ORGANON
lu Jtrt 0f Jfealtttjp
SAMUEL
BY
if A H N E M A N N.
A U D E S A P ERE.
FIFTH AMERICAN EDITION,
TRANSLATED FROM THE FIFTH GERMAN EDITION.
BT
C. WESSELHOEFT, M.D.
PHILADELPHIA:
BOERICKE & TAFEL.
. =
Entered accordinc to Act of Congress, in the year 1876,
BY BOERICKE A TAFEL,
.a the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. <X
T
PKEFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION.
(P THE following remarks are intended to illustrate the old
school of medicine (allopathy) in general. In the treatment of
diseases old-school physicians are in the habit of assuming the
existence of excess of blood (plethora), or of morbific matter and
<j) acrid humors, which in reality do not exist. In order to remove
them, the life-blood is wasted by venesections and various other
devices for the expulsion of imaginary noxious matter, or for its
derivation to other parts. For these purposes physicians resort
to emetics, cathartics, sialagogues, sudorifics, diuretics, blisters,"
_^ fontanelles, setons, etc. All of these are applied under the delu-
sion that the disease is thereby weakened, and materially de-
stroyed, while in reality the suffering of the patient is increased
under the use of opiates, together with the waste of substance,
which seriously prevents the restoration of health. Again, it is
customary to assail the organism by repeated and massive doses
of powerful drugs, the protracted effects and violent properties
of which, are too often unknown to the prescriber ; and these
effects are frequently rendered still more incalculable by the de-
plorable habit,* adhered to by the oid school, of compounding in
one formula several or many unknown substances, by the pro-
longed use of which, new and often incurable drug-diseases are
P added to those already present in the body. In order to beguile
the patient* by temporary suppression and alleviation, the old
K school makes use of palliatives (contraria contrariis) without
regard to subsequent extension and aggravation of the disease.
* For the same purpose the ready-witted allopathist generally makes free
use of the Greek name of the disease, in order to convince the patient that
the doctor is as familiar with the disease as with an old acquair.tance with
whom it is ^asy to deal.
(iii )
IV PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION.
Affections appearing on external portions of the body are conve-
niently declared to be only local diseases, having no connection
with the rest of the organism ; and these are said to have been
cured, when they have only been removed from the surface by
external applications, while the real inner disease is compelled to
fasten upon other more vital organs.
When the doctor is finally at a loss what to do with the ob-
stinate and greatly increased disease, he boldly applies the max-
ims of his school in blindly administering an alterative to pro-
duce the desired change; and so life is often undermined by
calomel, corrosive sublimate, and other mercurials in large doses.
The old or allopathic treatment of disease is often followed by
the deplorable result that by far the greatest proportion of all
diseases are made incurable, or hastened to a fatal termination, by
means of prolonged debilitating treatment of patients already
weakened by disease, and by complicating their complaints with
new and destructive affections resulting from the use of imper-
"fectly known remedial agents. Such results are far too easily
occasioned by a certain levity of conscience which soon leads to
thoughtless routine.
No doubt old-school physicians of the common kind are ready
to defend these injurious modes of practice by arguments bor-
rowed from prejudiced books and professors, or based on the au-
thority of some other old-school physician. The most absurd
and unreasonable methods of treatment have their defenders,
notwithstanding the testimony of most painful results. Only
the old physician who has at length quietly arrived at the con-
viction of the injuriousness of such practice, wisely prescribes
harmless plantain-leaf tea and raspberry syrup for the most
serious diseases, and loses but very few cases.
This most injurious system of practice has held absolute sway
over life and death of the sick for many centuries. Firmly
rooted and fastened upon mankind, it has destroyed more lives
than the most pernicious wars, and has increased the sickness of
millions to actual misery. It is my purpose to prove and illus-
trate the errors of that practice (allopathy) before I proceed to
treat in detail of its direct counterpart, the newly discovered and
truly rational art of healing.
PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION. V
The case is quite different with homoeopathy. It will easily
convince every thinker that human diseases do not proceed from
material humors or noxious matter, but that they are purely
dynamic disturbances of the spirit-like vital force. It is known
to homoeopathy that cures result only from the counteraction
of the vital force against some medicine chosen according to cor-
rect principles, and that curative effects are speedy and certain
in proportion to the energy of the vital force of the patient.
Homoeopathy, therefore, avoids every debilitating influence* as
well as the infliction of pain in the treatment of diseases, because
pain also produces debility; it allows the use only of such medi-
cines whose (dynamic) effects upon health and whose manner of
altering it are thoroughly known. According to the principles
of homoeopathy, a medicine is selected which possesses the power
(drug-disease) of extinguishing a natural disease by means of the
similitude of its alterative qualities (similia similibus); such, a
medicine is administered in simple form at long intervals, and
in doses so fine as to be just sufficient, without causing pain or
debility, to obliterate the natural disease through the reaction of
vital energy. The result will prove that the natural disease may
be cured without weakening and without additional suffering of
the patient, who will rapidly gain strength when convalescence
is once begun.
The application of homoeopathic principles appears easy, but
is in reality most difficult and irksome ; it demands most careful
thought and the utmost patience, but these find* their reward in
speedy and permanent recovery of the patient.
Homoeopathy is a simple art of healing, unvarying in its
principles, and in its methods of applying them. The principles
upon which it is based, if thoroughly understood, will be found
* Homoeopathy sheds not a drop of blood, prescribes no emetics, purga-
tives, laxatives, nor sudorifics. It removes no external disease by local ap-
plications ; it orders no medicated baths nor enemas, and makes no use of
blisters, sinapisms, setons, nor fontanelles ; it objects to salivation, and does
not sear the flesh to the bone by moxa or heated iron. The homceopatltist
dispenses only self-made, simple medicines, whose effects he has accurately
and carefully studied, and he avoids all mixtures, and needs no opium to
soothe pain, etc.
VI PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION.
to be perfect and unassailable, so that the purity of principle?
also determines the purity of their application, and they are not
disobeyed without sacrificing the honest name of homoeopathy.
These principles preclude every departure* to the deplorable
routine of the old school, of which homoeopathy is the counter-
part, and as distinct from it as day is from night.
Some physicians who would like to be regarded as homoeop-
ath ists, have erred so far as to endeavor to combine allopathic
routine and homoeopathic practice. But such a course proceeds
from complete want of appreciation of the principles of homre-
opathy, from indolence, conceit, and indifference to the claims of
suffering fellow-beings. Besides unpardonable negligence in the
selection of the most appropriate homoeopathic specific for each
particular case, the mainspring of this mixed practice is fre-
quently to be found in desire for gain, and other ignoble motives.
As for the result, it is easy to see that such practice, unlike pure
and conscientious homoeopathy, is unable to cure complicated and
obstinate diseases, sending many a patient to that "country from
whose bourne no traveller returns," while the doctor offers the
soothing consolation to the friends that everything had been done
for the best of the patient, unconsciously including many irrepa-
rable errors that always arise from allopathic practice.
SAMUEL HAHNEMANN.
KOTHEN, March 28th, 1833.
* I regret, therefore, ever to have made the proposition savoring of allop-
athy, to treat psoric diseases by means of a pitch-plaster placed upon the
back for the purpose of producing gentle itching, and to apply mild electric
shocks in cases of paralysis. Since neither of these recommendations proved
to be very useful, and have afforded imperfect homoeopathists an excuse to
indulge their allopathic proclivities, I regret ever to have made propositions
of that kind, and herewith emphatically retract them. I do so, also, because
cur homoeopathic art of healing has since that time approached so much
nearer to perfection that measures like the above are no longer needed.
PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR.
HAHNEMANN'S Organon of the Art of Healing still continues
to be the foundation which bears the new and growing school
of medicine, known as- that of homoeopathy. There is a general
want of a text-book embracing the fundamental principles of
our practice, and yet but very few books of that kind have
appeared, and none have outlived Hahnemann's original work,
for which there has been a constantly increasing demand, that
rapidly exhausted the last American and all British editions,
including the superior translation by Dr. R. E. Dudgeon,*
which, being likewise out of print, the present edition became
an imperative necessity. So far as can be ascertained, this is
the third original translation of the Organon into English. The
earliest was made by Charles H. Devrient, Esq., with notes by
Samuel Stratton, M.D. Dublin: W. F. Wakeman, 1833.
This has had several (four ?) editions. Dr. Dudgeon's original
translation has already been mentioned. The four American
editionsf are reprints of the original British translation, pre-
ceding that of Dr. Dudgeon.
* Organon of Medicine, by Samuel Hahnemaim, translated from the fifth
German edition, by R. E Dudgeon, M.D. London : W. Headland, 1849.
f Organon of Homoeopathy, by Samuel Hahnemann. First American
from the British translation of the fourth German edition. Preface by
Samuel Stratton, M.D , and another by C. Bering, M.D., 1836.
Second American edition, exactly like the first, 1843.
Third American edition, entitled : Samuel Hahnemann's Oiganon of Ho-
moeopathic Meiicine. With improvements and additions from the last
(fifth) German edition, with an Introduction by S. Stratton, M.D., and C.
Hering, M.D. New York : Radde, 1848.
The last edition (fourth) of 1869, is now also out of print.
( vii )
Vlll PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR.
Although the American editions have served their purpose, a
careful comparison with the original work soon leads to the
conviction that justice was not always done to it. The transla-
tion, though free in paraphrase, often obscures the sense by un-
successful rendering of the quaintness of the author's style, and
of his involved sentences. New translations are of advantage,
inasmuch as each brings new and original rendering of expres-
sions ; but the following is an additional reason for retranslat-
ing the work. In his Preface (p. ii), Dr. Dudgeon says : "Con-
vinced that what the English student of homo3opathy required
was an exact reproduction of the founder's great work, I have
conscientiously endeavored to render my translation as literal as
possible, and as far as the different genius of the two languages
admitted, I have retained the same expressions, figures of speech,
and even the somewhat cumbrous and tautological style of the
original," etc.
As the requirements of the American are not of the same
character as those of the English student, Dr. Dudgeon's plan
could not well be followed in a new American edition of the
Organon. While endeavoring to produce a perfectly correct
translation of the original, I have avoided too close an adher-
ence to Hahnemann's construction, style, and punctuation. By
more liberal use of periods, many a long and intricate sentence
has been made to yield resting-places to the mind of the reader ;
3 and 230 may serve as fair illustrations of the style I have
striven to adopt.
As an example of inaccuracy of construction in the last Ameri-
can edition, the reader is referred to a sentence in 14 : "There
is no curable malady .... in the interior of man which admits
of cure that is not made known," etc. In this sentence, " in-
terior of man" is made the subject of "admits," and "cure" is
the subject of " made known," while both verbs should be gov-
erned by the subject "curable malady." Errors of this kind
are noticeable in 15, 18, 164, which must have puzzled the
reader.
The last edition still retains several paragraphs from the
fourth German edition, which Hahnemann altered and improved
in the fifth, with the text of which, those paragraphs have been
PKEFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR. IX
made to correspond in the present translation. ^Compare 29,
American edition, with 24, fourth German edition.) Actual
omission of clauses and parts of sentences occur in 51, .54,
70, 163.
Actual mistakes in the rendering of terms arc not uncommon
in the American edition, for instance, similitude is often trans-
lated "analogy" ( 40, 43, 46, etc.). A serious error occurs in
18, where Hulfe-Bediirfniss, which means need of relief, is
translated by " nature of medicines." In 23, " existing mor-
bid symptoms," should read persistent, etc. In 64, the word
" morbid," should be morbific. In 115, "sufficient " should
be insufficient. These are a few out of many inaccuracies which
disturb and often entirely destroy the sense of the text. Anothei
important instance is contained in 129, where the words "still
higher doses," should be translated in accordance with the text,
to mean larger and stronger doses.
The present translation, I hope, may be found to be an entirely
new and independent one of the whole work. A careful com-
parison with Dr. Dudgeon's, and with the American editions,
has greatly facilitated the avoidance of old errors, as well as of
new ones.
Each paragraph of the Organon generally consists of a single
uninterrupted sentence which, like a ponderous block of stone,
hewn and sculptured by the skill of an artisan, seems to have
been lifted with Titan power to fill its place and purpose in the
structure. It was impossible always to reproduce these sentences
in English. Plain English expressions, and simplicity of style,
were needed to render the work accessible to the student. How
far the translator has succeeded in this, he submits to the deci-
sion of the generous reader.
The Organon is divisible into two parts. The first is a vig-
orous and masterly description and criticism, of the practice of
medicine as it was during the end of the last, and the first
quarter of the present, century. The second part teaches the prin-
ciples and practice of homoaopathy, and thus frequent reference is
made to the then existing methods of the old school. Things
have changed since that time. If nearly half a century ago, the
old school held the principles which Hahnemann censured, they
X PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR.
are now unanimously repudiated. The old school now has no
principled in its application of drugs ; it neglects these in favor
of numerous surgical specialties, in the midst of which, real
medical practice is threatened with destruction, like a plant sur-
rounded by exuberant weeds. Those disavowed principles are
now replaced by highly scientific experiment, such as vivisec-
tions, curarization, galvanization, measurement of blood-pressure
of moribund animals, etc., but we see no favorable clinical results
to prove the value of such one-sided investigation. In strong
contrast with this scientific zealotism, we observe the most un-
scientific empiricism in the use of medicines; this arises from the
absence of a guiding rule, like that which inaugurated the emi-
nently practical method of testing drugs upon the healthy living
organism, which permits a direct inference as to the amount of
benefit to be derived from the use of medicines in disease. To
this state of things, Hahnemann's Organon needs readaptation.
Although the Organon has been and is our principal text-book
for the present, it has not been republished under the impression
that all its doctrines and principles are to be accepted literally
and unconditionally. As each one has a style of his own, the
details in the application of the principles of the Organon must
necessarily vary with different individuals. While admitting
these, we should also allow a certain latitude in the interpretation
of various dogmas advanced in the Organon. Indeed, our best
authors, and among them Hahnemann's earliest disciples, have
always exercised absolute liberty of personal judgment in these
matters.
"We have not the space to dwell upon many details here, and
therefore only allude briefly to some of the main points. The
Organon still contains its chapters on the psora-theory. Few
beginners would comprehend this subject without explanation
on the part of the instructor. Many ignore the psora-theory
altogether; some still adhere to its literal meaning; most physi-
cians, however, will not adopt it unconditionally, but will prob-
ably agree to allow it to remain in its place as one of the monu-
ments of a new era in science. The age of Cuvier, Lamarck,
Oken, and St. Hilaire, culminated in' simplifying the complicated
classification of organic nature introduced by Linne\ In the
PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR. XI
place of very numerous classes and orders, Cuvler established
four grand types, embracing the entire animal world.
Pathology was at that time struggling for deliverance from a
similar chaotic state; and, though the history of medicine points
to various vague attempts at classification of diseases, according
to common characteristics of type or origin, no attempt bears
the mark of genius in scientific generalization so clearly as the
effort of Hahnemann to classify diseases, and to embrace chronic
diseases in few typical forms. Although he may have erred in
some of the details of his structure, the principle and funda-
mental idea underlying the attempt, was as grand and portentious
as that upon which Cuvier proceeded to construct his system of
classification.
As for the rule similia similibus curantur, physicians agree that
it is the most practical guide to aid us in the selection of most,
perhaps of all, medicines. We accept it as an empirical fact, not
as a theory or hypothesis, as our opponents quite erroneously term
it. The explanations of its workings are as numerous and
varied as they are unsatisfactory, from Hahnemann to the latest
expounder. Yet the rule is a good and safe one, and though
imperfectly explained, we may continue to apply it in practice,
till at some future time we may enjoy the privilege, not only of
contemplating what we have cured, but also how it was done.
Near these ancient landmarks, around whose rugged shores
the ocean of strife has surged and rolled for nearly a century,
there stands another, called "the question of the dose." Of all
the problems involved in the development of the new method
of curing by medicines, this has led to the greatest degree of
partisan contention, rather than scientific investigation. Not
only physicians of experience, but laymen, and especially be-
ginners, whose judgment on medical matters is in its period of
incubation, and whose experience is entirely a matter of the
future, are divided by relentless partisan spirit upon the question
of the dose into "high dilutionists" and "low dilutionists."
Hahnemann suggested that the thirtieth potency is probably
the limit of divisibility and effectiveness of drugs in general
( 270) ; and, though he also held that medicines can scarcely
be attenuated too far, in the same paragraph, and many other
Xll PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR.
places, he is careful to add the condition : "Provided it is still
capable of producing an aggravation which proves it to be stronger
than the natural disease." ( 160, 249, 279, etc.).
Some practitioners use only strong tinctures or crude drugs,
or, at most, only low dilutions, and deny the advantages of greater
attenuation ; others depend entirely on the so-called high poten-
cies. There is a decided tendency to diverge into extremes;
while a number follow a middle course, the advocates of high
potencies transcend Hahnemann's propositions regarding the dose,
as far as the defenders of low dilutions fall short of it.
These extremes have created a sectarian spirit among the
public, and its drift is forcibly reflected in the views of the laity.
This may, in future, cause us some difficulty, because people
attach far more importance to divisions among the doctors than
these do.
Although the Organon was translated in a spirit of reverence
fyr its author, the chief motive was to afford our students an
opportunity to become acquainted with the sources and the prin-
ciples of the new school of medicine. In proportion as these
are actually mastered, and in proportion to their isolation, and
abstraction from the adoration of the personality of their origi-
nator, their general and thorough adoption will be rapid or slow.
Finally, and in conformity with the purpose of the Organon
as a text-book of the principles of homoeopathy, the translator
has transferred the last paragraphs (293-4) and their foot-notes,
treating of mesmerism, to an appendix. Whatever individuals
may think of the subject of these paragraphs, it has no bearing
on the principles of homoeopathy. Though mature minds are
in no danger of being disturbed by it, in these days abounding
in displays of jugglery and superstition, mingled with natural,
though unfathomed phenomena, beginners might be led astray,
and to misjudge the book upon which they should repose con-
fidence.
0. WESSELHCEFT, M.D.
BOSTOX, August 21st, 1875.
CONTENTS.
PAQl
PREFACE BY THB AUTHOR, 8-6
PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR, 7-12
INTRODUCTION.
Review of physic, allopathy, and palliative treatment of the old school
Laymen also found treatment by means of similitude of effect to be
most beneficial Even ancient physicians had a presentiment of the
superiority of that principle, 17-46
Foot-notes to the Introduction, 47-63
TEXT OF THE ORGANON.
\ 1-2. The only calling of the physician is to cure speedily, gently, and per-
manently, 65
NOTE. It is not his calling to frame theoretical explanations, 187
\ 3-4. The physician should discover what is to be cured in diseases, and
what is curative in drugs, and to adapt the latter to the former He
should also know how to prevent sickness, .... 65-66
\ 5. Attention to incidental and primary causes, and to other circum-
stances, 66
\ 6. As it concerns the physician, the disease consists only of the totality of
symptoms, 66
NOTE. It is impossible for the old school to discover the essence
of disease (prima causa), . . . . ' . . 187
g 7. In obedience to these conditions ( 5), the physician has only to remove
the totality of symptoms in order to cure the disease, . . 67
NOTE. Every self-evident cause of disease is to be removed, 188
Objection to symptomatic treatment, directed only to one symp-
tom, 188
g 8. When all symptoms have been removed, the disease is essentially
cured, 67
NOTE. This is denied by the old school, .... 188
g 9. During health the organism is animated by a spiritlike force (auto-
cratic vital force), which maintains the h.armony of functions, 67
\ 10. The organism is dead without this spiritlike force, ... 67
XIV CONTENTS.
11. In disease the vital force is primarily affected, and expresses its suf-
fering (inner change) by abnormal functions and feelings r* the or-
ganism, 68
NOTE. For the purpose of treatment, it is unnecessary to know
how the vital force produces symptoms, .... 189
J 12. By removing the complex of symptoms by means of treatment, the
suffering of the vital force, that is, the whole internal and external
disease is cured, 68
t 13. The old school was wrong in declaring non-surgical diseases to be
owing to a peculiar substance pervading the system, . . 68
g 14. Every curable disease becomes apparent by means of symptoms, 69
{ 15. The disturbance of the vital force, and consequent symptoms are an
inseparable unit, 69
| 16. The dynamic vital force can only be morbidly affected and cured by
dynamic (spiritlike) effects of morbific agencies, ... 69
17. The physician cures the whole disease, by removing the totality of
symptoms, 70
NOTE. Illustrative examples, 189
18. The totality of symptoms constitutes the only indication for the selec-
tion of a remedy, 70
19. A change in health (symptoms of disease) is cured by medicines, only
because these are also capable of producing a change of health, 70
g 20. The power of medicines of changing health, is only to be observed in
their effect upon healthy individuals, 71
21. Symptoms produced by medicines, are the only signs by which their
curative power is recognizable, 71
2 22. If experience proves that diseases are effectually cured by medicines
of similar effect, we should choose these If experience proves medi-
cines of opposite effect to be most effectual, we choose the latter, 72
NOTE. The use of drugs which bear no pathical relation to the
disease, but which affect the system in another manner, is the
allopathic, objectionable method of treatment, . . . 189
23. Protracted diseases are not cured by opposite drug-effects (anti-
pathic), 72
5 24-25. Only the homosopathic method of treatment by means of similar
symptoms, is proved by experience to be most effectual, . 73
\ 26. This is based upon the law of nature, that in the living organism &
weaker dynamic affection is permanently extinguished by a stronger
one, differing in kind, 73
NOTE. This is the case in physical diseases, as well as in moral
affections, 190
27. The curative property of medicines, therefore, rests upon the similitude
of their symptoms to those of the disease, .... 74
J 28-29. Attempt at an explanation of this law of cure, ... 74
NOTE. Illustration of the same, 191
{ 30-33. The human organism is more prone to the effects of medicine than
to natural disease, . ' 75- 76
CONTENTS. XV
$ 84-35. The validity of the homoeopathic law of cure is demonstrated by
the failure of unhomceopathic treatment of protracted diseases, and
also by the fact that two dissimilar morbid processes in the system do
not cancel each other, 76-77
36. I. The older affection, being of equal or superior intensity to the new
one, will exclude the latter, . 77
37. Under non-homoeopathic treatment of mild nature, shronic diseases
remain unchanged, 77
\ 38. II. A new and intenser disease may, while it lasts, suppress the older
dissimilar disease ; but it will not remove it permanently, . 78-80
39. Violent treatment with allopathic medicines cures no chronic disease,
it will only suppress it during the action of the medicine, which pro-
duces no symptoms similar to the disease The chronic disease returns
afterwards in aggravated form, 80-81
40. III. The new disease may finally join the older and dissimilar one,
thus producing a double or complicated disease, neither of which is
capable of cancelling the other, 81-83
41. More frequently than in the natural course of diseases, affections result-
ing from improper and prolonged allopathic treatment, are made to
complicate natural diseases, or to aggravate them, ... 83
\ 42. Diseases thus complicated, being dissimilar, occupy different localities
in the organism, 83-84
43-44. The result is very different, when an intenser disease joins a simi-
lar one pre-existing in the organism, the latter is cured by the for-
mer, 84
45. Explanation of this process, ....... 84-85
\ 46. Examples of chronic diseases cured by the accidental addition of new
similar and intenser disease, 85-88
\ 47-49. Of two diseases meeting in the course of nature, only the similar
one will cure the other ; dissimilar ones do not. This indicates that
we should use only similar remedies (homoeopathic) in the treatment
of disease, 88-89
50. There are but few natural diseases that will cure others homoeopathic-
ally, and such effects are connected with many inconveniences, 89
61. The physician, on the other hand, possesses numerous remedies, far
superior to the accidental cures of nature, .... 89-90
52. From the process of nature we learn that diseases should be treated and
cured only with homoeopathic remedies, while allopathic remedies are
ineffectual and injurious, 90-91
2 53-54. There are only three possible methods of applying medicines in
disease, 91-92
1. The homoeopathic method, which is the only efficacious one, 92
| 55. 2. The allopathic or heteropathic method, .... 1)2
\ 56. 3. The antipathic (enantiopathic) palliative method, . . 92-93
NOTE. The attempt called " isopathy," .... 194
\ 57. The method of treatment, according to which a remedy of opposite
effect (contraria conirariis) is employed against a single symptom of
the disease, .......... 93
rvi CONTENTS.
g 68. The antipathic method is wrong, not only because it treats a single
symptom of a disease, but also because it is followed by aggravation
after apparent relief in protracted diseases, .... 94
NOTE. Testimony of authors, 194
59. Injurious effect of certain antipathic treatment, . . . 94-97
60. Increased and repeated doses of a palliative, never cure chronic disease*,
but tend to aggravate them, 97
61. These results should have led physicians to the recognition of the op-
posite and only efficacious homoeopathic method, . . . 97-98
\ 62. The reason of the injuriousness of the palliative, and of the efficacy of
homoeopathic treatment, 98
} 63. This principle is founded on the difference of primary effect of each
medicine upon the organism, and the counter or after-effect produced
by the vital force, . 98-99
| 64. Illustration of primary and after-effect, ..... 99
{j 65. Examples of both, 99-100
66. The after-effect of the vital forc.e becomes apparent only through the
restitution of the equilibrium of health, after the minutest homoeo-
pathic doses, 100
$ 67. These truths illustrate the efficacy of the homoeopathic, as well as the
injuriousness of the antipathic (palliative) methods, . . 101
NOTE. Cases in which the antipathic method of treatment is alone
efficacious, . . . . . . . . . 195
68. These truths establish the efficacy of the homoeopathic method of
treatment, 101
\ 69. These truths prove the injuriousness of the antipathic method, 101-103
NOTE 1. Sensations of opposite kind are not neutralized in the
sensory system of the human body, thus differing from substances
of opposite kind in chemistry, 196
NOTE 2. Illustrative example, 196
I 70. Short definition of the homoeopathic system, . ! . . 103-104
71. The three necessary conditions for curing are: 1. The investigation
of the disease. 2. The investigation of the effects of medicines.
3. Their appropriate application, 104-105
$ 72. General view of diseases, acute and chronic, .... 105
\ 73. Acute diseases of single individuals ; sporadic, ep^emic, and acute
miasms, 105-107
$ 74. The most intractable form of chronic disease, is that produced by un-
skilful allopathic treatment, ....... 107
\ 75. These are most uncurable, 107
| 76. Only when there remains sufficient vital force, the lesion may be re-
paired in timo,while the original diseaseis treated homceopathically, 108
\ 77. Diseases which are improperly called chronic, .... 108
\ 78. Genuinechronicdi.*eases,allof themoriginateinchrouicmiasms, 109
\ 79. Syphilis and sycosis, 109
$ 80-81. Psora, it is the source of all genuine chronic diseases, excepting the
syphilitic nnd sycotic, ....... 109110
NOTE. Nomenclature of common pathology, . . . 198
CONTENTS. XV11
\ 82. The more specific remedies for chronic miasms, especially for psora,
should, in a given case, be selected with special care to effect a
cure, Ill
\ 83. The conditions necessary for the perfection of a record (picture) of a
case of disease, . Ill
\ 84-99. Directions how to make inquiry into a case of disease, and how to
record it, 112-116
100-102. The investigation of epidemic diseases, . . . 117-118
g 103. The fundamental cause of unsyphilitic chronic diseases, as well as the
great general outlines of psora, were discovered and recorded in the
same manner, . . . . . . . . . 118-119
104. Advantages of written records of cases, for the purpose of cure, and
observation during treatment, 119
NOTE. How physicians of the old school proceed in examining a
case of disease, 202
\ 105-114. Premonitions regarding the investigation of pure drug-effects
upon the healthy Primary and secondary effect, . . 119-123
\ 116. Alternating effects of drugs, 123-124
\ 116-117. Idiosyncrasies, 124
\ 118-119. Each medicine differs in effect from others, . . . 125
NOTE. There are no surrogates 204
\ 120. Each drug should be tested carefully with regard to its peculiar
effects, 126
\ 121-140. How to proceed when testing drugs upon other persons, 125-133
\ 141. Those tests of drugs are most reliable, which a healthy physician
makes upon himself, ........ 133
\ 142. The investigation of pure drug-effects in disease is difficult, . 134
143-145. It is only this testing of medicines upon persons in health, that
leads to a true Materia Medico,, ..... 134-135
\ 146. The most appropriate method of applying medicines tested with re-
gard to their pure effects, 135
147. The most homceopathically adapted medicine is the most efficacious,
and is the specific remedy, 135
148. Indications as to how the homoeopathic cure is effected, . 136
\ 149. Homeopathic cures of acute diseases are rapid, those of chronic dis-
eases require proportionally more time, ..... 136
NOTE. Difference between pure homoeopathy and mixed prac-
tice, 206
\ 150. Slight indispositions, 137
151. Strongly marked diseases have numerous symptoms, . . 137
152. It is less difficult to find the homoeopathic remedy for diseases pre-
senting a number of symptoms, 137
\ 163. What kind of symptoms are especially to be noticed, . 137-138
154. A very homoeopatnic remedy cures without causing noticeable dis-
comfort, . , 138
\ 155. The reason wny such cures are free from discomfort, . . 138
156. The causes of slight exceptions to this rule, . ... . 189
B
XV111 CONTENTS.
g 157-160. The medicinal affection which is very similar, but somewhat
superior to the original disease in intensity, is called the homoeopathic
aggravation, ......... 189-140
161. In chronic (psoric) diseases, homoeopathic aggravations of antipsoric
medicines appear in the course of several days, from time to time, 176
162-171. Rules to be followed in case the stock of known remedies is too
small to admit of finding a perfect homoeopathic remedy, 176-179
2 172-184. Rules to be followed in the treatment of diseases presenting a
scarcity of symptoms, one-sided diseases, .... 144-147
\ 185-203. Treatment of diseases with local symptoms ; their external treat-
ment is always injurious, 140-154
\ 204-205. All genuine chronic diseases (not resulting from, and maintained
only by improper habits), are to be treated only by internal homoeo-
pathic remedies, adapted to the miasms from which the diseases
sprang, 164-156
\ 206. Inquiry should always be instituted regarding the fundamental
miasm, whether it be simple or complicated with a second (or even a
third), 156
$ 207. Inquiries concerning previous treatment, .... 157
g 208-209. Other necessary preliminary inquiries before recording a chronic
disease, 157
. 210-230. Treatment of so-called mental diseases, . . . 157-165
231-232. Intermittent and alternating diseases, . . . 165-166
233-234. Typical intermittent diseases, 166
\ 235-244. Intermittent fevers, 166-170
245-251. The mode of administration of medicines, . . 170-173
NOTE. Repetition of doses, 213
\ 252-256. Signs of incipient improvement, .... 173-175
\ 25T.-258. Cautions against favorite remedies, and prejudices against
others, 175-176
2 259-261. The regimen in chronic diseases, 170
NOTE. Injurious habits and abuses, 218
g 262-263. Diet in acute diseases, 176-177
2264-266. The selection of active and genuine drugs, . . . 177
NOTE. By preparation, some medicinal substances become articles
of diet, 219
\ 267. The preparation of the most efficacious and durable form of medicinal
substances from freshly gathered plants, . . . 177-178
268. Dry vegetable substances, 178
NOTE. Pulverized preparations for preservation, . . 220
\ 269-271. The method peculiar to homoeopathy of preparing crude medici-
nal substances for the purpose of developing their curative proper-
ties to the highest degree, 178-179
j 272-274. But a single, simple medicine is to be administered to the patient
at a time, 179
8 275-278. Quantity of the dose for homoeopathic use The increase and
diminution of the dose, its potentiation 180-182
CONTENTS. Xli
288-292. The parts of the body which are more or less susceptible of the
effects of medicines, 185-186
NOTE. Advantages of olfaction of highly attenuated medicine
over other methods, 225
Notes and explanatory remarks on the Text of the Organon, . 187-225
Appendix on animal magnetism, ...... 227-228
Notes and explanatory remarks on the same, .... 229-230
Index, . 231-244
INTRODUCTION.
REVIEW OF "PHYSIC" AS HITHERTO PRACTICED,
ALLOPATHY, AND PALLIATIVE CURE OF THE
OLD SCHOOL OF MEDICINE.
SINCE man existed he has singly or in numbers been ex-
posed to diseases derived from physical or moral causes. During
his primitive state of nature, man needed but few remedies,
since a simple mode of living admitted but few diseases ; together
with the development of the human race into communities, the
causes of diseases, and the necessity for methods of cure increased
with even pace. From that time forward (soon after Hippocrates,
that is, since two and a half thousand years-), the treatment of
rapidly and variously increasing diseases became the occupation
of men, who conceitedly endeavored to invent modes of relief by
processes of reason and conjecture. A countless variety of opin-
ions on the nature of diseases and their remedies, sprang from a
great variety of minds, and the theoretical products of their fan-
cies were called (structures) systems, each contradicting the others
as well as itself. At first these sophistical representations stupe-
fied the reader into astonishment at their unintelligible wisdom,
and drew around the originator of the system a host of imitators
of this unnatural sophistry. These disciples, however, had little
time or success in practicing what they had learned, before the
system, so called, was superseded by another often entirely oppo-
site, and destined to a like transient reputation" and existence.
None, however, were in harmony with nature and experience ;
they were theoretical fabrications of astute minds, nominally
drawn from principles utterly useless in practice at the bedside,
2 ( 17 )
18 INTRODUCTION.
on account of their subtlety and opposition to nature, and served
only as subjects for empty disputations.
Independently of all these theories, there was developed at
the same time a manner of cure with unknown, mixed medicinal
substances, intended for gratuitously constructed forms of disease,
arranged according to material ideas contradicting nature and
experience, and, hence, necessarily of evil result, called " old
medicine," allopathy.
Without ignoring the merits of many physicians in relation
to the auxiliary sciences pertaining to medicine, such as the ad-
vancement of physics and chemistry, natural history 1 in its dif-
ferent branches, and of man particularly, anthropology, physi-
ology, anatomy, etc., I shall now only consider the practical
part of medicine, that of curing, in order to show how imper-
fectly diseases have hitherto been treated. It is not my purpose,
however, to notice that mechanical routine of dealing with pre-
cious human life according to pocket-formularies, the continued
publication of which proves their still frequent use. I leave
that unnoticed as the scandalous habit of the scum of vulgar
practitioners. I speak only of the hitherto existing medical art,
which deems itself scientific on account of its antiquity.
This ancient school of medicine boasted much of its ability to
say that its practice alone deserved the name of " rational medi-
cine," because it alone searched for, or sought to remove the cause
of disease, and that it proceeded in its management of diseases in
imitation of nature.
Tolle causam I is the repeated cry ; but their achievements
ended with that cry. They fancied they could find the cause of
disease; but did not find it, because it is unrecognizable and not
to be found. Since many, indeed, by far the greater number of
diseases are of dynamic (spirit-like) origin and dynamic nature,
their cause, therefore, remaining unrecognizable by our senses, it
became necessary to invent a cause. For this purpose they in-
spected the parts of the normal, dead human body (anatomy),
and compared them with the visible changes in the correspond-
ing parts in diseased subjects (pathological anatomy). They in-
stituted comparisons between the phenomena and functions of
healthy life (physi >logy), and the endless deviations therefrom
A REVIEW OF PHYSIC. 19
occurring in countless morbid conditions (pathology, semeiology).
They proceeded to draw conclusions from these deviations re-
garding the invisible process of change going on in the inward
structure of the diseased human organism, and shaped these con-
clusions into a fanciful picture which theoretical medicine mis-
took for the prima causa morbi;\\~\ also, for the proximate cause
of disease, the inner nature of disease, and, in fact, the disease
itself, forgetting the axiom of common sense, that the cause of a
thing or event cannot be the thing or event itself.
How, then, was it possible, without self-deception, to make
this internal, invisible essence their object of cure, and to pre-
scribe for it medicines with curative tendencies, likewise most
unknown, and above all to make use of several unknown medi-
cines mixed together in so-called recipes?
But this sublime project of discovering a priori an internal,
invisible cause of disease, was changed (at least in the hands of
those old-school physicians of wiser conceit) into a search for
that cause, however, under the guidance of symptoms; thus by
conjectures they tried to determine first the general character of
a given case of disease,[2] and then to find if it were cramp, de-
bility, paralysis, fever, inflammation, induration, or deposits in
one part or another, or plethora, insufficiency or superabundance
in the juices of oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, or nitrogen; increased
or depressed arterial, venous or capillary circulation ; relative
proportion of the factors of sensibility, irritability or reproduc-
tion. Such conjectures, honored by the hitherto existing school
with the name of causal indication, and regarded as the only
possible rationality in medicine, were only deceptive and hypo-
thetical assumptions, never destined to be either practical or use-
ful. They were unfit, even if they had, or could have been
well founded, to indicate the most appropriate remedy in a case
of disease ; mere conjectures which, although flattering the self-
esteem of the learned author, generally lead him astray in prac-
tice. Such were the notions designed rather for the sake of os-
tentation than as means of finding curative indications.
How often e. g., there appeared to be cramp or paralysis in
one part of the organism, while inflammation occurred in another!.
Or, whence, on the other hand, could the infallibl "emedie?
20 INTRODUCTION.
for each of these alleged general characters come? The most in-
fallible remedies could have been no less than specifics, i. e.
medicines homogeneons[3] in their action with the morbific irri-
tation (Krankheits-Reize). The use of these specifics, however,
had been prohibited[4] and condemned, as extremely injurious
by the old school ; because observation had taught that such
medicines, in the customary large doses, had proved to be dan-
gerous on account of the highly increased receptivity in disease
for homogeneous irritation. The old school, however, had no
presentiment of minute and extremely minute doses. Cures,
then, were not and could not be performed in the direct (natural)
manner, by means of homogeneous, specific medicines which
were, and continued to be unknown in regard to the fullest ex-
tent of their effects; and even if this knowledge had existed, such
generalizing views would have made it impossible to conjecture
the appropriate remedy.
But since it began, after all, to appear more reasonable to seek,
if possible, another more direct path in the place of circuitous
measures, the old school of medicine proceeded to cancel disease
directly by eliminating the (alleged) material cause of disease;
indeed, it was almost impossible for the common school of prac-
titioners, in contemplating and judging a disease, or in seeking
the indications for its cure, to free their minds from these ideas
of materiality, or to recognize the nature of an organism both
spiritual and material, as a being so highly potentiated, that the
modification of its life, called disease, manifested by sensations
and functions, must alone be regarded as conditioned and effected
by means of dynamic (spirit-like) influences, and that such sen-
sations and functions could be effected by no other cause.
Such morbidly altered materials, abnormal turgescences, as
well as secretions, were throughout regarded by the old school as
exciters, or, at least in respect to their reaction, as maintaiuers of
disease, and they are considered as such to this day. .
Therefore that school believed in the achievement of causal
cures by endeavoring to eliminate those imaginary and supposed
causes of disease. Hence their busy endeavors at removing bile
A REVIEW OF PHYSIC. 21
in bilious fevers by vomiting ;[5] hence their emetics in so-called
gastro-ataxia,[6 | and their officiousness in purging out mucus, as-
carideSj or lumbricoids in pallor of the countenance, voraciousness,
colic, and tumid belly of children. [7] Hence their venesections
in haemorrhages,[8] and hence, principally, all sorts of bloodlet-
ting,[9] considered by that school as a chief indication in inflam-
mations, which process they now imagine to exist in almost every
morbidly affected part of the body, and the removal of which,
by means of a fatal number, of leeches, they consider as their
duty, therein following the precedence of a well-known blood-
thirsty physician of Paris (like sheep following the bellwether
even into the hands of the butcher). They think, in this man-
ner genuine causal indications are obeyed, and rational cures
performed. Furthermore, by ligation of polypi, by excision of
indolent glandular swellings, or by their destruction through
artificial suppuration, excited by irritating local applications; by
enucleation of fatty (steatomatous, melicerous) tumors; by oper-
ating upon aneurisms, lachrymal and rectal fistulae; by excision
of scirrhous breasts, amputation of necrosed limbs, etc., phy-
sicians of the old school consider that they have radically cured
the patient, and have performed causal cures. They persist in
this belief, when they make use of their repettentia, when they
exsiccate inveterate, ichorous ulcers of the leg \vith astringent
applications ; with oxides of lead, copper, or zinc (perhaps mak-
ing incidental use of laxatives, thereby producing debility, with-
out relieving the fundamental disorder); when they cauterize a
chancre; destroy cauliflower excrescences by local applications;
dispel the itch from the surface by ointments of sulphur, oxides
of lead, quicksilver, or zinc; suppress ophthalmia with solu-
tions of lead or zinc, or when they drive rheumatic pains from
the limbs by means of opodeldoc, volatile liniments, or fumi-
gations with cinnabar or amber. In all such cases they profess
to have controlled the disorder, conquered the disease, and to
have executed causal cures. But mark the result! Metasche-
matisms (metastases), sure to appear sooner or later (but which
are then pronounced as new diseases), and invariably more serious
than the primary disorder, refute their assertions sufficiently, and
could or should undeceive them by disclosing the deeper, imma-
22 INTRODUCTION.
lerial nature of the evil, as well as its dynamic (spirit-like)
origin, to be combated only by dynamic processes.
In modern times (not to say up to the present time) the com-
mon school was in the habit of presupposing the existence of
morbid matter (and acrids) which, however subtle it might have
been considered, they sought to remove from the blood and lym-
phatics by the exhalations, the perspiration, and the urinary ap-
paratus, or through the action of the salivary glands; to eject
them in the shape of sputa from the tracheal and bronchial fol-
licles; and by making use of emetics and cathartics to clear them
out of the stomach and intestines all for the purpose of expel-
ling the material exciting cause of the disease from the body,
and thus fulfilling the conditions for a thorough causal cure.
By means of incisions into the skin of the diseased body, into
which foreign substances were introduced, thereby producing
chronic ulcers, fontanels, and setons continued for years, the old
school endeavored to draw off the materia peccans from the dis-
eased body (always affected only dynamically), as filthy fluids are
drawn from a barrel through a faucet. In like manner it was
attempted to remove noxious humors by perpetual application of
cantharides and spurge, thus only weakening the diseased body
to the verge of incurability by all these inconsiderate and un-
natural procedures.
I admit that it was more convenient for human weakness to
assume, in the treatment of diseases, the existence of some morbid
matter, perceptible by means of the senses (particularly because
the patients themselves easily inclined to such an idea), having
discovered which, nothing remained to be done but to procure
the requisite quantities of remedies to cleanse the blood and
juices, to promote the secretion of urine and perspiration, to assist
expectoration from the chest, or to scour the stomach and intes-
tines. On this account scarcely anything is found in all works
on Materia Medica, from Dioscorides to those of the present time,
regarding the individual remedies, and the special, proper action
of each; besides references to their supposed utility in this or
t hat pathological name, remedies are alluded to only with regard
to their properties as augmenting the flow of urine, perspiration,
secretions of the chest, or menses; but particular stress is laid
A REVIEW OF PHYSIC. 23
upon their power of producing an upward or downward evacu-
ation from the alimentary canal; because the only aim and object
of practical physicians has ever been the evacuation of some
material morbific substance, as well as of several kinds of ficti-
tious humors, alleged to form the basis of diseases.
But these were all vain dreams, unfounded suppositions, "and
hypotheses, shrewdly invented for the convenience of therapeu-
tics, according to which diseases were most readily cured by the
expulsion of material morbific matters, if such, indeed, existed !
But the essential nature of diseases and their cure, cannot
accommodate themselves to such dreams, or to the convenience
of physicians; diseases will not cease to be (spiritual) dynamic
aberrations of our spirit-like life, manifested by sensations and
actions; that is, they will not cease, for the sake of those foolish and
groundless hypotheses, to be immaterial modifications of our sen-
sorial condition (health).
These causes of our diseases cannot be material ones, since the
least foreign material substance[10], however mild it may appear
to us, if introduced into our bloodvessels, is suddenly expelled
like a poison by our vital force; or, where that is impossible,
death is the result. Even if the smallest splinter is by accident
inserted into our sensitive parts, that vital principle, omnipresent
in the interior of our body, does not rest until the offending sub-
stance has been removed by pain, fever, suppuration, or slough-
ing. How happens it then, for instance, in a case of eruptive
disease of twenty years' standing, that this indefatigable, active
vital principle should patiently tolerate in the juices for twenty
years a foreign, inimical, material eruptive substance (Ausschlags-
Stoff) such as herpetic, scrofulous, or gouty humors? What
nosologist ever beheld with bodily eyes such morbific matter, that
lie should speak so confidently of it, and make it the basis of a
medical procedure? Who has ever been able to prove the ex-
istence of the poison of gout or of scrofula by ocular demon-
stration ?[11]
Even if some material substance, brought in contact with the
skin or a wound, had propagated diseases by infection, who can
prove (as has often been asserted in our works on pathogeny) that
some material particle of that substance had mingled with, or
24 INTRODUCTION.
had been absorbed by the juices of our body? Washing the
sexual organs, even if immediately and carefully done, never is
a protection against infection by venereal chancre. A breath of
air wafted over from one afflicted by small-pox, can call forth
this horrible disease in a healthy child.
How much in weight of material matter could have been ab-
sorbed in this manner by the juices, in order to produce, in the
first instance, if left uncured, a painfully tormenting disease
(syphilis), terminating only with the remotest period of life, that
is with death, and to produce, in the second instance, a disease,
rapidly fatal by its tendency to general suppuration[12] (human
small -pox)?
' Is it possible to admit the existence of material morbific mat-
ter and its transition into the blood in this and all such cases ?
A letter written in the sick-room, and sent a great distance, has
often imparted to the recipient the same miasmatic disease. Can
material morbific matter be thought of in this case as having
permeated the humors of the body ? But why all these proofs?
Has not dangerous bilious fever been known to result from a
mortifying altercation ? Has not a superstitious prophecy of
death been known to come true at the predicted time ; or a sud-
den arrival of sad or exceedingly joyful tidings to have caused
instantaneous death ? Where, in such instances, is the material
morbific substance said to have passed bodily over into the or-
ganism, where it is supposed to have begotten and maintained a
disease, and without the actual removal and ejection of which
substance a radical cure is said to be impossible ?
The defenders of an assumption so gross as that of morbific
matters, should blush to have so inconsiderately overlooked and
misunderstood the spiritual nature of life, as well as the spiritual
dynamic power of pathogeuetic causes ; thereby having degraded
themselves to the level of medical scavengers (Fegearzte), who,
instead of curing, destroyed life by their endeavors to expel
morbific matter from the diseased body, where it never existed.
Are those loathsome and impure discharges in diseases the
source and maintainers of the latter, or, on the contrary, are they
not always effete products of the disease itself, that is to say, of a
dynamical disturbance and modification of life ?
A REVIEW OF PHYSIC. 25
Considering these wrong material views concerning the oiigin
and nature of diseases, it was no wonder, that in all ages the
efforts of little and great practitioners, as well as the invention
of the sublimest medical systems, were invariably and principally
directed toward elimination and expurgation of an imaginary
morbific substance, and that the indication most frequently to be
followed was, to scatter and set in motion the morbific accumu-
lation, and to provide for its expulsion through the salivary and
tracheal glands, perspiration, and urine; to purify the blood by
potions of roots and herbs (Wurzel und Holztranke), regarded as
rational and obedient servants in removing morbific matters
(acrids and impurities) which never existed; furthermore, to draw
off mechanically this fictitious matter by setons, fontanels, and
by keeping up constant local discharges from the skin with blis-
ters and bark of spurge-laurel ; but the chief indication was to
throw off and purge away the materia peccans or noxious sub-
stances, as they were called, through the intestinal canal by means
of laxatives and purgatives, often dignified by the appellation of
solvents (of infarctions?) and gentle aperients, for the sake of
seeming more profoundly significant, and giving them a more
flattering appearance. Such were the measures employed in the
removal of hostile pathogenetic substances, that never were, nor
could have been present in the production or maintenance of
diseases as they occur in the human organism, living by virtue
of a spiritual principle ; diseases that never could have been of
other nature than that of a dynamic derangement of life in re-
gard to its sensations and functions. [13]
Now, if we admit, what cannot be doubted, that no disease
(unless occasioned by entirely indigestible, or other hurtful mat-
ter, swallowed or lodged in the primse vise, or other apertures
and cavities of the body, or caused, e. g. } by a foreign substance
penetrating the skin) can be derived from the presence of any
material substance, but that each disease is always and only a
special, virtual, and dynamical discordancy of our sensorial con-
dition (health), how inappropriate, then, it must appear to any
reasonable man to make use of a curative method, directed to-
ward the evacuation[14] of those fictitious matters, since in the
26 INTRODUCTION.
principal diseases of mankind, viz., the chronic, nothing is gainedj
but much harm always done by such measures !
In short, it cannot be denied that these degenerated matters
and impurities, becoming visible in disease, are nothing but pro-
ductions of the diseased organism itself, laboring under abnormal
functional derangement, and that they are frequently expelled by
the organism with violent and even too violent an action,
without the aid of purgatives; notwithstanding which, new quan-
tities of refuse matter are formed as long as the organism con-
tinues to suffer from this disease. These substances present
themselves to the true physician as symptoms of the disease, and
aid him in recognizing the nature and image of the same, in
order to cure it by means of a similar medicinal morbific potency
(Krankheits-Potenz). The modern representatives of the old
school, however, no longer wish to appear as if their object in
curing were the expulsion of morbific material. They declare
their numerous and various evacuants to be employed in accord-
ance with a derivative method of cure, as an example of which,
they regard the natural spontaneous efforts of the diseased organ-
ism to re-establish health, by terminating fevers through per-
spiration and urine ; stitches in the side by nosebleed, sweating,
and expectoration of mucus; other diseases by vomiting, diar-
rhea, or haemorrhage from the anus ; arthritic pains by sanious
ulcers of the leg ; inflammation of the throat by salivation, etc.,
or by means of metastases and abscesses, called forth by nature
in parts remote from the seat of disease.
For these reasons they considered it their wisest course to
imitate nature by approaching most diseases in a circuitous way,
after the manner of the vital force when left to itself. For these
reasons they employed indirect,[15] stronger, heterogeneous irri-
tation in parts remote from the seat of disease, caused evacuations
in organs least related (dissimilar) to the diseased structures, and
maintained these in order, as it were, to divert the disease in that
direction.
This derivation was, and continued to be, one of the chief cura-
tive methods of the prevailing school of medicine.
In this imitation of nature in the act of relieving herself, as
others express it, they endeavored forcibly to excite now symp-
A EEVIEW OF PHYSIC. 27
toms in structures least affected by the disease, and better able to
bear drug effects, with the intention of diverting[16] the pri-
mary disease, apparently in the form of critical excreticns, thus
permitting the curative powers of nature[17] to perform the
gradual resolution (lysis).
This was executed by resorting to diaphoretics and diuretics,
venesections, setons, and fontanels ; but most frequently by irri-
tant evacuants applied to the oesophagus or intestinal canal,
acting as emetics in their upward, and as cathartics in their
downward action ; being employed most frequently in the latter
manner, they were also known as aperients and solvents.[18]
By way of assisting this derivative method, the counter-irri-
tants related to the former were employed, such as sheep's wool
worn next to the skin, footbaths, nauseants; furthermore, the
stomach and intestines were tormented by hunger (hunger-cure),
or by remedies producing pain, inflammation, and suppuration
in proximate or remote parts, such as horse-radish and mustard-
poultices, plaster of cantharides, spurge-laurel, setons (fontanels),
Authenrieth's salve (tartar emetic ointment), moxa, the hot iron,
acupuncture, etc. ; all done in imitation of the crude efforts of
nature, who, when left to her own resources, endeavors to free
herself from dynamic disease by creating pain in remote parts by
metastases and abscesses; by producing eruptions and running
sores, all of no avail if the disease is chronic.
Obviously, therefore, no rational grounds, but rather the con-
venience of curing by imitation, governed the old school in
using these absurd, pernicious, and indirect methods of cure,
derivative, as well as counter-irritant, and induced its adoption
of these unserviceable, debilitating, and injurious processes, by
which disease was for a time apparently ameliorated or relieved,
inasmuch as another more serious malady was called forth in
its place. Can such destructive measures be properly termed a
cure ?
The old school merely followed the rude instinctive example
of nature in her inadequate[19] endeavors at resistance, when
directed against moderately acute affections. They only copied
the sustaining power of life (Lebens-Erhaltungs-Kraft), which,
incapable of exercising reason if left to itself in diseases, and
28 INTRODUCTION.
resting entirely upon the organic laws of the body, acts alone
according to these laws, without reason or deliberation. They
followed crude nature, who cannot, like a skilful surgeon, heal a
wound by first intention by coadapting its gaping edges ; who
does not know how to adjust and replace the divergent ends of a
fractured bone, notwithstanding her ability to furnish (often su-
perabundantly) osseous matter ; who cannot tie a wounded artery,
but exhausts all her energy in causing the wounded person to
bleed to death ; who does not know how to reduce a dislocated
humerus, but, on the contrary, prevents human art from accom-
plishing reduction by speedily producing a swelling around the
joint ; who, in order to remove a splinter from the cornea, de-
stroys the whole eye by suppuration ; who, in spite of her dis-
play of energy, reduces a strangulated inguinal hernia by nothing
less than mortification of the intestines and death ; and who, by
transposing morbid processes (Metaschematismen) in dynamic
diseases, often increases the misery of the sick. Nay, this
unreasonable vital force rashly receives into the body those
chronic miasms (psora, syphilis, sycosis), the greatest tormentors
of our earthly existence, the source of innumerable diseases,
under which humanity groans for hundreds, nay, for thousands
of years, and unable even to palliate one of these, this same vital
force is utterly incapable of removing such diseases from the
organism of its own accord, but suffers them to rankle in the
system, until death closes the eyes of the sufferer after a long
life of sorrow.
How could the old school, calling itself rational, be justified
in choosing this unintelligent vital force, this blind guide, as its
best instructor in an office of such high importance as that of
healing, requiring so much thought and power of judgment?
How dared it imitate, without hesitation, all those indirect and
revolutionary processes inaugurated in diseases by that vital
force, and copy them as if they were the non plus ultra, the best
that reason could devise ? Did not God grant us his noblest
gift, reflecting reason and unfettered power of deliberation in
order that we might, for the benefit of mankind, surpass immeas-
urably the effort of the unguided vital power in bringing relief?
If, therefore, the ordinary school of medicine, in its rash imi-
A REVIEW OF PHYSIC. 29
tation of crude, unreasonable, automatic vital energy, attacks
the unoffending parts and organs with its curative methods of
counter-irritation and derivation (its usual course of procedure),
torturing them with overpowering pain, or, more commonly,
by forcing them to waste their strength and substance in evacu-
ations, that school strives to divert the morbid vital activity
from the originally affected portions to those artificially attacked,
thus, |?y means of a circuitous, debilitating, and generally pain-
ful process, indirectly endeavoring to compel the natural disease
to vanish, and trying to supplant it by a far greater heterogene-
ous disease in healthier parts.[20]
Indeed, the disease, if acute, and consequently destined to be
of short duration, will vanish, even during these heterogeneous
attacks upon remote and dissimilar parts, but it will not have
been cured. There is nothing deserving the distinguished title
of a cure in this revolutionary* treatment, possessing no direct
immediate pathological bearing upon the structures primarily
affected. It may be confidently assumed that the acute disease
would have vanished of its own accord, and certainly sooner,
without such serious assault upon sound vital parts, and without
after-effects and less waste of strength. Neither the course
adopted by crude natural force, nor the allopathic copy of the
latter can bear comparison with the direct dynamic (homoeo-
pathic) treatment, which, without waste of strength, rapidly ex-
tinguishes the disease.
But in by far the greatest proportion of cases of disease, known
as chronic, these impetuous, weakening, and indirect therapeutic
measures of the old school scarcely ever prove to be of the least
benefit. For a few days at most they suspend one or another of
those troublesome manifestations of disease which return, how-
ever, as soon as nature has become inured to that counter-stimu-
lus; and the disease will reappear with more violence, because
the vital powers have been reduced by the pain [21] of counter-
irritation and improper evacuations.
* Synonymous with revulsive, a more usual medical expression ; Hahne-
mann probably intended to emphasize the idea by using the word " revolu-
tio lar." TRANSLATOR.
30 INTRODUCTION.
While most physicians of the old school, imitating in a general
manner the spontaneous curative efforts of crude nature aban-
doned to her own resources, arbitrarily exercised in their practice
this nominally useful mode of derivation (whenever an illusory
indication seemed to demand it), others aiming at a still higher
object, and seeing the incipient struggles of nature for relief in
spontaneous and antagonistic metastases, they undertook to ac-
celerate and increase these efforts by means of evacuants and de-
rivatives, supposing that by virtue of their pernicious measures
they were acting under the guidance of nature (duce natura), and
that they were entitled to the exalted name of servants of nature
(ministri naturae).
Having observed that in protracted diseases such evacuations,
induced by the vitality of the patient, were frequently attended
by brief remissions of severe pains, paralysis, convulsions, etc.,
the old school regarded these derivative actions as the true way
to be followed, and therefore accelerated, maintained, and in-
creased them in attempting to cure diseases. But they never dis-
covered that all such evacuations and secretions (seemingly criti-
cal), called forth by the spontaneous efforts of nature in chronic
diseases, only procured palliative and brief alleviation, adding
so little to au actual cure, that their influence amounted rather
to an aggravation of the original internal malady, by wasting
strength and substance. No patient suffering from a protracted
malady, was ever known to have regained permanent health by
those rude efforts of nature, nor any chronic disease to have been
cured by those evacuations, resulting from the action[22] of the
organism. But on the contrary, after a brief respite, the original
evil in such cases evidently increases; the duration of its remis-
sions grow constantly shorter and shorter, while the painful
periods of aggravation return with more frequency and violence,
in spite of the continued evacuations.
The same result may be observed when nature, abandoned to
her own resources, in struggling with the dangers of an internal
chronic affection, has no other way of safety than that of pro-
ducing external local symptoms, for the purpose of diverting the
danger from parts indispensable to life, and directing them to
structures of les? vital importance (metastasis). Hence, those
A REVIEW OF PHYSIC. 31
procedures of the energetic vital force being devoid of reason,
reflection, or precaution, will never lead to actual relief or to a
real cure; they are mere brief, palliative respites in the danger-
ous course of the inner disease, at the sacrifice of much strength
' O
and substance, without diminishing the primitive disease in the
least degree. These measures, at most, are able to postpone dis-
solution which, without the intervention of a genuine homeo-
pathic cure, would be the inevitable result.
From the allopathic point of view held by the old school,
those rude, automatic efforts of nature were not only greatly
overestimated, but totally misinterpreted as genuine curative
agencies; they were increased and accelerated under the vain
hope of destroying and radically curing the entire evil. When-
ever, in cases of chronic disease, one or another of the intolerable
symptoms of the inner disease appeared to be relieved by efforts
of vitality, producing, for example, a moist eruption on the skin,
in that case the servant of rude nature (minister naturae) would
place a plaster of cantharides, or an exutorium (spurge-laurel)
upon the ichorous surface, in order to draw out more humor'
(moisture) from the skin (duce natura), for the purpose of assist-
ing and supporting the purpose of nature (by removing the mor-
bific matter from the body ?). But sometimes, if the effect of the
remedy proved to be too intense, the moist eruption too inveter-
ate, and the body too irritable, that servant of nature had only
increased the external affection considerably, without benefit to
the primitive disease. He aggravated the pains, which deprived
the sufferer of sleep, and reduced his strength (or even brought
on a febrile or malignant form of erysipelas). At other times,
by gently acting upon the local disease (perhaps yet recent), by a
kind of improper, superficial homoeopath ism, he would thus drive
away from its site that local symptom, set up by nature on the
skin for the relief of the inner more dangerous evil ; but he thereby
increased the latter, and induced the vital powers to institute a
more serious metaschematism towards other and more vital parts.
In place of those local symptoms, the patient then suffered from
dangerous inflammation of the eyes, deafness, cramps of the stom-
ach, epileptiform spasms, attacks of asthma, apoplexy, or men-
tal disorders, etc.[23]
32 INTRODUCTION'.
Acting under the same delusion of assisting the vital forces in
their curative endeavors, that minister naturce applied numerous
leeches, in case the diseased force of nature caused congestion of
the rectum or anus (blind piles), hoping to furnish an outlet for
the blood in that place. The result would be a brief and scarcely
noticeable improvement, but with loss of bodily strength, giv-
ing rise to more violent congestion to those parts, without lessen-
ing the original disease in the least degree.
In nearly every case where the morbid vitality strove to evacu-
ate a little blood by means of ernesis or cough, etc., in order to
allay a dangerous internal affection, the old school physician has-
tened to assist (duce natura) those supposed curative efforts of
nature by copious abstraction of blood from a vein ; but never
without evil consequences in the future, or without evident de-
bilitation of the body.
In order to promote the intentions of nature, the old school
physician was in the habit of treating cases of chronic nausea by
causing profuse evacuations from the stomach, by administering
powerful emetics never with a beneficial, but often with evil
result; not infrequently with dangerous and even fatal conse-
quences.
To relieve an internal morbid condition, the vital force some-
times produces violent swellings of external glands, in which
event that pretended servant of nature entertains the hope of as-
sisting her purposes by inflaming those swellings by all sorts of
stimulating ointments and plasters, and then opening the ripe
abscess by incision, to allow the escape of the offending morbific
matter (?). But experience furnishes hundreds of proofs of the
protracted mischief resulting unexceptionally from such proceed-
ings.
Having frequently observed in chronic disorders slight allevia-
tion of great distress, following spontaneous night-sweats, or loose
alvine discharges, the old school practitioner considers himself
bound to follow and promote these hints of nature (duce natura)
by instituting and maintaining copious perspirations, or by sub-
jecting his patient for years to a course of so-called gentle laxa-
tives, in order to sustain and increase those efforts of nature (the
ntal force of the unintelligent organism) leading, as he thinks,
A REVIEW OF PHYSIC. 33
to the cure of the entire chronic disorder, and to the more speedy
liberation of the patient from his disease (the substance causing
the disease?).
But the result is always contrary to the intention : aggrava-
tion of the original complaint.
In accordance with his preconceived, though groundless opin-
ions, the physician of the old school persists in his process of
promoting[24] those endeavors of morbid vitality, and of in-
creasing those ever ruinous and never salutary derivative and
evacuant efforts of the patient's system. He does not perceive
that all above-named local symptoms, evacuations, and apparent
derivative actions (begun and supported by the unthinking, un-
guifled vital force in conquering the original chronic disease) are
in fact the disease itself, and the signs of the entire disorder, for
the cure of which, a homoeopathic medicine, selected in accord-
ance with its similitude of effect, would have been the most suc-
cessful and speedy remedy.
Since the crude efforts of nature for attaining relief in acute,
and more particularly in chronic diseases, are extremely imperfect
and in themselves a disease, it was readily to be understood that
the artificial furtherance of these efforts would only increase the
difficulty; to say the least, it would not be an improvement on the
spontaneous efforts of nature in the case of acute affections. The
vital power in producing its crises, moves in obscure ways which
medical art was incompetent to follow; therefore the latter only
undertakes to reach its object from without by violent remedies,
much less beneficial, but on the contrary, far more aggravating
and debilitating than the means employed by the instinctive,
unguided vital force left to itself. Not even that imperfect kind
of relief, induced by natural derivatives and crises, can be pro-
duced by allopathy in a similar manner; that school will find
itself greatly outdone, even by curative measures as imperfect as
those of vitality left to itself.
By the use of lacerating implements it was attempted to pro-
duce nosebleed in imitation of the natural kind, for the purpose
of relieving, for example, attacks of chronic headache. Although
blood was made to flow abundantly from the nasal cavities, de-
priving the patient of strength, yet the relief thus obtained
3
34 INTRODUCTION.
amounted to nothing, or was, at least, far more insignificant than
if, at other times, but a few drops were shed by the instinctive
and spontaneous impulses of the vital force.
So-called critical perspiration or diarrhoea, caused by the ever
active vital force after sudden attacks of sickness, occasioned by
mental agitation, fright, strains, or cold, will remove these acute
affections, though temporarily, with far more efficacy than all
the sudorific? or cathartics obtained from the apothecary-shop,
which increase the trouble, as daily experience teaches.
The vital force, capable of acting only in harmony with the
physical arrangement of our organism, and without reason, in-
sight, or reflection, was not given to us that we should regard it
as the best guide in the cure of diseases (Krankheits-Heilerfn),
having the power of reducing those sad deviations from health
to their normal standard ; and still less was that vital force
given <o us, that its imperfect and morbid efforts (to rescue itself
from disease) might be imitated by servile physicians, adopting
methods more inappropriate and depressing than those of the
vital force itself; nor that indolent physicians might be enabled
to spare themselves all intellectual effort, reflection, and consid-
eration, necessary for the discovery and practice of the noblest of
human arts, the true art of healing, instead of contenting them-
selves with imperfect imitation of the crude curative efforts of
unintelligent nature, and then proclaiming theirs as the " rational
art of healing."
What man of sense would undertake to imitate nature in her
endeavors of coming to the rescue? Those efforts are, in fact,
the disease itself; and the morbidly affected vital force is the
producer of disease becoming manifest. Necessarily, therefore,
every artificial imitation as well as the suppression of these natu-
ral efforts must either increase the evil, or render it dangerous
by suppression ; the allopathist does both, and then extols this
practice as healing art, as " rational" healing art!
He is in the wrong. That noble innate power, destined to govern
life in the most perfect manner during health, equally present in
all parts of the organism, in the sensitive as well as in the irri-
table fibre; that untiring mainspring of all normal, natural,
bodily functions, was never created for the purpose of aiding
A REVIEW OF PHYSIC. 35
itself in diseases, nor to exercise a healing art worthy of imitation.
No ! The true healing art is that intellectual office incumbent on
the higher human mind, and free powers of thought, discriminating
and deciding according to causes ; a duty of which office is, when-
ever that instinctive, unconscious, and unreasoning, but automatic,
energetic vital force has been thrown into discordant action by dis-
ease, to harmonize those discordancies by means of a similar patho-
genetic affection of higher degree, originated by a drug homceopathi-
cally selected; after this, ttie natural morbid affection will no longer
be able to act upon the vital force, which will get rid of the former,
while the latter merely continues to be engaged with the similar,
rather more powerful pathogenetic drug affection, against which it
may now direct its entire energy ; ere long the drug affection will
be overcome, leaving the vital power free and able to return to its
normal condition of health, and to its destination: "to animate th(
organism and maintain its health," without having suffered painful
or debilitating onslaughts during these transformations. How to
reach this result is taught by the homosopathic healing art.
Not a few patients, however, treated according to the above-
named methods of the old school, escaped from their diseases,
not the chronic (nnvenereal) kinds, but merely from the acute,
less dangerous forms ; and this was accomplished by means so
painful, circuitous, and often so imperfect that such treatment
could not properly be called a cure accomplished by gentle
means. By abstracting blood, or by suppressing one of the main
symptoms through the agency of an enantiopathic, palliative
remedy (contraria contrariis], those less dangerous cases of acute
disease were kept under, or suspended by means of counter-
stimulants and derivatives (antagonistic and revellent remedies)
directed to parts remote from the seat of disease, up to the time
at which the brief illness would have terminated its natural
course. These circuitous proceedings deprived the patient of
strength and substance to such a degree, that the greater and
better pivrt of the work of completing the cure of the disease, of
restoring the wasted strength and substance of the patient, was
36 INTRODUCTION.
left to nature's supporting power of life ; this, besides conquering
the natural acute disease, had now the superadded burden of
overcoming the consequences of improper treatment. In less
dangerous cases the power of nature succeeded by its own energy,
however laboriously, imperfectly, and under great difficulties,
gradually to restore the functions to their normal condition.
It remains highly dubious whether the natural process of re-
covery is really shortened or assisted in the least by the interfer-
ence of the old practice in cases of acute disease; since neither
physician nor nature could act otherwise than indirectly, except-
ing that the derivative and antagonistic appliances of the former
are much more severe and weakening than the processes of the
latter.
The old school possesses still another curative process,[25]
called the stimulating and tonic method (by means of excitants,
neivines, tonics, comfortants, roborants). It is surprising that they
should boast of this mode of treatment.
Has the old school, notwithstanding its frequent attempts, ever
been able to remedy the bodily weakness, caused, kept up, and
increased by a chronic disease, by prescribing ethereal Rhenish
wine or fiery Tokay? In such cases strength would only be
more and more reduced (since the origin of debility, the chronic
disease, had not been cured), in proportion to the quantity of
wine which the patient had been ordered to consume ; because, in
the secondary action of the vital force, debility succeeds artificial
excitement.
Or was strength ever restored by Cinchona bark in any of these
numerous cases, or by those ill-understood, ambiguous substances
known as bitters, so hurtful in many other respects? Have not
these vegetable substances, together with the preparations of iron,
declared under all circumstances to be tonic and strengthening,
added new diseases to the older ones, by virtue of their peculiar
pathogenetic properties, without mitigating the debility, depend-
ent on inveterate and unknown disease of long standing?
Was an incipient paralysis of an arm or a leg (commonly pro-
duced by a chronic malady) ever diminished in the least, or with
A REVIEW OF PHYSIC. 37
any degree of permanency by those so-called unguenia nervine, or
any of the other ethereal or balsamic inventions, without the pre-
vious eradication of the malady itself? Or have electric and
voltaic shocks ever produced any other eifects[26] upon such
limbs beyond increasing, or even completing, the paralysis and
extinction of muscular activity, or the sensitiveness of nerves?
Have not those highly praised excitants and aphrodisiacs, such
as amber, the smelt, tincture of cantharides, truffles, cardamom
seeds, cinnamon, and vanilla, invariably produced complete im-
potence (always based upon a chronic miasm), when the sexual
power had been previously weakened ?
Why should an excitement or increase of strength, lasting a
few hours, be looked upon as a success, when the subsequent re-
sult proves to be the permanent counterpart; when the evil has
been rendered incurable, in accordance with the laws governing
the action of all palliatives ?
The slight benefit derived from excitants and roborants, dur-
ing convalescence from acute diseases (treated in the old manner),
was overbalanced a thousand times by the ill effects produced
by these remedies in chronic diseases.
Whenever old medicine is at loss what to do in a tedious dis-
ease, it blindly blunders away with its so-called alterative reme-
dies (alterantia) ; in that case the dreadful mercurials (calomel,
corrosive sublimate, and mercurial ointment) are used as its chief
remedies, which (in non-venereal diseases) are perniciously per-
mitted to act upon the body in quantities, and for a length of
time sufficient to undermine the health entirelv. Great changes
*
are truly wrought in this manner, but always of an evil kind,
and health is always completely ruined by this extremely hurt-
ful metal when its use is out of place.
Cinchona bark, specific as a homoeopathic fever remedy only
in genuine swamp-ague (provided it is used in the absence of
psora), is now prescribed in massive doses in all epidemic inter-
mittent fevers, often spread over large countries ; herein the old
school evinces its palpable rashness, for these fevers assume a
38 INTRODUCTION.
different character every year, and therefore almost always de-
mand for their removal another homoeopathic remedy, which, if
administered in one, or some few very minute doses, cures then?
radically in a few days. Since these epidemic fevers have regu-
lar periods of occurrence (type), and since only the type of these
intermittent fevers is recognized by the old school, knowing no
other fever remedy than Peruvian bark, nor desirous of knowing
any other, that school, I say, in its monotonous routine, imagines
that it has cured these fevers as long as the type of these epi-
demics can be suppressed by large doses of bark, or its expensive
extract (quinia) ; (the irrational vital force proving wiser in this
instance, often seeking to prevent this suppression for months).
But the duped patient grows constantly worse after such a sup-
pression of the periodicity (type) of his fever than he was during
the attack itself. With sallow countenance, difficulty of breath-
ing, constriction in the hypochondriac regions, disturbed digestion,
and loss of appetite, without refreshing sleep, weak and listless,
often with tense swelling of the legs, abdomen, or even of the
face and hands, that patient creeps out of the hospital, dismissed
as cured, and not infrequently years of laborious homoeopathic
treatment are required, perhaps not to heal and restore the health,
but merely to continue the life of one of those patients, radically
ruined (cured?), and made the victim of an artificial cachexia.
The old school delights in its ability to convert the stupor
peculiar to typhoid fevers into a kind of temporary exhilaration
by means of valerian, possessing antipathic properties in such
cases; but since this exhilaration does not last, and another brief
space of animation can only be gained by increased doses of va-
lerian, the point is soon reached at which even the largest doses
cease to act.
This palliative, after having excited the patient by its primary
action, paralyzes the entire vital force by its secondary eifect,
thus insuring the speedy dissolution of the sufferer by means of
this rational mode of treatment peculiar to the old school; none
will escape from it. And still the followers of this routine-prac-
tice never learn to see how surely its treatment will prove fatal;
because the fatal result is invariably ascribed to the rnaliomaricy
* J
of the disease.
A REVIEW OF PHYSIC. 38
A palliati /e that deserves to be dreaded by patients even more
than the last is Digitalis purpurea; this was hitherto the pride of
the old school when the too rapid and excited pulse, in chronic
diseases, was to be compelled (in true symptomatic fashion) to
beat more slowly. Although it is truly astonishing how this
powerful remedy, by its enantiopathic effect, quiets the rapid, ex-
cited pulse, and how it diminishes the pulsation of the arteries
in a marked degree, for a few hours after the first dose ; yet soon
the pulse will become rapid again. Now the dose is increased,
that it may once more reduce its velocity a little, and it is reduced
accordingly, but only for a shorter period than before, and so on,
until the last and highest palliative doses cease to have any effect,
and the pulse, no longer able to resist the after-effects of the fox-
glove, now becomes far more frequent than it was previous to
the use of that herb; its beats can be counted no longer; sleep,
appetite, and strength vanish, and the patient pays the cost
with his life; none will escape; death, or hopeless insanity[27]
is the inevitable result.
This was the treatment of the allopathic physician. But the
patients were obliged to conform to this "deplorable necessity, be-
cause they fared no better at the hands of others of the same
school, who had derived their knowledge, from the same decep-
tive books.
The fundamental cause of chronic diseases (non-venereal), to-
gether with their remedies, remained unknown to those practi-
tioners, vainly boasting of causal cures, and their diagnosis
founded on the investigation into the genesis of the disease.
How dared they attempt the eradication of that long list of
chronic diseases with their indirect measures, their pernicious imi-
tations of the irrational vital force in its spontaneous struggles
for relief, never intended as a model for the treatment of diseases ?
Mistaking the imaginary character of the disease for the cause,
they directed their radical curative measures against cramp, in-
flammation (plethora), fever, general and partial debility, mucus,
putrefaction, infarctions, etc., all of which they thought them-
40 INTRODUCTION.
selves able to remove by means of their (superficially known;
antagonistic remedies, such as antispasmodics, antiphlogistics,
tonics, stimulants, antiseptics, solvents, percutients, derivatives,
and evacuants.[28]
Curative drugs, however, can never be found if searched for
under the guidance of such general indications, especially in the
common Materia Medica of the old school, based, as I have
shown elsewhere,[29] mostly upon conjectures and false conclu-
sions, ab usu in morbis, and mingled with falsehood and deceit.
With an equal degree of recklessness they waged war against
still more hypothetical so-called indications, such as deficiency
or surplus of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon or hydrogen in the juices ;
or against increased or diminished susceptibility of the sensitive
sphere, or of reproduction ; against arterial, venous, and capillary
engorgement, asthenia, etc., without due knowledge of the means
of cure applicable to so fanciful an object. This was mere os-
tentation ; treatment to be sure, but not for the benefit of the
patient.
The last vestige of the apparent propriety of that kind of
treatment was destroyed by the ancient custom, now even made
obligatory, of compounding drugs inform of a recipe. The true
action of these medicinal substances, ever and unexceptional ly
varying from each other in effect, was almost entirely unknown.
In preparing a recipe, some drug (unknown as to the scope of its
pathogenetic effects) is placed at the head of the list, as principal
remedy (basis), in order to conquer what the physician considers as
the principal character of the disease ; then one or more remedies
(equally unknown as to the scope of their effects) are added either
for the purpose of removing certain accessory indications, or by
way of assistance to the rest (adjuvantia) ; finally, a third sub-
stance (the limits of whose action are equally unknown) is in-
troduced, in order to correct the effect of the others (corrigens)
whereupon the whole is mixed (decocted, extracted) ; or, perhaps,
put in shape, combined with a medicated syrup of different
quality, or distilled medicated water ; all this is done under the
impression, that each of these component parts (ingredients)
would fulfil in the body of the patient the duty assigned to it in
the imagination of the prescriber, without being disturbed or
A REVIEW OF PHYSIC. 41
confused by the other things in the mixture, as should reasona-
bly be expected. One of these ingredients must partially or
wholly cancel the effect of the other, or impart to it or to the
remainder a different, unexpected mode of action and direction,
thus making it impossible to obtain the desired effect. The result
was frequently of a kind Avhich neither was nor could have been
anticipated from one of these inexplicably enigmatic mixtures ;
it appeared in the form of a new modification of disease, fre-
quently obscured by the tumult of morbid symptoms, but finally
assuming a permanent form under the prolonged use of the
recipe. The result, then, is an additional artificial disease, com-
plicated with the original one, an aggravation of the original
malady. Or, supposing the recipe had not been frequently re-
peated, but to have been exchanged for one or more new pre-
scriptions of other ingredients, in quick succession, a greater
sinking of strength would, at least, have ensued ; because the
prescribed remedies neither had, nor were intended to have, any
direct pathological relation to the original disease; they only
uselessly and perniciously attacked the parts least affected by
the disease.
To witness the unreasonable process of mixing in one formula
several drugs, even if the effect of each upon the human body
had been well known (the writer of a recipe frequently does not
know even the thousandth part of this effect), to mix a variety
of such ingredients, several of which are themselves of a mani-
fold, composite kind, and whose individual and special effect is
scarcely known, but always different from that of the rest, and
then, to see such an incomprehensible mixture administered to
the patient in large and frequent doses, all in the vain hope
of establishing a certain designed curative effect such, I say,
must arouse indignation in the mind of every thinking and un-
biassed[30] observer.
The result is, of course, contrary to any definite expectation.
Although changes and effects do occur, they are badly adapted
to the purpose, hurtful, and pernicious.
Who would apply the name of cure to this blundering inter-
ference with a diseased human body ?
A cure may be expected only through the aid of the remnant
42 INTRODUCTION.
of vitality led into the right path of activity by an appropriate
remedy, but never by an artificial, debilitating process, pushed to
the verge of endurance. And yet, the old school knows no
other way to manage inveterate disorders, than to belabor the
patient with all sorts of tormenting, debilitating, and even fatal
remedies. Can that school save while it destroys? Does this
practice deserve any other name than that of a pernicious art
(Unheilkunst) ? It acts, lege artis, as contrary to this purpose
as possible, and performs (it almost seems as if by design) dttota,
that is, the opposite of what it should perform. Does this merit
our praise? Shall we endure this longer?
In modern times old physic finally has overstepped all bounds
in its cruelty and impropriety of action towards suffering fellow-
men, as every impartial observer must admit, and as physicians
of that school itself (such as Kriiger-Hansen), prompted by con-
science, were obliged to acknowledge to the world.
It was high time that the allwise Creator and Benefactor of
mankind commanded these horrors to cease, set a limit to these
tortures, and called into existence a healing art which, as the
opposite of the former, should save the strength of the patient
as much as possible, and restore his health directly/ quickly,
and permanently, by means of mild and few remedies which
should have been previously well considered and thoroughly
proved according to their effect, and administered in the finest
doses, according to the only natural law of cure: similia similibus
curantur; without wasting the vital force and substance by
emetics, protracted sweeping out of the bowels, warm baths,
sudorifics or salivation ; without shedding the heart's blood, and
without weakening and torturing by painful revulsives ; without
burdening the sufferer to the verge of incurability with new
chronic drug diseases, by assiduously urging the use of wrong
debilitating medicines of qualities unknown to the prescriber ;
without the abuse of violent palliatives, according to the motto :
contraria contrariis, thus placing the horse behind the cart, after
the fashion of merciless routine that leads the way to the grave
instead of recovery. It was high time that God mercifully per-
mitted homoeopathy to be discovered.
A REVIEW OF PHYSIC. 43
Through observation, thought, and experience, I leained that
contrary to old allopathy, the best way to cure is to be found by
following the proposition : In order to cure gently, quickly, un-
failingly, and permanently, select for every case of disease a medi-
cine, capable of calling forth by itself an affection similar (8fj.otov
Kdftoq) to that which it is intended to cure !
Hitherto none taught this homoeopathic method of cure, no
one put it in practice. But if the truth is contained alone in
this process, as others will observe like myself, then we must ex-
pect to discover[31] its actual traces in all past ages, although
it was not acknowledged for thousands of years.
And such is actually the case. In all ages those sufferers who
were, really cured rapidly, permanently, and visibly through medi-
cines, were cured alone (though without the knowledge of the
physician) by a (homoeopathic) remedy, possessing the power of
producing by itself a* similar morbid condition, provided these
patients did not, perchance, recover through the agency of some
other beneficial circumstance, or through spontaneous termination
of the disease, or in the length of time by virtue of their physi-
cal power of endurance, tried under allopathic, antagonistic treat-
ment; for a direct cure differs widely from recovery gained by an
indirect course.
Even those actual cures produced, however rarely, by a
variety of compounded drugs, will be found to result from the
predominant remedy which was of homoeopathic nature.
A still more striking proof may be seen in those instances
where physicians had, contrary to custom (hitherto admitting
only medicinal mixtures in the form of recipes), now and then
effected a speedy cure by means of a simple drug. There we may
see with astonishment that the result was always due to a medi-
cine capable of producing by itself an affection similar to the dis-
ease in which it was used, although the physicians themselves
did not know what they did, laboring under a spell of forgetful-
ness of the opposite doctrines of their school. They prescribed
a remedy, the exact opposite of which they should have used
according to the rules of their customary therapeutics; but in
this manner only were the patients cured quickly. [32]
44 INTRODUCTION.
Without counting those cases where popular empiricism (not
their own inventiveness) had furnished physicians with specific
remedies for diseases of unvarying character, enabling them to
cure in a direct manner for instance, venereal chancre-disease
with quicksilver; disease resulting from contusions, by arnica;
intermittent fevers of marshy districts, by Peruvian bark; recent
cases of itch, by flowers of sulphur, etc. without counting these
instances, we find that all other modes of treatment used by old-
school physicians in chronic diseases, are, without exception,
merely pernicious and debilitating tortures, aggravating the
sufferings of the patient. Such are the measures practiced with
an air of superiority, and at a ruinous expense to the patient.
Sometimes accidental experience would lead them to homoeo-
pathic treatment,[33] but still they did not recognize the law of
nature, according to which such cures were and must be brought
about.
It is, therefore, of extreme importance for the welfare of man-
kind, to seek out the causes of these rare and highly salutary cures.
The disclosures made with regard to them are of the highest 'sig-
nificance. Such cures never were effected by other means than
by homoeopathic remedies, possessing the power of producing a
disease similar to that which was to be cured. Such curative re-
sults were speedily and permanently produced by medicines that
fell, as by accident, into the hands of medical prescribers, who
used them in violation of customary systems and therapeutics
(often without really knowing what they did, and why), but who
unintentionally established the actual existence of a natural law
of cure, that is of homoeopathy, which had hitherto been left un-
discovered in the past ages of medicine, blinded by prejudices,
notwithstanding numerous facts and indications pointing in that
direction.
Even in the domestic practice of non-professional classes of
people, gifted with sound sense and the faculty of observation,
this mode of healing has been found by manifold experience to
be the most safe, thorough, and reliable.
Recently frozen limbs are coverecl with frozen sauerkraut or
nibbed with suow.[34]
An experienced cook holds his scalded hand at a small die-
A REVIEW OF PHYSIC. 45
tance from the fire, without heeding the primary aggravation of
the pain, taught by experience that in a short time, often in a
few minutes, he can restore the appearance of healthy, painless
skin to the burnt spot.[35]
Other sensible laymen, such as japanners, treat a burn with a
remedy capable of exciting a similar burning sensation, e. g. }
strong and well-warmed alcohol,[36] or oil of turpentine,[37]
thereby restoring the parts to health in the course of a few hours ;
well aware that cooling salves would not accomplish the same
object in as many months, and that cold water[38] would in-
crease the evil.
The old and experienced reaper, without being addicted to the
use of brandy, will never drink cold water (contraria contr arils)
whenever he has become heated in the sun to a degree approach-
ing high fever. Knowing the danger likely to follow such an at-
tempt, he takes a small quantity of some heating fluid, a mouth-
ful of brandy, for instance; experience, the teacher of truth,
having convinced him of the advantage and efficacy of this
homeopathic measure by which heat, as well as fatigue, is speedily
removed.[39]
Indeed there have been physicians from time to time, who had
presentiments that medicines, by their power of producing anal-
ogous morbid symptoms, would cure analogous morbid condi-
tions.[40]
The author of one of the books ascribed to Hippocrates, irep}
rbxtov riuv xar av9/>w7ro^[41] has these remarkable words: fa& rd
ofioia vouaos ywETai xai Std TO. oftotet Trpoffpspo/jLsva. ix voffiuvrwv ufiaivovrai^
dtd TO iitleiv errero? 7raueTaj.[42]
The truth of homoeopathy has also been felt and expressed by
physicians of later times. Thus, e. g., Boulduc recognizes the
fact that the purging quality of rhubarb is the cause of its power
to allay diarrhea.
Detharding conjectures[43] that colic in adults is mitigated by
the infusion of senna, by virtue of its analogous effect of pro-
ducing colic in the healthy.
Bertholon[44] confesses that electricity deadens and annuls, in
disease, pain very similar in kind to that produced by electricity.
46 INTRODUCTION.
Thiury testifies that positive electricity, though in itself it ac-
celerates the pulse, nevertheless retards it when accelerated by
discase.[45]
Von Stoerck[46] expresses the idea: "If the thorn-apple de-
ranges the mind, and produces insanity in the healthy, might it
not, by changing the current of ideas, restore soundness of mind
to the insane?"
Stahl, a Danish military physician, has expressed his convic-
tion on this subject most distinctly. He says : " The rule accepted
in medicine to cure by contraries is entirely wrong (contraria con-
trariis)', he is convinced, on the contrary, that diseases vanish
and are cured by means of medicines capable of producing a
similar affection (similia similibus)." Thus burns are cured by
approaching the fire ; frozen limbs by the application of snow
or very cold water; inflammation and contusions, by distilled
spirits. In this manner he is in the habit of curing habitual
acidity of the stomach most successfully by means of a very small
dose of sulphuric acid, in cases where quantities of absorbing
powders have been used in vain.
So near had the great truth sometimes been approached ! But
only a hasty thought was here and there bestowed upon it, and
hence the indispensable reformation of the ancient way of treat-
ing disease, the conversion of the traditional defective manner
of treatment, into a genuine, true, and certain art of healing,
remain unaccomplished to the present day.
REMARKS
EXPLANATORY NOTES TO THE REVIEW OF "PHYSIC,"
ETC.
[1] IT would have been much more in accordance with sound com-
mon sense and the nature of the inquiry, if, for the purpose of treating
a disease, they had sought for its primary cause as the causa morbi. In
that case the method of cure which had proved efficacious in diseases
produced by the same cause could have been successfully applied in all
those of like origin, as, for instance, the same mercurial which is effec-
tual in all venereal chancres is effectual also in any ulcer occurring on
the glans penis after an impure connection. Had they discovered the
primary cause of all other chronic (non-venereal) diseases to be a re-
mote or recent infection by the itch-miasm (psora), and found for all
these a common method of cure, one having due regard for the thera-
peutics of every individual case, according to which each and all of
these chronic diseases could have been treated, then might they have
boasted justly of having rightly apprehended and assumed as the basis
of cure of chronic diseases, the only true and fruitful causa morborum
chronicorum (non-venerorum), and that they could treat these diseases
with the best success. But, ignorant of their origin from itch-miasm
(first discovered by homoeopathy, and subsequently provided with an
effectual method of cure) they have, for many centuries, failed in curing
all the countless chronic diseases. And yet they have boasted of aiming
at the prima causa, and of following the only rational method in their
treatment, although they had not the remotest idea of the only availa-
ble knowledge, that of the psoric origin of chronic diseases, all of which
they bunglingly aggravated.
[2] Every physician who treats according to such generalities, how-
ever boldly he may assume the name of a hornoeopathist, remains
neither more nor less than a generalizing allopathist, since homoeopathy
is absolutely inconceivable without the most precise individualization.
[3] Now called homoeopathic.
[4] " Wherever experience had taught us the curative power of
( 47 )
48 REMARKS AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
homoeopathic medicines, whose mode of action could not \>e explained,
they were straightway declared to be specifics : an utterly meaningless
term, by which all further inquiry was lulled to sleep. But the homo-
geneous or specific (homoeopathic) stimulants have long been proscribed
as most pernicious agents." Rau, On the Homoeopathic Method of
Cure. Heidelberg, 1824, pp. 101-2.
[5] Dr. Rau (Ueber d. Werth d. homceop. Heilverfahrens. Heidel-
berg, 1824, p. 176, et seq.), though not fully initiated into homoeopathy
it that time, was so thoroughly convinced of the dynamic origin of even
these fevers, that he treated them by one or two minute doses of homoe.
opathic medicine without the least resort to evacuants. He relates
two remarkable cases.
[6] In case of a sudden derangement of the stomach, marked by
constant and offensive eructations tasting of tainted food, and usu-
ally accompanied by depression of spirits, cold hands and feet, the
efforts of the ordinary practitioner have been directed altogether
against the vitiated contents of the stomach, using active emetics to
effect their complete expulsion. This end has been usually gained by
tartar emetic with or without ipecac. But will the patient be found
well and cheerful immediately afterwards ? By no means. Commonly
such gastric disturbances are of dynamic origin, and are called forth by
disturbing emotions (grief, fright, vexation) immediately after even
a moderate meal. These two drugs are neither suited to the purpose
of subduing this dynamic derangement, nor the revulsive emesis to
which it gives rise. But, by producing their peculiar morbific symp-
toms, they will have aggravated the patient's condition, and the secre-
tion of bile will have been deranged, so that he will find himself suffer-
ing for several days from the effects of this pretended causal cure, not-
withstanding the violent and complete emptying of the contents of the
stomach. But, if in place of using such powerful and injurious evacu-
ants, the patient will apply but once, by olfaction, the highly diluted
juice of pulsatilla (smelling of a globule no larger than a mustard-seed,
moistened with the same), it will relieve the derangement of his condi-
tion in general, and that of his stomach in particular, and restore him
in two hours. Should eructations still occur subsequently they will be
only of tasteless and odorless gas ; the contents of the stomach will no
longer be vitiated, his usual appetite will make its appearance with
the return of the next meal, and he is well and cheerful. This is a
real causal cure ; the other imaginary one is only a pernicious strain
upon the patient's constitution.
The stomach, even if surcharged with indigestible food, scarcely ever
requires a medicinal emetic. Nature possesses the best means of throw-
ing off any superfluities by means of nausea, loathing, and even vomit-
TO THE REVIEW OF PHYSIC. 49
ing, perhaps with the assistance of mechanical measures, such as tick-
ling the palate and fauces, thereby avoiding all the incidental effects
of medicinal emetics ; any remaining particles in the stomach will be
assisted in passing downwards by a little decoction of coffee.
Supposing, however, that after overloading the stomach, its powei
of reaction were insufficient to produce vomiting, while, at the same
time, the inclination to vomit had become extinct in consequence of ex-
cessive pain in the epigastrium, such an emetic would be followed by a
dangerous or even fatal inflammation of the bowels, if administered
during this paralyzed condition of the. stomach. While a small quan-
tity of strong coffee, frequently repeated, would have been sufficient to
elevate dynamically the depressed susceptibility of the stomach, and
to have enabled it to discharge without other aid, its superabundant
contents by the mouth or rectum. Here the so-called causal cure is
out of place.
In chronic diseases when accompanied by regurgitation of acrid gas-
tric juice, the latter is forcibly and painfully removed by emetics, only
to be replaced the next or the following days by gastric juice quite as
acrid and even more abundant than the former.- This would subside
of its own accord, provided its dynamic cause were curatively annulled
by a small dose of highly diluted sulphuric acid, or, if the acidity were
of frequent occurrence, by the use of some other antipsoric remedy,
corresponding to the rest of the symptoms. Of such pretended causal
cures there are many in the old school, whose favorite occupation it is
to clear out the material product of dynamic derangements by means
of cumbersome and deleterious measures, without recognizing the dy-
namic source of the disorder, and without curing it rationally and
homceopathically together with its products.
[7] Conditions which are dependent entirely upon psora, and easily.
cured by (dynamic) mild antipsoric remedies, without purging or vom-
iting.
[8] Notwithstanding that all haemorrhages depend upon a dynamic
alteration of vital force of health, the old school takes superabun-
dance of blood to be their cause, and cannot refrain from venesec-
tions for the sake of getting rid of this supposed redundancy of vital
juices. Afterwards the very evident and evil results, the depression
of strength as well as the tendency or the actual transition into a
typhoid state, is saddled upon the virulence of the disease, which that
school too often finds itself unable to cope with. In fact, it persuades
itself that it had performed a cure, according to the motto "causam
(oZZe," even if the patient does not'recover, and in its way of speaking,
all that was possible had been done for the patient whatever the result
might be.
4
50 REMARKS AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
[9] Regardless of the probability that the human body has uevei
contained one drop of blood too much, the old school regards a so-called
plethoric condition as the material and chief cause of all haemor-
rhages and inflammations, to be counteracted and removed by ven-
esections and leeches. That is called rational treatment and causal
cure. In general inflammatory fevers, and in acute pleurisy, physi-
cians of the old school go so far as to call the coagulable lymph of the
blood, the so-called bufty coat, the materia peccans, which they try to
expel by repeated bloodlettings, notwithstanding its frequent reap-
pearance with increased tenacity and firmness under renewed abstrac-
tion of blood. Thus blood is often shed until death is close at hand, if
the inflammatory fever will not subside, in order to remove this buffy
coat or supposed plethora. It never occurs to them that the inflamed
blood is only the product of acute fever ; ?'. e., of the morbid, immate-
rial (dynamic) irritation, and that the latter is the sole cause of this
great tumult in the arterial system, so easily subdued by the smallest
dose of a homogeneous (homoeopathic) remedy, for instance, by one
small globule moistened with the decillionth dilution of aconite, at
the same time avoiding vegetable acids, so that the most violent pleuritic
fever, with all its threatening complications, is converted into health,
and cured in twenty-four hours at most, without bloodletting or any cool-
ing medicines. (A specimen of the patient's blood, taken from a vein,
will no longer show a trace of buffiness.) While a patient afflicted
with the same disease treated according to the "rational methods " of
the old school, if, indeed, he escapes death for the present, after re-
peated bloodletting and unspeakable misery, will have to linger for
many a sickly month, before his emaciated frame gains strength
enough to stand erect, having narrowly escaped death from typhoid
fever, leucophlegmasia, or suppurative disease of the lungs, the fre-
quent consequence of such maltreatment.
He who has ever felt the pulse of a man an hour before the onset
of the chills which always precede an attack of acute pleurisy, will be
surprised when, two hours later, after the onset of the hot stage, he is
to be persuaded of the necessity of resisting the present enormous
plethora by frequent bloodletting, and he wonders by what miracle so
many pounds of blood, now to be poured out, may have entered the
patient's blood vessels, felt quietly pulsating only two hours ago. Not
one drachm more of blood can now roll through those vessels than
they contained in times of health, or two hours earlier.
An allopathist, therefore, does not rid the fever-patient of a noxious
superabundance of blood (which can never have existed), but robs
him of his normal quantity of blood, necessary to life and recovery,
and hence of strength an enormous, loss never to be repaired by medi-
cal aid. In the face of all this, these practitioners persist in the delusion
of having acted in harmony with this (ill-conceived) motto, causam
TO THE REVIEW OF PHYSIC. 51
l .olle, while in this case the cause of disease could never have c nsisted
in a superabundance of blood, a thing without existence ; here on the
contrary, the only true cause of disease was a morbid, dynamic inflam-
matory irritation of the vascular system, as has been and will be proved
in every case of the kind, by the rapid and permanent cure effected as
above related, by one or two incredibly fine and minute doses of
aconite, possessing the power of homoeopathically allaying such an irri-
tation.
In a similar manner the old school misses its mark in its treatment
of local inflammations by local depletion, particularly by the applica-
tion of countless leeches, after the rash manner now inaugurated by
Broussais. The palliative relief, primarily observed, is by no means
crowned by a rapid and complete cure, because the ever remaining
weakness and frailty of the part (often also the entire body) so treated,
bears sufficient evidence that local inflammation was erroneously at-
tributed to local plethora, and that the results of such local depletion
are deplorable ; for this virtually dynamic but apparently local inflam-
matory agency can be cancelled and cured by an equally fine dose of
aconite, or the entire disorder may, if circumstances point that way,
be permanently relieved by belladonna, without this wanton shedding
of blood.
[10] Life was endangered when some pure water was injected into a
vein (see Mullen, in Birch, History of Royal Society, vol. iv).
Atmospheric air injected into the bloodvessels proved fatal (see J.
H. Voigt, Magazine far den neuesten Zustand der Naturkunde, I, III,
p. 25).
[11] A girl, eight years of age, in Glasgow, bitten by a rabid dog,
had the wound immediately and thoroughly excised by the surgeon, but
nevertheless had hydrophobia thirty-six days afterwards, and died in
two days. (Med. Comment, on Edinb., Dec. ii, vol. ii, 1793.)
[12] In order to explain the origin of the large quantity of pu-
trid matter and offensive ichor of sores, often observed in diseases,
and in order to declare these appearances to be the exciting and
maintaining matters of disease (notwithstanding the invisibility of
miasms, or the impossible penetration of material substance into the
body during infection), it was hypothetically asserted that the conta-
gious matter, even if extremely fine, acted in the body like a ferment ;
that it vitiated the juices, changing them into a morbid ferment of its
own kind, and maintaining the disease by virtue of its rank growth
during the morbid process. What potent and ingeniously conc-octed
purifying draughts could effect the elimination and separation from the
human body of this inconstant process of reproduction, this mass of
52 REMARKS AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
so-called morbific matter, without leaving a vestige behind that might
not, according to that hypothesis, again and again deteriorate and
transform the juices into new morbific matters ? In that case it were
impossible to cure these diseases according to your method. It becomes
evident that every hypothesis, no matter how skilfully worded, will
lead to the most palpable inconsistencies, when it is not founded on
truth. Syphilis of the most inveterate kind, if liberated from its fre-
quent complication with psora, will be cured by means of one or two
very minute doses of the decillionth dilution and potency of dissolved
metallic quicksilver, after which the general syphilitic deterioration of
the juices will be found to have been forever (dynamically) annihilated
and dispelled.
[13] In that case every cold in the head, even the most protracted,
must be invariably and speedily cured by careful blowing and cleans-
ing of the nose.
[14] The expulsion of worms in so-called worm diseases has an ap-
pearance of necessity. But this appearance also is deceptive. Some
lumbrical worms are perhaps to be found in many children, while
the threadworm may be said to infest many others. But all of
these, as well as a superabundance of one kind or another, invariably
result from a general state of unhealthiness (psoric), combined with an
improper mode of living. By improving the latter, and curing the
psoric disease homo30pathically, which is most easily accomplished
during the period of childhood, no more worms will remain, and chil-
dren cured in this manner will no longer be tormented by them, while
they are rapidly reproduced in great numbers after the use of mere
purgatives, even if these are compounded with wormseed (semen
cinse).
"But what of the tapeworm ?" I hear them say; "must not this
monstrous plague of mankind be expelled with all available force ?"
Indeed, it is sometimes driven out, but not without much subsequent
pain and danger to life. I would not burden my conscience with the
death of so many hundreds of fellow-men, whose lives have been sacri-
ficed by the use of the most debilitating, dreadful purgatives intended
for the tapeworm ; neither would I be guilty of the protracted illness of
those who escaped death by purgation. Though continued for years
how seldom this purgative treatment, so destructive to health and life,
attains its object, or if it succeed, does not the tapeworm as frequently
reproduce itself ?
What, if this forcible and often cruel and fatal method of expelling
or killing these .parasites were unnecessary ?
The various species of tapeworm are only found in cases of psoric
disease, and always disappear when that is cured. But before such
TO THE KEVTEYV OF PHYSIC. 53
euro can be accomplished, and during a period of comparative health,
they do not inhabit the intestines proper, but rather the remnants cf
food and fecal matter contained therein, living quietly as in a world of
their own, without causing the least inconvenience, finding their sus-
tenance in the contents of the bowels. During this state they do not
come in contact with the intestinal walls and remain harmless. But
when from any cause a person is attacked by an acute disease, the con-
tents of the bowels become offensive to the parasite, which, in its writh-
ing and distress, touches and irritates the sensitive intestinal lining,
thus increasing the complaints of the patient considerably by a par-
ticular kind of cramplike colic. (In a similar manner the foetus in the
womb becomes restless, twists its body, and moves whenever the mother
is sick, but floats quietly in the liquor amnii, without distressing the
mother, while she is well. )
It should be remarked, that the symptoms of a patient suffering
from the above symptoms, are mostly of a kind that may be speedily
(homoeopathically) quieted by the most minute dose of the tincture of
the root of the male fern, since the morbid condition of the patient,
causing the disquietude of the parasite, is temporarily arrested by the
remedy ; the tapeworm is then quieted, and continues to live in the in-
testinal contents, without seriously disturbing the patient or his intes-
tines, until the antipsoric cure has reached a stage, at which the psora
has been so far extinguished that the fecal contents of the bowels cease
to meet the wants of the worm, which now spontaneously departs from
the convalescent patient forever, and without the least resort to pur-
gatives.
[15] Instead of directly extinguishing the evil, quickly and without
loss of strength and digression, by aiming homogeneous dynamic me-
dicinal potencies at the diseased points of the organism, according to
the usage of homoeopathy.
[16] As if anything non-material could be eliminated by derivatives,
directed against a material morbific substance, however subtile it is
thought to be.
[17] Only moderately acute diseases are in the habit, so to say, of
becoming neutralized (indifferenziren), and to terminate quietly with
and without the application of the milder allopathic remedies. The
vital power having rallied its strength, once more begins its normal
sway where health has been disturbed by the storm of disease. But
in the highly acute and in by far the most numerous affections of man,
the chronic diseases, untutored nature, and the old school will be un-
successful. There neither the vital force with its healing power, nor
allopathy will effect a resolution ; a truce perhaps may be the result,
54 REMARKS AND EXPLANATORY XOTES
giving the enemy time to rally his forces, and (sooner or later to renew
the assault with increased vigor.
[18] An expression betraying the presupposition and intention of
expelling and dissolving some morbific substance.
[19] In ordinary practice it was customary to regard the cure of
diseases by the spontaneous efforts of the nature of the organism,
where no medicine was used, as model cures, worthy of imitation. But
it was a great error. The lamentable and very imperfect attempts
of vitality at self-redress in acute diseases, presents a spectacle calling
for the exercise of compassion as well as of all the powers of our in-
telligent mind, in order to put an end to this self-torture by an actual,
real cure. When a disease already present in the organism cannot be
cured homoeopathic-ally by the power of nature applying another new,
similar disease (3 43-46), an opportunity rarely afforded ($ 50), and
when the organism is left to its resources to conquer disease by its own
strength and without 1 external aid, its resistance being impotent in
chronic miasms, we observe that these painful and often dangerous
efforts of nature, instituted for the sake of relief at any price, fre-
quently terminate by death this earthly existence.
As little as we mortals understand the economy of healthy life, and
as surely as it must ever remain hidden from us, though plain to the
all-seeing eye of the Creator and sustainer of his creatures, so impos-
sible it will ever ue for us to understand the internal processes of dis-
turbed life in diseases. The internal process of diseases is only mani-
fested by those observable changes, complaints, and symptoms, through
which alone life expresses its inner disturbances ; so that in every given
case we must remain unable to determine which of the morbid symp-
toms are primary effects of the morbific agency (Schiidlichkeit), or
which are to be considered as the reaction of vital force in its sponta-
neous curative efforts. Both are seen to coalesce, and merely represent
an outwardly reflected image of the totality of the inward disease,
since the fruitless efforts of life, left to its own resources in terminating
the disease, are themselves the disease of the entire organism. Conse-
quently, more suffering than beneficent relief, often follows those evacu-
ations called crises, commonly occurring toward the end of acute dis-
eases. Whatever the vital force produces in these crises, and how it is
produced, will remain obscure, like all other inner processes of the or-
ganic economy of life. It is certain, however, that in all its exertions,
the vital force sacrifices and destroys a greater or less proportion of the
affected parts, in order to save the reft. This power of self-limitation
possessed by the vital force, proceeding in accordance with the organic
arrangement of the body, and not with deliberation of reason in over-
coming an acute disease, is mostly a kind of allopathy. In order to
TO THE REVIEW OF PHYSIC. 55
elieve the primarily affected parts by a crisis, it frequentlj creates an
increased and even tempestuous activity in the organs of secretion, for
the purpose of transferring the disease from the former to the latter ;
the sequel is seen in the appearance of emesis, diarrhoea, flow of urine,
perspiration, abscesses, etc., by which excitation of remote structures
it is intended to establish a kind of derivation from originally morbid
parts, because, under such circumstances, the nervous force dynamically
excited, apparently strives to relieve its tension by the formation of
material products.
It is only by the destruction and sacrifice of the system, that nature
unassisted is enabled to rally from acute diseases, or slowly and imper-
fectly to re-establish health and harmony of life if death does not fore-
stall her efforts.
After spontaneous recoveries, all this is pointed out by the great
weakness and emaciation of the entire body, or of the parts having been
affected by disease.
In a word, the whole process set up by the organism, in its self-limi-
tation of diseases, exhibits to the observer nothing but suffering, and
nothing that he could or should imitate if he truly exercises the art of
healing.
[20] Daily experience shows the deplorable result obtained by this
manoeuvre in chronic diseases. A cure is most rarely the result. But
who would call it a victory, when instead of attacking the enemy face
to face, weapon to weapon, in order to destroy him and end with one
blow his hostile incursions, he finds his cities sacked, his supplies cut
off, his sustenance consumed, and everything devastated by fife and
sword around him ; by such measures the enemy may be obliged to
give up in despair, but the object is not gained, the enemy is not
crushed ; he is still in the field, and when he has again obtained forage
and supplies, he will lift his head with fiercer threats of vengeance ;
the enemy, I say, is by no means crushed, but the poor innocent
country is so far ruined, that even time will scarcely restore its former
condition. Such is allopathy in chronic diseases when it destroys the
organism, without curing the disease, by its indirect attacks upon in-
nocent parts, remote from the seat of disease. Such are its non-benefi-
cent artifices !
[21] "What good result was obtained by the frequent use of those
artificial and offensive ulcers called fontanels ? During the first few
weeks, they really may have seemed slightly to check a chronic dis-
order by means of their antagonism, and as long as they continued to
be painful, but as soon as the body had learned to bear them, they have
never failed to weaken the patient, thereby increasing the range of the
active chronic evil. It seems incredible that in the nineteenth cen-
56 REMARKS AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
tury it is thought possible that an opening could be made by such
means for the escape of the materia peccans.
[22] Neither was a cure ever achieved by artificial evacuations
[23] Such were the natural consequences of suppressing those local
symptoms, consequences often represented by the allopathic phyt ician
as new and different diseases.
[24] Quite contrary to this method, the old school frequently ven-
tures upon a directly opposite course, thus, by its repercussions and
repellants, it would suppress at pleasure the eiforts of vitality to relieve
an inner disease, or troublesome local symptoms appearing on the sur-
face of the body, by evacuants ; it did not hesitate to treat chronic
pains, sleeplessness, and inveterate diarrhcea with the most reckless
doses of opium ; or to suppress vomiting with effervescent saline mix-
tures, offensive perspiration of the feet by cold foot-baths, or prepara-
tions of lead or zinc ; to counteract uterine hemorrhage by injections
of vinegar ; colliquative sweats by alum whey ; nocturnal seminal
emissions by excessive use of camphor ; frequent flushes of heat over
the face or body by saltpetre, vegetable or sulphuric acid ; to arrest
nosebleed by closing the nares with plugs saturated with alcohol or
astringent fluids, and to dry up with oxide of lead or zinc ichorous
ulcers of the extremities, called forth by vital reaction to mitigate grave
internal disease, etc. ; but manifold experiences prove the lamentable
consequences of such treatment.
By word and pen the old school practitioner boasts of being a ra-
tional physician, seeking for the cause of disease in order. always to
perform radical cures ; but it is plain that his treatment is directed
against a single symptom, always to the injury of the patient.
[25] A process termed enantiopathic with much propriety, to which
allusion will be made in the text of the Organon (I 59).
[26] Deafness was relieved only for a few hours by moderate shocks
of tte voltaic battery in the hands of the apothecary in fevers, but
these soon ceased to be effective. In order to obtain other results, he
was obliged to increase the power of the shocks until these too were
unavailing. The strongest shocks at first improved the patient's hear-
ing for a short time, but finally resulted in complete deafness
[27] Notwithstanding all this, Hufeland, the representative of the
old school, exultingly praises these effects of digitalis (v. Homceofathie,
TO THE REVIEW OF PHYSIC. 57
p. 22), in the following words, "No one can deny that violent excite-
ment of circulation may be reduced by means of digitalis." An asser-
tion entirely unsupported by experience.
[28] Supported in vain by Hufeland, in his pamphlet (Die Homoeo-
pathic, p. 20), for the sake of his inefficient practice (Unkunst).
Since allopathy, during twenty-five hundred years of its existence,
remained ignorant of the source of most chronic diseases (psora), before
the appearance of my book ( The Chronic Diseases), it became necessary
to invent a false explanation of the origin (genesis) of chronic disorders.
[29] Quellen der Bisherigen Materia Medica. Sources of the old Ma-
teria Medica preceding the third part of the " Pure Materia Medica."
[30] The absurdity of these drug mixtures has been recognized even
by men of the prevailing school, although they followed this change-
less routine in their own practice, and contrary to their own con-
viction. Thus Marcus Herz (in Hufeland's Journ. der Procf., Arzt.
ii, p. 33), expresses his conscientious scruples in the following words :
' When we wish to relieve an inflammation, we do not use saltpetre,
ammonia, or vegetable acids alone, but we often mix several, and fre-
quently too many so-called antiphlogistic remedies together, or allow
them to be used in rapid succession. When it becomes necessary to
counteract putrefaction, we are not satisfied with the use of one well-
known antiseptic, such as cinchona bark, mineral acids, arnica, or
snake-root administered in large quantity, and to await the result ; but
we prefer to compound several of these drugs, and to count upon their
united action ; or from ignorance of the efficacy of any single drug in
a given case, we huddle a variety of things together, and trust that by
chance one of them may have the desired effect. Thus one remedy seldom
is used to promote perspiration, to improve the blood (?), to liquefy ac-
cumulations (?), to produce expectoration or evacuation of the intes-
anes ; for such purposes our prescriptions are always complicated,
never simple and pure, and consequently we arrive at no definite or pre-
cise experiences regarding the effects of the individual ingredients of these
prescriptions. We have, nevertheless, arranged our remedies methodi-
cally according to their rank, and call that drug to which we ascribe
the main action basis; we designate the rest as adjuvants, corrigents,
etc. This classification is obviously an arbitrary one. Adjuvants take
part in the total effect as well as the principal ingredient, although we
have no means of determining the degree of their action ; nor is the
influence exercised by the corrigens upon the other drugs, a matter of
indifference, since it must increase or decrease their action or give it
another direction. We are therefore always bound to regard a cura-
58 REMARKS AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
tive (?) effect wrought by snih a formula as the collective result of all
its ingredients ; nor can we >btain a clear idea of the separate action of
each individual ingredient. In fact, our insight into that condition which
determines an essential knowledge of all our remedies, as well as our
knowledge of the manifold -relationships into which they enter when mixed
together, is far too imperfict to allow us to determine the magnitude and
variety of the effects of a drug, however insignificant it may appear if in-
troduced into the human body combined with other substances.
[31] For truth is of the same eternal origin as the omniscient and
beneficent Divinity. Men may leave it long unheeded until its rays of
light penetrate with irresistible force the mist of prejudices, like the
dawn of approaching day, that shall shine brightly and forever for the
welfare of mankind.
[32] Examples of this kind may be found in the preceding editions
of the Organon of the Healing Art.
[33] It was the usual practice to attempt to promote arrested cuta-
neous excretions, by prescribing an infusion of elder flowers, to be
drank during the chills of a fever occasioned by exposure. This in-
fusion by virtue of its similarity of action (homoeopathic), may cure
the fever, and restore the patient quickly, and much more successfully
without perspiration if taken by itself. Hard and acute swellings, the
excessive and painful inflammation of which prevents transition into
suppuration, were usually covered by repeated hot poultices, and be-
hold, inflammation and pain were speedily diminished by the forma-
tion of the abscess, indicated by a yellowish shining prominence and
fluctuation. The hardness was then supposed to have been softened
by the moisture of the poultice, while actually the higher temperature
of the latter had relieved homceopathically the excess of inflammation,
thus facilitating the formation of the abscess. Why is the red oxide
of mercury, which is known to produce inflammation of the eyes, em-
ployed with benefit in some kinds of ophthalmia, in the form of St. Yves
salve ? Is it so difficult to recognize the homoeopathic nature of this
process V Or, why should a little juice of parsley bring instantaneous
relief in cases of strangury, common among young children, or in cases
of clap, chiefly marked by frequent and ineffectual efforts to urinate,
if this freshlv prepared juice did not produce by itself, in healthy per-
sons, that painful and ineffectual straining, which proves the homoeo-
pathic nature of its curative effect.
Pimpernel root, increasing the mucous secretion of the air-passages
and fauces, was effectually used in curing the so-called mucous cramp
(bronchial catarrh).
The leaves of the Sabina, themselves capable of producing uterine
TO THE REVIEW OF PHYSIC. 5?
haemorrhage, were used successfully in such cases, without, however,
leading to the recognition of the homoeopathic law of cure. In cases
of strangulated hernia and ileus, many physicians found a superior and
reliable remedy in small doses of opium, which has the property of
checking intestinal evacuations ; notwithstanding this circumstance,
they did not perceive the operation of the homoeopathic law in such
cases. They cured non-venereal ulcers of the throat with small doses
of mercury, homoeopathic to these cases ; they frequently checked diar-
rhoea with small doses of cathartic rhubarb ; they cured hydrophobia
with Belladonna, capable of producing a similar affection, and removed
as if by magic the dangerous comatose condition of inflammatory
fevers with a small dose of opium, known to be heating and stupefying.
And yet they vituperate homoeopathy, and persecute it with a degree
of wrath that can only be excited in an incorrigible heart by the ad-
monitions of an evil conscience.
[34] From these examples, derived from domestic practice, Mr. M.
Lux has constructed his so-called curative method according to equals
and JfZem, called by him Isopathy, which some eccentric minds have
already declared as the non plus ultra of curative methods, without
knowing how it could be realized.
If these examples are carefully considered, the matter will appear in
a very different light.
The purely physical forces are of different nature from dynamic me-
dicinal powers in their effect upon the living organism.
The degree of warmth or cold of the surrounding atmosphere, of
water, or of food and drink, do not (considered as warmth or cold] per
se, condition an absolute hurtfulness for the healthy body ; warmth
and cold in their changes are necessary for the maintenance of health,
consequently they are not medicines per se ; warmth and cold there-
fore applied to bodily affections do not act as remedial agents by virtue
of their nature (not as warmth and cold considered as hurtful things,
per se, in the manner of drugs, like rhubarb, bark, etc., even if re-
duced to the finest doses), but only by virtue of their greater or smaller
quantity, i. e., according to the degree of their temperature ; thus (to
use an example of mere physical forces), a large leaden weight would
press the hand painfully, not by virtue of its being lead, but by means
of its quantity and heaviness in a mass, while a thin leaden plate
would cause no suffering.
If warirth and cold therefore are beneficial in burns and freezing,
they are so on account of their degree of temperature, in the same
manner as their extremes of temperature are obnoxious to the healthy
body.
Accordingly we find that, in these examples of domestic practice,
the frozen limb is not restored by the continued degree of cold applied
0*0 REMARKS AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
to it (because that would have benumbed and killed it); but it is by a
degree of cold (homoeopathy) which is gradually reduced to a comfort-
able temperature approaching that of the limb. Thus, frozen cabbage
applied to the frozen hand in the temperature of the room will soon
melt, and by gradually rising from a temperature of + 1 to 2, and so on
to that of the room, say + 10, becoming gradually warmer, will thus re-
store the limb homoeopathically. Neither is a hand scalded by boiling
water, restored according to the principle of isopathy by the application
of boiling water, but only by a lower degree of heat. For instance, if
the hand is held in a vessel containing a fluid heated to 60, this will
grow cooler every minute, gradually assuming the temperature of the
room ; thus the burned part will have been cured homoeopathically.
The first cannot be drawn isopathically from potatoes or apples by
means of water, which is rapidly becoming ice, but only by water re-
maining near the freezing-point.
Thus, to use another illusti-ation of physical eifects: the suffering
occasioned by a blow upon the forehead by some hard body (of a severe
bruise), is soon lessened by pressing the thumb hard upon the place for a
while, gradually diminishing the pressure : this is homoeopathic relief;
while an equally severe blow upon the sore place, with an equally hard
body, would be isopathy ; but it would increase the evil.
The same book contains further examples of isopathic cures, such
as muscular contractions in the human body and spinal paralysis in a
dog, both caused by cold, and rapidly cured by cold bathing. This
circumstance is erroneously explained as being the result of isopathy.
Disorders resulting from cold have merely the name of colds, but are
frequently occasioned in a predisposed person by a breath of wind
which was not even cold. Neither can the various effects of a cold
bath upon the living body of well or sick persons, be embraced so com-
pletely in one principle, that a system could so boldly be at once built
upon it. That snake-bites, as there stated, are positively cured by
parts of snakes, would be counted among the fables of bygone ages,
until such improbable assertions have been established by undoubted
observations and experiences, an event scarcely to be looked for.
Finally, it is said that the saliva of a rabid dog, given to a man (in
Eussia), raving with hydrophobia, cured him. It is to be hoped that
such assertions, founded on hearsay, will mislead no conscientious
physician to imitate so dangerous an experiment, or to build upon it a
so-called system of isopathy, as dangerous as it is absurd in its ex-
tended sense, notwithstanding the praises of eccentric enthusiasts
(though not of the modest author of the pamphlet entitled, Isopatky
of Contagions, Leipsic, published by Kollmann), particularly Dr. Gross
(Alli\ Horn. Z., ii, p. 72), who proclaims this isopathy (cequalia cequal-
ilms) as the only true principle, while he considers similia similibus
TO THE REVIEW OF PHYSIc. 61
merely as makeshift. This is truly ungrateful, since he is .ndebted to
similia similibus for reputation and fortune.
[35] Feruelius already (Tlierap., lib. vi, cap. 20) considered the ap-
proximation of a burnt part to the fire as the appropriate remedy for
the relief of pain. John Hunter (On the Blood, Inflammation, etc., p.
218) alludes to the great disadvantage of treating burns with cold
water, and gives decided preference to the approximation of fire, not
according to transmitted medical' doctrines, demanding (contraria con-
trariis) cooling applications for inflammations, but in harmony with
the experience, that a similar application of heat is more beneficial
(similia
[36] Sydenham (Opera, p. 271) says: "Alcohol, frequently applied,
is preferable to any other remedy in burns." Also Benjamin Bell
(System of Surgery, 3d edit., 1789), pays homage to experience, which
shows homo3opathic remedies to be the only beneficial ones. He says :
"One of the best remedies for burns is alcohol. During its applica-
tion it appears to increase the pain for a moment ( 164), but this soon
subsides, leaving an agreeable, quieting sensation. It acts most
potently when the parts are immersed in the alcohol ; where that can-
not be done, the parts must continually be covered by pieces of linen
moistened with alcohol." But I must add : The warm, and even very
warm alcohol brings more rapid and more certain relief in these cases,
because it is much more homoeopathic than if unwarmed. And this is
abundantly confirmed by experience.
[37] Edward Kentish, who treated the frightful burns of workmen
in the coal-mines, occasioned by inflammable vapors, orders "the ap-
plication of heated oil of turpentine, or alcohol, as the most excellent
remedy in extensive and severe burns." (Essay on Burns, London,
1798, second essay.) No treatment can be nwre homoeopathic than
this, neither is there a more beneficial one.
The honest and highly experienced Heister (Institut. Chirurg., torn.
i, p. 333) confirms this by his experience, and praises "the application
of oil of turpentine, alcohol, and hot poultices, as hot as they can be
borne."
These (homoeopathic) remedies, capable of producing by themselves
burning sensations and heat, undeniably show their wonderful supe-
riority over the cooling and cold remedies, if applied to parts inflamed
by a burn ; provided, however, the experiment is properly conducted
in such a manner that both curative methods are, for the sake of com-
p xrison, applied to the same person, suffering from burns of equal de-
g :ees of severity.
Thus, John Bell (S. Kuhn's Phys. Med. Journal, Leipsic, 1801, June,
62 REMARKS ANI .EXPLANATORY NOTES
p. 428), had one arm of a scalded woman moistened with oil of turpen-
tine, while the other was immersed in cold water. The first arm wag
well in half an hour, but the latter continued to be painful for six
hours. If withdrawn from the water only for a moment, the patient ex-
perienced far greater pain, requiring far more time for relief than the arm
treated with turpentine.
John Anderson (Kentish, loc. cit. p. 43) treated a woman who had
burned her face and arm with boiling fat. "The face, which was much
burned and red, and very painful, was covered in a few minutes with
on of turpentine, but she had voluntarily placed her arm in cold water,
<lesiring to treat it in that way for a few hours. In seven hours her
face already looked much better, and was relieved. She had often re-
peated the applications of cold water to the arm, but when she omitted
them she complained of much pain ; in fact the inflammation was
found to have increased. On the following morning I found that she
had suffered much pain in the arm during the night ; the inflammation
extended above the elbow ; various large blisters had opened, and thick
crusts had formed upon the arm and. hand, to which a warm poultice
was now applied. But the face was completely painless ; the arm, on
the contrary, had to be dressed for a fortnight with emollients, before
it healed."
Who would not recognize in tJiese cases the great superiority of the (HO-
MCEOPATHIC) treatment, by remedies of similar effect, over the inferior
treatment by contraries (CONTRARIA CONTRARIIS), according to anti-
quated rules of common practice.
[38] Not only John Hunter (loc. cit.) alludes to the great disad-
vantages of treating burns with cold water, but also W. Fabric, von
Hilden (De combustionibus libellus, Basil, 1607,' cap. 5, p. 11), says :
" Cold applications are very injurious in burns, and produce the most
evil consequences, such as inflammation, suppuration, and sometimes
gangrene."
[39] Zimmermann ( Uber die Erfahrung, ii, p. 318), informs us that
the inhabitants of hot countries successfully resort to that practice,
taking some spirituous liquor when they become excessively heated.
[40] The following quotations from authors, having a presentiment
of homoeopathy, are not brought forward for the purpose of proving
the stability of this doctrine, sufficiently firm in itself, but they are
introduced to escape the accusation of having ignored those presenti-
ments, for the sake of the credit of securing the priority of the idea.
[41] Basil, Froben, 153S. 72.
TO THE REVIEW OF PHYSIC.
[42] Memoirs de VAcadtmie Royale, 1710.
[43] Eph. Nat. Cur. Cent., X, obs. 76.
[44] Medicin. Electrisitat, II, pp. 15 and 282.
[45] Mttmoire lu d PAcad. de Caen.
[46] Libell. de sir am, p. 8.
[47] Jo. Hummellii, Commetntatio de arthritide tarn tartarea,
tcorbutica, seu podagra et scorbuto. Biidingae, 1738, 8, pp. 40-42.
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
1. THE physician's highest and only calling is to re-
Btore health to the sick, which is called Healing. [1]
2. The highest aim of healing is the speedy,, gen tie,
and permanent restitution of health, or alleviation and ob-
literation of disease in its entire extent, in the shortest,
most reliable, and safest manner, according to clearly in-
telligible reasons.
3. The physician should distinctly understand the
following conditions : what is curable in diseases in gen-
eral, and in each individual case in particular ; that is,
the recognition of disease (indicatio). He should clearly
comprehend what is curative in drugs in general, and in
each drug in particular ; that is, he should possess a per-
fect knowledge of medicinal powers. He should be gov-
erned by distinct reasons, in order to insure recovery, by
adapting what is curative in medicines to what he has
recognized as undoubtedly morbid in a patient ; that is
to say, he should adapt it so that the case is met by a
remedy well matched with regard to its kind of action
(selection of the remedy, indicatum) , its necessary prep-
aration and quantity (proper dose), and the proper time
of its repetition. Finally, when the physician knows in
each case the obstacles in the way of recovery, and how
6 ( 65 )
66 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
to remove them, he is prepared to act thoroughly, and to
the purpose, as a true master of the art of healing.
4. He is at the same time a preserver of health when
he knows the causes that disturb health, that produce
and maintain disease, and when he knows how to remove
them from healthy persons.
5. The physician in curing derives assistance from
the knowledge of facts concerning the most probable cause
of acute disease, as well as from the most significant
points in the entire history of a case of chronic disease ;
aided bv such knowledge, he is enabled to discover the
j/ O *
primary cause of the latter, dependent mostly on a chronic
miasm. In connection with this, the bodily constitution
of a patient (particularly if he has a chronic disease),
the character of his mind and temperament, his occupa-
tion, his mode of living and habits, his social and do-
mestic relations, his age and sexual function, etc., are to
be taken into consideration.
6. An unbiassed observer, though of unequalled
sagacity, impressed with the futility of transcendental
speculation unsupported by experience, observes in each
individual disease only what is outwardly discernible
through the senses, viz., changes in the sensorial condi-
tion (health) of body and soul morbid signs or symp-
toms. In other words, he observes deviations from the
previous healthy condition of the patient, felt by him,
and recognized upon him by his attendants, and observed
upon him by the physician. All of these observable
signs together represent the disease in its full extent ; that
is, they constitute together the true and only conceivable
form of the disease. [2]
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 6*7
7. In a disease presenting no manifest exciting or
maintaining cause (causa occasionalis) for removal, [3]
nothing is to be discerned but symptoms. These alone
(with due regard to the possible existence of some miasm,
and to accessory circumstances, 5) must constitute the
medium through which the disease demands and points
out its curative agent. Hence the totality of these symp-
toms, this outwardly reflected image of the inner nature
of the disease, i. e., of the suffering vital force, must be
the chief or only means of the disease to make known
the remedy necessary for its cure, the only means of de-
termining the selection of the appropriate remedial agent.
In short, the totality of the symptoms must be regarded
by the physician as the principal and only condition to
be recognized and removed by his art in each case of dis-
ease, that it may be cured and converted into health. [4]
8. It is as impossible to conceive as to demonstrate
by human experience that, after the removal of every
symptom of a disease embraced in the totality of percep-
tib]e phenomena, anything but health should or possibly
could remain, or, that after such removal, the morbid
process of the interior could still continue to be active. [5]
9. During the healthy condition of man this spirit-
like force (autocracy), animating the material body (or-
ganism), rules supreme as dynamis. By it all parts -are
maintained wonderfully in harmonious vital process, both
in feelings and functions, in order that our intelligent
mind may be free to make the living, healthy, bodily
medium subservient to the higher purpose of our being.
10. The material organism without vital force is in-
capable^] of feeling activity or self-preservation. This
68 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
immaterial being (vital force) alone, animating the organ-
ism in the state of sickness and of health, imparts the
faculty of feeling, and controls the functions of life.
11. In sickness this spirit-like, self-acting (auto-
matic) vital force, omnipresent in the organism, is alone
primarily deranged by the dynamic influence of some
morbific agency inimical to life. Only this abnormally
modified vital force can excite morbid sensations in the
organism, and determine the abnormal functional activity
which we call disease. This force, itself invisible, be-
comes perceptible only through its effects upon the organ-
ism, makes known, and has no other way of making
known its morbid disturbance to the observer and phy-
sician than by the manifestation of morbid feelings and
functions ; that is, by symptoms of disease in the visible
material organism.
12. Diseases are produced only by the morbidly dis-
turbed vital force, [7] hence the manifestations of disease
discernible by our senses, at the same time represent every
internal change (i. e., the entire morbid disturbance of
the dynamis), and expose to view, so to speak, the whole
disease. It follows that after the cure of such manifes-
tations of disease, and of all discoverable aberrations from
healthy vital functions, their disappearance must neces-
sarily and with equal certainty be presumed to result in,
and to determine the restoration of the integrity of vital
force, and the return of health to the entire organism.
13. Hence, disease (not subject to the manual skill
of surgery), considered by allopathists as a material
thing hidden within, but distinct from the living whole
''the organism and its lifegiving vital force), is a non-
ORGANON OF THE AJRT OF HEALING. 69
entity, however subtile it is thought to be. It could have
originated only in the minds of materialists, and has for
thousands of years imparted to medical science manifold
deplorable directions, stamping it as an unwholesome in-
stead of a healing art.
14. Within the human body there is no curable dis-
order, nor any curable invisible morbid change, that does
not make itself known as disease to the exact observer
by means of signs and symptoms, quite in accordance
with the infinite goodness of divine Wisdom.
15. Hence the affection of that morbidly altered,
spirit-like dynamis (vital force) ani mating our body, and
residing unseen in its interior, and the complex of ex-
ternally perceptible symptoms caused by that power in
the organism, and representing the actual disease, consti-
tute a whole one and the same. Although the organ-
ism as material instrument serves for the purpose of life,
still this organism is as inconceivable without animation
derived from the instinctive feeling and controlling vital
force, as the vital force without the organism; consequently
both constitute a unit, although our reason in its process
of thought separates this unit into two ideas for the con-
venience of comprehension.
16. Our vital force, that spirit-like dynamis, can-
not be reached nor affected except by a spirit-like (dy-
namic) process, resulting from the hurtful influences of
hostile agencies from the outer world acting upon the
healthy organism, and disturbing the harmonious process
of life. Neither can the physician free the vital force
from any of these morbid disturbances, i. e., diseases, ex-
cept likewise by spirit-like (dynamic, virtual) alterative
70 OEGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
powers of the appropriate remedies acting upon our spirit-
like vital force, perceiving this remedial power through
the omnipresent susceptibility of the nerves of the organ-
ism. Thus, healing remedies can and actually do restore
health and vital harmony only by virtue of their dy-
namic action upon the vital force, after those changes in
the health of the patient (totality of symptoms), per-
ceivable by our senses, have represented the disease to
the attentively observing physician, as completely as pos-
sible for the purpose of its cure.
17. In effecting a cure, the inner change of vital
force, forming the basis of disease, that is the totality of
disease, is always cancelled[8] by removing the entire
complex of perceptible signs and disturbances of the dis-
ease. Hence it follows that the physician has only to re-
move the entire complex of symptoms, in order to cancel
and obliterate[9] simultaneously the internal change;
that is, the morbidly altered vital force, the totality of
the disease, in fact, the disease itself. But disease oblit-
erated is health restored, the highest and only object of
the physician impressed with the significance of his call-
ing, which does not consist in the use of learned phrases,
but in bringing relief.
18. It is then unquestionably true that, besides the
totality of symptoms, it is impossible to discover any
other manifestation by which diseases could express their
need of relief. Hence it undeniably follows that the to-
tality of symptoms observed in each individual case of
disease, can be the only indication to guide us in the
selection of a remedy.
19. Now since diseases are definable only as aberra-
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 71
tions from the state of health, which declare themselves
by symptoms, and since a cure also becomes possible only
by changing this aberration of feeling back into the
healthy state, we may readily understand how impossible
it would be to cure diseases by medicines unless these
possessed the power of altering* the state of health de-
pendent on feelings and functions of the organism. In
fact, the curative power of medicines must rest alone on
their power of altering the sensorial condition of the
body.
20. Neither the spirit-like power concealed in drugs,
and shown by their ability of altering the health of man,
nor their power of curing diseases, can be comprehended
by a mere effort of reason ; it is only through manifesta-
tions of their effect upon the state of health that this
power of drugs is experienced and distinctly observed.
21. It is then undeniable that the healing property
of drugs is actually undiscernible in itself, and that even
the purest experiments, conducted by the most acute ob-
server, fail to reveal any peculiarities of drugs, marking
them at once as medicines or healing remedies. It is
possible only to recognize the power of drugs to produce
distinct changes in the state of feeling of the human
body, particularly of the healthy human body, and to ex-
cite numerous definite morbid symptoms in and about the
same ; and it follows that, if drugs act as curative reme-
dies, they exercise this curative power only by virtue of
their faculty of altering bodily feelings through the pro-
duction of peculiar symptoms. Consequently those mor-
bid disturbances, called forth by drugs in the healthy
* Umsiimmcn means literally to alter the pitch ; to retune.
72 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
body, must be accepted as the only possible revelation of
their inherent curative power. Through them only we
are able to discover what capacity of producing disease,
and hence, also, what capacity of curing disease is pos-
sessed by each individual drug.
22. Hence there is no discoverable part that can be re-
moved from a disease for the purpose of restoring health,
except the totality of its signs and symptoms. Hence,
also, drugs manifest no other curative power except their
tendency to produce morbid symptoms in healthy per-
sons, and to remove them from the sick. Thus it fol-
lows, on the one hand, that drugs become curative reme-
dies capable of obliterating disease only through their
power of creating certain disturbances and symptoms ;
that is, by producing a certain artificial diseased condi-
tion, they cancel and exterminate the symptoms already
present, i. e., the natural diseased condition which it is
intended to cure. It follows, however, on the other hand,
that a remedy must be found for the totality of symptoms
of the disease to be cured, which remedy is inclined to pro-
duce either similar or contrary symptoms, according to the
dictates of experience, which must prove either similar or
contrary drug-symptoms [10] to be most serviceable with
regard to ease, certainty, and permanency in cancelling or
converting into health the symptoms of disease.
23. Each real experience, and exact experiment w r ill
convince us that persistent symptoms of disease are so
imperfectlv alleviated or exterminated by contrary symp-
toms of a drug (used according to antipathic, enantio-
pathic, m palliative method), that after a brief period of
apparent relief they will break forth again in a more
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 73
marked degree, and visibly aggravated. (See 58-62
and 69.)
24. So there remains no other manner of applying
drugs in the cure of diseases but the homoeopathic method,
in accordance with which we select a drug to meet the to-
tality of symptoms of the case of disease, which drug
should possess the power and inclination in a higher de-
gree than any other (of all drugs known and proved with
regard to their tendency to alter the feelings of a healthy
person) , of producing an artificial morbid condition most
similar to that of the natural disease.
25. But now actual experience, [11] the only infal-
lible oracle of medical art, teaches in every carefully con-
ducted experiment that that drug, proved in its effect
upon healthy persons, to produce the greatest number of
symptoms similar to those found in a case of disease to
be cured, and when administered in properly potentiated*
and diminished doses, will rapidly, thoroughly, and per-
manently cancel and turn into health the totality of
symptoms of this diseased condition ; that is (see 616),
the entire present case of disease. Experience also
teaches that all drugs will unexceptionally cure diseases,
the symptoms of which are as similar as possible to those
of the drugs, and leave none uncured.
26. This is based upon that homoeopathic law of
nature which, hitherto unacknowledged, though not un-
recognized, had even been the foundation of every real
cure. In the living organism a weaker dynamic affec-
tion is permanently extinguished by a stronger one if the
* Potentized.
74 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
latter (deviating in kind) is very similar in Us manifes-
tation to the former. [12]
27. Therefore, the healing power of medicines rests
upon their faculty of producing symptoms similar to
the disease, and superior to it in strength ( 12-26),
so that each individual case of disease is most certainly,
fundamentally, and rapidly extinguished and cancelled
by a drug which is more potent than the disease, and
capable of producing in the body symptoms most similar
to, and completely resembling the totality of those of the
disease.
28. Since this natural law of cure has been verified
to the world by every pure experiment and genuine ex-
perience, and has thus become an established fact, a sci-
entific explanation of its mode of action is of little im-
portance ; I therefore place but a slight value upon an
attempt at explanation. Nevertheless, the following
view holds good as the most probable one, since it is based
entirely upon empirical premises.
29. We have seen that every disease (not subject to
surgery alone} is based upon some particular morbid de-
rangement in the feelings and functions of the vital force;
and thus, in the process of a homceopathic cure, by ad-
ministering a medicinal potency chosen exactly in accord-
ance with the similitude of symptoms, a somewhat stronger,
similar, artificial morbid affection is implanted upon the
vital power deranged by a natural disease; this artificial
affection is substituted, as it were, for the weaker similar
natural disease (morbid excitation), against which the
instinctive vital force, now only excited to stronger effort
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 75
by the drug-affection* needs only to direct its increased,
energy; but owing to its brief duration[lS] it will soon be
overcome by the vital force, which, liberated first from the
natural disease, and finally from the substituted artificial
(drug-) affection, now again finds itself enabled to con-
tinue the life of the organism in health. This very
probable process is based upon the following proposi-
tions :
30. Natural diseases are cured and overcome by
proper medicines, because the health of the human body
seems to be more readily affected by drugs (also because
it is in our power to regulate their dose) than by natural
morbific agencies.
31. Those partly psychical and partly physical ter-
restrial potencies known as noxious influences, inimical
to life, do not possess the morbific power of modify ing [14]
human health unconditionally; but they produce sickness
only at a time when our organism happens to be suffici-
ently disposed and inclined to become affected, and to
have its feeling of health altered into morbidly abnor-
mal sensations and functions by the morbific cause that
is present. These potencies, therefore, do not make every
one sick, nor can they do so at all times.
32. The case is far different with artificial, morbific-
potencies which we call medicines. For every true
* The words of the text are: " Die instinctartigc Lebenskraft, nun bloss
loch (aber starker] arzneikrank." Translated literally, this reads: " The
instinctive vital force, now only (stronger) diseased by the drug affection ''
Although this defines the process, it does not render it as intelligible to the
student as the slight modification : " Now only excited to stronger effort,'' etc
-TRANSLATOR.
76 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
medicine (drug) acts at all times, and under all circum
stances, upon every living human being, and excites its
peculiar symptoms in the organism (even very percep-
tibly if the dose is large enough). Thus, every living
human organism is always (unconditionally) affected, and,
as it were, infected by the drug disease which, as stated,
is not at all the case with natural diseases.
33. Consequently, experience [15] leads to the unde-
niable conclusion that the living, human organism is far
more disposed and inclined to be affected, and to have
its feelings altered by medicinal powers than by other
noxious agencies and contagious miasms; or, to express
the same in other words: extraneous, noxious agencies pos-
sess a subordinate, and often extremely conditional power;
but drug potencies possess an absolute, unconditional
power, far superior to the former in its ability to produce
ill health (morbid discordancy) of the human body.
34. The greater intensity of artificial diseases pro-
duced by drugs, does not constitute the only condition of
their ability to cure natural diseases. In order to per-
form a cure, it is necessary that drugs should possess the
power of producing in the human body an artificial dis-
ease, most similar to that which is to be cured; for it is by
virtue of its similitude, combined with greater intensity,
that the drug disease is substituted for the natural dis-
ease, thus depriving the latter of its power to affect the
vital force. This is true to such an extent, that even
nature herself is unable to cure an older disease through
the accession of a new, dissimilar affection, even of great
intensity; nor can the physician perform a cure by means
of drugs incapable of producing in the organism a dis-
eased condition similar to that which is to be cured.
ORGANON OF THE ART OP HEALING. 77
35. In order to illustrate the preceding, let us ex-
amine three different instances of the process adopted by
nature when two unlike natural diseases meet in the
human body, and then let us consider the result of the
ordinary allopathic treatment of diseases with improper
medicines which are incapable of producing an artificial
morbid condition similar to that which is to be cured; it
will then become apparent that nature herself is unable
to extinguish a given dissimilar disease by means of an
unhomceopathic, though stronger, affection; and that the
most powerful drugs, if not homoeopathic, will be unable
to cure any disease whatever.
36. I. Two dissimilar diseases coexisting in the
human body may be of equal intensity ; or, in case the
older one of the two proves to be of the greater intensity,
then the new disease is kept away and excluded from the
body. Thus, a patient already afflicted with an intract-
able chronic disease, will not be attacked by moderate
autumnal dysentery, or any other epidemic. According
to Larry, [16] the Levantine plague does not visit locali-
ties where scurvy prevails; neither does it attack persons
suffering from herpes. According to Jenner, vaccina-
tion proves abortive in persons suffering from rickets.
Von Hildebtand says that patients in the ulcerative
stages of consumption, are not infected by fevers of a
mild epidemic form.
37. And thus, an old chronic disease will remain
stationary and uncured under the ordinary allopathic
treatment even if persisted in for years, that is, if the case
had not been too harshly treated with drugs that, by
themselves, cannot produce in healthy persons a condition
similar to the disease. Examples of this kind may be
78 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
observed in daily practice, and therefore require no further
illustration.
38. II. Or, the new dissimilar disease may be of
greater intensity. In that case, the first disease affecting
the patient, being the weaker, will be postponed and sus-
pended by the superadded intenser malady until the
latter has terminated its course, or has been cured; where-
upon the old disease will reappear uncured. Thus
Tulpius[17] informs us that two children, affected by a
species of epilepsy, were at once free from that disease,
when they were attacked by tinea capitis; but as soon as
the eruption disappeared from the head, the epilepsy re-
turned in the same manner as before. It was observed
by Schopf[18] that the itch disappeared when scurvy
attacked the patient ; but came to light again after the
scurvy was cured. In the same manner, the suppurative
stage of consumption became suspended upon the acces-
sion of violent typhus fever ; but continued its progress
when the fever had ceased. [19] Whenever insanity is
combined with consumption, the latter, with all its symp-
toms, is suspended by the former ; but as soon as the in-
sanity subsides, consumption returns at once to end the
life of the patient. [20] When measles and small-pox
prevail at the same time, and both infect tile same child,
the measles are usually arrested in their course by the
eruption of small-pox appearing somewhat later; but
again resume their progress when the small-pox has
disappeared. Nevertheless, it frequently happened that
small-pox, breaking forth after inoculation, was arrested
during four days by the eruption of measles occurring
meanwhile ; after desquamation of the measles, the small-
pox was seen to run its course to its end, as observed
by Manget.[21] Also measles, breaking out on the sixth
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 79
day after tlie effectual inoculation of small-pox, have
been known to arrest the inflammation caused by the in-
oculation of that virus, so that the variola-pustules did
not appear until the measles had terminated their course
of seven days. [22] On the fourth or fifth day after
inoculation of small-pox, during the prevalence of an
epidemic of measles, in many persons the measles pre-
vented the eruption of small-pox until the former had
completed their course; thereupon the variola appeared,
and terminated favorably. [23] The genuine, smooth,
erysipelatous scarlatina of Sydenham,[24] complicated
with angina faucium, has been arrested on the fourth day
by the eruption of vaccine-pustules, after the termination
of which, the scarlatina returned. As both diseases ap-
pear to be of equal intensity, an eruption of cow-pox
was suspended in the same manner on the eighth .day by
the accession of genuine, smooth scarlet fever of Syden-
ham ; and the red areola of the former was seen to sub-
side until the scarlet fever had ended, when the vaccine-
pustule progressed to its termination. [25] In the other
instance observed by Kortum,[26] cow-pox was sus-
pended by measles: on the eighth day, when the cow-pox
approached its perfection, measles broke out ; the cow-
pox now came to a stand, and did not terminate its
course until after desquamation of the measles, so that
the cow-pox appeared on the sixteenth day as it usually
does on the tenth. The same author testifies [27] that,
even during the presence of the eruption of measles, vac-
cination proved effectual, but did not run its course until
the measles had ended theirs.
I myself saw a case of mumps (angina parotidea)
vanish when, after vaccination, the cow-pox was ap-
proaching its perfection; and not until it had completely
terminated its course, and the red areol* had disappeared,
80 ORGANOX OF THE ART OF HEALING.
did that febrile swelling of the parotid and submaxillary
glands return again by virtue of its peculiar miasm, pro-
gressing through its period of seven days.
Thus, whenever two dissimilar diseases meet in the body,
the stronger one always suspends the weaker (provided
they do not combine, which seldom happens in the acute
forms) ; but they never cure each other.
39. For hundreds of years this state of things was
witnessed with indifference by the ordinary school of
medicine ; it saw that not even nature could cure any
disease by superadding another, however intense, if the
latter was dissimilar to the one already present in the
body. In the presence of such facts, it was reprehensi-
ble on the part of that school to persist in treating chronic
diseases allopathically ; that is, with medicines and rec-
ipes capable of producing every variety of morbid effects,
almost invariably dissimilar to those of the disease to be
cured. And, though physicians had hitherto neglected
to observe nature correctly, the deplorable results of their
treatment should have led them to conclude that their
means were ill-adapted to the purpose, and their course
a wrong one. They should have known that, while they
were directing severe allopathic treatment (as was com-
monly the case) against a chronic disease, they were
merely creating an artificial disease dissimilar to the
original one ; this, while it was kept up, only quieted,
suppressed, and suspended the original malady, always
breaking forth again, as a matter of course, whenever the
decline of the patient's strength no longer permitted the
continuance of these allopathic measures. It is true that
frequently repeated purgatives will shortly cause the erup-
tion of itch to disappear from the skin ; but when the pa-
tient ceases to endure the (dissimilar) intestinal disease
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 81
forced upon him, and when he can no longer swallow
those purgatives, the cutaneous eruption either reappears
in its former shape, or the internal psora is developed
into some threatening symptom, burdening the patient
with painfully deranged digestion and debility in addi-
tion to his undiminished original evil. Thus, when ordi-
nary practitioners keep up artificial, cutaneous ulcers and
fontanels upon the surface of the body, in order to ex-
terminate some chronic disease, they can never gain
their object, nor cure the disease in that manner, because
such artificial, cutaneous ulcers are entirely foreign and
allopathic to the internal disease. It is only now and
then rendered dormant, and suspended for a few weeks,
when the irritation created by severe fontanels happens
to be a more intense (dissimilar) disorder than the in-
ternal disease; but it is mere temporary suspension while
the patient's health declines. Pechlin[28] and others
assert that epilepsy, suppressed for many years by means
of fontanels, invariably returns in an aggravated form
when the issues are allowed to heal. If purgatives and
issues are dissimilar, allopathic, and debilitating remedies
in itch and epilepsy, it- is impossible to conceive of treat-
ment more inappropriate than that by means of recipes,
only too commonly compounded of unknown ingredients,
and employed in ordinary practice in nameless and count-
less other forms of disease. These mixtures are also weak-
ening by suppressing and suspending the evils only for
a short time without curing them, while their protracted
use always adds a new, morbid condition on the old one.
40. III. The new disease, after exerting its influence
for a long time upon the organism, may join the old, dis-
similar malady, forming with the latter a complicated
evil. Each disorder occupies a certain region of the
82 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
organism ; that is, each chooses, as it were, the most ac-
cessible organs and locality most peculiarly sailed to it,
while it leaves the remaining territory in pos.session of
the other, dissimilar disease. Thus a person afflicted with
syphilis, may, in addition, be affected by the itch, and
vice versd. As two dissimilar diseases, they cannot ob-
literate or cure each other. The syphilitic symptoms at
first remain dormant and suspended, while the itch erup-
tion begins to appear; but in due course of time, the
venereal disease being at least of equal intensity with the
itch, they are associated; [29] that is, each occupies those
portions of the organism most adapted to it; but the con-
dition of the patient is thereby seriously aggravated, and
far more difficult to cure.
When dissimilar, acute, contagious diseases, for in-
stance small-pox and measles, meet in the body, they
generally suspend each other, as before remarked ; but
there have been violent epidemics of this kind present-
ing the rare phenomenon of two dissimilar, acute diseases
simultaneously attacking one person, thus forming a com-
plication for a short time. During an epidemic where
small-pox and measles prevailed at the same time, these
diseases either avoided or suspended each other; the
measles did not appear until twenty days after the small-
pox eruption, while the latter did not attack persons until
the seventeenth or eighteenth day after the appearance
of the measles, so that the first disease had ample .time to
complete its course. Among 300 of such cases, there was
but one in which P. Russel[30] recognized both dissimilar
diseases at the same time upon one person. Rainey[31]
twice observed small-pox and measles together in the case
of two girls. J. Maurice[32] declares that he has seen in
his whole practice only two such cases. Statements of
this kind are made by Ettmiiller[33] and others.
ORGAXON OF THE ART OF HEALING 83
Cow-pox was observed by Zenker[34] to run its regu-
lar course by the side of purple rash and measles ; and
Jenner made the same observation during a course of
mercurial treatment in a case of syphilis.
41. In ordinary practice, such complicated diseases,
produced by inappropriate treatment (allopathic method
of cure), and prolonged use of ill-adapted medicines,
are by far more frequent than natural diseases, associ-
ated and complicated with each other in one organism.
Through the influence of a frequently repeated and inap-
propriate medicine, possessing peculiar powers of its own,
new and often very protracted morbid conditions are asso-
ciated with the natural disease, instead of curing it. These
new morbid conditions are gradually blended and compli-
cated with the dissimilar, chronic malady which they were
unable to cure homoeopathically by similitude of effect;
they add to the old disease a new, dissimilar, artificial one
of chronic character, thus doubling the hitherto simple
case, which thus becomes far more severe and intractable,
nay, often quite incurable. These statements are corrobo-
rated by numerous cases reported in medical journals and
treatises. There are numerous cases of this kind where
venereal chancre, complicated with itch-disease, or also
with the dyscrasia of sycotic gonorrhoea (Feigwarzentrip-
per), remains uncured by protracted and inappropriate
treatment with large and frequent doses of mercurials, and
where it becomes complicated with chronic, mercurial dis-
ease, [35] gradually generated in the organism. Thus, a
monstrous complication is formed, known by the general
term of masked syphilis, which, if not entirely incur-
able, is most difficult to eradicate.
42. Nature herself, as above stated, in some instances
84 ORGANON T OF THE ART OF HEALING.
permits the combination of two (or even of three) nat-
ural diseases in the same body. But it should be well
understood that such a complication can only be entered
into by diseases dissimilar to each other; and which, ac-
cording to eternal laws of nature, can neither neutralize,
annihilate, nor cure each other ; whence it appears as if
both (or the three), so to speak, divided the organism
between them, and that each occupied those parts of the
system best adapted to it. The dissimilarity of these
diseases renders such a combination possible.
43. But the result is far different, when two similar
diseases meet in the organism ; that is, when a stronger
and similar disease is added to the one already present.
A case of this kind demonstrates how nature may ac-
complish cures, and how this object should be achieved
by human skill.
44. Two diseases similar in character cannot, like
dissimilar diseases (in instance I), repel one another ; nor
can they, like dissimilar diseases (in instance II), sus-
pend each other, so that the older could return after the
termination of the more recent disease; nor can two
similar diseases, like dissimilar affections (as in example
III), exist side by side, or form a double, complicated
disease in the organism.
45. On the contrary, two diseases, though different
in kind, [36] but very similar in regard to their mani-
festation of suffering and symptoms, will always extin-
guish each other whenever they meet in the organism ;
the stronger disease will overcome the weaker one, for
reasons not difficult to divine : the superadded stronger
morbific potency, on account of its similitude of effect,
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 85
takes possession chiefly of the same parts in the organism
hitherto affected by the weaker, morbific agency ; this is
thereby deprived of its power of action, and is conse-
quently extinguished[37]. In other words, as soon as
the vital force, disturbed by the morbific potency hith-
erto acting upon it, is more powerfully affected by the
new and most similar (but stronger, dynamic) morbific
potency, the latter continues alone to affect the vital force ;
and in this manner the former similar, but weaker
agency, being a mere dynamic power without substance,
must consequently cease to exist, and hence, cease to exert
its morbific influence upon 'the vital force.
46. Many examples might be enumerated where, in
the course of nature, diseases were homoaopathically
cured by others of similar symptoms. But in order to
furnish definite and real instances, it will be necessary
to choose a limited class of diseases which, arising from
a fixed miasm, are always uniform and known by a defi-
nite name. Prominent among them is variola, dreaded
on account of the large number of its violent symptoms,
and known to have obliterated and cured numerous evils
by means of the similitude of its symptoms. It is, for
example, common during small-pox to meet with violent
forms of ophthalmia, often ending in blindness ; and it
is a remarkable fact that inoculation with small-pox
completely cured a protracted case of ophthalmia, as
reported by Dezoteux;[38] and another case mentioned
by Leroy,[39] which was also permanently cured.
A case of blindness, caused by suppression of tinea
capitis, was entirely cured by small-pox, according to
Klein. [40]
Small-pox was often known to produce deafness and
asthma. But both of these tedious complaints were
86 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
cured by it, when it had reached its height, as was ob-
served by J. Fr. Gloss. [41]
Swelling of the testicles, often of a serious kind, is a
frequent effect of small-pox; and this disease, therefore,
by means of its similitude, cured a large and hard swell-
ing of the left testicle, caused by contusion ; as was ob-
served by Klein, [42] and a similar swelling of the testi-
cles was seen by another observer [43] to be cured by it.
An affection of the bowels, resembling dysentery, is
peculiar to the disturbances connected with small-pox ;
and, as observed by Fr. Went, [44] a case of dysentery was
cured by variola, as a similarmorbific potency.
It is well known that when variola is added to cow-
pox, the former, by virtue of its superior intensity as
well as its great similitude, will at once extinguish the
latter homoeopathically, and arrest its development.
Cow-pox, on the other hand, having nearly attained its
period of perfection, will, by its similitude, lessen to a
great degree the virulence and danger of a subsequent
eruption of small-pox, for which we have the testimony
of Miihry,[45] and many others.
The lymph of inoculated cow-pox contains, besides its
proper preventive vaccine matter, a principle capable
of producing a general cutaneous eruption of different
nature; this rarely consists of large pustules; but usually
of small, dry, pointed pimples, seated upon red areola?,
intermingled .with other circular, red blotches of skin,
and is often accompanied by violent itching. In many
children this eruption actually appears several days
before, but more frequently after, the red areola of the
cow-pox, and vanishes in a few days, leaving behind
small, red, and hard spots of skin. By means of the
similitude of this secondary miasm, the cow-pox cures
similar, and often inveterate and troublesome cutaneous
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALIKG. 87
eruptions of children, after the vaccination has properly
taken effect; and such homoeopathic cures are perfect
and durable, as many observers [46] testify.
Cow-pox known to produce the peculiar sympt ,m of
swelling of the arm, [47] cured, after its eruption, a swollen
and half-paralyzed arm. [48]
The fever^ accompanying cow-pox occurring about the
time of the appearance of the red areola, homoeopath-
ically cured intermittent fever in two persons, as Har-
dege, Jr., [49] reports; thereby confirming the observa-
tions of J. Hunter, [50] that two fevers (being similar)
could not exist at one time in -the body.*
Measles bear a strong resemblance to hooping-cough
in regard to fever and the character of the cough, and
hence Bosquillon[51] observed that, in an epidemic
where both diseases prevailed, many children having
already had the measles, escaped the hooping-cough in
this epidemic. The measles would x then and afterwards
have protected all children against the contagion of
hooping-cough, if this bore a more complete resem-
blance to measles ; that is, if it were combined with a
cutaneous eruption similar to that of measles. But,
* The examples of chronic diseases cured by means of the itch, which
were mentioned in previous editions of the Organon, are only to be regarded
as homoeopathic cures in a limited sense, in consequence of the discoveries
and disclosures contained in the first part of the book On Chronic Diseases.
The severe and inveterate diseases (chronic dyspnoea, threatening suffoca-
tion, and cases of consumption), which were there seen to vanish, were
originally of psoric origin. These dangerous symptoms proceeded from ad-
vanced psora, developed within the system. This was as usual again changed
into the simple form of primitive itch-disease, by means of a recent infec-
tion of itch, by which the old diseases and their dangerous symptoms were
removed. Hence, a transformation of this kind into the primitive form,
deserves to be regarded as a bomoaopathic cure of advanced symptoms of in-
veterate psora, only because the new infection places the patient in a condi-
tion far more favorable for the speedy cure of the entire psora, by means of
antipsoric remedies.
88 ORGAJsON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
under these conditions, a certain number only could
escape the hooping-cough in that epidemic, by the
homoeopathic agency of the measles. But when measles,
characterized chiefly by the eruption, are brought in
contact with a similar disease, they will undeniably ex-
tinguish and cure it homoeopathically. In this manner
an inveterate herpetic disease was at once cured [52] en-
tirely and permanently (homoeopathically) by the erup-
tion of measles, as observed by Kortum.[53] A severe
burning, rash-like eruption on the face, neck, and arms,
of six years' standing, and renewed by every change of
weather, was changed, by .the accession of measles, into
a swollen cutaneous surface ; after the disappearance of
the measles this skiu disease was* cured, and never re-
turned.^]
47. The preceding examples contain the most dis-
tinct and convincing' argument in regard to the kind of
artificial, morbific potency (medicine) to be chosen by
the physician, in order to accomplish rapid and perma-
nent cures, according to the process observed in the course
of nature.
48. All of these examples prove that neither the
efforts of nature, nor of the physician have ever been
able to extinguish or cure a disease by means of a dis-
similar morbific potency however powerful; but they
prove that according to eternal and irrevocable laws of
nature, which were hitherto misinterpreted, cures are
made to result alone from a morbific potency which is
similar in symptoms, and somewhat superior in strength.
49. We would be able to discover a far greater num-
ber of instances of genuine, natural, homoeopathic cures,
ORGANOX OP THE ART JF HEALING. 89
if observers had devoted more attention to them, and
also, if homo30pathic auxiliary diseases (Hiilfs-Krank-
heiten) were more frequent in nature.
50. Great as the resources of nature are, she pos-
sesses no other homeopathic means of cure, besides a
few miasmatic diseases of fixed character as auxiliaries
(the itch), measles and small-pox. [55] Some of these
in their capacity as curative agencies, [56] are more dan-
gerous to life and more to be dreaded than the diseases
which they cure ; and others, like the itch, after having
served their purpose of curing another disease, in turn
require treatment to extinguish them. Both of these
conditions render their application as homeopathic reme-
dies difficult, uncertain, and dangerous ; and besides, there
are but few human diseases that would find their similar
remedy in small-pox, measles, and itch. In the course
of nature, therefore, only few evils are cured by means
of these uncertain homoeopathic agencies. The effects
of such morbific potencies are fraught with danger and
great suffering, because they cannot be diminished and
controlled according to circumstances, like doses of medi-
cine. But in order to rid a patient of a similar chronic
evil, his body is completely invaded by an entire, dan-
gerous, and tedious disease, such as small-pox, measles
(and itch). Nevertheless we have seen that fortunate
coincidences of this kind have resulted in excellent
homeopathic cures, serving as so many irrefutable proofs
of the existence of the great and only natural law : to
cure by means of similitude of symptoms.
51. Examples like the preceding were quite suffi-
cient for the purpose of revealing this law of cure to the
intelligent human mind. But man possesses great ad-
90 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
vantages over crude nature as observed in accidental
phenomena ; for he has at his disposal many thousands
of homoeopathic morbific potencies in the form of medici-
nal substances, in which nature abounds for the benefit
of suffering fellow-beings. He discovers in them mor-
bific agencies of every variety of effect, adapted to the
countless, conceivable, and inconceivable natural -dis-
eases, for which they are capable of serving as homoeo-
pathic remedies. The power of these morbific potencies
(medicinal substances), after successfully attaining their
curative purpose, is overcome by the vital force, and
vanishes of itself, without demanding another curative
process for its subsequent expulsion, like psora. Artifi-
cial morbific potencies of that kind admit of being di-
luted, divided, and potentiated to the verge of infinity,
and their dose may be diminished by the physician so as
to retain only the necessary degree of superiority over
the similar natural disease to be cured ; therefore, the
superiority of this method consists in the avoidance of
every violent effect upon the organism, even in the treat-
ment of inveterate chronic diseases ; indeed, the result
of this curative method becomes appreciable only in a
gentle, imperceptible, but none the less rapid transition
from the suffering of natural disease into the desired,
enduring state of health.
52. After becoming familiar with the above illus-
trative examples, no intelligent physician will continue
to adhere to the usages of common, antiquated practice
of attacking the body in its least diseased parts by
(allopathic) medicines, such as purgatives, counter-stimu-
lants, derivatives, etc., [57] having no direct pathical
(homoeopathic) rolation to the disease to be cured. Such
a course produces a heterogeneous and dissimilar morbid
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 91
condition, injurious to the patient ; his strength is wasted
by strong doses of compounds of mostly unknown drugs;
and these are followed by no other result, than the one
produced by the eternal laws of nature when, as in the
cases quoted (or others of the same nature), two dis-
similar diseases meet in the human organism ; in which
case diseases are never cured, but always aggravated.
The effect of such treatment will be of three "kinds :
Example I ( 36) proves that the older disease in
possession of the body, repels the accessory, dissimilar,
and weaker disease, according to the process of nature ;
in like manner, the natural disease remains unchanged
under mild, though protracted allopathic treatment,
which only debilitates the patient. Or, as illustrated by
Example II ( 38), the new and stronger disease only
disguises and suspends for a short time the older, weaker,
and dissimilar disease, according to the course pursued
by nature; in the same manner, the violent action of
strong allopathic medicines upon the body, will cause the
earlier disease to yield apparently for a time;' but only to
return with equal intensity. Lastly, as illustrated by
Example III ( 40), in the course of nature, two dis-
similar chronic diseases of equal intensity, may both be-
come seated, and complicated within the organism.
Hence, if a natural chronic disease is treated with dis-
similar morbific potencies in the form of allopathic medi-
cines, in large and frequently repeated doses, these, far
from curing the original (dissimilar) chronic disease, will
generate a new artificial disease by the side of the older
one, and, as daily experience teaches, will only increase
the illness of the patient, and render his case incurable.
53. Genuine, gentle cures are accomplished, as we
have seen, only by the principle of homoeopathy. This
92 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
principle, as we have already found ( 7-25) by conclu-
sions derived from experience, truly furnishes the only
method enabling human skill to cure diseases with great
certainty, rapidity, and permanency ; because this cura-
tive method rests upon an eternal, infallible law of na-
ture.
54. As above intimated ( 43-49), the course pur-
sued by homoeopathy must be the only correct one ; be-
cause of the three ways in which it is possible to apply
medicines in diseases, it is the only direct one leading to
a gentle, certain, and permanent cure, without subsequent
ill effects or debility. The true homoeopathic method of
cure is the only correct, the only direct, and the only
possible means to be employed by human skill, as surely
as it is possible to draw but one straight line between
two given points.
55. The next is the allopathic or heteropathic method
of applying medicines in disease. This, though desti-
tute of pathical relation to the actual disease within the
body, is employed by its advocates to attack the soundest
parts, in order, as they suppose, to remove -the disease by
derivation. This was hitherto the most common practice.
I have discussed it in the Introduction, [58] and shall not
touch upon it hereafter.
56. Besides the two former, there is but one other
way [59] of applying medicines in diseases; it is the
antipathic (enantiopathic) , or palliative method. This
affords to the physician the opportunity of appearing as
a benefactor, and the means of winning the confidence of
the patient, by the delusion of temporary improvement.
The following will illustrate the inefficacy and danger
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 93
of this method as applied in diseases of a chronic na-
ture. Although it is the only feature of the allopathic
mode of treatment, bearing some visible relation to a
portion of the symptoms of the natural disease, we find
upon inquiry that the palliative method involves a mis-
application (inversion) of principle to be most carefully
avoided, that the patient may not be deceived.
57. In order to apply the antipathic method, the
common practitioner singles out the most troublesome
symptom of a case, from among many others which he
ignores altogether, and prescribes a remedy known to
produce the exact counterpart of the symptoms to be
cured, hoping thereby to cure the latter; and in this
manner he may expect the most speedy palliative result.
According to the rule contraria contrariis, dictated by
the ancient school of medicine for more than fifteen hun-
dred years, strong doses of opium are prescribed for all
kinds of pain, because this remedy speedily benumbs
sensation ; and the very same remedy is given in diar-
rhoea, because it quickly checks the peristaltic motion of
the intestines, and renders them insensible. The same
remedy is also given in sleeplessness, because. opium soon
produces a soporific, heavy kind of sleep. Purgatives
are prescribed in cases of habitual constipation and cos-
tiveness ; and a burned hand is immersed in cold water,
which by its coldness seems to remove the burning pain
as if by magic. A patient suffering from chilliness, and
deficiency of vital warmth, is placed in a warm bath,
which temporarily warms his body. Those who suffer
from chronic debility, are treated with wine, which pro-
duces only a brief period of temporary revival. Besides
these, several other antagonistic (antipathic) measures are
used, but their number is limited, because the common
94 ORGANOX OF THE ART OF HEALING.
school of medicine is acquainted with the peculiar (pri-
mary) effect of a few remedies only.
58. If, in judging this practice, I were to overlook
its peculiar fault (see note to 7) of providing only in
part for a single symptom, that is, only for a small part
of the whole disease, which would not be relieved by this
method, nor the hopes of the patient realized, I would,
nevertheless, consult experience to find a single instance
of the employment of such antipathic remedies in ob-
stinately chronic diseases, where the transient relief
which they brought, was not followed by very percep-
tible aggravation, not only of a prominent symptom, but
of the entire disease. After such inquiry, every atten-
tive observer must admit that an aggravation will unex-
ceptionally follow such temporary .antipathic improve-
ment ; although the old school practitioner will interpret
such an aggravation differently to the patient, perhaps
by attributing it either to a new and violent change in
the original disease, or to the appearance of a new
one. [60]
59. Such palliative antipathic remedies were never
employed in allaying the prominent symptoms of pro-
tracted diseases, without being followed in a few hours
by the contrary condition, i. e., the return of the evil,
often seriously aggravated. Coffee, producing exhilara-
tion in its primary effect, was prescribed in cases of
sleepiness, which would increase as soon as the effects of
the coffee had subsided. Regardless of any other symp-
toms of the disease, nocturnal wakefulness was treated
by opium, which, in its primary effect, produces heavy
sleep ; but in such cases the subsequent nights were at-
tended with more sleeplessness than before. Also with-
ORGAXON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 95
out reference to other signs of the disease, chronic diar-
rhoea was combated by opium, the primary effect of
which is characterized by constipation ; after checking
the diarrhoea for a short time, it afterwards returns with
greater severity. Violent and frequently returning pains
of all kinds, are only suppressed for a short time by
the benumbing effects of opium, after which they return
increased beyond endurance ; or some other far more
serious evils are observed to take the place of those pains.
The common practitioner knows of no better remedy for
chronic night-cough than opium, which suppresses all
kinds of irritation by its primary effect ; it may, perhaps,
silence the cough during the first night, only to be more
aggravating in the following nights ; and if it is again
and again suppressed by highly increased doses of that
palliative, fever and night-sweats will supervene. Weak-
ness of the bladder, and consequent retention of urine,
was hitherto treated with tincture of cantharides, an an-
tipathic opposite, very irritating to the urinary passages ;
and, although it forced the evacuation of urine in the
beginning, its subsequent effect was to diminish the irri-
tability of the bladder to such a degree, as to make it
powerless to contract, and finally to produce paralysis of
that organ. It was hitherto customary to treat inveterate
tendency to constipation, by stimulating the bowels to
frequent evacuations with powerful purgatives and laxa-
tive salts ; but their after-effects caused the constipation
to become more obstinate. In ordinary practice it is
usual to prescribe wine in chronic debility ; but this
merely excites in its primary effect, and consequently the
strength declines to a lower degree in the after-effect. It
O <->
is usual to see physicians endeavor to strengthen and
warm a weakened and inactive stomach by bitter sub-
stances and heating spices ; but while that organ is only
96 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
excited by the primary effect of these palliatives, its in-
activity becomes still more apparent in their after-effects.
Warm baths are prescribed for chronic chilliness, and
deficiency of vital warmth ; but such patients are after-
wards found to have become still weaker, colder, and
more chilly. Severe burns are immediately relieved by
application of cold water ; but the burning pain is sub-
sequently increased beyond endurance, and the inflam-
mation extends and rises to a higher degree. [61] Chronic
nasal catarrh is habitually treated by exciting the flow
of mucus with errhines ; but the fact is overlooked that
the catarrh is constantly increased by this opposite (in
its after-effect), and that the nose is still more obstructed.
To limbs affected with chronic debility or partial pa-
ralysis, increased mobility is temporarily imparted by the
application of potencies capable of exciting muscular
action by their primary effect, such as electricity and
galvanism ; but the consequence (after-effect) proves to
be total decline of muscular contractility, and complete
paralysis. Bloodletting was commonly resorted to for
the relief of chronic rush of blood to the head ; but the
result was always a greater degree of congestion. In
the torpid state of bodily and mental organs, often found
combined with stupor in many forms of typhus, the
common school of medicine knew of no better remedy
than valerian in large doses, because it is considered as
one of the most powerful enlivening and exciting reme-
dies; but that school was ignorant of the fact that this was
only the primary effect, and that the after-effect (counter-
effect), invariably reduced the organism to a greater de-
gree of stupefaction and loss of mobility ; leading even-
tually to fatal paralysis of bodily and mental organs.
It escaped the attention of the old school that those cases
in particular, which were most liberally fed with the an-
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 97
tipathic valerian, usually terminated in death. The old-
school physician rejoices[62] in his ability to retard for
a few hours the small, rapid pulse in cachexias, by the
primary effect of the first dose of purple foxglove ; but
soon its rapidity is renewed ; repeated and increased doses
lose their effect, and at length entirely cease to lessen the
frequency of the pulse, which, on the contrary, now
grows countless in the after-effect ; sleep, appetite, and
strength depart, and speedy" dissolution is the inevitable
consequence, unless insanity supervenes. Though un-
recognized by false theories, deplorable results prove how
frequently aggravations of diseases, and still more unde-
sirable consequences, are produced by the after-effects of
such opposite or antipathic remedies.
60. In the presence of these evil results, necessarily
proceeding from the antipathic use of medicines, the
ordinary physician endeavors to escape the difficulty, as
he thinks, by a stronger dose of the remedy, given dur-
ing every new aggravation, which is succeeded by a lull
of short duration. But as such transient relief makes a
constant increase of the palliative dose necessary, this is
followed by a new and more serious disorder, if not by
danger to life, or by death itself. But the original dis-
ease, whether acute or chronic, is never cured by such
means.
61. Had physicians correctly observed and considered
the deplorable results of the antipathic application of
medicines, they would long ago have discovered the great
truth, that the true method of performing permanent cures
must be the exact counterpart of such antipathic treat-
ment. They would have perceived that, whenever the
opposite or antipathic administration of medicine pro-
98 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
duced a brief period of alleviation, this would subside,
only to be followed by one of aggravation, and that, con-
sequently, the process should have been reversed ; that is
to say, the homoeopathic application of medicines accord-
ing to their 'symptom-similitude, would ha/ve brought
about a lasting and perfect cure, provided that, instead of
large quantities of medicine, the most minute doses had
been employed. Notwithstanding the experience of
many centuries, physicians did not recognize this great
and salutary truth. They appear to have ignored en-
tirely the results of treatment above described, as well as
the other fact, that no physician ever effected a perma-
nent cure , of an inveterate disease, unless some drug of
predominant homoeopathic effect had been by chance
embodied in his prescription ; nor were they able to com-
prehend that every rapid and perfect cure, accomplished
by nature without the aid of human skill ( 46), was
always produced by a similar disease coming to the one
already present.
62. The following will explain the source of danger
of antipathic treatment, as well as the efficacy of its
counterpart, the homoeopathic method. The examples
chosen for this purpose, are derived from numerous ob-
servations which have entirely escaped notice before 1
called attention to them, although they were within the
reach of every one, quite intelligible, and of vast im-
portance in their relation to medical art.
63. Every drug, like every other influence affecting
vitality, alters the harmony of the vital force more or
less, and produces a certain change in the state of health
of the body for a longer or shorter space of time. This
is called primary effect. Although a product of drug
ORGANOX OF THE ART OF HEALING. 99
and vital force, it is probably due chiefly to the action of
the drug. Our vital force, by means of its energy, en-
deavors to oppose this effect ; the resulting conservative
reaction is an automatic activity of the vital force, and is
called after-effect or counter-effect.
64. During the primary effect of artificial, morbific
potencies (drugs) acting upon our healthy body, our
vital force seems to be only receptive or passive, and ap-
pears to be compelled, as it were, to receive the impres-
sions made upon it by the drug, and to allow the state of
health to be altered by it. Thereupon the vital force
seems to rally, and the result may be twofold : first, if
the possibility exists of producing the exact counterpart
of the primary effect, the vital force calls it forth in form
of the exact opposite state of feeling (counter-effect),
which is quite in proportion to the energy of the vital
force, and to the intensity of the primary impression
made upon it by the artificial morbific potency or medi-
cine ; or, secondly, where nature affords no exact oppo-
site condition to the primary effect, the vital force
apparently endeavors to become neutralized (sich zu in-
differenziren), i. e., to put forth its superior strength in
extinguishing the impression made upon it by the drug,
thereby reestablishing the normal state of health, which
is the after-effect, or curative effect.
65. Examples of the first instance referred to, are
familiar to everybody. A hand bathed in hot water is at
first much warmer than the other unbathed hand (pri-
mary effect) ; but removed from the hot water, and having
been well dried, it will after awhile grow cold, and at
last much colder than the other hand (after-effect). A
person heated by violent bodily exercise (primary effect)
100 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
will afterwards feel chills and rigors (after-effect) . To
a person heated by drinking too much wine (primary
effect), every breath of air will seem too cold next day
(counter-effect of the organism, after-effect). An arm
immersed for a length of time in very cold water, is at
first much paler and colder (primary effect) than the
other, but withdrawn from the water and dried, it will
become not only warmer than the other, but even hot,
red, and inflamed (after-effect, counter-effect of the vital
force). The primary effect of strong coffee is excessive
wakefulness, but lassitude and sleepiness will remain
long afterwards (counter-effect, after-effect), if this sleep-
iness is temporarily removed by the repeated use of
coffee (palliative). The heavy, soporific sleep produced
by opium (primary effect), will be followed next night by
greater sleeplessness (counter-effect, after-effect). After
constipation produced by opium (primary effect) follows
diarrhoea (after-effect), and after purging (primary effect)
excited by drugs which stimulate the bowels, constipation
and costiveness (after-effect) may be observed for several
days. And thus, whenever the possibility actually exists,
the exact counterpart is always produced by our vital
force in its after-effect, following each primary effect of a
large dose of any potency, by which the feelings of the
healthy body are seriously deranged.
66. A conspicuous opposite or after-effect is imper-
ceptible during the action of very minute, homoeopathic
doses of alterative potencies (drugs, medicines) in the
healthy body. Although minute doses, when closely ob-
served, may be seen to produce a perceptible primary
effect, the living organism sets up only so much counter-
effect (after-effect) as is required for the re-establishment
of the normal condition.
ORGANOX OF THE ART OF HEALING. 101
67. Incontrovertible truths like the preceding, spon-
taneously offered by nature and experience, explain to us
the salutary process of homoeopathic cures, and expose,
at the same time, the objections to palliative treatment
of the sick, by means of the antipathic effects of medi-
cines. [63]
68. We learn from homoeopathic cures that, after the
extinction of the natural disease, there is apt to linger in
the system a remnant of the drug disease engendered by
the minute doses of medicine ( 275-287) required by
this method of cure, and which were just sufficient to
overcome and to supersede the similar, natural disease by
the similitude of their symptoms. But we also learn
that this remnant of drug disease is very transient, and
vanishes easily and quickly on account of the extreme
minuteness of the dose; this prevents the vital force from
being aroused to a greater degree of counteraction
against this slight artificial effect than is requisite for the
restoration of feelings to the standard of health. That
is, for the purpose of complete recovery, the vital force
needs to make but a slight additional exertion to over-
come the effects of the medicine, after the extinction of
the disease for which it was given. (This may serve to
explain the second instance in 65.)
69. Precisely the reverse of this, takes place in anti-
pathic (palliative) treatment. The drug symptom op-
posed by the physician to a symptom of the disease (e. g.,
insensibility and stupor, the primary effect of opium in
opposition to acute pain), is not allopathic in relation to
the latter. There evidently exists a relation between
drug-symptom and disease-symptom, but it is reversed.
The extinction of the disease-symptom is, in this case, to
102 OEGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
be accomplished by an opposite drug-symptom, which is
quite impossible. It is true that the antipathic medicine
acts upon the same diseased region of the body, and with
the same degree of certainty as the homoeopathic medi-
cine selected on account of its similar morbific effect, but
the former being an opposite to the symptom of the dis-
ease, it only obscures the latter, and renders it impercep-
tible for a short time. The vital force perceives no disa-
greeable sensation (neither from the symptoms of the dis-
ease, nor from that of the opponent drug) during the first
moment of the effect produced by the opponent palliative,
because both appear to have cancelled, or to have dynami-
cally neutralized each other; as, e. g., the benumbing
power of opium seems to neutralize pain. During the
first minutes of palliative effect, the vital force feels as if
in health, perceiving neither the benumbing effect of
opium, nor the pain of the disease. But since the oppo-
site drug effect is not a most similar (stronger, artificial)
disease, influencing the vital force like the effect of a
remedy chosen according to the homceopathic method, it
cannot occupy the place of the natural, morbid disturb-
ance in the organism ; and consequently the effect of the
palliative medicine, differing totally in contrast with the
natural disease, will be unable to extinguish the latter.
Although, by means of the apparent dynamic neutraliza-
tion [64] of the palliative, the vital force seems at first to
be made insensible to the morbid disturbance, the effect of
the palliative will, nevertheless, subside of its own accord,
like every drug effect, But it will leave the disease to
remain as it was ; for, in order to produce the semblance
of relief, it had to be administered in large doses like all
palliatives, and as such it incites the vital force to a state
of opposition to this palliative medicine ( 63-65). This
opposition, though the counterpart of the palliative, re-
ORGAJS'OX OF THE ART OF HEALING. 103
sembles tho natural disease still present and uncured, but
necessarily intensified and increased [65] by the additional
activity which the vital force was obliged to maintain in
counteracting the palliative. Therefore, after the de-
cline of the palliative drug effect, the obnoxious symp-
toms (a mere part of the disease) will be found to have
been aggravated in proportion to the size of the palliative
dose. And, to continue the same example, the larger
the dose of opium is, for the purpose of obscuring the
pain, so much the more will the latter be increased be-
yond its original intensity as soon as the opium has
ceased to act. [66]
70. After these premises, the following points must
be admitted as true :
1st. All that a physician may regard as curable in dis-
eases, consists entirely in the complaints of the patient,
and the morbid changes of his health perceptible to the
senses ; that is to say, it consists entirely in the totality
of symptoms through which the disease expresses its de-
mand for the appropriate remedy ; while, on the other
hand, every fictitious or obscure, internal cause and con-
dition, or imaginary, material, morbific matter are not
objects of treatment.
2d. This change of health (discord of feeling) which
we call disease, can only be changed back (umstimmen)
to the normal state by means of medicines, the curative
power of which, consequently, consists in their ability
to alter the state of feelings ; i. e., in the production of
peculiar, morbid symptoms, recognized most distinctly
and purely by testing these medicines upon the bodies
\f healthy persons.
3d. According to experience, natural disease cannot
be cured by medicines producing by themselves, in
104 ORGANOX OF THE ART OF HEALING.
healthy persons, a morbid condition dissimilar to and
different from that of the disease to be cured. It is,
therefore, incurable by allopathic treatment, and even
nature herself never cures natural disease by super-
adding another disease, dissimilar to, though of much
greater intensity than the first.
4th. Experience also teaches that only transient relief
is procured by medicines inclined to generate in a healthy
person, an artificial symptom which is the exact oppo-
site of certain symptoms, peculiar to the natural disease
to be cured. And we also learn that such medicines can
never cure an inveterate disease, without always creating
a subsequent aggravation of the same. On this account
this antipathic, palliative process is entirely inappropri-
ate in its application to chronic and serious diseases.
5th. The only really salutary treatment is that of the
homoeopathic method, according to which the totality of
symptoms of a natural disease is combated by a medi-
cine in commensurate dose, capable of creating in the
healthy body, symptoms most similar to those of the
natural disease. And as diseases are only dynamic dis-
turbances of the vital force, they are overcome without
additional suffering, and having been perfectly and per-
manently extinguished, they must cease to exist. Na-
ture when left to her own resources, furnishes examples
in the form of accidental cures ; as, for instance, when a
new and similar disease is added to the older one, this is
permanently extinguished and cured.
71. Now, since it is subject to no further doubt,
that human diseases consist merely in groups of certain
symptoms, and that these may be extinguished, and the
system restored to health only by means of a medicinal
substance possessing the power of producing artificial,
ORGANON OP THE ART OF HEALING. 105
morbid symptoms, similar to the disease (whereon rests
the process of every genuine cure), the business of curing
will depend on the solution of the following problems :
I. How does the physician gain the knowledge of dis-
ease, necessary for the purpose of cure ?
II. How does he gain his knowledge of the morbific
power of drugs, as the implements designed for the cure
of natural diseases ?
III. How does he apply these artificial, morbific poten-
cies (drugs) most effectively in the cure of diseases?
72. Regarding the first point, the following may
serve as a general illustration. Diseases peculiar to man-
kind, are of two classes. The first includes rapid, mor-
bid processes caused by abnormal states and derange-
ments of the vital force ; such . affections usually run
their course within a brief period of variable duration,
and are called acute diseases. The second class em-
braces diseases which often seem trifling and impercep-
tible in the beginning ; but which, in a manner peculiar
to themselves, act deleteriously upon the living organism,
dynamically deranging the latter, and insidiously un-
dermining its health to such a degree, that the automatic
energy of the vital force, designed for the preservation
of life, can only make imperfect and ineffectual resist-
ance to these diseases in their beginning, as well as
during their progress. Unable to extinguish them with-
out assistance, the vital force is powerless to prevent their
growth or its own gradual deterioration, resulting in the
final destruction of the organism. These are called
chronic diseases, and are originated by infection with a
chronic miasm.
73. Acute diseases likewise admit of division into
106 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
several classes. The first .ire those which attack single
individuals ; they are occasioned by hurtful influences to
which the patient happened to be exposed. Excesses in
sensual enjoyment, or deprivation of the same ; violent
physical impressions; exposure to cold; overheating;
excessive muscular exertion ; physical or mental excite-
ment, etc., give rise to acute febrile diseases. They are,
however, in reality but transient aggravations of latent
psora, which returns to its dormant condition of its own
accord, provided the acute disease was not too violent
and speedily relieved. The second class includes spora-
dic diseases which attack several persons simultaneously
in isolated localities. They are engendered by meteoric
or telluric agencies, to the morbific influence of which,
only few persons are susceptible at a time. Next to this
class come the epidemic diseases, which attack many per-
sons at the same time ; they arise from the same cause,
and individual cases resemble each other ; these diseases
usually become infectious (contagious) when they per-
vade crowded districts, where th'ey create fevers [67] of
a distinct kind ; and as the cases of disease are of like
origin, they are also alike in their manifestations ; but
if left to themselves, they will, within a limited period,
terminate in recovery or death, as the case may be.
War, inundations, and famine frequently give rise and
growth to such diseases. They often appear in the form
of distinct acute miasms, that invariably appear in the
same form (whence they are known by a traditional
name). Some of them attack the same person but once
in life, like small-pox, measles, hooping-cough, the once
well-known smooth, light-red scarlet fever [68] of Sy den-
ham, the mumps, etc., or they may repeatedly attack the
same person; like the levantine plague, returning in
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 107
nearly the same form ; the yellow fever infecting districts
on the seacoast ; the Asiatic cholera, etc.
74. It is a matter of regret that we are still obliged
to count among chronic diseases very common affections
which are to be regarded as the result of allopathic treat-
ment, and the continual use of violent, heroic medicines,
in large and increasing doses. Examples of that kind
are : the abuse of calomel, corrosive sublimate, mercurial
ointment, nitrate of silver, iodine and its ointments,
opium, valerian, Peruvian bark and quinia, digitalis, prus-
sic acid, sulphur and sulphuric acid, the use of purgatives
persisted in for years, bloodletting, leeches, issues, setons,
etc. Such wanton treatment weakens the organism ; or,
if not entirely prostrated, it is gradually and abnormally
deranged, according to the individual character of each
drug. During this exhausting and deleterious treatment,
the vital force is compelled, in defence of life, to alter the
entire organism. Accordingly, it diminishes or increases
the irritability, or sensibility of various parts; it pro-
duces hypertrophy or atrophy ; softening or induration
in certain organs, resulting eventually in destruction, or,
at least, in organic lesions (deformities) of external or
internal parts. [69] These are some of the results of the
efforts of nature to protect the organism against complete
destruction, to which it is exposed by the constant re-
newal of aggressive treatment with pernicious substances.
75. Instances of ruined health, resulting from allo-
pathic treatment, are very common in modern times.
They constitute the most pitiable, and incurable of chronic
diseases, and it is to be feared that remedies will probably
never be found, or invented for the cure of such condi-
108 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
tions, when they have reached a certain degree of
severity.
76. It is only through homceopathy that Providence
has vouchsafed to us the means of curing natural dis-
eases ; but not those chronic external and internal lesions
and deformities, wantonly forced upon the human or-
ganism by unskilful treatment, and pernicious medicines.
Nevertheless, if proper measures are directed against the
chronic miasm, perhaps lurking in the system, the vital
force might still be made to undo much of the mischief,
provided it had not been weakened by treatment to such
an extent as to prevent it from being undisturbed for a
sufficient number of years, required for the accomplish-
ment of the enormous task. The art of healing is not,
and never will be perfected so far, as to enable us to rec-
tify the countless ill effects so often observable after allo-
pathic treatment of the sick.
77. The name of chronic diseases does not apply
to those which are produced by constant exposure to
avoidable noxious influences ; by indulgence in habitual
excesses in eating, drinking, and various kinds of
health-destroying debauchery ; nor to those diseases which
result from constant want of the necessaries of life;
unhealthy dwellings, particularly in marshy localities ;
diseases peculiar to the inhabitants of cellars or other
confined places, suffering from want of fresh air and ex-
ercise ; nor those which are the result of overtaxed body
and mind, or continued mortifications and trouble, etc.
Provided there is no other chronic miasm pervading
the organism, unhealthy conditions like the above, will
vanish of their own accord, under an improved mode of
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 109
living, and they do not deserve the name of chronic
diseases.
78. True, natural, chronic diseases are those which
owe their origin to a chronic miasm; they constantly
extend, and, notwithstanding the most carefully regu-
lated mental and bodily habits, they will never cease to
torment their victim with constantly renewed suffering
to the end of his life, if left to themselves without the
aid of specific remedies for their relief. These are the
most numerous, and the source of great suffering to the
human race ; the most robust constitution, the best of
habits, and the greatest energy of unaided vital force are
unable to resist them.
79. Hitherto only syphilis was known to some ex-
tent as one of these chronic miasmatic diseases, which,
if left uncured, will become extinct only with life itself.
Sycosis (cauliflower-excrescences) if left to itself un-
cured, is likewise inextinguishable by the vital force, and
was not hitherto recognized as an internal, chronic, mias-
matic disease of peculiar nature, as it undoubtedly is.
Without noticing the perpetual evils entailed by it, the
destruction of the cutaneous excrescences alone, was con-
sidered as a cure of the entire disease.
*
80. But psora, as a chronic miasm, is of incompar-
ably greater significance than either of the above-named
chronic miasms. While venereal chancre and the cauli-
flower excrescences mark the internal, specific nature of
the two former diseases, psora, after complete infection
of the entire organism, indicates its origin from an in-
ternal and monstrous chronic miasm, by a peculiar cuta-
neous eruption, sometimes consisting merely in a few
. 110 OROANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
pimples combined with intolerable tickling, voluptuous
itching, and specific odor. Psora is the only real,
fundamental cause and source of all the other countless
forms of disease, [70] figuring as peculiar and definite
diseases in books on pathology, under the names of ner-
vous debility, hysteria, hypochondriasis, mania, melan-
choly, idiocy, madness, epilepsy and convulsions of all
kinds, softening of the bones (rachitis), scoliosis and
kyphosis, caries of the bones, cancer, varices, pseudo-
plasms, gout, haemorrhoids, icterus and cyanosis, dropsy,
amenorrhoea, haemorrhages from the stomach, nose, lungs,
bladder, or uterus; asthma and suppuration of the lungs;
impotence and sterility; sick headache (hemicrania)^
deafness ; cataract and glaucoma ; renal calculus ; pa-
ralysis ; deficiency of the special senses, and pains of
every variety.
81. Without doubt this ancient, smouldering conta-
gion has gradually passed through several hundreds of
generations, and many millions of human organisms,*
thus reaching an incredible degree of development. We
may, therefore, comprehend in a measure, how it became
developed into countless forms of disease peculiar to the
great human race; particularly when we contemplate
the mass of circumstances [71] which produce and favor
the formation of so great a variety of chronic diseases
(secondary symptoms of psora). Considering the end-
less diversity in human beings, differing among each
other in regard to bodily constitutions of countless va-
riety, it is not a matter of surprise that ordinary and
manifold, noxious influences, acting from within and
from without upon so great a variety of individuals
pervaded by psoric miasm, should also produce various
disorders, lesions, and disturbances of health, which have
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 11 J
hitherto been known by a long list of names in the old
works on pathology, [7 2] where they figure as distinct
diseases.
82. Although the discovery of the great source of
chronic diseases, as well as the introduction of more spe-
cific homoeopathic remedies, for psora in particular, has
advanced the healing art several steps in its ability to
cure most chronic diseases ; nevertheless the indispensa-
ble obligation of the homoeopathic physician to carefully
comprehend every discernible symptom and peculiarity
of the case, for the purpose of forming an indication for
each chronic disease, remains in force as it was before
the discovery of psora. Genuine cures of these, or any
Other diseases, are not to be accomplished without rigid,
special treatment (individualization) of each case; but in
pursuing the investigation, it is necessary to distinguish
whether the disease is of acute, or of chronic origin. In the
first instance the principal symptoms are more quickly
perceived and recognized ; the whole presents itself spon-
taneously to the senses ; and much less time is consumed
by inquiry, [7 3] and in noting the characteristic features
(image) of the case, than in the laborious examination
of the symptoms of chronic diseases that have gradually
progressed for several years.
83. Individualization in the investigation of a case
of disease, demands, on the part of the physician, princi-
pally unbiassed judgment and sound senses, attentive
observation, and fidelity in noting down the image of
the disease. For this purpose, I will give the following
general directions, which may serve the examining phy-
sician a,s guides in each given case.
112 ORGAXON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
84. The patient narrates the history of his com-
plaints; his attendants communicate what they have
heard him complain of, and describe his. behavior, and
other circumstances they have observed. The physician
observes ' by means of sight, hearing, and touch, what is
changed and abnormal about the patient, and writes
down everything in precisely the same expressions used
by the patient and his attendants. He quietly allows
them to finish their story, if possible without interrup-
tion, unless they digress upon irrelevant topics, [74] only
requesting them at the outset to speak slowly, to allow
him to takes notes of the speaker's words.
85. At the end of each statement of the patient or
attendants, the physician should begin a new sentence in
writing, so that the symptoms may be noted separately,
one beneath the other. This will permit of subsequent
additions to statements which were indefinite at first, but
afterwards repeated more distinctly.
86. When the patient and attendants have ended
their statements of their own accord, the physician sup-
plies each symptom with a more precise definition, to be
obtained by reading over the single symptoms commu-
nicated to him, and here and there instituting particular
inquiry ; for instance : at what time did this attack oc-
cur? Was it some time before the present medicine?
Was it during its use ? Or was it some days after dis-
continuing the medicine ? Describe exactly what kind
of pain or sensation occurred, and where was the exact
place ? Did the pain come in single paroxysms, at dif-
ferent times ? Or was it lasting and uninterrupted ?
How long did it last ? At what time of the day or night,
and in what position of the body was the pain most vio-
ORGANON OP THE ART OF HEALING. 113
lent; or altogether absent? In this manner every attack
or circumstance alluded to by the patient, should be made
the subject of careful inquiry and description.
87. In this manner the physician obtains a closer
definition of each statement, without predetermining [7 5]
the patient's reply/ and avoids his answer by simple
"yes" or "no." Otherwise x the patient might be in-
duced to affirm or deny facts, to state only partial truths,
or to represent his case in a different light for the sake
of convenience ; or to please the physician, and thus to
produce a false impression regarding the symptoms of
his disease which, again, would lead to an improper
mode of treatment.
88. If, in these voluntary statements, the patient
neglects to mention the condition of certain parts and
functions of his body, or of his state of mind, the phy-
sician should endeavor to refresh the patient's memory
concerning his observations on these subjects. [7 6] But
the inquiry should be pursued without leading questions,
so that the patient or attendant may be obliged to make
special statements.
89. After the patient (who should be trusted with
regard to the expression of his feelings, except in imag-
inary diseases) has properly completed the picture of
his disease, and given the desired information by vol-
untary and unbiassed statements, the physician (if he
considers the information still imperfect) may find it
necessary to ask some specific questions. [77]
90. After having taken notes of the patient's state-
ments, the physician should proceed to make a memor-
114 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING
andum of what he has himself observed upon the pa-
tient, [7 8] and inquire as to the peculiarities of the patient
in times of health.
91. Symptoms and sensations experienced by the
patient during some previous use of medicines, do not
furnish a true image of the disease ,~ those symptoms and
complaints, however, suffered by the patient before the
use of medicines, for several days, or after their omission,
truthfully portray the original form of the disease, and
should be particularly noted by the physician. When
the disease is an inveterate one, or if the patient has per-
sisted in the use of medicine up to this time, he may
omit the same entirely, or something of an unmedicinal
kind may be given him, while the rigorous examination
of the case is postponed until the unadulterated, perma-
nent symptoms of the chronic disorder can be ascertained
in their purity, and a true picture of the disease ob-
tained.
92. But, if the disease is very acute, the urgent na-
ture of which suffers no delay, and if the physician
finds no time to seek information concerning the symp-
toms observed before medicines had been resorted to, he
may have to accept the morbid state as modified by drugs,
and to embrace it in one record. A disease, complicated
by the effects of drugs improperly employed, is usually
more serious and dangerous than the original evil, and,
therefore, urgently demands appropriate measures for its
relief; these are found in carefully selected homoeo-
pathic remedies, which are able to overcome the compli-
cated disease, and perhaps to avert the danger caused by
the drugs.
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 115
93. If the acute or chronic disease is the result of
some unfortunate incident which the patient hesitates to
disclose, either spontaneously or upon careful inquiry,
his friends, if privately appealed to, will usually furnish
the desired information. [79]
94. The investigation of the condition of chronic
diseases should be conducted with particular reference to
the circumstances of the patient ; his usual occupation,
habits of living, his diet, his domestic relations, etc.,
should be carefully considered, in order to discover to
what extent errors of living participated in the produc-
tion and maintenance of the disease, and what will be
the appropriate means of their ultimate removal, and of
the restoration of health. [80]
95. In chronic diseases, the investigation of the
above-named, and all other symptoms, should be con-
ducted as carefully and circumstantially as possible, and
made to penetrate the minutest details, because they are
most peculiar and most unlike those of acute affections, and
also because they can never be too accurately considered
for the purpose of successful treatment. Again, chronic
patients are so inured to suffering, that circumstances,
however characteristic and decisive in the selection of the
remedy, are rarely, if at all, mentioned by them, but
rather considered as a part of their unavoidable condi-
tion. Such patients forget that these are deviations
from health, the true consciousness of which, they have
nearly lost during fifteen or twenty years of suffering ;
and it rarely occurs to them, that these secondary symp-
toms, and other small or great deviations from the
healthy condition, might be connected with the main
disease.
116 ORGAUON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
96. It is worthy of remark that the temperament
of patients is often abnormally affected ; so that some,
particularly hypochondriacs, and other sensitive and in-
tolerant persons, are apt to represent their complaints in
too strong a light, and to define them by exaggerated
expressions, [81] hoping thereby to induce the physician
to redouble his efforts.
97. But there are persons of another kind of tem-
perament, who withhold many complaints from the phy-
sician, partly from false modesty, timidity or bashful-
ness ; and who state their case in obscure terms ; or who
consider many of their symptoms as too insignificant to
mention.
98. Although it is very desirable to obtain the pa-
tient's own statement regarding his complaints and sen-
sations, and to observe particularly the expressions he
uses in describing his sufferings, the history of which is
apt to be more or less misrepresented by friends and at-
tendants, it is equally true that the investigation of all
diseases, especially of the chronic, demands great caution,
reflection, knowledge of human nature, careful inquiry,
and unlimited patience, in order to obtain a true and com-
plete record of these diseases with all their details.
99. On the whole, the physician experiences far less
difficulty in the examination of acute diseases, or those
of recent origin, because every new and striking in-
cident and deviation from recent health, is still fresh
in the memory of the patient and his - attendants. Al-
though the physician should be well acquainted with a
case like this, it requires a less urgent inquiry, since the
most important facts are readily communicated to him.
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 117
<
100. In the exploration of the totality of symptoms
of epidemic and sporadic diseases, it is a matter of no im-
portance whether or not anything of a similar kind, or
name, ever occurred before. Neither the novelty, nor
peculiarity of such an epidemic makes any difference in.
the manner of its examination or cure, because, under
all circumstances, the physician should presuppose the
true image of any prevalent disease to be new and un-
known.; he should, therefore, investigate it anew and
thoroughly by itself, if he claims to be a master of the
art of healing, who neither allows conjectures to stand
in the place of actual perceptions, nor ever presumes to
know the particulars of a case of disease intrusted to him,
without previous careful inquiry concerning all of its
manifestations. This is particularly applicable to every
prevailing epidemic, which is in many respects a phe-
nomenon of peculiar kind, that will be found, on careful
examination, to differ much from all previous epidemics
to which specific names are erroneously applied; except-
ing, however, the epidemics engendered by an unvarying
contagion, such as small-pox, measles, etc.
101. It is possible that a physician meeting with the
first case of a certain epidemic, should fail to perceive at
once its perfect image, because every collective disease of
this kind will not manifest the totality of its symptoms
and character, until several cases have been carefully ob-
served. But after having observed one or two cases of
this kind, a physician accustomed to exact observation,
may approach the true condition of the epidemic so
closely, that he is enabled to construe a characteristic
image of the same, and even to discover the appropriate
homoeopathic remedy.
118 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
102. By writing down the symptoms of several cases
of this kind, the sketch of the disease will gradually be-
come more complete ; without being enlarged by addi-
tional phrases, it will be more closely denned (more
characteristic), and made to embrace more of the peculi-
arity of this collective disease. General signs, such as
want of appetite, sleeplessness, etc., are specified and de-
fined, while the more prominent and special symptoms
which are rare in this, and peculiar only to a few dis-
eases, will be made conspicuous by proper notation, and
will constitute the characteristics of the epidemic. [82]
The individuals who suffer from a prevalent epidemic,
are apt to be affected alike, because each case arises from
the same source; nevertheless, neither the totality and
scope of such an epidemic, nor the totality of its symp-
toms (the knowledge of which is necessary for the pur-
pose of obtaining a perfect image of the disease, and of
selecting the suitable homoeopathic remedy for the same)
are to be observed upon a single patient ; such knowl-
edge is only to be obtained, in a perfect manner, by ob-
servation of the affections of several patients of different
bodily constitutions.
103. The method of investigating acute, epidemic
diseases, was also employed by me in the examination of
the unvarying, miasmatic, chronic diseases, particularly
in the study of psora. These diseases required much
greater care and diligence than had hitherto been devoted
to them, in order to discover the whole range of their
symptoms. In these cases, also, one patient presents only
a portion of those symptoms, while a second and a third,
etc., exhibits still another set, which constitutes, as it were,
but a detached fragment of the totality of symptoms be-
longing to the entire chronic disease. A complex like
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 119
1 his, particularly that of psora, could only be ascertained
by examining a great many chronic cases. Without a
complete image construed out of the totality of these
symptoms, it would be impossible to discover the medi-
cines (particularly the antipsorics) for the homoeopathic
cure of the entire disease; but having done so, these medi-
cines prove to be the true remedies for individual casas
of chronic evils of this kind.
104. When all of the prominent and characteristic
symptoms, collectively forming an image of a case of
chronic, or of any other disease, have been carefully com-
mitted to writing, [83] the most difficult part of the labor
will have been accomplished. The image which has now
been .construed, forms the basis of treatment, particularly
of chronic diseases. This image is always accessible to the
physician, whom it enables to oversee all its parts, to mark
its characteristic signs representing the disease, and to
prescribe a homoeopathic remedy ; that is, one which in
its effects on healthy persons, produces symptoms strik-
ingly similar to those of the disease. This remedy is
found by comparing the lists of symptoms of all reme-
dies that have become known in regard to their purely
pathogenetic effects. Upon subsequent inquiry concern-
ing the effects of the remedy, and the changes of feelings
it has produced in the patient, and after having made a
new record of the case, the physician will only have to
omit from his diary that portion of the original group of
symptoms which has been improved, and to note what
remains, or what has subsequently appeared in the form
of new symptoms.
105. The second point pertaining to the duties of the
true physician relates to the discovery of the material
120 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
necessary for the cure of natural diseases; that is, to the
investigation of the morbific power of drugs. Having
attained this object, it will then be possible to select a
medicine from the list of whose symptoms an artificial
disease can be construed, which should be as similar as
possible to the principal symptoms of the natural disease
to be cured.
106. The entire range of disease-producing power of
each drug, must be known ; that is, all morbid symptoms
and changes of the state of health which each drug is
capable of producing by itself in healthy persons, should
have been observed in its fullest extent, before we may
hope to find and to select, from among the medicines thus
investigated, the truly homoeopathic remedies for most
natural diseases,
107. If, for the purpose of investigation, drugs are
given only to sick persons, and even if these drugs are
administered singly and in simple forms, little or nothing
of a definite kind will be seen of their pure effects, because
the changes of health which these drugs may actually be
expected to produce, would be mingled with the symp-
toms of the natural disease, so as to become obscured, and
rarely to be distinctly visible.
108. Hence, there is no other way of obtaining re-
liable knowledge of the peculiar power by virtue of
which, drugs affect and alter human health; i. e., there is
no other safe, or more natural method of accomplishing
this object, than to administer each drug separately, and
in moderate quantity, to healthy persons, by way of exper-
iment, in order to discover what changes, symptoms, and
signs of its effect, that is, what elements of disease each
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 121
is able to produce, and inclined to excite[84] by itself
in the condition of the body and mind. For it has
been shown ( 24-27) that the curative power of medi-
cines depends alone upon their power of altering the
state of health of the human organism, and that this
power is revealed only in the observations made upon the
latter.
109. I was the first to pursue this course with per-
severance, prompted and supported by perfect conviction
of the great and beneficent truth, that human diseases
can only be cured with certainty [85] by means of the
homoeopathic administration of medicines. [86]
110. Next to this, I observed that the morbific, or
toxical properties hitherto mentioned by authors as the
effects of medicinal substances, which happened by mis-
take, or for suicidal or criminal purposes, to have been
consumed in large quantities by healthy persons, coin-
cided well with my own observations while experiment-
ing with the same substances upon myself and other
healthy persons. Authors generally report these cases
of poisoning as proofs of the injurious effects of these
powerful substances, and as a warning against them.
When the patient happened to recover from the effects
of drugs under the use of antidotes, some quote these
cases as proofs of skill, while others report the fatal
effects of those substances, by way of explaining their
want of success; in this case, those substances are des-
ignated as poisons. None of these observers suspected
that the symptoms reported only as proofs of the inju-
rious and poisonous qualities of drugs, distinctly pointed
to their medicinal power of extinguishing similar symp-
toms arising from natural diseases. None ev er perceived
122 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
that the disease-producing power of drugs could be made
available homoeopathically in the cure of diseases. None
ever discovered that the only possible way of exploring
the medicinal virtues of drugs is based exclusively upon
the observation of the changes produced by them in the
healthy body ; because the actual and peculiar curative
powers of drugs can never be recognized a priori through
the sophistry of wiseacres, nor through odor, taste, and
appearance of medicines; neither through chemical tests,
nor through the use of several drugs, combined in one
mixture (recipe), administered in disease. It was never
suspected that such reports of drug-diseases would in
future form the first rudiments of a true and pure science
of Materia Medica, which had hitherto consisted merely
of false suppositions and fiction, and which, therefore,
had never existed in reality. [87]
111. The agreement of my own observations of pure
drug-effects (although made without regard to therapeu-
tics), with those of older authors, as well as the agree-
ment of the observations of various other writers among
themselves, will easily convince us that medicinal sub-
stances, in producing morbid changes of the healthy
human body, act in obedience to fixed and eternal laws
of nature, by virtue of which laws, they are enabled to
generate certain definite morbid symptoms; and that
each drug produces particular symptoms, according to
its peculiarity.
112. In older descriptions of the fatal effects of
overdoses of medicines, it is often to be noticed that the
close of such deplorable accidents was marked by certain
effects, which were of very different nature from those
witnessed at the beginning of the case. These symptoms
OEOANOX OF THE ART OF HEALING. 123
which are called forth in opposition to the primary effect
( 6e3), or actual operation of drugs upon the vital force
of the organism, are its counter-effect, or after-effect
( 62-67). But these are rarely if ever perceived after
moderate doses administered to healthy persons for the
purpose of experiment ; and they are altogether absent
after minute doses. During the homoeopathic, cura-
tive process, the living organism exhibits only that de-
gree of counteraction against these minute doses, which
is required to reestablish the natural state of health
67).
113. Only narcotic drugs should be regarded as ex-
ceptions to this rule. As these destroy sensibility and
sensation, as well as irritability, in their primary effect, a
heightened state both of sensibility and of irritability is
frequently observed in healthy persons, as an after-effect
following the administration of narcotics, even in mod-
erate doses.
114. With these exceptions, therefore, experiments
made with moderate doses of other drugs upon healthy
persons, exhibit only primary effects ; i. e., those symp-
toms by means of which a drug affects or deranges the
healthy state, and produces in the organism a morbid
condition of variable duration.
115. Some drugs are known to produce certain effects
which, in regard to certain minor features, appear to be
the counterparts of other symptoms that may have ap-
peared before, as well as after, the former. But notwith-
standing this difference, these contrary symptoms are not
to be regarded as actual after-affects or counter-effects of
the vital force ; because they merely indicate an alterua-
124 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
tion or fluctuation (Wechselzustand) of the various stages
of the primary effect ; on which account they are called
alternating effects (Wechselwirkungen).
116. Some symptoms are frequently produced by
drugs in many healthy persons who try them ; others
are produced in but a few ; others, again, are extremely
rare.
117. The so-called idiosyncrasies may be said to be-
long to the latter class. This term, is applied to peculiar
constitutions which, though otherwise healthy, are in-
clined to be more or less morbidly affected by certain
things which appear to make no impression, and to pro-
duce no change in many other individuals. [88] But
this want of susceptibility is only apparent, not real. In
this, as well as in the production of all other morbific
effects, two conditions necessarily exist : first, there is the
active power residing in the drug; and secondly, the
vital force of the organism possesses the faculty of being
affected by the active principle of the drug. Conse-
quently, the remarkable diseases arising from so-called
idiosyncrasies, cannot be attributed alone to this particu-
lar kind of bodily constitution ; but they should be con-
sidered as due also to the effect of drugs which possess
the power of influencing every living organism ; but
with the exception, that some healthy constitutions are
inclined to be more seriously and perceptibly affected
than others. The fact that drugs prove to be homoeo-
pathic, curative remedies [89] in all cases of disease
(although only seemingly in all idiosyncrasies), presenting
symptoms similar to those which the drugs are capable
of producing, tends to prove that they actually have the
power of affecting all persons.
ORGAXON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 125
118 Each drug manifests particular effects in the
human body ; and no other drug will produce effects of
exactly the same kind. [90]
*
119. There is no doubt that every species of plant
differs from other species and genus in exterior form, in
the peculiar manner of life and growth, in taste and
odor; nor is there any doubt that every mineral, and
every salt differs in its external and internal, chemical
and physical properties, which alone should have pre-
vented one from being mistaken for the other. It is,
therefore, equally certain that all of them differ, and
deviate among each other in their morbific as well as in
their healing properties ;[91] and that each of these sub-
stances acts in a manner so peculiar and distinct, and
produces alternations in the state of health and feelings
of man, so different from all others, as to prevent them
from being confounded. [92]
120. Medicines should, therefore, be distinguished
from each other with scrupulous accuracy, and proved
by pure and careful experiments with regard to their
powers, and true effects upon the healthy body. For,
upon the accuracy of this test (proving), depend life and
death, sickness and health of human beings. The test
should be so conducted as to result in the acquisition of
accurate knowledge of drugs, as well as to avoid every
mistake in using them in diseases; for, the unerring
selection of remedies is the only condition for the speedy
and permanent return of health of body and soul, the
highest gift bestowed on man.
'121. In proving drugs in regard to their effects
upon the healthy body, it should be remembered that the
126 ORGANOX OF THE ART OF HEALING.
strong, so-called heroic substances, even in small doses,
have the property of effecting changes in the health,
even of robust persons. Those of milder power should
be given in considerable doses in these experiments; and
those of least activity, in order to cause their effect to
become perceptible, should be tried only upon healthy,
but sensitive and susceptible persons.
122. As the success of the art of healing, and the
welfare of all coming generations, depend entirely on
these experiments, only such drugs should be employed
which are perfectly reliable in regard to the purity,
genuineness, and full strength.
123. Each of these drugs must be taken into the
system in a perfectly simple, and unartificial form. The
juice pressed out of indigenous plants, should be mixed
with a little alcohol, to prevent its deterioration ; but for-
eign herbs should be used in the form of powder, or
freshly prepared alcoholic tincture, mixed with several
parts of water. Salts and gums, however, should be
dissolved in water before administration. If a plant is
to be obtained only in the dried state, and if its powers
are naturally weak, the experiment may be made with
the infusion, prepared by pouring boiling water over the
herb previously powdered, whereby its virtues are ex-
tracted. Such infusions should be drank immediately
after their preparation while warm, because all expressed
juices, and watery infusions of plants, will rapidly pass
into fermentation and deterioration without the addition
of spirits, and will then lose their medicinal properties.
124. For these purposes, every medicinal substance
should be employed entirely alone, and in a perfectly
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 127
pare state, without the admixture of any other substance ;
and the experimenter (prover) should not partake of
any other medicinal substance on the same day. The
same caution is to be observed for as many days as the
observation of the effects of the drug requires.
125. During the time devoted to the experiment,
the diet should be very moderate, as free as possible from
spices, and of a simple nutritious kind. Thus, it is ad-
visable to avoid all green vegetables, [93] roots, and all
kinds of salad and pot-herbs, all of which retain some
disturbing medicinal properties, even if most carefully
prepared. Common beverages, not of a stimulating
kind, [94] should be used.
126. During the observation of the effect of drugs,
the experimenter must avoid mental and bodily exertions,
and particularly the disturbances that would result from
the excitement of sensual excesses. Nor should experi-
menters be interrupted in their observations, by urgent
business affairs which prevent them from paying close
attention to themselves, through fear of disturbance;
and, besides being to all intents and purposes of sound
health, they should possess the requisite degree of intel-
ligence, to enable them to define, and to describe their
sensations in distinct expressions.
127. Drugs should be proved by males as well as
by females, in order to discover what effect is produced
with regard to the sex.
128. The most recent experiments have taught that
crude medicinal substances, if taken by an experimenter
for the purpose of ascertaining their peculiar effects, will
128 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
not disclose the same wealth of latent powers, as when
they are taken in a highly attenuated state, potentiated
by means of trituration and succussion. Through this
simple process the powers hidden and dormant, as it
were, in the crude drug, are developed, and called into
activity in an incredible degree. In this way, the me-
dicinal powers, even of substances hitherto considered as
inert, are most effectually developed by administering to
the experimenter daily from four to six of the finest
pellets of the thirtieth potentiated attenuation of one of
these substances ; the pellets having been previously
moistened with a little water, should be ta-ken on an
empty stomach for several days.
129. If only slight effects appear after a dose of this
kind, and if it is desirable to render these effects stronger
and more distinct, several additional pellets may be taken
daily, until the effects upon the health of the prover be-
come perceptible. A drug does not exert equal strength
upon all persons, and a great difference is observable in
this respect; for instance, a moderate dose of a drug,
known to be very powerful, may sometimes produce but
a very slight effect upon an apparently delicate person,
while the same individual is affected quite perceptibly by
other, much less powerful drugs. Again, there are very
robust persons who perceive very marked symptoms from
an apparently mild drug, but very slight symptoms from
a stronger one. As this is not to be predetermined, it is
advisable, that each person should begin with 'a small dose
of medicine, gradually to be increased day by day where
such a course appears proper and desirable.
130. By giving a sufficiently strong dose in the be-
ginning of an experiment, we gain the advantage of ex-
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 129
hibiting to the experimenter the exact, consecutive order
in which the symptoms appear, and of allowing the ob-
server to note the time at which each one appeared. This
method proves to be very instructive with regard to the
character (genius) of the drug, since it shows most dis-
tinctly the order in which primary and secondary effects
appear. A moderate dose frequently suffices for the ex-
periment, provided the experimenter is sufficiently, sensi- .
tive, and pays proper attention to the state of his feel-
ings. The duration of the effect of a drug is determined
only after comparison of a number of experiments.
131. But if, in trying to obtain even a slight effect,
it becomes necessary to administer increased doses of some
drug to a person for several days in succession, we may
discover the various morbid conditions which this drug
is capable of producing in general; but we will not learn
the consecutive order of their appearance, and besides, a
second dose, by its curative effect, will often remove some
of the symptoms resulting from the previous dose; or a
second dose may produce the opposite condition from that
of the first. Too frequent a repetition of the dose pro-
duces ambiguous symptoms which should be marked as
unreliable by inclosing them in brackets, until other, more
exact (purer) experiments shall have proved them to be
either effect and after-effect of the organism, or alternat-
ing effect of the drug.
132. But if it is our purpose to observe a drug of
moderate strength, with regard to its symptoms alone,
without reference to the consecutive order or duration of
ihe drug-effect, it is preferable to proceed by adminis-
tering an increased dose for several successive days. In
this manner, the effect of every drug, though very mild,
9
130 ORGANO.V OF THE ART OF HEALING.
and previously unknown, will be disclosed, particularly
if it is tested by sensitive persons.
133. When some of the drug-symptoms begin to ap-
pear, it is useful and desirable, in order to determine the
symptom accurately, that the experimenter assumes
various postures, in order to observe if the sensation is
increased, lessened, or made to vanish by motion of the
affected part; by walking in the room, or in the open air;
bv standing, sitting, or lying; or whether it returns when
he assumes the original position. He should also ob-
serve if the symptom is changed by eating, drinking,
talking, coughing, sneezing, or some other bodily func-
tion. Particular notice should also be taken of the time
of the day or night at which each symptom usually ap-
pears, in order to discover its peculiarities and character-
istics.
134. All noxious agents, and especially drugs, pos-
sess the property of producing a particular kind of
change in the health of the living organism. But not
every symptom peculiar to one drug, appears in the same
person ; neither do all become manifest at once, nor dur-
ing a single experiment. A prover first experiences
certain symptoms, and others during a second, and a third
trial. Other persons may perceive certain symptoms of
another kind; while perhaps the fourth, eighth, or tenth
experimenter experiences several, or many of the same
symptoms which had already been perceived by the
second, sixth, or ninth person ; neither do these symp-
toms appear at the same hour.
135. The totality of all the elements of disease which
a drug is capable of producing, is brought near perfec-
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 131
tion only by manifold experiments, instituted by a select
variety of individuals of both sexes. We should not con-
sider the proving of a drug as complete, with regard to
the morbid conditions it is capable of exciting by means
of its peculiar (pure) powers of changing the state of
health, until all provers, after repeated trials, cease to
perceive new symptoms from the drug, and until they
begin to observe, upon themselves, mostly symptoms like
those already experienced by others.
136. (As above stated, no drug can produce every
variety of symptoms while being proved upon a single,
healthy person ; it will exhibit this variety only when
tested upon many different persons of various bodily and
mental constitutions. Nevertheless, the drug possesses
the inclination (tendency) to excite all of these symptoms
in every person ( 110). This is founded on an immu-
table law of nature, in obedience to which, the drug brings
into play all its effects, even those rarely produced in the
healthy, whenever it is administered to a person suffer-
ing from a similar morbid condition. When homceo-
pathically selected, and prescribed even in the mildest
dose, it will imperceptibly create in the patient an arti-
ficial condition, bearing a very close resemblance to that
of the natural disease, and will speedily and permanently
cure the sufferer of his original complaints.)
137. Within certain limits of quantity, the smaller
the doses are of the drug selected for the purpose of ex-
periment, so much -the more distinctly will the primary
effects appear which we are most desirous to ascertain.
They will appear alone, and without after- or counter-
effects of the vital force, provided that observation is fa-
cilitated by choosing provers of truthful, temperate habits,
132 ORGA_NOX OF THE ART OF HEALING.
of fine powers of perception, and capable of directing
close attention to themselves. Excessive doses, on the
other hand, cause the result to be disturbed by the ap-
pearance of various after-effects among the symptoms,
because the primary effects are confused by the haste and
violence of the action of the dose, which, besides prevent-
ing accurate observation of the effect, causes a certain de-
gree of danger to the prover ; this is not considered as a
matter of indifference by him who respects the welfare of
his fellow-men, and who esteems as his brother the hum-
blest of men.
138. Supposing the above condition, necessary to in-
sure the success and reliability of an experiment, to have
been complied with (see 124-127), every symptom, and
deviation from the normal state of health, observed by
the prover while under the influence of the drug, is de-
rived only from the latter, and must be regarded and
noted as a symptom properly belonging to it, notwith-
standing the prover may have observed similar and spon-
taneous sensations upon himself, some time ago. The re-
appearance of the same kind of sensations during the
proving of a drug, shows the prover to be particularly
susceptible to the influence of drugs, owing to his peculiar
bodily constitution. In the present instance, the effect
should be ascribed to the drug; for symptoms do not come
of themselves; but they are due to the active drug which
has been administered, and which controls the state of
feeling of the entire organism.
139. If the physician has not taken the drug him-
self for the purpose of experiment, but has administered
it to another person, the latter should distinctly write
down every sensation and change of feeling which he
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 133
experiences at the time of its occurrence. The time
which had elapsed between the taking of the drug, and
the appearance of the symptom, should also be noted, as
well as the duration of the latter, if it is found possible to
do so. The physician should examine the report imme-
diately after the termination of the experiment; or, if
this had been extended over several days, the report
should be examined daily in the presence of the prover,
who should be questioned about the exact form of every
symptom while it is yet fresh in his memory ; whereupon
the information thus obtained concerning particulars, is
added to the report, or this may be altered according to
subsequent statements. [95]
140. If the prover is not skilled in writing, the phy-
sician should inquire every day concerning the nature of
symptoms, and the manner of their appearance, in re-
gard to which he should obtain, as far as possible, the
voluntary statement of the person employed in the ex-
periment. Whatever is noted in writing as an actual
fact, should not consist of guesswork, suppositions, or of
extorted statements. This precaution should be strictly
observed in every case, as I have explained above (
8499), while speaking of the manner of exploring
natural diseases, and of the precautions to be taken in
delineating their true image.
141. The most desirable provings are those which
the healthy, unprejudiced physician of fine perception,
has made upon himself, for the purpose of discovering
the genuine effects which simple drugs may produce in
the form of changes of feeling, artificial morbid condi-
tions, and symptoms ; and when the physician himself
carefully takes every precaution heretofore pointed out,
134 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
he will be quite sure of what he has observed upon hi in-
self. [96]
142. Among the symptoms, especially of chronic
diseases, varying little in form, it is sometimes possible
to distinguish certain symptoms [97] resulting from a
simple drug administered for curative purposes. But
this is a matter attended with great difficulty and un-
certainty, and should be left only to experts in the art' of
observing.
143. After a considerable number of simple drugs
has been tested in this manner by healthy provers, and
after every element, or symptom of disease which these
drugs (as artificial morbific agents) are by themselves
capable of producing, have been carefully and faithfully
recorded, we shall then possess a true Materia Medica.
It will consist of a collection of genuine, pure, and un-
deceptive[98] effects of simple drugs; and will be a code
of nature, containing complete records of the particular
effects upon health, and the symptoms of every active
drug that has been tested, just as they were perceived by
the attentive observer. These records will contain, and
represent in similitude the (homosopathic) elements of
numerous, natural diseases hereafter to be cured by these
means. In other words, these records will contain lists
of symptoms of artificial diseases ; and these afford the
only true homoeopathic, or specific means for the certain
and permanent cure of similar, natural diseases. .
144. A Materia Medica of that kind should exclude
every supposition, every mere assertion and fiction ; its
entire contents should be the pure language of nature,
uttered in response to careful and faithful inquiry.
ORGAXON OP THE ART OF HEALING. 135
145. It is requisite, however, that we should have
a large supply of drugs, accurately known with regard
to theii effects upon the health of the human system, in
order to enable us to find [99] a homoeopathic remedy, i. e.,
a suitable analogue, in the form of an artificial morbific
(curative) agent for each of the countless, morbid condi-
tions in nature, for every disease in the world. Bat
owing to the reliability and wealth of symptoms, or dis-
ease-elements which have already been disclosed by ob-
servation of the effects of active, medicinal substances
upon healthy persons, there remain but few diseases for
which suitable homoeopathic remedies might not be found
among the drugs already tested for their pure effects. [100]
By means of such a remedy, health will be restored gently,
surely, and permanently, and with far greater certainty
and safety than by the general and special therapeutics
of the allopathic school, with its compounds of unknown
medicines. These only alter and aggravate chronic dis-
eases without curing them, and retard more than they
accelerate the recovery from acute diseases.
146. Next to testing drugs for their actual effects on
healthy persons, the third portion of the duty of. a true
physician relates to the homoeopathic application of these
artificial, morbific potencies (medicines) , for the purpose
of curing natural diseases,
147. A drug, completely tested with regard to its
power of altering human health, and whose symptoms
present the greatest degree of similitude with the totality
of symptoms of a given natural disease, will be the most
suitable and reliable homoeopathic remedy for that dis-
ease, for which the specific, curative agent will have been
discovered.
136 ORGAXOX OF THE ART OF HEALING.
148. A medicine possessing the power and inclina-
tion to produce similar symptoms, or an artificial disease
most similar to the natural disease to be cured, exerts its
dynamic influence upon the morbidly disturbed vital
force; and if it is administered in well-proportioned dose,
it will affect those parts of the organism where the nat-
ural disease is located, and will excite in them an arti-
ficial disease ; this, by virtue of its great similitude and
increased intensity, will now occupy the place hitherto
held by the natural morbid process. Thereupon the in-
stinctive and automatic vital power is liberated from the
natural disease, and is occupied alone with the stronger
and similar drug disease. But owing to the minuteness
of the dose, this drug affection is sufficiently tractable to
allow itself to be overcome by the increased energy of
the vital force, and will, therefore, soon vanish, leaving
the body free from disease and permanently healthy.
149. If the suitable homoeopathic drug is properly
.selected [101] and applied in this way, a natural, acute
disease of recent origin, even if severe and painful, will
gently vanish in a few hours ; an affection of somewhat
older date will disappear in a few days with every trace
of discomfort, while little or no effect of the drug will be
perceived, and recovery progresses in rapid, though im-
perceptible stages to the full restoration of health. Old,
and particularly complicated diseases demand a greater
proportion of time to be cured. Chronic drug diseases,
in particular, often complicated in the course of allopathic
treatment with an uncured natural disease, yield only
after great length of time, if they have not become quite
incurable, owing to the wanton waste of strength and
substance of the patient ; a result very often to be met
with after old-school treatment.
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING, . 137
150. Whenever a patient complains of only a lew
insignificant symptoms of very recent origin, the physi-
cian is not to regard them as a disease requiring serioua
medical aid. A slight change of diet, and habits of
living, generally suffices to remove so slight an indis-
position.
151. But if the symptoms complained of are very
severe, though few in number, the physician will, on
further inquiry, generally discover several collateral
symptoms of less severity, which will serve to complete
the picture of the disease.
152. If an acute disease is very severe, the symptoms
of which it is composed, will be so much the more con-
spicuous and numerous, and will increase the certainty of
discovering the suitable remedy, provided we possess a
sufficient number of medicines whose positive effects are
well determined and recorded. From complete catalogues
of this kind, it is not difficult to select a remedy out of
the individual symptoms of which, we may construe the
antitype (Gegenbild) in the form of a curative, artificial
disease, very similar to the totality of symptoms of the
natural disease ; and the medicine exhibiting these symp-
toms, is the remedy we were in need of.
153. This search for a homoeopathic, specific remedy,
consists in the comparison of the totality of the symp-
toms of the natural disease with the lists of symptoms of
our tested drugs, among which a morbific potency is to
be found, corresponding in similitude with the disease to
be cured. In making this comparison, the more promi-
nent, uncommon, and peculiar (characteristic) features of
the case[102] are especially, and almost exclusively con-
138 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
sidered and noted; for these, in particular, should bear the
closest similitude to the symptoms of the desired medicine,
if that is to accomplish the cure. The more general and
indefinite symptoms, such as want of appetite, headache,
weakness, restless sleep, distress, etc., unless more clearly
defined, deserve but little notice on account of their
vagueness, and also because generalities of this kind are
common to every disease, and to almost every drug.
154. Now, if the antitype, construed out of the symp-
toms of the most suitable medicine, consists of prominent,
uncommon, and characteristic symptoms, equal in num-
ber and similitude to the disease to be cured, this medi-
cine will prove to be the most homoeopathic and specific
remedy for the case. A disease of recent date will usu-
ally be cancelled and extinguished, without additional
discomfort, by the first dose of the remedy.
155. I say, without additional discomfort. For, dur-
ing the action of a homoeopathic medicine, only those of
its symptoms which correspond to those of the disease, are
in active operation; the former occupy the place of the
weaker symptoms of the disease ; these are thereby ex-
tinguished; while the numerous, remaining symptoms
of the homoeopathic medicine have no affinity to the
case, and therefore remain entirely quiescent. Scarcely
anything is perceived of them during the gradual prog-
ress of improvement, because the minute dose, required in
homoeopathic practice, is much too weak to allow the non-
homoeopathic portion of its symptoms visibly to affect the
^ound parts of the body ; therefore only the homoeopathic
symptoms are permitted to operate upon the parts of the
organism which are most decidedly under the influence
of the disease, and in this way the diseased vital force is
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 139
altered by the stronger drug disease in such a manner,
that the original disease is extinguished.*
156. There is, however, scarcely a homoeopathic
remedy which, though well selected, if not sufficiently
reduced in its dose, might not call forth at least one un-
usual sensation, or slight new symptom during its opera-
tion on very susceptible and sensitive patients ; for it is
almost impossible that medicine and disease should pos-
sess the same congruity as two triangles of like angles
and sides. But this insignificant difference is easily
erased by the active energy of the living organism, and
is not even perceived by patients of ordinary sensibility.
Convalescence will, nevertheless, progress to final recov-
ery, provided it is not interrupted by extraneous medici-
nal influences, dietetic excesses, or excitement.
157. Although a homoeopathically selected remedy,
by virtue of its fitness and minuteness of dose, quietly
cancels or extinguishes an analogous disease, without
manifesting any of its unhomoeopathic symptoms ; that
is to say, without exciting additional, perceptible sensa-
tions, it will, nevertheless, as a rule (or in the course of a
few hours) produce a slight aggravation resembling the
original disease so closely, that the patient actually con-
siders it as such. Aggravation caused by larger doses
may last for several hours, but in reality these are only
drug-effects somewhat superior in intensity, and very
similar to the original disease.
* As the words " stronger drug disease," implying a curative power, ap-
pear somewhat paradoxical, the closing sentence of this paragraph would be
more intelligibly rendered thus : .... In this way the disturbed vital force
is reinforced by the drug-effect to such an extent that the original disease is
extinguished. TRANSLATOR.
140 ORQANON OF THE ART OP HEALING.
158. This slight homoeopathic aggravation during
the first hours, is quite in order, and in case of an acute
disease, generally serves as an excellent indication that
it will yield to the first dose. The drug-disease must
naturally be somewhat more intense in order to overcome
and extinguish the natural diseases ; as it is only by su-
perior intensity that one natural disease can extinguish
another of similar nature ( 43-48).
159. The smaller the dose of the homoeopathic
remedy, so much the smaller and shorter is the apparent
aggravation of the disease during the first hours.
160. The dose of a homoeopathic remedy can scarce-
ly be reduced to such a degree of minuteness as to make it
powerless to overcome, and to completely cure an analo-
gous, natural disease of recent origin, and undisturbed by
injudicious treatment ( 249, remark). We may, there-
fore, readily understand why a less minute dose of a suit-
able homoeopathic medicine, an hour after its exhibition,
may produce an appreciable, homoeopathic aggravation
of this kind. [103]
161. In stating that the so-called homoeopathic ag-
gravation (or, more properly speaking, the primary effect
of the homoeopathic remedy, which seemingly intensifies
the symptoms of the original disease) is liable to occur
in the first hours, this is to be understood as referring to
acute diseases of recent origin ;[104] but whenever medi-
cines of protracted effect, are prescribed in diseases of
long standing, where one dose must necessarily extend
its operation over many days, such primary drug-effects,
'resembling an intensification of symptoms of the original
disease (lasting an hour or more), will be seen occasion-
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 141
ally in the course of six, eight, or ten days, while a gen-
eral improvement becomes visible in the intervening
hours. After the days of aggravation have passed, the
convalescence, induced by these primary drug-effects,
will progress almost uninterruptedly for several days.
162. As long as we have at our disposal only a
limited number of drugs whose actual effects are wholly
known, it sometimes occurs that only a portion of the
symptoms of the disease we wish to cure, corresponds
with those of the medicine selected as the most similar
one ; we may, therefore, be obliged to resort to a less
perfect curative agent, for want of a better one.
163. In this case, a perfect and easy cure cannot be
expected to result from the medicine; because disturb-
ances will be observed to follow its use, which were not
previously encountered in the disease ; these disturbances
should be regarded as accessory symptoms of the medi-
cine, imperfectly adapted to the case. But these will not
prevent the medicine from obliterating a considerable
portion of the disease (i. e., of those disease-symptoms
which are similar to the drug-symptoms) , thereby making
a fair beginning in convalescence ; still this will not pro-
ceed without accessory effects, which, however, are always
moderate, if the dose is sufficiently attenuated.
164. The cure, however, will not be essentially re-
tarded by the scarcity of similar drug-symptoms, pro-
vided the remedy is carefully selected, and the symptoms
which determine Us choice are mostly peculiar to the
remedy, and of marked similitude (characteristic) to those
of the disease; in which case, the cure will result without
particular inconvenience.
142 ORGANOX OF THE ART OF HEALING.
165. But if the case presents no marked and pecu-
liar symptoms of accurate similitude to those of a chosen
remedy ; and if the latter corresponds to the disease
merely in regard to its general and vaguely denned
symptoms (such as nausea, weakness, headache, etc.),
and if no medicine of close homoeopathic relation to the
case can be found, the physician will look in vain for an
immediate favorable result from the use of this unho-
mceopathic remedy.
166. Instances of this kind, however, will be very
rare, owing to the great recent addition of medicines, well
tested with reference to their pure effects ; and if such a
case should occur, the temporary delay in its cure will be
removed as soon as a subsequent medicine of more strik-
ing similitude is selected.
167. If, in an acute case, accessory disturbances of
some importance should result from the first and imperfect
homoeopathic medicine, its first dose should not be allowed
to complete its operation, nor should the patient be left
to suffer the entire duration of the effect of the medicine ;
but his case with its recent changes should now be re-
examined, and the remaining original symptoms consid-
ered in connection with the accessory ones, for the pur-
pose of construing a new picture of the disease.
168. This will greatly diminish the difficulty of select-
ing from our stock of well-known medicines, a remedy an-
alogous to the newly examined case ; and a single pre-
scription of the remedy will suffice for the cure of the
disease, or at least to bring it much nearer to its termi-
nation. If this remedy, also, should be found insuffi-
cient for the re-establishment of perfect health, the ex-
ORGAXON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 143
am ination of the remaining morbid condition, and the
selection of the most suitable homoeopathic remedy, should
be repeated until the object of restoring the patient to
perfect health is accomplished.
169. On account of the limited number of thoroughly
known remedies, cases may occur where the first exam-
ination of the disease, and the first selection of a remedy
prove that the totality of symptoms of the disease is not
sufficiently covered by the morbific elements (symptoms)
of a single remedy ; and where we are obliged to choose
between two medicines which seem to be equally well
suited to the case, and one of which appears to be
homoeopathic to a certain portion of the symptoms of
the case, while the second is indicated by the other por-
tion. In these instances, after having decided upon,
and prescribed one of these medicines as most eligible,
it is not advisable to administer the remedy of our sec-
ond choice without farther scrutiny, because it may no
longer correspond to the symptoms which remain after
the case has undergone a change. It will, therefore, be
our best plan to make a new record of the case, and to
find the most homoeopathic remedy for the state of the
symptoms.
170. In this, as well as in every other case where a
change of symptoms has occurred, a new record should
be made of the remaining symptoms, and a new homoeo-
pathic remedy selected (without regard to that second
medicine, which at first appeared as second best), which
is adapted as accurately as possible to the new state of
the disease as now presented. But if it should appear,
as it rarely does, that the medicine of our second choice
were still suited to the remnant of the morbid condition,
144 ORGANOX OF THE ART OF HEALING.
it would now deserve much more confidence, and should
be employed in preference to others.
171. In non- venereal chronic diseases, which origi-
nated from psora, it is often necessary to employ several
antipsoric remedies in succession ; each of which in its
turn had been homoeopathically selected, in accordance
with the group of symptoms left uncured when the pre-
ceding remedy (given in single, or in repeated doses)
had terminated its action.
172. Another embarrassment in the performance of
a cure, may arise from the scarcity of symptoms pre-
sented by the disease. This is an impediment which
merits careful consideration, because its removal will also
do away with the most serious difficulties encountered in
this perfect method of curing ; if we except those arising
from the incompleteness of our apparatus of known
homoeopathic medicines.
173. Diseases which seem to present an insufficient
number of symptoms, and which, therefore, appear to be
less susceptible of cure, may with propriety be termed
partial (one-sided) diseases. They present only one or
two prominent symptoms, which obscure the remaining
features of the case almost entirely. The greater part
of such diseases are chronic.
174. Their chief symptoms may indicate either an
internal affection, e. g., headache, diarrhoea, or cardialgia
of long standing, etc., or it may belong to an affection
of more external character. The last-named kind is com-
monly known as local diseases.
ORGANOX OF THE ART OF HEALING. 145
175. If in partial diseases of the internal variety,
all the symptoms necessary for the completion of the
outlines of the case are not entirely discovered, the error
is generally to be ascribed to want of attention on the
part of the physician.
176. There are, however, a few diseases which, not-
withstanding careful investigation at the outset ( 84-98) ,
exhibit their peculiarities but imperfectly, with the ex-
ception of a few strongly marked and violent symptoms.
177. Rare as these cases may be, we may meet them
successfully by making the best use of these few promi-
nent symptoms, which will serve as guides in the selec-
tion of a homoeopathic remedy.
178. It may certainly happen sometimes, that a
medicine selected with careful observance of the homoeo-
pathic law, may embrace in its symptoms the similar,
artificial disease which is capable of curing the natural
partial disease. The possibility of such a result is in-
creased, if the few symptoms of the natural disease are
especially peculiar to it, and well defined (characteristic).
179. In most cases, however, the first selected remedy
will only be partially, that is, inaccurately adapted, be-
cause a proper selection could not be made in the absence
of a majority of striking symptoms.
180. Although the homoeopathic medicine may have
been selected as well as the symptoms of the case would
allow, it may be only partially analogous to the disease,
and will, therefore, excite accessory symptoms in the
same manner, as ( 162, and the following) where the
10
146 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
scarcity of remedies renders their homoeopathic adapta
tion imperfect. An imperfectly adapted remedy will
mingle some of its own peculiar symptoms with the feel-
ings of the patient ; but they should be regarded as
symptoms of the disease itself, although they had rarely
or never been perceived before. In other words, sensa-
tions will be developed in a higher degree, which the
patient had not previously perceived at all, or only im-
perfectly.
181. The newly presented accessory sensations and
symptoms of such a case ought not to be ascribed to the
last remedy alone. It is true that they proceed partly
from the remedy ;[105] but the symptoms are always of
a kind which this medicine is of itself capable of pro-
ducing in a certain kind of constitution, and which are
only brought to light by the medicine, as an agent capa-
ble of giving * rise to similar symptoms. Therefore, the
now visible totality of symptoms must be regarded, and
consequently treated as belonging to the disease itself,
and, in fact, as its true representative condition.
182. Although the remedy may be imperfectly
adapted on account of the unavoidable deficiency of
symptoms presented by the case, it will, nevertheless,
serve the purpose of bringing to light the symptoms
belonging to the disease; thus facilitating the task of
searching out a second, and more accurately suited ho-
moeopathic medicine.
183. As soon, therefore, as the dose of the first medi-
cine ceases its beneficial action, a new record of the dis-
ease is to be made, the status morbi, as it is, noted, and a
new and accurate homoeopathic remedy chosen accord-
ORGAXON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 147
ingly. This will be readily found, now that the group
of symptoms has become more numerous and com-
plete; [106] and it should be administered at once, pro-
vided the new symptoms are not sufficiently severe to
require more prompt relief; an aggravation of this kind,
however, is rarely produced by minute homoeopathic
doses in diseases of long standing.
184. After the completion of the effect of each dose
of medicine, the case should be re-examined, in order to
ascertain what symptoms remain ; and again a most suit-
able homoeopathic remedy should be selected, correspond-
ing to this newly found group of symptoms ; and so on,
till health is restored.
185. The so-called local affections occupy a promi-
nent place among partial diseases. The term is applied
to diseased conditions appearing upon external parts of
the body, which, as the old school teaches, are diseased
independently and without the participation of the rest
of the body an absurd theory, that has led, and still
leads to the most pernicious treatment.
186. The name of local diseases seems most applica-
ble to those affections which are of recent origin, and
caused by external injury. But in that case the injury
must have been trifling, and, hence, of no particular sig-
nificance, because the entire body is made to participate
in the suffering caused by external injuries even of mod-
erate severity ; as, for instance, when they are followed
by febrile conditions. Affections of external parts requir-
ing mechanical skill, properly belong to surgery alone;
as, for instance, when external impediments are to be re-
moved that prevent the vital force from accomplishing
148 O FIG ANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
the cure. Examples of this kind are : reduction of dislo-
cations ; the union of edges of wounds by bandages; the
extraction of foreign bodies that have penetrated parts of
the body ; the opening of cavities, either for the removal
of cumbersome substances, or to form an outlet to effu- (
sions ; the approximation of fractured ends of bones, and
the retention of the adjusted parts by proper bandages,
etc. But frequently the entire organism is affected to
such an extent by injuries as to require dynamic treat-
ment, in order that it may be placed in the proper con-
dition for the performance of the curative operation.
Where, for instance, an active fever produced by severe
contusions, lacerations of muscles, tendons, and vessels is
to be subdued by internal administration of medicines, or
where the external pain of burnt or corroded parts is to
be removed, there the dynamic effect of homoeopathic
treatment is imperatively called for.
187. But affections of external parts, which are not
caused by external injuries, or of which slight injuries
may have been only the remote cause, have a source of
very different nature, and proceed from an internal mor-
bid state. To designate such conditions merely as local
diseases, and to treat them surgically, as it were, and
almost exclusively by local applications according to the
most ancient custom of medicine, is as absurd as its con-
sequences are disastrous.
188. These evils were simply considered and desig-
nated as local affections of separate visible parts upon
which they were supposed to occur exclusively, while the
rest of the general organism was supposed to take little
or no part in them, and to remain unconscious, as it were,
of their existence. [107]
GRGANON OP THE ART OF HEALING. 149
189. It becomes apparent upou reflection thijt no ex-
ternal disease (not occasioned by some particular external
lesion) can be originated, hold its place, or, least of all,
become aggravated without some internal cause, or with-
^out the participation of the organism which, con-
sequently, must share in the morbid condition. An
external disease of that kind could never make its ap-
pearance without involving the entire state of health,
and without the participation of the living whole; that
is, of the vital force governing all the other sensitive and
irritable parts of the organism. The growth of such a
disorder is inconceivable unless called forth by a morbid
condition of the entire vital principle. In fact, all parts
of the organism are so intimately connected as to form
an indivisible whole in feelings and functions, that not
even an eruption on the lips, or a case of paronychia can
be accounted for without assuming a previous and simul-
taneous diseased state of the body.
190. In order to combine both safety and thorough-
ness in the medical treatment of external diseases not
dependent upon external lesions, all curative measures
should be planned with reference to the state of the whole
system, in order to effect the obliteration and cure of the
general disease by means of internal remedies.
191. This is unequivocally verified by experience,
which shows in every instance that each internal active
medicine, immediately after having been taken, causes
significant changes in the general condition of the pa-
tient, and principally also in diseased external and re-
mote parts which are, by the old school, considered as
isolated. In fact, a medicine produces the most salutary
change in the form of convalescence of the entire body,
150 ORGAXON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
during which the external evil is seen to disappear with-
out the aid of external medication, provided the internal
homoeopathic remedy had been properly selected to meet
the whole case.
192. This is done most effectually by conducting the
examination of a case in such a manner, that the record
of the exact state of the local disease is added to the
summary of all symptoms, and other peculiarities to be
observed in the general condition of the patient (before,
during, and after the use of medicines), in order to com-
plete the record or picture of the disease before proceed-
ing to select (from among the medicines tested with re-
gard to their morbific effects) a homoeopathic remedy
corresponding to this totality of symptoms.
193. By this internal remedy the general morbid
condition of the body is cured simultaneously with the
local disease, and sometimes the first dose of the remedy
accomplishes this end, if the disease is of recent origin.
This proves that the local evil must have depended en-
tirely upon a diseased state of the system in general,
and that it was to be regarded as an inseparable part, and
as one of the greatest and most prominent symptoms of
the entire disease.
194. It is neither beneficial in acute local diseases of
rapid growth, nor in those of long standing, to use a
remedy externally as a local application to the diseased
part, even if the medicines were .specific and curative in
that form. Acute local diseases, such as inflammations
of single parts, like erysipelas, for instance, which are
not produced by violent external injuries, but by dynamic
or internal causes, will usually yield rapidly to internal
ORGANOX OF THE ART OF HEALING. 151
homoeopathic remedies selected from our stock of well-
tested medicines, [108] and adapted to actually percepti-
ble external and internal symptoms. But notwithstand-
ing the well-regulated habits of the patient, a remnant
of disease may still be left in the affected part or in the
system at large, which the vital force is unable to restore
to its normal state; in that case the acute local disease
frequently proves to be a product of psora, which has
lain dormant in the system, where it is now about to be-
come developed into an actual chronic disease.
195. Causes of this kind are by no means uncom-
mon ; and in order to accomplish a thorough cure after
the acute condition has been reduced as far as possible, a
proper course of antipsoric treatment should be instituted
to remove the remainder of the disease, and, at the same
time, to relieve the habitual symptoms peculiar to the pa-
tient previous to the acute attack (according to the direc-
tions given in the book on chronic diseases). The anti-
psoric, internal treatment is requisite in non-venereal
chronic disorders.
196. It may seem as if the cure of a local disease
could be accelerated, not only by internal administration,
but also by external application of the correct homoeo-
pathic remedy adapted to the totality of symptoms, since
the effect of a medicine, applied locally to the disease
itself, might possibly produce a more rapid improvement.
197. But this kind of treatment is entirely objection-
able, not only in local affections dependent on psora, but
also in local symptoms arising from syphilis and from
sycosis, because the local application of a medicine, simul-
taneously with its internal use, results in great disadvan-
!52 ORGANON OJP THE ART OF HEALING.
tages. For in diseases characterized by a main symptom
in the form of a permanent local affection, [109] the latter
is generally dispelled by topical applications more rapidly
than the internal disease. This often leads to the decep-
tive impression that we have accomplished a perfect cure.
At all events the premature disappearance of this local
symptom renders it very difficult, and in some cases im-
possible to determine whether the total disease has also
been exterminated by the internal remedy.
198. For the same reason, a medicine having the
power of curing internally, should not be employed ex-
clusively as a topical application to the local symptoms
of chronic miasmatic diseases. For, if these are only
topically suppressed, this partial effect will leave us in
doubt regarding the action of the internal remedies,
which are absolutely indispensable to the restoration of
general health. The main symptom (local disease) has
disappeared, and only the less important symptoms are
left; these are so much less constant and reliable than
the local disease, and their peculiarities and character-
istics are often so indistinct, that they fail to furnish a
clear and perfect outline of the disease.
199. Now, if in addition to this, the appropriate
homoeopathic remedy for the disease[110] has not been
found up to the time when the local symptom was ob-
literated by caustics, escharotics, or by excision, the case
will be involved in still greater difficulty, on account of
the obscurity and inconstancy of the remaining symp-
toms. After the external and principal symptom has
been placed beyond the reach of our observation, we are
deprived of that feature of the case which would have
determined the selection of a homeopathic remedy, the
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 153
internal use of which, could alone have secured complete
recovery.
200. If this main symptom were still present, the
homoeopathic remedy for the whole disease could have
been found, and in that case the persistence of the local
disease, during the internal operation of the medicine,
would prove the incompleteness of the cure. But if the
local disease disappears from its site, we would gain an
inestimable advantage, and have established evidence of
the achievement of a radical cure, and of complete re-
covery from the general disease.
201. When the system is affected with some chronic
disease which threatens to destroy vital organs and life
itself, and which does not yield to the spontaneous efforts
of the vital force, this endeavors to quiet the inner dis-
ease, and to avert the danger by substituting and main-
taining a local disease on some external part of the body,
whither the internal disease is transferred by derivation.
The presence of the local disease for a time arrests the
internal evil, without, however, being able to cure it or
to lessen it essentially. [Ill] Nevertheless, the local dis-
ease continues to be a part of the general disease ; but it
is a part which has become excessively developed in one
direction by the organic vital force, and transported to a
more secure portion of the body, in order to lessen the
internal morbid proees-:. To soothe the inner disease by
a local affection, is of little benefit to the vital force in its
effort to reduce and cure the general disease. For, not-
withstanding the efforts of nature, the internal disease in-
creases constantly, while nature is compelled gradually
to enlarge and aggravate the local symptom, in order to
make it a sufficient substitute for, and to subdue the inner
154 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
disease. Old ulcers of the leg, and chancres are aggra-
vated and enlarged in proportion to the spontaneous
growth of internal syphilis and psora which remain uu
cured.
202. When an old-school physician, acting under
the impression that he is curing the whole disease, de-
stroys the local symptom by external remedies, nature
will offset it by awakening and extending the inner dis-
ease, and all the dormant symptoms which had previously
coexisted with the local affection. A case of this kind
is then incorrectly defined in popular phrase, by saying
that the topical medicine had driven the whole disease
back into the system upon the nerves.
203. Many kinds of external treatment are in vogue
for the removal of local symptoms from the surface of
the body, without curing the inner miasmatic disease. It
is customary, for instance, to remove the itch from the
skin by all kinds of ointments; to destroy chancres ex-
ternally by cauterization; and locally to exterminate
sycotic excrescences by excision, ligature, or the actual
cautery. This method of external treatment hitherto so
common, is pernicious in its results, and is the most gen-
eral source of innumerable chronic diseases with and
without names, under the burden of which the human
race suffers; although one of the most culpable habits of
the medical profession, it was hitherto generally intro-
duced, and is proclaimed by professors as the only re-
liable method of practice. [11 2]
204. By placing into one class all protracted diseases
arising from unwholesome habits of living, together witli
countless drug-diseases (see 74), produced by the per-
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 155
wstent and debilitating treatment often employed by old-
school physicians in trifling disorders, we shall then find
that all other chronic diseases, without exception, are de-
rived from the development of three chronic miasms: in-
ternal syphilis, internal sycosis, but chiefly and in far
greater proportion internal psora. Each of these must
have pervaded the entire organism, and penetrated all its
parts before the primary, representative local symptom,
peculiar to each miasm (itch eruption of psora, chancre
and bubo of syphilis, and condyloid excrescences of
sycosis) makes its appearance for the prevention of the
inner disease. When its local symptom is suppressed, the
internal disease will be developed sooner or later, in obe-
dience to the laws of nature. It will be followed by
endless misery in the form of innumerable chronic dis-
eases which have been the scourge of the human race for
thousands of years, and these would never have prevailed
to such an extent, had physicians endeavored rationally
and zealously to cure and eradicate each miasm by in-
ternal homoeopathic treatment and well-selected medicines,
instead of tampering with their local symptoms by topi-
cal applications.
205. Homoeopathic practice never requires us to
single out some primary or secondary symptom resulting
from chronic miasm, nor to resort to external local reme-
dies, either dynamic[113J or mechanical. But wherever
one of these symptoms appears, homoeopathy cures the
great fundamental miasm, together with which its primary
as well as its secondary symptoms vanish simultaneously.
But as the homoeopathic physician will generally find
the primary symptoms [11 4] to have been suppressed by
local treatment of allopathic practitioners, it will be his
duty to accomplish what his predecessors neglected to do.
156 ORGAXON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
He will, therefore, give his attention more particuli rly to
the secondary symptoms which result from the develop-
ment of an inner miasm, and will observe especially
chronic diseases arising from internal psora. I have en-
deavored to demonstrate the internal treatment of these
diseases, as far as it was possible for a single physician to
do, after many years of thought, observation, and ex-
perience, in my book on chronic diseases, to which I
herewith refer the reader.
206. Before beginning the treatment of a chronic
disease, it is necessary to inquire most carefully [11 5] if
the patient had been infected by venereal disease, or by
sycotic gonorrhoea. In either case the treatment should
be directed against the affection whose symptoms are alone
found to be present ; although it is rare in modern times
to meet with uncomplicated cases of these affections. If
such an infection is acknowledged by the patient, it should
also be taken into consideration when psora is the prin-
cipal object of treatment, because the latter will have been
complicated with the former, a condition always indi-
cated when the symptoms of psora are mingled with
others. When a physician is called to treat what he
supposes to be an inveterate case of syphilis, he will usu-
ally find that it is principally complicated with psora,
because the inner itch miasm, or psora, is by far the most
frequent and fundamental cause of chronic diseases, and
is frequently complicated either with syphilis or with
sycosis, if infection with the latter has taken place. But
in by far the majority of cases, psora is the sole and fun-
damental cause of chronic diseases, whatever their names
may be, and these are often exaggerated and distorted by
allopathic interference.
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 157
207. After these conditions have been fulfilled, it re-
mains for the homoeopathic physician to inquire to what
allopathic treatment the patient 'had been hitherto sub-
jected, and what active medicines he had chiefly and
most frequently used. It should also be ascertained
what mineral baths he had employed, arid with what re-
sult, in order to understand the deviations which this
treatment had produced in the original disease; and to
determine the course to be pursued, to correct, if possible,
this artificial deterioration, or, at least, to avoid henceforth
those medicines which had been abused.
i
208. Next to this, the patient's age, mode of living
and diet, occupation, domestic circumstances, and even
his social position are to be considered, in order to see if
these have been of a nature to augment the disease, or
in what respect the cure might be favored or impeded
thereby. Neither should the physician overlook the pa-
tient's state of mind and temperament, and observe if it
inclines to prevent the cure, or whether it might be neces-
sary to direct or modify his mental condition by psychi-
cal means.
209. After these points have received attention ac-
cording to the above directions, and after several inter-
views, the physician will find himself enabled to deter-
mine the state of the patient's case as perfectly as possible,
and to mark the most conspicuous and peculiar (charac-
teristic) symptoms. Guided by these, and in accordance
with strict similitude of symptoms, he should then select
the first antipsoric, antisyphilitic, or antisycotic remedy
for the beginning of the cure.
210. Most diseases which I have previously described
158 ORGAXON OF THE ART OF HEALING
as partial, belong to psora, and these appear to be more
difficult to cure owing to this partial development, where
all other symptoms of the disease are obscured by the
presence of one, great, prominent symptom. The so-
called diseases of the mind and temperament are of this
kind. These, however, do not constitute a class of dis-
eases strictly distinct from others, because the state of
the mind is always modified\\.\&\ in so-called physical
diseases ; and hence the state of the mind, being one of
the most important features of the complex of symptoms,
is to be noted, in order to secure a reliable record (picture)
of all diseases presenting themselves for treatment, and
that each may be effectually and homoeopathically cured.
211. The state of the patient's mind and tempera-
ment is often of most decisive importance in the homoeo-
pathic selection of a remedy, since it is a distinct and
peculiar symptom that should least of all escape the
accurate observation of the physician.
212. The effect upon the state of mind and disposi-
tion is the principal feature of all diseases, and seems to
have been specially ordained by the Creator of all heal-
ing powers. There is not a single potent medicinal sub-
stance that does not possess the power of altering percep-
tibly the mental condition and mood of -a healthy person
who voluntarily tests a drug; indeed, each medicinal sub-
stance affects the mind in a different manner.
213. The treatment would not be in accordance with
nature, that is, homoeopathic, unless we recognize also the
symptomatic changes of mind and temperament occur-
ring in every case of acute as well as of chronic disease,
and unless we select from our remedies one which, next
ORGANON OP THE ART OF HEALING. 159
to the similitude of its physical symptoms to those of the
disease, is also capable of producing by itself a similar
effect upon the mind and disposition. [11 7]
214. What I have to say regarding the treatment of
mental diseases, may be expressed in a few words. Such
diseases are to be treated like all others, and they are cur-
able only by means of a remedy which is very similar to
the disease, with regard to the morbific effects it is capable
of producing upon the bodily and mental state of a
healthy person.
215. Most of the so-called diseases of the mind are
in reality bodily diseases. Certain mental and emotional
symptoms are peculiar to every bodily disease; these
symptoms develop more or less rapidly, assume a state of
most conspicuous one-sidedness, and are finally trans-
ferred, like a local disease, into the invisibly fine organs
of the mind, where, by their presence, they seem to ob-
scure the bodily symptoms.
216. It is a common observation that a dangerous
physical disease, such as suppuration of the lungs, or
other destructive and acute affections (like those follow-
ing childbirth), have certain mental symptoms. These
are subject to rapid development, and often degenerate
into insanity, melancholy, or raving madness, whereby
all threatening bodily symptoms are made to vanish, and
seem to be replaced by perfect health ; or, rather, they
diminish to such a degree, that their presence, though ob-
scured, is discovered only by the utmost vigilance and
care on the part of the physician. In this manner they
assume the shape of one-sided, or, as it were, of local
diseases which have the peculiarity, that a slight degree
160 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
of mental disturbance is enlarged into the main symp-
tom, which henceforth serves as a substitute for the rest
of the physical symptoms, and palliates their violence.
In short, the disorders of the coarser bodily organs are
transferred, as it were, to the almost spiritual organs of
the mind, where the dissecting-knife will search in vain
for their cause.
217. In these diseases the observation of every symp-
tom should be conducted with the utmost care. We
should obtain most exact knowledge of the bodily symp-
toms, particularly also of the definite peculiarity and
character of the main feature of the complex of symptoms,
i. e., of the precise condition of the mind and disposition
prevailing in each case. We shall then be in a position
to select from the remedies known according to their
actual effects, one that will cure the entire disease. The
remedy thus chosen should exhibit symptoms of the
greatest similitude, not only to those of the bodily dis-
ease, but also to those of the mind and temperament.
218. In recording the totality of symptoms of a
of this kind, it is of prime importance to obtain an accu-
rate description of all physical symptoms which pre-
vailed before the disease degenerated into a one-sided
mental disorder. The information necessary for this
purpose will be derived from the statements of the atten-
dants of the patient.
219. We may obtain assurance of the continued,
though obscured, existence of the physical disease, by
comparing its early symptoms with their present indis-
tinct remnants which occasionally appear during lucid
ORGANOX OF THE ART OF HEALING. 161
intervals, and during transient amelioration of the men-
tal disease.
220. To complete the record of the totality, it is
necessary to add the symptoms of the mental state as
observed by the physician and attendants of the patient.
We may then proceed to find a remedy of great simili-
tude, especially with regard to the mental disturbance
which it has the power to produce ; and if the case is a
chronic one, its remedy will be found among the anti-
psorics.
221. Insanity or madness is sometimes occasioned
by fright, vexation, spirituous liquors, etc., and takes the
form of an acute affection, suddenly interrupting the
ordinary quiet course of the disease; and, although it
may be traced to latent psora, it would not be advisable
to treat this acute attack with antipsoric remedies at
once. It should be met at first by well-proved remedies
of the other class, such as Aconite, Belladonna, Stramo-
nium, Hyoscyanus, Mercurius, etc., administered in
highly attenuated homoeopathic doses. These will sub-
due it so far, that the psora is for the present forced to
return to its latent condition, whereupon the patient will
appear to have recovered.
222. Although a patient is relieved of an acute men-
tal disorder by means of non-antipsoric medicines, he
should not be considered as entirely cured. On the con-
trary, no time is to be lost in perfecting the cure[118]
by means of continued antipsoric treatment, in order to
free the patient from the chronic miasm of psora which,
though apparently latent, is apt to break out anew.
After such treatment, no fear need be entertained of
11
162 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
another attack of the same kind, provided the patient
will faithfully adhere to well-regulated diet and habits.
223. If the antipsoric treatment is omitted, a new,
more protracted, and serious attack of insanity may be
called forth by much slighter causes than the first.
During this second attack, psora is usually developed,
and may assume the form, either of a periodical or a
continuous affection of the mind, which is then much
more difficult to cure.
224. Mental disease may not be fully developed, or
there may be some doubt as to its origin from physical
disease, or from educational errors, bad habits, corrupt
morals, neglected mental training, superstition, or ignor-
ance. In these cases, the following will serve as means
of distinguishing the cause: if the mental affection is
based on the last-named class of causes, it will yield and
improve under the influence of sensible admonition and
consolation, or of serious remonstrances and arguments ;
while real mental disorders arising from physical dis-
ease, are rapidly aggravated by the same measures.
Thus, melancholy patients will be still more depressed,
plaintive, disconsolate, and retiring; the malicious ma-
niac will be still more embittered ; and the silly prattler
will become more foolish than ever. [119]
225. There are, nevertheless, some mental diseases
which are not the result of physical or bodily affections,
but which, notwithstanding tolerably good physical
health, originate in, and proceed directly from the mind.
They are often caused by protracted grief, mortification,
vexation, insult, and frequent occurrence of intense fear,
,ORGAXOX OF THE ART OF HEALING. 163
or fright. This kind of mental affection, in the course
of time, will also seriously deteriorate the bodily health.
226. When this kind of mental affections, bred and
nourished by the soul itself, are of recent date, and have
not yet undermined the physical health too seriously,
they admit of speedy cure by psychical treatment : gen-
tleness, kind admonition, appeals to reason, and often
skilful deception, will soon restore health and comfort to
the mind, while careful regulation of habits will reestab-
lish the health of the body also.
227. These diseases are likewise founded on psoric
miasin which had not attained its full development. As
a measure of precaution, therefore, it is desirable to sub-
ject the convalescent patient to a course of thorough
antipsoric treatment, in order to prevent a recurrence
of the attack of mental aberration which might readily
occur.
228. Although diseases of the mind and tempera-
ment, of physical origin, are only to be cured by anti-
psoric homoeopathic medicine, combined with carefully
regulated habits, it is necessary, also, to unite this treat-
ment with proper hygiene and psychical regimen of the
mind, to be strictly enforced by the physician and at-
tendants of the patient. Raving madness should be met
by calm fearlessness and firmness of will ; painfully
plaintive melancholy should be soothed by silent com-
passion conveyed by gestures and expression of coun-
tenance ; silly loquacity should be listened to in silence,
but with some degree of attention ; indecent behavior
and obscene language are to be treated with indifference.
The destruction and injury of objects should be simply
164 Ol.GAJS'ON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
prevented by placing them out of reach, without re-
proaching the patient for his conduct; furthermore, the
treatment should be conducted with a view to the abso-
lute avoidance of corporeal punishment or torture. [120]
The administration of medicines would alone justify
coercion ; but this is easily to be avoided on account of
the smallness of the dose, and absence of taste of homoeo-
pathic medicines. These do not excite suspicion, and
may, therefore, be given to the patient, mixed in his
usual drink, without his knowledge, thus obviating every
kind of compulsion.
229. On the other hand contradiction, incessant argu-
ment, violent remonstrance, and vituperation, no less than
weak and timid submission, are altogether out of place,
and alike hurtful as means of treating diseases of the
mind. There is nothing that embitters the insane, and
augments their diseases so much, as expressions of con-
tempt, and ill-disguised deception. The physician and
attendant should always treat such patients as if they
regarded them as rational beings.
Therefore every disturbance of the senses and of the
mind should be avoided. There is no entertainment to
fascinate their benighted spirit; neither words, books,
nor other objects will soothe the rebellious soul, now
roused to madness, now languishing imprisoned in the
body shattered by disease. A perfect cure alone will
bring comfort; rest and relief will return to the mind,
only when the body is restored to health.
230. For the purpose of cure, antipsoric remedies
should be most homoeopathically adapted to the carefully
recorded symptoms (image) of each individual case of
mental disease, whose varieties are innumerable. This
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 165
adaptation is readily effected by diligent search for a
suitable homoeopathic remedy, provided we possess a suf-
ficient number of known remedies to choose from. The
selection is likewise facilitated by tlie mental affection in
its character as chief symptom of the case, pointing to
the remedy with unmistakable clearness. When the
remedy is well adapted, the minutest dose often produces
a remarkable improvement in a short time, which could
not have been attained by the largest and frequent doses
of all other inappropriate (allopathic) medicines, even
if pushed to the last extreme. Indeed, manifold expe-
riences enable me to assert that the great excellence of
homoeopathic treatment, compared with all other cura-
tive methods, is never more triumphantly exhibited than
when applied to chronic mental diseases, which originally
sprung from bodily affections, or appeared simultaneously
with them.
231. The class of intermittent diseases also claims
our special attention. There are those which return at
certain periods ; and there exists also a great number of
intermittent fevers, as well as numerous apparently non-
febrile affections resembling the intermittents by their
periodical recurrence. Furthermore, there are affections
characterized by the appearance of certain morbid con-
ditions, alternating at uncertain periods with morbid con-
ditions of a different kind.
232. The order of alternating diseases is also of
great variety, [121] but all belong to the class of chronic
diseases which are mostly a product of developed psora.
In some rare instances they are complicated with syphil-
itic miasm. In the first instance, they are cured by
antipsoric medicines, but in the latter case the treatment
166 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
should be conducted by alternating antipsorics with anti-
gyphilitics, according to the instructions contained in the
book on chronic diseases.
233. Typical intermittent diseases are those of a
uniform morbid condition which recurs after a certain
period of apparent health, and which again vanishes
after an equally definite period. This is to be observed
in seemingly feverless diseases of intermittent type, as
also in a great variety of febrile diseases like intermit-
tent fevers.
234. Apparently non-febrile morbid conditions
which recur at stated periods with some patients, are not
of sporadic or epidemic nature ; but they always belong
to the class of chronic, and mostly of genuine psoric
diseases. They are rarely combined with syphilis, and
if so, they are effectually treated according to the above
suggestions. But sometimes an intercurrent dose of
potentiated tincture of Peruvian bark is necessary for
the purpose of completely extinguishing the intermit-
tent type of these diseases.
235. In sporadic or epidemic intermittents,[122]
Qot prevalent endemically in marshy districts, we often
observe that each attack is composed of two distinct
stages, such as chill and then heat, or heat and then
chill ; but still more frequently they consist of three
stages, viz., cold, heat, and finally sweat. Hence, the
remedy selected for these diseases from the general class
of proved medicines (usually the non-antipsorics) , should
also possess the power of producing in healthy persons,
the several successive stages similar to the natural dis-
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 167
ease. The remedy, in its similitude of symptoms, should
correspond as closely as possible with the most prominent
and peculiar, stage of the disease. It should be homoeo-
pathic either to the cold stage and its collateral symp-
toms, or to the hot stage and its collateral symptoms,
according to the most marked peculiarity of these stages.
But the symptoms which mark the condition of the
patient during the period of intermission, should chiefly
be taken as guides in selecting the most striking homoeo-
pathic remedy. [123]
236. In these cases, the medicine is generally most
efficacious when it is administered a short time after the
termination of the paroxysm, when the patient has par-
tially recovered from it. During the intermission the
medicine will have time to develop its curative effect in
the organism, without violent action or disturbance;
while the effect of a medicine, though specifically
adapted to the case, given just before the next paroxysm,
would coincide with the renewal of the disease, thereby
creating such counteraction and distress in the organism,
as to deprive the patient of much strength, and even to
endanger life. [124] But if the medicine is given just
after the termination of the attack, when the fever has
entirely subsided, and before the premonitory symptoms
of the next paroxysm have time to appear, the vital
force of the organism is in the most favorable condition
to be gently modified by the medicine, and restored to
healthy action
237. If the feverless interval is very brief, as in
some severe fevers, or if it is disturbed by the after-
effects of the preceding paroxysm, the dose of homoeo-
pathic medicine should be administered when the per-
QRGAJsON OF THE ART OF HEALING,
gpiration diminishes, or when the subsequent stages of
the paroxysm decline.
238. One dose of the appropriate medicine may
prevent several attacks, and may actually have restored
health ; nevertheless, we may perceive threatening indi-
cations of a new attack, and in this case only, the same
remedy should be repeated, provided the complex of
symptoms continues to be the same. After an interval
of health, the recurrence of intermittent fever is possible,
only when the noxious influence which first originated
the disease, continues to act upon the convalescent pa-
tient, as would be the case in marshy localities. Perfect
recovery, therefore, can be secured alone by avoiding
this exciting cause ; that is, by removing the patient to
a mountainous region, if the fever occurred in a marshy
district.
239. Almost every drug, in its pure effect, produces
a specific distinct kind of fever, and even a species of
intermittent fever with its alternating stages, differing
from fevers produced by other drugs. Therefore na-
ture's bountiful store of medicines will also furnish ho-
moeopathic remedies for the numerous natural forms of
intermittent fevers. Although the number of medicines
tested for their effects upon the healthy is still limited,
remedies will be found for many of these fevers.
240. If the homoeopathic specific remedy, adapted
to the prevalent epidemic of intermittent fevers, should
fail in some cases to accomplish a perfect cure, and unless
continued exposure to marsh-miasin is at fault, we may
conclude that latent psora prevents recovery, and that
autipsoric medicines are required to complete the cure.
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 169
241. Epidemics of intermittents occurring in places
where such fevers are not epidemic, partake of the na-
ture of chronic diseases, and are composed of a series of
acute attacks. Each epidemic possesses a peculiar uniform
character, common to all individuals attacked by the epi-
demic disease. By observing the complex of symptoms
peculiar to all patients, this common character will be
found to point out the homoeopathic (specific) remedy
for all cases in general. This remedy will also usually
relieve patients who, previous to this epidemic, had en-
joyed good health, and who were free from developed
psora.
242. If in such an epidemic the first attacks befall-
ing an individual, were left uncured, or if the patients
had been weakened by allopathic abuses, the latent
psora pervading the organism of many, becomes devel-
oped, assumes the type of epidemic intermittent fevers,
and apparently plays their parts; so that a non-antipsoric
medicine which might have been beneficial in the neg-
lected primary attack, is no longer suitable, and utterly
useless. In this case we shall have to contend with a
psoric intermittent fever, which usually yields only to the
finest doses of sulphur and liver of sulphur, repeated at
long intervals.
243. A certain malignant form of intermittents,
which attack single individuals not residing in marshy
localities, are to be treated in the beginning like other
acute diseases (which, like intermittents, are of psoric
origin), by selecting for the special case, a homoeopathic
remedy from the class of non-antipsoric medicines ; this
remedy should be continued for several days, for the
purpose of reducing the disease as far as possible. But
170 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
if the disease does not yield to the treatment, we may be
assured that psora is in the act of development and
that antipsoric medicines alone will afford perfect relief
in the case.
244. Intermittent fevers, which are indigenous to
marshy regions, or places subject to inundations, try the
patience of the old-school physician ; and yet young and
healthy persons may become accustomed to marshy re-
gions, and remain healthy if their habits are temperate,
and if they are not weakened by want, fatigue, or excesses.
Endemic intermittents will attack such persons only as
new-comers; but one or two of the smallest doses of
highly potentiated Cinchona will easily rid him of the
"fever, provided his mode of life is simple. However, if
persons accustomed to proper physical exercise, and to
wholesome bodily and mental habits, are not relieved of
marsh intermittents by one or two of such small doses of
Cinchona, they are always based upon psora ready to be
developed. And hence such persons cannot be cured
of intermittents in a marshy region without antipsoric
treatment. [125] Occasionally patients of this kind, if
they speedily move from a marshy district to a dry,
mountainous locality, will apparently recover, provided
the disease is not too deeply seated, i. e., if psora is not
yet fully developed, so that it might again assume, its
latent state; such patients, however, will never be restored
to perfect health without antipsoric treatment.
245. Now that we have learned the rules to be fol-
lowed during homoeopathic treatment concerning the
main differences of diseases, and the particular circum-
stances attending such diseases, we come to the consider-
ORGAJSTON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 171
ation of curative remedies, their mode of application, and
the dietetic rules to be observed.
Perceptible and continued progress of improvement in
an acute or chronic disease, is a condition which, as Ion**
7 O
as it lasts, invariably counterindicates the repetition of
any medicine whatever, because the beneficial effect which
the medicine continues to exert is rapidly approaching
its perfection. Under these circumstances every new
dose of any medicine, even of the last one that proved
beneficial, would disturb the process of recovery.
246. .A very fine dose of a well-selected homoeopathic
remedy, if uninterrupted in its action, will gradually ac-
complish all of the curative effect it is capable of pro-
ducing, in a period varying from forty to one hun-
dred days. But it rarely is interrupted, and besides, the
physician as well as the patient usually desire to acceler-
ate the cure by reducing this period of time, if possible,
by one-half, one-quarter, or even less. Experience has
proved in numerous instances that such a result may
actually be obtained under the following three conditions :
First, by careful selection of the most appropriate homoeo-
pathic medicine; secondly, by administering the medi-
cine in the finest dose capable of restoring the vital force
to harmonious activity, without causing violent reaction;
and, thirdly, by repeating the finest dose of an accurately
selected medicine at proper intervals, [126] such as are
proved by experience to be most conducive to a speedy
cure, and timed so as to prevent an injurious and revul-
sive counteraction of the vital force, whose action is to be
tempered and modified in accordance with the morbific
power of the medicine which is similar in effect to the
natural disease.
172 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
247. Under these conditions the finest doses of the
most nicely selected homoeopathic medicine may be re-
peated with excellent, and often astonishing effect, at in-
tervals of fourteen, twelve, ten, eight, or seven days. In
chronic diseases assuming an acute form, and demanding
greater haste, these spaces of time may be abbreviated
still more, but in acute diseases the remedies may be re-
peated at much shorter intervals ; for instance, twenty-
four, twelve, eight, or four hours ; and in the most acute
diseases at intervals varying from an hour to five min-
utes. These periods are always to be determined by the
more or less acute course of the disease, and by the nature
of the remedy employed, in accordance with the more
definite directions given in the explanatory note to the
preceding paragraph.
248. The dose of the same medicine is to be repeated
several times if necessary, but only until recovery ensues,
or until the remedy ceases to produce improvement ; at
that period the remainder of the disease, having suffered
a change in its group of symptoms, requires another
homoeopathic medicine.
249. Every medicine which, in the course of its op-
eration, produces new and troublesome symptoms not
peculiar to the disease to be cured, is incapable of effect-
ing a real improvement, [127] and is not to be considered
as homoeopathic to the case. If the aggravation pro-
duced by this medicine is very perceptible, it should
speedily be partially counteracted by an antidote before
prescribing the next remedy, which is to be selected with
greater care in regard to its similitude to the case. Or,
if the accessory symptoms are not too violent, the next
ORGANOX OF THE ART OF HEALING. 173
remedy should be given at once, in order to replace the
inappropriate one.
250. If, in urgent cases the observant physician be-
comes convinced, after six or twelve hours, that he had
been mistaken in the selection of his last remedy, from
the fact that the condition of the patient grows worse
from hour to hour, as indicated by the appearance of
new symptoms, however slight they may be, he will be
justified, and in duty bound, to repair his mistake ( 167)
by selecting and administering a homoeopathic remedy
with greater care, and adapting it more accurately to the
new state of the case.
251. There are some medicines (e. g., Ignatia amara,
Bryonia, and Khus rad., and in some respects Bella-
donna) whose power of affecting the state of health is
evinced principally by alternating effects. These are
symptoms composed of partly opposite primary effects.
If, after the exhibition of one of these remedies, not-
withstanding its most careful selection, no improvement
is to be observed, this will soon be obtained (in a few
hours in acute cases) by a new and equally fine dose of
the same remedy. [128]
252. But if it should appear during the use of other
medicines that a properly reduced dose of homoeopathic
(antipsoric) medicine does not produce progressive im-
provement in a chronic (psoric) disease, it is a certain in-
dication that the cause of the disease still continues to act,
and that there is some irregularity of regimen, or some
other injurious influence acting upon the patient, which
must be removed before a permanent cure can be accom-
plished.
174 ORGAXOX OF THE ART OF HEALINU.
253. Although not visible to all, the condition of
the mind, and the general behavior of the patient are
among the most certain and intelligible signs of incipient
improvement, or of aggravation in all diseases, especially
in acute ones. Incipient improvement, however slight,
is indicated by increased sensation of comfort, greater
tranquillity and freedom of the mind, heightened cour-
age, and a return of naturalness in the feelings of the
patient. The signs of aggravation, however slight they
may be, are the opposite of the preceding, and consist in
an embarrassed, helpless state of mind, while the deport-
ment, attitude, and actions of the patient appeal to our
sympathy. This condition is readily to be seen, or dem-
onstrated to a careful observer, but not to be described in
so many words. [129]
254. A physician accustomed to close observation,
will experience no great difficulty in distinguishing ag-
gravation from improvement, by the appearance of new
symptoms, by an increase of those already present, or by
the diminution of the original symptoms undisturbed by
new ones, although patients are met with who are in-
capable of reporting, or disinclined to acknowledge either
an improvement or an aggravation.
255. The truth may be ascertained in such cases by
examining the patient closely upon every symptom con-
tained in the written record of the case. If these show
that neither new and unusual symptoms have appeared,
and that none of the old ones have increased, and espe-
cially if the state of the mind and disposition is found to
be improved, the medicine must have also produced an
essential and general improvement of the disease ; or, if
sufficient time had not been allowed for the action of the
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 175
medicine, such an improvement may, at all events, soon
be expected. But if visible improvement is delayed be-
yond expectation, supposing the remedy to have been
appropriate, the delay should be ascribed to some fault
in the regimen of the patient, or to the protracted homoeo-
pathic aggravation produced by the medicine ( 157),
and hence the delay must finally be attributed to insuffi-
cient reduction of the dose.
256. On the other hand, if the patient mentions
some new and important symptoms, this indicates that
the medicine had not been homoeopathically selected, and
though the invalid may kindly assure us that he is im-
proving in health, his statement is not to be implicitly
trusted, but his condition is rather to be considered as
having undergone a change for the worse, which will SOOB
become quite apparent.
257. A true physician will know how to avoid the
habit of considering certain remedies as favorites, merely
because he happened to find them frequently adapted to
diseases, and followed by favorable results. Such a habit
would lead to the neglect of other medicines which,
though less frequently applicable, might, nevertheless, be
often more homoeopathic, and consequently more bene-
ficial.
258. Nor should a physician yield to doubt and
weakness so far as to reject those medicines which now
and then proved to be inefficacious, owing to improper
selection, or because they were unhomosopathic to some
particular case of disease. For, in either instance the
fault is the physician's, or the supposition a wrong one;
he will remember that of all medicines that one only de-
176 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
serves attention and preference, which bears accurate
similitude to the totality of characteristic symptoms of
the case, and that paltry prejudices should never -be
allowed to interfere with the serious deliberation de-
manded by the choice of a remedy.
259. The minuteness of the dose required in homoeo-
pathic practice, makes it necessary that every other kind
of medicinal influence that might cause a disturbance
should be avoided in the diet and regimen of patients,
in order that the highly rarified dose may not be coun-
teracted, overpowered, or disturbed by extraneous me-
dicinal influences. [130]
260. In chronic cases, therefore, it is especially nec-
essary to search carefully for such impediments to the
cure, because these diseases are frequently aggravated by
obscure noxious influences of that kind, as well as by
errors in regimen which, being frequently overlooked,
exercise a deleterious effect. [131]
261. The proper regimen to be enjoined during the
use of medicines in chronic diseases, consists in the re-
moval of all obstacles in the way of recovery, and in
the substitution of a wholesome mode of life, such as
innocent recreation of the mind, active exercise in the
open air in all kinds of weather (daily walks, light
manual labor), proper nutritious food and drink unadul-
terated with medicinal substances.
262. In acute diseases, on the contrary (insanity
excepted) the fine, unerring inner sense of the active
instinct of self-preservation will decide the course to be
pursued so clearly, that the physician will only have to
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING. 177
advise the friends and attendants to obey this voice of
nature by gratifying the patient's ardent desires, without
offering and urging him to accept hurtful things.
263. The food and drink most commonly craved by
patients suffering from acute diseases, is generally of a
palliative and soothing kind, and not properly of a me-
dicinal nature, but merely adapted to the gratification of a
certain longing. Slight obstacles which moderate grati-
fication might place in the way of recovery, [132] are
more than counterbalanced by the power of a homoeo-
pathic medicine, by the vital force liberated by the medi-
cine, and by the refreshing effect of a gratified desire.
In acute diseases the temperature of the chamber, and
the quantity of covering should be regulated entirely
according to the wishes of the patient ; while every kind
of mental exertion, and emotional disturbance is to be
carefully avoided.
264. The physician should have at his disposal only
genuine and unadulterated medicines, retaining their full
virtues; in order that he may rely entirely on their
curative powers, he should be previously assured of their
genuineness.
265. He should most conscientiously assure himself
in every instance, that the patient takes the remedy se-
lected for him.
266. Substances derived from the animal and vege-
table kingdoms, in their crude state possess the strongest
medicinal properties. [133]
267. The active principles of indigenous and freshly
12
178 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
gathered plants, are most perfectly obtained by mixing
their expressed juico at once with equal parts of strong
alcohol. Having waited twenty-four hours for the fibri-
nous and albuminous matter to subside in the liquid con-
tained in well-stoppered bottles, the clear fluid is de-
canted and preserved for medicinal use. [134] By the
admixture of alcohol, fermentation of vegetable juice is
at once arrested, and absolutely prevented for the future,
and its medicinal powers are thus preserved without
danger of deterioration, for all times, in well-corked
bottles, protected from sunlight. [135]
268. Powdered barks, seeds, and roots of foreign
plants which cannot be obtained in their fresh condition,
should not be used without assurance of their genuine-
ness ; this may be ascertained by examining these drugs
in their crude and entire state, before making the least
medicinal use of them. [136]
269. To serve the purposes of homoeopathy, the
spiritlike medicinal powers of crude substances are de-
veloped to an unparalleled degree by means of a process
which was never attempted before, and which causes
medicines to penetrate the organism, and thus to become
more efficacious and remedial ; it is applicable even to
those substances which, in their crude state, do not evince
the least medicinal effect upon the human body.
270. Thus, two drops of the fresh vegetable juice
mixed with an equal proportion of alcohol, are diluted
with 98 drops of alcohol, and potentiated by two succus-
sions of the hand ; this is the first development of power
(potency). The same process is then to be repeated with
29 successive vials, each vial to contain 99 drops of alco-
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
hol, filling three-quarters of the vial ; this second vial is
then to be shaken twice, [137] and so on to the 30th de-
velopment of power; this is the potentiated decillion-
fold dilution (X), and the one to be commonly used.
271. With the exception of sulphur, which, of late
has been used only in the form of highly diluted tinc-
ture (X), all other substances destined for medicinal
use, such as pure metals, their oxides or sulphurets, and
other minerals ; also petroleum, phosphorus, and many
animal and vegetable substances, which are only to be
obtained in a dried state ; neutral salts, etc., are all first
to be potentiated to the million-fold dry or powder-
dilution, by triturating them for three hours; thereupon,
one grain of the trituration is to be dissolved, and diluted
in twenty-seven successive vials, up to the 30th potency,
or development of power. [138]
272. In the treatment of disease, only one simple
medicinal substance should be used at a time. [139]
273. It is impossible to conceive why there should
be the least doubt as to whether it is more natural and
rational to prescribe a single well-known medicine at a
time for a disease, or to give a mixture composed of
several different medicines.
274. Perfectly simple, unmixed, and single remedies
afford the physician all the advantages he could possibly
desire. He is enabled to cure natural diseases safely and
permanently through the homoeopathic affinity of these
artificial moi bific potencies ; and in obedience to the wise
maxim that "it is useless to apply a multiplicity of
means, where simplicity will accomplish the end," he
180 ORGAXOX OF THE ART OF HEALING.
will never think of giving more than one simple medi-
cine at a time. Even in taking it for granted that all
simple medicines were completely proved with regard to
their pure and peculiar action upon the healthy human
body, the physician would abstain from mixing and com-
pounding drugs, aware that it is impossible to foresee
the variety of effects, that two or more medicines, con-
tained in a mixture, might have ; or how one might
modify and counteract the effect of the other, when in-
troduced into the human body. It is equally certain, on
the other hand, that a simple medicine, well selected, will
by itself, be quite sufficient to give relief in diseases
whereof the totality of symptoms is accurately known.
Supposing, even, that a medicine had not been selected
quite in accordance with the similitude of symptoms,
and that, consequently, it did not alleviate the disease, it
would nevertheless be useful by adding to our knowl-
edge of curative remedies. By calling forth new symp-
toms in such a case, the medicine might corroborate those
symptoms which it had already manifested in experi-
ments upon healthy persons an advantage which is not
to be gained by the use of compound medicines. [140]
275. The fitness of a medicine in a given case of
disease, does not depend alone upon its accurate homoeo-
pathic selection, but also upon the requisite and proper
size, or rather minuteness of the dose. Too strong a
dose of medicine, though quite homoeopathic, notwith-
standing its remedial nature, will necessarily produce an
injurious effect. Its quantity, as well as its homoeopathic
similitude, will produce an unnecessary surplus of effect
upon the over-excited vital force; which, in its turn,
acts upon the most sensitive portions of the organism,
already most seriously affected by the natural disease.
ORGANOX OF THE ART OF HEALING. 181
2/6. For this reason, too large a dose of medicine,
though homoeopathic to the case, will be injurious ; not
only in direct proportion to the largeness of the dose,
but also in proportion to its homoeopathic similitude, and
to the degree of potentiation of the medicine; [141] and
it will prove to be far more injurious than an equally
large dose of unhomceopathic medicine in every respect
unsuited (allopathic) to the disease. In that case, the so-
called homoeopathic aggravation (i. e., the artificial and
similar drug-disease, called forth in the diseased parts of
the body by the excessive dose, and the reacting vital
force, 157-1 60), will rise to an injurious height ;[142]
while the same similar drug-disease, if excited within
proper limits, would have gently effected a cure. Al-
though the patient will no longer suffer from the original
disease which had been homceopathically cured, yet he
will have to endure the exaggerated drug-disease, and
unnecessary loss of strength.
277. For these reasons, and also because a medicine
is of great efficacy when it is quite homoeopathic to the
case, its curative power will be wonderfully increased in
proportion to the reduction of the dose to that degree of
minuteness, at which it will exert a gentle curative in-
fluence.
278. Here the question arises, as to the proper de-
gree of reduction at which a medicine will procure cer-
tain as well as gentle relief? That is to say, how small
must the dose be of each homoeopathically selected medi-
cine, in order to fulfil the requirements of a perfect cure.
To determine the dose of each particular medicine for
this purpose, and how to render this dose so small as to
accomplish its purpose gently and rapidly at the same
182 ORGANOX OF THE ART OF HEALING.
time, is a problem which, obviously, is neither to be
solved by theoretical conjecture, nor by sophistic reason-
ing. Pure experiments, and accurate observation alone
can solve the question ; and it were folly to adduce the
large doses of the old school (destitute of homoeopathic
bearing upon the diseased portion of the body, and
affecting only the sound parts), to disprove the results
of actual experience in regard to the minuteness of doses
requisite to perform a homoeopathic cure.
279. Experience proves that the dose of a homoso-
pathically selected remedy cannot be reduced so far as
to be inferior in strength to the natural disease, and to
lose its power of extinguishing and curing at least a por-
tion of the same, provided that this dose, immediately
after having been taken, is capable of causing a slight
intensification of symptoms of the similar natural disease
(slight homoeopathic aggravation, 157-160). This
will prove to be the case in acute, chronic, and even com-
plicated diseases, except where these depend on serious
deterioration of some vital organ, or where the patient
is not protected against extraneous medicinal influences.
280. This incontrovertible principle, founded on ex-
perience, furnishes a standard according to which the
doses of homosopathic medicine are invariably to be re-
duced so far, that even after having been taken, they will
merely produce an almost imperceptible homoeopathic
aggravation. We should not be deterred from the use
of such doses by the high degree of rarefaction that may
have been reached, however incredible they may appear
to the coarse material ideas of ordinary practition-
ers ;[143] their arguments will be silenced by the verdict
of infallible experience.
ORGAXOX OF THE ART OF HEALING. 183
281. In point of his disease, every patient is most
susceptible to the influence of medicine, by virtue of the
similitude of its effect to the disease ; and there is no
person, however robust, afflicted with a chronic, or so-
called local disease, who would not soon perceive the
desired effect in the diseased part of his body, after
having taken the most minute dose of the appropriate
homoeopathic remedy ; in other words, an adult patient
is more easily affected by such a dose, than a healthy in-
fant a day old. In view of the infallible proofs of expe-
rience, incredulity founded only upon theories, is truly
insignificant and ridiculous.
282. The smallest possible dose of homoeopathic
medicine, just strong enough to create the slightest ho-
moeopathic aggravation (because it is capable of produc-
ing symptoms which owe their power over disease to
their similitude, as well as to their minuteness), will
operate chiefly upon the diseased parts of the body,
which have become extremely susceptible of a stimulus
so similar to their own disease. The small dose will
change the vital action of these parts into an artificial
disease, very similar, though somewhat superior to the
natural disease, and will cause the former to take the
place of the latter. The organism will now contend
with the artificial drug disease alone, which, according to
its nature, and owing to the minuteness of the dose by
which it was produced, will soon be extinguished by the
vital force striving to gain its normal condition; and
particularly in acute diseases, the organism will be freed
from morbid processes, and restored to a healthy state.
283. Proceeding quite in accordance with nature, the
trie physician will prescribe his well-selected horaoeo-
134 ORGANOX OF THE ART OF HEALING.
pathic medicine in a dose so small as to be just sufficient
to overcome and extinguish the disease. But as human
skill and caution sometimes fail in the selection of the
remedy, the smallness of the dose will certainly prevent
serious injury ; for the amount of disturbance arising
from want of similitude and careful selection, would be
so slight in consequence of so minute a dose, that the
effect would soon be extinguished, or repaired by the
natural vital powers, as well as by the speedy adminis-
tration of an equally small dose of a more carefully
chosen and similar remedy.
284. The effect of a homosopathic dose is not lessened
in equal proportion with the diminution of the medicinal
substance contained in a dilution. A dose of eight drops
of some medicinal tincture, does not produce four times
as great an effect in the human body, as two drops would
produce; but the effect would be only about twice as
great as that of a two-drop dose. Hence, if one drop of
a tincture is mixed with ten drops of non-medicinal
liquid, and if one drop of this is .administered, its effect
will not be ten times greater than that of one drop of a
mixture ten times more dilute; but the effect will be
scarcely double. The same proportion continues to be
observed, so that one drop, even of the highest dilution,
may, and actually does produce a very perceptible
effect. [144]
285. In homoeopathic practice the diminution of the
dose and of effect is also conveniently accomplished by
lessening the volume of the dose ; that is, by giving a
small fraction, [145] instead of a whole drop at a dose,
of some medicinal dilution. This diminution of effect ie
readily explained by the fact that a smaller number of
ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEAXJNG. 185
nerves come in contact with the medicine after the vol-
ume of its dose is divided, and although the power of
the medicine is lessened, it is imparted to the whole or-
ganism.
286. On the other hand, the effect of a homoeopathic
dose is augmented by increasing the quantity of fluid in
which the medjcine is dissolved preparatory to its ad-
ministration, while the actual quantity of medicinal sub-
stance remains the same. In using a solution of this
kind, a much greater surface supplied with sensitive
nerves, susceptible of medicinal influence, is brought in
contact with the medicine. Although theorists may sup-
pose that the dilution of a dose with a greater quantity
of fluid would lessen the effect, nevertheless experience
in the homosopathic use of medicines, proves exactly the
opposite. [146]
287. When it appears desirable, before its exhibition,
to augment the effect of a dose by mixing it with a
greater quantity of fluid, it would make a considerable
difference whether the medicinal substance of the dose is
imperfectly mixed with a certain quantity of liquid, or
whether it is equally and intimately [147] imparted to
every particle of solvent fluid. In the latter case the
solution would be far more efficacious than in the former.
This will serve as a rule for the preparation of homoeo-
pathic doses, and the diminution of their medicinal effect
in the treatment of very sensitive patients. [148]
288. The effect of medicines^ in liquid form [149]
penetrates and spreads through all parts of the organism
with such inconceivable rapidity, from the point of contact
with the sensitive nerves supplying the tissues, that this
186 ORGANON OF THE ART OF HEALING.
effect may, with propriety, be defined as spirit-like (dy-
namic or virtual).
289. Every part of the body, endowed with sensi-
tive nerves, is capable of receiving the influence of medi-
cines, and of transmitting their power to all other
parts. [150]
290. Besides the stomach, the tongue and mouth
are the parts most susceptible of medicinal impressions ;
but the lining membrane of the nose possesses this sus-
ceptibility in a high degree. Also the rectum, genitals,
and all sensitive organs of our body are almost equally
susceptible of medicinal effects. For this reason, parts
denuded of cuticle, wounded and ulcerated surfaces, will
allow the effect of medicines to penetrate quite as readily
as if they had been administered by the mouth, and
therefore olfaction or inhalation must be still more effi-
cacious.
291. Parts of the body deprived of their natural
sense, e. g., in the absence of the sense of taste or smell,
the tongue, palate, and nose will impart impressions
made primarily on these organs, with a considerable de-
gree of perfection to all other organs of the body.
292. Also the external surface of the body, covered
by the cutis and cuticle, is capable of receiving the ac-
tion particularly of liquid medicines ; and the most sen-
sitive parts of the surface are, at the same time, the
most susceptible. [151]
NOTES AND EXPLANATORY REMARKS
APPENDED TO THE TEXT OF THE ORGANON.
[1] \ 1. BUT not the habit (with which many physicians have
wasted their time in search of fame), of concocting so-called systems
out of certain empty vagaries and hypotheses, concerning the inner ob-
scure nature of the process of life, or the origin of diseases ; not the
innumerable attempts at explaining the phenomena of diseases or their
proximate cause, etc., ever hidden from their scrutiny, which were
clothed in unintelligible words or as a mass of abstract phrases, in-
tended for the astonishment of the ignorant ; while suffering humanity
was sighing for help. We have more than enough of such learned ab-
surdities called theoretical medicine, having its own professorships, and
it is high time for those who call themselves physicians, to cease delud-
ing poor humanity by idle words, but to begin to act, that is, to help
and to heal.
[2] \ 6. Hence, I cannot conceive how it was possible to go to the
bedside of a patient, and without carefully noting the symptoms, and
being governed by them, to seek for the object of treatment in the ob-
scure and invisible interior of the case. Neither can I understand how
it was possible to pretend that the invisible, interior changes could be
found and corrected by means of (unknown !) drugs, without careful
consideration of symptoms, and that such could be "called the only
thorough and rational curative method.
Do not the sensibly discernible signs of disease represent the disease
itself to the physician ? He cannot see the vital power itself, at work
with immaterial forces, creating the disease ; and without seeing vitality
itself, he need only observe and experience its morbid effects in order to
cure the disease. Why, then, must the old school seek another prima
causa morbi in the obscure interior, while distinct sensible manifesta-
tions of disease, plainly appealing to us through symptoms, are con-
( 187 }
188 NOTES AND EXPLANATORY KBMARKS
temptuously rejected as unworthy objects of cure. Does a cure remove
anything besides these ?*
[3] 11, As a matter of course, every sensible physician will re-
move such causes at first ; after which, the illness will generally subside
of its own accord. He will remove from the sick-room flowers that
may produce faintness or hysteria by their strong exhalations ; he
will extract irritating particles causing inflammation of the cornea; re-
apply to a wounded limb a bandage threatening gangrene, too tightly
applied ; he will avert the danger of a haemorrhage, by exposing and
tying the wounded artery ; he will endeavor to expel Belladonna ber-
ries from the stomach by emetics ; extract foreign substances that may
have penetrated into the apertures of the body (nose, oesophagus, ears,
urethra, rectum, vulva), crush a calculus, and open the occlusion of the
anus of a newborn child, etc.
[4] 8. It has ever been the habit of the old school, not knowing
how else to proceed, to single out one of the numerous symptoms of a
disease for the purpose of attacking, and, if possible, of suppressing it
by medicines ; an abortive procedure having justly excited universal
contempt under the name of symptomatic treatment, by which nothing
is gained but much is sacrificed. A single symptom is 110 more the
disease itself, than a foot can be taken for the entire body. Such a pro-
cedure was the more objectionable, because it was the practice to treat
such a single symptom only by an opposite remedy (enantiopathic and
palliative), whereby, after a brief space of relief, it was made to return
with greater intensity.
[5] 8. Whenever a patient has been relieved of his disease by
an adept of the true healing art, in such a manner that no sign or
symptom of disease is left, and all marks of health have permanently
returned, such a patient cannot, without defying common sense, be said
still to have the veritable disease dwelling within him. Nevertheless,
Hufeland, the leader of the old school, asserts this in the following words
(v. Homoeopathic, p. 27, L. 19) : " Symptoms can be relieved by homoeop-
athy, but the disease remains," and this assertion is made partly from
grief on account of the progress of homoeopathy, for the benefit of
mankind, and partly because he still entertains very material notions
concerning disease, which he is not yet able to consider as a dynamic
* " A physician striving to penetrate the inner conditions of the organ-
ism may err every day ; the homoeopathist, on the contrary, after having
carefully comprehended the totality of symptoms, possesses an infallible
guide, and when he has succeeded in entirely removing all the symptoms, he
will certainly have cancelled the internal and obscure cause of disease.'-'
Kau, loc. cit., p. 103.
APPENDED TO THE TEXT OF THE ORGAXOX. 189
change in the being of the organism, effected by morbidly altered
vitality, nor as a modification of the state of feeling. He looks at dis-
ease as a material thing, which, after a cure has been effected, may still
lurk in some remote corner of the body, whence it might break forth in
its material presence at will, perhaps during a period of perfect health.
So great is still the blindness of old-school pathologists. No wonder
that therapeutics had no other object than to purge the patient.
[6] 10. The organism is dead, and subject only to the forces of
the material external world, it will decay, and again resolve itself into
its chemical constituent parts.
[7] \ 12. It is useless for the physician to know how the vital force
brings about or creates the morbid manifestations of the organism, and
therefore it will ever remain obscure ; only that which it was necessary
for him to know concerning disease, and sufficient for the purpose of
cure, has been revealed to his senses.
[8] \ 17. A prophetic dream, a superstition, or the solemn proph-
ecy that death would assuredly occur on a certain day, or at a cer-
tain hour, has not infrequently caused the appearance of every sign
of approaching and increasing fatal disease, or of death itself at the
designated time ; a result which would have been impossible, without
the occurrence of an internal change corresponding with the externally
visible condition. In the same way, all morbid signs of approaching
death were frequently dispelled, and health suddenly restored by an
artful deception, or convincing denial. This would have been equally
impossible without the effect of these moral remedies, by means of
which the death-bringing internal and external morbid changes were
removed.
[9] ? 17. And thus, the goodness of Providence was made known
to us by revealing that part of diseases to the physician, which it was
his duty to remove, in order to end them, and to reestablish health.
We would never have become conscious, of Divine goodness and wis-
dom in regard to diseases if, as has been pretended by the old school
(which claims the power of divining the inner nature of things), that
curable part of them had been hidden from our senses by mysterious
darkness, and secluded in the interior of the body, making it impossible
for man to recognize the evil distinctly, and equally impossible to
cure it.
[10] ? 22. The only other method besides the two above named,
of prescribing medicines (the allopathic m^hod), having symptoms of no
190 NOTES AND EXPLANATORY REMARKS
direct specific (pathical) relation to the diseased condition ; and which
are neither similar nor opposed, but heterogeneous to the symptoms of
the disease ; that method, as I have shown above in the Introduction
(Review of " Physic," etc.), is merely an imperfect and pernicious imita-
tion of the hurtful endeavors of the unreasoning, instinctive vital force,
disturbed by hurtful influences, and trying to regain its equilibrium at
all hazards, by inciting and maintaining a diseased condition in the or-
ganism. It is consequently an imitation of the crude vital force, created
in and together with our organism, in order to preserve the perfect
harmony of life. But this same vital force, if disturbed during disease,
is to be again restored to the harmony of health by the (homoeopathic)
interference of the intelligent physician. It is not meant that it should
cure itself, and its unsuccessful attempts are quite unworthy of imita-
tion ; because all changes of feeling produced by the disturbed vital
force in the organism, actually constitute the disease itself. Still, it
would be as improper to leave this inappropriate practice of the old
school of medicine unnoticed, as it would be to omit in the history of
man those instances of oppression, from which the human race has
suffered for thousands of years under despotic and unreasonable gov-
ernments.
[11] \ 25. I do not mean the experience boasted of by ordinary
practitioners of the old school, who have wantonly applied a lot of
complex recipes in numerous diseases never properly investigated, but
dogmatically considered as already well denned by pathology, and to
contain an imaginary morbific matter, or some other hypothetical in-
ternal abnormity. They invariably perceive something, without know-
ing what it is, and experience results which no man can single out from
among the manifold forces acting upon the unknown object ; no iiseful
knowledge could be gained from such results. Fifty years of such ex-
perience is equal to gazing for fifty years into a kaleidoscope, filled with
many colored unknown things, and constantly made to revolve a
thousand changeable forms, but no clue to them !
[12] \ 26. In this manner physical affections as well as moral evils
are cured. How does Jupiter, shining brightly in the morning dawn,
vanish from the optic nerve of the beholder ? By a stronger potency,
the brightness of approaching day, similar in its action upon the optic
nerve. By what are the olfactory nerves effectually soothed when they
have been offended by offensive odors ? By snuff, which is similar but
stronger in its action upon the sense of smell. Neither music, nor
sweetmeats, which bear a relation to the nerves of other senses, will
cure that loathing of odors. How cunningly the soldier knows how to
guard the ears of the bystanders, from the whimpering tones of one
codemne4 to run the gauntlet by the shrill squeaking fife, accom-
APPENDED TO THE TEXT OF THE ORGANO.V. 191
panied by the noisy drum. How does a soldier counteract fear created
in his army, by the distant thunder of the enemies' guns ? By the
deep, droning sound of the great drum. Neither case would have
been remedied by the distribution of glittering accoutrements, nor by
a reprimanding order issued to the regiment. In the same manner,
grief and sorrow are extinguished in the mind by more intense, real,'
or fictitious affliction of another person. The evil consequences of
overjoy are relieved by coffee, which produces a feeling of excessive joy
fulness. Nations like the Germans, degraded for centuries by listless
apathy and abject submissiveness, were to be trodden in the dust by
the Conqueror from the West, until oppression became intolerable.
Thus their feelings of self-degradation were overcome and neutralized,
they became conscious of their dignity as human beings once more, and
again could lift their heads as German men.
[13] | 29. Artificial morbific potencies which we call medicines,
though stronger than natural diseases, are nevertheless more easily
overcome by the vital force, owing to the brief period of action of these
medicines ; Avhile the diseases being of chronic and of lifelong duration
(psora, syphilis, sycosis), are never conquered and extinguished by the
vital power alone, until the physician reinforces it by means of a similar,
and, therefore, morbific potency (homeopathic drug). This, when taken
internally (or by olfaction) is forced, as it were, upon the instinctive
vital power, and substituted in the place of the hitherto dominant
natural disease ; thereupon the vital power merely remains affected by
the drug, but only for a short time ; because the effect of the drug (the
space of time required by the drug-disease to run its course), does not
continue long. Diseases protracted for years, which have been cured
by an eruption of small-pox and of measles (both having a duration of
several weeks), are processes of a similar nature.
[14] \ 31. When I designate a disease as a modification or discord-
ancy of the state of health of the human body, I am far from presum-
ing to attempt metaphysical explanation of the inner nature of diseases
in general, or of any disease in particular. Such are only intended tc
indicate what diseases evidently are not and cannot be, viz., not me-
chanical or chemical changes of the material body ; nor are they de-
pendent on material morbific matter, but merely spiritual dynamic dis-
turbances of life.
[15] 33. A notable instance of this kind is, that previous to the
year 1801, the smooth form of scarlatina of Sydenham, prevailed from
time to time as an epidemic among children, invariably attacking those
who had not suffered from it during a previous epidemic : while, during
an epidemic like the one I witnessed at Konigslutter, all children re-
192 NOTES AND EXPLANATORY REMARKS
ruained unaffected by this highly contagious disea'se, whenever they had
taken in good season, a very small dose of Belladonna. If drugs can
guard against infection from an epidemic disease, they must necessarily
possess a superior power of modifying our vital force.
[16] 2 36. Mtmoires et Observationes, in the Description de VEgypte,
Tom. I.
[17] 2 38. Obs., lib. I, 8.
[18] \ 38. In Huf eland's Journal, XV, ii.
[19] ? 38. Chevalier, in Huf eland's Neuesten Annalen der franzosichen
Heilkunde (Newest Annals of French Medicine).
[20] 2 38. Mania phthisi superveniens earn cum omnibus suis phce-
nomenis awffert, verum mox redit phthisis et occidit, abeunte mania.
Beil. Memorab. Fasc., Ill, v, p. 171.
[21] 2 38. In Edin. Med. Comment., Part I, 1.
[22] 38. John Hunter on Venereal Diseases, p. 5.
[23] \ 38. Rainay, in Med. Comment, of Edinb., Ill, p. 480.
[24] 38. It was also very correctly described by Withering and
Plenciz, but it is very different from purple rash (or Roodvonk), which
was erroneously called scarlet fever. Only during the last year, both
diseases, though originally very different, have become approximated
in regard to their symptoms.
[25] ? 38. Jenner, in Medicinische Annalen, 1800, August, p. 747.
[26] \ 38. In Huf eland's Journal der Practischen Arzneikunde, XX,
iii, p. 50.
[27] 38. Loc. cit.
[28] | 39. Obs. Phys. Med., Lib. 2, obs. 30.
[29] ? 40. After exact experiments and cures of this kind of com-
plicated diseases, I have arrived at the conviction that the two diseases
are not blended together, but that in such cases, they merely exist side
by Bide in the organism, each one dwelling in the parts for which it
has an affinity ; since their perfect cure is effected by a well-timed al-
APPENDED TO THE TEXT OF THE ORGANON. 193
ternation of the best mercurial preparation, with remedies for the cure
of the itch ; each to be administered in appropriate dose and prepara-
tion.
[30] \ 40. Transactions of a Society for the improvement of Medical
and Chirurgical Knowledge, II.
[31] I 40. In Med. Comment, of Edin., Ill, p. 430.
[32] 2 40. In Med. and Phys. Journ., 1805. .
[33] 2 40. Opera, II, p. i, cap. 10.
[34] 2 40. In Huf eland's Journal, XVII.
[35] 2 41. Besides the morbific symptoms which, by virtue of their
similitude, possess the power of curing homoeopathically the venereal
disease, quicksilver, in its mode of action, evinces many others dis-
similar to syphilis which, in the frequent cases of complication with
psora, are productive of new evils, and of great destruction in the body.
[36] 2 45. See above, footnote to 2 26.
[37] 2 45. In the same manner as the image of a candle-flame is
speedily overpowered (uberstimmt) and erased from the optic nerve, by
a stronger sunbeam falling upon the eye.
[38] 2 46. Trait^ de ^inoculation, p. 189.
[39] 2 46. Heilkundef'dr Mutter, p. 384.
[40] 2 46. Interpres Glinicus, p. 293.
[41] 2 46. Neue Heilart der KinderpocJcen, Ulm, 1769, p. 68, and
Specim. obs., No. 18.
[42] 246. Loc. cit.
[43] 2 46. Nov. act. Nat. cur., vol. I, obs. 22.
1 44] 2 46. Nachricht von dem Kranken-Institut zu Erlangen, 1783.
1 45] 2 46. Robert Willan on Vaccination.
(46] 2 46. Particularly Clavier, Hurel, and Desormeaux, in the Bui-
13
194 NOTES AND EXPLANATORY REMARKS
letin des Soc. Medicales, publte par les Mtmbres du Cvmitt Central cfe
la Sc. dt Mtdecinedu Dipartement de VEart, 180S; also in the Journal
de Mtdecine Continue, vol. xv, p. 206.
[47] I 46. Balhorn, in Hufeland's Journal, X, ii.
[48] \ 46. Stevenson in Duncan's Annals of Medicine, Lustr. II,
vol. i, dis. 3, Xo. 9.
[49] 46. In Huf eland's Journ. der pr. Arzneik. XXIII.
[50] \ 46. On Venereal Disease, p. 4.
[51] g 46. Elemens de Mtdec. prat, de M. Cullen, Traduits, P. II,
1, 3, ch. 7.
[52] \ 46. Or that symptom, at least, was removed.
[53] \ 46. In Huf eland's Journal, XX, iii, p. 50.
[54] 46. Rau,iiberd. Werth des Homceop. Heiherfahrens. Hei Jell).,
1824, p. 85.
[55] \ 50. And the contagious humor of another contagious dis-
ease, carried along as a secondary ingredient of vaccine matter.
[56] 50. Namely, small-pox and measles.
[57] \ 52. See ahove, in the Introduction : Review of Physic, etc.,
and my book, Allopathic, ein Wort der Warnungfur Krankejeder Art.
(Allopathy, a Word of Warning for Sufferers of all Kinds). Leipzig, by
Baumgartner.
[58] | 55. Review of Physic, etc.
[59] 56. The attempt is made by some to create a fourth mode
of applying medicines in diseases, by means of isopathy, as it is called ;
that is, to cure an equal disease by an equal miasni. But supposing
tbis were possible and it would deserve the name of a valuable dis-
covery the cure in that case could only be accomplished by opposing
a similimum to a similimum, since isopathy administers only a highly
potentiated, and, as it were, altered miasrn to a patient.
[6j \ 5S. Little as physicians have been in the habit of observing,
the aggravations following such palliatives could not have escaped their
APPENDED TO THE TEXT OF THE ORGAXON. 195
attention. A good example of this kind may be found in J. II. Schulze,
Diss. qua corporis humani momentanearum alteration-urn specimina
qucedam expenduntur, Hake, 1741, 28. Something of a similar na-
ture is stated by Willis, Pliarm. rat., sect. 7, cap. I, p. 298: "Opiatu
dolores atrocissimos plerumque sedant atque indolentiam procurant,
eamque aliquamdiu et pro stato quodam tempore continuant, quo
spatio elapso, dolores mox recrudescunt et brevi ad solitam ferociam
augentur." And further on, p. 295: "Exactis opii viribus illico re-
deunt tormina, nee atrocitatem suam. remittunt, nisi dum ab eodem
pharmaco rursus incantantur." J. Hunter says (On Venereal Disease,
p. 13), that wine increases the activity of the weak, without imparting
true strength to them, and that the strength afterwards declines in
proportion to the previous stimulation, whereby no advantage is gained,
but that the strength is mostly wasted.
[01] \ 59. See Introduction, towards the end.
[62] \ 59. See Hufeland's pamphlet, Die Homoeopathic, p. 20.
[63] $ 67. Only in cases of extreme urgency, where danger and
imminent death do not afford sufficient time for the action of a homceo-
pathic remedy, leaving it scarcely an hour, a quarter of an hour, or
even minutes, to take effect, it is necessary to make use of palliatives.
For instance, in sudden attacks befalling previously healthy persons,
such as asphyxia, and apparent death from lightning, suffocation, freez-
ing, drowning, etc., it would be appropriate and to the purpose to
stimulate at first the susceptibility and sensibility (physical life), by
mild electric shocks, injections of strong coffee, by stimulating the ol-
factories, by applying gradual warmth, etc. As soon as life is again
manifested, the action of vital organs resumes its previous health}'
course, because, in this instance, no disease,* but only a suspension or
suppression of vital force, which was in itself healthy, was to be re-
moved. Various antidotes to sudden cases of poisoning are here in
place, such as alkalies for mineral acids, liver of sulphur for metallic
poisons, coffee, camphor (and Ipecacuanha) for opium poisoning, etc.
A homoeopathic medicine is not necessarily selected improperly for a
disease, if a few drug-symptoms should happen to bear only an anti-
pathic relation to some of its intermediate and minor symptoms, as
* Nevertheless the new sect appeals to this remark, in order to find such
exceptions to the rule everywhere in diseases, by way of pretext for the ap-
plication of their allopathic palliatives and other pernicious devices, only
for the sake of avoiding the trouble of finding the right homoeopathic remedy
for every case of disease; or, as one might say, to avoid the trouble of being
homoeopathic physicians, as which, however, they wish to appear; but their
deeds are in confornrity with their aspirations ; they are insignificant.
196 NOTES AND EXPLANATORY REMARKS
long as the other, stronger, particularly prominent (characteristic) symp-
toms of the disease are properly covered, that is, overcome and extin-
guished (homoeopathically) by the symptom-similitude of the same
remedy. The few contrary symptoms will then vanish spontaneously,
after the time of action of the medicine has passed, and the cure will
not be retarded in the least.
[64] \ 69. Permanent neutralization of conflicting or antagonistic
sensations, never occurs in the living body as it does in the chemical
laboratory, with substances of opposite properties, e. (/., where sul-
phuric acid and potassa unite to form a neutral salt, an entirely differ-
ent substance, neither acid nor alkaline, and which cannot even be
decomposed by lime. A blending or intimate reunion of this kind,
resulting in something permanently neutral and indifferent, cannot be
brought about, as above stated, by dynamic impressions of opposite
nature in our organs of sensation. Only an apparent neutralization,
or mutual obliteration takes place in such a case, but opposite sensa-
tions do not cancel each other permanently. The tears of a sorrowful
person are arrested but for a short time by a merry spectacle, but he
will soon forget the ludicrous impression, and his tears will flow more
copiously afterwards.
[65] 69. Unmistakable as this is, it has nevertheless been mis-
understood, and the objection raised, "that the palliative in its after-
effect being the similar of the present disease, would probably effect a
cure as well as a homoeopathic medicine would do in its primary
effect." But it was overlooked that the after-effect is not the product
of the' medicine, but always of the counteracting vital force of the or-
ganism ; and, hence this after-effect, produced by the vital force upon
the application of a palliative, is only a condition resembling the dis-
ease-symptom left uuextinguished by the palliative ; and conse-
quently aggravated by the counteraction of the vital force against the
palliative.
[66] \ 69. Like the effect which might be produced by the sudden
ignition of alcohol in a dark dungeon, where the prisoner can discern
near objects but imperfectly, the flame would at first exhibit everything
to the sufferer in a comforting light ; but the brighter the flame had
been, so much the darker would be the night surrounding the prisoner,
obscuring objects more deeply than before.
[67] \ 73. The homoeopathic physician, unbiassed by the prejudices
of the common school (which had affixed certain names to such fevers,
besides which great nature was expected to produce no others, in order
that thei; treatment, framed after a certain pattern, need not be inter
APPENDED TO THE TEXT OF THE ORGAXOX. 197
fereci with), does not recognize appellations like those of dungeon-fever,
bilious fever, typhus fever, putrid fever, nervous and mucous fever, but
treats each one according to its peculiarities.
[08] 73. Subsequent to the year 1801, a kind of purple-rash
(roodvonk), introduced from western countries, was mistaken by phy-
sicians for scarlet fever, although the one was distinguished from the
other by very different signs, the former being prevented and cured by
Aconite, the latter by Belladonna, and while the former occurred spo-
radically, the latter was always an epidemic. In later years, both have
at times appeared united in a peculiar form of eruptive fever, to which
neither of the above remedies longer correspond singly.
[69] \ 74. When the patient finally succumhs, the physician who
has treated him, usually exhibits, during a post-mortem examination,
these organic changes to the mourning relatives, cunningly represent-
ing the consequences of his want of skill, as the original and incurable
evil (cf. my book, Allopathy, a Word of Warning to Patients of all Kinds,
Leips., by Baumgartner). Illustrated works on morbid anatomy, call-
ing to mind deceptive reminiscences, contain the product of such poor
treatment.
[70] \ 79. I have devoted twelve years to the discovery of the
source of these exceedingly numerous chronic maladies, to the investiga-
tion and realization of the great truth hitherto unknown to our prede-
cessors and contemporaries, and, at the same time, to the discovery of
the principal (antipsoric) remedies, which in their various manifesta-
tions and forms, would in most instances prove to be of superior
strength in combating this many-headed monster. My experiences
concerning this matter, have been given in the book entitled, The
Chronic Diseases (2 parts, Dresden: Arnold, 1828, 1830). Before I had
succeeded in gaining a clear view of the subject, I could only recom-
mend that all chronic diseases shopld be treated as other distinct cases,
by means of medicinal substances, according to their effect, as derived
from the provings hitherto made upon healthy persons. Hence, rny
pupils treated each case of chronic disease like others of a peculiar
kind ; and they often succeeded so far in curing it, that suffering hu-
manity rejoiced in the progress of the fertile resources of the new heal-
ing art. How much greater should be the cause for contentment, now
that the desired object is so near its consummation, since the newly
discovered, and more highly specific homoeopathic remedies (properly
called antipsorics) for chronic diseases, originated by psora, have been
made known, together with their methods of preparation and applica-
tion in disease. But of their number the true physician selects for
healing purposes, those of which the drug-symptoms are most similar
198 NOTES AXD EXPLANATORY REMARKS
to the chronic disease they are intended to cure, thereby insuring more
essential services, and almost invariable sticcess from (antipsoric) medi-
cines more adapted to this miasm.
[71] \ 81. Some of these causes which so modify the development
of psora as to produce chronic evils, obviously depend in part on cli-
mate and natural peculiarities of habitations, and partly on improper
moral and physical education of the young ; on the neglect, distortion,
or over-training of both mind and body ; on the abuse -of bodily and
mental functions in vocations and other conditions of life; of dietetic-
habits, human passions, customs, and fashions of various kinds.
[72] \ 81. Pathology has given rise to many misapplied and am-
biguous names, each of which is applied to very different morbid con-
ditions, often having but a single symptom in common, such as ayue.
jaundice, dropsy, consumption, leucorrhoea, haemorrhoids, rheumatism,
apoplexy, convulsions, hysteria, hypockondriasis, melancholy, mania,
croup, paralysis, etc., which are described as fixed, unvarying diseases,
and treated by name according to an undeviating routine. Is it jus-
tifiable to base medicinal treatment on a mere name ? Or, if it is
otherwise, why is the same kind of treatment always predetermined by
identical names ? " Nihil sane in artem medicam pestiferum magis uu-
quam irrepsit malum, quam generalia qusedam nomina morbis impon-
ere, iisque aptare velle generalem quandam medicinam," says Huxham,
whose conscientiousness deserves as much respect as his keen insight
(Op. Phys. Med., torn. I.). In a similar manner Fritze complains
(Annalen, I, p. 80), "that essentially different diseases are designated
by one name." Those general diseases even, which are undoubtedly
propagated in eacJi particular epidemic, by a peculiar kind of contagious
matter of unknown nature, have names assigned to them by the old
school of medicine, as if they always returned in the same well-known
and established form, such as hospital, dungeon, camp, putrid, bilious,
nervous, mucous fevers; notwithstanding that each epidemic of these
wandering fevers, may always be distinguished as a different and neic
disease, never known before in precisely the same form, differing from
others in its course, as well as in many of its most prominent symp-
toms, and in its general features as exhibited for the time being. Each
one is so unlike all other preceding epidemics, whatever their names,
that it would be a violation of logical accuracy, if we were to attach
one of those pathological terms to these heterogeneous disorders, and
(hen treat them according to this misapplied name. This was already
ol>served by the honest Sydenham, who insists (Oper., cap. 2, d< Morb.
Epid., p. 43), that no epidemic disease should be considered as having
occurred before, or treated according to a method applied on a previous
occasion, since all of them, regardless of the number of successive
APPENDED TO THE TEXT OF THE ORGANOET. 199
epidemics, were different from each other: "Animum admiratrone
percellit, quam discolor et suf plane dissimilis morborum epidemicorurn
facies ; quse tain aperta horum morborum diversitas turn propriis ac
sibi peculiaribus symptoinatis turn etiam medendi ratione, quam hi ab
illis disparem sibi vindicant, satis illucescit. Ex quibus constat, morbus
epidemicos, utut externa quatantenus specie et symptoinatis aliquot
utrisque pariter convenire paullo incautioribus videantur, re tamen
ipsa, si bene adverteris animum, aliense esse admodum indolis et dis-
tare ut sera lupinis."
From all this it becomes evident that these useless and inapplicable
names of diseases should not be permitted to control the method of
cure employed by a true physician, who knows that diseases are never
to be discerned or cured according to the similarity of names which
refer to single symptoms, but in conformity with the totality of every
83'mptom of the particular condition peculiar to each patient, whose
suffering must be accurately investigated, but never hypothetically
assumed.
If, however, names of diseases are occasionally needed for the sake
of brevity, while speaking of a patient in popular language, they
should be used only as collective names ; thus, for instance, we might
say the patient has a kind of St. Vitus's dance, a kind of dropsy, a kind
of nervous fever, a kind of ague ; but (in order to avoid all this delusive
nomenclature) we should never say he has the St. Vitus's dance, tlie
nervous fever, the dropsy, the ague ; because fixed and unvarying dis-
eases with these names, actually have no existence.
[73] \ 82. The plan laid down in the following paragraphs, con-
cerning the investigation of symptoms, only partially refers to acute
diseases.
[74] \ 84. Every interruption disturbs the course of thought of the
narrator, who will subsequently be unable to recall his ideas precisely
in that form in which he would have expressed them at the outset.
[75] \ 87. The physician should not put his question thus, for ex-
ample : "Did you not observe this or that circumstance ?" He should
not make any suggestions, leading to a deceptive answer and state-
ment.
[76] ? 88. The physician should ask, for example: "What is the
condition of your bowels ? How does the urine pass ? What have
you to say about your sleep in the daytime, as well as at night ? What
is your frame of mind, your moods, or your power of memory ? How
is it with regard to thirst ? What sort of taste do you experience in
vour mouth ? What food or drink do you relish most ? What is most
200 NOTES AND EXPLANATORY REMARKS
distasteful to you ? Has your food or drink its natural full taste, or a
stiange and different one ? How do youfeel after eating or drinking ?
Have you anything to remark about your head, limbs, or abdomen ?"
[77] \ 89. For example, questions should be put as follows : "How
often do you have an evacuation from the bowels, and what is the pre-
cise character of the discharge ? Was the whitish discharge mucus, or
fecal matter ? Were there an}' paius during the evacuation or not ?
What kind of pains, and where ? What did the patient vomit up ?
Is the disagreeable taste in the mouth foul, bitter, sour, or otherwise ?
Do you experience it before, after, or during eating or drinking ? At
what lime of the day is it most perceptible ? Of what taste are the
eructations ? Does the urine become turbid on standing in the vessel,
or is it turbid while passing ? Of what color is the water just after
passing it ? What is the color of the sediment ? How do you act, or
what do you feel while sleeping ? Does he whimper, groan, talk, or
cry out in his sleep ? Does he start in sleep ? Does the patient snore
with the in- or expiration ? Does he lie only on his back, or on which
side ? Does he cover himself snugly, or does he not allow himself to
be covered ? Does he awake easily, or does he sleep too soundly '? How
does he feel directly after awaking from sleep ? How often do you ex-
perience this or that complaint, and upon what occasions does it come ?
While sitting, lying, standing, or during exercise ? During an empty
stomach, or at least in the morning, or only at night, or only after a
meal, or at what other times ? When did the rigor take place ? Was
it merely a feeling of chilliness, or was the patient cold at the time ?
In which parts ? Or was he even hot to the touch during the feeling
of chilliness ? Was it only a feeling of coldness without shuddering ?
Was he hot without being red .in the face ? Which parts felt cold to
the touch ? Or did he complain of heat, without actually feeling cold
to the touch ? What was the duration of the chill and of the heat ?
When did thirst set in ? During the chill ? During the heat ? Before
it or after it t* How severe was the thirst, and for what ? When does
the perspiration set in, in the beginning or at the end of the heat ? Or
how many hours after the heat ? While sleeping, or waking ? How
profuse was the perspiration ? Was it hot, or cold ? On which parts ?
Of what odor ? What does the patient complain of before, or during
the chill ? Of what, during the heat ? Of what, afterwards ? Of
what, during or after the perspiration ?" etc.
[78] 90. He should note, for instance, how the patient behaved
during the visit, whether morose, quarrelsome, hasty, inclined to weep,
anxious, despairing or sorrowful, or confident and calm, etc. ; note
down if he was somnolent, or without recollection ; if he spoke hoarsely,
in a whisper, or if his language was improper or otherwise ; note the
APPENDED TO THE TEXT OF THE ORGANON. 201
complexion of the face, ami the color of the eyes and skin in general;
the vivacity and force of features and eyes ; the condition of the tongue,
breath, and the odor from the mouth, and also the hearing ; how much
the pupils were dilated or contracted ; how rapidly or how much they
are inclined to change in darkness and in light ; note the state of the
pulse, of the abdomen, how moist or how hot it is ; how cold or dry the
skin is in general, or in particular parts ; notice the patient's position,
if lying with his mouth open partially or widely, if his arms are thrown
above his head, if he lies on his back or otherwise ; with what degree
of effort he raises himself up, and every other striking observation re-
garding the patient, should be noted by the physician.
[79] \ 93. Circumstances, the disclosure of which reflects disgrace
upon the patient, and which are not readily or willingly mentioned
by him or his attendants, must be traced out by the physician through
skilfully constructed questions or private inquiries. The following
may be enumerated in this class : Poisoning or attempted suicide ;
masturbation ; sexual excesses of ordinary or unnatural kind ; abuse
of wine, liquors, punch, and other heating beverages, including coffee ;
over-eating in general, or of particularly hurtful food ; infection with
venereal disease, or the itch ; unrequited love ; jealousy ; domestic dis-
cord ; mortification ; grief in consequence of family misfortunes ; mal-
treatment ; suppressed feeling of revenge ; humiliation ; pecuniary
losses ; superstitious fear ; want ; malformation of sexual organs ;
hernia ; prolapsus, etc.
[80] \ 94. In chronic diseases of the female sex, particular atten-
tion should be paid to pregnancy, sterility, inclination to sexual inter-
course, childbirth, abortions, suckling, and the condition of the men-
strual discharge. Especially in regard to the latter, the inquiry should
not be neglected, whether it returns too early or is delayed beyond the
regular time ; how many days it lasts, continuously or interruptedly ;
its quantity should be ascertained, as well as its color ; whether pre-
ceded or followed by leucorrhoea (whites) ; particular notice should be
taken of the accompanying bodily and mental complaints, sensations
and pains before, during, and after the appearance of the menstrual
discharge. Is it combined with leucorrhoea, and of what kind ? With
what sensations ? In what quantity, under which conditions, and on
what occasions does it appear ?
[81] 96. Purely fictitious accounts of morbid attacks and com-
plaints, will scarcely be met with in the case of even the most incorri-
gible hypochondriacs ; this is plainly proved by comparing their ac-
counts of complaints given at different times, while the physician has
administered nothing, or merely non-medicinal things. It is only
202 NOTES AND EXPLANATORY REMARKS
necessary to make certain deductions from their exaggerations, or at
least the force of their expressions should be accredited to their over-
wrought feelings ; in this respect an exaggerated statement of their
complaints should be set down by itself in the list of the rest of signifi-
cant symptoms, composing the picture of the disease. The case is dif-
ferent with maniacs, and those who viciously simulate disease.
[82] 2 102. If the physician had been able to select in the first cases
the appropriate remedy, nearly approaching a homoeopathic specific,
the subsequent cases will either confirm the appropriateness of the
chosen remedy, or point out a still more suitable, or the most suitable
homoeopathic remedy.
[83] \ 104. Physicians of the old school make very light of the
matter. With them a careful inquiry into all the circumstances of the
patient was unheard of. The physician would even interrupt patients
in the narration of their complaints, that he might be undisturbed in
hastily writing off a recipe, composed of numerous ingredients, of
which the real effects were unknown to him. No allopathic physician
then demanded information concerning every particular circumstance
of the patient, and still less would he write down anything concerning
him. On revisiting the patient after several days, he remembered little
or nothing of what he had heard (having seen so many different patients
in the meantime) ; what he had heard with one ear, escaped from the
other. Nor would he ask more than a few general questions during
subsequent visits ; he would seem to feel the pulse at the wrist, look at
the tongue, prescribe another recipe at the same moment, also without
good reason, or order the former prescription to be continued (frequently
throughout the day, in considerable doses), and then depart most grace-
fully to visit the fiftieth or sixtieth patient, in a single forenoon, in
order to go through with the same senseless routine. In this way
people, calling themselves physicians, and rational physicians at that,
made a business of a profession, actually requiring more earnest thought
than any other in the conscientious and careful investigation of the
condition of each patient, to serve as a basis for the special mode of
treatment. The result was almost invariably unfavorable ; neverthe
less, patients were obliged to resort to these physicians, partly for want
of better ones, and partly from courtesy.
[84] 3 108. During the past twenty-five hundred years, as far as
I know, not a single physician, with the exception of the great and
immortal Albrecht von Haller, has hit upon this method of proving
Resting) drugs with reference to their pure and peculiar effects, by al-
tering the sensorial condition of man, which furnishes the most natural
and indispensable means of discovering what morbid conditions each
APPENDED TO THE TEXT OF THE ORGANON. 203
drug is capable of curiug. Excepting myself, Haller was the only one
who recognized this necessity (cf. the preface to the Pharmacopoeia Hel-
vet., Basil, 1771, fol., p. 12) : "Nempe primum in corpore sano medela
tentanda est, sine peregrina ulla miscela; odoreque et sapore ejus ex-
ploratis, exigua illius dosis ingerenda et ad omnes, quse inde contin-
guut, affectiones, quis pulsus, qui calor, quae respiratio, qusenani ex-
cretiones, attendendum. Inde ad ductum phsenomenorum, in sauo
obviorum, transeas ad experimeuta in corpore segroto, etc." But no
physician has ever obeyed these invaluable hints.
[85] \ 106. Besides pure homoeopathy, another true and more
perfect way of healing dynamic (i. e., all non-surgical) diseases cannot
exist, as it is impossible to draw more than one straight line between
two given points. How little must he who imagines there are still
other kinds of diseases to be cured, besides those amenable to homceop-
athy, have penetrated into its depth, or how insufficiently must he have
practiced it ; how few correctly planned homoeopathic cures must he
have seen or read of, and, on the other hand, how imperfectly must he
have weighed in his mind the absence of any foundation in every allo-
pathic mode of procedure, or have acquired information concerning
their poor, nay. horrible results j who, with shallow indifference, con-
siders the merits of the only true healing art as equal to those perni-
cious modes of treatment, or who even pretends that they are the sisters
of homoeopathy, and indispensable to it. My true and conscientious
followers may refute such notions by their almost unerring fortunate
cures.
[86] \ 106. I have deposited the fruits of these researches in the
degree of perfection they had attained up to that time in Fraginenta de
viribus medicamentorum positives, sive in sano corp. num. observatis^
Part I, II, Leipsise, 8, 1805, apud J. A. Barth ; the riper ones in the
pure Materia Medica, Part I, third ed., Part II, third ed.. 1833 ; Part
III, second ed., 1825 ; Part IV, second ed., 1825 ; Part V, second ed.,
1826 ; Part VI, second ed., 1827 ; and in the second, third, and fourth
parts of the Chronic Diseases, 1828, lfc'30. Dresden, by Arnold.
[87] 110. Compare what I have said regarding this matter in the
Illustration of the Sources of the Common Materia Medica, preceding
the third part of my Pure Materia Medica.
[88] \ 117. Some persons are made to faint away by the odor of
roses, and may be affected by a variety of morbid and sometimes dan-
gerous conditions after partaking of limpets, craw-fish, or of the spawn
of the barb, or from touching the leaves of some kind of sumach, etc.
[88] 117. In this manner the Princess Maria Porphyrogeneta ro-
NO'JES AND EXPLANATORY KEMARKS
lieved her brother, the Emperor Alexius, suffering from fainting attacks,
by sprinkling him with rose-water (TO -uv p66uv araAay/za) in the presence
of his aunt Eudoxia (Hist. Byz. Alexias, lib. 15, p. 503. ed. Posser),
and Horstius (Oper., Ill, p. 59) found rose-vinegar very efficacious in
cases of fainting.
[90] \ 118. This was also recognized by the distinguished von
Ilaller, when he says (preface to his Hist. Stirp Helv.) : "Latet im-
mensa virium diversitas in iis ipsis plantis, quarum facies externas du-
dum novirnus, animas quasi et quodcunque cselestius habent, nondum
perspeximus."
[91] I 119. "Whoever is acquainted with the peculiar effect of each
particular substance upon the state of human feelings, and whoever
knows how to appreciate it, will readily comprehend that in regard to
their medicinal qualities there can be among these remedies none of
equivalent value, or that could be substituted for each other. Only he
who is unacquainted with the pure and positive effects of the different
drugs, can be guilty of the folly of trying to persuade us that one could
serve instead of the other, or that one might be as useful as the other
in the same disease. In this way unreasonable children confound es-
sentially different things, because they can hardly distinguish them
according to their exterior, and least of all, according to their value,
their true significance, and their extremely diversified properties.
[92] 119. If this is the truth, as it certainly is, no physician, un-
willing to be regarded as unreasonable, or to disturb his clear conscience,
the only mark of man's true dignitv, will henceforth apply a medicine
in the treatment of diseases, unless he is fully and exactly informed of
its true significance, i. e., the virtual effect of which, upon the condition
of healthy persons, he has explored so thoroughly, that he is perfectly
sure of its ability to produce a very similar morbid condition, one more
similar than that of every other drug, equally well known to him, to
the disease to be cured ; for as has been shown above, neither man nor
great nature herself can heal perfectly, rapidly, and permanently but
by means of a homoeopathic remedy. No real physician can henceforth
forego such experiments, in order to obtain the most necessary and only
knowledge of drugs for healing purposes this knowledge hitherto neg-
lected by physicians of all past ages. Posterity will scarcely believe
that in all past centuries up to the present day, physicians were content
to treat diseases by blindly prescribing medicines of unknown signifi-
cance, and unproved with regard to their highly important, diversified,
and pure dynamic effects upon the human condition ; nay, to adminis-
ter several of these unknown and widely different powers compounded
in one recipe, and to leave chance to direct the result upon the patient.
This is the way in which a maniac would enter the studio of an artist.
APPENDED TO THE TEXT OF THE ORGANOX. 205
seizing handfuls of very different and unfamiliar implements, wherewith
to complete, as he imagines, the works of art he sees before him. That
these will be injured and irreparably ruined by him, it is unnecessary
for me to add.
[93] \ 125. New green peas, beans, and perhaps carrots are admis-
sible as being probably the least medicinal among green vegetables.
[94] 1 125. The prover should either be unaccustomed to undiluted
wine, spirits, coffee or tea, or should for some time previously have
given up the use of these stimulating, and otherwise medicinally hurt-
ful beverages.
[95] \ 139. Whoever makes such experiments known to the medi-
cal profession, becomes responsible for the reliability of the proving per-
son, and the statements of the latter, and justly so, since the welfare
of suffering humanity is involved.
[96] \ 141. By making his own person the subject of experiments,
the physician will derive many other invaluable advantages. First of
all, the great truth will appear to the physician in the light of an in-
controvertible fact that the medicinal quality of all drugs, the basis of
their healing power, lies in the changes of sensorial condition perceived
by himself, and in the morbid conditions personally observed as the re-
sult of drugs proved upon himself. Furthermore, the necessity of be-
stowing such close attention upon the remarkable phenomena appearing
in his own person, will partly lead him to comprehend the significance
of his own feelings, and of his own habits of thought and temperament
(the foundation. of all true wisdom, yvadi aeavrbv), and partly it will
educate him to be an observer, an attribute which no physician should
lack. All our observations made upon others fail to exercise the attrac-
tion we feel while experimenting upon ourselves. The observer of
others must necessarily always fear that the prover of a drug may not
have felt everything as distinctly as he says, or that he may not have
stated his feelings in the appropriate expression. He is ever in doubt
lest he may have been partially deceived. This almost unavoidable
obstacle to the recognition of the truth in eliciting information about
disease-symptoms artificially originated by drugs upon others, is natu-
rally precluded from the expsriments made upon one's own person. A
self-prover knows with certainty what he has felt, and every experiment
of the kind made upon himself stimulates him to explore the powers of
numerous other drugs. In this manner he will grow more and more
expert in the art of observing, so indispensable to a physician as long
as he continues to make himself the infallible and undeceptive subject
of his observations ; he will perceive with all the more ardor, because
these experiments upon himself, without deceiving him, promise to
206 NOTES AND EXPLANATORY REMARKS
teach him the true value and significance of many yet missing agents
necessary for healing purposes. JTo fear should be entertained thav
such slight ailments, called forth by taking drugs that are to be proved,
would ever be detrimental to the health of the prover. Experience
teaches, on the contrary, that the organism of the prover, by re per. ted
attacks upon the healthy condition, will become all the more accus-
tomed to repel everything of an injurious character attacking the body
from without, as well as all kinds of artificial and natural morbific in-
fluences, and that the organism will become inured to everything of a
deleterious nature by means of these moderate experiments with drugs.
[97] I 142. Symptoms observed, either in past stages of the disease
or not at all, and which, therefore, must have been new symptoms
peculiar to the drug.
[98] \ 143. In modern times, distant and unknown persons have
been employed and paid for proving drugs, and their reports have been
printed. But this most important business, destined to lay the foun-
dation for the only true healing art, and demanding the most positive
moral certainty in its results, seems to become ambiguous and unreli-
able by such practice, and to lose all its value.
[99] \ 145. At first I was the only one who made the proving of
medicinal powers the most important of all his duties. Since that time
I have been assisted in this by a number of young men, who have made
experiments upon themselves, and whose observations I have carefully
reviewed. But what grand curative results will be obtained within the
whole circumference of the endless realm of diseases, as soon as a
greater number of accurate and reliable observers shall have enriched
this only genuine science of Materia Medica by meritorious experiments
upon themselves! The calling of the physician will then approach the
infallibility of mathematical sciences.
[100] .2 145. Compare note 86, \ 109.
[101] \ 149. But this often very laborious search and selection of a
homoeopathic remedy adapted in every respect to the morbid condition
in hand, is a business demanding the study of the original sources, and
much careful circumspection, as well as serious reflection, notwithstand-
ing the existence of many praiseworthy books intended to facilitate the
burdens of an office, which finds its highest reward alone in the con-
sciousness of having faithfully fulfilled a duty. How can this laborious,
careful occupation, which alone furnishes the possibility of accomplish-
ing the best cures of diseases, be expected to suit the convenience of the
members of a new mongrel sect, who boast with the honorable title of
APPENDED TO THE TEXT OF THE ORGANOX. 207
homneopathist, and who, for the sake of appearance, make prescriptions
in the form and character of homoeopathic medicines, merely snatched
up (quidquid in buccam venit) at haphazard, and who, if the inaccu-
rately chosen remedy does not bring immediate relief, do not throw the
blame upon their inexcusable indolence and carelessness in transacting
the most important and serious affairs of mankind, but who saddle the
fault upon homoeopathy, accusing it of great imperfections (perhaps be-
cause it does not supply them with the proper homoeopathic remedy for
every morbid condition without any trouble on their part, after the
manner of certain fabulous pigeons that flew, ready roasted, into an
open mouth ?). But like smart people, they do not allow their want of
success, occasioned by their scarcely half-homceopathic remedies, to
trouble them ; they resort at once to their more familiar allopathic hob-
bies, among which a dozen or so of leeches, applied to the painful part,
or a little innocent bloodletting of about eight ounces, etc., serves to
make a very favorable appearance ; and^ if the patient recovers in spite
of all this, they praise their bloodletting, leeches, etc., saying that with-
out these the patient could not have been saved ; and they try to have
it distinctly understood that these operations, derived, without much
deliberation, from the pernicious routine of the old school, have actu-
ally been most conducive to the successful cure. But if the patient
dies, as is often the case, they quiet the sorrows of the mourning rela-
tives by reminding them "that they had witnessed themselves that
everything possible had been done for the now departed patient."
Who would honor this careless and pernicious class with the name of
homoeopathic physicians after the laborious and salutary art ? May their
just reward await them, that, if ever sick, they may be cured after
their own fashion 1
[102] 153. By arranging the characteristic symptoms, particu-
larly of antipsoric medicines, Dr. von Boenninghausen has lately
merited our renewed gratitude by his significant little book : Sy-
nopsis of the Sphere of the Main Effects of the Antipsoric Medicines
( Uebcrsicht der Hauptwirkungs-Sphare der Antips. Arz.}, Munster, by
Coppenrath, 1833, and an Appendix to the same (comprising also, anti-
syphilitic and antisycotic medicines), attached to the second edition of
his Systematic Alphabetical Repertory of Antipsoric Medicines, by Cop-
penrath, in Munster.
[103] 160. This elevation of drug-symptoms above the analogous
disease-symptoms, resembling an aggravation, has also been noticed by
other physicians, whenever chance has placed a homoeopathic remedy
in their hands. When a patient, afflicted with the itch, complains of
an increase of the eruption after having taken sulphur, the physician,
ignorant of the real cause, comforts him with the assurance that more
of the itch ought to come out before it can be cured ; but he does not
208 NOTES AND EXPLANATORY REMARKS
know that it is a sulphur-eruption assuming the appearance of increased
itch.
Leroy, Heilk. fur Mutter, p. 406, says : " The eruption on the face
cured by Viola tricolor, was at first aggravated by this medicine (Pansy
or Heartsease)," but he does not know that this apparent aggravation
was produced by the overdose of this medicine, which is in some
respects homoeopathic to the case. Lysons (Med. Transact., vol. ii,
London, 1772), says: "Elm bark is most sure to cure those cutaneous
eruptions, which are increased in the beginning of its use." Had he
administered this bark in very small doses, as he should have done in
accordance with the similitude of symptoms, i. e., in its homoeopathic
use, instead of giving it in enormous doses (common in allopathic prac-
tice), he would have accomplished a cure without, or at least, almost
without this apparent intensification of the disease (homoeopathic
aggravation).
[104] 161. Although the effect of medicines, the duration of which
is naturally a long one, rapidly comes to a close in acute diseases, and
most rapidly in the most acute diseases, this effect is, nevertheless,
very enduring in chronic diseases (engendered by psora) ; hence anti-
psoric medicines frequently do not manifest such homoeopathic aggra-
vation in the first hours, but they produce it later, at various periods,
during the first eight or ten days.
[105] 181. The symptoms proceed from the remedy unless they
were caused by a grave error in diet, a violent passion, a tumultuous
process within the organism, the appearance or decline of the menses,
conception, parturition, etc.
[106] \ 183. "Where the patient finds himself in a very distressed
condition, notwithstanding the indistinctness of his symptoms (which
rarely happens in chronic, but more frequently in acute diseases), a con-
dition to be ascribed to the benumbed state of the nerves, which pre-
vents the pains and complaints of the patient from being distinctly
perceived, here opium will remove this depression of inner nervous
sensibility, and the symptoms of the disease will become distinctly per-
ceptible in the after-effect.
[107] \ 188. One of the many pernicious theories of the old school.
[108] \ 194. For instance, Aconitum, Khus radicans, Belladonna,
Mercurius, etc.
[109] ? 197. Fresh itch eruption, chancre, sycotic excrescences.
[110] \ 199. The remedies for sycotic disease, and the antipsoric
remedies were unknown before my time.
APPENDED TO THE TEXT OF THE ORGANON. 209
[111] 2 201. The fontanels of the old-school physician have a simi-
lar effect, in the form of artificial ulcers upon external parts ; they soothe
internal chronic complaints, but only for a very short time, and with-
out curing them ; on the contrary, they weaken and ruin the entire
state of health, much more than the instinctive vital force could do by
most of its metastases.
[112] 203. Whatever internal medicines were used in the case,
they only served to augment the disease, because these remedies pos-
sessed no specific curative power over the totality of the evil, but rather
undermined the organism by weakening it, and by engrafting other
chronic diseases upon it.
[113] 205. Hence, for instance, I cannot recommend the use of
the cosmic remedy, Arsenic, for the extermination of the so-called can-
cer of the lips or face (a product of highly developed psora ?), not only
because this remedy is very painful and often unsuccessful, but more
particularly because the fundamental disease is not in the least dimin-
ished by it, even if this dynamic remedy relieves that part of the body
which is affected by a malignant ulcer ; owing to this failure, the main-
taining power of life is compelled to transfer the focus of the great
inner disease to a more vital part (which is the case in every meta-
ptosis), and to produce blindness, deafness, insanity, suffocative asthma,
anasarca, apoplexy, etc. But this dubious local relief, effected in part
by the removal of a malignant ulcer by the topical application of
Arsenic, will, after all, succeed only where the ulcer has not attained a
large size, and only while the vital force retains its energy ; but during
this same state of things, it is still possible to effect a complete euro of
the original disease.
The same result may be observed after excision of cancer of the face
or breast, and after enucleation of the encysted tumors ; this is followed
by more serious consequences, at all events, death is hastened ; and
notwithstanding the frequency of such a termination, the old school
blindly pursues the same course in every new case, causing equally de-
plorable disasters.
[114] 205. Itch eruption, chancre (bubo), condyloid excrescences.
[115] 206. In making inquiries of this kind, we should not allow
ourselves to be deceived by the assertions of patients or their attendants,
who frequently state the cause of inveterate, nay, of the greatest and
most protracted diseases, to be a cold taken many years ago (from wet,
or cold drafts after being heated), or some previous fright, strain, or mor-
tification (and even witchcraft), etc. Such causes are much too slight
to produce an inveterate disease in a healthy body, to sustain it for
years, and to augment it from year to year after the manner of chronic
14
210 XOTES AND EXPLANATORY REMARKS
diseases, produced by developed psora. Incomparably greater causes
than those within the patient's recollection, must lie at the root of the
beginning and progress of any significant and obstinate malady ; those
presumptive incidents can only serve as accessory causes, by which a
chronic miasm is aroused.
[116] ? 210. In painful diseases, for instance, of several years'
standing, we frequently meet with gentle dispositions, commanding
respect and compassion on the part of the physician for the patient.
But as soon as the disease is conquered, and the patient restored to
health a possibility of frequent occurrence under homoeopathic treat-
ment the physician will often be amazed and shocked at the frightful
changes in the disposition of the patient.. Ingratitude, obduracy, re-
fined malice, and the most disgraceful and revolting caprices are then
often seen to reappear, all of which were peculiar to the patient in times
of health.
Persons who are patient in health, are often found in sickness to be
obstinate, violent, and hasty, or intolerant and wilful, impatient or
despairing ; those who were previously chaste and modest, are then
found. lascivious and shameless. A bright intellect is not infrequently
found to be dull ; a person commonly of weak mind, on the other hand,
will be more shrewd and sensible ; while one of sluggish intellect,
sometimes shows great presence of mind, and promptness, resolu-
tion, etc.
[117] | 213. Thus, Aconitum napellus will rarely or new produce
a rapid or permanent cure in a patient of calm and complacent dispo-
sition, as little as Nux vomica will affect a mild phlegmatic, or Pulsa-
tilla a happy, cheerful, and obstinate temperament ; or as little as
Ignatia proves efficacious in an unchangeable state of mind, inclined
neither to fright nor to grief.
[118] \ 222. Cases rarely occur, where a protracted disease of the
mind or temperament subsides of its own accord (by the return of the
inner disease into the coarser bodily organs). These are the rare cases
in which an inmate of the lunatic asylum is dismissed seemingly cured.
But for these instances, all mad-houses would remain filled to the roof,
so that the multitude of candidates waiting for admission, could scarcely
ever be accommodated in these institutions, unless vacancies were
created by the death of some of the patients. None are 'ever really and
permanently cured in these establishments. A strong proof, among many
others, of the total inefficiency of the old practice, which allopathic
ostentation ridiculously honors by the appellation of rational practice.
How often, on the contrary, has not the true healing art, pure homoe-
opathy, restored to these sufferers the possession of their mental and
bodily health, returning them to their friends and to the world.
APPENDED TO THE TEXT OF THE ORGANON. 211
[119] \ 224. It seems as if the mind received the truth of these
rational admonitions with displeasure and sadness, and as if it acted
upon the body for the purpose of restoring the disturbed equilibrium ;
but it appears also, as if the body, by means of its disease, reacted
upon the organs of the mind and temperament, thus creating in them
a higher state of excitement by again transferring its suffering to these
[120] \ 228. We behold with amazement, the hard-heartedness and
recklessness of physicians of numerous establishments for the insane,
not only in England, but also in Germany. Ignorant of the true man-
ner of treating such diseases by means of effective homoeopathic (anti-
psoric) medicines, these men content themselves with tormenting the
poor sufferers, by the most violent blows and other tortures. By these
unprincipled and revolting measures they degrade themselves beneath
the rank of overseers of houses of correction ; for the latter merely
fulfil their duty in punishing offenders, while the former seem to vent
their rage on the apparent incurability of mental diseases. In the ab-
ject consciousness of their professional inability, too ignorant to relieve,
and too indolent to accept a more appropriate method of treatment,
they maltreat those miserable but innocent sufferers.
[121] \ 232. Two or three kinds of conditions (states or stages),
may appear alternately. In double alternate conditions, for instance,
certain pains may invariably appear in the feet, etc., as soon as a cer-
tain form of ophthalmia vanishes ; which will again supervene, as soon
as the pain in the limbs has temporarily disappeared. Convulsions and
cramps may alternate directly with another affection of the body, or
one of its parts. In threefold alternate stages of some constitutional
(alltagigen) illness, periods of apparently improved health and of
heightened mental and bodily powers (exaggerated hilarity, increased
vivacity of the body and flow of spirits, unnatural appetite, etc.), may
rapidly take place ; whereupon sullenness and gloominess of temper, or
an intolerable hypochondriac state of the mind, combined with various
functional disturbances in regard to sleep, digestion, etc., may appear
quite as unexpectedly ; this, in its turn, may be replaced with equal
suddenness by the moderate indisposition of ordinary times. The
same is observable in many kinds of alternate conditions. Frequently
not a trace is left of the previous stage, when the new one appears.
In other cases only a few marks of the preceding alternate state are
found when the new one appears. Little is left of the symptoms of the
former condition, at the appearance and during the progress of the next.
Sometimes the morbid alternate conditions are essentially of an oppo-
site nature, e. g., melancholy alternating periodically with hilarious in-
sanity, or raving madness.
212 NOTES AND EXPLANATORY REMARKS
[122] $ 235. Pathology, which is yet in its infancy, knows only of
one intermittent (alternating) fever, also called ague (cold fever). This
science assumes that there is no other difference than that of the time
of recurrence of these attacks, which are accordingly styled quotidian,
tertian, quartan, etc. But besides the periods of recurrence of inter-
mittent fevers, there are differences of far greater importance. There
are countless forms of such fevers, many of which cannot even be termed
fever and ague, because their paroxysms consist only of heat ; others
have only a cold stage, with or without subsequent perspiration ; still
others, which are marked by coldness of the whole body, together with
a sensation of heat, or by external heat with chills ; others again,
where one paroxysm consists only of rigors or coldness, with subsequent
feeling of relief, but where the next paroxysm consists only of heat,
with or without subsequent perspiration ; others again, where the heat
appears first and the chill afterwards ; others again, where chills and
heat are followed by apyrexia, and whereupon perspiration appears
alone, constituting the second attack, often following many hours after-
wards ; others againj where perspiration is wanting altogether, or
where the entire attack, without either chills or heat, consists only of
perspiration, or where the perspiration is present only during the hot
stage. Of this kind there are still innumerable other differences, par-
ticularly in regard to the collateral symptoms, such as the particular
kind of headache, bad taste in the mouth, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea,
the absence or presence of thirst, the particular kinds of pain of the
body or limbs, sleep, delirium, mental affections, convulsions, etc.,
occurring before, during, or after the chill ; before, during, or after
the heat ; before, during, or after the perspiration, and countless other
deviations of this kind. All of these are evidently intermittent fevers
of very different kinds, each of which naturally demands its own
(homoeopathic) treatment. It must be confessed that almost all of them
can be suppressed (as often is the case) by large and enormous doses of
Cinchona bark, or its pharmaceutical preparation, sulphate of quinine ;
that is to say, their periodical recurrence (the type) is extinguished by
this drug, though frequently not without increased and oft-repeated
doses, but patients who had suffered from such intermittents unsuited
for Cinchona, like all those epidemic intermittents traversing entire
countries, and even mountains, are never cured by the mere extinction
of their typical character. On the contrary, those patients only remain
diseased in another way, and often much more seriously than before, by
peculiar chronic Cinchona diseases, which resist even the efforts of the
true healing art, though persisted in for a long time. Can such results
be called cures ?
[123] $ 235. Dr. Yon Boenninghausen, who has done more in be-
half of our salutary art than any other of my disciples, was the first to
APPENDED TO THE TEXT OF THE OROANOX. 213
furnish an admirable illustration of this subject, and he has facilitated
the selection of appropriate remedies for the greatest variety of fever
epidemics by his book, Versuch einer HomoeopathiscJien Therapie far
WecJiselfieber (An Attempt at Homoeopathic Therapeutics of Intermittent
Fevers), 1833. Munster near Kegensburg.
[124] <j 236. This is illustrated by the not infrequent cases of death
where a moderate dose of opium, administered during the cold stage of
the fever, speedily destroyed life.
[125] 244. Larger and oft-repeated doses of Peruvian bark, or even
concentrated preparations of bark, like sulphate of quinine, may indeed
rid such patients of the typical attacks of marsh-intermittents ; but
those who were deceived in this respect will remain diseased in another
manner, unless relieved by antipsoric remedies.
[126] \ 246. In the former editions of the Organon I have recom-
mended that a single dose of a well-selected homoeopathic remedy should
be allowed to terminate its operation before the same or a new remedy
is repeated, a doctrine derived from the certain experience that the
greatest amount of good can scarcely ever be accomplished, particularly
in chronic diseases, by a large dose of medicine (a retrogressive measure
recently proposed), however well-selected ; or, whatamounts to the same
thing, by several small doses administered in rapid succession, because
a procedure of this kind will not permit the vital force to undergo im-
perceptibly the change from the natural disease to the similar drug-
disease. On the contrary, it is usually excited to violent revulsive
action by one large dose, or by the quick succession of several smaller
doses, so that the reaction of the vital force, in most cases, is anything
but beneficial, doing more harm than good. Therefore, while it was im-
possible to discover a more salutary method than the one proposed by
me, it was necessary to obey the philanthropic rule of precaution, si non
juvat, viodo ne noceat; in accordance with which maxim the homoeo-
pathic physician, considering human welfare to be his highest aim, was
to administer but one most minute dose at a time of a carefully selected
medicine in a case of disease, to allow this dose to act upon the patient,
and to terminate its action. I say most minute, since it holds good, and
will continue to hold good as an incontrovertible homoeopathic rule of
cure, that the best dose of the correctly selected medicine will always
be the smallest in one of the high potencies (X) for chronic as well as
for acute diseases, a truth which is the invaluable property of pure
homceopathy, and which will continue to stand as an imperishable bar-
rier to shield true homoeopathy from quackery ( Afterkunste) as long as
allopathy (and no less the practice of the modern mongrel sect com-
posed of a mixture of allopathy and homoeopathy) continues like a
214 NOTES AND EXPLANATORY REMARKS
cancer to undermine the life of suffering men, and to destroy them by
large doses of medicine.
On the other hand, practice proves to us that a single small dose may
be sufficient, particularly in light cases of disease, to accomplish nearly
all that could, for the present, be expected from the medicine, especi-
ally in the case of infants and very tender, susceptible adults. It also
becomes .evident that in many, nay, in most cases of very protracted
and inveterate diseases (often aggravated by previous inappropriate
drugs), as well as in serious acute affections, such a minute dose, even of
our highly rarefied medicines, will be insufficient to produce all the cura-
tive effects that might, in general, be expected to result from the medicine.
Hence it may undoubtedly be found necessary to administer several
doses of the same medicine for the purpose of altering pathogenetically
the vital force to such an extent, and to raise its curative reaction to
such a degree of tension, as to enable it to extinguish completely an en-
tire portion of the original disease, as far as this object could be reached
by any well-selected homoeopathic remedy. The best-selected medicine,
in a single small dose, would perhaps bring some relief in such cases,
but far from enough.
A careful homoeopathic physician would scarcely dare to repeat the
dose of the same remedy again and again, since no advantage was
ever gained by such a course, but, on accurate observation, certain dis-
advantages have most frequently been seen to follow. Exacerbations
have been commonly noticed, even after the smallest dose of the most
appropriate remedy, whenever it was repeated for two or three succes-
sive days.
A homoeopathic physician, convinced of the homoeopathic fitness of
his chosen remedy, and desirous of relieving his patient in a shorter
time than he had hitherto succeeded in doing by means of a single
small dose, naturally arrives at the conclusion that, as long as a single
dose is to be administered (for reasons detailed above), this dose might
as well be increased ; and that instead of a single fine pellet moistened
with the highest attenuation, six, seven or eight pellets, or even whole
drops of the dilution might be given at once. But unexceptionally the
result was less favorable than it should have been ; often it was actu-
ally injurious and detrimental an evil difficult to repair in a patient
treated in that manner.
Neither will low potencies of the remedy, in large doses, lead to a bet
ter result.
Experience teaches that the desired object will never be gained by in-
creasing the single doses of a homoeopathic medicine for the purpose of
raising the pathogenetic excitement of the vital force up to the point
of sufficient curative action. The vital force would be too violently
and too suddenly affected and aroused, than that it could have time to
prepare for a gradual, even, and salutary counteraction; hence it en-
APPENDED TO THE TEXT OF THE ORGANON. 215
deavors to throw off the surplus of the medicinal assailant by vomiting,
diarrhoea, fever, perspiration, etc. Thus the object of the inconsider-
ate physician is, in a great measure, placed out of reach, or entirely
frustrated. Little or nothing is accomplished toward the cure of the
disease ; on the contrary, the patient is visibly weakened, and for a
long time a repetition, even of the smallest dose of the same remedy, is
aot to be thought of, lest it should have an undesirable effect upon the
patient.
A number of small doses, repeated for the same purpose in quick
succession, will accumulate in the organism till they constitute, as it
were, one large dose, and will produce the same evil result, except in
some rare instances. The vital force, unable to recover during the in-
terval even between small doses, is overtasked and overpowered, inca-
pacitated to begin curative reaction, and compelled to continue pas-
sively the predominant drug-disease- forced upon it. This process is
similar to that produced by the large and accumulating allopathic doses
of a drug, resulting in protracted injury to the patient, an event we are
daily called upon to witness.
Now, in order to avoid the errors here pointed out, to gain the desired
object with greater certainty than before, and to administer the selected
remedy in such a manner that it may do the greatest amount of good
to the patient without injury, and finally, in order that, in a given dis-
ease, the medicine may accomplish as much as could possibly be ex-
pected, I have recently adopted a peculiar course.
I perceived that, in order to pursue the correct medium course, we
should be guided by the nature of the different medicines, as well as by
the bodily constitution of the patient, and the magnitude of his disease.
Let us take, for example, the use of Sulphur in chronic (psoric) dis-
eases ; its finest dose (Tinct. Sulph. X), even in the case of robust per-
sons afflicted with developed psora, is rarely to be repeated with advan-
tage oftener than once in seven days ; this space of time must be extended
still more in the treatment of weakly and susceptible patients, when it
will be well to administer such a dose only once in nine, twelve or four-
teen days, to be repeated until the medicine ceases to be serviceable.
In such cases it will be found that in psoric diseases rarely less than
four, but often six, eigh.t, and even ten such doses ( Tinct. Sulph. X), ad-
ministered successively at such intervals, are required for the complete
extinction of that portion of the chronic disease which Sulphur (to
continue the example) is capable of extinguishing, provided no allo-
pathic abuse of Sulphur had occurred previously. In this manner, a
newly originated (primary) itch-eruption attacking a sufficiently robust
person, and even if it had extended over the whole body, can be cured in
ten or twelve weeks by administering every seventh day a dose of tinct. Sulf.
X (that is, with ten or twelve globules) ; nor will it often be necessary to
make '.ise of a few doses of Carbo veg. X (also at the rate of one dose
216 NOTES AND EXPLANATORY REMARKS
a week) ; the cure May, therefore, be perfected without the least ex-
ternal treatment, excepting frequent change of linen and well-regulated
regimen.
Although from eight to ten doses of Tinct. Sulph. X may be gener-
ally considered as sufficient in other great chronic diseases^ it is, never-
theless preferable, instead of applying the doses in uninterrupted suc-
cession, to give a dose of another medicine which, next to Sulphur, is
most homoeopathic to the case (generally Hep. sulph.), after each, or
after every second or third dose of the latter ; and to allow this new
dose to operate from eight to fourteen days before a second series of
three doses of Sulphur is again resorted to.
Not infrequently the vital force is indisposed to submit to the action
of several successive doses of Sulphur, even at the stated intervals, and
however well. the medicine may have been adapted to the chronic evil,
the repugnance of the vital power will be indicated by some moderate
sulphur-symptoms, which appear during the treatment. In this case
it is sometimes advisable to give a small dose of Nux vom. X, and
to permit this to act from eight to ten days, so that nature may again
become disposed to allow Sulphur in continued doses, to act quietly
and with beneficial result. In some cases, Pulsatilla X is to be pre-
ferred.
If Sulphur had been allopathically misapplied (even several years
before), the vital force will resist the effects of that medicine, though
decidedly indicated ; in that case -even, visible aggravations of the
chronic disease will be manifested by the vital force, after the smallest
dose of Sulphur, nay even after smelling of a pellet moistened with
Tinct. Sulph. X. This is a deplorable circumstance, which renders the
best medical treatment almost useless ; and still it is only one out of
numerous instances of allopathically maltreated chronic diseases, for
which, however, we possess some means of reparation.
In such cases, it is merely necessary to let the patient apply one pellet
moistened with Mercur. Metall. X to his nostrils, and to take a deep
inspiration through the nose (stark riechen lassen), and to let this dose,
applied through olfaction, operate for nine days, in order to make the
vital force again susceptible of the beneficial effects of Sulphur (at least
by smelling of Tinct. Sulph. X, a discovery for .which we are indebted
to Dr. Griesselich of Carlruhe),
Of the other antipsoric remedies (perhaps excepting Phosph. X) fewer
doses are to be given at similar intervals (Sepia and Silicea are to be
given at longer intervals, where they are honvjeopathically indicated,
without intercurrent remedies), in order to extinguish all that the indi-
cated remedy is capable oi curing. Hepar sulph. calc. is rarely to be
administered internally or by olfaction, in shorter periods than fourteen
or fifteen days.
As a matter of course, the physician should be fully convinced of the
APPENDED TO THE TEXT OF THE ORGANON. 217
accuracy of his selection of the remedy before attempting a repetition
of doses.
In acute diseases, the time for the repetition of the proper remedy is
regulated by the rate at which the disease runs its course ; here it may
often be necessary to repeat the medicine in twenty-four, sixteen.
twelve, eight, four hours, and less, while the medicine, without origi-
nating new complaints, continues to produce uninterrupted improve-
ment ; but where this improvement is not sufficiently marked, consider-
ing the dangerous rapidity of the acute disease, the interval must be
still further lessened. Thus in cases of cholera, the most rapidly fatal
disease known to us, it is necessary in the beginning to give one or two
drops of a weak solution of Camphor every five minutes, in order to
insure speedy and certain relief ; while in the more developed stages,
we may be called upon to employ doses of Cuprum, Veratrum, Phos-
phorus, etc. (X), every two or three hours ; or to give Arsenicum,
Carbo veg., etc., at similar intervals.
In the treatment of so-called nervous fevers and other continued
fevers, the repetition of the dose of the effective medicine is also gov-
erned by the foregoing rules.
In pure syphilitic diseases, I have commonly found one dose of me-
tallic Mercury (X) to be sufficient. But not infrequently, two or three
doses, administered at intervals of six or eight days, were necessary,
whenever the least complication with psora was visible.
In cases where one remedy or another was strongly indicated, but
where the patient is very excitable and weak, the application of a
remedy by olfaction is more efficacious and safe than the administra-
tion of a substantial dose of homoaopathic medicine, however fine and
highly potentiated. This is done by holding the mouth of the vial,
containing one small globule moistened with the medicine, first to one
nostril, and if the dose is to be still more efficacious, also to the other
nostril of the patient, who takes a momentary inspiration, the effect
of which continues quite as long as that of the substantial doses ; hence
this process of olfaction is not to be repeated at shorter intervals, than
if th medicine had been given in substantial form.
[127] \ 249. Since experience proves that a dose of a specific ho-
moaopathic medicine can scarcely be prepared too small to produce a
distinct improvement in a disease to which it is adapted ($ 161, 279),
it would be contrary to our purpose, and hurtful to repeat the same
medicine, or to increase the dose in the absence of an improvement, or
whenever an aggravation, however slight, should make its appearance ;
in doing so, we would be guilty of following the method of the old
school, and of acting under the delusion that the small quantity of
medicine (too small a dose) could not be efficacious. E eery aggravation
evinced by new symptoms provided no errors have beeu committee! with
218 NOTES AND EXPLANATORY REMARKS
regard to physical and moral regimen only proves the unsuitableness of
the medicine last administered in the case of disease, but it never is an
indication of the weakness of the dose.
[128] \ 251. I have discussed this subject more fully in the intro-
duction to Ignatia (Mat. Med., Part 2d).
[129] 253. The indications of improvement with regard to mind
and temperament, ai-e only to be observed soon after the exhibition of
the medicine, provided the dose had been sufficiently small (i. e., as
small as possible) ; an unnecessarily large dose, even of the most ho-
moeopathically adapted medicine, acts too violently, disturbing the mind
and temperament too much, and too continuously in the beginning, to
allow the improvement in them to be seen early. I must remark here,
that this necessary rule is most frequently violated by conceited begin-
ners in homoaopathy, and by those who come over from the ranks of
the old school. Actuated by inveterate prejudices, they shun the
smallest doses of the highest dilutions of medicines in these cases, and
are, therefore, deprived of the great advantages and blessings derived
from a method, which has been established as salutary by countless
experiences ; they cannot achieve as much as true homoeopathy can
accomplish, and hence, unjustly claim to be its disciples.
[130] I 259. The distant and mellow tones of the flute which, in
the silent hours of night, would melt a tender heart, and call forth
celestial emotions and religious sentiments, are drowned by the dis-
cordant and tumultuous sounds of the busy day.
[131] \ 260. Coffee ; Chinese tea, or other herb teas ; beer contain-
ing medicinal vegetable substances unadapted to the condition of the
patient ; so-called cordials, prepared from medicinal spices ; all kinds
of punch ; spiced chocolate ; scented water and perfumes of various
kinds ; highly odorous flowers cultivated in the chamber ; medicated
tooth-powder or washes ; perfumes inclosed in bags or cushions ; highly
seasoned food or sauces ; spiced pastry or ices ; raw medicinal herbs in
soups ; pot-herbs, tender shoots and roots possessing medicinal proper-
ties ; old cheese and tainted animal food, or the flesh and fat of pigs,
ducks, geese, or young veal, and acid food, etc., all of which produce
collateral medicinal effects, are carefully to be kept from patients of
this kind. Excesses at table ; the excessive use of sugar and salt, as
well as spirituous liquors ; heated rooms ; woollen clothes next to the
skin (which, in warm weather, is first to be replaced by cotton and
then by linen) ; sedentary habits in close apartments ; passive exer-
cise, such as riding, driving, rocking ; protracted suckling of infants ;
the habit of sleeping in bed too long after dinner ; nocturnal occupa-
APPENDED TO THE TEXT OF THE ORGAXON. 219
tions ; the enervating effects induced by the perusal of obscene books ;
objects of anger, grief, and vexation ; the passion for gaming ; exces-
sive exertion of mind and body ; residence in a marshy locality ; damp
rooms ; penurious living, etc. : all these conditions and circumstances
should be carefully avoided and removed, lest the cure might be im-
peded or rendered impossible. Some of my disciples appear to impose
unnecessary restrictions on their patients, by prohibiting a still greater
number of quite indifferent things, a course which is not to be sanc-
tioned.
[132] \ 263. This, however, is rare. In purely inflammatory dis-
eases, for instance, where Aconite, a medicine easily counteracted
in the organism by the use of vegetable acid, is indispensable, the pa-
tient generally experiences a desire for pure cold water.
[133] 266. All crude animal and vegetable substances possess a
greater or less amount of medicinal properties, and each, after its own
manner, is capable of altering the sensorial condition (health) of man.
Those plants and animals used as food by civilized nations, are prefer-
able on account of the large amount of nutritious matter contained in
them ; they also differ from others in this, that the medicinal properties
of their crude condition are less prominent, and that these properties are
diminished by culinary processes ; for instance, by pressing out the
hurtful juices (like that of the South American Cassava), by fermenta-
tions (like that of rye flour when made into dough for bread ; the prep-
aration of sourkraut and pickles, without vinegar), by smoking, by
heat (in boiling, frying, broiling, roasting, baking), by which means
the medicinal elements are partially destroyed and evaporated. Through
the addition of salt or vinegar (in pickling and preparation of sauces
and salads), these animal and vegetable substances may lose a part of
their medicinal properties, but injurious qualities of another kind are
produced.
Plants, even, of strong medicinal properties are partly or wholly
deprived of their strength by such modes of treatment. All roots of
the iris species, horseradish, arum, and the peonies lose nearly all their
medicinal strength by perfect desiccation. The juice of the most pow-
erful plants is often transformed into an inert, pitchy mass by the ordi-
nary temperature employed in the preparation of extracts. By being
allowed to stand still for a long time, the expressed juice of deadly
plants is often rendered inert ; even at a moderate temperature it
rapidly passes into vinous fermentation ; being thus deprived of much
strength, it grows sour, and finally putrid, whereby all its peculiar
medicinal properties are destroyed. The amylaceous sediment, when
purified, is perfectly harmless like ordinary starch. Even ic the process
220 NOTES AND EXPLANATORY REMARKS
of sweating, to which a closely packed mass of herbs would be exposed,
a great portion of their medicinal properties are lost.
[134] \ 267. Buchholz (Taschenbuch fiir Scheidekunst u. Apoth.,
1815, Weimar, I, VI] assures his readers, uncontradicted by his critic
in the Leipziger Liter atur-Zeitung, 1816, No. 82, that we were indebted
for this excellent method of preparing medicines to the campaign in
Russia, whence it was introduced into Germany. He conceals the fact
that this discovery and its description had been made known by me two
years before the Russian campaign, although he quotes my own words
from the first edition of the Organon of the Rational Healing Art, I 230
(the Organon appeared in 1810), and the annexed note. Thus the ori-
gin of an invention is rather to be sought in the wilds of Asia than to
attribute the honor to a German who justly claims it. Although alco-
hol was formerly sometimes mixed with vegetable juices to preserve
them for the purpose of preparing extracts, it was never done with the
intention of administering them in this form to patients.
[135] \ 267. Although equal parts of alcohol and of fresh juice are
the usual proportion effecting the subsidence of fibrous and albuminous
matter, nevertheless a double quantity of alcohol is required for plants
containing much viscid mucus, or an excess of albumen. Plants con-
taining but little juice, like oleander, boxwood, yew tree, ledum, sa-
bina, etc., should first be crushed into a fine pulp, and then stirred up
with a double quantity of alcohol, so that the juice may combine with
it, and being thus extracted by the alcohol it may be strained. These
substances may also be dried, reduced to powder, ground with sugar of
m;lk to the third trituration, and then farther diluted by potentiation
after dissolving a grain of the trituration (cf. \ 271).
[136] \ 268. In order to preserve such substances in the form of
powder, a precaution, hitherto not generally known to apothecaries,
was requisite, in the absence of which these animal and vegetable sub-
stances, though perfectly dry, could not be kept in well-closed bottles.
Crude, unpowdered vegetable substances, however dry, still contain a
certain degree of moisture as a necessary condition for the cohesion of
their structural particles. Although this moisture does not prevent
the entire unpowdered drug from continuing in a dry state, it will
nevertheless prove to be excessive for the preservation of a substance in
a finely powdered state. Vegetable or animal substances, which are
quite dry when whole, will, when finely pulverized, form a somewhat
moist powder, which cannot be kept in closed vessels without being
rapidly spoiled by mould unless previously freed from the excess of
moisture. This is best done by spreading the powder in a shallow tin
pan with a high rim, floating on boiling water (water-bath), and stir
APPENDED TO THE TEXT OF THE ORGANON. 221
ring it till it has become so dry, that its small particles no longer adhere
together in lumps, and until they can be separated and blown off like
fine sand. In this state these fine powders may be preserved forever
without deterioration in well-stoppered and sealed glasses, where they
will retain their original and perfect medicinal strength free from mould
and mustiness. The best plan is to protect the glasses from daylight in
covered jars or boxes. Animal and vegetable substances, kept in glasses
which are not perfectly air-tight, and kept from the access of sun and
daylight, will in time lose more and more of their medicinal virtues
even in their entire state, but more particularly in the form of powder.
[137] \ 270. Desirous of employing a certain rule for the develop
ment of powers of fluid medicines, I have been led by manifold expe-
riences and accurate observations to prefer two instead of repeated
strokes of succussion for each vial, since the latter method tended to
potentiate the medicines too highly. There are, nevertheless, homoe-
opathists who carry about with them homoeopathic medicines in fluid
form, and who still insist that *h-;e medicines were not found to have
been more highly potentiated, thereby disclosing a want of accurate
observation. I dissolved one grain of soda in half an ounce (1 Loth.)
of water mixed with a little alcohol contained in a vial, two-thirds of
which it filled ; after shaking this solution uninterruptedly for half an
hour, it was equal in potentiation and efficacy to the thirtieth develop-
ment of strength.
[138] \ 271. This subject is fully explained in the preface to the
medicines in the third edition of the second part of the Materia Medico,.
[139] \ 272. Some homoeopathic physicians have tried the plan of
administering two medicines at a time, or nearly so, in cases where one
of the remedies seemed to be homoeopathic to one portion of the symp-
toms of the disease, and where a second remedy appeared adapted to
the other portion ; but I must seriously warn my readers against such
an attempt, which will never be necessary even if it should seem proper.
[140] \ 274. Supposing the right homeopathic remedy to have been
administered in a well-considered case of disease, it would be prepos-
terous to order the patient to drink some other medicinal herb-tea, to
apply herb-cushions, medicated fomentations, injections, salves or oint-
ments ; a sensible physician will leave such practice to irrational allo-
pathic routine.
[141] \ 276. The praise which has lately been bestowed by some
homoeopathic physicians upon the larger doses, arises partly from their
Belection of lower potencies, such as I was in the habit of using twenty
222 NOTES AND EXPLANATORY REMARKS
years ago for want of better knowledge, and partly from the circum-
stance that the medicines were not quite homoeopathically selected.
[142] 2276. See note to 246.
[143] \ 280. Let these ordinary practitioners ask mathematicians
to demonstrate the truth, that, although a substance be divided into
ever so many parts, some portion of this substance, however minute,
must still constitute each one of these parts ; that the most inconceiv-
ably minute fractional particle never ceases to be something of the
original substance, an'd hence, that it can never become nothing. Phys-
ical sciences will teach them that there are great forces (potencies)
which are entirely imponderable, like heat, light, etc. ; and that, con-
sequently, these must be far lighter than the medicinal contents of the
smallest homoeopathic doses Let them determine, if they can, the
weight of angry words causing a bilious fever, or the weight of afflict-
ing news that can kill an affectionate mother when she hears of the
death of an only son ; let them t^n^h for fifteen minutes a magnet
capable of supporting a hundred pounds, and be convinced by painful
sensations that even imponderable influences may produce the most vio-
lent medicinal effects upon the human body ; let some weakling of that
class allow a strong-willed mesmerist to touch the pit of his stomach
lightly with the point of his thumb for a few minutes, and the intoler-
able sensations produced by this process will make him repent of hav-
ing set limits to the activity of boundless nature.
If an allopathic physician, in trying the homoeopathic method, can-
not summon sufficient courage to use highly rarefied doses, he should
ask himself what risk he would incur in using them ? If only ponder-
ables were real, and imponderables unreal, then one of these seemingly
insignificant doses would, at worst, be without any effect whatever, a
result far more harmless than that following too large a dose of allo-
pathic medicine. Why will such a physician consider his want of ex-
perience, combined with prejudices, as more competent than experience
established by facts observed throughout many years ? In addition to
this, it must be remembered that the power of homoeopathic medicine
is augmented (potentiated) by friction and succussion at each successive
division and comminution. This development of powers, unknown be-
fore my time, is so great, that in latter years convincing experience has
led me to make use of two succussions after each dilution, where form-
erly I employed ten.
[144] \ 284. Supposing one drop of a mixture containing -^,,-th of
a grain of medicinal substance to have an effect = A, then one drop of
a higher dilution, containing ji^th of a grain of medicinal substance,
would have an effect about equal to \ ; if it contains ro j(j a thof a grain of
APPENDED TO THE TEXT OF THE ORGANON. 223
medicinal substance, it would have an effect equal to ; if it con-
tains Tffffffbfffffftt 1 f a grain of medicine, its effect would be = ; and in
this progression, the volume of the dose remaining the same, the quad-
ratic (or perhaps more than quadratic) diminution of medicinal sub-
stance will always reduce the effect of the latter only by about one-half.
I have very often seen one drop of the decillionfold dilution of Nux vom.
produce almost exactly half as great an effect as one drop of the quintil-
Jionfold dilution, administered under the same circumstances, and to the
same person.
[145] 285. For this purpose it is best to use fine sugar-pellets of
the size of poppy seeds ; one of these pellets moistened with medicine,
and introduced into the vehicle, constitutes a dose containing about
j ,th part of a dose ; for three hundred of such pellets are sufficiently
moistened by one drop of alcohol. By placing one of these pellets
upon the tongue, and without swallowing some liquid afterwards, the
dose is considerably lessened. But if there are reasons for adminis-
tering the smallest dose, and if, at the same time, a speedy effect is to
be produced upon a very sensitive patient, it will only be necessary to
smell of the medicine once (see note to \ 288).
[146] 286. The healing and intoxicating effects of the simplest
stimulants only, such as wine and alcohol, are diminished by dilution
with a large quantity of water.
[147] \ 287. By the word intimately I mean to say, that if a drop of
medicinal fluid is shaken up once with one hundred drops of alcohol that
is to say, if the vial containing both, has been subjected to one vigorous
downward stroke of the arm, while the vial is held in the hand, an
exact mixture must have taken place ; but that the mixture of both will
be made far more intimate by two, three, ten or more such strokes ; i. e.,
the medicinal power will have become more highly potentiated, and the
spirit of this medicine will have been unfolded and developed in a
higher degree, and made far more penetrant in its effect upon the nerves.
Now if these high dilutions are to serve the desirable purpose of di-
minishing the dose, and of reducing its effect upon the organism, it
would be well not to shake each of the twenty or thirty vials more than
twice, so that the medicinal force may be but moderately developed,
It would also be proper not to extend the time of trituration too far in
making dry powder-dilutions ; e. (/., a grain of some crude medicinal
substance, having been mixed with one hundred grains of sugar of
milk, should be triturated vigorously only for an hour ; a grain of this
trituration, mixed with one hundred grains of sugar of milk (rjj^jth
dilution), should also be triturated for an hour, and the third dilution
(iffiToijiyoth), prepared by mixing a grain of the preceding trituration
with one hundred grains of sugar of milk, should also be triturated for
224 NOTES AND EXPLANATORY REMARKS
one hour, whereby the medicine is brought to a state of dilution, pos
sessing a moderate development of strength. The process of making
these preparations is more fully described in the prefaces to the third
edition of the second part of the Materia Medica, 1833.
[148] 287. The higher tne process of dilution, combined with yo
tentiation (by means of two succussions), is carried, so much the more
rapid and penetrant the effect of the preparation will appear in its in-
fluence upon the vital force, and in altering the sensorial condition.
This process, however, does not lessen the efficacy of the preparatior
much, even if it is carried up to XX, L, C, and still higher, instead of
stopping, as usual, at X, which is generally sufficient. These highei
degrees seem to differ from the lower ones only in having an effect of
shorter duration.
[149] \ 288. Homoeopathic remedies will act with the greatest cei-
tainty and efficacy, particularly by smelling or inhaling them in the
form of vapor emanating continually from a dry pellet impregnated
with a highly rarefied medicinal solution, and containedin a small vial.
The homoBopathic physician should apply the mouth of the vial first to
one nostril of the patient, and request him to inhale the air from the
vial ; and if the dose is to be somewhat stronger, the vial should also
be applied to the other nostril, the patient inhaling more or less vigor-
ousl} r , in proportion to the intended strength of the dose, whereupon
the vial should be replaced, well corked, in his pocket-case to prevent
abuse. Hence the physician may dispense entirely with the services of an
apothecary, if he chooses to do so. Globules (of which ten, twenty or a
hundred weigh a grain) moistened with the thirtieth potentiated dilu-
tion, and then dried, retain their full strength uncliminished for at least
eighteen or twenty years (as far as my experience reaches), even if the
vial had been opened a thousand times, provided, however, it had been
well protected from heat and sunlight. In case the patient's nostrils
were obstructed by coryza or polypus, he should inhale through the
mouth while holding the aperture of the vial between his lips. A cer-
tain result may be obtained in the case of infants by holding the vial
close to their nostrils during sleep. The inhaled medicinal vapor comes
into immediate contact with the nerves distributed over the parietes
of the cavities, through which it passes, and thus stimulates the vital
force into curative action in the mildest, but at the same time, in the
most energetic manner. This is much superior to all other modes of
administering medicines by the mouth. Every kind of internal chronic
disease not entirely ruined by allopathy, as well as the most acute dis-
eases that can be cured at all by homoeopathy (what indeed cannot be
cured by it, except surgical diseases requiring manual skill ?>, are most
surely and effectually cured by this process of olfaction. But of the
APPENDED TO THE TEXT OF THE ORGANON. 225
great number of patients who, for a year past, have sought my aid and
that of my assistant, there is scarcely one whose chronic or acute dis-
ease we had not treate'd successfully alone by means of olfaction. Dur-
ing the latter half of this year I became convinced of the fact (which
I would not have believed before), that by this process of olfaction the
power of the medicine is exerted upon the patient, at least in the same
degree of intensity, and, in fact, more quietly, though quite as long as
that of a large dose of medicine administered by the mouth, and that,
consequently, the process of olfaction is not to be repeated at shorter
periods than if the medicine were given in material doses by the mouth.
[150] \ 289. Even patients deprived of their sense of smell are in-
fluenced and cured in an equally perfect manner by inhaling medicinal
vapor through the nose.
[151] \ 292. Friction (inunction) seems to enhance the effect of
medicines only inasmuch as friction per se renders the skin and the
living fibre more susceptible, and capable of feeling the strength of the
medicine, and of imparting this sensation of change in the sensorial
condition to the entire organism. If the inner surface of the thigh has
been well irritated by friction, mercurial ointment merely laid on will
act quite as powerfully as if this ointment had been vigorously rubbed
into the spot, according to the usual mode of "inunction," as it is
called. It still remains doubtful whether the substance of the metal
itself is made to penetrate to the interior of the body by means of this
so-called process of inunction, or whether it is taken up by the absorb-
ent vessels, or whether neither of the two effects occur. But homoeop-
athy scarcely ever demands the inunction of any medicine, and least
of all, the use of mercurial ointment for curative purposes.^
15
APPENDIX.
I CONSIDER it necessary in this place to allude to animal magnetism
or mesmerism (called so after Mesmer, its discoverer), differing in its
nature from all other curative agents. This remedial power, the ex-
istence of which is often denied, is imparted to the patient by the touch
of a well-disposed person, exercising the full strength of his will. It
acts in part homceopathically, by exciting symptoms similar to those
of the disease to be cured, and is applied for this purpose by means of
a single pass or stroke of the hands held flatwise over the body, and
carried, during moderate exertion of the will, from the crown to the
tips of the toes ;[1] this process is efficacious in uterine haemorrhages,
even when death is imminent. The application of mesmerism also
serves to distribute the vital force equally through the organism, when
it is abnormally active in some parts, and deficient in others ; e. (/., in
cases of rush of blood to the head, and sleepless, anxious restlessness
of debilitated persons, etc., where it should also be applied by means
of a single, but more powerful pass of the hands. It is also capa-
ble of imparting vital power, and of supplying deficiency of the
latter directly to a single debilitated part, or to the entire organism.
This object is not to be reached with the same degree of safety and
certainty by any power, except that of mesmerism, which obviates the
disturbances arising from other kinds of medical treatment. An effect
of this kind is obtained in single parts of the body, by applying the
hands or tips of the fingers, and by directing a strong effort of good
will upon the part suffering from inveterate debility, where an internal
chronic evil has established its local symptoms. Cases of this kind
are, e, gr., chronic ulcers, amaurosis, paralysis of single limbs, etc. [2]
Many sudden and apparent cures, performed in all ages by mesmerists
endowed with great natural power, belong to this category. But the
most remarkable instances of the communication of human power
were witnessed in the resuscitation of persons who, after having lain
in a state of apparent death for a long time, were acted upon by the
powerful will of a well-disposed man in the prime of life and vigor. [3]
History records several undoubted instances of this kind.
These methods of applying mesmeric pbwer, depend upon an influx
of vital force from one body into another ; it is, therefore, called posi-
( 227 )
228 APPENDIX.
tive mesmerism. [4] But there is another manner )f applying it, which
produces a contrary effect to the former, and is, therefore, known as
negative mesmerism. Of this kind, are the mesmeric strokes employed
in awakening persons from a state of somnambulism, as well as all those
manipulations known as "calming" and "ventilating." The safest
and simplest means of discharging the excess of vital power accumu-
lated in some portion of a vigorous organism, consist in the application
of negative mesmerism by means of the right hand with its extended
palm, held parallel to and about an inch from the body, and carried by
a rapid motion from the crown of the head to the tips of the toes. [5]
The more rapidly this motion is made, so much the more effective will
be the discharge of vital force. In a case of apparent death, for in-
stance, occurring in a female previously healthy, [6] whose menses were
suddenly arrested at their commencement, by some violent emotional
disturbance, the excess of vital force, probably accumulated in the prse-
cordial region, is discharged and restored to its equilibrium throughout
the organism, by means of a rapid negative stroke of the hand, which
will be followed by immediate resuscitation. [7] A gentle and less
rapid negative movement of the hand will also allay the great agita-
tion, and anxious sleeplessness occasioned in very excitable persons, by
a positive pass too powerfully applied.
EXPLANATORY NOTES
TO THE APPENDIX.
[1] IT is equal to thesmallest homoeopathic dose, which, however, achieves
wonders if applied under proper circumstances. Incompetent homoeopathic
physicians frequently overwhelm their patients, suffering from ohstinate
complaints, with a rapid succession of doses of various medicines ; though
homoeopathically selected and administered in high potentiated dilutions,
these produce such a degree of overexcitement, that life is placed in jeopardy,
and that the least subsequent dose of medicine would inevitably prove fatal.
In such cases the harmonious and equal distribution of the vital power, re-
pose, sleep, and recovery, can only be brought about by a gentle mesmeric
pass, repeatedly executed by the hand of a well-disposed person, to the af-
fected part.
[2] Although this process of supplying a deficiency of vital power, re-
peated from time to time, can never accomplish a permanent cure, in cases
where, as above stated, a general internal evil lies at the bottom of the
chronic local disease ; nevertheless, this positive mode of strengthening and
sustaining the organism with vital power (which is no more a palliative than
food or drink, in satisfying hunger and thirst), is a great adjuvant to ho-
moeopathic medicines in the actual treatment of the entire disease.
[3] Particularly if this power had been exercised by men, such as are rarely
met with, and who, while endowed with a very benevolent disposition, pos-
sess but a very slight degree of sexual desire, which they can suppress easily,
and in whom, therefore, the subtle vital forces ordinarily employed in the
production of seminal fluid, are always present in abundance, and in readi-
ness to be imparted to other persons through the medium of touch, applied
under the exercise of a strong will. A number of powerful mesmerizers
with whom I was acquainted all possessed these peculiarities.
[4] These remarks concerning the decided and undoubted curative power
of positive mesmerism, are by no means intended to apply to that exaggera-
tion of the same, often practiced upon patients of weak nerves, who, being
subjected to such manipulations for hours every day, at length experience
Ti enormous change of their entire being, called somnambulism ; a state in
( 229 )
230 EXPLANATORY NOTES TO THE APPENDIX.
which a human being seems removed from the sensual world into the spirit-
world an extremely unnatural and dangerous condition, by which men
have often dared to attempt the cure of chronic diseases.
[5] It is a well-known rule, that a person who is to be subjected to either
positive or negative mesmerism, must not be clothed, even in part, with silk.
[6] For this reason, a negative pass, particularly if energetically executed,
is very injurious to a person of low vitality, suffering from chronic debility.
[7] A robust country lad, ten years of age, during some slight indisposi-
tion, was mesmerized by a woman who passed the ends of her thumbs sev-
eral times rapidly and energetically from the epigastrium along the ribs,
whereupon the boy became deathly pale, losing both consciousness and
power of motion, so that he could not be aroused in spite of the most strenu-
ous efforts, and was supposed to be dead. I caused his elder brother to make
a rapid negative pass from the crown of the head to the feet, which at once
restored the patient to consciousness and health.
ALPHABETICAL INDEX
INTRODUCTION AND TEXT.
Accessor}' medicinal symptoms to be regarded as belong-
ing to disease,
Acute diseases divisible into several classes, .
Adaptation, homoeopathic, imperfect, ....
Advantages of man, greater than those of nature,.
Affinity of different affections for different regions of the
system, .
Affinity of homoeopathic remedy for diseased parts,
After-effects of drugs, .......
After-effect, or counter-effect,
After-effects scarcely seen after minute doses,
Aggravation after contrary use of drugs,
Aggravation, homoeopathic, ......
Aggravation, medicinal, of original disease, .
Aggravations repeated in chronic diseases,
Aggravation, signs of, .......
Aggravations to be counteracted by antidotes,
Aim, the physician's highest,
Allopathy, injurious effects of,
Allopathic treatment, previous inquiry concerning,
Allopathic treatment leaves chronic diseases uncured, .
Allopathic (dissimilar) treatment of chronic diseases rep-
rehensible,
Allopathic or hcteropathic method, ....
Allopathic measures illustrated, ...'..
Al'opathic treatment, results of, counted among chronic
diseases,
Allopathy ; derivation of the word from dXXoia,. .
Allopathy incapable of imitating natural palliation,
Allopathy, " old medicine,"
Alteratives (alterantia) , mercurials and their injurious-
ness, ..... ....
Alterative powers of appropriate remedies,
Altering the state of health (or sensorial condition) by
power of medicines, .* .
Alternating effects of some drugs, . .
Alternating diseases, .......
Antipathic method, . ... ...
Antipathic treatment, injurious, ....
Antipathic treatment, results of,
Section.
Page.
180-2
146
73
105
180
146
51
90
42
84
148
136
69
95-96
63
99
66
100 -
23
72
276
181
157-160
139-140
161
140
254
174
249
172
2
65
59
95
207
157
37
7-7
39
80
55
92
67
93
74
107
42
33
18
16
19-20
115-251
232
23
59
37
69-70
21-71
123-173
247
72
102
97
( 231 )
232 INDEX.
Section. Page.
Antipathic (enantiopathic), or palliative method, 56 92
Antipsoric remedies, succession of, . . . . . 171 144
Antitype, construed out of symptoms of suitable remedy, 154 138
Antitype to natural disease, to be construed out of symp-
tom-catalogues, .152 137
Artificial cachexia, ........ 38
Artificial morbific potencies, controllability of, 61 90
A priori reasoning, 19
Artificial treatment of old school more debilitating than
efforts of nature, 34
Art of healing, the true, is an intellectual office, . . 35
Association. of diseases, difficulty of curing, . . .40 81
Attention, want of, of physician, 176 145
Attenuation, thirtieth, to be used in previously inert sub-
stances, 128 128
Automatic efforts of nature over-estimated and misinter-
preted, 31
Auxiliaries of nature, 50 89
Bleeding, evil consequences of, 32
Bloodletting objectionable, 21
Bloodletting, . . 59 96
Bitters, action of, in chronic diseases, .... 36
Body, entire, affected by medicine, .... 191 149
Calling of physician, 1-17 65-70
Cantharides, effects of, antipathic, 59 95
Causal cures, 22
Causal indication, 19
Cause of chronic diseases unknown to old school, . . 39
Cause of disease, a dynamic disturbance of life, . . 24
Causes of disease are immaterial; illustrations, . . 23
Causes of disease, the search for, imitation of nature fan-
ciful 18
Causes of rare cures to be investigated, .... 44
Caution and patience in inquiry concerning chronic dis-
eases, 98 116
Characteristics of chronic diseases, disregarded by pa-
tients, -95 118
Characteristic symptoms to be noted in writing, . . 102 118
Characteristic symptoms, 104-209 119-151
Chronic diseases from allopathic treatment, . . . 7.1-6 107
Chronic diseases from miasms, to be distinguished from
protracted diseases from other causes, . . . . 204 155
Chronic diseases, genuine, never cured spontaneously, .78 109
Chronic diseases, improperly so-called, .... 77 108
Chronic diseases, investigation of, more laborious than
of the acute, 82 111
Chronic diseases, intractable, prevent other affections, . 36 77
Chronic miasm, infection with, 73 105
Chronic disease, primary cause of, 5 66
Chronic diseases proper, originate from chronic miasm, . 78 109
Choice between two remedies of equal value, . . . 169 143
Cinchona bark, indiscriminate use of, .... 37
Cinchona in intermittents, 244 170
Circuitous process of derivation debilitating, . . . 35
Circumstances of the patient to be inquired into, . .94 118
Coincidence of drug-effect and disease, incomplete, . 16- 141
Coincidence of previous observations with those of Hah-
nemann, 110 121
INDEX.
233
Section Page.
Collective diseases, perfect image of, not recognized at
first sight, 101 117
Complicated diseases, 40 87
Comparison, use of, in selecting remedies, . . . 153 137
Complication of psora, syphilis, and sycosis, . . . 206 156
Complication of epidemic diseases ; small-pox and measles,
etc., avoid or suspend each other, .... 40 82
Complication, frequency of, in diseases, in consequence
of inappropriate treatment, 41 83
Complication of dissimilar diseases, .... 41 83
Complication, combination, possible only in dissimilar
diseases, 42 84
Compound recipes; their ingredients imperfectly known, 40
Compound recipes, objections to, 41
Conditions (positions, attitudes), under which symptoms
appear, 133 130
Conditions, three, under which the cure may be acceler-
ated and perfected, 246 171
Conjecture does not find appropriate remedies, . . 20
Conjecture in the invention of modes of treatment, . 17-19
Conspicuous, peculiar, characteristic symptoms, . . 209 157
Consumption precludes fevers, etc., .... 36 77
Consumption suspended by typhus fever, insanity, etc., 38 78
Contagion, ancient, smouldering, ..... 81 . 110
Contagious matter, imponderable quantities of, . . 24
Contraria contrariis, ancient rule, 57 93
Contrary symptoms, 23 72
Counter-effects (after-effects) of drugs, .... 64 99
Counter-irritation and derivation often painful and de-
bilitating, 29
Convenience consulted by the old school rather than
reason, . 27
Cow-pox and measles suspend each other, ... 38 79
Crude medicinal substances to be potentiated in order to
disclose their powers, . . . . . . 128 128
Curable, what is, in diseases, 3 65
Curative, what is, in medicines, 3 65
Curative drugs not to be discovered ab usu in morbis, . 40
Curative effect (after-effect), 64 99
Cured symptoms, omission of from diary, . . . 104 119
Cures, actual, by medicine, always homoeopathic, . . 43
Cure not essentially retarded by partially incongruous
medicines, . . . . . . . . .164 141
Cures by simple drugs, as proof of homoeopathic law, . 43
Cure of diseases, discovery of material necessary for, . 105 119
Cure, three essential points of, 71 105
Cutaneous diseases cured by cow-pox, .... 46 86
Danger to life from auxiliary diseases of nature, 50 89
Deafness cured by small-pox, 46
Delusion of temporary improvement 56
Derangement, primary, of dynamis, . ~ . .11 68
Derivative process of nature, symptoms of, to be treated
homoeopathically,
Derivative method takes the place of evacuants, exam-
ples of the same, 26
Derivatives, indirect, circuitous, 26-27
Development of power of drugs, process unknown pre-
viously, . 269
Diarrhoea, critical 34
23 i INDEX.
Section Page.
Diet, simplicity of, in proving, 125 127
Diet of patient? to be palliative and soothing, but non-
medicinal, 263 177
Diet in acute diseases, 262 176
Diet and regimen in chronic diseases, .... 261 176
Differences in morbific and curative qualities of plants,
minerals, etc., 119 125
Differences, special and generic, of plants and minerals, 119 ' 125
Digitalis as a palliative in excited pulse, ... 39
Discord of feeling, disease, changed back to health, . 70 103
Diseased parts principally acted upon by medicines^ . 282 183
Diseases, acute and chronic, 72 105
Diseases, acute and chronic, to be distinguished, . . 82 111
Disease cured with symptoms, ..... 8 67
Disease, dynamic disturbance of vital force, ... 70 104
Diseases, general classification of, 72 105
Disease, how to gain knowledge of, .... 72 105
Diseases, immaterial modifications of thesensorial condi-
tion (health), .23
Diseases imperfectly marked by symptoms, . . . 176-7 145
Diseases of importance have numerous symptoms, . 151 137
Disease separated from body, a nonentity, . . .13 68
^Diseases vanish notwithstanding derivatives, ... 29
Dissimilar diseases, ........ 36 77
Dissimilar diseases suspend but do not cure each other, . 38 80
Dissimilar effects of medicines fail to cure, ... 70 104
Dissimilar morbific potencies, 52 91
Dissimilar new disease of greater intensity, ... 38 78
Dismissed as cured after mere suppression of type, . 38
Dormant diseases, .40 82
Dose, diminution of volume, 285 184
Dose, effect of, not lessened in proportion to diminution
of medicine, . . . ... . .284 184
Dose, effect of, increased by volume of fluid, . . . 286 188
Doses, excessive, disturb result of experiment, . . 137 132
Dose, homoeopathic, 'too strong, effects of, injurious, . 275-6 180
Dose, minuteness of, shows drug-effect to be overcome by
vital force, 148 136
Dose, minuteness of, requires avoidance of other influ-
ences, 259 176
Dose, minuteness of, 160 140
Dose never too small, provided it can cause slight inten-
sification of natural disease, 279 182
Doses, excessive, danger of, 137 132
Dose, reduction of, proportionate, ..... 277 181
Doses, relative, of heroic and milder substances, . . 121 126
Doses, small, and eflects of medicines unknown to old school, 20
Dose should be just sufiicient to overcome the disease, . 283 184
Doses, small, primary effect of, distinct, . . . 137 131
Doses, small, injurious effect insignificant, . . . 283 184
Dose, strong, advantages of, 130 128
Doses, strong, effects of, . 60 97
Drug-affection, its increased energy, .... 29 75
Drug-disease, remaining after small doses, is transient, . 68 101
Drug-disease substituted for natural disease, ... 34 76
Drug-effects pure, how to obtain them, .... 105-114 119
Drug-effect, peculiar, of each drug, .... 118 125
Drugs must be tested on healthy persons only, . . 108 ' 120
Drugs, curative power of, depends on their power of alter-
ing health, 108 121
INDEX.
235
Section.
Drugs, pure effects of, net discovered by experiments on
the sick, . . . . . , . . 197
Drug-symptoms arising during disease, uncertain, . . 142
Duty of physician, third part of , ..... 146
Dynamis, spiritlike vital force (autocracy), ... 9
Dynamic (spiritlike) influences condition disease, .
Dysentery cured by variola, 46
Dynamic neutralization of symptoms, .... 69
Effect, primary, fluctuation of, 115
Effect, interruption of, by reselection, .... 167-8
Effect of drugs, counter and after-effect rarely perceived
after moderate doses, 112
Effects, primary and after, heat, cold, coffee, wine, opium,
Effete products of disease are not the disease itself,
Efforts of nature -imperfect, and in themselves a disease,
Electricity and galvanism, 59
Elements of diseases (symptoms), 143
Elements of disease (symptoms), 135
Emetics, ...........
Enantiopathic method, 23
Epidemic diseases, infectious, their causes, ... 73
Epidemic and sporadic diseases, totality of symptoms
of, 100
Epidemics, importance of new ; inquiry into each, . 100
Epidemic intermittents, ....... 241
Epilepsy superseded by tinea capitis, .... 38
Errhines in nasal catarrh, 59
Essential nature of disease, dynamic, ....
Evacuation of fictitious humor,
Evacuation of fictitious matter, irrational,
Evacuations in imitation of nature only palliate, and
often aggravate, ........
Exaggerations of patients, ......
Examination of cases, how to proceed, .
Examination, repetition of, and selection of remedy,
Examples of homoeopathic cases are furnished by diseases
arising from a fixed miasm, . . . .
Excitants and aphrodisiacs produce impotence,
Experience as a guide in medicine, ....
Experience proves drugs to cure similar diseases, .
Experimenter (prover), precautions of, .
Explanation of cure of one natural disease by another, .
External diseases dependent on internal cause,
Extinguishment of diseases, ......
Exciting cause (causa occasionalis) , .....
Favorite remedies, objections to,
Feeling, state of, altered by medicines, ....
Fever of specific kind produced by most drugs,
Fluctuation of primary effect, symptoms, relative fre-
quency of,
Food, avoidable, in experiments,
Foxglove used to retard pulse antipathically, .
Foreign artificial disease, its application wrong,
Gentleness in treatment of insanity,
Gentle cures, how to perform them,
Genuine natural cures,
Glandular swellings, imitation of,
96
84-99
168
46
70
22-25
126
45
189
70
7
257
70
239
115
125
59
39
226-9
53
49
Page.
120
134
135
67
20
86
102
124
142
123
99
24
33
96
134
130
32
72
106
117
117
169
78
96
23
23
25
30
116
112-118
143
85
37
103
73
127
85
149
104
67
175
103
168
124
127
97
81
163-4
91
88
32
236 INDEX.
Section. Page.
Habits of patients, 208 157
Healing property of drugs undiscernible in itself,
a priori, 21 71
Health (sensorial condition), 6 66
Health restored by medicines producing symptoms simi-
lar to those of disease, 71 105
Health, state of, altered by drugs, ..... 64 99
Health (state of sensorial condition), dynamic discord-
ancy (disturbance) of, 25
Heterogeneous morbid condition, 62 90
Hippocrates, 17
Hippocrates recognized the homoeopathic principle, . 45
Homoeopathic cures, examples of, furnished by diseases
arising from fixed miasin, ...... 46 85
Homoeopathic cure, process of, indicated, . . . 148 136
Homoeopathic cures of acute disease more rapid than of
chronic, 149 136
Homoeopathic law of nature, 26 73
Homoeopathic law, illustration of, 282 183
Homoeopathic law, reliability of, . . . . . 34-35 76-77
Homoeopathic medicine counterbalances slight excess of
diet, 263 177
Homoeopathic, the only method of applying drugs, . 24 73
Homoeopathic method, most salutary, . .' .70 104
Homoeopathic and opposite effects contrasted, . . 69 102
Homoeopathic principle accidentally employed, 61 98
Homoeopathic principle based on conclusions derived
from experience, ........ 53 92
Homoeopathic principle recognized by physicians of later
times (since Hippocrates), ...... 45
Homoeopathic remedies cure without discomfort, . . 154-5 138
Homoeopathic remedy, how to find it, .... 104 119
Homoeopathic remedy, strikingly similar to symptoms
of disease, 104 119
Homoeopathic selection, similitude, .... 275-8 180
Homoeopathism, improper, results in asthma, apoplexy,
etc., 31
Homoeopathy, advantages of, 68 101
Homoeopathy, the counterpart of antipathic medicine, . 61 97
Homoeopathy cures certainly, rapidly, and permanently, 53 92
Homoeopathy, definition of, ...... 35
Homoeopathy, brief summary of, 70 103
Homoeopathy found salutary by non-professional persons, 44
Homoeopathy, knowledge of, in past ages, ... 44
Homoeopathy, though dimly foreshadowed, was not per-
fected until the present day, 46
Homoeopathy, the most direct course, . . ' . 54 92
Homoeopathy, preference of, illustrated, .... 52 90
Homoeopathy not previously taught, though recognized, 43
Homoeopathy, unintentional and accidental, . . . 43-44
Hooping-cough and measles cure each other, ... 46 87
Humors drawn out from skin by old school, ... 31
Hypothetical indications, 40
Idiosyncrasies, so-called, due to constitution as well as
to drug, 117 124
Illustration of effects of dynamic causes of disease, . . 'J4
Imaginary morbific matter, no object of treatment, . 70 103
Image, the, of chronic disease, forms basis of treatment, 104 119
INDEX. 23?
Section. Page.
Immaterial nature of disease, . .... 22
Imitation of nature, in derivative treatment, . . . 26
Impediments to improvement to be sought for, . '. 260 176
Impressions, medicinal, imparted to parts deprived of
sensibility, 291 186
Improvement, impediments of, 260 176
Improvement not prevented by homoeopathic aggrava-
tions, 161 141
Improvement, signs of, . 252-6 173-5
Individualization indispensable after, as well as before
discovery of psora, ....... 82 111
Indefinite and general symptoms, of less importance, . 153 138
Individualization, unbiassed judgment in, ... 83 111
Ineffioaciousness of remedies, owing to faulty selection,. 258 175
Influences, noxious, variety of, 81 110
Ingredients of compound recipes counteract each other, . 41
Inhalation of medicines, 290 186
Insignificant symptoms require no medicine, . . . 150 137
Intensity of drug-disease should be superior to natural
disease, 158-9 140
Intermittent diseases, 231 165
Intermittent diseases, typical, . ..... 233 166
Intermittents, epidemic, uniform character of, . . 241 169
Intermittent fever cured by cow-pox, .... 46 87
Intermittents, exciting cause of, to be avoided by removal
from marshy district, 238 168
Intermittents based upon psora 244 170
Intermittents, malignant, treatment of, . . . . 243 169
Intermittents psoric, apparent recovery from, . . 244 170
Intermittents, recovery from, prevented by psora, . . 240 168
Intermittents, sporadic or epidemic, .... 235-244 166-170
Intermittents, stages of, 235 166
Insanity, relapses of, if uncured, 223 162
Instinct of self-preservation, in acute diseases, . . 262 176
Intelligence, degree of, requisite in experiments, . . 126 127
Internal disease increased by suppressing local symptom, 202 154
Interruption of curative effect to be avoided, . . . 246 171
Intractability of simple cases, 41 83
Introduction; a Keview of Physic, . . ' . ]7
Investigation of disease, directions for, . . . .84 112
Itch superseded by scurvy, 38 78
Knowledge of individual remedies, not possessed by an-
cients, . 22
Law of cure, explanation of, 28-29 74
Laxatives, aggravation from, in chronic disease, . . 32-33
Laxatives, effects of, .59 95
Leading questions to be avoided, 87 113
Leeches applied by old school, 32
Local affections defined, ....... 186 147
Local affections not independent of rest of body, . . 185-203 147-154
Local affections not requiring homoeopathic treatment,
and those that do, 146 148
Local applications hurtful, 194-6-7 150
Local diseases, . ...'..... 174 144
Local diseases, only one of the symptoms of the case
cured simultaneously with the rest, .... 192-3 150
Local diseases left uncured, a product of psora, . . 194 159
238
INDEX.
Section. Page.
Local diseases yield to internal remedies, . . . 194 150
Local treatment of some external diseases, injurious, . 187 148
Local suppression of main symptoms obscures the case, . 198-9 152
Local symptom, absence of, prevents discovery of the
curative medicine, 200 153
Local symptom enlarged by vital force, lessens internal
disease, 201 153
Local symptom after the main symptom, . . . 198 152
Local treatment objectionable in psora, syphilis, sycosis, 197 151
Local treatment, kinds of, 203 154
Lysis, gradual resolution, 27
Lymph of cow-pox produces a general cutaneous erup-
tion, different from pustules, 46 86
Magnetism, animal, . ' . . . . . .
Manifestations of disease in spontaneous efforts of nature,
Marsh-miasms, persons accustomed to, .
Masked syphilis, difficult to cure,
Material views of disease, of old school, .
Materia Medica, completeness of,
Materia Medica, insufficiency of, how to proceed in that
case, ..........
Materia Medica, a collection of pure undeceptive drug-
effects, ..........
Materia Medica, pure, dependent on observations of drug-
diseases, .
Materia peccans, endeavors to remove it, inconsiderate
and unnatural procedures, ......
Measles and small-pox suspend each other,
Medicinal powers, development of, of inert substances, .
Medicinal stibstances, accurate distinction of, .
Medicinal substances very numerous, at the disposal of
man, 51 90
Medicines, actual principles of, how obtained and pre-
served, 267
Medicines to be genuine, of full virtue, .... 264-8 177
Medicines, incongruous, disturbances produced by, . 163 141
Medicines, in crude state, most potent, .... 266 177
Medicines, most practical application of, ... 146 135
Medicines, power of, discerned only in their effect upon
the healthy, . 20 71
Medicines, healing power of, 27 74
Medicines, power of, altering mind, .... 212 158
Medicinal powers, spiritlike, development of, . . 169 178
Medicines, unhomceopathic, unfavorable result of, . . 165 142
Medicines to be used singly and simply, . . . 272-4 179
Mental disease, the chief symptom, .... 230 165
Mental disease, chronic, to be treated by antipsorics, . 220 161
Mental diseases, one-sidedness of, 215-16 159
Mental excitement objectionable in experiments, . . 126 127
Mental diseases obscure physical symptoms, . . . 216 159
Mental diseases, partial or one-sided, .... 210 158
Mental diseases are in reality bodily diseases, . . 215 159
Mental diseases, how to distinguish the cause of, . . 224 162
Mental disease, not resulting from physical, but mental
causes of psoric origin, 225-8 162-3
Mental diseases of recent date, easily cured, . . . 226 163
Mental diseases, treatment of, 210-230 158-165
Mental diseases to be treated like all others, . . . 214 159
226
34
244
170
41
83
20
145
135
162-171
141-4
143
134
110
122
22-25
38
78
269-71
178
120
125
INDEX. 239
Section. Paga.
Mental diseases to be treated by carefully selected ho-
moeopathic remedies, 230 165
Mental disturbance, accidental, not to be treated by an-
tipsorics, 221 161
Mercurials in large and frequent doses, chronic mercurial
disease, 41 83
Merits of ancient physicians in regard to science, . . 18
Mesmerism, ....... 226
Metaschematism and metastasis, .... 21
Metaschematism (metaptosis), . .... 28
Metastases, spontaneous and antagonistic, ... 30
Miasms, acute, . . . 73 IQQ
Mind always modified in physical disorders, . . . 210 158
Mind, state of, as sign of improvement, . . . . 253 174
Mind, state of, importance of, 211-12 158
Mind and temperament as affecting treatment, . . 208 157
Minutest details of chronic diseases, important and pecu-
liar 95 US
Misapplication (inversion) of principle of cure, 56 90
Mixtures are injurious, ....... 39 81
Mixture, intimate, of medicine and solvent, . . . 287 185
Morbid matter, presupposition of, ..... 22
Morbific agencies, natural, ...... 30 75
Morbific matter, invisibility and imponderability of, . 23-24
Morbific potencies overcome by vital force, ... 51 90
Morbific power of drugs, investigation of, . . . 105 120
Mumps vanish after vaccination, 88 79
Narcotics form exceptions to the rule regarding primary
and secondary symptoms, ...... 113 123
Natural disease, 29-30 75
Natural diseases, unlike, ....... 35 77
Nature, erroneously supported and assisted, ... 31
Nature, example of, too rude to imitate, .... 27
Nature to be followed in curing, ..... 47 88
Nerves in contact with medicine, ..... 285 185
Nerves, sensitive, 289 186
Nervine ointments, ineffectual in paralysis, ... 37
Neutralization of dissimilar diseases impossible, 42 84
Neutralization of drug-effect, 64 99
Notation of symptoms in writing, ..... 139 132
Notation, in, importance of writing, .... 104 119
Noxious influences, inimical to life, .... 31 75
Old school, indifference of, to effect of one disease upon
another, 39 80
Old-school physicians improperly call their system the
"rational art of healing,"
Olfaction of medicines, 290 186
Opium prescribed in all kinds of pain, diarrhoea, etc., . 57
Opposition of vital force to palliatives, .... 69 102
Opium, effects of, antipathic, ...... 59 95
Organism, human, more easily affected by medicines than
other agencies, ........ 30-33 75
Organism, material, without vital force, ... 10 67
Organism, violent efforts of, to expel disease, ... 26
Palliative remedies aggravate ; illustration of their effects, 59
Palliative method, '. 23
Palliatives only relieve in large doses, ... 69 10<J
240
INDEX.
Paralysis cured by cow-pox,
Parts, susceptible of, influence of medicine, .
Pathological names take the place of special knowledge,
Partial (one-sided) diseases, ......
Partial (one-sided) diseases difficult to cure, .
Partial disease curable by homoeopathy,
Partial diseases, internal, ......
Pathical (homoeopathic) relation, absence of, in allopathic
medicines,
Peculiar symptoms, importance of,
Pernicious and debilitating tortures, .
Perspiration, critical, . . . ...
Peruvian bark as intercurrent remedy, .
Physical disease present, though obscured during mental
disease,
Picture (image, record), of disease,
Plague, Levantine, prevented by scurvy, etc.,
Poisons and medicines convertible terms,
Potencies, morbific, cure diseases of similar symptoms, .
Potencies, artificial morbific, ......
Potency, similar morbific, to be used in curing,
Potency, medicinal,
Potentiated, decillion-fold dilution (x) to be commonly
used,
Potentiated (potentized) drugs cure rapidly, .
Potentiation develops powers of inert substances, .
Potentiation, dilution,
Potehtiation, similitude,
Provers, reliability of, as to intelligence, truthfulness,
and temperate habits, etc., ......
Provers to take no other medicines, .
Proving (experimenting, testing) of drugs with regard
to their pure effects,
Psora, discovery of, advanced the art of healing chronic
diseases, .
Psora, complex of, ascertained by examination of many
cases, .........
Psora, its dormant condition, . ' .
Psora, indications of its origin, ....
Psora, latent, developed by epidemics, requiring anti-
psoric remedies, .
Psora, its manifestations known by many names, .
Psora, of greater significance than other chronic diseases,
Psoric origin of non-febrile, recurrent diseases,
Psora reduced, not cured, to be treated by antipsorics, .
Psora, reduction of, to latent condition, by non-anti-
psorics, .
Psora, syphilis, sycosis,
Preparation and preservation of medicinal substances, .
Primary effects of drugs,
Primary and after-effects,
Primary effect most distinct from small doses,
Primary effects only, are seen after moderate doses,
Principles of, application of medicines, three,
Products of disease, erroneously regarded as causes,
Products of disease to be regarded as symptoms, .
Prominent, uncommon, and peculiar (characteristic) fea-
tures of a case, to be noted,
Proving of drugs by other persons, . . .
Section.
Page.
46
87
289-92
186
22
173
144
210
158
177
145
175
145
52
90
153
137
44
34
234
166
219
160
89
113
36
77
110
121
48
88
32
75
26
29
74
270
179
25
73
128
128
270
178
276
181
137
131
124
127
120-145
125
82
111
103
118
73
106
80
109
242
169
81
110
80
109
234
166
222
161
221
161
204
155
123
126
63
98
59
95
137
131
114
123
53-4
92
20
26
153
121-140
137
126-133
INDEX.
241
Section. Page.
Provings of drugs, importance of, accuracy of, . . . 120 125
Proving?, most desirable, made by physicians themselves, 141 133
Proving 21
Provers unskilled in writing, examination of, . . 140 133
Purgatives, 57 93
Purgatives and issues, as allopathic remedies, 39 81
Purity of drugs for provings, 124 127
Purity and genuineness of drugs, 122 126
Questions to be asked, 86 112
Kange of drug-effect, entire, to be known, . . . 105
Kapidity of action of homoeopathic medicine, . . 288
Earefaction (attenuation), high degree of, . . . 280
Rashlike eruption cured by measles, .... 46
Rational medicine,
Reason and reflection superior to blind processes of na-
ture, 28
Recipes of unknown drugs, their effects injurious, . . 39 81
Recognition of disease (indicatio), ..... 3 65
Record, new, to be made after end of effect of remedy, . 183-4 146
Record, new, to be made after each remedy, . . . 170 ' 143
Record of cases complicated by abuse of drugs, . . 92 114
Reduction of dose, proper degree of, to be determined by
exact experiment, 278 181
Reduction of dose, standard of, 280-2 182
Re-examination of patients in cases of doubtful improve-
ment, 255 174
Regimen, irregularities in, as impediments to improve-
ment, 252 173
Regions, certain, occupied by complicated diseases, . 40 81
Remedies, adaptation of, to intermittents, . . . 235 167
Remedies, curative, consideration of, .... 245
Remedies, favorite, 267 175
Remedies, popular, homoeopathic, . . . . 44-45
Remedies, repetition of, in intermittents, . . . 238 168
Remedies, time for administering, in intermittents, . 236-7 167
Remedy, appropriate, demand for, expressed by totality
of symptoms, 70
Remedy, the most suitable and reliable-is homoeopathic, 147 135
Repellentia,
Repetition of dose in testing drugs, .... 129
Repetition of dose, advantages of, 132
Repetition of dose, disadvantages of, ... . 131 129
Repetition- of experiments (tests, provings), essential to
the perfection of result, 135
Repetition of medicine to be avoided during improve-
ment, 245 171
Repetition of medicines, frequency of, . . . . 247-8
Reports of provers, examination of,, .... 139
Resources of nature inadequate without reason,
Reversed relation of drug and disease in antipathic treat-
ment, . 69 101
Revolutionary (revulsive) treatment, not a cure, .
Routine use of pocket-formularies, ....
Scarlatina smooth, erysipelatous of Sydenham arrested by
vaccination, 38
Scattering and expulsion in removing disease, . . 25
16
242 INDEX.
Section. Page.
Selection of medicines, errors in, . . . . . 250 173
Selection of remedy (indicatum), 8 65
Sensitiveness of experimenters, : 130-132 129
Sensitive parts, most susceptible of medicine, . . . 292 186
Sensitive patients, effect of medicine upon, . . . 155 139
Sensorial condition, or health, "6 66
Servants of nature (ministri naturae), .... 30
Sex in proving, _ 127 127
Sexes, select individuals of both, necessary in provings, . 135 131
Signs, symptoms, 6 66
Signs, symptoms of morbid state, ..... 14 69
Sight, hearing, touch, etc., to be used in the investiga-
tion of disease, 84 112
Similar diseases meeting in the organism, ... 43 84
Similar diseases cure each other, they occupy the same
parts of the body, ....... 45 84
Similitude of symptoms, 29 74
Similitude of symptoms, to cure by, a natural law, . 60 89
Similia similibus curantur, a direct, speedy, and perma-
nent mode of cure, ....... 42 43
Similitude accurate, ....... 268 176
Simple and unartificial form of administration of drugs,
essential, 123 126
Single simple medicines to be used only, .... 272-4 179
Single symptoms only regarded by allopathy, 68 94
Solvents, laxatives or aperients, imaginary effect of, . 25
Specifics, homogeneous, with morbific irritation, their
use condemned by the old school, .... 20
Spontaneous efforts of nature, safer than allopathic treat-
ment, 34
Sporadic diseases, . 73 106
Stimulating, tonic method of old school, stimulates pri-
marily, debilitates secondarily, ..... 36 37
Succussi'on, 270 178
Sudorifics, aggravation from, in chronic diseases, 82 33
Superiority, necessary degree of, in medicines, . '. 51 90
Supposition, mere assertion, and fiction, to be excluded
from the Materia Medica, 144 134
Suppression of epilepsy by fontanelles, .... 39 81
Suppression of natural curative effects as objectionable
as imitations, 34
Susceptibility, difference of, as to dose, not to be prede-
termined, 129 128
Susceptibility of patients to medicines, greater than that
of healthy persons, 281 183
Suspension of symptoms not a cure, .... 29
Suspension of weaker disease, by new disease, 38 78
Sustaining power of life, acts without reason, . . 27
Sycosis, likewise incurable by unaided vital force, . . 79 109
Sycosis, syphilis, psora, 204 155
Sycotic gonorrhoea complicated with chancres, . . 41 83
Symptoms, signs, 14 69
Symptoms, ambiguous, produced by interference of doses, 131 129
Symptoms, cancellation or obliteration of, cures the to-
tality of disease, 17
Symptoms, conspicuous, aid in finding remedy, . . 152
Symptoms, consecutive order of, advantage of observing, 130 129
Symptoms, collateral, complete the picture of disease, . 151 137
Symptoms definite, produced by each drug, . . . Ill 122
INDEX. 243
Section. Page.
Symptoms differ during different trials, .... 134 130
Symptoms of intermission, chief guides in selecting the
remedy, 235 167
Symptoms, kind of, to be noticed, ....". 153 137
Symptoms, mode of noting, 85 112
Symptoms, obscured by opposite effects, .... 69 102
Symptoms, the only signs by which power of medicines
can be recognized, 21 71
Symptoms preceding development of one-sided disease, . 218 160
Symptoms, primary and secondary, cured with funda-
mental miasm, 205 155
Symptoms, prominent and characteristic, . . . 104 119
Symptoms to be regarded as resulting from the medicine
proved, 138 132
Symptoms, relative value of, before and after use of
drugs 91 114
Symptoms, result only from disturbed dynamis, 11 68
Symptoms of same drug, differ in different individuals, . 134 130
Symptoms, secondary, from suppressed psora, especially
to be noticed 205 156
Symptoms, scarcity of, 172 .144
Symptoms, striking, absence of, 179 145
Symptoms, totality of, are object of cure, ... 70 103
Symptoms, useful, called forth by inaccurately adapted
medicines, 274 180
Symptoms ; whether to use similar, or contrary a matter
of experience, . 22 72
Symptoms, with and without affinity to the case ; the
former act, the latter remain quiescent, . . . 155 138
Syphilis, sycosis, psora, ....... 204 155
Syphilis alone recognized as chronic disease, ... 79 109
Syphilis and itch as complicated diseases cannot cure
each other, 40 82
Systems, ancient, their subtlety and opposition to nature, 18
System, whole state of, considered in treatment, . . 190 149
Tact in the investigation of disease, .... 93 115
Testicles, swelling of, effect of small-pox, . . .46
Terrestrial potencies, psychical and physical, ... 31
Theoretical products of fancy, systems, self-contradicting, 17
Totality of symptoms of epidemics, not observed upon
one patient, but several, 102 118
Totality of symptoms, the only manifestation of disease,
and only indication of remedy, 18 70
Totality of symptoms combated, 70 104
Totality of symptoms, the outward image of inner dis-
ease, . 7 67
Transient relief of antipathic remedies, .... 58
Treatment, old school, consequences of, ....
Triturations (powder-dilutions), . . . . . 271
Trituration and succussion in potentiation, . . . 128
Type only, of fevers, suppressed by old school, by means
of Peruvian bark (or Quinia),
Typical intermitents, 233-4 166
Unhomoeopathic selection of remedy, signs of, . . 256 175
Unknown medicines prescribed for imaginary causes, .
Uncommon symptoms, importance of, . . . . 153
244
INDEX.
Section.
36
69
Vaccination abortive in rickets, .....
Valerian in large doses, . ....
Valerian as an excitant and palliative, ....
Variola homceopathically cures other diseases, e. g., oph-
thalmia and blindness, .......
Variola prevents cow-pox homceopathically, ...
Violent effects avoided, ...... .
Vital force and organism inseparable, ....
Vital force not the best guide as vis medicatrix, . .
Vital force, affection of, and totality of discernible symp-
toms are a unit, ........
Vital force, acts without reason (instinctive), . .
Vital force affected only by spiritlike influences,
Visible degenerated matter, production of diseased or-
ganism, .........
Vital force, disease of, cured with totality of symptoms, .
Vital force, left to its own resources, ....
Vital force liberated by medicine, ..... 263
Vital power, liberation of, from disease, .... 148
Vital organs, deterioration of, prevents cure, . . . 279-80
Vital force, sufficiency of, ...... 76
46
46
67
15
.16
16
12
Page.
77
96
38
85
90
69
34
69
28
69
26
68
30
136
182
107
Wine, effects of, in debility, ...... 69
96
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