T( 0SENST£-//V (l. (*,J 0- ' ■" ^"■^ Ks^bu*--**- *- v~e-^_r til \\*~4^oL* * ** *-^~ cLgj?j^ * -< < x. ** TREATI SE UPON A NEW MANNER OF MEDICAL PRACTICE, CALLED HOMCEOPATHIE, ELUCIDATED BY COMPARING THE HIGH STATION OF HOMCEOPATHIE WITH THE USUAL MODE OF PRACTICE CALLED ALLOPATHIE. DEDICATED TO OUR PATIENTS, AND TO THE FRIENDS ,t>F TRUTH AND HUMANITY, By I. G, ROSENSTEIN, Doctor of Medicine, Surgery and Midwifery, graduated at the University of Marburg; Member of the College of Physicians at Utrecht in the Netherlands; Member of the Medical Society of New-York and Albany. ALLIED IN PRACTICE WITH TWO SKILFUL HOMCEOPATHICAL PHYSICIAN!, Mr. BIKGLBR and Mr. SEITZ. ALBANY: PRINTED BY PACKARD AND VAN BENTHUY8EN, 1836. Tut, man! one fire burns out another's btrrningj One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish; Turn giddy, and be help'd by backward turning; One desperate grief cures with another's languish: Take thou some new infection to the eye, And the rank poison of the old will die. Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, A. Z. \ PREFACE. If a contest for truth and justice is laudable, so much the more when it concerns our nearest and highest interest, health and disease, must be a question of importance—"to be, or not to be." If we take an active and lively interest in questions of politics and posses- sion, we ought particularly to favour a science, and view it with the torch of unprejudiced truth, when experience has fully sustained it, and furnished the conclusive evidence that life and health is by it secured. I suppose it is a peculiar tendency in the character of our present genera- tion, to search and scrutinize into the motives of every thing, and again level it with the maxims of our actions. As my existence needs no apology, because the law of creation gave me life, so do I think it superfluous to excuse myself if I elevate my voice after my best conscience and knowledge, showing the past and the present errors as it concerns especially the life and health of my fellow creatures. What man of reason and truth must not desire that various opinions and manifold reasonings may meet together, to decide a matter of so much con- sequence, that the light of truth may be kindled in the heart of man, and that false principles and erroneous maxims may be consumed in flames? For centuries the nations bowed to opulent Allopathie, yielding to it as willingly as they humbled themselves formerly down to the dust to Aristo- cracy and Hierarchie, until their better feelings awoke, and they shook off the yoke. If bloody war has carried off many a precious life, yet our free- dom and liberty (sweet words) are established. It is high time that the na- tions should know the scourge of Allopathie, and shake off its yoke also. Consult two or three different physicians on your case: It will soon con- vince you how fallacious their arguments are. When the one advises to take stimulating remedies to give power and energy to your nerves, which by its influence sets the whole machine in equilibrium, (it being sufficiently known, according to the school of Brown, that stimulating remedies are ex- cellent to compose the over-excitement of the nerves:) the other will argue strongly against it: he will trace the symptoms of the disease to the great irritability of the arterial system: he disapproves of stimulating medicines: he means, by lowering the system by bleeding, arterial and nervous irritabi- lity are both calmed; when, by the application of excitantia, you may in- crease the congestions to the head, and bring on inflammation of the brain. If he belongs to the French school of Broussais, who derives all the diseases from a chronical irritation of the mucous membrane of the stomach and intestines, (" Gastro-enterite, c'est la base dans la medecine") he will, instead of bleeding, apply leeches to the pit of the stomach. The third will prove that purgatives are the right means by which the fiend is to be attacked. He asserts, that by cleansing the bowels, he leads the blood from the head, and soothes the nerves at the same time. 4 If the consulting gentlemen are friends together, they will reconcile their conflicting opinions ; then bleeding, leeches, stimulating medicines and pur- gatives, all are made use of. What benefit is to be derived from such a pernicious way of treating maladies! The dawn of light has pierced the medical art, until now a rude mass of empirie; but since the immense discovery of the great benefactor of huma- nity, it has been elevated to a science. In Germany, France, Switzerland, etc. enlightened physicians follow and proclaim the truths of Homceopathie. The old, musty, and rotten building is fallen into ruin, a worthless inheri- tance of a barbarous age. The banner of the natural healing art is set up every where. Americans! it is now your turn to become converts to truth. I deeply regret that I have been myself a blind priest, a worshipper of a heathen deity; but I thank heaven for instruction in the way of truth. Be careful, I beg of you, not to use any longer allopathic remedies: Do not take mer- cury, rhubarb, bark, laudanum; for all, as usually administered, are inju- rious: you produce, through their use, dangerous diseases, or you linger for life. And you, mothers, I entreat you to beware how you deal out your paregorics or nostrums to your children, and to your family in general: be convinced you either shorten their lives, or paralyze their mental faculties. What is momentary relief, to eternal sufferings? No: it is much better to bear uneasiness for the present, if the future is crowned with success. Try to eradicate the disease of which sleeplessness is only a symptom : Give them homoeopathic remedies; they don't soothe instantly, but shortly after, flourishing health and sound sleep will return. Her step-sister Allopathie lulls your suffering child in a drowsy sleep; but it will awake your com- passion, when it is soon observed that its energy is daily more and more lessened. The impression of bodily and spiritual poisons is generally sweet for the present, but its consequences are usually fatal. Pass on, my little book; struggle and fight for the benefit of humanity; contribute to alleviate and heal the miseries and sufferings which reside alike in cottages and palaces; and when all infernal spirits would stir up against you, and discharge their venomous breath, conviction of the truth, when once awakened, will follow its way; nothing can disturb or hinder it in its course. The pilot, though surrounded with darkness and obscurity, still he guides his vessel between cliffs and rocks; his eyes are fixed on heaven, when the heart speaks an ardent and fervent prayer for direction. TREATISE ON HOMCEOPATHIE. PRELIMINARY. Man, through his indefatigable perseverance, has brought to light many a secret hidden in nature, and by his continual ardent research, did unfold matters unknown. Since man is placed upon earth to suffer and to die, no science, no art has exerted more his power, than the study of medicine. One century overthrew the experience of the past: then returning again to the first rudiments of science, erecting again a new edifice, constantly pursuing the difficult task, interrogating the past, consulting the present, and looking for amelioration into the future. In .all ages to the present time, arts and sciences have made rapid progress; but the branch we call the healing art (therapie) remained in darkness and obscurity, always wavering: what one approved, the other disap- proved. Why so frequently are the houses of liberally educated physicians abandoned, and the man with disease afflicted, anxious to be restored to health, finding no benefit from the assistance of his doctor,, throws himself in the arms of these wretches, miserable scourges, scum of hu- manity, stamped with the name quacks. By their flattering and al- luring language, the thoughtless are led astray; at last they find that they are not only robbed of their money, but hurried to an untimely grave. Take, then, gentle reader, the following pages. I thought it useful to hand to my patients a short view of the homoeopathic system, also some observations on diet; desiring that those entrusting themselves to our care, should learn on what principles we lead our practice. Without presumption, I may declare that every one willTsoon be convinced of the truth of this system, if he would give it a fair trial. I am willing to impart verbally further information, if any one should ask it. It is my inmost desire, for the sake of our suffering fellow creatures, that this system may become mote and more established in the United States, as is the case now in France, Germany, Russia, and over the whole of Europe. SECTION FIRST. The Physician's Duties. The first and sole duty of the physician is to restore health to the sick; this must be the aim of the physician, and is the grand design of of his art. 6 The perfection of a cure consists in restoring health, in a prompt, mild, and permanent manner; in removing disease, by the shortest, safest, and most certain means, upon principles that are at once plain and intelligible. When the physician clearly perceives the curative indication, in each particular case of disease; when he is acquainted with the therapeutic effects of medicines individually; when, guided by evident reason, he knows how to make such an application of that which is curative in medicine, to that which is indubitably diseased in the patient, both in regard to the choice of the substance and the precise dose to be admi- nistered, and the time of repeating it, that a cure may necessarily follow; and finally, when he knows what are the obstacles to the cure, and can render the latter permanent by removing them, then only can he ac- complish his purpose in a rational manner; then only can he arrogate to himself the title of physician, and a man skilled in the art of healing. SECTION SECOND. Explanation of the Different Modes of Healing. We reduce them to three; the Allopathic, the Antipathic, and the Homoeopathic. 1. The allopathic method, followed for ages : Its principal object is to choose such remedies which produce a disease of a different nature from that which is extant, and therefore does the allopathic physician apply purgatives in obstructions; he stimulates the skin by blisters or ointments, to remove internal pain; he uses the so-called alteratives, whose principal remedy is mercury, to change the system, or to give it another direction.* The Antipathic, Hnajiopathic, or Palliative Method. The physician pays attention to the symptoms most prevalent, that of which the patient complains loudest: He prescribes, against this symptom, a medicine that is known to produce the very opposite effect; for, according to the axiom, contraria contrariis, laid down fifteen hundred years ago by the old school of medicine, it is from this remedy that he expects the most speedy relief, (palliative.) Opium is adminis- tered in excruciating pain, likewise in cases of insomnolence, because it produces a state of hebetude and stupor ; purgatives, when the patient has been tormented with constipation. He plunges a hand that has received a burn, into cold water, because its icy quality appears to re- move the pain as if by enchantment. When a patient complains of a sense of cold and loss of vital heat, he places him in a warm bath whereby heat is immediately restored. Any one complaining of habi- tual weakness, is advised to take wine, which immediately reanimates and appears to refresh him. Every one who has paid attention to the subject, who has watched his own disease, will concur in saying, that after this slight antipathic amendment, which lasts only for a short time, the condition of the pa- tient invariably becomes worse, and being ignorant of the cause, he attributes it to the malignity of the primitive disease, which, according to his account, only then began to manifest itself. * A very pernicious plan: The mercury diseases in this country are innumerable. 7 No severe symptom of a permanent disease has ever been treated by these opposite remedies and palliatives, where the evil did not re-appear after a few hours, more aggravated than before. Thus, to cure a ha- bitual tendency to sleep during the day, coffee was administered, the first effects of which are excitement and insomnolence; but the moment that its first action was exhausted, the propensity to sleep returned stronger than ever.* When a person was subject to insomnolence, opium was administered at bedtime, which by its primitive actiou produces sleep, stupor and he- betude; but on the following night, the evil only became still more aggravated as the necessary consequence. Opium was administered in chronic diarrhoea, because its first effect was to constipate the bowels; but the alvine flux, after having been suspended for some time, re-appeared more grievous than before. Acute and frequent pains of all descriptions were momentarily calmed beneath the influence of opium, which blunts and benumbs the feeling; but they never failed to return with greater violence than before, or they were even sometimes replaced by another disease of a more distressing character, t Opium is very much used to soothe night coughs, whose first effects remove all kinds of irritation. For the first night, it may very well happen that the patient experiences some relief; but on the succeeding night, the cough returns more distressing than ever. Physicians have flattered themselves that they could subdue an inveterate tendency to constipation, by purgatives administered in large doses, which provoke frequent and abundant alvine evacuations; but the secondary effect of this treatment is generally that of constipating the bowels in a still greater degree.t Wine is generally prescribed in chronic debility; but it is only the primitive action of this agent that is stimulating, and its definitive re- sults are those of reducing the powers still more. It has been imagined that spices would warm and strengthen the cold and inactive stomach; but the secondary effect of these heating pallia- tives, is to increase the inactivity of the gastric viscera. Warm baths have been prescribed in cases of rigors, and an habitual deficiency of the vital heat; but on coming out of the water, the pa- tients are still weaker, more incapable of receiving warmth, and more subject to rigors than they were before. Immersions in cold water, instantly relieves the pain occasioned by a severe burn; subsequently, however, this pain is increased to an insup- portable degree, and the inflammation extends to the neigbouring parts. Electricity and galvanism, which at first exercise great influence up- on the muscular system, quickly restore activity to members that have for a long time been feeble and half paralyzed; but the secondary effect is absolute annihilation of all muscular irritability, and entire paralysis. * When I was a student, to keep me awake for study in the night, I used strong coffee, and by over excitement brought on a nervous fever. + Willis's Pharm. Rat. sec. 7, cap. p. 298. " Opiata dolores atrocissimos plerumque se- dant, atque indolentiam...procurant eamque...aliquamdiu, et pro stato quodam tempore con- tinuant, quo spatio elapso dolores mox recrudescunt, et brevi ad solitam ferociam augentur." And p. 395. " Exactis opii viribus illico redeunt tormina nee atrocitatem suum remittant, nisi dum ab eodem pharmaco rursus incantantur." | There is no country where purgatives are more abused than in America. Quacks enrich themselves by it. The bowels are generally thrown, by this fatal way of practice, into a paralytic state. 8 Venesection, or bleeding, is a fit remedy to stop the temporary flow of blood towards the head; but this mode is always succeeded by a still greater determination of blood to the upper parts of the body. The abuse of bleeding is also the cause that pulmonary consump- tion becomes so prevalent in our time. We may assert candidly, according to our own experience, that the former schools never calculated how often the secondary effect of anti- patic remedies, have tended to increase the malady, or ever bring on something that was still worse, of which experience has given us exam- ples that are enough to inspire the soul with terror. SECTION THIRD. I pass finally to the homoeopathic system. A few particulars con- nected with the discoverer and founder of the homoeopathic system of medicine, can not but prove interesting to the readers of these pages. Hahnemann Life. Samuel Hahneman was born in 1755, at Misnia, in Upper-Saxo- ny. He exhibited, at an early age, traits of a superior genius. His school education being completed, he applied himself to the study of natural philosophy and natural history, and afterwards prosecuted the study of medicine at Leipzig and other universities. A most accurate observer, a skilful experimenter, and an indefatiga- ble searcher after truth, he appeared by nature formed for the investi- gation and improvement of medical science. On commencing the stu- dy of medicine, he soon became disgusted with the mass of contradic- tory assertions and opposite theories. He found every thing in this de- partment obscure, hypothetical and vague, and resolved to abandon the medical profession. Having been previously engaged in the study of chemistry, he determined on translating into his native language the best English and French works on the subject. Whilst engaged in trans- lating the Materia Medica of the illustrious Cullen, in 1790, in which the febrifuge virtues of cinchona bark are described, he became fired with the desire of ascertaining its mode of action. Whilst in the enjoyment of the most robust health, he commenced the use of this substance, and in a short time was attacked with all the symptoms of intermittent fever, similar in every respect to those which that medicine is known to cure. Being struck with the identity of the two diseases, he immediately divined the great truth, which has become the foundation of the new medical doctrine of Homoeopathic For truth is eternal, as the Deity himself: Man may neglect it for a long time, until the moment at length arrives for accomplishing the de- crees of Providence, when its rays pierce through the mists of prejudice, and diffuse over the human mind a beneficial light which nothing can henceforward obscure. SECTION FOURTH. Elucidation of Homceopathie. There remains no other method of applying medicines profitably in diseases, than the homceopathie; by means of which, we select from all others that medicine, in order to direct it against the entire symptoms of 9 the individual morbid case, whose manner of acting upon persons in health is known, and which has the power of producing an artificial malady the nearest in resemblance to the natural disease we propose to eradicate. Plain experience, an infallible oracle in the art of healing, proves to us, in every careful experiment, that the particular medicine whose action upon persons in health produces the greatest number of symptoms re- sembling those of the disease which it is intended to cure, possesses also in reality the power of suppressing, in a radical, prompt, and permanent manner, the totality of these morbid symptoms. For instance, nitric acid is generally recommended in cutaneous diseases: The internal use of this remedy, in a very dilute form, produces scaly eruptions over the surface of the body; and the external application of a solution, in the proportion of one part acid to one hundred and twenty-eight parts of water, will produce inflammation and ulceration of the skin. This observation would lead to the conclusion, that nitric acid cures cutaneous diseases by the faculty it possesses of producing a similar disease of the skin. The ordinary effects of Hyosciamus niger are vertigo, delirium, stu- pefaction and somnolency; when one or other of these diseased states exist, it yields to small doses of the tincture of this plant. The internal use of hyosciamus is followed by mental aberration, the leading features of which are jealousy and irascibility; when these hallucinations exist, this remedy is indicated. Sulphur is a specific against itch; notwithstanding which, when it is administered to healthy individuals, it frequently excites a pustular eruption resembling itch in every particular. SECTION FIFTH. Many examples might be adduced, where nature itself has cured dis- eases homoeopathically, by other diseases which excited similar symp- toms. The foremost that presents itself among these affections is the smallpox, so famous for the violence and number of its symptoms, and which has cured a multitude of diseases that were characterized by symptoms similar to its own. Violent ophthalmia (inflammation of the eye) extending even to the loss of sight, is one of the most ordinary oc- currences in the smallpox ; whereas Dezateux and Leroy have each reported cases of chronic ophthalmia, which were cured in a perfect and a permanent manner by inoculation. A case of blindness of two years standing, brought on by a metastasis of tenia, according to Klein, was perfectly cured by the smallpox. How often has the smallpox cured deafness, and oppressed respiration? T. S. Closs has seen it cure both these affections, when it had reached its highest state of intensity. Dy- sentery is one of the bad symptoms which occur in smallpox; for this reason it cures the former disease homoeopathically, as reported by JS. Wendt. Vaccination, whose special symptom is swelling of the arm, cured, after its eruption, the tumefaction of an arm that was half paralyzed. The measles and hooping-cough resemble each other, in regard to the character of the cough : This was the reason that Bouquillon ob- served, during an epidemie of measles and hooping-cough, that the children who had the former were entirely free from the latter. 2 10 Even in the practice of domestic medicine by persons ignorant of our profession, but who were gifted with sound judgment and discerning minds it was discovered that the homoeopathic method of cure was the safest,' the most rational, and the least subject to failure. Frozen sourcrout is frequently applied to a limb that is recently frozen, or sometimes it is rubbed with snow. A cook who has scalded his hand, exposes it to the fire at a certain distance, without heeding the increase of pain which it at first occasions; because experience has taught him, that by acting thus, he can in a very short time perfectly cure the burn, and remove every feeling of pain. . Other intelligent individuals, equally strangers to medical science, such for example as the lacker-workers, apply a substance to burns which excites of itself a similar feeling of heat, that is to say, hot alcohol, or the oil of turpentine, and by these means cure themselves in a few hours; well knowing that the so-called cooling ointments would not produce the same result in an equal number of months, and that cold water would only make the evil worse. J. Bell, having to treat a lady who had scalded both arms with boil- ing liquid, covered one with the oil of turpentine, and plunged the other into cold water. The first was no longer painful at the expiration of half an hour, while the other continued so during six hours. The mo- ment it was withdrawn from the cold water, the patient experienced far greater pain; and it required much longer time to cure this arm, than it did to heal the other. J. Anderson likewise treated a woman who had scalded her face and arm with boiling fat. The face, which was very red and painful, was covered with oil of turpentine a few minutes after the accident. As for the arm, the patient had already plunged it, of her own accord, into cold water, and expressed a desire to await the result of this treatment for a few hours. At the expiration of seven hours, the face was better, and the patient relieved in this part. With regard to the arm, around which the water had been several times renewed, it became exceedingly pain- ful whenever it was withdrawn from the water, and the inflammation had manifestly increased. The next day, I found that the patient had suffered extreme pain in the arm; inflammation had extended above the elbow; several large blisters had burst, and a thick eschar had formed itself upon the arm and hand, which were then covered with a warm cataplasm. The face was no longer painful, but it was necessary to apply emollients a fortnight longer to cure the arm. Occasionally there have been certain physicians who imagined that medicines might cure diseases, by the faculty which they possessed of exciting morbid symptoms that resembled the disease itself. Thus, Boulduc, for example, discovered that the purgative properties of rhu- barb were the faculty by which this plant cured diarrhoea. Detharding conjectured that the infusion of senna would cure the cholic in adults, by virtue of the faculty which it possesses of exciting that malady in healthy persons. Thourry affirms that positive electricity accelerates arterial pulsation ; also that it renders the same slower, where it is al- ready quickened by disease. Stoerk was struck with the idea, that if stramonium disturbs the senses, and produces mental derangement in persons who are healthy, it might very easily be administered to ma- 11 niacs, for the purpose of restoring the senses by effecting a change of ideas. The Danish physician, Stahl, has, above all other writers, expressed his conviction on this head most unequivocally. He speaks in the fol- lowing terms: The received method in medicine, of treating maladies by opposite remedies, that is to say, by remedies which are opposed to the effects they produce, [contraria contrariis,) is completely false and absurd. I am persuaded, on the contrary, that diseases are subdued by agents which produce a similar affection, {similia similibus;) burns, by the heat of a fire to which the parts are exposed; the frost bite, by snow or icy cold water ; and inflammations and contusions, by spirituous appli- cations, etc. Thus far the great truth has more than once been approached by physicians, but a transitory idea was all that presented itself to them ; consequently the indispensable reform, which ought to have taken place in the old school of therapeutics, to make room for the true curative me- thod, and a system of medicine at once simple and certain, has, till the present day, not been effected. SECTION SIXTH. We may include the homoeopathical practice within two principal propositions: Proposition 1. The effect each remedy produces on healthy persons must be known, before it may successfully be exhibited to the diseased; or, in other words, the relation of every remedy to healthy persons ought to be settled first, before its relation to the diseased is to be established. Proposition 2. That remedy tried on healthy persons, which bears the nearest similarity to the symptoms of the disease, is the most certain to cure. Scarcely will any one doubt the necessity of the first proposition. Moritz Midler, a celebrated homoeopathic physician at Leipzig, said, "The profane in our profession would be struck with fear, were he in- formed that we physicians are unaware of the effects the remedies pro- duce on healthy persons ; that the intrinsic qualities of the medicines are unknown to us," even as we would ascertain; that the ability of dis- tinguishing diseases is to be acquired without a sufficient knowledge of anatomy and physiology. Should, however, any one think it superfluous to try the remedies on healthy persons, and to study minutely what ef- fect they produce on mind and body, we would remind him, that it is just to be ascribed to the superficial knowledge of the remedies, that the medical art remained for centuries in such obscurity. Fifty years of such experience are like fifty years passed in looking through a kaleido- scope, which, full of unknown things of varied colours, revolves conti- nually upon itself; there would be seen thousands of figures, changing their forms every instant, without a possibility of accounting for any one of them. In the course of twenty five centuries, no physician, except the immortal Haller, has ever thought of a method so natural, so absolutely necessary, and so perfectly true, as that of observing the pure effects of each medicine individually, in order to discover by that means the diseases they were capable of curing. Before Hahneman, the im- mortal Haller was the only one who conceived the necessity of pursuing 12 such a plan.* All the experience we gathered from the exhibition of the remedies to ill persons, brought the practical part of our profession to no advancement; and the result we receive from a remedy in one disease, shows itself differently in another. Our excellent fathers in medicine, a Hippocrates, a Galen, a Celsus, through their great simplicity, following the laws of nature, cured easier, and left no traces of a great many diseases which take their origin from the remedies they have taken, as it is too much the case in our present age. Only few remedies were known to them: however, they have done with little, much; and we do with much, but little. In former ages, the disease showed itself in natural development, and was easily conquered ; in our time, it is generally a mixture of the disease and the remedies which have been taken. ! One suffers from a chronical disease of his throat, or pain in his bones; feels himself uneasy by the change of weather; or suffers from ulcera- tion of the organs of reproduction, which sufferings he has brought upon himself by the use of mercury. Another is complaining of stomach sickness, loss of appetite, a sense of cold along the course of the spine, \ rigor, heat, weakness, lassitude, easily fatigued, increase of pain in the ; night, so that the patient cannot bear the touch, which is the conse- [ quence of too much quinine or bark he has taken ; and a great many other diseases are occasioned by the abuse of opium, iron, purgatives, | etc. The homoeopathic physician sees daily, to his sorrow, the many sufferings brought on our fellow creatures by the abuse of medicines : He has generally to conquer two diseases, the natural and artificial one. Let me admonish you, my readers, to leave slight complaints to na- ture ; a change in the diet, and mode of life, is usually sufficient to re- move a slight indisposition. In diseases of long standing, be cautious with medicines, or you will bring upon yourself more miseries than you already endure. SECTION SEVENTH. On the Doses of Homceopathical Medicines. Besides the discovery of the great law, similia similibus, and a great many new remedies with which Hahneman has enriched our pharma- copseia, there is a new discovery, which is worthy all our attention and gratitude for the benefit he has bestowed upon suffering humanity, a discovery which never before has been suggested. I mean the way of displaying the concealed and hidden powers of the remedies, by tritura- tion and attenuation. It has been fully proved by many and decisive experiments, that when a disease does not evidently depend upon the impaired state of an im- portant organ, even though it were of a chronic nature and complicated, and due care has been taken to remove from the patient all foreign medicinal influence, the dose of the homoeopathic remedy can never be sufficiently small; that is, so minute as to be inferior to the power of the natural disease which it can remove, provided it retains the degree * See the Preface to his Pharmacopoeia Helv. Basil, 1771. " Nempe primum incorpore sano medela tentandaest sine peregrina ulla miscela, odoroque etsapore ejus exploratis, exipua illius dosis ingerenda et ad omnes qua inde contingunt; affectiones, quis pulsus, quia calor, qua? respiratio, qusenara excretiones, attendendum inde adductum phcenomenorum, in sano obviorum transeas ad experimenta in corpora regroto." 13 of energy necessary to excite symptoms rather more intense than its own immediately after it has been administered. All diseases have an extraordinary tendency to undergo a change, when operated upon by the influence of homoeopathic medicinal agents. There is no patient, however robust his constitution may be, who, if attacked merely by a chronic disease, or by what is called a local ma- lady, does not speedily experience a favorable change in the suffering parts, after having taken the appropriate homoeopathic remedy in the smallest dose possible. However feeble the dose of a remedy may be, provided it can, in the slightest degree, aggravate the state of the patient homoeopathically, and has the power of exciting symptoms similar to those of the primitive disease, but rather more intense, it will, in preference, and almost ex- clusively, affect those parts of the organism that are already in a state of suffering, and which are strongly irritated, and predisposed to receive any irritation analogous to their own. Thus an artificial disease, ra- ther more intense, is substituted in the place of the natural one. The organism no longer suffers but from the former affection, which, by reason of its nature, and the minuteness of the dose by which it was produced, soon yields to the efforts of the vital force to restore the normal state, and thus leaves the body free from suffering, that is to say, in a healthy condition. SECTION EIGHTH. To proceed, therefore, agreeable to nature, the true physician will only administer a homoeopathic remedy, in the precise dose necessary to exceed and destroy the disease to which it is opposed ; so that if, by one of those errors pardonable to human frailty, he has made choice of a remedy that was inappropriate, the injury that might result from it would be so slight, that the development of the vital force, and the ad- ministration of the smallest dose of another remedy more homoeopathic, would suffice to repair it. The homoeopathic physician, according to the invariable experience of his immortal master, finds it necessary to dilute many remedies to a thousandth, a millionth, and even a decillionth part of a grain. Many have been, and are still, doubting and even disputing the effects of the homoeopathical remedies. "I cannot conceive it; it is beyond my un- derstanding that such atoms could produce any effect." Short-sighted man! Can you measure the scale of the susceptibility of human or- ganism? Can you tell where the degree of being affected commences, and where the degree discontinues of possessing this faculty? Who de- termines what portion of air is necessary to communicate a contagious disease from one country to another? The pest is transported by a piece of wool, which will detain its power even after a long interval of time. Who is able to decide in what part it has taken hold? and yet it exists, as it reveals too soon its terrible ravages. Who can explain how it is propagated, developed; spreading about its hideous pall over a whole country? Which is the quantity of hydrophobic venom, necessary to bring forth the rage? Those denying the efficacy of homreopathical doses, would they risk an inoculation of a decillionth, a particle of the fume of a mad dog? By what means are dangerous diseases produced ; 14 is it by any material or dynamical influence? Who can weigh or deter- mine how much vaccine is wanting to develop the smallpox? What quantity of poison does the serpent leave in the wound, so as to destroy in a few hours its victim under the most agonizing pains? In Vienna, Duringue relates that he was infected with typhus fever, from merely drawing breath at the moment a patient showed him his tongue. If accidents of such a consequence are provoked by impercep- tible and imponderous atoms, why not admit the effect of small doses which the homoeopathical remedies produce? It is certain that those particles, so minute, so atomical, preserve still a medical power. The effect of homoeopaltfical remedies may be compared to other imponderous powers, as light, magnetism, galvanism, electricity; and also with the affections of the soul. The existence of those we cannot contest, though not to be apprehended by our senses, and definable by reason. It is the same with homoeopathical remedies; the hand cannot touch it, the eye scarcely perceive it. By the many different dilutions the homoeopathical remedy has undergone, its power becomes a spiritual, a dynamical one; it is, as it were, divided from its earthly, material part. Hahneman, this vast and immense genius, has shown us better than any, how to cure and relieve diseases by means so agreeable*. Those acquainted with the homoeopathic system, acknowledge their deepest gratitude to- wards this great benefactor of suffering humanity. SECTION NINTH. Animal Magnetism. As the homoeopathic physician thinks animal magnetism highly useful in removing or soothing certain kinds of pain, I thought it useful to make mention of it. The patient ought to be informed af every mode of practice, that he may have an idea of it when he sees its per- formance. Animal magnetism is a science discovered by Mesmer, and ought to be called mesmerism, after the name of its inventor. As it is nearly connected with homoeopathical praxis, I wish that my reader may have some idea of it. Mesmerismus is a science generally known and practised by skilful physicians, for all of fifty years on the continent of Europe, of whose efficacy none but madmen can entertain a doubt; which, through the powerful will of a well intentioned individual, influences the body of the patient by the touch, and acts homoeopathically by exciting symptoms analogous to those of the malady; and this object is attained by a single transit, the determination being moderately fixed, and gliding the hands slowly over the body from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet. In this form, it is applicable to internal haemorrhages in their last stage, when they threaten death. It acts likewise by imparting a uniform degree of vital power to the organism, when there is an excess of it at one point, and a deficiency at another : Such, for example, as where there is a determination of blood to the head; or when a patient, in a state of debility, is subject to insomnolency, anxiety. Finally, it acts by immediately communicating a degree of vital power to a weak part, or to the entire organism; an effect that cannot be produced by any other means with much certainty, and without interfering with the other me- 15 dical treatment. This third indication is performed by assuming a very firm and decided manner, and applying the hands or tips of the fingers to the weak parts which are the seat of an internal chronic affection. To this class belong certain apparent cures that have in all ages been performed by magnetizers, who were endowed with great natural strength: But the most brilliant results of the communication of mag- netism to the entire organism, is where it recals to life persons who have remained in a state of apparent death during a long interval of time, by the resolution and fixed determination of a man in the full vigor of life; a species of resurrection, of which history records, many examples. All these methods of applying animal magnetism, depend upon the afflux of a greater or lesser quantity of vital power 'fljjMhe body of the patient, and are on that account termed positive magnetism; but there exists yet another, which deserves the name of negative magnetism,, because it produces a contrary effect. To this class belong the custo- mary transits to awaken a patient from a state of somnambulism, and all the manual operations which are designated by the names calming and ventilating. The most simple and certain means of discharging, by the aid of negative magnetism, the excess of vital power accumulated in any part of the body of a patient who has not been weakened, con- sists in passing, in a rapid manner, the right arm, extended at about an j inch from the body, from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet : The quicker this passage is performed, the stronger is the discharge that it operates. SECTION TENTH. Regimen. As it is requisite, in the homoeopathic treatment, that the doses be extretnely weak, it may be readily conceived that every thing which exercises medicinal influence on the patient should be removed from his regimen and mode of life, in order that the effects of such minute doses may not be destroyed, overpowered, or disturbed by any foreign stimu- lant. In chronic diseases, more especially, it is important to remove all ob- stacles of this nature with the greatest care; since it is by them, or some other errors in regimen which often remain undiscovered, that they are aggravated. Such, for example, as by coffee, tea or beer, containing vegetable substances that are not fit for the patient; liquors prepared from medicinal aromatics; chocolate, spices, sweet waters, and perfumery of all kinds; preparations for the teeth, either in powder or liquid, where medicinal substances are included ; perfumed bags ; strongly seasoned viands ; pastry, and ice with spices ; vegetables consisting of medicinal herbs and roots ; old cheese, stale meat, pork, geese, ducks, and young veal. Every one of these act medicinally, and ought to be carefully removed from the patient. All abuses or excesses at table are to be in- terdicted ; likewise are forbidden too warm apartments, sedentary life, passive exercise in riding or driving, sleeping after dinner, nocturnal amusements, and the reading of obscene books. We are likewise to avoid the causes of anger, grief and malice; a passion for gaming; mental and bodily labour; a residence in a marshy situation, of in a chamber that is not properly ventilated. If the cure is to be perfected as speedilv as possible, we must avoid all these excitements. skduld 16 The most suitable regimen in chronic diseases, consists in removing every thing which might impede the cure ; and where it is necessary to bring about an opposite state, by prescribing, for example, amusements, exercise in the open air; aliments that are suitable, nourishing, and free from medicinal influence. On the other hand, in acute diseases, (mental alienation excepted,) the preservative instinct of the vital power speaks in so clear and precise a manner, that nature is not to be thwarted by refusing the patient any thing he may long for, or by trying to persuade him to take things that might do him injury. The food and drink demanded by a patient laboring under an acute disease, act for the most part as palliatives only, and can at furthest ef- fect momentary relief; but they contain no real medicinal qualities, and are conformable to a species of desire on his own part. CONCLUSION. Happy is that man that eats only to satisfy his hunger, and drinks only to allay his thirst; provides for use and necessity, not for ostentation and pomp. Let us curb our appetites, encourage virtue. Let my bed be plain and clean, and my clothes seasonable; my meat without much expense or many waiters, a burden to my purse nor to my body. That which is too little for luxury, is abundantly enough for nature. The end of eating and drinking is satiety. A temperate life is a happy life. Seneca on a Happy Life. 3-