[jpp*r AMERICAN FOUNDAliUN toi\ v Castor, Root of the long birthwort, Jew's pitch (or amber), Seeds of the carrot of Crete, * Opoponax, Lesser centaury, Thick galbanum......aa 3U- Canary wine (old), gxl, (i. e. sufficient to dissolve the gums and juices,) Clarified honey (triple the weight of the powders). Mix, and make into an electuary secundum artem. Pharmacopcea Londinensis, A. D. 1682. Sixty-five articles in the year of grace, 1682 ; four- teen articles in the year of grace, 1879. Fifty-one articles dropped in 197 years. That is, one article dropped every 3 years, 10 months, and 10 days. In 1879,"scientific" medicine has got down to fourteen articles; then in 50 years, that is, in 1929, " scien- THE SINGLE REMEDY A NECESSITY. 45 tific" medicine will have got down to the single remedy — that is, 133 years after the homoeopath had got there! When this very Theriaca Andromachi was in vogue, Lord Bacon wrote, "Although a man would think, by the daily visitations of the physician, that there were a pursuance in the cure; yet let a man look into their prescripts and ministrations, and he shall find them but inconstancies and every day's devices without any settled providence or project;"* and he farther charges physicians with having " frus- trated the fruit of tradition and experience by their magistralities, in adding, and taking out, and chang- ing ' quid pro quo' in their receipts at their pleas- ures, commanding so over the medicine as the medi- cine cannot command over the disease." But it was not outside of the profession alone, or in Bacon's time only, that this " commanding so over the medicine " was condemned. Says Dr. Paris, the learned author of The Pharmacologia: " The practice of mixing together different medicinal sub- stances, so as to form one remedy, may claim a very ancient origin, for most of the prescriptions which have descended from the Greek physicians are of this complexion. The uncertain and vague results of so blind a practice appear also to have been early felt and often condemned; for even Erasistratus de- * Of the Prqficience and Advancement of Learning. 46 a homoeopath's faith. claimed with great warmth against the complicated medicines which were administered in his time. The greater number of these compositions present a mass of incongruous materials huddled together without any apparent order or rational design." * So, gentlemen, we have stumbled upon the gene- alogy of the prescriber of the model mixture with which we began these remarks; he is the tail-end of a long line of most noble Grecians — may his shadow never be less! [I think you will allow that it is fair for me, a homoeopath, to criticise this phe- nomenal prescription which the fates have put into my hands. Well, I will waive my right to criticise it, and will let one of its author's own school do it. "There is this marked distinction between the raw and the well-disciplined practitioner, that while the one, seeing only a variety of unconnected symp- toms, seeks to attack each f by a separate ingredient in his prescription, the other, by being able to group together such as arise from a single cause, dimin- ishes in number and variety the points to be at- tacked, and simplifies his remedies in the same ratio. " The perfection of a medicinal prescription may be defined by three words. It should be precise (in its directions), concise (in its construction), deci- * Op. cit., p. 366, 9th Edition, London, 1843. t Query: Do "regulars" "attack symptoms"? They charge that on the homoeopaths.—S. A. J. the single remedy a necessity. 47 sive (in its plan of operation). It should carry upon its very face an air of energy and decision, and speak intelligibly the indications which it is intended to fulfil. It may be laid down as a maxim, which is not in much danger of being controverted, that where the intention of a medicinal combination is obscure, its operation will be imbecile." * I have used the language of a President of the Royal College of Physicians, London. I make no comments, and you may make the application.] Turning to the particular business of this evening, let me ask, What is there to justify " so blind a prac- tice" as the mixing of medicines in a prescription? It is either an aimless procedure, or it has an aim, a purpose, an end desired and to be desired. I turn again to Paris's Pharmacologia — an "old- school " book — and, gentlemen, I shall get the stones which I fling at you from your own side of the fence. I find them there in abundance, and ex- actly adapted to my purpose, which is " to look the truth fairly in the face." Well, Dr. Paris says: " A medicinal formula has been divided into four constituent parts, a plan which will be found to ad- mit of useful application to practice, inasmuch as it is well calculated to point out the methods by which we may accomplish the objects investigated in the preceding pages; or, in the language of Asclepiades, * Paris's Pharmacologia, p. 449. 48 a homoeopath's faith. by which we may enable the basis of our prescrip- tion to operate ' Cito,' ' Tuto,' et'Jucunde'— quickly safely, and pleasantly— thus: " I. The Basis, or principal ingredient ('Curare') " II. The Adjuvans : that which assists and pro- motes its operation (' Cito '). " III. The Corrigens: that which corrects its ope- ration ('Tuto'). "IV. The Constituens: that which imparts an agreeable form ('Jucunde')."* Thus the end desired is to cure; to cure quickly, to cure safely, to cure pleasantly. The " safety " of producing " bromism ! " I once heard a distinguished neurologist of your school ac- knowledge that he had killed three patients by pro- ducing "bromism." The " pleasure " of an aloetic purge ! But " there is no disputing about tastes." Says Dr. Paris again: " Let not the young practi- tioner be deceived. He may be assured that, unless he be well acquainted with the mutual actions which bodies exert upon each other and upon the living system, it may be laid down as an axiom that, in proportion as he complicates a medicine, he does but multiply the chances of its failure. Superflua nun- quam non nocent" The superfluous is never harmless! I turn again to Dr. Paris and quote: '"It has *Op. cit, p. 449. THE SINGLE REMEDY A NECESSITY. 49 been common to assert,' says Mr. Whewell, 'that facts alone are valuable in science; that theory, so far as it is valuable, is contained in the facts; and so far as it is not contained in the facts, can merely mislead and preoccupy men. But it should be known that facts can only become portions of knowledge as they become classed and connected; that they can only constitute truth when they are included in general propositions.' Deeply impressed with the importance of a sentiment thus happily ex- pressed, and under a full conviction that the subject of medicinal combination has never received that share of attention which it merits, I have been induced to undertake the arduous task of inquiring into the sev- eral relations in which each article of a compound formula might advantageously, or otherwise, be situ- ated with respect to others; and had I required fur- ther encouragement for the prosecution of my plan, the observations of Dr. Powell would have afforded it, for he says: ' I think it may be asserted, without fear of contradiction, that no medicine, compounded of five or six simple articles, has had its powers ex- amined in a rational manner.' " * The " observations of Dr. Powell " hold good to- day. I reassert them, and I challenge contradiction. We have passed over one very significant remark made by Dr. Paris, namely, that the young practi- *Op. cit., p. 366. 5 D 50 a homoeopath's faith. tioner must be chary of mixing medicines, " unless he be well acquainted with the mutual actions which bodies exert upon each other and upon the living system." This has a very wise sound, and it is only sound. Where does Dr. Paris propose to look for a knowledge of " the mutual actions which bodies exert upon each other?" Well, largely to chem- istry. In answer to Dr. Powell's observation " that no medicine, compounded of five or six simple ar- ticles, has hitherto had its powers examined in a rational manner," Dr. Paris says : " But we cannot be surprised that so much obscurity and doubt should for ages have surrounded a subject which must neces- sarily require the aid of chemistry for its elucida- tion." * " The aid of chemistry for its elucidation ! " A sonorous phrase; a tale for the medical " marines ; " an apple of Sodom ; a mirage; a humbug! Take a good Materia Medica and learn the physiological ac- tion of Calx — Lime; then learn the physiological action of Sulphur; then combine these substances so as to form the Calcic Sulphide, and what do you get from "the mutual actions which these bodies exert upon each other" ? Is it the physiological action of Lime plus the physiological action of Sulphur ? By no means. An adept can detect certain Lime effects and certain Sulphur effects in the compound, *Op. cit, p. 366. THE SINGLE REMEDY A NECESSITY. 51 just as the physical and the mental peculiarities of the parents are found in the child; but over and above and beyond these vestiges of parentage are the Cal- cic-Sulphide effects — a physiological action as sepa- rate and distinct as is the individuality of the child. Chemistry can no more foretell the physiological ac- tion of a compound, than I can imagine what the Dean of the " Department of Medicine and Surgery " would say if he woke up some morning and found himself in bed with a homoeopath. You can learn more of this Calcic Sulphide in the pages of Ringer; and it is a remedy which I ear- nestly commend to your attention. Prof. Ringer, that progressive teacher, has borrowed it from Hahnemann's Materia Medica just as the half-baked homoeopath (?) borrows your hypodermic syringe to cover his ignorance and administer a sedative " pleasantly." But, say you, substances which are perfectly simi- lar can be combined for practical purposes without that detriment which you, as a transcendental homoeo- path, harp about, magnifying a molehill into a moun- tain. If the two substances be perfectly similar, what is the use of mixing them? Doubling the quantity of either of them in the prescription will answer the same purpose. But, gentlemen, Dr. PSYis says: " In philosophical strictness, there are not two medicinal substances in the whole range of our materia medica perfectly similar to each other, although each may 52 A HOMOEOPATH'S FAITH. recede from the other by so insensible a shade that, for practical purposes, we may frequently allow their parallelism." * Observe, he uses the word " paral- lelism," but, in a foot-note, he says: " The term kin- dred would, perhaps, more correctly express their relationship." " Parallelism " is one thing, " kin- dred " is an entirely different thing; and if a fellow is "sweet" on John Smith's sister, not the whole category of John Smith's " kindred " rolled into one can supply her place! Can you imagine such a smitten one pining for Miss Georgiana Serephina Smith, and her big brother, John Smith, saying in the tenderness of his heart, " My dear fellow, Georgi- ana Serephina is engaged ; take Aunt Mehitable, who is her ' parallel' in ' kindred ' " Both are Smiths and kindred, but while Georgiana is a cordial, poor Aunt Mehitable is only a cathartic. Gentlemen, in some instances the claim of "kindred" is only an aggravation. Now, let us return to the compound-prescription with its basis, its adjuvans, its corrigens, and its con- stituens. The Basis is designed to cure, and when rightly chosen it will cure. Of the truth of this there is no room for a rational doubt. The Adjuvans is designed to " assist and pro- mote " the operation of the Basis; to make it cure * Op. cit., p. 163. THE SINGLE REMEDY A NECESSITY. 53 quickly. This addition of the Adjuvans is an instance of " commanding so over the medicine as it cannot command over the disease." It is the supereroga- tion which shows a lack of confidence in the capa- bilities of the Basis, for the Basis needs assisting and promoting. It is the superfluous which is never harmless. It is the fifth wheel in the chariot of scientific medicine, and it sadly needs greasing as it squeaks in this nineteenth century. The Corrigens is designed to " correct the opera- tion" of the Basis, to make the Basis act "safely." Well, if ten grains of a base are unsafe, why not give five ? Why neutralize five by giving a Corrigens ? Why waste five ? If five will do, and ten are given, five is superfluous, and the superfluous is never harmless. Simple division can make the Basis its own Corrigens — but this is too abstruse a problem for scientific medicine! The Constituens is that which imparts an " agree- able form," makes a Basis "pleasant!" What a divine " science " it was that taught my dear mother to make senna tea so seductive by adding raisins. It was like much else of your " science," for it spoiled the raisins and it did n't improve the tea. Gentlemen, what must a profession wallowing in the slough of polypharmacy have thought, and said, and done when one clear-headed physician arose and declared: " In no case is it requisite to administer more than one single simple medicinal substance at 5* 54 a homoeopath's faith. one time?" It was, indeed, a declaration to think about, to talk about, and to accept or reject as it should prove to be true or false. Well, gentlemen, there was a premium on thinking physicians in those days; the article was rare. The philosophy of Ho Ti prevailed, and every medical Ho Ti burned a house whenever he would roast a pig. The single remedy man was flouted and scouted and despised and reviled, and the strong arm of the law was in- voked, and he was driven into exile. They did not meet him with calm reason, with philosophical ex- periment, with clinical demonstration. They met him with the law of might; the profession combined against one man; the Thinker stood single-handed and alone. It was a pitiful spectacle; it was an old, old spectacle, such an one as the Emperor Mar- cus Antoninus had in mind when he wrote in his majestic Meditations: Vermin killed Democritus; and other vermin killed Socrates* By an immutable law of God's, vermin are vermin, and vermin only, in all times, in all countries, in all races. It cannot be helped, " it is their nature to." In the instance under notice, the vermin found ac- tive allies in other vermin: the physicians were joined by the apothecaries ! The compounders of your ever-famous Theriaca * Book III., 3. "And lice killed Democritus; and other lice killed Socrates."—Long's Translation. THE SINGLE REMEDY A NECESSITY. 55 Andromachi saw, by the divine instinct of trade, that a man who proposed to prescribe only a plain tinct- ure of Belladonna or a few grains of Nux vomica, need only make his practice universal in order to fill the land with starved apothecaries. Hahnemann withstood the profession; the apothecaries van- quished him — and he is not the only one they have put out of the way. Gentlemen, the bitter prejudice which you inherit as a professional birthright, has no other origin than this; no other sources. It is a proud patrimony — may you enjoy it undisputed to the end of time ! I am glad to turn from the contemplation of such a spectacle in the history of civilization, and to re- sume the special topic of this evening's considera- tion. I have called the single remedy a necessity of sci- ence. I shall prove it such to be. But, first, let us understand the term " single rem- edy." It does not mean a simple as distinguished from a composite substance. If the definition were to exclude composite substances, I should yearn for the much-prized Calcic Sulphide, and I know where there would be weeping and wailing for a beloved " Bromide." No, the true definition of the " single remedy" does not exclude composite substances. It may seem a singular admission for an avowed homoeopath to make, but I am not prepared to deny that a strict definition of the " single remedy " may 56 A HOMCEOPATH'S FAITH. not include a composite prescription, under the single condition that the physiological action of that identical composite prescription be known. I make this assertion in the face of the fact that the Homoeopathic Materia Medica contains the Oleum Animate Dippelii, a most complex substance, which " contains at least all the following constitu- ents : Methylia, Ethylia, Trytilia, Tetrylia, and Amy- lia; Aniline, Pyridine, Picoline, Lutidine, Pyrrol, Ben- zol, and a mixture of several Niirilcs." * Understand, however, and be kind enough to un- derstand distinctly, that a composite substance can be considered a single remedy only when its physio- logical action has been determined by experiment on the healthy. In this light only is it a single remedy. In this light only do we see it divested of adjuvans, corrigens, and constituens, and standing solely on the merit of its aggregated physiological action. I have already cited Dr. Powell as saying: " I think it may be asserted, without fear of contradic- tion, that no medicine compounded of five or six simple articles has had its powers examined in a rational manner." Now, what is a "rational manner"? Prof. H. C. Wood says: " We must discover what influence a drug exerts when put into the body of a patient be- * Brit. Horn. Pharmacop., p. 197. Second Edition. THE SINGLE REMEDY A NECESSITY. '57 fore we can use it rationally; and we can gain this coveted knowledge only in the method indicated." What is the " method indicated " ? Is it Dr. Pow- ell's "rational manner" of experiment on the sick, making a "close and careful analysis of cases before and after the administration of a remedy ? " No; for Wood says, " Therapeutics developed in this manner cannot rest upon a secure foundation." What, then, is the "method indicated" by Wood? Why, " experiments made with medicaments upon the lower animals, or upon healthy human beings." That is, the " method indicated " is that of first de- termining the physiological action of the remedy. He says, " It is seemingly self-evident that the physiological action of a remedy can never be made out by a study of its use in disease." " It is certain that in these experiments [on the healthy] is the only rational scientific groundwork for the treatment of disease." Now, then, I challenge your whole faculty, all your faculties, your whole school, to show a single instance wherein a " medicine compounded of five or six simple articles, has had its powers examined in a rational manner." It cannot be done, because such an instance is not upon record; and your every compound prescription is arraigned before the bar of Science as having no " rational scientific ground- work for the treatment of disease," and every such a prescription must plead guilty. 58 A homceopath'.s faith. Gentlemen, in this predicament, I am afraid the apothecaries will be of little use to you ; and if one man have only the truth with him, there is just one too many for doctors and apothecaries to manage. In our first lecture we found, from the agreement between the homoeopath and the " regular," that /here is only one method for determining the action of a drug, namely, that of experiment on the healthy. We also found that having in this way determined the physiological action, Haller said, " You may then pass on to experiment on the body in a state of dis- ease." This was at the close of the eighteenth cen- tury, and we do not find that Prof. Wood at the close of the nineteenth century has advanced one step. When he has gotten the physiological action, the " experiment on the body in a state of disease " still remains for him and his kind. His work is only half done; he has learned the action of a drug in health; he has yet to learn its use in disease. This condition, gentlemen, is a sad instance of " scien- tific " hemiopia — seeing only half of a thing. This is a bad fix to be in when a physician is looking at a patient; it is even worse when he is looking at a truth. In the murky mists of this life, truths are too often only dimly discerned; but to be in the mists, and to see dimly, and to see but half, is pitiful; it makes the heart of a homoeopath glow with a charity which is as little understood as appreciated. All this while the homoeopath knows that in.the THE SINGLE REMEDY A NECESSITY. 59 physiological action of a drug lie the indications for its therapeutic application. He is not obliged to devise hypotheses, frame theories, trust assumptions. The indication for the therapeutic application is put in the physiological action by even Him who puts the oak in the acorn. How does the homoeopath know this ? He plants his acorn, and leaves it to the Unerring One, and the oak is there ! I told you of that power of prevision in virtue of which Homoeopathy is a Science of Therapeutics. Let me give you an instance of this of home manu- facture. My worthy assistant, Dr. Taber, made the physio- logical action of Picric, or Carbazotic Acid, the sub- ject of his Inaugural Thesis. The provings, with the necessary urinary analyses, were made under my own observation; and when we had done, I said this will be a grand remedy for anaemia, specifying the conditions which must exist in order that Picric acid could be and would be curative. It was a little pamphlet that you would have despised. Well, the ink on that little pamphlet was hardly dry, before one of the gentlemen engaged in that research cured one of the before-specified cases of anaemia with Picric acid. He did not know that the drug had been so used before. I did not know it — do not know it now; but he and I did know that the drug would do what it did do when the counterpart of its physiological action was met in disease. The application of Picric 6o a homoeopath's faith. acid then was not " an experiment on the body in a state of disease; " it was a demonstration. Now in such a demonstration there are these ele- ments, namely, the pathological action of the patient's organism,— I say "pathological action," as distin- guished from the physiological action in health,— the pathological action of the patient's organism, and the physiological action of the appropriate remedy. In order to cure, these two must correspond as closely as possible. The procedure of the physician, then, is, having the disease-phenomena, to find similar drug- phenomena. Finding these, which are all that are needed, in the physiological action of Picric acid, where, in the name of Science, is the need for an ad- juvant, a corrigens, and a constituens ? Must I also give Syrup of Tolu because Picric acid is fearfully bitter ? Tolu has its own physiological action ; and in the case before us, the disease-phenomena do not correspond with the physiological action of Tolu. I leave the Tolu alone; I am obliged to leave it alone, simply because the single corresponding remedy is a necessity of science. Can any honest reasoner gainsay that? Yes,alas! yes ; for even an honest man can have hemiopia, and the man who can see only half of a truth has my commiseration everywhere and always. Turning from the singleness and the simplicity of science, let us take a parting look at the complexity and the confusion of pseudo-science, both of which THE SINGLE REMEDY A NECESSITY. 6l we can find in the prescription given to keep that poor epileptic's "bowels open." We find in it hyoscyamus, ipecacuanha, nux vom- ica, and aloes. Now let us glance at the physiological action of these. Hyoscyamus markedly affects the mouth and throat; ipecacuanha, the stomach and small intes- tine; nux vomica, notedly the upper part of the large intestine; aloes, as notedly the lower part of the large intestine. Well, if scientific medicine had only thrown in a straw hat and a pair of spurs, it would have hit the case from head to heels. Gentlemen, there is no accounting for the freaks of "scientific medicine;" and, alas, the patient takes tne consequences! 6 LECTURE III. Thus this custom of firing houses continued, till in process of time, says my manuscript, a sage arose, like our Locke, who made a discovery, that the flesh of swine, or indeed, of any other animal, might be cooked [burnt, as they called it) without the necessity of consuming a whole house to dress it. Then first began the rude form of a gridiron. Roasting by the string or spit came in a century or two later, I forget in whose dynasty. By such slow degrees, concludes the manu- script, do the most useful, and seemingly the most obvious arts, make their way among mankind. A Dissertation upon Roast-Pig. 63 LECTURE III. The Minimum Dose an Inevitable Sequence. TO-NIGHT, I must ask you to turn back thirteen hundred years in the history of Medicine. We will go to a little island in the Mediterranean, which towards the end of the sixth century was the abode of a very learned, a very able, and a very industrious physician. " He attained great eminence in his pro- fession, and continued to be looked up to as one of the highest authorities in Medicine and Surgery dur- ing a long succession of ages......All the medi- cal authors of the distinguished Arabian period quote his opinions in almost every page of their works, and never fail to recognize him as one of the most emi- nent of their Grecian Masters. At the revival of literature in modern times, the Latin translations of the Arabians continued for a time to be the ordinary guides to practice; but when the superior merit of their Greek originals became known, our author rose again into high consideration. As a proof of this, I may mention that the surgery of Fabricius ab 6* E 65 66 A HOMOEOPATH'S FAITH Aquapendente is made up almost entirely from his works." * Through the patient labor of this ancient physi- cian, Paul of yEgina, and the erudite commentary of his accomplished editor, Francis Adams, Surgeon, we of to-day are in possession of the most complete Manual of the Medicine and Surgery of the Ancients. To this book, then, we turn, and we are soon brought face to face with the medical science of twice a thousand years. From this book I wish to obtain the treatment of some well-known disease, and this not so much to inquire into the quality of the therapeutic measures employed, as to find the quantity given — to learn the dosage of those early physicians. Having found this, I shall follow the treatment of the same disease down to our day, and with chiefly the same end in view, namely, the dosage. The disease which I have chosen is dysentery — a disease of such frequent occurrence as to enable us to contrast ancient and modern dosage. To show you some of the polypharmacy of the early days of medicine, I will quote somewhat at length, giving you more than is necessary for my immediate purpose. Paul of ^Egina says: " In general, therefore, we * The Seven Books of Paulus jEgineta. Editor's Preface. Old Sydenham Society, 1844. THE MINIMUM DOSE. 6j must use those things which were recommended for cceliac and other preternatural evacuations; but, in particular, the Lemnian Earth* cures a spreading dysentery when drank or injected, the intestine being previously washed out with honied water, and after- wards with salt water; and the juice of purslain is proper for dysenteric affections when drunk, or the purslain itself when boiled in oxycrate and eaten. Plantain also is proper, and the fruit and leaves of the bramble, the decoction of the root of marsh- mallows, the herb horsetail drunk in water or wine, and the juice of it, the unripe fruit of the mulberry dried, and, still more, brambleberries, when simi- larly dried. Eggs boiled with vinegar and eaten, dry up fluxes of the belly; but it will answer better if, mixing them with some of the articles which are good for dysentery, you fry them, and give to eat. The wine of unripe grapes is most useful in these cases, and the red sumac, and the juice of it, the rind of pomegranate, the ashes of snails roasted whole. The following is a compound medicine: of the ashes of snails, p. iv; of galls, p. ii; of pepper, p. i; reduce to a fine powder, and sprinkle upon the condiments, or give to drink in water or a white, watery wine. It greatly helps dysenteric patients when the ulcers are not putrid. But the dried dung * According to Geoffrey, it is ** a fat, viscid, slippery clay, of a pale-red color."— Adams. 68 A HOMOEOPATH'S FAITH. of dogs who have eaten bones, when drank in milk which has been curdled by having heated pebbles put into it, is of great service. The following are compound remedies: The trochisk from Egyptian thorn, that of Philip,* that from hartshorn, that from seeds, and the Trigonus.f The pills from mace are excellent remedies. The following is an admirable one: Of opium, of saffron, of Indian Lycium {catechu?), a acacia, of sumach, of frankincense, of galls, of hypocistis, of myrrh, of aloes equal parts; give in water to the amount of three oboli." % We find, then, that a " most noble Grecian " was expected to " get away with " a quantity equal to three oboli at a dose; thirty grains at a gulp. I say a " most noble Grecian," because I am not sure that the ignoble could pay for such quantities of drugs. We have, then, established such a dosage as was in vogue six hundred years after the birth of Christ, * The trochisk of Philip was made as follows: Of the flowers of the wild pomegranate, of acacia, of the juice of hypocistis, of opium, of sumach, of frankincense, of myrrh, of saffron, of gall, of aloes, of Pontic rhubarb, of the rind of pomegran- ate, of myrtles, of each dr. iv. Mix with austere wine, and form into trochisks of three oboli each. That is, 30^5 grains each. fThe crochis Trigonus was made as follows: Of anise, of bishop's weed, of the seed of fennel, of each dr. iv; of the seed of parsley, of opium, of the seed of henbane, of each dr. ii. Triturate with water. X Paulus jEgineta, Vbl. I., p. 525. THE MINIMUM DOSE. 69 and it now remains for us to note some of the changes brought about in the thirteen intervening centuries. Now, gentlemen, I leap over ten centuries, and introduce to you a learned physician of the time of Queen Elizabeth, Dr. Philip Barrough, the painful author of " The Methode of Phisicke, Conteyning THE CAVSES, SlGNES, AND CvRES OF INWARD DIS- EASES in mans body from the head to the foote. Whereunto is added the forme and rule of mak- ing remedies and medicines, which our Phisitians commonly vse at this day, with the proportion, quan- tise, and names of ech medicine. Imprinted at London by Thomas Vautroullier, dwelling in the Blacke-friers by Lud-gate, 1583." Treating of dysentery, Dr. Barrough writes: " For this cure you must vse such remeadyes that doe restraine, drie vp, and prouoke vryne, and that doe carry the fluxe some other way." The treat- ment, you see, must be both antipathic and allceo- pathic. He continues: " Restrictive thinges be these: sorrell seede, sumach, gaules, pomgranate ryndes dryed, bryer roote, lapdamum, acatia, hipo- cischis, balaustium, willowe leaves, comferie rootes, leaves, and seede, rheum ponticum, if it may be got- ten, roote of Althece, horsetaile, corall, masticke, hares creame, dragons bloude, the barke of francken- cense, terra lemnia, roote of verbascus, plantayne seede, white daysies, a kind of mallowes called alcea, JO A HOMOEOPATH'S FAITH. oxis, sanicula, ophrys, ophioglossum, knot-grasse, sheepeheardes puese, walwort, pedelion, numularia, dragans the male, sharpe mulberies, carnells of grapes, the bark of maces, and such like." * The doses of Dr. Barrough were as follows: Of a syrup, gij; of a potion, 3ij; of a bolus, Sviii or x; of a julep, .?xviii or xxvii; of pills, 3iss, made into pill, ix, and given at a dose.f For the number and complexity of drugs, and for size of doses, we find absolutely no advance in one thousand years. Philip Barrough of London might have studied with Paul of yEgina for all the differ- ence discernible between them. I have not endeavored to garble the facts of his- tory; I have not sought for a volume specially adapted to my purpose; I have cited from a work which, in its day, was a representative work, the first edition published in 1583, the seventh edition issued at London in 1634 — seven editions in fifty- one years. A new edition in nearly every seven years. Now, Sir Thomas Watson wrote his clas- sical Lectures on The Principles and Practice of Medi- cine in 1837, and in 1871 the fifth edition was pub- lished— five editions in thirty-four years, a new edition in a trifle less than every seven years. Evi- dently, Dr. Philip Barrough is a competent and a reliable witness as to the condition of medicine in * Op. cit., Liber III., p. 99. " t Op. cit., Liber VI. THE MINIMUM DOSE. 71 nis day. As a matter of fact, then, we find that one thousand years have slidden by as a dream, and medicine, the hope of the suffering, has slept for ten centuries. So far as any real progress is concerned, Dr. Philip Barrough laid him down and died, and left the science and the art just as he received them from the volumes of Paul of ^Egina; just as Paul of ^Egina left them when he, too, laid down and died. Men speak of the " Dark Ages;" it's a good name, a fit name, a true name. But, gentlemen, those ten centuries were dark just as a landscape is dark when the sky is clouded; there are patches of gloom where the impenetrable cloud is between the earth and the sun; there are spots of light and life and growth where the sunlight pierces the rifts. Nearly within those ten centuries was done the life- work of a Copernicus, a Galileo, a Kepler, a Roger Bacon, a Columbus, a Vespucius, a Wyckliffe, a Tyn- dale, and a Luther. Truth is not a creature of fair weather or of foul; of light or of darkness. If there is only the heart sincere and hungry, there will she be — now with a Galileo in the sunshine of Italy; now with a Wyckliffe in the fogs of England; now with a Columbus at the mercy of a mutinous crew; now with a Tyndale at the stake, and, thank God, beyond. If a man turn his back to the light, to him it shall be dark. Of such a turning of the back to the light do I accuse the medical profession. This the pro- 72 A HOMOEOPATH'S FAITH. fession did in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; has done since, is doing now largely, and with the usual consequences. In 1493 was born a man of whom Pereira writes thus: " A vain, ignorant, arrogant, drunken quack, fanatic, and impostor. [Do you see what an affluent vocabulary a " regular " has for one who differs with him ?] He burnt publicly the works of Galen and Avicenna, declaring that his shoe-strings possessed more knowledge than those two celebrated physi- cians, and asserted that he possessed the elixir of life! He was a cabalist, astrolcfger, and believer in the doctrine of signatures. He conferred several important benefits on medicine; he overturned Ga- lenism, introduced chemical medicines (employing mercury in syphilis), and substituted tinctures, es- sences, and extracts for various disgusting prepara- tions."* This was Paracelsus, the man who had more than a glimpse of that law of similars which found its fuller development at the hands of Hahnemann. Of •him — Pereira's " arrogant, drunken quack"—I will say this: To all that is true in the science and art of medicine, I deem his "shoe-strings" of more value than whatsoever all of his detractors have accom- plished. He was like the lark; he could pierce the clouds and sing his song in the broad eye of the sun. * Materia Medica, Vol. II., Part. II., p. 840, 4th Edition. THE MINIMUM DOSE. 75 What had he to do with owls and bats, creatures that find their abode in the ruins of antiquity ? And what, indeed, had they to do with him ? But let me return to my theme. At the close of the sixteenth century, we find medicine to be like a large, stagnant pond, copiously coated with "green" scum, and with frogs innumerable croaking as frogs will. Let us leave the frogs and jump over two hun- dred years. Dr. Philip Barrough is sleeping with his fathers; but he finds a worthy successor in Joannes Baptist Burserius, the learned author of The Institu- tions of the Practice of Medicine, five octavo volumes of which we have translated by William Cullen Brown, M.D., the son of the famous author of the Brunonian system. Burserius was a professor. He published his four octavo volumes in 1798. He did not finish the work, being "prematurely cut off by an abscess in the right kidney," for all of which I presume the medical stu- dents who had to "cram" from his five volumes were duly thankful. The work must have been highly esteemed in its day, for Dr. Brown mentions " the very warm manner in which the work has been re- commended by several eminent medical professors and practitioners, both here and elsewhere, and the consequent general and pressing demand upon the booksellers for it. So urgent, indeed, for many months past, has this demand been in different 7 74 A HOMOEOPATH'S FAITH. parts of the country, but particularly at the Univer- sity of Edinburgh, and so few copies of the original have been transmitted to the continent, that to sup- ply the deficiency either a new edition of the work, or a translation of it, seemed indispensable."* Evidently a notable work and a standard. Turn we now to the treatment of dysentery as laid down by Burserius; and, mind, I am after the dose em- ployed, not the remedy used. Well, he advises " the bean of the pechurim of Brazil " — Faba Pichu- rim, Para nut — " to the extent of two scruples twice a day." Also the powder of "the herb salicaria"— Lythrum Salicaria, Loose-strife — " one drachm, or four scruples, morning and evening." It is, you see, the respectable twelve-hundred-year-old dose. But, right here, justice demands that I shall make known to you a protest, and I quote it: " The trans- lator (that is, William Cullen Brown, M.D.) is sorry for having been under the necessity of inserting, at the end of each disease, a farrago of drugs and reme- dies scarce known or heard of in this country; of which some are completely inert, while others are absolutely contemptible or disgustful. Thus, who can restrain from laughter, when the learned and judicious Burserius gravely enumerates, among other strengthening remedies recommended in a state of * Burserius's Institutions of the Practice of Medicine. Ad- vertisement, p. I. THE MINIMUM DOSE. 75 convalescence from fever, soup of frogs, vipers, snails, and other loathsome animals, which, independent of the disgust they are apt to occasion to patients whose stomachs must necessarily be very delicate, cannot possibly possess any restorative value superior to that of other animal soups and jellies.....On the whole, much more will be found to be admired in these volumes than to be reprehended ; while they are still farther recommended as affording means of attaining information at the fountain-head on every subject connected with the practice of medicine." I think, then, the work will stand as representing the condition of the science and the art of medicine at the close of the eighteenth century, and I turn from it to considei the doings of the present century. As dysentery is the disease which I have chosen to illustrate my subject, I must now ask you to con- sider with me the treatment of that disease by mer- curials. Says Dr. Mason Good: " In his cathartic plan, Sydenham could have been considerably aided by the use of calomel, of all the purgative deobstruents the most valuable; and the more so, as exercising its evacuating power over all the secernents of the body. It has of late, indeed, been most extensively employed in quite a different way, and for a very different object; that, I mean, of curing by a specific action upon the immediate seat of inflammation. Being persevered in for this pur- y6 a homoeopath's faith. pose in doses of from five or ten to twenty or twenty-five grains two or three times a day; assisted, where there is much torpor of the absorbents, by mercurial friction, and continued until ptyalism is produced, which, as in yellow fever, is the alleged test that the constitution is sufficiently loaded with it, and that the disease is about to give way..... Mr. Cunningham, late Surgeon to the Sceptre, in the East Indies, boldly employs it alone, and re- gards everything else as impeding its course. He does not even stand in need of alvine aperients of any kind, and prefers scruple doses to smaller pro- portions.....Administered in this way, he fear- lessly asserts, and the tables of his practice seem to justify his assertion, that 'it is an almost certain remedy for dysentery in hot climates at least.'" * It were easy to fill pages with similar testimony, but let this suffice. Now observe, if you please, the claim set up for mercury in dysentery — its power of "curing by a spe- cific action upon the immediate seat of inflammation." This claim was made as early as 1825, and " scruple doses " were deemed necessary at that date. If the patient weighed 150 pounds, the proportion between the dose and the body acted upon is as 1 to 52050. This is " scientific" medicine handling a remedy having "a specific action upon the imme- * The Study of Medicine, Vol. II., p. 249, 4th Edition, 1840. THE MINIMUM DOSE. 77 diate seat of inflammation " in the year of grace, 1825. Now let us turn to "scientific" medicine in 1877— fifty-two years later than when Dr. Mason Good wrote: "A similar treatment," says Professor Ringer, " relieves the dysentery, acute or chronic, of adults, provided the stools are slimy and bloody. A hun- dredth of a grain of the bichloride given hourly, or every two hours, according to the severity of the case, is generally sufficient, rarely failing to free the stools from blood and slime." * If Dr. Ringer's dysenteric patient weighed 150 pounds, the proportion between the dose and the body acted upon is as 1 to 105 millions. That is, in plain English, in the short space of fifty-two years, scientific medicine has decreased the size of the dose two thousand times. The whole history of "scientific" medicine does not show a similar change. How do you account for it? Has "experience" taught the lesson? is it a result of clinical experiment? is it a deduction from the physiological action of mercury? Come whence it may, why it may, how it may, it shows that when a physician is using a specific as a specific, the minimum dose is an inevitable sequence. " It is common," says Ringer, "to hear highly practical * Handbook of Therapeutics, p. 236, 6th Edition, 1878. 7* 78 A HOMCEOPATH'S FAITH. doctors deny mercurial preparations; whereas, were they to employ the minute doses now recommended, they would obtain the desired effect, and exclude the bad results they fear."* Gentlemen, this minimum dose is not a freak of the physician, a whim of some theorizer, a fashion in physic that will pass away as a thousand other fashions have done. It is not even a matter of choice; it is a therapeutic necessity; it must be used if you would " exclude the bad results." If a medi- cine has " a specific action upon the immediate seat of inflammation" in a given case,the minimum dose is an inevitable sequence; none other will be given by the prudent physician, none other can be given by the honest physician, if he be competently edu- cated. Speaking of the " Morbid Appearances caused by Mercury," Christison says: "The other form of destruction of the coats of the alimentary canal is common ulceration, either such from the beginning, or what was originally corrosion converted into an ulcer in consequence of the disorganized spot being thrown off by sloughing. " I have seen this appearance to an enormous ex- tent in the great intestines of a man who survived nine days. Numerous large, black, gangrenous, ulcers, just like those observed in bad cases of dys- *Op. cit., p. 235. THE MINIMUM DOSE. 79 entery, were scattered over the whole colon and rec- tum." * It is because the extreme physiological action of the bichloride produces symptoms and pathological conditions "just like those observed in [some] bad cases of dysentery," that the minimum dose is an inevitable sequence of the law which directs its use. A large dose of the bichloride will act as an irritant to the already inflamed large intestine; one-hundredth grain doses, says Ringer, "rarely failing to free the stools from blood and slime," — that is, "rarely failing" to remove therapeutically the very condition which the bichloride produces in its physiological action. Oh, what an agony this truth produces in the " hide-bound " regular physician. He has a few little devices for raising a dust and hiding the truth therein. He calls this truth "medicine substitutive," with Trousseau; he calls it " the elective action," with Dr. Mays; he says the instances wherein the law of similars is applicable " can be counted on the fin- gers," but he forgets to state how many times we must use our fingers in doing that counting. Within the inexorable grasp of that truth, Old Physic writhes to-day as did Laocoon in the folds of the serpents of the sea. Minerva, goddess of wisdom, the arts, sciences, and learning, sent the punishment there and the punishment comes to-day, even as then! * Treatise on Poisons, p. 436, 4th Edition, 1845. 8o A homoeopath's faith. Now, let me ask, where did Prof. Ringer learn that " highly practical doctors," " were they to em- ploy the minute doses now recommended, would ob- tain the desired effect and exclude the bad results they fear ? " Shall we suspect him of having appropriated this fact from the homoeopaths ? Even if we do this, it does not invalidate the fact. A fact it still is; as much a fact, as fixed a fact for Ringer as for Hahne- mann. A diamond flashes light none the less be- cause the gem is stolen; and, under like conditions, a drug will do'as much for one man as for another. The finding of the fact may have been Hahnemann's; the truth of the fact, the potentiality of the fact, is God's; and as His it is not more mine than yours. If false pride leads you to reject it because I found it, I can only say to you, remember the Laocoon! Shall we say that Prof. Ringer stumbled upon this fact by accident ? If even so, does that invalidate the fact? Is glass not glass because those ship- wrecked Phoenician merchants discovered the making of it by accident ? Suppose Prof. Ringer found this fact by experi- ment. Does that invalidate the fact ? If so, how soon were all the sciences and arts stripped to nakedness. If it be a fact, — a beneficent fact in that it " obtains the desired effect and excludes the bad results," — how in the name of suffering THE minimum dose. 81 humanity can any physician reject it and be blame- less ? You can reject it without blame only when you have proven it to be not a fact. This proof must come not from your pride, not from your prejudice, but from your impartial and intelligent experiments. You cannot justly say " the dose is so small I know there is nothing in it." That has been said for two thousand years ; all Prof. Ringer's predecessors have virtually said it. Prof. Ringer has tried it, and finds that it " obtains the desired effect and excludes the bad results." When a man stops thinking and be- gins trying, his feet are on the staircase of inductive philosophy—the golden stairs which lead the soul from Nature up to Nature's God. Columbus might have dreamed of a New World forever; he found it when he put aside his dreams and sought it. Abstract thought, reason, never taught any physi- cian to diminish the dose; the decrease was solely the teaching of experience. As such, the lesson came to Hahnemann; as such, let us hope, it came to Ringer ; as such, it will come to you. The signs in the medical firmament are unmistakable ; you cannot avoid that inevitable sequence — the minimum dose. Your very pharmacists are filling your jour- nals with advertisements of their " parvules," con- taining the hundredth and the two-hundredth of a grain of the drug. You may fly to the ends of the F 82 A homoeopath's faith. earth, but the very rocks by the wayside bear wit ness, the spirit of trade has been before you with the stencil-plate, and the praises of the parvule shall fol- low you to the very grave. Are you going to have this inevitable sequence thrust upon you, despite all your pride in the tradi- tions of the past, or are you going to accept it in the spirit of that inductive philosophy which Bacon taught ? The choice is yours ; and for a man, a scholar, a philosopher, there is but one choice con- sistent with manliness, with scholarship, with phi- losophy. The appeal to experiment is forced upon you by the demands of truth, by the spirit of the age, by that awful obligation which makes the physician his " brother's keeper." You cannot resist the claim as one accountable to his fellow-man; as one account- able to God, you dare not. The conditions of experiment obligatory upon you are these: Given a certain disease; to be determined the dose of a drug which acts upon the very parts affected in that disease, producing symptoms and conditions sim- ilar to those existing in the disease. As a result of that experiment, the minimum dose will be an inevi- table sequence. And now let me state what is this minimum dose? In defining it, I shall keep in mind the requirements laid down by Asclepiades, namely, to cure quickly, the minimum dose. 83 safely, and pleasantly. Understand me distinctly: I say the minimum dose demanded by the most rigid requirements of science must be, and is, one which cures quickly, safely, and pleasantly. These requirements can be met and filled by smaller doses than any ever given by the disciples of " rational medicine " — for that I believe is the latest change of name adopted. But these very small doses are applicable and operative only under the law of similars, as I shall prove. Now, in order to cure quickly, safely, and pleas- antly, the minimum dose, at its greatest, must be one in which the physiological action is wholly ab- sorbed in the therapeutic effect. Suppose the remedy is the bichloride of mercury, and the disease a dysentery similar to that produced by the bichloride. The physiological action of the bichloride is to produce bloody and slimy stools, tenesmus ani, and vesicae. These conditions exist in such a dysen- tery as it will cure. The existence of such con- ditions in certain parts increases the susceptibility of those parts to the action of a stimulus which of itself can excite a similar inflammation in those parts. We know that in health the body offers a certain degree of resistance to disease-producing agents. Speaking of morbid poisons, Sir Wm. Gull says, ' Probably, and almost certainly, they do pass 84 a homoeopath's faith. through persons indifferent to their operation." * All persons do not take yellow fever, though in an atmosphere filled with its germs. A drug, then, has a certain amount of body-resistance to overcome in establishing its physiological action in certain tissues and organs; but if such an action already exist in certain tissues and organs, a smaller amount of a similarly acting drug will add to the existing condi- tion, because it is a force acting in a parallel direc- tion. Therefore the dose of the bichloride must be so small that its force shall just suffice to neutralize the disease-action. If it be large enough to excite the physiological action of the bichloride, the re- sulting condition will be so much disease-action plus so much physiological action: an evident increase of the existing trouble. If the dose has increased •"he existing inflammation, then it is not curing ' quickly," for the increased inflammation will make greater tissue changes, and require longer time to subside; it is not curing " safely," as the increased inflammation may be sufficient to prove fatal; it is not curing " pleasantly," in that the increased inflam- mation necessarily adds to the suffering. Then the minimum dose, at its greatest, must be one in which the physiological action of the drug is wholly ab- sorbed in the therapeutic effect of the drug. * Presidential Address. Transactions of the Clinical Society Vol. V.. p. xxxviii., 1872. THE MINIMUM DOSE. 85 I have said that this minimum dose is applicable and operative only under the law of similars. The bichloride of mercury in its physiological action pro- duces conditions similar to those which it cures in dysentery. The indications for its therapeutical ap- plication in dysentery are found in its physiological action upon the healthy. You may call this applica- tion " medicine substitutive," " elective affinity," or what you will — the name does not change the fact; it remains the law of similars, and all "highly prac- tical doctors " will find that under its guidance they can use the bichloride of mercury, obtaining "the desired effect, and excluding the bad results they have learned to fear" from its misuse in large doses for three centuries. Now a drug can act in three ways when given in disease ; that is, it is homoeopathic, antipathic, or heteropathic. The action of Cantharides in cystitis is homoeopathic — the dr.ug excites a condition sim- ilar to the disease; the action of a cathartic in con- stipation is antipathic — the drug excites a condition directly opposite to constipation; the action of Ela- terium in hydrocephalus is heteropathic — the drug excites a condition dissimilar to that of the disease. The action of a drug, then, is similar, dissimilar, or opposite. Now the sensibility of an inflamed organ is in- creased towards any agent which in itself can inflame that organ. That drug which can inflame an organ, 8 86 a homoeopath's faith. if given when that organ is inflamed, has no resist- ance to overcome in starting its peculiar inflamma- tion. An inflammation already exists, and the drug adds to it, increases it from the moment its action begins; and this because the drug acts in the line of the least resistance. This will largely account foi the efficiency of the homoeopath's small dose; and it goes to show why a specific remedy makes the minimum dose an inevitable sequence. Suppose, now, that the dsug is antipathic ; then it must oppose its action to the disease-action. . Here is antagonism, struggle, a greater expenditure of force. In inflammation, the motor-fibres of certain sympathetic ganglia are actively at work dilating the blood-vessels of the inflamed organ. The drug given is antipathic; then it must spend its force upon the fibres of Remak in the same ganglia. These fibres must first spend as much force in neutralizing that degree of force by which the motor-fibres dilate the blood-vessels, as is expended by the motor-fibres in producing that dilatation; and then the Remak fibres must expend still more force to overcome the motor-fibres and constrict the blood-vessels, thus re- ducing the amount of blood and thereby extinguish- ing the inflammation. Therefore an antipathic rem- edy acts in the line of the greatest resistance, and a large dose is an imperative necessity. Now let us consider a drug which acts heteropath- ically. We will take Elaterium as the drug and acute THE MINIMUM DOSE. 87 hydrocephalus as the disease. The cerebral ventri- cles are filling with effusion, and Elaterium is given to produce " profuse, watery stools," and thereby drain off the effusion. Evidently, the aim is to es- tablish the physiological action of Elaterium upon the bowels. This must be done "quickly;" it should be done "safely;" it ought to be done "pleasantly." Now because the body offers some resistance to all poisons, any dose of Elaterium will not purge. Suf- ficient must be given to overcome the body-resist- ance, and in the dose there must also be a plus of energy that shall go beyond overcoming the resist- ance and produce the physiological action—the " profuse, watery stools." Now it requires more to establish the physiological action than it does to add to that physiological action when it already exists; and thus we see that a large dose of a heteropathic remedy is absolutely necessary. Therefore it follows that the minimum dose of which we have spoken is applicable and operative only under the law of sim- ilars. It is homoeopathic in its operation; and to cure quickly, safely, and pleasantly, the dose of such a remedy must be so small that its physiological ac- tion is wholly absorbed in its therapeutic effect. Is there any difference of merit in these three va- rieties of dose ? Anything to recommend the em- ployment of one rather than the others ? anything that should make one dose imperative as the rule of scientific practice ? 88 a homoeopath's faith. Between two given points there can be but one straight line, said Hahnemann; and it is a truth as fixed as the eternal hills. The similarly-acting remedy in the minimum dose " obtains the desired effect and excludes the bad re- sults," with the least expenditure of force on the part of the already suffering organism. The simi- larly-acting remedy in the minimum dose is the one straight line between disease-action and drug-action. Ringer's book contains very many instances of the homoeopathic application of the remedy. The first edition came out in 1869—the seventh in 1879. Gentlemen, there was hunger somewhere, and this book is feeding the famishing! Ringer recommended one-sixty-fourth of a grain of the bichloride in 1869 — the one one-hundredth of a grain in 1879. You see the direction, the inev- itable sequence of the minimum dose. Ringer has not yet learned the limit of decrease, nor have I; but his face is turned towards the truth, and some day he will reach out the fraternal hand to physi- cians who are now despised and rejected. I should not be true to history, if I omitted to in- form you that, while Ringer had reached the one one-hundredth of a grain in 1879, Hahnemann had used the one one-thousandth of a grain in 1799 — eighty years ahead on the road to truth. Many of Hahnemann's followers are to-day where he was in 1799. He did not rest at the one-thousandth THE MINIMUM DOSE. 89 of a grain. He treated intermittent fever with the thirtieth dilution — treated it successfully; and he left old women and young men to " tie strings around trees." * Thus have we gone over three cardinal points of a Homoeopath's Faith, and even in this meagre pre- sentation of them they must commend themselves to the unbiassed mind as having their foundation not on hypothesis, not on theory, but on Law. They are based upon experimental research; they are demonstrable by experimental research; they are *"In answer to a number of questions, he made the fol- lowing statements: " ' I do not believe in the higher dilutions. ... I give na- trum muriaticum in the thirtieth dilution for ague, and re- covery follows. I have seen persons with the ague go into the woods and tie a string around a tree, and they recov- ered.'"— Report of lecture on The Spread of Ho7iia:opathy. Ann Arbor Register, April 23, 1879. Said the same party a month previously: "On the other hand I have some confidence in the therapeutic powers of the thirtieth dilution of many remedies. While in my prac- tice I use chiefly what are known as the 'low dilutions,' yet both in clinics and private practice I frequently employ the thirtieth, and in the treatment of a variety of diseased con- ditions in which the tendency is to grow worse rather than to recover, my successes have so far outnumbered my failures that I am encouraged to repeat what has ceased to be an ex- periment. ... 1 have faith in the therapeutic powers of the thirtieth dilution of many remedies.'' American Observer, March, 1879. 8* 90 a homoeopath's faith. refutable only by experimental research. It appeals to the world not with a solicitation but with a chal- lenge. It demands the searchingest sunlight of sci entific investigation. Said he by whom these car dinal points were promulgated : " There is another method by means of which the homoeopathic doctrine can be overthrown in a sure and short manner, provided its overthrow is at all possible. " This doctrine rests exclusively upon experience. Imitate its indications, and you will find that the)' are true. I ask of you what no author of any Materia Medica or system of Therapeutics has ever asked before. I ask of you, most urgently, to judge Homoeopathy by its results. " Take a case, of course one for which a homoeo- pathic remedy has already been discovered, note down all its perceptible symptoms in the manner which has been taught in the Organon, and with a correctness with which the author of Homoeopathy shall be perfectly satisfied, apply that drug which shall be perfectly homoeopathic to all the symptoms, the dose having the size prescribed in the Organon, and avoiding all those heterogeneous influences which might disturb the action of the drug, and if, under these circumstances, the drug doe? not afford speedy and efficient help, then publish the failure to the world in a manner which shall make it impossible to gainsay the homceopathicity of the THE MINIMUM DOSE. 91 drug and the correctness of your proceedings, and the author of Homoeopathy will stand confounded and convicted." * Are these the words of a charlatan conscious, as are all such, of his vain pretence? How has this truth-filled Thinker been received by the great majority of the Medical Profession? Said the great-hearted Samuel Brown, whose un- timely death is one of God's inscrutabilities,— "It is the world-old tragedy of scientific history. No sooner does a man obey the impulse of con- science, and challenge the foregone conclusions of his age, than the hue and cry is raised against him. It is in vain that he lavishes his good name, his means, his talents, the blood of his heart, the sweat of his brain, everything that is his, upon the working out of the thought by which he has been visited. One word of scorn, one flippant little word, will defraud him of the only reward he values, namely, the sympathy of his brethren. Why, even if the enthusiast were the laborious and generous victim of some coil of error, he would still deserve the love and furtherance of men, for he is at least casting his life into some breach with bravery worthy of a better task; but being the heavy-laden, and therefore the slowly-treading, perhaps the stag- gering bearer of a weighty new truth from the * Materia Medica Pura, Vol. III., p. iv. 92 a homoeopath's faith. heart of Nature to the ears of her frivolous chil- dren, they ignore, flout, slander, obstruct, and even hate him." * Then, did the Thinker faint and fall by the way- side, failing of " the only reward he values, namely, the sympathy of his brethren ? " Failing of this is there no other reward for him ? Said Samuel Brown : " The highest and most en- during reward of scientific exploration, conducted in the spirit of the masters and not in that of the hirelings, is not even the finding of truth; it is the finding of new strength, faith deepened in founda- tion, more capacious love, and hope building higher and higher." f O dead Master, in that God is the All-just, thou hadst and now hast all of these; and thou canst leave thy work to Time's arbitrament without the shadow of a single fear. * Essays Scientific and Literary, by Samuel Brown, Vol. IL, P- 323- f Op. cit., p. 323. THE END. ssmmm^massw^^