LIBRARY OF THE University of California. RIFT of . Received . J q.J(bO Class No ' ***& Cruets on IjomctojJiitbij.v/?- WHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY? BY WILLIAM SHARP, M.D. "F.R.S, Sebenifc (Ebiiton. PHILADELPHIA: F. E. BOERICKE, HAHNEMANN PUBLISHING HOUSE. 1885. " I claim that liberty, which I willing vto* . „ jectB of difficulty, to put forward as X .uch thin" ' "" permissio ". «■*, in sub- >o be manifestly fUse." *** th,n & s as War to be probable, until proved Wilmam IIarvky. WHAT IS HOMEOPATHY! " Nihil, tarn honest urn aut utile a Medico eflici potest quin, atiquando ab invidis vituperari queat." GR02NEVELT. Nothing can be done by the Physician so honest or so useful as to escape the censure of the envious. 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 re- sources which are available to mankind, when suffering from bodily disease — a trial which few, if any, at all times escape. In the present age of discovery and invention it would be remarkable if, while all around are sailing onward, the physician alone was becalmed ; while every branch of art and science is progressively and rapidly improving, the resources of medicine remained stationary. But this has not happened, the onward wave has reached the healer's barque, and he also is afloat upon jthe mighty waters of na- tural science. i • There are indeed many who would stoutly stand upon the " old paths," but in this case we have no inspired prophets and apostles, as happily we have in an affair of higher moment, upon whom to rest as upon a firm foundation. The apin ions of mere men, however venerable by age, are but a sandy base. The people of the present times are not given to echo the sentiments of a master. Nature's laws and nature's facts alone are able to stand the rigid scrutiny to which the sen- timents of men, in physical science, are now so unreservedly exposed. Some men's minds, under such an apparently unsettled and disorderly state of things, become sceptical and faith- less. This arises from indolence; they will not give them- selves the necessary trouble to investigate, and thus they throw truth and falsehood overboard together, and vain] r try to rest upon a negative. But to the more active and in- dustrious 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, Homoeopathy, in the judgment of many, is the most important which has yet appeared, while in the opinion of many more it is "the biggest humbug that ever was!" It is proposed to consider, in a few words, what Homoeopathy is not, and what it really is. WHAT IS HOMCEOPATHY? u«ed as a chronological epoch by the HinduT£ Z *% ''? lgn ' 06 years before the Christian Era thl f ' P v Ced about -hich shews that the fiXk^^Sfe ^ for'poi" een h6ard °''° ,d time ia U ' e world that poison ts the remedy Hahnemann observes that "the author of rt,« 1, 1 buted to HtrrocRATKs ;,« tb P V n a,,mi ' S the witi,1 «' s attri " -*a ™ J^S,, ™ lit, ° W ^"P rema r^ble words: produced, and by similar thi, ? • thln S s dl8ease is they are healed^ ? ther d &" f 7'' *° ^ f" k ' which will produce a S trau~when^doe? e n T*- **"% remove it when it does " ""* exlst > W1 " of smcidal mania appears sWiiW ?r : J£ e trea . tmen * opposite rufeXhSdl 7" a C ° ntrariis curant " r >' Ae botb of AUrmnfhT i rr " s a PP eMS ^at the principles author of ttWaZ / t // '" ; T // '' / are re / P. iz ^ d b / the oiple he remark, I 1 confiri ?ation of the latter prin- j remarks that the same substance which oc< t m * .° r 5 ;>ni »n. translated bv Dudo-eon n ina t Htppocrata, Opera Juno Cornario £2jSW£ PP- 87, occasions WHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY? 5 strangury will also sometimes cure it, and so also with cough. And further, he acutely remarks, that warm water, which, when drunk, generally excites vomiting, will also sometimes put a stop to it by removing its cause." * Hahnemann further observes that " later physicians have also felt and expressed the truth of the homoeopathic method of cure." As for instance, Boulduc, Detharding, Bertholon, Thoury, Von Storck, 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 indebted to Hahnemann for the full discovery and development of the law, and for forcing it with sufficient perseverance upon the attention of the world. I have been asked if Shakespeare makes any allusion to this method of cure. We have one in the following pas- sage : — " In poison there is physic ; and these news, Having been well, that would have made me sick, . Being sick, have in some measure made me well." Henry IV., Part 2, Act 1, See. 1. 2. Homoeopathy is not quackery. The essence of quackery is secrecy. The individual practising it pretends to the pos- session 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 profession, 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 the Morsons — the patent medicine venders. The unsettled, un- satisfactory, and unsuccessful course of the educated phy- sician leads his patients to try quacks and quackery, whose * Works of Hyppocrates, translated by Francis Adams, LL.D., Sy- denham Society, — 1849. • Vol. i., p. 77. WHAT IS HOMEOPATHY? means, it must be acknowledged, are verv slmil,,. ♦ i • and sometimes more succestfu Not)L , ? hls own > tually drive awav all re ,1 To \ JN,othln g v »nld so effec- ing this out fully and fair v 1 1 J ? a mg '. and the can 7- -eeess which c £&££ S &&?£■ *"* " *" ^ cufa r H rr p of th Ufifss* , G J obuies are a ^ ?«« and S r i^tXL d0 w' H i ented ^ is in no way dependent n ™nti, • ' • Hom «opathv fill practice WeatocS fa 7 T?T for ite 8U ~ matter of convenience " acCldentel - "»d » simply a hot s^sa i assets :t » «*«*« with a long walk I must take a short one "' This fartf ^ curing the same— not 2&fe c»W„« /;/.«• • " - ls tk . sani,! The remark about being faS ^ ^hv " ^ ^ m - minded of the conCver'b^ 8/ T5 ; the / ma >' * re- in the fourth contn S^M ?m?~T? m * "^ AriuS > and o^ov mo? . J ' difference between ^«rf«of Sa^WmJ! t17 t0 S - et th ' S matter in a clear light « Give " Thl ? ame J ent > : md the cases are not identical Jo t^rST, °i Zr? ° alled —-ve Simate is ■sufficient LSroyS 1 ^?';;:^^; , tW ° T' ^ *T nS are given by mistake foi eaYomei T Md T' 1 "" !* haS bee " are well known to be tl , >. •'• i e s >' In .l ,toms »t produces and bowel accom,nn,n?v' nifl ; lmmiltl ; ,n of «>e stomach in the words of T^ * } dlar f haja Wltl » bloody stools ;- ^atall .spare man, about thirty, suffering' from a severe Medical Jurisprudence. Article Com Subl. WHAT IS HOMCEOPATHY : 7 attack of dysentery ; — his countenance much distressed, a great many stools for three days consisting 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 sublimate 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 improved, 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 corrosive sublimate, therefore 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 connected with that organ. I hold in my hand a little book with the following title — " Tutus Cantharidum in Medicina Usus Internus, per Joannem Groenevelt, M.D., e Coll. Med. Lond. Editio Secunda. lTOS." 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 of the old translator of Hippocrates already quoted, " Velut urinas stillicidium idem facit si not sit, et si sit idem sedat." The drug produces the complaint if not there, but if it be there, (arising from another cause), it cures it. For this method of treatment, the author tells us in his preface he was com- mitted to Newgate, on the warrant of the President of his own College — The Royal College of Physicians of London — " Charta quadam manibus propriis signata, sigilloque firmata me sceleratorumcarceri (Jyewgate vulgo dicto,) make praxens reum asseverantes, tradiderunt !" This happened in 169-i — 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 antidote to correct the otherwise aggra- vating effect of the fly. The present method of reducing the dose, which we owe to Hahnemann, lias enabled me 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 WHAT IS IIOMCKOPATHY? S\rl?r d T? S , Carlet rash ' a sore tllro ^ fever head general,, cure, but often p^vt ^3^ iefta^, d0CtHne 5 H^^^^SS o. Homoeopathy ^ 7wtf an infinitesimal rln^ tw • arising from other cause"' MIMllar lnfla ™natio n 41" discovered^" ^ Hom « P a %> as a prin- satisled f o, he -,° X S1V ! y ' fl T« h man y t,0 > be »>8' best mode of SKST?™"" *at.they are the safest ami that tl e ., a , d ™ te nng medicine. No one will deny 3 the pleasantest, and if success follow their use, w a le ul.v J^.n *i r "»"«^, aau n success follow their WHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY -? diet and regimen, or if the small doses afford all the aid required, why should patients be " encumbered with assist- ance," or their recovery be retarded or jeopardized by the unwieldy and often injurious interference of large doses of poisonous drugs ? Why has it so often been said that " the remedy proved worse than the disease ?" 6. Homoeopathy is not a "humbug." Neither are those who profess it " knaves or fools, swindlers or donkeys." Were the matter a piece of deceit, it is not likely to have had the steady success which its opponents are constrained to ac- knowledge attends its practice. A short time, at any rate, would expose its fallacy. An ingenious and plausible ad- vocate might make an hypothesis popular, but he could never obtain extensive belief in the statement of a suprjosed fact which every day's observation proved to be untrue. As to the hard names, they are no arguments, and therefore must remain unanswered, except by the observation that they generally betray a weak cause on the side of those who use them. Men conscious of integrity can afford to despise them. We are forbidden, and feel no inclination to return railing for railing; what we wish is that our medical brethren would study our science, and instead of abusing us, help us to improve it, for the benefit of our own and future gene- rations. 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 : — "/ have studied these tilings — you have not. 7. Homceopathy is a general fact, — a "principle, — a 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 extremi- ties towards the north pole of the earth, as is seen in the mariner's compass ? And what will follow from the further fact, so recently discovered by (Eersted, that when this bar is surrounded 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 ? Who attempts to explain or to ridicule these things ? They are Facts. Newton discovered that the force of gravity is in direct proportion to the mass of matter in the attracting 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 1* 10 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 par- ticular 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, six- teen of sulphur, fifteen of phosphorus, thirty-five of chlo- rine, twenty-seven of iron, thirty-one of copper, &c, and these likewise 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 un- alterable by us, and yet it is most evident that these pro- portions of combinations might have been very different; — they are so arranged by infinite wisdom — we cannot ex- plain why — shall vie ridicule the arrangement f So we can imagine many laws of healing, but our business is to dis- cover, if possible, the actual one. The evidence in favor of similia similibus curantur is already great, and is in- creasing daily. It claims to be received as a general fact 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 receiv- ing one. It is, consequently, in the condition of ships be- fore the discovery of the mariner's compass. If then a rule be found, how great must be its value ! It is not possible to over-rate the value of a well-founded principle in any branch of science, for ''principles built upon the unerring foundation of observations and experiments, must neces- sarily stand good, till the dissolution of nature itself."* 8. Homoeopathy is a practiced fact. It is not a specula- tive theory to be reasoned upon in the closet, but a fact to be observed at the bedside ; it is no metaphysical subject, to l)e logically shown by a 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 acknowledges; it is a fact to be ex- amined, like the statement of any other fact, upon evidence. AVe are not called upon to sit down and imagine its possi- bility, or its impossibility, but we are urgently pressed to observe whether it be true or not. Hundreds of credible * Emerson, in Newton's Principia, vol. 3, p. 86/ WHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY? 11 witnesses tell us that all curable diseases are, for the most part, readily cured by the new method. This is asserted as a fact. Is it true? This is the question. Try the medi- cines — Why should you not ? The interests oi humanity re- quire 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 success. 9. 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 fre- quently warded off? This reduces the whole matter to what would seem to be its proper shape — a practical ques- tion — What will do me most good when I am ill ? 10. The old method 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 cf 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 per- ceiving the uncertain condition of medical knowledge — " If there be nothing true in medicine, there is in surgery, so you must give your mind to that /" The old medicine is in the condition that 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 re- duced to an intelligible order. 11. Homoeopathy is simple and intelligible. However absurd the rule may appear to some, it is practically, a plain one, and becomes to those who follow it, more easy and more satisfactory, every day. It is not pretended that 12 WHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY ? lities of the moon's motions worJ "ng out the mequa- stitnted in two w^s-bv X stSsties nt^T ° m be in- ane! by those oonJerJloZtl^^tCi^f^^ it long enough to be able t n ,J, t" dctl . c ? w ho have tried results in tlfeir own hands of S,!/ W1 * h T h other th ^ illustration of the fonTrmode f^coTparist't A "" mg abstract drawn from Dr JW ?v P f ? ' - the iollow - "Fallaciesof Hom ffi opa%/fma"lvf„ a !!! tlCS ' (in the H„„ mc T REAT= ___,__. Tmatment pneumonia 57 Deaths percent. -rleuritis ...... 3 24. Peritonitis ... .4 '""••••• 13. Dysentery . . 3 " 13. All Diseases . . 4 4 22. ^A^^^ «,as an £J* to receive cases^ndisc rimlnately a, thTno ^ fitted U P a Homoeopathic hospital but fn&!S " e > . OC0l »-red ; one was Allopathic physician, Til "tl . the , lns P ection of ^o epidemic ha P d ^^J^^fi**** «- ***£££? *"*«■ *-* i-St H 0spita , the T ZlS dS reC ° Vered !n the ™> «i twoSs died in and the proportion of recoveries m 1« u attacked > treatment^ t Wfou^C enTit re ?Cs^S 8J7 071 -L'lea. T. 546 Inose treated Homoeopathically 236 C ""f k d ' Died. 179 57 Mortality under Horn. Treatment r 25 per-cent. &en .* ral Mortality. Whpn it. +1^ b6 P^-cent. 25 "e^ent. atment ' Ge "/ R ral Mortality. # s : ■ __ _ 46 per-cent. B.Wii e d e e,M.^ 1 k kn0W " b °^ 1 ^™^^^^^ WHAT IS IIOMCEOPATHY? 13 It will be understood that if the eases 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 1,500. Dr. Hayle has kindly in- formed me that he and Mr. Elliot treated, during these few weeks, 81 cases of Cholera and lost 16, being a mortality of 20 per-cent. or one-fifth, while it is believed that the general mortality considerably exceeded 50 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 280 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 ter- minates fatally. If these 280 cases had no efficient treat- ment, how is it that they all recovered f 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 dis- appointed as to the efficacy and superiority of this mode of treatment. For myself, I may be permitted to say that, having practiced the old method for many years with suc- cess, 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 such plants as the following, prepared as we now use them, in the < ases for which they are indicated by the law ot similia, they will be greatly surprized and gratified by their beneficial ef- fects:— Aconitum Napellus, Atropa Belladonna, Bryonia Alba, Arnica Montana, .Matricaria Chamomilla, Pulsatilla Pratensis, Ipecacuanha* Nux Vomica, &c, &c. 13. Homoeopathy is medical treatment. It is not the do-nothing system which it is represented to be by opponents who thus only betray their ignorance. When fever ai 14 WHAT IS HOMCEOPATHY ? dysentery were desolating many parts of Ireland in 1847, one of the places which suffered most was Bantry, near Skib- bereen, in the county of Cork. During ten weeks one hundred and ninety-two cases were treated homceopathically 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 the Bantry Union Hospital, with the advantages of proper ven- tilation, 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 ventilation, cleanli- ness and confinement to bed ; water, or milk and water, being given as drinks. He congratulates himself upon the success attendant upon thus allowing the cases to take their natural course, Undisturbed 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 that is doing something and gaining by it ; while by the same comparison, giving large doses of medicines is doing something indeed, but losing by it. 14. Homoeopathy is a practical guide. It is not like Hydropathy, a single remedy to be applied in the treatment of every disease ; it is a guide or rule to direct us in the use of all 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 the value of any principle capable of affording him a light to guide his path. Few intelligent persons however, can have failed to discover, from their intercourse with physicians, that ordinary medicine is in an unsettled 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 WHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY ? 15 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 con- verted into injuries. 15. Homoeopathy is a guide in the choice of the rnedAcim , 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 ; hut the only information it affords in the choice of the dose is this, that it must be a smaller one than would he sufficient to produce similar symptoms in health. How small a dose this is, must be ascertained by trial, until some general fact or law can happily be discovered, which shall constitute a guide to the dose, as the law of similia does to the medi- cine. I venture to entertain a sanguine hope that this will be accomplished. 16. 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 strik- ing manner, its superiority over the old mode. If the symptoms of an ailment are cured by the operation of the remedy upon the constitution, the cause of those symptoms, or the pathological condition, is, in all probability, perma- nently removed. In seeking to effect this, no other mischief is occasioned. How often has not this case occurred, — a patient in suffering from cough, medicines called expec- torants are prescribed ; at the next visit the cough is some- what relieved, but the expectorants have unfortunately produced nausea, and the appetite is gone ; mineral-acids are ordered to improve the tone of the stomach, 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, astrin- gents 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 re-commenced. Who does not see that there is room for improvement in such a system ? But the greatest of all difficulties of the old mode of treatment is this, — to decide the point whether depleting and lowering measures, antiphlogistic*, as they are called, are indicated. or the opposite remedies, stimulants and tonics. The most eminent and experienced practitioners 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 16 WHAT IS HOMCEOPATIIY ? is greatly mitigated, 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. 17. Homoeopathy economizes the vital powers. It does not, like bleeding, and purging, and salivating, and sweating, draw largely upon the remaining strength of the patient, already j)erhaps greatly reduced by his sufferings. Homoeo- pathy lets well alone. Its medicines act only upon the diseased organ. If the head be sick, it does not add to this sickness, a conrplaint in the intestines, which strong purga- tives must do ; if the lungs be inflamed, it does not also Bring on an inflammation in the skin, wdiich a blister does. The beneficial consequence of this method is conspicuous in the speedy return of the patient to his accustomecl 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. 18. Homoeopathy is gentle and agreeable. If the new mode of treatment be found, on trial, to be only as efficacious as the old one, it ought to be preferred on account of its gentleness and jdeasantness ; how much more if it succeed better. 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 medicines 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 beneficial 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 Barox Lajrrey, Senior Surgeon to the Army of Napoleon. At every morning's visit, he had, among his numerous at- tendants, 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 imme- diately jdaced in the chafing dish, the bellows w r ere applied, * See a representation of these in another of these Tracts. WHAT IS HOMOEOPATHY ? 17 and as soon as the instrument was brilliantly red hot, the Baron would take it in his hand, and deliberately draw two or three lines on the flesh of the patient, very like the broad arrow with which most of ns are familiar, made by the ordnance surveyors, on our houses and pavement during their late labors in all parts of the country. Now, surely, to see banished for ever, not only such painful methods as this, but every thing which approaches to it, must be a consummation to be wished for. 19. Homoeopathy administers one medicine at a time. This is another great improvement. How was it possible ever to attain to satisfactory knowledge of the powers and pro- perties of any drug, so long as several were always combined together when given to a patient? In the days of Sydenham, the father of English medicine, sixty or eighty medicines were mixed together in the favorite prescriptions ; this number has been greatly reduced since the time of Syden- ham, but, so long as two medicines are given together, it is impossible to ascertain with accuracy the effects of either. 20. The Homceoijathic Physician learns the properties of drugs by experiments upon himself \ not upon his patients. That the contrary has been the plan hitherto adopted is notorious. How many poor people have been deterred from availing themselves of the aid of our hospitals, lest they should have "experiences" tried upon them! The only certain way of learning the real effects of drugs upon man's health is to administer them experimentally to healthy 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. It is evident that the properties of medicinal substances must be ascertained by some kind of experiment; the ques- tion in dispute is this, is it best to try these experiments upon sick persons, or npon healthy ones? Shall the physi- cian get his knowledge by experimenting upon his patients, <>r a on himsi Iff The practitioners of the old school pursue the former method, those of the new one the latter. What • Iocs the patient say ? 21. Homoeopathy is appUcabli to acute, as well as t<> chronic <}isr, by Hahnemann, while engaged in translating Cullen's Materia Medica." Having endeavored to explain this principle in another Tract,* entitled "What is Homoeopathy?" I need not repeat that explanation here. I will suppose that my readers un- derstand 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 tonsid< r his objections. "Allopaths, admitting the occasional truth of this doc- trine, '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 vomit- ing. Every day's experience proves the efficacy of large doses of tartar emetic in curing pneumonia and other affec- tions 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 recognized. 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." (Page 6.) Our thanks are due to Dr. Routh for such excellent ex- amples of the law of Homoeopathy. We have only t«. go on with other instances. Hippocrates, the Father of Me- dicine, two and twenty centuries ago, says 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 Physicians in London, was sent t<» Newgate in 1694, by the President of his College, for giving cantha- rides, (the blistering fly, which all know often produces com- plaints of the bladder), with great success in cases of this kind. Again, every one knows that cinchona (Peruvian * And more fully i.i several other Tracts. 8 THE DEFENCE bark), is a specific for ague; "Now," says Dr. Routh, "bark certainly produces symptom*, as alleged by Homceopathists, very like those of ague? Again our thanks are due to Dr. Routh. Nitric acid is a great remedy for salivation, — Dr. Pereira, (an eminent allopathic authority,) says it ex- cites or produces salivation. Sulphur often produces erup- tions on the skin, as those who frequent baths like Harro- gate well know; it is notorious as a remedy for similar affections. Thus we might proceed, not only through the fifty medicines originally proved in this way by Hahne- mann 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 Meclica of the College of Physicians as published in their official Pharmacopoeia. A strong method of test- ing 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 to cases of natural disease suffering from 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. Bella- donna, the deadly nightshade. Children have been poi- soned 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 Belladonna in scarlet fever, and found not only that it was a better remedy than any previously known, but that it is also proved a preservative from it when given to those exposed to the infection of the scarlet fever. That which is merely a suspicion m 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 are possessed of. Homceopathists put it to a continual and daily test, and it does not fail them. The few excep- tional instances which Dr. Routh adduces against it are of the most meagre description ; he goes with us a long way OF HOMOEOPATHY. 9 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 bo let it be trusted till it fails. Thus Dr. Routh's opposition to the principle of Homoeo- pathy 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: — 2d. 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 ascertain how far Dr. Routh goes along with us, and then we shall perhaps know better where we differ. "ft is eertamly true" says Dr. Routh, "that small doses, and especially in large dilution, (which is the mode in which Homoeopathic remedies are prepared,) will often- times act very satisfactorily." (Page 17.) How does he know it? "fhave seen this" he replies, "repeatedly." How small the doses were which he has seen that act thus satisfactorily, Dr. Routh does not inform us, but this is of little moment. It is obvious that he has gone a certain len'jth with the small doses, and that, so far as he has gon • experimentally, 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 lias tried none so small that they have failed him. Now, this is precisely 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 satis- factorily. To this point then we are agreed: so far as cither of 08 have ascertained this practical point experimentally, 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." (Page 7.) He says that what he has seen repeatedly is certainly true ; does it not, there- 1* 10 THE DEFENCE fore, seem extraordinary that lie did not go on trying smallei and smaller doses so long as they continued to act satis- factorily, and until they became so small as to cease to do so ? Had Dr. Routh pursued this course, selecting his medi- cines 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, neither by analogy, nor upon aiiy theoretical grounds, can have any power upon the human frame." (Page 16.) 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? Is it not a matter of experience? A question of fact? By what analogy, or theory, did Dr. Routh ascertain that his small doses in large dilution would act very satisfac- torily ? His reply is the only sensible one which can be given. "I have seen it repeatedly, therefore 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 ? What then will become of his 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 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, lest he should see Jupiter's moons. He preferred the argument from false analogy and theory that tlay could not he 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 Homceopathists rests thus ; he admits that he has repeatedly seen small doses act very satisfac- torily, 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 testi- OF HOMOEOPATHY. 11 mony 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 his analogical and theoretical opinions, as destitute of the slightest foun- dation. 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 conn' 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 infinitesimal 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. AVe now come to the third part of our subject: — 3d. The comparative success of Homoeopathy, as evi- denced by the general mortality of hospitals. We might wish that the means at our disposal Avere more extensive than they at present 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 labors, 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 Hospitals, are frequently insufficient for special diseases ; on the contrary, this is a point to which the Homoeopaths have directed particular attention, and they have already derived benefit from it with the public." (Page 37.) Under the preceding heads, I have endeavored to ascer- tain, first, wherein Dr. Routh and Homoeopathists agree, in order to lessen, as much as possible, the grounds of contro- versy. I shall again seek to reduce, within the smallest compass, the matters wherein we differ on this mosl im- portant, 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 variety of public statistics. From these I will make some extracts:— Pneumonia (inflammation of the lun<:s). Admitted. Died. Mortality per-cent. Allop. Hospital, Vienna . . . .1134 260 S3 Horn. do. do. . . . . 538 5 This is part of the first table in the appendix. Before commenting upon it, it will be well to allude to another 12 THE DEFENCE 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 Allopathic 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 84 only recovering. 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, {Horn. Times, No. 4°-,) an eminent Homoeopathic writer." (Page 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 20 die out of every hundred (in the Glasgow Infirmary 27,) while under simple dietetic management, only about seven die in a hundred cases. "I think," says Dr. Routh, "we may therefore conclude that nature, or very simple emollient drinks, quiet, rest, a warm atmosphere, will often cure pneumonia apart from any drugging whakv&r." (Page 56.) He had previously (page 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 dis- eases, apart from any so-called drug, indeed in a few cases, where drugs have failed altog the/; 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 1V.hu? His own statistics in favor of diet are such a mortal tli rust at old physic that lie lias himself put it irrecoverably " hors de combat." OF .HOMOEOPATHY. 13 ^ Homoeopathists then agree with Dr. Routlx that simple diet is better than large dosing. Nor is this opinion a new one. "If','' says Addison, with exquisite humor, in the Spectator for March 24, 171", k> we look into the profession of physic, we shall find a i formidable body of men; the sight of them is enough to make a man serious, for we may lay it down as a maxim, that when a nation abounds in physicians it grows thin < f ■people. Sir William Temple is very much puzzled to find out a reason why the northern hive, as he calls it, docs not send out such prodigious swarms, and over-run 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, lie 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 Caesars time : some of them slay in chariots and som foot. 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 dispatch 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. 1 ' It would seem, therefore, that what the advocates of Homoeopathy, have really to aim at is to prove its superi- ority, 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 13 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, 112 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. Fleisehniann, in the Homoeo- pathic hospital at Vienna, were really pneumonia, we have 14 THE DEFENCE the following case given us in evidence by Dr. Routh him- self: — " 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 coun- tenance, 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 con- vinced myself by stethoscopic examination. The disease attained the second stage, but it was fully four weeks before she was convalescent, and all the physical signs of the dis- ease had disappeared." (Page 54.) But they did disappear, which is frequently not the case after the debilitating effects of bleeding and drugs, even in cases classed under revovery. That the globule was " inert" in this case is precisely the point under discussion, and therefore cannot "logically" (Dr. Routh is fond of the word) be taken for granted. The result of the case would rather appear to prove strongly the contrary. The following are a few more of the statistics given by Dr. Routh :— PLEURISY. Admitted. > Mortality per-cent. Allop. Hospitals 1017 134 13 Horn, ditto 366 12 3 PERITONITIS. Allop. ditto G28 81 13 Horn, ditto 184 8 4 DYSENTERY. Allop. ditto 162 37 22 Horn, ditto ........ 175 6 3 FEVER, EXCLUDING TYPHUS. Admitted. Died. Mortality per-cent. Allop. ditto . 9697 931 9 Horn, ditto . 3062 84 2 TYPHUS. Allop. ditto i 9371 1509 16 Horn, ditto . . . > . . . . , J 423 219 14 (The deaths from Typhus in Vienna, where occurred most of the Homoeopathic patients, were in the Allopathic Hospitals, VJ per-cent) ALL DISEASES, Dr. Routh gives the statistics of hospitals in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Vienna, Leipzig, Linz, and other places; the following appears to be the general result : — o OF IIOMCEOPATIIY. 15 Admitted. Died. Mortality. Allop. Hospitals— Grand Total . ll<).f>30 11,791 1<>.5 Horn, ditto ditto ditto . . 3C,G55 l,3f!j 4.4 Such being the actual results given by Dr. Routh, it will be immediately inquired, how docs lie get over Buch ;i startling testimony in favor of Homoeopathy ! For, evidently, on the face of these figures the question is settled. It excites surprize to discover that the best way 1 h\ Routh can find to obviate the conclusion thus unavoidably su gested, is to bring two grave accusations againt the gentle men having the care of the Homoeopathic hospitals, without evidence except of a very unsubstantial character, to supp< >rt 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 cannjt, by an ill way of telling it, be made to appear evil, and lest it should be suspected that I have dealt unfairly with his arguments, Dr. Routh shall be heard in his own words, and we will go through his reasons seriatim. "1. The exclusion of moribund cases is not fair."' The only example of this kind is the following, "Id some tables published by M. Touchon in his work on Homoeopathy, this error is committed." I have not seen this book, and there- fore 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.-1 to 6.7. What Dr. Fleischmann has done in this matter is t.» da asserted 16 THE DEFENCE that " the serious cases are few and far between ; the milder cases, on the contrary, of frequent occurrence." This asser- tion is supported by finding in Fleischmann's hospital, at Vienna, between 1835 — 13, 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 ? 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 ascertaining it, I have no doubt that in any other hospital, admitting the same number of patients, we should find 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 cir- cumstanced in this respect. This is a "reason" which makes the favorable results of Homo2opathic treatment still more striking. Dr. Routh next asks, — " What if it should appear that, proportionally to their number of beds, they admit more patients, perhaps twice as many ; will this not be evidence that they have a large number of milder cases?" 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. f Dr. Routh proceeds, — "1. 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 OF HOMOEOPATHY. 17 Dr. Fleischmann's hospital, the patients .are not the very poorest." Dr. Routh himself contradicts this statement further on (p. 6$) where, in endeavoring to account for the large proportion of fever cases, he says, B Fleischmann tells us he admits the poorer 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 Iioav this affects the general mortality of hospitals receiving hoth sexes indis- criminately is not suggested. " 7. Age materially affects the cypher 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 21 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." How perfect this proof is, shall be shown by the following quotation from the British Journal of Homoeopathy, [No. 4H ', page 347.1 "We are not told whether or not Allopathic hospitals nave 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 hosjritals, 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 popu- lation, including the h a ! th>/ as well as the diseased. . . . A 2 per-cent. mortality is a common occurrenci . The Homoeopaths thus prove too much, since their mortality, including their worse 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 on average of less than a fort- night'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 18 THE DEFENCE of Homoeopathy." They are repeated on " the mortality in particular diseases." For example : — on the table for pneu- monia 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 Hospitals at Vienna 51,709 cases altogether. Of these 1134 were cases of pneumonia, or 2.1 per-cent. Apply this test to Fleischmann's (comparatively very small) hospital, out of 6,551 cases, admitted between the years 1835 and 1843, there were 300 cases returned as pneumonia, or 4.5 per-cent." I remark, 1st, That the exclusion of dis- eases of the skin and other chronic diseases from Fleisch- mann's hospital, which constitute a considerable class in the general hospital, renders this comparison, to a considerable extent, inapplicable. 2d. 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 much larger proportion of severe acute cases than the Allopathic hospitals. On the table for pleurisy, Dr. Routh says,— as before the advantage is in favor of Homoeopathy " There is reason to believe the cases are either not genuine or seLcted? What reason ? " The number of cases admitted are at least dmiUe the number admitted 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 pneumonia 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 in- sinuations are directly contradicted by an eminent Allo- pathic practitioner, who has also visited these hospitals, and who says that~thc cases he saw treated in Fleischmann's OF HOMOEOPATHY. 19 Horn. Hospital were fully as acute and virulent as any he had observed elsewhere. — Wyldd* Austria, p. L ; 77. Dr. Routh's further objections are equally self-contra- dictory or altogether futile and frivolous. We have Been that he asserts that because the Homoeopathic hospitals have a larger number of patients annually in proportion to their number of beds, therefore their cases are not simi- lar 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 ap- parently increased time arises really from fewer of the cases dying? It is death 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? Is it not much more reasonable to draw an inference in favor of the treatment from such speedy re- coveries ? 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 ?" What sort of a corner has Dr. Routh been driven into, that he must fight with such weapons as these ? Does lie feel his gallant ship sinking beneath him, that he is catching at straws I The statistics are genuine. The very existence of a Ho- moeopathic 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 that had previously been imposed upon the practice of Homoeo- pathy in his dominions, and established the hospital which has since been the principal school of Homoeopathy for Europe. Had Dr. Routh's objections been sufficiently weighty to destroy our confidence and our hopes thus ex- cited in Homoeopathy, we might indeed have greatly re- gretted 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 convinced, they hive rather been "frivolous and vexatious," we may cheerfully dismiss them, and thankfully indulge our hopes that this improved me- thod 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 with respect to the principle of " like 20 THK DEFENCE curing like," it is admitted to a considerable extent by our opponents, as indeed it was by Hippocrates himself, em- phatically and deservedly recognized as the Father of Medicine ; and that no reason has, as yet, been shown, sufficient to set aside the proofs in favor of its being re- ceived 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 practically 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 a priori" (page 12) we feel justified in asserting that a priori or theoretical objections to 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 positive- ly hurtful nature of the usual treatment by large doses ; and that with regard to the statistics which speak so loudly and so unequivocally in favor 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 prac- titioners, either as preliminary information, to induce them to study Homoeopathy, seeing that by them at least a prima 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 examina- tion 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 are sincere ourselves or not. The subject is too serious, and the consequences too important to each individual practi- tioner, 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 pro- cures 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 apparent- ly act beyond his expectation, at any rate the patients quickly recover, better and more speedily than if he had OF HOMOEOPATHY. 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 nauseous physic, perhaps 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 bleeding, and blistering are bad. By degrees more serious cases are tried ; cases, snch as croup, where diet and regimen are out of the question, see- ing 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 in- fluence 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-doloreux 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 ; again, when hands covered with warts are cleared of them in a few weeks, without cutting and caustic, which did not remove them: when such universally fatal diseases as diabetes (sugared urine) are, if not absolutely cured, at least so greatly relieved, that life is prolonged for years ; what further proof does he require to convince him of power- ful medicinal action in the remedies employed? What then is the conclusion arrived at by the anxious but patient and persevering inquirer? That IfomcBopathy is a boon to mankind from the Gioer of all goody and that if is his duty to embrace it, and to advocate its cause to the best of his ability. Rugby, August 12th, 1853. Cnuls ok pomtMjaijfg.^j THE TRUTH OF HOMGSOPAT II Y. BY WILLIAM SHARP, M.D. F.R.S. BOERICKE & TAFEL: NEW YORK, PHILADELPHIA, No. 145 GRAND STREET. No. 1011 ARCH STREET. "The Poet that beautified the sect, that was otherwise inferior to the rest, saith yet ex- cellently well. 'It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see a ship tossed upon the sea ; a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, to see a battle, and the adventures thereof below ; but no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground ol truth, (a hill not to be commanded, and where the air is always clear and serene,) and to see the errors and wanderings, and mists and tempests, in the vale below .' so always that this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling or pride." Lord Bacon. *\ THE TRUTH OF nOM(EOPATHT. "True philosophers, who are only eager for truth and knowledge, never regard them- selves as already so thoroughly informed, but that they welcome farther information from whomsoever and from whencesoever it may come ; nor are they so narrow-minded as to imagine any of the arts or sciences transmitted to us by the ancients, in such a stale of for- wardness or completeness, that nothing is left for the ingenuity and industry of others.*' William Harvey. "Trial," says Sir William Blackstone, "is the examina- tion of the matter of fact in issue ; of which there are many different species, according to the difference of the suhject 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 general facts ascertained to be so by inference or induction from a great multitude ofjwrti- cular 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. It is the distinguished prerogative of a few individuals 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 suc- cessfully studied, so as to constitute it a science, lias been founded upon one of these general facts or laws of nature. This is the pole-star around which all the minor facts har- moniously turn. For example : — The law of specific gravity, or the relative weighl 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 ecstasy, crying out "I have have found it — I have found it!"' It consists of two facts: 1st. — When a solid hod;/ is plunged into a liqiiid, it displaces an amount of liquid (quid in 4 THE TRUTH bulk to its own "bulk. 2dly. — The solid body so plunged into a liquid, loses in its weight an amount exactly equal to the weight of the liquid which it has displaced. The law which is the basis of Mechanics was discovered by Galileo; — The less force equals the greater by moving through more space in the same time. The law of gravitation, upon which Astronomy is founded, was discovered by Newton; — All bodies attract each other directly as the mass, and inversely as the square of the distance. This is commonly regarded as a mathematical demonstration, but it rests, in reality, upon careful experi- ments 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 Hydro- statics, and which has lately been so beautifully applied to a very useful practical purpose in the Bramah prest, was discovered by the successive experiments of the three great men just mentioned, Archimedes, Galileo, and Newton. It may be thus expressed ; — in a ?nass of liquid each particle p /-esses equally in all directions. The laws of Kepler, as they are called from their dis- coverer, which are three important general facts in Astro- nomy. 1st. — The orbits of the planets are ellipses, with the sun in one of the foci. 2d. — The planets move over cqucd areas in equal times. 3d. — The squares of the times of revo- lution of any two planets are to each other, in the same pres- portion as the cubes of their mean distances from the sun. "Of all the laws," says Sir John Herschel, "to which induc- tion from pure observation has ever conducted man, this third Law of Kepler may justly be regarded as the most remarkable, 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 double circulation of the blood is unceasingly carried on, first through the lungs, and afterwards through the rest sing- ing 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, op- thalmia, headache, cases threatening to end n water in the brain, I have tested the remedial powers of belladonna, and have not often been disappointed. In two cases of threatened 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 speedi- ly recovered. During the spring of this year 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 the plant, and the symp- toms of that disease. I am tempted to give the following extract from the "London Medical and Physical Journal" for Sept., 1824, (the most respectable allopathic journal of that period,) both because it shows the admission of this OF HOMOEOPATHY. 15 discovery, and also because it exhibits a better feeling towards Hahnemann than is a present met with among my allopathic brethren. " Belladonna a preventative of Scarlet Fever. — It has been long known that Dr. Hahnemann, of Leipzig, has as- serted the above fact; but since the year 1818, several practitioners in the north of Europe have repeated these experiments, and t/iey 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 ac- count 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 desquamation of the cuticle had taken place in those attacked. Dr. Dusterbourg, of War- bourg, has also published an account of a series of ex- periments confirming these statements; and several sub- sequent memoirs have appeared all equally corroborative of this virtue in the belladonna." Medical men of the old school are now beginning to assert that Belladonna is no preseroathi against Scarlet Fever, and that this " shews the utter fallacy of their (the Homoeopathists') reasoning, and the sandy foundation 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 prevention, but a method of cure. The weight of evidence is still in favor of the preventive powers of Belladonna, but its failure will bring no "fallacy" into the "reasoning," nor "sand" into the "foundation" of Homeo- pathy. BRYONIA— RHEUMATISM. White Bryony is one of the ancient remedies which, 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 myself twice brought on these symptoms with bryony. It is a very valuable re- medy 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 suffering from rheu- 16 THE TRUTH matic pain, it will commonly be reddened. Knowing this I have been in the habit for some time of treating rheuma- tism with alkalies, both internally and externally, and with so much better success than when formerly bleeding, &c. were had recourse to, that I was reluctant to give tLtm up. A case occurred in Nov., 1850, which first induced me to do so. A boy about 12 years old, had a very severe attack of rheumatic fever. I pursued my usual method 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 con- valescent. His father, a medical man of distinction, now arrived from a distance, together with his mother. I de- tailed to him all I had done, and, though no Homceopathist, I received from him hearty thanks for the benefit his boy had got from the treatment. In a few days he was suffi- ciently recovered to be taken home by his mother. COLOCYNTH— COLIC. The takers of violent purgatives, such as Morison's pills, know the effects of Co'ochivh. I have found it, in small doses, relieve similar pains. CREOSOTE— VOMITING. Creosote as a poison produces vomiting and other de- rangements of the stomach, together with a tendency in the fluids of the body to decomposition and in the solids to disorganization. I have repeatedly seen small doses of Creosote act beneficially in similar conditions of disease. I give the following case, which occurred some years ago, 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, Ho- moeopathic in principle. The notes were written by an intelligent assistant at the time. "Miss A — H— , aet. 36, has been subject to frequent at- tacks of erysipelas, accompanied by great sickness. The last attack was during last summer, from which she re- covered about three months since. On Saturday, December 17th, 1836, she was attacked with vomiting and purging, accompanied by an acute pain in the region of the liver. OF HOMOEOPATHY. 17 Mr. H., who saw her, gave her Calomel and Opium, and applied a blister to the seat of the pain, but without relief; he gave her effervescing salines with Hydrocyanic-acid, and applied a mustard poultice to the stomach, with Blight 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 Satur- day previous, Mr. Sharp, along with Dr. H., saw her and found her in the following state : Vomiting excessive ; pain in the abdomen ; pain and tenderness along the whole course of the spine (to which Mr. S. 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 Creosote. It was procured and administered in some gruel without her knowledge, one or two drops being put into a 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 since the 26th till her health was re-established, and sue has since been quite free from similar attacks." IPECACUANA— VOMITING— ASTHMA— HEMORRHAGE. Every one knows that Ipecacuanha excites vomiting. Among my earliest trials were several cases of vomiting in children, arising from the ordinary causes of indigestion. 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 bad 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 surprized aud 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 bafiie the medical 18 THE TRUTH man's best efforts, I have found on several occasions delight- fully removed by the same remedy. In one case the patient had suffered for two months from continual sickness, vomit- ing 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 is amply shown in the Tract, entitled: "The Small Dose of Homoeopathy," produces asthma. I have seen it, in similar doses, relieve, in the most beautiful manner, severe fits of asthma. Ipecacuanha also causes bleeding from different parts of the body, in persons previously in health. Some very interesting cases of severe haemorrhage, cured by Ipeca- cuanha, are detailed in Vol. I. of Mr. Braithwaite's littro- qpect ; where, however, the beneficial effects are wrongly attributed to the sickness produced by the large doses which were given. I have had some opportunities of observing that Ipeca- cuanha, in such small doses as did not produce any sickness, could arrest haemorrhage even when life was fast ebbing away. NUX VOMICA— SPASMODIC PAINS. In instances of suffering from abdominal spasmodic pains the benefit derived from Nux Vomica 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 I first saw the patient, 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 produces 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 OF HOMOEOPATHY. 19 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 RHUBARB— SENNA— DIARRHOEA. As Ipecacuanha is remarkably useful in many kinds of vomiting, so Rhubarb, Semur, and other purgatives are not less so in the kinds of diarrhoea which resemble those pro- duced by large doses of these drugs. I have repeatedly tried them in varying doses, and have obtained the relief which I looked for, both in children and in adults. VERATRUM— CHOLERA. It is a fact familiar to medical men that White Hellebore was the favorite purgative with Hippocrates, and that it has fallen into disuse from its over-violent effects. I have had recourse 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 symp- toms. Two or three doses of camphor, dissolved in spirit 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 had been almost incessant for thirty hours previously. POISONS FROM THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. CANTHARIDES— STRANGURY. That Cmthori'ls, even when only applied externally in the form of a blister, frequently produce strangury and other complaints of the bladder scarcely any one is ignorant. That they are the most efficacious remedy for similar com- plaints arising from other causes, I have the most satisfac- tory evidence. I have thus briefly alluded to the disease producing and the disease healing powers of twenty of the best hnown substances taken from the three kingdoms in nature ; Anti- 20 THE TRUTH mony, Arsenic, Copper, Corrosive Sublimate, Lead, Mercury, Phosphorus, and Sulphur; Aconite, Belladonna, Bryony, Colocynth, Creosote, Ipecacuanha, Nux Vomica, Opium, Rhubarb, Senna, and V r eratrum ; Cantharides. I might proceed in a similar manner with many other remedies, 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 pamphlet, and the verdict is, that my own mind is convinced that there is an accordance between the two great powers of these poisonous sub- stances, — their power of producing disease in the human body, when given in certain comparatively large doses, and their power of removing similar disease, 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 testimony that the administration of rtmtdus under the guidance of this principle is a much more succtss- ful method of treating disease than any with which 1 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 ex- hibit the hmd of evidence capable of being affoided find which is the 'only kind the investigation admits of. The quantity necessary to produce conviction in different minds will vary according to their several constitutions, but I must be allowed to consider it the height of prejudice and bigotry in any one to reject altogether, and in t, (727 billions); while the corresponding numbers for the indigo ray are, length, 0,0000185 of an inch; 54,070 undulations in an inch; and 658,000,000,000,000, (658 billions) in a second. The other rays differ in similar proportions. "That nun," 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 observed, whatever theory of light we adopt, these periods and those spaces have a real esolstefbo^ 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 particles 1# 10 THE SMALL DOSE 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 produc- tion, it is matter, but exceedingly rare, subtle, and so minutely divided as to be to us absolutely 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 independent of these observations on light. It has been ascertaineci by astronomers that one of the comets, called Encke's, which is a body not denser than a small cloud of steam, for the stars are seen through it without any diminution of their brilliancy, and which revolves round the sun in 1,208 days, has its period slightly diminished during each revolution. It is obvious that its motion is impeded by a resisting medium, by which its centrifrugal 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 obser- vations, we arrive at the same conclusion that there exists a rare, subtle, and imponderable form of minutely divided matter. Infinitesimal quantities of this imponderable matter are capable of acting energetically, and the// do so act 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 similarly small dimensions, may also act, and act powerfully, upon the living body. II. — Are there any facts which show the action of infini- tesimal quantities of ponderable matter upon the healtfy/hody? The beautiful adaptation of the different departments of nature to each other is justly adduced as a demonstration 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 cor- poreal senses of man to the surrounding world. So far as we are cognizant of the material creation, it is disposed under the five following forms : — solid bodies, liquids, gases or airs, imponderable ether, and minutely divided par- ticles of ponderable bodies. For the appreciation of these various forms of matter we have five senses. The sense of touch, mainly conversant with solid bodies; that of taste^ which is impressed by liquids only ; the delicate organ of hearing, which can perceive the vibratory movements of gases OF HOMOEOPATHY. H or airs; the still more delicate organ of the eye, capable of re- ceiving 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 infinitesimal, that is, indefinitely small and imponderable. It is this form of matter 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 per- ception 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 ac- quainted with, weighs upwards of 5,00(1 grains. A cubic inch of hydrogen^ the lightest body Avhich affect our balances, weighs 2 grains. These balances, by ingenious contrivances, are made very sensitive, I have one which readily weighs 0.005, or five thousandths of a grain. Others have been con- structed 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 million ths of a square inch in size, and yet possess the color 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 mil- lionth of a grain; and yet this, so far from being an ultimate particle of matter, must have contained more than one vege- table fibre, that fibre itself being of complex organization, and built up of an indefinitely great number of more simple forms of matter. The perfection of modern chemistry is such that a quantity of silver equal to the billionth of a cubic line, can be readily detected/* That particles become divided into less portions than is shewn in these examples is evident from the daily observation of the sense of smell. The violet fills even a royal apartment with its sweet odor, which is thus readily perceived, but which absolutely eludes every'other mode of observation. How in- conceivably small must be the particles of all odors! And yet how obviously material they are. A grain of musk may be exposed for a long period, and 1>" unceasingly emitting particles, easily appreciated 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. * Elements of Chemistry, by Sir It. Kane, 2d Ed p. 7. 12 THE SMALL DOSE 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? The microscope cannot shew these terrible particles, nor can chemical analysis detect them. Ozone rjerhaps 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 han I 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 connection can be traced. This is no uncommon occur- rence, 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? Is it heavier than the millionth of a grain of belladonna which, it is -asserted by Homceopathists, is sufficient, when given at short intervals, to arrest the pro- gress of such a case ? . These, then, are also instances of infinitesimally small quan- tities of matter actin o upon the living body in health. There are numerous liquids which have the power 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 detecting it. The Vaccine matter has en so often mentioned that I will not allude to it further. Several animals are furnished with poisonous liquids, which, when injected into a wound, occasion the disease or death of the wounded animal. Serpents, bees, scorpions, and spiders, are well known examples. In the venomous serpents there is OF HOMOEOPATHY. 13 found an apparatus of poison-fangs, constituting perhaps the most terrible weapons of attack met with in the animal crea* tion. 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 tli3 mouth; but when the animal is irritated, they are plucked up froai their concealment, and stand out like two long lancets. Each fang is traversed by a canal, through which the poison flows. The gland (b) 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, compress- es at the same moment the bag of poison, and forces it through the fangs into the wound.# The quantity of poison contained in the gland scarcely ex- ceeds 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 poi- sonous effects. From some serpents it produces almost im- mediate death. Fontana first subjected it to chemical ana- lysis, and sacrificed many hundred vipers in his experiments. Others have succeeded him in these labors, but nothing pe- culiar has been discovered. The poison is a yellow liquid, and has not been distinguished chemically from simple gum water, f Here are examples of infinitesimal quantities of ponderable matter acting with frightful energy upon the healthy body. Medicinal substances furnish other proofs. I must content myself with a single example. Inappreciable quantities of Ipecacuanha give an affirmative answer to our present question, so decisive and convincing that I make no apology for ex- tracting the following cases from that well-known and highly respectable allopathic periodical the London Medical and Pkydc it Journal,: — "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 Fp cacuan/ut. A more continued appli- cation of it, such for instance as happens in the preparation oi 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 evi- . . - — «.. ** * The Animal Kingdom, by T. Rymcr J ines, |>, 5S3 t Thompson's Animal Chemistry, p. 538. 14 THE SMALL DOSE clently produced a disposition to asthma, and an aptitude for pulmonary ailment, which he had not used to possess." 3 * "In the year 1787 or 8, in pounding the root to make the Ipecacuanha Wuie, I was suddenly affected with violent and reiterated sneezings, with a very profuse deduction 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 appear- ances of ,i severe catarrh. From this date I have been per- petually tormented by violent catarrhs. The slightest motion of the simple or compound powder of Ipecacuanha superin- duces precisely similar, but more gentle effects. When weigh- ing or mixing these powders afterwards, I carefully guarded my mouth and nose by a cloth; but an incautious removal of it^br inspiration, till perhaps half an hour had elapsed, after the medicine 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 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 teazing 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 mode- rate 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 * Mr. Spencer, Medical and Physical Journal, June, 1809, Vol. 21, p 485. OF HOMOEOPATHY. 15 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 1 found that there was one grain of Ipecacuanha and ten of cal- cined magnesia. The incident gave birth to the idea that the former strange affection had originated from the same cause as the latter, and upon inquiry my suspicion was continued; they were Io'cacua/t/ia 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, 1809,) 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 enume- rate their symptoms would only be to repeat what has already been given respecting those effects. " 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 pecu- liarity of constitution. 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 oppor- tunity of remarking this fact about eighteen months ago, being on a professional visit at her house, while her husband labored under a severe fever. She was about to dispense one of my prescriptions 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 dis- pense 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, 1 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 her- self 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 ac- count of the sensations she was beginning to feel. * Medical and Physical Journal, March, 1810, Vol. 23, p. 10J 16 THE SMALL DOSE "The second instance came to my knowledge only the day hcfore yesterday. The lady who is the subject of it called on me on her mother's account, who was indisposed, and being shewn into my room, took up your last Journal which lay on my table to amuse herself till my appearance. On my enter- ing the room she told me she had been reading my book, and the part which she accidentally opened was Mr. B.'s communi- cation ; she added with a smile, this is far from so uncommon a case as this gentleman seems to think, for I myself am af- flicted by it in the same manner; and then went into con- siderable detail of the symptoms it excited in her. The ca- tarrhal 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 swelled and stiff, and sight was diminished. The eye-lids tumiiied 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 when- ever Ipecacuanha root was pounding 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 in- nocent cause of the comjriaint 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 exquisitely nervous. u I have been informed of different cases almost similar; they were all women ; but, conceiving the observation a com- mon one, I did not note them."f Two similar cases, the wives of medical men, are given in Vol. 24r, 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 as marly to prove fatal. There was a remarkable stricture about the throat and chest, with very troublesome shortness of breathing, with a particular kind of wheezing noise. The symptoms were aggravated at night. At 8 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 Dr. Hamilton, Med. and Phys. Journal, April, 1810. Vol. 23, p. 318. t Dr. Trotter, Med. and Phys. Journal, July, 1810, Vol. 24, p. 60. OF HOMOEOPATHY. 17 utmost immediate danger of suffocation. She became easier about 11 a. m. till about 11 p. m. The same scene was con- tt n-i ' y Thos. Nunneley, London, lbtl. 20 THE SMALL DOSE and part of the neck, with a large blister on each cheek, very 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 beautifully the small doses relieve and frequently quickly cure this otherwise intractable complaint — one of the opprobria medi- corum. One case, a widow lady of 72, who had i. then for the hist time, and while in a state of considerable 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, re- covered in three weeks. Cholera and Diarrhoea. — The numerous statements published in various countries of the great efficacy of Homoeopathic treatment in Cholera and Diarrhoea have been confirmed by my own experience, so far as that has gone. In these cases I have always used the small doses, except when I was anxious to test the •principle of Homoeopathy by giving ponderable quantities of the medicine in- dicated. 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 terribte malady, but from a trial of Homoe- opathy, which has just been made in Barbadoes by Dr. Goding, it appears that, even after the black vomit has taken place, hitherto considered so fatal a symp- tom, Homoeopathy can still, with the blessing of God, rescue a victim from the grave. This ought to attract the attention of Governments. 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. I have not one-fourth of the apprehension of an unfavorable termination in any acute attack of disease which I had in former times. The duration of the illness is much shortened, the danger greatly lessened, the strength of the patient husbanded, and convales- cence, often so tedious and distressing, is almost annihilated. CHRONIC DISEASE. Pain ix the Elbow. — Mr. K., a shopkeeper, consulted me in August. 1850, on acount of a very distressing pain in the elbow, from which he had been suffer- ing for twelve months. He had been under surgical treatment, I believe, the wh.de 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. I gave him a single dose of Staphysagria, highly diluted. In a few days I called to inquire 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 ?" "Look!" he cried, and moving his arm in all directions in a rapid manner, declared that it was well ; and so it remained. Biabetes 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. I found that one of her complaints was diabetes mellitus, which had been increasing upon 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 most 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 OF HOM CEO PATH Y. 21 then went to the sea-side for two or three works. During her stay there, her son wrote to me that his " mother was so well that she did not appear to ail any- thing " She has since suffered in various ways from mental causes, and lias had some return of the diabetes, hut 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 (rranted ; but while the causes which first induced the complaint are, in all probability, still surrounding the patient, it is not susprising if they succeed in bringing on second or third attacks I have seen several cases of sugared urine formerly, Out I never saw the old remedies afford such permanent benclit. 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 condition I have described. October 14th, 1853. She has now continued well nearly another year. Tabes Mesenterica. — In September, 1852, Mrs. H consulted me about her baby, eight months old, suffering from mesenteric disease. The little infant was greatly emaciated, and its mother expected that it was going to die. Ex- cessively minute doses of Sulphur and Chalk were followed by a wonderful im- provement 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 incre- dulous, 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 shew them the child, and to offer a copy of one of my pamphlets. An anjry 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 : " Cut sir, my child is cured !" " 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 ? If medicines do harm, and you knew that doing nothing would cure, why did not you .recommend that plan '!" Disevse 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 120 ; occasion- al flushings in the face; no appetite; 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 infini- tesimal doses of the medicines employed, such as Aconite, Bryonia, Phosphorus, &o. ; 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 expectora- tion ; no fever; no perspiration; and the only symptom which remains to testify th'V reality of his former danger is revealed by the stethoscope, the un- natural sound of the voice, though much diminished, has not yet erased. Warts. — In three cases out of four I have succeeded in clearing the hand of ugly warts. In all by internal treatment alone, and with infinitesimal doses of the medicines employed. Partial Paralysis. — Mrs. M consulted me, three months ajjo, 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. I prescribed the billionth of a grain of lead, in occasional doses for a month, and nothing else. At the expiration of the month, her husband, a respectable farmer, called to 22 THE SMALL DOSE 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 neighborhood, and called unexpectedly to sec her. I found her sitting at her fire-side busily engaged in sewing, and look- ing so much better that I scarcely recognized her. She spoke very gratefully of her improved condition. I am not now replying to opponents, but I 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 ! Has he ever tried it in these diseases in any dose ! And if not, how can he make such an assertion 1 Habitual Constipation. — It is a great bug-bear with many, especially with many amiable amateur practitioners of the healing art, that Homoeopathy dis- penses with the old-fashioned closes of Gregory and Black Draught ; that it pro- fesses to be able to go on in its way prosperously without the aid of Calomel and Colocynth, Senna, Salts, and Jalap. I acknowledge that at first I found this 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 disagreeable condition. «6ome had taken aperients so long and in such increas- ing 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 70, 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. I think it well to mention that the di- lution of the medicines I have most frequently used is the 3d — in which the grain or the drop is divided into a million of parts. I have often used the 2d, (the 10,000th part), and sometimes the 1st, (the 100th part of a grain). I have also often used the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 12th ; and I have seen bene- ficial effects follow the administration of the 18th and the 30th. Further than this I have not gone, and I do not hold myself committed 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 the discovery of the rule by which we are to be guided in its elioice. The difficulty of the case, I have said, lies in its incredi- bility, I trust this is now greatly lessened, if not removed. It is no other than that which attaches to every new statement * Homoeopathy Unveiled, by W. P. Brodribb, 2d Ed. p. 9. OF HOM(EOPATHV 23 — its novelty. It is the same difficulty as that which fastened itself upon the mind of the King of Siam. It vanishes before evidence. It is credible that the small dose can effect "a sale, speedy, and permanent cure" whenever a cure is possible, when it is fo arid practically to do so. To those who contend that, after so many triturations 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? And, secondly, if the doses contain nothing, or are "nihilities," as Mr. Brodribb calls them, how do effects such as those referred to in this pamphlet follow their administra- tion? To those who attempt to quash such statements as I have made by accusations of fraud or of falsehood, I have nothing to say. There is no common ground upon which we can meet to argue. 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, reject the proposal to try the remedies with disdain, and continue to stigmatize those who do so as "knaves or fools," or "morally attenuated dwarfs."* Might reason being our guide, with which of these two parties is truth most likely to be found f * The " Lancet." for Nov. 6th, 1852. Rugby, Oct. Ulh, 1853. Gratis on gomffoptjjg. K 'hs THE DIFFICULTIES H M (E OPATH T. BY WILLIAM SHARP, M.D., F.R.S. l)trt**ntl) rejud 7 - lege*, as yet, in England. This is, of course, a great tempo- rary difficulty and inconvenience, For a remedy it has been proposed to obtain a charter from the crown, and to establish a suitable Institution, I have myself 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 stereotype, 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 infirmities of the latter period of his life; and it would perpetuate homceopathists as a sect, permanently dividing the profession in this country into two irreconcileal >le parties. Whereas, if the temporary inconvenience be submitted to, the two opposite advantages may be hoped for; — time being 18 THE DIFFICULTIES allowed to investigate Homoeopathy more thoroughly, the chaff may be winnowed from the wheat, and the truth based upon sufficient evidence to maintain it; — this being ac- complished, the enlightened portion of the profession can- not do otherwise than adopt it, and thus it will become in- corporated in our present schools and colleges, and the reformation in medicine like the English reformation 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 uj)on conscientious convictions, will surmount them all. II. The difficulties which it may be expected will attach permanently to Homoeopathy are those which arise from the present condition of humanity, and which belong more or less even to those sciences whose fundamental principles are best ascertained and understood. They are such as the following: — 20. A serious difficulty will always exist in the intricacy of the mechanism of the human hody, and in the mystery of life. The derangements in the healthy structure and functions of the various organs of the body must be hope- lessly 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 unavoid- able 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 endeavoring to obtain which he is also liable to be punished. 21. If the knowledge of diseases be hard to acquire, the knowledge of remedies is scarcely less difficult. Almost every object in nature may claim to be investigated 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 labor, care, and study. In proving a drug, (that is, in ex- l^erimenting with it in health,) to obtain a distinct notion of its sphere of action, and of the actual groups of symp- OF HOMOEOPATHY. 19 toms it is capable of producing in the previously healthy- body; — to distinguish between the primary and secondary actions of a drug in proving it, and to regulate the use of it in accordance with these two frequently opposite modes of action in prescribing it ; — to learn in what constitutions, temperaments, and ages each remedy acts most success- fully, — 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 labor. 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 from an attendance upon dangerous illness ; and great difficulty and annoyance also accompany the care of all cases of in- disposition 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 hapj)en, — the medical treatment is rendered abortive by their con- tinuance. 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 intended any of her sons for the medical profession ; she said emphatically No, and for these reasons : — "The condition of medicine is unsettled and unsatis- factory. I hope 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 dis- positions, 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 effect 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. 20 THE DIFFICULTIES " 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 overstocked ranks were very greatly diminished. I shall never forget the first words I heard Abernetiiy 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 ?" 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, labor, and skill, will sometimes only imperfectly 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 difficulties, 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 laborer in the art of healing, better known and felt, they would enlist on his behalf the sympathies of his fellow men. They are touchingly alluded to by the Father of Medicine in his first Aphorism : " O f Btoc fipaxvg, f) de: rexvq {lanprj, b de naipbg 6<%vg, ij <5t nelpa o^aXepi], i] 6t ttpioig xatenrj." " Life is short, and Art is long ; occasion fleeting ; experience fallacious, and judgment difficult." They were no doubt present to the mind of the son of Sirach OF HOMOEOPATHY^ 21 when he said, " Honor the Physician with the honor due unto him, for the Lord hath created him." ###### " Imlac was proceeding to aggrandize his own profession, when th prince cried out, ' Enough ! thou hast convinced me that no human heing can ever be a poet, Proceed with thy narrative.' ki i To be a poet,' said Imlac, ' is indeed very difficult' ' So difficult,' replied the prince, ' that I will at present hear no more of his difficulties.' " # * Rasselas. Rugby, March 10th, 1854. (Tracts on |)omirop;itI|i).-|lo. 6. THE ADVANTAGES OP HOMEOPATHY. BY WILLIAM SHARP, M.D., F.R.S. ««7 SITY F. E. BOERICKE: HAHNEMANN PUBLISHING HOUSE, PHILADELPHIA. PREFACE. I "write a preface for the sake of obtaining a blank page for a beautiful Greek Fragment, and an equally beautiful Translation. The latter has been written at my request for this Number of the Tracts. The author, Mr. Charles Edwaiic Oakley, to whom I am affectionately attached, has been, for five years, an ornament of Rugby School, and is now distinguishing himself at the University of Oxford. Rughy, August 21th, 1863. ODE TO HEALTIL * Tyieta TvpecjiicTa Matcdpov, Merd gov vaioi/ui Td 'Aeiiro/iiEvov fStorug' 1,v 6e fioc TrpoQpuv avvoLKog elrjg. E'! yap nq V kXovtov xu-ptQ V TSKfae Tag evdaific-Qe r' dvdp6-ocg BacOiTjidog dpxag rj tto^w-'. Oi!^ upvfyioLc 'AtypodlTTjg dpuvaiv drjpevofiCr *H el Tig uX?\.a Oeodev avOpuTroig rtpipir, "H itovgjv d/j.7Tvod Trityavrai' Merd oeio, p.dnaipa 'Tyieta, Ti6?]2,e Trdvra nai Xu/xTzet xaptruv kapr 'Ltdev 6k x u ph- ovdelg evdaifiun' nito (translation.) Health ! Eldest-Born of all The Blessed ones that be, Through life's remainder, howe'er smaU Still may I dwell with thee! And thou with me, A willing guest, Oh ! 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 Alan hath from heaven, his dearest treasure, And amid all his earthly moil The sweet forgetfulncss of toil ; — With thee, Blest Health! Health ever young! With thee they grew, from thee they sprui Spung of all gifts from heaven that'lhll, Thou art the sunshine of them all! — Yet all are turned to misery For him that lives bereft of thee. C. E. Oakley, Demy of Maglulen College, Oxford THE ADVANTAGES OF HOMEOPATHY. "What tortures inflicted on patients might have been dispensed with, had few simple principles been earlier recognized." Sir John Heeschel. Pltjtakch says, in his life of Demosthenes, " I live in a small town, and I choose to live there lest it should become ♦.still smaller."* For myself, I have joined a small company of physicians, and I choose to remain with them for Plu- taech's reason, but still more for Lord Bacon's. I believe they are " standing upon the vantage-ground of truth, and see the errors and wanderings, and mists and tempests in the vale below." I am also anxious to induce others to join this company and to share in its advantage ; and, therefore, instead of writ- ing a Tract, as it would be easy to do, on the evils of the old physic, I prefer the more agreeable duty of inviting my read- er's attention to the superior claims of the new method. The ignorance of Allopathy is darkness which may be felt — and it is felt, witness the confessions of its most eminent professors. It has been described as " the art of putting large doses of poisonous drugs, of which we know little, into living bodies of which we know less." The uncertainty of Allopathy is worse than can be credited by any non-professional person. A gentleman, a neighbor of mine, lately spoke of it as "the regular steady practice ac- cording to rule." What rule? I know of none. " There is no truth in physic," said an experienced practitioner to me, many years ago. I have no doubt that many have painfully shared in his feelings. The cruelties of Allopathy are indescribable. 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 ignorance, the * " 'H/zctf (5f iwcodv diKovvrec ttoXcv Kai iva fir/ fwcpoTepa -yevrjrai t2.ox(jpovvTeg. n 6 THE ADVANTAGES uncertainty, or the cruelty of the old practice. One might indeed be provoked to do so by the conduct 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 Dr. Eussell or Dr. Eamsbo- tham may not, under the guidance of a rule, give the hun- dredth or the thousandth part of a grain of the same poison, without being charged with irregularity and quackery. Such conduct betrays great ignorance both of their own position and of ours. It would be very easy to show from the Phar- macopeia of the Eoyal College of Physicians, and from the daily prescriptions of the "regular" practitioners, on which side real quackery prevails. This at least must be obvious, that whatever prospect of curing either party may have, there will be greater risk of hilling the patient with the large dose of arsenic than with the small one. But truth takes no cognizance of abusive appellations. They may for a time cover her with disgrace, and hide her beauty from the public gaze, but they can not change her character, nor transform her into falsehood. The consciousness of pos- sessing 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 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 use- fulness. Who can estimate the value of health f 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 precious- ness is still more vividly reflected from the page of inspira- tion, where we see, in so many instances, the Divine power mercifully exerted to restore it. It is my business, in the present paper, to show that Ho- moeopathy 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 empiri- cal, which have ever before been tried ; and that consequently it is alike the duty and the interest of all men without excep- tion to adopt it. OF HOMCEOPATHY. 7 I shall aim at producing the conviction that its claims "both on the physician and on the patient are above suspicion and beyond dispute; always bearing in remembrance that "our life is but as a vapor which appears for a little while, and then vanishes away." I. The advantages to the Physician are three-fold ; 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 three-fold ; they are as follow : 1. The banishment of nauseous drugs, and painful and de- bilitating applications. 2. Greatly increased efficacy and success. 3. Deliverance from medicinal diseases, and other destruc- tive consequences of former methods of treatment. L— THE ADVANTAGES TO THE PHYSICIAN. 1. The emancipation of his mind from doubt and confusion. Interest often conceals, if it does not deny truth, and it would not be surprising if the world had been kept in ignor- ance of the confusion and uncertainty in which medical men are involved. They have, however, been frequently acknow- ledged by men of integrity and reputation. No exception can be taken to the evidence of such a witness as Ctjllen to the erroneous doctrines and conflicting practices of legitimate physic previous to the discovery of Homoeopathy. It is above suspicion and beyond dispute. 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 Egyptians. — 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 phy- sician 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 pre- carious and uncertain information." 8 THE ADVANTAGES Djoscokides "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 predecessors, nor to support the vanity he discovers with regard to his own performances." His theory is " false and inapplicable," yet " implicitly followed by all the physicians of Asia, Africa, and Europe, for at least 1500 years after his time." This " particu- larly marks out how much a veneration for antiquity has re- tarded science." The Arabians. — "It does not appear that they made any improvements." Revival 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 novel- ties 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 that "similia similibus curantur" is the first ray which has illumined the gloom, the first "method" by which the confusion has been reduced to regularity. This has turned night into day, chaos into order, doubt into confidence, a random shot into a careful aim, a haz- ardous and empirical experiment into a precise and intelligent 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 the highest 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 ac- knowledged ; that the Homoeopathic physician is freed from all these burdens is obvious : that this is a great advantage must be above suspicion and beyond dispute. 2 . The pro vision of a guit le. Those who have traversed the dark mountain with a trusty guide, or who have crossed the trackless ocean with the mari- ners compass, can in some measure understand the feelings of OF HOMOEOPATHY. 9 the physician who has found a principle to assist him in the choice of remedies for his patients ; but it is so great an advan- tage that it can not 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 acknowledged to be the most important acquisition of the present century, and the most pro- ductive in its results."* He ascribes the first discovery of it to Kichter, (a Grerman,) and the "extending and completing our knowledge" of it to Dalton, (an Englishman.) The law of similia similibus curantur, which "regulates and governs" all medical 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. I am fond of illustrations. They possess a double recom- mendation ; they explain an axiom and impress it upon the mind better than any mere definition or description, and they relieve a didactic or argumentative composition of its dullness. While, therefore, I must refer my readers to Tract No. 3 for many examples of the mode of applying the principle of Homoeopathy in practice, I will find room here for a brief notice of two cases which have lately occurred to me. In Tract No. 4 the disease-producing powers of Ipecacuanha, in minutely-divided doses, are described : among the morbid effects thus produced are asthma and haemorrhage. Miss W consulted me for a severe attack of spasmodic asthma, to which she was very liable ; I gave her a few doses of the second dilution of Ipecacuanha, which gave her immediate relief, and in a little while removed 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 seize* 1, while on a journey at a distance of seventy miles from me, with a copious spitting of blood. This information was sent to me by telegraph, and I immediately forwarded to her by railway some Ipecacuanha. The following morning I received * " Letteis on Chemistry," Second Scries. 10 THE ADVANTAGES another telegraphic message, followed, shortly after, by a letter from her mother, stating that the first dose had arrested the bleeding, and that my patient had not coughed once all night, only once in the morning without expectoration, which pre- viously had been copious, 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. Those who have experienced the comfort and benefit of such a guide as the principle of similia similibus curantur will not be easily induced to venture without it into the pathless wil- derness of medical treatment. A single example will give some idea of the distressing uncertainty with which the in- structions for treatment are given by the teachers of the old school. The cure of dropsy is thus laid down by the first phy- sician of France of the last age : " The cure may be begun by blood-letting in certain condi- tions ; but in otlvrs it can not be employed luiihout danger. It gives relief in difficult breathing; but after it is practised the symptoms are aggravated and rendered more obstinate. It is not to be concealed, that some persons have been cured by repeated blood-lettings, or spontaneous haemorrhages ; but it is at the same time known that such a remedy, inopportunely employed, has in many instances hastened on the fatal event."* Every one familiar with the literature of his profession, 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 direction 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 be above suspicion and beyond dispute. 3. The simplicity of the m°ans. "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 endeavoring to imitate the operations of nature, in which mighty effects are continually being brought about by apparently insignificant but really efficacious means. * Licutaud, " Synopsis uuivorsic medicinac." OF HOMOEOPATHY. 11 Among the many examples which surround us I will men- tion only 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, little grains of medicine, in the hands of the homoeopathist, however improbable it may appear beforehand and without experience, are found practically to be more efficacious in ar- resting the progress of disease than the complicated mixtures and poisonous doses of allopathy. To borrow an expression which Dr. 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 phy- sician and surgeon "is enough to make a man serious." These are lancets, cupping-glasses, and leeches ; blisters, setons, issues, moxas, caustics, and cauteries ; emetics and purgatives, sudor- ifics 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 black- smith undertaking with his pincers to repair a watch. Homoeopathy, it is well known, discards all these complex and' formidable weapons, and prescribes a single remedy at a time, and that to be chosen according 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 of the old treatment are complicated, unwieldy, and violent, is known and acknowledged ; that the means used by the homoeopathic physicians are simple and easy of application, is obvious ; that this is a great advantage, must be above suspicion and beyond dispute. I recommend these three advantages to the serious consider- ation of my medical brethren. II.— THE ADVANTAGES TO THE PATIENT. 1. The banishment of nauseous dri \gs and painfid and debilitat* ing applications. I give here a sketch of the old chafing dish and actual cau- tery, as the red-hot iron was called, and which ha.^ 1 een used 12 THE ADVANTAGES for a long period. I witnessed, as I trust, the expiring embers of this fire in the Military Hospital in Paris, under the care of the Baron Larrey, as described in Tract No. 1. In the next generation I hope it will be necessary to represent several other processes yet had recourse to, as well as to describe the calomel pill, the bJack draught, the steel mixture, the bark decoction, the opiurr bolus, and the bitter infusion, of which no descrip- tion need oe given to the present age. Now, notwitstanding that some people cling to their torments as the Prince did to his Falstaff, I can not 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 deliver- ance. The avoiding of blood-letting, and of the weakness 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 pain- ful and debilitating process, along with every disagreeable dose, is for ever abandoned, how great is the emancipation, how substantial 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 practition- ers 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 OF HOMOEOPATHY. 13 suppositions is most likely to be true : that, contemporaneous- ly with the introduction of Homoeopathy, the course of nature was suddenly altered, and the character of diseases changed; or that, from various considerations, and among them the suc- cess of Homoeopathy, physicians have been induced to lay aside the lancet, and to try a milder treatment, and finding this suc- ceed better than severe measures, they have invented the former supposition to save themselves from the acknowledgment of error. 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 com- parative severity and mildness is still very great. A few in- stances 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 can not possibly be given, and where consequently the allopathic physician, if he does not bleed and blister, is able to do scarcely any thing, the homceopathist is at no loss how to proceed ; his drop or gobule placed within the lips lias still power to act, as I have myself witnessed, to the complete restoration of the patient. In cases of acute inflammation in delicate persons, where the lojal disease seems to call for depletion and a lowering treat- ment, 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 inflam- mation, in proportion to their activity, increase the general weakness ; while the homceopathist meets with nothing to per- plex 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 often severely handled by their physicians is known and acknow- ledged ; that they wholly escape this rough usage under the new method is obvious; that this is a great advantage must be above suspicion and beyond dispute. 2. Gr ally -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 ex- 14 THE ADVANTAGES pression ; bat if a lower meaning be attached to it, then it is not true, and life may be prolonged by our own endeavors, In England, 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 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 bet- ter 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. I must next observe that all success in medical treatment is comparative. In London, about a thousand 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. Homoeopathy is a mode of treatment capable of being uni- versally 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 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 prac- tice. Through the industry of Dr. Routh, we have been fur- nished with a considerable collection of European hospital re- turns, and how much these tell in favor of Homoeopathy may be seen in Tract No. 2. The results of an individual trial in private, as made by myself, are given in Tracts Nos. 3 and 4. This trial also testifies to the great superiority of the new treat- ment. 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 irre- sistibly forced upon their minds. I grant that it is difficult to produce a conviction of this in- creased efficacy and success of Homoeopathy. But this dim* culty arises, not from the increased efficacy and success being slight, or such as can be readily denied, but from the ingenuity exercised by opposing parties to evade the force of the evid slice OF HOMOEOPATHY. 15 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 experience will often teach us what reason can not. Others neglect it because they will not take the trouble, or think they have not the time to examine it. Others again require an amount of demonstration which the subject does not admit of. For myself I have as much certainty upon this point as Locke expresses in the following sentences : " Though it be highly probable that millions of men do now exist, yet whilst I am alone writing this, I have not that cer- tainty of it, which we strictly call knowledge ; though the great likelihood 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 the world. Whereby we may observe how foolish and vain a thing it is for a man of a narrow knowledge, who having reason given him to judge of the different evidence and probability of things, and to be swayed accordingly ; how vain, I say, it is to expect demonstration and certainty in things not capable of it, and refuse assent to very rational propositions, and act con- trary to very plain and clear truths, because they can not be macle out so evident, as to surmount even the least (I will not say reason, but) pretense of doubting. He that in the ordinary affairs of life would admit of nothing but direct plain demon- stration, would be sure of nothing in this world but of perishing quickly?* Were the method more disagreeable and painful than the old one, a reluctance to yield to the evidence in its favor, at least on the part of patients, would not be surprising; and it would be reasonable to expect that any class of medical men endeavoring to persuade the public into its adoption, would meet with great difficulty in doing so; but when the case is conspicuously 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 t' is otherwise, it is deeply to be lamented that, through ignorance, they set themselves so strongly against the new method, and are unwilling to under- take even its patient investigation. ♦Louie's " Essay on the Hum: . ip x\., § 9, 10. 16 THE ADVANTAGES 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, I can not but believe that it will be universally adopted, and that neither the fears of the public, nor the preju- dices of the profession, however they may retard this consumma- tion, can ultimately 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 convalescences under homoeopathic treatment, (from the cases reported in Tracts No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4,) is obvious ; that this is a great advantage is above suspicion and beyond dispute. 3. Deliverance from medicinal diseases, and other destructive consequences of former methods of treatment. The pernicious effects of poisonous drugs, as administered 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 conse- quences not unfrequently follow the taking of ordinary physic. This circumstance is so notorious that Moliere asserts that " Presque tous les hommes meurent de leurs remedes, et non pas de leurs maladies." Most people die of their remedies, and not of their diseases. As an illustration of the mischievous effects of the ordinary practice, I will take the medicine which at present is most pop- ular both in the profession and out of it, namely, Mercury. This poison, in the form of gray powder, Hue pill, calomel, or some other preparation, 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 mast suffice. Samuel Cooper in his admirable Surgical Dictionary, while describing the best modes of giving Mercury observes that when thus given it "occasionally attacks the bowels, and causes violent purging even of blood. Afother times it is suddenly determined to the mouth, and produces inflammation, ulceration, and an excessive flow of saliva." " Mercmy, when it falls on the mouth, produces, in many constitutions violent inflammation which sometimes terminates in mortification."* I have seen it * Cooper's Surgical Dictionary, Art. Mereury. OF HOMCEOPATHY. 17 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 lower jaw. Mercury sometimes produces an eruption, called Eczema Mercuriale, 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 some- times the morbid symptoms increase under every mode of treatment, and a fatal termination of the disease ensues."* Death sometimes follows from what are considered very small doses. " Dr. Christison mentions a case in which two grains of calomel destroyed life by the severe salivation induced, 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, (gray 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 ab- domen. Severe salivation supervened, and she died in twelve days."t These extracts show that the ill-effects which sometimes fol- low immediately from an ordinary dose of mercurial medicine are extreme — even to the taking away of life. It will be readily understood that every less degree of mischief must happen much more frequently. The more remote consequences arising from the presence of a deleterious drug depend upon the absorption 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 I have taken for an example : " A gentleman rubbed five grains of corrosive sublimate, (by mistake for white precipitate,) made into an ointment, over the abdomen for a slight ailment. From this application he suf- fered very severely ; cold water and flour were applied to as- suage his torment. Next morning the pain was lessened, and shortly after, a tingling sensation only remained. No further * Thompson's Dispensatory, Art. Mercury. f Taylor's Medical Jurisprudence, Art. Mercury. 2 18 THE ADVANTAGES symptom followed. Seven days after, when trying to polish the ring on his hand with one of his ringers, he was astonished at discovering the 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 circum- stance was made known to a medical gentleman, and the discs of three sovereigns were also mercurialized. The follow- ing 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 completely coated with mercury, that no glimpse of the gold could be seen through it. The mouth was strictly examined, but not the slightest saliva- tion, enlargement, unusual redness, or looseness of the teeth, was discernible, or had for a moment been experienced ; the health was as usual, personal appearance unaltered."* It is thus proved that the compound preparation of mercury which had been applied to the skin, had been absorbed ; had subsequently been reduced to the metallic state ; and had per- vaded all parts of the body. This gentleman had not, as yet, 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 remainder of life, from the pre- sence of mercury. Similar evidence might be adduced respecting other medi- cines in daily use, such as lead, arsenic, iodine, etc. 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 conse- quences follow the use of the ordinary doses can not be doubted.f Now let us inquire what are the effects of homoeopathic doses. The objection ever on the lips of our opponents is this : There is nothing in the dose, there are no effects : then if no effects follow, it is plain no evil effects follow : ex nihilo nihil fit. But that effects of a beneficial kind follow the administration of the homoeopathic doses is proved by the successful results which have been detailed in former Tracts ; and also by the testi- mony of every medical man who has honestly and fairly tried them. The facts relative to the various effects of these doses * London Medical and Physical Journal. Vol. 65, p. 4G3. f The records of Hydropathic establishments afford curious confirmation of these facts. OF HOMCEOPATHY. 19 are so numerous and interesting that I have not space to give them now ; they will furnish materials for a future number. I must be content 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, our oppo- nents would not omit to make the most of such a fact against Homoeopathy. That patients are often immediately greatly injured by the large doses of medicines ordinarily given, and also often suffer long from the contamination of their constitutions with such poi- sonous drugs, is known and acknowledged ; that they do not thus suffer from infinitesimal doses, from the objection just quoted from our 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 me- dical treatment ; and I lay it upon the conscience *of every in- dividual among my readers who believes this with me, to ex- tend the knowledge of it according to his ability, until these benefits are shared in by the whole world. frarts on Somiwjiatjij.-Sto. 7. THE PRINCIPLE OF HOMOEOPATHY BY WILLIAM SHARP, M.D., F.R.S. $i*ijj (fcbiiion. BOERICKE & TAFEL: NEW YORK, PII I LA DELPHIA. No. 145 GRAND STREET. No. 1011 ARCH STREET. "I am so far from claming a rational theory in Physic, thet I think it the basis of all just and regular practice ; but then it should be as Hippocrates adviseth, Kara (puaiv deupla, (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." IOIIN HUXIIAM. THE PRINCIPLE OF HOMEOPATHY. " The invention of the mariner's needle which gireth the direction, is of no less benefit for navigation than the invention of the sails which give the motion." Lord Bacon. It has been well said " there are truths which some men de- spise, 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 inde- fatigable 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 favor. 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. This truth, known only as men know other truths, imperfectly, may be mixed up with numerous errors, but it is wiser to en- deavor to separate what is true from what is false than to re- ject both. The jealousy of power may indeed attempt to crush the ris- ing influence of new truth. A Galileo may by force be con- strained to read a reluctant recantation, bat "the earth moves notwithstanding. 1 ' Such is the vitality of truth, that when once discovered, it seems never afterwards to die. If, there- fore, 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, jury, or witness. But, whatever course the opponents of Homoeopathy ma) 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 eli- 4 THE PRINCIPLE minated from it. Truth, beautiful truth, must be to us what power was to the Romans. In the words of Livy, , "Apud Romanos vis imperii valet inania transmiltuntur." 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 laiv of Homoeopathy. III. The limits of this law. IV. What those cases are which are beyond the limits of the law, and how they are to be treated. I. Whether there be any probability that a law, rule, or prin- ciple exists in. nature for our guidance in the treatment of dis- ease. It is held by some that such a law is impossible. Among those who think thus, is the present official head of our profes- sion — Dr. Paris, the President of the Royal College of Physi- cians 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 suc- cessive improvement which has attended other branches of natural knowledge;" we shall perceive even that its advance- ment has been continually arrested, and often entirely subvert- ed, by the caprices, prejudices, superstition and knavery of mankind ; unlike, too, the other branches of science, it is incapa- ble of successful generalization." * This extract from Dr. Paris proves, first, that, up to the present moment, no law, principle, or generalization has been acknowledged by the profession as a body. It proves, secondly, the wretched condition of the Materia Medica, or art of healing, as exercised by legally quali- lied 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 improvement have arisen from the absence of a principle or rule to improve by. Lastly, it asserts, but it does not prove, that *Paris's " Pharmacalogria." Introduction. OF HOMCEOPATHY. 5 medicine must for ever remain in this hopelessly unimprov- able condition, for that it is incapable of such a principle ! Sad indeed — if it be true. 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 says : " In medicine and surgery we have many general facts or le such wid< differences in the susceptibility of the sick, it must be very im portant to fix upon exactly the right dose in each case." " IJ an error should chance to be committed, the effect must h horribly destructive." The second observation : "If both ordinary doses and in finitesimal ones cure disease, they must," it is said " do it ir different ways. The action of the p ►tentize'l Lofinil esimal upoi the system must be regulated by different principles from those which govern the action of the same article in its crude form.' 16 THE CONTROVERSY " 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. We should say at once the rope and filament do not raise the weight upon the same prin ciples — that some new power is given to the filament which is not possessed by the rope. ' True,' says the Homceopathist, ' that is clear enough, and we claim that a new power is given to medicine by trituration and attenuation !' Why, then, I ask, do you not adhere to this view of the subject? You are not consistent with yourself. While you say that a new power is given to the infinitesimal which does not belong to the medi- cine 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 medi- cines 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 Ho- moeopathy ; 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 improbability that it is practically possible to divide any thing into a decillion of parts, it can be shown that nothing is more simple and 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. 1 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 dilu- tion 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 medicine so that the 30th dilution contains a decillionth part of it. This proceeding will not have occupied an hqur, and the quantity of alcohol consumed will have been about six ounces ; instead of the oceans of spirit required, according to the calculations of mathematicians and doctors. Is not this quite simple and easy ? And for a solid not less simple, though a likle more laborious. A grain is to be care- fully triturated with ninety-nine grains of sugar of milk in divid- ed portions for an hour ; a grain of this first trituration is to be ON HOMOEOPATHY. 17 rubbed ia a similar manner for the second ; and a grain of the second for the third trituration. After this the substance be- comes 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 a preceding Tract, (No. 4.) The accomplishment of the fact does away with the impro- bability. In reply to the second assertion, namely, the improbability that these doses have any effect in curing disease, it can be shown that nothing is more true, if the testimony of every me- dical 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 well known that none talk about the improbability of this medicinal action but those who have not been willing to wit- ness it. The subject therefore stands in this position : the effi- cacy of the small dose is a fact which " strikes the eyes of all who do not keep them shut." ' The strong impression I have in my own mind of the cer- tainty of this fact contrasts painfully with the inability I feel 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 can not know the facts of natural philosophy except by the observation of our own senses. We may believe some things to be true on the testimony 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 know 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 thai 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 ; but now lam sure you lie /" Homceopathists are precisely in the same predicament of the Dutch ambassador. What could he say to vindicate his truth- fulness ? Nothing short of a journey to Holland would cleaT him. What can the Homoeopathists say to vindicate theirs ? No. vtii. — 2 18 THE CONTROVEKSY Nothing short of a trial of th« 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 : much, therefore, as I feel the import- ance of this point, I shall content myself with a simple illustra- tion. Kuckert reports eighty -four cases of cure of headache effect- ed 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, namely: from the pure tinct .re 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, namely : from the fourth to the thir- tieth, were used in fifty cases ; one dose sufficed to effect a cure in thirty instances; one dose in solution and repeated in three instances ; repeated doses were required in seventeen in- stances. " The very high dilutions were used in thirteen cases ; single doses in ten instances ; in solution repeatedly in three instances." Is it possible that all these recoveries can have been mere coincidences — post hoc, not propter hoc f Have each of these fifty-one physicians uttered a falsehood ? In reply to the first observation, that the doses in Homoeo- pathic practice have an exceedingly wide range, it may be remarked again that the dose is, as yet, an unsettled and diffi- cult question. One of the main causes of this unsettledness and difficulty is the manner in which Hahnemann himself has dealt with it. When expounding his belief in the principle of Homoeopathy, Hahnemann pursues the only scientific and legitimate course — he gives us the proofs which have satisfied his own mind of its truth : we can examine these proofs, and if they are as satisfactory to our own 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 because he has shown us the proofs of its truth. We follow him in this as the astronomers follow Newton, and the chemists Eichter and Dalton. Un- happily for Homoeopathy, Hahnemann has not pursued the same course with reference to the dose. He has not given us the means of judging hoiu far his conclusions on this subject are well founded. He says, indeed, very ike a dictator : " It holds good, ON HOMOEOPATHY. IS 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 objec- tion to adopt the thirtieth dilution for a dose, if it can be shown me that it is really the best ; but I can not take any man'? 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 intelligent interrogator in- quired of him the reason why he always gave the thirtieth di- lution, 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 whieh is its principle, 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 ? So with the homoeopathic dose, it must remain, not nominally but really, an open question, until sufficient proofs can be collected to show us which is the best. It is to be remembered that Hahnemann's own views on this subject underwent many changes, although on each occa- sion, 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 hun- dred years, and which Akistotle held in philosophy for a still longer period. May I, without giving offense, again remind them of Locke's observation, " "Pis not worth while to be con- cerned 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 without proof that it is the best. Give us the proofs, and it shall be thankfully adopted on the instant. We are told, indeed, by some Homceo- pathists that the onus probandi that Hah n km ann and hifl faith- ful disciples are in error lies on our shoulders. As it respects sl given dose, the thirtieth dilution for example, this is placing the matter in a false position ; it is calling for proof of the * " Organon," page 289, note. 20 THE CONTROVERSY negative before any proof of the positive has been advanced. 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 directions 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 Hahnemann, I accept the challenge, and at once point out the error. "Hahnemann and his faithful disciples" are not entitled to choose a dose and demand" that every one shall adopt it, unless they give the rea- sons 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 pre- scribed. I wait for such evidence in its favor 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 use. The second observation is one of considerable interest and importance. It is said : " If both ordinary doses and infinitesi- mal ones cure disease, they must do it in different ways." And this statement is illustrated by supposing a rope and an invisi- ble 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 some- thing of the mechanical principles upon which the 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 ; con- sequently we can not know that the modes are different — for any thing we know to the co ltrary, the two doses may act in ON HOMOEOPATHY. 21 the same mode, on the same principle ; and therefore the law of similia similibus curantur may apply to both. Thus both the observation and the ingenious illustration disappear. The objection, however, is fatal to the dynamization hypo- thesis 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 sub- ject, 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 vial,) " 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 even ventures upon what I can not but call the following random shot : "I dissolved," he says, " a grain of soda in an ounce of water mixed with alcohol, in a vial, 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?" It would be very difficult for any one holding this hypothe- sis of " dynamization" or " spiritualization" to answer satisfac- torily the objection now under consideration. It is highly improbable that the principle of Homoeopathy can apply equally to the action of drugs in a crude state, and in infinitesimal closes, if the latter act in a " spiritual" manner, and, as sup- posed, not after the same mode as the former. Of course I mean the medicinal action ; a large dose of a drug, e. g., nitrate of silver, will have other actions, such as chemical ones, in ad- dition to the medicinal effect. I have adduced other reasons in former Tracts 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 de- fend his speculations, or to apologize for his dogmatism. In some respects he resembles Keplek, 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 * I must be understood to mean II \iim:m wn's hypothesis of On of a new medicinal action by trituration, distinct from the action of the crude me- dicine. There is a sense in which the word "dynamic" may be applied to the action of medicine in all doses, which I shall hope to explain in a future number 22 THE CONTROVERSY ON HOMCEOPATHY. doubt not also that many intelligent inquirers have been re- pelled from the study of it by his intolerable dictation. To separate truth from fiction is generally a difficult and un- gracious task, and seldom popular. The sentiments which Plato puts into the mouth of Socrates, " rb yap dX7]deg ovderrore eAeyx £Tat " "truth is never refuted," is the encourage- ment to this labor ; the love of truth is the motive which con- strains to it ; and the discovery and exhibition of truth is part of its reward. Rugby, Nov. 11th, 1853. i Smarts on |)onuTOjjatIji|.-|lo. 1 9. THE REMEDIES OF H M CE P A T H Y . *. BY WILLIAM SHARP, 11. D., F. R.S. Smtjj (fEbition. F. E. BOERICKE: HAHNEMANN PUBLISHING HOUSE, PHILADELPHIA. " The Love of Truth is of equal importance in the reception of facts, and m 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. THE REMEDIES OF HOMEOPATHY. " Ce seroit faire tort au progres des sciences que de ne pas vouloir abandonner des theories coutraires aux observations que presente l'etat actuel de nos connois- sances." 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 pre- sent condition of our knowledge. On a former occasion,* I have pointed out the precise limits within which the principle of Homoeopathy, u similia similibiis curantur" can be applied to diseases; the counterpart to that inquiry remains, what are the limits within which it is appli- cable to remedies f I propose 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 men- tal 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 HOMCEOPATHIC ACTION OF DISEASES. Hahnemann divides natural diseases into two great clas the one consisting of such as are dissimilar, the other of such as are similar to each other. And he remarks "that no pre- viously 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 Bay, when to the disease already present, a stronger similar one is * Tract No. 7. 4 THE KEMEDIES OF HOMOEOPATHY. 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." Dissimilar diseases 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 scurvy is prevalent." " Persons suffering from herpetic eruptions are not infected by the plague." 11 Rachitis prevents vaccination from taking effect." " Those suffering from pulmonary consumption are not liable to be attacked by epidemic fevers of a not very violent charac- ter." " 2d. Or the new dissimilar disease is the stronger. In this case the disease under which the patient originally labor- ed, 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, arid then the old one again makes its ap- pearance uncured." These are the instances given : " Two children affected with a kind of epilepsy remained free from epileptic attacks after infection with ring- worm; but as soon as the eruption on the head was gone, the epilepsy re- turned just as before." " The itch, as Schopf saw, disappeared on the occurrence of the scurvy, but after the cure of the latter it again broke out." " Pulmonary phthisis remained stationary when the patient was attacked by a violent typhus, 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 immediately and proves fatal." '• When measles and small-pox are prevalent at the same time, and both attack the same child, the measles that had already broken out is generally checked by the small-pox that came somewhat later ; nor does the measles resume its course until after the cure of the small -pox." Sometimes the reverse of this takes place. So with scarlatina and cow-pox. The scarlatina will sometimes suspend the cow-pox, and sometimes the reverse will happen. The measles suspends the cow-pox, but does not prevent it from afterwards running its course. So with the mumps and cow-pox. i THE KEMEDIES OF HOMOEOPATHY. 5 "And thus it is with all dissimilar diseases, the stronger sus- pends the weaker, but the one never cures the other, 11 " 3rd. Or the new disease joins the old one that is dissimi- lar to it, and forms with it a complex disease." When two dissimilar acute infectious diseases meet, as, for example, small-pox and measles, 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-pox run its regular course along with measles and along with purpura. 11 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, noi exist beside earn 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, when- ever they meet together in the organism." And as his "object is to speak about something determinate and indubitable," he gives the following proofs of the assertion just quoted. " The small-pox, so dreaded on account of the great numbei and severity of its symptoms, has removed and cured a numbei of affections with similar symptoms." Such as ophthalmia^ amaurosis — a case of the latter, " of two years duration, conse- quent on suppressed ring-worm 11 — deafness, difficulty of breath- ing, dysentery. " The cow-pox, a peculiar symptom of which is to cause tumefaction of the arm, cured, after it broke out, a swollen half paralyzed arm." " The fever accompanying cow-pox cured homoeopathicallj an intermittent fever in two individuals." " The measles bears a strong resemblance in the character of its fever and cough to the hooping-cough, and hence it was thai Bosquillon noticed in an epidemic where both these affection? prevailed that many citizens who then took measles remainec free from hooping-cough during that epidemic." "If the measles come in contact with a disease resembling il in its chief symptom, the eruption, it can indisputably remov< and effect a homoeopathic cure of the latter. Thus a chr<>nh herp tic eruption was entirely and permanently (homoeopath! cally) cured by the breaking out of the m asles." "An excessively burning military rash on the face, neck, anc arms, that had last d six years, under the influence ofwj assumed the form of a swelling of the surface of the skin; aftei the measles had run its course, the rash was cured, and return ed no more." 6 THE EEMEDIES OF HOMOEOPATHY. " Nothing could teach the physician in a plainer and more convincing manner than the above, what kind of artificial mor- bific 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 several reasons ; first that I might give a full account of the argument as propounded by Hahnemann ; secondly, that the two lists may be read in their connection ; this I can not bat think will be sufficient to convince every in- telligent 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 assertion and inadequate proof appear more conspicuously side by side than in these para- graphs. It can not 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 dissimilar ; while measles and hooping-cough, with all their visible difference, are classed as similar, and as honioeo- pathically curing one another ! A few months ago there was an epidemic of measles in this neighborhood; some of the children had no sooner recovered from the measles, than they were attacked with the hooping-cough. It might be thought that there was some similarity between cow-pox and chicken-pox ; certainly they resemble each other more closely than do measles and hooping-cough. The follow- ing cases occurred to me this summer : On the 17th of August, 1853, I vaccinated three brothers ; John Clarke, aged sixteen years ; William, aged fourteen ; and George, aged eleven. On the eighth day the vaccination on William's arms had taken effect, and was running its usual course ; the others seemed to have failed. John I 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 chick- en-pox was going on ; but John, instead of presenting the pus- tules of cow-pox on the arms, was covered with chicken-pox : * Organon, §§ xxxv. to xlvii. THE REMEDIES OF HOMCEOPATHY. 7 this subsided in due time, and then the cow-pox appeared, and went through its accustomed stages. On the 10th of September, twenty -four days after he had been vaccinated, George was brought to me ; his chicken-pox had disappeared, 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 accompany- ing symptoms disappeared. Thus the resemblance between cow-pox and chicken-pox, which is certainly greater than that between cow-pox and intermittent fever, produced no homoeo- pathic 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 had not been so deficient in homoeopathic auxiliary diseases ." Rait, who has also written an " Organon" in some respects more interesting and instructive than Hahnemann'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 blindness, it does not follow that there is a similarity between these diseases and small-pox." Rau, how- ever, does not reject the notion as unfounded, but endeavors 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 must confess 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 in sup- port of the application of the law of similia similibus curantur to the action of diseases upon each other. The influence which diseases exercise upon each other is a very curious and intri- cate subject, the discussion of which does not come within the scope of our present business; but, from the facts now b fore us, it is obvious that this influenc ! is governed by other laws than that of like curing like; in other words, the principles of pathology are not identical with the principle <>t 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 8 THE REMEDIES OF HOMOEOPATHY. diseases by remedies. It is plain, therefore, that the action of diseases upon each other can not 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 presiding 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 principle are appointed to death. The derangements of the one act upon the other two. The diseases of the body act through the vital principles 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. 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, similia similibus curaniur, applies to the action of the mental emotions of the physician or friend upon the mind of the paiient, as it does to the action 'of material poisons upon his body. 1 think it does not, and for the following rea- sons : 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 mat- ter and its movements. Is there any perceptible connection between the operations of mind and the laws of gravity, chemi- cal affinity, electrical attraction and repulsion, etc., which re- THE REMEDIES OF HOMOEOPATHY. 9 gulate the operations of matter ? Can we, in fact, point out any two things more different ? 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 homceopathic law, poisons are to be " proved" upon the healthy body, in order to learn the symptoms they are capable of producing, which symptoms are the guide for their use as remedies in na- tural disease. Can there be any thing like this undertaken with mental emotion ? Should any one suggest that disordered emotions, such as anger, for example, produce similar disor- ders in other minds, I think they will scarcely have the hardi- hood to assert that such disordered conditions in one mind act homceopathically 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 prescribes for those in sorrow, " Precipue vitentur tristes, et omnes dephrantes" Sorrowful companions and all mourners are specially to be avoided. And he adds the following strong remark: " Si quis insaniam ab insanid sic curari cestimat, magis quam anger insanity If any one thinks to cure insanity by insanity, he is more insane than the patient. A sacred writer observes : "A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance, and doeth good like a medicine." Gen- uine sympathy, with cheerful kindness, will do all the good that one mind can clo to another. Fourthly. Hahnemann has not pointed out the failure of the universal practice in this matter, nor the fallacy of its princi- ple ; nor shown that experience down to the present time is un- satisfactory ; neither has he adduced proofs in support of his new view of the subject. He gives the example already quot- ed : " Mourning and sorrow will be effaced from the mind by the account of another and a still greater cause for Borrow happening to another." But this does not j >n >ve his ] >oint, for it is not a fact. The attention of the mind may be dm tied 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. It may be said : Well, but you have yourself quoted a pas- sage from Shakspeahe in which the principle of Homoeopathy 10 THE REMEDIES OF HOMCEOPATHY. is illustrated in a moral affection. The quotation in No. 1 is this: " Iu poison there is physic ; and these news, Having been well, that would have made me sick, Bein^ sick, have in some measure made me well." The Homoeopathy in this passage is contained in the first sen- tence: " In poison there is physic," which had been still better expressed long before in the Eastern proverb : " Poison is the remedy for poison."* The moral effect of the news upon his mind, while suffering from disease, was to rouse him, to cause him for the time to forget his ailment, and so, as Shakspeare truthfully remarks, " in some measure" to make him well. It will be seen that the instances are not parallel ones. In Hahnemann's, the sorrow of one mind is supposed to be ef- faced by the tale of another's greater sorrow. In Shakspeare's, bodily disease is supposed to be in a measure cured by painful news. The latter is much more likely to be sometimes real- ised than the former ; though the ordinary effect of afflictive tidings upon bodily suffering is to increase it. The careful consideration of these reasons leads distinctly 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 can not be included within the limits of the law of Homoeopathy. III. THE HOMOEOPATHIC ACTION OF PHYSICAL AGENTS. The material world is a wonderful exhibition of the divine power. The solid earth, the ever restless ocean, the majestic mountains, the beautiful valley, the boundless plain, the glid- ing river, the noble forest, the lovely flower, the moving crea- ture in every part, and over all, the uplifted countenance of man. All these are palpable and ponderable matter : but be- sides these there is the genial warmth, the glorious sunshine, the vivid flash, the rolling thunder, which constitute as it were the confines of the material creation, to which we must now return, after a brief visit to the region of mind and immaterial spirit. In a former Tract, (No. 4,) I have shown the probability that the space occupied by the universe is filled with matter — * See the Fourth Edition of Tract No. 1. THE REMEDIES OF HOMCEOPATHY. 11 inconceivably attenuated, it is true, but still material. Upon this subtle form of matter various motions are impressed, pro- ducing the phenomena which we call heat, light, electricity, and magnetism. Each of these it is now needful to investigate, so far as relates to the subject of Homoeopathy. Heat. — It is probable that all the so-called imponderable agents are peculiar motiq/is of the infinitesimal particles of mat- ter, and perhaps each of these motions exists 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 organized animal structure. If in excess, we say the part has been burned ; if in deficiency, we say it has been frozen. All sudden transi- tions from one degree of temperature or heat to another are in- jurious 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 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 can not but demur, therefore, when these facts are adduced as instances of Homoeopathic action, as they are in the follow- ing sentences of the Organon. " In recent cases of frost-bitten limbs, frozen sour-krout 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 the 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 * Organon, Introduction, page 100. 12 THE REMEDIES OF HOMCEOPATHY. — like curing like ; but in truth, it is neither the one nor the other. The explanation has been already given, and it is plain that the action of heat upon the living body can not be includ- ed within the limits of the law of Homoeopathy. Light. — This beneficent and beauteous endowment of mat- ter pervades, with astonishing rapidity, the vast expanses of the universe. A cannon ball would take a year to pass through the distance which light traverses in a second. Such is the velocity of this undulatory movement. Its other properties are equally remarkable : witness the brilliant colors produced by its refraction and reflection in the rainbow ; and, above all, the power which it possesses of so acting upon the eyes of liv- ing creatures as to enable them to see surrounding 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. Yarious degrees of light, within certain limits, (mentioned in Tract No. 4,) produce an impression upon the eye. As might be expected, a greater degree overpowers the impression 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 can not be perceived while the latter is above the horizon. If the sun's light be excluded, which may be done 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 "homoeopathic law of na- ture" is appended the following note : " Thus are cured both physical affections and moral maladies. How is it that in the early dawn the brilliant 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 homoeopathic 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 discov- ered the homoeopathic action of drugs, but how indistinctly * Organoa, § xxvi THE REMEDIES OF HOMEOPATHY. 13 must he have viewed that fact, and how visionary are his speculations respecting it ! 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 restored 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 odors, 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 com- passionate by-standers ? By the shrill notes of the fife, com- mingled with the roll of the noisy drum ! And the distant roar of the enemy's cannon, that inspires his army with fear ? By the mimic thunder of the big drum !" Such observations as these surely require no refutation. 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 untrue. 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, can not be included within the limits of the law of Homoeopathy. Electricity. — The attractive power of amber, called bv the Greeks eXeKrpov, 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 remarkable phenomena and the ex- tensive relations of this property or force have been successfully investigated 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, I may remark that the relations which exist between the electrical force and the nervous influence are of the most intimate, but at 14 THE REMEDIES OF HOMOEOPATHY. 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 established. The shock which the torpedo can communicate was known to the ancients. That this shock was electrical was discovered by Mr. Walsh, and communicated through Dr. Franklin to the Eoyal Soci- ety 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 Transactions 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 contractions ; 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 " Kecueil d ? observations de Zoologie et d' Anatomie comparee," 1811. Of late the subject has been pursued, especially by Professor Matteucci, who in his " Traite des Phenomenes Electro-Physiologiques des Animaux," and in a series of Memoirs communicated to the Eoyal Society, and published in the Philosophical Trans- actions for the years 1845, 1846, 1847, and 1850, has des- cribed an immense number of most delicate and accurate ex- periments. It will be sufficient to allude to one or two conclusions re- sulting 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 us to prove it to be within the limits of the law of similia simihbus curantur. In Matteucci's fourth Memoir, published in 1846, his ob- ject is to prove that the electric current transmitted along a nerve modifies the excitability of the nerve in a manner differ- ing widely according to the direction of the current. Thus, the direct current rapidly exhausts this excitability, while the inverse current increases it. In 1847, Matteucci ascertained that if an animal is ether- ized, and the direct current is passed along one sciatic nerve, and the inverse along the other, contraction of the muscles takes place with the direct current, only on interrupting the cur- rent; while with the inverse current contraction appears only on closing 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. THE REMEDIES OF HOMCEOPATHY. 15 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 hap- pened to follow from the use of electricity to the law of Ho- moeopathy 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 Allopathy, 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 ani- mal of sense and motion — produces paralysis ; a second shock restores consciousness and voluntary motion — removes paraly- sis ; and these alternate effects may be also indefinitely pro- duced by successive discharges of electricity. But whatever 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 ad- vantage ; I 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 knowing 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 condi- tion or amount of each is, every moment, essential to the main- tenance not only of health, but of life itself. A certain temper- ature, a certain amount of light, and a certain condition of elec- tricity preserve life and health — how we know not ; while other degrees or quantities of these all-pervading properties or affec- tions 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 degrees — 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 reg- ulated use belongs more to the province of hygiene than that of therapeutics — to the affairs of clothing, exercise, and diet, rather than to medicine. 16 THE KEMEDIES OF HOMOSOPATHY. It is plain, therefore, that the phenomena of electricity can not, 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 com- pass, have been long known ; but we are indebted to the re- cent discoveries of Fakaday for our knowledge of the fact that magnetism, like electricity, is a universal property of mat- ter. It is true that only a small number of bodies have a po- larity 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 con- nection 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? Hahnemann enumerates about nine hundred symptoms 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 magnetiz- ing steel ; a magnetic horse-shoe, carrying twelve pounds, 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 par- ticular have been obtained by means of a powerful 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 can not see that any proof can be gathered from them that the magnetic influence on the liv- ing 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 me in concluding that magnetism is not governed by this law. The following are my reasons : First. I have carefully studied the three series of symptoms, namely, those supposed to be produced by the magnet without * Materia Medica Para, translated by Hempel, Vol. III., p. 22. THE REMEDIES OF HOMCEOPATHY. 17 reference to either pole, those caused by the north, and those arising from the south pole, and I can not discover that they present any picture of disease which can be considered charac- teristic; that is, so peculiar as to distinguish the effects of the magnet from those of other noxious agents. HAHNEMANN often insists, and with great justice, on the fact that each poison pro- duces 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 must confess that I can not find any difference sufficiently striking or important to prove that it is not accidental. Hahnemann does not attempt to aid us in our endeavors to distinguish between the effects of the two poles except in one circumstance. He says : " The south pole appears to excite haemorrhage as its primary effect ; the north pole seems to act in the contrary manner. Now it so happens that under the north pole he gives us the following symptoms : " Bleeding from the left nostril." " Bleeding of the nose for three quarters of an hour." " Yiolent bleeding at the nose for three afternoons in succession," — while I find nothing of the kind among the symptoms supposed to be occasioned by the south pole. These reasons might appear to be sufficient, but I feel oblig- ed to remark further, that though, in Hahnemann'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 touch- ing the centre of the bar;" at which part of a magnet, it is well known, that the magnetic influence is neutral, and that no effects have yet been elicited from it. Now, whatever might be thought of these symptoms, were the effects of the poles of the magnet established, they certainly ought not to have been brought forward as proving any thing, 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 can not but marvel that such evidence as this should be adduced to prove an important and novel fact. Fifthly. Hahnemann himself, notwithstanding his endeavor to lay down precise rules respecting the magnetic influences on the body, is evidently confused in his own mind. He says, 11 the contact of a pole seems to produce alternate effects analo- No. ix.— 2 18 THE REMEDIES OF HOMOEOPATHY. gous to those of the opposite pole." " If the symptoms of a case correspond to the general symptoms of the magnet, with- out having reference to any pole in particular, in this case that pole is to be chosen which seems to be more closely homoeopa- thic to the case. If the symptoms should then disappear sud- denly, 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 disagreeable effects of an anti-homoeopathic application of the magnet, which are sometimes very considerable, may be palliated by small electric sparks ; they can be permanently cured by the flat hand being imposed upon a large tin surface for half an hour, etc. It is obvious that, in this matter, Hahnemann has entangled himself and his students in an inextricable maze. It seems to me impossible to gather any directions, sufficiently simple and positive to be followed in actual practice, from the five and forty pages of the Materia Medica Pura occupied with magnet- ism. I think it is plain, therefore, that the magnetic influence 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 Philo- sophy, that the results of experiments can not 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 re- jected, 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 I 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 temperament, I did get some symptoms, such as rumbling of the abdomen, a feeling of faintness, and a speedy action of the bowels ; but then, on repeating the experiment, with the same person, a few days afterwards, with a similar bar of unmagnetized steel, I got precisely the same effects ; clearly proving that the results of the previous trial were due to the force of imagina- tion, and not to that of magnetism. To obtain a confirmation, either of Hahnemann's results or of my own, I have communicated with the two individuals who THE REMEDIES OF HOMOEOPATHY. 19 have had more personal and practical experience in the hand- ling of and experimenting with magnets than perhaps any others in the world ; and by their kind permisssion, I now give their replies. The first is from my friend Dr. Scoresby. "Torquay, Nov. 7, 1853. " Dear Dr. Sharp : In reply to your inquiry as to any sensible effects on the bodily feeling or condition from the handling of powerful magnets, I can decidedly state that no such effects have ever been experienced by me ; at least in such a degree as to draw my attention to , u uch circumstance. " 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 hundred pounds weight, (though not well adapted for lifting purposes,) produces 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 communications, and who on this, as on all former occasions, promptly furnished me with the in- formation I sought. "Royal Institution, 19 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 suppressed at pleasure, and which when excited, would sustain some tons 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 slightest consciousness 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 microscope. I predicted from my own experiments that nothing would occur of an extra character ; and >uch was the result. The creatures showed no difference whether the power was on or off, or passing on or off; the motions a n d 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 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 influ- ence 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. Consider- ed as inert matter, they are all subject to the power, for I have found a liv- ing or a dead mouse to be equally diamagnetic. " Ever, my dear sir, very truly yours, M. Faraday." 20 THE REMEDIES OF HOMCEOPATHY. I leave my readers to draw their own conclusions from the evidence before them. It appears to me tliat this preponder- ates greatly against any effects whatever being produced by mag- netism upon the living body in its ordinary condition ; but even if it should hereafter be established that effects are some- times produced, I believe these effects will be found, on careful investigation, to be entirely ungoverned by the law of Homoeo- pathy. For myself, I can not 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. The only analogy which I can discover is that of polarity. We know that like electricities, and like poles of a magnet repel each other, similia similibus repelluntur ; beyond this faint re- semblance 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." I have advanced some very plain proofs in a former number of these Tracts, (No. 3.) that this " Homoeopathy in the general " is also true, when we descend into particulars. A careful review of the examples given in that pamphlet, will render it impossible for any intelligent and unprejudiced person to deny, that a re- lation exists in nature between the effects of material poisons on the healthy frame, and the effects of the same poisons on dis- eases resembling those which they are capable of producing. This relation 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 extinguished in the living organism by a stronger one, if the latter (whilst differing in kind) is similar to the former in its manifesta- tions. 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 dis- ease induced by the remedy is a stronger one than the previous- ly existing natural disease. Analogy does not make it proba- ble that this should be the case, especially with an infinitesimal dose of the remedy ; and if it were so, it would be still less THE REMEDIES OF HOMOEOPATHY. 21 probable that such a mode of proceeding could restore any one to health. I am constrained therefore to reject this definition, and ven- ture to propose the following as a substitute : Every mat rial poison gaining admission into the healthy body, has a tendency to produce a diseased condition, evidenced by symp- toms or physical signs, more or Lss peculiar to itself; and every such poison is the most appropriate remedy for a similar diseased condition which has arisen from other causes. From this definition it appears that, in the present state of our knowledge, this law of similia similibus curantur is an ulti- mate fact. We are ignorant of its cause, and also of its connec- tion or correlation with other natural foots ; 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 and plain one, it will be seen that it must prove a great gain to the practice of medi- cine. And when it is further remembered that the most ad- vanced sciences, as astronomy and chemistry are in the same manner based upon ultimate facts, the causes of which are equally unknown, we need not Avonder, neither need we to 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 on a former occasion, (Tract No. 3,) it is plain that the action of material poisons, or as they are commonly called drugs, is included within the limits of the law of Homoeopathy ; and from the evidence brought forward in this Tract, it is also plain that as yet, we know of no other actions which are included within it. Thus the question proposed, what are the limits within which the law of Homoeopathy is applica- ble to remedies, 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 una> ceptable. In this way among others, by attempting to make an indiscriminate application of the law of similia similibus cur- antur to the action of diseases ; of mental emotions; of physi- cal agents; and of material poisons. Thus regarding it as a foundation of Pathology, ofMoral Philosophy and of Dynami- cal Science, as well as of Therapeutics; a proceeding as unphi- losophkal ns if Newton had attempted to make the law of gravitation the basis of chemistry, physiology and metaphysics, as well as of astronomy. 22 THE REMEDIES OF HOMOEOPATHY. Kugby, J9es. 26M, 1853. terts on gotMoptlju.-'go. 10. THE PEOVINGS OP HOMOEOPATHY BY WILLIAM SHARP, M.D., F.R.S. ixtty (ftbiiion, BOEKICKE & TAFEL: NEW YORK, PHILABELPIIIA, No. 145 GRAND STREET. No. 1011 ARCH STREET. 'A very little Truth will sometimes enlighten a vast extent of science." Eeattie. THE PROVINGS OF HOMEOPATHY. " But yet these truths being never so certain, never so clear, he may be ignor- ant of either, or all of them, who will never take the pains to employ his faculties as he should, to inform himself about them." Locke. If drugs are remedies for disease, it is obvious that some means must be used to discover their various properties ; in other words, to learn the effects they are severally capable of pro- ducing upon the human body. Let us inquire : I. What have been the means hitherto adopted for this pur- pose, 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 ? 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 man- ner, upon the large number of poisonous substances of which the Materia Medica consists. And what has been the result ? If I undertake 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 powers of healing, in my own words, I may be suspected of misrepresenting the truth ; I shall, therefore, give it in the words of those writers who are most eminent or best known in the profession. I have already given (in No. 6) an epitome of the practice of medicine in the words of Cull-en, the most distinguished 4 THE PROVINGS OF HOHOZOPATHY. in a striking manner, the doubts and the confusion, the con- * physician of this conn try of the last age, in which he exhibits, tradictions 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 fol- lows : "La matiere medicale n'a ete en general qu'un entassement confus de substances incoherentes, et le plus souvent duoces d'une efhcacite precaire; et rien, peut-etre, n'est plus fonde que le reproche qu'on lui a fait de n'offrir qu'un assemblage informe d'idees inexactes, et d'observations pucriles ou du moyens illusoires."* " The Materia Medica has been nothing but a confused heap of incongruous substances, possessing, for the most part, a doubtful efficacy; and nothing, perhaps, is more just than the reproach which has been attached to it, that it presents only a shapeless assemblage of incoherent ideas, and of puerile or at least of illusory observations." It is true he goes on to express a hope that modern Chemis- try will dissipate this sad confusion, but experience has disap- pointed this hope. No science can operate effectually, except within its own limits, and the science of healing is not and can not 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 Poyal 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 can not in reason be ob- jected to, or be suspected of unfairness ; and I ask every pro- fessional reader, and it is to my professional brethren that these Tracts are primarily addressed, I ask him to put the question to himself as he reads, is it not true f The College of Physicians possesses one of the most com- plete 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 * Pinel. — Nosographie Philosophique. 5th Ed. p. lxxxviii. Paris: 1813 THE PROVINGS OF HOMOEOPATHY. 5 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 pe- riod 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 unfavorable impression with 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 man- kind has at once arraigned Physic as a fallacious art, or de- rided 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 credu- lity and infatuation of the physicians who commended and prescribed them." Dr. Paris afterwards speaks of " the barren labors of the ancient empirics, who saw without discerning, and adminis- tered without discriminating and concluded without reason- ing." 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 commonly called experience. Kay," he says, "attempted to enumerate the virtues of plants from experience, and the system serves only to commemorate his failure; Vogel likewise prof* * to assign to substances those powers which had been Learned from accumulated experience; and he speaks of roasted toad 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 vicissitudes 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 al- 6 THE PROVINGS OF HOMCEOPATHY. lowed, 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 occasionally obscured by the clouds of false theory ; some condemned its use altogether 'because it did not evacuate the morbific mat- ter;' 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 favored 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 Conda- mine 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 Stoerck of Vienna, in 1760, with respect to Hemlock ; every body, says Dr. Fothergill, made the extract, and every body prescribed it, but finding that it would not perform the wonders ascribed to it, and that a mul- titude 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."' 55 ' I might go on quoting nearly the whole of Dr. Paris's two lectures ; for they proceed in the same strain, but I have given sufficient 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 ob- livion. He will remember, for example, the time when al- most 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 sentence to the appendix. The volume commences thus: "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 remedies 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 * Paris — Pharmacologia. Introduction. THE PKOVINGS OF HOMOEOPATHY. 7 and arrange the many opinions on Asiatic cholera, both as to its pathology, causes, and treatment, which were published at that time. " We now add some other opinions which have been pub- lished 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, mere- ly subjoin some of the opinions on the treatment 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 labors, during thou- sands of years, of tens of thousands of educated men, all en- gaged 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 better state of things ought to be sought for, not from any imaginable amount of perse- verance in the same track, but by discovering, if possible, some new path. II. Let us proceed, therefore, to inquire what new method has been suggested and agreed to ? "Primum, in corpore sano medela tentanda est, sine pere- grina ulla miscela ; exigua illius dosis ingerenda, et ad omnes quae inde contingunt affectiones, quis pulsus, quis calor, qua? respiratio, qusenam excretiones, attendendum. Inde adduc- tum phaenorninorum in sano obviorum, transeas ad experimenta in corpore wgroto." " In the first place, the remedy is to be tried on the healthy body, 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 temper- ature, the respiration, the secretions. Having obtained these obvious phenomena in health, you may then pass on to experi- ment on the body in a state of disease." Such was the suggestion of the illustrious Halleb, about the middle of the last century. And who was Hall i: a ? He has been called the " Prince of Physiologists," 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, * Braitkwmte. Half-yearly Retrospect of Medicine. July to December, 1£53. 8 THE PROVINGS OF HOMOEOPATHY and the magnitude of his labors. His fame was universal ; no person of rank or scientific eminence visited Switzerland with - out paying their respects to Haller. Foreign countries were alike anxious to gain his services, and to bestow upon him honors." 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, Hah- nemann, a Grerman 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 information 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 ?" He remarks that the last object is partly obtained in the prac- tical 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 has been formally adopted. A public assemblage of medical men, at the Scientific Congress held at Strasburg in that year, an- nounced the adoption of the proposal in the following reso- lution : " The third section (the medical) are unanimously of opinion that experiments with medicines on healthy 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, ♦Hahnemann's first Essay on a new principle for ascertaining the curativo towers of drugs. Hufeland's Journal. 1196. THE PROVINGS OF HOMCEOPATHY. 9 and with prudence, cautiousness, and scientific exactness ar- ranged, written out, and published." The proving of drugs on the healthy is thus admitted to be not only useful, but of urgent necessity. III. How far has this new method been carried out ? The plan proposed is this : Voluntarily to make oneself 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 unknown amount of labor and self-sacrifice. Who has had courage to walk in it ? Not Haller himself. He saw, but he did not come, nor conquer. Among the few who early ventured an at- tempt, the most considerable individual was Sto'erck. As Mason Good observes, he engaged himself " in proving upon his own person the violent powers of colchicum and stramon- ium." Some other trials were made, but, to quote again the last-named excellent writer: "A common fate attended the whole of these experiments. From attracting and concentra- ting the attention of the public, the medicines to which they were directed became equally over- valued ; 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 dim- cult 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, 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 interrogated as to their special powers, as to what the}- are really and positively useful for." He must, thought lie, "ob- serve how medicines act on the human body, when it is in the tranquil state of health. The alterations 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 dis- eases they have the power of curing." *M;ison Good. Study of Medicine, Vol. I. Prefacv. 10 THE PKOVINGS OF HOMOEOPATHY. 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 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 best-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 under- taking was persevered in with untiring industry, and at the ex- pense 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 im- perishable monument of an amount of labor and self-denial such as the world has rarely seen. The praise of having led the way is undoubtedly Hahne- mann's. And, notwithstanding the defects in his provings, which I shall feel bound 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 originally associated with them, or which occurred in the same experiment, and they are rearranged according to the anatomical division of the body. For example, all the symp- toms affecting the head, in any number of provers of the sa.me drug, are put together ; then those belonging to the eyes, the ears, the face, the throat, the stomach, the chest, the arms, etc. Hahnemann has given us several volumes thus curiously dis- jointed ; and he has withheld from us the means of arranging them otherwise, by keeping back the original histories of the actual provings. The dismemberment of the symptoms from their natural groups is a great defect in the provings of Hahnemann ; and, among lesser faults, there is also another of considerable mag- nitude. This has arisen from his anxiety to give & perfect pic- ture of the effects produced by the substances under trial, and consists in his having suffered a large mass of insignificant, and THE PROVINGS OF HOMOEOPATHY. 11 often perhaps imaginary, sensations, and other trivial matters, to mingle with the real and important symptoms. This error has, like the former, greatly encumbered and confused the re- presentation 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 oppo- nent. But if imperfection and error attach to the performance of Hahnemann, shall that be thought surprising ? Shall the undertaking itself be condemned because the first attempt has not attained perfection ? Doubtless there are defects which ble- mish this great work of HAHNEMANN ; let it be our endeavor 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 pro- longed and diligent trial, has signally failed ; we have seen that the proving 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 open to the profession but to carry it on until it 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 sex, constitution, etc., of the prover, the dose of the drug, and its repetition, and the circumstances under which the trial has been made ; and, above all, to discover the true pathological con- dition produced by five drug, so that the corresponding diseased state for which the drug will prove the best remedy, may be more easily recognized ; is the task of the present and succeeding generations of medical practitioners. It is admitted that the knowledge we have hithi relative to the effects of the substances composing th Medica, is almost worthless. IK^ any one deny this? If so, upon what grounds ? It is admitted that to obtain an acquaintance with th< cf more value, their effects in health must be learned bv proving them upon ourselves. Does any one deny this? If so, upon what grounds? It appears that several physicians have begun this difficult undertaking; for example, StoERCK, already mentioned, 12 THE PROVINGS OF HOMOEOPATHY. Dieffenbach and Jo'RG- in Germany; Alexander in Scot- land; Chevallier in France, and Beraudi and his three friends in Italy. Some of these were before, some after Hahnemann ; none of them homceopathists ; but their efforts terminated with unimportant results. The work was begun and persevered in by Hahnemann, with such an amount of self-denying labor and perseverance as had not been thought of before, and his. results exceeded in importance every thing which had been accomplished during all the centuries before him. I have allowed that Hahnemann's provings are not free from errors and defects ; but I contend, and this from my own personal observation and experience at the bed-side of the sick, that, notwithstanding these errors and defects, they are of more practical value in the treatment of disease than any thing which had been effected by former physicians. And it is obvious, as I have 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 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 sub- stances which are to be used as remedies in disease, is this : Upon what organs of the body do they act ? and, What are the changes they produce in these organs ? Each drug produces its own peculiar effects, it is therefore necessary that each be experimented upon alone. This was pointed out by Haller: " The remedy is to be tried on the healthy body without any foreign substance mixed with it." It has been admitted by our best writers. Mason GrOOD observes that " there are some practitioners who think that all the articles which are of real use in the cure of disease he within a small compass, and may be learned without burdening the memory. This remark may be allowed to those who are limited to a portable dispensary, as in travelling or on ship-board ; but when uttered under other circumstances, it savors 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 in- tegral representative ; a remedy possessing not only the gene THE PROVINGS OF HOMCEOPATHY. 13 ral, 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 ? These morbid effects can be discovered in two ways : first, by persons in health taking them voluntarily for this purpose, or proving them ; secondly, from cases of poisoning, whether accidental or intentional. I will now give a few examples of both these modes of ob- taining the required information. They are not adduced as exhibitions of the entire sphere of acljon of these particular drugs ; the limits of these Essays do not admit of this, but as illustrations of the facts which are so valuable as the founda- tion 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 re- medy by the principle that " likes are to be treated with likes," ask themselves, what drug produces similar symptoms? The cases which follow may be considered as the converse of those given in Tract No. 3. CASES. ACONITUM NAPELLUS. This plant, besides possessing other healing powers of import- ance, is now fully established as a most valuable remedy in simple and inflammatory fever. It must entirely banish the use of the lancet, the leech, and the blister in such cases. "Dr. Frederick Sohwakz, 20 years old, of sanguine tem- perament, with unimpaired health, commenced his experiments with three drops of the tincture, and gradually increased the dose until he took 400 drops at once. "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 * Mason Good. Study of Medicine. 14 THE PROVINGS OF HOMOEOPATHY. icy cold, no coverings suffice to warm him. Afterwards, burn- ing in the eyes, twitching and visions of sparks ; roaring in the ears, great sensitiveness to noise. Breath hot, breathing quick- ened ; 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." Many other provings give similar symptoms, with decided evidence of inflammation of the brain, the eyes, the mucous and the serous membranes, the larynx, the lungs, the heart, and other organs. The symptoms of several of these affections were experienced by tke following prover. Professor Joseph Zlatarovich, 37 years old, robust, stout, dark complexion, of sanguine choleric temperament. He took from 10 to 200 drops of the tincture daily for many days ; in sixty-eight days he had taken about 5000 drops, and had symp- toms of great severity, such as, " Shivering for several hours, general feeling of illness, weariness and exhaustion, wandering pains, vertigo and stupe- faction, violent headache, as if the head were 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 mu- cous membrane were divested of its covering ; cough from irri- tation of the larynx, with 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," etc. Aconite has acted remeclially in cholera ; it produces an ex- haustion 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, aged 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 close to 6, 8, and 10 drops, (taking in all 80 drops ;) on the fifth day the extremities became cold, the surface cold and clammy, the pulse 130, 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 pro- perties, but in its relation to inflammatory fever, (synochus,) it stands, at present, unrivalled. THE PROVING S OF HOMCEOPATHY. 15 ARSENIC. This deadly poison has an action upon the human body in many respects the opposite of the preceding drug. The me- lancholy 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 : I will give a list of cases extracted 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 comparing 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 experienced 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 headaches ; ef- fects in hemicrania ; benefit derived from it in hooping cough ; its use in hypochondriasis ; its use in hysteria ; its use in in- termittent fever ; its use in lepra ; its use in megrim ; its use in melancholia; its use in chronic ophthalmia; its use in palpita- tion of the heart ; its use in paralysis ; its use in rhachitis ; its use in rheumatism; its use in schirrus; successful in tic-dou- loureux; 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 disor- ganization and decomposition; brought to a climax in malig- nant sore-throat, gangrene, and Asiatic cholera; in all of which, as well as in the majority of the cases enumerated above, it has been successfully used by homoeopath ists. Dr. Eoget records the following case of poisoning in the 2d volume of the Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, 1811. It ex- hibits 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 eat 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 Btorsach, 16 THE PEOVINGS OF HOMCEOPATHY. soon followed by severe vomiting; her mother gtve 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 an- guish 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 120, 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 in- tolerance of light, frequent feeling of excessive coldness, par- ticularly in the extremities, although to the hand of another person they appeared to be of the natural warmth. At seven, pulse 140, 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, 112, small ; the color has returned to her lips and cheeks ; she is anxious to recover. In the evening the headache is distressing, pulse 120. On the 3d day vertigo, headache much increased, dread of light again, oppression of breathing, feeling of cold water running down the back, and sense of sinking; pulse, 125, 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 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 ; considerable 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 coma- tose and unable to move, eyes closed, pupils dilated, but con- tracted 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 pre- ceding, and continued in a state of torpor On the 10th day THE PROVINGS OF HOMOEOPATHY. 17 she Had a fit which lasted four hours, from which she recovered in my presence, as if awaking from a sound sleep, and de- clared she felt perfectly well, her only complaint being a vio- lent itching of the skin over the whole body. The convulsions returned in the evening. On the 11th day she had headache, itchiness of the skin, and burning sensation in the throat ; the convulsions returned with violence for an hour and a half, when she again awoke free from complaint, excepting a violent itehing of the nose, and a numbness in three of the fingers on the right hand. On the 12th and following days the convul- sions still returned during sleep, but gradually became milder, and at length amounted only to irregular twitchings of the ten- dons ; 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 breath- ing." I have endeavored to abridge this case, but it is so full of instruction, in the successive changes in its symptoms, re- presenting so well, so many distinct morbid conditions, that it can scarcely be studied too much. The following case, given by Dr. Christisox, in his work on Poisons, extends the picture of the characteristic features of arsenic. "On two successive evenings, immediately after taking some gruel, Mr. Blandy was attacked with'pricking and burn- ing of the tongue, throat, stomach, and bowels, and with vomit- ing and purging. Five days after, when the symptoms were fully formed, he had inflamed pimples round his lips, and a sense of burning in the mouth ; the nostrils were similarly af- fected ; the eyes were blood-shot, 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 burning pain of the bo 1 v ; excoriations and ulcers ; vomiting and bloody diarrhoea : a low, tremulous pulse ; laborious respiration; 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, aired 35, on the 4th of November, 1851, she having at three o'clock P. M., taken a dessert spoonful of powdered arsenic, in mistake for a saline effervescing powder. No ell' pro- duced for half an hour; she was then sick ; at seven o'clock she presented all the usual symptoms. Magnesia was adminis- 2 18 THE PROVINGS OF HOMCEOPATHY tered, which was generally vomited as soon as swallowed. November 5. — 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 extremi- ties, cold and clammy. She presents the most perfect resemblance to a case of Asiatic cholera in the stage of collapse. From this state she slowly rallied, and on the 12th had extensive bron- chitis over the whole of both lungs, from which she ultimate- ly recovered." With one more case the picture will be more complete. 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 uneasiness. 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 appear- ance of suffering." The quantities of the poison taken in these cases was excess- ively large ; three or four grains being, in many case, sufficient to cause death. ATROPA BELLADONNA. This also is a deadly poison. It has been extensively em- ployed as a remedy for neuralgic affections, such as tic-dou- loureux ; for epilepsy, and mania ; for hydrophobia ; for can- cerous 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, etc. 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. 57, are two cases by Mr. Smith, of Forres, N. B. "Nov. 5, 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 alter 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 immode- THE PKOVINGS OF HOMCEOPATHY. 19 rately, and grasped at imaginary objects ; he Lad 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, running round and round the room. I found him laughing and talking alternate- ly ; he was kept on the knee, but the extremities were in vio- lent 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 ad- ministered. Notwithstanding this treatment the symptoms became worse. The muscular movements stronger and inces- sant, the breathing noisy and with a croupy sound, and occa- sional cough ; their faces were swollen and red ; incoherent talking continuing ; the skin became cold ; pulse, barely per- ceptible 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 collapse returned on the following day more than once, and the same means were used. On the 7th tney began to distinguish 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 Sur- gical Journal, vol. 31, 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, belle-de-nuit. 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, exactly 20 THE PROVINGS OF HOMOEOPATHY. 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. lie passed a quiet night, and next morning complained only of a general feeling of discomfort. M. Jolly, the relater of this case, states that he has repeatedly seen the powder and extract of belladonna cause a similar scarlet efflorescence." Nouvelle Bibliotheque Medicale, Julliet, 1828. In the Medicinishehe Jahrbiicher des k. k. Oesterrcichischen Staates, 1832, some cases are related, which add the symptoms of hydrophobia to the picture drawn in the preceding histo- ries. "A man, accompanied by his son, aged nine years, walking one afternoon in the woods, and seeing the branches of bella- donna bearing black and brilliant fruit, resembling wild cher- ries, gathered some for his son, who ate them freely on account of their sweetish taste ; he also ate ten berries himself, 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 ; restlessness 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 de- lirium, 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 insen- sibility of the pupils ; the eyeballs alternately fixed and roll- ing ; 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 oesophagus, (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 any thing. The symptoms pre- sented as will be seen, some analogy to mania, (delirium with- out fever,) for the vascular system was neither locally nor generally excited, and the respiration was not sensibly dis- turbed." The provings which Hahnemann has given us of Bella- donna contain fourteen hundred and forty symptoms. Its THE PROVINGS OF HOMEOPATHY. 21 continued daily use in homceopathic practice testifies to its admirable powers as a remedy. CARBONATE OF AMMONIA. This salt (sal- volatile) is daily had recourse to as a stimu- lant and anti-spasmodic, either as applied to the nostrils, or taken internally, diluted with water. Its immediate, tempo- rary 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 constitution, 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, Bella- donna is not at all adapted. I have seen Carbonate of Am- monia 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, Huxiiam, 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 quanti- ties of the volatile salts that ladies commonly smell to, that at length he would eat them, in a very astonishing manner, as other people eat sugared carraway seeds — a SpLfiixpayia with a vengeance! The consequence soon was, that he brought <>n a hectic fever, vast haemorrhages from the intestines, nose, and gums, every one of his teeth dropt out, and he could eat no- thing solid; he wasted vastly in his flesh, and his mm 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 his skin with his nails in a very shocking manner; the secre- tion of the kidneys was always exc turbid, and very fetid. He was at last, witli great difficulty, persuaded to leave this pernicious custom, but he had so effectually ruined his constitution that, though he rubbed on 22 THE PROVINGS OF HOMCEOPATHY. in a very miserable manner for several months, lie died tabid, and in the highest degree of a marasmus."* I commenced with the remark, that if drugs are to be used as remedies for diseases, some means must be adopted to dis- cover their healing powers. The observation of the effects oj these drugs in health, is the best method for this purpose, hith- erto 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 symp- toms, 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 ob- tained; and the valuable use which may be made of them, in the treatment of disease according to the principle similia sim- ilibus curantur. Rugby, June 1th, 1854. * Huxham's Works, p. 308. Gratis on |jomivouaiijg.-^o. 11 THE SINGLE MEDICINE OF HOMCEOPATHY. BY WILLIAM SHARP, M.D., F. U.S. JSixij) (Sbiiion. F. E. BOERIOKE: HAHNEMANN PUBLISHING HOUSE, PHILADELPHIA. U S0 that he saw plainly that opinion of store was a cause of want." \Loni) Bacon TIIK SINGLE MEDICINE OF IIOMCEOPATIIY 'More is in vain when less will serve, for nature is pleased with simplicity." Sir Isaac Newton. Truth was well feigned by the ancients to lie at the bottom of a well. The progress which mankind has made in the dis- covery of truth has been remarkably slow. The department of magnetism may serve as an illustration of this fact. The attrac- tion of magnetic iron was known to the ancients, but nothing more ; it's, polarity was not known, at least in Europe, till 1180, when it was first described by Guyot ; the practical application of this property to navigation in the mariner's compass lingered till about 1260 ; the variation in the direction of the magnetic needle in different parts of the earth, was unknown until 1500, when it was discovered by Sebastian Cabot ; the dip of the needle remained a secret till noticed by Eobert No k max in 1576 ; two centuries and a half elapsed before the changed di- rection of the needle by a current of electricity was discovered by (Ersted in 1819, which fact, it is well known, has now been applied practically in the ehctric telegraph. It is evident from these particulars that in this, as in many other branches of na- tural knowledge, the advancement, though slow, is real ; there is the great encouragement that progress is being modi ; but in the department of medicine this encouragement has hitherto 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 Hippocrates, a period of about twenty-live hundred years. The almost stationary condition of the science of medicine has arisen, not only from the natural impedimenta to the dis- covery of truth, and from the difficulties peculiar to this sub- ject, but still more from the want of simplicity in the method pursued. 4 THE SINGLE MEDICINE OF HOMCEOPATHY. Tliis metliod 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 experimenting with it on the body in a state of health, when its own symptoms would appear, unmixed with those of dis- ease. 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 anti- doted and prevented ; instead of administering it alone, so that its specific action might be produced without let or inter- ference. Had physicians adopted these two proceedings — ex- perimenting in health, and giving the medicine singly in dis- ease — the real properties of each drug might have been, ere this, accurately ascertained. The first of these defects in the practice of physic I have discussed in my last essay, (Tract No. 10.) The second re- mains to be the subject of the present. I have 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 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 tb em to the sick thus combined. The mixing and combining of many drugs in one prescrip- tion, has indeed given " an opinion of store" of virtues ; but by this method it has been impossible to discover the distin- gi listing properties of any of the substances so employed, and consequently our acquaintance 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 sin- gle 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 composi- tion of a single mixture, I will give, as examples, two very celebrated medicines, as prescribed in the London Pharmaco- THE SINGLE MEDICINE OF HOMCEOPATHY. peia of the Royal College of Physicians : the Theriaca Andro- machi or Venice Treacle, and the equally world-famed remedy called Mdhriilate. The former, as given in the Pharmacopeia of 1682, contains sixty -five ingredients ; the latter, in thy Pharmacopeia of 1782, consists of fifty articles, as follows : Venice Treacle. $. Squill lozenges, 3 viij ; R. Lozenges of vipers, (flesh and broth,) Long pepper, Opium, Lozenges of hedyclirourn, aa 3 xxv; Eed roses, Illyrian orris-root, Liquorice-juice, Navew seeds, Shoots of seordium, Balm of Gilead, Cinnamon, Agaric in lozenges, aa 3 xij. 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, aa 3 vj ; 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 bypocistis, Carpobalsamum, Seeds of anise, " of cardamoms, 11 of fennel, 11 of cicely, MlTURIDATE. Arabian myrrh, Saffron, Agaric, Ginger, Cinnamon, Spikenard, Frankincense, Seeds of penny-cress aa 3 * ; Cicely, Opobalsamum, Sweet rush, French lavender, Costum, Galbanum, Cyprian turpentine, Long pepper, Castor, Juice of bypocistis, Storax, Opoponax, Indian leaf, aa § j; True cassia wood, Poly of the mountain, White pepper, Seordium, Seeds of the Cretan carrot, Curpobalsamura, Lozenges of cyphus, Bdellium, aa 3 vij, Celtic nard, (purified,) Gum Arabic, Seeds of the stone-parsley, Opium, Lesser cardamoms, Fennel-seeds, < Jriitian, Flowers of the rod rose, Dittany of Crete, aa 3 V ; Seeds of anise, Asurnm, Sweet-flag, Orris-root, Plni, Sagapenum, aa 3 iij, Men, Acacia, Skunk-belliofl, St. Jolin's-wort tops, Canary wine enough to dissolve tno gums and juices, that is, about % xxxvj. 6 THE SINGLE MEDICINE OF HOMOEOPATHY. Venice Treacle. MrrnRiDATE. Gum acacia, Clarified honey, three times the Seeds of penny-cress, weight of all the rest excepting Tops of St. John's-wort, the wine, mix and make into an Seeds of bishop's- weed, electuary, secundum artem. Sagapenum, aa 3 iv ; Castor, Root of birth wort, Jews' pitch, (or amber,) Seeds of the carrot of Crete, Opoponax, Lesser centaury, Thick galbanum, aa 3 ij | Canary wine, (old,) § xl, Clarified honey, (triple weight of the powders,) mix and make into an electuary, secundum artem. Such was the condition of the Pharmacopeias of the 17th and 18th centuries ; and though those of the 19th 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 radi- cal error still remains — prescriptions are still notoriously com- pound. Yery rarely is a remedy given alone ; very rarely, therefore, can any precise knowledge of its properties be dis- covered, or the full benefit of its action on disease be obtained. I proceed to notice The theory of combination. The practice of mixing drugs is not only continued, but defended. The Pharmacolo- gia 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 univer- sally admitted that the arm of physic has derived much addition- al power and increased energy from the resources which are furnished by the mixture and combination of medicinal bodies." For example: " Emetics are more efficient when composed of ipecacuan united with tartarized antimony or sulphate of zinc, than when they simply consist of any one of such substances in an equi- valent dose." " Cathartics 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." " Diuretics. — Under this class of medicinal agents it may be noticed that whenever a medicine is liable to produce effects THE SINGLE MEDICINE OF HOMCEOPATriY. 7 different from those we desire, its combination with similar remedies is particularly eligible." " Diaphoretics. — Oar maxim, ' vis unitafortiorf certainly ap- plies with equal truth and force to this class of medicinal agents." " Xa rcolics. — 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, notwithstand- ing its dose be considerably increased." It is admitted that it is better not to mix Stimulants, and it is remarked that u by multiplying the number of ingredients too far we shall either so increase the quantity and bulk of the medieine as to render it nauseous and cumbersome, or so re- duce the dose of each constituent as to fritter away the force and energy of the combination. There is also another import- ant 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 medi- cinal virtues are in reality practically similar, or he will fall into an error of the most fatal tendency." Such is the leading feature of the theory of combination ; the difficulties and dangers of which, as hinted at in the last paragraph quoted from Dr. Pakis, are so many and so great as to destroy all confidence in its value. But the practice found- ed upon it is so general that it is needful to consider The evils of combination. One of these I have already alluded to ; it is obvious 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, so long as this praetice 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 lii yet thoroughly understood." How true soever this may be in reference to other matters it is truer still in referen ■<• to medi- cines. There is not a single drug of which it can be said that the characteristic properties and the fitting uses are thorough- ly known; and so 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 pro- longed I OF THB 8 THE SINGLE MEDICINE OF HOMCEOPATHY. A hindrance to the curative action of drugs is another evil of their 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. Paeis might have added, that there are practi- tioners 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 a 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 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 he com- plicates a medicine, he does but multiply the chances of its failure. 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. Paeis, (the living official head of our profession in this country), and cherish this maxim in remembrance ; and he will infallibly be led to prescribe but 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. Paeis, " may thus (by injudicious combination) be converted into an instrument of torture, and even of death.'' 1 That patients often suffer serious injuries from drugs is, un- happily, 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 Loed Bacon, that " medicines shorteD THE SINGLE MEDICINE OF HOMCEOPATHY. 9 life," and bids them beware bow they meddle with such in- jurious substances. 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 favor of Homoeopathy, by remarking that " the patient has got well by leaving off medicine!" But what a satire upon themselves is such an admission as this! Are they really conscious then that the medicines they are so eager to 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 ? Are they content that the matter should be thus viewed by the public ? That the effect of taking their prescriptions is to lengthen out disease — to prolong the patient's sufferings? Are they so driven into a corner by the evidence in favor of Homoeopathy, that they have no better weapon to defend themselves with than such an argument as this ? I 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 ob- tain the full benefit of this action it must be given alone ; any combination must necessarily interfere with, and may altoge- ther 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 proved in health. The various solids ; the metalsfor 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 ex- ample, and the vegetable juices, furnish a vasl array of drugs l ; >r medicinal purposes. Each of these, in its turn, can be experi- mented upon by itself in health; and, in like manner, each in its turn can be given alone as a remedy in disease. WTiether in chemistry these various substances art' ;it 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 witli reference to chemical b : can neither help nor hinder much in respect to their action upon the living body as poisons or remedies. In saying this, I must not be misunderstood, or be supposed to depreciate chem- istry, or its legitimate application to pharmacy, or toany other collateral branch of knowledge. I am myself fond of chen?- 10 THE SINGLE MEDICINE OF HOMOEOPATHY. istiy, and glad]y avail myself of any help it can render to medicine ; what I wish to remark at present is, that the use of a drug singly and alone, either in proving it in health, or in prescribing it in disease, has no reference, and it is plain can have no reference to the light in which such drug is viewed by the chemist. It might be safely asserted that nothing can be more con- spicuously apparent than this ; what then must be the charac- ter 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 Homoeopathy ? 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 Jahk, 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 re- searches of many excellent chemists. 'It contains,' says Chkistison, 'no fewer than seven chrystalline principles, called (1) morphia, (2) codeia, (3) paramorphia, (4) narcotin, (5) narcem, (6) porphyroxin, and (7) meconin, of which the first three are alkaline, and the others neutral ; secondly, a peculiar acid termed (8) me :onic 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, (11) resin, (12) fixed oil, (13) a trace perhaps of volatile oil, (14) lignin, (15) caoutchouc, (16) ex- tractive matter, and numerous salts 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, (21) oxide of iron, ets. Homeopaths, in using therefore this ' frequently indi- cated' medicament, opium, employ a preparation which is certainly not single, but consists at least of some twenty different substances."* When my second Tract, " The Defense of Homoeopathy," was written, the best work which, up to that period, had ap- * " Homoeopathy, its Tenets and Tendencies," by Dr. Simpson, Professor of Midwifery in the University of Edinburgh, etc. p. 47. THE SINGLE MEDICINE OF HOMCEOPATHY. 11 peared in England against Homoeopathy — Dr. C. F. EouTn's " Fallacies" — was selected. When Dr. Simpson's book ap- peared, I thought it would demand a reply, but after reading it, I felt that it did not deserve one, and I think that even my brethren of the old practice will admit that I stand excused in this feeling. A writer who can not distinguish between the single medicine of the Homoeopath ist, and the elements, organic or 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 feel- ing of indignation, which involuntarily rises on reading the passage I have extracted, 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 Homeopathy the giving of only one medicine at a time is a matter of necessity. The law can not be otherwise ap- plied. Let me now endeavor to point out The advantages of this method. From these advan- tages it will appear that the objects acknowledged to have been sought for, but which are unattained, and, it may fairly be presumed, are unattainable, in the common mode of treat- ing 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 t<> be produced, before either another dose is given, or another medicine is tried. The simplicity which the law of Homoeopathy has in- troduced into the prescriptions of the physician is worthy of great admiration — the one is a accessary consequence of the other. "So far," says Sir Jon.v HerscHEL, "as our expe- rience has hitherto gone, every advance towards gi nerality bias, at the same time, been a step towards simplification." It de- serves to be noticed how greal ;i step in this direction has been taken in the present instance. T lie progress in vain waited lor on the old method is rendered inevitable by the new one. The ignorance on the subject <>f the properties of drugs which has prevailed for so man* turies, will no longer continue ; a much more extensiv corre -t knowledge of them has already be m acquired, and this knowledge will be dail y extended. I am not afraid t«> 12 THE SINGLE MEDICINE OF HOMCEOPATHY. that I have learned more of the properties and healing powers of the various articles of the Materia Medica, during the three years that I have been a Homoeopath ist, than I did during the thirty that I was engaged in the usual method of prescribing drugs. How interesting it is to collect accurate details of the effects of drugs when acting as poisons ; and how beautiful to observe their curative action in corresponding natural diseases ! There is now every thing to reward, and therefore every thing to encourage the diligent study of the properties of drugs ; and this study can not 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 aco- nite, or belladonna, or pulsatilla, or ipecacuanha, and contrast the knowledge of it which the Homceopathist 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. The curative effect of each drug, often in vain expected when other drugs are mingled with it, may be looked for with a great degree of certainty, when it is given alone in an appro- priate dose. It is Dr. Paris who asserts that "the file of every apothe- cary would furnish a volume of instances, where the ingre- dients are fighting together in the dark, or at least, are so ad- verse to each other, as to constitute a most incongruous and chaotic mass." " Obstabat aliis aliud : quia corpore in uno Frigida pugnabant calidis, humentia siceis, Mollia cum duris, sine pondere, babentia pondus." Ovid. This error can be eliminated only by resorting to the method of prescribing each remedy singly. There can then be no neutralizing, or counteracting, or antidoti rig effects; no "light- ing together in the dark," so aptly described, and so ingenu- ously confessed by Dr. Paris. It is true this description is intended to apply only to the prescriptions of certain ill-in- formed or careless practitioners; but, though not intended to do so, it really applies, with more or less force, to every mix- ture or combination of drugs. On the other hand, the single medicine meets with no im- pediment (at least not from other medicines) to the produc- tion 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 THE SINGLE MEDICINE OF HOMOEOPATHY. IS 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 cer- tainty, than by the large dose, if given in combination. 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 jalap to "mitigate their acri- mony ;" 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. The 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 tarfcir emetic to ipecacuanha vomiting is produced by a smaller quantity of each, than would be required of either of them separately; 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 purgatives, expectorants, diaphoretics, as quoted from Dr. Paris. With our present knowledge, such proceed- ings can not escape being viewed as barbarous ; these violent effects of medicines being altogether needless, while the speci- fic 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." The indications of treatment, in vain sought after on the old method, are not only precise and unmistakable on the new, but, as the medicines, so also the indications, 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 <■( im- plicated; in cases of more extensive derangement, they are still more numerous, and Bometimes even contradictory. The perplexity and anxiety to the physician, and the additional pain and exhaustion to the patient, which are the natural re- sults of this complication, are often greater than can readily be described. In illustration, I will take a case of the simplest kind. For example, laryngismus stridulus, or the asthma of Millar — an affection of considerable danger, to which some in- fants are very subject, and consisting mainly of a distressing 14 THE SINGLE MEDICINE OF HOMOEOPATHY. struggle for breath, coming on suddenly, and producing a flushed and swollen countenance, which becomes sometimes almost black, threatening suffocation. The indications for treatment I will copy from Mason Good ; of whose book it has been said, by a late President of the Koj^al 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 vomit- ing 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 produce counter-irritation by apply- ing 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 suf- ferer is generally only a few months; 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 b ing healthy. We can not 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 de- mand its abandonment ; and in the next place, with the fact that all the indications of treatment are direct and violent at- tacks upon the healthy parts of the 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 commotion in it, in a baby three or four months old ? " 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? "Ex- cite the bowels by a purgative of calomel." The others were 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 previous- ly 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 de- stroys altogether the constitution of the child. "Allay the irri- tability of the nervous system by giving laudanum in propor- tion to the age of the patient. The effect of opium is to THE SINGLE MEDICINE OF HOMOEOPATHY. 15 stupefy 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 vigor is needed to struggle with the difficulty of breath- ing. And why assault thus the whole nervous system, as yet remaining in health? "Produce counter-irritation by apply- ing 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 customary; but will it bear investigation ? Thus every healthy part of the body is to be disturbed in its natural action, to be excited, disordered, inflamed, and stu- pefied ; all these ailments, necessarily more or less overpower- ing to the vitality of a child, are to be artificially produced, and added to the natural disease with which the infant is al- ready contending ! But it must be observed farther, and, were it not familiarized to us by the universality of the practice, we should observe it with astonishment, that nothing at all 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 af- fected by the remedies prescribed. On one occasion, my relative, the late 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 Homoeopathy. 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 a natural power of acting upon the windpipe, and which in health will produce a similar morbid condition of it. \Ye 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 beeii disturbed or interfered with; that which was ailing has been cured, and that which was well has been let alone. This lias happened in my own hands, and I am bound to testify what 1 have seen. 16 THE SINGLE MEDICINE OF HOM(EOPATHT. It would be easy to give examples of more complicated cases, in which the indications under the common method axe still more numerous, or still more contradictory. I can not do more than allude to one of the latter description, but it is one in which the contradiction is so great as to give rise to the greatest perplexity, and the most painful anxiety. The case is an inflammatory disease of any kind occurring in a debili- tated 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 strengthen- ing measures are imperiously demanded by the patient's dis- tressing 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 ap- proximation. On the contrary, by the new method, although a careful ex- amination of the case, and a dilgent study of the Materia Me- dica are required, there is but one indication to be attended to, and but one remedy to be given, and thus perplexity and incon- sistency 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 un- frequently happens that not only will this condition be greatly improved, but other accompanying s} 7 mptoms, though appear- ing to have little connection with it, will be also removed. And thus a single remedy will sometimes suit a patient for se- veral 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 patient, so often in vain longed for from the complicated prescriptions in common use, may be expected with greatly increased confidence from the employment of a single remedy. Dr. Paris speaks of medical combinations, and declares that their object is to operate " cito, tuto, etjucunde v —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 Homoeopathic treatment the foregoing observation may suffice to show. Cito. A medicine is much more likely to produce its pecu- liar effects quickly when given alone, than when its action is neutralized or interfered with by being mixed with other drugs. Tuto. The chances that a patient will be injured by a small dose of a single remedy, must be much fewer than by large THE SINGLE MEDICINE OF HOMOEOPATHY. 17 doses of mixed medicines. He must be treated much more safely. Jucunde. And as to tlie 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 medi- cal skill. Such are some of the advantages which the law of Homoeo- pathy presents for our acceptance, in the simplicity 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 breth- ren will give their serious attention. The subject presents itself in the terms by which the various articles of the Materia Medica are arranged and desig- nated. It is expressed in one word — the intention of the treatment In the system of GrALEN, which governed medicine for fif- teen hundred years, all drugs were estimated as hot or cold, dry or moist, in regulated degrees, and were prescribed accord- ingly 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 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 re- medies 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 indications which his ailments suggest ? Ought he to be vomited or purged, or refrigerated or stimulated ? The answer to these questions is supposed to direct to the classes of medicines which are to be administered, and they are given with corresponding intentions. In prescribing ipecacu- anha, or tartar emetic, the physician intends to produce vomit- ing; in giving blue pill and colocynth, followed by senna and Epsom salts, he intends to purge ; in applying plaster of can- tharides to the surface of the body, he intends to produce in- flammation and blistering of the previously healthy skin. Far otherwise are the thoughts suggested by the law of Ho- moeopathy. The patient is suffering in such a manner; the question suggested, when the examination of the case is con- cluded, is this : What drug produces in health a similar condi- NO. XI. — 2 18 THE SINGLE MEDICINE OF HOMCEOPATHY. tion of disease ? That drug must necessarily act upon the organs which are diseased ; it will act upon them while under the excitement 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 Homoeopathic practitioner is, not to produce vomiting, or purging, or perspi- ration, or any other evacuation, but simply to remove the dis- ease from which the patient is suffering. Of course the ulti- mate object of the Allopathic practitioner is to restore his pa- tient to health, but it will be seen that that object is aimed at indirectly, 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 being made more sick ; however nume- rous his symptoms may be when seen by his physician, he must have some additional ailments produced artificially, be- fore he can expest to be relieved. This important difference between the two intentions must, I think, be intelligible and plain. It is true that certain effect?, are sometimes produced by the small dose of the Homoeopathist which resemble, in some de- gree, the effects of the common medicines ; for instance, when aconite is given in a case of inflammatory 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 do- ing so relieve the fever : these two events happened in the op- posite 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 following para- graph : " Dr. Blackwell presents us with a case, on the authority of Mr. Johnson of Exeter, in which well-fermented bread oc- casioned, in the space of a few hours, an effect so powerfully THE SINGLE MEDICINE OF IIOMCEOPATUY. 19 diuretic as to have cured the sailors on board the Asia East Indiaman, who had been attacked with dropsy in consequen •<■ of the use of damaged rice ; so that diuretics in some cases cure by evacuating, while in others, as in the instance above cited, they tvacuate by 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 be any thing requiring evacuation, by first curing. The reason now appears why Homceopathists do not call the remedies they use by the names commonly attached to them, as cathartics, sudoritics, etc. 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. WhaJ; the bread did was just what the unsound rice could not do — it nourished the body ; acting, not as a medicine, but as whole- some food, the thing needed. The evacuation of the dropsical effusion was the consequence 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 re- fined and scientific proceeding, as far removed as possible from the rude violence of large doses of poisonous drugs, given in combination, and " lighting together in the dark." The considerations advanced in this Essay afford conclusive 'prima facie 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 question of fact: Does the plan succeed at the bedside of the patient? 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 infmitessimal dose, which does not form part of the subject, would not complicate the evidence. But a sufficient number of such cases can not be met with, BO nearly universal is the practice of combination, A few reports, tered through the journals, maybe found of ipecacuanha hav- ing been given successfully in nsem ; of copper in some spasmodic affections, as chorea; of nux vomica in spinal dis- ease ; of creosote in derangements of the stomach ; of arsenic in some diseases of the skin ; but these "Apparent rari nantes in gurgito vaato, V I ROIL. 20 THE SINGLE MEDICESTE OF HOMCEOPATHY. and they are not sufficient to prove the affirmative to the an- swer. So far as they go, they support the statement that one remedy at a time is sufficient to cure ; they also constitute evi- dence in favor of the law of Homoeopathy, as may be seen from the examples I have given ; they may at least be consi- dered 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 over- whelming 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, conges- tion of the brain removed by belladonna; croup cured by aconite ; mumps by mercury ; pneumonia by phosphorus ; and of chronic cases, dyspepsia removed by pulsatilla ; tabes mes- enterica by sulphur ; disease of the bladder by nux vomica ; spinal distortion by carbonate of lime, and so on. In other cases, a single remedy is sufficient for a portion of the treatment, 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 symp- toms are changed. The experiment is not insuperably difficult ; let others try it as I have done. To my own mind, to say that one medi- cine at a time is practically sufficient, and answers better than any combination, is to state a plain fact, and I can not 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 attach the disease and not the pa* Hjgiiy, Oct 2d, 1854. tracts on gomcroptjg.-lto. 12. THE COMMON-SENSE OP HOKEOPATHY, BY WILLIAM SHARP, M.D., F.R.S. fmtjj GBbition. F. E. BOERICKE: HAHNEMANN PUBLISHING HOUSE, PHILADELPHIA. " For myself, I here publicly profess, that I will, to the end of my clays, ao knowledge it as the greatest obligation that any person can confer upon me, if in the spirit of meekness, ho will point out to me any error or enthusiastical d6 hsion into which I have fallen, and by sufficient arguments convince me of it.' ; Thomas Scott. THE COMMON-SENSE OF HOMEOPATHY. "The GOD of truth, and all who know me, will bear testimony that, from my whole soul, I despise deceit, as I do all silly claims to superior wisdom and in- fallibility, which so many writers, by a thousand artilices, endeavor to make their readers imagine they possess." Lavater. Ox coming down to breakfast one morning, soon aft er the commencement of my experimental investigation of Homoeo- pathy, one of my daughters, a child about seven years old, complained of feeling sick, and laid herself down upon the sofa. I gave her some globules of ipecacuanha. We sat do vvn to breakfast, leaving her chair empty. Before the repast was over the child appeared on her seat, and her mamma handed her some breakfast without remark. She ate with evident enjoyment, and having finished she said, " I feel quite well." Her mamma 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,' 1 having forgotten that before she had taken the medicine she was not able to take the breakfast. Here we have the grand impediment to the reception of Homoeopathy. It is in vain to explain clearly what the state- ment professes to be, or to contend earnestly that the facts stated are true, so long as there is a previous obstacle to be re moved, namely, a persuasion that the statement asserts what is impossible. In this question of impossibility the principle of Homoeo- pathy — "likes are to be treated with likes;" a remedy is to be given, which, as a poison, produces similar symptoms — is not included. It may be thought imprt >1 >al >le, but it can not 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 4 THE COMMON-SENSE OF HOMCEOPATHY. thought improbable, but can hardly be thought absurd or im- possible. The doses which follow — the millionth and the bil- lionth of a grain, or, as they are called, the third and the sixth dilutions — are separated from these by a gulf, to bridge over which is the real difficulty. So far from being anxious to con- ceal this I wish to state 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 can not remove dis- ease. Hence, homoeopathic cures are judged impossible. Every effect must have a cause sufficient to produce it. Ti i is is universally admitted. When we expect to cure disease by doses of medicine so small as to be inappreciable, we are ac- cused 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 endeavor to remove this great obstacle to the adoption of Homoeopathy. Now, it appears to me that the objection thus raised is de- prived of all force by the following considerations : The objection is merely an assertion. It is couched in vari- ous terms, such as, the dose is a non-entity, and can do nothing — ex nihilo nihil fit — the cause is inadequate to the effect ; the thing is contrary to common-sense. It will be observed these statements prove nothing ; 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 ? Nothing. Where are their experimental in- vestigations ? Nowhere. What time and pains have they bestowed upon the inquiry ? 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?" Alas! we are all far too ignorant of the operation of natural causes, and the pro- duction 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 nothing of THE COMMON-SENSE OF HOMEOPATHY. 5 nature except what our bodily senses teach us. We have no in- nate knowledge of the works of GrOD. We enter upon life without ideas concerning the external world. Our minds are a blank as it respects every thing in the ma1 rial creation around us. But we are endowed with bodily senses capable of receiv- ing impressions from external objects, and with mental faculties capable of acknowledging the impressions thus produced. The impressions made upon the bodily senses by surround- ing 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 ac- tions, 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 knowledge, it must follow that we know nothing beyond the mere surface of things ; of the inter- nal 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 oper- ation 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 any thing beyond what our senses teach us ? What should we know about the moon if we had never seen it? What do those know of music who are born deaf ? or those of colors who are born blind? 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 scarlet like?" " It is like the sound oj a trumprt" was the ready reply. The association in the mind of an Englishman of the soldier's scarlet coat with military music is obvious enough, but the inability to conceive rightly (for a wrong conception was quickly formed) without the aid of the bodily sense, is not less obvious. We have no innate knowledge of the objects and operations of the natural or mate- rial world. Again, the ideas of nature which exist in men's minds have come to them through their bodily senses. We all think and reason about objects we have seen, sounds we have heard, odors we have smelled, food we have tasted, and bodies we 6 THE COMMON-SENSE OF HOMEOPATHY. 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 sub- stances 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 respecting external things, but how can they perceive the reality ? Such specula- tions can not be more than dreams ; such labors but the weav- ing 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 accord- ing to the stuff, and is limited thereby ; but if it work upon itself, as the spider worketh his web, then it is endless, and brings forth cob-webs of learning, admirable for the fineness of the thread and work, but of no substance or profit."* These propositions being true, the conclusion I have drawn from them is true also. We have no original knowledge of nature ; the knowledge we acquire is obtained through our bodi- ly senses ; we have no other means of adding to this knowledge; it must follow that we can not know any thing beyond what our bodily senses teach us ; that Ave 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 ex- ternal or bodily senses. Hence we are not justified in pro- nouncing any uninvestigated phenomena impossible, or any unob- served facts 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 ig norance, and, as such, is unworthy of attention. Similar assertions have often been made in similar ignorance. It is no new thing for novel truth to be met by the same ignor- ant cry : " It is contrary to common-sense !" Take, for ex- ample, the following account given by Professor Baden Pow- ell of the invention of the telescope, and the discovery of the moons of the planet Jupiter. ' ' Galileo having sufficiently im proved upon his instrument, now began sedulously to direct it to the heavens Jupiter formed the next ol ject of examination, and no sooner was the telescope pointed to * Lord Bacon. THE COMMON-SENSE OF IIOMCEOrATIIY. 7 that planet than the existence of the satellites was detected., and their nature soon ascertained. (February, 1610.) These and other observations were described by Galileo in a tracl entitled 'Nuncius Sidereus,' which excited an extraordinary sensation the moment it appeared. Many positively denied the possibility of such discoveries ; others hesitated ; all were struck with astonishment. Kepler describes, in a letter to Galileo, the impression made on him by the announcement. He consi- dered it totally incredible ; nevertheless, his respect for the au- thority 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 compatible with the order of the celestial orbits as determined by the five regular solids. Sizzi argued seriously with Galileo that the appearance must be fallacious, since it would in- validate the perfection of the number 7, which applies to the planets as well as throughout all things natural and divine. Moreover, these satellites are invisible to the naked eye; therefore they can exercise no influence on the earth ; therefore they are use- less ; therefore they do not exist. " Others took a more decided but still less rational mode of meeting the difficulty. The principal professor of philosophy at Padua (in which university Galileo was also a profess. >r) pertinaciously refused to look through the telescope. Another pointedly observed that we are not to suppose that Jupiter had four satellites given him for the purpose of immortal- izing the Medici, (Galileo having called them the Medicean stars.) A German, named Horky, suggested that the tele- scope, though accurate for terrestrial objects, was not true for the sky. I le published a treatise discussing the four new plan* rts as they were called ; what they are? why they are ? and what they are like? concluding with attributing their cdleged existence to Galileo's thirst of gold."* I might give many other examples of the same melancholy kind, but the description of this one instance by Prof Powell is so graphic, and touches upon so many points in which the opponents of astronomical discovery resemble the opponents of Homoeopathy, 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 impossible, in- credible, 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 ef- ficacy is startling, but not more so than that made by Galileo * Baden Powell's History of Natural Philosophy. 8 THE COMMON-SENSE OF HOMCEOPATHY. ■ — " the succession of day and night is occasioned by the rota* tion of the earth, and not by that of the sun and stars" — an announcement 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, notwithstanding, as is proved by careful in- quiry ; and so is the action of the small dose, as is demonstrat- ed by similar careful observation. " The works of the Creator in every department of observation and science present not only mysteries, but a world of wonders ; yet the reality of these wonderful things, mysterious as they may be, is not, can not be denied."* It is an assertion made in indolence. I say this because of the facility with which the matter in question may be tested, and ignorance respecting it be removed. Every medical man engaged in actual practice, has opportu- nities of putting both the principle and the dose of Homoeo- pathy upon trial every day. Let any practitioner resolve, as I and others have done, 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 familar 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 affect- ing 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 personal 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." Jt is a,n assertion made in folly. I should have shrunk 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 Homoeopathy is " humbug," let it be said to him : "As you express yourself so decidedly, of course you have studied the subject experimen- tally ; may I ask you how many months you have spent in * Scorcsby's Zoistic Magnetism. THE COMMON-SENSE OF HOMOEOPATHY. 9 the practical investigation ?" A child in such a situation would have red cheeks ; whether an adult would feel ashamed or not I can not tell ; I think he would look somewhat awkward and foolish. 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 follow- ing note : " Thanks to you, I am now enabled to look forward to spending a happy holiday, and, under God's blessing, many a happy and useful year, in the en- joyment of a degree of health both for my wife and for myself, which, a few months ago, I could 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." It is an assertion made in enmity. The question is not viewed simply with reference to its truth or falsehood. It is an " ob- noxious" subject, looked upon with repugnance and contempt. There is no desire to investigate it, but on the contrary a strong determination to banish it, to crush it, to do any thing to get rid of it. And yet it is the medicine of mercy ; it proposes to emanci- pate the suffering invalid from every disagreeable, harsh, and cruel proceeding to which he has been so long exposed : it professes to be able to cure more quickly, safely, and plea- santly than is possible by any other means ; it promises to the physician himself 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 experi- mentally, even with a view of proving the errors which they so vehemently assert it to contain. And what shall be allowed to be the weight of an assertion made so ignorantly, so indolently, so foolishly, and with such hostile feeling ? Is it of force to dissipate the convictions pro- duced in the mind by an honest trial of the new method, and a careful observation of the actual results? Can they be re- linquished at such a bidding? That would indeed be op] to reason and " contrary to common-sense." Did I not speak truly when I said : " This assertion is groundless, devoid of 10 THE COMMON-SENSE OF HOMCEOPATHY. proof, and worthless ?" 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 close, and also the infinites- imal dose — is substantiated by the evidence which I have brought forward in these Essays, and which I will briefly epi- tomise. It is a statement made by competent witnesses. I have observed, (in Tract No. 3,) 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 inquiry must be adapted to the nature of the truth we are in search of. Now, the true action of remedies is learned partly by expe- riments upon the healthy, and partly by observation at the bed- side of the sick ; therefore, in the matter we are at present dis- cussing, the physician can be the only competent witness. The question arises : " What is the kind of medical evidence which can be produced, and how far does it establish a credible testimony ?" For, " the strength and validity of every testimo- ny must bear proportion with the authority of the testifier ; and the authority of the testifier is founded upon his ability and in- tegrity — his ability in the knowledge of that which he delivereth and asserteth ; his integrity in delivering and asserting accord- ing to his knowledge."* m 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 remember that he occupied a place in the best-qualified circle of his profession, and was acknowledged by many of his most distinguished colleagues, as one of the most accomplished and scientific physicans of his age. Then, as regards the number of the witnesses. The medical men who have avowedly embraced Homoeopathy are now to be met with in every civilized country throughout the world. In many of these countries, it is true, they form, as yet, only a * Pearson. THE COMMON-SENSE OF HOMCEOPATHY. 11 small minority, but the aggregate number must constitute a considerable body. In this country there are at present nearly two hundred. In the United States of America there are al- ready two Homoeopathic Universities, and a large number of legally qualified Homoeopathic practitioners.* And as regards ability, it will be sufficient to observe that, for the most part, they are converts from the ranks of regularly- educated physicians and surgeons. They had been engaged for a longer or a shorter period in the practice of their profes- sion according to the usual methods, and it may be fairly presum- ed that they possess at least an average amount of professional skill and experience. In support of this opinion it may be re- marked that among them there are nearly thirty professors in various European Universities ; nearly fifty medical and court Counsellors, and at least twenty Court Physicians. These last are attached to members of the courts of Austria, Prussia, Eus- sia, Spain, Naples, Belgium, Hanover, and the smaller Ger- man states. And lastly, as to integrity, Perhaps the best mode of test- ing this is to inquire into the reasons which have led indivi- duals 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 men- tion one of these. A gentleman had been subject to haemor- rhoids for some years, and the loss of blood was sometimes fearful. His bowels were habitually and obstinately constipat- ed, and any medicine but the most gentle laxativ* b brought on the hemorrhoidal flux. Astringents were of no use during the discharge: they produced mischief when taken internally lie had been under the care of several eminent men in London, and had tried many medical nun in Liverpool. His condition was made rather worse than better by th of us to relieve him.. His lif misery. Two or three months after he had been under Homoeopathic treatment, 1 met * Since writing the above, Dr. Atkin lias favored mo with tin- foil merit of Homoeopathic practitioners, from his forthcoming Directory in London, 63; in the proviu 20] ; and I pwarde of 3000 in tin Tuited States." I am glad to find th il 1 have Dot been guilt} of exaggeration 12 THE COMMON-SENSE OF HOMOEOPATHY. him one day in the street, and was astonished at the alteration in his appearance. From being emaciated he had grown stont, and was altogether 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 Ho moeopathic 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 inconvenience from the trying, and, in his case, dangerous complaint he had suffered from a dozen 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 far as to test by actual experi- ment their efficacy and value. I was immediately convinced that the doses wejp efficacious, and conviction of the truth of the doctrine followed." Many "urged their eager remonstran- ces, but my duty was plain so soon as I became convinced ; and it was the sincerity of my conviction which gave me the coit- rage to persevere " Others have been persuaded to examine the new system by the representation of medical friends who had previously be- come converts, and whom they respected as honest and con- scientious men. Of this number I am one ; having been urged to undertake the investigation I have described in these Essays by my friend Dr. Bams both am. I was told 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 hesi- tated 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 dis- cover the truth. Others, again, have engaged in the laborious task expressly for the purpose of proving Homoeopathy to be a fallacy. Dr. H. Y. Malan is one of these. He has favored me with the fol- lowing account : "After having lived ibr some years in the house of a Ho- moeopathic physician in Germany, and seen his practice, and heard him speak and teach, I went to Paris in 1840, and lo- cated myself very near Hahnemann'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 to me most THE COMMON-SENSE OF HOMCEOPATHY. 13 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 generously he directed my stu- dies for more than a whole year, and I need not add his word was true — I never wrote the book, though I had begun it and laid materials down for it, before seeing Hahnemann. " My conversion was not an easy one ; I was fresh from the Allopathic benches, and flushed with the victory of all Allopa- thic honors. In adopting Homoeopathy, I roused the whole 1 Faculte' of my native city (Geneva) against me, and caused no small uproar, which ended, however, with what is the truth in medicine." The number, the skill, and the integrity of the medical wit- nesses to the truth of Homoeopathy are amply sufficient to make the statement credible. ~ It is a statement made upon sufficient evidence. If the wit- nesses are competent, so is their evidence complete. What does it amount to? It amounts to this, that, being medical practitioners, regularly educated and duly qualified, and hav- ing had more or less experience — this experience, in some cases, equalling that of any 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 professson is familiar, and which, in accordance with the progress of mo- dern science, it demands; cases of the most acute and danger- ous character; cases of the most familiar and well-known dis- eases; cases of the most obstinate and refractory chronic ail- ments; cases of diseases in children, in adults, in old 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 yet been presented in similar reports of any other kind of treatment. It amounts to this, that if the evi- dence upon which the truth of Homoeopathy now rests be not sufficient to establish it, then nothing can be established as true upon any evidence whatever; and without faith in hi una timony how are we to proceed in the ordinary a i lairs of life? " There is no science taught without original belief; 14 THE COMMON-SENSE OF HOMOEOPATHY. there are no letters learned without preceding faith. There is no justice executed, no commerce maintained, no business pro- secuted without this; all secular affairs are transacted, all great achievements are attempted, all hopes, desires, and inclin- ations are preserved by this human faith, grounded npon the testimony of man."* The question is a question of evidence ; the evidence is suffi- cient ; reason and common-sense demand our assent. And why not ? Similar statements have been received upon similar evidence. The ground on which I advocate the recep- tion of Homoeopathy is that which is the basis of all Experi- mental Philosophy ; it is on the plea of observation — on the testimony of our senses. Every department of science con- tains numerous instances in which the most unexpected and important results arise out of apparently insignificant and in- adequate causes. I can give only a few examples. In Magnetism : take a poker, or bar of iron, not previously magnetic, hold it in a position parallel with 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 striking 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 compounds are decomposed. The effects are always startling. It is this which gives to lec- tures on Chemistry 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 gun- powder, and a drop of water results! You mix colorless liquid ingredients and obtain, in a succession of instances, solids having all the colors of the rainbow ! ^ In Mechanics : as an example on a small scale, take some biniodicle 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 vermillion, becomes a fine yellow, and remains so, even aftei it has been allowed to cool ; take a knife or spatula and pass r* * Pearson. THE COMMON-SENSE OF HOMCEOPATIIY. 15 over the yellow powder with a little pressure and friction, and the beautiful vermillion is instantly restored. In these meta- morphoses 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. In Botany: the grafting of fruit trees may be adduced 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 ap- porent absurdity, and the practice is universally adopted. Moreover, the ground upon which I rest the claims of Homoeopathy is the ground upon which all the common affairs of life necessarily rest. Whatever may have been the pre- vious notion of probability, it is the actual fact which deter- mines 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 hap- pen which to all human calculation seems the most unlvcdy. Hahnemann, in his Organon, keeps in the back ground the practical fact, and labors 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 a: cepting any of these. I respectfully decline them all, and offer no explanation. By this course, Homoeopathy 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. I present it as afac^ support d by sufficient evidence, and to assail it as Buch will be found a task much more difficult than to criticise speculations however in- genious. 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 im- pertinent. The testimony has a claim to be received, the thing is true "according to the evidenc -,"' until (acts— the result of trials at least as numerous, on the testimony of witnesses at 16 THE COMMON-SENSE OF HOMCEOPATHY. least of equal ability and integrity — are brought forward tc support the opposite probability. It is a statement beyond previous experience, but not opposed tc reason, or contrary to common-sense. I will not attempt a defi nition of " common-sense." A term in daily use must often be applied indefinitely. It sometimes signifies merely former knowledge, or previous experience; at others, it implies the highest exercise of human reason. Now, many things may be beyond common-sense, in the first meaning I have given, 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 ex- perience, then every new discovery or invention 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 land, it was false upon the waters . With the first use of every thing, 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 be- yond 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 observation of the new fact sim- ply 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 experience ; he had not known such a fact before ; it was new to kirn, but he will scarcely presume to say, on reflection, that therefore it could not be true. The statement is beyond previous experience, but 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 writ- ten 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 performance of the impossible undertaking ; it was simply beyond previous experience ; the experiment had never before been made When Mr. Stephenson had invented his locomotive engine THE COMMON-SENSE OF HOMOEOPATHY. 17 to move upon smooth iron rails — having discovered that the resistance of friction would be sufficient to prevent the rota- tion 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 tc common- sense ; had he said forty miles, his discovery would have been sjouted, and railway travelling perhaps a tiling yet unknown. To drag forward common-sense in this manner, as opposed to new experiments and investigations of nature, is greatly to dishonor it. Where there is no experience, what common-sense does, in such a case, is to urge inquiry, and to dictate a suspen- sion of judgment until inquiry is completed. Again, taking common-sense in its other signification, as the highest human reason, the new fact may be above this reason to understand or explain, but it can not be contrary to reason if it exist, nor can it be contrary 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 na- ture beyond their surface; the knowledge which our bodily senses give us not extending beyond that. Even if our intel- lectual vision could penetrate below the surface, and show us something of the interior mechanism, our circle of knowledge would still be a contracted one. Ad nature being the handi- work of a Being infinite in wisdom and power, it must of ne- cessity be beyond the grasp of a finite intelligence like the hu- man mind. But the internal movements of the particles of all bodies, and their mode of acting on each other, are not with- in our ken, however much we may long to know them. Every thing, 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 can not explain : lest I should be tedious, I will mention only three. The sun will take your likeness in a second of time ; a message may be sent hundreds of miles still more instantaneously ; any one may breakfast in Eugby, be in London (82 miles) in two hours, spend six hours in that city, and be 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 marv< 1, 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 no. xii. — 2 18 THE COMMON-SENSE OF HOMCEOPATHY. in the science of medicine ? If a marvel in electricity, why not in medicine ? If in mechanics, I ask again, why not in medi- cine ? If in things which concern inanimate bodies, why not much more in the things which belong to living beings ? The works of GrOD are for ever setting our reason at defi- ance. If we attempt to take but one step beyond the evidences of our bodily senses, except to draw a few useful inferences, with a view to make some practical applications, we lose our- selves at once in conjecture. " Things perceived by sense are more assured and manifest than matters inferred by reason ; in- asmuch as the latter proceed from and are illustrated by the former."* It results from these remarks that if a statement of a new marvel bears the rigid scrutiny of careful observation, com- mon-sense, or reason at once admits its truth ; and thus the common-sense of Homoeopathy lies, where the common-sense of every thing else lies — in the truth and value of the fact. It is a statement which admits of ready confirmation. "Is there any thing more difficult than the establishment of a fact ?" said a very intelligent neighbor 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."f 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 Homoeopathy. He knows well that ipecacuanha causes sickness ; when he is requested to pre- scribe 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 sublimate 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 hellebore is a most powerful purgative ; let him give it in a purging, if chilliness be an accompanying symptom, and he * William Harvey. \ Butler. THE COMMON-SENSE OF IIOMCEOPATHY. 19 \ull perhaps be surprised at the beneficial result. He knows that arsenic and phosphorus produce inflammation of thi mach and bowels ; let him have courage to try either of I poisons and he will probably see severe sufferings subside un- der the influence of the small dose. He knows that canth" act upon the bladder, and readily cause strangury; let him give them in a similar case, and Lis patient will most likely need no other remedy. He knows that nux vomica acts yery much upon the spinal marrow, and upon the organs depend- ent upon the spinal nerves, and those of the great s} r mpat lie- tic ; let him try it in various affections of these organs and he will often succeed in curing his patient. He knows that lead 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 pro- fession, he will know that copper and stramonium produce mus- cular spasms ; ipecacuanha, symptoms resembling asthma ; coc- culus, paroxysms of vertigo with nausea ; antimony, derange- ment of the stomach and chest; sulphur and arsenic, affections of the skin. From the same sources he will know the injurious effects of other substances, when acting as poisons upon per- sons previously in health. So far as I have yet learned, every medical man who has thus examined the subject, with candor and perseverance, has seen and acknowledged the confirmation 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 Jupi- ter's moons. Before bringing these Essays to a conclusion, I can not pass over one topic without some further notice. There is a strong feeling in the minds of professional men that Homoeopathy is only a species of quackery, and that its practitioners are no- thing better than charlatans. Now this is not true. I am willing to grant that there may be a few persons practising Homoeopathy whose temperaments are somewhat tinctured with the spirit 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 qi ery as light is from darkness. What is quackery? tension to some sovereign remedy, to be purchased of such a person. The exclusive sale of this nostrum, the composition 20 THE COMMMON-SENSE OF HOMCEOPATHY. of which is carefully concealed, being often secured to the vender by Her Majesty's letters patent; or it is " fifty thousand cures without medicine," by some article of diet, sold exclu- sively in a similar manner. What is there in Homoeopathy at all resembling this ? Where are its secrets ? its nostrums ? its exclusive sales ? Thay are not found ; and the person who calls Homoeopathy quackery, must be content to be condemn- ed as either very ignorant, or guilty of knowingly uttering un- truth. I have now only to conclude. In laying before my profes- sional brethren the results of an independent investigation of Homoeopathy, I have fulfilled a duty, and given an honest testimony ; and I now lay it on the conscience of every prac- titioner, 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 unquestion- able testimony of your own senses."* While, however, I thus appeal to others, to examine for them- selves, and while I reject the hypotheses and speculations of Hahnemann, it must not be supposed that I have any doubt remaining in my own mind, either of the truth of the principle, or of the efficacy of the small dose. If it may be done without presumption, I would say of the truth of these, in the words of John Locke, "Give me leave to say, with all submission, that I think it may be proved, and I think I have done it." "Rugby, December 3 CM, 1854. * "William Harvey. ICTi ink i ?ftiipn MARIAN KOSHLAND BIOSCIENCE AND ctiuKN NATURAL RESOURCES LIBRARY u ^ p ^ 2101 Valley Life Sciences Bldg. • 642-2531 LOAN PERIOD ONE MONTH LOAN ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALL AFTER 7 DAYS DUE AS STAMPED BELOW -oye- MAY 1 9 1999 suejecYYOftfecAu. 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