yfHEATOA/{P.K..) fes AN ESSAY ON HOMCEOPATHY, P. M. WHEATON, M. D. AND JOHN ELLIS, M. D. DETROIT, MICH. " SIMILIA SIMIL1BCS CURANTUR." DETROIT: PRINTED BY CHARLES WILLCOX. 1S16~. PREFACE. We have been induced to write the following Essay, at the request of our friends, for the purpose of explaining this comparatively new science in Michigan, believing from the interest this subject has excited in all parts of the ci- vilized world, that many in this community would be glad to give it a cursory examination, and likewise to answer some of the many objections brought against the system by interested individuals, and to show to all, that we claim to be governed by the dictates of common sense, fully as much as those who strive to overwhelm us with ridicule, and retard the progress of science. Knowing from person- al experience while engaged in the " regular" practice, the strong opposition that is felt by its members towards this system which strikes at the very foundation of their meth- ods, and which, in the language of Jean Paul Richter, " although despised at first, is destined to drag to ruin the common receipt crammed heads," we do not expect to satisfy our brethren of the superior efficacy of Homoeo- pathy, except by its results, for these alone have satisfied us ; and if this Essay shall be the means of doing away with the prejudice which exists and has been caused by the ridicule and opposition of those who oppose a system they know nothing about, it will have answered our ex- pectations. W. & E. \ HOMCEOPATHY. " The first and sole duty of the physician is to restore health to the sick. This is the true art of healing. His mission is not, as many physicians (who, wasting their time and powers in the pursuit of fame,) have imagined it to be, that of inventing systems by stringing together empty ideas and hypotheses upon the immediate essence of life and origin of disease in the interior of the human economy ; nor is it that of continually endeavoring to ac- < ount for the morbid phenomena with their nearest cause, {which must forever remain concealed,) and confounding the whole in unintelligible words and pompous observa- tions which make a deep impression on the minds of the ignorant, while the patients are left to sigh in vain for re- lief. We have already too many of these learned reve- ries which bear the name of medical theories, and for the inculcation of which, even special professorships have been established. It is high time that all those who call themselves physicians should cease to deceive suffering humanity with words that have no meaning, and begin to ac-t—that is to say, to afford relief, and cure the sick in reality. The perfection of a cure consists in restoring health in a prompt, mild, and perpanent manner ; in re- moving and annihilating disease by the shortest, safest, and most certain means upon principles that are at once plain and intelligible." The above is the language of the immortal Hahnemann, the founder of the Homoeopathic system of practice. And it is our object in the following essay to point out the principles to which he alludes, and show that they aie 1* 6 neither so contemptible nor absurd as many of the know- ing ones would have us believe, for there are many whose minds contain more of the fools arguments than of know- ledge and common sense. Such individuals, instead of searching for truth, are always ready to meet every great discovery with ridicule or haughty contempt. It is won- derful to see with what horror even truth is spurned, if its parentage be humble, especially if it happen to con- tradict preconceived notions. When Hervey discovered the true course of the circu- lation of the blood, it is said that not a single man in all England, who was over fifty years of age when this great truth was promulgated, ever would believe it, and even twenty-five years after the discovery, medical students, in order to obtain their diplomas, were obliged to swear rhey did not believe the heresy, (as they called it.) Where- as, at present, the man who should doubt the truth of Her- vey's discovery, would be called a fool, and could not ob- tain a diploma from any Medical Institution, for the great truth which he promulgated is capable of being demon- strated by every one who is neither too indolent nor self- conceited to investigate truth. The discovery of the cow pox, by Jenner, was most strenuously resisted by the profession for a long time, al- though it has now almost entirely banished small pox from the world, or at least enables us to meet this disease without dread. Nor is this opposition to truth confined to the medical profession alone. Even a Fulton, whose genius has cov- ered our Lakes and Rivers, and even the ocean, with steamboats, and rendered inhabitable the western wilder- ness, died in poverty, the laughing stock of fools. We need not, then, be surprised to learn that the great truths of Homoeopathy have met with the same tide of 7 ridicule and opposition that seems ever ready to assail any new thing calculated to benefit mankind. In endeavoring to develope our views it will be neces- sary to briefly sketch the rise of Homoeopathy as seen in the researches of its founder. In the year 1790, a physician by the name of Samuel Hahnemann, residing in an obscure town in Germany, dis- satisfied with the knowledge which was possessed in re- gard to the operation of medicines, and their uncertainty in curing disease, commenced a course of careful experi- meuts upon himself during health, to ascertain the pure effects of medicinal substances on the healthy system. He commencecLhis experiments with the use of Peru- vian bark, which he took in small doses for a considerable length of time. He was soon seized with a chill and fever, in fact a reg- ular intermittent fever. Now, it was well known to him that Peruvian bark cures intermittent fever, and from the fact that it produced a similar disease upon himself during health, he very naturally inferred that the reason why it cures intermittent fever is because it is capable of produ- cing a similar disease upon a healthy individual, and this led him to imagine the great truth, that all medicines cure diseases similar to those which they are capable of produ- cing upon the healthy. He continued his experiments upon himself and other healthy individuals, with this and other medicines, carefully noticing all the symptoms which they were capable of producing when taken for a long time. He ascertained it to be a fact, in regard to those remedies which were known to be specifics, that is capable of cur- ing certain diseases, that they were capable of causing sim- ilar symptoms; for instance, calomel or mercury is well known to cure certain diseases, he ascertained that it will cause similar affections to those which it will cure, and 8 this fact is beginning to be known at present by the pro- fession, for recent writers admit, that it is often almost, if not quite, impossible to distinguish the true disease from the mercurial disease, and this utter confusion in regard to this remedy bids fair to banish it from use in the very complaint for which, more than for any other, it has long been considered specific. If physicians would turn from the unsatisfactory description of the effects of this medi- cine by common writers, to the most accurate description given by Hahnemann, they would ascertain exactly what symptoms this remedy is capable of producing, and there- fore be able to judge between the true disease and drug disease, and what is very important in practice, they would then ascertain in what cases this remedy would be injuri- ous and destructive, and likewise find antidotes for its poisonous effects. They will not find calomel a universal ■' cure pill" as many physicians seem to suppose it to be, for they give it in almost every case of disease; and as- sign as a reason that it is an alterative, acts upon the se- cretions, &c. which appellations are about as satisfactory as the " liver complaints" of these quacks ; but in a very- few diseases they will find it a valuable remedy, and that it can be given, in doses sufficient to cure, with perfect safety, and without the least danger of injuring the con- stitution of the patient. After Hahnemann had continued his experiments for a considerable time, he became fully satisfied, that " to cure in a mild, prompt, safe and dura- ble manner, it is necessary to choose in each case a medi- cine that will excite an affection similar to that against which it is employed." This is the great homoeopathic discovery, that " like cures like," not that " the hair of the same dog will cure the bite," but a similar dog, if you please. This doctrine of similarities, although in direct opposi- 9 tion to the received notions of the schools, was even ad- vanced by the Father of medicine himself, the sage Hip- pocrates, more than two thousand years ago. Many other distinguished physicians had been led to suspect the truth, previous to Hahnemann, from the effects of medicines that have fallen under their own observation. Stahl, a celebrated Danish physician, uses the following language in his writings. " The received method in med- icine of treating diseases by opposite remedies, is com- pletely false and absurd," and observed he, " I am con- vinced on the contrary, that diseases are subdued by agents which produce a similar affection." But these men not knowing the certain effects of medicines, were not able to carry their opinions into practice, for strange as it may appear, up to the time of Hahnemann, no careful experi- ments to ascertain the pure effects of medicines upon the healthy system, had ever been made. Physicians were satisfied with trying their drugs upon animals, and ex- perimenting upon the sick, although they well knew that what is food for brutes, is often poison for man, and often substances, which may be taken in health with impunity, cannot be used in any perceptible quantity during certain diseases ; and, on the other hand, medicines are sometimes used in disease, in quantities which would be highly dan- gerous and destructive to the healthy, as for instance, the immense quantity of opium which is given in delirium tremens, would destroy a well man, and it is even hinted bv some, that it often destroys the patient. With the above fallacious methods of obtaining the ef- fects of medicinal substances, the old Materia Medica has been formed, and with the exception of the immortal Hal- ler, no one has suggested that it was absolutely necessary to obtain the pure effects of medicines upon the healthy, in order to be able to use them with success in disease. 10 But no physician profited by the invaluable advice of Haller, " no one has paid the slightest attention to it." Hahnemann justly exclaims, " I am the first who has pur- sued this path with a perseverance that could alone result from, and be supported by, the intimate conviction of this great truth, so valuable to the human race, that the ho- moeopathic administration of medicines is the sole certain method of curing disease." When Hahnemann had ac- quired sufficient knowledge to be able to carry out the opinions of Hippocrates, of Stahl, and of Haller, the fol- lowers of these very men, denounced his practice as quack- ery, and refused even to investigate the doctrines, and they still continue to denounce it. When he had discover- ed the effects of a sufficient number of remedies, he com- menced applying that knowledge to the cure of disease. Here a difficulty met him at the very threshold. He often produced drug diseases, or aggravated the existing symp- toms. For instance, Calomel produced " sore mouth." Emetics for vomiting, or Cathartics for Diarrhoea, gene- rally aggravated the symptoms. Opium in the usual doses only increased the already existing costiveness. These facts led him by degrees, to another great discovery. That diseases can be cured by remedies which will pro- duce a similar train of symptoms in doses so minute as not to cause a sensible aggravation of the existing disease—and he found that infinitely small doses were not only sufficient to cure, but often to produce a temporary aggravation of the disease, although this aggravation was generally fob lowed by a cure. During these investigations he made several other important discoveries. One is, that all sub* stances, even gold, are soluble after being triturated to a certain extent. Another is, that the activity of medicines does not decrease, in proportion, as their particles are di- vided by these dilutions, but often increase in power. 11 Again, many substances, although inert in their crude state, become active when thus diluted and their particles divi- ded. We are willing to admit, that at first view, it is tru- ly surprising that such minute doses of medicine, will pro- duce any effect. But is this an evidence that it is not a fact 1 The simple question is whether facts will sustain it, and we shall endeavor to illustrate this point by facts so plain that every one who does not belong to the class * of those " who having eyes see not," shall be able to un- derstand it to be in accordance with well established facts, which are known to all. For instance, let an individual be sick with small pox, and let another person who is not protected against the disease, barely enter the room, he need not stay a moment, and three chances to one, he will have that disease. What will cause it 1 He has taken nothing into his system which he can either see* feel, taste or smell, nor can we detect aught in the air which he has breathed, by the most careful chemical experiments, or by any other means within our reach. Yet this single minute dose will give rise to one of the most manifest diseases to which we are liable; the same may be said of measles, hooping-cough, and many other diseases. It is often said by our opponents, that " they would not be afraid to swallow all the medicines in a Homoeopathic case," and for argument's sake, we will admit that during health they might do so without destroying life ; but is this an evidence that they could do it during sickness? It is not the object of the Homoeopathist, to make well persons, or even well organs, sick, but rather to cure diseased per- sons and organs, and we shall endeavor to show that the susceptibility of our systems during health, and disease, is very different, especially if the agent or remedy em- ployed produce a similar train of symptoms, to that of the disease. 12 Light is the natural stimulus to the eye, and during its healthy state, it would require a very strong light to give rise to inflammation of this organ. Yet during active disease of the eye, the least ray of light is absolutely in- tolerable, and might even endanger the sight of the pa- tient. Our joints tolerate freedom of motion to a great degree 'during health, yet, during disease of the joints, the least motion causes extreme suffering, and the free motion to which we subject our articulations during health, might destroy our limbs, or even life itself. A person during health might take a grain of musk, and doubtless feel no inconvenience from it, but a grain of musk will saturate the air in a thousand rooms, so as to produce a perceptible smell in every part of them, and a gentleman is known to one of us, upon whom this air would excite convulsions ; and similar instances are not uncommon in individuals subject to spasmodic diseases. The Homoeopathic physician knowing by experiments on the healthy, what organs are affected by a given reme- dy, and then administering that remedy according to the great law of Homoeopathy, (the law of similarities,) di- rects his remedy directly to the suffering organ, and this is the reason why we are obliged to use such minute doses. How much Opium dare ordinary physicians give in con- gestion of the brain 1 Not a particle, and why 1 Because they well know it causes congestion of the brain, and would increase the difficulty. *Or how much Belladonna would they dare to give in acute inflammation of the brain ( Not a partiple, for they would reasonably expect it to destroy their patient. Neither should we venture to use the above remedies were we confined to their doses. Yet every Homoeopathic physician well knows that thoy are among our most valuable remedies in the above diseases, 18 and may be given in homoeopathic doses with perfect safe- ty, and where the symptoms of the remedies correspond to those of the disease, with prompt relief. But how do physicians who disregard the discoveries of Hahnemann, cure the above diseases 1 In the same manner that they cure disease of the great toe, of the knee, the elbow, rheumatism, or a fever. Bleed or puke ! Physic ! physic!! physic ! ! ! make the poor stomach and bowels sick, to cure a disease of the great toe, or almost any other organ. But supposing the stomach itself is inflamed! Dare they give their large doses of drugs, emetics and cathar- tics ? Not at all; or at least, not until they have made the whole system sick, by general and local bloodleting, blis- ters, and the like rational methods, and why ? because their medicines come in contact with the diseased organs. And this is the practice of men who denounce Hahnemann as • an impostor, and his followers as quacks, and draw them- selves up in their importance, and sneeringly say that Homoeopathy is a humbug, and beneath their notice. Look abroad in the land and see the amount of suffer- ing, and the number of premature deaths, in spite of the boasted skill of these learned Drs. and then say whether it is not strange that they are unwilling to investigate, where there is the least prospect of acquiring knowledge. it is the boast of Homoeopathists throughout the world, that no physician has ever investigated Homoeopathy, and seen the effects of the remedies in the hands of a skilful Homoeopathist, without being fully convinced that the principle which guides him in the selection of his reme- dies, is correct. It is this principle for which we con- tend, the si-ze of the dose is entirely secondary. It is a minor point to which the conscientious physician will ar- rive, after witnessing, as we have repeatedly done, the 14 extraordinary aggravations arising from the ordinary doses of the old school. Some remedies may be given in com- paratively large doses in certain diseases to which they are Homoeopathic, as for instance, camphor in cholera, but there are few which can be given with uniform suc- cess, or that can even be depended on in such doses. Calomel is often homoeopathic to disease of the throat, in scarlet fever, and under the old practice has no doubt of- ten relieved many cases, but at present, very few have confidence in it, because it often, when given in common doses, aggravates the disease, increases the inflammation and sloughing, and causes death. In other instances, where remedies are not homoeopathic to the complaint, they give rise to their own peculiar symptoms, and, instead of cur- ing the original disease, give rise, to drug diseases, which continue for a long time, even after the disease for which they were given, has been cured by the efforts of nature, or by other remedies strictly homoeopathic to it. For instance, calomel is not homoeopathic to the bilious fevers of the west, although it is occasionally to some of their symptoms, and we are satisfied from observation, (one of us having practiced two years in Michigan,) that it rarely if ever cures these fevers. It sometimes relieves those symptoms for which it is homoeopathic, such as pain in the limbs, in the right side, nausea, vomiting and di- arrhoea, even when given in common doses, but at other times it greatly aggravates these symptoms, and very fre- quently gives rise to the mercurial disease, although this is not generally developed in full until the fever abates. The disease having abated, the tolerance to the use of the medicine ceases, and the patient, debilitated by disease and unnecessary evacuants, has to contend with the pe- culiar energy of this poison, which is more to be dreaded than the original disease itself. Sore mouth, loss of teeth. 15 dangerous disease of the liver and spleen, dyspepsia, pain and swelling of the limbs, fever sores, &c. remain as the result, often causing the unfortunate patient to drag out the remainder of his days, an object of pity to all behol- ders. Another rule with the homoeopathic physician is, to give but one simple remedy at a time. " The more compli- cated our receipts, the darker will it be in medicine. Would it not puzzle any one to predict the position which six billiard balls, flung with the eyes shut, upon the table, would ultimately assume, and yet your practitioner flings into the human system, his half dozen ingredients, and professes to know their exact result upon the sensitive frame. Formerly, observes Hahnemann, I was infected with this prescription fever—the schools infected me-—ob- stinately the miasma hung about me—until it came to a critical expulsion. To give the right, not the many mixed, is the stroke of art." We have no general resort, or remedies that are " good for every thing," such as cathartics, calomel, &c. as some physicians have. The Homceopathist, in order to derive any benefit from a given remedy, must select that remedy which will act upon the diseased organs, and not only so, but must produce a peculiar effect, " similar" to the dis- ease. He is not governed by names, in selecting his rem- edy, but by the " whole of the symptoms," age, sex, cause, &c. It matters little, whether his disease has any name or not, as the same remedy may not be appropriate in any two cases of a disease which goes by the same name, and even though he may never have 6een a case of the disease before, he has a rule to guide him in selecting his remedy. T/tat remedy, the effects of which upon the healthy, corres- ponds nearest to the symptoms seen in the patient. Some have ridiculed the Homoeopathies necessity " of 16 so frequently resorting to his books, and even carrying them with him to the bedside of the patient;" but those who bring this objection, must have a low estimate of hu- man life, for it is well known to all, that fatal mistakes have happened, and the best remedies known have not always been given, even under ordinary practice, notwith- standing their system of generalization. If these indi- viduals ever resort to the true method of treating disease, they will find that it requires a little more knowledge, care and judgment, than it does to give an emetic or cathartic, and they should feel even now, that the lives of our fellow beings are of too much consequence to be trifled with. Again, we are told by many of our opponents, that ho- moeopathic physicians cure their patients by diet alone ; for they cannot deny that homoeopathy effects many cures. But, if this is the case, why do not they cure their patients in the same way ? Why destroy the health and even the lives of their patients, with their nauseous drugs ? Again they will tell you it is the all-powerful imagination of the patient, that cures him. But how happens it that the ho- moeopathic physician has so much power over the imagi- nation of his patient, as to be able to cure him without remedies'? If this is a fact, it certainly is a pity that all physicians are not homceopathists. But such talk is idle. The Homoeopathic diet consists of plain, wholesome and substantial food, in quantities sufficient to satisfy the wants of the individual. Starva- tion is no part of the Homoeopathic treatment; it is a prac- tice peculiar to the old school, and to it, it exclusively be- longs. Medicinal aliments, it is true, are strictly forbid- den—such as alcoholic drinks, acids, spices and the like stimulating drugs, but the diet that is allowed, is strictly in accordance with the laws of health and common sense, and as such, is beginning to be adopted by the more sci- 17 entific of our opponents. It is likewise very desirable that the imagination of the patient be favorable to a cure, under any system of practice; this is what we desire, and nothing further. But it is too late in the day for our op- ponents to make the above assertions. Thousands daily testify that the minute doses of the Homoeopathist, not only produce striking curative effects, but often aggravate the existing symptoms, although from the smallness of the dose, this aggravation is temporary; in acute diseases, not generally lasting more than a few minutes or hours, and in chronic cases, a few days, providing the medicine be discontinued. If this aggravation be excessive, it can be easily checked by another remedy, which is an antidote to that which has caused it. Yet in a majority of caseB, this temporary aggravation is considered highly favorable, and will soon subside, and leave the patient in the enjoy- ment of health, or at least in such a favorable state that this object will be readily accomplished by another reme- dy, Homoeopathic to the remaining symptoms. The reducing and debilitating methods of curing dis- eases which are so generally employed by the old school, are by us entirely discarded. Bleeding is very rarely re- sorted to, even in the cure of the most active inflamma- tions. Cathartics and emetics are only used when we wish to evacuate some poisonous or foreign substance from the stomach or bowels, and never with a view of producing any curative effect in disease. The difference then between Homoeopathy and the old practice denominated Alleopathy, is not in the size of the dose: this grows out of the separate ground we occupy. The Homoeopathist gives his remedies to act upon the diseased organs, in accordance with the disease, and is necessarily obliged to give small doses, owing to the heigh- tened susceptibility of these organs to this class of reme- 9* 18 dies, and of course expects to see prompt and salutary re- action. The Alleopathist on the other hand, working by the rule of " contraries," gives his remedies to act on the diseased organs by opposing the symptoms, as when he gives opium for neuralgia, morphine for headache, astrin- gents for diarrhoea. Or else he gives medicines that act upon the healthy organs, and strictly speaking, have noth- ing whatever to do with the disease, as when he uses blis- ters to the sound skin in inflammation of the lungs or head, or emetics and cathartics to the healthy stomach and bowels in these inflammations. In either case he is ne- cessarily obliged to give large and oft repeated doses, and as his practice is a round about method of conquerino-the disease;, it is of course slower in its operation, and the pa- tient is often only restored to health, after weeks, and even months of debility, or he is left to drag out a miser- able existence, a prey to some chronic difficulty, which remains behind, as the result, not so much of the malio-ni- ty of the disease, as from the debilitating course pursued, and of the enormous quantities of drugs forced into his system by the physician. This latter practice is beautifully illustrated by the pro- ceedings of that nation which in time of war, instead of conquering the enemy by a " similar" mode of warfare, carries fire and devastation into its own towns and plan- tations, with the vain expectation of starving out the ene- my, and although it may succeed, it is equally probable that the nation perish in the general famine induced by its own folly. As we have already stated, the operation of various medicines on the system was known to some extent before the time of Hahnemann. For instance, Peruvian bark will cure an intermittent fever, Ipecac will vomit, and Rhubarb catharticise, Spanish flies when applied to the 19 skin will blister, and that a sore can be made with a red hot iron! All this, and much more indefinite knowledge O of the like general character, had been discovered, but the difficulty was, to apply that knowledge in practice, to use these remedies so as to cure the sick. For those who are not acquainted with the subject, will doubtless be sur- prised to learn, that the profession as a body, have no set- tled principle to guide them in the administration of med- icine. That it is all a haphazard business, except in a few instances, where they have Homoeopathic specifics for the cure of certain diseases. Take, for instance, scarlet fever, as it occurs in Michi- gan: call your physicians separately to see a patient. One will say bleed ; another will say, no ; if you bleed, you will kill him; you must give cathartics, perhaps calomel. An- other will say, if you give calomel or cathartics, you will kill him ; yon must sircat him. Another, instead of bleeding, will give bark, another emetics. One will give stimulants, such as Cayenne pepper; another, "cooling" medicines, such as nitre, neutral salts, and the like. One will keep the patient cool and apply cold water externally; and an- other will keep him warm and apply hot wate'r externally. One will blister his neck, and another apply hot applica- i ions, and still a third will apply cold; and finally, Prof. Parker, of the " New York College of Physicians and Surgeons," one of the ablest lecturers in the United States, uses the followinp; lanp-uasre to his medical class: The scarlet fever, measles, hooping-cough, and smallpox, are diseases with which you have nothing to do, as a general rule, but to let them alone. If you commence dosing them, you will bring on complications, and your patients will die; whereas, if you let them alone, they will generally get well. These diseases run a certain course; you can- not stop them, and if you will let them alone, they will 20 abate of their own accord. He condemns the use of all medicines, with the exception of a little oil, and we would say that even this might be dispensed with. In view of the above fashionable and contradictory practices, there never was better advice given by an Alleopathic phy- sician ; and, in our opinion, this advice might, with the same propriety, be extended to typhus fever, and all other fevers for which they have no specifics. On the other hand, were a dozen homoeopathic physi- cians called to see a case of scarlet fever, there would be but one mind in regard to the proper treatment; and had Prof. Parker been acquainted with homoeopathy, he would have been aware that there are remedies which lessen the severity and fatality of scarlet fever, as well as the other diseases mentioned, to a very great extent, as all who have witnessed homoeopathic treatment, can testify. Belladon- na, if taken for a few days before scarlet fever would ap- pear, will either entirely prevent its appearance, or else so modify the disease as to render it mild and harmless. To show still further that there is no settled principle to guide physicians in the administration of remedies, we will take for illustration the disease that has prevailed exten- sively through the country for a few years past, denomina- ted erysipelas. And what is the treatment recommended by the best Alleopathic writers, by which physicians are governed 1 One recommends blood-letting, another eme- tics and cathartics, another, stimulants and tonics. One recommends incisions deep through the part diseased ; an- other, blisters; a third, mercurial ointment. One hot and another cooling applications. Some would use brandy, oth- ers, salt pork. One, nitrate of silver, another, sugar of lead, or white vitriol, and so on, " ad infinitum ;" and to what ra- tional conclusion can we arrive, except that patients some- times get well in spite of the most opposite treatment. 21 On the other hand, it is well known that the " poison oak," (rhus toxicodendron,) or " poison ivy," (rhus radi- cans,) will produce an eruption on (he skin closely resem- bling erysipelas, characterized by redness and swelling of the skin, which is covered with blisters and accompanied with fever and burning and smarting pains in the part af- fected. Now, when this poison is given in the most mi- nute dose in erysipelas, where the symptoms correspond with those above, as is frequently the case, it will do more towards restoring the patient to health in twenty-four hours, than the ordinary practice will in half the number of days ; and when the disease is cured by this treatment, the patient is not under the necessity of entering upon a state of probation, to ascertain whether he may live or die, but is well at once. We cannot look around the community, without bein are ever ^to *■ £%£. inicDietnren all the information n their possession • n„A . , 24 to this great discovery, and always hold themselves ready to explain their doctrines to the utmost of their ability. This is not the case with quacks; they know they are imposing upon community, and do not wish to attract the attention of physicians to theif practice, or to the composition of their medicines, for their deceptions might be exposed. But under the guise of secrecy, they palm off upon the pulv lie their patent systems, nostrums and the like, for thjgr own benefit, re- gardless of the lives of their fellow mortals. But the ma:i who is satisfied that he has made a great discovery in medicine, cannot keep secret that which, if mad;--public, might be the means of saving the lives of his fellow creatures. Hahnemann justly observes :—" If I did not know for what ob- ject I exist upon eartli—' to make myself as good as possible, and to im-< prove tilings and men around me to the best of my ability'—I should have. to consider myself deficient in worldly wisdom for promulgating before my death, an art whose sole possessor I was, arid which, being kept secret, mi^ht have become a source of permanently increasing profit to me." It is stated by some that the homoeopathic " practice was abandoned in the country of its birth," and is "running out" in the eastern states. In rep'ly, we would quote the following from an eastern writer: " I would ask if a practice could be abandoned in the country of its birth,-wiio-e sta- tistics will show that its loss of life is only in the ratio of six to sixty of the old school practice? Open the book of records in the city of New York. and take any two or three years of the practice of a homreopathic phvsi- cinn, and compare it with that of any Alleoptith, having an equal amount of business, and the above disproportion in the loss of life will hold good." We will conclude this brief essay with the following ever memorable words of Hahnemann: " The schools teach us, not to satisfy our consciences by curing men ; but they teach us what we must do to present to their eyes the appearance of wisdom and depth. It is only the man devoid of energy who regards de- structive prejudices as holy and inviolable, simply because they exist. The truly wise man, on the contrary, tramples them joyfully under foot, that thiv may give place to eternal truth, which needs not the sanction of the lapse of time, nor the attractions of novelty or fashion, nor of the declamations of party spirit. Refute these truths if you can, by showing a still more ef- ficacious, certain and agreeable method than mine; refute them not by words, of which we have already too many. "Butif experience should prove to you, as it has done to me, that my method is best, make use of it to save your fellow creatures, and give the glory to God."