HOMCEOPATHIA,
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BY
J. H . A JF E II R > M . D.
  Member of several Homoeopathic Societies.
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Audiatur et altera pars.

  LEXINGTON:
inquirer office print.
   1845. 
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ESSAY
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HOMCEOPATHIA, 
 
PREFACE.
   Dr. Lawson, Professor of Pathological Anatomy and Physiology In
the Transylvania College, Lexington, Ky, in his Introductory Lecture,
delivered on the 11th of November, 1844, at the Medical Hall, giving an
historical sketch of the Medical Science, expressed himself, in rela-
tion to the Homoeopathic System, founded  by Dr. Samuel Hahne-
mann,  in the following words:—"And what is Homceopathia?   It
is an insane  phantom, and does neither good nor harm."
   If such an opinion were uttered privately by the learned Professor, I
would have thought it unworthy any notice, but it was declared in public,
before a  large and respectable audience, which more or less, is  mate-
rially interested, to know what Homceopathia is; and as I am practising
according to the fundamental principles of that system, I feel myself
under obligations, to refute such an assertion, and to protest against it,
in the name of every friend of Homoeopothia, as an improper expres-
sion, without  foundation in truth.  In the following pages, I hope, by
the use of proper facts  and arguments to maintain my position, and
then let  the  public, and competent judges, decide between us.
   I am acting only in defence,  and not with the intention to hurt  the
feelings of physicians, who  practice on a different system, believing
that they strive equally  with myself,  to confer the  most possible
good  upon  our  fellow-beings,  who,  afflicted  with  disease,  have
to call for medical assistance;  and  where  we  introduce,  in our
essay,  third  persons and their  opinions, the reader will understand,
that many  charges brought  up against the  yet common practice  of
medicine, when compared  with Homceopathia,  are directed in part
against the abuse  of a medical treatment, in which some physicians
will feel themselves not implicated.  May the Doctors please to receive
them in as good a humor as I did Dr. Lawson's "touch'1'' on Homceopa-
thia, as some called it.   We have nothing  to do either with person.
alties, or localities.  The contest only regards different principles and 
4
 opinions.   Every one lias a perfect right to act in conformity with his
 knowledge and predilections,—to  suit himself, as far as he does not
 encroachfUpon the natural and positive rights of mankind; but as soon
 as he attacks his neighbor for difference of opinion and practice, the lat-
 ter will be justified to  defend his position in  a  proper  manner, and
 that is all which we attempt to do.  Opposition, when conducted pro-
 perly and sustained by reason and facts, can only have a salutary opera-
 tion, appears respectable, and has often materially contributed to pro-
 gress and improvement.  Difference  of opinion in matters of science
 never ought  to  create animosities.  Whoever is  acquainted with the
 science and literature of Homceopathia at the present time, will be far
 from accusing her as it formerly has been done, and even then the
 assaults upon it were restricted only to most immaterial points.    The
 fundamental  law, "similia similibus curantur,"  has, in all conflicts
 with our opponents, still retained the field, and its glorious banner waves
 victoriously over many countries.
  There are, in  the construction of any system, parts, which will more
 or less admit correction and improvement, as none of us, with all our
 knowledge, have reached  a  state of perfection,  and never shall; but
 small matters should be placed in a subordinate  rank and  not be
 treated as principal parts, as so often has been done by our opponents.
 The correctness of our fundamental principles, is  tested  by  reason
 and experience,  and their superiority never could be denied in truth.
  We  don't want  to combat old opinions  and objections which have
 been refuted over and over, long ago, but if Dr. Lawson has anything
new and original, which has  a  tendency to affect the Homoeopathic
 System materially, as it presents itself at this period, certainly it will
 be thankfully and properly received  wherever Homceopathia is well-
 known, admired and advocated.
  I would have preferred to leave it to a Homoeopathic physician, who
uses the English language as his  mother-language, to answer Dr. Law-
son, but as there is none  in my immediate  neighborhood, I am com-
pelled to do  it myself as well as I can, and  I beg the kind indul-
gence of the reader.
                                    J.. II. A.  FEHR, M. D.
                               Office: Mill Street, near the Post Office.
  Lexington, Kyt Nov,, 1844. 
ESSAY,   &c.
  Living in an age of improvement, and not of stability, nor of retro-
gression, every man of high mind will feel himself compelled to keep
pace with his time, and every new production in arts and science, pro-
mising to benefit the social state of man and to  elevate him still higher
in the scale of intelligence, will be Welcomed.   A noble spirit is ev-
ery moment ready to  a conviction for  the better.  Nothing ought to
be accepted or granted, except it has undergone a strict examination and
test, but if proved  good, it ought to stand as such  as long as it  is so,
and when cast again in shadow by higher progression, even that which
has been best adapted to  our knowledge  of the past, has to concede
its  station  to the advance of new acquirements in science.    On-
ward is  the march of intellect and civilization,  and it is indifferent
how many there are who limp in the  rear.   Infinite  progress will not
stop for their sake,  nor will they be strong enough  to arrest its speed.
This very principle, which is established in all departments of science,
finds no less its true  application in  medicine.  Why should  all her
sister sciences advance,  and she stand still  in the midway o^ her ca-
reer?   Never be it so.   But when the  voice of reason is derided,
language has to be so much more emphatical to be received.  Intend-
ing to be brief, we go direct to  our task,  showing  tbat reform in the
art of healing wag a demand of our age, and that  from the old stem
of medicine a new branch of luxurious growth, great beauty and most
practical advantage, has sprung up.
  The call for reform in medicine  sounded from  the head-quarters;
the  most eminent in the profession, for some time, declared themselves
dissatisfied with the present state of materia medica and medical prac-
tice, and were not  ashamed to speak  it out in public.   Let us hear
their own expressions:
  Dr. Girtanner:  Our materia medica is a mere collection of falla-
cious  observations.*
  Dr. Hoffmann : Perpauca sunt remedia quorum virtutes et opera-
tiones certae, plurima vero infida, suspecta, fallacia, ficta.f
  Dr. Cabanis: We discover nothing fixed and  invariable m  the appli-
cation of medicine, or in the plans they should  furnish us for our con-
duct.    With  the exception therefore  of  some principles, which, in
consequence of their very general nature, are little calculated to di-
rect us in the detail  of every particular circumstance, it seems as if
the theoretical knowledge of a  physician was reduced to nothing at
*Hist. Introd.Phar.      tDartellungen. 
li
the bedside of the sick, and that  his practical skill resides in a sort of
instinctive aeuteness improved by habit and experience.*
   Dr. Pereira : We  can hardly  refuse our  assent to the observation
of the late Sir Gilbert  Blaxe,  that in many cases patients get well
in spite of the means employed; and sometimes where the practitioner
fancies that he has made a great cure, we may fairly assume the pa-
tient to have  had a happy cscape.f
   Dr. Paris : That such fluctuations in opinion and versatility in prac-
tice should have produced, even in the most candid and  learned ob-
servers, an unfavorable  impression with regard to the general efficacy
of medicines, can hardly excite  our astonishment, much less our in-
dignation; nor can we be surprized that another portion of mankind has
at once arraigned physic as a fallacious art, or derided it as a compos-
ition  of error and fraud.  They ask, and it must be confessed that
they ask with reason, what pledge can be afforded them that the boast-
ed remedies of the present, day will not,  like their predecessors, fall
into disrepute,  and in  their turn  serve only as humiliating memorials
of the credulity and infatuation of  the physicians who commend and
prescribe  them; in the  progress  of the  history of medicines, when
are we able to  produce a discovery or improvement, which has been
the result of  that happy  combination of observation, analogy and ex-
periment,  which has  so  eminently  rewarded the  labors  of modern
science?:}:
   Dr. John Mason Good :  As the historian of medicine approaches
nearer to his  own  times he finds  his path encumbered with almost in-
surmountable difficulties.  The subject on which he has to treat dif-
fers perhaps from every other branch of science in this circumstance:
that our actual information does not increase  in any degree in propor-
tion to our experience.  Hence, it follows,  that the accumulation of
materials  frequently rather retards  than  promotes its progress.  In
other sciences,  although truth is  not to be attained without a certain
degree of laborious research, yet to those who are willing to bestow
on it the requisite  attention, it is for the most part attainable, or if it
still eludes our  grasp, we are at  least sensible of  the deficiency, and
generally ascertain the precise nature  of  the obstacles which impede
our progress.   In  other  sciences, when we  enter upon an inquiry or
propose to ourselves any object for experiment or observation, we are
able  to say whether the result  of our inquiry has been satisfactory,.
and whether the object in view has or has not been accomplished.  But
this unfortunately is  not  the case  in Medicine.||
  Dr. Abercromhie: Since medicine was first cultivated as a science
a leading  object of attention has been to ascertain the character or
symptoms by  which internal diseases are indicated, and by which  they
are distinguished from other diseases  that resemble them.  But  with
the accumulated experience of ages bearing  upon this important sub-
  *Es$ay on the Certainty of Medicine.  fLecture on Pharmacology.
  tLeeture delivered in London before the Royal College of Physicians.
  ||On the Study of Medicine. 
7
ject, our extended observation has only served, to convince us how de-
eient we are in this department, and how often, even in the first step in
our progress, we are left to conjecture.   A writer of high eminence
has even hazarded the assertion, that those persons are most confident
in regard to the characters of disease  whose knowledge is most limi-
ted, and that more extended observation generally leads to doubt. An
equal, or even more remarkable uncertainty, attends all our researches
on the action of external agents upon the  body.   These engage our
attention in two respects; as causes  of  disease and as remedies and
in both these views the action of them is fraught with the highest de-
gree of uncertainty.   *   *   *  *   When, in the practice of medi-
cine, we apply to new cases the knowledge  acquired from other cases,
which we believe to be of the same nature, the difficulties are so great
that it is doubtful, whether in any case we can properly be said to act
upon experience, as we do in other branches  of science.  The  diffi-
culties and sources of uncertainty, which meet us at every stage of such
investigation, are in fact so great and numerous, that those, who have
the most extensive opportunities of observation, will be the first to ac-
knowledge, that our pretended experience must, in general, sink into
analogy, and even our analogy, too often, into conjecture.*
   Dr. S. Jackson, (commenting on the imperfect state in which medi-
cine appears, and referring to the necessity of reform:) Can this re-
form be much longer postponed? I believe not.  The interests of the
profession are too  deeply implicated  to admit that things should long
continue  in their present state.  It  cannot be concealed that public
confidence  in  the knowledge  and intelligence of the  profession has
been shaken,—has been most  materially impaired in some sections of
the country. In the regular practice, has not the treatment of disease
too much degenerated into a blind routine, pursued  in nearly every
disease, however dissimilar in nature?  Let medicine be what  in
reality it is, a science of calculation, of combination, of induction, the
elements of which are deduced from  the phenomena of organized be-
ings, and the relations of exterior agents with them.t
   Dr. James Rush : It seems to be one of the rules of faith in our art,
that every truth must be helped into belief  by  some persuasive fiction
of the school; and I here owe it to the general reader to confess, that
as far  as I know, the medical profession can scarcely produce a single
volume in its practical  department,  from the works of Hippocrates
down to the last made text-book, which, by the requisitions of an exact
philosophy, will not be found to contain nearly as much fiction as truth4
   Dr. Magendie: The chain that binds Allopathia to its fixed position
must be broken; it is a humiliating position of medical science.   The
people see  it to be a mere race between physician and  disease, as to
which can reduce the patient  first, while the medical standards show
as an  established principle, that both  disease and medicine act with a
power proportionate to the debility of the patient.  (Exp.)
   ♦Inquiries concerning the intellectual powers and the investigation of truth.
   tlntroductory Lecture to the Medical Students  of the Univer. of Penn.
   The Philosophy of the Human Voice.
i 
8
   And in  the  Introduction  to his Physiology: The natural  sciences,
like history, have had their fabulous  period.  Astronomy commenced
in astrology; chemistry was not long  since alchemy; and medicine but
a combination of absurd hypotheses.  Strange condition of the human
mind, which seems to require that it  should long exercise itself in er-
ror before it dare approach the truth.
   "What  does Dr. Lawson  think of such  declarations from his own
party against the medical system he favors himself?
   The  absurdities of such practice of medicine Hahnemann has
strongly  and continually  exposed, and for that reason  the medical
schools, and their obedient imitators,  form such an ignoble opposition.
As Hahnemann is the founder  of the  Homoeopathic System, or re-
formed system of medical practice, we shall insert here his Biography,
as  being, no doubt,  interesting to some.  We take it from  the "En-
cyclopaedia Americana:'1
   Hahnemann, Samuel Christian  Frederic,  Doctor of Medicine,
Counsellor of the  Duke  of Anhalt-Cothen, was born April 10, 1755,
at  Meissen,  in Saxony.   His father  educated  him with much care.
While at the University of Leipsic, Hahnemann was obliged to support
himself by translating English medical  books, and thus even  provided
himself with means to continue his medical studies at Vienna.  After
a year's residence in this city, he was appointed Physician, Librarian
and Superintendent of a Museum of Coins, by Baron von Bruckenthal,
Governor of Transylvania. After some  years he returned to Germany,
studied another year  in  Erlangen, and took his  degree of Doctor in
Physic in 1779, on which occasion he defended a dissertation, "Con-
spectus affectuum spasmodicorum."  He then practised at Marsfield,
Dessau and Magdeburg.  He afterwards relinquished the practice and
devoted himself to chemistry, and to writing on medical subjects. At
this time he  conceived the  first idea  of the system which he after-
wards  developed.  While engaged  in translating Cullen's  Materia
Medica,  he was dissatisfied  with the explanation of the antipyretic
principles in the Peruvian bark, given by  that celebrated physician,
and he determined to discover, by experiments, on what the power of
the bark, in intermittent  fevers, depended.   He  took it in considera-
ble quantity  while in  perfect health,  and  found that it produced an
ague similar to  the intermittent March fever.   He  seized upon this
hint of nature in his practice, which he had again commenced in the
Insane Hospital in Georgenthal, at Brunswich and Konigslutter, where
by  many experiments of the effects of simple medicines on himself
and his family,  he acquired so much knowledge  of their nature,  that
he  effected many remarkable cures by  Homoeopathic applications.
The physicians  and apothecaries immediately began to persecute him
and, at last, effected  his removal by authority, on the  ground of his
having violated  the law  forbidding physicians to furnish themselves
the medicines that they  prescribed,  which, in his way of proceeding
was necessary.   He then practised in different places in the  north of
Germany; and,  at Torgau,  he  wrote  his  Organon der Rationellen 
                                9

Ileilkunde, (Dresden,  1810.)  A dispute was carried on for twelve
years, on the merits of his Homoeopathic system.  In Leipsig, where
he agxin defended a thesis, De Hclleborismo Veterum, (1812,) in or-
der  to  obtain  the privileges of a doctor in Leipsig, he  taught and
practised medicine with success for eleven years; the excitement re-
specting his system  became at length so  great, that Government,
yielding to the petition of the apothecaries, reminded Hahnemann of
the before-mentioned law, forbidding physicians  to pdminister medi-
cines prepared by themselves—a law quite common in Germany.* He
could, therefore, no longer  practice medicine in that city, according
to his system, and the Duke Ferdinand of Anhalt-Cothen offered him
an asylum.  In 1821  he went to Cothen.  He has endeavored to cure
the most inveterate and protracted diseases, during the last six years,
by a new application of the homoeopathic remedies; but for want  of a
Clinical  Hospital, has not been  able, properly, to exhibit his system.
  So far the Ency. Amer.   (We add that a Clinical Hospital is of great
service  to a Homceopathist, to  show the efficacy of his treatment in
its full force and its beneficial results, as many cures in private practice
are interrupted, and  sometimes made impossible by many exposures
and imprudent acts of patients left to themselves.)   As Duke Ferdi-
nand of Anhalt-Cothen raised Hahnemann to the distinction of Court
Counsellor, and employed him  as domestic  Physician, he was at the
same time  favored with an  entire immunity from the apothecaries'
monopoly.   There he quietly labored, concentrating his energies with
Drs.  Brunnow, Muhlenbein,  Stapf and Moritz Muller, to  perfect  the
edifice, so well designed, and began to enjoy enviable reputation, pop-
ularity and happiness, in the midst  of  a family of  affectionate children,
who partic'pated in the trials of their  parent through weal and woe.  v
In 1829,  himself and friends  celebrated  his fiftieth anniversary of
Doctorship.  In the  year  1835, he  married Miss  Marie  Melonio
d'Heryilly-Gohier, as his  second wife, a French lady, forty  years of
age, perfectly independent as to fortune, and descended from an an-
cient family of wealth and rank, whom he had cured,  and was induced
by her to take up  his residence at Paris, where he was engaged in an
extensive practice.   During the hours devoted to medical attendance
his anti-chambers were crowded with patients, and the street with  car-
riages from far and near, and hours elapsed before the  afflicted in their
turn could receive admission.  After an illness of six weeks Dr. Hahne-
mann died in his eighty-ninth year, on Sunday,  the 2d of July, 1843. His
death was deplored by thousands of his intimate friends and admirers,
but his fame, as one  of the greatest benefactors  of mankind, has im-
mortalized his  name, and has erected for him a blessed monument
in the hearts of suffering and intelligent fellow-beings, which is rising

  * After the famous battle, near his residence, Leipsig, 16th, 17th and 18th of
Oct., 1813, a contagious typhus was developed, which proved most fatal to thos-
attacked with it.  Hahnemann  gave  instructions to combat it successfully,
and  out of one hundred and eighty patients, under his own attendance, all
recovered except one, already advanced in age. 
10
daily and yearly with the progressive history of humanity.   Among his
numerous writings  and translations, his "Organon  of the R^ltlon^
Art of Healing," in several editions; his "Materia Medica Pura,"  in o
vol. edited from 1811-21, and the "Chronic Maladies," in 5 vol.  from
1828-35, form his classical works in Homceopathia.

  The cry for reform in Materia Medica and Medical Practice has  ech-
oed as we have already proved from  Germany, France, Italy, Great
Britain and America, and every feeling physician, whose only  aim is
to relieve the sufferings of his fellow-beings did (in  the acknowledge-
ment of  the insufficiency of the result of the common practice in  so
many  instances,) sincerely wish  for substantial improvement.   Hah-
nemann has undertaken to accomplish  this desirable  object by es-
tablishing the principle of similia  similibus curantur (diseases are
cured by similar affections)  as a fundamental law in medicine, not as a
mere hypothesis, but as tested by experience.  But  how  has it  been
done?  not by following the  same  track from which his predecessors
profiting  very  little by  the experience of others, have not deviated
much for some thousand years.   Any traveller of common sense will,
as soon as he sees  that the road he  is following to arrive at a cer-
tain place of  destination,  leads him  in a  contrary direction, abstain
from such a course and take a different  one, and if required,  even a
strict opposite one to gain the  point in view. So Hahnemann, by trans-
lating Cullens' Materia Medica, 1790, was struck by  the recommenda-
tions the author bestowed  on Cinchona  in  different  diseases—
and not  being able  to account for the reason of it,  tried  the bark on
himself to find  out  its  effects, and as such he noticed a febrile action
similar to that of fever and ague, for which it was used in most  cases
as specific.  The idea that medicines ought to be administered first to
a person in health, to see their effect, and then according to the result
in diseases, was the rule for  Hahneman's further experiments.   He
tried the effects of a couple hundred of medicines on  himself.  The
same medicines were tried again on his own family and by his  friends
and  disciples; the observation and result proved to be correct, and ac-
cording to the principle "like cures like,"  they were applied in  med-
ical  practice with undeniable success, and so Hahnemann says, fully jus-
tified, "7 speak from experience."  The principle similia similibus curan-
tur  had  been pronounced before  Hahnemannn,  though rather only in
some single cases. He first brought it befora the profession as a system.
   Hippocrates in  his aphorism: Disease arises  by  similars and men
are cured by similars administered.
   Vomitus vomitu curantur: Vomiting cured by vomits.   At anoth-
er place he says:   The most diseases are cured  by the  same means,
which brought on the disease.
   Basilius Valentinus, in his book, "de Microcosmo," plainly comes
 out:  " Like is  to be  expelled by its like, and not by its coutrary, heat
 by heat, cold by cold, piercing by piercing; for heat attracts heat, cold
 attracts  cold, as the magnet does in regard to iron.   He who does not 
11
attend to that, is not a real  physician, and  may in silence boast of no
medicine."   And in his Curus triumphalis Antimonii, repeating the
sentence: Poison against poison, he adduces the following examples:
A frozen egg thaws in cold  water, a frozen limb gets sound by fomen-
tations of snow water.  On inflamed parts of the body apply an  in-
flamative matter, namely alcohol,  which is pure fire, or the quintes-
sence of sulphur; one heat  then attracts the other, according to the
magnetic manner and form,  espouses the heat of its equal, and brings
to the inflamed limb not relief but  recovery." Hieronymus Cardanus,
rejecting the Galenian doctrine of contrariety of remedies to the dis-
ease, declared, that e. g. diarrhoea was to be treated by purgatives, and
constipation of the bowels by opium.
   Paracelsus asserts: Neque enim unguam ullus morbus calidus per
fdgida sanatus fuit nee frigidus per calida; simile autem suum simile
frequenter curavit, and his successor, Van Helmont, making reference to
Paracelsus says; Tandem fervore contradicendi omnium medelam con-
stituit in similitudine tarn naturae, quam causarum  morbificarum cum
ipso remedio.
   Staiil from Denmark writes:  The received method in medicine of
curing diseases by opposite remedies, that is to say by medicines which
are opposed to the effects they produce, (contraria contrariis) is com-
pletely false and absurd.   I  am convinced of the contrary, that diseases
are  produced  by agents, which produce a similar  affection, (similia
similibus) burns by the heat of the  fire, to  which  the  parts are expo-
sed; the  frostbite by snow or ice-cold water, and inflammation and con-
tusions by spirituous application.  I have succeeded in curing a dispo-
sition to  acidity of the stomach, by using very small doses of sulphuric
acid, in cases where a multitude of absorbing  powders had been ad-
ministered to no purpose.
   Alb. Haller remarks,  in the preface to his Pharmacopia, Helvet:.
1771: Nempe primum in corpore  sano medela tentanda est, sine pere-
grina ulla miscela odoreque et sapore  ejus exploratis,  exigua illius
dosis ingerenda; et ad omnes  quae inde contingunt affectiones, qui pulsus
qui calor, quae respiratio, quasnam excretiones attendendum.   Inde  ad
ductum phaenomenorum, in sano obviorum, transeas ad experimenta in
corpore aagroto, &c.
 Hunter "on the blood," recommends in burns the method of exposing
the parts  to the fire, and speaks of the great inconvenience that arises-
from the  application of cold  water to burns.
   Sydenham gives in burns repeated applications of alcohol the  pre-
ference to all other remedies.
   B. Bell thinks  alcohol,  which is of a heating nature, and more
effective  when heated, is one of the best, remedies for burns of every
description.   The application first appears to increase the pain, but the
latter is soon allayed and gives place to an agreeable sensation of calm
and tranquillity.
   E. Kentish uses hot application ot oil  of turpentine or alcohol to
burns, believing that any part of the system having its action increased 
12
to a very high degree, must continue to  be excited, though in a less
degree, either  by the  stimulus which caused the increased action, or
some other having the nearest similarity to  it, until by degrees the ex-
traordinary action  subsides  into  the healthy action of ilie part, with
process he terms the "unity of action."
   Is this all not Homoeopathic practice?   The;  treatment is according
to the law, "similia similibus."  We find similar principles in common
use. Raw cotton is used in burns, by the  application of which, accord-
ing to Dr. Anderson, the heat of the part is retained. In the winter of the
horrible retreat of the  French army from Moscow, thousands of sol-
diers  owed the preservation  of their frozen limbs to  frictions  with
snow. When plants have suffered from a severe frost, gardeners sprin-
kle them with cold water before sunrise, to take the frost out.
   The correctness of our references will not be disputed, and much less
the truth of the fundamental  law  of  the homoeopathic system.   We
have given  the  above  examples as  they are more or less familiar to
every person without any particular knowledge of medicine.  As the
homoeopathic system rests on experience, and not on mere hypothesis
or conjecture, it can  be proved every day over and over again, to the
full satisfaction of every one whose mind is open to conviction.
   We have theories,  in  the  history  of Medicine, which seem to be
artfully  constructed, but, tested  by practical application, they  have
been sustained only for a short period.   Not so in Homceopathia; and
now we  shall proceed  to the most material, the practical part of it.
Physicians desirous to get full  information on that system have to
study the classical works which have been  issued by the  press in dif-
ferent languages.
          Practical Advantages of Homceopathia..

THE  HOMOEOPATHIC  SYSTEM RECOMMENDS  ITSELF  BY ITS
                        " SIMPLICIT Y. "
  The fundamental laws of nature are simple and so are the principles
of Homceopathia. She rejects any classification of medicines; homceo-
pathists call them only by their proper name, for instance: Aconitum,
Bryonia, Chammomilla, Camphora, Phosphorus, Pulsatilla, Sulphur, and
their effect on the healthy body forms their pathogenesis.  Let us hear
Bichat on the denomination and classification of medicines in the com-
mon school practice or Allopathia:
  " To what errors have not mankind been led in the employment and
denomination of medicines?  They created deobstruents, when the
theory of  obstruction was in  fashion, and incisives when that of  thick-
ening of the humors prevailed.   The expressions of diluents and at-
tenuants were common before this period.  When it was necessary to
blunt the aecrid particles, they created inviscants, incrassants, &c.
  Those who saw in disease  only a relaxation or tension of the fibres
the laxum and  strictum, as  they called it, employed astringents and 
13
relaxants.  Refrigerants and heating remedies were brought into use
by those who had a special regard in disease to an excess or deficiency
of caloric.  The same identical remedies have been employed under
different names, according to the manner in which they were supposed
to act.   Deobstruent in  one case, relaxant in another, refrigerant in
another, the  same  medicine has been  employed with all these oppo-
site views; so true it is that the mind of man gropes in the dark, when
it is  guided only by the wildness of opinion.  Hence the vagueness
and  uncertainty our science presents at this day.   An incoherent as-
semblage of incoherent opinions ;  it is, perhaps of all the physiologi-
cal sciences, that which best  shows the caprice  of the human mind.
What  do I say?  Is it. not a science for a  methodical mind?   It is a
shapeless assemblage of inaccurate ideas, of observations often puerile,
of deceptive remedies and of formulas  as  fantastically conceived, as
they are tediously arranged." So far Bichat. Now listen to Pereira :
" Scarcely two medicines give rise to precisely the same effects, and
as we are unable to determine the nature of the modification produced
by  each, it is  impossible to bring  the substances used in medicine
under a general good arrangement.  Every  writer who has attempted
it, has found the facts hitherto ascertained insufficient for  his purpose
and has, therefore, been necessarily obliged  to call in the aid of theo-
ry; hence  the so-called physiological  classification of medicine is, in
reality, founded on the prevailing medicinal doctrines of the day, or
on the peculiar notions of the writer!  Would it do to tell our patients
this?    Pereira illustrates  his opinion by stating, that mercury is by
several writers, (as Drs. Cullen, Chapman, Young and Eberle,) placed
in the class of sialagogues; by many,  (as Drs. A. T. Thomson, M. M.
Edwards and Vavasseur and M. M. Trousseau  and Pidoux) among ex-
citants; by some (as Conradi, Bretele and Horn) it is considered to be
sedative; by one (Sir W.  Philip) to be stimulant in small doses, and se-
dative in large ones; by  some (as Dr. Jno. Murray) it is placed among
tonics;  by another (Vogt) among  the resolventia, alterantia; by one
(Sundelin) among the liquefacients; by the followers of Broussais (as
Begin) among  revulsives; by the Italians, (as  Giacomini)  among con-
trastimuhnts or hyposthenics; by others (as Barbier) among the "incer-
tae sedis."—Mercury, is the Panacasa  of the old school, though in the
United States  Dispensatory by Wood and Bache, which is a standard
work for the Allopathic practitioner we  read: "Of the modus operandi
of mercury, we know nothing, except that it probably acts through the
medium of circulation, and that it possesses  a peculiar alterative power
over the vital functions,  which enables it  in  many cases to subvert
diseased actions by  substituting its own in their stead."
  The  homoeopathic physician has his sure  and positive indication for
selection of the proper remedy, not in the classification of medicines,
but in  the law, "similia  similibus."  If his remedy  selected covers
satisfactorily the ensemble of the symptoms to be treated, his prescrip-
tion is "secundum artem." 
11
   Fo: a s'milar reason is the fashionable name of diseases to the Ho-
 mceopathist non-essential.   Are physicians always correct in their di-
 agnosis; and does not disease often appear in such a complicated form,
 tint the doctor is  at a   loss to give a corresponding name  for it?
 Often are  names of disease only  treated,  instead of disease  itself.
 How pernicious that must be, is  obvious.   The real disease is not
 only not counteracted by a proper treatment, but the  system  is at-
 tacked, where it is not at all affected and disease runs its course.  Call
 to a difficult case about  ten allopathic physicians, take the opinion of
 each  one single, and  hardly two or  three will  agree.  Suppose  the
 case be Scarlatina.   A. says the patient must be bled.   B. says no!  if
 you bleed your patient, you kill him.   C. relies altogether on vomits.
 D. on calomel.  E. on a  little sweet spirits of nitre and  warm  water
 gargles.  F. on pepper gargles.  G.  on cold affusions.   H. on tepid
 affusions.  K. on rum and water, and so on: "quot capita tot sensus."
 If that  is  good doctrine and  good practice, remarks Dr.  Kitchen,
 where there is such a diversity of opinion,  and  that too, according to
 the idea of the practitioner, God help us!   It is high  time that better
 principles should be inculcated, and a more  positive and assured prac-
 tice, even did not better success attend it.   The same remark may be
 applied  to  the  allopathic  treatment of other diseases, Erysipelas
 for instance—what assurance has the patient when  he is ordered to
 be bled, or leeched,  or  scarified,  that he  ought not  be  stuffed with
 bark and wine, and other stimulants?   Away  with  such  uncertain
 practice. Let us  be more consistent, based on  more solid principles,
 regulated more by correct rules, and not left  to the uncertain whims
 and follies  of prejudiced pract'tioners.   Indeed, reform is greatly
 needed, when we see such confusion, ect.   No wonder then that Mo-
 liere and La Sage  should cast  ridicule on  the  noblest profession on
 earth, when such are  its uncertainties; and  no wonder either, that the
 Chevalier Gatti once made use  of the following apologue to the Grand
 Duke of Tuscany, after  renouncing a practice  of thirty  years, and
 saying that he was weary of guessing.   " Nature is fighting with the
disease; a blind man (the physician) armed  with a club, comes to set-
 tle  the  difference.   He  first, tries  to make peace, when he  cannot
 accomplish this, he  lifts his club and strikes  at random; if he strike the
disease, he kills the disease; if he strike nature,  he kills nature."
   Let us  see  how homoeopathic Physicians appear  in  such cases.
 The symptoms of his sufferings, the patient will tell to one or a hun-
dred Physicians alike, at the same time; and as in prescribing for his
disease, there can only be one remedy which will cover properly  the
•complex of the symptoms in which the disease, at that time, consists,
 Homoeopathic Physicians having the rule,  similia  similibus curantur,
 for an unerring guide, will easily agree in the one remedy, called for
 at each time, and when either by only one medicine, or by some given
m proper succession, pro re rata, all symptoms of the disease are re-
 moved, the disease itself is no more.  Not the name of the disease
 should be the main object under consideration, but the  svmptoms form- 
15
ing the disease.   The Physician has only to do with disease  as  it
represents itself by symptoms; and his main business is not to general-
ize, but to individualize.  Nihil sane  in artem medicam pestiferum ma-
gis unquam  irrepsit malum, quam generalia quaedam  nomina morbis
imponere, iisque aptare velle generalem quandam medicinam.—Hux-
ham Op.  Phys. Med.
   Hahnemann divided disease only into acute and chronic, or in dis-
eases of a moderate or of a long duration.  To show the  simplicity
and unity of Homceopathia yet more, we have to relate, that only one
medicine, at a time, is  prescribed, of which we know  most  certain its
nature and effect in health and disease.  The remedy has to be homo-
symptomatic, as Rummel expresses himself.
   If many drugs are put up and mixed together, as in Allopathia, who
is able to make a true calculation as to what will be the effect of each
single  medicine,  and  what must be the result of the mixtum com-
positum?  Will each  simple of the compound act as the Physician
wishes  for,  and from such a combination of several drugs  can never
partial  or total neutralization or decomposition  of the one or the
other medicine result, and what will be the effect then? Such uncertainty
is at once avoided by administering only one medicine at a time.   A
Homoeopathic rule.

HOMCEOPATHIA SHOWS GREAT ADVANTAGES BY FOLLOWING
                  A "DIRECT"  TREATMENT-
   The  homoeopathic  medicine  having  a specific action, the treat-
ment is directed only to the part or organ affected, and not to any other
one. The treatment of Allopathhiabeing indirect, attacks often cruelly
the sound parts, even reduces the system in many cases near to pros-
tration, to weaken the disease.   Homceopathia attacks not the sound
parts of the system for the sake of performing a cure and so the in-
direct means of venaesection, emetics, physics, blisters, setonsand moxa
are not applied by her and, according to  Hahnemann, worse than use-
less. Why increase the patients suffering in so cruel a manner ?   Even
Veterenarians, who have  adopted the reformed system for treatment of
diseases of the brute  creation, have abandoned the former barbarous
practice.    Is it not melancholy that human beings endowed with high
sensibility and with intellect and reason, are submitted to such disgust-
ing and tormenting modes of treatment?
  °Bleeding says A. Eustachieve allays  the inflammation—aconite  or
wolfs-bane does the same. So far the  effects may be the  same; but as re-
gards health they are fearfully different. There poor nature is weakened
into  submission and made to propitiate the tyrant at the expense of her
future safety;  here the tyrant is encountered hand to hand, subdued,
and compelled to  leave nature in the full possession of her powers.—
In one case the fermentation is stopped and the contents  are saved;
in the  other, the contents  are spilled to change the fermentation,
and the more there is drawn off the more will rise to the  issue to be
drawn off again, until  little or nothing  is left within.  By this pro- 
16
cess tlie precious  fluid is  wasted,  vitality impaired, the extremities
completely drained and the dissolution of the sufferer  commences at
the moment that the inflamation ceases.  The true difference between
the act of bleeding and the substituted homcepathic dose is, that the
first takes away from the source of life which it cannot replenish, while
the last restores and preserves it in all its purity—and this is the precise
difference between the two systems.   As to the indications by spontane-
ous effusion, bleeding at the  nose, &c, &c, they show an irregular
accumulation or unusual flow of blood in some parts  to the detriment
of others: the idea of having too much blood is as preposterous as that
of a vessel containing more water, than its  capacity will admit.  A
superabundance of the means of life is a doctrine well worthy of igno-
rance or a disordered imagination. Restore the equality of circulation
and the patient is cured at  once.   This  is what Homceopathia does
without bleeding.  This is the way in which she removes apoplexy with
so little danger of  relapse.   This is the way she  cured in a  few days
the most acute  pleurisy in the  city of New York, contrary to the pre-
diction of speedy death with which Allopathhia consoled herself for be-
ing repulsed in her attempts to open the sluices of life.  To aid nature
by crippling her—to heal by reducing the chances of recovery, to purify
the fountain of  health by desiccation or by cutting of its main supplies
—to give life by taking it away—in short to bleed,—is  a barbarous piece
of absurdity, no less destructive in itself, than disgraceful to the pres-
ent state of science and general civilization."
  Some physicians according to the maxim "nulla regula sine excep-
tione," think it proper to deviate from the above opinion in a few cases,
pleading: abusas non tollit usum.
  Dr. Spehanza remarks, that among those laboring under pneumonia
—inflammation of the lungs—who had been attended by-Dr. BRERA,the
fatal results were just in equal proporlion to  the  number  of venaesec-
tions. Of one hundred patients treated without bleeding, fourteen died,
of those bled twice nineteen; of those bled from three to nine times,
twenty two, of  those bled more than nine times sixty-eight in the hun-
dred.
   Bleeding, no doubt, is among  the first causes that many  diseases
assume a typhoid character.
   Dr. James Kitchen, of Philadelphia, writes: "What is called the
depleeting plan kills its thousands every  year, from the  infant  in the
cradle to the  old man tottering to his last fall, and plucks the  blooming
rose from many a beauty's cheek.  Should the unfortunate patient have
stamina he may survive, but even then with a broken and shattered con-
stitution, destined  to feel the effects of such a depletion as long as  life
remains, and to be  an invalid to his last day.   This is no exaggerated
picture, and if  this be  correct practice, alas! poor human nature, such
never could have been tlie intention of the creator of man; it is man's
own false work and worth nothing, and should at once be corrected."
   During  the discussion in 1841 between Drs. Draper  and Watson,
at Boston, Dr. D. stated that in the course of  four years he had taken 
17
from  the  citizens of Boston and  vicinity, 100  barrels of blood, and
had administered forty-nine  pounds of Mercury, and Dr.  Croserio
of Paris  relates:   The   celebrated  Bouvard,  physician  to Louis
XIII, ordered  his royal patient 47 bleedings, 215 emetics  or pur-
gatives  and G12  clysters, during the space of  one year.  No won-
der the  King appears as history represents him.  During the extremes
to which  the so called physiological medicine was carried, more than
six millions of  leeches were used in the  Hospital  of Paris and at the
hotel Dieu, and  more than two hundred thousand pounds of human
blood were spilt in one year!
   What injurious effects result to the sick from  applications made  ac-
cording to  the prevailing opinions on the nature of diseases!  How
many poisonings from active medicines or medicines, for a long time re-
peated,  from emetics, purgatives, sudorifics, diuretics!  Since the days
of Dr. Johnson,  who introduced the frequent use of Calomel from his
East India practice, the multitude of Doctors, especially of English ed-
ucation, seeing a tongue coated and a pulse  irritated, cannot forbear
prescribing (if not laxatives, emetics or bleeding) Calomel to salivation.
Dr. Rush  termed  this virulent agent the "Sampson" of the Materia Med-
ica; a name proper indeed, because it has slain its thousands, and it is in
a great  measure  owing to its abuse, that scrophula, rachitis, (rickets,)
liver complaints and dyspepsia are so prevalent in this country.
   Dr. C.  Hering declares:  "The very popular opinion that  purg-
ing contributes to health, not only  when the body suffers from sickness,
but  also  from time to time in a healthy state, that the impurities are
driven out of the body, is entirely erroneous and without foundation.—
This  is nothing  but a desire of doctors and apothecaries to sell their
drugs, but they have repeated it so often during thousands of years that
they have long  ago believed it themselves; it is a traditionary part of the
creed of half the  world, and no one dares to doubt it.  Many physicians
have  spread and encouraged this idea, because their whole art Consist-
ed in bleeding, purging and giving emetics.   This creed is the pivot
upon which the whole of the old system turns, and it is the bait to catch
credulous patients with;  for  where  they speak of these  things with
proper solemnity, every heart and every purse opens, and persons who
are actually in good health feel a real longing to be properly scrubbed
and cleaned inside.
  " Every one who will make the following experiment upon a horse, or
upon himself, will be convinced that our opposition to purging is well
founded.   Let an individual take aperient medicines for a week, and
however  healthy he may  have been, he will find at the termination  of
this period he will discharge the most abominable things imaginable,
particularly after  jalap and calomel.  As this happens to every one, both
to mm and  beast,  to those  who have never  been  ill, it  is a proof,
that these things  have been artificially produced  by these drugs.  Fre-
quently we are able  to judge from  the  nature of  the  secretion, what
medicine  had been  administered.   After salts,  the evacuation always
smells like rotten eggs; after drastic gums, they are thin and watery; af-
                 3 
18
ter mercury, green;  after magnesia and rhubarb, generally sour,  &c
When we inquire into tlie cause of this purging, we find that all  poiso-
nous substances have a similar effect, and that for this reason  we  may
class the purgatives with propriety among the poisons.  Some look up-
on them as a real godsend, and imagine that they have been created for
this very purpose; but do they think  also that the rattlesnake and the ti-
ger are crc ated to devour us?  But if we admit that they are intended to
be used as medicines, it is no reason that  when we see them produced
in great quantities, we should take so much of them.   Virulent poisons,
although given but in small portions, produce vomiting and purging, or
destroy the stomach; the less  virulent poisons  are  called  purgatives,
merely because they do not kill immediately, but are generally rejected
by nature."
  A similar effect have emetics on the  stomach and biliary system.
The oftener they are repeated the  more  bilious appear  the  contents
thrown up, according to the law:  Ubi irritatio ibi afnuxus.   Where irri-
tation exists there is an  afflux.  Let for instance a person in health rub
his eyes several times a day for some minutes only and continue so for
some time, and he will see what a deviation from a healthy to a diseased
action will  take place.   The friction will irritate the eyes and eyelids,
bring on an increased flow of  blood to it, cause redness, fever and pain
—and finally suppuration.    Or scratch one of your arms or legs morn-
ings and evenings, at the same  place, for some time and soon that place
will begin to itch, to be irritated and sore, and the more you scratch the
worse it will get.  That  the lining membranes of the stomach and intes-
tines are much more delicate, easier irritated and by purging and vomi-
ting medicines soon  morbidly  affected—what is so  often mistaken for
tlie original disease though it is the noxious action of the drastic medi-
cines—is quite obvious and can be proved to every  body on persons in
health. That explains again why some patients as long as they take med-
icines  of the old school, remain patients, and often get well as soon as
they cease to take such sickening  drugs.
   Emetics are dangerous to persons  of a delicate  constitution  or of
weak lungs, or to such as suffer from  congestion, or are  afflicted with
hernia, (ruptures) and repeated emetics will weaken the stomach,  so
will physics and cathartics pills composed always of drastic medicines,
predispose to dyspepsia,  habitual costiveness, irritation  of  the bowels,
liver complaint, to piles or haemorrhoids, and to prolapsus recti.
   Bruchhausen on the allopathic system alleges: " The common prac-
tice tries to force,  to oppress, to violate nature, and the  physician is
rather  to  be styled a tragedian, exhibiting so many acts of the same
drama, and destined to accompany his hero to the buryal ground.__
Even the living, those recovered by or in spite of their interference do
not generally do much honor to  Allopathists.   The inhabitants of no
part of the world possess, comparatively speaking,  so great an abund-
ance of comforts as those of the United States, favored by their politi-
 cal and social institutions; notwithstanding these advantages no where 
19
docs  sickness prevail to so large  an extent, a calamity, which besides
luxury and climate can mostly be retraced to drugs swallowed as med-
icines, and to  the  extraction of blood.   It accounts for beauty de-
cayed in its prime, strength prostrated in the vigor of life, fair complex-
ion and full habit reduced to pallor and emaciation, the ornaments o
the mouth blackened and ratling, leathern faces, rheumatic arthritic-liv-
ing thermometers, &c, &c,—all effects of the abuse of Mercury, Io-
dine, Cinchona, Arsenic, Opium and other drugs."
   If all the blood wantonly spilled by physicians could be gathered an
Amazonian river, or an ocean, might be formed, and if all the unfortu-
nate victims  who have fallen under the  plague like calomel mania,
could be heaped together, their skeletons would form mountains, like a
Sorato or a Himmaleh.   Alas! this chills the very heart blood of a re-
flecting mind,  and fills his  soul  with horror towards such a medical
practice.  The best way indeed to cut life short.   How well does such
a treatment correspond with the daily prayers and wishes for longevity.
Bleeding, purging and vomiting was the medical treatment of old time,
and in the centuries of the so called "dark ages."  It may be supposed
that it was more adapted to the robust and strong constitutions of bar-
barous nations, though no one who is acquainted with the organic laws
of nature will  believe  that  they  even  then were benefited by it.—
Homceopathia, a system of  modern times,  is more adapted to the pres-
ent state of our constitutions and rather delicate frames, is more in
conformity with the progress of science and civilization and therefore
will be more conducive to  the promotion of our health and happiness.
   Converse with persons who  are intimately acquainted with the  re-
formed practice, and they will in the most emphatic terms extoll their
predilections for the new system and the benefits it bestows  upon its
followers.
   Professor Eschenjiayer makes the following pertinent observations:
" Homceopathia is the direct method and  Allopathia the indirect.  Of
direct methods there can be only one, of the indirect many, as the anti-
phlogistic, resolvent, revulsive, deobstruent, &x., &x.
   " By the direct method an impulse is given to the specific reaction of
the healing power, so that the disease is not only attacked in its effects
upon the different organs and systems, as with the indirect method, but
in its origin and seat, where it is prevented from passing through its dif-
ferent stages.   Why should this not be possible?   Why should we not
be able to find agents having a direct dynamical effect upon the specific
reaction of the healing power?  There is no reasonable ground'to
doubt it.                                ,    ,  •      ,      i     L j
   " With Homceopathia experience has already strongly corroborated
this.   To pretend to deny this, shows either ignorance, stubbornes, in-
dolence, or dread of new systems."
   How  much  preferable tlie direct or homoeopathic method of  treat-
ing disease is to the indirect or allopathic,  appears  clearly  to every re-
flecting mind by what has been said in this chapter. 
'M
THE  USE Or "SHALL"  DOSES SPEAKS AGAIN  IN FAVOR  OF
                        HOMlEOPATHIA.
  For this she hns been ridiculed enormously, but never by one that
has taken that minute dose of medicine himself,  in  conformity  with
the homoeopathic principles.  The old school, which attacks the sound
organs of the system lor  the  purpose of curing diseased ones, has
to use medicines ip large doses to  see some  effect, but as the new
school lets the sound  parts of the  body alone, and directs the treat-
ment  only to morbidly affected organs, which by the conditions of dis-
ease have their susceptibilities greatly exalted, it  is easily accounted
for  that small doses will  answer.    Hahnemann,  in tlie  beginning
prescribed  large doses  too, but for good  reason al:andoned  them for
smaller ones.
  Dr.  Duringe an able opponent of Homceopathia admits the potency
of small doses in its full extent and cites cases in which he has proved
it himself.  Dr. Elliotts, the distinguished oculist of the cily of New
York, had casual information on  the subject, of Homceopathia just far
enough to excite his curiosity, and to fix him in  the rejection of all be-
lief in minute homoeopathic doses. Subsequent discussions appealing to
his  liberality  and   sense  of justice, induced him  to ascertain the
truth, by a better and more conclusive evidence, than that of his own
previous incredulity, a practice so general among the opponents of the
new system and he resolved to judge and decide by the test of his own
feelings and sensations.  Common charcoal  for the  very reason that
it is a well  known  harmless substance, taken with  impunity at discre-
tion (it is used as a medicine  in Homceopathia) was selected for the
trial and given him in pills  of the fourth degree of dilution, that is each
pill containing one millionth part of a>grain of charcoal, three of them
to be taken every day, and  the whole in the course  of  six !!   Great in-
deed was his astonishment, when in spite of his  resolution to go on, he
found himself compelled to stop on the fourth day, for by this time the
overpowering effect of what he had already taken, was quite sufficient
and so painful as to convince him not to advance any farther.  In short
he was perfectly satisfied, and so would be any one  who is not a  wilful
rebel against the  paramount principle that condemnation should follow,
not precede the trial.
  Another important witness is Dr. Brera, who, as respects  small
doses, says, they are by  no  means to be rejected  indiscriminately.
In  1797  I  demonstrated the fact, that salivation produced by mercu-
ry could be  quickly cured by a small dose of an  another  mercurial
preparation. Several intermittent fevers I have  cured with small  atoms
of the arssn'ate of potash.—[SS. Annotazione medico-pratiche Pavia.1
In  1804, I stated that belladonna produces in healthy persons a dis-
ease very similar to hydrophobia, although it is a powerful remedy in
this terrible disease.  In the year 1822,1  discovered in strammonium
(a few drops of the tincture) a most  excellent  remedy for angina pec-
toris,  although it is well known, from many histories of poisons, that it
produces on the healthy subject, symptoms very much resembli'nc/this 
21
disease.   An hysterical gastrodynia, which defied for the space of two
years all antiphlogistic and derivative remedies,  as well as large doses
of the magisterum bismuthi,  was finally removed by smaller doses of
this medicine.  I might enumerate a great many similar cases from the
records of my long practice,  remarks Brera, and to this mode of em-
ploying medicines I have been led by an observation of Hippocrates, to
which Professor Blumenbach, of Gaittingcn, has drawn my attention,
it is the following: Diseases are sometimes cured by medicines capable
of producing similar affections."
  We ask in what way, in cases of great weakness and fainting, do smel-
ling-bottles, containing eau de Cologne, or spirits of hartshorn, &c, take
effect and give relief?  How large or small is the dose to be taken by
smelling only?  Experience teaches to  satisfaction that the organs are
capable of being affected by  very feeble influences or stimulants.  We
mention the virus of syphilis and hydrophobia, the effects of vaccination,
of infection by misasma, plague, and epidemic diseases in general, the
frequent most alarming effects of grief, joy, fright and anger on  the
constitution; and what is to be said of the immense, all-surpassing pow-
ers of imponderables as electricity, magnetism, light, heat, &.c.
  There is  one thing our adversaries state in favor  of Homooepathia:
that if homoeopathic medicines do no good, they  can  do no harm; a
sentence which cannot be applied to the allopathic practice.  Regard-
ing doses in general, we may here state, that  the physician is  not
bound to prescribe high attenuations and triturations, he can administer
the lower ones, or, pro re  nata, the medicines in the common form in
any doses he may find indication for.  The Homoeopathist is under no
narrow restrictions; he selects any kind of medicine, which as a reme-
dial agent,  in his system, will bring about a cure, and he applies the
medicine in such doses and strength as  the case  under treatment,  and
the susceptibility of the patient  will require.  Where small doses will
answer,  large  ones are not  necessary, and neither medicine, nor the
doses are the main object; but the cure, and if it should be performed
by nothing else but by cold water, so much the better.   The best phy-
sicians are well known to have always used tlie least medicine, and vice
versa.  Further,

HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICINE IS "PLEASANT"  AND OF "GENERAL
                       APPLICABILITY."
  The taste of people differs, but the most are rather fond of something
sweet, and so is homoeopathic medicine even in this regard most suit-
able.   The homaeopathic  medicine can be administered in different
ways to suit the patient, either  in a sweet small powder, or dissolved
in so much  water that its taste is not perceived at all, and is more like
the purest spring water;  or in the form  of an  alcoholic tincture, or in
globules  as small as mustard seeds, or by smelling according to the
peculiar case. Under one of these forms any person can take it. Chil-
dren  like it very much, and it can be given to them, even when they
are  asleep, without  disturbing thorn.   It  dare be proscribed in  all 
«K»
 cases  of the  greatest  <whaustion, to bring on re-action in the sys-
 tem, and to give  strength, where the physician of the old school has
 to quit the use of medicines, as the patient often seems to be too weak to
 bear any allopathic drugs whatever.   In cases where the  patient can t
 swallow, some  little medicine, applied to the lips, or on the tongue, is
 sufficient to have effect, as the action of the homoeopathic powders,
 globules or  tinctures is not required to reach the stomach.  The medi-
 cines make their first impression on the nerves of the lips, tongue, and
 palate, with which they come in contact, and are imparted by them to the
 nerves in general, which are the medium  by which the medicines act
 on  the system.  How  is it with Allopathia ?  What is the taste and
 smell of her medicines?  In most cases nauseous and disgusting; to
 look at them is, for many, enough to sicken their stomach; and when
 swallowed, even with the best will to keep them down, and to save the
 trouble of taking another dose,  they are often rejected again by the
 stomach.  In what a miserable  condition do patients find themselves,
 who, from idiosyncrasy, cannot take any allopathic medicine whatever!
 Homoeopathic medicines any and every  body can take  with a smiling
 countenance.
   The homoeopathic system is adapted for all cases of disease of body
 and  mind,* for every age  and  every sex, for every constitution and
 every  climate.   The  robust and the weak, the young and the aged,
 male and female, are benefitted by it, and in the icy regions of Russia
 Homceopathia is as successful as in the southern climate of Italy.
  It is, of course, understood that, where the disease is itself incurable
 for many reasons, or from such disorganizations in the structure of some
 organs, which never will  yield to any medical treatment, Homceopathia
 don1! profess to overcome impossibilities.   And so are hopeless cases
 of disease no criterion for any  medical system whatever.   Though,
for humanity's sake, any physician, if requested, will attend the patient
 with the  view to alleviate, even when a cure is out of the question.
  Homceopathia don't pretend  to be "a cure-all."   Never will there
 be such  a system; and  human skill fails  in the presence of death,
 not because this skill  is powerless against  disease, but because death
 is no disease; and cure is  merely an expulsion of  disease, with the
assistance of nature,  when  possible.
  Dr. Duringe opposes  the new school in some parts, though admits
 distinctly that she is  entitled to a prominent rank  in the department
 of science;  that with all persons of susceptible constitutions she  suc-
 ceeds to  admiration, and  that with respect to women and children  she

  * We refer to  Note 26, in the Organon of Homoeopathic Medicine, by S.
 Hahnemann,  Second American from tlie British Translation of the Fourth
 German Edition,  with improvements and additions from the Fifth &c. New
 York, 1843.,  (which edition we recommend to our readers.)  Farther {'210__
230.  Treatment of Mental Diseases.  For particular cases among others  Ho-
 moeopathic Treatment of the Insane, by Dr. C.  Sztaraveski, Physician t'o the
 Hospital of Gross Wardein, in Hungary.   (Archiv. fur die horn. Heilkunst,
 Vol. xix.) 
J
                                23

is their best protectress, and  does for  them what  Allopathia may as
Well confess to be beyond her power.
   J. Epps, in his "Affections of Women," asserts: "Believing that ev-
ery disease has its remedy, and that an all-wiss and all-benevolent Cre-
ator has intended that man should be happy: knowing that human misery
can be traced, either to the violation of the laws of the Creator,  or to
ignorance of these laws, and consequent inability to apply them: and
convinced that, in medicine, there are laws as fixed as in the other de-
partments of science, (a doctrine which I have taught to  my medical
pupils, in my public lectures, the last twelve years,) I have  earnestly
sought means to relieve  the sufferings which  the female  sex endure.
Homeopathy has means to relieve these symptoms; therefore, it takes
high ground, and  I  have no  hesitation in asserting, that hundreds,
whose days are made miserable by these  sufferings,  can be freed from
it.  It is worthy of remark, that few medical men know the sufferings
which are endured by women; and under the old system of medicine
but little could be dons for their relief."
   To woman, asserts Dr. Partridge, the application of this vital law of
therapeutics is  peculiarly beneficial, especially in the delicate period
of gestation, and on  the trying occasion of child-bearing,  in which
natural conditions,  her sufferings and danger too often result from an
artificial and harsh interference.
   Accurate observers  affirm that offsprings from parents, who, in dis-
eases formerly, have applied to homoeopathic medicines,  and lived on
homoeopathic regimen, are more  healthy and less predisposed to  sick-
ness.   What a blessing is Homoeopathy to those, who, by too harsh  a
treatment got their constitution enfeebled!  She often builds them up
again,  and the sufferer,  instead of being destined to drag  out a mis-
erable  existence  to the end of his life, procures in her a benefactress,
whom  he regards with the sincerest feelings of gratitude!  Finally,

THE  EFFECT  OF  HOxMGEOPATHIC  TREATMENT  IS "QUICK,
                       MILD  AND SAFE."
   Some  have  been  of  the opinion  that  this treatment would be
much more proper in chronic cases;  but that  is an error.  Chronic
cases are difficult  to be treated  in  both systems,  and require some
length of time and patience to see  a successful alteration; though  a
great part of the good name the  new school received, was from treat-
ing chronic cases,  more successfully than any other  system;* to  con-
vince us of the celerity of the action of Homoaepathia, acute cases are
best for trial, as they by a proper  remedy soon  show their efficacy, and
it may be fairly stated, that the duration in fevers, inflammations,  neu-

  * Dr. Neker, cured by Hahnemann, of a dangerous disease of the lungs, was
converted to Homceopathia and became a supporter of the system.  The lady of
Dr. Des Guidi practitioner of Lyons, had been for many years subject to a dan-
gerous complaint, for which the resources of the ordinary system furnished no
relief.  She was brought to Italy in th« hope  of restoring, by means of change
of air and scene, that health, which vfis beyond the reach of art.   It is surely
very singular that medical men do not entertain some slight suspicion of the im- 
§
                                51

ralgias, and other diseases of an acute character  is considerably  les-
sened. In affections, where help must be given without delay, this sys-
tem can be put to the test most surely, and where the sufferings of ihe
sick are most severe, Ilouueopathia, well administered,  will prove her
superiority to advantage.   The action of the homeopathic remedy is
gentle and mild, and health is restored in most cases without any suffer-
ing from medicines.  In some few cases, however, and particularly ac-
cording to tlie doses used,  a  slight aggravation will take place, which
will  subside  by  itself,  or may be counteracted by a proper antidote,
and is commonly but  the forerunner of improvement by a visible re-
action.   The  constitution never will be injured; as a proof of  this, we
dare state, that patients, as soon  as the disease  is  encountered, will
rally speedily, and not feel that exhausting weakness and debility, nor
the bad  consequences  of after diseases, which are apt to follow the
depleting, tormenting and scouring method, and the use of large doses
of allopathic medicines.
   Some decry  the use of minerals,  as  medicines, very much,  and,
we think, not without  reason, when  they injure the constitution  of
the patients; though minerals,  used prudently and with understand-
ing, are very valuable for their remedial effects.   Still worse is it, says
Hering, on Poisons,  when some hypocritically pretend to cure all dis-
eases by herbs or vegetable substances: for  the vegetable poisons are
much more deleterious  than the  mineral, which every physician, who
has studied  natural history, must know.   Animal  poisons again are
worse than vegetable  poisons.  Whatever is said of the innoxious  ef-
fect of vegetable medicine is nothing but  deception and humbug.  It
is true there  are  some  herbs  which  do not  produce any  danger-
ous  effect,  and medicines which are  not injurious;  but even these
should not be given without due consideration, nor  in large quantities
for any length  of time.   For it is certain, that if you give the proper
medicine, very little will suffice, and if you give an improper  one, the
larger the dose  the more  injurious it  will prove.   In large and fre-
quently repeated doses every medicine may, therefore, be  considered
a poison.   In  Germany, more children have  died of chamomile  tea
than of scarlet fever, and more people are, even now, killed by Peru-
vian  bark than by the fever  and ague.  Formerly  the  cause of  their
perfection of their practice, when they resort to nature to cure those diseases,
against which all their knowledge and all the stores at their disposal are ineffec-
tual.
  While Des Guidi was in Italy with his wife, she had  a new  attack of ill-
ness worse than the first.  Several brother practitioners were called, but left the
patient worse than they found  her.   Hope had fled.  One of Des Guidi's old
companions when they studied medicine in  their youth, drew him aside and
pressed on him a trial of the new system of Hahnemann.  In  a fortunate hour
he listened to his friend and ere a few  weeks had elapsed, Madam Des Guidi
was rescued from the brink of the grave  and restored to a state of  health which
she had not known for many years.  That was enough for the husband to pro-
ceed to Naples, to study for three years under Dr. Horatti, Homceopathia, after
which time he returned to Lyons and was a  successful propagator of that sv;,.
tem. 
2b
death was not known, and the thing was called by a different name. Of
a hundred persons who have died of dropsy, eighty, at least, have been
made dropsical by the  irrational administering of drugs.  Ask  only
how often  such persons have been bled, or what  medicine they have
swallowed, such as mercury, peruvian bark, quinine, cathartics, sulphur
or saltpeter, laudanum, or other narcotics, and you will see  how  tlie
dropsy originated.
   Peruvian bark or quinine, is a medicine, which next to opium and
mercury, most  frequently undermines the constitution, and oc casions
incurable diseases.  Should the patient escape death; he will be troubled
for years by the effects of bark.   It is more  difficult to expel quinine
from the system than mercury; and he who pretends that this can be
effected by cathartics is utterly ignorant of physic.   It enters the blood
and all the fluids, and no purging in  the world will remove it, but will
cause the loss of still more fluids.
   Sulphur is as bad as mercury, and the tedious complaints  which it
produces are as difficult to cure.
   Mercury  is the universal elixir of the quacks in all diseases, who,
while they pretend to restore their  patients to health, destroy their
constitution.  They administer it, as calomel, in powders, or dissolved
as corrosive sublimate, or in pills, &c.—those abominable blue pills. Ap-
plied externally or  internally, it is  always equally destructive.  Fre-
quently they impose upon the people  by  telling them that the mercury
can be expelled again by taking  aperient medicines after it.   Such a
language in the mouth of a  physician is the most  convincing proof of
ignorance or baseness.   For, supposing that it was as easy to remove
the calomel again as it was to give it to swallow, the effect produced
upon the  body must remain notwithstanding;  just as  if you were to
drive a nail into a  man's leg, and then pull  it out again; certainly the
whole will remain; it will heal after awhile, but this will require time
and a rational mode of treatment, or the  consequence may be very se-
rious.   To give aperient medicine for the effects of mercury, is about
as sensible as if I were to poke a wooden peg into the wound  made
by  the  nail, and  imagine it  was all right then.  Prepared mercury,
however', cannot be expelled so easily again, and least of all by pur-
gations.  It immediately penetrates  every part of the system, the
fluids,  the glands, and even the bones. This is the  reason that the
slow poisoning by mercurial medicines is far more difficult to cure than
any natural disease; it always requires much time, and in many cases
mitigation of the sufferings  is all that art can effect for the patient.
   Iron is a  poison, as well as all the other metals, only it does not kill
quite so rapidly.   A proof of  this assertion is in the springs, which
contain iron, and wherein rust is formed; neither man nor beast thrives
upon this water.
   He  who has already taken different  medicines, and has  become
worse  and  worse, will do well to lay aside all kinds of medicine, no
matter what they are called; and should his health not improve  by itself,
let him apply to a  homoeopathic  physician,  but not expect miracles. 
2G
In most  cases it  is very difficult to destroy the effects  of the former
medicines.   Sometimes it takes a year, and  only  then does it be-
gin to improve  quickly and permanently; unless the patient has an
invisible disease which  neither the old nor the new method can cure.
Pity! the physician should violate the laws of nature, and the patient
have to suffer for it.  And the same writer continues:
   The worst, the most injurious of all poisons, are those  abominable
Panaceas, which, under numerous enticing names, are  palmed upon
the public.   No  physician will deny  that sometimes cures have been
performed by them; yet every one knows how seldom this has happened.
No medicine will  do good unless properly applied;  where this is not
the case, and in the manner in which these things are generally pre-
pared, they cannot be  otherwise than injurious.  From the manner in
which  Panaceas and  other  nostrums are extolled and recommended,
it is apparent that those who offer them for sale are only anxious  to
find purchasers.   Thus pulmonary  consumption  is no fixed disease,
against which a specific can be recommended.   It is so very  different,
and in almost every patient of a peculiar  kind, that great reflection and
careful consideration is necessary to discover its nature.  The  reme-
dies must be adapted to the peculiarities of the disease.   One and
the same medicine cannot possibly answer in all cases.  You cannot
always rely upon the  certificates which accompany the recommenda-
tions of these universal medicines.  A  case often appears worse than
it actually is, and even medical men may be  deceived; at the same
time a trifling medicine, sometimes simply cold water, will cure it.
   The great number of universal medicines  we see extolled as spe-
cifics against various diseases, does certainly not appear creditable to
the inhabitants of this  country.   It proves the ignorance and credulity
of the purchasers.
   He who  buys and  uses such things may be compared to  him who
buys a lottery ticket.   The  ticket venders are the only persons certain
of a large  profit.   As many blanks as are in a lottery, so many blanks
are there in these universal medicines; and the number of prizes in the
one and of cures in the other are about  equal.  No man of sense will
 venture  in a lottery, if he  cannot spare the money which, in all pro-
 bability, will be lost.  But  he who ventures  in a medical lottery, not
 only loses his money,  but, if he does not get  a prize, receives certain
 injury, rendering his case worse, more obstinate and more difficult to
 cure.  When a  physician prescribes medicine for you, you know at
 least what you get, and should it prove injurious, may at least be coun-
 teracted; if you have not taken too much medicine, or persisted in the
 use of it for too great a length of time,  it is always possible to make
 good the injury that has been done.  But with those unknown univer-
 sal medicines it is impossible; we do not know what we are to treat.
 Whoever relies upon  the impudent assertion that nothing injurious is
 contained  in these nostrums, must be credulous indeed.   We have
 mentioned already, in our preceding pages, that the poison from many
 plants is far more virulent than that from minerals. 
27
  Many of these  universal medicines contain, also, mineral poison
For instance, the fever drops (diaphoretic  tincture) contain arsenic;
the imperial pills, mercury; and so with many others.  Many things of
this kind are sold at an enormous price, and the ingredients of which
they consist may  be had in every apothecary's shop for a tenth part of
their cost; for instance, Harlaem oil is nothing but a combination of sul-
phur with oil, and  the value of a vial is less than half a cent.  So it
is with all others.
  There is not a single  one of  these  pretended  secret medicines
that a real physician might not have discovered and made known.  A
physician can apply every medicine in its proper place; the vender of
nostrums cannot—his object is to make  money; whether his medicine
kills or cures is a secondary consideration."
  In the so  much feared epidemics Homceopathia preserves her credit,
particularly  by acting  quick, and  saving thousands from a premature
grave.   During their prevalence the mortality has been conspicuously
less by  patients who have been treated homoeopathically.
  Dr. Rush says:  "There are tests for all things. A dangerous epidemic
shows  the  difference between the strong  and the weak—the  can-
did and the  crafty, among physicians.   It is equally true that the  same
occasion displays, even to the common  observer, the real condition of
their art: whether its precepts are exact or indefinite, and its practice
consistent or contradictory.   Upon these points, and bearing in  mind
that we have now  in  medicine  the recorded science and practice of
more than two thousand years, let the reader refer to the proceedings
of  the  medical  profession  during  the  prevalence of the  so-called
Asiatic Cholera, and he will find their history every where exhibiting
an extraordinary picture of prefatory panic, vulgar wonder, doubt, ig-
norance, obtrusive vanity, plans for profit and popularity, fatal blunders,
distracting contradictions  and  egregious  opinions—of  twenty  con-
founding doctors called in consultation,  to  mar the sagacious  activity
of one,—of ten thousand books upon the subject with still an unsatis-
fied call for more,—of experience fairly frightened out of all its former
convictions,  and of costly  missions after  moonshine, returning only
with clouds.  Now I do assert,  that no  art which has a sufficiency of
truth, and the least logical precision, can ever wear a face so mourn-
fully grotesque as  this.   In most of the transactions of men, there is
something like mutual  understanding  and collective agreement  on
 ,me points at  least; but  the  history of the Cholera,  summed up
part of page  missing 
2S
   Such  is the  melancholy picture drawn by  the  author  of -The
Philosophy of the Human  Voice."  How loud sounds this again for
reform in medicine!—We can refer to  the  official reports of homoeo-
pathic treatment of Cholera Asiatica in  private practice  and in  hos-
pitals, the  most  splendid  success  is  eveiy where  recorded.   We
shall  insert here an  extract from a letter of Madame Lyofe, to her
father, Admiral Mordvinow, dated
               " Government of Saratow, Russia, Aug. Gih, 1831.
   "The  dreadful Cholera broke outlast  month in our own village
and its vicinity with the greatest fuiy.   My husband was the first per-
son attacked,  but thanks to Homceopathia, was cured  in a few days.
From a desire to relieve the sufferings of humanity, he visited all the
places in the neighborhood, wherever the disease raged the most; ad-
ministered the remedies; instructed the priests and the elders in the
use of them;  was whole weeks thus employed,  while  I remained at
home occupied with the preparation of homoeopathic powders.  Four
hundred cholera patients saved  and lestoied to perfect health was the
gratifying reward of his zeal, and the triumphant result of homoeopathic
doses, liberally distributed  to all who applied  for them.   We are all
now so well convinced of the miraculous power of ibis system, that we
cannot sufficiently deplore the ignorance that cannot, end still more the
obstinate prejudice that will not invoke its aid, and thereby rescue rel-
atives and triends from certain death.   The Asiatic Cholera preceded
by terror, ushered in by danger, and followed by desolation, comes  now,
remains and departs a harmless thing.   Its cure is in reality easier than
that of a fever.  Multiplied  experiments and consequent confidence in
homoeopathic  treatment have divested it of its appalling attributes, by
subjecting  it entirely to  the skill of man.   We had fifty patients in
our own village, and not one of them died-.  On the estate of my sister-
in-law, there were likewise  a good many cases, but no deaths.  There
is also an abundance of reason to believe, that the fatal termination of
disease, wherever it  occurred,  was occasioned altogether by neglect,
want of necessary precaution, and deviation from the rules of regimen,
prescribed by  Homceopathia.  All the sick who took medicine in strict
conformity to  the rules, were saved, although some of  them were al-
ready in a state of collapse, which apparently precluded all hope." See
the documents given  in the Admiral's work, "A Glance at Homceo-
pathia. "                                                      \i-J i
part of page missing 
part of page missing
                              *vrho was rather too  rar auvanceu  u,
years.   Did Homoeopatlna tnen appear an insane phantom too, when
179 out of 180 patients, in malignant typhus fever, were cured?   Was
the system an insane phantom to the patients and their friends and re-
lations?   Would any physician who cures 179  out of  180 in typhus,
call the system, he cured by, an insane phantom? If that should be the
case, then we have to change the language and  call the treatment un-
der which the  most typhus patients die, a most sane and brilliant phe-
nomenon!   A person, when he  or his relations are  informed that he
is  laboring  under typhus fever,  and being under allopathic or old-
school  treatment,  will,  generally, act wisely to make his last will;  to
send for his friends and his minister, and to prepare  for his end—the
cold and gloomy grave, and for eternity!
   Belladonna being a preventive in epidemics  of Scarlet, fever, was
first noticed by S. Hahnemann-;  and the successful treatment of scar-
latina is well known  wherever the practice of Homceopathia  is estab-
lished.   And how much she, in the common diseases of sick headache,
dyspepsia, costivcness, piles, &c, is able to perform,  or in the so call-
ed affections of being bilious or  nervous, the patients cured of  it by
her can give personal testimony.  The eastern  and western cities  of
this Union will bring living witnesses in favor of homoeopathic treat-
ment  by  thousands; and the same  results are reported from Great
Britain, Russia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, &c. 
part of page missing
  .......„„.^..."«. ouuBi.ances.   Hie uo>
bacco, aromatic  oils and  perfumeries, zoning ootties, sweet bags,
hartshorn, musk,  amber, camphor, medicinal tooth-powders, aromatic
soaps and pastes, &c, are strictly forbidden as containing medicinal pro-
perties, and counteracting  the effect of homoeopathic medicines.  In
printed' directions, which will be handed to patients, they receive details
more fully.
   Hommopathia promotes  temperance and abstinence from  customs
and habits which, at length, prove injurious to the most of individuals;
and be it recollected, that gluttony, as well as tippling, as  infringe-
ments of the  law of nature, will be followed by sufferings.
   Any physician who has ever been known as a successful practition-
er, had to put his patients under a well regulated and strict diet.  Pa-
tients who rather prefer to satisfy their own notions, or labor under the
self-conceit of knowing better, would do far better too, not to call for
medical assistance.  But,  again, diet alone will not cure inveterate
chronic diseases or dyocrasies of a specific character,* nor acute and

  *Dr. Curie, "on Diet:" declares: By the homoeopathic practice we have cured
 cases of epilepsy, acute and  chronic pneumonia, pleurisy, phthisis, cancerous
 and scirrhous metritis, cancer and  scirrhous of the breast, amaurosis, scrofu-
 lous disorcanation, deafness,  (also with dumbness,) dropsy, cataract, croup,
 jjastro-enteritis, with disorganization, &c. &c, all  of them  inveterate  and 
31
dangerous maladies, whose course is so speedy, that regimen has no time
to show  any  effect.   Patients who are not cured, after having been
under homoeopathic treatment, have in most cases to blame themselves
particularly in old or chronic, and formerly mal-treated, diseases, for an
over hasty discontinuance of medical attendance—on their own account
—not seeing their sanguine hopes very soon fulfilled, and not consider-
ing in reason that morbid derangements, which have developed them-
selves in the course of years and years, cannot be altogether relieved
or cured in so  many days or weeks; or, by wilfully or unconsciously
disobeying  rules and directions, which, for establishing a cure by med-
icine, are a "conditio sine qua non."  A physician has, for his part, to
treat the patient according  to science,  but he cannot be expected to
nurse the sick, who have to take care of themselves, and will suffer for
imprudence or neglect. Unjust would it be if persons, who require a ra-
tional treatment for some time, would take only a few times some ho-
moeopathic  medicines, then quit and say, that  they  have been under
treatment,  and have  given the system a trial, without coming up to
rules.  Such persons we don't acknowledge as our patients, and their
statements  have  to  be  considered at war  with truth.
   For recovery, proper ventilation and pure air in the sick-room are of
of the highest importance.  A sick-chamber ought to  be kept  quiet,
and every thing ought to be arranged to  comfort the patient and to pro-
mote his convenience. It is an abominable practice to use a sick-chamber
as a new's room, as a kitchen, or to have it  crowded with children or
visitors.   One or two persons are, in  common  cases, enough to  wait
on the sick; the rest of the family ought to  be  in the parlor or in the
nursery.  It is unbecoming for any visitor to enter a sick-room without
special permission, and not the curiosity of the neighbor  or friend, to
see the sick, has to be satisfied,  but the wish of the patient, in con-
formity with the  order of the attending  physician.  A message to the
family, to inquire how the patient  gets  along, shows proper attention,
and will answer in many cases.   Untimely politeness, and the fear of
hurting the feelings of others by a refusal of admission, has,  in many
instances, turned  out to the  greatest  disadvantage of the  sufferer.
Every visitor in tlie sick-room usually directs some questions even to
the feeble patient, and if many are calling, it must be a  perfect annoy-
ance and even danger to him, whom we  have no  right  to disturb at
all;  some coming from out doors, and carrying along a current of cold
air within their clothes,  step right up  to the patient's couch to shake
hands with  him, who  perhaps  is  in a salutary perspiration, which, by

deemed incurable.  (All these diseases  have been cured at the Hospital, Han-
over Square, London, where the details of the cases, together with the addresses
of the patients,  are open to all enquirers.   Similar cures are to be met with in
every institution conducted upon  homoeopathic principles, and in private prac-
tice.) If these effects are attributed to diet alone, the correctness of the  alle-
gation may very easily be tested.  Let the public and the profession try the
effect of the diet, and if it can be proved that, under its sole influence, serious
disorganization can be cured, we shall very willingly acknowledge its influ-
ence, and confess our error. 
:i2
such an exposure, might be checked* and cause perhaps a fatal result.
Visitors, in cold or damp weather, ought to warm  themselves before
they approach the sick.
   Company  makes the room  noisy and contaminates  the air of it-
Light and temperature of the  chamber ought to be regulated accor-
ding to the physician's direction; so ablutions, bathing, frictions, exer-
cise, amusements, when practicable; repose and sleep. Violent emotions,
excitements and passions impede the progress of the cure very much
or annihilate its possibility altogether.  To the lady of the house, who
usually oversees the sick-room we would recommend  the perusal  of
the chapter "Nursing the Sick" in the Young Ladies' Friend, by Mrs.
John Farrar.  Let every patient impress upon his mind that he has
to be quite as careful  when  entering the state  of convalescence  as
when he has been very  ill.  Many lingering and  incurable  diseases
have originated by careless exposure and by  too  much indulgence.
How many fail to observe this very important rule, and how many are
paid for it by  an unwelcome relapse, and by great and long sufferings!
When will we learn from the sad experience of others?
   Finally we  have to make one remark more. Experience teaches that
there are a great many busy-bodies, who, when visiting tlie sick, always
have to recommend such and such things as very Serviceable indeed,
even at a time, when a  physician  already has been called  for  atten-
dance.   I wish every patient had courage enough to  thank such per-
sons  politely, and no matter  who it is, to inform them, that he has an
attending physician already, who, when  in need of counsel, certainly
will call whom he thinks proper for it.  The intention Of the visitor  is
good, but the sick is not benefitted by  it.
   Before  a physician is  called in, of course, the sick may do as they
please.   Though intelligent persons will  find it most proper to call on
their physician from the very onset of the disease; and it ought to be
left altogethor to him to see  the patient and  to  prescribe  for him
whenever he  finds it necessary.
   He  who takes a true and deep interest in the patient Will never  in-
terfere with his treatment after he is under the  charge of a physician.
The recommendation even of domestic means and  things which seem
to be innocuous by themselves, used without the Doctor's knowledge
and approval, may do a great deal of harm, and sometimes destroy the
effect of his medical treatment.  In the highest sense find the  words
here applicable:  "Mind your own Business."  Consider one moment
"how unjust  it is" for third  persons  to interfere—and  the attending
physician to bear the responsibility; reflect that not only  his character
as a physician, is at stake but the health and life of the patient himself
Persons under  homoeopathic treatment  ought always be seen by the
physician himself—when possible, as medicines have in particular to be
adapted but to the present state  of the patient and the disease, which
to represent correctly and thoroughly third persons are seldom able  to
do.  The  physician has to individualize in each particular case at
each time of making a  prescription.  Homoeopathic medicines, if  no 
Missing pages 33-40
             part of page missing
  Prottessor James MclSaughton, late  President of the  New~York
State  Medical  Society, in his annual address  alludes  to Homce-
opathia:  "Generally speaking they  have  at once  pronounced the
whole subject absurd,—a delusion,—or a gross imposition upon pub-
lic  credulity.  Now is this the proper mode  of treating it?   Is  it
philosophical to call anything absurd,  professed to be founded on ob-
servation and experiment ?  If it be false, it  should  be proved to be
so,  by showing  that  facts do  not  warrant tlie premises, or the de-
ductions drawn from them.  It  is possible, that the homoeopathic rea-
soning may be erroneous,—it is possible that the medicines may act as
specifics, like the  vaccine virus, and that the  mode of action may
be altogether inexplicable, in  the  present state  of our  knowledge.
AVe are therefore  more interested in determining the correctness of 
part of page  missing
part of page missing
                     ........■..-,—>---------------------------------------------'-   ' "~"~1
,ca,uvu.-«-----^e>mle and obedient servant.
found respect, your disciple ana          ^^ p  ^^ m d



   Vew IVfc, ^ 6^'1833'
                       THE  DIPLOMA.

                r, rlV1TvTIS  NOVI EBORACI AT^K COMITATE,



            u   p* Ornatissimum Dominum Samuelem Hahnemann,
    Virum Probum et O™"19*"1 fama pr0mit scientiarum medicinae
  Auctorem "0T°P!L lTb'eraUum honoribus artium provectum, placuit
  etchirurgiaecultow^^   juace  Comitatus Canal  Med.

  nobis PrdGtocium^^coStuere Honorarium; atque  auctoritatem et 
part of page missing
  Ana alike will be the language of each of the two thousand homoe-
opathic  physicians spread over the different countries  of our globe,
not a  single  one of  whom has ever returned to the old practice.
There must be some truth in  Homceopathia.   Yes, so much that  he
who has examined her strictly and honestly will do such homage to her,
as to leave  her no more.   Physicians, who desire to be  confirmed
enemies to the new system, will do best  never to examine  into  it;
but close their eyes, even though it should be clear day all around them,
for fear the least ray of light might hurt them.  And so it happens that
those who know the least, about it, cry the loudest against the reform.
  When Hahnemann published first his opinions in medical journals the
world was not agitated,  nor a  venomous opposition raised against him
until the time  at which  his principles gained   public ground.  Old
laws which subjected the preparation of medicines, as a particular busi-
ness, to examined apothecaries, and  forbid it to  the physician to pre-
scribe and make up the medicine himself, were brought to light again,
and  used against Hahnemann.   The law is not  a bad  one,  that every
prescription of the physicians has to be made up by a duly examined
apothecaries—and not less were the drug-stores every year submitted
to a rigid examination, to be assured, that the receipts were prepared
from the purest and best kind of medicines.  In the eastern cities here, too,
the prescriptions of most all regular physicians are sent to the Apoth-
ecary to be made up, and it is a very laudable  custom, and  ought to
be so  in every place, as it  will  prevent many abuses  in practice.  A
physician once bought a large quantity of powdered rhubarb, at a pub-
lic sale, for a very  low  price,  and told me afterwards  that he would
now fqed all his patients on rhubarb, till it would be used up.  What
can be expected from such and similar practice?  But he could not
have done so, if he had to send his prescriptions to the drug-store. It
soon would be known that he uses one medicine in all diseases.   And
not much better is  the  practice  to stuff the patient one day with pills
and the next  with tartar and ipecac: and  to repeat that till the patient
is either tired of it, and refusing to swallow any more; or is worn out
and dies, or makes a lucky  escape and gets well in spite of drugs and
doctor. The law brought against Hahnemann could not be strictly applied
to his new system, as the apothecaries did not know how to prepare the
homoeopathic medicines, and the physician had  to make them up him-
self to be sure of their purity and correct mode of preparation.  Still the
law was kept in force, though afterwards repealed in some  parts; and
in some parts apothecaries were authorized  to prepare for the use of
physicians homoeopathic medicines according to  rules. Physicians, now,
aroused from  all sides against the new doctrine, as a  heresy,  but the 
part of page missing
 new system, ana pam>  m ».— „. ,.. x        .   0
 with Homceopathia.  The possession of homoeopathic books and ho-
 moeopathic medicines do not make a Homoeopathist, even of a profes-
 sor of a medical college.   As proof we make reference  to the  trials
 made by Prof. AxDRAL,of Paris, who for the just mentioned reasons did
 not  succeed, and the very same patients which he could not cure by
 his homoeopathic ? treatment, were afterwards cured by a  homoeopathic
 practitioner at  Paris, who  did understand, how to apply  the remedies
 according to the rule " similia  similibus curantur. "  Administering
 liomoeopathic medicines according to allopathic  principles will  never
 do, and tlie result necessarily must be a failure, as their principles are
 entirely different.
   The letter of the  Academy,  who made report about  the  trials  of
 Andral, may be read as Croserio* commented upon them:
   " Monsieur le Ministre: We know that homoeopathic medicine makes
 proselytes  in Germany, Russia,  Italy, and we  see that it begins to
 spread over France, and  that even patients treated in vain by ourselves,
 have been cured by Homceopathia, this  doctrine, contrary to  what
 has been communicated to us by our masters, is very difficult and ab-
 stract; but as the only means of convincing ourselves of its merits,
 would be  to  make experiments in suitable hospitals, we beg of you,
 Monsieur le Ministre,  to  deny us these means of enlightening our-
 selves, in order to prevent its spreading, or at least to retard ifs propa-
 gation during our life-time, so that we may quietly enjoy our.places,
 without being obliged to have recourse to such a painful labor," &c.
   The homoeopathic practice is not taken up so easily, it requires eveu
 of an allopathic practitioner the  profound study  of years to be quite
 familiar with it, and  that,  indeed,  causes labor.   Allopathists,  who
 have practised for  a long time  in the old system, hate to undertake
 such troublesome studies, except they should be able  to fortify their
 mind with  an unyielding perseverance.   But  where  is the man, says
 Locke, who would be induced by better reasons, suddenly to lay aside
his old opinions, his  acquirements, the fruits of a long  and laborious
life, and be persuaded to adopt ideas entirely new.  The most conclu-
sive and just reasoning will no more convince him,  than the wind could
induce the traveller (in the fable) to quit his cloak;  and  so it is with
the majority of allopathists; but be it understood,  that none of them
can ever have an opinion on Homceopathia on which the  public  may
depend, if they pass over the homoeopathic system and few  of its books
as people do  over  the  novels  of  tlie day.   What  can  they know
*Vide Croserio, translated by Neidhard. 
                                41

by a  more slight reading of a  system, which  is  founded  on expe-
rience, and can be tested no otherwise than by experience again;   We
know allopathic physicians of high standings who oilce, with  the spirit
of a  "Saul,*' opposed the  new doctrine, but  While persecuting it,- be-
came conscience-struck, investigated and were converted.-
  "Respecting the opposition, we'may  say truly, the dishonorable and
dishonest opposition, as remarks  Kft-chen, which the subject has met
with, he would wish to say but little; no one can be much surprised at
iti  If we only look through the annals  of  our race^ we shall find that
such has been the case regarding all discoveries, and what is very sin-
gular $ the more veritable and useful, so much the more violent: With-
out going into detail^ we would merely refer to the motion of the  earth
by Galileo, the circulation of the blood by Harvey,*  vaccination by
Jcnncr^ and the powers of steam by Fulton*  To refer  more particu-
lafly to the case of Harvey; we there have quite sufficient evidence of
the vindictivene'ss  of the profession in any case, which  may militate
against the doctrines of the school for  the time being, and not accord
with the " verba  magistri,"  the  opinions  of those who, some how or
other, arc Called  to be professors of the  art, though not always mas-
ters of  it:   Physicians have condemned the subject without a  trial,
from  prejudice alonej  Is this just; is  it honorable; is it honest?  No
one  who is just and honorable  and honest, can  answer in the affirma-
tive.-  We  would  ask the  simple question how any one knows  that
ipecacuanha vomits,  Or rhubarb  purges?   Is  it by reading or looking
at tlie  substances?   All the books ever   Written on materia  medica
might be read, and all the substances at the druggists shop be looked
at for years,  and  no one Could  be perfectly  assured that these sub-
stances would produce  the effects on the human organism ascribed to
them; they believe they produce those effects, because their teachers tell
them so; they know nothing of it themselves, before experience teaches
to a Certainty  in their own  person^, or in the persons of  others';   Now
homoeopathic  physicians* tell them on the same principle of expecting
to be believed, that such  and  such homoeopathic medicines produce
such  and suCh effects.  But  what  is the consequence?  Do they be-
lieve What is  told them?   No I they say at once, it is impossible, it is
false; ("an insane  phantom,") it is a humbug, and this is said,  too, with-
out  a trial of the  medicines.   A truly  just  and honest judgment
indeed!   Were all judgments based  on such principles we should, in
truth, be in a  sorry plight.  Reference is* made by bur bpponents to the
trial of the medicines by Andral, at Paris, a few* years since.   Homce,
opathists have always denied the fairness  of that trial; it was  unjust,

  * Dr Vanderburg says: When we consider the determined oppMhion, main-
tained with virulence for fifty years, against Harveys discovery of the circula-
tion of the blood, I  do not know, that we should be so much surprised at what
we meet with • for if my memory serves me, medical students, in order to obtain
their diplomas,  were compelled, forty years after this great discovery, to swear
that they would not believe the heresy— and now the professors of meduine
please to call it, a brilliant discovery.'
                        6 
1-J
dishonorable and prejudiced, got up for the express purpose of attempt-
ing to put down  Homceopathia,  but fortunately  it  was so prejudiceu
and barefaced lhat  no  really reflecting  physician could put the least
confidence in the so-called results;  and worse than all, it was based
on ignorance, for can it be  supposed that even Amiral, with his truly
giant  and philosophic  mind, could be able, with  a little light reading,
snatched up  during the  intervals of an  arduous allopathic practice—■
could it be  possible that he could appreciate and calculate the effects
of homoeopathic medicines on disease, and much less be  able to clas-
sify the symptoms and give the correct remedy?   There  is contradic-
tion on the very face of it.   Homoeopathic practice is not  so plain and
child-like,  and he who comes to the  practice of it with such views,
musf necessarily  fail." Some have written very wittily against Homce-
opathia.  Witticism, though it is often  as far from  sound sense as sem-
blance from reality, and if it should ever be as brilliant, as the light of
a shooting star—it  vanishes  like  it, and cannot be  confounded with
truth, which, like  a solar-light, is eternal,  and so is the homoeopa-
thic law, as a law  of  nature which has existed  before  Hippocrates
and Hahnemann,  immutable.
  Homceopathia has advanced rapidly in  France and elsewhere, where
it has been  introduced and duly examined,* so much so, that  differ-
ent Governments have  been  induced to  doubt the former  trials as cor-
rect, and  hospitals, clinics and  professorships have so far, in accord-
ance with the favorable public opinion of the new system, been erected
in numbers;  and  individuals from the humblest walk in life up to those
who are called first in society—the noblesse, princess and kings apply for
the benefits of Homceopathia.  We give the following list as proof, from
Dr. Hull's Everest which we have quoted before:
               HOMCEOPATHIC  COURT-PHYSICIANS.
   Many physicians and surgeons  in  Europe,  whose  success in the
practice of the healing art through the  agency of  Homceopathia has
been undeniable, have been rewarded by places of honor, which allo-
  *Dr. Rosenstein, in his Theory and Practice of Homceopathia, Louisville,
1840, inserts a letter of Dr.  Croserio, at Paris, to Dr.  C. Neidhard, at Phila-
delphia, of which  we extract the following:  " In a country like yours, dear
sir, where the press is free, the heads open and the hearts warm for every im-
provement, and the purses full, every thing may be accomplished by those who
follow a noble design.  I venture to assert that in  all Europe individual gener-
osity  has  not done as much for beneficial and  common purposes, as it has
done in the United States during the last twenty-five years.  The people of the
United States have only to know the greatlbenefit of Homceopathia, and thev
will bestow hundreds of thousands  on homoeopathic institutions.  And have
you attempted, dear  sir,  to inform your Temperance Societies of the powerful
support their cause may derive from Homceopathia?  And have you informed
the slaveholders of the South how many lives will be saved and how quicklv
health is restored  by our treatment?  Aye, even slavery will support your
cause.  I am much inclined to  believe, that a medical  reform in the United
States of America, if once commenced on a large scale, (that is to say, after a
sufficient number  of buyers of homoeopathic works has  been found, which is
the principle  requisite of all scientific progress  on a  national  scale) will be
much more rapid and thorough going, than in any European country, Germany
 not excepted.                                                      ^ 
43
pathic practitioners  have always struggled to secure.   From such we
are enabled to record:
 _ Dr. Aegidi, late physician to Princess Frederica of Prussia; Dr. Kurtz, phy-
sician to the Duchess  of Anhalt-Dessau; Dr. Cramer, of Carlsruhe, physician
to the Grand Duke Charles; Dr.  Romani, physician to the Queen Dowager of
Naples; Dr. Necker, late physician to the Baron von Roller, Intendant General
of the Austrian Army; Dr. Smith, physician to the Duchess of Lucca; Dr. Ma-
renzellcr, of Vienna, physician to Prince Metternich and his family; Dr.Schon-
berg, late physician  to the Baron von Koller; Dr. Vorbrod, of Coburg, surgeon
to the Duke of Saxe-Coburg; Dr. Staehelroth, physician to Count  Berstel, com-
mander-in-chief of the Prussian  Forcesof the Rhine; Dr. Griesselich, surgeon
to the Grand Duko of  Baden ; Altmuller, surgeou to the Duke of Hesse-Cassel;
Dr. Luber, of Koningsbruck, physician to the Couut of Hoi berg and Hohenthal;
Dr. Horatiis, president of the  Academy of Medicine (allopathic) was selected
physician to Francis I. the late King of Naples ; Dr. Stapf, was called to attend
the Dowager Queen of England; but the important position he holds in Ger-
many compelled him to decline the honor; Dr. Quin, late physician to the King
of Belgium; Dr. Backhausen, of  Dusseldorf, physician to Princess Fredericaof
Prussia; Dr. Webor, physician to the Duke of Solms and PIoheu-Lich; Drt Reu-
bel, physician to Count Wallenstein, Minister  of  Internal  Affairs, Bavaria;
Dr. Anton Schmidt, physician to Ferdinand, Crown Prince of Lueca; Dr. Hesse,
physician to Count Schonberg; Dr. Baudis, physician to Count Veczay.
   For  further high appointments of homoeopathic practitioners refer
to the above named  book. Facts speak louder than words, and one single
fact is worth more than a ship-load of proofs a priori, hypotheses,. &c.
   Professorships of Houmopathia are erected at Heidelberg, Vienna,
Erlangen,  Munich, Jena.  Leipzig,  Frcyburg,   Zurich,  Giesscn,
Berlin,  &lc.   In  the  British Journal  of Homceopathia,  by  the Drs.
Drysdale, Russel and  Black, No. II, 1843, we read  of the Progress
of Homceopathia  in Spain,  from  a letter of Dr.  Roland of Madrid,
to Dr. Molin of Paris: the  first convert was  an old  physician, who
embraced it with zeal  and  thankfulness;  and what  is more  singu-
lar, the Academy of Medicine, in Seville, unlike any other medical cor-
poration in  Europe, have fostered tlie new doctrine,  caused   Hah-
nemann's work to be translated at their expense  and extended their
support to the homoeopathic  Journal which has  recently been  estab-
lished in Spain.                   .^
   A section of the  civil hospital  of Tovo, in  Spain, has  been ap-
propriated  to the treatment  of the sick on the homoeopathic  meth-
od by Professor Coll.  The treatment of Dr. Coll  was  triumphant
although based on  this hard  condition, that  the  invalids were de-
clared incurable  by the other (allopathic) Professors of the  Hospital,
and whom he would not allow to be dismissed  from the establishment
until tliey were again reviewed by those Professors,  and  declared  to
be veritably cured,  by their own certificate.  Homoeopathic Dispensa-
ries  are at  Palermo, Paris,  London, Edinburg, Liverpool,  Glasgow,
New York, &c. A thousand works on Homceopathia have been  issued
from the press, and have appeared  more  or  less  in six different lan-
guages  and between thirty and forty journals nre in circulation.
   Making a short resume, the reader will recollect the declarations of
Girtxaner  and  Hoffmann, from Germany;  Cahanis and Magendie
from France; Pereira from  Italy; Paris and Abercrojtrie fromGreM 
14
Britain; Jun\ Mason Goon, S. Jackson and J, Kt'su  ftom America;
regarding  the  uncertainty and insufficiency  of lh<'  ^tate °f medical
Science and the necessity  for reform; then the  appearance of Samuel
Hahnemann  in undertaking and  establishing-  such a reform in medi-
cine, upon a foundation of reason and experience, whose principles had
been approved of by his cotemporaries and  his predecessors, as Hip-
pocrates, B. V.\lentinus, Paracelsus, Stahl, Halleh, Hunter, Sy-
denham, Blel, Kentish,   In the practical review you have noticed the
striking contrast of both systems, the practical advantages of  Ilomceo-:
pathia  by  her  simplicity,  direct  treatment, smajhiess of doses, the
pleasant  taste of her 'medicines,  their  general  applicability,  their
quick,  m'ld and   s;ife  effect,  &,c, with  different  references to,
Bichat,  Pereira, Wood  and Bache, Kitchen, Ex stachieve, Stk.
ranza, Croserio,  Bruchhausen, Eshenmayer, Duringe.  Hering,
Epps, Partridge, Elliots, Brera, Brenfleck, Rush.  Farther re-
mind the  Reputation of Samuel Hahnemann,  and his system at home
and abroad, the  testimony given in favor of it by Hufe^and, Kopf,
Broussais, Breua, Millkngen, V.  Mott, McNaughton, Gray, and
the New  York State Medical Society; the confessions of Schuler,
Muhlenbein, Croserio,  Kitchen  and  Hull;  the quptations from
Rev. Everest by Hull, with Gray's essay relating the appointments
of Homaopathists to  Court-Physicians; the erection of Professor-
ships at some of the first medicql colleges in Austria, Bavaria, Sax-i
ony, Switzerland,  Prussia, Spain, Sfc., of homozopat/hic hospitals and
dispensaries in France,   Hungary, Great Britain, Sicilia, Bohemia,
and in  some of the just before-named States; the journals and litera-
ture of Homceopathia, her progress  in Europe and America.
  Taking all  this  in due consideration, how can Dr, Lawson be  justi-
fied to  call Homceopathia  an insane phantom?   Doep  not  the  very
expression seem to indicate that he  has been swept away by a current
of prejudiced passion?   Has the English  language no other  words
to express,  before  a respectable  public audience, an  ayersion to
One system and a predilection for another;  or is the Professor of a med^
ical college compelled to use such unbecoming term?  to  enhance
the value of his  opinion?  We know the opinion of a Professor to
another medical institution given in an  introductory  lecture,  about
a year  ago, who though he had shown  his fancy for  allopatbia strong
enough, addressed the medical students regarding Homceopathia about
in the following words: ^Gentlemen, examine  the system  for  your,
selves; if you find any thing good in it, assume-it, if you do not, lay
it aside."   Which is the most  proper mode for a medical  teacher, lo
encourage young gentlemen, engaged in the  study of medicine, to in-
vestigation and selfrexamination,  to use their  own judgment and to
decide for themselves according to knowledge, experience  and con-
sciousness; or to suppress  inquiry in  a case of such vital importance in
pre-qcupying their minds  by the before mentioned most gratuitous and
final sentence of "insanity?" How undignified appears intolerance which
intends to trample down every idea, opinion,  principle, truth—not con- 
45
ceiyed nor understood? To judge in matters of science a scholar is re ,
quirpd, who by profound knowledge is completely qualified, to decide
OH arguments and  facts, and will do it with a mind free from the mists,
of prejudice or intolerance;  or where knowledge  m.-Uckjng, with the
frank and open sincerity of an acknowledgment of it,, so that the public
shall be able to form nn accurate idea of its merils.
  Away with individual opinions which are based on want of information,
on false self-esteem, petty interest, or on a mere spirit ofopposition;—
truth is required and "the interests of humanity commandMY  The fige
where the authority of a teacher was held up for exclusive truth has.
gone by, and Dr. Lawson has to expect, that, his opinion 01*-. Homceopa-
thia will  be taken for just, what it is  worth.
  Hahnemann affirms: "I speak from experience " and with' him every
homoeopathic physician.  Can the learned Professor say with truth in
reference to his opinion that Homceopathia is an insane phantom ? Let
US have  the proofs.   Dr. Lawson will please to inform homoeopathic
societies, professors, physicians, Jind the friends of Homceopalhia in
general, about his theoreticnl knowledge of that system, and not less of'
his practical experience.  Where are the patients  he  treated, homceo-
pathicaljy,  of \yhat sex, age, temperament, constitution,  <$sc,  what
were the  symptoms of their disease, how has he prescribed,  what
medicine, what doses, what  trituration,  mother-tincture, or  attenua-
tion, at whattiine, repeated, or not,  and how often, in what relationship
have the medicines followed, how long has each patient beeru, under
treatment, and what was the result, of it in each particular case?.'
  Answer these questions honestly, my  dear sir!—give your  response
on them in particular; or your silence shall  decide.
  If Dr. Lawson shall prove to have tested Homceopathia sufficiently
by experience, we shall lay the evidences furnished before a Homoeopa-
thic  Sociely for the gake of an arbitration,  to have it decided if, the
patients have been treated  in accordance with the homoeopathic doc-
trine and practice, or not.
  Every medical student and efery physician ought to study *nd; ex-,
amine impartially  the  new system, and all  who have done  so,  have
become either  friends or converts  to  it.   May they read with atten-.
tion  the  Materia  Medica, edited by Dr, A.  Noacx, and  Dr. C. F.,
Thinks, the  best work  lately  issued, and they will see proved by the
highest  evidence in the parallels of the Clinics of both schools under
the  article  of  each  medicine, how much the  old school of medicine,
where she administered remedies most successful, did homage to the
principles " similia similibus curantur." Indeed, by studying Homce-
opathia,  Allopathists  will become able to form  a  correct  opinion
about  her,  and  having gained so  much, their antipathy  towards
the reformed, or homoeopathic system of medicine will cease.  The
principles  of  it  are no nostrum.    Samuel  Hahnemann published
his  discoveries, the principles  of  his system, and the  medicines
to be administered, that  every  body should know and understand it.^
There is no secrecy,  no mystery about it, except that the knowledge of 
<!(•>
 it cannot be got as a revelation, when asleep, or dreaming,  nor while
 talking nonsense.  Whoever is willing to spend lime and labor,  and to
 buy the necess uy books, has access  to it.   But how can physicians and
 other persons, who know nothing about  the reformed system,  speak
 against it?   Let themselves  seek first information before they begin to
 instruct others.
   Homceopathia has nothing to fear and maintains her ground.  Her
 strongest hold consists in the truth of her fundamental law  and in the
 undeniable blessings she has bestowed  already on thousands and tens
 of thousands of individuals who are living testimonies in her favor. The
 friends and patrons  of the new doctrine, well acquainted with it from
 many a trial they had in their own families, or witnessed them among
 relatives and neighbors, feel assured that by applying for homoeopathic
 treatment save themselves pains, time of sickness and expenses, and
 what is much more, constitution and  life to a certain degree.
   "The community at  large." remarks Bryant, "however ignorant of
 medicine, must necessarily  be  the arbiters between the different
 schools.   Other umpires  there  are none.   It  is their own health
 and safety which are concerned, and  they have  a  right  to  decide
 with whom these shall  be entrusted; and with  the results of the  dif-
 ferent  modes of medical practice before them, the means of forming a
 just and impartial judgment are in their power.  The members of the
 liomoeopathic society  merely exercise the right of making  this decis-
 ion for themselves.   Our association is  formed, not for  the sake of
 making doctors of  the members,   but  for the  sake of  extending
 the  knowledge of what they  deem  an  important  discovery,  the
 merits  of which  they  infer from what they have seen of its results.
 They  wish  to  secure  to it a  fair  and intelligent  examination on
 the part of the  public; they perceive that its principles  and methods
 are little understood, and are made the  subject of frequent ridicule,
 and they are sensible that nothing so effectually hinders impartial ex-
 amination, as derision.   Appeal to the pride of him,  whom you wish
 to dissuade  from inquiry, tell him ^at  the notions you oppose  are so
 silly, that it is unworthy of a man of sense like him, who will perceive
 their absurdity at  a glance, to waste his time in  looking  at the ev-
 idence by which they are supported,  and if he be a weak-minded or
 foolishly-sensitive person, you  will probably have gained your point.
 You will have  engaged on your side, his  self-love, his wish to stand
 well with  others, his fear of being  laughed at,  and with these pow-
 erful auxiliaries, you  need not apprehend much from his  mere love
 of investigation.."
  In  conclusion, whoever   is not satisfied with  the many  proofs al-
 ready  given, would not believe if I should add volumes  to volumes •
 but  "those who think  that their caprice may with impunity  be in-
dulged, in matters of such vast magnitude,  ought to be  reminded
of the  remark  of Ancillon,  that, nobody  has  a  right to  disturb  to
 to paralizc,  to impede, the  intellectual  march of* mankind.   Happily
if any  one should feci deposed to do so, hi? malignity  would at length 
47
be powerless. The feeble arm of man cannot long counteract the laws
of nature; nor overthrow  the order of the  universe.    Man may  ef-
fect much, if he confines himself to its eternal track; but if lie endeav-
ors to give  it a retrograde motion, he is  seized, hurried  away and
crushed by the  vast  wheel of time."
   Notwithstanding tlie  former  opposition  to  Homceopathia  in the
East, this system  has  made  rapid progress there, and particularly  so
in the State  of New-York and Pennsylvania ; for which  the commu-
nity,  among  others, is indebted to the untiring zeal and high-minded
devotedness   to diat  system,  by many Physicians of the  City and
State  of New York and  the City of Philadelphia, and  in no  small
measure to the former homoeopathic Institution at Allentown, Pa.; the
American Journal of Homceopathia; and Dr.  HulVs Homceopathic
Examiner,  and other  works,
   The public abounds- there   in warm friends  and supporters  of the
Reform,  and they are found  among farmers, mechanics,  merchants,*
ministers, members of the bar,  professors of Academies  and Uni-
versities, members of different Legislatures, and of Congress.   How
much it  is esteemed  and advocated  by an intelligent  class  of the
community is shown by the strong patronage of homoeopathic physicians
in  all the eastern cities.   It  is sufficient to know that New York and
Philadelphia alone, each, counts from twenty to thirty of them;  and the
HomceopathistS of Boston, Albany, Baltimore, Washington,  Pittsburg,
Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, &c,  &c, are busily engaged in an
extensive practice, and likewise many physicians throughout the coun-
try of several States.  The necessity for a Homoeopathic Medical Insti-
tution is mentioned in the State of New York and other places, and will
before long be called into  existence.  The medical schools of the Uni-
ted States do their best, to appear, as first, among their  rivals and use
every exertion to promote their interests; but let one or two of them lay
aside their prejudices against the new doctrine, and let them  create
a "professional chair for Materia Medica and Medical  Practice of Ho-
mceopathia,  combined with  a hospital adapted to that system, then
Anatomy, Physiology, Patholog^iShemistry, &.c, are alike the foun-
dation of both systems, and they will, ceteris paribus,  advance of their
sister schools.  The time  is   not far  distant, we trust, when it  will  be
done here, as in Europe,  where it has become already a  law of some
  *There are wholesale and retail drug-store keepers, who sell their medicines to
every body who wants them, but when they get ill, or their families, call on ho-
moeopathic physicians and take their medicine in preference;" even allopathic
physicians have  recommended some of their friends and patients to give Ho-
mceopathia a  trial, and have often themselves, after consulting the best  of their
knowledge, without avail, applied to her for relief and cure.  One sample: An
aged medical  professor,  Lazisarini, in the University of Florence, was attacked.
by gangrene  in one leg, and which was spreading up the limb  in spite of all
that his colleagues in attendance  could do to  stop it; they,  therefore, declared
the case hopeless, and he was himself of the same opinion,  but sent, as a last
resource, to Rome for a friend of his, Dr. Severini, who had embraced  the doc-
trines of Hahnemann,—under his treatment he was perfectly cured.  This has,
of course, caused a great sensation in Florence and won many adherents to the
cause.—British Journal of Homceopathia. 
<1S
 Governments, thli:-i candidate for' the degre'e of '' Doc!of of Medicine,
 hav to stand his examination in both systems:   The medical institution
 which shall have the courage to  lie first in doing so here, will  justly
 earft the high approbation of the public:   There  is no reason why dii-
 fererit-svslems ofWdicine cannot, be co-existing*   If opposition must.
 be c.w-iedo)i. th*n let it be an honorable; a fair, an honest opposition;
 for tke'-causo of'oemonstrating the truth of the principles ot science^
 not Inhere imaginary opinions, but  bv farts drawn from  actual expe-
 rience.
   " As^cibrmntions never originate within institutions, where error and
 abuse arc rife. "Observes Dr. CiiANNiNC,,"butfrorit the bufferings of those
 without, ^hate-vea- reform medical education may lieed, must receive  its
 first impulsefrcftn the imperative demand of the age} or,  what is equiva-
 lent under a^overnnu nt like ours, from the omnipotent cry of  the peo-
 ple, interpreted, sustained and enforced by the profession at large ; for
 to  us, in sucli an  emergencv, they naturally and  confidingly  look  for
 counsel and Support.    Let us, therefore, rejoice in "the  signs Of the
 limes," for they announce that  a  spirit, is  awakening in  this1  hbmo  of
 free institution?, which, in giving audience to the  importunities of the
 age, in concertrating the philanthropy, the intelligence and influence
 of the profession, to meet, its just requisitions,  will, it is to be hopedy
 commence a movement for Medicine,  which  may  prove  as effective  in
 its ivfjeiicraliMi' power, as that so auspiciously undertaken for educa-
 tion in common schools."' To the general onward progress of knowl-
 edge and reform is the light of science, "as the pillar of  fire by night,"'
 and in medicme be tlie poor suffering humanity benefitted by it, as well
 as by the practical results of sincere and skilful investigation,  and by
 material improvements in the treatment of the sick, i.  e. by a quick,-
 mild  and  permanent alleviation  and  cure  of disease;  and, with  the
 words of tlie last-quoted author, we close: "Medicine, then, instead of
 limping in the rear of the army of science,  shall take her place in the
 van-guard, there to win  for herself the laurels of a world's benedic-
 tion.'"
  *If Luther and Mclnnchton, Zwingli'andjCalvin had had to wait for the sanc-
 tion of their reformed doctrine by the "P3pe of Rome," and the United States
 for the approbation of their Declaration  of Independence and Republican Con-
stitution from the "royal throne of Great Britain"—history would never refer to'
 a great religious reformation, called "Protestantism," and never would have ex-
isted in the historical annals of nations, the greatest of all Republics, "The United
States of America."  And so in Medicine, we never would have heard  of  a
reform called "iHwnaopaihia,"  if Hahnemann, his disciples,  and the public,
had to listen to the opinions of medical professors in general, and their  most
obedient  adherents, or to await their  approbation.  Reform commences not
within, but witholU such institutions; though sound doctrine and practice in-
medicine  is to thetbody, what sound religion is to  the soul. 
 
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