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SALSA.
#1944449341*
ANY NAME S.
ARTES
LIBRARY
1837
VERITAS
JABARZDASKR
PLURIBUS UNUM
DIVAJUTRITI
YUEBOR
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Stuurkomang
SCIENTIA
OF THE
SI QUAERIS PENINSULAM AMOENAME
CIRCUMSPICE
JAY
HOMOEOPATHIC
LIBRARY
FARHIT
AMPHE
PAJ
#615-5-3
J71
A
HOMOEOPATHY:
A
POPULAR EXPOSITION AND DEFENCE
OF ITS
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE.
BY WALTER JOHNSON, M.B., LOND.,
FORMERLY MEDICAL TUTOR, GUY'S HOSPITAL.
LONDON:
SIMPKIN, MARSHALL AND CO.
MDCCCLII.
I
PREFACE.
IF among those who cast a glance at these pages,
there be any who would fain subjugate reason to
authority—who would impose upon the conscience
of the many the dogmas of a few-who would
empower halls and senates to fine and imprison, and
to disqualify from public trusts all who dissent from
their doctrines and repudiate their practice; if,
among my readers, there be any who, in their
hatred of medical heresy, scruple not to calumniate
the moral character of the so-called heretics, and
openly to term them pests of society-to all such I
say, this work is not for you. In your case, argu-
ment is vain. The blindness of Elymas is upon
you; and the radiant sun itself cannot peep behind
the curtains of a night like yours. You, whether
professors, lecturers, presidents, or reviewers, are of
the class that imprisoned Galileo for saying that the
157368
4
PREFACE.
earth goes round. Born in other times, you would
have jeered the discoverer of the circulation of the
blood, and maligned the inventor of vaccination.
C
Ye are the children of them which killed the
prophets.'
But to every candid mind, which expands to
receive truth, and accepts discussion, and is willing
to see the phenomena of nature as they are, and
not as they appear when distorted by prejudice and
misrepresentation, I appeal for an attentive hearing,
and demand an impartial judgment. In the ensuing
work will be explained the series of observations
and reflections which caused me to accept Homœo-
pathy. I shall take the reader by the hand, and
guide him along the path which led me, unexpect-
edly enough in the first instance, to the position
which I now occupy. I shall point out to him how,
after the devotion of years to the acquirement of
medical science, I began to study the practical
curative art; how I soon saw that my scientific
knowledge, instead of aiding me in the treatment
of disease, as my teachers had promised, was actu-
ally a great impediment to my success; for, on ap-
proaching the bedside, I viewed all morbid pheno-
mena, and the results of treatment, through the
mists of questionable theories. When, having
by great efforts cleared the atmosphere, I began
philosophically to examine the actual working
PREFACE.
5
of the medical system, I could not disguise
from myself the fact, that the flattering picture
which my preceptors had drawn of the state of
medicine, is as unlike truth, as a lover's descrip-
tion of the beauty which he adores. I heard
in the lecture room, and I read in books, full
instructions how to recognise every form and con-
dition of disease, and what remedies are adapted to
cure in different circumstances. I heard, I read,
I believed: it was impossible to doubt the word of
so many respectable men, grown grey in the prac-
tice of medicine, and all ready to back their affirma-
tions by the relation of a multitude of cases of
disease rapidly, easily, brilliantly cured. This,
indeed, was the argument, par excellence. There
were the cases stated in detail in such or such
journals, and there were the grateful patients who
had been rescued from suffering and death. Im-
pressed with the grandeur of the medical art, and
full of admiration of the skill of my preceptors, I
accompanied them from the lecture-room into the
hospital, that I might watch their treatment, and,
perhaps, catch a spark of that inspiration which
enabled them with such certainty to unravel the
tangled phenomena of disease, and suggested to
them exactly the right remedies, at exactly the
right moment. I was disappointed.
I was disappointed. The divine
spirit, which in the lecture-room touched with fire
1
6
PREFACE.
the lips of my teachers, and gave to them fluent
speech, and authoritative bearing, seemed to depart
the moment they came into the actual presence of
disease. I found these gentlemen constantly in
doubt, and frequently in error, as to the nature of
the maladies they had to treat. In the employment
of remedies I saw them sometimes timid and
vacillating; sometimes dogmatic and rash. Discord
reigned among them to such an extent, that there
was no single point of treatment in which all were
agreed. I put it to every medical practitioner,
and to every medical student, whether this picture
is in the faintest degree too deeply coloured: and I
put it to every honest man, whether the observation
of such facts did not justify, and even impose on
me, further investigation. It was obvious that the
knowledge, sagacity, and practical tact claimed by
medical professors, exist only in their own imagina-
tion; it was obvious, that they vastly exaggerate
the number of cures which they effect; it was
obvious that medical journals, and medical lectures,
are so occupied with narrating the victories of
medicine, that they can find 110 room for
her failures-the few succesful cases being
handed down to posterity, while the many
unsuccessful cases are
are never whispered beyond
the walls of the establishment wherein they
occur. It was obvious that a plain conscientious
PREFACE.
7
man, whose eyes are opened to the true state of
affairs, has only one course to pursue, viz. to secede
from the established practice, and carefully to
inquire whether anything better is at hand, and
this is the course which led me to Hydropathy and
Homœopathy.
I think it necessary here to state distinctly, that
although I dissent from the ordinary system of
medicine as a system, I fully admit that it employs,
in isolated cases, very useful remedies, which have
no equivalents in Homœopathy nor Hydropathy.
Thus wine, brandy, and other stimulants, must be
employed in particular instances; in some cases of
scrofula, cod liver oil; in chlorosis, chalybeate
mixtures; in bronchocele, iodine; and in a variety
of chronic complaints, mineral waters will be found
of great service alternately with Homoeopathic
treatment, and in conjunction, or alternately, with
the Water-Cure. I am aware that by making the
above admission, I shall please the professors of
none of the conflicting treatments; but the interests
of mankind demand of every man the candid
expression of his opinions; and for my part, I
think it sheer bigotry for any party to lay claim to
exclusive possession of the truth. The old system
of medicine is, as a system, nearly as bad as it
can be; but it contains a few redeeming points.
Hydropathy is excellent; but its applicability is
8
PREFACE.
limited. Homœopathy is also admirable; but
there are constitutions totally insensible to minute
doses: and men are subject to diseases which
cannot be artificially imitated; and for which,
therefore, there is no Homœopathic remedy. Let
us then join hands, and endeavour each of us to
improve, as far as in us lies, the department of
practice which each specially cultivates; and
instead of degrading ourselves by contemptible
bickering, devote our whole energies to the
relief of suffering humanity, and earnestly hope
for the dawn of that day, when the ephemeral
systems which we now practice, shall be absorbed
by a new revelation, and cease from affording a
pretence for sectarian dissension.
WALTER JOHNSON.
HYDROPATHIC INSTITUTION,
Wheelley's Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham,
UMBERSLADE HALL,
AND
Near Birmingham.
THE
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
CHAPTER I.
WHILE yet very young, I selected for my future career
the profession of medicine. I believe I made this choice
because, being very industrious, and somewhat ambi-
tious and self-confident, I thought, by the exercise of
these qualities, I might make myself an accomplished
physician, become a blessing to the human race, and
win no unenviable position in society. In the course
of my reading-for even as a child I read a great
deal-I learnt in what estimation the great names of
medicine are held; and I knew that the memory of
Hippocrates, of Sydenham, of Harvey, and of Jenner
is preserved from generation to generation. I had
heard how, on one occasion, Boerhaave safely received,
from China a letter, which bore no other inscription
than Dr. Boerhaave, Europe. Beside, I had read with
no small pleasure the Diary of a Physician, and the
pages of this work inflated my fancy with admira-
tion, and made me desire to emulate the usefulness
and benevolence of its worthy hero. Considerations
2
2
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
such as these laid the foundation of my early love of
physic, and determined the destiny of my life. When
I grew older, I became first medical apprentice, and
afterwards hospital student; and still my predilection
for medicine continued, and still I maintained my
resolve to acquire, by hard study, a profound knowledge
of the profession which I had embraced, and to work
out, as a man, the perhaps somewhat romantic ideas
which I had conceived as a child. In this resolve I
was greatly strengthened by the discourses and con-
versation of my new teachers. At the commencement
of each session, it is customary to assemble all the
new pupils, and a sort of general outline of what lies
before them is sketched to them by some experienced
member of the hospital staff. In this address, the
professor usually dilates upon the grandeur and
beneficence of the art of medicine, and, consequently,
upon the worthiness of the true-hearted medical man;
he explains how it is in the power of the medical
man to save whole families from desolation, and how,
upon his skill or unskilfulness, frequently the fate of
great nations is dependent; how rewards and honours
surely follow extensive and accurate medical know-
ledge, and how disgrace ever dogs the heels of
ignorance and incompetence. The disquisition winds
up with an exhortation to the students to be indus-
trious; to study everything they are required by law
to study; and to be quite certain that, if they so act,
not only will their conscience whisper approval, but
they will be permitted, by a discerning public, to
dip their fingers, ad libitum, into the flesh-pots of
Egypt.
Now, what we are required by law and by medical
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
Co
3
professors to study, before we receive admission into
the medical corporation, is simply anatomy, physiology,
materia medica, medical jurisprudence, chemistry,
botany (physiological and structural), midwifery, sur-
gery, medicine. I say, it is asserted that all this
must be what is termed 'got up,' before a man is
qualified to treat a single case of disease, or even
profitably to watch the treatment directed by another
person. Believing in the capacity, the experience, the
honour of those to whom our education is committed,
together with many other students, I implicitly followed
the advice which the professors gave, and began to
study with ardour the preliminary sciences.
cess.
Steadily I worked at chemistry, at anatomy, at
botany, and other sister sciences, which my instructors
declared indispensably necessary, and, as several medals
and other prizes testified, not altogether without suc-
Then I ventured to intrude into the arcanum
itself, to study practical medicine; and I expected, with
my store of scientific knowledge, to make rapid
progress. With the microscope and the stethoscope,
and by the aid of chemical analysis, I was prepared to
make quick and easy cures, and to put to the blush
those idler fellow students who had neglected to furnish
their minds with the information which I had acquired.
Nothing of the kind took place. As soon as I got
among the sick, I experienced the all but utter useless-
ness of what I had spent so much time in acquiring.
I found that, as far as medicine is concerned, the sister
sciences taught me nothing. My new teachers also
unreservedly confirmed this mortifying discovery. They
told me, that practical medicine can be learnt by prac-
tice alone; that chemistry and botany have nearly as
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
;
much relation to physic, as philology, or the use of
the globes; that knowledge of disease can be attained
only by observing a great number of cases of disease
and that the treatment of disease is guided by no fixed
rule, nor scientific principle, but must be learned by
experience. This was exceedingly unpleasant. I had
thrown away years of study; I was a chemist, a
botanist, a druggist; but not an inch nearer to the
model medical practitioner described by my teachers,
or conscientious physician of my young imagining.
Unpleasant, however, as matters were, I had no
choice but to begin again; and so I began again. I
visited the sick while living, and inspected their inter-
nal organs when dead. I carefully noted the symptoms
which accompanied diseases, and assidiously sought to
find, by the help of the dissecting knife, the cause of
such symptoms. I looked for tumours, for internal in-
flammations or congestions, for disorganizations; and
when I found none of these manifest to the naked eye,
I called in the aid of the microscope. In this way I
enlarged, it is true, my knowledge of disease; but I
gained no insight into the right mode of treatment. A
man died of fever, perhaps : I dissected his remains,
and found inflammation here, or congestion there, or
sometimes no appreciable change anywhere. Very
satisfactory to know, but the knowledge brought with
it no suggestion as to how other patients might be
cured! It pointed out no remedy as likely to be bene-
ficial. I was not yet on the right trail-by no means
likely soon to become a beneficent physician, and a
blessing to mankind. I therefore observed that I must,
in future, simply watch the effects of the medicines
given by my instructors to their patients, and see what
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
5
good might be got out of that. As soon as my mind
was earnestly directed to this point, I discovered-and
discovered with dismay-that medical practitioners
differ completely one from another in the treatment of
almost every disease. Thus, to quote a single instance,
viz., that of acute rheumatic fever. Some practitioners,
in the treatment of this affection, rely upon colchicum ;
others give calomel; others purgatives; others sudori-
fics; some trust to opium; some to quinine; some
bleed once at the onset copiously; some take small
quantities of blood frequently, at intervals; some have
faith in alkalies, while others believe nothing to be so
efficacious as lemon-juice. Again, on the other hand,
many coincide in opinion with the late Dr. Warren,
who, when he was asked, what is good for acute rheu-
matism, replied laconically, Six weeks.' The same
diversity of practice-a very few cases excepted—
I found to prevail in the treatment of other diseases.
The observation of this fact led to several very painful
conclusions. Firstly of all these varying treatments,
only one could be right; and, admitting that treatment à
is correct, all the patients treated according to treat-
ments B, C, D, were either simply not benefited, or
they were injured. Now, when the body has been
racked by such agents as purgatives, mercury, etc., it
is rational to suppose that, if good is not effected,
evil has been done; that is to say, that nature has
been impaired in her operations, and, consequently,
that convalescence has been retarded, or wholly ob-
structed.
:
C
Suppose, for the sake of argument and illustration,
that in the treatment of acute rheumatic fever,
only so many modes as I have enumerated, viz.
6
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
ten, are practised; and suppose an equal number
of patients to be treated according to each mode.
Suppose, for example, that ten patients according to
system a receive colchicum; and ten patients accord-
ing to system B are purged; and ten are sweated,
and ten are narcotised by opium, and ten are stimu-
lated by quinine, and ten are bled once copiously,
and ten are bled to a small amount frequently, and
ten take potash or soda, and ten take lemon-juice.
Here we have one hundred patients distributed among
ten practitioners, and of these one hundred patients,
only ten can possibly be treated correctly; but all being
actively treated, ninety patients are treated injuriously.
Who can avoid the conclusion that, upon these data,
at least ninety out of every hundred patients who
suffer from acute rheumatic fever, are injured by
the treatment which their medical advisers prescribe?
It follows, from this, that in the case of every indi-
vidual affected with acute rheumatic fever, the chances
are at least nine to one, that if he call in medical
advice, his disease will be more or less seriously
aggravated and prolonged.
Now, this is by no means an exaggerated state-
ment; on the contrary, the diversity which prevails
in the treatment of acute rheumatic fever, is much
greater than I have represented it to be. With
respect to nearly all diseases, the same discrepancy
of treatment exists, and the same conclusion as we
have arrived at, in our discussion on acute rheumatic
fever, is almost universally applicable; and we are
justified in asserting that the present medical system
may properly be called the Art of aggravating dis-
eases, and promoting their fatal termination.' This
C
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
7
conclusion, I repeat, was forced upon my mind as
soon as I began to study the practical treatment of
disease, having abandoned science as a guiding prin-
ciple, and taking for my motto the assurance of
practical physicians, that experience is the only light
capable of illuminating the obscurities of medicine.
I was convinced that chemistry, and botany, and ana-
tomy, and physiology (though good and useful sciences),
yield little fruit to the practical physician, and by most
phyicians are quietly laid on the shelf. This I had previ-
ously discovered; but I now found that experience
had been as barren as science. It is true that every
physician, when asked why he ordered such a treat-
ment, readily enough referred to experience. Expe-
rience had tanght him that treatment x is the best
treatment in disease A. But when another physician
states, with equal promptitude, that experience has
taught him that treatment y is the best in disease a,
and a third physician relates that he has learnt from
experience that treatment z is the best for disease a,
what value, I ask, can be attached to the experience
of any of them?
Here, then, I was landed upon the sterile shore of
scepticism. I had no longer faith in physic, and I
went round the wards of the hospitals criticising the
practice of the physicians, and avowing my opinion,
that medicine was a very superstition, disgraceful
to the age in which we live. I asserted, that
when patients recover from acute disease, they
are solely indebted to nature, perhaps favoured by
certain conditions of diet, bodily repose, and good
nursing; and that in most cases the physician, by
administering drugs, superadds a medicinal disease,
8
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
.
!
and thereby throws obstacles in the way of struggling
nature. I observed that many patients, who probably
would have recovered had they only to contend with
the original disease, succumb beneath the mediciral
disease which the physician produces. Let me briefly
allude to two cases. A man was taken with consti-
pation. The physician gave aperient after aperient,
each more powerful than the preceding; all to no
effect. At last, just when both had arrived at the
conclusion that the malady was irremediable, violent
purging set in, and in spite of all that was done,
carried off the patient. Again, a person in the first
stage of fever, had constipated bowels. Secundum
artem, his attendant administered purgative medicine.
Hereupon the bowels became relaxed, considerable
quantities of blood appeared in the motions; inflam-
mation of the bowels was developed, from the effects
of which the patient died.
It frequently happened, however, that the patient
recovered from the acute disease; but instead of
enjoying renewed health, became for the remainder of
his life, the victim of various distressing maladies pro-
duced by the medicines which he had swallowed. Thus
a man was treated in Bartholomew's Hospital for
inflammation of the investing membrane of the
heart. Apparently he recovered; but about a year
after, I saw him suffering from ulceration of the back
of the throat, involving the bones, which were eaten
away to a frightful extent, the effect of the mercury
which he had taken. A man was treated in Bombay
for fever by calomel. The fever left him, but when I
saw him some months after, he had a large swelling on
the principal bone of the forearm, with great sores and
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
9
destruction of bone; he had also an enlargement on
the bone of the leg. A gentleman was treated in Italy
for fever, with calomel. The fever disappeared; but he
got excruciating neuralgic pains of the head, from
which he suffered many years. Cases of this kind
might be multiplied ad infinitum, and, coming as they
did constantly under my eyes, they increased my
aversion against the popular system of medicine.
Moreover, in conversing with my fellow students, and
some of my preceptors, it became apparent to me, that
the most talented among them were as sceptical as
myself on the subject of medicine. Nevertheless they
continued to lend themselves to the system in vogue.
They asserted that the public believes in physic, and
consequently must be physiced. Populus vult hum-
buggi,' says a writer in the Lancet, et humbuggendus
est.' They dared not speak, nor act according to their
conscience, lest they should offend popular prejudice,
and forfeit the chance of obtaining practice.
This state of things was, and is, fostered by the absurd
custom according to which medical men are remune-
rated. The general body of practitioners are paid, not
for their visits, nor their skill, nor their success, but for
the medicines which they send. Thus, suppose a prac-
titioner, when he sees a patient, perceives that a cure
may easily be effected by the observance of certain
dietetic and hygienic rules, and that medicine is not
required; does he recommend to the patient these rules,
take his fee, and depart? By no means. He does
indeed lay down his hygienic precepts; but, in addi-
tion, he sends a large quantity of physic, and at the
expiration of a certain period, delivers his bill, the
amount of which varies according to the number of
10
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
pills, draughts, or powders inflicted upon the patient.
Here is a temptation to a necessitous or avaricious
man! The patient believes that he requires physic, is
ignorant of the pernicious effects which it is capable of
producing, and, in fact, would be dissatisfied, and
might even dismiss his attendant, if, from squeamish
notions, he should refuse to send the desiderated medi-
cine. Under these circumstances, what is to be done?
Why, physic the patient; 'for,' remarks conscientious
Mr. Jones, if I do not physic him, he will go to
Mr. James, who will?' An amusing illustration of this
system occurred not very long ago. The child of a
medical man accidently received a slight wound in
the tongue. The person who was with the child, called
in a neighbouring practitioner. This gentleman, having
inspected the tongue, prepared to depart, saying, he
would send some medicine. The child's friend then
remarked, that the little girl was the daughter of a
medical man residing at no great distance. As soon as
the apothecary heard this, he said he would look at the
tongue again; and having seen it, pronounced that
the wound was very slight, and would soon be
well, and that there was no necessity to send any
medicine.
Now, here was a flagrant case! When the apothecary
wanted to be paid for his attendance, he thought it
necessary to send physic; but, as soon as he found that
he could ask no fee, he considered physic unnecessary.
The physic was a mere excuse for making a charge;
and this practice prevails very generally. The public
will not pay for advice; but, as medical men must be
remunerated, it has to pay for physic. The opinion of
the public, that medicine is all-powerful, is deeply
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY,
11
rooted; and when a patient sends for a doctor, he
labours under the idea that, for every disease, and every
disorder to which the human frame is subject, there is
a specific remedy, and that the skill of a doctor consists
in a knowledge of all these specific remedies. He
thinks there is no difficulty nor ambiguity about the
matter. A doctor has first to find what disease an
individual has, and then to give the herb, or metal, or
compound which experience has discovered cures that
disease. Now, this blind faith in physic on the part
of the public, reduces medical men to the necessity of
humouring the delusion, or of losing their credit; for, if
a doctor, when he is called to prescribe, contents
himself with giving a few simple directions as regards,
perhaps, diet and exercise, the patient replies, That
is not what I want-I want to be cured by medicine;
and if you do not know what medicine will cure me, I
must go to somebody who does.' A person sends for
a doctor, as a lady sends for a stay-maker. If the
stay-maker, instead of taking the lady's measure,
should begin to discourse concerning the baneful effect
of stays upon the frame, and should recommend the
lady to acquire an elegant shape by callisthenic ex-
ercises, the lady would reject the advice as impertinent,
and summon a more submissive stay-maker. The stay-
maker was asked for stays, and not for a lecture on
callisthenics. So with medical men. They are asked
for pills, and not for homilies on temperance; for
draughts, and not for dietetics; and, if they are not
prepared to furnish these, John Bull does not require
their services. John Bull has made up his mind, that
he can be cured by medicine, and that he will be cured
by medicine.
12
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
Thus the medical faculty are, to a great extent,
compelled to physic their patients; that is to say, com-
pelled to injure the constitution of the public, and so
lay in it the seeds of disease, and of premature death.
And, when we consider how many thousands are
actively engaged in this work, we can imagine how
dire must be the result! To walk through the streets
of London, or any great town, and observe the green
and red lamps-so plentifully distributed—with the
idea that each is a perennial fountain of physic, whence
the sick and suffering derive not solace and restoration,
but aggravation of their misery; that each is an
independent focus of disease which radiates through
the entrails of humanity; that men flock hither, and
voluntarily contract the loathsome, mercurial taint,
and empty their life-blood into hand-basins! These, I
say, are reflections which make a humane man shudder,
and read the sage another lesson upon the perversity of
mankind!
I do not speak against medical men-I speak against
the system. Many who drug their patients, do it
conscientiously, because they believe what they have
been taught. Others do it, because the public likes it ;
and, as they have wives and families to support, they
cannot dispense with public favour. These sell drugs
on the same principle that a publican, who is a teeto-
taler, sells spirituous liquors. The public will have
drugs and spirits, and the sceptical practitioner and
teetotal publican think they may as well get the profit
as others. But there are many medical practitioners,
especially among the seniors of the profession, who are
entirely, or almost entirely, innocent of injuring their
patients, who prescribe bread pills wherever it is
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY,
13
possible, and take no active step which they can avoid,
without impairing their credit. The late Mr. Aston
Key once remarked to me, that he had constantly
observed, that the older a medical man grew, the
smaller became his doses of medicines.
I have said that I do not blame medical practitioners,
but medical practice. A great portion of the mischief
which they do, remains unknown to them. Thus a per-
son applies to a medical man for some disease, takes
physic, and gets well-considers himself cured. Soon
after he applies to his attendant for another affection,
again takes physic, and again gets well.
After a
second interval, he is attacked with a new disease, for
which he again seeks medical aid.
Now it never
strikes either the patient or medical practitioner, that
the second and third diseases were produced by the
physic taken to cure the previous disease! Yet this is
frequently the case. For example: a person gets
out of health, loses his appetite, and suffers from
constipation; his attendant gives him opening medi-
cine, followed by a course of tonics, consisting perhaps.
of quinine and steel. This goes on for a, time; but by
and by the patient begins to complain of headache,
more or less severe, and more or less obstinate. For
this symptom new medicines are prescribed, and no
one guesses that the head-ache was caused by the
quinine and steel. Hundreds of cases of chronic con-
stipation are produced quite unconsciously, by the silly
habit which prevails of giving physic, should the action
of the bowels be retarded a day or two beyond their
ordinary custom. Thus a patient is attacked by influ-
enza; and as in the first stage of all febrile affections the
secretions are checked, the bowels become temporarily
14
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
inactive. In accordance with ancient traditions, a pur-
gative is exhibited, and the bowels are relieved; but
they become again constipated, and a purgative is again
exhibited. In this way matters go on, until at length
the patient considers his diurnal dinner pill to be as
essential to his comfort as his dinner. During the
whole of this time, no one surmises that the constipa-
tion is produced by the eternal irritation of the me-
dicine.
Again: a man catches cold, and has a cough, which
in the natural course of events would soon disappear,
but he takes cough mixture, which at first relieves the
cough. Unhappily, the cough returns, more physic is
administered, and ultimately the cough becomes chronic,
and endures for years. Or, it may be that a person
cannot sleep, and to procure sleep takes an opiate, and
sleeps well. The next night he takes a second, and
again sleeps. The third night he tries to sleep without
the opiate, but is unsuccessful. In this way he gets
into the habit of taking opiates, and becomes entirely
dependent upon their aid. Here also the chronic sleep-
lessness is the result of medication; for the original
attack might have passed away of itself, or at all events,
have been cured by a better system; but opiates, which
in their primary action produce sleep, in their se-
condary action produce sleeplessness, and thoroughly
unhinge the nervous system. There is yet another
cause which leads to extensive and injurious drugging.
Among the patients who apply for medical advice, there
are many who complain of ailments whose nature is
obscure. Under these circumstances, instead of confess-
ing that he does not understand the disease, and,
consequently, is incapable of affording effective aid, the
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
15
:
practitioner undertakes the case, and commences a
course of experimental treatment, hoping, by a
lucky hit, to stumble upon a cure. Generally, he
begins by a course of purgatives, continued, perhaps,
for some weeks. Failing to do good, the next plan
is a course of mercury, maintained, perhaps, for a
month. If no benefit be derived from the mer-
curial action, usually the patient is reduced in health,
and his adviser prescribes tonics, viz. bitter beer,
steel and quinine, ammonia, etc., endeavouring to
repair the mischief which he had effected. From this
period the patient, tormented by his original disease,
shattered in body from the continued drugging which
he has undergone, and a prey to mental despondency,
wanders from physician to physician, and from quack
to quack, vainly seeking relief from his misery. This
system of experimentation, or medical groping, origi-
nates in the very imperfect idea which the body of the
profession has of the effects of drugs. Drugs are con-
sidered to be powerful for good, but inoperative in an
evil sense; hence they are given freely on the slightest
occasion. At a meeting of a medical society, a surgeon
attached to one of our metropolitan hospitals, declared
that in the case of a person suffering from the effect of
a blow or fall on the head, he would administer
mercury, so as to get its constitutional effect, in order
to prevent the supervention of inflammation; and the
remark elicited no sign of disapprobation from the
gentlemen present! Now, is this practice justifiable?
Granting, for the sake of argument, that mercury is
capable of curing inflammation, that is to say, of
causing the absorption of matters poured out from the
28
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
blood, and of reducing the volume of dilated blood
vessels, etc. of restoring the motion of stagnant blood-
does it follow, that mercury is capable of preventing
inflammation, that is to say, of preventing the effusion.
of matters from the blood, of maintaining the vessels
within their natural calibre, of keeping the blood in
motion? Mercury causes effused and solidified matter
to be melted down and absorbed but from this we
can draw no conclusion, that mercury is beneficial
when there is no solid matter to be melted down and
absorbed. Mercury may act usefully when vessels are
dilated, but it does not follow that it acts usefully when
they are not dilated. It may do good when the blood
is stagnant; but hence we cannot infer that it does
good when the blood is in motion. Would this logical
surgeon undertake to prevent chlorosis (pale-blooded-
ness) by the administration of iron, which frequently
restores to pale blood its red colour? Dr. Pareira
meanwhile tells us, that chlorosis was suddenly de-
veloped in a female patient, to whom he was adminis-
tering iron for another complaint. With respect to
mercury itself, we know that patients, under its influ-
ence, are particularly susceptible to be attacked by
inflammation. Does not every medical man caution
his mercurialised patients to avoid exposure to cold,
lest they should get inflamed throats? And inflamma-
tion of the eye, the skin, the bones, etc., is commonly
produced by this mineral. If these statements be true,
(and who will question them ?) what must we think of
taht practice which infects a healthy constitution with
mercury, in order to protect it from an anticipated
malady? A positive disease is produced to avoid a
Not
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
29
merely possible disease; which positive disease, after
all, does NOT guarantee the constitution from the
possible disease, but leaves it rather more disposed to
its attack. I cannot avoid crying out with indignation
against this wretched treatment. Mercurialise a healthy
constitution! Do surgeons then know what it is to
implant the mercurial cachexia in the human frame?
Do they know that it means toothless gums, and
ulcerated throats, and swellings of the limbs, and
rottenness of the bones, and engorgements of the liver,
and racking neuralgia? No; they are ignorant that
mercury, even in so small a quantity as two grains,
may produce these effects. In the broad light of day
they go about mole-blind- Eyes have they, and see
not: they have ears, and hear not: noses have they,
and smell not.'
g
Facts and reflections of this nature, long before
I had emerged from the state of hospital pupilage,
shook, and at length destroyed, my faith in physic.
Not that I shut my eyes to the very remarkable and
real cures which were not unfrequently effected; but
this only increased my distrust of the system, as a
system. I perceived and acknowledged, that many
persons suffering from ague were cured by quinine;
and that many patients got rid of syphilitic complaints
by the help of mercury; and that scrofulous affections
were often relieved, or cured, by iodine; and that
sulphur eradicated itch; and arsenic was often service-
able in terminating other chronic eruptions. But,
although these medicines often succeed, more often
they fail, in curing the diseases for which they are
given, and deceive our most confident expectations
Very frequently in those cases in which they fail to
3
30
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
:
cure, they do great harm, aggravating the malady, and
enfeebling the energies of the economy; and even, at
times, developing altogether new diseases, difficult or
impossible to be eradicated. For example: arsenic
may be given to ten persons, with the intention of
curing a chronic, scaly eruption. Of these ten persons,
perhaps three may be cured without any apparent
evil result; two may be cured of the eruption, but find
themselves worse off than before; for a chronic inflam-
mation of the stomach may have been produced.
Again of the five uncured, three may find themselves
sufferers from chronic inflammation of the stomach, in
addition to the original skin eruptions, and the other
two may remain, as far as can be seen, in precisely the
same condition as they were before commencing the
arsenical course. Thus, we find ourselves in this diffi-
culty. Taking the proportion just stated as a guide—
for every person who consults a physician on account
of a chronic, scaly eruption, the chances are equal
whether he be cured, or remain uncured; and the
chances that he may, or may not have, a new affection
induced, are also equal.
In these facts we discover glimpses of the possibility
of a true medical art, while we are confirmed in the
opinion that such does not, at present, exist; for, how
can we dignify with the name of medical art, an
empirical system, which distributes blessings with one
hand, and curses with the other-a system, blind as
the Goddess Fortune, and not to be approached by
any who lack courage to support the disasters inflicted
upon one half of the candidates for her favour?
The ideal, and possible medical art, is not a lottery
in which the prizes are renovated health, and the blanks
PRINCIPLES OF HOMOEOPATHY.
31
painful diseases and ruined constitutions; but a gentle,
truly curative science, which, without subjecting her
clients to injury or reverses, quietly removes the dam
that obstructs the springs of health, and permits the
waters of life again to flow through their accustomed
channels.
•
!
!
CHAPTER II.
In the preceding chapter, I have narrated what facts
and reasons led me into the desert of medical scepti-
cism, into arid, hopeless wastes, cheered at infinite
distances by only a few verdant oases; and from this
lamentable position I beheld, for a time, no means of
egress. I could not continue a sceptic in medicine,
and yet remain a medical practitioner. One of two
things lay before me. I must either abandon the pro-
fession, or work out for myself a purer and a better
faith. Under this idea, I became a student of all so-
called medical systems, modern or ancient, within the
pale of the profession, and of all so-called quackeries
without the pale of the profession; but none of these
satisfied my desires, for each, when submitted to the
crucial experiment of practice, failed to fulfil its pro-
mises. The mathematical doctrines of Borelli, the
vitalist opinions of Brown, and the chemical theories
of Liebig, were instantly consumed in the fiery fur-
nace of experience; and theories-which avail only as
theories, but furnish no aid to the practical healer
of diseases—are, in my estimation, as sounding brass,'
and as a tinkling cymbal.' In the meantime, there
came a rumour, that a totally new method of treating
diseases had sprung up-that amid the mountains of
Silesia, an uneducated farmer had evoked from the
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
33
springs and streams virtues of healing, and was casting
out chronic and deep-rooted maladies, which had defied
the skill of the learned. The rumour soon grew into a
certainty, and my father, who was at that time discon-
tentedly practising the received system, started for
Græfenberg, with the purpose of investigating the
matter. Upon his return, he bore witness to the suc-
cess which attended the practice of Priessnitz, and
began to treat his patients according to the system,
which is generally known by the name of Hydropathy.
I had now an opportunity of judging for myself of the
merits of the Water-cure, and very soon became con-
vinced of its superiority over the ordinary methods of
cure. Accordingly I applied myself diligently to the
subject, and, after a somewhat lengthy initiation, adopted
the Hydropathic practice. For some time, like Priess-
nitz, the founder of the system, I practised empirically,
and was guided entirely by the results of experience;
but, as that experience increased, a light began to
dawn, and a principle arose, which, in its ascen-
sion, gathering continual increase of brightness, at
length seemed to make clear to my mind the entire
curative art. This principle I now attempt to eluci-
date.
If we investigate nature, we cannot fail to observe
that all bodies, organized and inorganized, are endowed
with a variety of powers or properties, which remain
hidden until they are called out by foreign influences.
For instance, a piece of india-rubber is elastic; but we
know nothing of its elasticity until we stretch it.
Elasticity is a property inherent in india-rubber; but
it is not manifested until the india-rubber is acted upon,
ab extra. Again: a piece of sealing-wax, if rubbed by
34
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
a dry silk handkerchief, attracts small fragments of
paper. Previously to being rubbed, the sealing-wax
will not attract small fragments of paper. Here we
perceive that a power, dormant in the sealing-wax, is
brought into play by the action of a foreign substance.
Again: consider the case of a musical instrument. Let
a skilful player strike the keys of a piano, and ravish-
ing harmonies besiege the ear. Let him withdraw his
hand, the instrument is dumb. The musical property
resides in a piano; but the cunning hand is required to
make it evident. Go into the workshop of Messrs.
Maudsley and Co., and there may be seen the ponde-
rous locomotive, with all its arrangement of valves and
pistons, and wheels, and boiler-an inert, motionless
mass. Look at the same locomotive launched upon the
railway. It is charged with coal and with water, its
fires are lighted, and soon, puffing and snorting, it
begins to stir its unwieldy fabric, and in a few minutes
it will be flying along the rail at the rate of sixty miles
per hour. In the workshop and on the rail, the logo-
motive has the same capacity for motion, but its capa-
city for motion is latent-unknown—until it is elicited
by the agency of steam. In the organic kingdom, the
same principle prevails. Here is a raspberry seed,
taken from the stomach of a Roman, who died and was
buried under the Emperor Hadrian. For 1600 years it
has lain in the tumulus, and it is a seed still, and for
1600 years longer it might have remained what it is;
but it has fallen into the hands of a botanist, who will
set it in the earth, and water it, and expose it to the
atmosphere. What will happen? Why, it will ger-
minate, and, perishing itself, produce a stem and leaves,
and fruit, and new raspberry seeds.
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
35
I
Here, then, we observe, that a seed possesses what
we call vitality, that is to say, the capability of be-
coming a living plant; but that the possession of this
property is not sufficient to develop it into a plant, for
external agencies (earth, air, warmth, moisture) are
required, in order to render the property active. As
india-rubber possesses elasticity, and sealing-wax elec-
tricity, and a piano musicalness, and a locomotive
movability—so a seed possesses vitality. But all these
powers, or properties, or capabilities, are hidden, and
become active only under the influence of certain ap-
propriate, external agencies; and these external agen-
cies, in the case of a seed, are termed vital stimuli.
say, that a seed possesses vitality, that is to say, the
aptitude to become a living plant, in virtue of its orga-
nization; but that it can actually become a living
plant, only when acted upon by vital stimuli, viz.
earth, air, warmth, and moisture. But now we must
go further. As a seed begins to live only under the
operation of vital stimuli-so also it continues to live
only under the same conditions. The moment that
earth, air, warmth, and moisture are withdrawn, life
ceases. I do not say that its vitality is destroyed, and
the plant cannot live again; but, I repeat, it no longer
lives for what is life? It is the ensemble of certain
actions performed. Circulation of sap, absorption of
nutriment from the air and earth, certain chemical
changes, the growth of leaves and stem, with other
functions too numerous to recite, constitute the life of a
plant. All these actions and functions are arrested by
the removal of the vital stimuli, and the plant becomes
instantly a dead organism. Now, it requires no great
acuteness to perceive that what applies to plants, holds
36
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
good also in the case of animals, and, that man himself
constitutes no exception. Thus, a child cannot com
mence independent life, except under the influence of
vital stimuli. Previously to birth, the lungs of an
infant are inactive; they take no part in the purifica-
tion of the blood, for this function is performed by the
parent; and the chest does not expand, nor contract.
But, at the moment of birth, it is necessary that the
chest should expand, and draw into the lungs a gust
of air; for, from this period, the infant has to purify its
blood by means of its own lungs. Now, what is it
that causes this opportune expansion of the chest-
that prompts the first gasp on the part of the new-born
infant? It is the cool air impinging upon his sensitive.
surface. As a person, unaccustomed to bathe, gasps
and catches his breath when he is immersed in a cold
bath, so an infant gasps his first inspiration upon
entering a medium many degrees cooler than that from
which he has emerged. Cold, therefore, is the first
vital stimulus; for, as we have seen, it is this agent
which provokes the chest to expand, and to suck into
the lungs a supply of atmospheric air, without which
life would be impossible. Supposing that a child were
born into an atmosphere of the temperature of
100º Fah., that is to say, as nearly as possible the same
as the interior of the mother's body, it is probable
that that child would quickly die; for the stimulus
(cold air) required to excite expansion of the chest, and
so to set up the action of breathing, would be wanting.
A perfectly healthy child, born into the world, is in the
condition of the raspberry seeds mentioned in a pre-
ceding page. He is complete in his organism;
constructed without defect or superfluity; ready, in
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
37
short, to begin to live the moment that the proper
stimulus is applied.
I have already spoken of one of the ordinary vital
stimuli, viz. cold; and I have shewn that it is the
prime factor of life-for to its agency we owe the
primary expansion of the lungs immediately after
birth, and the commencement of the act of respiration.
But this is by no means all; throughout life, cold con-
tinues to act powerfully as a vital stimulus, increasing
the activity of the respiration, the demand of the
appetite, the energy of the nutritive processes, and
augmenting the nervous power.
A second important vital stimulus is the air we
breathe, and particularly the oxygen contained in the
air. It is manifest that the air is a vital stimulus,
for deprived of air, we quickly die.
A third vital stimulus is food. This is so apparent,
that it requires no illustration. Under the head of food,
we include also drink.
Exercise is a very important vital stimulus; that is to
say, the organs of the body cannot perform their
functions properly, unless the body be frequently put,
for a longer or shorter time, into more or less rapid
motion. Exercise is required in order to keep the
circulation from becoming slow, and the respiration.
from becoming languid; to preserve muscular strength
and nervous power; to maintain the appetite, and the
nutrition of the body; and to cast out fully and freely
the poisonous secretions.
Mental employment, and gratification of the social
affections, is also a vital stimulus. I mean to say, that
the health of the body demands that the mind be oc-
cupied according to its wants, intellectual and emo-
38
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
tional; for if the mind remain unoccupied, and ennui
prey upon the spirits, or if real causes of distress
harass an individual, his health of necessity fails.
Thus, then, I have enumerated the chief vital stimuli,
viz. temperature, air, food, exercise, and not disagree-
able mental occupation; and I will once again recapit-
ulate what I mean by calling these things vital stimuli.
A man is, in the first place, a machine, exquisitely
constructed, but yet in itself only a machine. For
example he has lungs, but they breathe not; skin,
but it sweats not; heart, but it beats not; brain, but
it thinks not. And lungs, skin, heart and brain, would
for ever remain inactive, were it not that certain
powers from without urge them into activity. Now
these powers from without are the vital stimuli. Vital
stimuli (that is to say, temperature, air, food, exercise,
mental occupation) are to man, what steam is to the
locomotive, what the musician is to the musical instru-
ment, what the breeze is to the sailing vessel. Man is
a most cunning and complex mechanism, whose parts
are constantly in a state of wonderful activity; but
this activity is not spontaneous-it ceases the moment
that the vital stimuli are withdrawn. In the absence
of vital stimuli, the heart ceases to beat; the muscles to
contract; the liver to secrete bile; the brain to know.
The human organism, unprompted by vital stimuli, can
no more perform any of these offices, than a harp can
continue to make a sweet noise,' when the fingers of
the harpist pause. Life is not only originated, but is
maintained by, is ever in dependence upon, vital
stimuli; and to arrest the latter, is at once to extinguish
the former.
Let us now proceed to inquire into the nature and
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
39
mode of action of vital stimuli. In our inquiries we
shall leave food out of consideration-for this subject
should have separate investigation-and confine our-
selves to discussion upon the action of temperature,
air, and exercise, since these best illustrate our views.
It is unnecessary also to devote space to that other vital
stimulus, mental occupation. We will go through the
others seriatim; and first let us investigate the subject.
of exercise.
-
nu!!
EXERCISE.
It is manifest that the immediate effect of exercise is
to produce disorder in the economy, and destruction of
its substance. In the first place, it produces a condition
analogous to fever. The heat of the body is augmented,
the heart beats more rapidly, the breathing is quick-
ened, and a sensation of greater or less weariness is
experienced; but these are the symptoms which attend
the commencement of every fever. True it is that
usually perspiration soon breaks out, and the system is
lighter and easier than before. But this secondary
effect must not be confounded with the primary effect,
which is a state of malaise an evanescent fever.
Besides, not unfrequently the secondary beneficial
effect is not developed, and the individual is conse-
quently injured, not benefited, by the exercise he has
taken. Very many nervous invalids do themselves
much mischief in this way. They are told, and believe,
that walking is requisite in order to regain and pre-
serve health; and in conformity with this belief, they
walk a stated distance every day. They return from
the walk fatigued, languid, with a headache, palpita-
tion, or difficult breathing, and continue distressed the
40
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
remainder of the day. Notwithstanding these untoward
circumstances, they continue their daily walk, and con-
sequent daily impairment of health, labouring all the
while under the delusion that they are purchasing
future comfort at the expense of present misery. But
it is not so every walk taken in this manner increases
the patient's debility, and renders his disease more
difficult of cure. In Hydropathic practice I have seen
a great many similar cases. Some patients undertake
this enfeebling exercise from mere ignorance, others
from a perverse notion that their physician, in dis-
suading them from such exertion, wishes only to retard
their cure.
Of the ill effects of considerably overstrained exercise
every one can judge. Skaters and riders on horseback
know well the universal muscular stiffness and weari-
ness produced in a novice by a day's hard skating or
riding. Sudden, very violent movements cause rupture
of the heart, liver, muscles, and other organs and
tissues. In a long march, it almost always happens
that some of the soldiers drop behind from faintness
and prostration of strength, and perhaps are attacked
by more or less painful, acute, or chronic maladies. In
the boat-races at Oxford and Cambridge, it frequently
happens, that in the heat of the struggle, some of the
men who are pulling, cough up and expectorate blood;
and many an enlargement of the heart has originated
from the dreadful strain upon the system which occurs
in this amusement. Severe exercise is employed as the
best means of reducing the weight and size of jockeys
in training; and it is admitted, by physiologists, that
the immediate effect of exercise is to cause wasting of
the body. A large amount of fluids is thrown off in
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
41
perspiration and other secretions, and the solids them-
selves are melted down and partially destroyed. Hence
exercise, in its original quality, is a disease-producing and
destructive agent.
AIR.
Few persons are aware that, every time they breathe,
they inhale a draught of perhaps the most powerfully
corrosive fluid which exists in nature. There is
scarcely anything organic or inorganic, which is en-
tirely proof against the destructive influence of atmos-
pheric air. Consider the temples and palaces erected
by our forefathers! Those which the hand of the
invader spared, have been crumbled by the subtle
action of the air. Consider that temple of temples, the
body of man! How many thousands of generations of
corpses, deposited in their substance and their fatness
beneath the surface of the earth, have passed away like
a breath from a mirror! It is the penetrating air that
has consumed them. Even the solid rocks, whose
foundations were laid in the beginning of the world,
slowly disappear, and it is the air that causes their
destruction. Everything that is embraced or permeated
by the air, sooner or later finds in it decay and dissolu-
tion. But of this decay-producing, universally dis-
solving fluid, we inhale, more or less, deep draughts
eighteen times per minute. Inhaled by the lungs,
absorbed by the blood, carried in the course of the cir-
culation into every organ, and throughout every tissue
the air forgets not within our bodies the property which
distinguishes it without. Wherever it finds a passage,
it dissolves, it wears away, it destroys. Nerve and
muscle, and artery-every texture, including the lungs
42
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
themselves-succumb beneath its attack, and fall away,
piecemeal, into the circulating current, by which they
are swept into the glands of the skin and other educts,
and are perspired or otherwise evacuated from the
body. This the air does for us. Perpetually under its
influence we' thaw and dissolve ourselves into a dew.'
Hence the direct action of the air upon the human
frame is, like that of exercise, destructive of its in-
tegrity.
TEMPERATURE.
Heat and cold, and, in fact, every variation of tem-
perature, are directly aggressive, as regards the organ-
ism. Every one knows the effects of extreme heat and
cold, viz. utter destruction by burning in the former,
and death of single parts by mortification, or death of
the individual by lethargy, in the latter instance. Every
one also knows the pernicious maladies which frequently
result from exposure to rapid alterations of temperature.
What is called catching a cold may be the foundation
of pleurisies, rheumatisms, fevers, diarrhoeas, consump-
tion, and, in fact, of almost any disease. The state of
a person who is cold is nearly related to the cold stage
of an ague.
The pulse is slow and feeble--the respi-
ration sighing and irregular-the surface pale and con-
tracted—and the blood accumulated in the larger organs
of the interior. Let a person, unaccustomed to bathe,
walk into the sea. He will experience an indescribable
gasping, choking sensation, together with the other
symptoms which I have enumerated. Cold, therefore,
is decidedly a disease-producing and destructive agency.
The same may be said of heat. Put a person into a hot
air bath, and, after a short time, the pulse rises; a most
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
43
disagreeable feeling of languor, restlessness, and oppres-
sion, which occasionally even causes fainting, is experi-
enced. Giddiness, swimming in the head, headache,
nausea, general prostration of strength, or other morbid
onditions, may ensue. Thus, heat like cold, and gene-
rally all variations of temperature, produce, or tend to
produce disease, and, if pushed beyond a certain limit,
death.
Life, it has been stated, is the manifestation of
a certain aggregate of actions by an organised body,
at the instigation of vital stimuli. It is the re-
sult of vital stimuli playing upon the organic
instrument, and resembles the melody which the
breeze elicits from the chords of an Eolian harp.
Vital stimuli may, therefore, in some sort be said to
create life and health; yet we have also proved that
they create death and disease. Here is an apparent
mystery and contradiction, not to be explained away
by the feeble hypothesis, that vital stimuli in a state of
minor intensity directly cause life and health, but that
in a state of high intensity, they directly cause decay
and death. No. In all states of intensity, vital stimuli
are disease-producing agents, and tend to destroy the
organism which they influence; but, in spite of
this tendency, in an immense number of instances,
vital stimuli invigorate and develope the life of living
beings.
This circumstance is to be explained as follows. In
the animal body, two actions constantly proceed pari
passu. These are the destructive and reparative actions,
produced by the destructive and reparative forces;
which latter is also known by the shifting names of
44
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
nutritive force, vital principle, vis medicatrix naturæ, and
other similar appellations. To explain myself more
fully. The body of an adult man appears from day to
day, and from year to year, to remain the same;
perhaps, even to maintain precisely the same bulk and
weight. Yet we know positively that his body does
not remain the same, but is continually changed. By
perspiration, by the vapour exhaled in the breath, and
by other means, a man loses every day a considerable
amount of matter. These exhalations from his body
are part of his body. They are derived from different
sources; every organ and tissue contribute their quota;
and they may be considered slowly to drain away the
animal fabric; yet this fabric does not diminish, be-
cause the food swallowed is converted into blood,
and the blood becoming solidified, replaces, in every
tissue, that which had been drained away. Thus, then,
throughout the body there are two actions going on,
viz., that of destruction, and that of replacement.
Millions of little lives perish, but millions of little
births take place simultaneously; so that the integrity
of the general life is supported by the annihilation of
individual vitalities. We may compare the little state
of man to a nation, whose population is always numeri-
cally the same, but individually is continually fluctua-
ting; for thousands die day by day from disease, old
age, or accident, while day by day the gap, thus
created, is stopped by a corresponding number of
births.
Now, these two opposite actions of destruction and
restoration are governed by two opposite forces,
viz. the destroying, disease-producing force, and
the life-giving, health-restoring force. The latter
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
45
force I would symbolize by the letter A, and the for-
mer force by the letter z.
Now by a law of nature these forces are so balanced,
that (within certain limits) you cannot increase the
intensity of one without, at the same time, increasing
to a corresponding or even superior degree the inten-
sity of the other; to augment z, is indirectly to aug-
ment A. Supposing z=a, then if we increase z to Z,
we get Z=A. This is the secret of the apparently
double action of the vital stimuli, which, although they
are disease-producing and destroying agents, are yet
the factors of life and health. Moderate exercise,
moderately frequent breathing, moderate exposure to
cold, raise z to Z; hence they raise also A to A. That
is to say, they heighten the activity of the destructive
force, and, consequently, heighten also the activity of
the reparative, or health-maintaining force. Thus, in
the case of exercise, let a person take a long walk. By
this means the various actions of the economy will be
accelerated, the flow of the secretions increased, and
the substance of the body sensibly diminished. A
person weighing himself after any prolonged or severe
exercise will find that he has lost considerably. Dr.
Southwood Smith states, that a labourer working in the
sun lost, on one occasion, as much as five pounds.
Manifestly, therefore, the destructive force is vastly
exalted (z has risen to Z); but, at the same time, the
reparative force is also called into unusual activity (a
has risen to A); for the appetite has become more
keen, and the digestive power augmented. Hence a
larger amount of food is swallowed, a larger amount
digested, and a larger amount converted into solid
tissue.
4
46
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
In all this a striking analogy may be perceived
between the two vital powers and the two electrical
powers, which are always co-existent, antagonistic, and
equal. Whenever EP (positive electricity) is developed, EN
(negative electricity) of necessity appears also; so when-
ever A (the building, healing, life-keeping power) is ex-
cited, z (the destructive, or death-dealing power) is also
manifested, and vice versa. Disturbance of the balance
of these forces, it may easily be conceived, causes disease.
If in any part of the body a outstrip z, morbid growths,
etc. appear; if anywhere z outstrip A, there we shall
find ulcers, and other morbid conditions. But the
balance of these forces (A and z) is perpetually de-
stroyed by other external forces, among which stand in
the front rank what I have denominated vital stimuli,
viz., variations of temperature, exercise, and air. Every
one knows that exposure to great heat or to a chill,
over exertion, and too moist or too dry air, produce
disease; that is to say, the forces (temperature, exercise,
air,) augment z to Z, A remaining A. In this case, why
does not a rise proportionately with z? Because either
the interfering force, continuing in action, represses
continually its tendency to rise, or the interfering force
acted originally with too great violence. Hence it ap-
pears, that the vital stimuli produce as it were life,
death, disease, and health, according to the manner in
which they are applied to the human organism, and
that they are capable of becoming efficient agents in
the cure, as well as the formation of disease. Vital
stimuli, properly applied, generate health; improperly
applied, they generate disease; and in the case of
disease already existing, they restore health. No force
nor power that we can command (except in certain
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
47.
cases the mesmeric), is capable of directly exalting the
health-maintaining force, a; and for this reason the
common idea that medicines infuse health, as it were,
into the body, is wholly unfounded. We can only
raise the standard of health by previously depressing it.
In other words, health is reaction from disease. Upon
this principle, how should I attempt to strengthen a
feeble constitution? Why, by exposing it to a course
of systematically regulated debilitating agencies. This
then, is the principle which I deduced from a careful
study of the effects of hydropathic treatment; which
principle may be illustrated by the following quotation
from a little pamphlet which I published some time
since :--
NO. OF
PATIENTS.
The subjoined tables shew the effect of hydropathic
treatment upon the weight of the body. The cases
tabulated were treated at the Establishment, Umber-
slade Hall. The first column indicates the number of
patients; the second gives the length of time during
which the treatment was undergone; and the third
states by how much the weight of the body was in-
creased or diminished.
I. INCREASE OF WEIGHT.
14
4
CO
3
4
2
***
4
PERIOD.
Weeks.
16
10
11
9
6
15
Days. lbs.
3
14
3
4
3
LO
5
0
Oz.
0
0
12 0
0
0
9 0
13
11
GAINED BETWEEN
10
and
"}
A
"}
99
1)
>>
lbs.
23
0%..
0
0
0
0
11 0
10 0
14
13
12
48
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
NO. OF
PATIENTS.
6
10
9
16
19
27
35
39
29
NO. OF
PATIENTS.
4
2
5
3
6
CO
7
16
17
21
22
INCREASE OF WEIGHT-continued.
PERIOD.
Weeks.
10
10
&
8
6
&
5
4
4
PERIOD.
9
&
&
G
7
Days.
2
0
3
6
4
Weeks. Days.
7
0
5
2
4
3
2
2
3
2
4
3
4
5
4
2
Ibs.
8
0
7
6
5
4
3
2
puest
1
0
lbs.
10
II. DECREASE OF WEIGHT.
4
CO
GAINED BETWEEN
3
ᏅᏃ .
0
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
02.
0
8
0
7 0
6
5
0
4
0
0
0
""
0
""
1
0
0 2
"7
77
17
A
17
LOSS BETWEEN
17
17
39
and
17
"7
99
17
17
""
"7
""
lbs.
9
77
8
00
7.
6
5
4
lbs.
11
OZ.
0
5
0
0
3 0
2 0
0 1
4
0
0
0
9 0
8 0
7 0
6
0
0
0
3 0
2 0
0 14
02.
0
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
49
·
By these Tables we are instructed that the hydro-
pathic treatment (that is to say, the medical application
of the vital stimulus, cold,) produces both increase and
reduction of weight-in other words, exaltation of the
health-maintaining force A, and of the destructive
force z. Both of these contrary effects cannot, of
course, be direct or primary results, for it cannot be
imagined that any agent should act in a fluctuating
manner; but one effect must be primary or direct, and
the other secondary or indirect; or it may be said, that
one effect represents the action of the foreign force,
and the other the reaction of the organism. Now we
need have no hesitation in considering loss of weight,
debility, tendency towards disease, to be the primary
effects of hydropathic treatment; and the opposite of
these, viz. increase of weight, improved strength,
return of health, to be the secondary effects. In the
pamphlet to which I have before alluded, I remark :—
These tables prove that the first action of cold appli-
cations is to melt down, or waste away, the human
body; they prove, that the secondary effect is, to aug-
ment its bulk. In many instances these two actions'
(A and z rising equally) are carried on simultaneously,
so that the wasting is not apparent, but from the
moment of commencing hydropathic treatment, the
patient increases in bulk' (and health and strength );
' in other cases, these actions occupy distinct periods.
For a certain number of days or weeks, the patient
more or less rapidly decreases in weight,' and strength,
and general health. · At the expiration of this period,
the secondary action sets in. The patient experiences
an unwonted sense of hunger, eats abundantly, and
increases very rapidly in weight,' and strength and
50
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY,
general health. A short time since, I had a patient
who lost in a fortnight seven pounds; but, at the ex-
piration of that time, his appetite, which had previously
been very indifferent, became suddenly marvellous. He
ate in proportion, and quickly regained the weight he
had lost. On consulting the table which contains the
particulars of those patients who lost weight while
residing at Umberslade, it will be clear, that the ma-
jority left the establishment while yet under the
influence of the primary effect of the treatment. Had
they remained a longer period, the secondary, or repa-
rative action, would have regained its ascendency, and
the patient would have increased in blood and nerve,
and fat and muscle. It must be mentioned, however,
that many of those who left our establishment in the
first stage of cure, continued the treatment (modified)
at home, and there passed into the second stage. Some,
whose weight was above the healthy standard, were
purposely reduced. Loss of weight was also, in a few
cases, induced for certain specific objects, which
cannot here be discussed. Patients under hydropathic
treatment exhibit the following results as regards
weight:
1. They steadily increase from the moment of taking
the first cold bath, until they have reached a maxi-
mum weight. This is a very numerous class.
2. They steadily decrease until they have reached a
minimum weight. This is a very rare class. Under
judicious management, this event will never happen.
3. They steadily decrease in weight for a certain period.
(Meiosomatic period)—and then steadily increase,
(Pleiosomatic period.) This is also a numerous class.
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
51
4. They vary in weight for a certain period (Oscillatory
period), now weighing more and now weighing less,
and then begin steadily to increase to a maximum
weight. This is a numerous class.
5. They vary in weight for a certain period (Oscillatory
period), and then steadily decline to a minimum
weight. This even happens but rarely. It betokens
sinking powers in the patient; and may always be
avoided by an experienced practitioner.
6. The weight remains stationary. There are some
patients upon whom the water-cure seems to make
no impression. Hardly any amount of treatment
will disturb the equilibrium of their nutritive actions.
In these cases, rather than push the hydropathic
treatment to an extreme, it is better to call in the
aid of other remedial measures.
The above considerations, therefore, enable us to
state, as an established fact, that the hydropathic
treatment causes the removal of a large portion of the
solids and fluids of the body, which are, however,
abundantly replaced by new solids and new fluids,
either immediately, or after a longer or shorter space of
time.'
In hydropathic treatment, we take into our hands the
administration of the vital stimuli, viz. temperature,
air, and exercise. We adjust their intensity, and the
frequency of their application, to the constitution and
state of disease of the patient. We take great care,
considering that our means of treatment are all pri-
marily depressing, not to depress (exalt the destructive
force z) beyond a certain point, in order that the
elasticity of the constitution (corresponding exaltation
of the reconstructive force A) may not be impaired, nor
52
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
the secondary health-restoring action be kept too long
in subjection. In hydropathic treatment, we also un-
dertake the regulation of that other important vital
stimulus, food; so that force A may not be hindered in
its workings by deficient or improper materials supplied
for its use.
If the reader has followed the reasoning contained in
this chapter, he will perceive that I have attempted to
show, that life and health are indirectly produced by disease-
exciting, death-tending agents (vital stimuli),—and that
life and health cannot be directly produced nor exalted
(except in some cases by mesmeric influence), by any agents
in nature. I have shown, also, that disease can only be
cured by disease-producing agents; for since disease
consists in the preponderance of z over a, it can only
be removed by exalting A; but a can only be exalted
secondarily by the primary temporary exaltation of z.
The hydropathic treatment (administration of various
sorts of hot and cold baths) is, in fact, the systematic
application of modified vital stimuli, whereby, in the
first instance, the constitution is attacked; so that, in
the second instance, it may rally from its inertia, and
cast out its diseases.
The vital stimulus administered by hydropathists,
cold and heat, is directly an external agent.
It may
be said that water is given to drink, and as an injection
into different cavities of the body, as the ear and nose,
and that thus cold is applied to the stomach and
internal ear and nose; but these comparatively unimpor-
tant exceptions may be left out of consideration. The
hydropathic vital stimulus is a general or local external
stimulus-a destructive agent or exalter of force z,
applied primarily to the surface; but acting internally
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
53
by sympathy through the nerves. Hence all those
diseases which may be cured by a sympathetic excite-
ment of force z, come within the scope of the hydro-
pathic treatment. But there is a variety of diseases
and affections for which the hydropathic stimulus is
inapplicable, or only practically applicable, because it
would exalt the destructive force of the whole body,
whereas it is only desirable to exalt the destructive
force of a single organ. For example, suppose a case
of inflammation of the lungs. In this case, what we
want to effect is, to raise the health-maintaining force
of that organ. This can be done hydropathically, in
many cases, by primarily exalting the destructive force;
but we cannot hydropathically exalt the destructive
force of the lungs, without, at the same time, exalting
the destructive force over the whole body; and in
certain cases of inflammation of the lungs, this pro-
ceeding would be attended with great danger; because
within the brief course run by this disease, time might
not be afforded for the subsequent corresponding eleva-
tion of the health-maintaining force; in other words,
reaction might not take place with sufficient quickness.
I mean to say, that the general depression of strength
produced by the water treatment, might not be suc-
ceeded by increased vigour sufficiently early to save the
patient from the grave. The forces acting in the
human body may be represented as an undulation, of
a
a
A
which the elevations a a a answer to the health-main-
C
G
54
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
taining force (▲), and the depressions b b answer to the
destructive force (z). Now, in all waves, the measure
of the depression is also the measure of the elevation,
as may be seen by comparing e with d in the diagram;
but in the vital-force undulation, if the depth of the
depression be too great, the wave is interrupted, and
the elevation is never formed at all. Hence, if a
certain internal organ be diseased, in order to reach the
vital force of that organ, so as to depress it primarily,
but exalt it secondarily, we have to depress (in the first
instance, in order to exalt) the vital force of the whole
system; but this is, in many cases, hazardous, because
we incur the danger of depressing beyond the possi-
bility of subsequent reaction. We are in want of a
stimulus, or stimuli, that shall act upon the vital forces
resident in each organ, without interfering with those
resident in other organs, or disturbing the general vital
force of the economy.
1
CHAPTER III.
In the preceding chapter, it has been proved that the
various forces of the universe which act upon man, are,
per se, hostile forces; yet that these hostile forces,
exciting by their continued attacks greater energy of
resistance on the part of the organism, do indirectly
exert a friendly influence, and improve the health and
strength of the body. These hostile and yet friendly
forces the vital stimuli-are capable of being syste-
matised so as not only, according to their usual office,
to maintain health, but even to restore a debilitated or
diseased constitution. Methodised, intensified, and
employed as curative agents, the vital stimuli con-
stitute what is called the hydropathic treatment; and
this treatment is extremely valuable in a vast variety of
diseases; yet there remains a considerable residuum to
which it is not at all applicable; and there are many
cases in which it is only partially successful, and the
reason of this complete or partial failure in many cases,
may be briefly explained.
Man is not a simple, but a complex creature; not an
animal, but a bundle of animals. It may with truth be
said, that every organ of the body is a distinct living
individual, united by many organic ties with the other
organs, yet essentially separate, and complete in itself.
The mistletoe, fixed upon the bough of the oak, robs
56
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
the tree of its juices, and appropriates them to its own
nutriment; yet this parasitic plant is a distinct orga-
nism, nourished accidentally by the sap of the oak. The
worms that infest the human intestines, form no neces-
sary part of the man, although they batten upon his
secretions. So the different organs of a man, as the
liver, heart, lungs, stomach, etc. may be regarded as
separate individualities, associated into a compound
animal, but possessing independent lives, healths, and
diseases. Take, for example, the liver. Into this
organ, or parasitic animal, its food, the blood, is conveyed
by the portal vein; and out of this organ, the undi-
gested remnant of its food, together with the secretions
formed in its interior, are exported by the hepatic vein.
Here are the chief actions which constitute life. It
matters not that the blood which serves the liver as
food has previously passed through other organs, nor
that the remnant of blood undigested, containing the
excretion of the liver (bile, which, to keep up the
analogy, may surely be called the liver's perspiration),
passes again into other organs, and fulfils new offices.
It matters not that the liver is tethered to the walls of
the abdomen, nor that it is shut up in a closed sac, for
all these are unessential circumstances; and had they
been otherwise ordered, the liver might still have lived,
and grown, and secreted bile as it does at present.
Now, the various organs of the body, separate as they
are, influence each other, and are made to act in con-
cert through the agency of the nerves and the blood.
I repeat the only communication which any organ can
receive from without, must come through one of these
two channels, viz. the nerves and the blood. The same
fact may be expressed in a different manner. As the
-
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
57
life of a man is conditional upon vital stimuli, so the
life of an organ is also conditional upon vital stimuli,
that is to say, influences from without: but the
only influences from without which penetrate to the
internal organs, are the blood, and the nervous force,
or fluid (neuricity, as it is called). Hence, blood
and neuricity are the vital stimuli of the internal
organs. If any organ become diseased, that is to
say, if the balance between the health-maintaining and
destructive forces of that organ be deranged, so that
medical interference is required, we must seek to exalt
the destructive force, so that, by reaction, the health-
maintaining force may be exalted, and the disease
expelled. This can only be done by altering the
neuricity, or by converting the blood sent into the
organ, into a partially destructive agency. The hydro-
pathic treatment acts principally in the former manner.
It exalts the destructive force of the whole system, and,
therefore, the destructive force of the diseased organ.
But there is a difficulty in graduating the extent to
which the destructive force of any particular internal
organ shall be augmented by the water treatment; and
some diseases, for their effectual cure, require that this
graduation should be carefully accomplished. Suppose
that for the cure of a certain liver complaint, it be
necessary that the destructive force should be exalted
from 100 (the hypothetical standard) to 150, and no
higher. In this instance great difficulty would be
experienced in effecting good by hydropathy; because,
although we might easily enough exalt the destructive
force, yet we could not be sure of exalting it accurately
to 150. We might, in spite of our efforts, raise it to
160, and so do harm. We therefore require a set or sets
58
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
of graduated stimuli, adapted to the constitution and
peculiar diseases of each of those separate vitalities which
we call the organs of the body.
The different organs are so many parasitic animals,
having each its distinctive nature, and requiring cach
its distinctive food; but to all the same food is supplied
by the blood-vessels, viz. blood. Blood, however, is a
compound fluid, containing in solution a vast variety of
ingredients, each of which is adapted to serve as food
to some organ; and as the blood passes through an
organ, some sort of elective attraction seems to be
exercised, in virtue of which the suitable ingredient is
drawn out of the blood into the substance of the organ
which it is fitted to nourish. Thus, if we want to feed
the liver, we have only to drop into the blood at any
point of the circulation aliment fit for the liver, and in
due time that aliment, having passed perhaps through
twenty other organs without becoming, in the slightest
degree, altered, will reach the liver, and be appropriated
by that organ to its necessitics.
But as the organs get their food, growth, and health
from the blood, from the blood also they may get
diseases. It will not be necessary for me here to do
more by way of illustrating this point, than to refer to
the action of poisons, in which, moreover, we perceive
a singular analogy with food. If I introduce into the
current of the circulation a minute particle of mercury,
it will traverse all the other organs, tissues, glands of
the body, without exerting upon them any appreciable
influence; but when it gets into the glands about the
mouth, it creates immediately a greater or less commo-
tion, producing soreness, swelling, salivation, perhaps
even ulceration. In the same way, when a small
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
59
portion of arsenic is dissolved by the blood, the arsenic
passes through the rest of the body innocuously, but
upon the eye it acts injuriously, causing redness and
pain. So the poison secreted by the spanish fly finds
its sphere of action in the kidney, and the ergot of rye
acts upon the pregnant womb. Hence it appears, that
the organs of the body select from the blood not only
their health, but also their diseases, their poison as
well as their food; so that whether we wish to nourish
or to destroy any particular organ, we have only to drop
into the circulation the particular food or poison adap-
ted to that organ.
Now this proposition leads us back to the great
principle, viz. that of the definite relation between a
and z, and to its corollary, viz. that a can only be
secondarily exalted by the primary exaltation of z, and
we perceive that every organ in the body has its
peculiar poison, or z-exalting agent or agents, and there-
fore, its specific curative means. For example, take a
case of disease of the eye: it is required to exalt the
health-maintaining force A; therefore we must exalt
primarily the destructive force z; but arsenic is an
z-exalting agent in the case of the eye-hence arsenic,
because it is capable of producing disease of the eye,
is also capable of curing disease of the eye already
existent.
In a preceding section it was stated, that 'We are
in want of a stimulus, or stimuli, that shall act upon
the vital forces resident in each organ, without inter-
fering with those resident in other organs, or disturbing
the general vital force of the economy." Again: in
another part of the work I have observed We re-
quire a set, or sets, of graduated stimuli, adapted to
-
.
60
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
سنا
the constitution and peculiar diseases of those separate
vitalities which we call the organs of the body.' These
requirements, it now appears, may be satisfied by
medicinal treatment. In the different drugs employed
by practitioners, we recognize sets of stimuli, adapted
to the constitution and diseases of the different organs,
acting upon the vital forces resident in certain organs,
without interfering with those resident in other organs,
or disturbing the general vital force of the economy;
and, moreover, capable of unlimited graduation, by
increasing or diminishing the dose, or by rarely or fre-
quently repeating its administration.
to
I had for some time practised the water cure before
my attention was attracted to Homoeopathy. Of
course, I had long known of the existence of the latter
practice, and had heard of various cures which it had
effected; but these I had set down to the credit of diet,
imagination, and abstinence from physic. At length it!
happened, that a young gentleman, a student in law,
applied to me in the bope of getting relief from a head-
ache, from which he suffered continually. I advised
him to give up study for a time-I regulated his diet-
made him take systematic exercise-and put him upon
a light, tonic, hydropathic course. I treated him, un-
der every advantage, for several months; but failed to
afford him the slightest benefit. He then discontinued
hydropathic treatment, and went into the country,
where he spent a considerable time in learning practical
farming. Still his head-ache persisted, and he was
induced to consult a homœopathist, who, after several
months treatment, succeeded so far in alleviating the
complaint, that his life became enjoyable, and he was
enabled to apply himself to business. Struck by the
ти
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
61
result of this case, I resolved to study the subject of
Homœopathy; and the execution of this resolve, I am
bound to acknowledge, was greatly facilitated by the
liberal kindness of Mr. Turner, the homœopathic
chemist, of Manchester, who placed the whole contents
of his extensive library at my disposal. I read, there-
fore, I believe, every work of importance, doctrinal and
practical, both for and against the view in question.
The perusal of these works convinced me that there is,
at least, a certain amount of truth in homeopathy; and
I prepared to test the doctrine by experience. At that
time I was in the habit of seeing poor patients gratui-
tously, at Hockley, a little village in Warwickshire ;
and a great number of people sought my advice. I
treated them upon hydropathic principles; upon these
patients I began my first homeopathic experiments,
not abandoning hydropathy, but only calling in ho-
mœopathy as a subsidiary means. Trifling cases I
treated by the homeopathic medicines alone; those of
a graver nature were subjected to both treatments. I
soon found that the medicines had a decided curative
efficacy, and I became bolder in their exhibition, and gave
them upon nearly all occasions, where either hydropathy
was inapplicable, or an auxiliary treatment was re-
quired. Gaining every day greater confidence in the
new treatment, and desiring to witness its working in
the hands of practical and experienced men, I went to
London, and watched, during one month, the practice.
of Dr. Quin, and the other surgeons and physicians
attached to the London Homeopathic Hospital. I was
satisfied with what I saw, and from that time I have
continued to practice homeopathy in conjunction with
the Water Cure.
5
62
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
In studying homeopathy, it was not long before I
perceived that this doctrine is quite in accordance with
the great principle upon which hydropathy is founded,
and which I have explained at length in the preceding
chapter. In order to make this clear, I must explain
the very simple law which constitutes the essence of
homœopathy. It has long been known, that many
medicines which produce a certain morbid condition of
the system, are capable of curing that same morbid
condition when it occurs naturally. For example, even
Hippocrates knew that vomiting may be cured by reme-
dies which, upon other occasions, cause vomiting; and
of this I know a very remarkable instance. A lady, a
patient of mine, was suffering from chronic vomiting,
when she embarked on board a sailing vessel. The
weather became very rough, and for several days almost
every passenger was prostrated by sickness, but my
patient, instead of undergoing an aggravation of her
complaint, was completely cured.
It is matter of common experience that for an
autumnal diarrhea, there is no better remedy than
a few doses of rhubarb. But rhubarb produces,
under other circumstances, relaxation of the bowels;
and yet relaxation of the bowels is cured by
rhubarb.
A
There is a disease called syphilis, for which medical
men are agreed that mercury is the best remedy. But
mercury, administered to a healthy person in pretty
large doses, or for a length of time, is capable of pro-
ducing a disease so like syphilis, that it has received the
name of pseudo-syphilis.
Arsenic, administered to a healthy individual, causes
an eruption of the skin. Now, many persons affected
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
63
with an eruption of the skin, have been cured by small
doses of arsenic.
Universal experience has shown that tartar emetic
exerts an admirable effect in cases of inflammation of
the lungs. Yet tartar emetic, according to the experi-
ments of Majendie and others, will produce inflamma-
tion of the lungs, where it does not already exist.
These, and similar facts, have been long currently
known, but they were looked upon as exceptional cases,
and disregarded by theoretical writers, before the time
of Hahnemann, whose acute mind detected in these so-
called exceptional cases glaring instances' of a gene-
ral law, hitherto unapprehended. The purport of this
law, known as the law of similia similibus curantur,
may be thus enunciated. Every disease which affects the
human race (if curable by medicine), may be cured by
that medicine, which, if exhibited to a healthy person,
would cause a nearly similar disease. Let D be any
disease whatever, and let м be any medicine, which, if
administered to a healthy individual, would excite in
him a disease closely resembling the disease D; then,
every person affected with disease D, may be cured
by the medicine M. This is the law of similia simili-
bus-this is the keystone of homoeopathy. Now, let
us see if this law of similia similibus be in agreement
with the law which I have taken so much pains to
expound (let me term it the law of a and z) in the
foregoing chapter. The law of A and z asserts that
every fragment of the economy is a scene of contention
between two powers, viz. the destructive and the con-
servative—the disease-producing and the health-pro-
ducing forces. This law also maintains that it is im-
possible directly to exalt A, the health-producing force;
ܕ
64
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
but that the health-producing force may be indirectly
exalted by the primary exaltation of z, the disease-pro-
ducing force. Now, to illustrate these laws practically,
let us take a case of inflammation of the liver. Mer-
cury, it is well-known, produces, in a healthy person,
inflammation of the liver; therefore, according to the
law of Hahnemann (similia similibus), mercury, it is
asserted, will cure inflammation of the liver, otherwise
excited. But mercury, since it causes inflammation of
the liver, exalts the destructive or disease-producing
force, working in that organ; and therefore, judiciously
administered, exalts (according to the law of a and z)
the health-maintaining force, and enables it to throw
off disease. Hence mercury will cure inflammation of
the liver, and the law of similia similibus accords with
the law of A and z.
Again, iodide of potassium is capable of producing
swellings of the bones from inflammation of the mem-
brane, which covers the bones. Therefore, iodide of
potassium exalts the disease-producing force of the
membrane which covers the bones; and when carefully
exhibited, exalts subsequently the health-maintaining
force, according to the law of A and z. Hence, when
this membrane is diseased, iodide of potassium ought
to be exhibited. Upon the principle of Hahnemann
also (similia similibus), iodide of potassium, because it
is capable of causing swellings in the bones, is the
proper remedy for swellings in the bones, originating
from a different cause. The law of similia similibus
therefore accords with the law of A and z, which, I
believe, I have demonstrated by a long train of unex-
ceptionable physiological reasoning, to be beyond the
* Dr. Goolden on Periosteal Disease.-Lancet, Dec. 20, 1851.
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
65
reach of cavil. If I am right in this opinion, the great
principle of homoeopathy stands upon an immoveable
pedestal; and the theories of medical science, no less
than the experience of practical men, acquiesce in its
legitimacy.
CHAPTER IV.
IF, in compliance with the dogma, similia similibus curan-
tur, I am to treat disease A by the medicine м, which, if
administered to a healthy individual, would excite dis-
ease a, it is manifest, that the doses of м, by which I
endeavour to cure A, must be smaller than those which
produce ▲; otherwise, instead of curing, I should
aggravate the disease.
For example: Dr. Law of
Dublin, has shown, that grain of calomel, repeated
until about 3 grains have been taken, is sufficient to
produce salivation. Hence, if I am to give calomel to
cure salivation, I must surely give less than grain at
a dose, and less than 3 grains altogether; otherwise, I
should envenom, not remove the disease. In the
Lancet of December 20, 1851, a case is related in which
salivation, mortification of the cheek, and death from
exhaustion, resulted from the administration to a child
of 16 grains of grey powder in three doses: 16 grains
of grey powder contain 6 grains of metallic mercury.
Now, if I attempt to cure spontaneous mortification of
the cheek by mercury, I must give a very much less
quantity than 6 grains; otherwise, I might kill my
patient. Well-this is granted. But how much less a
quantity than 3 grains of calomel am I to give to cure
salivation; how much less than 6 grains of metallic
mercury to cure mortification of the cheek? Evidently,
1
12
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
67
this question can only be answered by experience. Let
us refer to experience. Previously to the introduction
of homeopathy, there was no experience upon the
subject; for no one dreamed of attempting to cure
salivation by calomel, nor mortification of the cheek
by mercury. We are driven, therefore, to consult the
experience of homeopathists, and we may as well ask,
what was the experience of the first homeopathist?—
In his writings, Hahnemann assures us, that, when his
great principle first dawned upon his mind, the question
which we are asking, came with it; and he began to
experiment, in order to solve the difficulty. The result
of his experiments astonished himself. He found, that
extraordinarily minute doses were sufficient to effect
a speedy and safe cure. He found, that a quan-
tity of medicine, less than can be rendered visible by a
microscope-less than can be detected by any chemical
process-will exert powerful effects upon the body,
when administered in accordance with the homœopathic
law. Thus he was led, in treating a case of mortifica-
tion of the cheek, for example, to give, not a grain or
two, not the tenth of a grain, not the thousandth, not
the ten-thousandth, not the millionth, but absolutely,
the decillionth of a grain of metallic mercury; and he
found, that this quantity, or rather, this no-quantity of
mercury, will effect, in most cases, a brilliant cure.
This result was not confined to mercury, but came out
in the case of every remedy which Hahnemann tested;
so that, after a time, he adopted the following plan of
preparing his medicines. He took one grain-say of
metallic mercury-and mixed it intimately, by rubbing
in a mortar, with 99 grains of sugar. This preparation
he termed the first trituration. Of the first trituration
63
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
he took 1 grain, which he intimately mixed with 99
grains of sugar; and this preparation he termed the
second trituration. Of the second trituration, he mixed
1 grain with 99 grains of sugar, to make the third
trituration; and so he went on. Liquids were
diluted with spirits of wine in the same proportion.
For example: he added 1 drop of tincture of Bella-
donna, to 99 drops of spirits of wine, and mixed the
whole equally and thoroughly. This was his first dilu-
tion. Of the first dilution, he added 1 drop to 99 drops
of spirits of wine, and formed the second dilution.
In
the same way, he formed higher dilutions, until he
reached the thirtieth. At the thirtieth, he wished to stop ;
but later homœopathists have carried the dilutions up to
the hundreth, thousandth, and even higher power. In
treating disease, Hahnemann, and after him, all his
disciples, made great use of these dilutions, which they
usually administered, and administer in a manner in-
vented by Hahnemann. A number of minute pellets,
composed of a mixture of white sugar and starch, are
saturated with the medicinal liquid, dried, and placed
in little bottles ready for use. These medicinal pellets
are called globules. The pellets may be, of course, and
are, saturated in any dilution of a medicinal fluid. So
that we may have globules, saturated with the first,
second, third, tenth, one thousandth dilution of tincture
of Belladonna, for example, and the bottle containing
these medicinal globules, would be labelled, ' Belladonna
1; 6 Belladonna 2,' &c. Now, in the treatment of
disease homœopathists employ sometimes tinctures
and triturations, in any dilution or attenuation which
they deem applicable, and sometimes globules. For
example: a person attacked with fever, may be or-
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
69
dered to dissolve two globules of aconite 30 in six
teaspoonfuls of water, and to take one teaspoonful every
quarter of an hour. Another patient may be advised
to take one drop of the third dilution of the tincture of
aconite every half hour for three hours. It is manifest,
that there is a variety of ways of administering the
homeopathic remedies; but it is also manifest that,
administered any way, the quantity of medicine swal-
lowed is extraordinarily minute-so minute, as to excite
in the minds of many grave doubts as to the possibility
of its exciting any action whatever. These doubts can
only be satisfied by experience. It cannot be proved
nor disproved, à priori, that the decillionth of a grain
of any substance is capable, when introduced into the
economy, of so modifying the living actions as to expel
or aggravate disease. This point must be decided by
experience, and I shall show, in an after-part of this
work, that experience answers the question in the affir-
mative. Personally, I can affirm that I have caused
sound sleep by globules of coffeea; have relieved griping
pain in the abdomen by globules of nux vomica; have
checked frequent micturition by globules of cantharis
and cocculus; have cured headaches by tincture of
belladonna; nausea, vomiting, flatulent distension, and
pain at the pit of the stomach by ipecacuanha; cut
short a fit of hysterics by pulsatilla; and, in short, have
constantly produced decided curative effects by homeo-
pathic doses of medicine. I shall, therefore, assume this
point for the present, and proceed to offer some sugges-
tions which may reconcile the fact, that wonderfully
minute portions of matter exercise a specific influence
upon the human system, with what we certainly know
of other natural phenomena, and particularly of those
70
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
•
miasms which produce epidemic disease. Let us con-
sider, in the first place, the potato-miasm, or the cause,
whatever it may be, of that terrible rot which, by
destroying the potato, originated the Irish famine.
This cause spread from country to country, blackening
the stem and withering the leaf of the potato-plant
in its progress, until it had converted hundreds of
flourishing crops into putrid abominations. Moreover,
year after year, the miasm brooded over the land—year
after year the potato-crop was annihilated. Now, what
quantity of miasm sufficed to produce these effects?
How many grains are required to destroy a field of
potatoes?
The cause of cholera, originating in the East, travelled
in a westerly direction until it reached these isles, where
it destroyed thousands of human beings. Has any one
yet undertaken to weigh the cholera-miasm, and to
determine what quantity is necessary to kill an indivi-
dual?
Every person who dares, at a particular season of
the year, to penetrate an Indian jungle, is infallibly
attacked by jungle fever; and every traveller, who
sleeps for a night on the Pontine Marshes, is invariably
affected with ague. Can any chemist estimate the
amount of fever-miasm in the one case, and of the
ague-miasm in the other case, which has been absorbed
into the veins? No. The causes of the potato-disease,
of cholera, of jungle-fever, of ague, of plague, of small-
pox, and other epidemic diseases, are, as yet, only dis-
cernible in their effects. For ought we know, the actual
material substratum of the whole of these morbid influ-
ences may not exceed the decillionth of a grain. The
sceptic refuses to believe that a medicated globule can
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
71
act upon the body, because it contains so small a quan-
tity of medicinal matter. But effects are not propor-
tionate to the ponderable mass of a cause, otherwise,
who would tremble at the flash of lightning, and who
would rejoice in the genial sunshine? And these very
sceptics would take care to avoid the contact of a
plague-stricken patient, although thereby their bodies
could hardly be soiled by a ponderable amount of the
plague miasm. The assertion that the decillionth of a
grain of arsenic cannot cure an eruption, is no more
tenable, than the assertion that the decillionth of a
grain of the small-pox miasm cannot produce an erup-
tion. In fact, it is absurd to pronounce concerning any
alleged phenomenon anterior to investigation; for we
can no more, by taking thought,' find out the genu-
ineness of one single natural fact, than we can add or
take away a cubit from our stature.' The Almighty
has not gifted us with the power of penetrating the
possibilities of his creation, nor of foreknowing what
can, and what cannot, take place. Yet in all ages men
have arrogated to themselves this faculty, and endea-
voured to put down, by argument, the new truths that
arise. Verily, of these persons it may be said, that
unless they become as little children, they shall not
know the truth.
In speaking of the cholera-miasm, and the power
which it seems to possess of imparting to organic
matter a malignant property, similar to that by which
itself is distinguished, Dr. Sutherland remarks:- It
appears as if some peculiar organic matter, which con-
stitute the essence of the epidemic, when brought in
contact with other organic matter, proceeding from
living bodies, or from decomposition, has the power of
72
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
so changing the condition of the latter, as to impress it
with poisonous qualities, of a peculiar kind, similar to
its own. It is probable, that something of this sort
occurs in the preparation of the homoeopathic remedies.
The medicine seems to impart an influence to the other-
wise inert fluid with which it is mixed. As the clothes
worn, or articles touched by a small-pox patient, be-
come impregnated with the variolous influence, and are
capable, even when transported to a distance of many
miles, of infecting a healthy person with small-pox; so
the water, or spirits of wine, in which an extremely
minute portion of arsenic has been dissolved, is, per-
haps, saturated with the arsenical influence, and may
act curatively upon diseases to which arsenic is adapted.
The homœopathic way of preparing medicines may be a
mode of infecting, as it were, inert fluids, or powders,
with sanative influences. The hypothesis which I am
explaining, asserts that a grain of arsenic, for example,
dissolved in a tumbler-ful of water, disseminates through
the whole bulk of the fluid a peculiar power; that a
drop of this water, thus imbued with arsenical influence,
can communicate to a second tumbler-ful of water, this
peculiar power; that a drop from the second tumbler
can impart the power to a third tumbler-ful of water;
and so on almost indefinitely. Such communication of
influence is considered to be in analogy with ordinary
electrical phenomena. If two balls of pith be sus-
pended from one point,
so that they touch each
other, and then any elec-
trified body be brought
d
о
a
Pay
Qu
* Dr. Sutherland: Report on Cholera.-Medical Times, Dec. 20th,
1851.
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
73
near to them, the balls of pith will immediately fly
asunder.
This experiment illustrates the fact, that every elec-
trified body throws into an electrical state, all the
bodies by which it is surrounded. In like manner, it
is presumed that substances, which have medicinal
power, excite medicinal power in any matter with which
they may be intimately mixed. This theory, it will be
perceived, assumes the existence of a great multitude of
new forces in nature; it assumes that medicines act
upon the human organism not materially, but in virtue
of the medicinal powers with which they are charged.
Thus it would speak of the arsenical power, the mercu-
rial power, the fox-glove power, etc., all of which
would be included in the general term, medicinal
power; just as the magnetic force, the diamagnetic
force, the galvanic force, etc. are included under the
general name of electrical force. The theory infers,
that medicinal forces may be disjoined from the bodies
in which they are implanted by nature, and couferred
upon quite heterogeneous substances; that curative.
influences may be rendered as subtle as the miasmatic
causes of epidemic diseases, and yet, unlike the latter,
remain subject to our control. It maintains, that as a
small-pox patient can, by touching it with his hand,
small-poxise a silk handerchief, so a drop of a solution
of mercury, may, by contact, mercurialise a tumbler-ful
of water.
Such is a brief sketch of one of the theories by
which it has been sought to account for the marvellous
effects of infinitesimal doses of medicine. The theory
may be true or false; but its truth or falsity in no way
alters the reality of the facts which it attempts to
74
PRINCIPLES OF HOMOEOPATHY.
explain; and no person is qualified to deny the asser-
tion, that decillionths of a grain powerfully influence
the economy, unless he have previously submitted the
question to the test of experience.
There is one consideration which sceptics as to the
power of minute doses are apt to overlook-a point
which has an important bearing upon the question.
It is not pretended that these doses exert the same kind
of action upon the economy as ordinary doses; for
example, a globule of opium will not cause sleep, nor
a globule of coffee wakefulness, nor a globule of tar-
tarised antimony diminished force of the heart's action,
nor a globule of ipecacuanha vomiting, nor a globule of
epsom salts relaxation. Large doses of the above-
named medicines produce these effects; but no one
has ever maintained, or imagined, that minute doses
possess the same power. On the contrary, they exert
a directly opposite influence: opium in globules rouses
a morbidly sleepy person; coffee soothes to repose a
person unduly wakeful; tartarised antimony increases
the force of the heart's action, when enfeebled by dis-
ease; ipecacuanha stops vomiting; and epsom salts
checks relaxation.
It is not, therefore, opposed to experience, that
minute doses should produce decided effects, when
imbibed under the conditions first described. In
reality, before the time of Hahnemann experience was
dumb upon the subject, for persons never took infinites-
imal doses when in the state necessary for the manifes-
tation of their action; or if accidentally this happened
in any instance, the person recovered from his disease,
but remained ignorant of the cause of his recovery,
and, perhaps, attributed it to other agencies. It is
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
75
opposed to experience, that minute doses should act in
the same way as large doses; for if this were the case,
how fearful would be the sufferings, and how dire the
diseases, of every apothecary's shop-boy throughout
the kingdom! If the air laden with the perfumes of
senna, and musk, and camphor, and asafoetida, and
iodine, and a thousand other drugs, act upon the human
body as these medicines act when exhibited in grains
and scruples, medicine would be an impossibility, for
its professors would rapidly perish beneath its deadly
influence. But small doses do not act in the same
manner as large doses. Upon the healthy body they exert
no action whatever; their action is limited to diseased
organs. Upon a healthy stomach the half grain of
ipecacuanha falls inert; but if the stomach be predisposed
by disease, if its susceptibility be abnormally exalted, then
a much smaller dose than that ordinarily required
would excite it to contract; and I have more than
once, under this condition, known half a grain of
ipecacuanha produce vomiting. But if the morbidly
susceptible stomach is capable of being so far excited
as to eject its contents by half a grain of ipecacuanha,
one might readily infer that a less quantity than half a
grain would still exert an influence, though not suffi-
ciently violent to cause spasmodic contraction. It
requires little sagacity to conclude, that if any organ,
o, be already in the state produced by any medicine ì,
the organ o will be more than ordinarily sensitive to
the medicine M. This position may be illustrated by
the effect of light upon the eye. In a state of health
the rays of light impinge upon the eye without causing
any appreciable sensation; but if certain parts of the
eye be inflamed, light produces excessive pain, so that
76
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
:
it is absolutely necessary to keep the patient in a
darkened room. Again in ordinary conditions a
person can bear a cold wind, or hot water, or the rough
contact of any substance against the cheek; but when
the nerves of the frame are excited by tic doloureux,
the slight breath of cool air, a drop of hot water, or
gentlest application of anything to the face, produces
intolerable agony. This then explains, to a certain
extent, the efficacy of minute doses. They only act in
morbid tissues. When the bowels are healthy, I must
give a large dose of epsom salts to produce any effect;
but when diarrhoea already exists-when, consequently,
the bowels are in a preternaturally sensitive condition.
-then a small dose exhibits a decided action. Now
allopathists give epsom salts when the bowels are
healthy; but homopathists administer this drug when
the bowels are discased. The former produce disease
(artificial diarrhoea) by large doses, while the latter cure
disease (natural diarrhea) by small doses. Both ac-
complish the objects which they have in view, and the
experience of one is not discordant from the experience
of the other. As a somewhat singular illustration of
the wonderful effect produced under certain conditions
of the system, by minute atoms of matter, I may quote
a case related to me by my father. One day he was
walking in his garden, in the company of a patient, who
was at the time suffering severely from a periodical
head-ache. The gentlemen stopped, and smelt a bunch
of mignionette, which was growing by the path; and
that instant his head-ache left him; before he could
recover the upright position, he was free from pain!
This case, extraordinary as it will appear to ordinary
readers, is not, however, inconsistent with experience,
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
77
although thousands of persons have smelt mignionette,
and perceived nothing but its agreeable fragrance, or,
in certain cases, a peculiar kind of headache, for those
persons were in healthy conditions, or, if diseased,
their diseases bore no analogy with the effects produced
by the odour of mignionette; but this patient of my
father's happened to have exactly that kind of headache
which the odour of mignionette sometimes produces;
hence he was preternaturally impressionable, and an
unexpected result ensued.
It is the opinion of many uninformed persons, that
the essence of homeopathy is the administration of
infinitesimal doses of medicine; but this is a complete
error. So wide of the truth is this supposition, that a
man may practice homeopathy all his life, and never
order any but substantive doses. The practice of
homeopathy consists in the prescription of medicine.
acccording to the law of similia similibus curantur;'
and whoever obeys this law is a homeopathist, whether
he administer a comparatively large dose or a little one.
For example, if a man treats diarrhoea by epsom salts,
he is a homeopathist, whether he give one or two
grains at a dose, or only one or two globules; on the
contrary, if a man treats diarrhoea by opium, he is an
allopathist, whether he prescribe it in the original tinc-
ture, or in the 30th dilution. There are many professed
homœopathists who never prescribe medicines which
cannot be smelt or tasted, or otherwise easily identified.
And there are many members of the old school who
sometimes practice homeopathy unconsciously, because
they exhibit medicines, although in somewhat large
doses, in accordance with the principle which we pro-
fess. Instances of this nature I have quoted in
6
78
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
Chapter VI. of this work, and many more might be
adduced. For example, Dr. Billing practises homœo-
pathy when he treats cholera by tartar emetic. Dr. A.
T. Thomson practised homeopathy when he prescribed
castor oil for diarrhoea; and the same may be said of
the profession generally, as respects syphilis, which is
treated by mercury, and sickness, which is so often
relieved by creasote. Homeopathists expressly reserve to
themselves the privilege of ordering any quantity of medicine
that they deem applicable, and they are in the constant habit
in particular cases of prescribing quite substantial doses.
The magnitude of the dose of medicines must be regu-
lated by the varying conditions of disease, and the
peculiarities of temperament, age, sex, and specific
susceptibility to the action of drugs evinced by the
individual patient. All practitioners meet with cases
in which even the proper remedy fails at first to exert
its curative influence, because it is administered either
in too large or too small a dose, but succeeds in removing
the malady as soon as the large dose is diminished, or
the too small dose is increased. Thus one person may
be cured by globules of opium, after drops of the tinc-
ture have failed in giving the slightest relief; while
another may experience no result from the exhibition
of globules, but derive instantaneous benefit from drops
of the tincture. Homœopathists claim, equally with
allopathists, unlimited discretion as to the quantity of
medicine which they may think proper to exhibit. If
an allopathist, like Dr. Marshall Hall, feels himself at
liberty to give so small a quantity as gr. of strychnia,
and physicians, like Sir James Clarke and Dr. Locock,
prescribe decimal doses of belladonna, and do not
thereby consider that they are poaching upon the manor
1
GO
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
79
of homeopathy, surely a homeopathist may in proper
season recommend larger quantities of medicine than
he thinks appropriate to the treatment of the generality
of cases. Homœopathy is totally independent of minute
doses. Were it discovered to-morrow that the doctrine
of minute doses is a fallacy, homoeopathy would con-
tinue to flourish. Thousands of cures would continue
to be effected by grains, or tenths or hundredths of a
grain of medicines, and perhaps mankind would receive
with yet greater alacrity than it manifests at present,
the apostles of the new Evangel. It is probable that the
progress of homeopathy has been greatly retarded by
its alliance with that afterthought of Hahnemann, infi-
nitesimal doses. The world only accepts one new idea
at a time. It has great difficulty in accepting the law
of 'similia similibus curantur; and the secondary an-
nouncement, that exceedingly minute quantities of mat-
ter, given in accordance with the above law, suffice in
most instances to effect a cure, heighten the incredulity
which the law itself has to encounter. I believe that
although the discovery of the influence which minute
particles of matter exert upon the human frame reflects
the greatest honour upon the discoverer, yet it would
have been better for the interests of society, could this
discovery have been delayed for a hundred years, so
that homœopathy might not have made her first appear-
ance clad in a repulsive and unessential raiment.
G
CHAPTER V.
PROVING OF MEDICINES.
Ir is the fundamental doctrine of homeopathy, that
whatever disease a medicine will produce, that disease
it will cure. Hence, it becomes necessary for homeo-
pathists to learn the effects of drugs upon the healthy
body; and this study they have pursued with so great
industry, that we possess at present a mass of informa-
tion, which is almost embarrassing from its abundance.
The method by which the properties of a medicine are
investigated is as follows:-The investigator distributes
among those of his friends who are willing to assist in
his experiments, a certain number of doses of the
medicine to be taken at certain intervals. Each indi-
vidual, making the experiment, records minutely all the
sensations painful or pleasant, and every other effect,
whatever it may be, that he experiences. These
records are afterwards collated by the originator of the
investigation, and digested into a tabular statement.
That the reader may form some idea of these tables, I
subjoin a tabular view of the effects of mercury, which
I have abbreviated from the work of Dr. Dunsford.
MERCURIUS.
HEAD.-Determination of blood to the head, with
heat therein; sense of weight in the head; pressive
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
81
pain in the forehead, as if the brain were being forced
out; tearing burning headache in the temples; head-
ache, as if the head were firmly laced round with a
band; tensive pain in the anterior part of the head;
dull pain in the posterior part of the head; headache,
as if the head would burst; burning itching in the
scalp and on the forehead, increased by touch, feeling
of tension over the head and face; perspiration of the
head.
p
MIND. Stupefaction; absence of mind; dulness.
DISPOSITION.-Corporeal and mental disquietude at
night; disgust of life; peevishness and impatience.
SLEEP.-Continual drowsiness by day; difficulty in
going to sleep by night; light, disturbed sleep; inter-
rupted by frequent waking.
EYES.-Redness, swelling, scurf of the eyelids ;
eruption round the eyes; inflammation of the eyes;
intolerance of light, mist, sparks, or black spots before
the eyes.
EARS.-Tearing and shooting pains in the ears,
inflammation.
MOUTH.-Ulcers in the mouth with burning pain;
fetid smell of the mouth; swelling of the tongue;
tongue coated white or yellow.
TEETH.-Gums swollen, separating from the teeth,
painful to the touch-ulcerated, indented-itching,
burning, redness, sponginess of the gums, which easily
bleed; looseness and pulling out of the teeth; tearing
pain in the teeth, affecting the whole of one side of the
face, excited by cold and warm drinks, and by cold air,
most violent at night, alleviated by external warmth
and by rubbing.
FACE.-Muddy, jaundiced complexion; redness,
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PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
5
puffiness, scabby or pustular eruption in the face;
corners of the mouth ulcerated; blackish colour of the
lips and nose.
THROAT.-Iuflammation and swelling of the uvula ;
difficulty of swallowing; burning pain in the throat;
inclination to swallow, with a feeling in the throat as if
something stuck there which must be swallowed;
inflammation, redness, and dryness in the throat; in
swallowing, shooting pain in the throat, and in the
tonsils even to the ear, aggravated at night, and in the
cold air; sensation as if the food passed over an
excoriated place; ulceration and suppuration of the
tonsils; ulceration of the salivary glands; syphiloid
ulcers in the throat; copious flow of viscous, fetid, and
disagreeably tasted saliva; copious salivation.
TASTE.-Taste putrid, bitter, or sour; insipidity of
food.
APPETITE.-Voracious appetite; loss of appetite ;
speedy satiety on eating; dislike to warm food; violent
burning thirst.
STOMACH.-Tension in the region of the stomach;
pressure at the pit of the stomach; great weakness of
digestion, with constant hunger; burning pain at the
pit of the stomach.
ERUCTATION.Bitter eructations; empty eructa-
tions, with putrid vapour in the mouth; tendency to
vomit, with headache, giddiness, and heat; bilious
vomitings at night.
HYPOCHONDRIA.-Violent stitches in the region of
the liver; inflammation and induration of the liver;
jaundice.
ABDOMEN.-Gripings in the bowels; feeling of
emptiness in the lower bowels; sensation as of some-
12
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
83
thing alive in the abdomen; swelling of the lower part
of the abdomen, painful on being touched, with rattling
and rumbling; pain in the bowels from exposure to
cold; mucous, muco-purulent, and sanguineous diarr-
hoa; dysentery; tenesmus.
CHEST and other organs, presenting comparatively
unimportant symptoms, need not be noticed.
SKIN.-Itching watery eruption; violent itching
over the whole body, especially in the evening and at
night, when warm in bed.
FEVER.-Sensation of violent ebullition and beating
in the arteries; pulse generally quick, feeble, and
irregular; constant coldness of the body; shivering,
alternating with heat; dry heat in the evening; burn-
ing heat in the day and night, with increase of the pain
on being uncovered; copious and sour-smelling noc-
turnal perspiration; perspiration in the morning.
LIMBS.-Painful stiffness of the throat and nape of
the neck; painful swelling of the glands of the neck;
pain as of a bruise in the shoulder-blades, back, and
sacrum; startings in the arms and fingers; hot swelling
of the elbow and forearm; shining swelling of the legs,
and joints of the feet; painful swelling of the bones in
the soles of the feet; contraction of the legs, with
cramps in the calves and toes.
The value of this summary of the effects produced by
mercury upon a healthy constitution is incalculable.
Suppose, for example, a patient suffers from determina-
tion of blood to the head, with the other symptoms
affecting the head above enumerated as producible by
mercury, we then know that this affection of the head
84
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
C
can be cured by mercury-not given indeed in grain
doses, but in doses of the hundredth, thousandth, or
millionth of a grain. Suppose a patient to be affected
with ulcers in the mouth, with burning pain; fetid
smell of the mouth; swelling of the tongue; tongue
coated white or yellow,' we know that he can be
cured by very minute doses of mercury. Suppose a
patient wishes to be treated on account of a 'muddy,
jaundiced complexion; redness, puffiness, scabby or
pustular eruption on the face; corners of the mouth
ulcerated; blackish colour of the lips and nose,' we
are sure that mercury is the proper remedy. In the
same way, I might go over the whole of the effects
attributed in the table to mercury. Wherever we find
analogous symptoms spontaneously arising in the course
of disease, we are able, confidently, to predict that they
will yield to the administration of this drug. And
what applies to mercury, applies also to every drug dis-
covered or undiscovered. Should any botanist discover
to-morrow a new plant growing in the deserts of Africa,
or amid polar ice, and wish to ascertain its medical
virtues, he has nothing to do but to exhibit to a com-
pany of persons small doses of the herb, and to note
down the effects produced. These effects, arranged in
an orderly manner, will form a picture of the diseases.
in which the new remedy will prove serviceable. Here
is a wide field opened for the improvement and perfect-
ing of the medical art! Let there be henceforward no
idle lamentations over the insufficiency of medicine;
but let every intelligent physician take this matter of
the proving of drugs in hand. It is a herculean task:
for over the surface of the earth are distributed thou-
sands of plants, endowed with medical properties; and
<
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PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
85
many generations of men must pass away before they
can all be investigated. Yet the toil rewards itself;
for every new plant is specifically adapted to the cure
of some disorder, which is at present either not at all,
or only imperfectly curable.
An inspection of the pathogenesis of mercury opens
our eyes to the pernicious tendency of ordinary medical
practice. The sheet-anchor of the general practitioner
is mercury. Against the whole tribe of diseases, from
inflammation down to indigestion, he employs this
omnipotent mineral, and he hesitates not to prescribe it
in even very large doses. In hepatic diseases, and in
fever, our Anglo-Indian surgeons administer as much as
twenty grains of calomel at a dose; and in London, in
one cholera house, it was given in the same dose fre-
quently repeated. Five, or four grains of calomel are
very commonly exhibited as a purgative! Only con-
ceive, four or five grains of calomel are very frequently
given with the sole object of opening the bowels! Does
then no other aperient medicine exist, that this uncer-
tain and dangerous drug must be employed? Is there
no rhubarb, castor oil, senna, jalap, scammony, aloes,
colocynth, in the apothecary's shop? Why must calomel
be given to open the bowels, when we know that this
irritant poison is accountable for the production of so
many chronic diseases of so many unhappy deaths?
The reason why calomel is given in this instance, and
in very many others is simply ignorance on the part of
the prescriber, who has never studied the effects of the
C
*Pathogenesis (from pathos, disease, and genesis, production)
signifies literally 'production of disease.' Pathogenesis of mercury
siguifies the diseases, or morbid symptoms, excited in a healthy con-
stitution by this drug.
"
;
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PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
drugs which he administers. The ordinary practitioner,
who recognises no relation between the curative effects
of drugs, and the symptoms which they produce upon
healthy bodies; who administers certain drugs in
certain diseases merely because experience has shown
that these drugs act beneficially in such diseases, has no
motive for testing the disease-producing power of
medicines. A knowledge of the pathogenesis of a
drug does not teach him in what diseases it may do
good. The man who gives bark in ague, because,
having administered bark to healthy persons, he has
found that bark is capable of producing an affection
very similar to ague, has an interest in learning the
other disease-producing effects (pathogenesis) of bark,
in order that he may cure, by the exhibition of bark,
analogous symptoms when they arise from different
causes. But the man who gives bark in ague, only
because it has been accidentally discovered that bark
will cure ague, has no inducement to investigate the
pathogenesis of bark. Hence the former, the homeo-
pathist, is familiar with what we call drug diseases, and
immediately recognises them when they meet his eye;
while the latter, allopathist, knows nothing of this
class of affections, and cannot even discern them when
they are produced by his own incautious practice.
Let me illustrate what I mean: The homeopathist
who has studied the pathogenesis of mercury, is aware
that this mineral, taken repeatedly in ordinary doses,
causes a peculiar form of indigestion, which the reader
may see described a page or two back. Now the allo-
pathist is ignorant of this fact; consequently, when a
patient, suffering from a slight bilious attack, claims his
advice, he is treated by a course of black draught and
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
87
blue pill (a mercurial preparation.) Frequently the
patient, after free evacuations, and a decided action on
the liver, feels relieved, and flatters himself that he is
cured. Not so. After a longer or shorter space of
time, the bilious attack recurs with increased violence,
and continues to return, at less and less remote inter-
vals, notwithstanding that the practitioner keeps up a
running fire of blue pill during the whole course of the
complaint. At length a chronic indigestion is estab-
lished, and blue pill ceases even to relieve for the
moment. All this misery might have been spared the
patient, had his medical attendant understood the
pathogenesis of blue pill-had he only known that blue
pill produces chronic inflammation of the digestive
organs, disorder of the liver, bilious attacks, determina-
tion of blood to the head, and a long catalogue of other
symptoms. Suppose the patient whose disorder I have
described, should at last take it into his head to consult
a homœopathist. The first words the homoeopathist
addresses to him, are, ' Sir, your present illness is caused
by mercury.
The heat of head and anomalous uneasy
sensations-indicative of congestion of the brain—the
despondency of mind, the nervous tremor and irrita-
bility, the morbid state of the stomach, the disorder of
the liver, the furred tongue-all these symptoms plainly
announce that commonest of all drug maladies, mer-
curial indigestion.' It is not mercury only, but almost
all mineral medicines and strong vegetable drugs pro-
duce morbid states of the stomach, liver, bowels, and
head, known by the terms dyspepsia, indigestion,
biliousness, nervousness. The ordinary practitioner,
without knowing it, produces every day more or less
aggravated cases of these maladies, because he is
88
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
not acquainted with the pathogenesis of the remedies.
which he employs. I may here relate the case of a
patient under hydropathic treatment for this complaint.
I give the case in his own words:
'Jan. 1847, Mr. X. had a bad attack of influenza,
and in May, 1847 (until which time it continued una-
bated), Mr. X. found his digestive powers greatly im-
paired. He consulted Mr. A., who prescribed gentian
and taraxacum, without any beneficial results. In
August, 1847, Mr. X. was so debilitated as to be obliged
to give up for a time his professional duties, and con-
sulted Mr. B., who prescribed in succession black dose,
quinine pill, rhubarb powder, mixed with bicarbonate
of potash, infusion of gentian, and blue pill. January,
1848, Mr. X., though utterly unequal to it, returned to
his professional duties, but by August, 1848, was again.
obliged to relinquish them, when he consulted Mr. C.,
who said that there was but one medicine that could
cure him, and accordingly prescribed nitric and muri-
atic acids, and compound rhubarb pill, telling him that
he must take the draught twice daily for a month, and
forbidding bread, puddings of all kinds, sugar, and
liquids, except three hours after eating. In a few
weeks, Mr. X. was less well, when Mr. C. prescribed
ammoniated iron, and aloes pill, and afterwards zinc.
February, 1849, Mr. X. consulted Mr. D., who pre-
scribed successively prussic acid, bismuth, and sarsapa-
rilla. May, 1849, Mr. X. consulted a homœopathic
doctor, and found this, too, fail. August, 1849, Mr. X.
consulted Mr. E., who prescribed in succession arsenic,
prussic acid, blue pill, nitrate of silver, copper, oil of
phosphorus, and strychnine. May, 1850, Mr. X. feeling
that, from being unable to digest anything, and having
S
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
89
for a year and a half lived entirely on vegetables and
light puddings (on account of the extreme suffering
caused by animal food), he would soon be starved to
death, as a last resource, determined to try a German
physician, and the waters of Ems. Under the influence
of certain herbal decoctions (of senna, wormwood, sarsa-
parilla, etc.) Mr. X. regained, in a measure, his power of
digesting animal food. May, 1851, Mr. X. again went
to Germany. and again derived some little benefit from
a repetition of the treatment and the tonic waters of
Schwalbach, but was still utterly unfit for work of any
kind, from weakness of digestion and general debility."
Such is a brief account of the mal-treatment undergone
by one dyspeptic patient, who seemed destined to receive
into his stomach all the deadly poisons that the inge-
nuity of man has discovered. At various periods he
was treated by purgatives, as epsom salts, senna, aloes,
and rhubarb; vegetable bitters, as quinine and worm-
wood, and gentian; vegetable demulcents, as sarspa-
rilla; mineral acids, the nitric and muriatic; alkalies,
as bicarbonate of potash; irritant minerals, as blue pill
(mercury), ammoniated iron, zinc, bismuth, arsenic,
nitrate of silver, and copper. In addition to this fear-
ful list, he took prussic acid, strychnine, and oil of
phosphorus! And these were the means by which it
was proposed to cure a weak digestion! But what
says the homœopathist on this subject-or rather, what
say the drugs themselves, when interrogated as to their
action on the mucous membrane of the stomach? Why,
that, given in the doses which Mr. X. took, they pro-
duce in healthy persons chronic inflammation of the
stomach, and consequently, at first impairment, and
afterwards, utter ruin of the digestive powers. Their
-
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PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
exhibition, therefore, in the same dose, to a person
already suffering from weak digestion, must, of neces-
sity, increase the pre-existing evil. I subjoin a few
condensed extracts from the great work of Jahr, which
exhibit the symptoms produced in healthy individuals
by the following drugs :-
'NITRIC ACID.
Sour taste in the mouth; great thirst continually ;
want of appetite; nausea after eating; aversion to
everything; violent hunger; eructation; flatulence.
long after-taste of the food; vomiting; heartburn;
distension of the stomach and abdomen; headache
above the eyes; heat and redness of the face; excessive
languor; chilliness, paleness, and coated tongue;
anxiousness; all her limbs tremble and feel weary, she
has to lie down. Pain, pressure, cramp, gnawing,
burning pulsation at the pit of the stomach.
'BISMUTH (NITRATE).
Slight nausea; pressure at the stomach, passing into
a burning pressure over the forehead; giddiness, with
humming in the ears; redness of the conjunctiva, and
quick, rather hard, small pulse. Inclination to vomit
and actual vomiting, with excessive anxiety; small
pulse, giddiness and prostration. Repeated easy vomit-
ing of bile; ditto, with empty eructations, Diarrhoea,
gagging in the throat, burning in the stomach, followed
by much flatulence, pressure in the stomach, giddiness,
headache, particularly in the forehead, redness of the
eyes, and dimness of sight, with small contracted, rather
hard, frequent pulse, elevated temperature of the body,
white coated tongue, loss of appetite, thirst.
..
J
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
91
'ARSENIC (ARSENIOUS ACID).
Perversion, or loss of taste; violent unquenchable
burning, suffocative thirst, obliging him to drink fre-
quently, although but little at a time; loss of appetite;
food is repulsive to him, he cannot get it down; bitter
eructation after a meal, with gulping up of a greenish,
bitter mucus; gulping up of an acrid fluid; nausea,
with great anguish; nausea, with fainting; tremor,
followed by heat and shuddering; waterbrash, shortly
before and after a meal; vomiting of fluid, blueish
dingy yellow substance, followed by great exhaustion;
vomiting of blood; diarrhea; excessive pains in the
stomach and pit of the stomach; pain as if the stomach
were torn to pieces; great painfulness to the touch;
pressure at the stomach, with weight as of a stone;
spasmodic, or cutting, or tearing, or boring, or gnawing
and corrosive sensations at the pit of the stomach, with
anxiety and excessive anguish.
'SILVER (NITRATE).
'No appetite, or unusual appetite; violent eructation;
faintish sort of nausea, with palpitation of the heart;
vomiting, diarrhoea and colic; trembling and throbbing
in the stomach; hard pressure near the pit of the
stomach, on the right side, which is more intense during
a deep inspiration; weak stomach; food oppresses the
stomach like a dead weight, and drags it downward;
eructations; tasting of the food even eight hours after
a meal. In the morning he dreams that he is hungry;
this sensation wakes him; on awaking, he finds himself
attacked with violent spasm of the stomach, which is
accompanied by hunger, nausea, and considerable flatu-
lence; burning in the stomach and chest ; inflammation
of the stomach.'
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PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
It is unnecessary to quote the effects of other drugs,
as iron, zinc, copper, prussic acid, and phosphorus.
They all agree with those which I have described as
produced by nitric acid, bismuth, arsenic, and nitrate of
silver. They all agree in producing inflammation of
the stomach, and chronic impairment of the digestive
powers. Yet these drugs, in the very doses which
caused, in healthy persons, weakness of digestion and
inflammation of the stomach, are given by allopathic
practitioners to cure these affections-with what result,
let Mr. X. testify.
Į
!
CHAPTER VI.
HOMEOPATHY IN ACUTE DISEASES.
Ir is frequently urged by the opponents of homœo-
pathy-and admitted by those who, in consequence of
being only half instructed, only half believe in the
system that although it may be very efficacious in a
variety of chronic cases, yet a person must be very
rash, if, when attacked by acute disease, such as fever
and inflammation, he rely upon the infinitesimals
employed by the adherents of the new school. It is
for the benefit of this class of objectors, that I write
the following remarks :-
1. It is the ordinary practice of homoeopathists to give
larger doses of medicine in acute, than in chronic diseases.
During the period of urgent danger, when immediate,
almost instantaneous, effects are desired, remedies are
frequently exhibited in sensible quantities; so that, in
many instances, the medicine has both taste and smell,
and is easily recognized by chemical tests.
It is not denied that the doses administered are
smaller than those employed by allopathists; but they
are, in many cases, not infinitesimal.
2. Cases of poisoning and of drowning are, in the
first instance, treated by homoeopathists and allopathists
in precisely the same manner. For example: if a
person has taken poison, emetics are given, in order to
...
7
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PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
empty the stomach, and afterwards chemical antidotes
are prescribed. Only after the poison has been evacu-
ated or neutralized, does homeopathic differ from
allopathic treatment.
3. All the appliances of surgery and midwifery, as
splints, bandages, chloroform, ergot, etc., are used by
the partisans of the new system.
4. Homœopathic practice is brilliantly successful in
acute diseases; witness the statistics quoted at the end
of this work of pneumonia, pleurisy, and peritonitis.
5. It may be clearly shewn that the ordinary system,
when not ineffective, is injurious; and, consequently,
that it is at least as safe in the one case, and infinitely
more safe in the other, to trust to homeopathy, even
if this latter be regarded as a do-nothing system; for it is
better to do nothing, than to do harm.
Let me illustrate this position by a few examples;
and first, we will consider the nature and treatment of
fever. As regards this disease, allopathic practitioners
are divided in opinion. There are those who maintain
that all active treatment is injurious; for fever, they
say, runs a definite course, and must go through its
various stages, if the patient is to recover with the
least amount of mischief possible.
In the great
majority of cases nature will effect a cure; but if
nature should be unable to accomplish this result, the
physician will be equally powerless. Dr. Pitcairn
ridiculed the idea of curing fever, and compared the
presumptuous doctor who should undertake that hope-
less task, to a pilot who, instead of resting satisfied
with steering his ship through the rocks, should attempt
to quell the tempest. The advocates of this principle
repudiate the endeavour to cut short a fever; they grant
}
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
95
that in many cases, by the administration of purgatives,
by sweating, or by cold water, fever may be abruptly
stopped in its course, and perhaps permanently cured;
but they argue that in all these cases, nature undis-
turbed would gently, quietly, and safely have effected a
cure; so that the rude interference of the physician
was, even in this case, uncalled for. Moreover, they
assert that it frequently happens that the means em-
ployed to cut short a fever fail to fulfil the intention,
and that in all these cases the disease is aggravated,
and perhaps prolonged. This sect of the allopathic
school advocate what is called médicine expectante;
that is to say, entire reliance upon nature. They use
neither bleeding nor calomel; some administer an
occasional dose of castor oil, and frequently give effer-
vescing draughts and cooling mixtures. This they
call guiding a patient through the disease. The oppos-
ing sect preaches the doctrine that nature is, in very
many cases, incompetent to effect a cure, which, how-
ever, may easily be accomplished by art. Those who
embrace this opinion, aim, if possible, at cutting short
fever; failing in this point, they freely prescribe medi-
cine, and act, as they say, with vigour. James's
powders, or other antimonial preparations, nitrate of
potash, saline purgatives, cooling mixtures, are admin-
istered in the first instance, with the object of dimin-
ishing the frequency of the pulse, reducing the heat of
the body, and releasing the secretions; when the second
stage, or that of debility, is formed, wine, bark,
ammonia, serpentary, and other stimulants, are imme-
diately recommended. The reader will notice that the
treatment adopted by this sect is antipathic; that is to
say, that the remedies act in opposition to the symptoms
96
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
of the disease; 'for example, when the pulse is accele-
rated, a drug is prescribed whose property is, even in
healthy bodies, to diminish the frequency of the pulse;
heat of skin is met by cooling drugs; constipation by
aperients; dryness of skin by sudorifics; debility
by stimulants. As far as possible, the antipathic sect
endeavours to reverse every symptom which arises in
the course of disease, believing that nature frequently
fails in curing disease; that when she succeeds, the cure
is clumsy and incomplete, and that therefore healing is
the peculiar province of art.
Now, I think it is obvious, that the disciples of
médicine expectante and the antipathic practitioners,
are both wrong. The former trust too much in nature,
and the latter too much in art. The experience of
every day refutes the doctrine of the omnipotence of
nature; for certainly not a day passes but many indi-
viduals, who have suffered many years from chronic
complaints which nature was evidently unable to
remove, are cured by art. This is the universal per-
suasion of mankind, and is unquestionably true. But if
it be true as regards chronic diseases, why should it not
also apply to acute diseases? and that it does apply to
acute diseases, nearly every body can vouch; for how
often do we see persons evidently snatched from the
grave, by the application of the right remedy at the
right moment! In the teeth of universal experience,
and the general conviction of mankind, and the sug-
gestions of common sense, it is folly to say, with the
propounders of the médicine expectante, that art can do
nothing.
On the other hand, universal experience and the
general conviction of mankind, and common sense
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
97
itself, equally repudiate the doctrine that art is all in
all, and should invariably be pitted against nature, and
counteract all her operations.
The due medium between the conflicting opinions.
just detailed seems to be the following, which is that
adopted by the homeopath. Nature, it is argued,
always attempts to throw off disease: sometimes she
succeeds, very frequently she fails. What we call the
symptoms of a disease, are natural actions which in some
way tend to expel or destroy, or get rid of its presence.
Thus the heat of skin, and quick pulse, and confined
bowels, and other symptoms which accompany fever,
have, unless they run into excess, a curative tendency.
They constitute the process by which nature restores to
health a body which has accidentally received the febrile
infection. Hence, violently to lop off, as it were, these
processes, is to impede and perhaps destroy the possi-
bility of recovery-to shut up the disease in the
economy. But what we have to do is to watch these
processes—to hold them in check if we see them dege-
nerating from curative into morbid phenomena, to
encourage their evolution, if we find them backward in
development and so rather to adjust the intensity of the
symptoms, than either violently break them down, or allow
them to run their free course. As an illustration of my
meaning, let us consider three of the most prominent
symptoms of fever, viz. thirst, heat of skin, and loss of
appetite. These symptoms are evidently instituted
with a curative intention. The first prompts the
patient to imbibe copious draughts of water, which, as
it is well known, is an admirable febrifuge. The second
induces the sufferer to seek cool fresh air, which, since
the time of Sydenham, has universally been considered
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PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
indispensable to a quick and safe recovery; and when
in excess, this symptom suggests general ablution of the
body by cold water-a practice which Drs. Currie and
Bateman, and lately Vincent Priessnitz, have carried
out with great success. The third symptom, viz. loss
of appetite, by compelling the patient to abstain from
food, leaves the destructive force (z) uninterrupted
action; so that, slowly and gradually, the body of the
patient and his disease are disintegrated, and worn
away; but at the expiration of a certain time (when
the disease has been removed by z), the reconstructive
force (A) recovers its energy (period of convalescence),
and the individual, regaining his appetite, eats largely,
and is restored to health. The remaining symptoms
which appear in the course of a fever, are, like thirst,
loss of appetite, and heat of skin, curative efforts, and
should by no means be treated antipathically, that is to
say, opposed or reversed. True it is, that sometimes
these symptoms go beyond the necessary limits, and
themselves threaten the patient's life. For example:
the headache, which occurs in almost every fever, may
merge into delirium; the constipation may become in-
flammation of the bowels. Here, then, is the proper
opportunity for the exercise of art. In the first case,
it is required to check delirium; in the second, to put
a period to inflammation. In this dilemma, the followers
of médicine expectante fold their arms and say: 'No.
Let nature go through with it. We will not interfere.'
The antipathic heroes, in the first instance, apply ice to
the head; leech or cup; purge; and finish up with
small doses of mercury. This is the practice satirized
by the witty German :
..
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
99
Ich habe es mit mitleiden gelesen,
Dass du jûngsthin todtkrank gewesen ;
Aber du hast nicht wohl gethan,
Dass du viel artznei gewendet an.
Denn ich habe oft und viel erfahren,
Dass, besonders in den jüngeren jahren ;
Die sich selbst überlass'ne natur,
Mehr wirkt als die beste mixtur.
Observe the roundabout methods by which it is hoped
to stop delirium. Of the blood drawn from the general
circulation (for although the leeches are applied to the
head, yet the blood which they suck is not derived from
the brain, because the brain and its blood are protected
from the leeches by a box of bone)—of the blood
drawn, how small a quantity, if any, is taken from the
actually suffering part! The purgatives, no doubt, by
drawing off a quantity of serum from the blood, enfeeble
the action of the heart, so that a smaller quantity of
blood is sent to the brain; and the mercury will also, in
some cases, act upon the brain in conjunction with the
other organs of the body, as the liver, kidneys, salivary
glands, etc. Set beside this rude method, the practice
of the homœopath appears to the greatest advantage.
He administers a remedy which acts specifically upon
the circulation through the brain, and affects no other
part of the economy. He does not require to irritate
the intestines; to enfeeble the heart; to inflame the
liver; to reduce the general power. His remedy
touches the brain, and the brain only. He moderates the
symptom which has run to a morbid excess, without inter-
fering with nature's plan in any other particular. The an-
tipathic practitioner can only get at the brain through
other organs. He can only influence the system gene-
100
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
rally. Hence, if in any case the stomach and bowels
and liver, and heart, and skin are doing their best to
assist the recovery of the patient, all those organs must be
powerfully and medicinally influenced (so that perhaps
one or more of them may be thrown altogether out of
order), before the offending brain can be reached. The
assertion, therefore, that the ordinary treatment of fever,
when not ineffective (médicine expectante), is injurious,
appears fully borne out; for even if we grant that the
particular affection, against which antipathic measures
have been directed, has been relieved, yet other new,
although it may be less important, affections have been
originated.
So much for the treatment of fever. How does the
case stand with inflammation? According to the ordi-
nary theory which regulates the ordinary treatment,
inflammation is excess of vital power, manifested by
increased functional activity, and superabundant forma-
tion of blood. Andral has even proposed to substi-
tute for the term inflammation a word of his own
coinage, hyperomia, which signifies 'excess of blood,'
in order more clearly to express his view of the nature
of the process. It is certainly true, that during the
prevalence of inflammation in any organ, the blood, by
chemical analysis, is found to contain an undue propor-
tion of fibrin, which frequently rises from 2 to 33
parts in a thousand. Now, as fibrin is believed to be
the most highly vitalized ingredient in the blood, and
the material of which the growing organs of the body
are built up, it seems not unreasonable to conclude that
inflammation is essentially an augmented vital energy,
a sort of surplus strength or excess of health, and that
it requires a reducing treatment. Observe the hard,
1
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
101
strong jerking pulse, the flushed countenance, the
general tumult in the organism! What strength, what
power is there exhibited? No wonder that the physi-
cian is often induced to attempt by lancet, and leech,
and purgative, and mercury, the specious task of
'knocking down' the disease. But a sad fallacy is
hidden behind these phenomena. In the first place,
excess of fibrin in the blood does not indicate excess,
but is often accompanied by remarkable diminution of
vital power for it is well known that scurvy and
chlorosis (alias green sickness), both indisputably dis-
eases of debility, are attended with augmentation of
fibrin. Moreover, recent physiologists support by
plausible arguments the opinion, that fibrin is not the
material from which the body is nourished, but rather
that it is a result of the degeneration of the living
tissues; so that actually, instead of the most highly
vitalized ingredient of the blood, it may be a devitalized
substance.
:
Again those who interpret the phenomena of in-
flammation to indicate increased power, and therefore
denominate this condition a sthenic state, confound
power with excitement. A maniac, in the paroxysm
of his fury, is apparently endowed with additional
strength; but it is not so: he only puts forth a much
larger amount of the strength that is in him than on
common occasions and see, when the paroxysm is
over, he is feeble and utterly exhausted! If he had,
during the paroxysm, received an absolute influx of
strength, at the conclusion of the paroxysm, when this
influx was spent he would, at all events, only be as he
was before. But, no: the strength is all gone out of
him. At the very moment when he was supposed to
:
102
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
be exercising superabundant strength, he was only wast-
ing the power latent, as it were, in the organism. It is
the same with inflammation. The pulse beats quicker,
and harder, and more resistingly against the finger;
but not on account of increased strength in the pulse,
nor arterial system, for in a little while the pulse will
become correspondingly feeble. The pulse is excited,
so perhaps is the breathing, and so perhaps are other
functions; but this excitement is temporary, and will be
succeeded by depression, and at the worst by paralysis.
In truth, inflammation, like all other diseases, is a disease
of debility. The vital force (constructive power A)
has, for the time, yielded to the destructive power (z),
which some morbid influence, perhaps exposure to cold
and damp, has unduly exalted: hence to augment this
debility by such agencies as blood-letting, violent
purging, free mercurialisation, is in the highest degree
dangerous. Although opposed to the ordinary belief,
I am by no means singular in my opinion, that inflam-
mation is a disease of debility. According to Vacca,
for instance, it is a weakness of the capillary vessels;
according to Pistelli, a diminished contraction and
depressed activity of the vessels. Gregory likewise
inclines to that opinion; according to him debility,
want of irritability, atony, are predisposing causes of
inflammation. His opinion is derived from the fact,
that feeble subjects are most liable to inflammations.
Reil, G. Gruithuisen, and many others, likewise admit
that debilitating influences predispose to inflammatory
diseases and Rau declares, that it may seem para-
doxical to assert that every inflammatory disease
depends upon an absolute or relative weakness of the
vital force; this is nevertheless true for if the vital
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
103
force were strong enough, it would counterbalance or
overcome every morbific influence. There are organ-
isms that are strong enough to resist almost any con-
trary influence.' At the very onset of inflammation,
how remarkable a diminution of muscular power takes
place! What lassitude oppresses the patient! How
unfit does he at once become for any exertion, whether
corporeal or mental! Surely here is no indication of
superabounding strength, but the contrary. The vital
power is evidently below par; for, were it exalted
instead of diminished, the patient would not suffer
from disease, but manifest unusual health. Disease is
the ascendancy of the destructive force over the con-
servative-of z over a; hence, in every possible in-
stance the patient's strength suffers reduction; and in
acute maladies, this reduction is effected with great and
continually increasing rapidity, It is, therefore, in the
highest degree injudicious, much to accelerate the
declining strength-to confirm the supremacy of z-by
copious blood-letting, free purgation, or other debili-
tating measures. True it is, as in a previous chapter
I have shown at length, that vital power can only
(except in the case of mesmeric action) be exalted by
agents which depress. But not all debilitating influ-
ences are capable of being so handled, as by their
reactive effects to cause increased strength; and this is
the case with bleeding and purgation in acute disease.
Their primary debilitating influence weakens to such
an extent, that death ensues before reaction can take
place hence measures of a very different nature are
advisable, and the safest as well as the most efficacious,
are homœopathic remedies.
B
!
CHAPTER VII.
CASES.
IN presenting to the reader a certain number of cases
treated homoeopathically, as practical illustrations of the
doctrine advocated in the foregoing pages, instead of
narrating those which I have myself treated, I have
thought it better to collect certain published cases
which have some especial interest, either from the high
rank of the patient, or the distinguished position of the
practitioner, or the anomalous chance that an opponent
of our principles should, by following our practice,
achieve a brilliant confutation of his 'preconceived
ideas.' I have recorded one case which I treated
myself, because it was a case of peculiar interest, as it
afforded an opportunity of testing the comparative value
of the three systems, viz. the allopathic, as adminis-
tered by hospital physicians; the hydropathic; and the
homœopathic, in acute bronchitis-a dangerous disease,
which is admitted on all hands to require prompt and
decided treatment; and in order to afford a specimen of
the manner in which cases are written out by homœo-
paths, with the view of gaining an accurate know-
ledge of all the symptoms.
Case of Marshal Radetzky, by Dr. Hartung.
TUMOUR OF THE EYE.
Marshal Radetzky, in the 79th year of his age, was
M
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
105
in the enjoyment of good health, when on the 9th of
October, 1840, he exposed himself on horseback at a great
review, during five hours alternately to a scorching
sun in the valley and a light cool wind on the heights.
Soon after his face became red; towards evening a
violent fever set in, with such a head-ache in the right
side of the forehead, that his Excellency assured Dr.
Hartung, that were it to continue long he should not be
able to endure it. The eye was much inflamed, and
protruded from the orbit. About one o'clock that night
the head-ache left, and the eye returned to its place.
After a time the cure so far progressed, that nothing
but redness of the lower eye-lid, watering of the eye,
and a slight swelling at the external angle remained.
Nearly two months after a swelling, of the size of a
bean, formed at the inner angle of the eye; the swelling
at the external angle increased, and the eye protruded
considerably. There was occasional pain, and violent
congestion of the head. The tumours continued to
enlarge, and assumed a notable purple colour. The
motions of the eye were restricted, and, at last, entirely
arrested; the eye was turned out of its proper di-
rection by the growth of the fungus-like, elastic,
granular, purple, painless swelling between the eye-
ball and the nether lid, and vision was considerably
impaired. At this stage of the complaint Dr. Flarer,
professor of the diseases and treatment of the eye in
Pavia, was called in, and this gentleman declared that
neither allopathy, homeopathy, nor hydropathy, nor
any other mode of treatment, could effect a cure; that
his Excellency must die, either from consumption or
apoplexy, and that he could prescribe nothing. This
opinion coming to the ears of the Emperor of Austria,
106
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
his Majesty immediate dispatched to Milan Dr. Jäger,
K.K., Imperial Counsellor, Staff Surgeon, and Professor
in the Joseph's Med. Chir. Acad., who was famous for
his knowledge of diseases of the eye. Accordingly,
on the 26th of January, 1841, Drs. Jäger, Flarer, and
Hartung, met in consultation, and Dr. Jäger pro-
nounced the case incurable, asserting that the affection
arose from a constitutional disorder; that an operation
could be of no service, and that he knew of no remedy
for internal use. Hereupon the allopaths departed,
and the patient was left entirely in the hands of Dr.
Hartung, who, by the employment of homœopathic
remedies, had the pleasure, in one and a half months,
of effecting the entire disappearance of the tumours,
the restoration of the motion of the eye, and of the
power of vision, and, in short, a complete cure, with
the exception that on the margin of the lower lid there
still remained a little fulness, and the eye wept. But
at a subsequent period even these symptoms were re-
moved. The report of this extraordinary case, it may
be supposed, excited general attention; and many
attacks were made by prejudiced and interested indi-
viduals, upon Dr. Hartung and homeopathy. The
effect of these attacks was to elicit from Marshal
Radetzky the following letter:-
'I hereby certify that Dr. Hartung, Imperial Counsellor
and Staff Surgeon, during a service of ten years in the
Lombardo-Venetian Army has discharged his duties with
the highest success, and has, by a careful inspection of the
hospitals under his direction, deserved the thanks of govern-
ment. Many patients in a hopeless condition owe their
lives to his zeal and science. I personally owe him
everlasting gratitude; he saved my life in a disease, which
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
107
by the most experienced physicians had been declared
incurable. To him alone, therefore, I owe my preservation;
and to him alone I owe it that I am still able to fulfil those
duties which our most gracious sovereign, the Emperor, has
been pleased to assign to me.
'RADETZKY, M.P., Field Marshal.
Milan, April 4th, 1842.'
Cases in St. George's Hospital, by Dr. Fuller.
BRITISH CHOLERA.
The cases which I next quote, together with some
remarks appended by the gentleman who treated them,
are taken from the Medical Times and Gazette, January
10th, 1852. They are beautiful specimens of genuine
homœopathic cures, and also glaring instances of the
stubbornness with which medical men reject the law of
similia similibus curantur, even when proofs of its
correctness are visible in their own practice.
'ON SULPHURIC ACID, AS A CURE FOR DIARRHEA. By HENRY
WILLIAM FULLER, M.D., Cantab, Assistant Physician to St.
George's Hospital, and Lecturer on Forensic Medicine in the
St. George's Hospital Medical School.
'Among the various medicinal agents in the Pharma-
copœia, none according to ordinary notions seems less
likely to check an attack of diarrhoea, and to relieve
the griping which attends it, than sulphuric acid.
Causing, as it often does, uneasy pinching pains in the
abdomen, and not unfrequently a tendency to purging, it
affords but little prospect of relief in a complaint of
which these are prominent features. Acting too, as it
does, most strikingly as a refrigerant, it seems ill calcu-
lated to alleviate a disorder which, in its severer forms,
is characterised by alarming collapse (general coldness,
108
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
sinking of the circulation, and prostration of strength).
Nor do the other symptoms of the disease hold out any
greater encouragement for its administration. The
furred and yellow tongue, the sour taste in the mouth, and
the acid state of the matters rejected from the stomach,
appear to contra-indicate its use, and to afford a
guarantee for the soundness of those views which have
induced the profession to rely upon calomel, opium,
chalk, and other medicines, having a tendency to allay
the morbid irritability of the stomach and bowels, to
counteract the extreme acidity of the primæ viæ, to
improve the character of the secretions, and to carry off
any acrid and offending matter which might serve to
keep up existing irritation. So obvious indeed are
these indications for treatment, and so general the
adoption of a remedial course founded upon them, that
few persons have had recourse to any other remedies.
Some, indeed, who value the labours of their pre-
decessors, and have consulted Dr. Pemberton's admi-
rable work on the abdominal viscera, may have remarked
that, when speaking on the subject of diarrhoea, he
recommends the administration of large and repeated
doses of the sulphate of alumina, when chalk and
catechu, and other similar medicines, have failed.
Some, too, there are who, acting on local or family
traditions, have employed the compound infusion of
roses (which contains a small quantity of sulphuric
acid), with small doses of the sulphate of magnesia, as a
cure for diarrhoea and its attendant evils. But neither
Dr. Pemberton, nor the various practitioners alluded
to, have attributed the successful issue of their treat-
ment to the agency of the sulphuric acid, which either
free, or in combination with a base, has formed an
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
109
ingredient in their various prescriptions. Indeed,
the only notices we possess of the
the marvellous
efficacy of this remedy in diarrhoea, are contained
in the original letter from Mr. Griffiths, published
in the Lancet about three months ago, and in
one or two brief statements in the journals within the
last few weeks. The record, therefore, of the following
severe cases in which I prescribed it, without admix-
ture with any other medicinal agent, and in which its
effects were closely watched by many pupils of the
hospital, and by other persons interested in the result
of the treatment, may serve to direct increased atten-
tion to a remedy, which is destined, I believe, to
effect a complete revolution in our treatment of this
troublesome, and not unfrequently dangerous class of
maladies.
Thomas Goodwill, aged 49, a gentleman's servant,
was admitted into the Fuller Ward of St. George's
Hospital on the 6th of September, 1851. He had
been quite well the previous night; his bowels had
acted comfortably, and he had eaten nothing likely to
disagree. Such was his history up to 7, A.M., on the
morning of his admission, when he was seized with
severe pains in the bowels, cramps in the extremities,
vomiting, and pale watery purging.
'At 11, A.M., when he applied for admission into the
hospital, these symptoms continued with increased
severity; he was doubled up with pain in the belly,
and his extremities were drawn into knots by cramp.
Indeed, so excruciating were his sufferings, that he had
to be carried up to bed. His countenance was anxious,
his features were pinched and drawn, his extremities
very cold; his tongue was very dirty, and dry in the
and dry, in the
8
110
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
centre, but moist at the edges; his pulse rapid, small,
and very weak; his urine scanty, pale, or, indeed,
almost colourless. He was ordered as a draught, to be
taken every hour:—
Dilute sulphuric acid, 20 drops.
Water, one ounce and a half.
He vomited about a quarter of an hour after taking the
first draught; but after taking the second, which he
did immediately on the rejection of the first, he neither
vomited nor was purged, and when I visited him at
1, P.M., he was quite warm, and comparatively free
from pain. I therefore ordered the medicine to be
repeated every second hour only.
At 4, P.M., I found him warm and perspiring, and
almost free from pain. He had been sleeping quietly
for about an hour and a half; his bowels had not acted
again, nor had there been the slightest return of nausea
or vomiting. The medicine was therefere repeated at
still longer intervals (every three hours), and was omitted
altogether for a time, during the action of a rhubarb
draught, which I ordered him to take in the evening.
'On the 7th (the following day), I found that he had
passed a comfortable night, and had slept well. There
had been no return of the pain, nausea, vomiting, or
purging. His bowels had acted once after the rhubarb,
and his tongue was much cleaner.
Repeat the acid draught every six hours.
The rhubarb draught to-morrow morning.
'On the 8th he was quite well; but I kept him in the
hospital until the 9th, lest there should be any recur-
rence of the symptoms. Such, however, was not the
case, and he was therefore discharged on the morning
of the 9th.
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
111
Charles
The other case is of the same character.
Hanscomb, aged 64, was admitted into Fuller Ward on
the 9th of September, 1851. His attack, which had
not been preceded by any disorder of the bowels, nor
by any irregularity, nor imprudence of diet, com-
menced suddenly on the night of the 7th, with vomit-
ing, purging, and crampy pains in the abdomen.
During the thirty-six hours which elapsed between his
seizure and his admission into the hospital, he had no
medical advice, and the symptoms, which at first were
comparatively slight, increased gradually in severity,
and became accompanied by violent cramps in the
extremities.
'On admission into the hospital, his features were
collapsed; his face was of a blueish tinge; his expres-
sion anxious. His extremities were icy cold, and had
lost all power of sensation; his breath also was cold,
and he was shivering violently. Indeed, he stated that
he had not ceased shivering during the last six hours.
His tongue was yellow and furred, and rather dry;
pulse 100, extremely weak. He was vomiting and
purging incessantly, and indeed vomited once, and was
purged once during the short time which elapsed,
before he could be got into bed. The dejections were
pale and watery, and the matters rejected from the
stomach acid, and almost colourless. I ordered
Dilute sulphuric acid, 25 drops.
Water, one ounce and a half.
'The draught to be taken immediately, and repeated
every hour.
At half-past three, P.M., I found him warm and
perspiring, and comparatively free from pain. He had
vomited about 20 minutes after taking the first dose of
112
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
the medicine, but a second dose was then immediately
administered; and since that time there had been no
return of nausea or purging, and the cramps had
entirely ceased.
Repeat the acid draught every two hours only.
'Six, P.M., no return of vomiting or purging; and
has no longer any pain in the abdomen, or in the
extremities.
Repeat the acid draught every six hours if needful.
'Sept. 10. Slept soundly all night; omitted the
medicine after the first five doses, and has had no
return of pain, sickness, or purging. Feels quite well,
and is going to leave the hospital this morning, the
tongue being moist and almost clean, and the bowels
having acted once comfortably.
I have thought it right to give the above details, as
entered in my case-book, without comment; but I
would add, in explanation, that I have seldom seen
more alarming cases. In both instances the collapse.
was very great; in both the breath was quite cold, and
the cramps in the abdomen, and in the extremities,
were very severe in both, the tongue was exceedingly
furred, the urine was nearly suppressed, and the alvine
evacuations were pale and watery. No cases can be
conceived, less likely, à priori, to be benefited by the
administration of sulphuric acid; yet in both the
happiest results ensued. No vomiting nor purging
occurred in either instance after the second dose of the
medicine, or in other words, after the treatment had
been continued half an hour; and at the expiration of
an hour and a half, when three doses had been taken,
the patients were warm and comparatively well. In
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
113
the first case, seven doses of the medicine; and in the
second, five doses only were given; and in the first, a
rhubarb draught was administered, only because my
preconceived ideas had led me to imagine what sub-
sequent experience has proved not to be the fact, viz.
that the administration of some purgative is necessary
to carry off offending matters from the bowels. Since
the cases just detailed fell under my care, I have had
ample opportunities of testing the value of sulphuric
acid in diarrhea, and I can speak confidently as to its
curative power in such cases. I have administered it in
private practice, and in my practice at St. George's
Hospital, to twenty-seven patients, the whole of whom,
with three exceptions, derived immediate and striking
benefit. The sickness speedily abated, the purging ceased,
and the pain in the abdomen shortly subsided.'
The reader will not fail to observe that Dr. Fuller's
cases related above, were cases of British cholera, and
that they were cured by a medicine, which, when
administered to a healthy person, produces symptoms
very like those which attend this disease: consequently
the treatment was homoeopathic. In all this, there is
nothing but what is of every-day occurrence; yet it
must be confessed that it is not a matter of every-day
occurrence to find a hospital physician treating his
patients homœopathically, curing them magically, cry-
ing out how contrary facts are to his preconceived
notions, and awarding the honour of that difficult dis-
covery to Mr. Griffiths.
The great medical question of the present day is
Homœopathy, or No Homœopathy; and a large majority
of the medical practitioners are for No Homœopathy.
The Edinburgh Court of Examiners refused to certify
114
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
the medical acquirements of Mr. Pope, until he should
promise never to practice homoeopathy. The licensing
body of Apothecaries withdrew their diploma from
Mr. Blake, because he became a homoeopathist; and
the Lancet, January 10th, 1852, says: 'We were not
simple enough to hope we could destroy outright the
brood of Hahnemann. We knew well enough that we
might, by attacking them, give them the benefit of
greater notoriety for a brief period. To all this they
are perfectly welcome. But the object we did set
before us, was that of separating this fraud, and its
knavish foolish followers, from the practice and the
practitioners of legitimate medicine. We determined
to thrust them forth among the outer quackeries with
which honest men can hold no communion.' In the
face of all this, Dr. Fuller openly practises homeopathy
at St. George's Hospital, and publishes his cases in a
medical journal; but Dr. Fuller has no wish to incur
the wrath of colleges, and objects to be thrust forth by
the Lancet among the outer quackeries with which
honest men can hold no communion;' so he quietly
prefaces his homeopathic cures with the remark, that
indeed all his preconceived ideas are allopathic, and, of
course, no one could suppose, à priori, that sulphuric
acid is capable of curing diarrhoea, seeing that sulphuric
acid tends to produce diarrhoea; but Mr. Griffiths certi-
fied the fact-unaccountable as it is-and experience
proved to Dr. Fuller that Mr. Griffiths was correct.
So Dr. Fuller continues to treat diarrhoea by sul-
phuric acid (homoeopathically); to admire the mar-
vellous efficacy of Mr. Griffiths' system (homeopathy),
to deprecate the employment of calomel, chalk, opium,
etc. (allopathy), and yet eludes the anathemas of the
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
115
Lancet, which is resolved to separate this fraud
(homeopathy), and its knavish foolish followers, from
the practice and the practitioners of legitimate medi-
cine.' Dr. Fuller is wise in his generation; but
apparently in addition to the subtlety of the serpent,
he possesses the meekness of the dove. Knave and
fool are terms which are hard to cope withal, and a
respectable physician will not expose himself to such
injurious appellations, but rather take refuge in a
gentle mystification, and hang a tatter from the cloak
of Hahnemann upon the shoulders of Mr. Griffiths.
How admirable-as opposed to this disingenuous pro-
ceeding was the conduct of the late Mr. Liston, who,
instead of beating about the bush, and seeking for
ambiguous excuses, after treating successfully a case of
erysipelas by aconite and belladonna, declared that he
was inclined to attribute his success to the treatment,
both local and general, which had been employed,
particularly to the administration of belladonna. This
the students might be aware was given on the homeo-
pathic principle, the doses only being somewhat in-
creased. They had all probably seen the good effects
of the aconite, and some of the other remedies em-
ployed by the advocates of homoeopathy.'
Cases in the North London Hospital, by Mr. Liston.
ERYSIPELAS OF THE HEAD.
Shortly after the death of the late eminent surgeon,
Mr. Liston, his friend, Dr. Quin, published among
others the following statements, which are extracted
from his letter:-
I have, in the first part of this letter,' says Dr. Quin,
'alluded to the favourable opinion entertained by Mr.
116
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
Liston of some of the homeopathic tenets. Fortunately,
the evidence of this does not rest upon the ipse dixit of
any one whose testimony can be considered suspicious,
or prejudiced in favour of the new doctrine, but is re-
corded by himself in his lectures; and some of the
cases and remedies, with his clinical remarks, are de-
tailed in a medical periodical most adverse to homœo-
pathy. He
He also recommends, in his Principles of
Surgery, erysipelas to be treated with aconite and bel-
ladonna (the homoeopathic remedies), in small doses.
The circumstances which led him to adopt this treat-
ment, and the use of other homoeopathic remedies, I
shall now briefly relate. In the course of our frequent
consultations and conversations, we generally communi-
cated to one another any interesting fact or case occur-
ring in our respective practice; and one day, in the
beginning of January, 1836, he was lamenting over the
fatality that attended his treatment of the great majo-
rity of cases admitted into his hopital with erysipelas
of the head, and stated, that in the physicians wards,
the results were much the same as in the surgical wards.
I mentioned that I had also had several very severe
cases, but that they had every one recovered under
homœopathic treatment. It so happened that I had
been called that very morning to a very severe case,
which I offered to show him, and begged him to watch
the result of the treatment, which I had barely com-
menced. He accepted, and we immediately visited my
patient, a young man about 28 years old, who was sub-
ject to epileptic fits, and who, two nights before, had
cut his temple in falling, upon being seized with a fit;
the consequence was an attack of erysipelas, which, by
the time I had first visited him, had spread across and
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
117
down the face, and over the scalp. We saw the patient
twice a day, till he was convalescent. The cure was
very rapid, and the effects of the medicines very
marked they were aconite and belladonna.
:
Mr.
Liston saw the remedies prepared by me, and adminis-
tered some of them himself. He was so astonished and
satisfied with the beneficial results of the treatment,
that he resolved to try the aconite and belladonna.
His only motive for hesitation was, that if these medi-
cines should prove less successful in his hands than they
had done in mine, he should bring ridicule upon him-
self, and injure his position in the hospital with his
colleagues and pupils. I suggested to him to prescribe
one grain of the extract of aconite, to be dissolved in
several spoonfuls of water, and a spoonful given at
intervals of several hours; and to dilute the same
quantity of belladonna in a much larger quantity of
water, and give a spoonful in the same manner. He
immediately followed this suggestion, and the results
are related in the following extracts of the report of the
North London Hospital, contained in the Lancet, of the
6th and 13th of February, and 16th of April, 1836.
"ERYSIPELAS OF THE HEAD.-REMARKABLE EFFECT OF THE
EXTRACT OF BELLADONNA.
"Mary Peek, aged 32, was admitted under the care of
Mr. Liston on the 21st of January, 1836, labouring
under severe erysipelas of the head and face. Fomen-
tations, tartarized antimony, and saline mixtures were
prescribed, with but slight benefit. One grain of bel-
ladonna, in 16 oz. of water was then ordered, two
table-spoonfuls to be given every three hours. On the
24th of the same month, she was reported rapidly im-
proving, swelling and redness nearly gone. Convales-
cent. Medicine discontinued. In going round, Mr.
118
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
Liston remarked that this was one of the most satis-
factory and successful cures of erysipelas he had ever
seen; the disease entirely, though not suddenly, disap-
pearing in the course of a very few days. He was
inclined to attribute this to the treatment both local and
general, which had been adopted, but more particularly
to the administering of belladonna. This, the students
might be aware, was given on the homoeopathic princi-
ple, the doses only being somewhat increased. They
had all, probably, seen the good effects of the aconite,
and some of the other remedies employed by the advo-
eates of homoeopathy."
Case of Acute Bronchitis in a Female, aged 41.
BY THE AUTHOR.
Of four previous attacks, three were treated allopa-
thically in a hospital: one was treated hydropathically.
For the first attack she was bled in both arms, cupped
twice on the chest, and had fifteen leeches, and a blister
applied. She also took medicine. She lay in bed five
weeks-remained very poorly for three or four months;
and she states, never perfectly recovered from the shock.
For the second attack, which occurred eight or nine
months after, she was cupped to the extent of sixteen
ounces; thirty leeches were applied; mustard poultices;
the back was causterised in several places by hot irons.
She was in bed four weeks. Pain, giddiness, con-
fusion of head, which remained for several weeks, were
eventually removed by the shower-bath. She continued
very ill for six or eight weeks.
For the third attack, which occurred about a year
after the second, she lost sixteen ounces of blood by
cupping, and as much as would flow from the bites of
between sixty and seventy leeches. She was confined
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
119
to bed five weeks. Her cough did not disappear for
five months. After each of these three attacks, consti-
pation set in, and she had to use aperient medicines
three or four times a week for several months. In each
of the above attacks she came under medical treatment,
about a week after the commencement of her illness.
Somewhat more than a year after the third, the
fourth attack took place. Hydropathic treatment, com-
menced on the eighth day of her illness, consisted in
wet-sheet packing, and tepid shallow bath, with copious
draughts of cold water. She was in bed ten days; and
four days after-that is to say, twenty-two days from
the commencement of the disease-the cough entirely
disappeared; and fourteen days after, that is to say,
thirty-six after the onset of the affection, she was
quite well, and actively engaged in domestic duties.
No constipation followed this attack. During her
illness, she lost 25 lb. in weight.
A little more than two years after the last described
attack, she was again seized in the same way. On the
fifth day of her illness, she came under my care, and
was treated homeopathically. On the twelfth day, a
critical change appeared in the urine on the fourteenth
day, a subsidiary crisis was manifested by a slight
dampness of the skin and on the fifteenth, she was out
of bed, and convalescent.
:
Jan. 10, 1852-Saw Mrs. L., a person of stout ple-
thoric habit, aged 41. On the 6th of this month, she
perspired very much while working in a draught. The
afternoon of the same day, she had all the symptoms of
a cold in the head and throat, such as hoarseness of the
voice, stuffing of the nose, etc. Day by day the affec-
tion increased, or, rather, migrated to the chest from
the parts first attacked. A cough came on, which
120
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
became more and morc severe; and last night it kept
her awake all night. She fears that one of her old
attacks is coming on, There is every appearance of
the approach of a violent seizure.
Present Symptoms.
1. Cold in the head and throat has disappeared.
2. Some oppression of breathing.
3. Constriction of the chest.
4. Stiffiness, and sticking pains of the chest generally.
5. Considerable cough; much worse at night, and at-
tended by
6. Exceedingly scanty, difficult expectoration, of thin
frothy nature.
7. Soreness of chest and stomach from coughing.
8. On applying the ear to the chest, whistling, creaking
sounds are heard, indicative of the first stage of acute
bronchitis.
9. Sharp pain at the pit of the stomach, increased by
coughing.
10. Acidity of stomach.
11. Some flatulence.
12. Nausea, occasional heaving, and once or twice
vomiting of a thin mucus.
13. Feeling as though free vomiting would give relief.
14. Tongue somewhat brownish at the back, but moist.
15. Bowels regular.
16. Skin dry.
17. Pulse 88, rather full.
18. Very considerable thirst.
19. Occasional cold shivers.
I prescribed
Aconite 6, glob., and Bryonia 6, glob.
In alternation every half-hour.
Diet, tea and dry toast.
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
121
In the evening, the symptoms having apparently
increased in intensity, and the pulse being feeble, I
ordered
1
Arsenic 6, glob. every hour.
This was incorrect treatment; the evening exacer-
bation being an essential symptom of bronchitis, did
not require medicinal measures.
Jan. 11.-No sleep; coughed all night; breathing bad;
pulse 86; ineffectual attempts to vomit.
Aconite 6, glob. 4.
Ipecac. 3, glob. 4.
A globule of each in alternation every half hour.
In the evening no improvement (except an abate-
ment of the heaving efforts) having taken place, I
prescribed
Phosphorus, one glob. every hour.
Jan. 12.-1. Remission of cough since 4, A.M.
2. Dosed a little toward morning.
3. Chest somewhat relieved.
4. Pulse 80.
Continue Phosphorus.
The improvement continued during the day.
Jan. 13.—1. Very bad night; coughed all night, and was
obliged to sit up a great part of the night, to avoid being
suffocated.
2. However, there has been a remission since 4, A.M.
3. Breathing is rendered worse by the flatulence, which
rises in the throat, almost chokes her, and compels her to
cough.
4. Bowels not relieved since she came under treatment.
5. Pulse 80.
Nux vomica 6, glob. j every hour.
65
Two hours after this visit the bowels acted, with
immediate relief of all the symptoms.
122
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
Jan. 14.-1. The remission occurred at 1, A.M., this morn-
ing, since which time she has only coughed once until now,
8 o'clock.
2. Has frequently fallen into light dosing.
3. Chest better.
Continue Nux vomica.
An exacerbation of cough, stifling at the chest, and
oppression of breathing occurred two hours after last.
visit (at ten o'clock), and continued during the day.
Examination by the stethoscope showed that the condi-
tion of the lungs was the same as when first examined.
In the evening I ordered
Bryonia glob. j every hour.
Jan. 15.-1. Took some gruel last night, which was
almost immediately vomited.
2. Slept all night, except about two hours.
3. Had only three severe attacks of coughing, viz. at
one, three, and five o'clock.
12
6
Continue Bryonia.
4. During the day there was a good deal of coughing
but not severe. Expectoration has continued to be very
scanty, frothy, and transparent.
5. Bowels pretty freely open.
Jan. 16.—1. Yesterday evening vomited the tea which
she had taken.
2. Aggravation until 4, A.M., when she fell asleep, and
slept, only waking at intervals till eight o'clock.
3. Nausea and rising toward the throat.
4
Ipecac. glob., 1 every hour.
During the day she got worse and worse; all the
stomach and chest symptoms were aggravated, and she
complained of feeling very feeble. At one o'clock I
ordered
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
123
Nux. Vom. glob. ij. every two hours, and
Nux. Vom. 6, glob. ij. at night.
6
6
Jan. 17. At one o'clock this morning the remission
set in. From that time she has lain neither awake nor
asleep, but tranquil and comfortable.
Continue Nux. V. in smaller doses, and at less frequent
intervals.
Allowed to day, instead of the tea and toast to which
she had bitherto been confined, boiled fish and custard
pudding for dinner. From this period she continued
steadily to improve. Urine underwent a critical
change, becoming high coloured and turbid.
Jan. 18.-Good night.
Continue Nux. vom.
Jan. 19.-1. Sat up two hours yesterday.
2. Not a very good night, but this arose not from her
chest, but restlessness.
3. Only coughed three times last night.
4. A little moisture, for the first time since illness, upon
the skin (crisis.)
5. Urine dark-coloured, cloudy (crisis.)
6. Expectoration still, as it has been all along, scanty,
frothy, transparent, but more viscid than formerly.
7. Bowels slightly open last night.
8. Feels a great deal better; getting well fast.
No more medicine.
At this period she might be said to be well; for she
had little or no cough-little or no expectoration-and
only complained of feeling weak. The next day she
left her bed, and commenced a gentle tonic, hydropathic
course. She was weighed, and found to have lost
during her illness, 4 lbs. 12 oz.
124
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
STATISTICS OF CERTAIN ACUTE DISEASES TREATED HOMOEOPATHICALLY, ALLOPATHI-
CALLY, AND ACCORDING TO THE SYSTEM OF MEDICINE EXPECTANTE.
CASES OF PNEUMONIA (INFLAMMATION OF
THE LUNGS) TREATED ALLOPATHICALLY.
AUTHORITIES.
Grisolle
Briquet
Edinburgh Infirmary
Skoda
Mortality 20-30 per cent.
Louis
Mortality 18-13 per cent.
Brera, Not Bled
Bled once or twice
Bled from 3 to 9 times
Bled more than 9 times
11
>>
">
Mortality 30-75 per cent, or 1
death to every 8.25 patients.
Dietl, Bled
Mortality 20.4 per cent.
NO. OF
CASES.
301
364
222
392
1282
106
100
100
100
100
400
85
Dietl. Tartar Emetic employed. 106
No Bleeding
Mortality 20.7 per cent.
DEATHS.
43
85
80
54
262
32
14
19
22
68
123
17
22
CASES OF PNEUMONIA TREATED BY RELIANCE ON NATURE.
AUTHORITY,
Dietl.
NO. OF CASES.
189
Mortality 7.4 per cent.
AUTHORITY.
Fleischmann
CASES OF PNEUMONIA TREATED HOMEOPATHICALLY.
NO. OF CASES.
347
Mortality 5.70 per cent; or 1 in 17.35.
DEATHS.
14
DEATHS.
20
In the year 1842, according to Dr. Balfour, there were treated allo-
pathically in the Hospitals of Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dumfries,
Glasgow, Dundee, Inverness, and Perth, for Pneumonia, 125 patients;
35 died. The mortality was, therefore, 28 per cent., or about 1 in 3.54.
In the military hospitals of the United Kingdom, Gibraltar, Malta,
Ionian Islands, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Canada, and the
Cape of Good Hope, of 18,680 pneumonic patients treated allopathically,
only 207 died. Hence the mortality was 3:38 per cent., or 1 in 29.57.
It will be perceived that Dr. Fleischmann, treating like the other civil
physicians cases occurring in young children, in old persons, and in
broken down constitutions, approached the success of the military
surgeons, who had to deal with individuals in the very bloom and
vigour of their life, of sound and hardy constitutions.
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
125
6
MORTALITY IN CASES OF PLEURISY TREATED
ALLOPATHICALLY.
AUTHORITY.
NO. OF CASES, DEATHS.
111
14
Edinburgh Infirmary
Mortality, 12.61 per cent., or about one in every
eight cases.
MORTALITY IN CASES OF PERITONITIS
(INFLAMMATION OF THE BELLY), TREATED
ALLOPATHICALLY.
NO OF CASES. DEATHS.
21
Edinburgh Infirmary
6
Mortality, 27.61 per cent., or more than one out of
every four.
AUTHORITY.
MORTALITY IN CASES OF PLEURISY TREATED
HOMEOPATHICALLY.
NO. OF CASES, DEATHIS.
224
3
Mortality, 1.24 per cent., a little more than one in
a hundred.
AUTHORITY.
Fleischmann
MORTALITY IN CASES OF PERITONITIS, TREATED
HOMEOPATHICALLY.
AUTHORITY.
Fleischmann
NO. OF CASES. DEATHS.
6
105
Mortality, 4.76 per cent., or rather more than one
out of every 25 cases.
The above cases are taken from an Introduction to the Study of Homœopathy, with the exception of Brera's
cases,
which are from Rau's Organon, as quoted from Speranza, and Dietl's, which are quoted by the Homeo-
pathic Times from his work on Bleeding in Pneumonia. Louis' cases are quoted from Tessier's Recherches
Cliniqices; and Dr. Balfour is the authority for some other statements.
CHAPTER VIII.
I CANNOT conclude this work without alluding to the
fierce persecution which certain partisans of established
practices have organized against those who profess
the doctrines inculcated in these pages. The London
and Edinburgh Colleges of Physicians, the Edinburgh
College of Surgeons, the examining bodies of the Aber-
deen and Edinburgh Universities, refuse to admit for
examination students in medicine suspected of a
homœopathic leaning, and a very large number of
medical practitioners have, at various times and in
various places, refused to hold professional intercourse
with homoeopathists, whom, in many instances, they
have even ventured to denounce as quacks and impos-
tors. What can be the reason of this rancorous
hostility? Let us pass, in review, the leading points of
the doctrines advocated by homoeopathists, and see if
we can detect the marrow of their offence.
Firstly, homœopathists condemn the drug system.
They assert that, although many patients recover from
their diseases by its aid, yet that many others have
their diseases aggravated thereby, or become the
victims of various new maladies (termed drug diseases),
and that a few perish from the violent effects which
the medicines exhibited, produce. Perhaps this is the
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
127
reason why a large section of the profession abhors and
repudiates the homeopathist; and, indeed, it is not
unnatural that any body of men should revile the
daring opponent who would fain persuade the world of
the evil of their system. Yet it is not for this reason
that colleges conspire, and individuals band themselves
against homœopathy: for many eminent medical men,
whom their brethren cherish, have lifted up their
voices against drugs and druggery, with even greater
vehemence than homœopathists. Sir Astley Cooper
said, that the art of medicine is 'founded on conjecture,
and improved by murder. Yet Sir Astley, to the last
day of his existence, was revered by the whole pro-
fession. In France, Majendie; in Germany, Skoda;
and in England, many men of the highest talent, belong
to what is called the School of Expectant Medicine.
That is to say, they profess to believe that nature will
cure all diseases which are curable, and that the office
of the physician should be little else than that of head-
nurse. These men acknowledge that their acquaint-
ance with the actions and processes of the human body,
is no deeper than a child's knowledge of astronomy,
and they argue that the exhibition of powerful drugs is
strongly to be deprecated, because of our ignorance of
the manner in which they act. If a plough-boy, they
say, being utterly ignorant of the construction of a
watch, should undertake to regulate the movements of
a watch, which goes too fast or too slow-if a person,
unacquainted with the coast, should endeavour to pilot.
a ship amid unseen rocks into harbour-neither plough-
boy nor pilot would act so foolishly, as the medical
man, who attempts to set right by physic a deranged
constitution: for the ship left to the mercy of the
128
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
winds, would be no more likely to reach the shore in
safety than under the guidance of the pilot; and the
watch which goes fast or slow, has no tendency to
regain spontaneously correct action. But the human
body, when diseased, struggles to rid itself of the
incubus by which it is oppressed; and if the physician.
officiously intrude into the contest, he is much more
likely to perpetuate than to aid in the overthrow of the
disease. Therefore the doctrines of the expectant, or
do-nothing school, are as condemnatory of the ordinary
medical practice as any opinion expressed by homeo-
pathists; and yet the profession is well content that
these sceptics should continue to lie in its bosom. We
must look farther if we would discover the unpardonable
sin of which homœopathists, in the eyes of colleges, and
universities, and associations, are guilty.
:
Homœopathists believe that diseases are cured by
drugs in virtue of the power which these latter possess
of producing in a healthy organism similar diseases.
Can it be that this article has given offence? No,
certainly for liberty is unanimously accorded to every
practitioner, to entertain whatever opinions seem good
unto him, as to the modus operandi of remedies; and
we know that those who explain everything by
chemistry, and those who refer all phenomena to the
vital principle, and those who weave hypotheses of
their own, and those who never trouble their heads
about the matter, live in harmony, and do not allow
theoretical notions to influence their social relations.
The followers of Liebig, of Broussais, of Brown, and of
Billing, although they differ from one another, not only
in their theories but also in their practice, willingly
meet at the bedside, and discuss, in concert, what
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
129
measures may be useful in the individual case to which
they are called. Neither Drs. Corrigan, nor Owen
Rees, nor Budd, nor Bouillaud, would refuse to inter-
change opinions as to the treatment of a
case of
rheumatic fever, although it is well known, that the
first would recommend opium; the second lemon-juice;
the third, alkali; and the fourth, repeated venesections
to a small extent. It cannot, therefore, be on account
of dissent in theory or practice, from a standard
erected by the profession, that homœopathists are to be
driven from its pale; for the profession, far from
acknowledging any standard, claims for every practi-
tioner the right of private judgment, and of unfettered
action in every case.
We are compelled to look deeper still for an explana-
tion of the odium attached to homeopathy, and perhaps
we may find in the doctrine of infinitesimal doses the
object of our search. Clearly this doctrine must be far
from acceptable to chemists and druggists, and to all
who live by the sale of drugs; for under the reign of
homœopathy, famine would stare them in the face.
But this does not apply to physicians and other practi-
tioners in medicine, who would have as much to do as
they have now under any order of things. Is there
therefore anything in the doctrine of infinitesimals itself,
which is sufficient to excite against its advocates the
equal enmity of Brunonian, and Broussaiist, of the
adherent of Billing, and the disciple of Liebig? This
question must be answered in the negative, for the
matter of doses is admitted by the profession to be an
open point. For example: Dr. Pareira, in his work
on Materia Medica informs us, that his friends
Mr. King and Dr. Clutterbuck, give tincture of fox-
130
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
!
glove in doses of drachms and ounces, while the bulk
of the profession only venture to exhibit drops of this
medicine. Again, it is well known that practitioners
in hot climates, administer calomel and quinine in
doses of half a drachm to a drachm, frequently re-
peated; but the majority of practitioners in this
country never give a larger quantity than two, three,
or four grains. Physicians in Germany and Russia
prescribe the iodide of potassium to the extent of half
a drachm at a dose, while in this country, three or four
grains is considered a large dose. These differences in
opinion, as respects the quantity of medicine which it
is desirable to administer, are not permitted to interfere
with the courtesies of life, nor do they hinder the
favourers of discordant modes of treatment from ex-
changing ideas at the wish of the patient. In addition
to these diversities between different practitioners, the
same practitioner, frequently at one period of his life,
differs from himself at another period of his life. It is
a general fact, that practitioners as they grow old,
diminish the doses of their medicines. Now, then, it
cannot be because homœopathists differ from their
brethren as to the quantity of physic required to cure a
disease, that they incur reprobation; for their brethren
differ among themselves upon this very subject.
Among the novelties of homeopathy, is what is called.
the proving of medicines; that is to say, the experimental
investigation of the effects of medicines upon healthy
bodies. Is this objected to by the coalition? One
can hardly believe that hostility to a measure which
common sense pronounces to be good, can have raised
so great a storm; and I do not suppose that any man
will seriously blame the self-sacrificing physician, who,
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY,
131
with no other inducement than the hope of enlarging
his science, and of benefiting humanity, submits to a
course of experimental medical treatment, and indus-
triously notes the various symptoms that arise.
I have now reviewed, seriatim, the different points
of homœopathic practice; and I confess, that I can
perceive nothing to justify the persecution which it has
sustained-nothing to excuse the slur cast on the moral
character of its supporters-nothing to extenuate the
act of outlawry which close corporations are passing
against those who have fallen under their displeasure.
Of course, it is disagreeable to a man who is deriving
a comfortable income from the practice of medicine, to
be told, that for years he has been doing very objection-
able things; making many of his patients worse than
they would have been without his interference; in-
flicting upon some diseases to which they would have
remained strangers, and pocketing much money, and
receiving great praise, when his real merit was a little
below zero. No doubt, it is disagreeable to hear
remarks like these. But what? Are we to be mealy-
mouthed, when so great an interest is at stake? Must
we, in order to spare yon sensitive complainant, arrest
the chariot wheels of Reform? No. Let them roll on,
whatever betide the feeble adversaries in the path.
Sure we are, that the ultimate effect will be the achieve-
ment of a great victory, and the overthrow of a Reign
of Terror by which humanity is decimated.
Yet, although I would by no means withdraw from
the combat, nor propitiate favour by the sacrifice of
principle, I would fain see the champions of the new,
equally with the defenders of the old opinions, some-
what less bitter in their polemics, and somewhat more
132
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
charitable towards those whose views differ from their
own. I would have both parties pause for a moment,
and before they renew the heat of warfare, look out
from their little arena, and derive instruction from the
events that occur in the great theatre of the world.
The less is imaged in the greater; and it will be seen,
that medicine is now in the throes of a revolution,
which has long been achieved in respect to some other
systems, and which must ultimately absorb all.
It is revealed to us by history, that society continually
tends to cast itself in a certain mould-to develope
itself into a definite organization, comprehending sys-
tems, and classes, and orders. Yet this organization is
never completed; for advance of knowledge, and new
relations, form the elements, first of passive resistance,
and at last of active aggression, which undoes all that
had been effected. And this effort at destruction is
carried on at once in every portion of the whole; so
that no constituent system, nor class, nor order, escapes
decay. In spite, however, of this continued dismem-
berment, the life of society is constructive; and if
organization cannot be compassed in one direction, it
is constantly sought in another, and new systems, new
classes, new orders, arising simultaneously, harmonize
and cohere toward the newer general type, which
itself is never to be realised, in consequence of the
ever increasing activity of its specific dissolvent.
Illustrations of the truth to which I refer are fur-
nished on a large scale by the great empires of
antiquity-by the ancient religions-by the feudal
system-by the Romish church. In the present day
(in spite of apparent temporary reactions), we
behold the world organising itself in a republican
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
133
spirit. The great systems of old have passed away,
the little systems which they enclosed, have passed, or
are passing away with them. There is nothing but
doth suffer change into something rare and strange.'
Systems of laws, systems of religion, systems of polity,
systems of warfare, systems even of dress and social
customs, imperceptibly melt like a dissolving view into
novel forms and conditions. In the midst of those
mutations, can medicine remain permanent? Can ex-
isting medical institutions last for ever? The empire
of the world has been snatched from the Romans-the
Pope no longer lays claim to infallibility-the Corn-
laws are repealed, but the College of Physicians hope
to be eternal: the lancet is not to be sheathed before
the day of judgment, and the last man is to swallow
the last dose of calomel! It cannot be. The world is
rolling in a new orbit, and medicine must turn from
its old path. It cannot be helped. Colleges and uni-
versities and corporations feel it to be a great hardship
-they remonstrate, they get angry, they persecute, but
they are rolled into the new orbit, and ultimately they
will shake hands with destiny, and be content. In the
meantime, let the men of to-day, confident of what the
morrow will bring forth, pursue their work, and not
press too hard upon the sticklers for finality; and let
the latter it is a friendly caution-beware how they
imitate a certain animal which is said to cut its own
throat in swimming against the stream.
If any one can make up his mind to look calmly at
homœopathy, he will perceive that it is impossible, with
any show of reason, to refuse credence to her preten-
sions. It is put in evidence, that many thousands of
individuals, who had suffered for years from chronic
134
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
complaints, and had, most of them, undergone in vain.
various modes of treatment, recovered rapidly and com-
pletely as soon as they fell into the hands of homœopa-
thists. Would any court of law reject this testimony?
and if it should, what human testimony could, after
such rejection, be received? And if it be granted that
these multitudes recovered as they state, can any one
deny the efficacy of the medicine which they swallowed?
or if he should deny its efficacy, how can he, in future,
presume to trace cause and effect in any series of
events whatever? All that we know of cause and
effect is constant sequence: and where we observe
constant sequence, we
are bound to admit causal
connexion between any two phenomena. How do
I know that, in any given case of poisoning, that
it was
the arsenic swallowed which caused the per-
son's death? Might it not be a coincidence merely?
The only answer I can make is this:- Many per-
sons have swallowed arsenic, and died very shortly
after.' When
When I whip a horse, how do I know that
it is the whipping which makes him move faster?
I say so, only because very many times after I have
whipped a horse, he has gone faster. Cause and effect
are to us nothing more than constant antecedence and
sequence; every constant antecedent we term a cause,
and every constant sequent we term an effect. Hence,
since by testimony such as no court of law could reject,
it is proved that thousands of individuals have got well
very shortly after taking homœopathic medicines, we are
compelled (if we would not give up cause and effect
altogether) to admit, that by the homeopathic medicine
they were cured. Possibly some one may object, that
we only assume cause and effect, when we observe
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
135
invariable sequence, and that, as every body who takes
homœopathic medicine does not get well, therefore my
rgument does not hold. But I deny the position. It
is not by invariable sequence that we judge of cause
and effect. Does a horse always move faster for whip-
ping? Yet, when he does move faster after whipping,
we have no hesitation in saying, that the whipping was
the cause of his haste. Does every person who swal-
lows a very large dose of arsenic die therefrom? By no
means. Yet when we see a person shortly after swallow-
ing a large dose of arsenic die in torments, we conclude,
and conclude justly, that the arsenic caused his death.
If a
The whole question of the efficacy, or inefficacy, of
homœopathy, to a person who has not witnessed its
practical operation, is a question of testimony. Are
we, or are we not, to admit human testimony in mat-
ters above our reason? I say, that if the witnesses be
numerous, and of sound mind, and conscientious, and
placed in such circumstances that delusion is impossible,
it is our duty to receive their depositions as true.
great number of witnesses, such as I have described,
affirm that they encountered a man who went about
healing the sick, raising the dead, converting water into
wine, and, in the broad light of day, ascending into heaven,
I cannot but believe; and if, upon human testimony,
I believe such great things, surely, upon human testi-
mony, I may believe the far less improbable assertion,
that very minute quantities of medicine, given in a new
manner, have cured a variety of diseases. But the
majority of persons lightly give their belief to whatever
accords with their previous prejudice or experience, and
refuse to believe whatever is new or strange, however
strong may be the testimony by which it is confirmed.
136
PRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
The world reasons much in the way of the old woman
who listened with delight to the marvels related by her
son, on his return from a long voyage; but thought it
necessary to rebuke him sharply, when he attempted to
impose on her credulity, by stating that he had seen a
fish fly. But when, bye and bye, Master Jack narrated
how he had encountered men who carried their heads
beneath their shoulders, the good dame exclaimed,
Ay! there is some sense in that-I read it in a book ;
but don't tell me that you saw fish fly!'
People will not believe in infinitesimal doses, not-
withstanding that hundreds of individuals have been
cured by them. They argue in this way: 'If Adam,
at the moment he was created, had taken an infinitesi-
mal dose of arsenic, and had continued to take a dose
every five minutes during the whole of his life, and his
life had been prolonged until the present instant, he
would not have swallowed one grain of arsenic :
therefore homœopathy is false.' This is an easy way
of getting rid of homoeopathy, and I congratulate the
Lancet, which has made this profound discovery. But
I beg to point out to the Lancet, as it seems to take
pleasure in the destruction of sciences, that its new
principle may be employed to overthrow not only
homœopathy, but also astronomy, chemistry, mathe-
matics, and to establish the reign of universal night.
The Lancet has only to form the following syllogisms:-
'Astronomy tells us, that probably some of the very
stars which we now behold brilliantly shining in the
heavens, were destroyed long before the birth of Adam;
therefore astronomy is false.' Acute reasoner! Again:
'Chemistry asserts that she can weigh the air, set
water on fire, freeze water by the application of heat,
'
FRINCIPLES OF HOMEOPATHY.
137
and perform other impossibilities; therefore chemistry
is false.' Admirable syllogism! "Mathematics, too,
maintain that }=; that is to say, that one, divided by
nought, equals infinity; therefore mathematics is as
false as the rest.' Who shall gainsay argument like
this? Farewell, then, poor Homeopathy, thy doctrines
are fallacious, and thy practices inert. The Lancet's
powerful syllogism has dug thy grave; hasten and get
thee buried. Thou goest indeed in good company, for
the irresistible syllogism has with thee-slain astro-
nomy, chemistry, mathematics, and every science in
which the world delighted to believe!
In sad earnest, the idea of confuting Homœopathy by
raising the cry of absurdity! is a proof of lamentable
presumption, or of consummate ignorance. Absurd!
Is any fact in nature absurd? Is the revolution of the
earth round the sun absurd? It was called so once.
Is the existence of America absurd? Geographers
said so at one time. Is the passage of a railroad over
Chatsworth Moss absurd? Not many years back a
great engineer undertook to prove that it was. Is it not
certain, that if, in the olden time, any projector had
canvassed the possibility of taking portraits by the sun,
and sending messages by electricity, he would have
been considered a fit and proper subject for Redlam?
Assuredly it was, and is, and indeed ever will be the
case, that the unthinking multitude, headed by such
writers as they of the Lancet, will raise a great shout of
derision upon the announcement of every new truth;
but it is no less certain that the new truth will tri-
umph over opposition, and go down a heir-loom to
posterity.
NOTE TO PAGE 28.
THAT mercury is no preventive of inflammatory deposits, is proved
by the case recorded by the late Mr. Samuel Cooper. At the very
time that an inflammatory deposit was undergoing absorption
under the influence of mercury in one of a certain patient's eyes,
exudation of lymph was taking place in the other. Dr. A. Wilson
(Lancet, November 23, 1834), observes :- To these off-hand pre-
scribers, exclusively practical and pre-eminently regular, it is a
matter hard of belief, that lymph may be fast exuding on the
serous surfaces of the chest, while a mercurial saliva is flowing
largely from the mouth. I have never seen more of ragged, pulpy
deposit on the surface of the heart from recent inflammation of its
investing membrane, than in the case of a young woman, who was
brought, some five or six years ago, into St. George's Hospital,
shortly before her death, profusely salivated, in the sequel of
rheumatic fever.'
J. M. BURTON AND CO., IPSWICH STEAM PRESS.
HYDROPATHIC ESTABLISHMENT,
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EDGBASTON, BIRMINGHAM.
PHYSICIAN, DR. WALTER JOHNSON.
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ADVICE, BATH ATTENDANCE, BATHS, ETC., FIFTEEN
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PERSONS IN INFERIOR CIRCUMSTANCES, AND THOSE WHOSE
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For further particulars apply per post, or personally to MRS. PERRY,
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THE
HE DOMESTIC PRACTICE OF HYDROPATHY, describing
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JOHNSON, M.D.
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MORBID
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some
By EDWARD
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HYDROPATHIC STATISTICS; a Lecture on Hydropathy,
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Lately Published, Price 4s.
THE
TREATMENT OF INCURABLE
DISEASES.
By
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Action in Discase.'
LIBRARY OF HEALTH.
UNDER the above title the Publishers intend to issue a succession
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NOW READY, VOL. I, PRICE 1s. 6d.
IFE, HEALTH, AND DISEASE.
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|
UNIV. OF MICH.
JAN 18 1907
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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