is meant by
calling “hooping-cough” and “mumps” “diseases of
the general system P’’ There is nothing in nature but
individuals; nothing in disease but disease of individual
parts; nothing in the action of drugs but action upon
one or more of these individual parts.
We admit, then, that the manner in which drugs
act, or the action itself, is beyond our power to discover.
We remember that the action is always a local action,
the antecedent cause of which, and its consequent
effects, are phenomena we can observe, let us now
enquire how this knowledge which is within our reach
is to be obtained P
It is to be learned in the same manner as the know-
ledge of the seat where the action takes place, by
experiments on healthy persons.
45
7O6 THE KIND OF ACTION OF DRUGS. [ESSAY
Experiments in health were made on a large scale
first by Hahnemann. The results are recorded by
him in a peculiar manner in his ‘Materia Medica' and
‘Chronic Diseases.’ They have been added to by
similar experiments similarly arranged by others.
These volumes have hitherto been the guide followed
in the greatest part of homoeopathic practice. They
exhibit in great detail the symptoms caused by each
drug. From these symptoms we may often learn both
the seat and the kind of action of the drug to which the
symptoms belong.
These experiments have commonly been made with
large doses of drugs : doses sufficient to produce con-
siderable and sometimes very great disturbance of
health. The knowledge acquired is that of the action
of large doses. Further experiments are required to
be undertaken with the intent/ion to discover the seat
and the kind of action.
Nearly all experiments before Hahnemann, with
such doses of drugs, were made upon the sick. The
object of both sets of experiments, that is, both on the
healthy and on the sick, is the discovery of the uses of
drugs as remedies for disease. These two great labours
of physicians resemble the tunnelling of Mont Cenis;
an arduous work begun on opposite sides of the
mountain ; by the French on one side, and by the
Italians on the other. Each had some miles to pene-
trate, and to persevere until it met the other. The
earlier physicians laboured for centuries, guided by the
notion that the action sought for must be of a contrary
Aznd to that of the disease. The later ones have
worked on till they have met the other, and the result
is a surprise. It is the discovery that the compass
which is to guide us in future is an action of the same
Áind as that of the disease.
The ideas I wish to communicate to you on this
subject may, perhaps, be made clearer by giving Some
details relative to the action of particular drugs.
The heart. Aconite and digitalis. These plants have
XXII.] THE KIND OF ACTION OF DRUGS. 707
a powerful and well known action upon the heart. In
the doses commonly experimented with in health, or
to speak with more precision, in a certain range of
doses, aconite quickens the movements of the heart,
and digitalis diminishes them. The locality or seat of
the action of these two drugs is the same. The kind
of action of one is in the opposite direction to that of
the other. They are antidotes to each other. Aconite
is given as a remedy when the heart beats too quickly.
Digitalis when its beats too slowly. The Kind of action
of the drug is the same as the Kind of action of the
disease for which it is a remedy.
The brain. Opium and Belladonna. These act
with great power upon the brain. In the doses just
described opium congests the veins and produces
apoplexy ; belladonna distends the arteries and causes
inflammation. They are respectively given as remedies
for the same kind of action of disease. The locality
of the action of opium and belladonna is not so iden-
tical, nor is the kind of action so directly opposite as in
the preceeding example, but the former is sufficiently
connected, and the latter is sufficiently contrary to
make these two drugs to Some extent antidotes to
each other.
Spine and spinal nerves. Nux vomica and cocculus.
These two drugs act powerfully upon the spinal system
of nerves. Their contrasted kind of action deserves
more careful study, but it appears, at present, to be in
opposite directions. Nux vomica tending to produce
spasms, and cocculus paralysis. Each is given as a
remedy in cases of disease which correspond to its
own kind of action, so far as that has been ascertained.
Throat. Mercury and belladonna. The difference
in the kind of action of these drugs is very visible.
The former causes ulceration, the latter inflammation
of the mucous membrane of the throat. They are
respectively given, every day, as remedies for the
same kind of unhealthy condition.
Muscles. Copper and lead. These two metals
have a strong action upon the muscular fibre. The
708 THE KIND OF ACTION OF DRUGS. |ESSAY
former causing spasmodic contractions, the latter para-
lysis. They are successfully prescribed as remedies in
the same kinds of morbid states. They act upon the
Same organs, but in opposite directions, and so are
antidotes to each other.
Uterus. Secale and actaea. These have an action
On the same organ but in opposite directions. The
former producing contraction, the latter relaxation.
They are to be prescribed accordingly.
Bladder. Cannabis and cantharis. It deserves
careful experimentation to learn how far these are
contraries to each other in their kind of action on the
bladder.
Iris. Belladonna and Calabar bean. The former
dilates the pupil, and the latter contracts it ; and they
are remedies accordingly.
Of course a large number of drugs have actions
which are different from, though not contrary to each
other in kind. The examples given are sufficient to
explain distinctly what is meant by the Kind of action
of a drug.
By the discovery of two of the intermediate links,
the outer ones upon which Hahnemann has hung the
dogma “similia simiſiózes curanțur” have been brought
into a clearer connection with each other. By this
discovery the mystery in which the chain of causation
was suspended is to some extent dissipated. The rule
becomes less empirical, and is not far removed from a
true induction.
We have spoken of the principle of homoeopathy as
the pole-star of medicine; seen at first indistinctly it
was hazy; on being looked at with more care a second
star became visible ; and having again been viewed
attentively it is seen to consist of three bright stars
instead of one. The astronomers would say that it is
more satisfactorily defined.
Another simile has been used ; the principle has
been described as a basis or foundation. It is now
three-sided, and it can support a three-sided column.
XXII. THE KIND OF ACTION OF DRUGS. 7O9
On one of these sides “similarity of symptoms” was
carved by Hahnemann ; on the next is engraved
“identity of seat of action ;” and on the third is now
written in legible characters “identity of kind of
action.”
This chapter shall close with a few brief remarks
upon symptoms, and the uses which may be made of
them by thoughtful observation. They are of use—
I. To discover the seat of disease. For this purpose
some symptoms are of much greater value than others.
In the same manner the seat of the action of each
drug, if it is not actually visible, may be discovered
from the symptoms. When a drug is prescribed as a
remedy it must be able to act in the locality of the
disease. In other words, the seat of the disease and
the seat of the drug action must, so far as we can
ascertain, be the same.
2. To learn the kind of diseased action. For this
also some symptoms are much more useful than
others. When a drug is given as a remedy, its kind
of action, so far as we can discover it, must be the
same as the action of the disease. This second study
of the symptoms serves to distinguish from each other
the drugs which act upon the same organs.
These two uses are for the purposes of diagnosis
and treatment.
3. To form an opinion of the probable result or
termination of the illness. Again, some symptoms are
much more of a guide than others. This is for prog-
nosis. Sometimes the symptoms which at once decide
the diagnosis are quite different from those which
should guide the treatment, and both of these may differ
from the symptoms which determine our opinion of the
probable result.
It is to be noted that the previous symptoms from
the commencement of the illness, or what is called the
history of the case, require attention as well as those
which form the present condition of the patient.
We will now go in search of another of the yet
7 Io THE ACTION OF SMALL DOSES. [ESSAY
undiscovered links in this wonderful chain of causes
which join together the two outside links, the symp-
toms of drugs with the symptoms of diseases.
V. 7%e Action of Smal/ /Ooses.
My brethren, the time is come when the dangerous
question of the small dose must again be taken up.
Twenty years ago, as some of you may remember, I
wrote an Essay upon it with deep interest. The
novelty of the subject and its beauty charmed me, and
I heartily desired that its contemplation might give as
much pleasure to others as it did to myself. Since
that time, whenever the purpose of continuing it has
arisen, increasing difficulties have gathered round me,
till I saw that the small dose could not be further
dealt with, unless the principle of homoeopathy could
be placed upon a more stable foundation, and in a
clearer light.
This task, I flatter myself, has now been accom-
plished.
The resumption of the pursuit after the truth of the
small dose can, therefore, be no longer deferred. But
it is a doleful and a thorny path, and in entering upon
it I am reminded at the same moment, by its doleful-
ness of AEneas's trouble when Dido asked him to
recount the disasters of the seige of Troy —
“Infandum, Regina, jubes renovare dolorem ;”
and by its prickles, of those sturdy thistles which are
the national emblem of our northern neighbours, and
which are surrounded by the appropriate motto —
“Nemo me impune lacessit !”
Nevertheless, the time, which neither troubles nor
prickles can postpone, is come, and the path must now
be trodden.
An attentive perusal of the 14th and 15th of Dr.
XXII.] THE ACTION OF SMALL DOSES. 7 II
*
Dudgeon's ‘Lectures on the Theory and Practice of
Homoeopathy' is sufficient to convince us that the
question of dose is lost in the same dark labyrinth in
the new school of medicine, that the question of
remedy is in the old school. There are plenty of
judgments given in each school on the difficulty which
agitates it, and all these judgments profess to be based
on experience. The results in both cases are a lively
illustration of the truth of two portions of the first
aphorism of Hippocrates, namely, that “experience is
deceitful, and judgment difficult.”
Nothing can be more variable, nothing can be more
contradictory than the many judgments given by
Hahnemann himself, upon the doses of medicine.
Sometimes he recommends substantial doses, little
differing from common ones. Sometimes excessively
small quantities, but these varying with each drug,
with the nature of each disease, and with the Suscepti-
bilities of each patient. At one time he advocates the
use of the smallest doses in acute disease, and larger
ones in chronic cases; and he finally closes the subject
by fixing upon the 30th dilution as the proper dose of
every drug and for every disease. He laid down this
law, but he did not himself follow it; he laid it down
to bind others, but they have never been bound by it.
The changes in Hahnemann's teaching on this and on
Other important points of medical doctrine and practice
have drawn from Dr. Dudgeon the following damag-
ing reflection —
“How curious it is to observe that Hahnemann
continually contradicts himself on almost every point
of his doctrines and practice; and still more curious it
is to notice that the contradiction is generally side by
side with the opposite statement.”
* See also the leading article in the ‘Monthly Homoeo-
pathic Review for August, 1871 (Vol. XV, page 449), by
Dr. Pope ; which contains as good a summary of the present
state of knowledge and opinion on the question of dose as
could be given.
* Dr. Dudgeon’s ‘Lectures,' page 406.
7 I 2 THE ACTION OF SMALL DOSES. |ESSAY
There are no doses which Hahnemann has not at
one time adopted, and at another abandoned. So
that, in truth, the question is left by him in the
greatest confusion. He sometimes used appreciable
doses, and he introduced the use of indescribably small
doses, but he discovered no clue by which we might be
guided in this labyrinth.
Nor are the judgments pronounced by succeeding
writers in the new school on the doses of medicines in
any degree less contradictory. -
Dr. Rau says: “The best guide is the maxim that
the susceptibility of the organism for homogeneous
irritation is in the direct ratio of the violence of the
disease. Thus the more violent and acute the disease,
the smaller must be the dose of the remedy, and the
larger must it be, the longer the disease has lasted and
the more chronic its character is.”
On the contrary, Dr. Trinks says, the maxims that
experience has determined are—
“I. Acute diseases require the lower (stronger)
dilutions.
“2. Chronic diseases higher (smaller), and often the
highest (smallest) attenuations.
“3. There are many exceptions to this.”
Dr. Dudgeon himself seems to adopt this view.
He says:—
“Though we are still considerably in the dark with
respect to the suitable dose of a remedy, I think this
darkness has been partially dispelled by the experience
of so many homoeopathic practitioners extended over
so many years. This experience seems to show that
the more material doses, or the lower dilutions of
medicines, . . . . are best adapted to diseases of
rapid course and considerable violence; and that the
higher dilutions are better adapted to diseases of a
more chronic character; but there are many exceptions
to this.” ”
Dr. Geddes Scott in like manner argues that the
2
* Ibid., p. 409. * Ibid., p. 423. * Ibid., p. 445.
XXII.] THE ACTION OF SMALL DOSES. 7 I 3
potency to be chosen is determined by the character of
the disease.
There are many other maxims and rules given by
other writers which would occupy too much time were
I to quote them.
Of these maxims and rules I beg you to observe two
things —
First. The authors of them admit that there are
many exceptions to them ; so that they can have no
claim to be received as natural laws. They resemble
the rules of grammar, not the laws by which God
governs His works.
Secondly. They are derived from the same barren
source from which the old schools of medicine have,
in all ages, attempted to derive rules for the choice
of remedies—namely, the consideration of the disease
and of the patient, not of £/e properties of the drug.
Now, Hahnemann's law of homoeopathy was dis-
covered by forsaking this path, and following another.
He turned his attention to the action of drugs
in health. It is surprising that homoeopathists
should have been beguiled into following again the
old course, which had so signally failed, and should
have expected to find rules for the dose in this way.
The knowledge we desire, and which we are
now in search of, is the knowledge of the action on
disease of small doses of drugs. How is it to be
obtained 2
It is said on all sides that the only way of learning the
action of these doses, and how to choose the best is
the way of eafterience. But experience without a guide
is a ship without a compass. Blind experience teaches
little. It is always justifying the condemnation
pronounced upon it by Hippocrates, and proving
itself deceitful. The method of experience has
failed. A guide for experience is needed; how is it to be
found 2 Not by experiments on disease itself. These
experiments have been made for many years, and by
many physicians, and the guide has not been found.
7 I4 THE ACTION OF SMALL DOSES. [ESSAY
Attention to Lord Bacon's Sixth Aphorism will help
UlS ...—
“It would be madness to suppose that things
which have never yet been performed, can be per-
formed without employing some hitherto untried
IIl Cºlſ).S.
What means are there yet untried which we may
adopt with renewed hope of success P For several
years I have urged upon my colleagues the necessity
of learning the action of different doses in the
manner that Hahnemann discovered the action of
different drugs. By experiments with them in health.
As far as I am aware no one has yet taken up this
work. I shall, therefore, now endeavour to recommend
it again, not by showing its necessity, but by beginning
to do it. -
The action of large doses—that is, of poisonous
and of ordinary medicinal doses — has been made
known to us, to a great extent, by cases of poisoning,
and by provings, or voluntary experiments with them,
in health.
The action of small doses, as distinct from f/at of
/arge ones, has not been studied by Separate provings
of them in health. This knowledge is demanded,
and it is the search for it which I have attempted to
begin.
Fażeriments with small doses.
These experiments have been carried on for some
time during every opportunity of leisure. They have
embraced a considerable variety of drugs; among them
these :— -
Aconite.
Digitalis.
Phosphorus.
Spigelia.
Opium.
Veratrum.
Mercury.
Tartar emetic.
XXII.] THE ACTION OF SMALL DOSES. 7 I 5
Most of the experiments have been several times
repeated. Thé doses experimented with have not
embraced quantities smaller than the first centesimal
dilution or trituration : that is, the hundredth part of a
drop of the sap of a plant, or the hundredth part of a
grain of a mineral. No opinion respecting the action
of smaller doses than these is given ; they remain to
be investigated by others. Nearly all the experiments
were made upon myself, and under conditions as nearly
uniform as was possible ; this has appeared to me a
great advantage. It may be remarked that I am
Sensitive to the action of small doses, having taken
none other for three and twenty years; it is not pre-
sumed, therefore, that ea act/y :/e same doses will be
followed in every one by the same effects; but it is
believed that these experiments have been so care-
fully made that they are typical, and that the
same results will follow in all other experiments,
made with equal care, within a certain range of these
doses. -
This is not the opportunity to give the details of these
experiments, but I am happy to be able to state some
of the conclusions which may be drawn from them, and
to give some brief examples.
And, first, of individual drugs —
Aconife.
Aconite seems to have at least four different kinds
of action upon the heart, which are dependent upon the
dose.
First action. A dose of one or of two drops of the
first centesimal dilution first quickens the heart's action
for a short time (one, two, or three minutes), then
retards it.
e.g. Oct. 19, 1872, one or two drops of this tincture
taken in separate experiments, when the pulse was 80,
in one minute raised it to 82, in two minutes to 84 or
716 THE ACTION OF SMALL DOSES. |ESSAY
86, then, after the third minute, it fell to 82, and after
the fourth minute to 78 or 76. *
Second action. One or two drops of the sap of
the plant (two or four drops of the “mother tinc-
ture"), quickens the heart's action, and no retardation
follows. - -
e.g. Dec. 3, 1872, my pulse at 72 was raised in three
minutes to 75, in five minutes to 78; it fell in ten
minutes to 76, in fifteen minutes to 73, and in twenty
minutes from the commencement of the experiment to
72, at which it remained.
Third action. We know from many published cases
that larger doses than these (several, or many drops of
the tincture), first depress the heart's action for a short
time, then quicken it very much.
Fourth action. From similar sources we learn
that still larger doses (some solid portions of the
plant itself), destroy life during the first depressing
action. Mr. Gordon, of Dingwall, died in this
manner.
These four kinds of action of aconite may be re-
duced to two, in their tendencies. First, the action of
small doses; the tendency of these is to quicken and
then to retard the pulse. Second, the action of
larger doses; the tendency of these is to retard
or depress, and then to quicken the heart's beats.
When the experiments fail to produce these con-
secutive effects there is some impediment in the way.
Aconite, then, in small doses, quickens the heart's
action for a brief period before it retards it. This has
probably been observed for the first time. The obser-
vation surprised me.
It very soon makes the pulse slower. This we are
all familiar with in the use of aconite as a remedy in
inflammatory fever. I lately saw a pulse of 130
brought down to 40 in about three days, by repeated
doses of this first dilution of aconite.
The range of these small doses having this action
on me lies between the first dilution and the one-fifth
XXII.] THE ACTION OF SMALL DOSES. 717
part of a drop of the mother tincture : that is, from the
hundredth to the tenth part of a drop of the sap. It is
probable that in others it may lie between this tenth
part and a whole drop.
Of all these varied actions of aconite upon the heart
the only truly curative influence is the second action of
the small dose. It follows that the only legitimate use
of aconite is in doses which produce this retarded
motion of the heart.
ZDigita/is.
Hahnemann says that aconite and digitalis are “an-
alogous remedies.” It is true that the locality of their
action—the heart—is the same, but their kind of action
On this organ is in opposite directions.
Oct. 21, 1872. 7.30. A.M.
Pulse 80.
One drop of Tinct. Digitalis I (cent.) taken.
Ist minute, 80.
2nd , 8O.
3rd , 8O.
4th , 80.
5th , 8O.
6th minute, 80, second drop taken.
7th y y 76.
8th , 76.
Ioth 3 y 78.
I 2th , 76.
I4th y y 78.
16th y 3 8O.
2Oth y y SO.
2 Ist minute, 80, third drop taken.
22nd , 76.
2 3rd , 76.
25th , 76.
718 THE ACTION OF SMALL DOSEs. [ESSAY
27th minute, 78.
29th } } 78.
3Oth , 8O.
32nd , 83.
34th , 84.
36th , 85.
40th , 84.
63rd 3 y 8O.
It will be noticed that this action is the reverse of
that of similar doses of aconite. - -
8.30 A.M., an hour after commencing the proving,
there was a very decided action on the kidneys, shown
in increased secretion.
A second kind of action is produced by doses of
digitalis a hundred times larger than these —
Dec. 2, 1872. I 2.30 P.M.
Pulse 64.
Two drops of Tinct. Digitalis $ taken (equal to one
drop of the sap of the plant.)
5th minute, 68.
IOth , 72.
15th y 7 68.
50th y 3 64.
At which it remained.
Three and four times this quantity produces a third
kind of action —
June I I, I873. 7.35 A.M.
ulse 66.
Six drops of Tinct. Digitalis p taken.
2nd minute, 68.
4th ,, 67.
6th 3 y 66.
8th , 67.
Ioth y ) 68.
I 5th , 66.
2Oth , 63.
25th , 64.
XXII.] THE ACTION OF SMALL DOSES. 719
June 16, 1873. 7.50 P.M.
Pulse 72.
Eight drops of Tinct. Dig. p taken.
2nd minute, 73.
4th , 74.
6th 5 y 76.
Ioth y 5 74.
40th y 3 72.
6oth ,, 66.
8Oth y) 64.
IOOth , 72.
The result of these and similar experiments with
digitalis, both in health and sickness, is the conviction
that the curative action of this plant is the second
action of the first centesimal dilution. This is the
power which it possesses of increasing the contractile
force of the heart—both in frequency and strength.
It is the direct opposite of aconite. In old language
aconite is a febrifuge; digitalis a tonic. It is my belief
that these drugs are never legitimately employed as
remedies in affections of the heart except in these two
opposite capacities.
It is further worthy of notice, in relation to these
two plants, that they both have a powerful action upon
the kidneys, and that they both act upon this organ in
the same direction. A certain range of doses of aconite
and of digitalis increase the secretion of urine, and a
certain range of larger doses of both cause suppression
of it.
Your time must not be occupied with cases, but one
may be given as an example —
Case.—Mrs. S., a stout lady, of 58, has frequently
suffered from disturbance of the heart, the first occasion
of which was an attack of rheumatic fever, and which is
characterised by a feeble and intermitting pulse, a
sense, not of acute pain, but of great discomfort about
the heart, especially when walking, and general weak-
ness. This state of things has been repeatedly removed
in a few days by digitalis. The dose is one drop of
72O THE ACTION OF SMALL DOSES. [ESSAY
the first centesimal dilution—the hundredth part of a
drop of the Sap—three times a day. The intermission
in the beats of the heart ceases soon after beginning
to take the medicine, and the pulse becomes slower
and stronger. The benefit derived by the patient is
always very striking to herself.
Let it be remembered that aconite and digitalis are
opposites in their action on the heart. They are, in
fact, antidotes to each other. The action of the two
is as opposed as the action of belladonna and Calabar
bean upon the pupil. If we would use them aright as
remedies we must give aconite to diminish its power
and digitalis to increase it.
Phosphorus.
We are indebted to Hahnemann for teaching us how
to make the doses of this poisonous substance small
enough to be used with safety and success as a remedy.
We learn that in the doses he used in his provings of
it, its action on the heart is powerful. He gives these
symptoms —
“Fever with small, hard, quick pulse. Accelerated
circulation of the blood. Throbbing of the carotids.
Pulse quick and full; or, pulse quick and faint.”
On the principle of similia, &c., therefore, it is used
in inflammation and inflammatory fever.
The following is a careful proving of a small dose:–
Oct. 19, 1872. 8 P.M. Pulse 74.
One drop of Tinct. Phosp. I (cent) taken.
Ist minute, 76.
2nd , 76.
3rd , 74.
4th , 72.
5th y 3 72.
6th , 72.
7th , 70.
8th ,, 7O.
Ioth } ) 72.
20th 74.
Which continued.
XXII.] THE ACTION OF SMALL DOSES. 72 I
8.30. Pulse 74.
Second drop taken.
Ist minute, 72.
2nd ,, 72.
3rd , 72.
4th ,, 7C).
5th , 70.
6th y y 7O.
7th , 70.
8th 3 y 72.
Ioth y 3 72.
2Oth - 7O.
y y
Which continued some time longer.
From these experiments it appears that phosphorus
acts upon the heart in small doses in the same manner
that aconite does in similar doses. So that, to this
extent, its use in inflammation and inflammatory fever
is justified.
Spige/ia.
It has often been remarked with regret that Hahne-
mann does not tell us the doses he experimented with
in his provings of drugs in health. We may, however,
form some idea of the doses of spigelia used by him
from his preface to the proving of this plant. He
says :—
“The provings ought to be instituted with the
greatest care, inasmuch as even sity, eighty, or a
hundred drops of the tincture produce powerful effects
in even robust and very healthy persons.”
From such experiments as these we learn that
spigelia acts strongly upon the heart. The pulse is
said to be irregular, now slow, now quick ; and falls
from 72 to 54. Palpitation and unusually strong
beatings of the heart, &c.
The following proving shows very accurately the
action of a small dose of Spigelia upon the heart —
46
722 THE ACTION OF SMALL DOSES. [ESSAY
Oct. 21, 1872. Evening 7.20.
Pulse 77.
Tinct. Spig. I (cent.). One drop taken in 2 dr. of
Water. v
Ist minute, 76.
4th , 75.
8th , 78.
IOth , 77.
I 2th , 77.
2Oth , 77.
7.4O. Pulse 77. A second drop taken.
2nd minute, 79.
5th , 78.
IOth , 78.
I 5th , 78.
2Oth , 78.
8.0 o'clock. Pulse 78. A third drop taken.
2nd minute, 80.
5th , 80. Respirations IO and deep.
Ioth 5 y 82. 5 y 8 y 3
I 5th y 3 84. 3 y 6 y y
20th ,, 8O. y y 8 y 3
25th » 79. 5 y IO 3 y
3Oth , 79. y y 14 no longer deep.
35th j } 78. 3 y I 6 y y
6oth 77. I 7 natural.
Taken by surprise by the slow and deep breathing.
It will be observed that this action of spigelia on the
heart is the opposite of the action of phosphorus and
aconite, and that it corresponds with that of digitalis.
Its use as a remedy is indicated as one similar to the
use of digitalis—to strengthen the action of a feeble
heart. -
It will also be observed that a new element is intro-
duced in this proving, namely, the function of respira-
tion. .
Let us linger over this a few moments. The effect,
XXII.] THE ACTION OF SMALL JDOSES. 723
after the third dose of spigelia, was very remarkable.
It took me quite by surprise. The breathings became
so slow and so deep that it was in fact a process of
slow and deep sighing. This ought to be remembered
when we meet with a similar condition of respiration
in a patient, especially in connection with a feeble
heart. - -
It may be objected that the respiratory function is
not so entirely removed from voluntary influence as
the heart's action is, and that this slow breathing
may have been, partly at least, my own fault. To
obviate this objection experiments were made (on
Nov. 22, 1872) on voluntary slow and quick breathing.
It was found that it is possible to get over a minute
with //ree breathings; or to make above //ºrſy. But
the effort required to accomplish either of these feats
is considerable; SO that a conscientious experimenter
can have no difficulty in avoiding this cause of error.
He can distinguish very well involuntary slow or quick
breathing from any such efforts of his own.
It should be remarked that in these provings of
small doses of drugs, intimations that other organs
were slightly affected were occasionally given ; for
instance, while taking the Spigelia, a shoot of pain
through the forehead was felt. But these are omitted
to prevent complications and distractions of thought.
Opium.
This is considered the most valuable of all drugs by
the ordinary practitioner, and he gives it every day as
a sedative and as an astringent.
It is well known that large doses of opium, or its
tincture laudanum, do possess these two kinds of
action.
It is also well known that comparatively small doses
(from the eighth to a quarter of a grain or more), have
a contrary action ; that is, a stimulant one upon the cir-
culation and the nervous system. This action, though
724 THE ACTION OF SMALL DOSES. |ESSAY
known, is not much taken advantage of by physicians.
It is sought for by a large multitude of people who
take opium themselves. -
It is not yet known that such small doses as are
under investigation in this essay also possess the power
of increasing the heart's action, and of enlivening the
brain. *
I have tried many experiments with doses from the
hundredth part of a drop (the first dilution) to two
drops of the tincture of opium, and in every instance
the pulse has been quickened, and sometimes rendered
sensibly fuller, in two or three minutes, e.g., from 66 to
68 and from 70 to 76. After a longer or shorter interval,
e.g., in from five minutes to an hour, determined by the
dose, the beats return to what they were at the begin-
ning, and sometimes afterwards descend a little below
this. The manifest effect, in all these experiments, is
increase of frequency, and often of fulness also.
The contrary of the small dose to the astringent
effect of the large one is known only to homoeopathists;
but they do not always avail themselves of this know-
ledge as they might do. This is really a serious
neglect, and in order to direct more attention to this
valuable action of opium, I think it right to put on
record the following case —
Case.—An officer in the army, holding a high posi-
tion in India, was in England in 1872. He was in
good health, but inconvenienced by constipated bowels.
He placed himself under the care of a very popular
homoeopathic physician in London, who prescribed for
him for five months. Among the remedies prescribed
were—nitric acid, I dec. 5iij in aq. 5iv : a teaspoon-
ful in water twice a day; bryonia, q, 5ij, Seven drops
in water night and morning; podophyllum, gr. iij,
sacch. lac. gr. v), six powders, one at bedtime; tinct.
hydrastis, p 5ij, 7 or 8 drops in water night and morn-
ing; acid, phosphor. Ph. B. ſo drops in water, twice
a day; tinct. chin, nitr. I dec. 5iv, aq. ad 5viij, a
tablespoonful in water 2 or 3 times a day; tinct. nucis
vom. @ gutt. xij; Sacc. lac. gr. xij, in a powder for an
XXII.] THE ACTION OF SMALL DOSES. 725
injection. Nux v. I dec. for two doses, &c. All this
was without any benefit. He came down to Rugby in
November. I gave him tinct, opii I (first centesimal
dilution), part of a drop night and morning as long as
required, but to be omitted when the bowels act. In
March, 1873, he came again, and reported that the
medicine for the bowels had answered perfectly; he
had been two months without taking any ; and was
quite well. A degree of torpor or sluggishness of the
bowels had, in fact, been his only ailment, and the
Small doses of opium had removed this.
Vera/rzúme.
That white hellebore produces excessive diarrhoea
has been well known since the days of Hippocrates.
This is the action of the doses commonly given.
I have found that one drop of the first dilution of
the tincture (that is, the hundredth part of the drop of
the sap of the plant), taken night and morning, will
produce constipation in four or five days. The person
upon whom this was proved was a healthy young
1T).2.1].
Al/ercury.
In the same manner it is very well known that pre-
parations of mercury are given every day to produce
relaxation of the bowels. Half a grain of the first or
second trituration of metallic mercury taken night and
morning for some time will constipate the bowels.
7 artar emzeźic.
The action of this salt of antimony, as learned from
cases of poisoning and from the provings hitherto
made, appears to be on
The stomach and bowels,
The skin,
726 THE ACTION OF SMALL DOSES. [ESSAY
The kidneys,
The heart,
The lungs.
The organs which commonly escape its action are
The brain and spinal nerves,
The voluntary muscles,
The bones and joints.
Not only the kind of action, but also the organs
selected to be acted upon, depends upon the dose. A
grain will act on the stomach and cause vomiting ; a
quarter of a grain will act on the bowels and purge;
one-sixteenth of a grain repeated a few times will act
on the skin, and produce perspiration. Some doses
will bring out an eruption on the skin very closely
resembling the eruption of small-pox. The question
to be answered now is this : What will the hundredth
part of a grain do *
Nov. 4, 1872. 7.0 P.M. Ant. Tart. I. One drop
in 55 of water.
Pulse, 72. Breathings, 18.
2nd min. 70. 4th min. 20.
5th , 72. 8th ,, 18.
Ioth , 67. I 2th , I4.
I 5th , 72. I8th , I 3.
2Oth , 7 I. 24th , I 2.
25th , 74. 28th , IO.
| Deep, uncomfort-
3Oth , 68. U able sighings.
Quickened by (35th , 70. 34th , 8.
the deep | 40th , 72. 38th , 7.
breathing. 50th , 77. 42nd , 6.
60th , 66. 52nd , I 2.
60th ,, 18 natu-
I 20th , 66. ,, 18 | ral.
In this experiment the pulse, it will be seen, was
slightly decreased in frequency, but the principle action
was upon the respiratory process, which equalled that
of Spigelia.
XXII.] THE ACTION OF SMALL DOSES. 727
This seems to be the place to notice the apparent
want of effect of very large doses of some drugs.
Tartar emetic, though so active a poison in doses of
a grain or two, has been given in half-dram doses with
little result. Tincture of digitalis has been given in
ounce doses “with much less effect than might be
imagined.” “MM. Trousseau and Pidoux tell us that
they have taken half an ounce of good asafoetida at
one dose, with no other effect than that of altering the
odour of their secretions, by which they were kept for
two days in an infected atmosphere possessing a more
horrible degree of fetidity than even asafoetida itself l’
I know nothing yet which can be inferred from these
remarkable facts."
These examples of the proving of small doses must
suffice, but before proceeding to more general con-
clusions it may be useful to repeat the results obtained
relative to the pulse and the breathing.
The Pulse.
Aconite first quickens, then retards the pulse.
Digitalis reverses this order.
Phosphorus acts as aconite does.
Spigelia reverses this also.
Bovista acts too slightly to detect any order.
Lead does the same.
Oleander first quickens the pulse.
The Respiration.
Spigelia reduced the breathings from 17 to 6.
Bovista raised them from I 7 to 22.
Lead first depressed them from 18 to 15, then raised
them to 20. A second dose reduced them to I I,
then quickened them to 23.
Oleander first quickened, then lowered them, revers-
ing the action of lead.
And let me make one observation on these facts.
I See Essay XXVI, on saffron.
728 THE ACTION OF SMALL DOSES. [ESSAY
We find a great deal said in works on medicine on the
sympathy of the different organs of the body with each
other : as of the brain and stomach, the heart and
lungs, the skin and kidneys, &c. And all this is true,
and of great interest. But the other side of the
subject is rather overlooked; that is the independent
action even of organs most closely connected with
each other, as in the above instances of the heart and
lungs.
The action upon these organs, whether of disease
or of drugs, is not necessarily of a uniform or equal
character. The pulse may be either quickened or
made slower, and not the breathing, or vice versa. In
a case of pneumonia I saw a short time ago, on one
day the pulse was I 3O and the breathings 30 ; the
next day the pulse had fallen to I2O and the breath-
ings had risen to 36. Still greater differences were
observable in the provings just recorded, showing the
same independency.
The following general conclusions, or inductions,
may, I think, be safely drawn from the experiments
which have been made with small doses :—
1. The kind of action of drugs varies with the dose.
2. This variation, in a certain range of large doses,
amounts to opposition to the kind of action of
another range of small doses.
The directions of the range of large doses is the
same as that of the diseases for which, in small
doses, they are remedies.
4. The direction of the range of small doses is in
opposition to that of the diseases which they
Cll re.
. This opposite tendency is shown in health. Its
cause, therefore, is not a difference in the state
of the organ arising from disease, but in the
quantity of the drug.
6. The varying conditions of disease have their
influence on the action of drugs, but the effects
of this influence are not at present under inves-
tigation.
3
5
XXII.] THE ACTION OF SMALL DOSES. 729
We are now prepared to consider how the informa-
tion, so carefully obtained, bears upon our position as
homoeopathists.
Those who have honoured the early Essays of this
investigation with a perusal, will remember that atten-
tion was asked to the vague and indefinite character of
Hahnemann's law of homoeopathy. He, in fact, as we
all know, extended its application on all sides. This
vagueness is one reason why the teaching of Hahne-
mann has been so distasteful and unsatisfactory to the
medical profession.
It will be remembered that it has been distinctly
shown in these Essays that the law should be limited
to the action of drugs.
The next step was an endeavour to prove that
symptoms, whether of diseases or of drugs, must be
traced to their seat : the organs which are the seat of
the action, both of the disease and of the remedy,
being the necessary substratum in which the action
takes place.
You will see that it is now my duty to point out
another limitation.
The rule of similarity of action, as manifested by
the symptoms of diseases and of drugs—the law
of homoeopathy—must be confined to the action of
comparatively /a/ge doses of drugs.
Taken in this restricted sense—restricted not only
to drugs, but to large doses of drugs, and to their
action in health—the law or rule, we may venture to
say, is irrefragable. It is a natural truth.
But it is a half-truth. This is another reason why it
has not met with acceptance. Galileo's telescope con-
sisted of two glasses : one had been looked through a
long time by itself, but it was not till the other was
found, and the two were placed so that both could be
looked through together, that Jupiter's moons were
See Il.
Hahnemann's half-truth is the similarity of the
action of large doses to the symptoms of diseases
C
which small doses can cure.
73O - A LAW FOR THE DOSE. |ESSAY
The other half-truth now added is the contrariety of
the action of small doses to the action of large doses,
and consequently to the action of the diseases they are
remedies for.
These two half-truths now put together make the
treatment of disease as visible as Galileo's two glasses
did Jupiter's moons. Those only who refuse to look
through the glasses can fail to see either the one or
the other.
A harmony in music is concord, the agreement of
One note with another. A harmony in science,
according to Lord Bacon, is the just adaptation of
one part to another. The two parts of this subject,
now joined together, make one harmonious whole.
You know that any two colours which, when com-
bined, produce white light are called complementary
colours. These two half-truths—the action of large
doses and the opposite action of small ones—are the
two complementary colours : their juxtaposition makes
white light. -
Hahnemann's homoeopathy, I have said, is a half-
truth. It is my privilege to-day to announce to you
the other half-truth. I presume to think that the two
halves make the whole truth, and that this will meet
with your hearty acceptance.
The other half-truth then is this —the action of
small doses of drugs is in the opposite direction to the
action of large doses. Therefore the law of Hahne-
mann, simi/ia simi/ióus citranáur, remains true when
limited to large doses; and the law of Galen, contraria
contrariis curantur, is true when limited to the action
of small doses; not true in Galen's sense, nor in any
former sense put upon the phrase, but in a new sense,
a sense which expresses a fact, and not a speculation.
VI. A Zazy or A'uſe for the /Jose.
Some writers on homoeopathy, as you know, have
declared that a law for the dose is an impossibility.
Such alarming prognostications lose a good deal of
XXII.] A LAW FOR THE DOSE. 73 I
their gravity by repetition. I remember Dr. Lardner
writing a pamphlet to prove that it was impossible for
ships to cross the Atlantic by steam; and his pamphlet
appeared just as a steamship reached America. Others
have said that though a law may exist, the complexi-
ties surrounding it are so great, there is no
probability that it can be discovered. Others again
assert that “there is no necessary connection between
the dose and the homoeopathic law, the one exists
quite independently of the other.”
On the other hand many laws have been suggested.
I will not detain you by describing them ; you will
find them in Dr. Dudgeon’s ‘Lectures.’ They all
have one condemning defect—they are hypothetical or
speculative, and not statements of fact. And, in the
words of Dr. Dudgeon, “the rule for the administra-
tion of the appropriate dose remains yet to be dis-
covered.”
After the outline of the experiments recently made
on small doses of drugs, given in the preceding chapter,
you will, I think, already see that the impossibility of
there being a law has vanished; that the improbability
of its being discovered has also disappeared ; and that
instead of there being no connection between the dose
and the principle, the connection is so close that it is
one of absolute dependency—the principle itself being
dependent upon the dose.
The law of similia similibus curanțur belongs to, or
is dependent upon, the action of a certain range of
large doses; while the law of contraria contrariis
curanțur belongs to, or is dependent upon, the action
of a certain range of small doses.
In other words, the curative action of small doses in
disease and their physiological action in health are
identical. The tendency of the drug in the small dose
is towards the same action, whether the organ it acts
upon is in a state of disease or of health.
* Dr. Black, ‘Address at York,’ 1872.
* ‘Lectures,' page 56O.
732 A LAW FOR THE DOSE. [ESSAY
The rule to which it is my happiness to invite your
attention to-day has already been given you in the
facts contained in the last chapter. It may be thus
expressed — -
When a drug is prescribed as a remedy for a
diseased organ, upon which it acts when taken in
health, and for the kind of diseased action which, in
certain large doses, it can produce in health, the dose
must be small enough to be within the range of an
action in the opposite direction.
For example — doses of aconife above a certain
quantity cause a feverish pulse ; doses below this
certain quantity retard the pulse. The larger doses
are injurious, the smaller are curative. Only the latter
should be prescribed as remedies.
And so it is with every drug. It is simply a
matter of experiment in health to find out for each
drug the dividing line above which its action is hurtful,
and below which it is curative.
This, of course, will be a work of labour and care;
but so is the proving of drugs at all ; and so is the
practice of medicine in any form. The advantage we
have now gained is a clear perception of the work to
be done, and how to do it.
You have now, I believe the law of the dose ; that
in every case the dose chosen should be within the
range of the small dose action, which, be it re-
membered, is always, as a matter of fact, contrary to
the large dose action ; and claims to be the only
legitimate heir to whom the maxim contraria of right
belongs.
In the early part of this address two similes were
used which may now be perfected. One was that of a
chain. It was said that Hahnemann's homoeopathy—
the symptoms of diseases, and the similar symptoms of
drugs—form two links at the opposite ends of a chain.
These two links are, therefore, separated by inter-
vening links, which have hitherto been concealed.
The connection which plainly exists between the two
end links was unexplained, and the law of similia was
XXII.] A LAW FOR THE DOSE. 733
an empirical law. Two of these intervening links
were then described, first, the seat of the disease, and
the seat of the action of the drug are the same; and
second, the kind of action of both are the same. It
was promised that a third link should be described
by and bye. This third link has now been exhibited
to you ; it is the opposition of the action of the small
dose to that of the large dose. These three links
make plain to reason the connection between the links
at each end. We have now a completed series of
causation, and the law which was empirical becomes
rational.
The other simile was that of a triangular basis and a
three-sided column erected upon it, with inscriptions on
each side. This must now be enlarged into a hexa-
gonal foundation and a six-sided pillar. The six sides
have six principles engraved on them, to forget for the
moment the historical order of their discovery, in the
following succession —On the first side “in poison
there is physic.” On the second side “identity of seat
of action of disease and of drug.” On the third
“identity of kind of action of disease and of large
doses of the drug.” On the fourth “similarity of the
symptoms of disease and those of large doses of the
remedy.” On the fifth “contrariety of the action of
small doses and large ones.” And on the sixth “the
dose of the remedy must always be within the limits of
this contrary action.”
It may be asked, is there anything to guide our
choice of a dose from among all those included within
the range of the small dose action ? This choice may
be determined by reference — --
I. To the drug, and its primary and subordinate
actions, i.e. to the organs in which these actions take
place.
2. To the disease, and its special nature and suscep-
tibilities. *
For a drug to be a medicine it must have two
734 A LAW FOR THE DOSE. [ESSAY
actions in different doses : the action of the small
dose must be contrary to the action of the large dose.
This suggests the idea that for the virulent poisons
—such as snake venom, arsenic, opium, &c., for which no
antidotes are yet known, the best antidote may be very
Small doses of itself. The only opportunity I have yet
had of putting this thought (an hypothesis in the useful
sense) to a practical test is in respect to mercury. In a
case of poisoning by this metal the third trituration of
itself (the millionth part of a grain) was manifestly
beneficial.
The region of drugs as poisons in health, and as
remedies in disease has been taken possession of.
It is in part characterised by this—the hurtful action
of drugs in health is perturbative ; the curative
action in disease is silent and peaceful. This is
the geographical outline. The details are much
“ terra incognita " within, which need to be ex-
plored.
I am not prepared to enter into the investigation of
the action of what are now familiarly known as infini-
tesimal doses. This part of the region is still mys-
terious. To a certain class of minds this mystery
is its chief attraction. The haziness of its atmosphere
renders it to them the valley of the enchantress,
which has charms for such minds irresistibly at-
tractive.
But I will offer one observation.—The action of
really infinitesimal doses appears to be the con-
verse of the action of the doses we have been
occupied with to-day—one which is inappreciable in
health, but perturbative, and sometimes curative in
disease.
My brethren, I ought to have concluded long ago.
Suffer me to offer you my respectful thanks for your
prolonged attention. If I have succeeded in carrying
XXII.] A LAW FOR THE DOSE. 735
your minds along with mine, or if you shall hereafter
be brought to view these objects in the light which has
been attempted to be thrown upon them to-day, the
time and attention will not have been unprofitably
spent, and the day and the place will have become
memorable to you. Farewell
June, I873.
Since this Essay was written I have received the
42nd “Report of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science’ for the meeting at Brighton
last year (1872), which contains a “Report on the
antagonism between the action of active substances, by
Thos. R. Fraser, M.D., Secretary to the Committee
consisting of Sir R. Christison, Bart., Dr. Laycock, and
Dr. Fraser.’
In this Report the results of experiments on the
antidotal power of atropia (the active principle of bella-
donna) over the poisonous action of Ż/hysostigma
(Calabar bean) in rabbits and dogs are given. These
results offer a confirmation to a certain extent of the
conclusions drawn in this address as to the varied
action of different ranges of doses of drugs. These
experimenters found the limits within which sulphate
of atropia can prevent the fatal effects of a lethal dose
of physostigma. O.OO5 gr, was too small, but “any
dose ranging from O,OI 5 gr, to 5.2 grs.” was sufficient.
When the dose of physostigma was larger than the
lethal dose, e.g. when twice the minimum lethal dose,
the range was from O,O2 I to 3.2 grs. When two and a
half times the minimum, from O,O25 to 2.2 grs.
When thrice the minimum, from O.O6 to 1.2 grs. And
when three and a /a/ /imes, from O. I to O.2 gr. “Suc-
cessful antagonism could not be obtained above this
dose.”
The conclusion of the Report contains an important
Statellent —
“An eminent authority in pharmacology has recently
published the statement that the only method whereby
736 A LAW FOR THE DOSE. | ESSAY XXII.
the injurious action of a poison, absorbed into the blood,
can be made to terminate is by the employment of
such means as will cause or hasten the elimination of
the poison. This statement, fortunately, does not
accurately describe our remedial resources. The
existence of so undoubted an example of physiological
antagonism as that between atropia and physostigma
shows that the toxic influence of a morbific agent
may Óe directly opposed by a physiologica/ antidote,
and that recovery may be produced by influencing the
abnormal conditions themselves, in such a manner as
to cause their return to a normal state.”
July, I873.
ESSAY XXIII.
ON THE LAW OF THE DOSE,
“He (Boerhaave) well knew that to conjecture where
certainty may be obtained is either vanity or negligence.”
SAMUEL JOHNSON.
47
ESSAY XXIII."
ON THE LAW OF THE DOSE
-º-º-e- .
“Facts and experiments are the only true foundations of
accurate knowledge, and the latter particularly are very much
wanted in medicine.” WILLIAM ALEXANDER.
(‘Experimental Essays.')
—º-º-e-
THE letter on this subject by Dr. Kerr, of Cheltenham,
published in the last number (Nov. 1873, page 722) of
the Month/y Homaropathic A'eview, deserves grateful
thanks. He says:—
“My suggestion is, that a committee of six or eight
members be appointed to investigate Dr. Sharp's law of
dose; that their experiments in the first place, be made
absolutely as his were made, and as reported in the
pages of your /ćeview, and with the same medicines; that,
afterwards, experiments be made with a wider range of
dose and medicine; that every fact be scrupulously
given, as he has given us, as to dates and hours, and
size of dose, and subsequent Symptoms ; and that a
report be made at the next Congress of the result.”
Whether a committee can be appointed, which can
carry out satisfactorily this investigation, may be
doubtful ; but it is to be hoped that, either in this or
in some other manner, the experiments upon this
subject will be carefully repeated.
* First published in the ‘Monthly Homoeopathic Review’
for Dec. 1873.
74O ON THE LAW OF THE DOSE. [ESSAY
That the enquiry is an important one cannot be
questioned. But it is not only important, it is delicate
—so delicate that, without attention to minute circum-
stances, the experiments which may be made will fail
to be followed by trustworthy results. It is obvious
that experiments with small doses will require more
Care than corresponding experiments with large ones.
May it, therefore, be permitted me, in furtherance of
this object, so suggest some precautions which it will
be necessary to observe, to prevent a failure of the
design P
Let me first briefly recapitulate the conclusions
arrived at from a large number of provings, specimens
of which were given in the address at Leamington in
Sept. 1873. These were :-
The various doses of a drug, as regards their kind
of action, are separated into two portions ày a
dividing /ine.
The doses above the line—the larger doses—have
a kind of action which is in 4/ke of/osite direction
to that of those below the line—the smaller doses.
The action of the doses above the line is injurious,
while that of those below it is curative.
Let these conclusions be fairly and carefully tested
by the experiments of others—it is difficult to exaggerate
their value in the future practice of medicine—and, to
assist in this undertaking, let me be allowed to offer
the following suggestions —
I. Of course the experimenters must be in good
health. The experiments will not be provings in
/health if this is not the case.
2. Each experimenter must be well acquainted with
the condition of the several organs of his own body,
and the manner in which their functions are usually
performed. For example : the heart; the usual rate
and character of the pulse; and its variations under
such changes as standing, sitting, and lying down; and
before and after meals and exercise.
XXIII.] ON THE LAW OF THE DOSE. 74. I
3. There must be no probability of the existence of
any influence remaining from medicines previously
taken.
4. At the time of the experiment the prover's mind
must be peaceful, as well as all his surroundings.
5. When the heart is the subject of the experiment,
the condition of the pulse for some minutes before taking
the dose must be accurately determined. The position
also (mine was sitting) must not be changed till the
experiment is finished. In these experiments I was
always alone.
6. It must be borne in mind that variations in the
effects of the doses may be expected to arise from the
temperaments of the experimenters, from the antece-
dents of the experiment, and from different preparations
of the drug. When fair allowances are made for these,
and for any other influences which may be recognised
or suspected, these provings, though not perfect, may
be useful.
If all these reasonable conditions are faithfully
observed, and all experiments rejected in which they
have not all been observed, I believe the result will be
a confirmation of the facts which it has been my
privilege to announce. If the sick are benefited I
shall be thankful.
ESSAY XXIV.
A N TIP R A X Y.
“Every step the mind takes, in its progress towards know-
ledge, makes some discovery ; which is not only new but the
best too, for the time at least.”
JOHN LOCKE.
ESSAY XXIV.”
AN TIP RAXY : *
THE CONTRARY ACTION OF DIFFERENT DOSES OF
THE SAME DRUG IN HEALTH.
“It cannot be doubted that, had we a more intimate
acquaintance with, and precise knowledge of, the action of
remedies, the therapeutic properties of medicines would no
longer appear incomprehensible and mysterious.”
JONATHAN PEREIRA.
1. WHEN scientific medicine shall be generally
adopted, specific names will not be needed. The
disappearance of the necessity will be quickly followed
by the disappearance of the names. -
In the meantime, until this happy result shall be
brought about, even Scientific medicine is, in a certain
sense, sectarian, and specific names are unavoidable.
Under these circumstances a name must be given to
the law which governs the actions of different doses of
the same drug in health. It is now known that the
action in health of a certain range of small doses is in
the opposite direction to that of a certain range of
large doses—that the one is contrary to the other—
and it is proposed to call this contrary action anti-
praxy.
* First published in 1874.
* &vrfiſpaśuc, counteraction.—PLUTARCH,
*
746 ANTIPRAXY. [ESSAY
2. The changes in the phenomena of heat, electri-
city, and magnetism, depend mainly upon the quantity
of the force developed.
The changes in the action of the force of gravity
depend upon distance and quantity.
While those in chemical action are governed by
quality and quantity; a different weight of each
element being required in order to be combined by
chemical affinity with other elements.
Drug action resembles the last. The changes in its
effects are dependent upon quality and quantity.
Now, no settled principles were discovered in
chemistry till the balance was carefully used by Mr.
Cavendish and others.
And if we would discover the principles of drug
action, and arrive at any hopeful precision in the
administration of drugs as medicines, we must not only
observe their qualitative action—the effects produced
by each drug by itself, both in health and disease—but
we must undertake a careful investigation into the
action of different doses, or 77tanțities, of the same
drug, as well in health as in disease. As measure-
ments are important in mechanics, and weights in
chemistry, so success in therapeutics depends very
much upon doses.
The qualitative action of each drug has already, to
a great extent, been discovered by experiments in
health.
The quantitative action of different doses of each
drug has waited to be discovered by similar experi-
ments with them in health. -
This is the only way in which the endless conflicts
on the question of doses can be terminated, and the
indescribable confusion in which it has hitherto existed
be reduced to order.
3. From the experiments on the action of small
doses in Aea///, detailed in a former Essay, it has
appeared that, in different doses each drug has not one
kind of action only, but two ; and that these two kinds
XXIV.] ANTIPRAXY. 747
of action are in opposite directions to each other. It
will be useful to pursue the subject further.
The first consideration which arises is the question
of analogy. Is the fact just stated a solitary pheno-
menon 2 or, is it supported and rendered probable by
Other operations in nature which offer points of analogy
with this remarkable law of the dose 2
Reflection will discover some analogous conditions.
It will have been noticed that one feature of the
phenomenon is a dividing line. Of this we have a
striking analogy or illustration in a magnetized steel
bar. In this, it is well known, there is a neutral
centre, from each side of which proceed magnetic
forces, opposite in their tendencies, one force repelling
what the other attracts.
The other feature of the phenomenon is, that a
Smaller quantity acts in one way, and a larger in the
Opposite way. Chemical affinity gives us some ana-
logous examples of this —Oxygen and manganese
combine in different fixed proportions; one equivalent
of each forms a salt-making base—that is, an oxide
which combines with acids to form salts; three
equivalents of oxygen and one of manganese unite to
make an acid—which combines with alkalies to form
salts, No two things in chemistry are more opposite
than a base and an acid. There are other instances,
though this is not known as a general law of such
combinations—at present it seems rather a rudimen-
tary fact.
The action of heat furnishes more extended ana-
logies. For example—a certain amount of heat effects
the combination of some chemical elements, and a
larger amount of it causes the decomposition of the
compounds the smaller amount of it had produced.
Here the making of compound bodies, and the un-
making of them, is due to the action of the same agent
in different quantities. The two elements already
mentioned are examples of this also ; manganese and
Oxygen, with a moderate amount of heat readily unite
and form oxides; and one of these oxides, when
748 ANTIPRAXY. [ESSAY
exposed to a greater amount of heat, is decomposed,
and Oxygen is separated from it.
Another well known experiment with heat also
offers a remarkable illustration or analogy. Half fill
a long glass tube with water; reduce this to the
temperature of 32° F. without agitation, when the
water will remain liquid; give it heat very gradually,
and the column of water in the tube will contract, and
sink in the tube; it will continue to sink as the
temperature rises, till this reaches 39° or 4o, when the
water will be at its greatest density. (In this state it
lies at the bottom of pools or rivers when the surface
is frozen, and thus fishes are kept alive.) Go on
supplying heat as before, and the water will now begin
to eaf,and and to rise in the tube, and will continue to
rise till the temperature reaches 212°.
This action of heat in contrary directions when in
different qmantities is said to be a general law govern-
ing all bodies which have a less specific gravity in the
solid than they have in the liquid state.
Again, analogies are found in the action of electri-
city, e.g., a current of electricity passed through water
decomposes it into Oxygen and hydrogen gases; a
greater intensity of electricity causes the instant re-
union of these gases, and the reproduction of water.
And, as magnetism, chemical affinity, heat, and
electricity present phenomena analogous to the one
under consideration, so also does light.
Through a minute hole in the window shutter let a
ray of light enter a dark chamber ; it will form a
luminous spot on a piece of paper on which it is made
to fall : through another minute hole, very near the
first, let another ray enter, and in such a direction that
this ray shall fall upon the same spot of the paper as
that on which the first ray falls.
When there is a certain difference in the lengths of
these two rays, instead of producing an illumination
equal to the sum of their lights, which, & priori, would
be expected, they destroy each other, and produce a
dark spot.
XXIV.] ANTIPRAxy. 749
These examples are sufficient to make it evident
that the phenomenon of the opposite action of different
doses of a drug, when taken in health, is not contrary
to, but consistent with, the analogies of other depart-
ments of nature.
What drug force is I do not enquire. That it acts
locally, and that, as with other agents in nature,
different quantities of it act in contrary directions, I
think there is sufficient evidence to prove.
4. Let us look again at this contrary action —
The dividing line is not necessarily sharply defined.
There are no abrupt divisions of this kind in nature.
AWi/hi/ per sa/Čuma is a true as well as an old maxim.
Such transitions are always gradual. “God divided
the light from the darkness;” but the change from
day to night is gradual. There is twilight between
them. In like manner the three great kingdoms in
nature—the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral—
are separated from each other by very distinct
characters; but these distinctions, as the individuals
belonging to each kingdom approach each other,
gradually disappear. The transition is so gradual that
naturalists are not yet agreed as to which kingdom
some of these beings of right belong.
It is thus with the two opposite actions of drugs.
It ought not, I think, to be doubted that large doses of
a drug act in one direction, and that small doses act in
the opposite direction. But the change of the action
from one direction to its opposite may be, not abrupt
nor sudden, but gradual. For practical purposes it will
be sufficient to know, with reference to each drug, what
doses occupy the twilight, or take up the neutral
ground between the two contrary actions. The way
to attain this knowledge is by experiments in health.
5. The loss of power, by diminution of quantity in
the dose, is not rapid but slow.
Sir Isaac Newton observed that the force of gravity
does not diminish as rapidly as might have been ex-
750 ANTIPRAXY. | ESSAY
pected. It was found that the different distances from
the earth's centre of two localities, one at the bottom
of a mine, and the other at the top of a mountain, is
appreciable; but the weight of a body, taken from one
of these localities to the other, shows no appreciable
difference. He was led to think from this fact (while
in his garden at Woolsthorpe), that gravity might
extend much further than had been supposed, so that
perhaps it might even reach the moon—2OO,OOO miles—
this he afterwards found to be the truth; and not only
So, but that it reached to the Sun–93 millions of miles
—and even very much further.
Now a similar fact may be noticed in the action of
drugs. The effects of the first, second, and third
dilutions of them differ little from each other ; that is,
the difference is little compared with the difference in
quantity between the hundredth, the ten-thousandth,
and the millionth of a grain or drop of the drug.
It is permissible, therefore, to make the same re-
flection that Newton did, namely, that this action may
extend much further than these divisions, before it is
expended. Expended it must be somewhere, for
everything which diminishes, even gravity itself, must
come to an end somewhere. But the end of drug
action, like that of gravity, may be much further off
than can be easily believed.
There is a paper in the 7 aſſer for January 14th, 1709,
on the wonders then recently discovered by the micro-
scope, in which this remark is made —
“It is almost impossible to talk of things so remote
from common life, and the ordinary notions which
mankind receive from blunt and gross organs of Sense,
without appearing extravagant and ridiculous.”
These reflections may be worthy of notice by those
who shall undertake to pursue the task of proving the
doses of drugs, with the intention of observing the
different actions of different doses in health. The
path is a new one, and of importance sufficient to
interest and reward any number of labourers. -
One of Sir Isaac Newton's discoveries has been
xxIV.] ANTIPRAXY. 75 I
referred to in this paragraph. . It shall be closed by
joining in one of his requests —
“I heartily beg that what I have here done may be
read with candour, and that the defects I have been
guilty of upon this difficult subject may be not so much
reprehended, as kindly supplied and investigated by
new endeavours of my readers.”
6. The law of the contrary action of different doses
of the same drug is a paradox. But “there is a wide
difference between a paradox and a contradiction. Both,
indeed, consist of two distinct propositions; and so far
only are they alike : for, of the two parts of a contra-
diction, the one or the other must necessarily be false—
of a paradox both are often true, and yet, when proved
to be true, may continue paradoxical. This is the
necessary consequence of Our partial view of things.
An intellect to which nothing should be paradoxical
would be infinite.”
The knowledge of the contrary action in health of
the same drug in different doses is new to us, and
strange—it is a paradox; it is not a contradiction.
Both the propositions may be proved to be true, and
the paradox will remain until some discovery is made
which embraces both the propositions and explains
them. “There are yet hid greater things than these !”
7. It has been objected to the law of contrary
action that some drugs, such as silica, carbon, chalk,
and some of the metals, have already been proved in
small doses, and are prescribed homoeopathically ac-
cording to these provings. The answer is easy —
These drugs are inert, or nearly so, in their ordinary
condition, and have no definite action at all until they
have been minutely divided by trituration. These
divided particles then occupy the place of the larger
doses of other drugs; and it becomes necessary to
prove still smaller doses in order to ascertain whether
the law extends to them or not.
* Bishop Horsley.
752 ANTIPRAXY. |ESSAY
8. It has been objected that this contrary action of
small doses, like Hahnemann's aggravation point, is
not a fixed but a shifting basis, and as such cannot,
any more than his, support the law for the dose. The
reply is not difficult — -
The local action of drugs—organopathy—is the basis
of the use of drugs as remedies on any system of
therapeutics whatever. This is not a shifting but a
fixed basis; SO fixed that it can Support any Super-
structure whatever.
The resemblance in the kind of action of large doses
to that of diseases of the same organs which each drug
can cure—homoeopathy—is not a shifting but a fixed
basis; it has supported a successful practice founded
upon it for nearly three generations. This basis was
discovered by qualitative experiments with drugs in
health.
The contrary action of large and small doses—anti-
praxy—which has been discovered by quantitative
experiments with small doses in health, forms a basis
which corresponds exactly with that on which homoeo-
pathy rests. Reflection will show that they are alike;
that one is not more shifting or less fixed than the
other. As similia simiſiózes supports the doctrine and
practice of homoeopathy in the choice of the drug, so
confraria contrariis will support the doctrine and
practice of antipathy in the choice of the dose. The
investigation of antipathy, however, is reserved for
another opportunity.
9. Men that are able to observe at all will not fail to
observe that the attempt to learn the action of Small
doses, as distinct from that of large ones, by experi-
ments with them in heal//., is a new undertaking.
They will observe further that, so far as experiments
have been made on the subject, the action of small
doses is contrary to the action of large ones.
And they will observe, lastly, that this is not a con-
jecture or hypothesis, but a fact.
XXIV.] ANTIPRAXY. 75.3
IO. It is not only possible, but it is to be hoped that
further experiments may discover some wider genera-
lisation. This may embrace the narrower one, but
cannot destroy it. The antipraxic action of different
doses of drugs in health is a fact which we shall do
well to turn to practical use, without waiting for more
extended discoveries, though these will be welcome
when made.
In another essay the antipathic action of small doses
shall be considered.
Dec. 18th, 1873.
ESSAY XXV.
WHAT IS ANTIPATHY?
“In all cases it behoves each and all of those physicians,
who have the desire not only to seem but to be prudent and
honest, to acknowledge and entreat the Divine Goodness,
that from this they may look for wisdom and good fortune;
and they ought not to be satisfied with simply giving health
to the sick, but they should strive to add greater certainty to
the art that they administer.”
THOMAS SYDENHAM.
ESSAY X X V.
WHAT IS ANTIPATHY?
—e-C-e—
“Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow ;
He who would search for pearls must dive below !”
DRY DEN.
THE word Antipathy, ăvritá0eta, ăvrt Tráffoc, is here
used in its medical meaning—against or contrary to
disease, a remedy for a morbid state, a cure for sick-
ness. It has been much used in a moral sense. John-
son defines it as “a natural contrariety to anything, so
as to shun it involuntarily.”
In consequence of this use of the word, some writers
have introduced another word, also of Greek derivation
—enantiopathy; but the old word, in its old meaning,
is to be preferred.
The antipathic maxim is expressed in the words:—
“Contraria contrariis curanțur.”
There is no counterfeit without a genuine original.
There is no misrepresentation or perversion which
has not in it some truth which it misrepresents or
perverts.
It is good to detect and discard counterfeits, and to
preserve only what is genuine. It is still better to get
rid of misrepresentations and perversions, and to hold
fast truth only. w
Let us see if it is possible to discover the truth
758 WHAT IS ANTIPATHY 2 [ESSAY
which Ought to be expressed by this venerable aphorism
—contrariis curanțur. To find it will be a great privi-
lege. To hand it down to future generations will be a
great honour.
In order to do this, the first duty is to examine all
former meanings put upon this maxim ; so that, if not
true, they may be acknowledged as errors, and be
allowed to float away like straws upon the surface,
until they are forgotten.
This duty done, the next is to dive for the pearl,
and, if God permit, to bring it up to light.
What, then, is Antipathy P
I. Antipathy is not a partner wit/, /domaopathy.
Hippocrates gave up the difficult search after the
curative action of medicines in despair, and satisfied
himself by Owning that sometimes contraries and some-
times similars cured. Giving up the search is not
finding the pearl. Under such circumstances the treat-
ment of diseases can only be empirical. Art without
science, experience without reason, cannot build the
temple of medicine.
2. Antipathy is not hot against cold and dry against
moist. Galen, instead of despairing like Hippocrates,
thought that he had entirely succeeded, and the world
thought so, too, for fifteen hundred years. During this
long time men were so contented with this straw upon
the surface that no one dreamed of diving for the
pearl. It turned out a mistake. The doctrine was
hypothesis, not fact. The straw has floated away and
is forgotten.
3. Antipathy does not consist in the use of antift/h/o-
gistics. In modern times phlogosis, phlegmon, the
phlogistics of chemists, and the antiphlogistics of
physicians, have governed in medicine. In almost
every disease there was supposed to be inflammation
or fever; the body was burning, the blood was
boiling; and, of course, medical treatment must avail
itself of the contraries of these. The climax was
attained by Broussais in France and Clutterbuck in
xxv.] WHAT IS ANTIPATHY 2 7.59
England. The former attributed all ailments to a
phlegmasie of the mucous membrane, to gastrite and
enterite, and the latter to inflammation of the brain.
Bleeding, purging, and mercury were the acknow-
ledged contraries of these inflammations. They were,
therefore, called antiphlogistics; they were helped by
other remedies under the title of refrigerants.
The first of these, the taking away of blood from the
patient, is a proceeding so singular, so important, and
till now of such universal prevalence, that it demands
Some special notice.
With Sydenham the “inflammatory diathesis” was
often uppermost in his thoughts. This was to be
dealt with by bleeding. Emetics were to follow
the bleeding. When the blood “goes on boiling,”
enemata and purgatives are to follow—and bleeding
again.
In John Hunter's time, about a century later, the
fashion had changed, and bleeding was less frequently
performed. In his lecture on “adhesive inflammation ”
he gives very careful rules and suggestions for the
practice of venesection, and concludes with these
words:–“Bleeding, however, is a remedy of so much
importance that it should be employed in all cases with
great caution.”
In my early days the fashion had revived, and bleed-
ing was again in vogue. The picture is drawn in lively
colours by Dr. Mason Good. What Sydenham calls
“giving ourselves up to the luxury of guesswork”
was largely indulged in by the eminent men of that
tlme.
Dr. Clutterbuck bled his patients in typhus fever,
upon the principle of attacking the inflammation
of the brain and debilitating the action of the living
fibre |
Dr. Armstrong, in certain cases of typhus, bled to
prevent debility. In these cases he says “the strength
| ‘Works of John Hunter, by J. F. Palmer, Vol. I. p. 405.
1835.
760 WHAT IS ANTIPATHY 2 [ESSAY
is depressed, but not subdued, and venesection by
diminishing or removing local disorder, diminishes or
removes the load which impeded the vital functions,
and the strength is therefore increased instead of being
diminished ” l'
Dr. Jackson thought he had found a sufficient reason
for bleeding in its stimulant action upon the system.
Venesection, according to him, “acts not by debilitating,
or even by preventing debility, but directly by in-
vigorating the living fibre ; and in this view he em-
ployed it in fevers of every kind, entonic and atonic,
inflammatory and putrid, and in his own belief with
nearly equal success" !” -
Every practitioner bled his patients, whether he had
a reason for doing so or not. The practice is discon-
tinued. The reasons were hypotheses, not facts.
They are forgotten, like straws floating down the
stream and disappearing.
At the present time no one bleeds. Sir Thomas
Watson labours to preserve its use “for some special
morbid conditions,” in which “venesection is a potent
and life-preserving remedy; in which it is not only
safe to employ, but unsafe and unpardonable to with-
hold it.” The condition intended is “that of great and
often sudden engorgement and distension of the
vessels that carry black blood—of the systemic veins,
of the pulmonic artery, and especially the right
chambers of the heart.” This condition is one of
unequal distribution of blood in the two different
systems of vessels; when the accumulation is of purple
or black blood in the veins or pulmonary artery, it
should be called congestion ; when it is of bright red
blood in the arteries or pulmonary veins, it is inflame-
meation. In the embarrassed condition of the circula-
tion, spoken of above, “it is the veins that require
emptying, not the arteries.” -
* “Practical Illustrations of Typhus,' by John Armstrong,
M.D., p. 135. I 816.
* “The Study of Medicine,' by John Mason Good, M.D.,
F.R.S., Vol. II, p. 254. 3rd. Ed. 1829.
xxv.] WHAT IS ANTIPATHY 2 761
Provided that no better remedy can be found for
this state of congestion, I think Sir Thomas Watson's
reasoning is just, and his advice good. If better
means of relief can be found, then the painful necessity
for bleeding is done away with. The provings of
drugs in health ought to supply these latter remedies.
This has been done already for some congestions, for
example, congestion of the brain; opium is a better
remedy for congestive apoplexy than bleeding.
It is interesting to learn from Sir Thomas Watson
how entirely the practice of bleeding has ceased in
London. He says: —“I remember the time when a
surgeon who found a man lying in the street in a fit,
was blamed and abused by the bystanders if he did
not at once open a vein in his arm. To do this now-
a-days would be to incur the charge of murdering the
ITlalſ]. . . . . I have heard of a London physician who,
being desirous of having one of his hospital patients
bled, could find no one among the house surgeons and
advanced pupils who had ever seen the small operation
of venesection done, or knew how to do it; and of
another who, wishing on some rare occasion to pre-
scribe leeches, had forgotten, through long disuse of
them, the Latin name of the little blood-suckers. The
trade in leeches has dwindled to a miserable fraction of
its former magnitude ; and the art of cupping, and the
once thriving and useful race of cuppers, are extinct.”
It happened that Mr. Mapleson called upon me about
a year ago, (whose father was cupper to George IV.,
and who realised a handsome fortune by his oc-
cupation), and he told me he had left London for
some years, and sought employment in other ways;
for the reason that in the last two years of his practice
he had cupped only two patients.
The next great antiphlogistic remedy, during these
glorious and enthusiastic days, was a purgative. In
the words of Dr. Mossman, “Bleeding and purging;
* ‘Lectures on the Practice of Physic, by Sir T. Watson,
Vol. I, p. 247. Fifth Ed. 1871.
762 WHAT IS ANTIPATHY 2 [ESSAY
these are the infallible agents in the cure of fever.”
In these kingdoms the universal practice of giving
aperients was very much brought about by a book
published in the beginning of the century. “The
world,” said Dr. Armstrong, “is greatly indebted to
Dr. James Hamilton, senior, for having so firmly
established the usefulness of aperient medicines by the
publication of his work,” than which none, perhaps, of
greater value has appeared in the medical republic
since the days of Hippocrates ("* The world is still
more indebted to homoeopathy for rescuing it from this
treatment.
The remaining remedy, which was as unremittingly
used as bleeding and aperients, during the reign of the
antiphlogistics, was mercury. By many practitioners
calomel was given merely as an aperient ; but thought-
ful men began to observe that its specific action in
inflammation and fever was beneficial. Among those
who noticed this was Dr. Armstrong. For a long
time he gave calomel freely as a purgative. “But,”
he says, “cautious and reiterated observations have at
last convinced me that, next to venesection, it is one of
the most powerful anti-inflammatory agents with which
we are acquainted. It will be found that few patients
perish in inflammatory diseases, where ptyalism is
clearly established. In general terms, inflammation
may be denominated a loss of balance in the circulat-
ing system, and calome!, having a direct power in
eyala/izing the circulation, is a most suitable remedy for
that affection.”
This view of the action of mercury was enlarged
and became general. John Hunter had said that
“there is no specific against inflammation that we are
acquainted with.” It was beginning to be thought
MS. Notes on Cullen’s ‘First Lines.’
‘Observations on the Utility of Purgative Medicines.'
‘On Typhus, by Dr. Armstrong, p. I I I.
Armstrong on ‘Typhus, p. 14 I-2.
‘The Works of John Hunter, F.R.S., by J. F. Palmer,
Vol. I, p. 401. 1835.
.
5
xxv.] whAT IS ANTIPATHY 2 763
that a specific had been found in mercury. The
following is a long extract from one of Sir Thomas
Watson's Lectures, but it is interesting —
“Formerly it (mercury) was regarded as “a very
powerful agent (I am quoting myself’) in controlling
inflammation, especially acute phlegmonous, adhesive
inflammation ; such as glues parts together, and spoils
the texture of organs.” Again, ‘the great remedial
property of mercury is that of stopping, controlling, or
altogether preventing the exudation of coagulable
lymph; of bridling adhesive inflammation; and (I
added) if we in our turn could always bridle or limit
the influence of mercury itself, it would be a still more
valuable resource.’ Acknowledging that, like most
other remedies, it could do harm, as it could do good,
I said it behoved us to “learn how to wield a very
potent but a two-edged weapon.’
“This estimate of the special properties of mercury
can no longer be maintained in the full and unqualified
sense of the words which I have just cited, and which
expressed, I believe, at the time when they were used,
the general opinion of the profession. They were too
absolute. . . . . .
“When mercury is gradually introduced into the
human body in small quantities it produces sooner or
later very remarkable effects. It causes inflammation.
Perhaps it may be for that reason that the professors
of homoeopathy prescribe ‘mercurius’ so often.”
This testimony is remarkable. “Mercury causes
inflammation.” (The italics are Sir T. Watson's.)
Homoeopathists have given it in inflammation, but not
indiscriminately in every inflammation, (as was done
by others at the time of Dr. Watson's early lectures),
but only in inflammations of certain parts, upon which
parts mercury acts, and in health produces inflammation.
The profession has learned this lesson. Homoeo-
pathists have given mercury in doses too small to
* From the ‘Lectures' of former years.
* Sir Thomas Watson's ‘Lectures, Vol. I, p. 261. Fifth
Ed. 1871.
764 WHAT IS ANTIPATHY 2 |ESSAY
cause the mischiefs Dr. Watson acknowledged. They
have learned how “to bridle and limit the influence of
mercury," so that with them it is not “a two-edged
weapon." When will the profession have learned this
lesson also
The antiphlogistic notions were universally received,
and , enthusiastically maintained. They are now
nearly forgotten. They have floated away like straws,
and are lost.
4. Antipathy does not consist in prescribing anti-
Spasmodics. This term, like antiphlogistics, is a
modern One. It has reference, mainly, to Dr. Cullen's
“spasm of the extreme vessels,” or capillaries. The
notion is thus announced by him —
“Our doctrine of fever is explicitly this ; the remote
causes are certain sedative powers applied to the
nervous system, which, diminishing the energy of the
brain, thereby produce a debility in the whole of the
functions, and particularly in the action of the extreme
vessels. Such, however, is at the same time the
nature of the animal economy, that this debility proves
an indirect stimulus to the sanguiferous system ;
whence, by the intervention of the cold stage and
spasm connected with it, the action of the heart and
larger arteries is increased, and continues so, till it has
had the effect of restoring the energy of the brain, of
extending this energy to the extreme vessels, of
restoring therefore their action, and thereby especially
overcoming the spasm affecting them ; upon the
removing of which, the excretion of sweat, and other
marks of relaxation of excretories, takes place.”
Dr. Mossmann's commentary on this statement is
all that need be said of it –“ It is sufficiently evident
that the basis of this system is purely hypothetical.”
This comment was written nearly sixty years ago.
It has been entirely confirmed by others. The straw
has floated away, and is forgotten. If it be asked,
what were Dr. Cullen's antispasmodic remedies 2 they
1 * First Lines of the Practice of Physic,’ by William
Cullen, M.D. 1784.
xxv. wHAT IS ANTIPATHY 3 765
were bleeding, aperients, abundance of cold water,
neutral salts, emetics, blisters, warm bathing, and the
antiphlogistic regimen. From which it appears that
the change brought about by the eloquence and
influence of Cullen, as a teacher, was speculative
rather than practical; that it consisted in the invention
of a new hypothesis—not in the discovery of new
facts, nor in the introduction of a new method of
treatment.
5. Antipathy does not consist in giving stimulants.
Let us, once more, spend a few moments on the mean-
ing of words. What is a stimulant 2 Originally, a
pricking instrument in Latin, from to prick in Greek;
in English medicine, a thing which increases vital
action. But the word has been used so vaguely and
hypothetically that now it has no definite meaning.
According to Cullen debility is a stimulant ; according
to others all curative action of medicines is stimulating :
so that small doses of aconite, which diminish the action
of the heart, and small doses of digitalis, which increase
it, are both to be called stimulants. Nothing but con-
fusion and controversy can exist when words are lost in
a fog like this. To me stimulants are alcohol and its
similars, and nothing else. These are a class of sub-
stances distinct from food and from drugs. In this
Essay “Antipathy” is restricted to the action of drugs;
so that alcohol, as a stimulant, does not claim mention,
or come within its scope. But for the same reason
that bleeding was noticed as an antiphlogistic, some
notice must be taken of alcohol as a stimulant.
Brown, a pupil of Cullen, discovered no new facts
but, like Cullen, invented a new hypothesis. He also
brought about a great change in practice, which Cullen
had not done. His notion that diseases were either
s/hemic or asſ/emic, and nearly all of them the latter,
encouraged him to give stimulants, that is, wine and
spirits, almost without limit.
This practice, however, disappeared, the straw to
which it was attached floated away, and the use of
antiphogistics again became universal. These depleting
766 WHAT IS ANTIPATHY P [ESSAY
and lowering measures were triumphant in my early
professional life. I well remember the startling effect
produced by the first paper which once more revived
the stimulating practice. It was an article in a Dublin
journal,’ in which cases of fever were reported as
having been successfully treated with wine. It was as
if a shell had been thrown into the ranks of the pro-
fession, and had burst in the midst of them. By-and-
bye the fashion set in like a rising wave, and Dr.
Todd's boat rode in triumph on the crest of it.
What is further to be said upon this subject shall be
told in a story, for the authenticity of which I can
vouch, though I did not myself see the patients. A
short time before the Dublin cases were published
there was an epidemic of low fever in Bradford. One
of these cases, a young woman, was believed by her
friends, and by the medical man who was attending
her, to be dying. One Mr. John Hepworth, an un-
qualified practitioner of great notoriety in the town
at that time, was sent for. He gave the dying woman
brandy, and she recovered. Shortly afterwards a
sister of this young woman fell ill of a similar fever,
and the parents, naturally thinking that the attendance
of the qualified doctor might be dispensed with, sent
at once for Mr. John Hepworth. He gave her brandy
also, and she died. The story goes on to say that
Mr. John Hepworth, after the successful issue of the
first case, wrote in his note book –“ Brandy good for
fevers”; and that, after the death of the Second, he
added :-" But not always”!
In the administering of stimulants we should, I
think, be guided by considerations very similar to
those which we follow in the giving of food, namely,
the condition of the patient, rather than the nature of
the disease. -
Antipathy, therefore, does not consist in alcoholic
stimulants.
6. Antipathy does not consist in the use of drugs
1. By Dr. Graves: who wished that this might be recorded
on his tombstone “He fed fevers."
xxv.] WHAT IS ANTIPATHY 2 767
considered as stimat/ants. Moderate supplies of food
nourish and strengthen the living body. Moderate
supplies of fermented and spirituous drinks refresh and
exhilarate it. The action of drugs is something else ;
something quite distinct from the action of food, and
something quite distinct from the action of fermented
drinks. We do not speak of moderate supplies of
drugs being good for any thing in health. We think
of medicines only when we are not in health. Supplies
of them in health in any quantities whatever, great or
small, act only injuriously. The action itself, therefore,
must be a different action from that of food, and from
that of fermented drinks, and the use of the same word
to express both actions leads to confusion and error.
For another reason the word “stimulant” as applied
to the action of drugs is objectionable, which is this,
even if it seem a suitable word in some cases, it is
absurd in others. If it seem proper when used with
reference to the contraction, by a dose of medicine,
of a dilated pupil, or a dilated bloodvessel, how can it
be applied to the soothing effect of another dose of
medicine given for a muscle in cramp or for a nerve
in pain .
For another reason, again, it is unbecoming in us to
use it, because it implies that we understand how the
action of a drug is brought about, which we do not.
It is contended, therefore, that the use of the word
“stimulant” in reference to medicine should be dis-
continued. The word is a straw upon the stream, and
the sooner it floats away and is forgotten the better.
7. Antipathy is not the giving of astringents for
diarrhoea, or purgaſizes /or constipation. The antipathy
we are in search of excludes the use of large doses of
drugs for any purpose, and, therefore, necessarily for
such purposes as these. -
8. Antipathy is not either the Arimary or the sceondary
action of drugs. It has been noticed in a former
Essay” how much Hahnemann differs from himself in
* Essay XIII.
76S WHAT IS ANTIPATHY 2 [ESSAY
the opinions he expresses on the action of drugs. He
speaks of the direct and indirect action; of the positive
and negative action ; of the primary and secondary
action. These he afterwards represents as alternating
actions. Finally all are given up. The straws floated
away from his sight, and were lost in his own life
tl Ine. -
The opinions of Hahnemann's successors are indus-
triously reported by Dr. Dudgeon (in Lecture VIII).
The views thus represented are many, very diverse,
and often contradictory. The meaning intended to be
given to the word “antipathy” in this Essay, is not
given by any of them.
To this head belongs a passage in one of the Lectures
of Professor Fletcher of Edinburgh, which has been
referred to as anticipating the facts stated in the
Leamington Address (Essay XXII). This is the
passage:–
“Hahnemann is quite aware of this two-fold action
of medicines, and it is to insure their primary, without
fear of their secondary action, that he inculcates the
expediency of giving them in inconceivably small
doses. But it is absurd to say, as he at the same time
does, that medicines in such doses operate by producing
a stronger impression than that produced by the disease.
They cure it not by the stronger but by the opposite
impression which they make ; so that homoeopathic
medicines, after all, operate on the antipathic principle.”
What Dr. Fletcher means by these expressions he
goes on to explain as follows:– “If we choose to
represent the ordinary irritation [!] of the vessels of
the iris by a longitudinal Evertical] line, say an inch
high, it is easy to conceive certain substances capable
of raising it to an inch and a half; but this height, as
it cannot be maintained, after a time is reduced spon-
taneously through double the space that it had been
raised, i.e., falls as much below an inch, as it had before
been raised above it, or to half an inch ; and what are
the substances now called upon to effect, but what they
effected at first, namely, to raise the line of action half
xxv.] WHAT IS ANTIPATHY 2 769
an inch, [this is reviving the mechanics of the old iatro-
mathematicians,] the result of which is now health, as
it was before disease ?”"
It is very plain here that whatever becomes of me,
Hahnemann goes to the wall. Of the two hypotheses
it is certain that Dr. Fletcher's has the most verisimi-
litude about it. But that they both are hypotheses is
sufficiently proved by the explanation which is given,
and which is so “easy to conceive.” How variable
and how vague the expression “antipathic principle”
was in Dr. Fletcher's days, and in his school of
medicine, has been shown in the earlier part of this
Essay.
9. Antipathy is not f/he reaction of the vital force
against f/ie action of drugs. In mechanics we are familiar
with the law that action and reaction are equal, but in
contrary directions. No such law is known in physio-
logy or therapeutics. Some vital phenomena offer a
resemblance to this mechanical behaviour, but they are,
in fact, widely different from it. We do not know the
ratio or law which governs them, but it is certainly not
the same as that which governs mechanical reaction.
IO. Antipathy is not an explanation of the manner
27, which drugs act. In respect to the manner of action
of drugs we are in total darkness. And we are so
blind that the darkness is not felt. Knowledge of this
kind cannot be attained. It is labour lost and time
wasted to go in search of it. True, hypotheses may
be easily conceived ; so may straws be gathered from
the surface of the stream. But what are either of them
worth 2 There is this difference between them : straws
may amuse children, hypotheses are sure to mislead
physicians.
We have carefully examined the counterfeits; let us
try to find the genuine coin. Or, to keep up the
simile of the Essay, having seen the straws float
* “Elements of General Pathology,' by John Fletcher, M.D.
Edited by Drs. Drysdale and Russell, p. 491. I842.
49
77o WHAT IS ANTIPATHY P | ESSAY
away, let us now dive in search of the pearl. We
ask again —
What is Antipathy P
II. Antipathy is antipraxy" applied to disease. It
will be remembered that antipraxy is the contrary
action of small doses to that of larger doses, in health.
Antipathy is the contrary action of the same doses in
disease. Many examples and proofs of this action,
both in health and in disease, have been given in
former Essays. The following experiments are ad-
ditional illustrations.
It is well known that the extract of belladonna
applied to the eyebrow dilates the pupil. A few drops
of the pure tincture (two are sufficient on me) will do
SO also.
To learn whether there is any dose smaller than
these, which will contract the healthy pupil, the
following experiments have been tried —
One drop of the tincture of belladonna was added to
ninety-nine drops of water, that is, one part in a hun-
dred—the first centesimal dilution—in water to avoid
any interfering action from alcohol; and the right eye
was rubbed with this in the usual way, but no effect
could be perceived.
Afterwards one drop of the tincture was added to
nine drops of water, one part in ten—the first decimal
dilution—and this was applied in the same manner;
again no effect could be noticed.
Then a drop was added to four drops of water, one
part in five, and applied. This experiment succeeded.
A perceptible contraction of the pupil was produced.
These experiments were tried many months ago.
To-day (March 19th, 1874) at noon, the last-mentioned
experiment has been repeated. Two drops of tincture
of belladonna were added to eight of water. Small
portions of this dilution were rubbed over the eye at
intervals during half an hour. At the end of this time,
in the judgment of another, who knew nothing of the
* See last Essay.
xxv. WHAT IS ANTIPATHY 2 771
experiment I was trying upon myself, the pupil was
shightly contracted, it was less than that of the other
eye. Afterwards the remainder was rubbed over the
same eye, at intervals during another half hour, when
the same observer noticed a slight dilatation of this
pupil, it was now larger than the other. This dilata-
tion afterwards increased considerably, and had not
disappeared on the following morning.
That belladonna contracts a dilated pupil in illness is
known.
Here are the two actions of drugs. The powerful
and injurious action of the large dose; the compara-
tively slight, but equally true action of the small dose,
in the contrary direction, both in health and in disease.
It must be borne in mind, in all experiments with small
doses, that the effects are feeble in comparison with
the effects of large doses. They are less in degree,
and they are contrary in kind. Hence their value as
medicines.
The Calabar bean (physostigma) has an action the
reverse of belladonna, but not so powerful. A larger
dose is required to produce the effects, judging from
the tincture which has been used in my experiments,
and which was furnished, along with the tincture of
belladonna, by Mr. Turner.
In the first experiment two drops of tincture were
added to eight of water, (the dose which had succeeded
with belladonna), but after rubbing this over the eye
and temple no effect was noticed.
In the second, four drops of tincture and four of
water were rubbed in, but without appreciable effect.
In the third, five drops and five of water were used,
and a very slight dilatation was perceived.
On another day, one drop of the pure tincture was
rubbed in, and very soon a decided dilatation was
produced.
When ten drops of the tincture are rubbed in, after
about an hour the pupil becomes very much con-
tracted.
These experiments with belladonna and Calabar
772 WHAT IS ANTIPATHY 2 [ESSAY
bean are visible illustrations of what is meant by
andºrary. They differ from the former experiments
in being local actions produced by the topical applica-
tion of drugs, not by their internal administration.
But they are confirmatory proofs of the induction
drawn from the reverse actions of aconite and digitalis
upon the heart, and from those of other drugs upon
other organs.
Antipathy, then, is the small dose of antipraxy given
in sickness. It arises out of, and is dependent upon
the contrary action of small doses and large doses in
health. It is the necessary sequel. As the action of
the larger doses in health is a guide in the choice
of the medicine—which is homoeopathy—so the con-
trary action of the smaller doses in health is a guide in
the choice of the dose—which is antipathy.
I 2. This antipathy is learned by experiments on Z/e
/healthy, not on the sick. After having been learned by
experiments on the healthy, it is carried out in practice
when prescribing for the sick. The antipraxic dose of
a drug must be found out in health, and then it may
be given with confidence as the proper dose in disease,
even if the drug has never been given as a remedy
before. The experiments with belladonna make this
exceedingly plain.
Doses, like medicines, must be learned by experi-
ments of some kind. Up to the present time these
experiments have been made by homoeopathists, as
well as by practitioners of the old school, upon patients.
It is contended that they ought to be made upon our-
selves. Difficulties and objections of all kinds will be
raised against this, there will be many lions in the way,
but it ought to be done; and the sooner medical men
undertake the work and do it, the better will it be for
their patients. Why not try P
13. Antipathy is a genera//acá. This may be shown
clearly by the following considerations —Numberless
recoveries from illness, both acute and chronic, have
followed the administration of small doses of medicine,
given according to the law of homoeopathy. This is
xxv.] whAT IS ANTIPATHY 2 773
known to all. Homoeopathists believe that in many
of these cases the doses have acted curatively. Ex-
periments on myself and on my friends have proved to
me that small doses taken in health act in the Con-
trary direction to that of larger ones. This conclusion
is an induction from known particulars applied to
others that are like them, in reliance upon the known
uniformity of nature. It gives a law or rule to thera-
peutics in reference to the selection of doses. The
reasoning can scarcely be objected to. If the facts
from which the induction is drawn be thought doubt-
ful, the reply is, why think 2 why not try the experi-
ments 2
14. Antipathy is a £7-actica//act. It is not a guess,
conjecture, or hypothesis. Take as an example the
experiments with belladonna on the pupil. A large
dose dilates it; a small dose contracts it. This is in
health. You have a patient with a dilated pupil; the
small dose which contracts the pupil in health is the
proper dose to contract it in sickness. The action in
health is called antipraxic ; the same action in sickness
is called antipathic. It may be said, if this be so, the
large dose of belladonna will be a good remedy for a
contracted pupil. This is denied. It is the action of
the small dose which is curative. The action of the
large dose is injurious. Another drug must be sought
for the contracted pupil, and it is found in physostigma
(Calabar bean); the action of which is exactly the
reverse of belladonna."
I5. This antipathic action Öe/ongs to drugs only. In
Essay VI several reasons are given which seem to
prove that the law of homoeopathy is limited to the
action of drugs only. It will be seen now that the
* In the present state of our knowledge belladonna must
still be used to dilate forcibly the pupil, previous to opera-
tions for cataract ; and also to tear away adhesions of the
iris in some forms of inflammation of that organ. These
proceedings, and any others of a similar kind, are necessitated
by our defective knowledge, and do not prove the doctrine of
antipathy to be erroneous.
774 WHAT IS ANTIPATHY P [ESSAY
Contrary action of Small doses is a powerful additional
reason. This peculiar property of small doses is not
found as a characteristic of the other agencies which
Hahnemann included along with drugs, as forming
part of his Homoeopathy. No phenomena are known
which show that small quantities of light, heat, elec-
tricity, or magnetism act upon living bodies in an
opposite direction to the action of larger quantities.
Different quantities may and often do act in a different
but not in a contrary manner. Nor have we any facts
to show that the action of diseases upon each other, or
the action of mental phenomena exhibit a similar pecu-
liarity; indeed, it is hard to think that in either of
these actions this is possible.
In the preceding Essay, on antipraxy, it is proved
that light, heat, electricity, magnetism, and chemical
affinity have actions in the inorganic world which are
parallel with or similar to the action of drugs on living
bodies; but, so far as Our present knowledge goes,
they have no actions like them in the organic world.
16. Antipathy, as the word is used in this Essay, is
simple and inte//igiöſe. So simple and intelligible that
even some of those who oppose it cannot but admire
it. “There is a charming look of consistency,” says
Dr. Hayle, “in the idea of fixing the dose of the
remedy by experiments on the healthy, as well as its
sphere and kind of action, and one feels as if it ought
to be true.” After this strong testimony in its favour,
the objections brought forward by Dr. Hayle need not
give trouble. He has told me that they were hastily
written, and it may be hoped that his own further
reflection will remove them.
17. In the first Essay, written in 1852, it was said :
—“Homoeopathy is a guide in the choice of the
medicine, not of the dose. The dose is, as yet, a
question of experience. The law of similia is an
admirable guide in the selection of an appropriate
remedy in any case of disease ; but the only informa-
tion it affords in the choice of the dose is this, that
it must be a smaller one than would be sufficient to
xxv.] WHAT IS ANTIPATHY 2 775
produce similar symptoms in health. How sma// a
dose this is must be ascertained by trial, until some
general fact or law can be discovered, which shall
constitute a guide to the dose, as the law of similia
does to the medicine. I venture to entertain a
sanguine hope that this will be accomplished.” This
hope is now fulfilled.
Experiments with large doses of drugs in health
teach us–-I. The organs where the action takes place.
2. The kind of action carried on there. 3. The
symptoms by which the action is manifested. By the
rule of sāmzz/ia simzz/ióus citraſtázar we learn how to
choose the drug. Experiments with smaller doses of
the same drugs in health teach us where the contrary
kind of action begins. By the rule of contraria con-
£rariis curazzfur we learn how to choose the dose.
18. A reason can now be given for homoeopathy —
It is known by their personal experience, that is, by
experiments upon themselves, by many intelligent
medical men, that, in certain comparatively large
doses, drugs taken in health produce symptoms which
bear a strong resemblance to natural diseases, that is,
to diseases arising from other causes.
It is equally well known to a much larger number of
medical men that these drugs, in certain comparatively
small doses, act curatively in diseases which resemble
those produced by the larger doses of the same drugs.
The knowledge of these two facts is practically
acted upon every day. The practice is called homoeo-
pathy, and the maxim which expresses it is that “likes
are cured by likes.”
Hitherto this has been done without knowing the
reason why. Experiments in health with the smaller
doses of drugs have, I think, proved that ſ/heir action
is contrary to that of the larger doses of the same
drugs. This contrary action is called antipraxy, its
maxim is that “contraries are cured by contraries ;”
and it gives the reason why the practice of homoeo-
pathy is so successful. Surely this piece of knowledge
is a pleasant gain. It not only shows that homoeo-
776 - WHAT IS ANTIPATHY 2 | ESSAY
pathy lies within the province of reason, but makes it
one of the most reasonable things in the world. It
not only declares it to be within the grasp of common
sense, but places it before the physician as the plainest
rule he has to follow, the most common-sense duty he
has to perform.
19. A reason can also be given for antipathy. The
action of small doses being contrary to the action of
larger doses in health, and these smaller doses being
given for diseases similar to those produced by the
larger ones, it follows necessarily that this action of
small doses is contrary to the action going on in the
diseases for which they are given; this is the reason
why they are often such successful remedies. That
they do cure many diseases is manifest, and this is the
reason why they cure. The natural action which they
have in health is carried with them when they are
given in disease. They take no cognisance of the
Condition of the organ which appropriates them, but
having power to act in a certain direction, effects
corresponding to the state of the organ are produced ;
if this state is a healthy one, disturbance takes place;
if it is a diseased one, the same action may bring about
a cure. The experiments with belladonna on the iris
are a visible proof of this; and thus antipraxy answers
the question why, whether asked of homoeopathy or of
antipathy. -
2O. These facts—the action of large doses in health;
the cure of similar diseases by small doses; and the
reason of this cure given by the action of Small doses
in health—are, to my mind, eminently plain and
satisfactory. The same processes of observation,
experiment, and reflection may make them equally
plain and satisfactory to others. But such must do
the work for themselves. I cannot do it for them.
In the meantime the objections suggested by mere
reasonings are just as irrelevant and useless as are
the objections which have so long been raised against
homoeopathy by those who will not try the practice
in their own hands. The homoeopathists are now
xxv.] WHAT IS ANTIPATHY 2 777
challenged in the same way that they have challenged
the allopaths.
The pearl has been dived for and sought after with
much diligence. It is believed that it has been found
and brought to light. It is respectfully presented to
every medical man who will courteously accept it.
The value of the pearl to each will depend upon the
amount of pains which he takes in examining it for
himself, and in appropriating it to his own use.
In conclusion, a few brief remarks may be offered
upon the criticisms, objections, and difficulties which
have come to my knowledge since the Leamington
Address (Essay XXII) was given in September last.
21. The ‘British Journal of Homoeopathy' (for
Oct., 1873) has a notice of the Address very remark-
able for the confusion of thought which pervades it.
Among many things which may be passed by, it
suggests, in the form of a query, that the contrary
action of small doses in health as a law or rule for the
choice of the dose is “but another of the many guesses
on the subject which experience has consigned to
forgetfulness;” and at the same time it insists that it
has been anticipated by others, especially by Dr.
Fletcher of Edinburgh, and by Dr. Reith of Aber-
deen.
Dr. Fletcher's paragraph has been given in a former
part of this Essay. Dr. Reith's papers shall now be
noticed. The truth is that we do not come into
collision. Dr. Reith's investigations have been carried
on in the sick, mine have been in the healthy. To
show this it will be sufficient to quote the title of Dr.
Reith's Papers, and a short sentence from one of
them —The articles are ‘On the Therapeutic Action
of Medicines in Diſaſed Conditions [not healthy condi-
tions] of the Bloodvessels.” And in the first of them
he says, “We shall have to enquire what is the
* “Edinburgh Medical Journal, Feb., April, and September,
I868.
778 WHAT IS ANTIPATHY P [ESSAY
therapeutic dose of each medicine. . . As already
stated, this can only be done by experiments on diseased
nerves.” His conclusions are drawn from experiments
in disease—mine are the results of experiments in
health. There could not be a greater difference
between two methods than this. When Dr. Reith's
facts and mine are the same, we are two independent
witnesses to them ; inasmuch as we have arrived at
our knowledge of them by different paths. When
Dr. Reith uses hypothetical expressions they are his
Own property, and he alone is entitled to them.
Perhaps it should be added that our views of the
medicinal use of digitalis differ. This also seems to
be accounted for by the difference in our methods of
studying the drug. Dr. Reith says:– “For a rational
explanation of the action of digitalis it is unnecessary
to bring forward any new facts beyond those already
known.” His conclusions, therefore, are drawn from
the observations of others : mine are the results of
experiments on myself. -
These remarks are offered in the interests of the
sick, and in the cause of truth only. They are not
intended to disparage or criticise Dr. Reith. God
forbid that I should wish to rob any one, whether
predecessor or contemporary, of any credit, be it much
or little, to which he is entitled. Especially ought this
to be said of any one digging in the same mine, or
diving in the same waters, with myself.
22. It has been said to me : “You are the solitary
individual who believes that the action of small doses
in health is the contrary to the action of large doses, at
least to the extent of its being a general fact.” At
present, then, I must be content, though sorry, to be
the sole possessor of the pearl. Those, however, who
reject it gain nothing, either for themselves or for me,
by objections of reasoning alone. Whatever is stated
as a fact upon evidence, can be rebutted only by stronger
evidence against it. To obtain this evidence others
must repeat the experiments which prove it to me,
with similar care. If these new experiments give
xxv.] WHAT IS ANTIPATHY P 779
results the same as mine, then, I suppose, each prover
will believe his own evidence. If they give different
results, then it will appear that there is something
wrong either in their evidence or in mine. Should
this happen, it will be necessary to repeat the experi-
ments with still greater care, so as to learn, if possible,
what is the truth in the matter.
It will facilitate this investigation if all extraneous
subjects be carefully excluded from it. The old
difficulties of primary and secondary actions of drugs,
the actions of drugs and the reaction of the vital force,
and other similar questions, are really quite foreign to
this enquiry.
23. Again, to impress me with a deep sense of the
extreme difficulty of obtaining satisfactory results in
the proving of small doses of drugs, and of the great
probability that I have been deceiving myself, the
following proving of nothing has been kindly sent
II le ...—
“I have made on myself the following experiment.
I have sat for the best part of an hour watching myself
when in my usual (rather indifferent I must grant)
health, and with the following result : My pulse has
varied greatly; pains have come on in several parts
of my body; I have had vague feelings of appre-
hension; nausea; palpitation of the heart; flatulence;
vertigo ; salivation ; dry mouth ; choking sensation in
Z/he Z/ºroaſ. Had I taken medicine in any size of dose
I should have found it difficult not to conclude that
the symptoms were caused by the medicine.”
Here is a regular fit of “nerves,” which Sydenham
would have called “hysteria in the male.” It certainly
shows that many provings may be looked upon with
suspicion; but it does not show that no provings are of
value. It compels me to say that I went through
several careful “provings of nothing,” and many other
observations upon myself, before undertaking the trial
of small doses of drugs. Notwithstanding the series
of symptoms so well reported above, I have no doubt
of the truth and general accuracy of the provings given
78O WHAT IS ANTIPATHY 2 [ESSAY
y
in the Leamington Address. The case of “nerves’
is matched, as some of my readers may remember, by
the experiments made upon a lady with two bars of
steel, one a magnet, the other not, which was recorded
in Essay VI.
24. Again, it is said to me: “You have not yet got
so far as to have your deductions [induction] taken
into account and criticised. Your colleagues have not
got further than your facts, and as to them, they are
not convinced.” They must convince themselves.
But they may be reminded, as their opponents of the
old school were reminded twenty years ago, that if they
will not look through Galileo's telescope, they must
not expect to see Jupiter's moons.
25. Another objection has been put forth at which I
cannot but marvel. It is said that many diseases have
no contraries, so that this rule for the dose is “only
workable in a certain narrow sphere.” This objection
betrays a strangely perplexed state of mind. It might
be inferred from this objection that antipraxy had been
put forward as a rival of homoeopathy, or a substitute
for it. But surely it is most plain that this is not the
case. A rule for the dose says nothing about the
zemedy. Homoeopathy is a rule by which to choose
the remedy; but, as was remarked in the first Essay,
it says nothing about the dose, except that it must be
smaller than that which is proved in health. Find the
remedy first by the rule of simi/ia simi/iózſs curazzfur,
if you can, then antipraxy will help you to find the
dose. The actions of small doses of drugs are contrary
to diseases because they are contrary to the actions of
the larger doses which are similar to diseases. Anti-
pathy, in the sense now given to it, is not the contrary
remedy, but the contrary dose. If there were any
force at all in the objection it would be against homoeo-
pathy and the choice of the remedy, not against anti-
pathy and the choice of the dose.
26. The observation referred to in the last paragraph
is not an objection to either homoeopathy or antipathy,
but it embraces a great difficit/y—one which thoughtful
xxv.] WHAT IS ANTIPATHY 2 78.1
homoeopathists are made to feel every day. It is said
by the same objector that “the rule of simiſia similiğus
is always available if only we have a drug which has
caused the simiſe of the disease before us.” True, but
we have not yet this simile always before us. What
drug has been proved till it has brought on a morbid
state resembling cancer P All practitioners are still
baffled by some forms of hysteria; by many skin
diseases; by spinal affections and the paralysis pro-
ceeding from them ; and by nearly all malignant
tumors. Our present ignorance in regard to remedies
for such diseases as these is an enormous difficulty,
but it is not an objection to the knowledge we have
been permitted to acquire in regard to the treatment
of other diseases. The law of simi/ia, which is an
induction from the effects of the larger doses in health,
and the law of antipraxy, which is an induction from
the effects of the smaller doses in health, cannot be
proved false by any amount of difficulties such as
these. “True fortitude of mind,” says Paley, “consists
in not suffering what we do know to be disturbed by
what we do not know.” Difficulties are not objections.
27. Such are the criticisms and objections of others
so far as I am acquainted with them. The difficulties
which are present in my own mind are chiefly two.
First, the delicacy and care required in experiments
with small doses. This, no doubt, is a serious difficulty,
but it is one which attends all experiments in modern
physical science. In our time, every research must be
made not only with delicacy and care, but with extreme
accuracy, if it is to gain credence and reception. This
difficulty is overcome every day in other branches of
knowledge, and it is hoped and believed that the same
pains will overcome it in experiments with small doses.
28. The second difficulty is one which attaches to all
, medicine. It arises out of our want of more know-
ledge. With regard to the nature of many chronic
and nearly all organic diseases we are still very igno-
rant; even of the seat or locality of some ailments we
are doubtful. And, of course, this ignorance presses
782 WHAT IS ANTIPATHY 2 [ESSAY xxv.
heavily upon every new undertaking. But homoeo-
pathy has already added many valuable specific
remedies to our former slender list, and it may be
reasonably expected to reward further labour bestowed
upon it by adding many more. And as homoeopathy
presents new remedies, antipraxy will reveal their
proper doses.
29. The truth upon this difficult subject—the action
of drugs on the living body of man in health and
disease—is, no doubt, in itself perfectly regular ; and
in the bright light of an infinite intelligence it will be
clear and plain. But to our finite and troubled minds,
with the dust of ignorance, prejudice, vanity, and
jealousy beclouding them on every side, it can be but
dimly seen. If, however, we look at it as steadily as
we can, we may see something of its order and per-
fection, though not much. If we try to describe to
others what we see, another great obstacle awaits us in
the imperfection of our language. Even the truth
which we thus imperfectly see is more beautiful than
the picture we can paint of it; for Our thoughts are
more subtle than our language, and the conceptions of
our minds are far more numerous than are the words
we can find to express them.
30. With a deep consciousness of all these infirmities
and defects, these Essays are respectfully and affection-
ately presented to my medical brethren. If they may
be as patiently read as they have been honestly written,
if a favourable construction may be put upon them,
some reproach may be wiped away from the acknow-
ledged imperfections of medicine, and some good may
result to suffering humanity.
March 20th, I874.
ESSAY XXVI.
=–Cº-º-º:
ORGANS HAVE THEIR OWN DOSES,
“All yet seems well; and if it end so meet,
The bitter past, more welcome is the sweet!”
“ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.”
“Vive, vale, si quid novisti rectius istis
Caudidus imperti; Si non, his utere mecum.”
& HORACE.
“Farewell ! and if a better system's thine,
Impart it frankly, or make use of mine.”
FRANCIS.
ESSAY XXVI.
ORGANS HAVE THEIR OWN DOSES,
“Nos jam sub initiis et ad tempus tantum lucifera experi-
menta, non fructifera quaerere.” LORD BACON, Wov. Org.
“Now at the beginning and for a time, we seek only Light-
bringing, not Fruit-bearing experiments.” KITCHIN.
It is night with us. Experiments are torches. In-
tellectually we are living in a darkened world. We
have no day light, and see nothing but by, torch light.
When we have made an observation or tried an experi-
ment, and have thought about it, we have brought flint
and steel into collision, and have struck a Spark ; Some
of these sparks kindle a torch, and by its light we take
a step in advance. This is true of medicine. It is
true of all natural knowledge. We have to thank God
that, for our moral and spiritual progress, we have the
Zamſ of His Word to guide us, which is a much
brighter and steadier light than any of our own
torches.
By this torch-light let us proceed. Every “light-
bringing” experiment is a fresh torch.
It may contribute to the better understanding of
antipraxy—the contrary action of the larger and the
smaller doses—if we go a little further into its details,
and try to examine more carefully the various actions
5O
786 ORGANS HAVE THEIR OWN DOSES. | ESSAY
of different doses of drugs. We shall find that each
organ as well as each drug has its own two ranges of
doses. This will necessitate new experiments, which
may, perhaps, suggest new thoughts. A reward will
accompany them if they are torches or light-bringing
experiments.
By this increasing light we may go on weaving our
piece of tapestry. The thread to be gathered up, in
Order to continue the work, will be found in the ‘Letter
to Sir Benjamin Brodie'; and a rather long quotation
will be necessary, but time will be saved by it.
“. . . . All which fluctuations (in the dose) must
Continue to prevail, as they do in the old school, so
long as, in both cases, the subject is one of personal
experience only. -
“A question of great interest, therefore, arises : can
any law or principle for the selection of the dose be
discovered, as there has been for the remedy ?
“The earlier homoeopathic writers answer this in-
quiry by a direct negative. . . . Later authorities
are of the same way of thinking. &
“The truth is that so long as physicians looked only
in the direction of the disease and the patient,
Sydenham's earnest wish for the possession of a 'fixed,
definite, and consummate method of healing' could not
be attained, though pursued for many centuries; and
in like manner, while the attention of practitioners is
directed only to the same objects, the possession of a
fixed rule for the dose will be equally unattainable.
But no sooner was the direction changed, and the
thinking mind turned towards the drug as well as
towards the disease, than the first law of healing
was laid hold of, imperfectly, indeed, at that time,
but so as to admit of more distinct and accurate
definition now. And if we tread in the same steps,
if we look in the same direction, that is, if we
examine the drug with more care and precision, we
shall find the law of the dose. It is the counterpart of
the law of the remedy, and may be expressed provi-
sionally in these words —
XXVI.] ORGANS HAVE THEIR OWN DOSES. 787
“Different doses of the same drug taken in health,
select different organs on which to act injuriously.
“Corresponding but smaller doses of the same drug
are to be given as remedies in the diseases of the
organs which they select.”
An example is given as an illustration, from Christi-
SOIT –
“Oxalic acid. This drug as a poison acts in the
largest doses upon the alimentary canal; in smaller
ones upon the heart; in still smaller upon the spinal
cord ; and in the smallest upon the brain.
“According to the rule just expressed, this drug
must be given in corresponding but smaller doses as a
remedy. If for an affection of the brain, the dose must
be the smallest which will produce any effect; if for
one of the spine, a somewhat larger dose will be re-
quired ; if for a disease of the heart, the dose is to be
still further increased.”
It is to be noticed that the conclusions with respect
to the action of Oxalic acid drawn by Professor
Christison, were from experiments on dogs. How
far they are applicable to man must be ascertained by
experiments upon ourselves.
For this purpose the following provings of it were
undertaken —
Ota/ic acid.
1874, April I I.
7.O. P.M. Pulse 72. Five hours after taking food.
7.5 ,, Oxalic acid Tºoth of a grain taken in Io
minims of water. Taste strongly acid.
7, IO P.M. Pulse 76.
7. I 5 , , ,, 72.
7.2O , , , , 70.
7. 3C , ,, 7O.
Soon after 8 o'clock, giddiness; with slight griping;
loose motion ; and a little nausea.
8.3O, called out to visit a patient.
, ‘Letter to Sir B. C. Brodie," p. 109, 1861.
788 ORGANS HAVE THEIR OWN DOSES. [ESSAY
On returning Soon after 9 had a cup of cocoa.
Went to bed at I.O.30, when the pulse was about 60.
The inferences which, I think, may be drawn from
this proving are these : that its principal action was
upon the stomach and bowels—a little more would
have produced vomiting and diarrhoea—and that it is
too large a dose to be given as a remedy in disease.
April 13. I I. 50 A.M. Three hours after breakfast.
Pulse 82. Breathings 14.
Oxalic acid ºth of a grain taken in IOO minims of
water. Taste still quite acid.
I 1.55 Pulse 86. Breathings 16.
I 2. O , SO. * } I 5.
I 2. I 5 , 82.
I 2.30 Attention diverted.
April 14. (Last experiment continued.) After
going to bed last night the heart made its beatings
sensible in an unusual manner, and attracted attention.
To-day the bowels have been moved three times, and
rather relaxed, which is unusual also.
April 15. I I. I 5 A.M. Pulse 72.
Oxalic acid Tºoth of a grain taken in IOO minims of
water. Taste slightly acid.
I 1.2O Pulse 7
II.3O ,
II. 45 ,
H 2. O * *
I 2. I5 -,
I 2.3 3
A second dose
taken.
i
April 16. From these light-bringing experiments,
and from the fact ascertained by Christison and
Coindet, that oxalic acid is very quickly decomposed
either in the blood or in the lungs, (it contains carbon
and oxygen only,) we may see that its action is too
violent to allow doses of a tenth of a grain to be given
safely as a remedy; that in this dose it acts on the
stomach and bowels ; that in doses of the twentieth of
a grain it acts on the heart; that in doses of a hundreth
XXVI.] ORGANS HAVE THEIR OWN DOSES. 789
of a grain its action is feeble and transitory. No
action on the spine or spinal nerves could be traced in
the provings. Should this be confirmed by others, the
experiments of Christison on dogs will be another
example of the untrustworthiness of such experiments
as regards the action of drugs on man, The speedy
decomposition of the drug indicates that it can have
no prolonged action. Its use, therefore, as a remedy
will probably be limited to cases of urgency and short
duration ; such, for instance, as cholera. Some ex-
periments have been tried in America with the first,
second, and third triturations. It seems to me a
mistake to make triturations of a soluble salt.
Chamom?//a.
Of the doses of chamomilla Hahnemann says, “A
drop of the third dilution is sufficient to cure, in every
instance ; in many cases it acts too powerfully.”
Dr. Hughes says, “The facts about the dose of
chamomilla are among the most curious that homoeo-
pathy presents. Of very little pathogenetic activity
in its crude state, the low dilutions,' as Dr. Holcombe
truly says, of certainly no more value in disease than
catnep or mint teas.' Chamomilla begins at about the
sixth potency to manifest its great curative powers,
and may often be given with advantage as high as the
eighteenth. The twelfth is my own favourite dilu-
tion. These facts are vouched for by homoeopaths
generally : their significance is at present doubtful.”
Dr. Hughes will suffer me to point out that the
word “pathogenetic " (disease generating) followed
immediately by Dr. Holcombe's remarks on the value
of chamomilla as a remedy (disease curing), is a con-
fusion of thought.
Hahnemann does not tell us what doses were used
* Hahnemann's ‘Materia Medica Pura, Vol. II, p. 3
* Hughes’ ‘Manual of Pharmaco-dynamics," p. 206. 2nd
edition. IS7O.
790 ORGANS HAVE THEIR OWN DOSES. |ESSAY
in his provings, but he gives us about five hundred
Symptoms of chamomilla, and introduces them with
this remark, “Although the following symptoms do
by no means present a complete list of the curative
powers of chamomilla, yet they are sufficiently numer-
Ous to show that chamomilla belongs to the class of
polychrests.” As he adds, “A large dose acts for
Some days,” large doses of some kind must have been
used.
That chamomilla in appreciable doses produces
pathogenetic symptoms, or symptoms in health, must
be granted, if Hahnemann's provings of it are to be
believed.
That chamomilla acts as a remedy only in dilutions
from the sixth upwards, I must take leave to say is a
great mistake.
The sixth and twelfth dilutions may be sufficient
doses to quiet the nervous system of children while
teething; but certainly other organs and their diseases
are acted upon beneficially by much larger doses.
I have proved the first dilution, (one hundredth of a
drop of the sap of the plant), sufficiently to learn its
action on the liver. On a healthy person its effect is
to produce motions like those of a healthy baby; it
increases the secretion of healthy bile. This is a torch ;
a “light-bringing” experiment; and the curative action
of this dose, in diseases of the liver, I have witnessed
many times. Two cases shall be given as examples —
} aundice.
1871, June 14. Visited Mrs. aged 50 ; married four
years; has had one child, now nearly two years old ; three
years ago Suffered from spasmodic pains near the region of
the right ovary, and was taken up to Mr. Spencer Wells for
this ; he gave no opinion ; these pains went away when the
pregnancy began, and have not returned ; could not nurse;
the catamenia have scarcely returned since. In March last
she was suddenly seized with pain in the abdomen, and
jaundice, and has been very ill ever since. The physician
who has attended her during these three months at length
XXVI.] ORGANS HAVE THEIR OWN DOSES. 79 I
intimated to her husband that he feared nothing more could
be done for her. She has no appetite; is very thin and
weak; the motions are light-coloured, and the urine red ;
there is no jaundice at present; she is confined to bed. A
drop of tinct. cham. I three times a day was prescribed.
June 19. She was better; the chamomilla was repeated.
24. The conjunctiva to day was yellow.
July 4. Has been made very ill by eating lobster ; is very
yellow ; urine very high coloured ; motions slate coloured.
A few doses of pulsatilla, mercurius, and cinchona were tried,
but she grew worse, and on
July II. The chamomilla was returned to, and continued.
There were great difficulties about food ; but on
August I. She was very much better. The chamomilla
was continued a little longer ; and on
August 2 I. She was quite well ; the motions and urine
natural ; appetite very good ; the jaundice entirely gone ;
and the tongue clean. She was down stairs.
1874, May 14, Has continued in good health.
AJaaffcfcs.
The presence of sugar in the secretion of the
kidneys is a symptom which, in different cases, is
associated with very different morbid conditions. In
the following case it appeared to me that the principal
derangement was in the stomach and liver.
1871, July 24. Visited Mrs. , an elderly lady, suffering .
from a troublesome cough ; indigestion ; constipation ; pru-
ritus ; great thirst ; lassitude and depression ; passes a large
quantity of water, Containing not albumen, but Sugar ; specific
gravity IO38. A few doses of sulphur were given before the
examination of the water could be made. On
August 1. Chamomilla, a drop of the first dilution night
and morning was prescribed.
August 2 I. She was better; the constipation continued ;
specific gravity of the water IO25. The diet was of animal
food in moderation, but not exclusive of vegetables. The
chamomilla continued in the morning, and a dose of lycopo-
dium at night.
August 28. Much better; bowels relieved ; specific gravity
IOI8. Chamomilla continued. +
October 2. Urine quite natural ; the cough, the indigestion,
79.2 ORGANS IIAVE THEIR OWN DOSES. |ESSAY
the constipation, the thirst, the lassitude and depression,
have disappeared.
I873, October 29. Has had no return.
These are “fruit-bearing” experiments.
Ae//adonna.
Experiments with belladonna are in progress, but
not sufficiently complete for publication, and the
printer has overtaken me. One remark, however,
may be made on belladonna as a prevenſive of scarlet
fever. The contradictory testimonies on this subject
are well known. It seems to me plain that when
belladonna is given to healthy persons, with the in-
tention of preserving them from taking the infection
from patients suffering from scarlet fever, it should be
given in doses large enough to produce Some patho-
genetic effect. Some action of the drug should be
manifested, though probably this need not be much.
I do not see how protection can reasonably be expected
without this proof that the constitution has recognised
the presence of the drug. We do not expect vaccina-
tion to protect a child from small-pox when it has
failed to take effect on the arm. We repeat the opera-
tion till it takes effect. -
Crocus.
While we are studying the action of different doses
upon different organs of the body, it will be well to
notice again the fact that doses of some drugs may be
so large as to produce no effect at all upon any organ
and to add to the notice that this fact does not prove
that smaller doses will be equally inoperative.
This gives me an opportunity of paying a grateful
tribute of praise to William Alexander, of Edinburgh,
who was a true pioneer in the proving of drugs. Nor
did he desist from these experiments till, from one of
them in which he took two scruples of Solid camphor,
XXVI.] ORGANS HAVE THEIR OWN DOSES. 793
he very nearly lost his life. His book is so scarce that
it is necessary to copy one of his provings of Saffron to
make what I have to say upon it intelligible.
He tried four experiments with crocus sativus. In
the first he took ten grains; in the second, one scruple :
in the third, two scruples; and the following is the
fourth experiment —
“Some days after this (third experiment) I took four
scruples of saffron. This had no manner of effect,
either on the mercury in the thermometer at my
stomach, or on my pulse; so that I concluded that the
remarkable diminution of it in the last experiment had
not been owing to any effect of the saffron, but to some
other cause. Though this dose was very much larger
than any that are commonly given, yet I neither was
sensible of the smallest effect from it, nor from any of
the others; and therefore I desisted from taking any
more, being fully persuaded that, if the dose of saffron
is to rise above a few scruples, there are few patients
who will ever be prevailed on to take it, as it has a
nauseous, disagreeable taste, and can hardly be dis-
guised by mixing it with any other preparation.”
After noticing the opinions of Galen, Boerhaave, and
Others, as to its supposed powerful action, he concludes
by saying —
“I cannot help thinking that it is a medicine (if it
deserves that name) just as innocent and as useless as
any in all the materia medica.”
One reason which may be assigned for the absence
of any effect from these large doses is the crude state
in which the drug was taken. Four scruples of solid
Saffron may pass through the alimentary canal as an
ounce of quicksilver does, and so become inoperative.
Yet when we remember the experiments of M.M.
Trousseau and Pidoux with half-ounce doses of asa-
foetida, and other provings of very large doses of drugs,
it is necessary to conclude that there is also some other
* “Experimental Essays' by William Alexander, ‘Surgeon
in Edinburgh, p. 90. I768.
794 CONCLUSION. [ESSAY
reason. But whatever may be the reasons of the want
of action of large doses of some drugs, it is important
to know that this does not prove that smaller doses of
the same drugs will be equally powerless.
That small doses of the tincture of crocus produce
effects, I have ascertained by proving them upon
myself, but the experiments require to be repeated
before they can be published. As I have already said,
the printer has overtaken me, and these, along with
experiments with small doses of antimony, ipecacuanha,
and some other drugs, must be postponed.
Time fails me to do more. It is passionately hoped
that others will take up this work; there is an endless
amount of it remaining, so that no science-loving
Alexander need weep; and we cannot do better than
go on working. Work is one of the best blessings of
life. An idle man, said Erasmus, is “telluris inutile
pondus;” which has been translated by an old worthy,
“an unprofitable lump of unoccupied earth.” Horace
was more severe and, it is to be feared, more true –
{ {
º & & et ni
Posces ante diem librum cum lumine, si non
Intendes animum studiis et rebus honestis
Invidiá vel amore vigil torquebere !”
Epist. I. 2.
“ Unless you light your lamp ere dawn, and read
Some wholesome book that high resolves may breed,
You'll find your sleep go from you, and will toss
Upon your pillow, envious love-sick, cross |"
Connington.
Let me once more repeat that we do not want
hypotheses, but facts; not opinions, but truth. It was
well said by old Quincy, “It is better to be contented
with what is known (or may be known) and of use,
than to advance strange Notions and form grand Ideas
XXVI.] CONCLUSION. 795
of what we don't understand.” In the more elegant
words of Cicero “sufficit si guid fiat intelligamus, etsi
Quomodo fiat nesciamus.” It is enough if we under-
stant w/ºad is done, although we are ignorant ſhow it is
done. The greatest obstacles to the progress of know-
ledge are hypothetical explanations. -
In this search after truth we may sometimes be
misled and go astray : Some of our facts may not have
been correctly observed, and so part of our supposed
truth may be error. Still this is the only right path, the
only way in which medical certainty can be most nearly
approached. And “to make mistakes, as we are on
the way to knowledge, is far more honourable than to
escape making them through never having set out to
seek knowledge.” *
The best safeguard against the disposition to invent
hypotheses by speculation, is to perceive that there are
natural limits to our knowledge, and to be convinced
that we cannot pass them. The best policy is to try
to discover these boundaries, and to keep within them.
There is nothing more important than this.
If my readers will look back upon the work done in
these Essays, they will see that an attempt has been
made by torch light to take an inventory of the furni-
ture in the temple of therapeutics.
They will see that the vestibule of this temple is
furnished with the proving of drugs in Aea/#/.. We
have fixed our eyes with great earnestness on many of
the objects which this spacious vestibule contains.
What the prism is to the sun's light, the healthy
body is to drugs. As experiments with the prism
separate and exhibit the various colours in the com-
pound ray of white light, so experiments on the healthy
body exhibit the various actions of different drugs and
doses, so that they can be distinguished and defined.
Those who have tried these experiments can recognise
* “English Dispensatory," p. 25 I. IOth ed. 1736.
* Trench, “On the Study of Words, p. 228.
796 CONCLUSION. |ESSAY
them in the pictures of them given in books; others
can only obtain an imperfect acquaintance with them
from the pictures; this however is sufficient to be a
useful guide. But these are “stringent times;” like
those of which it has been said that “no algebraic
formula, but only direct vision of the relation of things
would suffice a man ;” and we are all bound to obtain
this direct vision to the extent of our ability and
Opportunity.
The first chamber in the temple is furnished with //e
/ocal action of drugs. The general fact of the action of
each drug on a portion only of the living body, and
that whether the body is in a sound or unsound con-
dition, has been made abundantly manifest. “It must
be confessed to be so probable that there can be no
argument to disprove it.” Indeed, it seems impossible
to entertain any doubt of its truth. The use of this
general fact or law in therapeutics has been called
Organopathy. .
We have entered the next chamber, and are not yet
so familiar with its furniture. We shall become so in
time. It is occupied with the various Kind's of actions
of drugs. We have to learn w/at they are, not ſhow
they are produced. It appears that each drug has two
series of doses having contrary actions, or actions
showing an opposite tendency or direction. The series
of larger doses act in one direction, that of the smaller
ones in the opposite. It appears also that each organ
or part of the body has its own two ranges of doses
possessing these contrary actions. This general fact
or law has been called Amé:/rary.
The action of the larger doses is more or less
poisonous in health, and it is injurious in disease. It
resembles the action of other causes of disease. The
effects it produces indicate the various drugs to be
given as remedies in smaller doses for similar diseases
* Thomas Carlyle's ‘Letters on Cromwell.'
* Pearson.
XXVI.] CONCLUSION. 797
of the locality where the action takes place. This
chamber of the temple is //omaeoſa//y.
The action of the smaller doses in the contrary
direction to that of the larger ones, indicate the doses
to be given as remedies. The action being in the
opposite direction to that of the larger doses, which is
similar to the disease for which the drug is prescribed,
must also be in the opposite direction to that of the
disease. This chamber is Antipathy.
The vestibule and four chambers of this temple have
been entered, and explored to the extent the torch-
light has permitted. Innumerable objects of value and
usefulness remain in them not yet seen nor described.
Other chambers in the penetralia of the vast temple
of healing are yet unexplored. New light-bringing
experiments will be needed. Guided by these torches,
may many enter in and advance further with reverent
steps
Such, then, are the results of this investigation of
the most famous systems of medicine, and especially of
the system of Hahnemann.
It has been carried on for many years in the midst
of daily professional employment; in the midst of the
cares and duties of a large family; and with all the
defects and failures attendant upon every human
effort.
In spite of all these obstacles some useful principles
have been described, and many unsatisfactory conjec-
tures and hypotheses have been pointed out.
Some writers are like the rivers in Australia; their
early course is beautiful and fertilizing; but they flow
in the wrong direction, and lose themselves at length
in the quicksands of fancy. Hahnemann was one of
these. His later works have run to waste, to the
great damage of his cause, and of his reputation.
Qther writers resemble the rivers of Europe and of
Y. - ~~
798 CONCLUSION. [ESSAY XXVI.
America. They are, it may be, but petty streams in
their beginnings, but they flow on, ever widening and
deepening, until they reach the ocean of eternal truth.
May God grant that these small streams of labour,
these rivulets of Essays, may thus flow into a widening
and deepening river, which may water and make fruit-
ful the fields of medicine, and never dry up. Of this
river may it be said with truth —
“Labitur –et labetur in omne volubilis aevum.”
May 18th, 1874.
I N D E X.
ABERCROMBY quoted, 129
Abernethy quoted, 267
Academy, French, referred to, 58,
558
Acland, Dr., on the proving of
drugs, 419 ; letter from, 430;
quoted, 445, 548
Action, homoeopathic, of diseases,
of mental emotions, and of phy-
sical agents, disproved, I 3 I–I 52
Action, modes of, our ignorance of,
2 I 3-2 I 5
Action of diseases and of drugs,
local, 461 et passim.
Action of drugs, Essays xix, XX,
xxi, xxii; Conclusions respecting,
396 (note); how to be discovered,
412, 536; what it is, 629; of each
drug, how to be distinguished,
679 ; kind of, 483, 701–7 IO ;
differs from that of food and
Stimulants, 761 ; is perfectly
regular, 782.
Action of small doses, 7 Io-730 ;
as remedies silent and peaceful,
613, 734 ; contrary to action of
large doses, 728
Adams, Dr. Francis, quoted, 5, 86,
361
Addison quoted, 67, 28 I, 490 (note),
49 I -
Address, at Leamington, Essay
xxii; to the different sections of
the profession, 486-494; , these
Essays presented to the profes-
Sion, 782
Advantages of homoeopathy, Essay
xi.; to the physician, 277 ; to the
patient, 283
Aetius quoted, 369
Alchemists, the, 540
Alexander, William, quoted,739,793
Alexandria, school of, 582
Allopathy unsatisfactory I4 ; Statis-
tics of, I 5, 66, 69 ; not prepared
for new forms of disease, 23 ; is
without a law of healing, 86;
recent changes in, 282, 299
(notes)
Analogy in favour of a law of heal-
ing, I I 5 ; in favour of the small
dose, 2.16; in support of antipraxy,
747
Anatomical basis of homoeopathy,
Essay xviii.; the most certain
and stable, 524 ; has four sides,
525; referred to, 569
Anatomical arrangement of symp-
toms, 374
Andral, Professor, his experiments,
4. I
Annesley on “Diseases in India,”
697
Antimony deserves to be re-proved,
447
Antipathy, Essay xxv
Antipraxy, Essay xxiv.
Antiquity, the argument from, 39
Aphorisms of Hippocrates, 559 ;
of Boerhaave, 553
Appeal to the profession, 32, 327 ;
by the opponents of homoeopathy
to the public, 29
Archimedes, his law of specific
gravity, 82
Aretaeus quoted, 658
Aºle quoted or referred to, 51,
500
Armstrong, Dr., quoted or referred
to, 409, 688, 759, 762
Articles, no standard of, in medicine
as in churches, 37
Asiatic cholera in Europe, 23
Astrologically, drugs have been
viewed, 536
Astrology repudiated, 341
‘Athenaeum quoted, 352 ; replied
to, 353–359
Authority, the argument from, 32
Authority—routine, 434
‘Auxiliaries’ an improper term, 121
Bacon, Lord, quoted, 29, 43, 55, Io/,
128, 181, 190, 209, 307, 342, 535,
550, 613, 658,714, 730
Barthez quoted, 684
Basil quoted, 206
Beale, Dr. Lionel, quoted, 637
8OO INDEX.
Beattie quoted, I 55 Cases of
Bell, Sir Charles, referred to, 685
Bennett, Dr. Hughes, quoted, 592
Bentham, Jeremy, quoted, 42
Berkeley, Bishop, quoted, 207
Bichat quoted, 634
Billing, Dr., quoted, 670
Bioplasm, 637, 703 -
Black, Dr., referred to or quoted,
373, 508, 5 II, 513,568
Blackstone, Sir William, quoted, 81
Blatch, Mr., letter from the Apothe-
caries’ Society, 33
Bleeding, modern history of, 759
Bleeding, practice of, in fashion and
out, 87 ; abandoned, 361 ; Sir T.
Watson on, 760
Blisters, moxas, issues, Setons, &c.,
abandoned, 362
Blood, circulation of, 83 ; action of
drugs on, 703; is living, 703
Blot on the pages of medical his-
tory, 458
Blue-pill, prescription for, 354, 390
Boerhaave, quoted or referred to,
II, 278, 410, 438, 553, 737
Borelli referred to, 438; quoted, 549
Botanical systems, 560
Botany, experiments in, 32 I ; foun-
ders of, 561
Brande, Professor, referred to, 345
Braithwaite’s ‘Retrospect,’ 161, 175,
348, 359
Bristowe, Dr., quoted, 627 (note)
‘British Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science,’ 417, 484 ;
on the proving of drugs, 419 ;
report on experiments with ani-
mals, 590 ; report on experiments
with atropia and f/hysostigma,
7
& iſiºn Medical Association,’ com-
mittee of, for experiments with
mercz/7 y, 592
Brodie, Sir Benjamin, referred to,
345; reply to, 369, 403, 404, 786
Brodribb, Mr., quoted, 23 I, 240
Brougham, Lord, quoted, 557
Broussais referred to, 278
Brown, Dr. John, referred to or
quoted, 86, 278, 408, 438, 577,
632; his doctrine, 765
Butler, Bishop, quoted, 57, 8 I, 325
Cases of L -
Alimentary canal, diseases of,
393
Apoplexy, IOI
Asthma, IOO, 28O, 299, 529
Bladder, inflammation of the,
297 ; diseases of, 455
Blood disease, 395
Bones, diseases of the, 393
Brain, congestion of the, 298
Bright's disease, 449
Bronchitis, 233, 390
Cancer, 296
Chlorosis, 385
Cholera, IO2, 234, 383
Colic, 98
Constipation,
IOI, 239, 388
Coxalgia, 381
Cough, chronic, 47 I
Cramp, 92, 383, 455
Croup, 96, 232, 456
Debility, 385
Delirium tremens, IoI
Diabetes mellitus, 234, 294,
79 I
Diarrhoea, IO2, 234, 385
Drug-poisoning, 126, 440
Dysentery, 8, 92, 393, 455
Eruptions, chronic, 91, 92,
95, 393
Erysipelas, 283, 45.5
Exostosis of the tibia, 378
Eyes, inflammation of the,
96, 231, 393
Gastralgia, 38 I
Haemorrhage, IO I, 385, 455
Haºmorrhage from the bow
els, I 24
Haemoptysis, 263
Headache, 96, 455
Hydrocephalus, 96, 45.5
Jaundice, 383, 790
Kidney, abscess of the, 448
Lead poisoning, 387
Lungs, inflammation of, 91,
94, 95,233, 454
Lungs, diseases of the, 237,
390 -
Melancholia, 377
Menorrhagia, 382
Mucous discharges, 390
Mumps, 92, 393
Neuralgia, 393, 529
Ozaena, 377
Pain in the elbow, 238
Paralysis, 92, 238, 383, 388,
456
Quinsy, 96
chronic, 92,
INDEX.
8O I
Coesalpinus, Andreas, quoted, 562
Collateral sciences, the, of value, 446
College of Physicians, their collec-
tion of Materia Medica, I 59 ;
their ‘Nomenclature of Diseases,’
7O 5
Colleges, illegal opposition by, 32
Combination of drugs, fact of, I84 ;
theory of, 187; evils of, 188;
fatal error may be committed by,
190 ; abandoned, 362
Common sense of homoeopathy,
Essay xii
Component parts of organs, 472
Condition, actual, of medicine, 85-
88
Controversy on homoeopathy, ES-
savs ii, iii
Conviction of success, difficult to
produce, 287
Cooper, Samuel, quoted, 197; his
Surgical Dictionary, 289, 290
Copper as a poison, 38 I ; as a
remedy, 382
Corrigan, Dr., quoted, 415
Crum-Brown and T. R. Fraser,
Drs., their experiments, 593
Cullen, Dr., referred to or quoted,
60, 86, 158 ; “luxuriancy of
composition,” 187; history of
medicine, 277 ; 408, 438, 462,
520 ; on gout, 606 ; his doctrine
of fever, 764
Dalton, his discovery in chemistry
referred to, I2, 50, 83, 279
Davy, Sir Humphrey, quoted, 331,
338
Deaths, proportion of, to popula-
tion, 286
De Candolle quoted, 565
Defects of medicine, 184
Definitions of homoeopathy, three :
similar symptoms, similar dis-
eases, similar organs, 50.I
Democritus referred to, 88, 403
Demonstration, meaning of, 644
Despair hinders progress, 473
Development of a new medicinal
action by trituration not proved,
4
Cases of
Rheumatism, 97, 234
Scarlet fever, 96, 455
Scybala, 295
Serous membranes, diseases
of the, 393
Sickness, 303
Spasmodic pains, IOI
Stomach, inflammation of
the, 91, 92, 94,453
Strangury, IO2
Tabes mesenterica, 236
Throat, inflammation of the,
96, 232, 393, 455
Ulcerations, 393
Ulcers on the cornea, 378
Yellow fever, 234
Vaccination, I 35
Vomiting, 99, IOO
Cadogan, Dr., on gout, 605
Calabar bean, action of, on the
pupil, 62 I
Carlyle, Thomas, quoted, 796
Carpenter, Dr., referred to, 485
Causes, outside links of a chain of,
7o I
Cavour, Count, his death, 656
Chalmers, Rev. Thos., quoted, 28 I,
329 -
Chalmers, Dr. A. C., cases by, 453
Change, mental, in the physician’s
mode of reasoning at the bedside,
363
Chaldea, the public of, 436
Chapman, Dr., quoted, 3I4
Charlatans, homoeopathists not, 326
Charter, new, opposed, 39
Charter of King Henry VIII, 435
Chemistry, 539 ; founders of, 540 ;
fundamental law of, 83
Chemical affinity, limits of, 545
Chemical analysis, 544; cannot
analyse Ziving beings, 547
Chemical theory of drug-action a
failure, 544
Cheyne, Dr., on gout, 602
Children, advantage of new treat-
ment to, 285
Cholera, Asiatic, 23
Christison, Professor, quoted or
referred to, 174, 290, 345, 376,
379, 405, 463, 667, 787, 788
Cicero quoted, 128, 795
Clarendon, Lord, quoted, 43
Classification of drugs, 666–672
Clutterbuck, Dr., referred to,758,759
Coelius Aurelianus, works of 577
Diet, treatment by, more successful
than by large doses of drugs, 66,
6
7
Dietl, Dr., of Vienna, his dietetic
treatment, 66
5 I
8O2
INDEX.
Difficulties, the, of homoeopathy,
Essay x
Difficulties with reference to the
medical profession, 246 ; with
reference to Hahnemann, 255;
from the public, 261 ; from the
present circumstances of medical
men, 263; permanent, 264; in
the way of embracing the new
System, 35I ; difficulties are not
objections, 781
Digby, Sir Kenelme, his weapon
Salve, 44, 85
Dilutions, how made, 47
Dioscorides referred to, 277
Direct action of drugs, 202, 586
Discussion of homoeopathy, why
before the public, 29, 32
Diseases, Supposed change in the
character of, 284
Disease, action of drugs curative in,
653 *
Divisions, no abrupt, in nature,
749 -
Doctrine of contraries, 570; op-
posed by Hippocrates, 575
Doctrine of Hahnemann modified,
492
Dose, the, 475 ; lost in a labyrinth,
7 II
Dose, the small, Essay ix
Dose, Hahnemann's view of it un-
satisfactory, 50–52
Dose, a law of, 730
Dose, on the law of, Essay xxiii
Doses, alterative, 476, 485 ; poison-
ous, abandoned, 362 ; need prov-
ing in health, 478, 493; their
action opposite or antagonistic,
479, 482 ; antipraxy, Essay XXV
Doses, small, experiments with, 714
Doses, small, enough to do good
without doing harm, 392
l) over, Dr., on gout, 605
Drugs are remedies for disease,
157 ; method hitherto adopted to
discover their properties, I 57;
new method proposed, I 57 ; per-
nicious effects of 289; mixing of,
discontinued, 362 ; distinguished
from each other, 679; kind of
action of, 701 ; select the same
parts in disease that they do in
health, 682. See action of
Drug-force a subject for speculation,
485
Dryden quoted, 757
Drysdale, Dr., quoted, 372, 509,
5 I4, 5 I 5, 52O, 527
Dublin, College of Surgeons of, 38
Dudgeon, Dr., quoted, 259, 372,
504, 506, 513, 515, 516, 517, 525,
7 II, 73 I, 768
Duncan, Dr. James, on gout, 6 Io
Dutch ambassador and the king of
Siam, 49
Dutch maxim, 249
Duty, a conscientious, to investigate
the new method, 45 I ; and to
extend the knowledge of it, 293
Edinburgh, cholera at, 16
‘Edinburgh Medical and Surgical
Journal’ on arsenic, 172 ; poison-
ing by belladonna, 177
Egypt, the public of, 436
Egyptians, medicine among, 277
‘Elective affinity' of organs and
drugs, 417
Electricity, history of discoveries in,
I43
Emerson quoted, 13
Empirical methods in medicine, 86;
experiment, 440 ; practice, 440
Empiricism, 579
Encke's comet referred to, 218
English wild plants should be
proved, 427 ; may sometimes be
substituted for foreign ones, 567
Erasmus quoted, 794
Ermites, the, in China, 85
Essays, these, the object of, 32
Etmuller quoted, 438
Evidence, value of, 319
Experience, value of, 317 ; needs a
guide, 713
Experience—empiricism, 439
Experiments, chemical, 12, 22O,
545 ; magnetical, 319 ; mechani-
cal, 32O ; with small doses, 714
Experiments on animals, 590 ; with
mercury on dogs, 592 ; with
oxalic acid, 787; unsatisfactory,
480, 789 ; on the sick, 596; very
little has been learned from these,
599 ; on the healthy, 613; Ob-
jects and use of these, 619
Facts, not hypotheses, sought, 491
et passim.
‘Fallacies of Homoeopathy,' by Dr.
Routh, replied to, Essay iii. The
principle, 59 ; the Small dose,
62 ; the statistics, 65
INDEX.
8O3
Faith, medical, not relied upon for
success, in this investigation, 293
Faith, no standard articles of, in
medicine, 37
Faraday, Professor, letter from,
I 51 ; referred to, 358 ; quoted, I
Fleischmann, Dr., referred to, 68,
7 I, 72, 74
Fletcher, Dr., quoted, 633, 768
Food and drugs, 678
Forbes, Sir John, quoted, 442, 586
Force, mechanical, law of, 82
Force, in a mass of liquids, law of,
83
Forces and properties, 640
Forces thought to be modes of
motion, 635 ; life not one of
these, 635
Fordyce, Dr., quoted, 630
Fothergill, Dr., quoted, 161
Franklin referred to, I 44
French Academy of Sciences, 58,
558
Gairdner, Dr. W., on gout, 607
Galen quoted or referred to, 51,
408,437,558; his System of medi-
cine, 57 I-575, 582
Galileo and the Inquisition, 38 ;
his law in mechanics, 82 ; re-
ferred to, Io'7; discovery of Jupi-
ter’s moons, 3O8, 309, 729, 73O
Galvani referred to, I44
Garrod, Dr., on gout, 609; his con-
clusions, 612
‘ General action’ an
phrase, 528
Glass, manufacture of, 545
Glisson referred to, 632
Goding, Dr., quoted, 234
Goethe quoted, I 54
Gold as a poison, 376; as a remedy,
improper
377
Gooch, Dr. Robert, quoted, 401
Good, Dr. Mason, quoted, 165, 169,
I97, 462 ; on gout, 6O7 ; on bleed-
1Ing, 759
Gout, history of, 599–613
Graves, Dr., referred to, 688, 766
Gravitation, law of, 82
“Grey powder,’ 390
Groenvelt or Greenfield, Dr., quot-
ed, 8 ; committed to Newgate, 9
Grove, Mr. (now Judge), his “cor-
relation of forces,” 485
Gull, Sir William, quoted, 627, 689
Hahnemann quoted, passim ; his
death, 260 ; no part of his system
adopted in the terms in which it
is propounded by him, 344; his
system another form of empiri-
cism, 584; his homoeopathy
Vague, 459
‘Hahnemann Materia Medica, 373
Haller referred to, 22; quoted, 162,
418, 632, 652
Hamilton, Dr. James, on purgatives,
762
Hartmann, Dr., quoted, 473
Harvey, William, quoted or referred
to, 3, 44, 83; his discovery, 83,
3IO, 324, 327, 402
Haughton, Rev. Professor, quoted,
554
Hayle, Dr., quoted, 16, 774
Health, Ode to, 272
Health, action of drugs injurious in,
647
Healthy persons should not take
medicines, 681 (note) -
Heat, law of homoeopathy not ap-
plicable to, I4O
Henderson, Professor, quoted, 514
Heberben, Dr., quoted, 499 ; on
gout, 606
Herepath, Mr., quoted, 22 I ; re-
ferred to, 345
Hering, Dr. Constantine, quoted, 505
Herschel, Sir John W. F., quotec,
79, 83, 194, 218, 274
Hey, William, referred to, 194
Hey, Dr. John, quoted, 647
Hippocrates quoted or referred to,
5, 60, 76, 86, 87, 184, 267, 402,
403, 407, 4 II, 437, 439, 533, 558,
575, 577, 696.
History of medicine, Cullen's sketch
of, 277; see A'enouard and Søren-
ge/
Hoffman referred to, 278, 438
Holland, Sir Henry, on gout, 608
Homoeopathy, what is 2 Essayi
Homoeopathy, in the general, 696
Homoeopathy, in the individual, 697
Homoeopathy, an empirical law, 702
Homoeopathy, a half-truth, 729
Hooker quoted, I I4
Horace quoted, 783, 794
Horsley, Bishop, quoted, 75 I
Hufeland’s ‘Journal,” Hahnemann's
first essay in, 6, 29
Hughes, Dr., quoted, 789
Humboldt, Baron, quoted, I 31, 144
8O4
INDEX.
Hunter, John, referred to or quoted,
86, 63 I, 649, 653; on bleeding,
759 ; no specific against inflam-
mation, 762
Huxham, John, quoted, IOS
Hydropathy a single remedy, I I I
Hypothesis, a word used in two
senses, in one sense useful, in the
other always hurtful, 695 ; no
hypothesis accepted, 32 I ; op-
posed by Hippocrates, 576; bar-
rier to progress, 705
Hypotheses of Hahnemann reject-
ed, 53, 54, II 7
Iatro-mathematicians, 549 : *
Ignorance, two causes of, darknes
and blindness, 694
Imperceptible action, 476
Impossibilities not to be aimed at,
6 I4
Improbability, the argument from,
46
Improvement, room for, in medi-
cine, 4 I
Indefiniteness of homoeopathy, 699
Indications of treatment reduced to
one, 196
Indirect action of drugs, 202, 585
Inductions from provings of Small
doses, 728
Infinitesimal doses left for future
investigation, 7 I 5
Inflammation and congestion, dis-
tinction between, 760
Intention of treatment, 20 I
Investigation of homoeopathy by
medical practitioners, 77
Irish fever of 1847, 18
Iron as a poison, 384; as a remedy,
38
irº, Dr., his review of Andral's
experiments, 42
Jackson, Dr., quoted, 760
Jahr's ‘Clinical Guide, 341 ; ‘New
Manual, 379
Jenner referred to, 59
Johnson, Samuel, quoted, 245, 260,
268, 431, 737 o
Jones, Dr. Bence, consulted, 448
Jones, T. Rymer, quoted, 34 I
Jussieu, uncle and nephew, quoted,
564
Kallenback, Dr., expelled from
Frankfort-on-the-Maine, 34
Kane, Sir Robert, quoted, 221
Keil, Dr., quoted, 549–55 I
Kepler referred to, 54 ; his laws,
83, II 5
Ker, Dr., quoted, 739
Kind of action of drugs, 483, 701 ;
identity of, with action of diseases,
O2
Kingdon, Mr., quoted, 249
Knowledge more beautiful than any
clothing of words, 2 Io; men
ignorant of, from two conditions,
694
‘La médecine expectante,’ 443
Laity, position of the, 53 I ; their
interest in the new system, 495 ;
Ought to be true to themselves,
495
Larrey, Baron, his hospital in Paris,
2 I, 283
Law, general, meaning of, I IO
Law of nature, what is a ? II 5
Law of homoeopathy, II 5; its limits,
I 18; cases beyond its limits, 122
Law of similars, admits of three
definitions, 501 ; first, Hahne-
mann's, Similar Symptoms, 501 ;
Second, similar diseases, 5 IO ;
third, similar organs, 52 I
Law of the dose, to be found by
proving different doses, 482 ; ap-
pears to be discovered, 730
Lawrence, Sir William, quoted, 631,
634
Lavater, J. C., quoted, 3O3, 677
Lavoisier referred to, 212, 558
Layman, letter from a, 436, 443
Lead as a poison, 386; as a remedy,
387
Leutaud quoted, 28O
Letheby, Dr., referred to, 345
Liebig quoted, 279, 54O-544
Life, not chemical, nor mechanical,
nor the soul, nor ether, nor a
nervous fluid, nor irritability, nor
the result of organization, nor a
mode of motion, 629–64O
Life, speculations about, not useful,
684
Light, law of homoeopathy not
applicable to, I4 I
Lindley, Professor, quoted, 61
Linnaeus quoted, 464, 564
Limits of law of chemical affinity,
545
INDEX.
805
Limits of law of homoeopathy with
reference to diseases, Essay v ;
with reference to remedies, Essay
Vl
Limits of doses, Essay xxiv
Limits of therapeutic action, 686,
690 -
Liverpool, cholera at, I6
Living organs Select drugs, 405 ;
and have their own doses, Essay
xxvi
livy quoted, IOS
Local action of all drugs, 396, 4O4,
46I, 660 ; diagram of, 687
Localization of disease, 52 I
Locke, John, quoted or referred to,
5 I, I 57,288,497,675, 743
London, Royal College of Surgeons
of, 39
* London Medical and Physical
Journal,’ belladonna a preventive
of scarlet fever, 97; poisoning by
belladonna, I76; by ipecacuanha,
224 ; case of mercury reduced to
metallic state, 29 I
HLucretius quoted, 480
Meade, Dr. Richard, quoted, 434
Madden, Dr. Henry, quoted, 635,
640, 64.I
Magnetism, law of homoeopathy
not applicable to, I 52 ; experi-
Iments On, I 50 ; letters from
Faraday and Scoresby on, I 50,
I 5 I ; history of discoveries in,
I83
Majority, the arguments from, 32
Malan, Dr., quoted, 3 I 5
Male, Dr., his death from aconite,
I7 I
Manner of action of drugs unknow-
able, 705
Materia Medica, The, Essay xiv.
Materia Medica, according to Dr.
Paris, is uncertain and precari-
ous, I 59 ; is to be cleared of
emetics, purgatives, diaphoretics,
&c., 616
Mathematics, 549–560
Matteucci quoted, 145
Meadows, Dr. A., quoted, 628 (note)
Mechanics, fundamental law of, 82
Mechanics, iatro-, 549
Mechanical divisions, 270
Medicine, a single, at a time, 191 ;
sufficient to cure, 205 ; accepted,
349
Medicine, a law or principle in,
value of, 84; thought to be in-
capable of, Io9 ; would be a
great discovery, I I I ; probability
of such a law, IoS
Medicine, progress of, not depen-
dent upon the progress of Science,
547-560
‘Medicine, the Ancient, of Hippo-
Crates, 407, 570, 575
‘Medicine in Modern Times, quot-
ed, 554 -
Medicines, combination of, the in-
jury done by, 188–191
Medicines have three character-
istics, 417
Medicines, their virtues, 370
Medicinal substances, inappreciable
quantities of, 22. Š,
Medical journals closed to writers
On homoeopathy, 30
Medical systems, Essay Xv
Medical Council, and the proving
of drugs, 419
‘Medico-Chirurgical Transactions,’
Case of poisoning by arsenic
from, 173
Medium, resisting, in space, 219
Mercury as a poison, 390 ; as a
remedy, 391
Mercury not a cholagogue, 593
Miercury, action of, 595
Metals, the, 375
Method, new, to be sought for in
medicine, 162
‘Methodists, 576
Microscope, 212, 213, 685
Milton quoted, 128, 243
“Missing link,’ the, 450, 474
* Mithridate,’ 185
Molecules real existences, 684
Molière quoted, 247, 441
Mossman, Dr., quoted, 761, 764
Nature, we know only what our
bodily senses teaches us of, 210,
287, 305
Nature—Scepticism, 441
Newcastle-on-Tyne, cholera at, 16
Newton, Sir Isaac, quoted or re-
ferred to, 12, 50, IO4, II 5, 183,
255, 256, 749, 75 I
Nunneley, Mr., quoted, 233
Object of experiments in health,
619
8O6
INDEX.
CErsted, discovery of, 12, 84
Opposition to homoeopathy still
violent and unjustifiable, 299
‘Opus operans,’ 475
Orfila quoted, 666
‘ Organon’ of Hahnemann quoted
or referred to, passim.
‘ Organon’ of Rau quoted, 136
Organopathy, Essay xvii
Organopathy, name given, 409 ; its
advantages, 468–470, 700
Organs the seat of symptoms, 465
Organs Select their own drugs, 405;
and their own doses, Essay xxvi
Ovid quoted, 195
Paley quoted, 38, 781
Paracelsus referred to, 257,
54O
Parè, Ambrose, referred to, 123 ;
quoted, 209
Paris, Dr., letter of, 32; quoted or
referred to, I 3, 86, Io9, I 59 ;
‘Pharmacologia,” 187, 195, 20I,
2O3, 275, 355, 477, 482
Parts of the old method abandoned,
36I ; parts retained, 363
Parts of the new method accepted,
345
Particles, material, how small, 217–
Pathology, 570 ; not to be neglect-
ed, Essay xv.
Pathological conditions are not
Symptoms, 413 ; pathological sys-
tem not possible yet, 519
Pearson, Bishop, quoted, 312, 319,
796
Pereira, quoted, 61, 463, 473, 566,
65 I, 664, 668, 688, 745
Persecution of homoeopathists, 29–
34 *
Peruvian bark, Hahnemann’s first
proving, I65
Pharmacy, the new, adopted, 360
‘Pharmacopoeia Londinensiº, 185,
275, 354; 363.
Phillips, Mr. Richard, quoted, 356
Physical Science—philosophy, 445
Physicians, Royal College of, I 3,
I7, 23, 32, 36
Physicians should learn the proper-
ties of drugs by experiments on
themselves, not on their patients,
22. 162
~~3 sº
Physiological action of medicines,
Essay xvi
Pinel quoted, 158
Pittacus quoted, 4 Io
Plato quoted, 54
Pliny quoted, 433
Plutarch quoted, 745
Poem, Sanskrit, quoted, 4
Poison the remedy for poison, 4
Poison, in, there is physic, 6, 696
Poisons are medicines, 90, 696
Poisons may be opposed by an
antidote, 736
Pope, Mr. Alfred, refused his degree
at Edinburgh on account of ho-
moeopathy, 36 ; On the question
of dose, 7 I I
Powell, Professor Baden, quoted,
3O8
Power, loss of, in gravity and in
drug-action very slow, 749, 750
Practice, usual, departed from, 492;
amelioration in, 282
Practical investigation of homoeo-
pathy a duty, 451
“Practitioner, The,' a periodical,
referred to, 30
Precautions, the, necessary in ex-
periments with Small doses, 740
Preparation of homoeopathic reme-
dies, 47
Present times—the ancient times, 42
Priesnitz referred to, I I I
Principle of homoeopathy, Essays
iv, v, vi; explained, I2 ; adopted,
345; separated from the dose,
452 ; restricted to drugs, 458 ;
and to large doses of drugs, 729
‘Principia’ of Newton referred to,
II 5, 255
Probability of a law in medicine,
IOS
Probability of a law in dose, 731
Problem, the, relative to drugs, 169
Progress of medicine past and pre-
Sent, 434
Progress of homoeopathy compared
with that of botany, 568
Provings in health, Essay vii
Provings are adopted, 346; Hahne-
mann's recommendations, 422 ;
defects of these, 423 ; of doses,
673
Provings of
Aconite, 170, 171, 347; Small
doses of, 7 I 5
Arsenic, 172
Belladonna, 176; on
pupil, 683, 770
the
INDEX.
807
Provings of
Calabar bean on the pupil,
683, 771
Carbonate of ammonia, 178
Copper, 381
Gold, 376
Iron, 384
Lead, 386
Mercury, 390
Oxalic acid, 787
Rhus toxicodendron, 348
Silver, 378
Tin, 388
Titanium, 394
Provings of small doses of
Aconite, 7 I 5
Bovista, 727
Belladonna, 770, 792
Chamomilla, 789
Digitalis, 717
Lead, 727
Mercury, 725
Oleander, 727
Opium, 723
Oxalic acid, 787
Phosphorus, 720
Spigelia, 72 I
Tartar emetic, 725
Veratrum, 725
Quackery, homoeopathy not, 6, 41,
326
Quincy, Dr., quoted, 475, 547, 552,
794
Rademacher referred to, 523, 7or ;
(see ‘British Journal of Homoeo-
pathy,' I 850, vol. viii, p. 253)
Ramsbotham, Dr., referred to, 315
Rasori referred to, 697
ºlas Johnson's, quoted, 260,
268 #
Rau quoted, I 36
Ray, John, quoted, 563
Reason—dogmatism, 436
Rees, Dr. Owen, quoted, 446; on
gout, 6 II
Reformation, medical, ought to be
national, not sectarian, 39
Reid, Col., his discovery of the law
of storms, 83
Reith, Dr., quoted, 777, 778
Renouard, Dr. P. V., his ‘History of
Medicine, quoted, 442, 577, 581,
589
* Repertories,’ 373
**
Review of Hahnemann’s system,
Essay xiii
Review of past and present state of
medicine, 433
Reynolds, Dr. Russell, quoted, 512,
523
Richardson, Dr. B. W., his experi-
ments, 595; quoted, 596
Richter referred to, 50, 83, 279
Rochfoucauld quoted, 122
Roget, Dr., quoted, 173, 658
Routh, Dr., quoted, I 5; his ‘Falla-
cies of Homoeopathy’ replied to,
Essay iii; asserts that the pro-
fession is bound to investigate
homoeopathy, 58 ; referred to,
287; quoted, 348, 359
Royal Society, imaginary letter from
President of, 36 ; story of, 216
Ruckert on headache, quoted, 49
Rudeness of the usual practice, 28 I
Rutter’s ‘magnetoscope,’ 34I
Sampson, Mr. Marmaduke, Quoted,25
Sanskrit poem quoted, 4
Savant quoted, 2 II
Scarlet fever, infection of, 222; bel-
ladonna as a preventive of, 97,
792
Scepticism, 579
Schema, Hahnemann's, defective,
I66
Schwartz, Dr., proving of aconite
by, 17o
Science, medicine constituted a,
254
Scoresby, Dr., letter from, I 50 ;
quoted, 3IO
Scott, Dr. Geddes, referred to, I I 3,
5 II, 5 I4
Scott, Rev. Thomas, quoted, 3OI
Scott, Sir Walter, quoted, 85
Seat of diseases, 467, 686 ; see
Essay xvii, on Organopathy
Seneca quoted, I 39
Senses, our bodily, the limit of their
powers is the limit of our know-
ledge of the individual facts of
nature, 2 IO
Serapio, empiricism of, 583
Serpents, venom of, 223, 734
Shakespeare quoted, 6, 28 I, 283,
556
Siam, king of, 49
Silver as a poison, 378 ; as a re-
medy, 38o
8O8
INDEX.
Silvius referred to, 438
Simpson, Sir J. Y., quoted, 38, Io9,
I92, 193, 316
Single, the, medicine, Essay viii
Society of Apothecaries, declaration
of, 33
Socrates quoted, 54
Sound, causes of, 2Io
sºlations about ‘life’ not useful,
84
Sprengel, Kurt, quoted, 442, 581
Specific gravity, law of, 82
Specific treatment is silent and
Secret, 612, 616; what is a, 392
Stahl referred to, 278,631 ; quoted,
4I7, 438
Statements of Hahnemann which
are rejected, 332
Statistics of homoeopathy, 15, 16
Stationary condition of medicine,
I84
‘Stimulant,' ſaeaning of the word,
705
Stöerck’s provings, I61, 165, 421
Stokes, Dr., Dublin letter of, 33 ;
quoted, 439
Storms, law of, 83
Strasburg, Scientific congress at,
I64, 419
Sudden deaths, 526
Suggestions with reference to the
proving of drugs, 425
Superstitious practices in medicine,
85, 536 - - - - -- *
Suppositions are still guides in
practice, 438
Surface of things, we know nothing
below the, 306
Surgeons, Royal College of, 13, 39
Surgery in medical cases, 444
Sydenham quoted or referred to,
23, 87, IO4, I 12, 253, 269, 284,
3. 402, 52 I, 599, 615, 755, 759,
7
Symptoms, meaning of the word,
5 IO ; are signs, 512 ; as used by
Hahnemann, 370, 465 ; referred
less to the disease than to the
doctor by Sydenham, I I 2
Syphon, the, unknown to the Ro-
mans, 84 •.
System, the new, rests on evidence,
321 ; which every medical man
may test, 325 ; review of Hahne-
mann’s, Essay xiii.; what parts
of it rejected, 333; what adopted,
344
System, the usual, what parts of it
abandoned, 361 ; what retained,
363
‘Tatler’ quoted, 750
Taylor, Professor, quoted or referred
to, 8, 175, 290, 345, 667
Tºpe 2I2 ; Gallileo's, 729,730,
78o
Tennyson quoted, 691
Teste, Dr., quoted, 516
Testimony of medical practitioners
to the efficacy of the small dose,
8
4
Theory of disease, I 13, 677; theory
of cure, II 3, 677
Theoretical methods in medicine, 85
Therapeutics, we have, as yet, only
the expectation of, 500
Themison's methodism, 407, 583
Thompson, Dr. A. T., quoted, 290,
668
Tin as a poison, 388 ; as a remedy,
389
Titanium as a poison, 394 ; as a
remedy, 395
Todd, Dr., referred to, 345; on gout,
607
Tournefort, Joseph, quoted, 563
Treatment of disease, superstitious,
85; theoretical, 85; or empirical,
85 ; a method fixed, definite, and
consummate, long desired, 88, I 12
Triturations, how made, 48
Truth, both scientific and practical,
in homoeopathy, IO7
Truth to us what power was to the
Romans, IOS
Trousseau, M., on gout, 61 I ; and
Pidoux, proving of asafoetida, 727,
793
Tyndall, Professor, quoted, 676,685
Uniformity of nature may be relied
On, 773 -
University of Dublin, 33 ; of Edin-
burgh, 36 ; of St. Andrew’s, 33
Universities, the, reject homoeo-
pathy, 33–36
Unknowable things, 642, 704
Ure, Mr. Alexander, on gout, 6IO
Use of drugs as remedies, 693 ;
right manner of using yet to be
sought for, 694
Use of symptoms, 709
INDEX.
809
Valentine, Basil, 540 ; his “Currus
Triumphalis Antimonii,’ 809
Venice treacle, 185
Venom of Serpents, 223, 734
‘Vicar of Wakefield,” Goldsmith's,
quoted, 45, 374, 375
Vienna, cholera at, I 5
Virgil quoted, 205
Walsh, Mr., his discovery, 144
Watts, Isaac, quoted, 26
Watson, Dr. W. H., quoted, 425
Watson, Sir Thomas, quoted, 199,
499, 5oo, 627, 661, 693 ; on the
abandonment of bleeding, 760,
761 ; on mercury, 763
What is homoeopathy P Essay i
What is the action of drugs? Essay
XX
What is antipathy P Essay xxv
What is life 2 629 -
What we cannot know about the
action of drugs, 642 ; what we
can know, 644 -
White, Mr. Anthony, on gout, 608
Wilde, Sir William, quoted, 16, 75
Words, meaningless, protested a-
gainst, 705
Zlatarovich, Professor, proving of
aconite by, 17 I
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Terms, &c., &c. Complete in Two Vols. Price 30s. This, the latest
and most complete Edition of Materia Medica, by Charles J. Hempel,
M.D., of the Homoeopathic Medical College, Pennsylvania, has been
reprinted from the last American Edition, and includes all the recent addi-
tions and corrections of the author. It affords a complete system of
Homoeopathic Materia Medica and Therapeutics; and hence becomes
most valuable as a work of reference and study. The Repertory, Index,
and other additions, are only found in this Edition.
Hempel (Charles J., M.D.)—A Comprehensive System of
Materia Medica, &c., for the use of Practitioners and Students in Medicine.
This Work forms an admirable compendium of Homoeopathic Materia
Medica and Therapeutics; and is alike valuable to the Physician and
Student. It is enriched by a Repertory, by W. H. Watts, M.R.C.S.,
England; and also possesses a complete Glossary of Medical Terms; a
Clinical Index, &c. Complete in One Volume, Cloth. Price 20s.
IIenderson (W., M.D.)—An Inquiry into the Homoeopathic
Practice of Physic. By William Henderson, M.D., Professor of General
Pathology in the University of Edinburgh. With Records of 122 cases
and Observations thereon, treated in the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh.
Price 2s. -
Hughes (Richard, L.R.C.P., Ed.)—The Sources of the
Homoeopathic Materia Medica; being an account of the provings of drugs
on the healthy body which have been made in the School of Hahnemann
and of the published collection of the same. Price 2s.
Hughes (Richard, L.R.C.P., Ed.)—A Manual of Therapeu-
tics, according to the Method of Hahnemann ; being a survey of the whole
field of disease, with a statement of what Homoeopathy can do for each
definite form thereof and how she does it. Part I.-Containing General
Diseases of the Nervous System. Cloth, price 6s. ; and Part II.-Con-
taining Diseases of the Eye, Ear, Digestion, Respiration, Circulatory System,
Urinary Organs, Skin, &c., and the Diseases of Children. Second Edition,
mainly re-written, in Cloth, price 7S. 6d. ; or the two Parts, bound in one
vol., Cloth, price I2s. 6d.
Hughes’ (Richard, L.R.C.P., Ed.), Manual of Pharmaco-
dynamics. Fifth Edition ; 8vo, Cloth. Price 20s. Revised and enlarged,
and brought down to the present time by a Supplementary Lecture No. 60.
“The present edition is far more elaborate and scholarly than either of the
preceding ones; indeed, so much is this the case that it is practically a new work
altogether, and thus those who possess the earlier editions will find themselves
compelled to get this on account of the many and important additions that are
here to be found. The Fifth Edition contains another six years' experience, with
the medicines discovered in the interim.”
4
Laurie (JOSeph, M.D.)—Homoeopathic Domestic Medicine.
By J. Laurie, M.D. Completely re-arranged, revised, re-written, anno-
tated, and brought down to the present time, with a Copious Introduction,
by R. S. Gutteridge, M.D. The present edition contains many important
new chapters, and sections, with new features and matter pertaining
thereto, including the specific Characteristic Effects of all the New American
Remedies, the symptoms and treatment of all general Diseases, including
those of Women and Children, with plain Directions for the treatment of
Accidents (including railway accidents), and numerous Physiological
Notes, Deductions, Explanations, and Illustrations delineating the minor
operations in surgery. . The new chapters comprise Nursing, Change of
Air and Scene, Mineral Baths and Waters, Hydropathic Appliances and
External Remedies, Affections of the Digestive Organs, Cancer, Bright's
Disease, Diabetes, Diseases of the Bladder, Functions and Diseases of the
Kidneys, Affections of the Lungs, Consumption and Diseases of the Respi-
ratory Organs, Asthma and Hay Asthma, Affections of the Eyes (with a
description of the eyes and their appendages, and illustrations showing the
various parts of the eye), Insanity, Delirium Tremens, Hysteria, Locomotor
Ataxy, Scurvy, Softening of the Brain, Alcoholism, Dipsomania, Diseases
of the Spinal Cord, while Paralysis has been specially considered, and the
Section on Stammering is quite new. This edition possesses a New and
Concise Dictionary of Medical Terms and Treatment, with leading indica-
tions of Treatment prefixed to the various chapters and divisions, and a
most comprehensive and intelligible Index. The whole book is lucidly
expressed, the diction being carefully divested of technicalities, and definite
expression studied from first to last. Diseases of Tropical Climates are
fully considered, and the volume may be pronounced of the greatest value
to Families, Emigrants, and Missionaries. Now ready. Twenty-seventh
Edition, 8vo, Cloth, pp. IOS2. Price 16s.
Laurie's Epitome of Domestic Medicine. Thirty-second Edition ;
12mo, Cloth. Price 5s. Completely re-written and enlarged by R. S.
Gutteridge, M.D. This work is intended as a guide to all who are desirous
of commencing Homoeopathic Treatment in their families.
“We have to speak very differently of the second work on our list, Dr. Laurie's
Epitome, edited by Dr. Gutteridge. Dr. Laurie's large work is too well known as
a standard domestic treatise to require any praise from us. Our only objection is
that it is too complete for the purpose. Dr. Gutteridge's edition of it, now before
us, is practically a new work. It is based on Laurie's large book, but usefully
curtailed, while the remedies introduced since Dr. Laurie wrote are here found
presented. The description of the diseases, their treatment, with the indication for
each medicine, are admirably done. A useful introductory chapter gives general
information, while a short chapter on Invalid Cookery, and a full account of the
main actions of each medicine, and a glossary of medical terms complete the book.
This is one of the best works on domestic medicine we have, and we have much
pleasure in recommending it.”—Homaeopathic Review.
“This is a thoroughly practical work for every-day use; it has run through
thirty-one editions, and we hope it will run through thirty-one more."—
Homayopathic World.
Laurie's Parent's Guide; an Elementary Instructor in the
Homoeopathic Treatment of the Diseases of Childhood. Second Edition.
This work, like the two preceding, and by the same author, is intended for
use in Families. It affords simple directions as to the general treatment of
diseases common to early life. Commencing with practical advice in
respect to Nursing, Feeding, Clothing, &c., it indicates the Homoeopathic
Treatment of disorders, diseases, and accidents, of frequent OCºrrence in
childhood. Bound in Cloth, 18mo. Price 5s. -
5
The following Works, by the same author, are also of great value in the
family, viz.:-
Laurie's Homoeopathic Guide, for Family USe., A'inety-first
Edition ; bound in Cloth. Price Is. Revised, enlarged, and brought down
to the present time by R. S. Gutteridge, M.D.
“This little volume has reached its ninety-first edition, and its aggregate sale
amounts to no fewer than Two Hundred and Sixty-Five Thousand l Let Some
one calculate the influence of such a circulation ; it goes beyond our arithmetic.
For us it is pleasing that this enormous influence is in the cause of truth. The
book is thoroughly good, and worthy of its well-won reputation.”—Homazopathic
World.
Laurie on General Complaints; their Treatment With
Twelve Remedies. Cloth. Price 6d.
Laurie’s “Cholera and Cholerine;” a few plain directions for the
Homoeopathic Treatment and Prevention of these Diseases. 8vo. Price Id.
Malan's Homoeopathist's Vade-Mecum. This Work, intended
for the use of the Practitioner, contains, the Symptoms and Principal
Remedies for each Disease, arranged alphabetically, and preceded by
Clinical Remarks, and other matters of importance in prescribing. It is
intended in fact, as a complete Prescribing Manual. 18mo, Cloth. Price 2s. 6d.
Mattei's (Count) Electro-Homoeopathic Specifics. A New
Science of Medicine; containing the plainest directions for the use of these
truly marvellous medicines; with Notes on Syphilis and Cancer. New
Edition, just out ; price 3s. Complete Chest of the Medicines, £3 10s.
Moore's Outlines of Veterinary Practice : Giving the Treatment
of the Horse and other Animals in a concise and simple way. All who
prize animals and wish to keep them in health should possess it. Ninth
Edition. Price 5s.
Morgan (Dr. W.)—Homoeopathic Treatment of Indigestion,
Constipation, Piles, &c., with Special Directions for Diet, Hygiene, &c.
This Work exclusively treats on Homoeopathy as applied in Indigestion,
and the concomitant disorders of Constipation and Haemorrhoids, or Piles.
Detailing the symptoms, nature and conditions of these diseases, it affords
full instructions for their treatment, and the appropriate Medicines, with
their Doses. Special directions are also given in respect to Diet, and other
Hygienic considerations, which, in these diseases, are subjects of the highest
importance, both as preventive and curative measures. 8vo, Cloth. Sixth
Edition. Price 2s. 6d.
Pocket Glossary of Medical Terms. A yaluable and constantly
useful Companion to Homoeopathic works. 32mo, Cloth. Price Is.
Russell (J. Rutherford, M.D.)—The Treatment of Rheu-
matism, Epilepsy, Asthma, and Fever. Being Clinical Lectures delivered
at the London Homoeopathic Hospital. With a comparative view of the
fallacies of the old school, and the improved treatment generally by
Homoeopathy, Dr. Russell introduces the subjects of Acute Rheumatism,
Affections of the Heart, in connection with that disease; Rheumatism
affecting the Brain; Rheumatic Gout; Chronic Rheumatism; Doses and
Attenuation of Medicines; Epilepsy; Asthma; Fever, &c.; affording a
complete epitome of the diagnosis, treatment, and peculiarities of each.
The whole is illustrated by numerous cases, and presents an admirable
compendium for the use of the student and practitioner. Price, bound in
Cloth, post 8vo, 5s.
RuSSel}.—A Contribution to Medical Literature : relating
jº Theory and Practice of Homoeopathy. This Work gives a popular
6
digest of valuable matter on most subjects pertaining to the art of Medicine;
and is written in a style which will be found highly attractive to the general
reader. Whilst advocating and explaining the theory and practice of the
Homoeopathic system, general information is given on many interesting
subjects of daily experience. The latest results and generalisations of the
art are also recorded; so that the volume affords an admirable epitome of
the literature of Homoeopathy. 8vo, Cloth. Price Ios. 6d. -
Russell.—Hints on Diet, with Special Reference to
Homoeopathy. The question of Diet naturally interests every one, and
hence it has formed a frequent subject on which books innumerable have
been written. Generally speaking, however, a certain amount of self-
denial or asceticism is recommended, which few patients can follow. Dr.
Russell consults previous habits, and deals with the patient as he is, rather
than as he should have been. The whole Work is therefore eminently
practical ; and although primarily intended for those who follow the Homoeo-
pathic system, it is of equal value to all classes. Third Edition. 8vo,
Sewed. Price Is.
RuSSell,—Heart (Treatise on the); its Functional and
Organic Diseases. Third Edition. Price Is.
Russell.—Digestion; and Structure and the Uses of the
Liver. Second Edition. Price Is.
RuSSell.—Prmeumonia, under Prompt and Effectual Treat-
ment (Homoeopathic Treatise on). Second Edition. Price Is.
RuSSell.—Nervous System, including Epilepsy (Treatise
on affections of the). Third Edition. Price Is.
RuSSell.—Skin and its Diseases (Homoeopathic Treatment
of). Second Edition. Price 2s. 6d.
Sharp's Essays.-These interesting Essays have had the largest
circulation ever yet accorded to any work explanatory of the principles of
Homoeopathy. Every inquirer should read them. Well printed, hand-
Somely bound, a suitable present. Price 4s.
Spillan (D., M.D.)—Homoeopathic Prescriber's Pharma-
copoeia. This Work, commencing with observations on the general nature,
forms, dose, &c., of Medicines, gives a detailed description of each, and
their chemical constitution, source, uses, antidotes, &c. The Medicines
are classified in relation to their object. At the conclusion, minute instruc-
tions are given in respect to the treatment of cases of Poisoning ; and the
Work forms an excellent Hand-book for the Homoeopathic Practitioner.
Royal 32mo, Cloth. Price 4s.
Turrell (L., M.D.)—Winter Residences on the Oceanic and
Mediterranean Coasts. A book of much importance to the Invalid in
search of change of air and residence. 18mo, Cloth. Price 6d.
Veterinary Homoeopathy. A Concise yet Comprehensive Treatise
on the Homoeopathic Method of treating Diseases in Domestic Animals; and
adapted alike to the Farm, Stable, Kennel, &c., &c. 18mo, Cloth. Price 6s.
Wyld (George, M.D.)—Diseases of the Heart and Lungs;
their Physical Diagnosis, and Homoeopathic and Hygienic Treatment. By
George Wyld, M.D., formerly Physician to the Hahnemann Hospital, and
the London Homoeopathic Hospital. When it is rememberſ'd that, in
Europe and America, about one-third of the mortality is caused by diseases
7
of the heart and lungs, the importance of the subject cannot be over-rated.
The present Work embraces a disquisition on the nature, functions, &c., of
the heart and lungs; with a full exposition and diagnosis of the diseases tº
which they are subject; whilst their Homoeopathic Treatment is pointed
out. In the Appendix, valuable advice is given in respect to the Hygienic
treatment of patients, especially in regard to Ventilation, Climate, Bathing,
and other accessory measures. Price, bound in Cloth, 3s.
Yeldham (S., M.D., M.R.C.S.)—Homoeopathy in Aqute Dis.
eases. A valuable guide in the Homoeopathic Treatment of such disorders.
Fourth Edition. Price 2s. 6d.
The following are simple Handbooks on each subject –
Constipation and Piles.—Their Homoeopathic Treatment by Eight
Remedies. Price 6d. -
Croup.–Its Homoeopathic Treatment by Eight Remedies. Price 6d.
By W. V. Drury, M.D., Edin., Physician in charge of the Diseases of
Children to the London Homoeopathic Hospital.
Indigestion.—Its Homoeopathic Treatment by Eight Remedies. Price
6d. By William Bayes, M.D., M.R.C.S., Eng.
Rheumatism.–Its Homoeopathic Treatment by Eight Remedies.
Price 6d. By William Bayes, M.D., M.R.C.S., Eng.
Sea-Sickness.—How to prevent and treat it Homoeopathically by Eight
Remedies. Price 6d.
Teething.—Derangements incidental to, and their Homoeopathic Treat-
ment by Eight Remedies. Price 6d. By W. V. Drury, M.D., Edin.,
Physician in charge of the Diseases of Children to the London Homoeo-
pathic Hospital. -
Tic-Douloureux.--Its Homoeopathic Treatment by Eight Remedies.
Price 6d.
WORKS EXPLANATORY AND IN DEFENCE OF HOMOEOPATHY,
Brown (Dyge, M.D.)—The Reign of Law in Medicine.
Price Is. . Being the Hahnemann Oration for the Year 1885. A Work
every one interested in Homoeopathy should read—a very able Lecture.
Fischer (Carl).-A Biographical Monument to the Memory
of Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of Homoeopathy. Translated from
the German, with Additions from various sources. 8vo, Cloth. Price Is. 6d.
Granier (Dr. Michel).-Conferences on Homoepathy. This
Work is an exposition of the nature, proofs and applications of the
Homoeopathic system, embraced under the following heads, and will be
found one of the most interesting and readable books on the Homoeopathic
System of Medicine:–
CONFERENCE
I.—I do not believe in Homoeopathy—The prudence to be observed before
either denying or affirming anything.
II.-My conversion to Homoeopathy—Why and how I was converted to
* Homoeopathy.
8
III.-The Allopaths and the Academicians—The obstacles which stand in
the way of conversions; and the opposition to the progress of our
doctrine. se
IV.-The spread of Homoeopathy—The state of our doctrine in all parts of
the world.
V.-The Temple of Hippocrates—A general glance at the History of
Medicine—An exposition of the old systems.
VI.-The same subject.
VII.-The Temple of Hahnemann–Exposition of the new medicinal doctrine.
VIII.-The same subject.
IX-The possible—The action of infinitesimal doses, considered as possible
proofs furnished by reason, and by the phenomena of nature.
X.—The fact—The action of infinitesimal doses, considered as a fact—
Proofs furnished by negative, positive, general, and particular facts—
Homoeopathy among the railway workmen at Nimes.
XI.—At Home—Homoeopathic medicines; their doses; preparation, ad-
ministration, &c.
XII.-Our failures—Confessions; explanation of the failure of Homoeopaths.
XIII.-How long 2—Old prejudices—Bleeding, leeches, &c.
XIV.-A comedy always new—Evacuants, purgatives, &c.
XV.-A new organ—Blisters, cauteries, setons, moxas, &c.
XVI.-The Messiah of Medicine—Sketch of Hahnemann’s Life—How he con-
structed the edifice of Homoeopathy. Price Is.
Granier's (Dr. Michel).-The Rights of Man in the Domain
of Medicine; or the Right of Private Judgment advocated in respect to
Medicine, &c. Price 6d.
Henderson (W., M.D.).—Homoeopathy Fairly Represented;
in Reply to Dr. Simpson’s “Homoeopathy Misrepresented.” By William
Henderson, M.D., Professor of General Pathology in the University of
Edinburgh. Second Edition. Price Is. 6d.
Joslin (B. F., M.D.)—Principles of Homoeopathy; in a Series
of Lectures. This Work gives an exposition of the principles and practice
of Homoeopathy, in the form of a series of Lectures. . The subjects of
them are respectively—Obstacles to Homoeopathic Investigation and
Relief; Evidences of the Power of Small Doses and Attenuated Medicines,
including a Theory of Potentisation; the use of Chemical and Mechanical
means in connection with Homoeopathic Practice; the Law of Cure; and,
lastly, Pure Homoeopathy. The Work is free from technicalities, and
affords a full exposition of the system. Old but ever new. Price 6d.
Aſ other Foreign and British Publications on Hom(edpathy Supplied
On the best terms.
Filmed by Preservation 1990

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