P10U)6Y LIBRART TRUTHS AND THEIR RECEPTION CONSIDERED IN BELATION TO THE DOCTRINE OF HOMCEOPATHY. BRITTSTT IIOM(EOPATHIC ASSOCIATION. mS OUACB THE DIKi; or HF.ACFOUT, k.o. ^•IEM>-MAIlsIIA^ Tin: mauquis of Anglesey, k.o., g.c.b. Chairman. MAHMADl'KK 11. SAMl'SON, ESQ. ULrtniuxtt. JOHN Dr.AN VWU, KSQ. ?ljonoinn) ^ecietaii). mClIAUU WAl.TEUS ITEl'UTLEY, ESQ. Committee. THE MAUQCIS OF THE ni. nON. WonCESTER. TIIK IIT. HON. THE EAHI, OF ESSEX THE KT. HON. I.oltn AYI.MEH. THE UT. HON. LOUD OKAY. LOlin FUANCIS (JOWnON. I.OUl) ALFllEU FACET. U.V. TAFTAIN IHlANFOIiP, UN. niCHAlU) llEAMISn. ESQ.. F.R.S. ADOEIMIE UOUIISOT, ESQ. JOHN nUOADHFRST. ESQ. r(H.oNEL nisnuowE. R, W. UEURTLEY, ESQ. CHARLES HAMILTON, ESQ. J. I*. KNIOHT, ESQ.. R.A. THO.MAS J. KNOWLYS, ESQ. THE HON. AlTU'STirs MORETON. GEOFFREY NIOIITINCALE, ESQ. SAMUEL SAMl'SON, ESQ. JAMES SIMPSON, ESQ. EVELYN J. SHIRLEY, ESQ., M.P. CHARLES CULLING SMITH, ESQ. THOMAS TWINS, ESQ., R.A. THOMAS VINCENT, ESQ. WILLIAM WAT KINS, ESQ. Hocal Committee — Uiberpool. ALFRED CASTELLAIN. ESQ. .1 THE REV. I!. A. MARSHALL. A. H. KINDERMANN, ESQ. J. B. NEILSON, ESQ. JOHN YATE LEE, ESQ. " ROGER WATERHOUSE, ESQ. ROBERT NEILSON, ESQ. Local Non- See. ?l)onoraii) l^embers;. FREDERIC FOSTER QUIN, ESQ., M.D., l'r,?uUut of the Jintish JI', TO WHICH ARE ADDED VARIOUS ESSAYS ~ OF THE '>>^ UNIVERSITY PUBLISHED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OP THE BRITISH HOMCEOPATHIC ASSOCIATION. LONDON: SAMUEL HIGHLEY, 82, FLEET STREET. M.DCCC.XI.1X. BlOLOGT liOXDON : TIIOMA'l IIAHRII.D, PRINTEn, BILVEH STnETT, FALCON SQUAIIE. CONTENTS. PAGE Truths and theik Reception consideeed in Heeation 10 XHE Doctrine of Homceopathy : Chapter I. ------- 1 Chapter II. 24 Chapter III. 47 First Essay by Hahnemann on the Homceopathic Principle .-...._ 89 Homoeopathic Treatment of Asiatic Cholera - 187 Homceopathy in Acute Diseases; — Narrative of A Mission to Ireland during the Famine and Pestilence op 1847 201 10598' TRUTHS AND THEIR RECEPTION CONSIDERED IN RELATION TO THE DOCTRIN-E OF HOKEOPATHY. Bv MARMADUKE B. SAMPSON. In the case of each discovery which has yet, through the shadows of old prejudices, struggled into light, the chief argument to prevent its recognition by the masses has always been, that it had not met with the favour of the especial professors of the science or the craft which it promised to elevate or reform. In the face of constant experience to the contrary, the idea that those who have spent long years in acquiring the knowledge of a particular calling will be most ready to welcome the announcement of new discove- ries calculated to remove any errors which may exist in connexion with it, and which errors, of course, must have been always instilled into them as truths, is still generally entertained ; and, conse- quently, the first cry against every alteration is, that those who have been educated in the system which it would subvert, are decidedly opposed to its intro- duction. " Let me see the medical profession generally B a TRUTHS AND IIII-.IU I! I.CRI'TION recognize the doctrine, antl I sliall then think there is something in it," is the common remark that is considered sufiicient l)y the ordinary public to justify a dismissal of llomnpopathy. Unfortunately, how- ever, this remark amounts to saying, " Let me see that happen in regard to lloma^opathy, which never yet happened under any analogous circumstances, and I shall then feel disposed to give it my attention." It will ])c conceded as an axiom, that no discovery involving the subjugation of long entertained errors, was ever yet introduced to the world, without having to struggle, step by step, through obstinate oppo- sition ; and it is not too much to assert, that this opposition — this never failing roughness, necessary to stimulate infant truth in its growth to an ultimate unassailable vigour — has, in every recorded case, pro- ceeded directly from those very parties whose prompt advocacy is, in the instance of Homoeopathy, de- manded by the public, as a first inducement to their conversion, namely, the orthodox and established professors and ministers of the system to which the new discovery may have applied. There are two ways of proving this assertion ; first, by the ordinary course of reason, which will show that with human nature in its present state it would be out of the question to look for anything else ; and next, by selecting at random practical illustrations of its truth, from the history of the various reforms up to which the clamberers from the stagnant fens of finality have toiled in every age, IN RELATION TO HOMCEOPATHY. 3 amidst blows and imprecations, to drag their less active, but more self-satisfied fellow-creatures. First, then, let us ask ourselves, supposing we had a new discovery to announce to the world, and that our only reason for anticipating opposition was founded on the fact which has been established by all history, that nothing new was ever yet received with unanimous approval, from what quarter would our own mere reflections, without reference to the particular experience of other cases, lead us to look for it ? Is it an innate peculiarity of the human mind, in all cases, to dislike novelty, and must oppo- sition therefore be looked for as a regular thing from the world at large"? The contrary is universally admitted, and we know, in fact, that the grand pursuit of man, from the cradle to the grave, is to find day by day something new, that shall exalt his hopes, better his condition, and give fresh zest to the exercise of his faculties. The charm of youth chiefly consists in the newness of its emotions, and those cases in which the weariness of age is felt — for there are some who live long, yet never grow old — arise from the neglect of cultivation of the higher powers which with increasing years would open up new and brighter views of the great scheme of the universe. Novelty, therefore, is what we are all seeking; and although the desire for discovery in- creases in proportion to the finer qualities of mind possessed by each individual, it may be safely af- firmed that there is no living creature who is capable b2 4 TRUTHS AND THEIR RECEPTION of any emotion at all, but who derives from the pur- suit of novelty all that he knows of life. It urges the wanderer to the summit of the hill, to look at the prospect beyond, and sends the aboriginal savage up the tree, to gather a new fruit that may catch his eye. The undiscovered good is the temptation that carries us all upon our road, and when we cease to desire what is new — or, in other words, when we lose the wish to improve — we become mere dead lumber, waiting to be removed. There is no disposition, therefore, generally on the part of the world to reject what is new, but, on the contrary, novelty is the highest recommendation any- thing can possess. But although it is instinctively recognized that every new thing, that is to say, every addition to our knowledge, is an increase of our power, it is possible that a novelty may be so repug- nantly introduced, as to cause us for a moment to overlook this fact, and to feel nothing but dismay. A cutler, for instance, might invent some new instru- ment, skilfully conceived to render surgical operations less painful, but if it were first shown to us as an instrument of torture, the mere impulse of the mo- ment would be to wish that it could be destroyed. We may therefore be led to offer opposition to a new truth, simply by the faulty manner of its introduction, and, consequently, when we are about to present a discovery to the world, before we assume that it will be generally and instantaneously welcomed, on the principle that everything new is a gain^ we must ask IN RELATION TO HOM(EOPATHY. O ourselves whether we introduce it for a purpose that is likely to harmonize with the ordinary current of the world's feelings. If we can answer this point satisfactorily, and are conscious that the discovery is only to he introduced for the professed purpose of conferring upon mankind something that is generally desired, such as an increase of wealth, health, or contentment, we may then indulge the belief, that according to all the calculations of reason, we are entitled, from ordinary minds, to look for nothing but welcome. Still, however, there is one other point to be con- sidered. Although the love of novelty is inherent in every mind, there is also a faculty common to us all, which is apt to be unduly indulged, and which, when so indulged, acts in a powerfully antagonistic man- ner to the truth-receiving impulse. This faculty is called by the phrenologists, firmness, and, apart from its philosophical definition, is very well known to most persons in its form of undue activity, by the familiar term of obstinacy. The necessity of such a faculty has been very clearly demonstrated. It gives the tendency, it has been observed, to hold to any opinions we may have formed, and those per- sons in whom it is well developed, having once decided upon their course in any given matter, pur- sue that course to its termination with unshaken constancy. The primary function of the organ has never been very clearly defined, but it appears to admit of explanation thus : — When a question is () TRUTHS AND THEIR RICEPTION submitted to a person for the first time, and he is required to come to a decision respecting it, it is necessary that all the faculties of the mind should operate upon it ; to some of them acquiescence may be distasteful, and to others, again, it may be agree- able. He allows each to act, and at length, by the operation of the intellect, decides as to the course which will upon the whole be most agreeable to him. Having thus made his decision, it is the province of Firmness to impart pleasure in maintaining it. It is obvious that a provision of this kind is necessary, as, if it were absent, he would at once depart from the course which he had chosen, whenever the slightest momentary temptation was presented for him to do so, and when there would be no time for him to suffer all his faculties to act upon the point, and to let the reason decide upon its aggregate advantages. The organ of fiimness, therefore, induces its possessor to persevere steadily in his chosen course. When, however, it is unduly developed, it produces that stiff-neckedness which has been so often de- nounced in the history of the world, and which, unfortunately, is still a predominant characteristic of the human race. It gives, under such circumstances a blind dislike to change of any sort. It stands upon the old ways, merely because they are the old ways, and leads the individual studiously to shun and exclude every light that would render a change of opinion unavoidable. " Nothing shall ever make me believe this — nothing shall ever make me believe IN RELATION TO IIOMCEOPATHY. 7 that" — is the constant cry of such persons ; and if, at last, you demonstrate their error, they will make some remark immediately after they have acknow- ledged your success, showing that they are of the same opinion still, or at least that the old belief is still affectionately regarded as something that it is extremely unpleasant to part with. They do not rejoice at throwing aside error, and substituting truth, but regard the one as an ill-used friend, and receive the other as an intruder. The final question, therefore, to be considered in all instances is, to what extent our new discovery is likely to meet with opposition from this feeling, and consequently we must ascertain whether the public at large have any settled prejudices on the matter, or supposing this not to be the case, whether there is any section of the public amongst whom such preju- dices exclusively prevail. Now, settled opinions such as those which form the stuff out of which pre- judices are made, arise from three causes, early edu- cation, subsequent habit, and, finally, a sense of worldly convenience, profit, and expediency. For the public at large, therefore, to entertain prejudices on any subject, it would be requisite that such sub- ject should have been mixed up with their education, their habits, and their interests. Hence, on any point which has been equally learned and practised by every member of the community, we should be bound to expect, supposing we were aware of any discovery that would render necessary a modification 8 TUUTHS AND THKIR UECEPTIOX of their views, a very general opposition, from the sheer l)lin(l impulse of the faculty of Firmness. Anil tliis is what is actually observed. The prcju- clices of classes may be removed or overpowered by the action of the other classes who are able to sec the light, but the prejudices of nations are almost irremovable, and to efTect any change of general cus- toms, manners, or institutions, it is usually necessary that one entire generation, at least, should pass aw^ay. On all national subjects, therefore, resistance must be expected, even although the reform or discovery "we would introduce may not only be ushered in by an appeal to the common love of novelty, but by a statement of beneficent purposes -which it is our object it should accomplish. But on subjects which are not national, and which have only been studied by particular classes, of course this opposition will be narrowed down, in proportion to the limits of such classes. No man can have a prejudice on a subject of which he has never heard, or which, sup- posing it may have been heard of, has never appeared to have any particular interest for him. We might very safely announce a new theory of the laws of colour amongst the merchants on the Royal Ex- change, and it is more than probable, that in an assembly of artists, the necessity of a thorough revo- lution in the existing notions of commercial manage- ment might be asserted without the danger of any violent hostility. If, on the other hand, the commer- cial reformer were to go amongst the merchants, and IN RELATION TO HOMCEOPATHY. if the theorist on colour amongst the artists, a very different result might be anticipated. Recognizing, therefore, that it is only those who have given attention to a subject, that are likely to have any prejudices regarding it, let us inquire as to the particular circumstances under which these pre- judices are likely to be manifested with the greatest violence. A man may have given attention to a sub- ject, merely from a general love of inquiry, and in this case prejudice may be supposed to be at its lowest point ; although, even here, it is plain he can hardly have dwelt long on any particular train of thought or of investigation, without arriving at some definite opinion — some peculiar structure of his own, built up out of the facts with which he has become stored — and as few things are more cherished than theories of this kind, there will, consequently, be no small conflict, even in the mind of a candid inquirer such as we have supposed, between his disposition to welcome every new suggestion, and his dislike to find that the ingenious fancies which had long held quiet and agreeable possession of his mind, must be summarily dismissed. This, however, is the best case that can be imagined ; and if a discoverer should happen to fall in with such a person, when he first ventures to disclose his views, he may consider him- self more than ordinarily fortunate. In the next place, there are persons who have studied particular subjects, or who have become acquainted with them through being taught by others, but who do not 10 TRUTHS AND THKIR UECEl'TION practise them professionally. The son of an astrono- mer, for instance, would imbibe his father's views, and would be apt .to accept as family dogmas the conclusions based upon them ; and this case would be more difficult to deal with than the first, because, in addition to the pride of opinion, we should here have the effect of education, and the consequent inve- teracy of early habit. Thirdly, and lastly, we have those who have not only been strictly educated on a given subject, but who have also adopted it profes- sionally — that is to say, as a means of livelihood. Now, upon this class, what must be the first effect of a new discovery, tending to correct existing errors in the system they have learned '? In the first place, they must be prepared to recognize that some of the views, impressed upon them by teachers whom they looked upon as almost infallible, were either wholly dark or mistaken ; secondly, they must give up any theories of their own which they may have raised upon the foundations thus laid in their minds, and acknowledge that new men have opened up to them a truth, which all their previous education, study, and practice had failed to set before them ; and next, they must be prepared to admit that the mode of practice in which, by their peculiar skill, they may have hitherto attained reputation and fortune, must be abandoned, or modified in a way which will in- volve the necessity for new study, and the adoption of which must place, at least for a time, those worldly profits in jeopardy, which were previously considered IN RELATION TO HOMCEOPATHY. 11 secure beyond the possibility of disturbance. Will it not be admitted, that a more terrible demand upon the qualities most rare in the human mind — those of teachableness, humility, and self-denial' — can scarcely be conceived, and shall we not, consequently, recog- nize that, apart from a reference to recorded instances, the mere process of unaided reason is sufficient to demonstrate to us, that the severest opposition to all new truths must always come from those whose know- ledge, pursuits, and interests have all been mixed up with the studies to which these truths respectively have reference ^ Imagine the Brahmin who has lived for years in honour and reward, as one who never violated the observances of his faith, and who has preached to the multitude, that to destroy animal life is the most unpardonable of sins, being compelled to demonstrate, by the aid of a microscope, to his obsequious and relying followers, that the remaining half of the fruit he has just partly devoured is covered with countless myriads of active beings, and some idea may be formed of what we mean, when we talk of the readiness of professors to dismiss all preconceived views, and to welcome new ideas with the simplicity of little children. To apply the foregoing argument to the circum- stances connected with the reception of Homoeopathy, it merely remains to be pointed out, that on no scien- tific subject whatever are the general public so little instructed as on medicine, it being the invariable rule of all medical practitioners, and one in which 12 TRUTHS AND THEIR RECEPTION they present a contrast to almost all other professional men. to discourage everything like inquiry into the peculiar mysteries of their art. The geologist, the me- chanician, the astronomer, the chemist, the botanist, and, indeed, each and all of the followers of the other sciences, are only too happy on all occasions to find persons who will talk with them, and endeavour to penetrate into everything they know ; but the medi- cal philosopher invariably declines to encourage ama- teurs of any kind. Whether this arises from a benevolent caution, unknown to the astronomer, or mechanician, or chemist — since a man might do as much mischief by a misapplication of astronomy, mechanics, and chemistry, in attempting to steer a ship, or to open a dyke, or to make an explosive compound, as by a misapplication of the healing art — it is not necessary to inquire. It is enough for our present purpose, to show that the public are generally without any definite views whatever, either on the theory or practice of medicine, and that, consequently, opposition to any new doctrine respecting it is not likely to arise from actual prejudice on their part; and as the announcement of such new doctrine would, in addition to the charm of novelty, commend itself by benevolence, (the two strongest recommendations, as we have shown, that can be presented,) there is, in fact, every reason to believe that they would, under ordinary circumstances, manifest a favourable dispo- sition towards its reception. Still, it has been observed that, as a general rule IN RELATION TO HOMCEOPATHY. 13 not only do they abstain from manifesting any favour- able disposition towards Homoeopathy, but that they avoid the discussion of it, with a degree of earnest- ness amounting frequently to something like bitter- ness. This, however, although it cannot be ac- counted for by prejudice against the introduction of a new doctrine in medicine, can easily be explained by the fact, which it is the object of this essay to neu- tralize, of the hostility of the majority of the medical profession. Although the public entertain no parti- cular prejudice against the definite discovery pro- posed to be discussed, they entertain a very general prejudice against discussing any medical point what- ever, on the assumption, that if it were desirable it should be discussed at all, the members of the profes- sion would long ago have set them the example. By showing, therefore, as we have done, that in looking for this example they are committing as great a mistake as if they were to look for morning in the west, we shall have achieved the important object of removing their only objection towards commencing an inquiry for themselves. It is not enough, however, to reason out the point. There are some minds, to whom one practical ex- ample is worth more than a volume of argument. Let us therefore take a glance at what is recorded of the early reception and progress of some of the reforms and discoveries which are now universally recognized, and the instances of which may occur to us at random. 14 TRUTHS AND THEIR RECEPTION First, we may make a selection from the records of moral progress. It can safely be stated that no discovery in practical morality has been of more importance to society than that which exhibited the error of adopting, in the treatment of criminals, an indiscriminate and sanguinary legislation. So re- cently as 1819, the punishment of death applied to about 150 minor degrees of offence — some of them, according to Sir James Mackintosh, of the most frivolous and fantastic description. As an example, it may be stated that, among the crimes against which this penalty was specified, were " taking any fish out of any river or pond," " injuring of West- minster bridge," " breaking down the head or mound of a fish-pond," &c. ; and it was also liable to be enforced against " gypsies remaining within the kingdom one month ;" — offences by the side of which " sending threatening letters," " shop-lifting," " horse, deer, and sheep stealing," and " turnpike levelling," appear acts of peculiar enormity, and such as need not be enumerated with surprise, as also involving the same doom. Now, if the argument we have urged in the preceding pages be correct, it will not have been from lawyers or judges that the discovery of the fallacy of this mode of proceeding was first made known ; but, on the contrary, we must expect to find that the great argument against those who advocated a better system consisted, as at the present day in the case of Homoeopathy, in the fact that IN RELATION TO HOM(EOPATHY. 15 those whose special province it was to investigate and decide upon the matter, were unequivocally of opinion that the new theory would not do, and ought not to be entertained. Accordingly, we find that from the year 1750 downwards, constant attempts were made in the House of Commons to amend the criminal laws, and that these attempts were as con- stantly frustrated by the Upper House, where the predominance of the law lords has always been most powerful. When Sir Thomas More, in 1520, first ventured to question the advantage of putting men to death for petty offences, " the lawyers," it is said, " all fell upon him," and charged him with ignorance of judi- cial affairs ; and although it is true that one of his opponents who was most energetic in commending the punishment, and who had just expressed his satisfaction that thieves were then dealt with so severely, that there were sometimes twenty on one gibbet, admitted himself greatly perplexed at the fact that, while so few escaped, there w^ere yet so many left that no place was safe from them, he still main- tained that " a different method could never be pursued in England, without endangering the whole nation." In 1813, when Sir Samuel Romilly brought in a bill for abolishing the punishment of death for pri- vately stealing to the amount of 6s., Sir Thomas Plumer, the Attorney General, expressed his disap- in TRT'THS AND THEIR RECEPTION probation of it, stating at the same time that he was supported in his opposition by the opinions of all the jiult^'cs, and of the Recorder and Common Sergeant of London. Lord EIlenl)oroiigh deprecated such discussions, and said he should resist the further introduction of an innovating spirit into our ciiminal k^gislation. One member quoted the maxim, Nolumus leges Aufjlirc mutari, and another admitted that " the strongest argument he had heard against the bill was the opinion of the judges." At the same time he observed, " it might be remarked that there was a propensity in all professional men to resist every deviation from established usages." The bill passed in the Commons liy a majority of 72 against 34<. It was, however, thrown out in the Lords by a majority of nearly two to one. " All the ministers, law lords, and bishops," it is stated in the Annual Register, " voted against it." Again, when in the year 1830 an attempt was made to repeal the punishment of death in cases of forgery, excepting the forgery of wills, it was opposed by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Tenterden, Lord Wyn- ford, and Lord Eldon ; and the point most strongly urged against the measure was, that " there could be little doubt infinitely greater weight was due to the experience of these high judicial characters, in a matter with which they had been conversant as the business of their lives, than to the abstract specula- tions of mere theori'sts, founded on no satisfactory data." The " mere theorists," however, had gradu- IN RELATION TO HOMCEOPATHY. 17 ally gained the day in all the former cases, and in this they were also destined to find success. The punishment of death has long since been removed from each of the crimes to which we have referred, and with the best results ; the legal mind, however, has not altered, and every new amelioration that is proposed has still to encounter the hostility of the profession, and to meet, as in the time of Sir Thomas More, the invariable declaration that the contem- plated change can never be adopted, without endan- gering the whole nation. Having thus selected an illustration from the highest point connected with moral progress, it may next be appropriate to take one from the history of physical science. In this case, also, we shall make choice of the grandest and most momentous move- ment which that history presents. When, in the year 1474, Christopher Columbus matured his theory of the existence of a western continent, his natural impulse in seeking the means to enable him to demonstrate the truth of his con- ception, was to apply to those who, like the judges in the case of capital punishments, had been " con- versant with the subject" of navigation "as the business of their lives," and accordingly he offered his services to the great maritime republic of Genoa. No people at that time in existence were better capable, if the doctrine is to be received, that pro- fessional habits and interests are the true things to promote a sound and favourable judgment, of decid- c IS MM Tils AND TIIKIK UECEPTION ing upon the merits of his plan, than the Genoese, and never had anything been presented more calcu- lated to throw lustre on the peculiar science, the cultivation of which, within its routine limits, had rendered them great and famous. The few dry Avords, however, in which the fate of the proposal is recorded, are, that it was " rejected as the dream of a chimerical projector." But Columbus was not to be thwarted by this robufT ; and as he seemed, with an infatuation which would have done honour to the present day, to cling to the opinion, that it was from professional men that a professional discovery must be expected to find reception, he next submitted his plan to Portugal, the people of which country also were then amongst " the most experienced navigators in Europe." The king listened to him ; and Columbus, with his desire for professional sympathy, must have been delighted, when the matter was referred to the most eminent cosmographers, whom his majesty had been in the habit of consulting, and wdio had also not only performed the functions of "chief directors of the Portuguese navigation," but had given most atten- tion to the question of the passage to India, which it was the aim of Columbus to discover. But, alas ! the record is, that here, again, the prejudices of these persons were sufficient to baffle his success, " since," as it is observed by Dr. Robertson, " they could not approve of his proposal, without the mortification of acknowledging his superior sagacity." IN RELATION TO HOM(EOPATHY. 19 Weary and dejected, Columbus had now gained experience of what he was to expect from those who, according to the views of the world both then and at the present time, must have been the only proper persons to decide upon his scheme. His next act, therefore, was to proceed to Spain, a country which boasted of no eminent navigators or cosmographers, and which had never made any attempts to extend the ancient limits of discovery. Still, of course, Spain was not without professors of these subjects, and to these professors, such as they were, his pro- posals were again, in the due order of things, sub- mitted. It is unnecessary to add, that they were reported on with disfavour. " If," it was maintained, " there were really any such countries as Columbus pretended, they could not have remained so long concealed, nor would the wisdom and sagacity of former ages have left the glory of this invention to an obscure Genoese pilot." For five years he had therefore to contend, as it has been forcibly remarked, " not only with the obstinacy of ignorance, but what is still more intractable, the pride of false know- ledge;" and even at the end of this period, he was destined to meet with a new repulse. From princes, also, of inferior station, one after another, the same mortification was sustained ; and it is impos- sible to doubt that in all these instances the parties consulted, and whose opinions led to the contemptu- ous discouragement which was manifested, were the individuals most reputed at the respective courts c2 ^0 lIUTIls AM) IlIKIK KI-XEPTION for their studies and experience on this peculiar subject. At length, however, Columbus being about to leave Spain, a monk, together with a medical man, who seem to have had no due sense of their presump- tion in forming an opinion on nautical affairs, and who, feeling satisfied of the truth of his views, were tormented with the idea that some other country would finally secure the honour of their fulfilment, obtained once more for him a hearing at court. Once more, however, the subject was referred to competent persons, and once more, even in the face of court influence, it was reported upon not only as doubtful, but as in some degree ridiculous. Happily, how*- ever, the -feelings of the queen had been enlisted in the cause. The monk and the physician lived to find that they had been right, and that all the cosmo- graphers and navigators in Europe would have done well to have gone to school to them. The protests of all the authorities, however, were undiminished up to the very hour when the vessels of the adventurous theorist left the shore ; and it was only through the womanly enthusiasm of Isabella that he was destined ultimately to announce a new continent to the world. From these illustrations, selected from the most striking instances of progress in moral and in phy- sical science, it would seem fit now to turn to the records of religious advancement. On this part of the subject, however, it must be unnecessary to expa- IN RELATION TO HOMCEOrATHY. 21 tiate, since every page of that book, whence alone mankind derive all of light they can receive, contains the unceasing story of the pride, stubbornness, and envy with which each new revelation of the divine will was rejected by those who, in the eyes of the people, were especially qualified to be its expounders and ministers. From the period when the sorcerers and magicians of Egypt turned away from the wonders wrought by Moses, or from that when the prophets of Baal, numbering four hundred and fifty men, opposed themselves to the signs and exhorta- tions of Elijah, down to the day when every prophecy was made plain, and all that had been promised was fulfilled, the same terrible features of unbending hostility are shown, varying only by their gradual increase, in proportion as the climax of the truth drew near, until at last, no matter what might be the circumstances presented, they were all, however opposite their complexion, received as food for the malignant passions that had been awakened. " John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said he had a devil. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they said, ' Behold a man gluttonous and a wine bibber, a friend of publicans and sin- ners.' " Throughout the w^hole history of our Saviour's career, there is scarcely the slightest evi- dence of opposition to his doctrine, except as it was stimulated by the chief priests, and the Scribes and Pharisees. Indeed, day by day, when these parties sought to lay hands upon him, they were prevented. 22 TRUTHS AND THEIR RECEPTION because they " feared the people." It was the chief priests who urged the force of authority, that is to say, of " the expericucc in a matter with which they had been conversant, as the business of their lives,' which has since been so often urged by the like- minded of after generations, as sufficient to prevent all inquiry or Ijelief on the part of the multitude. When their own officers even exclaimed, "Never man spake like this man," it was the chief priests who asked, " Are ye also deceived ? Have any of the riders or of the Pharisees^ believed on him?" It was in the palace of the high priest that the plots were laid for procuring false testimony, and it was this personage who rent his clothes, and who, ex- claiming that blasphemy had been spoken, impa- tiently inquired, "What further need have we of witnesses^" It was from the " chief priests " that the great multitude came with swords and staves, to bring their victim to judgment ; and it was by them that Judas was suborned ; it being also to their hands that he returned the thirty pieces of silver he had received. Finally, when we read that Pilate, a mere military govejrnor, was able to see that " for envy they had delivered him," and was accordingly disposed to release him ; but that " the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus," and that, true to their character to the very last, when Pilate wrote, " Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews," they protested, even amidst the awful signs of that closing scene. IN KELATION TO HOMCEOPATHY. 2S " Write not, the King of the Jews, but that he said, I am the King of the Jews," we have a picture of the uncompromising pride of professional caste, knowledge, and self-interest, perhaps only more sub- lime than any other ever presented, because the revelation against which it was directed was the highest and most beneficent ever given to our race. Has human nature wholly changed since that hour, or is it the same in its main features, except the partial improvement it has undergone by the slow progress of the lessons of forbearance and humility which were then sealed? The hearts of all people will at once answer the question. The same spirit prevails, although modified in some by the influence of the Christian doctrine, and it is con- sequently worse than ignorance or mockery to pre- tend that at the present day the public should look in the first instance to the high priests of the various departments of knowledge for the reception of such new developments regarding the laws of the uni- verse, as the Creator may in His wisdom be pleased to place before us. L'4 TRUTHS AND THEIR RECEPTION CHAPTER II. The foregoing chapter will be considered sufficient to demonstrate the invariable course to be expected from all authorities in the case of new discoveries ; and to multi2:)ly instances would be merely to repeat facts with which the majority of the public have already become fatigued. Still there are many which seem so legitimately within the scope of the present essay, that some reference to them is essen- tial. A reference, however, and nothing more, is all that can be allowed to such hacknied stories as those of Galileo and the Professor of Padua, who obstinately refused to run the risk of conversion by looking through his glass ; of Virgilius, Bishop of Saltzburg, who was burnt by his learned contempo- raries, for having asserted that there existed antipodes ; of the opposition to Peruvian bark, which caused the physicians of Oliver Cromwell to allow him to die of ague, rather than that he should be permitted to take it ; of Harvey being lampooned from one end of Europe to the other; of Jenner being the mark for all to hit at; and of Gall finding refuge and dying in a foreign country. IN RELATION TO HOMCEOPATHY. 25 The leading circumstances, however, in connexion with one of these instances of discovery — that of the circulation of the blood have lately been so ably illustrated, in a work which, although professing to be one of fiction, developes in every page the pro- foundest knowledge of human nature, that it may be desirable to quote from it in this place. In her Game Lata Tales, Miss Martineau introduces the reception of Harvey's theory, to substantiate the point now contended for, that the opinions of con- temporary authorities are something worse than worthless as regards new doctrines. It is in the form of a dialogue, between Lords Holland, Seymour, and Southampton: — " ' One object of Old Parr's going up to court is, that Harvey may study the case, and see if he can gain hints from it for lengthening our lives.' " ' But surely,' said the clergyman, ' it can matter but little what Dr. Harvey concludes and gives out about the case of this old parishioner of mine, or any other case. No one can have any respect for his judgment in the face of the wild doctrine he gives out about the blood.' '"Does he adhere to that^* asked Lord South- ampton. " ' Yes,' replied Lord Holland. ' He will, ere long, publish another tract upon it. It is astounding to see a man, who seems otherwise rational and sensible, lose himself on this one point. There is no making any impression upon him ; he persists as 26 TRUTHS AND THEIR RECEPTION quietly as if all the wise people in the world agreed with him.' " ' Quietly "V said l^ord Seymour ; ' I thought he was a passionate, turbulent fellow, who thought all the world a fool but himself.' " ' Whatever he may think,' replied Lord Holland, ' he says nothing to give one such an idea : on the contrary, the most amusing, and yet melancholy, part of the business is, his entire complacency. He is so self-satisfied, that nothing can move him.' " ' Dr. Oldham,' said Southampton to the family physician, who sat smiling, while this description of Harvey was given, ' you have looked into this busi- ness — this pretended discovery — what have you to say to if?' " ' But little, my lord ; it is not worth so many words as have just been spent upon it. There is not a physician in Europe who believes in this pre- tended discovery.' " ' After examination T " ' Surely, my lord. Any announcement of a dis- covery made by the physician whose merits have raised him to Dr. Harvey's post, cannot but meet with attention from a profession whose business it is to investigate the facts of the human frame and constitution.' " ' Then known facts are against him T " ' Entirely. No point, for instance, is ])ctter understood, than that the arteries are occupied by the vital spirits, which are concocted in the left IN RELATION TO HOMOEOPATHY. 27 side of the heart, from the air and blood in the lungs.' " ' And what says Harvey to this ■?' " ' He controverts it, of course. Neither the oppo- sition of all living physicians, nor even the silence of Galen on this notion of his, has the least effect upon him. It is sad and pernicious nonsense, and ruinous to a man who, but for this madness, might have been an honour to his profession. Of course, his opinions on any subject are of no value now.' " ' In the profession, do you mean, or out of it r " ' I believe there are a good many out of the pro- fession who listen to him, open-mouthed, as to every professor of new doctrines ; but it is an affair in which no opinions but those of physicians can be of any consequence ; and as I said, not a physician in Europe believes Harvey's doctrine.' " ' It ought to be put down,' said Lord Salisbury, to which the clergyman gave an emphatic assent, observing that in so important an affair as a great question about the human frame, false opinions must be most dangerous, and ought to be put down.' " ' And how is new knowledge to fare, when it comes '?' said Lord Southampton. ' By my observa- tion. Dr. Harvey's notion is so following the course that new knowledge is wont to run, that I could myself almost suppose it to be true. It has been called nonsense ; that is the first stage. Now, if it be called dangerous, that is the next. I shall amuse j38 truths and their reception myself by watching for the third. When it is said there is nothing new in it, and that it was plain to all learned men before Harvey was born, I shall know how to apportion to Harvey his due honour.' " ' I thought, my lord, you had held my profession in respect,' said the physician, with an uneasy smile. " ' Am I not doing homage to a most eminent member of it — perhaps the most eminent in the world ^' said Lord Southampton ; ' and it appears that I am rather before than behind others in doing so. There is no man, not even the greatest, who may not stand hat in hand before the wise physician ; and I for my humble part, would do even so.' " The above sketch individualizes the entire class who have formed the subject of our present remarks, and every one will at once recognize the portrait, from having met with the original, and heard his very words applied, at one time or another, to such new views, and such expounders of new views, as may have awakened their interest and advocacy. We might here, therefore, close these considerations, were it not for the circumstance that, as all the illus- trations which have been given refer to periods which have long passed away, some readers, even while they admit that the human nature which was thus manifested 50, 300, or 1800 years back, was the same human nature which, although improved, is now manifesting itself in the world, might be dis- posed, in the absence of all citations of modern IN RELATION TO HOMCEOPATHY. 29 examples, to estimate unduly the progress which has been made. This reason renders it necessary, there- fore, to pause a short time longer, while we glance at the experience of our own times. It is now not above five years, since a surgeon at Wellow, Notts, gave to the medical world a full and careful detail of the fact of a capital operation having been performed on the person of a labouring man in the hospital of that place, while in a state of entire unconsciousness, produced by certain manipulations which had been resorted to for the purpose. The evidence of the whole proceedings was complete and unquestionable. The man exhibited no emotion, " his whole frame rested in perfect stillness, not a muscle or nerve was seen to twitch," and on being gradually awakened, after the operation, he merely exclaimed, " I bless the Lord to find it's all over ! " A lucid statement of the entire case, accompanied by all necessary certificates, was then forwarded to the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, and read before that body. A discussion ensued, and the man was pronounced to be an impostor. There was no previous imputation on his character ; he had been brought down for many months to the prospect of the grave, by what p^ and his attendants had be- lieved to be a mortal disorder, so that there must have been every tendency to an earnest state of mind, and his averment, that he had " suffered no pain," instead of producing him any advantage, must have deprived him of all that applause, usually so agree- 30 TRUTHS AND THEIR RECEPTION able to persons of his class, which would otherwise have been bestowed upon him for his unflinching firmness in the ordeal he had passed. The Hoyal Medical and Chirurgical Society, however, were satisfied that he was an impostor, because there had been a total absence of all movement; and it was contended by them, that even if the man had been as insensible as was represented, certain reflex move- ments of various muscles would still have occurred, as a matter of course. The sole reward of the bene- volent surgeon, therefore, in making the process known to his colleagues, was simply to find himself regarded as a dupe, or perhaps as an accessary to a deception, and with this the matter ended. Notwithstanding the warning thus held out, how- ever, to other inquirers, not to attempt, if they valued their reputation, any similar experiments, it appears that several were daring enough to do so, and re- ports were occasionally furnished to the public, of the extraction of teeth and the performance of other excruciating processes, without any sense of suffer- ing on the part of the respective patients. At length a Dr. Esdaile, in India, announced the performance, not merely of one or two, but of a complete series of operations of a most painful kind — chiefly the remo- val of tumours — upon diseased patients in a state of unconsciousness, in the gaol infirmaries and hospitals at Calcutta, which led to a committee being consti- tuted l)y the Indian Government to report upon the results of his method. This was followed by the IN RELATION TO HOMCTlOrATHY. 31 establishment of a Government hospital, especially under Dr. Esdaile's superintendence, and the final result of many months of continued and public suc- cess was his receiving, at the hands of the authori- ties, the appointment of Kesidency Surgeon. Mean- while, however, these facts had stimulated an Ameri- can physician to attempt the discovery of some palpable agent that should produce instantaneously, and with unvarying certainty, the effects which Dr. Esdaile and others had demonstrated, and which the Medico-Chirurgical Society and the profession, as a body, had so recently denounced as mere delusions, caused by trickery, and impossible under any cir- cumstances. Hence the discovery of the anaesthetic properties of ether by Dr. C. J. Jackson, of Boston, in America, followed by the introduction of chloro- form, by Dr. Simpson, of Edinburgh; and as the effects of these were so immediate and palpable as to put contest out of the question, the consequent re- cognition was unavoidable, that the state which was boldly asserted by the profession to be so inconsistent with nature, that any supposition was more reason- able than that it could be true, was producible by simple and well known agents, the power of which we might imagine far less potent than that of one human being acting by sympathy on another. Not to press too hardly on the medical profession, however, let us turn to other cases of reform, affect- ing very different classes. It will be remembered, that about two years back 32 TRUTHS AND THEIU UECEVTION a decided expression of public opinion took place, on the question of military discipline and punishments, in consequence of the death of a soldier having ra- pidly ensued after the infliction of 150 lashes, by order of a court-martial at Hounslow ; and that the agitation thus aroused led to the number of 50 lashes being fixed as the limit to which such sentences should for the future be allowed to extend. The force of popular feeling had seemed to render it pro- bable that the entire abolition of this degrading mode of upholding those " noble qualities" of the British soldier, which form so frequent a theme in the British parliament, would be unavoidable ; and it was only with difficulty the ministers contrived to put off this consummation, and to pacify the advo- cates for reform by the concession above mentioned, coupled by general assurances of a strong desire ultimately to grant all that was demanded. But it was by public opinion alone, that is to say, by the opinion of merchants, doctors, clerks, shopkeepers, mechanics, farmers, labourers, and private gentle- men, as opposed to the opinions of military officers, " who were conversant with the subject, as the busi- ness of their lives," that this great concession was obtained. From the earliest military records, down to the very hour at which the amelioration in ques- tion was adopted, the fear of the possibility of such a step had been constantly present to the military mind, and predictions and protests of the most alarm- IN RELATION TO HOMOEOPATHY. 33 ing description had always burst forth at every men- tion of the matter. Up to the year 1807, any number of lashes could be inflicted, but at that period a private of the 54th regiment having been sentenced to receive 1 500, his Majesty, George the Third, was " graciously pleased," — to tlse the words of the general order pro- mulgated on the occasion, — " to express his opinion that no sentence for corporal punishment should ex- ceed one thousand lashes." During the war, the punishment was so frequent in the British army, that it was estimated by Major Macnamara to have been sustained by at least three- fourths of the soldiers in every regiment ; and in 1812, it was stated that the mean number of lashes inflicted monthly in a regiment then serving in India, was for some time 17,000. These facts attracted attention, and provoked discussion in the House of Commons, and it was solely owing to such discus- sions and the eff'orts of the press, that the practice became moderated in the slightest degree. The opposition raised by military men to permitting any consideration of the question was such, that it was remarked on one occasion, when Sir Francis Burdett brought forward a motion with respect to it, that " one would have supposed he had been proposing to do away with some great known blessing — something containing within itself the means of affording health, or plenty, or security." And in 1842, Lord Stanley, D M rui'TIlS AND THKIH KKCKl'TION then Mr. Stanley, expressed his conviction, that if llic matter had been left to military men, flogging would have been continued to that hour in full force. A large proportion of the oflicers of the army, it is remarked in the excellent work of Mr. Marshall on the system,* " seemed to be so well satisfied with the efficacy of corporal punishment, however degrad- ing and injurious it was popularly admitted to be, that they rarely considered the practicability of mo- derating its severity, diminishing its frequency, or of suggesting an adequate substitute. Corporal pu- nishment was considered the sine qua non, without which the discipline of the army could not be main- tained. ' I am not the least surprised at this opi- nion,' says Lord William Bentinck ; ' I must not forget that for many years of my life, in conjunction with ninety-nine hundred parts of the officers of the British army^ I entertained the same sentiments. It is only from long reflection, from the effects of discussion, from the observation that since that time, though corporal punishments have diminished a hun- dred, perhaps a thousand-fold, discipline has been improved, and the soldier treated like a rational being, and not as a mere brute, that my own preju- dice and that of others have given way.' At one time," Mr. Marshall adds, " the efficiency of an offi- cer to command seemed to be estimated by his dispo- sition to inflict corporal punishment. ' I understand * The IVIilitary Miscellany. By Henry Marshall, F.R.S.E. Deputy Inspector General of Anny Hospitals. London. Murray. IN RELATION TO HOMOEOPATHY. 35 you have got a new commanding officer,' said an officer of one regiment to that of another ; ' how do you like him T ' We like him pretty well,' answered the other, ' only he does not flog enough.' " When at length, in 18 12, public opinion had suc- ceeded so far as to cause a limitation of the number of lashes in the power of a regimental court-martial to 300 instead of 1000, the effect it produced on some military authorities was such as completely to overpower that which, in such characters, is usually considered to be the grand idea of life, namely, im- plicit subordination. " One officer," says Mr. Mar- shall, " with whom I was acquainted, and who be- longed to the same regiment as myself, swore that he could not, and would not, comply with the order." Throughout all the struggles made against the sys- tem, it has been well observed, the arguments ad- duced by military officers in Parliament bore a close affinity to those with which a Spanish Inquisitor once endeavoured to justify the system pursued by that tribunal. " Do not imagine," said he, " that we take pleasure in aulo da fes. Oh, no ! it is by far the most painful part of our duty. But how can ecclesiastical discipline be carried on without it ? Gentlemen who are not themselves versed in the de. jmrtment over ivhich we j9?'^5/r/' The motives of the parties advocating a mitigation of corporal punishment v^^ere traced to " an active and persevering desire to innovate upon the customs of the country, and to establish a corrupt popularity with the unthinking part of the community, if not to sap the discipline of the army, and thereby to remove the last bar to the introduction of democracy, and its consequences, anarchy and devastation." Since that time, however, we have seen the 1000 lashes reduced to 50, and none of these consequences have been fulfilled. It has turned out, that on the subject which had been the business of their lives, the mili- tary prophets were wrong, and that, as in the case of the cosmographers and navigators of the days of ('olumbus, who showed themselves less capable of forming a judgment on nautical science than a phy- sician and a priest, it would have been better if they had submitted with docility to learn the most import- ant lesson connected with their profession, from the arguments of the shopkeepers and others composing the general pulilic, to whose will they were at length forced to succumb, and the correctness of whose views they are now compelled to acknowledge. Passing from military men and their prejudices, we may turn for our next modern illustration to a very different class. Previously to the year 1844, the state of the bank- ing laws in England had been a constant topic of complaint. Scarcely a year passed, in which some distresses of the country were not traced, and in many ! IN IIKL.VTION TO HOMOEOPATHY. 37 instances with perfect justice, to the total want of any sound principle in the regulation of the paper currency of the kingdom. Each banking establish- ment was guided by its own judgment of what was practicable or prudent, and the consequences were a constant state of uncertainty as to the extent of the note issues that might take place from time to time, totally destructive of all possibility, on the part either of bankers or merchants generally, of calculating with precision what might be the condition of the circu- lation at any given period, or under any given circum- stances. In this state of affairs, the very expediency of permitting a paper currency at all was not unfre- quently questioned, since it was contended that the advantages of economy and convenience which it Avas calculated to bestow, were more than neutralized by the sad revulsions which were constantly the result of the capricious manner in which the issues were conducted, and which, rendering impossible any ex- ercise of foresight on the part of the trader, often confounded the careful and the improvident in one common ruin. The question, therefore, was, whe- ther the safety and steadiness of an entirely metallic circulation were not such as to render it worth while to forego the economy and the convenience resulting from a mixed one. At this period, Mr. Samuel Jones Loyd put for- ward a plan, by which the paper circulation might be retained, and brought within definite laws, which should cause it to operate in precisely the same 3ti TRUTHS AND TIIEIK KECErTION uiaiiiu'r as if the currency were entirely metallic, and hy which the trader would be rendered able to calculate invariably, and with the minutest precision, what would be the state of the money market from time to time, under the ordinary course of commer- cial events. To look at the state of supply and demand between the products of his own and of other countries was already his natural function, and Mr. Loyd's plan rendered it certain that, if he would fuliil this duty for himself, it would be impossible for the future that he should be thrown out in his calculations by any unlooked-for disturbance of the circulating medium. The discovery — for like every exposition of a perfect principle, simple as it was, it deserved that term — commended itself to the prac- tical shrewdness of Sir Robert Peel, and accordingly, in 1844, he adopted it as the basis of the long-de- sired reform in the currency system of the country. It need hardly be said, however, that, like every other measure of advancement, it was destined to meet an active and formidable opposition ; and per- haps, after what has already been written, it is still less necessary to add, that this opposition proceeded almost entirely from the bankers of London and their connexions, and that the strength of all the subse- quent arguments against the measure was derived, as a matter of course, from this very circumstance, and consisted, as usual, in the phrase we have already so often repeated, that the opinions of those who were practically familiar with the subject, and the IN RELATION TO 1I0M(E0PATHY. 39 large majority of whom had decided against it, were entitled to far more weight than the abstract specu- lations of mere theorists. Another important illustration, from a recent source, suggests itself. About ten years back, Row- land Hill broached his plan of post office reform, which, for simplicity and ingenuity, may also take its place in the actual records of discovery ; and in this case the fact is too well known to need repe- tition, that the adoption of the measure was actually forced on the Government by public opinion, against the most energetic protests and the most persevering obstacles, placed in its way by the post office autho- rities, who were ''conversant with the subject, as the business of their lives," whose opinions were received with the usual weight on this very score, and who could actually have had no personal motive to resist the improvement, except such as was fur- nished by professional prejudice, since it placed their official position in no danger whatever, and would merely have involved on their part a variation from the peculiar routine to which they had been hitherto accustomed. A further example, which it will be interesting and instructive to add, may be given as follows. For the last three years. Captain Maconochie, an officer in the navy, who acted some time back as superintendent at Norfolk Island, has been endea- vouring to force upon the attention of the Govern- ment a system for the treatment of transported cri- 40 TUl'THS AND THEIR RECEPTION minals, which lie terms the " mark system ;" and whicli it was earnestly desired by the friends of pro- gress might be adopted. The feature of this plan consists in regulating the duration of the prisoner's sentence solely by the nature of his conduct. It proposes that, instead of being sentenced for a speci- fied term of years, he should be sentenced according to the enormity of his offence, to earn a certain num- ber of " marks," which are in fact to represent wages. For each day's labour, according to its quantity, and as it might be well or ill performed, he would receive payment in these symbols, and thus in proportion to his diligence he would accumulate the means of shortening his detention. Here is a constant stimu- lus to exertion, calculated to beget permanent habits of cheerful industry ; but it will be seen that some- thing more is required to insure that the offender shall have learned those habits of self-control which alone can render him fit again to encounter the temptations of the world. To meet this point, Cap- tain Maconochie urges that the criminal should be required to pay out of his earnings, in marks, for his food and all indulgences he may require, and also that he should be fined in marks for every offence he may commit. It is even proposed, and upon good reasons, that he should be permitted to purchase to- bacco and spirits, and other fancied luxuries upon the same terms ; every instance of drunkenness or intemperance of any kind being visited with a heavy fine. IN RELATION TO HOMCEOPATHY. 41 In this way, he never would be able to escape from the law until he had gained the power of resist- ing temptation ; because, in proportion as he might expend his marks upon these indulgences, he would prolong the time of his imprisonment. In Norfolk Island, Captain Maconochie tried this plan amid every kind of opposition, but, nevertheless, with the most striking results ; and, apart from practical ex- perience, it would be difhcult to conceive any system more perfectly adapted to secure the protection of society, by rendering it certain that no convicted cri- minal shall again enter its bosom, until satisfactory evidence has been afforded that he may be safely trusted. But although these views, on their announcement, were favourably received by the most practical and eminent philanthropists, and apparently also by those members of the Government to whom they were submitted — more especially as every so-called pre- ventive or reformatory system, based upon opposite principles, had without exception resulted in total failure, the expensive and much-boasted experiment at Parkhurst having been the last bitter disappoint- ment — ^they were not destined to receive a trial until at all events they should have overcome the usual obstacles from those who have made the subject their entire professional occupation. The system had been tried, as has been stated, at Norfolk Island by Captain Maconochie on his own responsibility, and amidst all the difficulties that the absence of any 4£ IIU'TIIS AND THEIR RECEPTION permanently recognized power on his part, and the resistance of old employes were capable of throwing in his way, he still obtained results that amounted to a practical demonstration of the soundness of his theory, while it was also ascertained that an esta- blishment founded on an analogous principle at Met- tray, near Tours, had exhibited, after prolonged ex- perience, a further and most astonishing confirmation of its value. Under these circumstances, it may well be conceived there was only one thing strong enough to prevent a trial of the system, and that that was professional prejudice. A fair and deliberate trial was all that was contended for, and its promoters were willing to see it granted, in the first instance, in any establishment and under any limitations, as regards magnitude or expense. In deference, however, to the universal delusion which it has been the object of these pages to upset, that those who had been engaged for years in prac- tising a recognized system were the best persons to decide if that system should be altered, the proposi- tion is understood to have been submitted by the Government — themselves favourably disposed — to the inspectors of prisons for a report on its expediency. That report, it is scarcely necessary to say, was as a matter of course unfavourable, and the trial therefore has been deferred. That it will one day be adopted, few persons who possess the logical faculty, coupled with a belief in the doctrines of Christianity being IN RELATION TO HOMCEOPATHT. 43 ultimately extended from Sunday repetition to week- day practice, will be disposed to doubt ; but mean- while, the report, which was probably worded after the fashion of that of the cosmographers and navi- gators of the days of Columbus, namely, that the proposition submitted was " not only doubtful, but in some degree ridiculous," will have the effect of pro- longing for a considerable period the present modes of management, all of which have failed ever since the world began, and which are avowedly deplored as the opprobrium of civilization. The same thing was observed in the case of the treatment of lunatics ; and although Dr. Conolly in England, and Dr. Woodward in America, have succeeded in demonstrating to the world the effects of that " soothing system," which at first was never spoken of by their colleagues in the profession — especially those who were exclusively devoted to this branch, except with a taunt, their success was achieved amidst such obstacles as only men devoted to the cause of humanity would have had the con- stancy to undergo. The opposition to the new doctrines regarding the navigation laws is at present being carried on almost exclusively by those who, as large ship-owners, have been conversant with navigation as the business of their lives, and the chief public demonstration against the proposed reform was made by the seamen, who would be most benefited by an alteration, but whom it was presumed the public would, according to old 44 TRUTHS AND THEIR RECEPTION impulso, look upon as practical authorities. In like manner, there is an opposition going on to sanitary relorni, and to the removal of Smithfield market, in the face of the most energetic manifestations of public opinion, on the part of those civic functionaries, the business of whose lives it has professedly been to judge of the wants, capabilities, and welfare of the city of London. The catalogue of illustrations might be lengthened to any extent, but enough has probably been said to induce in the mind of the reader sufficient doubt as to the infallibility of what is usually called authority, to prevent him for the future from voluntarily loading its chains upon that best gift he has received from his Creator, the power of examination and free judgment. Yet notwithstanding, it may thus have been made plain, that the opposition of professors or craftsmen is always to be expected, in a general sense, in the case of any discovery or improvement bearing upon their respective systems, we must still recognize that this applies, as a rule, only to the majority — the routine followers, in short, of established things — and that amongst every body of men there are earnest and original minds, capable of struggling against the thraldom of their conventional usages, and of boldly showing that they have arrived at that height of knowledge, which has taught them how much they have to learn, and with what humility and thankful- ness they should receive new light. IN RELATION TO HOMOEOPATHY. 45 It would, therefore, be a serious error, if a non- professional investigator were led to disregard, in any given case of vaunted discovery, a long-continued, entire, and unanimous condemnation on the part of the instructed members of the profession to which it may apply. Such a condemnation might fall upon any truth, no matter how sublime, in a first general out- burst, but it could not continue. Before the doctrine had long been published, some Nicodemus would come by night to receive its lessons, and gradually a small band would gather in its defence ; a band, more- over, which would steadily increase, through evil report and good report. If circumstances of this sort, therefore, are wanting in any individual instance of an alleged new truth, we may feel pretty certain that it will turn out no truth at all ; and although even in this case we should not be warranted, if we had leisure, in forbearing to examine for ourselves, it would take away much of the urgency of reproach for any temporary delay. Having commenced this general essay, with the final view of pointing out its applications, especially to the doctrine of Homoeopathy, and having, it may be hoped, established the point contended for, that the public are not justified in neglecting an examina- tion of that system, on the ground that it has received professional opposition, unless it could be shown that such opposition has been permanently unanimous, it now, therefore, remains for us to inquire whether the system has, from time to time, received that proportion 46 TRUTHS ANU THEIK KECEPTION of courageous individual support, which we have ad- mitted may in all such cases fairly be looked for. This inquiry will consequently form the subject of a third and concluding chapter. IX RELATION TO HOMCEOPATHY. 47 CHAPTER III. The earliest instances of Homoeopathy being re- ceived with respect by accomplished Allopathists, are to be found amongst the physicians of the Conti- nent, the system, which was first promulgated in 1796, not having been introduced into England till about the year 1827. Amongst the most prominent of these examples, the following have been collected and quoted by Dr. A. Gerald Hull, of New York.* Germany. — Hufeland,' the venerable patriarch of medical science in Germany, has conceded the existence of merit to the system of Hahnemann, whose first Essay on Homoeopathy was published in his Medical Journal, and for whom he acknowledged the highest personal respect. The success of a Homoeopathist, Dr. Stapf, in curing Egyp- tian opthalmia among the soldiery in the garrisons of the Rhine, attracted the attention of the Prussian Minister of War, who soli- cited him to visit Berlin, to take charge of its military hospitals, Lazareth and La Charite. He accepted the invitation, and offi- ciated to the entire satisfaction of the minister. Hufeland, who introduced Stapf to the assembled company of La Charite, then paid him a deserved personal compliment, and at the same time expressed these impartial vievvs respecting the homoeopathic system : — * The Homceopathic Examiner, Vol. L No. 1. 48 TRUTHS AND THEIR RECEPTION " Homoeopathy seems to me to be particularly valuable in two j)i)int.s of view ; first, because it promises to lead the art of healing back to the only true path of quiet observation and experience, and to give new life to the too much neglected worth of sympto- matology ; and secondly, because it furnishes simplicity in the treatment of disease. The man whom I have the honour to pre- sent to you is not a blind worshipper of his system. He is, as I have learned with joy, as well acquainted with the entire science of medicine, and as classically educated as he is well informed in the new science. I have discovered in him an amplitude of know- ledge, clearness of mind, and a spirit of tolerance, which last is the more worthy of notice in him, as it is not to be found in all the Homoeopathists." France. — Bhoussais, the founder and champion of the cele- brated " Doctrine Physiologique," which has produced such a marked revolution in the practice of medicine, advised in his pub- lic lectures, delivered in the Ecole de Medecine at Paris, that impartial trials should be made, before Homoeepathy should be judged or condemned, concluding his address with words that arc honourable to his candour and philanthropy. " Many distin- guished persons are occupied with it. We cannot reject it without a hearing. We must investigate the truth it contains ! " He proved the sincerity of his advice, by instituting a series of expe- riments on his own person, and in general practice, which were only interrupted by his lamented death. Italy. — The venerable Professor Brera, who holds a distin- guished rank among the Allopathists of Italy, has uttered opinions of Homoeopathy with fearless liberality, which demand a careful perusal. In his Antologia Medicale, he thus writes : — " Homoe- opathy is decried by some as useless, and by others as strange ; and though it appears to the great majority as ridiculous and ex- traordinary, it can nevertheless not be denied that it has taken its stand in the scientific world. Like every other doctrine, it has its books, its jounials, its chairs, its hospitals, clinical lectures, pi'o- fessors, and most respectable communities to hear and appreciate. JSTolens volens, even its enemies must receive it in the history of medicine, for its present situation requires it. Having attained this rank, it deserves, by no means, contempt ; but, on the con - trary, a cool and impartial investigation, like all other systems of IN RELATION TO HOMCEOPATHY. 49 modem date. Homoeopathy is the more to be respected, as it propagates no directly noxious en'ors. "If HomcEopathy proclaims facts and theories which cannot be reconciled with om* present knowledge, this is no sufficient cause as yet to despise it, and to rank it among absolute falsities. Woe to the physician who believes that he cannot learn to-mor- row what he does not know to-day ! Do we not hear daily com- plaints of the insufficiency of the healing art, and are not those physicians who honestly suspect the solidity of their knowledge the most learned, and in their practice the most successful ? Such sentiments have undoubtedly induced most of the German phy- sicians to study Homoeopathy, and to conquer their aversion to the new doctrine. Let us always recollect, that the greatest dis- coveries have given origin to the most violent controversies; wit- ness the examples of Harvey, Galileo, Newton, Descartes, &c." America. — Valentine Mott, justly the pride of American surgery, imbued with the becoming liberality of an unprejudiced and noble mind, visited Hahnemann during his first sojourn in Europe. Instead of denouncing this venerable philoso2)her as the conceptionist of a puerile and useless theory, he has had the moral courage to speak of the master spirit of modem medical history in the following language : — " Hahnemann is one of the most accomplished and scientific physicians of the present age." Professor James M'Naughton, of the Western Medical Col- lege of the University of the State of New York, and late Presi- dent of the New York State Medical Society, in his annual ad- dress before the Society, made an avowal of sentiments that were inspired by the pure spirit of philosophy. To these the attention of the physicians he alludes to is emphatically directed. " Generally speaking, they have at once pronounced the whole subject absurd — a delusion — or a gross imposition upon public credulity. Now, is this the proper mode of treating it ? Is it philosophical to call anything absurd, professing to be founded on observation and experiment ? If it be false, it should be proved so by showing that facts do not warrant the premises or the deduc- tions drawn from them. It is possible the homoeopathic reason- ing may be erroneous — it is possible the medicines may act as specifics, like the vaccine virus, and that the mode of action may be altogether inexplicable in the present state of our knowledge. E 50 IIMTFIS AM) THKIK RECEPTION We nro therefore more interested in determining tlic correctness of the alh'god facts, tlian in that of the theory oflbrcd to explain them. Many of tliese iacts are of such a kind as admit of easy examination, and can be readily proved or' refuted. Whether Homoeopathy be true or not, it is entitled to have its claims fairly investigated. The object of the profession is to ascertain the truth ; and if it should turn out, that in any disease the homeo- pathic remedies arc more efficacious than those known to the ordi- nary system, they ought unquestionably to be used. It will not do for the members of the ])rofcssion to wrap themselves in their dignity, and to call the new system absurd, without further in- quiry. The history of the profession presents many lamentable instances of the obstinacy with which errors have been clung to, and improvements resisted." In addition to the above statements of eminent men who were practising Allopathy at the time these opinions were expressed, Dr. Hull quotes a long list of distinguished continental practitioners who had openly renounced the old system. In some of these cases the after testimony is remarkable, from the energy with which it is given : — " Dm'ing a quarter of a century," observes Dr. Schiiler, an eminent allopathic physician of Stollberg, in Germany, " I had followed the banner of Allopathy. I had employed much time and meney in studying its frequent transfonnations, without find- ing a thread which could guide me in the labyrinth of medicine ; without power to unravel the mystery by which cures were effected. It is assuredly to our ignorance of the virtues of medicines, and of the proper mode of ushig tlicm, we must attribute in a great measure the ravages of disease. These thoughts besieged my mind and embarrassed my views, in spite of my attention to the letter of the law prescribed by the masters of the art, and I was forced to (juit the beaten track, and follow an unknown path. But in wishing to avoid one rock, I fell upon another. That I might escape from this perplexity, I had for a long time devoted much IN RELATION TO HOMCEOPATHY. 51 attention to Homoeopathy, but the cry of reprobation which rose against it, and the apparent paradox of many of its principles, especially that of the infinite small doses, turned me from the study of it, and retained me a faithful adherent to the old method' But my doubts and my fidelity were finally strongly shaken, and it was experience which produced this effect." Again, Dr. Miihlenbein, State Councillor, Phy- sician to the Duke of Brunswick, and Knight of the Order of Guelf, writes thus at the conclusion of a long and successful career : — " I have been a Doctor of Medicine for fifty years, during the first twenty-five of which I practised allopathically, and with suc- cess, if I may presume to judge by the public reputation confer- red upon me ; but I assure you that I owe daily oblations to my Creator for an allowance of sufficient years to become convinced of the truth of Homceopathy. Indeed, it is only since I have practised Homoeopathy, that I have been satisfied of the utility of any system of medicine, and have acquired information by which I could repair errors I committed in allopathic practice, from vfa.nto( absolute knowledge. " These are my views of Homoeopathy, which I communicated some time since through Stapf's archives, but having nearly attained the limits of my existence, I reiterate to you that I am more than ever convinced that Homoeopathy is the only true mode of restoring the sick to health, and that permanent health." To these statements, quoted by Dr. Hull, an abundance of others remain to be added. Among the earliest persons who contended in England for a fair hearing of the doctrine, were Dr. Uwins and Mr. Kingdon, both practitioners of high repute. Dr. Uwins publicly urged before the London Medical Society, that Hahnemann was worthy of the thanks of the profession, for his unwearied industry in ascer- e2 i)2 lUrTIIS AND TIIKIU RECEPTION tainint^ the properties of medicines; and he also averred that, from cases which had come under his own observation, the system was one that was not to lie put down with derision, and that it would event- ually overcome all opposition.* For this, however, Dr. Uwins was assailed as a madman, and there is every reason to believe that, being of a sensitive and refined nature, his death, which took place shortly afterwards, was accelerated, if not caused, by the conduct he experienced from his colleagues. About the same time Mr. Kingdon read a paper before the same Society, of which the following report appeared in the Lancet : — The observations that I am willing to offer on a subject which cannot fail to be interesting at this period, may not, in themselves, prove worthy of your attention, and therefore I shall take pains that they be not lengthily tedious. IMy most profitable business is with gentlemen in the city, whose object it is to have their maladies attended to, if possible, without interference with their usual avocations, — men whose minds are enlarged by education and occupation, — whose habit is industry, and whose fortune is the profitable occupation of their time, equally removed from the indolent and luxurious, who readily catch at novelty for amusement, and the ignorant, and unlettered, who are easily caught by any appearance of mysticism. Such men as these have been requiring me, for the last eighteen months, to try, as they called it, " Homoeopathy," at which I only smiled incredulously, and, I feai', contemptuously. The reiteration of such applications, however, and from men in whose judgment and veracity I had confidence, seemed to demand from me some investigation of the subject ; and, desirous to set about it in the most fair way, I sought an introduction to Dr. Quin, of whom I had heard most honourable report. * Lancet, 15th Oct. 1830. IN RELATION TO HOMOEOPATHY. 53 Of that gentleman I am desirous to say, that, after a rather close intimacy of some months duration, I esteem him as most honourable, candid, and gentlemanly, highly educated, with too much intellectuality easily to deceive himself, and too much honour to deceive another. From Dr. Quin I learnt the almost inconceivable minuteness of the homcBopathic doses of medicine, and felt more strongly the impossibility of any effect whatever being produced by them. A dose of medicine not cognizable by any of our senses, and by itself so minute, that the mind cannot conceive the space that would be filled by it, cannot, by possibility, be supposed capable of producing effect. In this place the naked absurdity, as it must appear to all who have previous knowledge, should be pointed out, since, if any good arise out of this system, it must be such as is competent to overcome all pre-conceived notions of the proper use of medicine. The 20th part of the decillionth of one-eighth of a drop of the expressed juice of a recent plant ! What mind can bring itself to consider such a quantity ? What finite can comprehend such an infinitessimal ? Who can wonder that men, believing that they knew anything of disease or remedies, should sneer at such a proposition, as that this dose should control an active and violent disease, and continue its action for weeks ? I could hardly respect that mind which could grant credence to such a proposition without experimenting for itself. No more can I respect those feelings which would characterize as knaves or fools a large body of industrious individuals, rather than take the trouble to investigate into the truth of their assertions. Among the medicines with which Dr. Quin favoured me, was " Matricaria chamomilla," the dose being the twentieth part of a quadrillionth, by dilution of a drop of the essential tincture. This tincture is made by mixing equal parts of the expressed juice of the whole plant with an equal quantity of spirits of wine.* This being permitted to stand for one day, the clear liquor only is poured off, as the essential tincture, leaving the albumen and fibrine which might have been expressed with the juice. Thus I consider the essential tincture to contain only one- * The matricaria chamomilla is gathered while in flower, from June to August. The root, stalk, leaves, and flowers, are bruised together, after having been cleansed from impurities. 54 TRUTHS .V.X1> TIIEIU RECEPTION third of (he juice of the plant. Amongst other virtues attributed to this medicine, was the relief given in tooth-ache, where there was inflammation of the jaw and cheek, and where relief was temporarily obtained by putting cold water in the mouth. At this time I had a gratuitous patient, with greatly inflamed jaw and swollen face, much constitutional fever, constipated bowels, and intense head-ache, for which I had prescribed an active anti- jihlogislic and aperient mixture. She came to mo in three days, relieved from the fever, constipation, and head-ache, but declaring that she could get no sleep, from the acute pain in her jaw, which was still much inflamed. I directed her to avoid such diet as I had been taught was likely to act as antidote to the medicine, gave her a dose of the chamomilla, to put into her mouth at bed-time ; and though I do not see gratuitous patients more than twice a- week, told her to come to me on the next moniing, when, if she were not better, I would order something else. She did come tlie next morning, and told me that she had slept all night, and felt that she was getting quite well. I laughed, attributed the relief to my antiphlogistic mixture, and thought the medicine lucky to have been so opportunely given. This case, however, told nothing against tlie medicine. On the same night I went into the country by mail, it being Saturday, and returned on Monday, at eleven o'clock. I foimd IMrs. Kingdon suffering from inflammation of the jaw, and such acute pain, that she had had no sleep for two nights. She had been putting cold water into her mouth, constantly, as it relieved her while cold. Forgetting the new medicines, I was about to order leeches and fomentations, when it occuiTed to me to ask her if she would try " a chamomilla ?" " Anything, anything,'' was her reply, " for I shall go mad if this pain continue." I found some patients waiting, and attended to them, thus occupying nearly an hour, when I was informed that Mrs. K. was getting worse and worse, and must he attended to. I sent her a chamo- milla powder, which she applied to her gum, not having been directed what to do with it. I saw her in half an hour; she was free from pain, but had that peculiar feeling which is usually j)resent after severe pain. She almost wished to have the pain again, to try whether a little powdered sugar would not have an equally good effect. I again laughed, and but that there was evi- IN RELATION TO HOMCEOPATHY. 55 dent inflainniation, should have considered it one of those sudden subsidences of pain which we occasionally experience. It here becomes necessary to state the mode of admhiistering the medicine. Small globules, composed of sugar-of-milk, are permitted to absorb the tincture, diluted to the state in which it is used, and from forty to sixty of these small globules are requisite to absorb one drop, of which two globules are generally the dose. These are so small, that they would be lost by themselves, and, therefore they are implicated in a little powder of sugar-of-milk, or, in lieu of this, a little sugar and starch. The powder contain- ing these globules is placed on the tongue, and, without effort, gradually swallowed with the saliva which dissolves it. Chamo- milla has appeared to be productive of the most satisfactory relief in many cases of irritation from teething in childi'en. After several restless nights, a good night has succeeded the taking of a "chamomilla,'' and the child has been relieved on the followins day. Diarrhcea in children, while they are teething, has subsided, and the state of the bowels has become comfortable after taking chamomilla. k gentleman, who had what he called a " constitutional diarr- hoea,'' for he was never from home without laudanum in his pocket, and all treatment had previously failed except as to temporary relief, told me that he was better after I had given him chamomilla than he had been in his recollection before, and begged a jjowder to carry in his pocket, instead of the laudanum. About a month after this, I met him in the street, and he told me that he had not since been inconvenienced by the diarrhoea. I have since learnt that, on going to Leamington, he had a fresh attack, but I have not seen him. A physician in the country gave his child, a boy about three years old, rhubarb and soda, three times a-week, to keep in check iiTi table bowels. I advised him to give "a chamomilla." He did so, two months ago, and the child has not been dosed since. A poor man brought me a letter from the country, requesting me to say if I thought anything could be done for him, and if so, if I would have the goodness to try to benefit him — the writer, a lady, would see that he was supplied with such dietetic aid as I might direct. He came staggering into my room like a drunken man, spoke, looked, and in a manner moved something between 5G TKUTIIS AM) THEIR KECEPTION llmt of un idiot and ilmt of one who was drunk. He was very deaf, and liud been in this stale for between four and five years, when, as lie said, he had " St. Anthony's fire in his head," and the doctor told liis wife that he could not live, — that he had been under many doctors, had had setons, issues, blisters, &c., ap- plied, without any good elFect resulting, — that he was originally a jobbing gardener, but now could do nothing in that way, as his head was always turning round, and he was for ever tum- bling down. I thought I would try the "do-nothing" medicines; made no promise, except to attend to him, if he came according to my directions, and claimed the lady's assistance to procure him simple imtriment. In about ten days he came, saying he was better, which was fairly attributable to better diet and the excitement of a new doctor, to get to whom he had the difficulty of seven miles to overcome. In the course of treatment for vertigo, I gave him " a phosphorus," one-twentieth of a decillionlh. In a fort- night he returned to me, in great joy, saying, " I am sure I am better now, sir, for the last medicine has cured my deafness." I stared, and referred to the Hahnemannic account of phosphorus, and found that it there professed to be one of the proper remedies for deafness. I state this just as it occuiTed. I kept no note of the case, except this point. I have bungled on with the man, whom I saw yesterday, after an absence of a month ; he says that his head seems almost well, that he got repeatedly wet, and took cold, which caused pains in his limbs, but did not affect his head, and that his head is "a different thing." At all events, the man appears to be a " different" man, and for the sake of having my eye upon him, I am giving him what Hahnemann calls an " anti- jjsoric." I noticed no particular point in this case, except the almost sudden cure of deafness after phosjjhorus. The antiphlogistic depended upon in general inflammatory affections, and therefore, I believe, given at the commencement of almost all inflammatory fevers, is the expressed juice of the aconitum napellus, in 8-illionth or 10-illionth dilution. Thus, at the commencement of scarlet fever, aconite would be given, and repeated in four, eight, or twelve hours, as might appear necessary, though, as I shall explain, one dose may be enough. As soon as the tongue, or the throat, or the skin, demonstrate the certain IN RELATION TO HOMCEOPATHY. 57 character of the disease, belladonna, in 10-illionth dilution, is given. A gentleman called on me, late at night, to visit his child, who seemed suddenly to be taken with some serious illness. He had for some time wished that I would permit myself to be considered his medical adviser, which I had declined, as out of my usual practice, though this sudden call could not be parried. I found a boy, four or five years old, who had given some proof of indisposi- tion in the early part of the day, with a stinging heat of skin, a pulse strong and unnotable, a tongue clammy, and sticking to the roof of his mouth, and so far delirious as to require some time to effect his recognition of his mother and nurse. I inquired if any disease was in the neighbourhood, and if any particular illness was suspected. Scarlet fever was the disease suspected, and, so far as I could judge from former experience, particularly from the unfortunate experience of my own family, had commenced with excessive violence. I ordered calomel and tartarized antimony, my favourite medicine at the commencement of diseases of chil- dren, when threatening to be serious. I thought the child so ill, as to require seeing early in the morning, and when I amved, T found that the bowels had been relieved, and also the stomach, but the skin, the pulse, the tongue, and the mental aberration, were rather more alarming than on the night before. He had passed a wretched night. I gave an aconite, and saw the patient in about five hours ; the improvement was amazing ; the skin was comparatively comfortable, the pulse 96, the tongue easily move- able in the mouth, and the mind calm. Some red points on the tongue, and some thickness in the throat, together with some efflo- rescence on the skin, seemed to prove the correctness of diagnos- ing scarlet fever; but the case was mild at this time. The patient was seen again at night ; the tongue had become redder, and the efflorescence had increased, but the child was comparatively comfortable. " A belladonna" was left, to be given in the night, should the affection of the throat, or any other symptom, become aggravated. I saw the child again early next morning, for I felt the heavy responsibility of acting upon a new plan. The bella- donna had not been given, the child had had a quiet night, though, from the breathing, and the sound of the voice, I thought the throat a little more obstructed. I gave the belladonna. The Ott TKUTHS AND THEIR RECEPTION ufllorosccnco increased sufficiently to demonstrate scarlet fever. Tlio tlirout becunie sliyhtly enlarged at its exterior, but the child complained of nothing further, exce])t weakness in its limbs. It took j)lain nourishment, it played with toys upon the bed, and passed its nights comfortably, applying to its nurse once or twice ill the night for toast-water. The bowels, after the action of calomel and antimony, became sluggish, but no general bad svmi)tom resulted. In about eight days from the commencement the child desired to get up, and, though weak, for a while amused itself about the nursery as usual. In this case, as the chief relief of symptoms was accompanied by the appearance of efllorescence, there was reason to think that the calomel and antimony, though not immediately producing benefit, placed the patient in a state to go through the disease mildly. About the time of this patient's getting well, I was called (late at night also) to another boy, about ten years old, of full habit, living in the same house, but not of the same family, he being a pupil in the school, and boarding with the master of the house, who is one of the masters of the school. The symptoms of this boy were equally violent ; the wandering of the mind was rather greater, and as I had acquired more confidence, and intended to visit again early in the moniing, I gave an aconite. The report in the moniing was, that in about half-an-hour after taking the powder, he ceased rambling, became comparatively cool and quiet, went to sleep, his sleep lasting all the night, except that he occa- sionally awoke, quite sensible, and asked for toast-water. The guttural sound of his voice was more evident, and some efflores- cence became apparent. He had " a belladonna," and the same quiet state of recovery became established. This boy had, after the fourth day, two globules of bryonia alba, of the lO-illionth dilution, dissolved in eight doses, taking one night and morning, as I fancied the existence of something like continued fever after the subsidence of the eruption. This patient had no other than the Hahnemannic medicines. Another boy, of about six years old, brother to the first, was attacked, and became so well in a few days, after taking "an aconite" and " a belladonna," that he got up, and, the weather being fine, was permitted to take an airing on Putney Heath and Wim- bledon Common. Two days after this he became feverish, and IN RELATION TO HOMCEOPATHY. 59 his throat again enlarged, and, being a child of great nervous susceptibility, his symptoms assumed the character of a slight attack of chorea. For the throat, " a mercurius," of the quadril- lion th attenuation, was given, and was succeeded by amendment. After this, " a bryony," in eight doses was commenced, but only three doses were given, in consequence of his complaining of excruciating head-ache, and I did not feel quite at ease with my new remedies. This boy did not recover from the effects of the relapse, until he went to the sea-side. Two girls, the one aged between eight and nine years, and the other between three and four, of the same family, had scarlet fever, and recovered, taking only aconite and belladonna ; but the experience of the former case guarded them from the danger of relapse. Thus, five cases of scarlet fever in the same house, two of them as violent at the commencement as any I ever saw, got well, after taking the Hahnemannic medicines. Belladonna, preceded by aconite, is considered to be a specific cure for true inflamma- tory quinzy, and I waited some time for an opportunity to try it, until one morning, as I was leaving home, a gentleman of the legal profession called on me to do something for a sore throat, which had caused him to awake, on the night before, shortly after he had gone to sleep, and he had been getting worse ever since ; he said that he could not swallow without great pain, and could scarcely speak, and yet he had bushiess of great consequence to attend to at Wesminster on the next day. He had considerable head-ache, his pulse was full, and had I not been hastening to an appointment, I certainly should have bled him, not thinking it right, in so pressing a case, to venture on what was to me an en- tirely new plan of treatment. The throat was extensively in- flamed, and both tonsils projected to the size of two large nut- megs. I directed what should be his diet, at which he smiled, being, as he said, incompetent to swallow anything. I put " an aconite" on his tongue, and gave him "a belladonna" to take four hours after, and requested that, if I did not call upon him by seven o'clock, it then being nearly one, he would send to me. About seven o'clock I called upon him, and found him writing. He told me that he had been getting better ever since I had put the powder into his mouth ; that he had taken not only some plain GO JlllTJIS AND THKIK RFXEPTION imittoii broth, but was able to eat some of the mutton, and though liis throat felt *' vuiy queer," he was " quite a diirerenl tiling." The only diflerencG I noticed in the throat was, a considerable diiniiiution in the intensity of the redness. I directed that if again worse in the night, he should send for nic, and, at all events, let me hear from him early in the morning. At eight o'clock on the next morning I received a note, saying, that he had passed u good night, was about to take a good breakfast, and would call on me in a few minutes, on his way to Westminster. He did call, and I found his throat much altered in colour, but still swollen. I advised that he should be very careful, and let me see him every moniing. I did not see him for five days, when I called upon him. Jocosely hiding his face, he told me that he had something else to do than call upon me when he had nothing the matter with him. His throat had assumed a natural and healthy appearance. Coffee, of the millionth dilution, is one of the Hahnemannic sleeping potions, and sleep has succeeded its administration, but in those cases only where its absence seemed to arise from wander- ing or restlessness of the. mind. A young clergyman, who had been striving for a lectureship, after he had preached his proba- tionary sermon, lost his power to sleep. He went to the sea-side, and fancied that by staying too long in a bath he had got a dull, heavy, head-ache. In this state he came to me, giving evidence of a nmch over-wrought mind, complaining of dull head-ache, and total want of sleep. I feared the consequences, I dreaded active treatment. I encouraged him, directed his diet for the day, and gave him "a coffee" to take at night. He came to me on the next day ; he had slept well. He had another "coffee," and came to me on the second day after, leaving one day without a visit. He had slept both nights. His head-ache was much relieved by sleep, but he was not well. He was weak, and his bowels were torpid. I gave him some pills, containing quinine, and a little compound of extract of colocynih. They did him no good. In about three weeks after his first ajiplication, his sister called on me, to state that her brother's forgetfulncss was alarming, that he would ask the same questions five or sLx times over in the same evening, that he would leave the house for the purpose of doing something, and being questioned on his return, would have forgotten for what l)urj)ose he left the house. In this state I saw him, and having IN RELATION TO HOMOEOPATHY. 61 been disappointed in my favourite pills, I again referred to my books, and there read that phosphoric acid, of the trillionth dilu- tion, was given for forget fulness. His sleep had again failed him in part. He had another " coffee," followed by a good night, and on the following day he took phosphoric acid. I saw him four days afterwards ; he declared himself to be better, and had been able on the previous day, Sunday, to an-ange his business, and pursue it systematically, which he had not been able to do for many Sundays. Ten days afterwards I saw his sister, who in- formed me that " she thought him getting quite himself again.'' Phosphoric acid is said to continue its action during forty days. Coffee has never even appeared to be followed by sleep, where the want of it was evidently produced by disease or pain. A young woman, about twenty -five years old, consulted me, with a hard tumour occupying the right side of the abdomen, and producing an enlargement, giving her the appearance of a woman in the last months of pregnancy. I treated the case with iodine, and with much improvement and diminution in size. After three months' treatment I lost sight of her for more than six weeks, when she returned, as large as at first, saying, that she had been very ill, and that her doctor had told her it was inflammation of the womb. This being the second case where inflammation of the "Womb had seemed to be produced by the use of iodine, I was cautious in my future treatment, and made no way. The most troublesome symptom was the almost impossibility to get the bowels to act, and after trying every variety of purgative, I sent her to Dr. Quin, with whom I had just then become acquainted, telling him that if any of his medicines would act upon her bowels, I should be more than half a convert. He replied, that he did not expect the infinitessimals to overcome mechanical ob- structions, but that he should commence the treatment of such a case with sulphur, of the billionth reduction, given two nights fol- lowing, and then one common dose, divided, by mixture, into eight doses, taking one every night. Strange to tell, the woman's bowels began to act on about the fourth day, and continued regu- larly to act, daily, for several weeks ; when, to my no small asto- nishment, no hard tumour could be felt through the parietes of the abdomen. I lost sight of her for some time, when she re- turned, because her bowels would not act, and up to this period no ()!2 TRT'TFIS AND THKIR RECEPTION hard tumour is lo bo felt exlcrually, but on examination by rec- tum and vagina, there is considerable ])ressure made on both by what I have no doubt is the remains of the original tumour. This woman bclioves that she was born with the tumour, as she never renu'inbtrs being without it. The wife of an unfortunate and unengaged clergyman brought to me a delicate boy, nine or ten years of age, the only one she had living of several children. He had been for some time a patient of Dr. Pearce, and was brought to me on that gentleman's retiring from practice. He had a pale face, bad digestion, morbid appetite, and a hard tumour occupying the whole space from the right hypochondriuni to the pelvis, with a constant pain across the loins. I did all that I could to improve his health. I tried dif- ferent preparations of iodine for the tumour, and after some time applied the euiplast. hydrar. c. ammoniaco. The health improved slightly, but the tumour rather increased, and seemed to project a little at one part. I sent him to my friend Mr. Macilwain, who, when I was surgeon to the City dispensary, (he being surgeon to the Finsbury,) had coalesced with me, so that we consulted each other in all interesting cases occurring in either dispensary. My friend's prognosis was unfavourable, as mine had become after some month's trial, and although he suggested some judicious mode of treatment, I determined to avoid any trials founded on our unfavourable opinion, and commence the treatment with Hah- nemann ic sulphur, having a recollection of the woman's tumour. The boy took two globules of a billionth of sulphur at night. Two globules dissolved in eight doses, he taking one every night, so that a repetition was required on every ninth night. His health improved amazingly, and he had been taking this medicine for about six weeks, when, on the approach of the Midsummer holi- days, the mother informed mc that she could take her son into Yorkshire, for the vacation, as the saving in board would pay the expense of travelling, if I thought there was no danger of his being seriously ill without my being near enough to be consulted. I advised the change by all means to be adopted, and supplied medicines to continue the ninth-day repetition until his return. He relumed without his tumour. I sent him to my friend, who, I leamt from the mother, was so astonished, that he requested her IN RELATION TO HOMCEOPATHY. b& to give him as clear an account as she could of the proceeding. The boy continues welL A gentleman called on me one morning, saying that he was very ill, that he suflfered great pain from constipation, lost large quan- tities of blood, had constant pain and weight at his stomach, and felt so oppressed and weakened that he could hardly walk to and from his place of business, and when there, was incompetent to attend to it. I directed his diet, and gave him " a nux-vomica," two globules of a decillionth. In three days he said that he felt better. In nine days he repeated the nux-vomica, and five days afterwards called on me to say that he was never better in his life. Nux-vomica is a favourite stomachic medicine, where there is weight and the sense of oppression at the scrobiculus cordis, con- stipation, and disposition to piles. Cases in which I have given the Hahnemannic medicines with- out being able to note any sequence, are about as numerous as those cases in which I have observed them, but it is fair to say that such cases are those in which other medicines had failed, and also fair that I should say that, if any HomcEopath were to ask me if I had taken all the pains which they bargain for in the selec- tions of the medicines — I had not. The trouble is immense, and I have grown idle. Notwithstanding all the trouble required, it is my present belief that it is well worth while to take it ; and after what I have seen, or, if you please, what I have fancied I have seen, I feel that it is the duty of every medical man to look into it, for it is certain, either that a number of cases do better without medicine than with, or that these unimaginable doses of carefully-prepared medicines do impress the nerves so as to influence the actions of life. Hahnemann is, in my opinion, deserving our greatest respect. His careful, tedious, and somewhat dangerous experiments on himself and others, which produced his " Materia Medica Pura ;" the knowledge of antidotes which has arisen out of these experi- ments ; the belief that the actions of medicine continue much longer than has hitherto been supposed, and the suggestion that much smaller doses than have been usually given are competent to produce effect, are matters which are calculated to pi'ove highly 04 TRUTHS AND THEIR RECEPTION bciiofu'ial, even if his system of "similia similibus" fail, or the long direction of his mind to one subject has caused him to pass into a state of fatuity as to the infinite dilution of his medicine. I desire this statement of cases and observations to be consi- dered, not as a recommendation of the general practice of Ho- moeopathy, of which I know so little, but as an offering to a body of gentlemen (the London Medical Society), from an individual who, having long enjoyed their society with profit and delight, is desirous long to continue that enjoyment, and who will always endoavour to practise, and deserve the products of, gentlemanly feeling. At the close of this paper, one member of the Society rose " to put an end to so unworthy a discus- sion." — " He thought there was something shocking in an old and respected member of the Society speaking of ' lancets in future rusting in their cases.' " Another thought the theory so wild, that it ought to be wholly discountenanced by the Society, " Had some persons brought it before them, they would have been charged with seeking a temporary popula- rity ; but this could not be suspected of Dr. Uwins and Mr. Kingdon, who were well known and es- teemed ; but he hoped that what those gentlemen had said on the subject might be placed on record, in order that in after times they might look back on what he thought they would then consider to be a folly." Another member objected to the system, ))ecause it was alleged to be founded solely " on the results of experience, and therefore reasoning on its operations went for nothing." Another said that " he thought all Homoeopathized patients were cured by nature ;" another, that " he did not believe in it ;" IN RELATION TO IIOMGEOPATHY. 65 and another, that " it was, m short, all humbug ;" and although three members, Messrs. Headland, and Dendy, and Mr. Leonard Stewart, were bold enough to protest against this mode of dealing with the mat- ter, Mr. Kingdon, in return for his straightforward narrative, was only saved from a severe reproof, (in the shape of a strong condemnation of the Hahne- mannic doctrines, which was moved and seconded,) by a tacit understanding being come to, that the sub- ject should never again be mooted in that assembly. Notwithstanding this blow, however, coupled with i another, about the same time, from the Westminster i Medical Society, where Homoeopathy was pronounced without dispute to be " a tissue of absurdities, offen- sive to common sense, the wild, visionary, and ridi- culous theory of a German enthusiast, too absurd to merit anything like argument, and practised by its disciples only from sordid motives," Dr. Sigmond, in his Lectures on Materia Medica and Therapeutics, was honest and fearless enough shortly afterwards to refer to Hahnemann in the following terms : — " I have to speak to you of a man of high intellectual attain- ments, of great sagacity, of inflexible courage, and of unwearied industry ; who, amid difficulties of no common kind, has laid the foundation of a system, which, whilst it cannot but create a few smiles at its singularity, is the work of great erudition, much toil, and striking ingenuity. We must not confound Hahnemann with those despicable charlatans who would sacrifice at the altar of avarice the lives and the happiness of thousands, who prey upon their deluded victims by the most daring and insolent effrontery, who have neither the education nor the feelings of men of prin- ciple, and whose success in their vile occupation is a reflection on F (i(J THUTHS AM) 111 in: lil-XKl'TION the stale of society. The great actiuiienunts of Hahnemann, the boldnoKS with wliich he proimilj^'ated his doclvine, the skill and the fierceness with which he has carried on his arduous controversies, nuirk him as a man of no ordinary stamp. * * * In 1820, new persecutions drove him from the (own of Lcipzic, but Ferdi- nand, Duke of Anhalt K6then, offered the illustrious exile an asylum at his residence, and received him with the distinction which his perseverance, his consistency, and his talents, so justly entitled him to enjoy." Another testimony, no less credital)le to the can- dour of its author, was given in a well known work, called Austria and its Institutions^ by Mr. W. R. Wilde, M.R.I. A., the talented Editor of the Dublin Quarterly/ Medical Journal : — " The present slate of Homoeopathy in Vienna," he observed, "next claims our attention ; and although I neither advocate that doctrine, nor slander its supporters, I deem it but the part of truth and justice to lay the following statement before my readers. " One of the cleanest and best regulated hosjjitals in the capital is managed on the Homoeopathic plan. The following circum- stances led to its erection : — The rapid spread of this mode of treatment in Austria, and the patronage it received from many noble and influential individuals in that country, attracted the attention of the goverament several years ago, who, with their churactcrislic jealousy of innovation, then issued an order, for- bidding it to be practised. As, however, this had not the effect of su])pressing it, but as it seemed rather to gain strength from the legal disabilities under which it then laboured, it was determined, in 1828, to test its eflicacy in the military hospital of the Jose- phinum. With this view, a commission was nominated, consisting ol twelve professors, all of whom, it is but fair to observe, were strenuously opposed to the Homoeopathic doctrine. Dr. Maren- zeller, a veteran Homoeopath, and a contemporary of Hahne- mann's, was appointed as the physician ; and two members of the commission always attended him during his visit, and at the expi- ration of every ten days reported the progress of the cases under IN RELATION TO HOMCEOPATHY. 67 his charge. The only part of the report puhlished was that of Drs. Jaeger and Zang. It contains a very brief outline of the cases and their treatment, and expresses the surprise of these eminent professors at the happy issue of some of them. The commission, however, as a body, came to the conclusion, that from the results obtained from their investigations, it was impossible to declare either for or against Homoeoi^athy. One of the twelve, however, subsequently stated his conviction of the efficacy of tlie system from those trials, and has since remained an open adherent of it." After giving an account of the establishment of the hospital, and a detail of its internal arrangements, Mr. Wilde proceeds — " In 1834, Dr. Fleischmann, the present physician, was ap- pointed ; and in 1836, this hospital, along with all the others in Vienna, was ordered to be fitted up for the reception of cholera patients. " Dr. Fleischmann agreed to continue his charge, on the condi- tion that he was to be permitted to adhere to the homoeopathic plan of treatment. To this the government assented; and two district physicians (Allopaths) were appointed to report upon the nature of the cases taken into this hospital, as well as to observe their course and treatment. " Upon comparing the report made of the treatment of cholera in this hospital, with that of the same epidemic in the other hospi- tals in Vienna at a similar time, it appeared that, while two-thirds of those treated by Dr. Fleischmann recovered, two-thirds of those treated by the ordinary methods in the other hospitals died. This very extraordinary result led Count Kolowrat (Minister of the Interior) to repeal the law relative to the practice of Homoeo])athy, although with that inconsistency which not unfrequently distin- guishes the Austrian government, it at the same time enacted the strictest prohibition of all the works in favour of the system being published in Austria." Mr. Wilde gives an analysis of the cases treated f2 (JH Tin ins AND TIIKIH UECErilON at this homoeopathic hospital during a series of years, and then goes on to say — " Wlintever the opponents of this syslom may put forward i aguinsl it, I am bound to say, and I am far from being a homcEO- ' pathic practitioner, that the cases I saw treated by it in the Vienna liospital wen- fully as acute and virulent as those that have come j under my observation elsewhere, and the statistics show that the mortality is much less thnn in the other hospitals of that city. Knolz, the Austrian protomediciis, has published those for 1838, which exhibit a mortality of but five or six per cent., while three similar institutions on the allopathic plan, enumerated before it in the same table, show a mortality as high as from eight to ten per cent." Again, another author. Dr. Millingen, in his Curiosities of Medical Experience^ after relating six remarka])le cases in which he had tested, and found most unlooked-for benefit from, homoeopathic reme- dies, put forward the following; — " But the facts I am about recording — facts which induced me, from liaving been one of the warmest opponents of this system, to j investigate carefully and dispassionately its practical points — will i effectually contradict all those assertions regarding the icefBciency of the homoeopathic doses, the influence of diet, or the agency of the mind ; for in the following cases, in no one instance, could such influences be brought into action. They were (with scarcely any exception) experiments made without the patient's knowledge, \ and where no time was allowed for any particular regimen. They ' may, moreover, be conscientiously relied upon, since they were made with a view to prove the fallacy of the homoeopatliic practice, j Their result, as may be perceived by the foregoing observations, by ■ no means rendered me a convert to the absurdities of the doctrine, but fully convinced me, by the most incontestible facts, that the introduction of fractional doses will soon banish the farrago of nostrums that are now exhibited to the manifest prejudice both of the health and the purse of the sufferer." IN RELATION TO HOMCEOPATHY. 69 At the conclusion of his experiments, Dr. Mil- Hngen adds ; — " I could record many instances of similar results, but they would of course be foreign to the nature of this work. I trust that the few cases I have related will afford a convincing proof of the injustice, if not the unjustifiable obstinacy, of those practi- tioners who, refusing to submit the homoeopathic practice to a fair trial, condemn it without investigation. That this practice will be adopted by quacks and needy adventurers, there is no doubt ; but Homoeopathy is a science on which numerous voluminous works have been written by enlightened practitioners, whose situation in life placed them far above the necessities of speculation. Their publications are not sealed volumes, and any practitioner can also obtain the preparations they recommend. It is possible, nay, more than probable, that physicians cannot find time to commence a new course of studies, for such this investigation must prove. If this is the case, let them frankly own their utter ignorance of the doctrine, and not denounce with merciless tyranny a practice of which they do not possess the slightest knowledge." Dr. Fletcher, also, in his Elements of General Pathology, gave testimony as follows : — " Every day's experience furnishes us with examples of the truth of the homoeopathic doctrines, at least in some instances, the several substances operating in producing and curing each its own class of diseases, sometimes directly, and at others indirectly, or by sympathy. Do we not continally give purgatives in the cure of dian'hoea ? as is erroneously supposed, for the purpose of carrying off some offending matter, the presumed cause of the discharge ; and how often is aloe, one of the most common causes of piles, a means of effectually removing them when already present ? Among the diuretics, also, cantharides, as well as the turpentines and balsams, are not more effectual in removing gleet and cataiTh of the bladder when present, than they are, under other circumstances, in occasioning them ; and among the diapho- retics, tartar emetic has, according to our personal experience. 70 TUITIIS VXD TIIEIH RECEPTION excellent eflbcts in stopping a diaphoresis, efrectual as it is, as evciybodv knows, when no such allection exists, in exciting it. The sweating sickness was treated formerly by diaphoretics. Further, among the tonics, cinchona, the chief remedy of inter- niittont fever when ])resent, is said to he capable of ])roducing this when not; and it was, indeed, from noticing this effect upon him- self, that Hahnemann was first induced to prosecute and systema- tize the theory in question. Tartar emetic, also, in large doses (when it is rather to be considered a tonic, than either a nauseant, a diaphoretic, or a sedative), which, as every one knows, is one of the most efficacious means of combating inflammation in general where it exists, is almost equally sure to produce it when it does not. But the medicine which is most illustrative, in its various operations, of the truth of the homcBopathic doctrine, is mercury. The occasional effects of this mineral in producing laryngitis, iritis, ptyalism, and numerous other inflammations and their con- sequences, are abundantly well known ; and what remedy is so effectual in removing, as generally acknowledged, the two former, and, as not long ago proved by Duncan and others, the latter also. Nay, the effects of mercury in curing lues venerea are dependent probably on its power, when no such disease exists, of producing one, if not identical with it, certainly very similar in its sjjecific effects upon the throat, skin, bones, and other organs, to the one in (piestion. Lastly, among the narcotic medicines, the effects of alcoliol in removing, as well as exciting delirium tremens in all its degrees, have been alluded to, and are sufficiently well known. But not only medicines, but other remedial agents, fur- nish equally conclusive evidence of the truth, in certain cases at least, of the homoeopathic doctrine. Thus, what is the black- smith's remedy, when he has scorched his finger ? is it not, hold- ing it again to the fire, for the pui-pose, as he expresses it, of draw- ing out the heat ? And what is Dr. Kentish's treatment of bums in general ? is it not by heated oil of turpentine, and other stimu- lant applications, for the purpose, as he presumes, of bringing the inflamed part gradually, not suddenly, down to the line of health ? This is not the true explanation of the benefit so derived, but the benefit is, nevertheless, unquestionable. Again, the occasional effects of electricity in removing amaurosis, palsy of the tongue, &c., are no less certain, than that these diseases have often resulted IN RELATION TO HOMCEOPATHY. 71 from the same cause; and its efiects, in either prochiciug or removing nervous apoplexy, according to circumstances, were beautifully illustrated, on one occasion, by the late Dr. Currie, who found that by passing an electric shock through the head of a rabbit, he could alternately stui)ify and revive it, for an almost indefinite number of times. * * * -x- Upon the whole, Hahnemann's book is an original and interesting one, and displays more reflection in every page, than many of his decriers will evince in the whole course of their life and conduct for half a century," In harmony with the foregoing remarks, the fol- lowing also appeared in the Therapeutique of M. M. Trousseau and Pidoux : — " Experience has proved that a multitude of diseases aie cured by therapeutic agents, which seem to act in the same direction as the cause of the disease which they are employed to combat." In 1840, Professor D'Amador, of Montpellier, in one of his lectures, remarked, — " Gentlemen, — Now that we have come to this point, you would naturally demand what judgment I have formed respecting the practical and theoretical value of this doctrine (the homoeopathic). Practically, Homoeopathy is one method more to be added to the existing methods, but a method generally superior to all the others. It is another, but more direct way, and one we can pursue with greater rapidity, safety, and even facility ; and if you will allow me to make use of a comparison not destitute of justice, I find in the new medical system some analogy with those rapid paths opened by modem industry which will astonish future generations^ after having excited the amazement of contemporary generations ; these new jjaths do not obliterate the ancient ones, but they lead us more quickly and better from one point to another ; they act more quickly or better in less time. This is the condition of each successive discovery. Homoeopathy, in the gi"eat majority of cases, admirably fulfils this condition of each competitor. " Theoretically, Homoeopathy is for us a doctrine congenial to vitalism ; I may say, it is vitalism itself broadly applied to thera- 12 TIUTHS AND THEIR RECEPTroN pontics. This new system of llierai)t'ntics applies directly to the vital forces in order lo cure the disease, as the vital jjathology studies those forces, in order to form a conception of its fonnation. Till' doctrine of vitality has always professed this great principle, that the vital forces being the original source of the disease, it was above all things necessary that the agent which was to destroy the morbid modification, should act on these same forces. In order to discover the comi)lcte truth, and to snatch the glory from Gennany, the vilalisn) of Mont])ellicr had only to find the mode of disen- gaging medicinal agents from the living forces that concealed them ; and this is what Hahnemann has done by his grand prin- ciple of the attenuation of substances. By this great and beautiful discovery, he has vastly enlarged the sphere of vitalism, and what is more, he has thereby given to this doctrine a practical foundation beyond all cavil." Shortly after this, Professor Henderson, of the University of Edinburgh, was led, as he states, " hy the information that the practice had been embraced by well educated and intelligent men in almost every country in Europe, as well as in America," to ask himself if, as a matter of duty, he was not bound to undertake a deliberate examination of its claims. He accordingly instituted a series of trials, an account of which he published in 1845, accompanied by the following avowal : — " For my own part, I havfe no diflSculty or hesitation in declar- ing that the result of the treatment in these cases, as a whole, has been decidedly superior to •what I have ever witnessed in my pre- vious experience ; — of which I may be permitted lo say, that it has been neither inconsiderable, nor, in so far as I have learned, different from that of others who enjoyed the same advantages." Amongst later avowals of eminent Allopathists, regarding the claims of Homoeopathy to a respectf J IN RELATION TO HOMCEOPATHY. 73 examination, the most prominent and satisfactory have been from Dr. Forbes, Physician to the Queen's Household, and Editor of the British and Foreign Medical Review, the late Dr. Andrew Combe, Phy- sician in Ordinary to the Queen, Dr. John Wilson, Inspector of Naval Hospitals and Fleets, and M. Marchall, one of the Examiners of the Faculty of Medicine in Paris. Dr. Forbes admitted, with regard to Hahnemann, that— " No careful observer of his actions, or candid reader of his writings, can hesitate for a moment to admit that he was a very exti'aordinary man. He was, undoubtedly, a man of genius and a scholar ; a man of indefatigable industry, of undaunted energy ; surpassed by few in the originality and ingenuity of his views, superior to most in having substantiated and carried out his doc- trines into actual and most extensive practice. It is but an act of justice also, to admit that there exist no gi'ounds for doubting that he was sincere in his belief of the truth of his doctrines, and that many at least among his followers have been, and are, sincere, honest, and learned men. While, as respects the system, it was allowed that — " Homoeopathy is an original system of medicine, as ingenious as many that j^receded it, and destined probably to be the remote, if not the immediate, cause of more important fundamental changes in the practice of the healing art, than have resulted from any promulgated since the days of Galen himself. By most medical men it has been taken for gi'anted, that the system is one not only visionary in itself, but that it is the result of a mere fan- ciful hypothesis, disconnected with facts of any kind, and sup- ported by no processes of ratiocination or logical inference. And yet nothing can be further from the truth. Whoever examines the homoeopathic doctrines, as enounced and expounded in the 74 lUlTIIS AND THEIK RECEPTION original writings of Ilahnoniunn, unil of many of his followers, iiiiisl aihiiit, not only that liie .system is an ingenious one, but that it j)r()fesses to be based on a most formidable array of facts and experiments. * * We think it impossible to refuse to HomoDO- patliy the praise of being an ingenious system of medical doctrine, tolerably complete in its organization, tolerably comprehensive in its views, and as capable of being defended by feasible arguments as most of the systems of medicine which preceded it. * * As an established fonn of practical medicine — as a great fact in the history of our art — we must, nolenles volenles, consider Ho- moeopathy. * * Not only do we see all our ordinary curable diseases cured in a fair proportion under the homoeopathic method of treatment, but even all the severer and more dangerous diseases, which most pliysicians, of whatever school, have been accustomed to consider as not only needing the interposition of art to assist nature in bringing them to a favourable and speedy termination, but demanding the employment of prompt and strong measures to prevent a fatal issue in a considerable proportion of cases." * By Dr. Combe it Avas observed ; — " Let us scout quacks and pretenders as we may, HomcEopathy presents too strong a prima facie case to warrant our dismissing it with ridicule and contempt. * * As a matter of theory, sup- ported only by argument, HomcBopathy produces no conviction whatever in my mind of its truth, or even of its probability ; but as a question of fact, claiming to rest ' on the irresistible ground of its superior power of curing diseases and preserving human life,' and on the alleged experience of able and honest men, as compe- tent to judge as most of those who oj)pose them, I cannot venture to denounce it as untrue, because I have no experience bearing especially upon it to bring forward, and we are still too ignorant to be able to predicate, a priori, what may or may not be true in the great field of nature. After the presumptive evidence which has been produced, if I were now in practice, I should hold myself bound without further delay to test its truth, by careful and exten- sive experiment." f * British and Foreign Medical Review, Jan. 1846. t Ibid. April, 1846. IN RELATION TO HOMCEOPATHY. 75 The remark of Dr. Wilson concerning Homoeopa- thy, to which we have alluded, occurs in his Medical Notes on China, published in 1846. Speaking of cases of common atmospheric cholera which fell un- der his observation, he states — " In the cholera cases, the doctrine of the HomoDopathists, similia simUibus curantur, is partly admitted. Whatever may be thought of the theory on which the practice is founded, there is no doul)t that the practice is often highly beneficial. At the inva- sion of many febrile afiections, involving important organs, and leading, if not speedily arrested, to dangerous, perhaps destructive lesions of those organs, it often acts with an absolutely curative effect." The avowal of M. Marchall on the subject occurred during the examination of a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Medicine, before the Faculty of Medi- cine in Paris, 27th July, 1847. The thesis of the candidate was a comparison of the effects of mercury on the healthy individual with the symptoms of syphi- lis ; and the homceopathicity of the medicine having been shown, M. Marchall congratulated the candi- date on his mode of treating the question, and said — "He only regretted that, in place of referring to one medicine in particular, the question had not been put in a more general manner. He should have liked to have heard a discussion on this subject, viz. Is the law of similarity the true and absolute expres- sion of the fact of specificity ? He wished other candidates would frequently give an opportunity to the Faculty of discussing those important therapeutical questions, for he was desirous of stating, that we found nothing satisfactory on this point in the usual course of instruction." He afterwards added — 76 TRUTHS AND THEIR RECEPTION " Jl'ith rfi/nrt/ to sprrifics and their action, all we know we otve to till' irorks of Ilonuropnthists ; in those of j)hy.sicians commonly called legitimate, from Hippocrates to our own time, we find abso- lutrly nothing." Finally, the most recent, and one which will pro- bably be considered the most striking instance of a clear and manly acknowledgment of the facts of Ho- moeopathy from an Allopathist, is furnished in the case of the late Mr. Liston. Mr. Listen died on the 17th of December last, and in the obituary of the British Journal of Homoeojmth}/, published on the 1st of January of the present year, the following bio- graphical letter appeared from Dr. Quin, which, on account of its freshness and the high degree of interest felt by the public and the profession in all that re- lates to the remarkable person of whom it treats, may be advantageously quoted entire. " Gentlemen — The medical profession has sustained a gi-eat loss in the sudden death of one of its most distinguished ornaments. As a personal friend, and a gi-eat admirer of Mr. Liston, I am desirous of recording some facts in your valuable journal, con- nected with the cai'eer and opinions of that most accomplished sur- geon and enlightened practitioner. The prominent position which he had so long occupied among the most eminent medical men in Europe, as a great pathologist and most scientific and successful operator, would in itself be sufficient warrant for my occupying your pages with a slight sketch of his biogi-aphy ; but when your readers are informed that during a period of upwards of twelve years of close professional intercourse, I had many opportunities of directing Mr. Listen's attention to the doctrines and practice of Homoeopathy, and that his enlightened mind not only compre- hended, but was keenly alive to many of the advantages of the great discoveries of Hahnemann, and to the benefits to be obtained by IN RELATION TO HOM(EOPATHY. 77 prescribing some of our medicines according to the law of similia similibus curantur — 1 feel certain that they will pardon my en- croachment on their time, and that their interest in the man, and deep I'egret at his death, will be greatly increased. " Mr. Liston was born in Scotland, in 1794. After completing his academical studies he chose the medical profession, and be- came the favourite and most distinguished pupil of the celebrated lecturer on anatomy. Dr. Barclay ; many most beautiful anatomi- cal preparations made by Mr. Liston when quite a youth, were long retained and exhibited in the museum of Dr. Barclay. In 1815 he received his diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He subsequently came to London, and became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons here. He then pro- ceeded to Paris, where he most assiduously prosecuted his profes- sional studies, and attended the Hotel Dieu, and other great hos- pitals of Paris. During his stay in the French capital he never missed any imjDortant operation of Dupuytren. (It was at this period that I first had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with him, and the friendship then formed never received a check till death unhappily closed his career.) At the close of 1817 he returned to Edinburgh, where he established himself. He was not content with the mere practice of his profession, but became a most able teacher ; he immediately opened classes for demon- strating anatomy ; later he became a lecturer on anatomy, and subsequently on surgery. He was afterwai'ds appointed Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary, where he had ample field for exhibiting his great skill, and wonderful dexterity and quickness in operating. His fame spread far and wide. He enriched the medical periodi- cals of the day with a number of most valuable and interesting cases, and descriptions of most difficult and successful operations. He published his first edition of The Principles of Surgery in 1833. He was invited to London in 1834, and appointed Sur- geon to the North London Hospital; later he was named to the Professorship of Clinical Surgery in the London University. In 1845 he was appointed one of the Examiners of the Royal Col- lege of Surgeons. There was no position, however high in the profession, that he was not entitled to, from his great knowledge, vast experience, and transcendent talents, and to which he would not have arrived had his valuable life been spared. 78 TRUTHS AND IlIKIU UmEPTION " I Imvo sfcn almost all the most cck'bratcd surgeons of the Con- tinent operate, but I never saw one who could surpass Mr. Liston in coolness, quickness, and dexterity. To convey a conect idea of his nu-rits as an oi)erator, and his estimable qualities as a man, I cannot do better than (juote the beautiful language of a noble and learned friend, who occupies a deservedly eminent place on the Scottish Bench, contained in a most eloquent and touching tribute to the memory of Mr. Liston. " ' For excellence in this de])artment he possessed every quali- fication — great physical strength and activity, coolness, ])rompti- tude, energy and unflinching courage, a steady hand and a cjuick eye, a resolution which rose with the difficulties he encountered, and rested on a just reliance on his complete knowledge of ana- tomy and pathology. But though potent to wield, he was by no means rash to recommend the use of the knife. On the contrary, he was a remarkably cautious practitioner. As he was dauntless in operation, however dangerous, he was deliberate in forming the resolution, and forbore where he could His repu- tation was established and unchangeable — his name familiar in every medical school of Europe and America. A rich harvest of honour and wealth lay before him ; but alas ! the sickle has fallen from the hand of the reaper, and in the zenith of his manhood and vigour of his practice he has been stricken down by sudden death. His loss is national and irre])arable ; there is no operator of his standing who can for a moment be put in nomination to fill his place Nor let it be imagined, although the calls for his aid were incessant, by those who were entitled to com- mand his services, that he forgot or overlooked the poor and needy. His nature abhorred everything sordid, and no man ever was more strongly impressed with the feelings of an honourable, generous, and independent practitioner. In whatever rank of life the "case" occurred, if it was one of difficulty or interest, this master of his art was ready with the potent spell of his unerring bistoury ; and his reward was in the consciousness of his own power, and in the noble pride of having been ministrant to the relief of suffijring humanity He had no fantasies, no dogmatic opi- nions, no overweening confidence ; and while he watched the pro- gress of science, and hailed with rapture every improvement founded on sound principles, he regulated his whole practice by IN RELATION TO HOMOEOPATHY. 79 the views of experience, and by the plain dictates of kindly sym- pathy and unobtrusive and tender watchfulness His usefulness has been cut short by the mysterious decree of Providence, but his fame will endure while the science of surgery is known, and the name of one of the first surgeons the world ever saw, will be associated with the brightest example of untiring energy, matchless zeal, consummate skill, prudence, and tender- ness, — adorning a private character of unspotted integrity. He has left a widow and six children, and many a sincere friend to deplore his loss. But it is not among his immediate circle alone that sorrow will be felt that his bright career is closed. There is many a sigh in the lordly mansion and in the cottage of the poor. He is wailed in the hospital of the sick, in the hall of instruction. The grey-haired practitioner looks in vain for the aid of his energy and skill, and the zealous student hears no more his voice of en- couragement, and has now but his memory to cherish for ex- ample.' " The cause of Mr. Liston's death was aneurism of the aorta. He expired on the evening of Tuesday, 7th of December, at his house in Clifford Street. For several months he had been ailing, but it was not till the latter end of July last that any serious symptoms occurred, when, whilst receiving his patients, he sud- denly brought up, when in a state of complete repose, between two and three pounds of arterial blood — syncope came on, and the haemoiThage stopped. He suspected the presence of an aneurism, but his eminent medical attendants, after careful examination and auscultation of the chest, could detect no perceptible lesion, either in the lungs or circulation. He rallied, and continued tolerably well till the end of October, when he appeared to be seized with a severe catan-hal affection, but subsequent events proved this to be the effects of the disease which finally terminated in death. On the 1st of December he was out, visiting his patients, aud on the night of the 7th he was a corpse, having suffered much in the in- terval from distressing dyspnoea, and from occasional violent fits of what appeared to be spasmodic asthma. Blood-letting, both local and general, counter irritation, and sedatives, were had recourse to during the treatment. Thirty-six hours after death a. post mor- tem examination of the thorax was made by Mr. Cadge, (Mr. Liston's late house surgeon at the North London Hospital,) in 80 TRUTHS AM) THEIH RECEPTION the presence of liis inedical attendants and his son-in-law, an emi- nent surgeon of Norwich. ' The huigs were found but slightly collapsed, congested throughout, but otherwise perfectly healthy ; the j)ericardiuni contained about an ounce of transparent yellowish serum; the heart itself was healthy, saving a slight atheromatous deposit in the mitral and aortic semilunar valves; on removing the subclavian vein and cellular tissue from the arch of the aorta, the cause of death became at once apparent. An aneurism as large as an orange, flattened from before backwards, was seen pressing back the trachea ; it arose from the upper part of the arch, close behind the left carotid artery, at the origin of the innominata, which seemed almost to commence from the aneurismal pouch; the communication with the aorta was by a circular opening, as large as a half-crown. On opening the trachea from behind, the mucous membrane was seen to be very dark and congested, and in its front part, where it was firmly connected to the tumour, there were three or four whitish prominences, as large as split peas, situated between the rings ; it "was at first difficult to understand what these elevations really were, but on .slitting up the pouch, and removing the fibrinous laminae, they were drawn from between the ring, leaving the latter quite bare, and the trachea perforated in three or four pohits ; they were, in short, portions of the clot, which half filled the sac of the aneurism. The source of the haemorrhage and the cause of death were at once explained.' " I have in the first part of this letter alluded to the favourable opinion entertained by Mr. Listen of some of the Homoeopathic tenets. Fortunately, the evidence of this does not rest upon the ipse dixit of any one whose testimony can be considered suspi- cious, or prejudiced in favour of the new doctrines, but is recorded by himself in his lectures ; and some of the cases and remedies, with his clinical remarks, are detailed in a medical periodical most adverse to Homoeopathy ; he also recommends, in his Principles of Surgery, er3'sipelas to be treated with aconite and belladonna, in small doses.* The circumstances which led him to adopt this * " The exhibition of the extract of aconite in this and other inflammatory affections, is often followed by great abatement of vascular excitement, so that the necessity for abstraction of blood is done away with. The medicine may be given in doses of half a IN RELATION TO HOMOEOPATHY. 81 treatment, and the use of other homoeopathic remedies, I shall now briefly relate. In the course of our frequent consultations and conversations, we generally communicated to one another any interesting facts or cases occuning in our respective practice ; and one day in the beginning of January, 1836, he was lamenting over the fatality that attended his treatment of the great majority of cases admitted into his hospital with erysipelas of the head, and stated that in the physicians' wards the results were much the same as in the surgical wards. I mentioned that I had also had several very severe cases, but that they had every one recovered under homoeopathic treatment. It so happened that I had been called that very morning to a very severe case, which I offered to show him, and besrsred him to watch the result of the treatment, which I had barely commenced. He accepted, and we immediately visited my patient, a young man about twenty-eight years old, who was subject to epileptic fits, and who two nights before had cut his temple in falling, upon being seized with a fit ; the consequence was an attack of erysipelas, which by the time I first visited had spread across and down the face, and over the scalp. We saw the patient twice a day till he was convalescent. The cure was very rapid, and the effects of the medicines very marked : they were aconite and belladonna. Mr. Liston saw the medicines pre- pared by me, and administered some of them himself; he was so astonished and satisfied with the beneficial results of the treatment, that he resolved to try the aconite and belladonna. His only motive for hesitation was, that if these medicines should prove less successful in his hands than they had done hi mine, he should bring ridicule upon himself, and injure his position in the hospital with his colleagues and his pupils. I suggested to him, to pre- scribe one grain of the extract of aconite, to be dissolved in several grain in substance, or dissolved in pure water, and repeated every third or fourth hour. The sensible effect is relaxation of the sur- face, and frequently profuse perspiration ; the arterial pulsations are diminished in frequency and force. The extract of belladonna, in doses of one-sixteenth of a giain, may then be substituted with great advantage, and often with the most extraordinary effect upon the disease." — Liston s Elements of Surgery. Second edi- tion, p. 61. Erysipelas. G H2 TKUTllS AND TIIKIR RECEPTION spoonfuls of water, and a sjjoonfiil given at intervals of several hours; and to dilute the same quantity of belladonna in a much larger quantity of water, and give a spoonful in the same manner. Ho innncdiatcly followed this suggestion, and the results are re- lated in the following extracts of the reports of the North London Hospital, contained in the Lancet of the 6th and 13lh of February, and the 16th of April, 1836. " North London Hospital — Erysipelas of (he Head. — Remarkable Eject of the Extract of Belladonna.— Mary Pecks, aged 32, was admitted under the care of Mr. Liston on the 2 1st .lanuary, 1836, labouring imder severe erysipelas of the head and face. Fomentations, tartarizcd antimony, and saline mixtures were prescribed, with but slight benefit ; one grain of belladonna in sixteen ounces of water was then ordered, two tablespoon fuls to be given every three hours. On the 24th of the same month she was reported rapidly improving ; swelling and redness nearly gone. — Convalescent. — Medicine discontinued. In going round, Mr. Liston remarked that this was one of the most satisfactory and successful cures of erysipelas he had ever seen ; the disease entirely, though not suddenly, disappearing in the course of a very few days. He was inclined to attribute this to the treatment, both local and general, which had been adopted, but more particularly to the administration of belladonna. This, the students might be aware, was given on the homoeopathic principle, the doses only being somewhat increased. They had all, probably, seen the good effects of the aconite, and some of the other remedies employed by the advocates of Homoeopathy. " It was worthy of remark, that this same patient had been ad- mitted into the hos])ital for a similar attack affecting the same parts, and was successfully treated with tartarized antimony, incisions, and fomentations. She came into the hospital on the 30th of October, 1834, and was discharged, quite well, on the 22nd of Ja- nuary, 1835. Under allopathic remedies, she was between eleven and twelve weeks recovering, whilst under the remedies prescribed on the homoeopathic principle, she was reported convalescent on the fourth day from her admission. It is but just to state, that in her first attack the disease had been allowed to proceed for four days without the administration of any remedy, and her conva- IN RELATION TO HOMGEOPATHY. 06 lescence was rendered rather tedious, from collections of matter forming in various parts of the scalp. "Again, — Erysipelas of the Head. — Use of the Extract of .Aconite and Belladonna. — Catherine Cox, aged 25, was admitted February 4th^ 1836, under the care of Mr. Listen, with erysipelas of the face ; has been subject to attacks of erysipelas for twelve years, lasting for a fortnight or three weeks at a time, the cures not being completed under three weeks. On her admission, fo- mentations were used to the parts every two hours, and an opening draught, containing sulphate and carbonate of magnesia, with antimony wine, was given immediately. On the following morn- ing, the 5th, the erysipelas had extended over the left ear to the occiput ; she had passed a restless night ; jjulse same as yester- day, 116, small and hard ; bowels opened by the medicine ; gi'eat heat of skin, and thirst ; the catamenia have reajjpeared. Mr. Liston ordered a mixture, containing one grain and a half of aco- nite in four ounces of water, of which two tablespoonfuls to be given every three hours. At ten, p.m. had taken three doses of the aconite mixture : pulse 108, softer; skin moister and softer; not so much restlessness; has had a slight rigor. A mixtvn'e, containing one grain of extract of belladonna in sixteen ounces of water, of which two tablespoonfuls to be taken every three hours. On the following day the pulse had fallen to 96 ; had had a very quiet night ; skin covered with a gentle perspiration ; tongue moist and clean ; redness and swelling much diminished ; no pain, and says she is a great deal better. Ordered a dose of castor oil. The belladonna mixture to be given every five hours. On the 7th she was nearly convalescent, the medicine was discontinued, and a pint of beef tea ordered. On the 9th, quite recovered, having been under treatment only four days. The report goes on to state, the aconite has superseded bleeding in many cases at this hos- pital. " In the course of some clinical remarks delivered by Mr. Lis- ton, in April, 1836, apropos of the case of a man admitted on the 17th of December, with erysipelas occurring in the upper extre- mities, that eminent surgeon, in the most unequivocal manner, bears evidence in favour of the principle of Homoeopathy, and also gives testimony to the efficacy of the homoeopathic remedies, g2 84 TRUTHS AND THEIR RECEPTION eren whi-n ndininisiered in infinilesinial doses. I cannot do better than ([uote his own words, as used by him in the clinical lecture I have alluded to above. — ' Erysipelas occurring in the upper ex- tremity. — Since I last spoke on the subject of erysipelas, we have succeeded in subduing the action of the vascular system, without cither the use of the lancet or tartarized antimony, by giving small doses of the aconitum napcllus, and afterwards of belladonna. Two cases in which this treatment has been most successfully employed, have been accuralt'ly detailed in some late numbers of the Lancet. You have no doubt read them, as well as watched the cases them- selves in the hospital. The first case was that of a woman, who, the first time she was in the hospital, was treated for erysipelas by antimony, jiunctures, and fomentations. It was some time be- fore she recovered, and her convalescence was exceedingly tedious. In the second attack, after subduing the inflammatory fever in some measure by antimonials, we administered extract of belladonna in very minute doses, and in two or three days she was quite well. The second case was that of a woman who had been much subject to the affection, having had successive attacks of it at intervals, seldom recovering from them mider a fortnight ; small doses of the aconite, followed by belladonna, were given her, and in the course of three days she was also convalescent. There has been another case lately here, of a man with small ulcerations of the leg, from the toes up to the knee, aggi'avated by a scald, and who walked about until the leg became exceedingly swollen and red. He suflfered besides considerably from fever. In this state he was admitted. We subdued the fever, and then administered to him the extract of belladonna, and in twenty-four hours the disease had quite disappeared. Of course we cannot pretend to say posi- tively in what way this effect is produced, but it seems almost to act by magic ; however, so long as we benefit our patients by the treatment we pursue, we have no right to condemn the principles upon which this treatment is recommended and pursued. You know that this medicine is recommended by the HomcEopathists in this affection, because it produces on the skin a fiery eruption or efflorescence, accompanied by inflammatory fever. Simi/ia similibus curantur, say they. They give, in cases where a good night's rest is required, those substances which generally, in healthy IN RELATION TO HOM(EOPATHY. 85 subjects, produce great restlessness, instead of exhibiting, as others do, those medicines termed sedatives. It is like driving out one devil by sending in another. I believe in the homoeopathic doc- trines to a certain extent, but I cannot as yet, from inexperience on the subject, go the length its advocates would wish, in as far as regards the very minute doses of some of their medicines. The medicines in the above cases were certainly given in much smaller doses than have hitherto ever been prescribed. The beneficial effects, as you witnessed, are unquestionable. I have, however, seen similar good effects of the belladonna, prepared according to the homoeopathic phaimacopoeia, in a case of very severe erysipelas of the head and face, under the care of my friend. Dr. Quin. The inflammatory symptoms and local signs disappeared with very great rapidity. Without adopting the theory of this medical sect, you ought not to reject its doctrines without due examination and inquiry." " Encouraged by the success which had attended his administra- tion of aconite and belladonna in erysipelas, Mr. Listen requested me to give him a few notes of other diseases treated successfully by Homoeopathy, with the names of the medicines usually pre- scribed by me for their cure. This I immediately complied with. He subsequently informed me that he had employed the follow- ing medicines with great success : — Arnica montana internally and externally in severe contusions, lacerations, and incised wounds ; rhus toxicodendron in sprains, luxations, and swollen and painful joints; nux vomica in initation of the bladder, obsti- nate constipation, and in some cases of partial paralysis ; bryonia alba in rheumatism, and in arthritic pains of the joints ; chamo- milla in diarrhoea, and as a palliative in tooth-ache ; pulsatilla in retaided and suppressed catamenia ; mercurius solubilis alternated with belladonna in cynanche tonsillaris and ulceration of the fauces ; and a variety of other medicines, unnecessary for me to occupy your pages with, as their effects are familiar to every homoeopathic pi'actitioner. Mr. Liston, however, was most struck with the action of aconite in subduing inflammation, and reducing vascular excitement ; and he often expressed his regret to me that the power of aconite to abate vascular over-action, and supersede the necessity for abstraction of blood in many diseases, was not 86 TRUTHS AND TIlEIll RECEPTION known to liini earlier; because he was convinced that it would have prolonged the life of bis father, whose death had been has- tened, in his opinion, by ill-judged copious venesection. " In numerous cases demanding surgical assistance to which I had called him in, in consultation, he invariably left the "whole constitutional treatment to me ; and frequently, after his profes- sional services were no longer rc(|uired, he continued his visits nioroly from the interest he took in watching the eficcts of the homoeopathic medicines prescribed by me. "In a visit which I paid him a few days before his last fatal seizure, he, half in joke and half in earnest, said to me, ' If in a short time I do not mend quicker than I am now doing under allopathy, I shall certainly send for you to treat me homcEopathi- cally.' He then entered, with great interest, into conversation with me about some of my cases, and the remedies I was employing for their cure. He has often had many similar conversations, particularly of late, with our esteemed colleague, Mr. Cameron, for whom he entertained a very sincere friend- ship. " I have no doubt, that had Mr. Liston's valuable life been spared, his enlightened example would have tended greatly to dispel the prejudices which prevent an impartial examination of the doctrines and practice of Homoeopathy. The foregoing details will, I feel convinced, enlist the deepest sympathy of all your readers, in the universal regret which the untimely death of this distinguished surgeon has caused among his numerous friends and the public. " I am, gentlemen, " Your faithful and obedient servant, " FREDERIC F. QUIN, M.D. " 111, Mount-street, Grosvenor-square, "December 20th, 1847." These statements, which must be received by the reader merely as a selection from the number which are available, having been submitted, no further remark will appear necessary. It has been shown IN RELATION TO HOMCEOPATHY. 87 that the opposition directed towards Homoeopathy, SO far from being such as to warrant the public in declining to investigate the system, has been simply such as reason, unaided by experience, would demon- strate to be inevitable, while at the same time, to corroborate the lesson, experience to any extent may be invoked. It has been shown, also, that, apart from the argument founded on the opposition of the majo- rity of the profession, which has thus been set aside, the public can have no plea for neglecting the doc- trine, since, while it is plain to them that, supposing it to be true, it must lead to the highest results in the mitigation of human trials, it also comes commended on the testimony of a far larger number of sincere and accomplished men, than has perhaps been gained for any other truth at so early a stage of its exist- ence. Those who reject it, therefore, or who cast it out of the way, as unworthy of inquiry, must do so on their own responsibility. Convinced, as it may be hoped they now must be, that the sagacity of pro- fessional men concerning professional innovations is always, as regards the majority, entirely at fault, it is upon their own individual sagacity that they must take their stand ; and if in pursuing that course they should decline to fulfil the exhortation which requires them to search all things that may present even the shadow of a chance of bringing them more nearly acquainted with the laws which the Creator has insti- tuted for the government of the world, and especially with those upon which He has caused the preserva- 88 TRUTHS, ETC., IN RELATION TO HOMCEOPATHY. tion of health to depend, let them recognize that it will be vain for them, in any after hour of hopeless- ness, when it may be too late to avert their own premature death or the death of a relative or friend, to rely on the hacknied consolation, that the calamity is to be regarded as a new instance of the " inscru- table" ways of Providence, and not as the penalty of having wilfully blinded themselves to any light beneficiently set before them, the reception of which might have insured their preservation. FIRST ESSAY BY HAHNEMANN HOMCEOPATHIC PHINCIPLE. INTRODUCTION. No apology is necessary for presenting the following Essay, selected from the original writings of Hahne- mann, but a few words are requisite by way of in- troduction. It is of great historical interest, as being the first public announcement of the homoeopathic principle discovered by its author in 1790; and although the chemical and physiological views at present entertained differ somewhat from those ex- pressed by the author, and which were current at the time he wrote, this does not at all detract from the value of his practical remarks. We see from this Essay, that Hahnemann's origi- nal notion was, that the homoeopathic method of treatment was applicable only to chronic diseases ; whilst acute diseases could be most successfully treated by the enantiopathic method ; that he had not originally thought of the necessity of giving ex- tremely minute doses at long intervals ; that whilst advising single medication as the rule, he thought there were some exceptional cases in which reme- n 1)0 TNTRmiT'fTIOX. dies miglit be combined, in order mutually to aid each other's action, and that he insisted from the first on the necessity of testing medicines on the healthy human organism. In this Essay we have the germ of the Organon and the Materia Medica Pura, dimly shadowed forth indeed, but all the more interesting on that account, as showing the gradual growth in the mas- ter-mind of that scheme of reformation in therapeu- tics which, when perfectly matured, was to differ so widely from any former system of practical medicine, and to create a school which was destined, fifty years later, to have its representatives in every quarter of the globe, and in almost every town in Europe and America, whose disciples would then be reckoned by thousands, and whose doctrines would be eagerly embraced by some of the most illustrious professors* of the allopathic school. It will be perceived that Homoeopathy did not, as is often alleged, spring from the brain of the Ger- man, like Minerva from the front of Jove, complete and perfect in all its j)arts. First came the convic- tion of the necessity of learning the effects of medi- cines from testing them on the healthy human orga- * Among the Professors in allopathic Universities who have openly embraced Homoeopathy, we may mention D'Amador, Pro- fessor of Pathology at Montpelier ; Henderson, Professor of Pa- thology at Edinburgh ; J. W. Arnold, late Professor of Pathology at Zurich ; Zlalarowich, Professor of Materia Medica at the The- resian University of Vienna ; Maly, Professor of Materia Me- dica at GrJitz ; Lam]necht, Professor of Midwifery at Padua, &c. INTRODUCTION. 91 nism, and thence arose the discovery of what we term the homoeopathic principle, the law of similia simiUhus curantur. But the idea of this law heing generally, far less exclusively, applicable to the treat- ment of disease, did not at first present itself; it was afterwards to be learned from careful, oft repeated, and infinitely varied experiment. The generality of its application was first promulgated nine years later (1805), in the Medicine of Experience ; its exclu- sive application first insisted on fourteen years later (1810), in the Organon of Rational Medicine. In like manner, the suitable dose and the various tech- nicalities connected with it, as they at present stand, were the result of years of experience. The theory of chronic diseases, which has been the object of such determined animosity and ridicule, but the value of which is well known to the practical Homoeopa- thist, made its first appearance in 1828. The test- ing of medicines on the human organism w^as com- menced by Hahnemann on himself and others before the publication of the subjoined Essay. In 1805, the commencement of that vast labour Avas given to the world in the Fragmenta de virihus Medicamenta- riim positivis., a labour which w^as continued up to the latest years of his active life, and has since been carried on by his followers to the present day. In reading the following Essay, it is impossible not to marvel at the little impression the doctrines therein enunciated made upon the great body of me- dical men. Its temperate, but earnest language, its h2 952 FIRST ESSAY I!Y HAHNEMANN calm reasoning, its complete exposure of the fallacy of the previous niodcs adopted for ascertaining the medicinal powers of drugs, and the convincing facts brought forward in sup])ort of each view, might have been expected to meet with other treatment from the author's colleagues than contemptuous silence or in- sensate ridicule ; and although, to the discredit of the time, they were received with scorn, we may hope that at the present day they will not fall into the hands of any unprejudiced person, without awaken- ing a spirit of investigation which will forbid any decision that shall not have been sanctioned by obser- vation and experiment. Essay on a new Principle for discovering the Curative Poicers of Drugs, xoilh a few Glances at those hitherto employed. ]iy Samuel Hahnemann, M.D. (From Hufcland's Journal of Practical Medicine, Vol. II. Part 3. 1796.) At the commencement of this century, the unmerited honour was conferred on chemistry, more especially by the Academy of Sciences of Paris, of tempting it to come forward as the discoverer of the medicinal virtues of drugs, particularly of plants. They were subjected to the action of fire in retorts, generally without water, and by this process there w^ere ob- tained, from the most deadly as from the most inno- cent, very much the same products, water, acids, resinous matters, charcoal, and from this last, alkali ; always the same kind. Large sums of money were ON THE HOMCEOPATHIC nilNCIPLE. 93 thus wasted on the destruction of plants, before it was perceived that none of the important component parts of vegetables could be extracted by this fiery ordeal, far less that any conclusion respecting their curative powers could be come to. This folly, which was, with divers variations, perpetrated for nearly half a century, gradually produced an unfavourable impression on the minds of modern physicians, which had been in the mean time more enlightened respect- ing the chemical art and its limits, so that they now almost unanimously adopted an opposite view, and denied all value to chemistry in the search for the medicinal powers of drugs, and in the discovery of remedial agents for the diseases to which humanity is liable.* In this they palpably went too far. Although I am far from conceding to the chemical art a universal influence on the materia medica, I cannot refrain from alluding to some notable discoveries in this respect which we have to thank it for, and to what it may hereafter effect for therapeutics. Chemistry informed the physician who sought a palliative remedy for the evils occasioned by morbid acids in the stomach, that the alkalis and some earths were their remedies. If it was desired to destroy in the stomach poisonous matters which had been swal- * Once more, in the present day, practical medicine is appealing to chemistry for aid in the discovery of remedial agents, and Baron Liebig, in his laboratory at Giessen, is now the great therapeutic oracle. [Ed.] 94 FIRST ESSAY HY HAHNEMANN lowed, the physician applied to chemistry for the antidotes that should speedily neutralize them, before they should injure the alimentary canal and the whole organism. Chemistry alone could tell him that the alkalis and soap were the antidotes of acid poisons, of vitriol, of aquafortis, of arsenic, as well as of the poisonous metallic salts ; that the acids were the counter-poisons of the alkalis, of quicklime, &c., and that for speedily counteracting the effects of all metallic poisons, sulphur, liver of sulphur, but especially suljihuretted hydrogen, were effectual. It taught him to remove lead and tin from a cavity of the body by living quicksilver, to dissolve iron that had been swallowed by acids, and ingested glass and flint by fluoric and phosphoric acids, in the way it is seen to take place, with respect to the last substance, in the stomach of fowls. Chemistry showed the vital air in its purity, and when the physiologist and clinical observer perceived its peculiar power of maintaining and increasing the vital energy, chemistry showed that a part of this power lay in the great specific caloric of this air, and supplied this air, which neither the therapeutic ma- teria medica nor clinical experience could do, from many different sources, in greater and greater purity. Chemistry alone could supply a remedy for those suffocated by fixed air, in the vapour of caustic am- monia. What would the Galenic school have done in cases of suflbcation from charcoal vapour, had chemistry 1 ON THE HOMCEOPATHIC rillNCirLE. 95 not pointed out vital air, the second component of atmospheric, as the proper thing wherewith to inflate the lungs '? Chemistry discovered a means of destroying the remains of poisons which had penetrated the system, by administering sulphuretted hydrogen in drinks and baths. What but chemistry taught us (with nitrous ether and acetate of potash) how to dissolve those gall stones that often give rise to so many most trouble- some diseases ? For centuries, chemistry has been applied to by medicine for a remedy for stone in the bladder, and with what result ? Those that applied to it know best. It has at all events done something, since it has brought soda saturated with fixed air into repute. A still better remedy will be found in the employ- ment of phosphoric acid. Were not all sorts of medicinal agents applied to mammae in which the milk had curdled and caused pain •? This was a hopeless, fruitless way. Che- mistry showed a true remedy in fomentations of harts- horn, which renders curdled milk once more fluid. Chemical experimentation with Colombo root and morbid bile, showed that that vegetable substance must be a remedy in deranged biliary secretion in the human body, and medical experience has con- firmed the accuracy of chemical induction. Does the practitioner seek to know if a new re- medy is of a heating description '? Distillation with 96 FIHST ESSAY HY HAHNEMANN water, by showing the presence or absence of an ethereal oil, will with few exceptions suffice to solve the problem. Practice cannot always tell by sensible signs if a vegetable substance possess astringent properties. Chemistry discovers that astringent principle, some- times of no small use in practice, and even its de- gree, by means of green vitriol. Dietetics alone cannot tell if a newly-discovered plant possess anything nourishing in its composition. Chemistry shows this, by separating its gluten and its starch, and can, from the quantity of these ingre- dients, determine its amount of nutritive quality. Although chemistry cannot directly show medicinal powers, yet it can do this indirectly, by demonstrat- ing the powerlessness of medicines, in themselves powerful, from being mixed ; or the noxious proper- ties of mixtures of medicines, in themselves inno- cuous. It forbids us, when we seek to produce vomiting by means of tartar emetic, to add to it sub- stances containing gallic acid, by which it is decom- posed; it forbids us to drink lime water when we seek to obtain benefit from the astringent principle of cinchona bark, by which it is destroyed ; it for- bids us, if we do not wish to produce ink, to mix bark and iron in the same potion ; it forbids us to make the Goulard lotion powerless by adding alum ; it forbids the mixture of an acid with those laxative neutral salts having cream of tartar for their bases, which remove acids from the prima? viae ; it forbids ON THE HOMOEOPATHIC PRINCIPLE. 97 US to render poisonous, by admixture, those other- wise innocuous substances, diaphoretic antimony and cream of tartar ; it prohibits the use of vegetable acids during a milk diet, (whereby an insoluble cheese would be formed), and when acids are required for digestion, it points to the vitriolic acid. It furnishes the tests for detecting the adulteration of remedies, extracts the deadly corrosive sublimate from calomel, and teaches the difference betwixt the latter and the poisonous white precipitate which it so closely resembles. These few examples may suffice to show that che- mistry cannot be excluded from a share in the disco- very of the medicinal powers of drugs. But that chemistry should not be consulted with respect to those medicinal powers which relate, not to hurtful substances to be acted on immediately in the human body, but to changes wherein the functions of the animal organism are first concerned, is proved, inter alia, by the experiments with antiseptic substances, respecting which, it was imagined that they would exhibit exactly the same antiputrefactive power in the fluids of the body, as they did in the chemical phial. But experience showed that saltpetre, for instance, which out of the body is so highly anti- septic, shows exactly opposite qualities in putrid fever and in tendency to gangrene; the reason of which I may mention, though out of place here, is, that it weakens the vital powers. Or shall we seek to correct the putrefaction of matters in the stomach 98 KIUSl l.SSAV \i\ IIATINKMANN ^villl saltpetre'^ An emetic will remove them at once. Still worse for the materia mctlica was the advice of those who sought to ascertain the medicinal powers of its various agents, by mixing the unknown drug with newly-drawn blood, in order to see whether the blood grew darker or lighter, thinner or thicker ; just as if we could bring the drug into the same im- mediate contact with the blood in the artery, as we could in the test tube ; just as if the drug must not first undergo an infinity of changes in the digestive canal, before it could get (and that only by a most circuitous method) into the blood. What a variety of appearance does not the blood itself present when drawn from the vein, according as it is taken from a heated or a cool body, by a smaller or larger open- ing, in a stream or by drops, in a cold or warm room, in a flat or a narrow vessel. But such paltry modes of ascertaining the powers of medicines bear on their face the stamp of their worthlessness. Even the injection of drugs into the bloodvessels of animals is for the same reason a very heterogeneous and uncertain method. To mention only one circum- stance, — a teaspoonful of concentrated cherrylaurel- water will most certainly kill a rabbit, w^hen taken into the stomach, whereas, if injected into the jugular vein, it causes no change, the animal remains lively and well. But at all events, some will say, the administra- ON THE HOMOEOPATHIC PRINCIPLE. 99 tion of drugs to animals by the mouth will furnish some certain results respecting their medicinal action. By no means ! How greatly do their bodies differ from ours ! A swine can swallow a large quantity of nux vomica, without injury, and yet men have been killed with fifteen grains. A dog bore an ounce of the fresh leaves, flowers, and seeds of monkshood; what man would not have died of such a dose'? Horses eat it, when dried, without injury. Yew leaves, though so fatal to man, fatten some of our domestic animals. And how can we draw conclu- sions relative to the action of medicines on man, from their effects on the lower animals, when even among the latter they often vary so much *? The stomach of a wolf poisoned with monkshood was found inflamed, but not that of a large and a small cat, poisoned by the same substance. What can we infer from this ? Certainly, not much, if I may not say, nothing. This much, at least, is certain, that the fine internal changes and sensations, which a man can express by words, must be totally unknown to us in the lower animals. In order to try if a substance can develope very violent or dangerous effects, this may in general be readily ascertained, by experiments on several animals at once, as likewise any general palpable action on the motions of the limbs, variations of temperature, evacuations upwards and downwards, and the like, but never anything connected or decisive, that may influence our conclusions with regard to the proper 100 FIRST ESSAY HY HAHNEMANN curative virtues of the agent on the human subject. For this, such experiments are too obscure, too rude, and, if I may l)e allowed the expression, too a^Yk^vard. As the above-mentioned sources for ascertaining the medicinal virtues of drugs were so soon exhausted, the systematizer of the materia mcdica bethought himself of others, which he deemed of a more certain character, lie sought for them in the drugs them- selves ; he imagined he would find in them hints for his guidance. He did not observe, however, that their sensible external signs are often very deceptive, as deceptive as the physiognomy is in indicating the thoughts of the heart. Lurid-coloured plants are by no means always poisonous ; and on the other hand, an agreeable colour of their flowers is far from being any proof of their harmlessness. The special qualities of drugs, which may be ascertained by the smell and the taste, will not allow us to form any trustworthy conclusions respecting untried substances. I am far from deny- ing utility to both these senses in corroborating the probable properties of drugs which have been ascer- tained in other ways, but I would counsel, on the other hand, great caution to those who would form their judgment from them alone. If the bitter prin- ciple strengthens the stomach, why does squill weaken it '? If bitter aromatic substances are heat- ing, why docs marsh rosemary diminish the vital temperature in such a marked manner? If those ON THE HOM(EOPATHIC PRINCIPLE. 101 plants only are astringent that make ink with green vitriol, how is it that the highly astringent principle in quinces, medlars, &c., cannot fur- nish ink'? If the astringent taste gives evidence of a strengthen- ing substance, why does white vitriol excite vomit- ing? If the acids are antiseptic, why docs arsenious acid produce such rapid putrefaction in the body of one poisoned by it ? Is the sweet taste of sugar of lead a sign of its nutritive properties ? If the vola- tile oils, and everything that tastes fiery on the tongue, are heating for the blood, why are ether, camphor, cajeput oil, oil of peppermint, and the volatile oil of bitter almonds and cherrylaurel, the very reverse *? If we are to expect a disagreeable odour in poisonous plants, how is it so inconsiderable in monkshood, deadly nightshade, and foxglove? why so imperceptible in nux vomica and gamboge ? If we are to look for a disagreeable taste in poisonous plants, why is the most deadly juice of the root of jatropJia manihot merely sweetish, and not the least acrid '? If the expressed fatty oils are often soften- ing, does it follow that they are all so, even the inflammatory oil expressed from the seeds of the jatropha curcas ? Are substances which have little or no smell or taste destitute of medicinal powers % How is it thatipecacuan, tartar emetic, the poison of vipers, nitrogen, and lopez-root, are not so? Who would use bryony-root as an article of diet, on the ground that it contains much starch? lU;j KlUST ESSA\ 1!V llATINEMAXN Perhaps, however, botanical affinity may allow us to infer a similyrity of action'? This is far from being the case, as there are many examples of oppo- site, or at least very dilTerent powers, in one and the same, and indeed in most families of plants. We shall take as a basis the most perfect natural system^ that of Murray. Tn the family of the conifera'^ the inner bark of the fir-tree {pin us syhestris) gives to the inhabitants of northern regions a kind of bread, whereas the bark of the yew-tree (taocus haccifera) gives — death. How came the feverfew [anthemis pyrethrum^.y^xXh its burn- ing root, the poisonous cooling lettuce (Jactuca virosa), the emetic groundsel [scnccio vulgaris\ the wild scorzonera, the innocuous cudweed [gnaphalimn arenarimn), the heroic arnica (a. montana), in the one family of the composifce? Has the purging gJohu- laria alyimm anything in common with the powerless statice^ both being in the family of the aggregatre ? Is there any similarity to be expected betwixt the action of the chervil root [sium sisarum) and that of the poisonous water-dropwort [oenanthe crocata)^ or of the water-hemlock (cicuta virosa)^ because they are in the same family of the nmbellifcrce ? Has the not harmless ivy [hedcra helix)^ in the family hede- raccce^ any other resemblance to the vine {vitis vin- if era), except in the outward growth? How- comes the harmless butcher's-broom (ruscus) in the same family of the sarmentacece with the stupify- ing cocculus {menispermuni corndus)^ the heating ON THE HOMCEOPATHIC PRINCIPLE. 103 aristolochia, and the asarum europfsum ? Do we expect any similarity of effect from the goose-grass {galium aparine) and the often deadly spiffelia marij- landica, because they l^oth belong to the stellatce P What resemblance can we find betwixt the action of the melon {cucicmis melo) and the elaterium {momor- dica elaterium)^ in the same family of the cucur- hitaccce ? And again, in the family solanacece^ how comes the tasteless great mullein (verbasciini thapsiis)^ with the burning Cayenne pepper {capsicum annuum) ; or tobacco, which has such a powerful spasm-excit- ing action on the primse vi^, with nux vomica, which impedes the natural motions of the intestines ? Who would compare the unmedicinal perriwinkle {vinca pervinca) with the stupifying oleander {nerinm ole- ander)^ in the family contortcc ? Acts the wintry moneywort {Jyshnachia nummulana) similarly to the marsh trefoil {menyanthes trifoliata), or the powerless cowslip {primula veris) to the drastic sowbread {cyclamen eiiropceum)^ in the family of the rutacecc P From the strengthening effects of the bear-berry {arbutus uva ursi) on the urinary apparatus, can we infer the heating, stupifying action of the rhododen- dron chrysanthum, in the family hicornesP Among the verticillaf(S, can any comparison be made betwixt the scarcely astringent selfheal {prunella vulgaris) or the innocent bugle {ajuga pyramidalis), with the volatile germander {teiicrium mar urn), or the fiery marjoram {origanum creticum) P How can the powers of the verbena {v. officinalis) be said to re- 104 1 IRST ESSAY n\ lIAHNEMANTf seinljle those of the active hyssop {gratiola officiimlis), in the family pcrsonatcc ? How difl'ercnt are the actions of liquorice and (jcoffroija^ although in the same family of the iminUonacdcc I In the family of the lomentacecc^ what parallel exists betwixt the pro- perties of the ceratonia siliqua and those of the fuma- tory ifumaria ojficinalis), of the poIj/(jala senega and the Peruvian balsam {mjjroxylon jyeniiferiim) ? Or is there any likeness in properties amongst the nigella saiiva, the garden rue {ruta graveolens), the peony {p(€onia officinalis)^ and the cellery-leaved crowfoot {ranunculus scelerat us) ^ although one and all are in the family of the viultisiliquce'l . The dropwort {spiraa fUprnduUi) and the tormentil {tormentilla crccta) are united in the family senticosce, and yet how different in properties! The red curvaLiit {ribes ruhrum)^ and the cherry-laurel {prunus laurocerasus), the rowan {sorhus aucuparia), and the peach {amygdalus 2)er- sica), how different in powers, and yet in the same family of the j;07w«c(?ri> KIKST ESSAY 15 Y Jl A 11 NERMANN live ; but only a palliative and temporary remedy is required, in order to suppress efTectually a transitory alTcction, as is also the case in acute diseases. VI. Palliative remedies do so much harm in chro- nic diseases, and render them more obstinate, proba- bly because after their first antagonistic action they are followed by a secondary action, which is similar to the disease itself. V. The more numerous the morbid symptoms the medicine produces in its direct action, corresponding to the symptoms of the disease to be cured, the nearer the artificial disease resembles that sought to be removed, so much more certain is the result of its administration to be favourable. VI. As it may be almost considered an axiom, that the symptoms of the secondary action are the exact opposite of those of the direct action, it is allowable for a master of the art, when the know- ledge of the symptoms of the direct action is imper- fect, to supply in imagination the lacunae by induction, i. e. the opposite of the symptoms of the secondary action ; the result, however, must only be considered as an addition to, not as the basis of, his conclusions. After these preliminary observations, I now pro- ceed to illustrate by examples my maxim, that in order to discover the true remedial jwtvers of a medi- cine/or chronic diseases, we must look to the specific artificial disease it can develope in the human body, and employ it in a very similar morbid condition of the organism which is sought to be removed. ON THE HOMCEOPATHIC PRINCIPLE. 123 Also the analogous maxim, that in order to cure radically certain chronic diseases^ we must search for medicines that can excite a similar disease {the more similar the better) in the human body — will thereby become evident. In my notes on CuUen's Materia Medica, I have already observed that bark^ given in large doses to sensitive, yet healthy individuals, produces a true at- tack of fever, very similar to the intermittent fever, and for this reason, most lyrobably^ it overtops, and thus cures the latter. Now after mature experience, I add, not only probably^ but most certainly. I saw a healthy, sensitive person, of firm fibre, and half way through with her pregnancy, take five drops of the volatile oil of chamomile (matricaria chamo- milla) for cramp in the calf of the leg. The dose was much too strong for her. First there was insen- sibility, the cramp increased, then occurred transient convulsions in the limbs, in the eyelids, &c. A kind of hysterical movement above the navel, not unlike labour pains, but more troublesome, lasted for several days. This explains how chamomile has been found so serviceable in after pains, in excessive mobility of the fibre, and in hysteria, when employed in doses in which it could not perceptibly develope the same phenomena, that is, in much smaller doses than the i above. A man who had been long troubled with consti- pation, but was otherwise healthy, had from time to time attacks of giddiness that lasted for weeks and K 2 124 FinsT ESSAY nv Hahnemann months. Purgatives did no good. I gave him ar- vica root {arnica montana) for a week, for I knew that it causes vertigo, in increasing doses, with the desired result. As it has laxative properties, it kept the bowels open during its employment, by antago- nistic action, as a palliative ; wherefore the consti- pation returned after leaving off the medicine ; the giddiness, however, was efTectually cured. This root excites, as I and others have ascertained, be- sides other symptoms, nausea, uneasiness, anxiety, peevishness, head-ache, oppression of the stomach, empty eructation, cuttings in the abdomen, and fre- quent scanty evacuations, with straining. These effects, not Stollen's description, induced me to em- ploy it in an epidemic of simple (bilious) dysentery. The symptoms of it were imeasiness, anxiety, exces- sive peevishness, head-ache, nausea, perfect tasteless- ness of all food, rancid bitter taste on the (clean) tongue, frequent empty enictation, oppression of the stomach, constant cuttings in the abdomen, complete absence of faecal evacuations, and instead, passage of pure grey or transparent, sometimes hard, white, flocculent mucus, occasionally intimately mixed with ])lood, or with streaks of blood, or without blood, once or twice a day, accompanied with the most painfid constant straining and forcing. Though the evacuations were so rare, the strength sunk rapidly, much more quickly, however (and without amelio- ration, but rather aggravation of the original affec- tion), when purgatives were employed. Those affected ON THE HOMOEOPATHIC miNCIPLE. 125 were generally children, some even under one year old, but also some adults. The diet and regimen were proper. On comparing the morbid symptoms arnica root produces with those developed by this simple dysentery, 1 could confidently oppose to the totality of the symptoms of the latter, the collective action of the former. The most remarkable good effects followed, without it being necessary to use any other remedy. Before the employment of the root, I gave a powerful emetic,* which I had occasion to repeat in scarcely two cases, for arnica sets to right the disordered bile (also out of the body), and prevents its derangement. The only inconvenience resulting from its use in this dysentery was, that it acted as an antagonistic remedy against the suppression of faeces, and produced frequent, though scanty evacuations of excrement; it was consequently a palliative; the effect of this was, when I discontinued the root, con- tinued constipation. j- In another less simple dysentery, accompanied with frequent diarrhoea, the arnica root might be * Without using the arnica root, the emetics took away the ran- cid bitter taste for but one or two days ; all the other symptoms remained, though they were ever so often repeated. t I had to increase the dose daily, more rapidly than is neces- sary with any other -powerful medicine. A child of four years of age got at first four grains daily, then seven, eight, and nine grains. Children of six or seven years of age could at first only bear six gi'ains, afterwards twelve and fourteen grains were rcqusite. A child three quarters of a year old, which had taken nothing previ- ously, could at first bear but two grahis (mixed with warm water) in an enema ; latterly six grains were necessary. 1;^() MUST JiSSAY BY HAHNEMANN more useful and suitable, on account of this latter circumstance ; its property of producing frequent fa'cal evacuations in its primary direct action -would constitute it a similarly acting, consequently, perma- nent remedy, and in its secondary indirect action it would effectually cure the diarrhoea. This has already been proved by experience; it has been found excellent in the worst diarrhoeas. It subdues them, because, without weakening the hody^ it generally causes frequent evacuations. In order to prove serviceable in diarrhoeas without faecu- lent matter, it must be given in such small doses as not to produce perceptible purgation ; or in diar- rhoeas with acrid matters, in larger purgative doses ; and thus the object will be attained. I saw glandular swellings occur from the misuse of an infusion of flowers of arnica ; I am much mistaken if, in moderate doses, it will not remove such affections. We should endeavour to find out if the millefoil {achillea millefolium) cannot itself produce haemor- rhages in large doses, as it is so efhcacious in mode- rate doses in chronic haemorrhages. It is not to be wondered at that valerian {Valeriana officinalis) in moderate doses cures chronic diseases with excess of irritability, since in large doses, as I have ascertained, it can exalt so remarkably the irri- tability of the whole system. The dispute as to whether the hrooMime {anagal- lis nri'cnsis) and the bark of the mistletoe {viscum ON THE HOM(EOPATHIC PRINCIPLE. 1^7 album) possess great curative virtues or none at all, would immediately l)e settled, if it -were tried on the healthy whether large doses produce bad effects, and an artificial disease similar to that in which they have been hitherto empirically used. The specific artificial disease and the peculiar afiections that the spotted hemJoch {coniiim maciiJa- tum) causes, are not nearly so well described as they deserve ; but whole books are filled with the empiri- cal praises and the equally empirical abuse of this plant. It is true it can produce ptyalism, it may therefore possess an excitant action on the lymphatic system, and be of permanent advantage in cases where it is requisite to restrain the excessive action of the absorbent vessels.* Now as it, besides this, produces pains (in large doses violent pains) in the glands, it is easily conceived that in painful indura- tion of the glands, in cancer, and in the painful nodes that the abuse of mercury leaves, it may be the best remedy, in moderate doses, not only for curing almost specifically this peculiar kind of chro- nic pains, in a more effectual and durable manner than the palliative opium and all other narcotic re- medies which act in a different manner, but also for dispersing the glandular swellings themselves, when they either have their origin, as above described, in * If employed in inactivity of these vessels, it will first act as a palliative ; afterwards do little one way or other ; and lastly^ prove injurious, by the production of the opposite condition to that wished for. iJib FIRST ESSAY BY HAHNEMANN excessive local or general activity of the lymphatic vessels, or occur in an otherwise robust frame, so that the removal of the pains is all that is required in order to enable nature to cure the complaint her- self. Painful glandular swellings from external in- juries are of this description.* In true cancer of the breast, where an opposite state of the glandular system, a sluggishness of it, seems to predominate, it must certainly do harm on the whole (it may at first soothe the pains), and espe- cially must it aggravate the disease when the system, as is often the case, is weakened by long continued suffering; and it will do harm so much the more rapidly, because its continued use produces as a secondary action, weakness of the stomach and of the whole body. From the very reason that it, like other umbelliferous plants, specifically excites the glandular system, it may, as the older physicians remarked, cure an excessive secretion of milk. As * A healthy peasant child got, from a violent fall, a painful swelling of the under lip, which increased very much in the course of four weeks in hardness, size, and painfulness. The juice of the spotted hemlock applied to it, effected a cure without any relapse in fourteen days. A hitherto uncommonly healthy, robust girl, had severely bruised the right breast, whilst carrying a heavy bur- den, with the band of the basket. A small tumour arose, which for six months increased in violence of pain, in size, and hardness, at each monthly period. The external application of spotted hemlock juice cured it within five weeks. This it would have done sooner, had it not affected the skin, and produced there pain- ful pustules, in consequence of which it had frequently to be dis- continued for several days. ON THE HOMCEOPATHIC PRINCIPLE. 129 it shows a tendency to paralyze the nerves of sight in large doses, it is comprehensible why it has proved of service in amaurosis. It has removed spasmodic complaints, hooping cough, and epilepsy, because it has a tendency to produce convulsions. It will still more certainly be of use in convulsions of the eyes and trembling of the limbs, because in large doses it developes exactly the same phenomena. The same with respect to giddiness. The fact that garden hemlock {cethusa ci/napium), besides other affections, as vomiting, diarrhoea, co- licky pains, cholera, and others, for the truth of which I cannot vouch, (general swelling, &c.,) pro- duces so specifically imbecility, also imbecility alter- nately with madness, should be of use to the careful physician in this disease, otherwise so difficult of cure. I had a good extract of it prepared by myself, and once, when I found myself, from much mental work of various kinds coming upon me in rapid suc- cession, distracted, and incapable of reading any more, I took a grain of it. The effect was an un- common disposition for mental labour, which lasted for several hours, until bed-time. The next day, however, I was less disposed for mental exertion. The water hemlock {cicuta virosa) causes, among other symptoms, violent burning in the throat and sto- mach, tetanus, tonic cramp of the bladder, lockjaw, erysipelas of the face, head-aches, and true epilepsy ; all diseases for which we require efficient remedies, one of which, it may be hoped, will be found in this 130 FIRST ESSAY liV HAHNEMANN powerfully-acting root, in the hands of the cautious physician. Aniatus the Portuguese observed that cocculus sccdji {mcnispennum cocculus), in the dose of four grains, produced nausea, hiccough, and anxiety in an adult man. In animals they produced a rapid, violent, but Avhen the dose was not fatal, a transitory stupefaction. Our successors will find in them a very powerful medicine, when the morbid phenomena these seeds produce shall be more accurately known. The Indians use the root of this tree, among other things, in malignant typhus (that accompanied by stupefaction). The fox-grape (paris quadrifolia) has been found efficacious in cramps. The leaves cause, in large doses at all events, cramp in the stomach, according to the still imperfect experience we possess of the morbid phenomena they are capable of developing. Coffee produces, in large doses, head-aches ; it therefore cures, in moderate doses, head-aches that do not proceed from derangement of the stomach or acidity in the primee vise. It favours the peristaltic motion of the bowels in large doses, and therefore cures in smaller doses chronic diarrhoeas, and in like manner the other abnormal effects it occasions might be employed against similar affections of the human body, were we not in the habit of misusing it. The effects of opium in stupifying the senses, and irritat- ing the tone of the fibres, are destroyed by this berry in its character of an antagonistic palliative remedy, ON THE HOMCEOPATHIC PRINCIPLE. lol and that properly and effectually, for here there is no persistent state of the organism, but only transi- tory symptoms to be combated. Intermittent fevers, too, where there is a want of irritability and inordi- nate tension of the fibres, precluding the employ- ment of the otherwise specific bark, it apparently suppresses in large doses, merely as a palliative re- medy ; its direct action, however, in such large doses, lasts for two days. Bitter-sweet {solarium dulcamara) produces, in large doses, among other symptoms, great swelling of the affected parts and acute pains, or insensibility of them, also paralysis of the tongue (and of the optic nerves ^). In virtue of the last powerful action, it is not to be wondered at that it has cured paralytic affections, amaurosis,* and deafness, and that it will render still more specific service in paralysis of the tongue, in moderate doses. In virtue of the two first properties, it is a main remedy in chronic rheumatism, and in the nocturnal pains from the misuse of mer- cury. In consequence of its power of causing strangury, it has been useful in obstinate gonor- rhoea, and from its tendency to bring about itching and shooting in the skin, it shows its utility in many cutaneous eruptions, and old ulcers, even such as arise from abuse of mercury. As it causes, in large doses, spasms of the hands, lips and eyelids, as also shaking of the limbs, so we may easily understand * Loss of sight, from an affection of the retina, the optic nerve, or the brain. (Ed.) 139 FIUST KSSAY DY HAHNEMANN how it has been useful also iu spasmodic aflections. In nymjiliomania it will probably be of use, as it acts so specifically on the female organization, and has the power of causing (in large doses) irritation and pain of the parts affected in that disorder. The berries of the black nightshade {solanum nigrum) have caused extraordinary convulsions of the limbs, and also delirious raving. It is, therefore, probable that this plant will do good in what are called possessed persons (madness, with extraordi- nary, emphatic, often unintelligible talking, formerly considered prophesying and the gift of unknown tongues, accompanied by convulsions of the limbs), especially where there are at the same time pains in the region of the stomach, which these berries also produce in large doses. As this plant causes erysi- pelas of the face, it will be useful in that disease, as has already been ascertained from its external employ- ment. As it causes, to a still greater degree than bitter-sweet, by being used internally, external swel- lings, that is, a transient obstruction in the absorbent system, its great diuretic power is only the indirect secondary result ; and hence its great virtue in dropsy, from similarity of action^ is plainly perceptible ; a medicinal quality of so much the greater value, as most of the remedies we possess for this disease are merely antagonistically acting (exciting the lymphatic systemin amerely transitory manner), and consequently palliative remedies, incapable of effecting a perma- nent cure. As, moreover, in large doses it causes ON THE HOMCEOPATHIC PKINCIPLE. 133 not only swelling, but general inflammatory swelling, with itching, and intolerable burning pains, stiffness of the limbs, pustular eruptions, desquamation of the skin, ulcers, and sphacelus,* where is the wonder that its external application has cured divers pains and inflammations "? Taking all the morbid symp- toms together, that the black nightshade produces, we cannot mistake their striking resemblance to raphania, for which it will, most probably, be a specific domestic remedy. It is probable that the deadly nightshade {atropa belladonna) will be useful, if not in tetanus, at least in trismus (as it produces a kind of lockjaw), and in spasmodic dysphagia-]- (as it specifically causes a diffi- culty of swallowing) ; both these actions belong to its direct action. Whether its power over hydro- phobia, if it do possess any, depends on the latter property alone, or also on its power of suppressing palliatively, for several hours, the irritability and excessive sensitiveness that are present in so great a degree in hydrophobia, I am unable to determine. Its power of soothing and dispersing hardened, pain- ful, and suppurating glands, is owing, undeniably, to its property of exciting, in its direct action, boring, gnawing pains, in these glandular swellings. Yet I conceive that it acts antagonistically, that is, in a palliative and merely temporary manner, in those which proceed from excessive irritation of the ab- * Mortification. (Ed.) f Difficulty of swallowing ; choking. (Ed.) 184 FIRST ESSAY HY HAHNEMANN sorbcnt system (with subsequent aggravation, as is the case Avith all palliatives in chronic diseases) ; but by virtue of similarity, that is, permanently and radically on those arising from torpor of the lymphatic system. (Then it would be serviceable in those glandular swellings, in which the spotted hemlock {conium maculatmn) cannot be used, and the latter will be useful, where the former does injury.) As, however, its continued employment (by reason of its indirect secondary action) exhausts the whole body, and when given in too large, or too often repeated doses, has a tendency to produce a gangrenous fever, its good effects will sometimes be destroyed by these secondary bad consequences, and fatal results may ensue (especially in the case of cancerous patients, whose vital powers have been exhausted by the suffer- ings of many years), if it be not cautiously employed. It produces directly mania (as also, as above described, a kind of tonic cramp), but clonic cramps (convul- sions) it only produces as a secondary action, by reason of the state of the organism that remains after the direct action of belladonna (obstruction of the animal and natural functions). Hence its power in epilepsy with raving, is always most conspicuous upon the latter symptom, whilst the former is generally only changed by the antagonistic (palliative) action of belladonna, into trembling, and such like spasmodic affections peculiar to weakened irritable bodies. All the spasmodic symptoms that belladonna produces in its direct primary action are of a tonic character; ON THE HOM(EOPATHIC PRINCIPLE. 135 true, the muscles are in a state of paralytic relaxa- tion, but their deficient irritability causes a kind of immobility, and a feeling of health, as if contraction were present. As the mania it excites is of a wild character, so it soothes manias of this sort, or at least deprives them of their stormy nature. As it extin- guishes memory in its direct action,* nostalgia (home sickness) is aggravated, and, as I have learned, is even produced by it. Moreover, the increased discharge of urine, sweat, menses, faeces, and saliva, which have been observed, are merely consequences of the antagonistic state of the body, remaining after an excessive exaltation of the irritability, or else sensitiveness during the indirect secondary action, when the direct primary action of the drug is exhausted, during which, as I have several times observed, all these excretions are often com- pletely suppressed by large doses for ten hours, and more. Therefore, in cases where these excretions are discharged with difficulty, and excite some serious disease, belladonna removes this difficulty perma- nently and completely, as a similarly-acting remedy, if it be owing to tension of the fibres, and want of irritability and sensation. I say, purposely, serious disease, for only in such cases is it allowable to em- ploy one of the most violent of medicines, which demands such caution in its use. Some kinds of dropsy, green sickness, &c., are of this nature. The * It will, therefore, be useful in weakness of memory. 1S6 FTRST ESSAY RY HAHNEMANN great tendency of !)ella(lonna to paralyze the optic nerve, makes it important, as a similarly-acting remedy, in amaurosis.* In its direct action it pre- vents sleep, and the deep sleep which subsequently ensues is only in consequence of the opposite state produced by the cessation of this action. By virtue, therefore, of this artificial disease, belladonna will cure chronic sleeplessness (from want of irritability) more permanently than any palliative remedy. It is said to have been found beneficial in dysen- tery ; probably, as, in its direct action, it retards the stool, in the most simple cases of diarrhoea, with suppressed fsecal evacuations, and rare motions, but not in dysentery with lienteric diarrhoea,j' where it must do positive harm. Whether, however, it is appropriate for dysentery, by reason of its other actions, I am una])le to say. It produces apoplexy ; and if it have, as we are told, been found serviceable in serious apoplexy, it is owing to this property. Besides this, its direct action causes an internal burning, with coldness of the external parts. Its direct action lasts twelve, twenty-four, and forty-eight hours. Hence, a dose should not be re peated sooner than after two days. A more rapid repetition of ever so small a dose must resemble in * I have myself seen the good effects of it in this disease. \ A species of diarrhoea, in whicli the food has only been par- tially digested. (Ed.) ON THE HOMCEOPATHIO PRINCIPLE. 137 its (dangerous) effects the administration of a large dose. Experience teaches this. The fact that henbane {hi/osciamus niger) in large doses diminishes remarkably the heat of the body and relaxes its tone for a short time in its direct action, and therefore is an efficacious palliative remedy when given in moderate doses inwardly and outwardly in sudden attacks of tension of the fibres and inflammmation, does not fall to be considered in this place. This is not the case, however, with the observation, that this property only enables it to palliate very imperfectly, in any dose, chronic affections with tension of the fibres ; in the end, however, it rather increases than diminishes them by its indirect secondary action, which is exactly the opposite of its primary action. On the other hand, it will help to assist the power of the strengthening remedy in chronic relaxation of the fibres, as in its primary action it relaxes, and in its secondary action it tends all the more to elevate the tone, and that in a durable manner. In large doses it likewise possesses the power of producing haemorrhage, espe- cially bleeding of the nose, and frequently recurring catamenial flux, as I and others have ascertained. For this reason it cures chronic haemorrhages, in small doses, in an extremely effectual and lasting manner. The most remarkable thing is the artificial disease it produces in very large doses, suspicious, quar- relsome, spitefully-calumnious, revengeful, destructive, L loS IMHSl I•,SS\^ IIV II VTfNKMANN fearless,* mania (hence, henbane was termed by the ancients altcrcmn) ; and this is the kind of mania it specifically cures, only that in such cases a tenseness of iibrc sometimes hinders its effects from being per- manent. Difhcuhy of moving, and insensibility of the limbs, and the apoplectic symptoms it produces, it may also very probably be capable of curing. In large doses it produces, in its direct primary action, convulsions, and is consequently useful in ejiilepsy, probably also in the loss of memory usually accom- panying it, as it has the power of producing want of recollection. Its power of causing in its direct action sleepless- ness with constant tendency to slumber, makes it in chronic sleeplessness a much more permanent remedy than the frequently merely palliative opium, especially as it at the same time keeps the bowels open, although only by the indirect secondary action of each dose, consequently in a palliative way. It causes dry cough, dryness of the mouth and nose, in its direct action ; it is, therefore, very useful in tickling cough, probably, also, in dry coryza.-f The flow of mucus from the nose, and flow of saliva observed from it, only belong to its indirect secondary action. The seeds cause convulsions in the facial and ocular muscles, and by their action on the head, cause vertigo, and a dull pain in the membranes lying under the * Tlio suhsequent indirect, secondary action is a kind of faint- heartedness and fearfulness. t Nasal cataiTh; stufl5ng in the head. (Ed.) ON THE HOMfEOPATHIC PRINCIPLE. 139 skull. The practical physician will be able to take advantage of this. Its direct action lasts scarcely twelve hours. 1'he thorn-apiyle (datura stramonium) causes extra- ordinary waking dreams, unconsciousness of what is going on, loud delirious talking, like a person speak- ing in sleep, with mistakes respecting personal identity. A similar kind of mania it cures specifically. It excites very specific convulsions, and has thus often proved useful in epilepsy. Both properties ren- der it serviceable in the case of persons possessed. Its power of extinguishing recollection should induce us to try it in cases of weak memory. It is most useful where there is great mobility of the fibre, because its direct action in large doses is increased fibrous mo- bility. It causes (in its direct action ?) heat and dila- tation of the pupil, a kind of dread of water, swollen, red face, twitching in the ocular muscles, retarded stool, difficult breathing; in its secondary action, slow, soft pulse, perspiration, sleep. The direct action of large doses lasts about twenty- four hours ; of small doses, only three hours. Vege- table acids, and apparently citric acid in particular, suddenly put a stop to its whole action.* The * A patient, who was always violently affected by two grains of the extract of the plant, once experienced not the slightest effects from this dose. I learned that he had partaken of the juice of a large number of red currants ; a considerable dose of pulverized oyster-shells at once restored the full efficacy of the thom-apple. L 2 110 KIIIST ESSAY n\ HAHNEMANN other species of datura seem to act in a similar manner. Tlic specific properties of Virginian tobacco {nicn- tiana tahacnm) consist, among other things, in dimi- nishing the external senses, and obscuring the intellect; it may, therefore, be useful in weakness of mind. Even in a very small dose, it excites the muscular powers of the primae vise violently ; a pro- perty which is valuable as a temporary oppositely- acting remedy (as is well known, though it does not fiill to be considered here) ; and as a similarly-acting remedy it is probably serviceable in chronic disposition to vomiting and to colics, and spasmodic constric- tion of the oesophagus, as indeed experience partially corroborates. It diminishes the sensibility of the primae viae ; hence its palliative power of lessening hunger (and thirst?) In larger doses, it deprives of their irritability the muscles of voluntary motion, and temporarily removes from them the influence of the cerebral power. This property may give it, as a similarly-acting remedy, curative powers in catalepsy ; but this very property makes its constant employment in large quantities (as with tobacco- smokers and snuff-takers) so injurious to the tranquil state of the muscles belonging to the animal func- tions, . that a tendency to epilepsy, hypochondria, and hysteria, are in course of time developed. The remarkable fact, that the employment of tobacco is so agreeable to insane persons, arises from the instinct of those unfortunates to produce a palliative ON THE HOMCEOPATHIC PRINCIPLE. 141 obtuseness in the sensibility of their hypochon- dria* and brain (the two usual seats of their com- plaints). But as it is here an oppositely-acting remedy, it gives them but temporary relief; their desire for it increases, but the end for which it is taken is not attained, — on the whole, the complaint is thereby increased, as it affords no permanent ser- vice. Its direct action is limited to a few hours, except in the case of very large doses, which extend to twenty-four hours (at the farthest). The seeds of the poison-tree {strychnos nux vomica) are very powerful ; but the morbid symp- toms it produces are not yet accurately known. The most I know concerning them is derived from my own observation. They produce vertigo, anxiety, febrile rigor, and in their secondary action a certain immobility of all parts, at least of the limbs, and a spasmodic stretching, according to the size of the dose. Hence they are useful not only, as is already known, in intermittent fever, but in cases of apoplexy. In their first direct action, the muscular fibre has a peculiar mobility imparted to it, the sensitive system is morbidly exalted to a species of intoxication, accompanied by fearfulness and horror. Convulsions ensue. The irritability seems to exhaust itself during * To this belongs the feelmg of insatiable hunger, which many insane persons suffer from, and for which they generally appear to use tobacco ; at least, I have seen some, who had no desire for tobacco, especially such as were affected with melan- cholia, who had very little hunger. 142 HUSr KSSAV HV HAHNEMANN this continued action on the muscular fibre, first in the animal, then in the vital functions. On passing into tlic indirect secondary action, there occurs a diminution of the irritability, first in the vital func- tions (general perspiration), then in the animal, and lastly in the natural functions. In the latter, espe- cially, this secondary action lasts several days. During the secondary action, there is a diminution of sensibility. '" Whether in the primary direct action the tonicity of the muscle is diminished, to be pro- portionately increased in the secondary action, cannot be accurately determined ; so much, however, is certain, that the contractility of the fibre is as much diminished in the secondary action, as it was increased in the direct action. If this be true, nux vomica produces attacks simi- lar to hysterical and hypochondriacal paroxysms, and this explains why it is so often useful in these complaints. Its tendency to excite, in its primary direct action, tlie contractility of the muscles, and cause convul- sions, and then again in its secondary action to diminish to an excessive degree the contractility of the muscles, shows such a resemblance to epilepsy, that from this very circumstance we must have infer- red that it would heal this disease, had not experi- ence already demonstrated it. As it excites, besides vertigo, anxiety and febrile rigor, a kind of delirium consisting in levity, some- times frightful visions, and tension in the stomach, ON THE HOMCEOPATHIC PRINCIFLE. 143 SO it once quickly subdued a fever in a laborious reflective mechanic in the country, which began with tension in the stomach, followed by a sudden attack of vertigo, so as to make him fall, that left behind it a kind of confusion of the understanding, with frightful, hypochondriacal ideas, anxiety, and exhaus- tion. In the morning he was pretty lively and not exhausted, but in the afternoon, about two o'clock, the attack commenced. He got nux vomica, in in- creasing doses, one daily, and improved. At the fourth dose, which contained seventeen grains, there occurred great anxiety, immobility and stiffness of the limbs, ending in a profuse perspiration. The fever and all the nervous symptoms disappeared, and never returned, although for many years previously he had from time to time been subject to such attacks suddenly occurring, yet unaccompanied by fever. Its tendency to cause cramps in the abdomen, anxiety and pain in the stomach, I availed myself of in a dysenteric fever (without purgings), in per- sons living in the same house with dysenteric pa- tients. In these cases it diminished the feeling of discomfort in the limbs, the feverishness, the anxiety, and the pressure in the stomach; it produced the same good results in some of the patients, but as they had simple dysentery without diarrhoea, it made the evacuations still rarer, from its tendency to cause constipation. The signs of deranged biliary secre- tion showed themselves, and the dysenteric evacua- tions, though rarer, were accompanied by just as 144 FIRST ESSAY BY HAHNEMANN great tenesmus us before, and were of as bad a cha- racter. The symptom of loss of taste, or perverted taste, remained. Its tendency to diminish the peri- staltic movements was therefore disadvantageous in the true simple dysentery. In diarrhoeas, even such as are of a dysenteric character, it will be more ser- viceable, at least as a palliative remedy. During its employment, I witnessed twitching movements under the skin, as if caused by live animals, in the limbs, and especially in the abdominal muscles. St. IgnatiMs' bean {Ignatia amara) has been ob- 'served to produce trembling of several hours dura- tion, twitchings, cramps, irascibility, sardonic laugh- ter, giddiness, cold perspiration. In similar cases it will show its eflicacy, as experience has partly de- monstrated. It produces febrile rigor, and (in its secondary action*?) stiffness of the limbs, and thus it has cured, by similarity of action, intermittent fever, which would not yield to bark ; probably it was that less simple form of intermittent in which the com- plication consisted of excessive sensitiveness and in- creased irritability (especially of the primae vise). But the other symptoms it can produce must be more accurately observed, before we can employ it in those cases for which it is exactly suited from similarity of symptoms. The purple foxglove {digitalis purpurea) causes the most excessive disgust at food ; during its conti- nued use, therefore, ravenous hunger not unfrequently ensues. It causes a kind of mental derangement, ON THE HOMOEOPATHIC PRINCIPLE. 145 which is not easily recognisable, as it only shows itself in unmeaning words, refractory disposition, obstinacy, cunning, disobedience, inclination to run away, &c., which its continued use frequently re- moves. Now as, in addition to these, it produces in its direct action violent headaches, giddiness, pain in the stomach, great diminution of the vital powers, sense of dissolution and the near approach of death, a diminution of the rapidity of the heart's beats by one half, and reduction of the vital temperature, it may easily be guessed in what kind of madness it will be of service ; and that it has in fact been useful in some kinds of this disease, many observations testify, only their particular symptoms have not been recorded. In the glands it creates an itching and painful sensation, which accounts for its efficacy in glandular swellings. It produces, as I have seen, inflammation of the Meibomian glands, and is a certain cure for such inflammations. Moreover, as it appears to depress the circulation, so does it seem to excite the absor- bent vessels, and to be most serviceable where both are too torpid. The former it assists by virtue of similarity, the latter by virtue of antagonism of action. But as the direct action of foxglove persists so long (there are examples of its lasting five or six days), it may, as an antagonistically acting remedy, take the place of a permanent curative agent. The last observation is in reference to its diuretic pro- perty in dropsy ; it is antagonistic and palliative, but 146 FIRST ESSAY UY HAHNEMANN nevertlieless enduring, and valuable on that account merely. In its secondary action it causes a small, hard, rapid pulse ; it is not therefore so suitable for patients that have a similar (febrile) pulse, but rather for such as have a pulse like what foxglove produces in its direct action — slow, soft. The convulsions it causes in large doses, assign it a place among the anti-epileptic remedies ; probably it is only useful in epilepsy under certain conditions, to be determined by the other morbid symptoms it produces. During its use, objects not unfrequently appear of various colours, and the sight becomes obscured; it will remove similar affections of the retina. (Its ten- dency to produce diarrhoea, sometimes so adverse to the cure, is counteracted, as I have ascertained, by the addition of potash.) As the direct action of foxglove lasts occasionally several days (the longer its use is continued, the longer lasts the direct action of each dose ; a very remarkable fact, not to be lost sight of in practice,) it is evident how erroneously those act, who, with the best intentions, prescribe it in small doses, but frequently repeated, (the action of the first not having expired before they have already given the sixth or eighth,) and thus in fact they give, although unwit- tingly, an enormous quantity, which not unfrequently causes death.* A dose is necessary only every three, * A woman in Edinburgh got for three successive days, each day, three doses, consisting of two grains of the pulverized leaves ON THE HOMCEOPATHIC PRINCIPLE. 147 or at most every two days, but the more rarely the longer it has been used. (During the continuance of its direct action, cinchona bark must not be pre- scribed ; it increases the anxiety caused by foxglove, as 1 have found, to an almost mortal agony.) The pansy violet {viola tricolor) at first increases cutaneous eruptions, and thus shows its power to produce skin diseases, and consequently to cure the same effectually and permanently. Ipecacuanha is used with advantage in affections against which nature herself makes some efforts, but is too powerless to effect the desired object. In these ipecacuanha presents to the nerves of the upper orifice of the stomach, the most sensitive part of the organ of vitality, a substance that produces a most uncon, genial disgust, nausea, anxiety, thus acting in a simi- lar manner to the morbid material that is to be removed. Against this double attack, nature exerts antagonistically her powers with still greater energy, and thus, by means of this increased exertion, the morbid matter is the more easily removed. Thus fevers are brought to the crisis, stoppages in the viscera of the abdomen and of the chest, and in the womb, put in motion, miasmata of contagious dis- eases expelled by the skin, cramp relieved by the cramp that ipecacuanha itself produces, their tension of foxglove, and it was a matter of surprise that she died from such small doses, after vomiting for six days. It must be remem- bered, however, that it was the same as if she had taken eighteen grains at one dose. 148 FIRST ESSAY BY HAHNEMANN and freedom restored to vessels disposed to hcemor- rlmgc from relaxation, or from the irritation of an acrid substance deposited in them, &c. But most distinctly does it act as a similarly acting remedy to the disease sought to be cured, in cases of chronic disposition to vomit without bringing anything away. Here it should be given in very small doses, in order to excite frequent nausea, and the tendency to vomit goes off more and more radically at each dose, than it would with any palliative remedy. Some benefit may be anticipated in some kinds of chronic palpitation of the heart, &c., from the admi- nistration of the rose-hay {nerium oleander), which has the power of causing palpitation, anxiety, and fainting. It causes swellings of the abdomen and diminution of the vital temperature, and seems to be a most powerful vegetable. The morbid symptoms produced by the nerium anti- dysentericum are not sufficiently known to enable us to assign the cause of its real remedial powers ; but as it primarily increases the stools, it apparently sub- dues diarrhoeas as a similarly acting remedy. The bears-berry (arbuttis uva ursi) has. actually, without possessing any acridity perceptible to the senses, not unfrequently increased the difficulty of passing water, and the involuntary flow of urine, by some power peculiar to itself; thereby showing that it has a tendency to produce such affections, and hence, as experience also testifies, it is capable of curing similar disorders in a permanent manner. ON THE HOM(EOPATHIC PRINCIPLE. 149 The golden-flowered rhododendron (rhododendroti chrysanthim) shows, by the burning, formicating, and shooting pains it produces in the parts affected, that it is certainly fitted to relieve, by similarity of action, pains in the joints of various kinds, as expe- rience also teaches. It causes difficulty of breathing and cutaneous eruptions, and thus it will prove useful in similar disorders, as also in inflammation of the eyes, because it produces lacrymation and itching of the eyes. The marsh-tea {ledum palustre) causes, as I have ascertained, among other effects, difficult, painful respiration ; this accounts for its efficacy in hooping cough, probably also in morbid tightness of the chest. Will it not be useful in pleurisy, as its power of so greatly diminishing the temperature of the blood (in its secondary action) will hasten recovery ? It causes a painful shooting sensation in all parts of the throat, as I have observed, and hence its uncommon virtues in malignant and inflammatory sore throat. Equally specific is, as I have noticed, its power of causing troublesome itching in the skin, and hence its great efficacy in chronic skin diseases. The anxiety and the faintings it occasions may prove of use in similar cases. As a transitory and antago- nistically acting powerful diuretic and diaphoretic remedy, it may cure dropsies ; more certainly, how- ever, acute, than chronic. On some of these properties depends its reputation in dysentery. But were they real cases of dysentery, 150 FIRST F.SSAY BY HAHNEMANN or some of those painful diarrhoeas so often taken for if^ In tlio latter case it may, as a palliative remedy, certainly hasten the cure, and even help to complete it ; l)ut in true uncomplicated dysentery, I have never seen it of any use. The long-continued weakness it occasions was against its being used for a length of time, and it ameliorated neither the tenesmus nor the character of the excretions, though these became more rare. The symptoms of deranged biliary secretion were rather worse during its use, than when the patients were left without medicine. It causes a peculiar ill-humour, head-ache, and mental confu- sion ; the lower extremities totter, and the pupils dilate. (Do both the latter symptoms, or merely the last, belong to the secondary action only'?) An infusion of ten grains once a day was a sufficient dose for a six years' old child. The primary direct action of opium {yapavcr somni- feriwi) consists in transitory elevation of the vital powers, and strengthening of the tone of the blood- vessels and muscles, especially of those belonging to the animal and vital functions, as also in excitation of the mental organs — the memory, the imagination, and the organ of the passions ; — thus, moderate doses are followed by a disposition to work, sprightliness in conversation, wit, remembrance of former times, amorousness, &c. ; large doses by boldness, courage, revenge, inordinate hilarity, lasciviousness ; still large doses l)y madness, convulsions. The greater the dose, the more do the individuality, the freedom, ON THE HOMCEOPATHIC PRINCIPLE. 151 and the voluntary power of the mind suffer in sensa- tions, capability of judgment and of acting. Hence, inattention to external disagreeable circumstances, to pain, &c. This condition, however, does not last long. It is gradually followed by loss of ideas, the pictures of fancy fade by degrees, there super- vene relaxation of the fibre, sleep. If the use of elevated doses is continued, the consequences (indi- rect secondary action) are, weakness, sleepiness, listlessness, grumbling, discomfort, sadness, loss of memory (insensibility, imbecility), until a new exci- tation by opium, or something similar, is produced. In the direct action, the irritability of the fibre seems to be diminished in the same proportion as its tone is increased ; in the secondary action, the latter is diminished, the former increased.* The direct action prevents the mind still more than the se- condary action from taking cognizance of sensations (pain, sorrow, &c.), and hence its great pain-sub- duing power. (In cases where the direct action as a cordial is necessary, it will be requisite to repeat the adminis- * There occurs a marked sensitiveness, especially for things that produce disagreeable effects, for fright, grief, fear, for incle- ment weather, &c. If the mobility of the fibre which occurs secondarily is called increased irritability, I have nothing to object to the term ; its seat of action, however, is but small : it is either that the fibre is too relaxed, and cannot contract much, or that it is in a too contracted condition, and is relaxed easily indeed, but not suflSciently, consequently is incapable of making any powerful effort. In this condition of the fibre, the tendency to chronic inflammation is unmistakeable. 152 FIRST ESSAY BY HAHNEMANN tration of it every three or four hours, that is, each time l)cfore the relaxing secondary action which so much increases the irritability ensues. In all such cases it acts merely antagonistically, as a palliative remedy. Permanent strengthening powers are not to be expected from it used in this manner, least of all in chronic weakness. This, however, is a di- gression.) But if it is wished to depress permanently the tone of the fibre (I give this name to the power of the fibre to contract and relax completely), to diminish permanently the deficiency of irritability, as is the case in some cases of mania, in such circumstances we may employ opium with success, as a similarly acting remedy, given in elevated doses, and making use of its indirect secondary action. According to this principle we must judge of the treatment which consists in giving opium in true inflammatory dis- eases, e. //., pleurisy. In such cases, a dose is necessary every twelve or twenty-four hours. It appears that this indirect secondary action has been made use of on the principle of a similarly act- ing remedy ; which, as far as I am aware, is not the case with any other medicine. Opium has, for in- stance, been given with the greatest success, not in true syphilitic diseases, for that would be a delusion, but in the disastrous effects that so often arise from the abuse of mercury in syphilis, which are sometimes much worse than the syphilis itself. ON THE HOMCEOPATHIC PTtlNCirLE. 153 Before illustrating this employment of opium, I must say something appropriate to the subject, con- cerning the nature of syphilis, and introduce here what I have to say concerning mercury. Syphilitic disease depends upon a virus, which, besides other peculiarities that it developes in the human body, has an especial tendency to produce inflammatory and suppurating swellings of the glands (to weaken the tone?) to make the mechanical connexion of the fibres so disposed to separation, that numerous spreading ulcers arise, whose incur- able character may be known by their round figure ; and lastly, to increase the irritability. Now, as such a chronic disease can only be cured by a remedy capable of developing a disease of similar character, no more efficacious remedy could be conceived than mercury. The most remarkable power of mercury consists in this, that in its direct action it irritates the glan- dular system, (and leaves behind it glandular indura- tions as its secondary indirect action,) weakens the tone of the fibres and their connexion, and disposes them to separation in such a manner, that a number of spreading ulcers arise, whose incurable nature is shown by their round form; and lastly, increases uncommonly the irritability (and sensibility). Ex- perience has confirmed it as a specific ; but as there does not exist any remedy exactly similar to the disease, so the mercurial disease (the changes and symptoms it usually produces in the body) is still M 1;>4 FIRST ESSAY BY HAHNEMANN very difTcrent from the nature of syphilis. The sy])hilitic ulcers arc confined to the most superficial parts, especially the deuteropathic ones, (the proto- patliic ulcers increase slowly in extent,) they secrete a viscid fluid in place of pus, their borders are almost level with the skin (except the protopathic ones), and are' almost quite painless (excepting the protopathic ulcer, that arising from the primary infection, and the suppurating inguinal gland). The mercurial ulcers burrow deeper, (rapidly increase in size,) are excessively painful, and secrete sometimes an acrid thin ichor; sometimes they are covered with a dirty cheesy coating, which also overlays their borders. The glandular swellings of syphilis re- main but for a few days ; they are either rapidly resolved, or the gland suppurates. The glands at- tacked by mercury are stimulated to increased action by the direct action of this metal, (and thus glan- dular swellings from other causes disappear rapidly under its use,) or they are left in the state of cold indurations during the indirect secondary action. The syphilitic virus produces induration of the peri- osteum* of those bones which are nearest the sur- face and least covered with flesh ; they are the seat of excessive pains. In our days this poison, how- ever, never produces caries,-]- notwithstanding all my researches to discover the contrary. Mercury de- stroys the connexion of the solid parts, not of the • Tho membrane which smTounds the bones. (Ed.) t Ulceration of the bones. (Ed.) ON THE HOMCEOPATHIC PRINCIPLE. 155 soft parts only, but also of the bones ; it first cor- rodes the most spongy and concealed bones, and this caries is only aggravated the more rapidly by the continued use of the metal. Wounds which have arisen from external violence are changed by the use of mercury into old ulcers, difficult of cure ; a cir- cumstance that does not occur with syphilis. The trembling, so remarkable in the mercurial disease, does not occur in syphilis. From the use of mer- cury there ensues an insidious, very debilitating fever, with thirst, and great and rapid emaciation. The emaciation and weakness from syphilis come on slowly, and remain within moderate limits. Exces- sive sensitiveness and sleeplessness are peculiar to the mercurial disease, but not to syphilis. The most of these symptoms seem to be owing rather to the indirect secondary action, than to the direct action of the mercury. I have been so circumstantial on this subject, because it is often very difficult* for the practitioner to distinguish the chronic mercurial disease from the symptoms of syphilis ; and thus he will be apt to consider symptoms as belonging to that disorder, whilst they are only mercurial, and go on treating them with mercury, whereby so many patients are destroyed ; chiefly, however, because my object is to * Stoll (Rat. Med. Part III. p. 442,) doubts if there are cer- tain signs of a perfectly cured syphilitic disease, i. e., he him- self knew not the signs whereby this disease is distinguishable from the mercurial disease. M 2 150 KIRST ESSAY BY HAHNEMANN depict tlic mercurial disease, in order to show how opimn can cure it, in virtue of similarity of action. Opium raises the sinking forces of patients suffer- ing from the mercurial disease, and allays their irri- tability, when its direct action is kept up, that is, when it is given at least every eight hours ; and this it does as an antagonistically-acting remedy. This happens, however, only when it is given in large doses, proportioned to the degree of weakness and irritability, just as it is serviceable only in large and oft-repeated doses in the excessive irritability of hysterical and hypochondriacal patients, and in the excessive sensibility of exhausted individuals. The normal condition of the body seems thereby to be restored ; a secret metamorphosis seems to take place in the organism, and the mercurial disease is gradu- ally conquered. The convalescent patient can only bear smaller and smaller doses. Thus the mercurial disease seems to be vanquished by the palliative an- tagonistic power of the opium ; but any one who is aware of the almost uneradicable nature of the mer- curial disease, the irresistible manner in which it destroys and dissolves the animal frame when it is at its height, will be convinced that a mere palliative could never master this excessively chronic malady, were it not that the secondary actions of opium were very analogous to the mercurial disease, and that these tended to overcome the latter. The secondary effects of the continued use of opium in large doses, ON THE HOMCEOPATHIC PRINCIPLE. 157 increased irritability, weakness of the tone, easy separation of the solids, and difficult curability of Wounds, treijibling, emaciation of the body, drowsy sleeplessness, are very similar to the symptoms of the mercurial disease ; and only in this do they differ, that those of mercury, when they are severe, last for years, often for a lifetime, whilst those of opium last but hours or days. Opium must be used for a long time, and in enormous doses, for the symptoms of its secondary action to last for weeks, or longer. These abbreviated secondary effects of opium, whose duration is limited to a short time, are thus the true antidote of the mercurial secondary effects in their greatest degree, which are almost unlimited in their duration; from them alone, almost, can one expect a permanent, true recovery. These secondary actions can develope their curative power during the whole treatment, in the interval betwixt the repetition of the doses of opium, as soon as the first direct action of each dose is passed, and when its use is discon- tinued. Lead produces, in its primary action on the de- nuded nerves, (belonging to muscular action?) a violent tearing pain, and (thereby'?) relaxes the muscular fibre to actual paralysis ; it becomes pale and withered, as dissection shows, but its external sensibility still remains, though in a diminished degree. Not only is the power of contraction of the affected fibres diminished, but the motion that still 158 KIRST ESSAY IIY HAHNEMANN remains is more difficult than in similar relaxations, from almost total loss of the irritability* This, however, is observed only in the muscles belonging to the natural and animal functions, but in those belonging to the vital functions this effect occurs without pain and in a less degree. As the reciprocal play of the vascular system becomes slower, (a hard, slow pulse,) this satisfactorily explains the dimi- nished temperature of the blood attending the action of lead. Mercury also diminishes the mutual attraction of the various parts of the muscular fibres, but increases their susceptibility for the excitant, so as to impart to them an excessive mobility. Whether this effect be the direct or the indirect secondary action, suffice that it is very enduring ; and hence, even if of t^Q latter character, would be very efficacious, as an oppositely-acting remedy in the lead disease ; if of the first character, however, it will act as a similarly- acting remedy. Rubbed in externally, as well as given internally, mercury has an almost specific influence over the lead disease. Opium increases in its direct action the contraction of the muscular fibre, and diminishes its irritability. By virtue of the former property, it acts as a palliative in the lead disease ; by * The convulsive vomiting and dysenteric diarrhoea which some- times follow the ingestion of large quantities of lead, must he explained on other principles, and do not fall to be considered here ; neither does the vomiting that ensues from large doses of opium. ON THE HOM(EOPATHIC PRINCIPLE. 159 the latter, however, permanently, as a similarly-acting remedy. From the above idea of the nature of the lead disease, it will be seen that the service this metal (lead) has afforded, when cautiously used in diseases, depends entirely on its antagonistic, though uncom- monly long-lasting, action, the consideration of which does not belong to this Essay. The true nature of the action of arsenic has not yet been accurately investigated. This much I have myself ascertained, that it has a great tendency to excite that spasm in the blood-vessels, and the shock in the nervous system, called febrile rigor. If it be given in a pretty large dose (one-sixth or one-fifth of a grain) to an adult, this rigor becomes very evident. This tendency makes it a very powerful remedy as a similarly-acting medicine in intermittent fever, and this all the more, as it possesses the power, observed by me, of exciting a daily-recurring, although always weaker, paroxysm, even although its use be discon- tinued. In typical diseases of all kinds, (in peri- odical head-ache, &c.,) this type-exciting property of arsenic in small doses (one-tenth to at most one-sixth of a grain in solution) becomes valuable, and will, I venture to guess, become invaluable to our perhaps bolder, more observant, and more cautious posterity. As its action lasts several days, so, frequently-repeated doses, be they ever so small, accumulate in the body to an enormous, a dangerous dose. If, then, it be found necessary to give a dose daily, each successive 1(K) KIUST ESSAY li\ HAHNEMANN dose should be at least a third smaller than the pre- vious one. A better procedure is, when we have to treat short typical diseases with, say two days' in- terval, always to prescribe a dose only for one fit two hours before it is expected, pass over the follow- ing fit without giving any arsenic, and another dose only about two hours before the third fit. It will be best to act so even in the case of fever, with four days' interval, and only commence to treat the series of intermediate paroxysms when we have attained our object with regard to the first series of paroxysms. (In the case of longer intervals, as seven, nine, eleven, and fourteen days, a dose may be prescribed before each fit.) The continued use of arsenic in large doses causes gradually an almost constant febrile state; it will thus, as indeed experience has, to a certain degree, taught us, prove useful in hectic and remittent fever, as a similarly-acting remedy, in small doses (about one-twelfth of a grain). Such a continued employment of arsenic, however, will always remain a masterpiece of art, as it possesses a great disposition to diminish the vital heat and the tone of the muscular fibre. (Hence, paralysis, from a strong dose, or a long-continued and incautious employment of it.) These latter properties will enable it to prove of service as an antagonistic remedy in pure inflammatory diseases. It diminishes the tone of the muscular fibre, by diminishing the pro- portion and cohesion of the coagulable lymph in the blood, as I have convinced myself, by drawing blood ON THE HOMCEOPATHIC PRINCIPLE. 161 from persons suffering from the effects of arsenic, more especially such as had a too inspissated blood before the use of this metallic acid. But not only does it diminish the vital heat, and the tone of the muscular fibre, but also, as I think I have fairly proved to myself, the sensibility of the nerves. (Thus, in cases of maniacs, with tense fibre, and inspissated blood, a small dose of it procures quiet sleep, in its capacity of an antagonistically-acting substance, where all other remedies fail. Persons poisoned by arsenic are more composed about their state, than might be expected. Thus, it generally seems to kill more by extinguishing the vital power and sensibility, than by its corrosive and inflammatory power, which is only local and circumscribed. This being borne in mind, the rapid decomposition of the bodies of those poisoned by arsenic, like cases of death by mortification, will be readily comprehended.) It weakens the absorbent system, a circumstance whence, perhaps, we may one day derive some curative power (as a similarly or as an antagonistically-acting remedy*?), but which must be always a powerful objection to its long-continued use. I would direct attention to its peculiar power of increasing the irritability of the fibre, especially of the system of the vital functions. Hence cough, and hence the above-mentioned chronic febrile actions. When arsenic is used for a length of time, and in pretty large doses, it seldom fails, especially if dia- phoretics and a heating diet be used simultaneously, 16f FIRST BSSAY BY HAHNEMANN to cause some chronic cutaneous disease (at least, desquamation of the skin). This tendency renders it an efficacious remedy in the hands of the Indian physician, in that frightful skin disease, elephantiasis. Would it not also be serviceable in pellagra?* If it be truly (as is confidently affirmed) of service in hydrophobia, it must act by virtue of its power to diminish (the influence of the nerves on) the attrac- tion of the parts of the muscular fibre and its tone, as also the sensibility of the nerves, therefore antago- nistically. It produces acute, continued pains in the joints, as I have seen. I shall not attempt to deter- mine how we may avail ourselves of this property in a curative point of view. Wliat influence the arsenic disease, the lead disease, and the mercurial disease, may have over each other, and if the one may be destroyed by means of the other, future observations can alone decide. Should the accidents produced by a long-continued use of arsenic become threatening (besides the em- ployment of sulphuretted hydrogen in drinks and baths to extirpate what still remains of the substance of the metal), the free use of opium in the same manner as in the mercurial disease (see above) will be of service. I revert again to vegetable substances ; and first, I * A morbid condition of the skin, very prevalent among the peasantry of the northern states of Italy. (Ed.) ON THE HOMCEOrATHIC PRINCIPLE. 163 shall mention a plant, which in violence and con- stancy of action, deserves to be placed alongside the mineral poisons ; I allude to the yew {taocus baccata). Great circumspection must be employed in the use of its various parts, more particularly of the bark of the tree when in flower ; the cutaneous eruptions, with signs of gangrenous decomposition of the fibre, which sometimes occur several weeks after the last dose, the fatal catastrophe that sometimes takes place sud- denly, sometimes several weeks, after the last dose, with symptoms of mortification, &c., teach us this. It produces, it appears, a certain acridity in all the fluids, and an inspissation of the lymph ; the vessels and fibres are irritated, and yet their functions are more impeded than facilitated. The scanty evacua- tions, accompanied by tenesmus, the dysuria, the viscid, salt, acrid saliva, the viscid, foetid sweat, the cough, the flying, acute pains in the limbs after per- spiration, the podagra,* the inflammatory erysipelas, the pustules on the skin, the itching and redness of the skin, underneath which the glands lie, the arti- ficial jaundice, the horripilation, the continued fever, &c., it produces, are all proofs of this. But the observations are not accurate enough to enable us to determine which is the primary, which the secon- dary action. The direct action seems to continue for a considerable time. A lax, unexcitable state of the fibres and vessels, especially of those belonging to * Gout in the feet. (Ed.) 104 I'lUST ESSAY HY HAHNEMANN the absorljcnt system, Avhich seem partly deprived of vital j)()wcr, appears to be its secondary action. Hence the i)orsi)iratiou, the flow of saliva, the frequent dis- charge of watery urine, the hajmorrhages (a dissolved state of the red parts of the blood); and after large doses, or too long-continued employment, the dropsy, the obstinate jaundice, the petechise, the gangrenous decomposition of the fluids. Employed cautiously in gradually-increased doses, it may, as indeed expe- rience has partly shown, be employed with lasting advantage in a similar derangement of the fluids, and in a similar state of the solids ; in a word, in similar morbid states to those it is capable of producing. In induration of the liver, jaundice, and glandular swel- lings, with tense fibre, in chronic catarrh, catarrh of the bladder (in dysentery, dysuria, tumours, with tense fibre?), in amenorrhcea* with tense fibre. (On account of its long-enduring, direct action, it may sometimes be of permanent service as an antagonis- tically-acting remedy in rachitis,-]- in amenorrhcea with relaxation, &c. But this does not belong to our subject.) The monksJiood {aconitiim napellus) excites formi- cating, + also acute tearing pains in the limbs, in the chest, in the jaws ; it is a prime remedy in pains of the limbs of all kinds (?) ; it will be serviceable in chronic tooth-ache of a rheumatic character, in pleurodynia, in face-ache, and in the consequences of * Obsiniciion of ihc calamcnia. (Ed.) f The rickets. (Ed.) X Creeping. (Ed.) ON THE HOMCEOPATHIC PRINCIPLE. 165 the implantation of human teeth. It causes chilling pressure in the stomach, occipital head-ache, shoot- ings in the kidneys, excessively painful ophthalmia, cutting pains in the tongue, the practitioner will be able to employ these artificial diseases in similar natural diseases. It has a peculiar tendency to pro- duce giddiness, faintings, debility, apoplexy, and transient paralysis, general and partial paralysis, hemiplegia,* paralysis of particular limbs, — of the tongue, of the anus, of the bladder, obscuration of vision and temporary blindness, and singing in the ears. It is also just as serviceable in general and partial paralysis of the parts just mentioned, as ex- perience has in a great measure proved; — as a similarly-acting remedy, it has in several cases cured incontinence of urine, paralysis of the tongue, and amaurosis, as also paralysis of the limbs. In curable marasmus,-]- and partial atrophies, as a remedy capable of producing similar morbid symptoms, it will certainly do more than all other known remedies. Successful cases of this kind are on record. Almost as specifically does it produce convulsions, general as well as partial, of the facial muscles, of the muscles of the lips on one side, of the muscles of the throat on one side, of the ocular muscles. In all these last affections it will prove useful, as it has also cured epilepsies. It causes tightness of the chest; how, then, can it be wondered at, that it has several times *• Paralysis of one side of the body. (Ed.) t Wasting. (Ed.) 16G FIRST ESSAY BY HAHNEMANN cured diflferent sorts of tightness of the chest? It produces itching, formication in the skin, desqua- mation, reddish eruption, and is hence so useful in ])ad cutaneous affections and ulcers. Its pretended efficacy in the most obstinate venereal sufferings was probably only founded on its power over the symp- toms of the mercury that had been previously em- ployed in that disease ; and this conclusion is justified by what we know of its action. It is valuable to know that monkshood, as an exciter of pain, cuta- neous affections, swellings, and irritability, — in a word, as a similarly-acting remedy, is powerful in subduing the similar mercurial disease, and is even preferable to opium, as it leaves behind it no debility. Sometimes it causes a sensation about the navel, as if a ball rose up thence, and spread a cold feeling over the upper and back part of the head ; this would lead us to use it in similar cases of hysteria. In the secondary action, the primary cold in the head seems to change into a burning sensation. In its primary action are observed general cold, slow pulse, retention of urine, mania ; in its secondary action, however, an intermitting, small, rapid pulse, general perspira- tion, flow of urine, diarrhoea, involuntary faecal evacuation, sleepy intoxication. (Like several other plants that produce a cooling effect in their primary action, it resolves glandular swellings,) The mania it causes is a gay humour alternating with despair. As a similarly-acting remedy, it will subdue manias of that sort. The usual duration of its efficacy is ON THE HOMCEOPATHIC PRINCIPLE. 167 from seven to eight hours, excepting in cases of serious effects from very large doses. The black hellebore Qiellehorus niger) causes, if used for a long time, severe head-aches, (hence, pro- bably, its power in some mental affections, also in chronic head-aches,) and a fever ; hence its power in quartan fever, and hence also, partly, its efficacy in dropsies, the worse kinds of which are always accom- panied by remitting fever, and wherein it is so useful, aided by its diuretic power. (Who can tell whether this belongs to its primary, or, as I am inclined to think, its secondary action *? This latter is allied to its property of exciting to activity the blood-vessels of the abdomen, rectum, and uterus.) Its power of causing a constrictive, suffocating sensation in the nose, would lead us to prescribe it in similar cases (as I once did in a kind of mental disease). The frequency with which it is confounded with other roots is the reason why we are only in possession of these few true data of its effects. The boring, cutting pain that the internal use of the meadow anemone {anemone pratensis) causes in weak eyes, led to its successful employment in amau- rosis, cataract, and opacity of the cornea. The cut- ting head-ache caused by the internal employment of the inflammable, crystalline salt obtained by distilla- tion with water, would lead us to employ this plant in a similar case. Most likely it is on this account that it once cured a case of melancholia. The clove gillifloiver {geiim urbanum), besides its 168 FIRST ESSAY BY HAHNEMANN aromatic qimlities, possesses a nausea-exciting power, wliicli always causes a fel)rilc state of body, and hence its service in intermittent fever, when used as an aromatic along with ipecacuanha. The principle that constitutes the medicinal power of the kernel of the cherry (])ru7ius cerasus), of the sour cherry {jiritnus padus), of the ])each {amygdalus per ska) ^ of the bitter variety of the almond {amygda- his communis)^ and more especially of the leaves of the cherry-laurel {prunus laurocerasus), possesses the peculiar property of increasing the vital power and contractility of the muscular fibre in its direct action, as notably as it depresses both in its secon- dary action. Moderately large doses are followed by anxiety, a peculiar cramp of the stomach, trismus,* rigidity of the tongue, opisthotonos, j- alternately with clonic cramps of various kinds and degrees, as its direct action ; "^ the irritating matter is gradually * Locked jaw. (Ed.) f Contraction of the extensor muscles. (Ed.) X If it is sought to deny the primary action of the principle of bitter almonds, which I have represented as producing the phenomena of increased power of contraction in the muscular fibre and exaltation of the vital power, on this ground, that in some cases of monstrous doses, death occurs almost instantane- ously without any perceptible reaction of the vital power or pain, as great a mistake would be made, as if all pain should be denied to death by the sword, and it should be affirmed that the stroke of the sword did not produce a peculiar condition different from the death that followed it. This pain will be just as intense, although perhaps less than momentary, as the sensation of anxiety and tonnent will be indescribable, which may and must follow a fatal dose of cherry -laurel water, though its action lasts scarce a minute. ON THE HOMOEOPATHIC PRINCIPLK. 169 exhausted,* and in the secondary action the contrac- tility of the muscular fibre and the vital power sink in the same degree as they had previously been ex- alted. There follow cold, relaxation, paralysis, — which also, however, soon pass off. (Cherry-laurel water has now and then been used as a domestic analeptic,-]- in debility of the stomach and body, that is, as an oppositely-acting palliative, and, as might have been guessed, with bad effect. The result was paralysis and apoplexy.) More remarkable, and peculiarly belonging to our subject, is the curative power of its direct action (which consists in a kind of febrile paroxysm) in intermittent fever, especially, if I mistake not, in This is proved by the case recorded by Madden, of excessive anxiety in the region of the stomach (the probable region of the chief organ of the vital power) of a person killed in a few minutes by a large dose of cherry-lam-el water. That in this brief space of time, the whole series of phenomena that follow a not fatal dose, cannot make their appearance, is easily understood ; yet it is pro- bable that changes and impressions, similar to those of the direct action I have described from nature, do actually take place in the animal organism, in this short time (until a few instants before death, i. atniiMit of the poor, should be placed under the direction of lionio-opalliic physicians. The authorities, unable to give u direct refusal to this request, burdened their consent with absurd conditions such as it was impossible for the homoeopathic physicians to conform to ; the i)roposition, therefore, dropped. " Some time ])revious to this, a homoeopathic hospital had been opened by the Emperor's orders in St. Petersburgh,* for the treat- ment of patients affected with Cholera, under the direction of Dr. Herrmann ; and Dr. Schreter about this time was actually engaged in observing and treating homoeopathically the epidemic which had shown itself in Lemberg, in Austrian Poland; the disease was already on the decline when he reached that place, but he saw sufficient of it to convince him of the efficacy of the reme- dies he employed, which were chiefly veratrum, ipecacuan, arsenic, aaid camphor. The results of his observations he com- nnmicated to the meeting of homoeopathic physicians held at Naumburg, on the 10th August, 1831, under the presidency of Dr. Stapf, who gave an encouraging account to the assembly, of the efficacy of the homoeopathic system in preventing and curing the disease." Shortly after this, the Cholera actually commenced its ravages in Germany, and an article, from the pen of Hahnemann himself, appeared in the Archiv, Vol. XL, giving minute directions as to the best mode of administering the remedies, describing the parti- cular stages for which camphor, veratrum, and cuprum, * By the direction of Government, an hospital for the treat- ment of Cholera homoeopathically, has been opened this year also in St. Petersburgh. I OF THE ASIATIC CHOLERA. 191 were applicable, and recommending cuprum as a pre- servative remedy. " Almost simultaneously with this appeared a pamphlet from Dr. Rummel, of Merseburg, in which he recommends as a preventive a dose of cuprum and veratrum alternately every fourth day. "A letter from Dr. Seider, district physician at Wischney Wolotschok, in Russia, dated 24th September, 1831, and inserted in the XlthVol.of the Archiv, gives some account of the Cholera in Russia, and of his own success with homoeopathic remedies. The directions of Hahnemann regarding cuprum and camphor, had not reached him, and his acquaintance with Homoeopathy does not seem to have been very perfect. Still, notwithstanding these disadvantages, he only lost twenty-three patients out of one hun- dred and nine whom he treated homoeopathically ; the reme- dies he employed being veratrum, ipecacuanha, and arsenicum. " In the same Vol. of the Archiv, appeared a communication from Dr. Gerstel, of Prague, detailing the results of Dr. Veith's observations and treatment of the disease in Vienna, camphor, veratrum, and cuprum, were found of eminent service ; and in the so-called cholerine that prevailed at the same period, phos- phorus was ascertained to be the true specific. In a note to this communication, the editor remarks that phosphoric acid was even preferable to phosphorus in cholerine, and in the typhiod state occasionally jiersisting after the subsidence of Cholera, rhus toxico- dendron was useful. " The partisans of Homoeopathy in other parts of Europe had not been idle on the invasion of the Cholera ; among the rest Dr. Von Bakody, of Raab, in Hungary, published the results of his treatment of the disease, which broke out with great virulence in that town, on the 27th July, 1831, from which period until the 8th September, he treated 154 cases of true Cholera, and sixty- nine of maladies resembling Cholera, but which he could not conscientiously pronounce to be genuine cases. His success was immense, out of the total 222 cases he lost but eight patients, six of whom were among those affected with true Cholera." His preventive remedies were i2>ecacuan^ veratrum^ 192 THE HOMOiOPATHlC TREATMENT arsetiicHin, and cuprum ; and for the fully developed disease he found ipecacuan, chamofnilla, veratrum, arsenicum^ cuprum^ cicuta, and laurocerasus, of service. " About tlic sauK! lime u i)ainphlot from the pen of Dr. Schmit, physician to the Duchess of Lucca, was ])ublishe(l at Leipzic, entitled llovia-ojnithic Treatment and Prophylaxis of the Asiatic Cholera, which is interesting, as showing tho state of feeling of the Austrian Government towards Homoeopathy at that time. The author, convinced of the truth of Homoeopathy, and awaro of Hahnemann's advice respecting the employment of camphor, hastened on the 3rd July, 1831, to communicate this mode of treatment to the Central Sanitary Commission of Vienna, at the same time demanding permission to publish a notification of it in the Vienna newspapers. This peimission was not granted, but tho Commission undertook to publish it themselves. A week later they did, in fact, publish an extract, but mutilated in such a way as to be no longer useful to the profession or public. They advised giving camphor in conjunction with other remedies, which would only disturb its salutary action." He corroborates the remarks of the other Homoeo- pathists with respect to the indications for camphoi\ veratrum, and cuprum, in the fully developed disease, and of the two last as preventives. "The Cholera having appeared in the neighbourhood of Briinn, Dr. Gerstel, then practising at Prague, proceeded to the seat of the epidemic, for the pui-pose of observing the disease, and, if possi- ble, obtaining leave to succour those affected. There being a great dearth of medical men. Dr. Gerstel met with no opposition from the authorities. His first essay was in a village named Mariahilf and the surrounding country, where, within five and a half days, he treated forty-seven patients. His success having roused the attention of the authorities of Briinn, he was appointed 1 OF THE ASIATIC CHOLERA. 193 district physician, and sent to a place called Tischnowitz, in Mora- via, where he remained five weeks, and was joined by our country- man, Dr, Quin ; and the following extract from the report of the superintending allopathic physician of the district testifies as to the success of Dr. Gerstel's practice. '"As regards the duration of the prevailing epidemic, this was, in some districts, extremely short, and the course rapid and severe ; the result, owing to the judicious treatment, generally favourable; hence the proportion of deaths, compared with other places where the epidemic raged, was small. — The homoeopathic treatment which was here carried out to a great extent by Dr. Gerstel, was tlie cause of the favourable result. " * Dr. Victor Mekarsky von Merk, " * Imperial Sanitary Physician. " ' Tischnowitz, 1 1th Dec, 1831.' " Dr. Gerstel found the most serviceable remedy to be veratrttm album. Camphor he found useful in Cholera, which pre- sented itself as spasmodic attacks, without vomit- ing and diarrhcEa ; phosphorus did good in the Cholerine. " Dr. Fischer of Briinn, cured 202 cases of Cholera, the most of them took two or three drops of camphorated spirit twice or thrice in a quarter of an hour, and were thereby cured in a few hours. The other remedies he employed were ipecacuanha, when vomiting and pain in the stomach were the chief symptoms ; veratrum when the abdominal pains and dian*hcEa were most marked ; carbo. veg. as an intermediate remedy in cases of com- plete absence of pulse and paralysis. " Dr. Quin, who was at Tischnowitz simultaneously with Dr. Gerstel, has furnished us with the results of his experience in an able pamphlet, published in Paris in 1832, under the title of Traitement Homceopathique du Cholera. Very soon after his aiTival in Tischnowitz, he was seized, whilst dining with the Baron SchoU, an extensive proprietor in that district, with the premonitory symptoms of Cholera. He fell senseless from his 194 TIIF. HOMCEOPATHIC TREATMENT seat, and was carried to bed. On recovering liis senses, he had recourse to the concentrated tincture of camphor, six doses of which had the eflect of dissipating the alarming symptoms. Still suffering from debility, he was called upon to attend to those uirccled with Cholera, Dr. Gcrstel and the other medical men being at the time confined to bed, and of twenty-nine patients he had under lus caro, he lost only three. In Paris, he had nineteen cases of true Cholera under his care, none of which he lost. " In his work we have a general review of the practice of the other homojopathic practitioners who had preceded him in the treatment of Cholera, an outline of the various aspects in which the disease presented itself during tliat epidemic, and particular directions for the treatment of the various kinds and stages of the disease. Spirit of camphor, he remarks, may he administered in all forms of the Cholera, with a certainty of success within the first hour, and with probability of success in the subsequent hours." He next enumerates and gives the indications for the various remedies employed by himself and others in Cholera. " On his departure from Tischnowitz, the authorities wrote him a letter of thanks, accompanied by a list of the number of patients treated in the district, allopathically and homceo- pathically. " Dr. Hromada treated at Latein seventy-four cases of Cholera, of whom twenty-two died ; at Oberkaunitz he had sixty-eight cases, of whom twelve died ; at Biskoubis fifty-six cases, of whom he lost but four. The allopaths in the same place were much less successful, out of seventy cases they lost fifty-two. The remedies he found most serviceable, were cuprum, tabacum, veratrum, and ipecacuanha. He ascribes the comparative large mortality he ex- perienced to the fact that his practice lay in three different places, and he was often absent from one of them for upwards of twelve consecutive hours. " A letter from Dr. Lichtenfels, in theXIIth Vol.of the Archiv, OF THE ASIATIC CHOLERA. 195 dated Vienna, 14th December, 1831, relates his experience of the action of homoeopathic remedies in the Cholera. Like most of Hahnemann's disciples, he acknowledges the marvellous effects of camphor at the commencement of the disease, its favourable action being evinced by the outbreak of a general critical sweat." He found cuprum, veratrum, and arsenic of service, in the same circumstances as already described. "Dr. Lichtenfels treated forty-four Cholera patients, of whom three died ; one of them of inflammation of the brain, from too early exposure after the cure of the Cholera; to the second Dr. L. was only called after the disease had existed with seve- rity for twelve hours ; and the third died on the seventh day, of typhus. " We learn from the same letter the success of the homoeo- pathic treatment of Cholera, in a Cholei'a Hospital at Berlin, by Drs. Haynel and Stiller, who mention the good effects of camphor, cuprum, veratrum, arsenic, phosphorus and mix vomica. " An interesting paper was read at the Assembly of Homoeo- pathic Physicians at Coethen, on the lOth of August, 1832, from Dr. Rummel, of Merseburg, giving an account of the second appearance of the Cholera in that town in June and July, 1832. The population of Merseburg is little above 8,000 inhabitants, and in the seven weeks over which Dr. Ruramel's report extends, 210 persons were affected by the disease, which broke out in its severest form. The folJowing is the result of the allopathic and homoeopathic treatment of those patients, from the 10th June to the 29th July:— Cases. Cured. Died, Remain. Under allopathic treatment . 164 47 101 16 Under homoeopathic treatment 46 28 \6 2" The medicines he chiefly employed in the developed disease v^ere camphor, veratrum, cuprum, arsenic, se- cale cornutum, carho veg.,ipecacuan and cicuta virosa, for each of which he gives the particular indications. 196 TllK IIOMCEOPATHIC TREATMENT "Dr. Kotli, of Munich, who was sent by iho Bavarian Go- voniuioMt to observe the Cholera in diil'ercnt localities, and report on the effects of its homoeopathic treatment, published in 1833 nil iuti'restiiig pamphlet, detailing the results of his observations in i*ru^ue, Moravia, Hungary, and Austria. A considerable portion of the statistical table which follows is derived from this work. " In Franco the Cholera lingered for a considerable time, and in several towns it was o})])osed with success by homoeopathic practitioners, more particularly in Bordeaux and Marseilles, in the former place by Dr. Mabit,* who treated in the hospital thirty- one cases, he lost six, two of whom were brought in a moribund state. In the latter city, where the Cholera appeared three times, Drs. Duplat, Perrussel, and Jal were also very suc- cessful. A medal in bronze, commemorative of his services dur- ing the Cholera in 1835, was presented to Dr. Duplat by the municipal body of Marseilles. It would be useless repetition to detail the modes of treatment adopted by the French homa?opathic physicians, as related in the various pamphlets and articles in journals published by them, and the same may be said of the Italian Homoeopathists, who likewise furnished an abundance of ephemeral writings on the subject; in the main they all agree with the German writers we have above cited. " Without doubt, the most important epoch for Homoeopathy furaished by the Cholera, was its second visitation of Vienna in 1836, when the results obtained in its treatment at the homoeo- pathic hospital there were of such a favourable nature, as to lead the Government to revoke all the former prohibitions of Homoeo- pathy and the restraints on its practitioners, and to place the numerous and talented medical men of that city, who profess the doctrine of Hahnemann, on a par with their allopathic colleagues. If the results of the homoeopathic treatment in this instance are less favourable than those we have given above, it must be borne * Dr. Mabit was created Knight of the Legion of Honour " as a recompense," says the Memorial Bordelah, " for his de- votion and services during the prevalence of the Asiatic Cholera, as also for his unwearied zeal and continued labours on behalf of humanity and the progress of medicine." OF THE ASIATIC CHOLERA. 197 in mind that patients are only brought to an hospital when they show undoubted evidence of the fully developed disease, many after having been subjected to very violent treatment, and having been dosed with allopathic medicines, and many of course are brought in a dying state.* It would therefore be unfair to com- pare the results of the practice of an hospital with those where the patients are treated at their own homes, many of whom are seen by the physician in the first stage of the disease, when the chances of recovery are very much in their favour. The gross results, then, of the treatment at the Vienna Homoeopathic Hospital by Dr. Fleischmann, from the 1st July to the 4th October, 1836, are, out of 732 cases, 244 deaths.f This we shall find is a very favourable result when contrasted with allopathic hospital returns,| and it was sufficient to induce the Government to remove all restric" tions on the practice of Homoeopathy, as well as indirectly ulti- mately to dispose it to grant other hospitals in Linz, Kremsier, GyongyOs, Giins, and elsewhere, for the exclusive practice of Ho- moeopathy. Dr. Fleischmann found the Unci, veratri, and tinct. arsenici, and often the two alternately, of service ; phosphorus was also very efficacious, and when cramps were present, tinct, sec. corn. The tinct. tabaci was sometimes serviceable, when all " * From an analysis of Dr. Fleischmann's cases, published in the British Journal of Homceopathy, Vol. II. p. 38, it appears that 102 of the deaths, or not much under a half, occurred within twelve hours of their admittance into hospital. " t During the Cholera, the Vienna Homoeopathic Hospital was daily visited by an allopathic inspecting physician, appointed by Government. "J In reference to this subject, the Editor of the Dublin Quarterly Medical Journal (allopathic,) says : ' Upon com- paring the report made of the treatment of Cholera in this hospi- tal with that of the same epidemic in the other hospitals of Vienna at a similar time, it appeared, that while two-thirds of those treated by Dr. Fleischmann recovered, two-thirds of those treated by the ordinary methods in the other hospitals died. This very extraor- dinary result led Count Kolowrat (Minister of the Interior) to repeal the law relative to the practice of Homoeopathy.' — Wilde's .^tistria and its Institutions, p. 275, UJH I in; lIOMtEOPATHir TREATMENT Other remedies seemed to full. Wlieii there was much cerebral congestion, bell., am. and mere, wore tl>e remedies employed ; phos., squil., and senega, when the chest was the seat of disease ; niid hry., mere, and hepnr, if the liver was affected. " Dr. Dudgeon concludes the historical part of his pamphlet with the following statistical tables, exhi- biting the comparative results of the treatment of Cholera during its last invasion of Europe, by the ordinary or allopathic, and by the homoeopathic me- thods. " A. Results of Allopathic Treatment of Cholera. " 1 . Treated at their own houses. " At Tischnowitz, in Moravia At Wishney Wolotschok, in Russia At Merseburg - - - - - At Raab, in Hungary - . . In cavalry regi- \ f 1832 mentsin Great > in | 1833 Britain - - ) ( 1834 In the troops at Gibraltar in 1834 In the troops in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, in 1834 - - - In the troops in Canada in 1832-4 3107 1231 " About one death in every 2\ cases, or more than 39 per cent. " 2. Treated in Hospital. " In the Drummond-street Cholera Hos- pital, Edinburgh - - - 461 291 In the Cholera Hospital, Berlin, under Hr. Bohr . - - . 97 64 In Krunkenberg's wards at Halle - 104 53 In the Hamburg hospitals, in Oct. and Nov., 1831 - - - - 283 178 Cases. Deaths. 331 102 199 139 164 101 1217 518 114 29 32 14 25 11 459 131 210 59 356 127 OF THE ASIATIC CHOLERA. 199 Cases. Deaths. In the Cholera Hospital, St. Peters- burgh, by Dr. Lichtenstadt - - 636 317 In the hospital, Raab - - - 284 122 In the hospital, Bordeaux - - - 104 72 1969 1097* " About one death in If cases, or nearly 56 per cent. " B. Results of the Homceopathic Treatment of Cholera. " 1. Treated at their own houses. " By Dr. Baer, at Prague „ Dr. Bakody, at Raab, in Hungary „ Dr. Duplat, at Marseilles „ Dr. Gerstel, at Tischnowitz, in Mo- ravia . - - - „ Dr. Hanusch, at Tischnowitz „ Dr. Hromada,at Latein, Oberkaunitz, &c. 198 „ Dr. Kleiner, at Saratof, in Russia - „^Dr. Jal, at Marseilles - - - „ Dr. Lederer, at Vienna - - - „ Dr. Lens, at Pesth - - - „ Dr. Lichtenfels, at Vienna „ Dr. Lovy, at Prague - _ - „ Dr. Marenzeller, at Vienna „ Dr. Mayer, at Pesth _ . _ „ Dr.f Peterson, at Pensa - - - „ Dr. Quin, at Tischnowitz and Paris - „ Dr. Rummel, at Merseburg „ Dr. Schaller, at Prague - - - „ Dr. Schreter, at Lemberg „ Dr. Schultz, at Vienna - - _ „ Dr. Seider, at Wishney Wolotschok, in Russia - - - - 109 23 * The sources whence these tables are derived are, Die allge- meine Cholera-Zeitung, Vols. I, II, and III; Mackintosh's Prac- tice of Physic, Vol. I ; Archivfiir die Horn. Heilk. Vols. XI and XII ; Mabit, Essai stir le Cholera. 80 154 6 60 12 327 32 84 6 198 38 183 27 19 4 80 2 40 8 44 3 80 8 30 3 65 68 14 48 3 46 16 113 27 I 17 200 nOMCEOPATIIIC TREATMENT OF CHOLERA. Cases. Deaths. " ]\\ Dr. Viocka, nt Vienna and Selowilz 144 12 .. Dr. \'filli, at Vienna - - - 125 3 732 244 32 6 31 6 2141 221 " Jhout one death out o/Qft cases, or little more than 10 per cent. " 2. Treated in Hospital.' " By Dr. Flcischniann, at Vienna „ Drs. Huynel and Staler, at Berlin - „ Dr. Mabit, at Bordeaux 795 256* " About one death in 3^„ cases, or between 32 and 33 per cent. " The following table, compiled from Dr. W. INIcrriman's paper on Asiatic Cholera, in Vol XXVII. of the Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, showing the mortality that occurred in Cholera in our own country, in 1831-2-3, from official documents, is interest- ing ; although, from the want of further details, I am unable to arrange the cases in either of the above categories. Cases. Deaths. Deaths per cent. "England - - 49,594 14,807 291 Scotland - - 20,202 10,650 52^ Wales - - 1,436 498 34f Isle of Man - - 276 146 52^ London and vicinity 11,020 5,275 47| Ireland, up to March 1, 1833 - - 54,552 21,171 38| Total - 137,080 52,547 38i * These tables have been compiled from the Allgemeine Cho- lera-Zeittmg ; Quin, Du Traitement Homa-opathique dv Cho- lera ; Mabit, Essai sur le Cholera; The British Journal of Ho- moeopathy, Vols. 1 and II; Archiv fiir die Horn. Heilk. Vols. XI. and XII. ; Bihliotheque Ilomoeopathique de Geneve, 1st and 2nd series, and Die HomoeopathischeHeilhinstgegen die Asiatische Brechrtihr, von Dr. .T. J. Roth. OF THE ASIATIC CHOLERA 201 "It would be easy to increase the statistics of both treatments, but the above will suffice to show sufficiently the sujieriority of the homoeopathic over the allopathic system, in the treatment of this formidable disease. It appears, then, from the above, that while the average mortality of those treated at their own homes, under allopathic treatment, was upwards of thirty-nine per cent., under homojopathic treatment it was about ten per cent. ; the mortality, again, of those treated in hospitals was, under allopathic treatment, about fifty-six per cent. ; under homoeopathic treatment, below thirty-three per cent. Thus the per centage of deaths in hospital, with homoeopathic treatment, was much less than that under the most favourable circumstances with allopathic treatment. These figures likewise teach a most important point, the urgent necessity, namely, of applying the homoeopathic treatment early in the dis- ease, and alone ; the very much greater mortality in hospital being owing chiefly to the disease having generally existed a considerable time before the patients were admitted, and to their having been previously subjected to all manner of allopathic and domestic ap- pliances." PS. — Since the above remarks were printed, a report has been re- ceived from the acting Committee of the Edinburgh Homoeopathic Dispensary of the results of the homoeopathic treatment of the Asiatic Cholera in Edinburgh, from the 8th to the 27th October, 1848. Immediately on the appearance of the disease in that city, Drs. Russell, Wielobycki, Lyschinski, and Sutherland, as- sisted by Drs. Atkin and Cockburn, resolved to relieve each other in attendance at the homoeopathic dispensary at all hours day and night, during its prevalence, with the view to render aid in every case in which they might be applied to, and the reports thus far show 61 cases treated, with only 17 deaths, or about twenty-eight per cent. ; while the allopathic reports of the Police authorities show 77 deaths out of 121 cases, or sixty-four per cent. HOMCEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. NARRATIVE OF A MISSION TO IRELAND DURING THE FAMINE AND PESTILENCE OF 1847. By JOSEPH KIDD, Surgeon. There are few patients commencing homoeopathic treatment, who do not feel and express their dread of the insufhciency of that treatment in acute disorders or where hfe is endangered, in their ignorance of the fact, that in none more completely than in the most dangerous diseases does Homoeopathy stand success- ful over the practice of the old system. The same objection is also attempted to be made by the greater portion of our medical brethren of the old school, and has been often witnessed in the first trials of the homoeopathic principle and medicines by allopathic practitioners, in their transition state from the uncertainty of their former practice, to the true " rational medicine" of the Homoeopathists, founded on a general law which experience proves to be un- erring in its guidance, in the proper adaptation of medicine to disease. HOM(EOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. 203 To be able to dispel this illusion, it has been ever deemed by the true friends of Homoeopathy, most desirable to accumulate evidence, by submitting the system to the most severe and open tests, whenever the opportunity presented itself for applying it in the treatment of acute diseases. It has been felt, in- deed, that the success gained in trials of this nature must be the true touchstone of the system, inasmuch as the most favourable results in chronic diseases may always be exposed to special criticism and inge- nious explaining away, which wiiters like Dr. Forbes, confessing the force of the results, but not inclined to give credit to the means, are usually ready to make use of when no other arguments remain. Thus it is that the full confidence in the truth and universal applicability of the homoeopathic principle has ever caused its professors to look with delight on every possible opportunity of testing its actual value as well in individual cases as in the severest epide- mics, whenever and wherever occurring. The treatment of the epidemic of typhus fever which occurred in Germany in 1813, by Hahnemann himself, is a prominent instance of this kind, when nearly two hundred patients were treated, without the loss of a single case, at the time when an enor- mous mortality attended the mode of practice sanc- tioned by ages.* Again, we have an equally re- * A most interesting and curious proof of the certainty with which the homoeopathic law enables practitioners to apply medi- cines to any disease, may be found in the fact, that the medicines p 2 !2()4 HOMCEOrATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. markci])le instance in the promptitude and zeal with which numhers of homoeopathic practitioners in Germany, Russia, and France, came forward to npi)ly the treatment in the Asiatic Cholera, at the hist visitation in 1831-2 * Also in various epidemics of scarlatina, measles, &c., treated homoeopathically on the continent and in this country, a very interesting account of an epi- demic of scarlatina thus treated being contained in the British Journal of Homoeopathy, Vol. III. p. 91, by Dr. Ozanne, of Guernsey, and another of measles, in the January Number of the present year of the same Journal, by the same able practitioner, in both of which remarkable success resulted from the means employed. As evidence of the same, may be adduced the re- sults obtained in the treatment of acute diseases at the homoeopathic hospitals of Vienna and Linz, where the most dangerous diseases have been treated with such successf as to have caused the violent remedies of the old system to be laid aside, and to be consi- iisedby Hahnemann in 1813, in typhus, with such success (bryo- nia and rhus tox), and by Dr. Quin, of London, in the typhus fever following cholera in Moravia, in 1831, were those which a comparison of the typhus in Ireland with the materia medica en- abled me to select, and which my experience found most useful, although ignorant at that time of their use in either of the fonner cases. * See ante, p. 187. t Comparative results of homceopathic and allopathic treat- ment in certain acute diseases, furnished by Dr. Fleischmann, of HOMCEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. 205 dered, indeed, positively injurious by many of their former most attached admirers, one of the most cele- brated of whom (Skoda, Physician to the General Hospital at Vienna,) now regards " hay water" as the best and universal medicine for all diseases. the Homoeopalhic Hospital at Vienna (from Introduction to the Study of Homoeopathy, by Drs. Drysdale and Russell). Pneumonia (Inflammation of Lungs). Mortality under ordinary treatment. Authorities. No. of Cases. Deaths. Guisolle - - 304 - - 43 Briquet - - 364 - - 85 Edinburgh Infirmary 222 - - 80 Skoda - - - 19 - - 4 Total 909 212 Mortality 23-32 per cent., or nearly one out of four. Mortality under Homoeopathic Treatment. Fleischmann - 299 - - 19 6*70 per cent., or about one out of fifteen. Pleuritis (Inflammation of the lining membrane of Lung). Mortality under ordinary treatment. Edinburgh Infirmary 111 - - 14 l2'61 per cent., or about one out of eight. Mortality under Homoeopathic Treatment. Fleischmann - 224 - - 3 1'24 per cent., little more than one out of a hundred. Peritonitis (Inflammation of the lining membrane of the Ca- vity of Abdomen and of Intestines). Mortality under ordinary treatment. Edinburgh Infirmary 21 - - 6 27-61 per cent., or more than one out of four. Mortality under Homoeopathic Treatment. Fleischmann - 105 - - 5 4-76 per cent., or less than one out of twenty-five. }J(HJ IIONKKOI'A'IHY IN ACUTK DISEASES, Finally, perhaps, the same confidence in the truth and universal applicability of the homoeopathic system may be found in the results of its trial in the epidemic of fever and dysentery in Ireland, in 184<7, undertaken by myself, at the request of the Com- mittee of the English Homoeopathic Association, and carried out in the face of difHculties and dangers not to be surmounted, save by a firm confidence in the unvarying truth of the homoeopathic law. As introductory to our more immediate object, a glance at the history of the great Irish famine of 1846-7, will be necessary. Ireland has been visited, from time to time, for centuries, with partial and almost periodical famines,* which, except as matters of history, and for the suff'ering produced in the localities afflicted, were soon lost sight of, and their sad but instruc- tive lessons unheeded. Few of the present genera- tion will ever forget the melancholy visitation of 1846-7, when, at the approach of some unseen but all-powerful agent, of which we know exactly nothing, * In tlie year 1740-1 {called the year of slaughter), it was estimated that one-fifth of the entire population perished of want and fever ! In the years 1798 to 1800, general scarcity and dear- ness of all provisions. In 1817-8, general distress all over Ireland, from the same causes, one million and a half of the population having been affected with fever that year. In 1822, almost total loss of the potato crop in INIunster and Connaught. In 1831, the same in Gahvay, Mayo, and Donegal. In 1835-6-7, partial famine in various parts of Ireland. In 1839, a partial failure of ihc potato crop in most i)arts of Ireland. I HOMCEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. 207 the food of millions of human beings was destroyed in the course of a very few days,* and when in the face of the most amazing efforts made for its relief by all classes of society in England, America, and various continental countries, hundreds of thousands of victims told how insufficient all human aid must prove at such a crisis. The recent potato disease first appeared in Ire- land in the autumn of 1845, and caused the destruc- tion of a large portion of that season's crop, but only in particular districts, and to a partial extent, which was in some degree compensated for by an abundant crop of corn and of green vegetables, hay, &c., so that none were prepared for the uni- versal destruction of the next year's crop, which occurred much earlier in the season (long before vegetation had ceased), and more generally than at the previous visitation. The corn crops also proved very deficient, both in those countries, and all over Europe, necessarily followed by an extraordinary * The following extract from the able and impartial history of the " Irish crisis/' by Mr. Trevelyan, in the Edinburgh Review (January 1848), conveys a good description of the rapid destruc- tion of the potato crop which then took place : — ' " On the 27th of last month (July), I passed," Father Mathew writes in a letter published in the parliamentary papers, " from Cork to Dublin, and this doomed plant bloomed in all the luxuriance of an abundant harvest. Returning on the 3rd instant (August), I beheld with sorrow one wide waste of putrifying vegetation. In many places the wretched people were seated on the fences of their decaying gardens, wringing their hands, and wailing bitterly the destruction that had left them foodless." ' 208 HOMtEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES* increase in prices, so that in most parts of Ireland the cost of provisions became more than doubled, and in many places (where food at other times was cheapest) nearly trebled. The almost inevitable consequences soon followed ; the greater part of the jiopulation, previously existing — almost without the use of money — on potatoes, easily obtained by a small outlay of labour and seed, found themselves without food, or the means of purchasing it, and want and starvation began to prevail very generally. At this particular juncture, the system of "public works" was humanely instituted by the Government, afterwards so grievously abused, and gradually ex- tended during the winter and spring, till the major portion of the male population was employed.* As the winter advanced, distress increased to a most fearful extent, in spite of the employment given to myriads of the people, and melancholy instances of death from actual starvation were of daily occur- rence by the roadsides, in the fields, and often of entire families, shut up in their wretched hovels. Thus did matters go on without improvement till the latter end of March, when vast supplies of Indian * The numbers were — in October, 114,000, in December, 440,000, in January, 570,000, thence gradually increasing till March, when 734,000 (representing nearly three millions of the ])opulation) were so employed, when the Government found it necessary to dismiss twenty per cent., and the remainder gradually, till nearly all were disbanded in June, as otherwise the lands would have remained uncultivated. HOMOEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. 209 corn and meal arriving from America, and the conti- nent,* prices declined most rapidly, and the supply even in the most backward places became abundant, from which time the previously numerous instances of death by starvation became more and more rare, finally disappearing as the system of out-door relief under the new Poor-Law Act came into operation, towards June and July. As might have been expected, disease rapidly followed in the track of famine,-]- adding fresh victims to the ravages of the latter, prolonging (or renewing) the period of suffering and affliction. Dysentery had appeared early in that fearful winter, increasing in amount until spring (the time most to be dreaded for epidemics), when fever followed, and the entire of Ireland became covered with a widely-devastating pestilence, by which numbers of the clergymen of all persuasions, medical men, and the resident gentry, who had devoted themselves to the relief of their afflicted fellow-creatures, fell victims to their benevolent exertions. J * In the last week of March, it was estimated that in the harbour of Cork alone, upwards of 250 vessels were lying, con- taining nearly 50,000 tons of Indian corn, and a fall in price of three to four pounds a ton took place within a few weeks. — " The Irish Crisis," in Edinburgh Revietv, January 1848. j- The connection between famine and fever will be resumed in another place. X The week after my an-ivfll in Bantry, the Rev. Dr. Trail, of Skull (10 miles from Bantry), died of exhaustion, consequent iipon repeated attacks of the epidemic, caught in close attendance ;^»1() lloMdlOrATIIY IN ACUTK DISEASES. 1 cannot better illustrate the ravages which fever anil dysentery Avcrc then committing, than by intro- ducing the following quotation from the second edition of my friend Mr. Sampson's work on Homoeo- pathy,* published in January of the present year, which will at the same time explain the cause and origin of my mission to Ireland. " During the early part of 1847, the accounts from Ireland of the daily extending ravages of pestilence first took that frightful form, which caused the year to assume the place it now occupies in the records of human calamity. It was not, however, until the SOth of March that the extent of the evil became fully known. On that day the news came from three localities widely asunder, Armagh, Mayo, and Cork, that the progress of disease in the respective districts was such, that hundreds of the sufferers were totally without any medical assistance whatever, that the workhouses were crowded, and that the attendants and medical men were daily dying, so that, in many instances, both paupers and officers were alike destitute. * " In Ballinrobe," said the Mayo Constitution of the 23rd of March, " the workhouse is in the most awfully deplorable state, upon his poor parishioners ; also Capt. Drury, the inspecting officer of public works in Kinsale ; and the curate of Bantry (Rev. A. Hallowell), as well as the physician to the union, were both laid up with the same disease; also one or two Roman Catholic priests, in the county between Bandon and Cork. * Homoeopathy, its Principle, Theory, and Practice. HOMCEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. 211 pestilence having attacked nearly all within its walls. In fact, the building is one horrible charnel-house, the unfortunate paupers being nearly all the victims of a fearful fever, the d^^ing and the dead, we might say, huddled together. The master has become one of the victims ; the clerk, a young man, whose energies were devoted to the well-being of the Union, has been added to the number ; the matron, too, is dead, and the respected and esteemed physician has likewise fallen, in his constant attendance on the deceased inmates. This is the position of the Ballinrobe house, every officer swept away, while the number of deaths amongst the inmates is unknown. It yet remains, also, to add, that the Roman Catholic chaplain lies dangerously ill of the same epidemic." " From Cork the accounts were equally alarming, and amongst other details, mostly showing that ' pro- fessional men seemed to be more particularly marked out as doomed victims of the malady,' and that, con- sequently, the great want amongst the mass of the sufferers was that of medical attendance, the follow- ing appeared in the Reporter newspaper ; — " ' Most horrible — most dreadful — are the last accoimts from the west of Cork, even to listen to the description given by eye-wit- nesses of what is passing in that part of our county, and, above all, in the two Carberies. A gentleman who has sojourned there, whose duties compelled his stay, assured us, no later than last Sunday, that none of the communications appearing in our journal conveyed an adequate notion of the terrible realities. It is not food the unfortunate people now want most — it is medical attendance ; not additional poorhouses, but hospitals they require. A pesti- lential fever, more mortal and destructive than cholera or plague, is carrying off the poor. All the food, solid or liquid, on earth could not save them without medicinal and sanitary accompani- ments of the most extensive, active, and efficient sort. There is not a house from Bantry to Skull, that, with scarce a dozen excep- tions, does not contain either the sick, the dying, or the dead. The latter lie where they die, or are barely pushed outside the thresh- 212 HOMCEOrATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. olds, and tlierc sufTercd to dissolve. Their living relatives within tlio hnts are too feehle to remove them further; and the strong, outside, from distant places (and they indeed are few) are afraid to handle unshroudod and uncoffined bodies. Judge of the consoijuonccs. The weather begins already to gi'ow wann,and de- coniposiiitJU sets in move raj)idly than a month since. Lotus state two or three facts which we have on unimpeachable testimony. Our infonnant is one who, besides being incapable of an untruth, has tm interest rather in exposing than encouraging exaggeration. He has told us, that in one locality, where public works are in progress, the labourers were forced to examine a cabin at some distance, in consequence of the noxious and intolerable effluvium issuing from it. They discovered in it five bodies in an advanced stage of putrefaction, the whole of a family who had died none knew when. None of the labourers dared touch the bodies, and to protect themselves while remaining on the work, where they were com- pelled to earn their bread and chance of life, they pulled down the hovel, heaped timber and thatch over the blackened corpses, applied fire, and kept aloof until the dwelling and the dead were consumed to ashes. Such was the interment. It is our duty to publish these appalling facts. We have authentic information of others just as dreadful, but our flesh creeps at the remembrance. We must, however, in order if possible to instigate the authorities to adopt proper measures, state one other fact for their considera- tion. In the neighbourhood of Dunmanus Bay three dead bodies were lying for many days, and still, we believe, remain exposed outside the thresholds of three cabins, while within, the families were dead, or dying, or struck down by fever. None of the pea- santry, for the world's wealth, would go near the bodies — such is their apprehension of contagious fever ; even the Water Guards at a neighbouring station dreaded to approach them. There they lay festering in the sun, and breeding pestilence, and there, for aught we know, they still remain, emitting poisonous exhalations, and rendering the recovery of the sick within the cabins altogether hopeless." "When these accounts, which appeared in the Times of the 26th of March, first met the eye of the author HOM(EOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. 213 of the present work, the idea instantly flashed upon him, that a more noble field on which to test the powers of Homoeopathy could not have been presented. He accordingly requested Mr. Heurtley, the Honorary Secretary of the English Homoeopathic Association, with which he and that gentleman were then con- nected, to summon a meeting of the Committee, with the view of proposing that a homoeopathic practi- tioner should be immediately despatched, at the ex- pense of the Association, to the scene of destitution, with instructions for him to proceed at once to Ban- try or Skibbereen, or whichever might prove the most infected district, and there to offer his gratuitous aid, without any other limit than that which would be occasioned by the exhaustion of his own physical powers. This proposal was at once hailed by the Committee, and after an attempt at opposition from two persons, whose motives subsequently transpired, and from whom the leading friends of Homoeopathy have subsequently disconnected themselves, it was immediately adopted and carried into execution. The party selected for the arduous mission was Mr. Joseph Kidd, an Irishman, but a member of the London College of Surgeons, and this gentleman joyfully undertook its duties without the slightest prospect of remuneration, and in the full conscious- ness of all the appalling circumstances with which he would be called upon to contend. He knew that in the midst of the ordinary difficulties of his task he would be assailed by the cries for food of the miser- 214 IIOMCEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. able beings by whom he would be surrounded, that he would have to attend the sick lying side by side with Ihe dead, that all ordinary requirements would be disregarded, that fresh air, warmth, cleanliness, and every other aid would be wholly wanting, that he could hope for no professional co-operation, and that, in fact, it would have been difficult to have imagined circumstances of greater disadvantage un- der whicli his exertions could be carried on. But he had had some years' experience of Homoeopathy, and hence he went with undaunted confidence upon what, under other circumstances, would have seemed a hopeless and a most dangerous undertaking." This very serious step was undertaken by me, not in a spirit of blind enthusiasm, but after the most mature consideration of all the dangers, obstacles, and difficulties which might be expected to oppose our efforts, and in the full confidence that at all times Homceopathy wants nothing but a field in which it may be tested, to prove triumphant. Nor was my confidence shaken even by the gloomy forebodings and discouraging opposition of a professional colleague, who was at that time a lead- ing member of the Committee of the Association, nor by the petty and vexatious impediments of an- other professional member, belonging to that " genus irritabile' whose love of approbation preponderating over the intellectual faculties, cause them to view an original idea of any other mind, no matter how beau- ful and perfect, as if it were unsightly, and to op- HOM(EOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. 215 pose it by every petty shift and hindrance in their power.* Leaving London on the night of Saturday, April 3rd, with the utmost dispatch, the following Tuesday found me in the city of Cork, and, after making the necessary inquiries, I determined to press forward to some part of the west of the county of Cork, where most disease and destitution were reported to exist. Accordingly, I started for Bandon, where I called upon the rector (the Hon. and Rev. Mr. Bernard), who very kindly afforded me much information about the state of the country, and recommended me most earnestly to make Ban try the scene of operations, knowing it to be then overflowing with disease, and that, on account of the illness of its chief physician, and the increase of sickness, it was, in a great degree, destitute of medical aid. Without loss of time, therefore, I went forward, and reached Bantry towards midnight, where the sounds of misery soon came upon our ears from the sobbing crowds of children at the coach windows, as, drenched with rain, they importuned for food. Never was a more pitiable cry raised; and by those upon whom it fell, it can scarcely ever be forgotten. Bantry is a small town in the west of the county * It is deserving of remark, that no sooner had the idea thus opposed led to successful results, than the party last alluded to took immediate occasion to attempt the appropriation of a portion of the credit of the scheme, and to hruit about the share of eclat due to him, for his exertions in having urged it on. £^16 HOMfKOPATIIV IN ACVTE DISEASES. Cork, with a population of about 5000, situated near the bay of that name ; and -within a few miles of those places, immortalized in the annals of suffering and distress, Skibbereen and Skull. The country surrounding it forms the most picturesque and grand district in the south-west of Ireland. Immediately after my arrival in Bantry, I called upon the vicar (the Rev. John Murphy), whose kind- ness was most liberally extended to me in many ways, during my entire stay, and the example of whose devotion to the relief of his destitute parishioners of all sects became a continual source of encouragement to me in my labours in the same field. This gentleman forthwith invited me to accompany him on one of his daily visits of charity, through the outskirts of the town, and then for the first time did the full reality and extent of the desola- tion of the people come upon my astonished vision. Up to this period I had only seen, in my rapid passage through the country, a few of the ordinary horrors of the times; and as we visited one after another, the wretched huts filled to ovei-flowing with disease and misery in the most loathsome and terrible condition to which human nature could be reduced, I found how far even imagination had fallen short of what was really to be witnessed. For months previously I had read, in common with every body else, the sickening details of the sufferings of those poor people in the English and Irish journals. 1 had read of them, till the whole thing seemed a HOMCEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. 217 mass of exaggeration, drawing the crowding horrors of all other centuries into one hapless period and locality. Even, however, with all this, and the glimpses of misery I had caught since my arrival in Cork, I was totally unprepared for the ghastly sights which encountered us at every step. In a very short time we saw some hundreds of cases of fever and dysentery lying in the most helpless and destitute condition. In many of the wretched huts, every inmate lay abandoned to their fate. Fever and dysentery side by side on the same scanty pile of decomposing straw, or on the cold earthen floor, without food or drink. In a few cases we saw fever patients exposed under the lee of houses or walls, half protected from the inclemencies of that climate (proverbially a moist one) by a few furze bushes. Entering one house, our eyes met the coffins with sliding bottoms,* which it had been found necessary to introduce, and which in this instance were em- ployed to remove two of four victims to fever in one family, having been used for the others a few days previously, leaving two more almost in a lifeless condition in the midst of the same virulent disease. f * Owing to the enormous increase of mortality at Bantry, and several other places, it became almost impossible to procure coffins for the dead, which obliged the Relief Committee to have coffins made with moveable bottoms. Horses and men were employed to carry the dead in these coffins to the grave-yard, where they were buried in large pits, one of which, it is stated, contained nearly 500 bodies, before it was closed in June or July, all of whom had died in the workhouse alone. f These two were amongst the first cases whose treatment I Q 218 ii()Ma-;oi'ATHV in acute diseases. 1 comimiiiicated that night with Mr. Heurtley, the Honorary Secretary, apprising him of what 1 had witnessed, and stating that very little chance existed of any systematic plan of operation being carried out. It was therefore resolved that I should devote my services promiscuously wherever they might be most needed. Accordingly, each succeeding day found me alone amongst some of the most wretched of those that I had recollected seeing on my first survey, and after much trouble in each case, even in procuring vessels to contain the medicine, and loss of time in cleansing them myself, I was enabled to leave what was most appropriate. Thus did matters go on, gradually increasing the number of cases (every one of which was carefully entered in a note-book), till it reached nearly a hundred, before the end of a week. By degrees the sphere of operations enlarged, till, to visit one half of the entire number under treatment, became a hard day's work, requiring me to be out from ten or eleven o'clock in the morning till five, six, or seven in the afternoon, the greater part of which time was spent in the most intimate contact with fever and dysentery, being frequently obliged to remain nearly half-an-hour in one single hovel, crowded with poor sufferers, till human nature could hold out no longer, and an instinctive and almost convulsive effort would cause me to escape undertook. It will be seen from the note of cases 7 and 8 in the Appendix that they both recovered. HOMOEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. 219 from the close atmosphere of peat-smoke and fever- miasm to the open air. At the conclusion of the day's work, with face, hands, and clothes begrimed with smoke and dirt, would I reach home, with the same ordeal to pass through on the morrow, and every day ; and yet, not- withstanding such exposure to the most fruitful sources of contagion, I escaped most perfectly, although the only precautions observed were, an hour's walk every morning over the hills of that beautiful country, and moderation in living. I shall now proceed with the history, description, and treatment of fever and dysentery in Bantry, in so far as it fell under my observation. The history of fever, as it appeared in Ireland during the spring and summer of 1847, is highly interesting in its medical relations, and also in the very important and instructive lessons of political economy, deducable from the very close connexion which it has proved to exist between famine and fever. A warm controversy has been carried on as to this connexion by two very able physicians in Dublin, Dr. Corrigan, of the Whitworth and Hanwick Fever Hospitals, and my friend Dr. H. Kennedy, of the Cork Street Fever Hospital. The former published a pamphlet in 1845,* ascribing the production of * On Famine and Fever, as Cause and Efi'ect in Ireland, with Observations on Hospital Location, and the Dispensation in Out- Q 2 220 IIOM(EOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. fever to the direct agency of famine, strengthening his assertion by many telling facts and coincidences collected from the histories of previous epidemics. This opinion was also very much favoured by the epidemic of the next year following immediately on the great famine of that year. Dr. Kennedy, how- ever, in his pamphlet,* published the year after Dr. Corrigan's, giving the matter a more searching and philosophical examination, controverts the position of the former, proving from numerous examples, and from the late visitation, that the amount of famine bore no relation to the amount of fever, that famine often occurred without fever, and vice versa, and that in some cases, famine existed for a long time without fever, and soon after abundance had replaced it that fever then broke out with great virulence. He also pointed out that several epidemics of fever in Ireland were ascribed by their historians to superabundance of food ; and the conclusions he arrived at were, that there is a very intimate connexion between famine and fever, not as cause and effect, but as effects of one and the same cause, "the epidemic constitution," which, affecting the vegetable world, had caused the destruction of food, and which, in the human family, had produced fever and other door Relief of Food and Medicine. By D. J. Corrigan, M.D., M.R.C.S.E. * Observations on the Connexion between Famine and Fever in Ireland and elsewhere. By H, Kennedy, M.B., A.B., T.C.D. I HOMCEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. 221 epidemic diseases. His arguments are, that the epidemic tendency to fever and various other diseases (small-pox, scarlatina, &c.) had commenced before the famine, that these epidemic diseases had in most cases extended into other countries, far removed from the seat of famine ; and that the same influence had also affected the lower animals with peculiar diseases. Fever became prevalent in Bantry and its neigh- bourhood in the beginning of February, and con- tinued to increase till the end of May, when it commenced to decline, both in frequency and in virulence, the amount in June being considerable, while in July and August a most rapid diminution took place, amounting, indeed, almost to a total disappearance.* The causes of fever have been generally divided into predisposing and exciting,-]- the former being those which induce or cause changes in the system (as improper and insufficient food, by lowering the general standard of health, and causing depression of the mind and spirits), that render the individual more susceptible of the disease, when exposed to an * Fever and dysentery have been again prevalent there this year, but to a slight degree, compared with the previous year. I Predisposing causes have been also named internal, or belong- ing to the system, that is, that the changes produced in the condi- tion of the solids and fluids of the body and of the morale of the mind by those causes, are the true predisposing causes, and not their direct agency. Exciting causes have also been named external, their agency being direct, and from without (as contagion, or exposure to cold and wet) . 222 nOMCEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. exciting cause ; the latter, those which actually induce or engender the disease. The principal of the predisposing causes may be considered mental and physical depression, the results of improper and insufficient food, over fatigue, or anxiety, sudden changes of temperature, the ordi- nary change of seasons, and the crowding together of many individuals in close, ill- ventilated rooms,* where the light of the sun is entirely or partially excluded. The principal exciting causes of fever may be enumerated as, contagion (by contact or communica- tion with others previously affected), emanations from animal or vegetable matter in a state of decomposi- tion, and exposure to cold or wet. These causes (both predisposing and exciting) ope- rate with different force and in diflferent proportion in different epidemics, the most powerful in one being often absent in another ; as an invariable rule, the more of them in operation, and the longer the time of that operation, the greater probability that fever will follow. In the epidemic which constitutes the immediate object of the present Essay, few will deny that famine, with its long train of secondary conse- quences, was the most powerful and constant of the *• In some instances this would seem to become a direct or exciting cause, as in that of " the black hole" at Calcutta, where fever attacked every one of the survivors directly ; also in the sudden crowding on board emigrant and convict ships, in gaols, &c. HOM(EOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. 223 predisposing causes, while of the exciting causes, the most active were contagion, and exposure to cold and wet. In the condition of the people at Bantry, and places similarly afflicted, every circumstance favour- able to the development of fever could be observed ; in the crowding together* of numbers of debilitated individuals in the lowest state of mental and physical depression, in most cases existing upon one small meal (containing from six to eight ounces of solid nourishment) each day, for which they were obliged to remain in a state of semi-nakedness,-!- exposed under the open air in a dense crowd surrounding the soup kitchen (where many scarcely recovered from fever were forced to come) for eight, ten, or twelve hours,:}: owing to the difficulty and delay in preparing cooked food for so many thousands. * Owing to the numbers of poor people obliged to desert their dwellings in the country parts (where starvation threatened), to seek refuge in the town, all the huts became filled to suffocation with occupants, (three, four, or five families occasionally living in one house or room,) in which fever was sure to break out, of a most dangerous and fatal character, f Early in the course of the distress, there was a universal rush amongst the people to pledge and dispose of their clothes to procure food, insomuch that every pawnbroking establishment in that entire country became suddenly filled, so that their capital being expended, they were ultimately obliged to remain idle or closed for many months ; necessarily, the sufferings of the poor from the loss of their clothes, when the severe weather appeared, were incalculable. J Often have I seen a large portion of the crowd unserved with their scanty pittance at ten, eleven, or even twelve o'clock at night. 224 IIOMOJOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. Tlie most prevailing type of fever in Bantry was con- tinued fever ; there was also a good deal of typhus with extreme nervous depression and debility ; also some cases of inflammatory typhus with furious delirium, raving, and other evidences of cerebral implication. Continued fever generally commenced (in most cases after exposure to contagion) with languor, mus- cular exhaustion, and mental depression with head- ache ; after a few days becoming more thoroughly developed, with increase in frequency of pulse, (al- though the strength and volume were very deficient) dryness and heat of skin, heaviness and dull aching pain over the frontal region in the eyes and eyelids, constant thirst with dryness of mouth, white, brown- ish, or yellow coating of the tongue, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, with painful sensibility of the epi- gastrium, constipation, urine in general very little changed in quality, rather deeper in colour, but with- out deposit, and scanty. In many cases chest symptoms appeared, with cough of various characters, either dry and hard, with thick whitish phlegm, difficult of expulsion, with or without pricking pains in the chest on coughing, or full and shaking, with copious, thick, yellowish- white expectoration. In some cases the cough was attended with obstruction of breathing, and thick, occasionally obliged to leave without it till the next day; it was a matter of perfect certainty, that most of those remaining even to that time had not tasted food of any sort since the corresponding hour the day (or night) previously. HOM(EOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. 225 tenacious, muco-sanguineous expectoration, and dull or acute pains in the chest. Almost invariably, in the early stages of this va- riety of fever, appeared aching or shooting pains in the extremities (mostly in the lower), aggravated by movement, and attended with tenderness and pain in the muscular portion of the limbs ; the sleep was generally disturbed at night, either by the teasing cough setting in towards midnight, or by general anxiety and restlessness. The first symptom of amendment was generally seen in diminution of the frequency of pulse, gradu- ally followed by amelioration of the pains in the head and limbs, in the cleaning of the tongue around its edges, returning appetite, softness and coolness of skin, and sleep, till convalescence became established (about the sixteenth to twentieth day). The medicines used by me in the treatment of this class of fever cases were aconite, hryonia, and hella- donna. In many cases, towards the middle and lat- ter stages, it was found necessary to administer nux vomica; in some cases, also, rhus toxicodendron was resorted to. Several other medicines were used in isolated cases, and against particular symptoms. The approach and progress of typhus differed very much from continued fever; from the very com- mencement the heat of skin and acceleration of pulse being very inconsiderable, and in the middle and lat- ter stages being almost invariably below the natural standard. For two or three days the patient would 226 irOMfEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. labour under lassitude and languor, with loss of ap- petite and of sleep, the tongue being generally the first index of the probable mischief in store. About the fourth or fifth day, the disease being generally well marked, with a very slight heat of skin, which felt soft and clammy, being covered with moisture, (not like the ordinary feel of a perspiring skin, but as if the skin were damped, and by some contrivance all evaporation prevented,) the pulse very little, if at all altered, except in strength, which even at this period would be somewhat deficient ; the tongue presented a most characteristic appearance, in general dry, hard, and glazed, like brown leather, or deeply covered with brown or blackish fur. In some cases it appeared soft, moist, and tremulous, covered with a perfect and uniform layer of pure white paste or mucus, (this in general omened a very severe and dangerous form of the disease,) the gums and teeth became covered with brownish incrustations, thirst being incessant and insatiable, with nausea and vo- miting ; in many cases abdominal symptoms, as ten- sion and tympanitic resonance of abdominal wells, with tenderness and shooting pain over either iliac region (in general the right) ; bowels seldom costive, in general relaxed, with or without pain ; urine in a few cases suppressed, in most unchanged ; head in general implicated, in most from the beginning, with aching and heaviness at the forehead, throbbing at the temples, vertigo, sense of emptiness and bewilder- ment ; delirium, mostly at night, with low muttering. HOMCEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. 227 or with stupid, heavy insensibility, and incoherence of speech.* The eyes appeared dull, inanimate, and listless, with the head instinctively turned from the light. In a few cases, towards their termination, a peculiar sort of stolid deafness supervened, which gradually disappeared as convalescence advanced. Almost invariably, the lower extremities were com- plained of as being dead and numbed, rendering the least motion impossible (but without any actual pain), the feet and legs feeling cold and damp. General debility and prostration set in early in the disease, and proved the most obstinate of the symp- toms. In most cases sleep was disturbed or absent for many days and nights, with general restlessness, fre- quently caused by teasing cough, most usually com- ing on about midnight. In a few cases the cough was attended with obstruction of breathing, and sharp or dull pains in the chest, or with abundant mucous expectoration, which the patient had much diflSiculty in expelling. The first symptoms of improvement generally ap- peared about the fourteenth or fifteenth day, in the condition of the tongue, the dry glazed appearance becoming interspersed with patches of moist redness, and the uniform white paste-like layer breaking off in flakes, exposing the natural pale-red appearance of the tongue below. Gradually sleep visited the * Where consciousness existed in this period, there was great mental anxiety and depression, with restlessness and want of sleep. 228 HOMCEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. sufferer, appetite returned, and convalescence en- sued with tolerable rapidity, and was very well esta- blished in fifteen days after the improvement com- menced. The medicines chiefly used in typhus were rhus tox.^ bryonia, arsenicum, and phosphorus ; aconite being seldom employed except in a few cases where the treatment commenced very early, or where heat and dryness of skin existed for a few days. In most cases it was not found necessary at any period of the disease, the sphere of operation and utility of aconite in typhus being very small, compared with that in continued fever. The medicines upon which most reliance were placed, and which proved most successful, were the four already enumerated, although some others were used in a few cases. The convalescence of the fever patients was most satisfactory, indeed, too rapid in most of the cases of continued fever, as the poor sufiFerers, finding their strength to be so quickly restored, were apt to make too free with the col^ air, and to partake largely of in- digestible food, (Indian meal, in hard cakes or in porridge, even rice in many cases proving too indi- gestible,) the result of which was, that nearly one- sixth of all the cases of continued fever suffered a relapse* to a fever of far worse character, although * The same unusually great liability to relapse had been pre- viously noticed in several epidemics of /ever foUoioing famine in Ireland. HOMCEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. 229 of shorter duration than the original. This gene- rally occurred about the second or third day after all traces of the original fever had disappeared, and in most instances the one single cause (improper food) could be traced, which the first glance at its symp- toms immediately confirmed. In a few, exposure to cold in the open air, or to draughts of cold air in their houses, proved the exciting cause. Every possible effort was made to guard against this disagreeable consequence, by restraining the patients to bed, or to the room, as long as a symptom of fever remained, and by giving carefiil directions as to diet, also by explaining the dangerous nature of the relapse fever ; but in many cases (as might natu- rally have been expected) without avail, as convales- cents after fever generally feel a very sharp appetite for the first few weeks, to restrain which would have required more philosophy and reasoning powers than those wretched creatures could be supposed to have possessed, particularly at such a time, with the dread of actual starvation impending over them. The food found to agree best with convalescents was rice, boiled in water, or milk (rarely) ; in some cases white bread and milk, boiled or not. These, however, were obtainable in a very small number of instances.* With few exceptions, therefore, the • Towards the close of my labours in Bantry, the humane exertions of Mr. Sampson enabled me to obviate this me- lancholy want, the Committee of the " British Association for the Relief of the Destitute in Ireland," having through his 230 HOMCEOPATIIY IN ACUTE DISEASES. cases I had dealt with were again taken under the treatment. In the detailed results, however, which will be found in the Appendix, these are not entered as fresh cases, and the double cure, therefore, is merely recorded as a single one. The symptoms of the relapse fever were in general throbbing, shooting pains in the forehead and at the top of the head, with vertigo, flushing of face, expres- sive of intense anxiety, restlessness, and despair of recovery, the eyes looking dull and inanimate, with quivering of the eyelids, the tongue presenting one al- most unvarying character, being soft, moist, tremulous and covered with a dense layer of whitish fur or paste, nausea, sickness, and vomiting, frequently to a most distressing extent, with soreness at the epigastrium, aggravated by food, drink, or pressure, bowels gene- rally relaxed, with griping pains, or constipated, skin burning hot and moist, pulse rather accelerated, but weak or irregular, constant agitation and restlessness, mth loss of sleep. The usual duration of the re- representations placed a quantity of rice at my disposal. His Grace the Archbishop of Dublin at the same time transmitted me, through the same channel, a donation of £10, and Mr, Samuel Jones Loyd a like amount. I also received £2 from Richard Beamish, Esq., F.R. S., the whole being for the relief of the destitute convalescents. This enabled me, as my professional exertions were coming to a conclusion, to provide with rice, bread and milk, and fuel, many hundreds, partly those who had reco- vered under my own care, and every one else that seemed in the same condition after sickness, that I could make out, that other- wise might have perished from imperfect convalescence, dian-hopa, and want. HOMOEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. 231 lapse fever was from four to eight days, when the nausea and pain at the epigastrium diminished, and the tongue became clean, with gradual disappearance of the other symptoms. Nux vomica was found to be the most certain and useful medicine in these cases, (sometimes preceded by a few doses of aconite,) under its action the tongue becoming rapidly clean, the skin cool, and the head-ache disappearing, so that in a few days the patient was again in a fair way towards recovery, but with an increased degree of weakness. It was gene- rally administered every four hours, in solution in water (the tincture), the intervals being gradually lengthened to twelve or twenty-four hours. Bryonia and arsenicum were also used. Two or three cases suffered a second relapse, and were again treated with success. There were instances even of a third relapse. Relapse followed typhus much less frequently, in proportion to the number of cases, than continued fever, which happy immunity was principally owing to the return of strength being more gradual, and the appetite not being so soon restored, which rendered the convalescents more careful in taking food, and in going into the open air. Where relapse did follow typhus, it approached more closely in character to the original fever than did the relapse of continued fever to its original type, and, as might have been expected, with an increased degree of debility and exhaustion, which rendered it 232 noM(EorATHY in acute diseases. more dangerous and fatal than ordinary typhus ; one of the two deaths from fever being in relapse after typhus (the second was in a case of continued fever, with pleuro-pneumonia). As health became restored to the convalescents, and as they reverted to their old mode of diet, diarrhoea frequently followed, particularly after typhus, or where much debility had previously existed ; it was most usual in old persons, or in young from about the ages of six to sixteen years. From the utter impossibility of removing the exciting cause in most cases, it generally proved a tedious and dis- tressing complaint ; at one time being almost cured, but again breaking out, as the cause came into more active operation. The medicines used were — arsenicum in the com- mencement, and rhus, china, secale, &c., in the latter stage. As another of the sequelae of fever, dropsical effusion into the cellular tissue occurred most fre- quently after typhus, and often to a very great extent. It usually appeared the first week after the convales- cence had been established. Phosphorus, bri/onia, rhus, and china, were the medicines generally used. Dysentery. — The principal cause of this disease may. be clearly traced to the abrupt change which took place in the dietary of the people, from potatoes and milk, and occasionally fish and meat, to the almost unvaried use of Indian meal, owing to the extravagant prices of the other farinaceous articles of HOMCEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASEi=!. 233 food, (flour, oatmeal, &c.,) and to the scarcity of milk, from the fatality amongst cattle during the winter. That Indian meal is a nutritious article of food, is undeniable (particularly well fitted for those at active labour), but it is equally undeniable, that it was the cause of much suffering and sickness? which may in a great degree be ascribed to its improper preparation, the grain being very coarsely ground, with the bran generally unseparated (which is far more irritating than the bran of wheaten flour), and the meal thus obtained, used, either boiled in water, or made into hard, flat cakes, in either mode alike indigestible. The distribution of food from the Relief Com- mittee, in the shape of porridge (made of various kinds of meal boiled in water, with salt, spices, and a faint trace of salt meat), also helped to produce and keep up dysentery. The actual change of diet must also be considered as a powerful cause, for in previous years the supply of potatoes generally fell short, in most parts of Ireland, during June and July, when oatmeal became the ordinary article of diet amongst the poor, as which time every dispensary physician in the country districts had an unusual amount of cases of gastric affections applying for treatment. These causes com- bined, the change to a diet of indigestible, badly- cooked food, insufficient in quantity, with a general state of mental and physical depression, may be con- sidered as the origin of dysentery. R 234 IIOMCKOPATIIY IN ACUTK J)ISEASES. In order to study its nature and symptoms with more accuracy and satisfaction, three sub-divisions or groups may be distinguished and called, 1st, the acute dysentery ; 2nd, the ordinary form as it attacked adults ; and 3rd, as it appeared in children ; this division not being merely artificial, but the natural arrangement which suggested itself to my mind at the time, and which was constantly acted upon in I)ractice. 1. The symptoms of the first group generally came on suddenly, preceded by constipation for a few days, with excruciating pains all over the abdomen ; expression of intense anguish and anxiety on the countenance, with rapid exhaustion ; and general symptoms of the most severe kind. Its progress was very rapid, and frequently towards a fatal termination. The medicines used in this variety were nux vomica and mercurms, which were generally admi- nistered in the commencement in frequently-repeated doses (half-hour, or hour), either singly or in alterna- tion, preceded or not by aconite, according to the urgency and rapidity of the case. In the most urgent cases, arsenicum and veratrum were used with marked success where nux vomica and mer- cuiius had been tried for a short time with little relief. 2. The ordinary form of dysentery, as it attacked adults, generally commenced with loss of appetite, nausea, and looseness of the bowels, which gradu- HOMCEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. 235 ally increased, till in the course of four or five days all the urgent symptoms of dysentery became developed. It was in this class of cases that the effects of mere, corrosimis and nux v. were best seen, given singly, in succession, or alternately (according to each particular case), at intervals varying from two to six or eight hours. It was seldom found necessary to give aconite^ as the condition of the patient was rather the reverse of inflammatory, as indicated by slow and weak pulse, loss of strength, &c. Arsen, or veratrum, rhus^ and china were also used in parti- cular instances. Anasarca in the limbs or trunk occasionally accom- panied and followed dysentery in adults, and con- tinued for some weeks after the healthy action in the intestines had been restored. The remedies used in it were almost the same as those previ- ously described in the treatment of dropsy following fever. Dysentery, as it appeared in children from the ages of one year to twelve or fourteen, differed in many respects from the same disease in adults, being more difficult of cure, and the symptoms peculiarly characteristic and more severe. Some of the prin- cipal points of difference were in the character of pain, in the enormous increase in development of the abdomen, the voracious appetite, the extreme degree of emaciation which ensued in most cases, the rare occurrence of anasarca, the higher ratio R 2 236 HOMCEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. of mortality, and the predominance of symptoms at night. The medicines found most useful in this class of cases were arsen.^ veratrum^ nux v., mere, rhus, sul- pfun', china., sccale. Towards the middle of June, the treatment of nearly two hundred cases having terminated, it was considered proper to bring my labours at Bantry to a close, sufiicient time having elapsed to afford the system a full and complete trial, the amount of disease in the place also becoming rapidly diminished, and a new mode of relief being established in the erection of sheds for the reception of those suffering from fever and dysentery, with additional medical attend- ance, &c., under the provisions of the new Poor Relief Act, passed by Parliament a short time pre- viously. The duration of my stay in Bantry extended from the 9th of April to 15th June, a period of 67 days, or nearly ten weeks, during which the total number of cases treated was — Fever* Ill D^'senteryf ------ 81 192 * Twenty -four being cases of typhus, and eighty-seven con- tinued fever. t Of these eighty-one patients, forty-eiglit were from the ages of 1 to 16 years; twenty-three from 16 to 50 ; and ten from 50 to 70. Of the forty-eiglit young persons, 4 died ; of the twenty- HOMCEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. 237 Fever: — Cases cured - - - 108 Dismissed - - . - 1 Died 2 Ill Dysentery : — Cases cured - - 59 Much improved - 9 Dismissed - 2 Died - - - . 11 81 These results show a mortality of If per cent, in fever, and of 14 per cent, in dysentery. Those cases were all taken indiscriminately^ as with the most perfect truth it can be said that no case was refused by me that came within a reasonable distance of my usual rounds, and that was without other medical attendance, regardless even of the most desperate cases, many of which were undertaken without a shadow of hope,* in accordance with my fixed determination to take all cases, without reserve or selection. The particulars of each of the cases, with the names at full length, the time and duration of the disease, are printed in the Appendix. The results above quoted consist of a series of reports drawn out from time to time for the Com- mittee of the Association, and ultimately completed three adults, 3 ; and of the ten old people, 4 : which shows the mortality to have been by far the highest amongst old people. * A glance at the reports of some of the fatal cases of dysen- tery in the Appendix will illustrate this statement. 238 nOMCEOPATIIY IN ACUTE DISEASES. to stand by themselves, in ignorance at that time of the results of the treatment of the same diseases in the Bantry Union Hospital, which at my request were afterwards kindly forwarded to me by Doctor Tuckey, its physician, who copied the following table from the books : — l.NFIUMARV. Fever Hospital. Dysentery and Dysen- teric Diar- rhten. other Dis- eases Total. Fever. Other Dis- Total, eases. MAY. In hospital on the 1st . . Admitted during month . Total treated during month Died 50 97 2S 20 78 117 40 69 25 60 65 129 147 48 195 109 85 194 52 9 t 61 8 26 34 JUNE. In hospital on the 1st . . Admitted during month . Total treated during month Died 42 90 21 30 63 120 31 112 26 35 57 147 132 51 183 143 61 204 25 6 31 16 15 31 JULY. In hospital on the 1st . . Admitted during month . Total treated during month Died 40 50 14 20 54 70 30 46 13 15 43 61 90 34 124 76 28 104 13 2 15 11 5 16 AUGUST. In hospital on the Ibt . . 37 18 55 13 6 19 HOMtEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. SI39 Owing to the confusion consequent upon the ill- ness of one of the physicians of the hospital, the results for April could not be obtained, so that we can only compare the results of homoeopathic treatment during April, May, and the first half of June, with May, June, and July of the Bantry hospital. It is notorious that the months of April and May were the worst months of that year for fever, and March, April, and May, for dysentery, both in Bantry and all other parts of the county Cork (the mortality being then higher, and the amount greater). As we are thus precluded from a comparison with the results of precisely corresponding times, we are obliged to contrast our period, the greater part of which was at the worst time of those diseases, wdth the period of the hospital results, the greater part of which corresponded with the improving time of the same diseases. Even if we take this comparison as one on equal grounds, we find the total number of cases of dysen- tery admitted during those three months to have been 237, to which, adding 13, the difference between the number in the infirmary at the commencement, and the number at the close of the period, we have an aggregate of 250. Out of this aggregate, the deaths amount to 90, being a mortality of 36 per cent., whilst the mortality under homoeopathic treat- ment was only 14 per cent. Again, the number of completed cases of fever in that period in the hospi- 240 HOMCEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. tal, was 254 ; of these 35 died, showing a mortality of ISi per cent. ; the mortality under homoeopathic treatment being 1 1 in the same disease. That those under homoeopathic treatment, circum- stanced as they were in general without proper food or drink, should have succeeded as well as the in- mates of the hospital of the same town (taken pre- cisely from the same class of people), with the ad- vantages of proper ventilation, attendance, nourish- ment, &c., would have been most gratifying ; but that the rate of mortality under the homoeopathic system should have been so decidedly in favour of our grand principle, is a circumstance, it may be hoped, which can scarcely fail to attract the atten- tion even of the most sceptical. We gladly avail ourselves of an opportunity of forming another very striking and interesting com- parison on this subject. An anonymous contributor in the number of the MedicO'Chirurgical Review for April of this year, writing on the subject of the epidemic fever in Ire- land and elsewhere, has given the following statistics of his own treatment of that disease, assisted by a colleague, in an hospital of which he had the chief management, which hospital is presumed, from his details, to have been in Liverpool or Manchester. It was established, he says, for the reception princi- pally of emigrants from Ireland to this country during that spring and summer, and of others to whom the same epidemic fever had extended, as he HOMOEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. 241 shows, by contagion and contact with the Irish por- tion of the population. Total number of cases of fever admitted into his hospital ; — Cases. Deaths. Proportion of Deaths. Under 15 - - 686 - 59 - - 1 in llf 15 to 30 - - 1121 - 79 - - 1 in 14| 30 to 50 - - 683 - 104 - - 1 in 61 Above 50 - - 172 - 45 - - 1 in 31 2662 287 1 in 9§ A comparison of the rate of mortality in fever under homoeopathic treatment, with those results, is very interesting, as being a complete answer to those who attempt to decry Homoeopathy as a system of " do-nothing expectant medicine." This gentleman tells us, that his treatment (custom ^) was almost universally to abstain from all interference, and to remain passively watching the cases, ordering them free ventilation, cleanliness, and confinement to bed ; simple diluents, water, or milk and water, being given as drinks (having found, he says, a simple saline, given purely as a " placebo" in a few cases, to do harm). But although he congratulates himself upon the success attendant upon thus allowing the cases to take their natural course, undisturbed by medicine, except where lesions of particular organs seemed to render it imperative, we are compelled, when we look upon the rate of mortality — upwards of 10 per cent. — to acknowledge its great height. 242 UOMCEOrATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. when compared with that under homoeopathic treat- ment. Were Homoeopathy a system of " expectant me- dicine," it might have fared ahout as well as this gentleman's practice ;* but the contrast between 10 per cent, and 1 1 per cent, affords another brilliant example that homoeopathic treatment, not disturbing the natural process at work in the occult phenomena of disease, still exerts a distinct and specific curative action, thereby shortening its duration and increasing the prospects of recovery. If additional proof be required, it may be found in the testimony of those who had most opportunity of judging of the efficacy of the treatment, namely, the resident clergymen of both persuasions, and of the gentry of the county forming the Poor Relief Committee, who, having heard of my departure from * The mortality under his mode of practice was actually less than that in the Ban try Hospital (as 10 to 14 per cent.), where the ordinary remedies of the old school were employed. Hence the plain inference, that those remedies are positively injurious, and should not be used ; which inference extends far beyond fever, for the same result followed from a comparison of the rate of morta- lity in various acute diseases treated in Vienna by Dr. Skoda, Physician of the General Hospital (Allopathic) in that city, (by giving hay water as a " placebo," and allowhig the disease to fol- low its natural course,) with the mortality under the ordinary reme- dies of the old school by his colleagues in the same hospital, and with the results of homoeopathic treatment in the same diseases by Dr. Fleischmann, of the Vienna Homoeopathic Hospital, in which cou)parison the mortality under the " expectant system'' was less than under the old school remedies, but much greater «han under homoeopathic treatment. HOMOEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES. 243 Bantry, forwarded to me in London the letters and vote of thanks printed in the Appendix. To myself, individually, the most gratifying circumstance con- nected with this Irish Mission is in the delightful assurance that the grateful remembrance of many of the poor sufferers still holds, and that, in the words of a correspondent intimately acquainted with the poor of that neighbourhood, writing many months afterwards from Bantry, they " yet continue to bless the means and the instrument which proved so useful to them in the time of their melancholy need and suffering." *^* The medical details of the cases referred to in this Paper, may be found in an " Essay on Fever and Dysentery," read by the Author before the British Homoeopathic Society, Dec. 2, 1847, and published in the British Journal of Homceopathy, January* 1848. APPENDIX. IRISH MISSION. Report from Mr Kidd of Cases treated at Bantry, in Ireland, from the 9th of April to 15th of June, 1847. William Willis Margaret Uodgers... Anne Harrington...., Mary Hutchinson. . . . Mary Holland , John Collins , Jerry Sullivan Thaildeus Sullivan. . , Ellen Sullivan , Mary Rogers , Sully Iloohan Daniel Murphy . . . . , Pat. Downey Joseph Leary , Hary Sullivan Jerry Sullivan John Downey Kate Regan , Con Carty , Pat. Sullivan Put. Flynn Dennis Flynn , John Downey Mary Rogers Johanna Sullivan ., Mary Cronin Mary Creemeen .... Kitty Creemeen . . . . , Pat. Creemeen Francis M'Evoy .... John Downey Margaret Patterson , Tim. Cronin Mary Harrington . . , Johanna Collins Patrick Nagle Mary Hutchinson . . . Roger Humphrey .. . Richard Hutchinson Con Roohan Age. Period > These two were brothers, six of whose family wore seized with fever about the same time. The day of my first visit, the father and one son were buried ; and the week before, the mo- ther and daoghter died. Of the two survivors, I did not expect the youngest would live another day, and both were so far advanced in fever, that the prognosis was most unfavourable, in addition to which they were reduced to the lowest degree of depression by mental suft'ering, caused by the loss of the rest of their family and by their great destitution ; notwithstanding these circumstances, however, they both recovered. <^ These three lay on the same bed in very bad typhus, so bad that they were almost aban- doned to their fate by their relatives. d A case of cerebral typhus. <= A case of low typhoid fever in a phthisical subject. f Relapsed on April 2Cth ; was again under treatment to May 6th. Cured. K She was almost convalescent April 26th ; on the 28th, relapse ensued, with pleuritis, which proved fatal. k Was almost convalescent May 6th, when a sad accident occurred to him. During a dread- ful night's rain, he lay actually flooded in his bed from the rain pouring in on him from a chasm in the thatch of his cabin. He was so very weak as to be unable to move himself from the bed, and could derive no assistance from the rest of his family (4), who lay in fever at the other end of the wretche;! cabin, so that he was obliged to remain thus exposed for eight or ten hours till morning, when some charitable neighbour rescued him from the bed that had nearly proved a watery grave. As might have been expected, the fever returned more severely, and Ins convalescence proved tedious. ' CuJtd also of an attack of diarrhoea after the fever. IRISH MISSION. 245 JN'iinic. Judith Downey Mary Neal Jerry Han-ington .... Kate Collins Pat. Collins Mary Leary Pat. Leary Mary Healy Norah Healy Joan Healy fidward Healy Cornelius Sullivan .. Pat. Flynn John Harrington .... Dan. Harrington .... Kate Harrington .... Judy M' Carthy Pat. O'Brien Daniel O'Brien Pat. M'Carthy Rebecca Willis Florence Rogers CaUaghan M'Carthy Fanny Hutchinson.. Susan Hutchinson .. Jerry Rohan Mary Hussey Cornelius Cotter Ellen M'Carthy John Kiely Eugene M'Carthy..., Widow Downey Ellen Connolly John Connolly Jen-y Leary Mary DriscoU Jerry Driscoll John Ford Non-y Ford George Sullivan Mary Sullivan Widow Shea Mary Sullivan , John Mahony , Pat. Mahony Pat. Harrington Cornelius Regan Joseph Regan , John Regan Mary Connor Pat. Hussey , John Leary Judith Cronin , Kate Cronin Ellen Downey , Kate Downey Johanna SuUivan..., Period «t* Nature oflHsease 3rd day of fever 12th day relapse of fever.. 6th day of fever th do 3rd do 5th do 2ud do 2nd do 3rd do 6th do 3rd do 10th do 14th day^relapse of fever.. 14th day of fever 21st do 4th do 2ndwk. edema after fever 2ud d. fever wh. pleiu'itis 2nd day of fever 7th do 3rd do 2nd do 5th do 2nd do 2nd do 3rd do. 6th do 12th do 3rd do 4th do 14th do 5th do 4th do 4th do 3rd do 3rd do 8th do 6th do 2nd do 3rd do '2nd do 3rd do 3rd do 3rd do 4th do 2nd do 5th do 3rd do 1st do 6th do 6th day of fever, with pleuro-pneumonia 3rd day of fever 3rd do 5th do 4th do 2nd do 6th do Ihcration of Treatment. Date. April 30 to May 7 May 8 to 14 10 to 14 Ito 8 4 to 13 Ito 8 5 to 14 April28 to May 8 ,, 26 to „ 12 „ 28 to „ 8 ,, 28 to ,, 17 ,, 26 to „ 4 „ 23 to „ 4 „ 28 to „ 12 „ 28 to „ 8 May 1 to 12 AprU24 to30 .... May6 to 24 7 to 22 12 to 21 6 to 19 11 to 19 10 to 26 4 to 20 6 to 21 6 to 21 10 to 24 J4to24 16 to 25 17 to 24 Ito 6 21 to 29 18 to 24 17 to 24 17 to 29 16 to 24 16 to 29 14 to 28 16 to 26 14 to 24 21 to 26 15 to 24 21 to 28 22 to 28 23 to 28 20 to 26 15 to 25 11 to 30 11 to 24 8 to 16 10 to 18 19 to June 1.. 21 to „ 3.. 21 to „ 9.. 14 to 21 23 to June 3.. 24 to „ 2.. No.ofDays Cured, do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do.k do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. I do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do.™ do. do. do." do. do.o do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. Died.P Cured. do. do. do.q do.r do. J These four patients were members of the same family, the entire of whom I had under my care, and all (7) with favourable results. k Relapsed again on May 7th, under treatment from that day to May 15th. Cured. 1 This was a case of cerebral tpyhus attended for several days with fui'ious delirium. m This case was complicated with pleuritis. " This was a most melancholy case of utter destitution, yiiVa. his entire family (4) in fever, without straw to lie upon or clothes to cover him, without food, drink, or fire, till I directed the attention of the Rev. Mr. Hallowell to his case. After his convalescence, he was confined to bed (the earth floor) for a fortnight, for want of clothes to dress himself with. o A case of low typhus, occurring soon after her accouchement. l> Along mth the pulmonic complication, this person had to contend vrith extreme mental and physical depression, the effect of his sad destitution. q Relapsed on May 24th, and was again under my care to June 2nd. Cm-ed. r This old woman was the fifth of one family under my care, all of whom recovered. 246 IRISH MISSION. A'isease. Duration of Treatment. Result. Date. No. of Days. Anne O'Conuell .... 18 10th day of dysentery April 11 to 19.... 9 Cured. Roger Donoghuo. . . . 2 7th day ditto „ 17 to 22 ... 6 do. Judith Sullivan .... 12 2nd week ditto „ 15 to 22.... 8 do. Dan. Sullivan 54 7th day ditto ,, 13 to 16 4 do. Edward Healy 60 8th week ditto „ 13 to 19.... 7 do. CorneUus Healy .... 35 4th day ditto „ 15 to 21.. . 7 doi James Butler 12 3rd day ditto „ 15to22. ... 8 do.a Dan. Hoolahan .... 15 3rd week ditto „ 17 to 24.... 8 do. Mary Connor 2 6th week ditto ,. li 1 Died.b Tim. Harrington ... 6 3rd month ditto „ 12 to 25.,.. 11 Cured. Dennis Harrington . 3 6th day ditto, with pro- ,, 12 to 25 .. 14 do. Eliza Hutchinson . 4 6th week ditto, with pro- ,, 12 to 26 ... 15 do. Thady Downey .... 6 6th week of dysentery ...... „ 13 to 28.... 16 do. Dennis Downey .... 7 2nd week ditto ,, 26 to May 3 8 do. Michael Downey. , , . 3 3rd month ditto „ 12 to 30.... 19 do. Sally Harrington . . 28 4th week ditto, with gene- ral dropsy ., 15 to 21.... 7 Died.c Pat. Neal fiO 2nd week of dysentery „ 13 to 30.... 18 Cured. Widow Shea 50 4th month ditto „ 15 to 24... 10 do. Anne Holland 2 3rd day ditto „ 17 to 26.... 10 do. Bridget Collins .... 24 7th week ditto „ 22 to 28.... 7 do. Kitty Hickey 13 10th day ditto ,, 22 to 29 8 do. Sally SulUvan 3 8th day ditto „ 24 to 29..., 6 do. Kitty Healy 10 3rd wk. of diarrhoea aft. fever ,, 18 to 26.. . 9 dod Thady Daly 13 5th day of dysentery „ 19 to May 1 13 do. Jerry Foley 70 14th day ditto „ 17 to 21.... 5 Died. ) . Bridget Shinahan . . 70 6th month ditto „ 14 to 19 6 Died, f John Holland ti 14thday ditto „ 22 to 26.... 5 Cured. Anne Holland 2 3rd day ditto „ 21 to 26.... 6 do. Mary HaiTington... . 6 6th week ditto „ 15 to 18.... 4 Died. Johanna Downey . . . 6i 3rd month ditto ,, 17 to May 3 17 Cured f Cornelius Holland . . 35 8th day ditto „ 13 to „ 3 21 do. Jer. Mahony 40 7th day ditto „ 29 to „ 10 12 do.g Mary Crowley 24 6th wk of diarrhcEa aft. fever „ 29 to „ 10 12 do. Ellen Daly 10 5th week of dysentery, with prolapsus ani and extreme 44 „ 16 to 18... „ 14 to 19.... 2 6 Died.h John Regan 6th day of dysentery Tim. Donovan 55 4th week ditto „ 16 to 20... 5 biedJ Fanny Cotter 21 !4th ^vk. of diarrhoea aft. fever ,, 29 to May 10 12 Cured. Patrick Daly 36 i5th day of dysentery „ 19 to ,, 4 16 do. Mary Daly 9 14th day ditto „ 19 to ,, 4 16 do. Mary Sullivan H 2nd week ditto „ 23 to „ 8 16 do. Mary Daly 14 6th week ditto ,, 16 to 24 9 do."* Muri)hy Shea 50 4th day ditto May 1 to 6 6 do. a This case was attended for some days with violent inflammatory fever. li Tliis cMld was a most frightful spectacle of emaciation through disease and starvation. She died in twelve houi-s after my first visit. c This was a most viretched case. Having lost all her family by disease, in the country, near Bantry, slie crawled into the town and lay for two or three weeks in a corner of a cabin, about ten feet square, and without a window, depending on the charity of those about her, almost as poor as herself. Ixi the room where she lay there were foui- persons huddled to- gether, part in fever and the rest in dysentery. d DiaiThoea after fever was a most formidable disease amongst convalescents, and caused more deaths than even the original fever. e The mortality amongst very old people during the epidemic was most enormous, re- covery being rather the exception to the general rule, wliich, however, never prevented me from midertaking such. Several recoveries in very old people from fever and dysentery, may be sein in the reports. f This case was attended with dropsy. s This case was attended for four or five days with violent inflammatory fever. h In this case the treatment could not have had a fair opportunity in two days. ' Treatment discontinued for disobedience of directions, &c. j This case was reported (and with justice) in the town as being a death by actual starvation. k After a lapse of five or six days she was again attacked by the dysentery, which proved fatal in six hours. 248 IRISH MISSION. Same. Agt. Period and Suture of IHteaae. Duration of Treatment. Result. So. of Tim. Burko 6 4th month of dysentery, w ith extreme emaciation and Date. Days. prolapsus ani April 19 to 27.... 9 Died' Judv M'Carthy 12 3rd day of dysentery M.-iy 10 to 17... 8 Cured. John Ilussoy (i 2nd week ditto April 28 to May 8. 11 do. Kitty M'Carthy .... 40 3rd week di tto ,, 28 to „ 13 16 do. Doniiis t'lilUiis 11! 7th day ditto ,, 24 to 27.... 3 Dicdm Mary Lonry Nuglnt Sullivan.... l.-i 3rd wk. of diarrhoea aft. fever May 10 to 17.... 8 Curedn 7 14th d.iy of dysentery, with prolapsus ani Apn 1 15 to May 13 29 do Norry Do%vney 40 Ist day of dysentery, followed by ileus ,, 10 to „ 1 16 Diedo John Donovan 42 4th day of dysentery ,, 30 to „ 12 13 Cured. Ellon M'Namara 32 tith day ditto ,, 28 to ,, 16 19 do. John Muhoncy 4 3rd week ditto ,, 28 to „ 12 15 do. Kate Mahoney 8 3rd week ditto ,, 28 to „ 12 15 do. Pat. Uickey 8 4th week ditto ,, 22 to „ 6 15 p JeiTV Uooh«n 4 3rd day ditto May 12 to 17 .... 6 Cured. Dennis Harrington.. 4 2nd week ditto ,, 20 to 28 ... . 9 do. John Sullivan 4 2nd week ditto ,, 12 to '20 .... 9 do. Mary Minahan 4 3rd week ditto April 17 to May 5 19 Much imp. Con Minahan 5 2nd week ditto ,, '21 to „ 10 20 do. Mary Neal 7 18 8th week ditto 0th wk. of diarrhoea aft. fever May 28 to „ 12 8 to 31.... 15 24 Cured.q Kitty Casey Catjierine hhehan . . do. 3 2nd week of dysentery „ 15 to 23.,.. 9 do. James Shehan 1 3rd week ditto ,, 20 to 31.. 12 do. Edmund UaiTy 48 6th day ditto 12 to 27 ... 16 do. John Baker 5 2nd week ditto ,, ltol4.... 14 do. Kitty Burke 4 7th week of dysentery, wth 1 to 14 14 do. Kate Leary 64 7th day of dysentery 28 to June 5 9 do.r Kate M'Carthy 4 6th week ditto, with pro- lapsus ani ,, 1 to 14 .... 14 Much imp. Judy M'Carthy 2 10th day of dysentery ,, 1 tol6 .... 16 Cured. Michael Harrington. 22 3rd week ditto ,, G to June 10 36 Much imp. James Harrington . . 20 7th day ditto ,, 6 to „ 10 36 do.« Mary Hickey 17 4th day ditto ,, 18 to „ 5 19 Nearly well.' John Kennedy 18 7tli day ditto ,, 1 to „ 10 41 Cured. Horace Minahan. . . . 4 8th day of diarrhoea aft. fever , 12to „ 8 27 Nearly well." Mary Minahan .... 21 6th day of dysentery ,, 13 to „ 4 22 Cured. Tim. M'Carthy 50 10th day ditto ,, 8 to 29 .... 22 Died.T Mary M'Carthy 32 6th day ditto ,, 25 to June 6 12 Cured.w Catherine Carty .... 7 4th week ditto ,, 18 to „ 3 16 do. John Carty 3 10th day ditto ,j 16 to , 9 24 Much imp. Dennis Hoolahan.... 5 2nd week ditto •' 24 to „ 10 17 do.x ' The last of seven brothers, who all died of dysentery in a few months. " Of all my sad experience in dysentery, this case was the most severe and the most rapid in its progress. " Tliis case was complicated with prolapsus ani. o She was convalescent and out of bed for foiu- or five days, when a sudden return of the disease proved fatal in eight hours (during my absence from Bantry). p Treatment discontinued on account of the unavoidable use of improper food. q This case was attended with severe inflammatory fever for several days. r This old woman was very feeble and reduced by want of sufficient or proper food. « In these two cases the disease was kept up for a long time by the use of improper food. ' In this case, distortion of the bones took place from want of muscular support, owing to her long continued want of food, causing emaciation. She was the child of a mendicant. " This was a very severe case and attended with prolapsus ani. » This poor man had been almost starvid in the country, and as a last resource took refuge in the town, when his strength was almost gone, and he was therefore unable to work. w The wife of the last patient. » This boy was deaf and dumb. APPENDIX. TESTIMONIALS REGARDING IRISH MISSION. From the Rev. John Murphy, Vicar of Bantry, to Mr Kidd. Glebe House, Bantry. M\ Dear Sib, June 20, 1847. I heard with very great regret of your departure from Bantry, and I cannot permit it to take place without expressing my sense of the highly valuable services rendered by you, during a residence of more than two months, to hundreds of our poor suffering people. The system of medical treatment pursued by you was eminently successful in arresting the progress of the dis- eases most prevalent — fever and dysentery, and in quickly restor- ing the patients to health. I am sure it will give you pleasure to learn that the blessing of many a poor man who was ready to perish follows you in your departure. Wishing you abundant success in your profession, and the best blessing both in time and etemity, I am, my Dear Sir, yours very faithfully, John Murphy, Vicar of Bantry. From the Rev. Thomas P. Morgan, Curate of Glengariff, near Bantry. My Dear Sir, The Relief Committee at Bantry, I was happy to hear, were too sensible of the benefit the poor of the town and the sur- rounding neighbourhood derived from your unceasing exertions among them, to allow any length of time to elapse after your de- parture, without returning you a vote of thanks for the imjiortant services you rendered them ; and I cannot allow the present oppor- tunity to pass without adding my humble testimony to theirs. Considering the extent of disease at the time you came, and the want of medical assistance, (owing to the illness of one of the principal physicians,) I really look on your visit as a most provi- dential one. Of the success of your system of treatment, although an incompetent judge, I cannot but express what came within my S 250 APPENDIX. own iiuiividuftl experience, when I so frequently saw the course you iMusui'd 10 restore your iiaticnts in the space of a few days to their usual health — requiring only proper diet, to complete what you liad commenced. To my own testimony of your success, I must also add that of I\Ir. iNIuuriiY, who attended you so often in your walks from house to house, and possessed so many opportunities of witnessing the results of your treatment. Tlie united expressions of every one in Bantry, and the grateful feelings of those to whom your exertions were devoted, prove how highly they were estimated, hut still only in proportion to their claims. Bantry, indeed, has every reason to recollect with grati- tude your skilful and henevolcnt exertions; Believe me, &c. Thomas P. Morqan. From the Rev. Alexander Hallowell, Curate of Bantry. My Dear Sir, Bantry, August 9, 1847. You must excuse me for not having sooner answered your letter, inf^uiring about the state of disease in Bantry. You will be happy to learn that fever is much on the decrease, and that the people generally look much better than when you were in Ban- try. The poor are, I assure you, most grateful to you^for your kind attentions, and speak most highly of your skilful and success- ful treatment. In many a cabin your name is mentioned with affectionate respect, and many have expressed to me their regret at your departure. I think it but just to add my testimony to theirs, and, as one much conversant with the sick poor, and interested in their behalf, to thank you for your zealous and unremitting labours during a very trying period. I trust it will never be yours again to witness so much destitution and sickness combined ; and I would presage a happy and success- ful professional career to you, from the tenderness and skill evinced by }ou when those qualities were so much required. Believe me, &c., Alexander Hallowell, Curate of Bantry. APPENDIX 251 RESOLUTION. Committee-Rooms, Bantiy, June 20, 1847. Sir, I am happy to inform you that the thanks of the Bantry Relief Committee were voted to you at their Meeting yesterday, June 28. Having heen directed to express their sense of the value of your professional services here during a period of unex- ampled sickness and destitution, I heg to suhjoin a copy of the resolution. It will give you pleasure to perceive that it was pro- posed by the Rev. Mr. Murphy, Protestant Rector, and seconded by the Rev. Mr. Begley, acting P.P., Bantry. I have the honour to be. Sir, Your most obedient servant, William Woulfe, Clerk. Joseph Kidd, Esq. Copy of a Resolution passed at a Meeting of the Bantry Relief Committee, on June 28, J, W Payne, Esq., in the Chair. Proposed by the Rev. Mr. Murphy — Seconded by the Rev. Mr. Begley. That the thanks of this Committee are due to Joseph Kidd, Esq., M.R.C.S., for his assiduous and kind attention to the sick poor of Bantry, during his sojourn amongst us ; and that, having heard with regret of his departure, we direct the clerk to convey to that gentleman this expression of our sense of his services while in Bantry. LONDON : rnoMAS HAnRiLD, pbinteb, silver street, FALCON SCJUABE. THE BRITISH JOUENAL OF HOMCEOPATHY. Edited by DRS. DRYSDALE, RUSSELL, & DUDGEON, Published Quarterly (in January, April. July, & October,) in Parts contain- ing 9 Sheets, price As.fforniing One Volume per Annum. Six Volumes have already appeared, coroplete Sets, and any of the back Ntunbers may still be obtained. LONDON : SAMUEL HIGHLEY, 82, FLEET STREET. Price 3s. Gd., A MANUAL OF HOKEOPATHIG COOKERY, Designed chiefly for the use of such persons as are under Homoeopathic Treatment, BY THE WIFE OF A HOMffiOPATHIC PHYSICIAN. LONDON: O. BOWRON, 213, OXFORD STREET. Sold also by W. Headland, 15, Princes Street, Hanover Square. Price Is. 6c?. THE HOMffiOPATHIC TREATMENT AND PREVENTION OF THE ASIATIC CHOLEHA, With an historical survey of its treatment by the Homoeopathic practitioners of the Continent, during its last appearance in Europe, in 1831 and subsequent years. BY R. E. DUDGEON, M.D. LONDON: G. BOWRON, 213, OXFORD STREET. Second Editio7i, price 6d. A SHOET HISTORY OF THE CHOLERA. WITH A Few Hints as to its Prevention hy HomcBopathic Treatment, BY EDWARD HAMILTON, M.D„ F.L.S., MEMBER OP THE BRITISH HOMCEOPATHIC SOCIETY. PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM HEADLAND, 15, Princes Street, Hanover Square. Price is. 6d. INTKODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF HOMffiOPATHY. EDITED BT DRS. DRYSDALE AND RUTHERFORD RUSSELL, Editors of Fletcher's EleinenU of General Pathology. CONTENTS OP THE WORK : 1. On the Characteristics of Homoeopathy.— 2. On the Origin of Homoeopathy. By Dr. Rutherford Russell.— 3. The Medicine of Experience. By Samuel Hahnemann. — i. On tlio Homoeopathic Action of certain Remedies in common use. By Dr. Francis Black. —5. On the Proving of Medicine on the Healthy Body. By Dr. Drysdale. — 6. On the Theory of Small Doses. By Dr. Samuel Brown.— 7. Illustration of Homoeopathic Practice. By Dr. Drysdale. — 8. Account of the Homoeopathic Hospital at Vienna, with a Summary of the Diseases treated there. By Dr. Fleischmann. — 9. Comparative Mortality of certain Acute Diseases treated on the Allopathic and Homoeopathic Me- thods. — Appendix. Andral's Homoeopathic Experiments. By Dr. Irvine. London : J. LEATH, 5, St. Paul's Churchyard. Edinburgh : MACLACHLAN, STEWART, & Co.; and HEADLAND, Homoeopathic Chemist, 63, Hanover-street. HOMCEOPATHY AT TAUNTON. Price \s. THE CASE OF MR. JAMES DORE BLAKE And the Royal College of Surgeons. S. H I O H L E Y, 32, FLEET STREET. l-2mo, clolh boardti, 4s. 6d. A DOMESTIC HOMCEOPATHY, llcstrictclt to (ts lEcgdimntc Spljcie of ^pmcticc; TOGETIIKK WITH HULKS FOR DIKT AND REGIMEN. UY E. C. ClILPMELL, M.D., Edin. iriYMCIAN TO TOR ISMNOTON nOMmoPATIIIC DISPENSAnV. LONDON: H. B A I L L I E R E, 219, REGENT STREET. ")»r. riiopinoU's work is as well executed as it is conceived." — BrUlsh Journal of WORKS BY MAEMADUKE B. SAMBSON. I. Second Edition enlarged, price Five Shillings and Sixpence, HOMCEOPATHY; ITS PKINCIPLE, THEORY, AND PRACTICE. "An able and lucid exposition of the philosophy of Homojopathy." — Scots- man, " Mr. Sampson maintains the Homoeopathic doctrine with so much suc- cess as to render it extremely difficult to dissent from his conclusions." — Economist. " This may be regarded as the deliberate manifesto of the Homoeopathic Association, and the able manner in which the treatise is executed, justifies their choice of a popular expounder of their doctrines." — Tait'a Edinburgh Magazine. " Mr. Sampson places the subject in a clear and interesting light, and writes with an earnestness worthy of a true and good cause." — Chambers' Edinburgh Journal " This work contains a good deal that may somewhat profitably claim the attention of the medical reader." — Medico-Chirurgical Review. " This treatise is remarkably compact, comprehensive, clear, well-arranged, and persuasive. For the general reader, we know of no work that comes near to it in value." — New York Evening Post, II. Price Five Shillings, Second Edition, CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE, CONSIDERED IN RELATION TO CEREBRAL ORGANIZATION. " Our opinion of its merits was indicated by the space originally devoted to it in our pages." — Spectator, " Distinguished by a style worthy of its subject. Clearly, calmly, and classically written." — Scotsman. " Characterized by a high tone of philanthropy, and by a calm, clear, and conclusive method of logical treatment." — Morning Herald. " We beg t-o direct attention to the evidence of Mr. Sampson." — Athe- V(Eum, '' A remarkable work." — Eraser. " We recommend this work to our readers, with an assurance tliat they will find in it much food for reflection." — Medico-Chirurgical Review. " Wo recommend the entire publication to all our readers ; not one of whom can rise from a perusal of it without being pleased and instructed, and on the main practical points, we hope, deeply persuaded." — Monthly Rev, WoEKs BY Makmaditke B. Sampson, continued. " We recommend it to general attention." — Chambers' Journal. " The disquisitions of this author are not less interesting than important." — Liverpool Albion, " We heartily recommend this work." — Legal Observer. " Mr. Sampson treats of the abolition of the punishment of death— we have seldom seen a point better argued." — Justice of the Peace. " A ■very acutely written work. For the reception of such a theory the public mind does not appear to be fully prepared, but at the same time it is obvious that the current of opinion is running in that direction." — Jurist. " That Mr. Sampson well deserves the success he has enjoyed, nobody will dispute who reads any half-dozen pages of his volume. Statesmen and philanthropists, humanity and Christianity, owe to him a debt of gratitude." — Law Times. " All who are interested — and who is not ? — should get Mr. Sampson's work." — Tt/ne Pilot. "■ Mr. Sampson supports his Christian purpose by arguments and illustra- tions that appeal strongly to the reason. The work is humane, intelligent, and vigorous. Opposed to the moral of the present law, it nowhere excites resistance to the strength of present institutions. Mild in its principles, it is also gentle in its prompting. What the author sees right to do, he would also teach to be rightly done. Mr. Sampson has written well, and there can be none who read his work but will wish well to his theory." — Monthly Ma- gazine. " We welcome Mr. Sampson as a most valuable accession to the band of phrenological advocates of sound criminal jurisprudence." — Phrenological Journal. " One of the most able works written in recent times on Criminal Jurispru- dence." — Literary Gazette. " Those who are acquainted with Mr. Sampson's Criminal Jurisprudence, will infer that in dealing with any subject he would employ only dispassionate arguments, based upon indubitable facts." — Econo^nist. III. Price Sixpence, THE PHRENOLOGICAL THEORY OF THE SCrcatmcnt of ©rimtnals JBcfenlrcir, In a Letter to John Forbes, Esq., M.D., F.R.S. IV. Price Two Shillings and Sixpence, SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. " Mr. Sampson seems to have studied the subject of slavery with long and close attention." — New York Commercial Advertiser. " This is the work of an earnest, thoughtful, and withal practical Chris- tian man ; who, looking upon slavery as a sin, and yet aware of the difficul- ties which encompass all plans of abolition, has seriously turned his mind to a practicable remedy." — New York American. LONDON : S. HIGHLEY. 32, FLEET STREET. HOMCEOPATHIC MEDICINES, PREPARED WITU THE OREATEST CARE, AND RY HIMSELF SOLELY, MAY BE HAD OF WILLIAM HEADLAND, |l^oma:opati)ic ©j^emfst, 15, PRINCES STREET, HANOVER SQUARE, LONDON, AND AT G3, HANOVER STREET, EDINBURGH, CHEMIST TO THE FOLLOWINO AND OTHER MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS : Tho London Homoeopathic Institution. The West London Homoeopathic Dispensary. The City of London Homaopathic Dispensary. The Edinburgh Homoeopathic Dispensary. The Marylchone Homoeopathic Dispensary. The Newcastle Homoeopathic Dispensary . The Dublin Homoeopathic Dispensary . The Brighton Homoeopathic Dispensary . The Glastonbury Homoeopathic Medical Institutioti. The Cheltenham Homoeopathic Dispensary. The Birmingham Homoeopathic Dispensary. The Kidderminster Homeopathic Dispensary. The Leeds Homeopathic Dispensary. The Islington Homeopathic Dispensary. The Camberivell Homeopathic Dispensary. The Leicester Homceopathic Dispensary. The Norwich Homoeopathic Dispensary. The Southaynjiton Homeopathic Dispensary. The Liverpool Homeopathic Dispensary. 8fc. Sfc. 8fc. *i^^ Domestic Chests can be forwarded by post, varying in priee from £1 7.9. to £3 5*. OCTOBER 1848. NEW WORKS MEDICmE AND SURGERY PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL HIGHLEY, 32, FLEET STREET. Hiffhlefs General Medical Catalogue of Modern Works, with their Prices and Dates, Corrected to January 1848 : to which is added, A Classified Index of Subjects, and of the Authors who have written on them. Price \s. ; or by post, on receijit of \^ 'postage stamps. GUY'S HOSPITAL REPORTS, Vol. VI. Part I. For October 1848. Illustrated with Plates. 8vo. price 6s. Contents. Dr. Hu2;hes. — Analysis of 54 Fatal Cases of Pneumonia. Dr. G. Owen Rees. — Case of Hydatid Disease of the Liver. Mr. J. France. — Ophthalmic Cases. Mr. J. Birkett. —Observations on Healthy and Morbid Articular Tissues. Mr. B. "Wilson. — Case of Opacity of the Cornea. Mr. Salter. — Case of Tubercular Disease of the Brain. Dr. T. WiUiaras.— On the Laws of Aquatic Breathing. Dr. Lever and Dr. Oldham. — Second Septennial Report of Guy's Lying-in Charity. Mr. Poland on the Ciliary Ganglion in the Horse. Mr. Taylor. — On the alleged Production of the Phosphate of Lime and Iron in the Egg during Incubation. Mr. Cock. — Select Cases of Strangulated Hernia. Dr. Oldham. — On the Use of Bichloride of Mercury in Hypertrophy, Induration, and Retroversion of the Uterus. FEMORAL RUPTURE, and ITS ANATOMY: With a New Mode of Operating applicable in cases of Strangulated Hernia generally. By JOHN GAY, F.R.C.S. 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