[®PKi 8Rfil>»F&k \SB'!£:t mhft. WffiPJ u>[\ HH9?*i it\ m WMi \vnli mm > Surgeon General's Office vh. V SAMUEL HAHNEMANN'S ORGANON OF HOMEOPATHIC MEDICIN AVDE SA.PERE. FOURTH AMERICAN EDITION, WITH IMPROVEMENTS AND ADDITIONS FROM THE LAST GERMAN EDITION, DR, C. .BERING'S INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. NEf-YORK: PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM RADDE, No. 300 BROADWAY, And No. 633 Arch-Street, Philadelphia;—Turner, No. 97 Picadilly, Manchester, England. AND FOR SALE BY HOMOEOPATHIC BOOKSELLERS GENERALLY. 1860. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by WILLIAM RADDE, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New-York. HENRV LUDWIG, Printer and Stereotyper, 39 Centre-st. SOME REMARKS FOR THE FOURTH AMERICAN EDITION OF HAHNEMANN^ ORG ANON. It is now twenty-three years since the first edition of the Organon of Medicine appeared in this country. Since that period, the number of homoeopathic physicians in the United States has more than doubled every four years. This increase has been gradual, sometimes more, and at others less rapid, but always without inter- ruption ; and at no time, neither in this country nor in Europe, has there been any retrogression from the ground gained. However, there have never been wanting those who asserted that homoeopathy was on the decline, and indeed was dead; which reminds us of the old adage, that when a man is said to be dead, he has usually the promise of a long life. Other opponents have entertained great hopes, when they have learned that the adherents of our school are divided into different- parties. This is like the friends of royalty in Europe, predicting the downfall of republican institutions in this country, because there are here various political parties. Among so laro-e a number of physicians, it is quite natural that different opinions should be entertained and promulgated, and even that partisan conflicts should arise. But against the stubborn adherents Or the old-school doctrines, these various parties stand united as the varied wings of one common army. All homoeopathic physicians are united under the banner of the great law of cure, similia similibus curantier, however they may* differ in regard to the theoretical explanation of that law, or the extent to which it may be applied. All homoeopathic physicians also acknowledge that provings upon the healthy are indispensable in ascertaining the unknown curative powers of drugs. And, finally, all homoeopaths concur in giving but one medicine at a time, never mixing different drugs together, under the absurd expectation that each will act according to their dictum. This is the glorious tri-color of our school, which will make the circuit of the world and in these we are as the heart of one man. 3 4 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. It is not a little gratifying to find that all the recent discoveries in chemistry and physiology serve to confirm and establish the prin- ciples of our system, while they contradict the usual pathological opinions of the day. The wonderful discoveries in pathological ana- tomy, in ascertaining the material and chemical changes produced by disease and medicines, while they are a valuable addition to our knowledge, serve only to engender in the old school such doctrines as " young physic," according to which the patient is scientifically in- formed of the nature of his disorder, and gravely left to the efforts of nature. Even the water-cure is only t7J% servant of the doctrine of Hahnemann, cleansing and renovating the house to be occupied by us While the various dissensions among the old school are favoring the extension of homoeopathy, the varied diversities among ourselves serve only to develop and advance our principles. What important influence can it exert whether a homoeopath adopt the theoretical opinions of Hahnemann or not, so long as he holds fast the practical rule of the master, and the materia medica of our school ? What influence can it have whether a physician adopt or reject the psora- theory, so long as he always selects the most similar medicine possible ? Even in the larger or smaller doses, the masses or the potences, allowing that there is a great difference between them ac- cording to the testimony of the friends of each, yet all this difference dwindles into insignificance when we compare the results of homoeo- pathic with that of common allopathic practice. Hence we may console ourselves, leaving to farther researches to confirm or rectify Hahnemann's theory of potences, and to establish a rule without ex- ceptions, according to which the lower or the higher potences shall be the most appropriate in each individual case. There will always be a large number of physicians who either do not understand, or will not learn how to select for each particular case the one only proper medicine, and such will always find it more comfortable to employ massive doses. There will always be, perhaps, as large a number on the other hand, who will, by-and-by, know how to hit the nail upon the head, and they well learn to prefer the high potences. Even Hahnemann himself required more than a score of years to learn this. As through war we come to the possession of peace, so in the world of science, through conflict and trial we come to the possession of truth. It was an old motto of Luther's : " Lass die Geister auf einander platzen." CONSTANTINE HERING. Philadelphia PREFACE TO THE FIRST BRITISH EDITION. An aqcidental interview with a Russian physician, in the year 1828, made me acquainted for the first time with the medical doctrine of homoeopathy; the principle of which is, that certain medicines, when administered internally in a healthy state of the system, produce certain effects, and that the same medicines are to be used when symptoms similar to those which they give rise to occur in disease. This doctrine, directly opposite to that which hitherto formed the basis of medical practice in these countries, attracted my attention. I immediately procured Hahnemann's Materia Medica Pura, in which the doctrine is partially explained, with the view of investigating the system experimentally, and reporting my observations thereon, free from theory, prejudice, or party. The first inquiry was, whether the proposition,, similia similibus curantur was true. This investigation was confined to a single substance at a time. To ascertain the effects of Sulphate of Quinine, healthy individuals were selected, to whom grain-doses of the medicine were administered three times a day After using it for some days, stomach-sickness, loss of appetite, a sense of cold along the course of the spine, rigor, heat of skin, and general perspiration succeeded. Effects similar to these are often observed when this medicine is injudiciously selected in the treat- ment of disease. It sometimes happens that the symptoms of ague are aggravated by the prolonged use of Sulphate of Quinia, and, soon after it is withdrawn, the disease gradually subsides. The result of experiments and observations on this remedy elucidate its homoeo- pathic action. Mercurial preparations, when administered internally, produce symptoms local and constitutional, so closely resembling the poison of lues venerea that medical practitioners, who have spent many years in the investigation of syphilis, find it very difficult—nay, in some instances impossible (guided by appearances)—=to distinguisc one disease from the other. Of all the medicines used in the treat- ment of lues, Mercury is the only one that has stood the test of time and experience. Let us then compare* the effects of syphilis with those of Mercury . The venereal poison produces on the skin pus- 5 6 PREFACE TO THE FIRST BRITISH EDITION. tules, scales, and tubercles. Mercury produces directly the same defoedations of the skin. Syphilis excites inflammation of the perios teum, and caries of the bones. Mercury does the same. Inflam- mation of the iris from lues is an every-day occurrence; the same disease is a very frequent consequence of Mercury. Ulceration of the throat is a common symptom in syphilis ; the same affection re- sults from Mercury. Ulcers on the organs of reproduction are the result of both the poison and the remedy, and furnish another proof of the doctrine similia similibus. Nitric-acid is generally recommended in cutaneous diseases; the internal use of this remedy, in a very dilute form, produces scaly eruptions over the surface of the body; and the external application of a solution, in the proportion of one part acid to one hundred and twenty-eight parts of water, will produce inflammation and ulceration of the skin. These observations would lead to the conclusion that Nitric-acid cures cutaneous diseases by the faculty it possesses of producing a similar disease of the skin. Nitrate of Potash, adminis- tered internally, in small doses, produces a frequent desire to pass water, accompanied with pain and heat. When this state of the urinary system exists as a consequence of disease, or the application of a blister, a very dilute solution of the same remedy has been found beneficial. The ordinary effects of Hyoscyamus-niger are, vertigo, delirium, stupefaction, and somnolency. Where one or other of these diseased states exists, it yields to small doses of the tincture of this plant. The internal use of Hyoscyamus is followed by mental aber- ration, the leading features of which are jealousy and irascibility When these hallucinations exist, this remedy is indicated. Opium, in general, causes drowsiness, torpor, and deep sleep, and yet this remedy, in small doses, removes these symptoms when they occur in disease. Sulphur is a specific against itch; notwithstanding which, when it is administered to healthy individuals, it frequently excites a pustular eruption, resembling itch in every particular. These observations corroborate the statements of our author as to the value and importance of homoeopathy ; and were not the limits of a preface too confined, I could bring forward the actual experi- ments from which these deductions have been drawn. On the subject of small doses of medicines, a few observations will suffice. A mixture composed of one drop of Hydrocyanic-acid and eight ounces of water, administered in a drachm dose, has produced ver- tigo and anxious breathing. • Vomiting has followed the use of the sixteenth of a grain of Tartar-emetic ; narcotism, the twentieth of a PREFACE TO THE FIRST BRITISH EDITION. 7 grain of Muriate of Morphia; and spirit of Ammonia, in doses of one drop, acts on the system as a stimulant. On the homoeopathic attenuation of medicines, many are skeptical, and presume that the quantity of the article extant in the dose, cannot produce a medicinal effect. I refer to the pages of the Or- ganon for an elucidation of this proposition, and will relate an ex- periment which may serve to explain the degree of dilution sub- stances are capable of. One grain of Nitrate of Silver, dissolved in 1560 grains of distilled water, to which were added two grains of Muriatic-acid, a grey precipitate of Chloride of Silver was evident in every part of the liquor. One grain of Iodine, dissolved in a drachm of alcohol, and mixed with the same quantity oftwater as in the pre- ceding experiment, to which were added two grains of starch, dis- solved in an ounce of water, caused an evident blue tint in the solution. In these experiments, the grain of the Nitrate of Silver and Iodine must have been divided into l5^6u of a grain. A few particulars connected with the discoverer and founder of the homoeopathic system of medicine cannot but prove interesting to the readers of this volume. Samuel Hahnemann was born in 1755, at Misnia, in Upper Saxony. He exhibited at an early age traits of a superior genius ; his school education being completed, he applied himself to the study of natural philosophy and natural history, and afterwards prosecuted the study of medicine at Leipsic and other universities. A most accurate observer, a skillful experimenter, and an indefatigable searcher after truth, he appeared formed by nature for the investigation and improvement of medical science. On com- mencing the study of medicine, he soon became disgusted with the mass of contradictory assertions and theories which then existed. He found everything in this department obscure, hypothetical, and vague, and resolved to abandon the medical profession. Having been previously engaged in the study of chemistry, he determined on translating into his native language the best English and French works on the subject. Whilst engaged in translating the Materia Medica of the illustrious Cullen, in 1790, in which the febrifuge virtues of Cinchona Bark are described, he became fired witn the desire of ascertaining its mode of action. Whilst in the enjoyment of the most robust health, he commenced the use of this substance, and in a short time was attacked with all the symptoms of inter- mittent fever, similar in every respect to those which that medicine is known to cure. Being struck with the identity of the two diseases, he immediately divined the great truth which has become the Foun dation of the new medical doctrine of homoeopathy. 8 PREFACE TO THE FIRST BRITISH EDITION. Not contented with one experiment, he tried the virtues of medi- cines on his own person, and on that of others. In his investigations he arrived at this conclusion : that the substance employed possessed an inherent power of exciting in healthy subjects the same symptoms which it is said to cure in the sick. He compared the assertions of ancient and modern physicians upon the properties of poisonous sub- stances with the result of his own experiments, and found them to coincide in every respect; and upon these deductions he brought forth his doctrine of homoeopathy. Taking this law for a guide, he recommenced the practice of medicine, with every prospect of his labors being ultimately crowned with success. In 1796 he published his first dissertation on homoeopathy in Hufeland's Journal. A treatise on the virtues of medicines appeared in 1805, and the Organon in 1810. Hahnemann commenced as a public medical teacher in Leipsic, in 1811, where, with his pupils, he zealously investigated the effects of medicines on the living body, which formed the basis of the Materia Medica Pura, which appeared during the same year Like many other discoverers in medicine, the author of the Organon has been persecuted with the utmost rigor; and in 1820 he quitted his native country in disgust. In retirement he was joined by several of his pupils, who formed them- selves into a society for the purpose of prosecuting the homoeopathic system of physic, and reporting their observations thereon. Several fasciculi detailing their labors have since been published. Of the doctrine of homoeopathy generally, I have little more to add in this place; time will develop the truth or fallacy of the principle on which it is founded ; but, in the meantime, let us not lose sight of the fact that this new system of physic is spreading throughout the continent of* Europe with the rapidity of lightning. Germany, Austria, Russia, and Poland have already done homage to the doctrine, and physicians have been appointed to make a specific trial of its effects, the results of which are unequivocally acknowledged to be of a favorable nature. The writings of the illustrious Hahnemann have appeared in five different languages, independent of the present version of his Organon ; and in France alone, a translation of this work, from the pen of A. J. L. Jourdan, member of the Academie Royale de Medecine, has reached a fourth edition. Convinced, from reflection and observation, of the value of homoeo- pathy, the first step in the propagation and dissemination of this doctrine, in Britain, was to obtain an English version of the Organon. SAMUEL STRATTEN. Dublin, June 14th, 1833. PREFACE TO THE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. First impressions commonly determine our judgment of books as well as men. If, on a first interview, a person be repulsive to us, and those who for years have had familiar intercourse with him, admit that we are excusable for first impressions, but nevertheless assure us that he is possessed of very valuable qualities, and that a nearer acquaintance with him may be useful to us,—when, in addi- tion, our informants give us a key to a more correct judgment, we are no longer justifiable in maintaining our original impressions. Still more would our opinions be influenced, if, before seeing the person, we were furnished in advance with a short and impartial representation of his character by one who knew him intimately. If this rule of judgment be applicable to persons, wherefore should it not apply to books ? The Organon contains much that is peculiar and* different from the views hitherto entertained by the prevailing school of medicine. Most readers of the medical profession, therefore, conceive prejudices against it, and fall into the vulgar error of rejecting the whole, merely because they do not justly regard it as a whole,—they reject the main propositions, because they are offended at the subordinate. The reader needs no elaborate introduction to the following work, and it is requisite, perhaps, only to apprise him of the different classes into which its several paragraphs may be divided; and this being done, we shall submit each separate class to his own judgment The entire contents of the Organon may be easily arranged under o 10 PREFACE TO THE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. the four following divisions, which, indeed, do not occur in the order in which they are here given, but they might easily have been desig- nated in accordance to it, by causing them to be severally printed in a different type. They consist: 1. Of discoveries—experimental propositions, or the results of actual experiment; 2. Of directions or instructions ; 3. Of theoretical and philosophical illustrations ; 4. Of defences and accusations. I.—OF DISCOVERIES. Among men of deliberate and acute reflection, no difference of opinion can exist relative to the truth of a discovery which rests upon the basis of actual experiment. When the author appeals to such experiments, they must be led to a repetition of them, and not oppose their own opinions to the dictates of experience ; in fine, they have no other way in forming a judgment than that of accurate and careful experiment. It.may be said that every charlatan, in extolling his nostrums, in like manner appeals to experience, and no one is required for that reason to investigate the merifs of his compounds; but it will not be denied that, although the person of the quack may deserve little for- bearance, yet the remedy with which he dupes the public may, in some cases, prove beneficial. The old school has received many remedies, Mercury among others, from the hands of the quack. But, in the Organon, experience is not referred to for the purpose of lauding any individual remedy, far more, it has relation to an entire method of cure. None but a vulgar dealer in calumny of the grosser sort would attempt to degrade Hahnemann to a level with the charlatan; because he promulgates his views and the peculiari- ties of his method as a learned physician, and in a manner that is sanctioned by custom, and fully recognized in the history of medi- cine. But his method, as we have already intimated, appeals to expe- rience. Not to mention the example of Brown, we need only refer PREFACE TO THE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. 11 to that of Broussais, and the reports received strikingly in favor of his doctrines, or even to the contra-stimulus of the Italians, which incessantly appeals to the same experience as the test of its value. It is, indeed, desirable that every learned physician—professors, hospital physicians, and others in prominent stations—should care- fully study, and, so far as the experiments are innocuous, prove his new method; nay, Hahnemann and bis adherents often and ardently desire that every physician would learn, investigate, and prove ho- moeopathy for himself. But homoeopathy is not only a new method, but much more. This method does not rest upon new views, like every other hitherto promulgated, but upon new discoveries, which appertain to the departments of natural philosophy, the natural sciences, physio- logy, and biology. The doctrine that every peculiar substance—every mineral, plant, animal, in fact every part of them, or every preparation derived from a preceding one, produces a series of peculiar effects upon the human organism, manifestly belongs to the natural sciences, and only so far to the materia medica as the latter calls these properties into re- quisition. But it is a science in itself—a science which treats of the effect of a diversity of substances upon the human frame. Whether such a science, in point of fact, be capable of formation, and whether it have any value, can be determined only by experiment. It were equally foolish to deny this without trial, as it was formerly to deny without exploring, the way which Columbus opened to the West. It would be inexcusable, in the present condition of the materia medica —confessedly imperfect, and deficient in all the attributes of a science, to despise this new way of Hahnemann, before knowing, by careful experiment, that it conducts to nothing better. The doctrine of the preparation of the remedies into the so-called dilutions, belongs to natural philosophy, in common with the doc- trines of magnetism, electricity, and galvanism. Nor is it more a subject of wonder than the latter, except that these sooner came i 12 PREFACE TO THE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. under investigation by the natural philosopher. The repetition ol the new electrp-magnetic experiments requires great accuracy; those concerning the operation of minute doses require just as much, nay, even more. To deny the results of the electro-magnetic ex- periment's, previous to repeating them, were ridiculous, and it is equally so to deny the results of these. But no hasty, superficial, partial, or wholly perverted experiments must be instituted. The doctrine that such dilutions or potences are capable of curing diseases according to the law, "similia similibus," is a pro- position which belongs to biology, and there finds its confirmation; it likewise can only be investigated by experiment, and cannot be estimated without it. The cautious investigator will not pass judgment upon all these discoveries, until he shall have performed a series of rigorous experiments. Then only will he be prepared either to reject or accept the method founded thereon, or, at least, learn the useful part of it. II.—DIRECTIONS. These appertain to the method of cure, are derived from the long-continued application of the law previously referred to, and acquire their principal value from its truth. No one can judge of them but he who has tested the truth of the experimental pro- positions, and, in doing so, adhered to these directions. By this means only can he become convinced of their great value, which is entirely lost on those who deny the discoveries. We enumerate under this head, directions for the examination of the sick, for the preparation of the medicines, for trying them on the healthy subject, for the selection of the remedies, dietetics, and directions for the psychical treatment. III.—ILLUSTRATIONS. Hahnemann has appended certain theories to the laws of nature discovered by him, by which these laws are illustrated and brough' i PREFACE TO THE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. 13 into unison with other laws already acknowledged, or with other theories received as true. This has never been reckoned a subject of reproach to any discoverer. Man will and must seek to illustrate the phenomena which he observes, and bring individual parts into coaptation—the new into harmony with that previously known. In this endeavor, not only is he liable to err, but actually does err in the great majority of cases ; accordingly, few hypotheses and at- tempts at explanation have endured long, and it is a fact of daily acknowledgment that one hypothesis gives place to another 'in all sciences. Columbus himself entertained numerous conjectures which time has verified or overthrown. Whether the theories of Hahne- mann are destined to endure a longer or a shorter space, whether they be the best or not, time only can determine; be it as it may, however, it is a matter of minor importance. For myself, I am generally considered as a disciple and adherent of Hahnemann, and I do indeed declare that I am one among the most enthu- siastic in doing homage to his greatness; but, nevertheless, I declare also that, since my first acquaintance with homoeopathy (in the year 1821), down to the present day, I have never yet accepted a single theory in the Organon as it is there promulgated. I feel no aversion to acknowledge this, even to the venerable sage himself. It is the genuine Hahnemannean spirit totally to dis- regard all theories, even those of one's own fabrication, when they are in opposition to the results of pure experience. All theories and hypotheses have no positive weight whatever, only so far as they lead to new experiments, and afford a better survey of the results of those already made. Whoever, therefore, will assail the theories of Hahnemann, or even altogether reject them, is at perfect liberty to do so; but let him not imagine that he has hereby accomplished a memorable achievement. In every respect, it is an affair of little import- ance. 14 PREFACE TO THE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. IV.—DEFENCES. Opinions upon this head are also things of secondary considera tion, inasmuch as the entire polemical matter is of subordinate estimation in forming a judgment concerning new discoveries. Had Hahnemann the right to defend himself as he has done, and thereby promote the progress of his doctrine, or had he not ? We cannot judge concerning it, but justly commit the decision of the question to future history. The entire polemical part may be stricken out, without in the slightest degree changing the principal matters, or without having any influence either to ratify or invalidate the doctrine itself. Is there a physician who feels that individual expressions will apply to him, let him take heed to the truth; but if they do not reach him, then is he unaffected by them. He who is offended at the polemical part, let him reflect that it is the first step towards an unjust estimate of the rest. A just judgment is all that we wish from every reader of the Organon, and to contribute something to this end was the design of these preliminary remarks. CONSTANTINE HERING. PREFACE TO THE FIFTH BRITISH EDITION. In order to give a general notion of the treatment of diseases pursued by the old school of medicine (allopathy), I may observe that it presupposes the existence, sometimes, of excess of blood (plethora—which is never present), sometimes of morbid matters and acridities; hence, it taps off the life's blood, and exerts itself either to clear away the imaginary morbid matter, or to conduct it elsewhere (by emetics, purgatives, sialagogues, diaphoretics, diuretics, drawing plasters, setons, issues, &c), in the vain be- lief that the disease will thereby be weakened and substantially eradicated, in place of which, the patient's sufferings are thereby increased, and by such and other painful appliances the forces and nutritious juices, indispensable to the curative process, are abstracted from the organism. It assails the body with large doses of powerful medicines, often repeated in rapid succession for a long time, whose long-enduring, not unfrequently frightful effects it knows not, and which it, purposely, it would almost seem, makes unrecognizable by the commingling of several such unknown substances in one prescription, and, by their long-con- tinued employment, it develops in the body new and often ine- radicable medicinal diseases. Whenever it can, too, it employs, in order to keep in favor with its patient,* remedies that imme- diately suppress and hide the morbid symptoms by opposition (contraria contrariis), for a short time (palliative treatment), but * For the same object, the practiced allopath delights to invent a fixed name, by preference a Greek one, for the malady, in order to make the patient believe that he has long known thie disease like an old acquaintance, and bence is the fittest person to cure it. 15 16 PREFACE TO THE FIFTH BRITISH EDITION. that leave the disposition to these symptoms (the disease itself) strengthened and aggravated. It considers the affection on the exterior of the body as purely local, and existing there indepen- dently, and vainly supposes that it has cured it when it has driven it away by means of external remedies, so that the inter- nal affection is thereby compelled to break out on a nobler and more important part. When it knows not what else to try with the disease, which will not yield or which grows worse, the old school of medicine undertakes to change it at random, by means of an alterative—for example, by the life-undermining Calomel, Corrosive Sublimate, and other mercurial preparations in large doses. To render (through ignorance), if not fatal, at all events incu- rable, the vast majority (ninety-nine hundredths) of all diseases— those of a chronic character—by continually weakening and tor- menting tbe debilitated patient, already suffering without that from his disease, and by adding new destructive drug diseases, this distinctly seems to be the unhallowed main business of the old school of medicine (allopathy)—and a very easy business it is, when once one has become familiar with this pernicious prac- tice, and is sufficiently insensible to the stings of conscience! And yet, for all these mischievous operations, the ordinary phy- sician of the old school can assign his reasons, which, however, rest only on the foregone conclusions of his books and teachers, and on the authority of this or that distinguished physician of the old school. Even the most opposite and the most senseless modes of treatment find their defence, their authority—let their injurious effects speak ever so loudly against them. "It is under the old physician, who has been at last gradually convinced of the mischievous nature of his so-called art, after many years of misdeeds, and who only continues to treat the severest diseases with strawberry syrup, mixed with plantain water (i. e., with nothing), that the smallest number are injured and die. This non-healing art, which, for many centuries, has been in full possession of the power to dispose of the life and death of patients according to its own good will and pleasure, and in that period has shortened the lives of ten times as many human beings PREFACE TO THE FIFTH BRITISH EDITION. 17 as the most destructive wars, and rendered many millions of pa- tients more diseased and wretched than they were originally,— this allopathy I shall first expose somewhat more minutely, before teaching in detail its exact opposite—the newly-discovered, true healing art. With regard to the latter (homoeopathy), it is quite otherwise. It can easily convince every reflecting person that the diseases of man depend on no substance, no acridity—that is, no material principle of disease, but that they are solely spiritual (dynamic) derangements of the spiritual power that animates the human body (the vital force). Homoeopathy knows that a cure can only take place by the re-action of the vital force against the rightly-chosen remedy that has been administered, and that the cure will be certain and rapid in proportion to the strength with which the vital force still prevails in the patient. Hence, homoeopathy avoids everything in the slightest degree enfeebling* and as much as possible every excitation of pain, for pain also diminishes the strength, and hence it employs for the cure only those medi- cines whose effects in altering and deranging (dynamically) the health it knows accurately, and from these it selects one whose health-altering power (its medicinal disease) is capable of re- moving the natural disease in question by similarity (similia simi- libus), and this it administers to the patient simply and alone, but in rare and minute doses (so small that, without occasioning pain or weakening, they just suffice to remove the natural malady by means of the re-acting energy of the vital force), with this result, that, without weakening, injuring, or torturing him in the very least, the natural disease is extinguished, and the patient, even whilst his cure is going on, gains in strength, and thus is cured__an apparently easy, but actually troublesome and difficult * Homoeopathy sheds not a drop of blood, administers no emetics, purga- tives, laxatives, or diaphoretics, drives off no external affection by internal means, prescribes no warm baths nor medicated clysters, applies no Spanish flies nor mustard plasters, no setons, no issues, creates no ptyalism, burns not with moxa nor red hot iron to the very bone, and the like; but gives with its own hand its own preparations of simple, uncompounded medicines, which it is accurately acquainted with, never subdues pain by Opium, from thence conclusions relative to the invisible manner in which INTRODUCTION. 27 the changes are brought about in the interior of man, when in a diseased state, they succeeded in forming an obscure and imagi- nary picture, which theoretic medicine regarded as the prima causa morbi,* which afterwards became the proximate cause, and, at the same time, the itnmediate essence of the disease, and even the disease itself'/ although common sense tells us that the cause of anything can never be, at the same time, both the cause and the thing itself. How was it then possible, without deceiving themselves, to pretend to cure this yet undiscovered internal cause, or venture to prescribe for it medicines whose curative tendency was equally, for the most part, unknown to them, and more especially to mix up several of those unknown substances in what are termed prescriptions ? However, the sublime project of discovering, a priori, some internal invisible cause of disease, resolved itself (at least with the more astute physicians of the old school) into a search, guided onward by the symptoms, as to what might be held to be the generic character of the existing malady.f They endeavored * It would have been much more consonant with the good sense of man- kind, and with the nature of the case, had they, in order to cure, attempted to discover, as the causa morbi, the originating cause of the disease itself, and had applied a method of treatment which they had found available for diseases springing from that originating cause, and for others of a like origin. For example, the same hydrargyrum is properly applied to every ulcer on the glans-penis, after an impure coition, as hitherto with every venereal chancre—if they, I say, had discovered the originating cause of every other chronic (non-venereal) disease, either from a recent or a former in- fection in a psoric miasm; if for all these they had found a common method of cure, with a therapeutic reference to each particular case, by which the whole and each separate chronic case could have been healed; then might they with justice have gained renown, that in the treatment of chronic diseases they were familiar with the only useful and successful causa morborum chronicorum (non venercorum), and, adopting it as a basis, were capable of treating such cases with the best results. But they were incapable of curing the numberless chronic diseases in ages past, as their psoric origin was unknown to them (a discovery which the world owes to homoeopathy, as well as for an effectual method of treatment which it has provided), and notwithstanding their vaunting that they alone had the primam causam in view in their proceeding; after all their boasted science, they had not the remotest suspicion of their psoric origin, and consequently they bungled the treatment of every chronic disease. f Every physician adopting a treatment of such general character, how- ever unblushingly ho may affect to be a homccopathist, is, and will always 28 INTRODUCTION. to find out whether it was spasm, debility, paralysis, fever or in- flammation, induration or obstruction, in some one of the parts; excess of blood (plethora), excess or deficiency of oxygen, car- bon, hydrogen, or nitrogen in the fluids; exaltation or depression of vitality in the arterial, venous, or capillary system; a defect in the relative proportion of the factors of sensibility, irritability, or nutrition. These conjectures, honored by the existing school with the name of causal indication, and regarded by thein as the only rational part of medicine, were too hypothetical and fal- lacious to be of any permanent utility in practice, and incapable (even if they had any just foundation) of indicating the most ap- propriate remedy in any particular case of disease. It is true, they were flattering to the vanity of the learned inventor, but acting on them only led him further astray, and showed that there was more of ostentation in the pursuit than any reasonable hope of being able to profit by it, or arrive at the real curative indica- tion. How often has it occurred that spasm or paralysis appeared to be in one part of the system, while inflammation seemed to be present in another! On the other hand, where should Ave be able to procure certain remedies against each of these pretended general characters of diseases ? There could be none, save those which are termed specifics—that is to say, medicines whose action is analogous to the morbid irritation (now called homoeopathic), and whose application has been denounced and prohibited by the old school of medicine, as highly dangerous," because experience proved that the use of them in such powerful doses as had been usually administered was pernicious in maladies where the apti- tude to undergo homogeneous irritation existed to a great extent. The old school never once thought of administering those medi- remain a generalizing allopathist, as, without the niodt minute individualiza tion, homoeopathy is not conceivable. * " In cases where experience had revealed the homoeopathic efficacy of medicines, whose mode of operation, however, was inexplicable, the physi- cians made use of them, and relieved themselves from all further embar- rassment by declaring them to be specific. Thus, by an unmeaning name that was applied to them, all necessity for further reflection was superseded. But homogeneous excitant remedies—that is to say, specifics or homoeopa- thies—had, for a long time previously, been forbidden, as excercising an extremely dangerous influence."—Rau, Ucber das homaopath. Heilverfahren, Heidelberg, 1824, p. 101, 102. INTRODUCTION. £0 cities in very small or extremely minute doses. Accordingly, no attempt Avas made to cure in the direct and most natural way, by using homogeneous and specific medicines, nor Avas it possible to cio so, because the fullest extent of their effects Avas unknoAvn, and in that state remained; and, had it been othenvise, it Avould have been impossible to hit on the right medicine, Avith such gene- ralizing vieAvs as Avere entertained. However, perceiving that it Avas more consistent Avith reason to pursue a straightforward path than attempt a circuitous one, the old school of medicine still imagined they could arrest dis- c-use by a removal of the supposed morbid material cause. In the theoretic researches after the image which they Avere to form to themselves of the disease, as Avell as in their pursuit of the i.urative indication, it Avas almost impossible for them to divest themselves of this idea of materiality, or be induced to consider the nature, not only of material, but spiritual organism, as being so potent in itself that the changes in its sensations and vital movements (Avhich are called diseases) are principally, and al- most solely the result of dynamic influence, and could not be produced by any other cause. The old school regarded all the solids and fluids which had become changed by disease (those abnormal substances, turges- cent or secreted,) as the exciting cause of the disorder; or, at least, on account of their supposed reaction, they Avere considered to be the cause Avhich kept up disease, and this latter opinion is adhered to, even at the present day. This theory first inspired them Avith the idea of accomplishing causal cures, by using every means in their poAver to expel from the body that imaginary and supposed material cause of disease. Hence arises the continual practice of evacuating bile, in cases of bilious fever,* by emetics,—the system of prescribing vomits in the so-named foul stomach,f—the diligence in purging away * The Court Physician, Rau {loc. cit., p. 176), at a time when not perfectly .•n.iversant with homoeopathy, but firmly convinced of the dynamic origin of these fevers, was in the habit of curing them without any evacuating medicines whatever, merely by one or two small doses of homoeopathic medicines. In his work, he relates two very remarkable instances of cure. f In a case of sudden derangement of the stomach, with frequent nau- seous eructations, as of undigested food (sulphuretted hydrogen), accom- panied with depression of mind, cold feet, hands, &c, physicians, till the 30 INTRODUCTION. mucus and intestinal worms, where there are paleness of the present time, were in the habit of attacking only the degenerated contents of the stomach. A powerful emetic must fetch it out entirely. This object was usually effected by the use of Tartrate of Antimony, with or without a mixture of Ipecacuanha. But, did the patient recover his health as soon as he had vomited? No ! these gastric affections of dynamic origin are com- monly produced by a disturbed state of mind (grief, fright, anger), cold. exertion of the mind or body immediately after eating, and sometimes even after a moderate meal. Neither the Tartrate of Antimony nor the Ipecacu- anha are suitable for removing this dynamic aberration, and the revolution- ary vomiting which they excite is equally unserviceable. Besides provoking a manifestation of the symptoms of disease, they strike one blow more at the health of the patient, and the secretion of bile becomes deranged; so that, if the patient did not happen to be of a robust constitution before, he must feel greatly indisposed for several days after the pretended causal cure. notwithstanding the violent expulsion of the entire contents of the stomach. But if, instead of those powerful and always hurtful evacuating medicines, the patient should only smell once at a globule of sugar, the size of a mus- tard seed, impregnated with the thirtieth dilution of Pulsatilla, which infal- libly restores the order and harmony of the whole system, and that of the stomach in particular, then he is cured in the space of two hours. If any eructations still take place, they are nothing more than air, without taste or smell: the contents of the stomach are no longer vitiated, and. at the next meal, the patient recovers his accustomed appetite, his health, and his air cfi repose. This is what ought to be denominated " real cure,*' because it has destroyed the cause. The other is an imaginary one, and only fatigues and does injury to the patient. Even a stomach overloaded with indigestible food never requires a medi- cinal emetic. In such a case, nature knows full well how to disencumber herself of the excess, by the spontaneous vomitings which she excites, and which may at all times be aided by mechanical provocation, such as tickling the fauces. By this means we avoid the accessory effects resulting from the operation of emetics, and a little coffee (without milk) afterwards suffices to hasten the passage of any matters into the intestines which the stomach may still contain. But if, after excessive overloading, the stomach does not possess, or has lost the irritability necessary to produce spontaneous vomiting; and the patient, tormented by acute pain of the epigastrium, does not experience the slightest desire to vomit, in such a state an emetic would only cause a dangerous or fatal inflammation of the intestines; whereas, slight and re- peated doses of a strong infusion of coffee would reanimate the depressed irritability of the stomach, and put it in a condition to evacuate of itself, cither upwards or downwards, the substances contained in its interior, how- ever considerable the quantity may have been. Here, again, the treatment which ordinary physicians pretend to direet against the cause, is out of place. It is the custom, at the present day, when gastric acid becomes super- INTRODUCTION. CI countenance, ravenous appetite, pains in the stomach, or enlarged abdomen in children,"—the venesections in cases of haemor- rhage,! and more especially bleeding of all kinds,:): as their main abundant (which is frequently the case in chronic diseases), to administer an emetic to relieve the stomach of its presence. But, the following morning, or a few days after, the stomach contains just the same quantity, if not more. On the other hand, the pains cease' of themselves when their dynamic cause is attacked by an extremely small dose of dilute Sulphuric-acid, or with another antipsoric remedy, homoeopathic with the various symptoms. It is thus that, in the plans of treatment which the old school say are directed against the morbific cause, the favorite object is to expel, with trouble, and to the great detriment of the patient, the material product of the dynamic disorder, without exerting themselves in the least to find out the dynamic source of the evil, in order to vanquish it homoeopathically, as well as to annihilate everything that might emanate from it, and thus treat the disease in a rational manner. * Symptoms that depend solely upon a psoric diathesis, and which easily yield to (dynamic) mild antipsoric remedies, without either emetics or pur- gatives. f Though most morbid haemorrhages depend solely on a dynamic change of the vital powers, still the old school assign a superabundance of blood as their cause, and never fail to prescribe bleeding, in order to relieve the body of this supposed excess of the vital fluid. The disastrous consequences which frequently result from this mode of treatment, such as prostration of the powers, tendency to, and even typhoid state itself, they ascribe to the malignity of the disease, which they are then often unable to overcome: in short, though the patient may fall a sacrifice, they, nevertheless, consider that they have acted in conformity to the adage, causam tolle; that is, according to their common remark, " We have done everything that could possibly be done—let the result be what it may!!" % Though the living human body may, perhaps, never have contained one drop of blood too much, still the old school practitioners regard a supposed plethora, or superabundance of blood, as the principal material cause of haemorrhages and inflammations, and which ought to be attacked by bleed- ing, cupping, and leeches. This they call a treatment of the cause, and a rational mode of proceeding. In general inflammatory fevers, as well as in acute pleurisy, they even go so far as to regard the coagulable lymph that exists in the blood (and which they call the huffy coat) as the peccant mat- ter, which they do their best to evacuate by repeated bleedings, although it often occurs that this crust becomes thicker and tougher in appearance at every fresh emission of blood. In this manner, when inflammatory fever cannot be subdued, they often bleed the patient till he is near death, in order to remove this buffy coat, or the pretended plethora, without ever suspecting that the inflamed blood is nothing more than the product of the acute fever, the inflammatory immaterial (dynamic) irritation; and that this latter, the sole cause of the disturbance that has taken place in the vascular system, 02 INTRODUCTION. remedy in inflammatory cases, and, in imitation of a blocd-thir:-ty physician of Paris, the application to the parts affected of a fre- quently fatal number of leeches. By this mode of proceeding may be arrested by a homoeopathic remedy; such, for example, as a globule of sugar impregnated with the juice of Aconite of the decillionth degree (if dilution, avoiding the vegetable acids; so that the most violent pleuritic fever, with all its attendant alarming symptoms, is cured in the space of twenty-four hours at farthest, without loss of blood, or any antiphlogistic remedy what- ever (if a little blood, by way of experiment, be now taken from the vein, it will no longer exhibit any traces of inflammatory crust); whereas, another patient, similar in every respect, and treated according to the pretended ra- tional mode of the old school, if he escape death after numerous bleedings and unspeakable suffering, often languishes entire months, reduced and ex- hausted, before he can stand upright, if he is not taken off in the interval (as is frequently the case) by a typhus fever, a leucophlegmat y. or a pulmo- nary consumption, the common result of this mode of treatment. He who feels the steady pulse of a patient an hour before the shivering comes on, which always precedes acute pleurisy, will be much surprised when, two hours after (the fever having set in), they try to persuade him that the A'iolent plethora which then exists makes repeated bleeding neces- sary; and he asks himself by what miracle could those pounds of blood, which are now to be taken away, and which he had, two hours before, felt beating with a tranquil movement, have effected an entrance into the arte- ries of the patient? There could not be an ounce of blood more in his veins than he possessed two hours before, when he was in good health. Thus, Avhen the allopathic physician prescribes venesection, it is not at all super- fluous blood that he draws from the patient attacked with acute fever, be- cause this liquid could not possibly exist in too great quantity ; but he de- prives him of a portion of the normal blood necessary to his existence, and to the reestablishment of health;—a grievous loss, which it is no longer in his power to repair, and he thinks, notwithstanding, to have acted according to the axiom, tolle causam, to which he gives so wrong an interpret;!tion, whilst the sole and true cause of the malady was, not a superabundance of blood, which could never exist, but a dynamic inflammatory irritation of the vascular system, as is proved by the permanent and speedy cure which may be effected, in similar cases, by administering one or two incredibly minute doses of the juice of Aconite, which is homoeopathic with this irritation. The old school err not less in recommending partial bleedings, and still more so in the application of leeches in great numbers, when treating local inflam- mation after the manner of Broussais. The palliative relief which they afford, at first, is not crowned by a rapid or perfect cure ; the weakness and valetudinarian state, to which the parts that have been thus treated remain a prey, and sometimes even the whole body, sufficiently prove how erro- neous it is to attribute local inflammation to local plethora; and how deceitful are the consequences of such bleedings when this inflammatory irritation, apparently local, can be destroyed, in a prompt and permanent manner, by INTRODUCTION 33 they think they pursue the causal indication, and treat the pa- tient in a rational manner. They likewise suppose that, by re- moving a polypus by ligature, extirpating a tumefied gland, or destroying the same by suppuration produced by local irritation, by removing Avith the knife the insulated cyst of a steatomatous or meliceretous tumor, operating for aneurism, fistula-lachryma- lis, or fistula in ano, amputating a cancerous breast, or a limb where the bone had become carious, &c, &c, to have cured the maladies in a radical manner, and destroyed their cause. They imagine the same thing Avhen they make use of their repellent remedies, and dry up old ulcers on the legs by astringents, oxides of lead, copper, and zinc, accompanied, it is true, with purgatives, which only Aveaken, without diminishing the fundamental evil; when they cauterize chancres, destroy condylomata locally, drive off itch from the skin Avith Sulphur, Lead, Mercurial or Oxide of Zinc ointment; and, finally, Avhen they cure ophthalmia Avith solutions of Lead or Zinc, and drive away pain from the limbs by fche use of Opodeldoc, volatile linament, or fumigations of Cin- nabar and Amber. In all such cases they think they have annihilated the evil, triumphed over the disease, and performed a rational treatment directed against the cause. But mark what follows ! Ncav forms of diseases, which infallibly manifest them- selves sooner or later, and which, Avhen they appear, are taken for fresh maladies, being always worse than the primitive affection, evidently refute the theories of the old school. These ought to undeceive them, and prove that the evil has an im- material cause, the deeper concealed because its origin is dy- namic, and which can only be removed by dynamic means. A hypothesis Avhich the schools of medicine generally enter- tained until a recent date (and, I might even say, until the present time), is that of morbid or peccant matter in diseases, however subtile that matter may be supposed to be. The blood and lymphatic vessels were to be disencumbered of this matter by the exhalants, the skin, the kidneys, and the salivary glands; the chest Avas to be freed from it by the trachial and bronchial glands; the stomach and the intestinal canal by vomiting and alvine dejections—in order that the body might be freed from the a small dose of Aconite, or, according to circumstances, of Belladonna, a mode by which the malady is speedily and effectively cured, without having recourse to bleedings, which nothing can justify. 3 34 INTRODUCTION. material cause which excited the disease, and that they had accomplished a radical cure according to the principle—tolle causam ! By incisions made in the diseased hody, in which, for years together, foreign substances were inserted, producing tedious ulcers (issues and setons), they sought to draAv oft' the materia peccans from the (purely dynamically) diseased body, as dregs escape by a faucet from a filthy cask. By perpetual blisters (Cantharides and Mezereum), they thought to abstract this pec- cant matter, and thus thoroughly purify the system. By such inconsiderate and unnatural treatment, the exhausted patient is commonly brought into a condition totally incurable. I grant it Avas more convenient for human incapacity to sup- pose that, in the maladies which presented themselves for cure, there existed some morbific material, of which the mind might form a conception, especially as the patients willingly lent them- selves to a hypothesis of this kind. By admitting this, they had nothing further to do than to administer a sufficient quantity of medicines capable of purifying the blood and the fluids, of exciting urine and perspiration, promoting expectoration, and scouring out the stomach and intestines. This is the reason that all the authors on materia medica, who have appeared since Dioscorides up to the present day, say nothing of the peculiar and special action of individual medicines, but content themselves, after enumerating their supposed virtues in any particular case of disease, with saying, whether they promote the secretion of urine, perspiration, expectoration, or the menstrual flow, and, more particularly, if they have the effect of emptying the ali- mentary canal upwards or downwards; because, the principal tendency of the efforts of practitioners has, at all times, been the expulsion of a morbid material principle, and of a quantity of acrid matter, which they imagined to be the cause of the disease. These, however, Avere vague dreams, gratuitous suppositions, hypotheses destitute of foundation, cunningly devised for the con- venience of therapeutic medicine, as it was expected the easiest way of performing a cure Avould he to remove the material mor- bific matters. (Si modo essent /) But the essence of diseases, and their cure, Avill not bend to our fancies and convenience; diseases will not, out of deference to our stupidity, cease to be dynamic aberrations, which our INTRODUCTION. 35 spiritual existence undergoes in its mode of feeling and act- ing,—that is to say, immaterial changes in the state of health. The causes of disease cannot possibly be material, since the least foreign substance* introduced into the blood-vessels, how- ever mild it may appear to us, is suddenly repulsed by the vital power as a poison; or, where this does not take place, death itself ensues. Even Avhen the smallest foreign particle chances to in- sinuate itself into any of the sensitive parts, the principle of life, Avhich is spread throughout our interior, does not rest until it has procured the expulsion of this body by pain, fever, sup- puration, or gangrene. And, in a skin-disease of twenty years' standing, could this vital principle, whose activity is indefatigable, suffer patiently, during tAventy years, an exanthematic material principle (the poison of tetter, scrofula, or gout) to exist in the fluids? "What nosologist has ever seen one of those morbid principles of Avhich he speaks with so much confidence, and upon Avhich he presumes to found a plan of medical treatment? Who has ever been able to exhibit to the vieAV the principle of gout, or the virus of scrofula? Even Avhen a material substance, applied to the skin, or intro- duced into a Avound, has propagated disease by infection, who can prove (what has so often been affirmed in our pathogeny) that the slightest particle of this material substance penetrates into our liquids or becomes absorbed ? f It is in vain to Avash the genitals Avith care and promptitude; such precaution will not protect the system from the venereal virus. The aast breath of air, emanating from a person affected with small-pox, is sufficient to produce that formidable disease in a healthy child. How much of this material principle—what quantity in weight- would be requisite for the liquids to imbibe in order to produce, * Life was suddenly endangered by injecting a little pure water into a vein.—-See Mullen, in Birch, History of the Royal Society, vol. iv. Atmospheric air introduced into the veins has occasioned death—See /. H. Voigt, Magazin filr den neuesten Zustand der Naturkunde, vol. i, iii., p. 25. Even the mildest liquids, introduced into the veins, have placed life in danger.—See Autenrieth, Physiologie, ii., $ 784. f A young girl, of Glasgow, eight years of age, having been bitten by a mad dog, the surgeon immediately cut out the part, which, nevertheless, did not save the child from an attack of hydrophobia thirty-six days after, of which she died at the end of two days.—Med. Comment, of Edinb., Dec. 2, vol. ii, 1793. 36 INTRODCCTION. in the first instance, syphilis, which will continue during the whole term of life? and, in the second, the small-pox, which often rapidly destroys life amidst a suppuration* almost general? Is it possible, in these two cases, or in others which are analo- gous, to admit that a morbific principle, in a material form, could have introduced itself into the blood ? It has often happened that a letter, written in the chamber of a patient, has communi- cated the same contagious disease to the person who read it. Can we entertain the opinion that anything material entered into the humors in this instance ? But why all these proofs ? How often have we seen that an offensive or vexatious word has brought on a bilious fever Avhich endangered life; a superstitious prophecy of death actually occasion death at the very epoch predicted; afflicting news, or an agreeable surprise, suddenly suspend the vital poAvers! Where is there, in any of these cases, the niorbific material principle which entered, in substance, into the body, which produced disease and kept it up, and, without the expul- sion or destruction of which, by medicines, all radical cure Avould be impossible ? The supporters of a hypothesis so gross as that of morbific principles, ought to blush that they have so thoughtlessly over- * In order to account for the great quantity of putrid fcecal matter, and fetid ichorous discharge, often met Avith in diseases, and to represent these substances as the cause that calls forth, and keeps up, the morbid state, al- though, at the moment of infection, nothing material had been seen to enter into the body, they had recourse to another hypothesis, which admitted that certain very minute contagious principles act upon the body as a fer- ment, bringing the humors into the same degree of corruption with them- selves, and converting them, in this manner, into a similar ferment, which keeps up the disease. But, by what purifying decoctions do they expect to free the body from a ferment that is constantly renewed, and expel it so completely from the mass of fluids that not a single particle may remain, which, according to the admitted hypothesis, if any did remain, would infal- libly corrupt the humors afresh, and reproduce, as at first, new morbific principles ? Thus, according to the manner of the old school, it would be impossible ever to cure these diseases. Here we see to what absurd conclu- sions the most artful hypothesis will lead, if founded in error. The most firmly rooted syphilis, when the psoric affection with which it is often com- plicated has been removed, may be cured by one or two small doses of a solution of Mercury, diluted to the decillionth potency, whereby the general syphilitic corruption of the humors is (dynamically) corrected in a perma- nent and constitutional manner. INTRODCCTION. 37 looked and disregarded the spiritual nature of our life, and the spiritual dynamic poAver of morbific agents, and have thus reduced themselves to mere scouring physicians, who, instead of curing, destroy life, by their attempts to drive out of the body peccant matters which never had an existence there. Are, then, the excretions occurring in diseases, and Avhich are often so disgusting, the actual material Avhich produce the malady, and which kept it up ?* Are they not rather the product of the disease itself f that is to say, of the pure dynamic derange- ment which the constitution has undergone ? With such erroneous ideas of the material origin and essence of disease, it is by no means surprising that, in all ages, the obscure as well as the distinguished practitioner, together with the inventors of the most sublime theories, should have, for their principal aim, the separation and expulsion of a supposed morbid material, and that the indication most frequently estab- lished, was that of dividing this material, rendering it movable, and expelling it by the saliva, the bronchial mucus, the urine, and perspiration; purifying the blood by the action of herbal decoctions (which are supposed to effect this process at the com- mand of the physician), thus unloading it of acrid matter and impurities Avhich it never contained/ draAving off the imaginary principle of the disease mechanically, by means of setons, cau- teries, permanent blisters; and, above all, by the expulsion of the peccant matter, as they termed it, through the intestinal canal, by laxatives and purgatives; and, to add to their importance, they were dignified by the high-sounding titles of aperients and dissolvents. All of these were so many attempts to remove a hostile material principle which never did and never could have existed. Noav, if we admit that—which is an established fact—namely, that with the exception of those diseases brought on by the in- troduction of indigestible or hurtful substances into the alimentary canal and other organs,—those produced by foreign bodies pene- trating the skin, &c,—there does not exist a single disease that can have a material principle for its cause. On the contrary, all of them are solely and always the special result of an actual and * If this were true, it would be sufficient to blow the nose, and wipe it clean, to effect a speedy and infallible cure of all species of coryza, even the most inveterate. 38 INTRODUCTION. dynamic derangement in the state health; how contradictory, then, must that method of treatment, which depends upon the expulsion* of this imaginary principle, appear to every rea- * There is, apparently, some necessity for the expulsion of worms in the so-called worm-disease. But even this appearance is false. A few lumbrici are found in some children, and ascarides in a greater number. But the greater part of either one or the other is owing to a general affection (psoric) connected Avith an unhealthy mode of living. If the regimen be ameliorated, and the psoric affection homoeopathically cured, which is easier to be per- formed at this age than at any other period of life, there will remain but few or no worms at all, or, at least, the children are no longer incommoded by them; whereas, on the other hand, they promptly appear again, in great numbers, after the administration of mere purgatives, even combined with worm-seed. " But the tape-worm, this monster, created for the torment of human nature, must certainly be driven out with all manner of force." Yes, at times, he will be driven out, but beneath what sufferings and danger! I should not like to have upon my conscience the deaths of all those who have fallen sacrifices to the violence of purgatives directed against this worm, or the long years of debility which they, who escaped death, must have dragged out. And how often does it occur that, after having repeated these purga- tives, so destructive to life and health, during several years successively, the animal is either not driven out at all, or is reproduced! What if there be no necessity at all for seeking to expel and destroy the taenia by means so violent and cruel, and which place the life of the patient in such imminent danger! The different species of taenia are only found in patients laboring under a psoric affection; and when the latter is cured, they instantly disap- pear. Until the cure is accomplished, they live, without being a source of great inconvenience to the patient, not exactly in the intestines, but amid the residue of the aliments, where they exist without doing injury, and find what they require for their nourishment. As long as this state of things con- tinues, they do not touch the coats of the intestines, or do any harm to the body that contains them; but the first moment that an acute disease attacks the patient, the contents of the intestines become insupportable to the ani- mal, which turns itself about and irritates the sensitive part of the entrails, exciting a species of spasmodic colic, which adds greatly to the sufferings of the invalid. (In the same manner, the foetus in the womb becomes restless, turns and pushes, while the mother is sick, but floats quietly in the amniotic fluid, without inconvenience to her, when she is well.) It may be observed here, that the symptoms which manifest themselves at this epoch, with per- sons who have the solitary worm within them, are of such a nature, that often the smallest dose of tincture of Male-fern root (filex mas.) speedily effects their eradication in a homoeopathic manner, because it puts an end to that part of the malady occasioned by the disturbed state of the animal: the tape-worm, finding itself once more at ease, continues to exist upon the intestinal substances, without incommoding the patient in any very painful degree, until the anti-psoric cure is so far advanced that the worm no longer INTRODUCTION. 89 sonable man, since no good can result from it in treating the principal diseases of mankind, viz., the chronic, but, on the con- trary, much mischief. No one will deny that the degenerate and impure substances which appear in diseases are anything else than the mere pro- duct of disease itself, which the system can get rid of, in a forcible manner—frequently too forcible—without the aid of evacuating medicines, and that they are reproduced so long as the disease continues. These substances often appear, to the true physician, in the shape of morbid symptoms, and aid him in discovering the nature and image of the disease, which he afterwards avails himself of in performing a cure by means of homoeopathic agents. But the most skillful among the present followers of the old school of medicine do not wish it to be known that the chief aim of their mode of treatment is the expulsion of material morbid principles. To the numerous evacuants which they em- ploy, they apply the name of derivatives, and, in so doing, pretend that they do nothing more than folloAV the example of nature^s efforts to assist the diseased organism, which, in her efforts to reestablish health, distinguishes fever by SAveats and urine; pleurisy by bleedings at the nose, perspiration, and mucous ex- pectoration; other diseases by vomiting, diarrhoea, and haemor- rhoidal flux; articular pains by ulcers on the legs; angina by salivation, &c, or by metastasis and abscesses, Avhich she forms in parts distant from the seat of the disease. Accordingly, they think they can do nothing better than imitate nature, and thus they adopt an indirect mode of treat- ment in the majority of diseases. They folloAV the traces of the diseased vital poAver left to itself, and proceed, in an indirect manner,* by applying stronger heterogeneous irritation to parts distant from the seat of the disease, exciting and keeping up evacuations by the organs dissimilar to the tissues affected, in order to turn the course of the evil, in some degree, towards this new position. finds the contents of the intestinal canal fit for his support, and he volnnta rily quits it forever, without any purgatives being employed. * Instead of extinguishing the evil promptly, and without delay, as in the homoeopathic mode of treatment, by the application of dynamic medicinal powers, directed against the diseased parts of the system. 40 INTRODUCTION This derivative system was, and still continues, one of the chief curative indications of the prevailing school. By this imitation of self-aiding nature, vis medicatrix natural, as it is termed by others, they try to excite, by forcible means (in the parts least affected, and Avhich can best support the malady Avhich the medicines provoke), fresh symptoms, Avhich extinguish the primitive disease,* by assuming the appearance of a crisis, and thus alloAV the poAvers of self-helping nature to operate a gradual resolution.! They recommend diaphoretics, diuretics, venesection, setons, and cauteries, and, above all, excite irritation of the alimentary canal, so as to produce evacuations from above, and more espe- cially from below, all of which were irritatives, and to these they applied the names of aperients and dissolvents. J In aid of this derivative system they likeAvise employ another, which bears great affinity to it, and Avhich consists of counter-irri- tants: lamb's avooI applied to the bare skin, foot-baths, nauseants, inflicting on the stomach and bowrels the pangs of hunger (the hunger-treatment, abstinence), applications to cause pain, inflam- mation, and suppuration in the neighboring or distant parts, such as Armoracia, sinapisms, blisters, Mezereum, setons, Autenrieth's ointment (ointment of emetic Tartar), moxa, actual cautery, acu- puncture, tfcc. Here, also, they folloAV the example of crude, un- assisted nature, which, left to herself, endeavors to get rid of the dynamic disease by pains, which she causes to arise in the distant regions of the body, by metastasis and abscesses, by cutaneous * As if anything immaterial could be drawn off! Yet they suppose a morbid material, be it as subtle as it may. f Diseases that are moderately acute, are the only ones that terminate quietly when they have reached the natural term of their career, whether weak allopathic remedies be applied to them or otherwise: the vital powers, when reviving, gradually substitute the normal state in the place of the in- normal. But, in severe acute and in chronic diseases, which constitute the great majority of diseases to which man is subject, this resource no longer comes to the aid of simple nature, and the old school of medicine. The efforts of the vital powers, and the imitative attempts of allopathy, are not potent enough to effect a resolution ; and all that results from them is a truce of short duration, during which the enemy gathers his forces to reappear, sooner or later, in a more formidable shape than ever. J This very denomination likewise announces a supposition on their part of the presence of some morbific substance Avhich was to be dissolved and expelled. INTRODUCTION. 41 eruptions or suppurating ulcers ; but all her efforts, in this respect are useless, where the disease is of a chronic nature. Thus it is evident that it Avas no well-digested plan, but merely imitation, Avhich promised to simplify practice, that led the old school to these helpless, pernicious, and indirect methods of cure, both derivative and counter-irritant; and induced them to adopt plans of treatment, so inefficacious, debilitating, and injurious, in ameliorating and dissipating diseases for a short time, or remov- ing them in such a manner as to arouse another and a Avorse evil to occupy the place of the former. Can we call that healing which rather deserves to be called destroying ? for the name of cure could ne\rer be applied to such a result. They merely fol- lowed crude instinctive nature in the efforts Avhich she makes, and which are barely successful,* even in acute diseases of a mild * The ordinary school of medicine regarded the efforts made by the or- ganism to relieve itself, in diseases where no medicine was given, as perfect models of imitation; bub they were greatly mistaken. The pitiable and very imperfect attempts which the vital powers make, to assist themselves in acute diseases, is a spectacle that ought to excite man to the use all the resources of his learning and wisdom to put an end, by a real cure, to this torment, which nature herself inflicts. If nature cannot cure, homoeopa- thically, a disease already existing in the system, by the production ol another fresh malady similar to it (sec. 43—46), a thing not often in her power to effect (sec. 50), and if the system, deprived of all external succor, 6tands alone to triumph over a malady that has just broken out (her resis- tance is totally powerless in chronic miasms), we see nothing but painful and often dangerous efforts of nature to save the individual at all hazards— efforts of which death is most frequently the result. Little as we mortals know of the operations that take place in the interior of our bodies in a healthy condition, and as certainly as these processes re- main concealed from us, as they lie open to the sight of Omniscience, just ae little can we perceive the internal operations of the animal frame when life is disturbed by disease. The internal operations in diseases are mani- fested only by external symptoms, through the medium of which alone our system expresses the troubles that take place in the interior; so that in no given case can we ascertain which of the morbid symptoms owe their origin to the primitive action of the disease, and those which are occasioned by the reaction of the vital powers endeavoring to rescue themselves from danger. Both are confounded before our eyes, and only present to us (re- flected on the exterior) an image of the entire malady within; since the fruitless efforts by which nature, abandoned to herself, makes, to put an end to the malady, are also sufferings which the whole frame undergoes. Hence, even in those evacuations termed crises, which nature generally produces at the termination of diseases which have run a rapid course, there is fre- 42 INTRODUCTION. form. They did nothing more than imitate the preserving vital powers, abandoned to their own resources, which, depending solely upon the organic laAvs of the body, only act in virtue of these laws, Avithout reasoning or reflecting upon their actions. They copied nature, Avhich cannot, like an intelligent surgeon, bring to- gether the gaping lips of a wound, and by their union effect a cure; Avhich, in an oblique fracture, can do nothing—however great may be the quantity of osseous matter which exudes—to adjust and at- tach the two ends of the bone ; which, not knowing hoAV to tie up a wounded artery, suffers a man full of strength and health to bleed to death; Avhich, ignorant of the art of reducing a dislocation, ren- ders its reduction in a very short time impossible, by reason of the swelling she excites in all the neighboring parts; which, in order to remove a foreign body that had penetrated the transparent cor- nea, destroys the whole eye by suppuration; which, in a strangulated hernia, cannot break the obstacle but by gangrene and death; and which, finally, in dynamic diseases, by changing their form, often quently more of suffering than of efficacious relief What the vital powers do in these pretended crises, and in what manner they do it, are mysteries to us, as well as every other internal action which takes place in the or- ganic economy of life. One thing, however, is certain: that, in tho course of these efforts there are particular parts that suffer more or less, and which are sacrificed to the safety of others. Thei5 operations of the vital power for the removal of an acute disease, solely in conformity to the laws of the organic constitution, and not according to the inspirations of a reflecting mind, are, at most, but a species of allopathy. In order to free the organs primitively affected, by means of a crisis, it increases the activity of the organs of secretion, in order to lead off the evil from the former to the latter: thence result vomiting, diarrhoea, plentiful flow of urine, sweats, abscesses, &c.; and the nervous poAvers, attacked dynamically, seek, in some degree, to unload themselves by material products. The animal economy, abandoned to its own resources, cannot save itself from acute diseases but by the destruction and sacrifice of one part of the system itself; and, even where death does not ensue, the harmony of life and health is restored only in a slow and imperfect manner. The great debility of those organs which had been exposed to the attacks of the malady, as well as that of the entire body, the emaciation, &c. re- maining after this spontaneous cure, are convincing proofs of the truth of what we have asserted. In short, the whole proceedings by which the system delivers itself from the diseases with which it is attacked, only exhibit to the observer a tissue of sufferings, and show him nothing which he can, or ought to imitate, if he truly exercises the art of healing. INTRODUCTION. 43 renders the state of the patient worse than it was before. But more this irrational vital power admits into the body, without hesi tation, the greatest scourge of our earthly existence, the source ol countless diseases AA'hich have afflicted the human species for cen- turies past—that is to say, chronic miasms, such as psora, syphilis, and sycosis. And, far from being able to relieve the system of any one of these miasms, she does not even possess the power of ameliorating them; but, on the contrary, suffers them quietly to continue their ravages until death comes to close the eyes of the patient, after long years of grief and suffering. In a matter so important as that of healing—^-in a profession that requires so much intelligence, judgment, and skill—how could the old school (Avhich arrogates to itself the title of ra- tional) blindly take the vital poAver for its best instructor and guide ? hoAV could it venture, Avithout reflection, to imitate the indirect and revolutionary acts Avhich the vital power performs in disease, and, finally, MIoav it as the best and most perfect of models, Avhilst reflective reason and unfettered judgment—that magnificent gift of the Deity—has been granted to us, to enable us infinitely to surpass its performances for the benefit of hu- manity ? When the prevailing school of medicine, in the accustomed application of their repellent and derivative systems of cure (which have no other basis than an inconsiderate imitation of the natural automatic powers of life), attack the healthy organs, and inflict on them pains more acute than those of the disease itself, against which they are directed, or, Avhat happens more frequently, force evacuations, whereby strength and fluids are wasted; their aim is to direct toAvards the parts which irritate that morbid action Avhich life developed in the organs that were primitively affected, and thus violently uproot the natural disease, by exciting a stronger heterogeneous disease in the more healthy parts—that is to say, by making use of indirect and circuitous means, AA'hich exhaust the powers and occasion great suffering.* * Daily experience shows us how unsuccessful these manoeuvres are in chronic diseases. In very few cases is a cure effected. But can they call that a victory where, instead of attacking the enemy in front, hand to hand, and terminating the difference by his death, they content themselves with setting every part of the country behind him in flames, cutting off retreat, and destroying all arouud. By such means they may certainly succeed in 44 INTRODUCTION. It is true that, by these heterogeneous attacks, the disease, if it be acute (and consequently of but short duration), transports itself to parts distant and dissimilar to those which it at first occupied; hut it is by no means cured. There is nothing in this revolutionary mode of treatment that has a direct or immediate connection with the organs primitively diseased, or which deserves to be called a cure. By abstaining from such grievous attacks upon the life of the other parts of the system, the acute disease would often cease of .itself, leaving less suffering behind, and without occasioning so great a consumption of the powers. But neither the mode of proceeding Avhich is followed by simple nature, nor its allopathic imitation, will bear a comparison Avith the direct, dynamic, homoeopathic treatment, Avhich, without Avasting the vital powers, extinguishes the disease in a direct and rapid manner. In far the greatest number of cases of disease, however, and in chronic affections, these stormy, debilitating, and indirect treat- ments of the old school scarcely ever produce any good. All that they can effect is a suspension, for a feAV days, of some incom- modious symptom or another, which returns immediately, when nature has become accustomed to the distant irritation; the disease then returns more grievous than before, because the repel- lant pains,* and the ill-advised evacuations, have lessened the energy of the vital powers. While the greater number of allopathic physicians, in their breaking the courage of their adversary, but their object is still unattained: the foe is not destroyed, he is still there; and, Avhen his magazines are re- plenished, he again rears his head, more ferocious than he was before. The enemy, I say, is not destroyed, but the poor innocent country is so ruined that it will scarce recover itself in a long lapse of time. This is precisely what happens to allopathy, in chronic diseases, when, without curing the malady, it undermines and destroys the system by indirect at- tacks against innocent organs, which are distant from the ceat of the latter. These are the results of such injurious attempts. * What good results have ever ensued from issues, so frequently estab- lished, diffusing their fetid odors around ? Even though they appear during the first fortnight, by their irritating power, slightly to diminish a chronic disease as long as they continue to keep up considerable pain, they aftenvards, when the body is accustomed to the pain, have no other effect than that of weakening the patient, and thus opening a still wider field to the chronic affection. Or, are there yet physicians in the nineteenth century who could regard these issues as outlets for the escape of the peccant matters? It appears that some such practitioners do exist! INTRODUCTION. 45 general imitation of the salutary effects of nature, abandoned to her own resources, thus introduced into the practice of medicine those derivative systems of merely hypothetical utility, and which every one varied according to the fancied indications suggested by his OAvn ideas; others, aiming at a still higher object, under- took designedly to promote the efforts which the vital powers exhibit in diseases, to relieve themselves by evacuations and opposing metastases, and endeavored in some degree to aid them, by increasing still more these derivations and evacuations, imagining that, by this mode of treatment, they might justly arro- gate to themselves the names, minist/ri natural. Because it often happens, in chronic diseases, that the evacuations which nature excites, bring relief in cases where there are acute pains, paraly- sis, spasms, &c, the old school imagined that the true method of curing disease Avas by favoring, keeping up, or even increasing the evacuations. But they never discovered that all those pretended crises, those evacuations and derivations produced by nature abandoued to her own exertions, only procure palliative relief for a short period, and that, far from contributing towards a real cure, they, on the contrary, aggravate the internal primitive evil by consuming the strength and the fluids. No one has ever seen those efforts of simple nature effect the durable recovery of a patient, nor have those evacuations, excited by the system,* ever cured a chronic disease. On the contrary, in all cases of this nature, after a short relief (the duration of which gradually diminishes), the primitive affection is manifestly aggraArated, and the attacks return stronger and more frequent than before, although the evacuations do not cease. In the same manner, nature, abandoned to her own resources in internal chronic diseases which threaten life, can only bring relief by exciting the appearance of external local symptoms, in order to turn away danger from the organs indispensable to exis- tence, and transport it, by metastasis, to those which are not so ; such attempts, of an unintelligent, inconsiderate, but energetic vital force, have a tendency towards anything but a real cure; they are nothing more than palliatives, short stagnations imposed on the internal disease at the sacrifice of a great portion of the liquids and strength, Avithout diminishing the primary disease in the * Equally inefficacious are those produced artificially. 46 INTRODUCTION. least All they can do, at farthest, is to delay for a time that death which is inevitable without the aid of homoeopathic treat- ment. The allopathy of the old school greatly exaggerated the efforts of crude nature. Falsely judging them to be truly salutary, they sought to promote and develop them still farther, hoping, by these means, to destroy the entire evil and effect a radical cure. When, in a chronic disease, the vital power appeared to improve this or thatgrievous symptom of the internal state—for example, by means of some humid cutaneous eruption—then the self-styled minister of nature applied a blister, or some other exutory, upon the sup- purating surface, to draAV (duce natura) a still greater quantity of humor from the skin, and thus assist nature in the cure, by removing from the body the morbific principle. But, sometimes, Avhen the action of the remedy was too violent, the humid tetter already old, and the body too susceptible of irritation, the external affection increased considerably, without any advantage accruing to the primitive evil; and the pains, rendered still more acute, deprived the patient of sleep, diminished his strength, and often brought on a bad description of feverish erysipelas. Or, Avhen the remedy acted with more gentleness upon the local disease (which was perhaps yet recent), it exercised a kind of external homoeo- pathy upon the local symptoms which nature had produced upon the skin, in order to relieve the internal malady; thus renewing the latter, to Avhich still greater danger was attached, and exposing the vital powers, by the suppression of the local symptoms, to the excitement of others of a graver nature, in other and more noble parts. The patient then was attacked with a dangerous ophthal- mia, deafness, spasms in the stomach, epileptic convulsions, suffo- cation, fits of apoplexy, mental derangement, &c* The same pretext, of assisting the vital poAvers in their curative efforts, led the minister of nature, when the malady caused an afflux of blood into the veins of the rectum, or the anus (blind piles), to have recourse to the repeated application of leeches, in great numbers, in order to open an issue to the blood in that quarter. The emission of blood procured an amendment, sometimes so slight as * These are the natural results of repelling such local symptoms—results which the allopathic physician often regards as diseases that are perfectly new and of a different character INTRODUCTION. 47 to be scarce deserving of notice; but, at the same time, it weak- ened the body, and gave rise to a yet stronger congestion towards the extremity of the intestinal canal, without effecting the slightest diminution of the primitive malady. In almost every case where the diseased vital powers en- deavored to evacuate a little blood by vomiting, expectoration, &c, in order to diminish the severity of a dangerous internal affection, the old school physicians immediately hastened (duce natura) to give all the assistance in their power to these pre- tended salutary efforts of nature, and blood in abundance was extracted from the vein; which never failed to prove injurious in the end, and to Aveaken the body to a manifest extent. In cases of Trequently occurring chronic nausea, and with the view of furthering the intentions of nature, they excited powerful evacuations of the stomach, and administered plentiful emetics; but never Avith any good result, and seldom without frightful and even dangerous consequences. To appease the internal malady in a slight degree, the vital poAvers sometimes excite indolent enlargements of the external glands. The minister of nature thinks he is serving the divinity to Avhom he is deAroted by bringing these tumors to a suppuration, by the use of frictions and Avarm applications, in order to plunge the knife into the abscess when arrived at maturity, and cause the peccant matter to flow externally. (?) But experience has a thousand times proved the interminable evils that always result from this mode of treat- ment And, having often noticed slight amelioration of the severe symptoms of chronic diseases to result from spontaneous noctur- nal perspiration, or from certain natural dejections of liquid matter, he thinks himself bound to follow these indications of nature; he likewise thinks it his duty to second the labors which he sees carried on in his own presence, by prescribing a complete sudorific treatment, or the continued use, during several years, of Avhat he calls gentle laxatives, in order to relieve the patient of the disease that torments him with more speed and cer- tainty. Bat this mode of treatment never produces anything but a contrary result—that is to say, it ahvays aggravates the primitive disease. Thus the allopathist, yielding to the force of this opinion, which he has embraced Avithout scrutiny, notwithstanding the 48 INTRODUCTION. absence of all foundation, persists in seconding* the efforts of the diseased A'ital poAvers, and augmenting the derivations and evacu- ations, Avhich never lead to the attainment of his object, but rather to the ruin of the patient. He never discovers that local affec- tions, evacuations, and apparent derivations (which are effects excited and kept up by the vital poAvers abandoned to their own resources, in order to afford some slight relief to the primitive disease), are of themselves a constituent part of the ensemble of the signs of the malady, against the totality of which there could be no real, salutary, and curative remedy, save a medicine whose effects were analogous with the phenomena occasioned by its action upon man when in a state of health, or, in other terms, a homoeopathic remedy. As everything that crude nature does to relieve herself, in acute, and, more particularly, in chronic diseases, is highly imperfect, and is actually disease itself, it may readily be conceived that the efforts of art, laboring to assist this imperfection, do still greater injury; and, in acute maladies, at least, they cannot remedy that Avhich is defective in the attempts of nature, becaus the physician, incapable of folloAving the concealed paths by which the vital poAver accomplishes its crises, could only operate upon the exterior by means of energetic remedies, whose effects not only do less good than those of nature, abandoned to herself, * The old school, however, often permitted themselves to follow a reverse method of treatment: that is, when the efforts of nature, tending to relieve the internal malady by evacuation, or by exciting local external symptoms manifeetly injured tho patient, they employ against them all the powers of repellents; and thus combat chronic pains, insomnolency, and diarrhoea of long standing, with strong and hazardous doses of Opium; vomitings, by effervescing mixtures ; foetid perspiration of the feet, by cold foot-baths and astringent fomentations; eruptions of the skin, with preparations of Lead and Zinc; uterine haemorrhages, by injections of Vinegar; colliquative perspira- tions, by Alum curd; nocturnal seminal emissions, by the use of Camphor in large quantities; sudden glow of heat over the face and body, by Nitric, SulphuHc, and vegetable acids; bleeding of the nose, with dossils of lint dipped in alcohol or astringent liquids; ulcers on the lower extremities, by Oxides of Lead, Zinc, &c. But thousands of facts attest the melancholy con- sequences that result from this mode of treatment. The allopathist, both in speaking and writing, boasts of being a rational physician, of searching out the latent cause of disease, and of always effecting radical cures; but it is evident that a treatment founded on isolated symptoms must always be detrimental to the patient. INTRODUCTION. 49 but, on the contrary, are more perturbating and destructive to the powers. Even this imperfect relief, Avhich nature effects by means of derivations and crises, he cannot attain by following the same path; do what he will, even the miserable succor which the vital poAvers can procure, when abandoned to their OAVn resources, is infinitely beyond the skill of the allopathist. It has been attempted to produce, by means of scarifying instru- ments, a bleeding at the nose, in imitation of natural nasal haemor- rhage, to relieve, for example, an attack of chronic headache. In such a case, a quantity of blood might be drawn from the nostrils sufficient to Aveaken the patient; but the relief would be far less than that afforded at another time, Avhen the vital instinctive powers, ot their own accord, caused only a few drops of blood to flow. One of those so-called critical perspirations or diarrhoeas, which the incessant activity of the vital poAvers excites, after any sudden indisposition, arising from vexation, fright, cold, or injury from improper lifting, is far more efficacious in allaying, momentarily at least, the acute suffering of the patient, than all the nauseous sudorifics or purgatives contained in the shop of an apothecary. This is proved beyond a doubt by daily experience. But the vital power, which is devoid of intelligence and judg- ment, and which can only act according to the organic disposition of our bodies, was not given to us that we should folloAV it as our best guide in the cure of diseases, much less that we should imi- tate,* in a servile manner, its imperfect attempts to restore health by joining to it a treatment more opposed than its own to the object it has in view, for no other purpose than that of sparing ourselves the study and reflection necessary to the discovery of the true art of healing, and, finally, to place a bad copy of the inefficacious aid which nature affords, when abandoned to her own resources, in the room of the most noble of all human arts! What reflecting man would copy the efforts of nature in curing disease ? These verv efforts are the disease itself, and the morbidly affected vital energy is evidently the source of the malady. It follows, then, that to imitate or to suppress these efforts must in one case augment them, or in the other render them dangerous by suppres- sion, and the allopathist does both; these are their pernicious doings, who boast of following the rational plan of healing! No! that innate power of man, which directs life in the most perfect manner whilst in health, whose presence is alike felt in 50 INTRODUCTION. every part of the system, in the sensitive as in the irritable fibre, and which is the indefatigable spring of all the normal functions of the body, was not created for the purpose of aiding itself in disease. It does not exercise a system of cure that is worthy of imitation, that is to say, a work of reflection and judgment, and which, when the automatic and unintelligent vital powers have been disordered by disease, and abnormal action produced, knows how to modify them by appropriate remedies, so that, after the disappearance of the new disease produced by the medicine (wMch soon takes place), they return to their normal state, and to their appointed function of maintaining health in the system, without having undergone, during this conver- sion, any painful or debilitating attacks. Homoeopathic medi- cine teaches us the mode by which we are to arrive at this result. A great number of patients, treated according to the methods of the old school, Avhich have just passed in review before us, escaped from diseases, not in chronic disorders (non-venereal)., but in those maladies that were acute, and which are less danger- ous. This, however, was effected by such painfully circuitous means, and frequently in a manner so imperfect, that no one could say the cure Avas performed by the influence of an art that acted mildly in its mode of treatment. In cases where there was no imminent danger, acute diseases were sometimes repressed^by means of venesection, or sometimes by the suppression of one of the principal symptoms, by a palliative enantiopathic remedy (contraria contrariis), or sometimes suspended by irritants and revulsants, applied to parts removed from the diseased organ, until the natural time for the duration of the short malady had expired—that is to say, they opposed them by indirect means, exhausting the strength and the juices; so much so that, in patients so treated, the greatest and most important measures for the complete removal of the disease, and for the restoration of the lost strength and humors, remained to be performed by the self- preserving vital power. The latter, then, had not only to subdue the acute natural disease, but also to overcome the results of an ill-directed mode of treatment. In casual cases, this vital power INTRODUCTION. 51 was to exercise its OAvn energies to bring back the functions to their normal rhythm, which could only be effected imperfectly and sIoavIv, and Avith great difficulty. In acute diseases, it is doubtful whether this treatment of the existing school really facilitates or abridges the cure by the aid of nature, since neither of them act but in an indirect manner: and their derivative and counter-irritating modes of cure, Avound the system more profoundly, and lead to a still greater dissipation of the vital powers. The old school practise yet another method of cure, which they call " stimulating and strengthening"* (by excitantia, nervina, tonica, confortantia, roborantia). It is surprising that they should boast of this mode of treatment. Has it ever succeeded in removing, as it has so often attempted to do, the physical weakness Avhich a chronic disease so often engenders, augments, and keeps up, by prescribing ethereal Rhine Avine, or fierv Tokay ? As this treatment Avas not able to cure the chronic disease (the source of the debility), the strength of the patient decreased in proportion as they made him take moie wine, because the vital poAvers, in their reaction, oppose relaxation to artificial excitements. Did Cinchona, or any of the mistaken, ambiguous, and pernicious substances, Avhich collectively bear the name of Amara, ever restore strength in these cases Avhich are of such frequent occur- rence ? These vegetable products, which they pretended were tonic and strengthening in all circumstances, together Avith the preparations of Iron, did they not add fresh sufferings to the old ones, by reason of their peculiar pathogenetic effects, Avithout being able to remove the debility Avhich depended on an unknoAvn malady of long standing ? The so-called unguenta nervina, or the other spirituous and balsamic topical embrocations, did they ever diminish in a durable manner, or even momentarily, incipient paralysis of an arm or leg (which arises, as is frequently the case, from a chronic disease , * This method is, properly speaking, enantiopathic, and I shall again refer to it in the course of the Organon (sec. 59). 52 INTRODUCTION. without curing the cause itself? Or have electric and galvanic shocks ever been attended with any other result, in such cases, than a gradually increasing and finally absolute paralysis and extinction of all muscular and nenrous irritability in such limbs ?* Have not the highly-boasted excilantia and aphrodisiaca, Ambergris, Smelts, tincture of Cantharides, Truffles, Cardamoms, Cinnamon, and Vanilla, constantly ended with changing the gra- dually declining power of the virile faculties (which is always caused by some unobserved chronic miasm) into total impotence ? How could they boast of an acquisition of strength, and excite- ment, Avhich lasts only a few hours, when the results that fclloAv bring on an opposite state (which is lasting) according to the laAvs of all palliatives ? The little good that the excitantia and roborantia did to the patient treated for acute maladies, according to the old method, Avas a thousand times outweighed by the ill effects Avhich the use of them produced in chronic diseases. Allopathists not unfrequently commence the treatment of a chronic disease by blindly administering their so-called alterative remedies (alterantia), among which the mercurials (Calomel, Blue Pill, Corrosive Sublimate, Mercurial Ointments) occupy a conspicuous place. These sovereign remedies of theirs, even in cases not venereal, are often given in large and long-continued doses, until their deleterious tendency becomes manifest in the ruined health of the patient. Great alterations are certainly pro- duced by the destructive operation of Mercury upon improper parts, but they are such as finally exhaust the constitution of the patient. Cinchona, in all genuine marsh intermittents, is a homoeopathic remedy, and, when not prevented by preexisting psora, a specific. But, by prescribing it in large and long-continued doses in every epidemic intermittent, the ignorance of the old school is abun- dantly shown; for the disease, almost every year assuming a * An apothecary (in Jever) had a voltaic column, the gradual strokes of which gave temporary relief to persons afflicted with deafness. Soon these shocks caused no more effect, and it was necessary, in order to produce the same results, to render them stronger, until, in their turn, they likewise became inefficacious; after this, the most powerful shocks would at first excite the patient's hearing for a short time, but at length leave him quite deaf. INTRODUCTION. 53 different character, requires for its removal a different homoeo- pathic remedy, which in a single dose, or, at most, a very few minute doses, effects a radical cure in the course of a few days. Now, because such epidemic fevers have their periodical attacks (type of the disease), and the adherents of the old school see nothing in all intermittent fevers but their typus (periodicity), and neither knoAV, nor care to know any other febrifuge but Cin- chona; these routine practitioners imagine, if they can but sup- press the type of the disease by means of enormous doses of that medicine, or its more costly extract, Quinine, that the patient is cured. But he is really left in a Avorse condition, after such sup- pression of the periodical returns of his fever, than before. We behold him moving sloAvly along, his countenance sallow, his breathing asthmatic, the hypochondres constricted, the abdominal viscel-a diseased, frequently the abdomen itself and limbs in a bloated condition,—without healthful appetite or refreshing sleep, weak and dispirited, he is discharged from the hospital in this state of complicated suffering—as cured! not unfrequently years of elaborate homoeopathic treatment are required, we will not say to restore his health, but to rescue this radically vitiated, this artificially cachectic patient from an untimely death. It is cause of gratification to the old school Avhen, by the anti- pathic virtues of Valerian, they can convert the stupor of ner- vous fever into a degree of exhilaration for a feAV hours. But, this transient excitement being once over, it can be reproduced only by a repetition of still larger doses of the same medicine, and even the largest soon lose their effect. Their primary operation beino- that of a stimulating palliative, the entire vital energies, during the secondary effects of the medicine, become paralyzed, and thus, by means of the rational treatment of the old school, the speedy dissolution of the patient is rendered inevitable. As certainly mortal as is the issue of the case, the followers of the old system do not perceive it, and the patient's death is ascribed by them to the malignity of his disease. Digitalis-purpurea is a still more formidable palliative in chronic diseases, and its virtues are highly extolled by the old school for allaying the rapid and irritated pulse (purely sympto- matic) in these maladies. Though the use of this potent enantio- pathic medicine may at first, in many instances, abate the fre- quency of the pulse for some hours, yet it will shortly afterwards 54 INTRODUCTION. become more frequent than ever. To retard its velocity again, the medicine is repeated in a larger dose; it is again availing, yet for a shorter period; until, by frequent repetition, even in augmented doses, it loses its effects altogether. The pulse not noAV being restrained by the secondary or consecutive effects of Digitalis, becomes more rampant than before its use, and too rapid to be reckoned. Among the train of consequences may also be observed, loss of sleep and appetite and diminution of strength, until, finally, if these disasters do not terminate in incurable mania, death becomes the patient's only refuge !::' Such, then, was the treatment which the allopathic physician practiced on his patients. The latter, therefore, Avere obliged to yield to necessity, since they could derive nothing better from the other physicians who had draAvn their information from the same fallacious source. • The fundamental cause of chronic diseases (non-venereal), and the mode by which they could be cured, remained unknoAvn to these practitioners, who prided themselves on their OAvn remedies, which they said Avere directed against the cause. Hoav Avas it possible for them to cure the immense number of chronic diseases by their indirect methods, their imperfect imitations of the efforts of an automatic vital poAver, Avhich were never destined to become models of a treatment to be followed m medicine ? They regarded that which they believed to be the character of the malady as the cause of the disease itself, and, accordingly, directed their pretended radical cures against spasm, inflamma- tion (plethora), fever, general or partial debility, mucus, putridity, obstructions, &c, which they imagined they could remove Avith the aid of their antispasmodics, antiphlogistics, tonics, irritants, anti- septics, dissolvents, resolutives, derivatives, evacuants, and other repellent medicines, known to themselves only in a superficial manner. But indications of so vague a nature were insufficient to dis- * Notwithstanding all this, Hufeland, the representative of the old school, with great self-complacency, in his pamphlet on homoeopathia, p. 22, praises the Digitalis for the purpose of repressing morbid frequency of the pulse : his words are, i: None will deny''* (but experience does) " that a too vehement circulation can be removed by Digitalis" (?) permanently? does he mean removed ? What ? By the use of a heroic enantiopathic remedy ? Poor Hufeland! INTRODUCTION. 55 cover those medicines which are of real utility, particularly so in the materia medica of the old school, Avhich, as I have elseAvhere shown,* depended mostly upon mere conjecture, and on false con- clusions ah usu in morbis, mixed up Avith fraud and falsehood. They continued to act Avith the same degree of coldness in matters that were still more hypothetical; against the deficiency or superabundance of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and hydrogen in the fluids; against the' exaltation or diminution of irritability sensibility, and reproduction, derangements of the arterial, vrenous, and capillary systems, asthenia, ifcc, without being acquainted with a single remedy by which they could reach so visionary an object. It Avas ostentation that induced them to attempt these cures which could not be advantageous to the patients. Every appearance of treating disease effectively and to the purpose, disappears in their manner of associating various medi- cinal substances to constitute what they call a prescription, and time has not only rendered this association sacred, but has con- verted it into a law. They place at the head of this recipe, under the name of basis, a medicine that is not at all known in regard to the extent of its medicinal effects, but Avhich they think ought to subdue the principal character of the disease admitted by the physician; they add to this one or two substances equally unknoAvn, in respect of their operation on the system, and Avhich they destine either for the removal of some particular accessory symptom, or to increase the action of the basis; they then add a pretended corrective, of Avhose special medicinal virtues they have no better knoAvledge; they then mix the Avhole together, sometimes adding either a syrup, or a distilled Avater, which likewise possess distinct medicinal properties, and imagine that each ingredient of the mixture will perform, in the diseased body, the part that has been assigned to it by the prescriber's imagination, without alloAving itself to be disturbed or led astray by the other articles that accompany it—a result Avhich no one could reasonably expect. One of these ingredients destroys, either partly or wholly, the operation of the other, or gives to it, as Avell as to the remainder, a different mode of action altogether, which had never been thought of, so that the effects calculated on could not possi- * In the treatise, " On the Sources of the Old Materia Medica," in the third part of my Materia Medica. 56 INTRODUCTION. bly take place. This inexplicable enigma of mixtures often pro duces that Avhich neither avas nor could have been expected, a new morbid derangement, which is not observed amidst the tumult of symptoms, but which becomes permanent by the prolonged use of the prescription. Consequently, an artificial disease, joining itself to the original one, aggravates the primitive disease; or, if the patient does not use the same prescription for a long time, if one or several be croAvded upon him successively, composed of different ingredients, greater debility will at least ensue, be- cause the substances Avhich are prescribed in such a case have generally little or no direct reference to the principal malady, and only make a useless attack upon those points against Avhich its assaults have been the least directed. Though the action of every medicine on the human body should already have been discovered, still the physician avIio Avrites the prescription does not often know the effect of one in a hundred. Mixing several drugs together, some of which are already com pounds, Avhose separate effects are but imperfectly known, and the administration of this incomprehensible mixture to the patient in large and frequently" repeated doses, in order thereAvith to obtain some purposed, certain, curative effect, is an absurdity evident to every unprejudiced* and reflecting individual. The result is con- sequently the reverse of that Avhich they expect to take place in * Even among the ordinary schools of medicine, there have been persons who perceived the absurdity of mixing medicines, although they still con- tinued to follow this eternal routine which their own reason condemned. Marcus Herz expresses himself (Hufeland's Journal, II., p. 33) on this sub- ject in the following terms: "When we wish to remove inflammation, we do not employ either Nitre, Sal-ammoniac, or vegetable acids, singly, but we usually mix up several antiphlogistics, or use them altogether at the same time. If we have to contend against putridity, we are not content with ad- ministering, in large quantities, one of the known antiseptics, Cinchona, mineral acids. Arnica, Serpentaria, &c, to attain the object we have in view: but we prefer mixing up several of them together, having a greater reliance upon their combined action ; or, not knowing which of them would act most suitably in the existing case, we accumulate a variety of incompatible sub- stances, and abandon to chance the care of producing, by means of one or the other of them, the relief we designed to afford. Thus, it is rare that, by the aid of a single medicine, we excite perspiration, purify the blood (?), overcome obstructions, promote expectoration, or even effect purgation. To arrive at these results, our prescriptions are always complicated; they are scarcely ever simple and pure: consequently, they cannot be regarded as ex- INTRODUCTION. 57 so precise a manner; changes certainly take place, but not one among them is either good or conformable to the object that is to be attained. I should like very much to see that which is called a care, by a man working thus blindly in the bodies of his fellow-creatures. The restoration of health is to be expected only by cherishing the due activity of the vital principle yet remaining Avith the pa- tient, by means of remedies suitable for that purpose, and not by debilitating the system, secundum artem, almost to the extinc- tion of life. This is a method, hoAvever, not unfrequent with the old school on commencing the treatment of chronic diseases : they operate by means of medicines Avhich harass the patient, expend the animal fluids, exhaust the strength, and shorten life! Can they be said to save Avhile they thus destroy ? and can they be said to exercise any other than a hurtful art ? They act, lege artis, as contrary to their professed aim as possible, and practice aXXoia, that is to say, the very reArerse of Avhat they ought to do. Can they deserve commendation ? In modern times, indeed, this school have gone to great excesses in frustrating the end of all true medical treatment, as eArery impartial observer must acknow- ledge, and as physicians of their own school (Avhen their con- sciences are aAvakened, like that of Kriiger Hansen) will confess before the world. periments relative to the effects of the various substances that enter into their composition. In fact, we learnedly establish certain grades of rank among the medicines in our recipes, and we call that one the basis to which we (properly speaking) confide the effect, giving to others the names ef adju- vants, corrigents, &c. But this classification is evidently almost entirely ar- bitrary. The adjuvants contribute, as Avell as the basis, to the entire effect, although, in the absence of a scale of* measurement, we cannot determine to what degree they may have participated. The influence of the corrigents over the powers of the other medicines, likewise, cannot be wholly indif- ferent ; they must either increase or diminish them, or give them another direc- tion. The salutary (?) change which we effect, by the aid of such a prescrip- tion, ought then always to be considered as the result of its whole contents taken collectively, and we can never come to any certain conclusion upon the individual efficacy of any one of the ingredients of which it is composed. In short, we are but too slightly acquainted with thai which is essential to be known of all medicines, and our knowledge with regard to the affinities they enter into, when mixed up together, is too limited for us to be able to say, with any degree of certainty, what will be the mode or degree of action of a subject, even the most insignificant in appearance, when introduced into the human body, combined with other substances." 58 INTRODUCTION. Observation, reflection, and experiment have unfolded to me that, in opposition to the old allopathic method, the best and true method of cure is founded on the principle, similia similibus curantur. To cure in a mild, prompt, safe, and durable manner it is necessary to choose in each case a medicine that will excite an affection similar (dfiotov irafloc) to that against which it is employed. Until the present time, no person has ever inculcated this homoeopathic mode of treatment, and, yet more, no one has ever put it into practice. But, if this is the only true method (of Avhich every one may be convinced with myself), we ought to discover sensible traces of it in every epoch of the art, although its true character may have been unknown during thousands of years. And such has, in reality, been the case.* In all ages, the diseases Avhich have been cured by medicines, in a prompt, perfect, durable, and manifest manner, and Avhich Avere not indebted for their cure to any accidental circumstance, or to the accomplishment of the natural revolution of the acute disease, or to the circumstance of the bodily poAvers having gra- dually regained a preponderance by means of an allopathic and antagonistic treatment (for being cured in a direct manner differs greatly from being cured in an indirect manner), these diseases, I say, have yielded, although without the knoAvledge of the physi- cian, to a homoeopathic remedy, that is to say, to a remedy in itself capable of exciting a morbid state similar to that Avhose removal is effected. Even in an effectual cure that had been performed by the aid of mixed medicines (of Avhich there are but feAV examples), it has been discovered that the medicine Avhose action dominated over that of the others Avas always of a homoeopathic nature. But this fact presents itself to us still more evidently in certain cases, where physicians performed a speedy cure by the aid of a single remedy, in violation of the custom that admitted none other but mixed medicines in the form of a prescription. Here we see, to our astonishment, that the cure was ahvays the effect of a single medicinal substance, capable of itself to produce an affection * For truth, like the infinitely wise and gracious God, is eternal. Men may disregard it for a time, until the period arrives when its rays, according to the determination of Heaven, shall irresistibly break through the mists of prejudice, and, like Aurora and the opening day, shed a beneficent light, clear and inextinguishable, over the generations of men. INTRODUCTION. 59 similar to that under which the patient labored, although the physician did not knoAV what he was doing, and only acted thus in forgetfulness of the precepts of his OAvn school. He gave a medicine the very reverse of that which, according to the estab- lished laAvs of therapeutics, he should have administered, and by these means alone his patients were promptly cured. I shall here relate some examples of these homoeopathic cures, which find a clear and precise interpretation in the homoeopathic doctrine noAV discovered and acknowledged, but which we are bv no means to regard as arguments in favor of the latter, because it stands firm Avithout the aid of any such support* The author of the treatise on epidemic diseases, (■m6r}m&v (attri- buted to Hippocrates), at the commencement of lib. 5, mentions a case of cholera morbus that resisted,every remedy, and Avhich he cured by means of Veratrum-album alone, which, however, excites cholera of itself, as witnessed by Forestus, Ledelius, Reimann, and many others.f The English sweating sickness, which first exhibited itself in the year 1485, and which, more murderous than the plague itself, carried off in the commencement (as testified by Willis), ninety- * If, in the case which will be cited here, the doses of medicine exceeded those which the safe homoeopathic doctrine prescribes, they were, of course, very naturally attended with the same degree of danger which usually re- sults from all homoeopathic agents when administered in large doses. How- ever, it often happens, from various causes, which cannot at all times be discovered, that even very large doses of homoeopathic medicines effect a cure, without causing any notable injury; either from the vegetable substance having lost a part of its strength, or because abundant evacuations ensued, which destroyed the greater part of the effects of the remedy; or, finally because the stomach had received at the same time other substances, which, acting as an antidote, lessened the strength of the dose. f P. Forestus, xviii., obs. 44.—Ledelius, Misc. Nat. Cur., dec. iii., ann. i., obs. 65.—Reimann, Brest. Samml., 1724, p. 535. In this, and in all the examples that follow, I have purposely abstained from reporting either my own observations or those of my adherents upon the special effects of each indi- vidual medicine, but merely those of the physicians of times past. My object for acting in this manner is to show that the art of curing homoeopathically mVht have been discovered before my time. 60 INTRODUCTION. nine patients out of a hundred, could not be subdued until physi- cians had learned to administer sudorifcs to their patients. After that time, as Sennertus* observes, few persons died of it. A case of dysentery, which lasted several years, threatening the patient Avith inevitable death, and against which every other medicine had been tried without success, was, to the great surprise Fischerf (but not to mine), cured in a speedy and permanent manner by a, purgative administered by an empiric. Murray (whom I selected from numerous other authorities), together with daily experience, informs us that, among the symp- toms produced by the use of Tobacco, those of vertigo, nausea, and anxiety are the principal. Whereas Diemerbroeck,:j: when attacked with those very symptoms of vertigo, nausea, and anxiety, in the course of his close attendance on the victims of epidemic diseases in Holland, removed them by the use of the pipe. The hurtful effects which some writers (among others Georgi§) ascribe to the use of the Agaricus-muscarius, by the inhabitants of Kamtschatka, and Avhich consist of tremors, convulsions, and epilepsy, became a salutary remedy in the hands of C. G. Whist- ling, || who used this mushroom with success in cases of convul- sions accompanied with tremor; likewise, in those of J. C. Bern- hardt,## who used it with success in a species of epilepsy. The remark made by Murray,ff that oil of Aniseed allays pains of the stomach and flatulent colic caused by purgatives, ought not to surprise us, knowing that J. P. Albrecht % % has observed pains in the stomach produced by the liquid; and P. Forestus§§ violent colic likeAvise caused by its administration. If F. Hoffmann praises the efficacy of Millefoil in various cases of haemorrhage / if Gr. E. Stahl, BuchAvalk, and Loseke have found this plant useful in excessive hgemorrhoidal flux; if Quarin and * De Febribus, iv., cap. 15. \ In Hufeland's Journal fur practische Arzneikunde, vol. x. iv., p. 127. ■ j Tract de Peste, Amsterdam, 1665, p. 273. § Beschreibung aller Nationen des Russischen Reichs (A Description of all the Nations of the Russian Empire), pp. 78, 267, 281, 321, 329, 352. || Diss, de Virt. Agaric-Muse. Jena, 1718, p. 13. ** Chym. Vers, und Erfahrungen, Leipzig, 1754, obs. 5, p. 324. Gruner De Viribus Agar.-Musc. Jena, 1778, p. 13. ft Appar. Medic, 2d edit., 1, p. 429, 430. JJ Misc. Nat. Cur., dec. ii., ann. 8, obs. 169. $$ Observat. et Curationes, lib. 21. INTRODUCTION. 61 the editors of the Bresslauer Sammlangen speak of the cure it has effected of haemoptysis ; and, finally, if Thomasius (according to Haller) has used it successfully in uterine haemorrhage ; these cures are evidently owing to the power possessed by the plant of exciting of itself haemorrhage and hwmaturia, as observed by G. Hoffmann,* and more especially of producing apistaxis, as confirmed by Boecler.f Scovolo,^: among many others, cured a case where the urinary discharge Avas purulent, by Arbutus Uva-ursi ; Avhich never could have been performed if this plant had not the property of exciting heat in the urinary passage, with discharge of a mucous urine, as seen by Sauvages.§ And, though the frequent experience of Storck, Marges, Plan- chon, Du Monceau, F. C. Junker, Schinz, Ehrmann, and others, had not already established the fact that Colchicum-autumn&le cures a species of dropsy, still this power was to have been expected from it, by reason of the peculiar property it possesses of dimin- ishing the urinary secretion, and of exciting at the same time a continual desire to pass water. It likeAvise causes the Aoav of a small quantity of urine, of a fiery red color, as Avitnessed by Storck || and De Berge.** The cure of an asthma attended with hypochondriasis, effected by Goritz,f f by means of Colchicum, and that of an asthma complicated with an apparent hydrothorax, per- formed by St6rck,JJ Avith the same substance, Avere evidently grounded upon the homoeopathic property which it possesses of exciting by itself asthma and dyspnma, as witnessed by De Berge.§§ Muralto|||| has seen Avhat we may Avitness every day, viz., that Jalap, besides creating gripes of the stomach, also causes great uneasiness and agitation. Every physician, acquainted Avith the facts upon Avhich homoeopathy rests, will find it perfectly natural/ * De Medicam. Officin. Leyden, 1738. |- Cynosura Mat. Med. Cont., p. 552. % In Girardi, de Uva-ursi. Padua, 1764. $ Nosolog., iii., p. 200. || Libellus de Colchico. Vienna, 1763, p. 12. ** Journal de Medecine, xxii. ff A'E. Buchner, Miscell, Phys.'Med. Mathem., Ann. 1728, Jul., pp. 1212, 1213. Erfurt, 1732. %% Ibid., cas. 11, 13. Cont., cas. 4, 9. u Ibid., loc. cit. Illl Misc. Nat, Cur., dec. ii. ann. 7, obs. 112. 62 INTRODUCTION. that the poAver so justly ascribed to this medicine by G.W.Wedel,* of allaying the gripes, restlessness, and screaming, Avhich are so frequent in young children, and of restoring them to tranquil repose, arises from homoeopathic influence. It is also knoAvn, and has been attested by Murray, Hillary, and Spielmann, that Senna occasions a kind of colic, and produces, according to C. Hoffmannf and F. Hoffmann,! flatulency and agi- tation of the blood,§ ordinary causes of insomnolency. It Avas this innate homoeopathic virtue of Senna Avhich enabled Dethard- ing|| to cure with its aid patients afflicted with violent colic and insomnolency. Storck, Avho bad so intimate a knowledge of medicines, Avas on the point of discovering that the bad effects of the Dictamnus, Avhich, as he observed himself, sometimes provokes a mucous dis- cliqrge from the vagina,** arose from the very same properties in this root, by virtue of which he cured a leucorrhoea of long standing.ff , Storck, in like manner, should not have been astonished Avhen curing a general chronic eruption (humid, phagedenic and psoric) Avith the Glematis,%% having himself ascertained §§ that this plant has the poAver of producing a psoric eruption over the whole body. If, according to Murray,|||| the Euphrasia cures lippitudo and a certain form of ophthalmia, hoAV could it otherwise have pro- duced this effect, but by the faculty it possesses of exciting a kind of inflammation in the eyes, as has been remarked by Lobelius?*** According to J. H. Lange,f ff the Nutmeg has been found effi- cacious in hysterical fainting fits. The sole natural cause of this phenomenon is homoeopathic, and can be attributed to no other circumstance but that the Nutmeg, Avhen given in strong doses to * Opiolog., lib. 1, p. 1, cap. ii., p. 38. f De Medicin. Officin., lib. 1, cap. 36. % Diss, de Manna, p. 16. J Murray, loc. cit. ii., p. 507. 2d edit. II Ephem. Nat. Cur., cent. 10, obs. 76. ** Lib. de Flamm. Jovis. Vienna, 1769, cap. 2. \\ Ibid, cap. 9. XX Lib. de Flamm. Jovis. Vienna, 1769, cap. 13. $§ Ibid., p. 33. 1111 Appar. Medic, 11, p. 221, 2d edit. #** Stirp. Adversar., p. 219. ftf Domest. Brunsvic, p. 136 INTRODUCTION. 68 a person in health, produces, according to J. Schmid* and Cullen,f suspension of the senses and general insensibility. The old practice of applying Rose-water externally, in ophthal- mic diseases, looks like a tacit avowal that there exists in the leaves of the rose some curative poAver for diseases of the eye. This is founded upon the homoeopathic virtue Avhich the rose possesses, of exciting by itself a speeies of ophthalmia in persons avIio are in health, an effect Avhich Echtius,| Ledelius,§ and Rau|| actually saw it produce. If, according to Pet Rossi,** Van Mons,f f J. Monti,^ Sybel,§§ and others, the Rhus-toxicodendron and Radicans have the faculty of producing pimples which gradually cover the entire body, it may be easily perceived Iioav it could effect a homoeopathic cure of various kinds of herpes, Avhich it really has done, according to information furnished by Dufresnoy and Van Mons. What could have bestowed upon this plant (as in a case cited by Alderson||||) the poAver of'-curing a paralysis of the lower extremities, attended with Aveakness of the intellectual organs, if it did not of itself evidently possess the faculty of depressing the muscular powers by acting on the imagination of the patient to such a degree as to make him believe that he is at the point of death, as in a case witnessed by Zadig.*** The Dulcamara, according to Carrere,fff has cured the most violent diseases emanating from colds, which could result • from no other cause but that this herb, in cold and damp weather, frequently produces similar affections to those which arise from colds, as Carrere himself has observed,:^ and likeAVise * Misc. Nat. Cur., dec. ii., ann. 2, obs. 20. f- Arzneimittellehre, ii., p. 233. I In Adami, Vita Medic, p. 72. $ Misc. Nat. Curios,, dec ii., ann. 2. obs. 140. || Rau, liber den Wei th des Homceop. Heilverfahrens, p. 73. ** Observ. de Nonnullis Plantis, quae pro venenatis habentur. Pisis, 1667. ff In Dufresnoy, Ueber den wurzelnden Sumach, p. 206. XX Acta Instit. Bonon., sc et. art. iii, p. 165. $$ In Med, Annalen, 1811, July. HII In Samml aus Abh. f. pr. Aerzte, xviii., 1. *** In Hufeland's Journal der Prakt. Arzeik., v., p. 3, fff Carrere (and Starcke), Abhandl. iiber die Eigenschaften des Nacht- schattens oder Bittersiisses. Jena, 1786, pp. 20-23. (Treatise on the Pro- perties of the Woody Nightshade or Bitter-sweet). Xtt H>id. 64 INTRODUCTION. Starckc*—Fritzef saAV the Dulcamara produce convulsions, and De Haen| witnessed the very same effects, attended with delirium ; on the other hand, convulsions attended with delirium have yielded to small doses of the Dulcamara, administered by the latterphysi- cian.§—It Avere vain to seek, amid the vast empire of hypotheses, the cause that renders the Dulcamara so efficacious in a species of herpes, as witnessed by Carrere,|| Fouquet,** and Poupartff Nature, Avhich requires the aid of homoeopathy to perforin a safe cure, sufficiently explains the cause, in the faculty possessed by the Dulcamara of producing a certain species of herpes. Carrere saw the use of this plant excite herpetic eruptions, Avhich covered the entire body during a fortnight',%% and, on another occasion, where it produced the same on the hands;§§ and, a third time, where it fixed itself on the labia-pudendi.\\\\ Rucker*** saw the Solanum-nigrum produce swelling of the entire body. This is the reason that Gatackerfff and CirilloJJJ succeeded in curing with its aid (homoeopathically) a species of dropsy. Boerhaave,§§§ Sydenham,||j||[ and Radcliffe,**** cured another species of dropsy Avith the aid of the Sambucus-niger, because, asHallerffff informs us, this plant causes smosdematous swelling when applied externally. v * In Carrere, Ibid., p. 140, 249. f Annalen des klinischen Instituts, iii., p. 45. X Ratio Medendi. Tom. iv., p. 228 § Ibid., where he says: " Dulco-amarae stipites majori dosi convulsiones et deliria excitant, moderata vero spasmos, convulsionesque solvunt." How near was De Ilaen to the discovery of the law of healing the most conform able to nature! || Ratio Medendi. Tom. iv., p. 92. ** In Razoux, Tables Nosologiques, p. 275. ft Traite des Dartres. Paris, 1782, pp. 184, 192. XX Ibid., p. 96. ^ Ibid., p. 149. || || Ibid., p. 164. _ *** Commerc Liter. Noric, 1731, p. 372. f tt Versuche und Bemerk. der Edinb'. Gesellschaft, Altenburg, 1762, vii pp. 95, 98. XXt Consult. Medichi. Tom. iii. Naples, 1738, 4to $$$ Historia Plantarum, P. I., p. 207. Illlll Opera, p. 496. **** In Haller, Arzneimittellehre, p. 349. +ttt ln Vicat, Plantes veneneuses, p. 125. INTRODUCTION. (jh De Ilaen,* Sarcone,+ and PringleJ have rendered due homage to truth and experience by declaring freely that they cured pleurisy with the Scilla-maritima, a root which, on account of its excessive acrid properties, ought to be forbidden iu a disease of this nature, Avhere, according to the received method, only sedative, relaxing, and refrigerant remedies are admissible. The disease in question subsided, nevertheless, under the influence of the Squill, on homoeopathic principles ; for T. C. Wagner § formerly saw the action of this plant alone produce pleurisy and infammoMon of the lungs. A great many practitioners—1). Criiger, Ray, Kellncr, Kaaw, Boerhaave, and others !|—have observed that the Datura-stra- * monitun excites a singular kind of delirium and convulsions. It is precisely this faculty that enabled physicians to cure with its aid demonomania** (fantastic madness, attended Avith spasms of the limbs), and other convulsions, as performed by Sidrenff and Wedenberg.JJ If, in the hands of Sidrcn,§§ it cured tAvo cases of chorea, one of which had been occasioned by fright, and the other by mercurial vapor, if was because it possessed the faculty of exciting involuntary movements of the limbs, as ob- served by Kaaw, Boerhaave, and Lobstein. Numerous observa- tions, and among others those made by Schcnck, have shown us that it can destroy consciousness and memory in a very short time; therefore, it ought not to surprise us if, according to the testimony of Sauvages and Schinz, it possesses the faculty of curing a Aveak memory. By the same rule, Schmalz|||| succeeded in curing. Avith the aid of this plant, a case of melancholy, alternating with, madness, because, according to Aeosta,*** it has the poArer * Ratio Medendi, P. L, p. 13. | History of Diseases in Naples, vol i., } 175. r Obs. on ih& Diseases of the Army, ed. 7, p. 143. J Observations Clinicse. Lubco, 1737. II C. Criiger, in Misc. Not. Cur., dec. iii., arm. 2. obs. 83.—Boerhaave, Iinpetuni Faciens.—Ley den, 1745, p. 282.—Kellner, in the Brest Saniml., 172. ## Veckoskrift for Laekare, iv., p. 40, ct sen. ■f-f Diss de Stramonii usu in Malis Convulsivis. Upsala, 1793. ttlbid. ft Diss. Morborum Casus, spec. i. Upsala. 1 /85. || j| Cbir. und Medic. Vorfalle. Leipzig, 1784, p. 178. ##* In P. Sohcnek, lib. 1, obs. 139. 66 INTRODUCTION. of exciting such alternate mental aberrations when administered to a person in health. Percival, Stahl, Quarin,* and many other physicians, have; observed that Cinchona occasions oppression of the stomach. Others (Morton, Friborg, Bauer, and Quarin) have seen this substance produce vomiting and diarrhoea, (D. Criiger and Morton) syncope,' some an excessive debility; many (Thomson, Richard, Stahl, and C. E. Fisher) a kind of jaundice; others (Quarin and Fischer) bitterness of the mouth; and yet others, tension of the belly. And it is precisely when these complicated evils occur in intermittent fevers, that Torti and Cleghorn recom- mend the use of Cinchona alone. The advantageous effects of this bark, in cases of exhaustion, indigestion, and loss of appe- tite, resulting from acute fevers (particularly Avhen the latter have been treated by venesection, evacuants, and debilitants), are founded upon the faculty Avhich it possesses of depressing excessively the vital p>owers, producing mental and bodily ex- haustion, indigestion, and loss of appetite, as observed by Cleghorn, Friborg, Criiger, Romberg, Stahl, Thomson, and others.f How Avould it have been possible to stop haemorrhages Avitli Ipecacuanha, as effected by Baglivi, Barbeyrac, Gianella, Dal- berg, Bergius, and others, if this medicine did not <5f itself pos- sess the faculty of exciting haemorrhage homoeopathically? as Murray, Scott, and Geoffrey^ have witnessed. Hoav could it be so efficacious in asthma, and particularly in spasmodic asthma, as it is described to have been by Akenside,§ Meyer,j| Bang,** StolLft Fouquet,^ and Ranoe,§§ if it did not of itself produce (without exciting any evacuation) asthma, and spasmodic asthma in particular, as Murray,j| || Geoffroy,*** and Scottff j have * Quoted in my Mat. Med., iii. t Mat. Med., iii. X Ibid., pp. 184, 185. $ Medic. Transact., I., No. 7, p. 39. Ii Diss, de Ipecac, refracta dosi usu, p. 34. ** Praxis Medica, p. 346. ft Pnclectiones, p. 221. XX Journal de Medecine, torn. 62, p. 137. ft In Act. Reg. Soc. Med. Hafn., ii., p. 163, iii., p. 361. II ii Medic. Pract, Bibb, p. 237. *** Traite de la Matiere Medicalc. ii., p. 157. iff In Med. Comment, of Edinh., iv., p. 74. INTRODUCTION. 67 seen it call forth? Can any clearer hints be required, that medicines ought to be applied to the cure of diseases according to the morbid effects which they produce? It Avould be impossible to conceive why the Faba-ignatia could be so efficacious in convulsions, as Ave are assured it is by Her- mann,* Valentin,f and an anonymous writer,^: if it did not possess the poAver of exciting similar convulsions, as witnessed by Bergius,§ Camelli,|| and Durius.** Persons Avho have received a blow or contusion, feel pains in the side, a desire to vomit spasmodic, lancinating, and burn- ing pain in the hypochondria, all of which are accompanied Avith anxiety, tremors, and involuntary starts, similar to those produced by an electric shock, formication in the parts that have received the injury, &c. As the Amica-montana produces similar symptoms, according to the observations of Meza, Vicat, Crichton, Collins, Aaskow, Stoll. and J. C. Lange,ff it may be easily perceivtd on Avliat account this plant cures the effects of a blow, fall, or contusion, and consequently the malady itself occasioned by such a contusion, as experienced by a host of physicians, and even whole nations, for centuries past. Among the effects Avhich Belladonna excites, when adminis- tered to a person in sound health, are sympt >ms which, taken collectively, present an image greatly resembling that species of hydrophobia and rabies-canina Avhich Mayerne^J Miinch,§§ Buchholz,|j|| and Neimike,*** cured in a perfect manner with this plant homceopathically.fft The patient in vain endeavors to * Cynosura Mat. Med., ii., p. 231 f- Hist. Simplic. Reform., p. 194, $ 4. X In Act. Berol., dec ii., vol. x., p. 12. $ Materia Medica, p. 150. || Philos. Trans., vol. xxi., No. 250. ** Miscell. Nat. Cur., dec. iii., ann. 9, 10. ft See my Mat. Medica, i. XX Praxeos in Morbis internis Syntagma alterum. Augusta) Vindelicorum, 1697, p. 136. ft Beobachtungen bei angewendetcr Belladonnc bci den Menschen. Sten dal, 1789. || || Heilsame Wirkungen der Belladonne in ausgebrochener Wuth. Erfurt, 1785. *** In J. H. Munch's Beobachtungen, Th. i., p. 74. tff If Belladonna has frequently failed in cases of decided rabies, we ought 6$ INTRODUCTION. sleep, the respiration is embarrassed, he is consumed by (i burning thirst, attended with anxiety; the moment any liquids are presented to him he rejects them with violence ; his counte- nance becomes red, his eyes fixed and sparkling (as observe*' by F. C. Grimm); he experiences a feeling of suffocation whi<'>- drinking, with excessive thirst (according to E. Camerarius an.'l Sauter); for the most part he is incapable of swallowing any- thing (as affirmed by May, Lottingcr, Sicelius, Buchave, D'Hcr- mont, Manetti, Vicat, and Cullen); he is alternately actuated by terror, and a desire to bite the persons who are near him (as seen by Sauter, Dumoulin, Buchave, and Mardorf) ; he spits everywhere around him (according to Sauter) ; he endeavors to make his escape (as Ave are informed by Dumoulin, E. Gmelin, and Buc'hoz); and a continual agility of the body is predomi- nant (as witnessed by Boucher, E. Gmelin, and Sauter).* Bella- donna has also effected the cure of different kinds of madness and melancholy, as in the cases reported by Evers, Schmucker, Schmalz, the two Munchs, and many others, because it pos- sesses the faculty of producing different kinds of insanity, like those mental diseases caused by Belladonna, Avhich are noted by Rau, Grimm, Hasenest, Mardorf, Hoyer, Dillenius, and others.f Henning,J after vainly endeavoring, during three months, to cure a case of amaurosis Avith colored spots before the eyes, by a variety of medicines, was at length struck with the idea that this malady might, perhaps, be occasioned by gout, although the patient had never experienced the slightest attack; and, upon this supposition, he Avas by chance induced to prescribe Bella- donna,§ which effected a speedy cure, free from any inconTenience. to remember that it cannot cure in such instances, but by its faculty of pro- ducing effects similar to those of the malady itself, and that, consequently, h ought not to be administered but in the smallest possible doses, as will bo shown in the Organon (§ 275-2S3). In general, it has been administered in very large doses, so that the patient necessarily died, not of the disease, but of the remedy. However, there may exist more than one degree or species of hydrophobia and rabies, and consequently (according to the diversity of the symptoms), the most suitable homoeopathic remedy may be sometimes Hyoscyamus, and sometimes Stramonium. * The places from these authors are referred to in my Mat."Medica i t Referred to in my Materia Medica, i. I In Hufeland's Journal, xxv., iv., pp. 70, 74. 5 Merc conjecture alone has led physicians to rank Belladonna anion" INTRODUCTION. 69 He would undoubtedly have made choice of this remedy at the commencement, had he knoAvn that it Avas not possible to per- form a cure but by the aid of a remedy Avhich produces symp- toms similar to those of the disease itself; and that, according to the infallible laAv of nature, Belladonna could not fail to cure this case homoeopathically, since, by the testimony of Sauter* and Buchholz,! it excites, of itself, a species of a?naurosis with colored spots before the eyes. The Hyoscyamus has cured spasms which strongly resembled epilepsy; as witnessed by Mayerne,^ Storck, Collin, and others. It produces this effect by the very same poAver that it excites conmdsions similar to those of epilepsy, as observed in the Avritings of E. Camerarius, C. Seliger, Hunerwolf, A. Hamilton, Planchon, Acosta, and others.§ Fothergill,|| Storck, Helhvick, and Ofterdinger have used Hyoscyamus Avith success in certain kinds of mental derangement. But the use of it would have been attended with equal success in the hands of many other physicians, had they confined it to the cure of that species of mental alienation Avhich Hyoscyamus is capable of producing in its primitive effects, viz., a kind of derangement Avith stupefaction, that Van Helmont, Wedel, J. G. Gmelin, La Serre, Hiincnvolf, A. Hamilton, Kiernander, J. Sted- mann, Tozetti, J. Faber, and Wendt saAV produced by the action of this plant** . By taking the effects of Hyoscyamus collectively, Avhich the latter observers haA'e seen it produce, they present a picture of hysteria arrived at a considerable height We also find, in J. A. P. Gessner, Storck, and in the Act. Nat. Cur.,!! that a case of hysteria, Avhich bore great resemblance to the above mentioned, was cured by the use of this plant SchcnkbecherJ^: Avould never have succeeded in curing a vertigo the remedies for gout. The disease which could, with justice, arrogate to itself the name of gout, never will nor can be cured by Belladonna. * In Hufeland's Journal, xi. f Ibid. vol. i., p. 252. X Prax. Med., p. 23. $ See my Materia Medica, vol. iv. jl Memoirs of Med. Soc of London, i., pp. 310, 314. *# See my Materia Medica, vol. iv. f-f IV. obs. 8. %X Von dcr Kinkina, Shierling, Bilsenkraut, &c Riga, 1769, p. 162. 70 INTRODUCTION. of tAventy years' standing, if this plant did not possess, in a very high degree, the poAver of creating generally an analogous state, as attested by Hiinerwolf, Blom, Navier, Planchon, Sloane, Sted- mann, Greding, Wepfer, Vicat, and Bernigau.* A man, who became deranged through jealousy, Avas for a long time tormented by Mayer Abramson! with remedies that produced no effect on him, Avhen, under the name of a soporific, he one day administered Hyoscyamus, Avhich cured him speedily. Had he knoAvn that this plant excites jealousy and madness in persons Avho are in health,! and had he been acquainted Avith the homoeo- pathic law (the sole natural basis of therapeutics), he Avouldhave been able to administer Hyoscyamus from the very commencement, with perfect confidence, and thus have avoided fatiguing the patient Avith remedies Avhich (not being homoeopathic) could be of no manner of sendee to him. The mixed prescriptions Avhich Avere employed for a long time with the greatest success by Hecker,§ in a case of spasmodic constriction of the eyelids, Avould have proved ineffectual, if some happy chance had not included Hyoscyamus, which, according to Wepfer,|| excites a similar affection in persons Avho are in sound health. Neither did Withering** succeed in curing a spasmodic con- striction of the pharynx, Avith inability to SAvallow, until he adminis- tered Hyoscyamus, Avhose special action consists of causing a spasmodic constriction of the throat, with the impossibility of swallowing, an effect Avhich Tozetti, Hamilton, Bernigau, Sau- vages, and Hiinenvolf!! have seen it produce in a very high degree. Hoav could Camphor produce such salutary effects as the veracious HuxhamJ^ says it does, in the so-called slow nervous fevers, where the temperature of the body is decreased, Avhere the sensibility is depressed, and the vital powers greatly diminished, * See my Mat. Medica, vol. iv. f In Hufeland's Journal, xix., ii., p. 60. \ See my Mat. Medica, vol. iv. $ Hufeland's Journal d. pr. Arzneik., i., p. 354. || De Cicuta Aquatica. Basil, 1716, p. 320. ** Edinb. Med. Comment. Dec. ii., B. vi., p. 263. ft See my Materia Medica, vol. iv., pp. 38, 39. XX Opera, t. i., p. 172; t. ii., p. 84. INTRODUCTION. 71 if the result of its immediate action upon the body did not produce a state similar in every respect to the latter, as observed by G. Alexander, Cullen, and F. Hoffmann ?* Spirituous Wines, administered in small doses, have cured, homoeopathically, fevers that were purely inflammatory. C. Crivellati,! II. Augenius,J A. Mundella,§ and two anonymous Avriters,|| have afforded us the proofs. Asclepiades,** on one occasion, cured an inflammation of the brain by administering a small quantity of Wine. A case of feverish delirium, like an insensible drunkenness, attended Avith stertorous breathing, similar to that state of deep intoxication Avhich Avine produces, Avas cured in a single night by Wine, Avhich Rademacher!! administered to the patient. Can any one deny the power of a medicinal irrita- tion analogous to the disease itself (similia similibus) in either of these cases? A strong infusion of Tea produces anxiety and palpitation of the heart in persons Avho are not in the habit of drinking it; on the other hand, if taken in small doses, it is an excellent remedy against such symptoms Avhen produced by other causes, as testi- fied by G. L. Rau.JJ A case resembling the agonies of death, in which the patient was convulsed to such a degree as to deprive him of his senses, alternating with attacks of spasmodic breathing, sometimes also sobbing and stertorous respiration, Avith icy coldness of the face and body, lividity of the feet and hands, and feebleness of the pulse (a state perfectly analogous to the Avhole of the symptoms which Schweikert and others saw produced by the use of Opium),^ Avas at first treated unsuccessfully by Stutz|| || Avith Ammonia, but aftenvards cured in a speedy and permanent manner with Opium. In this instance, could any one fail to discover the homoeopathic * See my Materia Medica, vol. iv. f Trattato dell' uso e modo di dare il vino nelle febri acute. Rome, 1600 X Epist., t. ii., lib. ii., ep. 8. $ Epist. 14. Basil, 1588. || Eph. Nat. Cur., dec. ii., ann. 2, obs. 53. Gazette de Sante, 1738. ** Coel. Aurelianus, Acut. lib. i., c. 16. ft In Hufeland's Journal, xvi., i., p. 92. XX Ueber den Werth des homceopathischen Heilverfabrens. Heidelberg, 1824, p. 72. ft See my Materia Medica, vol. i. || || In Hufeland's Journal, x., iv. 72 INTRODUCTION. method brought into action without the knowledge of the person Avho employed it? According to Vicat, J. C. Grimm, and others,* Opium also produces a powerful and almost irresistible tendency to sleep, accompanied by profuse perspiration and delirium. This Avas the reason why Osthoft'! Avas afraid to administer it in cases of epidemic fever Avhich exhibited similar symptoms; for the principles of the system Avhich he pursued prohibited the use of it under such circumstances. (The poor system!) However, after having exhausted in vain all the known remedies, and seeing his patients at the point of death, he resolved, at all hazards, to administer a small quantity of Opium, Avhose effects proved salu- tary, as they always must, according to the unerring laAV of homoeo- pathy. J. LindJ likewise avows that " Opium removes the complaints in the head, while the perspiration tediously breaks forth during the heat of the body; it relieves the head, destroys the burning febrile heat of the skin, softens it, and bathes its surface in a pro- fuse perspiration." But Lind was not aAvare that this salutary effect of Opium (contrary to the axioms of the schools of medi- '>;t^ is owing to the circumstance of its producing analogous morbid symptoms, Avhen administered to a person in health There has, nevertheless, here and there been a physician, across* Avhose mind this truth has passed like a flash of lightning, Avithout ever giving birth to a suspicion, of the laAvs of homoeopathy. For example, Alston§ says that Opium is a remedy that excites heat, notwithstanding Avhich, it certainly diminishes heat Avhere it already exists. De la Guerene|| administered Opium in a case of fever attended with violent headache, tension and hardness of the pulse, dryness and roughness of the skin, burning heat, and hence difficult and debilitating perspirations, the exhalation of which was constantly interrupted by the extreme agitation of the patient; and was successful Avith it, because Opium possesses the faculty of creating a feverish state in healthy persons, which is perfectly * See my Materia Medica, vol. i. f In the Salzburg Med. Chirurg. Journal, 1805, iii., p. 110. X Versuch fiber die Krankheiten denen die Europiier inheissen Klimaten unterworfen sind. Riga and Leipzig, 1773. (Treatise on the Diseases to which Europeans are subject in Warm Climates). ty In Edinb. Versuchen, v., p. 1., Art. 12. || In Romcr's Annalen dcr Arzncimittellehre, 1. ii., p. 6. INTRODUCTION. 73 analogous, as asserted by many observers,* and of which he was ignorant In a fever attended with coma, where the patient, deprived of speech, lay extended, the eyes open, the limbs stiff, the pulse small and intermittent, the respiration disturbed and Btertorous (all of Avhich are symptoms perfectly similar to those which Opium excites, according to the report of Delacroix, Rade- macher, Crumpe, Pyl, Vicat, Sauvages, and many others!), this was the only substance which C. L. Hoffmann^ saw produce any good effects, which were naturally a homoeopathic result. Wirthenson,§ Sydenham,|| and Marcus** have even succeeded in curing lethargic fevers with Opium. A case of lethargy, of Avhich De Meza!! effected a cure, would yield only to this sub- stance, which, in such cases, acts homoeopathically, since it pro- duces lethargy of itself. C. C. Matthai4$ in an obstinate case of nervous disease, where the principal symptoms were insensibility, and numbness of the arms, legs, and belly, after having for a long time treated it with inappropriate, that is to say, nonhomoeopathic remedies, at length effected a cure by Opium, Avhich, according to Stiitz, J. Young, and others,§§ excites similar symptoms of a very intense nature, and Avhich, as every one must perceive, only succeeded on this occasion by reason of the homoeopathic principle. The cure of a case of lethargy which had already existed several days, and which Hufeland performed by the use of Opium,|||| by what other laAV could this have been effected, if not by that of homoeopathy, which has remained disregarded till the present time ? In that peculiar species of epilepsy Avhich never manifests itself but during sleep, De Haen discovered that it Avas not at all a sleep, but a lethargic stupor, with stertorous respiration, perfectly similar to that which Opium produces in persons who are in health; it was by the means of Opium alone that he transformed it into a natural * See my Materia Medica, vol. i. t Ibid. X Von Scharbock, Lustseuche, &c Minister. 1787, p. 295. $ Opii vires fibras cordis debilitare, &c. Minister, 1775. || Opera, p. 654. ** Magazin fur Therapie, I., i., p. 7. ff Act. Reg. Soc. Med. Hafn., iii., p. 202. XX In Struve's Triumph der Heilk., iii. ft See my Materia Medica, vol. i. || || In Hufeland's Journal, xii. i 74 INTRODUCTION. and healthy sleep, Avhile, at the same time, he delivered the patient of hi3 epilepsy.* Hoav Avould it be possible that Opium, Avhich of all vegetable substances is the one Avhose administration, in small doses, pro- duces the most poAverful and obstinate constipation, as a primary effect, should notwithstanding be a remedy the most to be relied upon in cases of constipation which endanger life, if it Avas not in virtue of the homoeopathic hiAV, so little knoAvn—that is to say, if nature had not decreed that medicines should subdue natural dis- eases by a special action on their part, Avhich consists in pro- ducing an analogous affection? Opium, Avhose first effects are so poAverful in constipating the boAvels, Avas discovered by Tralles ! to be the only cure in a case of ileus, Avhich he had till then treated ineffectually Avith evacuants and other inappropriate reme- dies. Lentilius % and G. W. Wedel,§ Wirthenson, Bell, Heister, and Richter|| have likewise confirmed the efficacy of Opium, even Avhen administered alone in this disease. The candid Bohn** Avas likewise convinced by experiencerihat nothing but opiates Avould act as purgatives in the colic called miserere; and the celebrated F. Hoffmann,!! in the most dangerous cases of this nature, placed his sole reliance on Opium, combined Avith the anodyne liquor called after his name. All the theories contained in the tAVO hundred thousand volumes that have been written on medicine, being ignorant of the therapeutic laAV of homoeopathy, would they be able to furnish us with a rational explanation of this and so many other similar facts ? Have their doctrines conducted us to the discovery of this law of nature, so clearly manifested in every perfect, speedy, and permanent cure—that is to say, have they taught us that, Avhen we use medicines in the treatment of diseases, it is necessary to take for a guide the resemblance of their effects, upon a person in health, to the symptoms of those very diseases ? * Ratio Medendi, V., p. 126. f Opii usus et abusus, sect, ii., p. 260. X Eph. Nat. Cur., dec. iii., ann. i. app., p. 131. § Opiologia, p. 120. || Anfangsgrunde der Wundarzneikunde, V., \ 328.—Chronische Krank- heiten, Berlin, 1816, ii., p. 220. (Rudiments of Surgery, V., $ 328.—Chronic Diseases, Berlin, 1816, ii., p. 220). ** De Officio Medici. ft Medicin. rat. system. T. IV., p. ii., 297. INTRODUCTION. 75 Rave* and Wedekind! have suppressed uterine haemorrhage with the aid of Sabina, which, as every one knows, causes uterine haemorrhage, and consequently abortion Avith women who are in health. Could any one, in this case, fail to perceive the homoeo- pathic laAv Avhich ordains that we should cure similia similibus f In that species of spasmodic asthma designated by the name of miliar, how could Musk act almost specifically, if it did not of itself produce paroxysms of a spasmodic constriction of the chest Avithout cough, as observed by F. Hoffmann ? $ Could vaccination protect us from the small-pox otherwise than homoeopathically ? Without mentioning any other traits of close resemblance which often exist between these two maladies, they have this in common—they generally appear but once during the course of a person's life; they leave behind cicatrices equally deep; they both occasion tumefaction, of the axillary glands ; a fever that is analogous; an inflamed areola around each pock; and, finally, ophthalmia and convulsions. The cow-pox Avould even destroy the small-pox on its first ap- pearance, that is to say, it Avould cure this already existing malady, if the intensity of the small-pox did not predominate over it. To produce this effect, then, it only Avants that excess of power which, according to the. law of nature, ought to correspond with the ho- moeopathic resemblance in order to effect a cure (§ 158). Vac- cination, considered as a homoeopathic remedy, cannot, therefore, proAre efficacious except Avhen employed previous to the appear- ance of the small-pox, Avhich is the stronger of the two. In this manner it excites a disease very analogous (and conse- quently homoeopathic) to the small-pox, after whose course the human body, which, according to custom, can only be attacked once with a disease of this nature, is henceforward protected against a similar contagion.§ * Beobachtungen und Schliisse (Observations and Conclusions), ii. p. 7. f In Hufeland's Journal, X. i., p. 77; and in his "Aufsatzen," p. 278. X Med. ration. System., iii., p. 92. $ This mode of homoeopathic cure in antecessum (which is called preser- vation of prophylaxy), also appears possible in many other cases. For example, by carrying on our persons Sulphur, we think we are preserved from the itch, which is so common among wool-workers; and, by taking as feeble a dose as possible of Belladonna, that we are protected from scarlet fever. 76 INTRODUCTION. It is well known that retention of urine, with ineffectual efforts to urinate, is one of the most common and painful evils which the use of Cantharides produces. This point has been sufficiently established by J. Camerarius, Baccius, Van Hilden, Forest, J. Lanzoni, Van der Wiel, and Werlhoff.* Cantharides, adminis- tered internally, and with precaution, ought consequently, to be a very salutary homoeopathic remedy in similar cases of painful dysuria. And this is in reality the case. For, Avithout enumerat- ing all the Greek physicians avIio, instead of our Cantharides, made use of Meloe-cichorii, Fabricius ab Aquapendente, Capo di Vacca, Riedlin, Th. Bartholin,! Young,% Smith,§ Raymond,|| De Meza,** Brisbane,!! and others, performed perfect cures of very painful ischuria, that was not dependent upon any mechanical obstacle, with Cantharides. Huxham has seen this remedy pro- duce the best effects in cases of the same nature; he praises it highly, and would willingly have made use of it, had not the pre- cepts of the old school of medicine (Avhich, deeming itself Aviser than nature herself, prescribes in such cases soothing and relaxing remedies) prevented him, contrary to his own conviction, from using a remedy which, in such cases, is specific or homoeopathic.:}:! In cases of recent inflammatory gonorrhoea, where Sachs von Lewenheim, Hannseus, Bartholin, Lister, Mead, and chiefly Werl- hoff, administered Cantharides in A'ery small doses, with perfect success, this substance manifestly removed the most severe symp- toms which began to declare themselves. §§ It produced this effect by virtue of the faculty it possesses * See my Fragmenta de Viribus Medicamentorum Positivis. Leipsic 1805, i., p. 83. f Epist. 4, p. 345. X Phil. Trans., No. 280. $ Medic Communications, ii., p. 505. || In Auserlesene Abhandl. fur pract. Aerzte (Select Treatises for Practi- cal Physicians), iii., p. 460. ** Act. Reg. Soc Med. Hafn. ii., p. 302. ft Auserlesene Falle (Selected Cases). Altenburg, 1777. XX Opera, edit. Reichel, t. ii., p. 124. ft I say, '• the most severe symptoms which began to declare themselves " because the subsequent treatment demands other considerations; for. al- though there may haAre been cases of gonorrhoea so slight as to disappear very soon of themselves, and almost without any assistance whatever still there are others of a graver nature, especially that which has become so common since the time of the French campaigns, which might be called INTRODUCTION. 77 (according to the testimony of almost every observer) of exciting painful micturition, urinary heat, inflammation of the urethra (Wendt), and even, when applied only externally, a species of in- flammatory gonorrhoea (Wichmann).* The administration of Sulphur internally very often occasions, in persons of an irritable disposition, tenesmus, sometimes even attended Avith vomiting and griping, as attested by Walther.! It is by virtue of this property, Avhich Sulphur exhibits, that physicians have been ablej to cure, Avith its aid, dysenteric attacks and hemorrhoidal diseases attended with tenesmus, as observed by Werlhoff, § and, according to Rave, || hemorrhoidal colics. It is well known that the waters at Toeplitz, like all other Avarm sulphurous mineral Avaters, frequently excite the appearance of an exanthema, which strongly resembles the itch, so prevalent among persons employed in wool-working. It is precisely this homoeopathic virtue which they possess that removes various kinds of psoric eruptions. Can there be anything more suffocat- ing than sulphurous fumes? Yet it is the Vapor arising from the combustion of Sulphur that Bucquet** discovered to be the best means of reanimating persons in a state of asphyxia pro- duced by another cause. From the Avritings of Beddoes and others, we learn that the English physicians found Nitric-acid of great utility in saliva- tion and ulceration of the mouth, occasioned by the use of Mer- cury. This acid could never have proved useful in such cases if it did not of itself excite salivation and ulceration of the mouth. To produce these effects, it is only necessary to bathe the surface of the body with it, as Scott!! and Blair%% observe, and the same o-onorrhoea-svcotica, and which is communicated by coition, like the chan- crous disease, although of a very different nature. * Auswahl aus den Niirnberger gelehrten Unterhaltungen, i., p. 249, note. f Progr. de Sulphure et Marte, Lips., 1743, p. 5. X Medic. National-Zeitung (National Med. Gazette), 1798, p. 153. $ Observat. de Febribus, p. 3, $ 6. || In Hufeland's Journal, VII., ii., p. 168. ** Edinb. Med. Comment., IX. ff In Hufeland's Journal, IV., p. 353. tt Neueste Erfahrungen (Most Recent Discoveries), Glogau, 1801. 78 intkoi>l\';:<>n. will occur if administered internally, according to the testimony of Aloyn,* Luke,! Ferriar,^ and G. Kelly.§ Fritze || saw a species of tetanus produced by a bath impreg- nated Avith Carbonate of Potash; and A. A-on Humboldt,** by the application of a solution of Salt of Tartar, increased the irri- tability of the muscles to such a degree as to excite tetanic spasms. The curative power Avhich Caustic Potash exercises in all kinds of tetanus, in Avhich Stiitz and others have found it so useful, could it be accounted for in a more simple or rational manner than by the faculty which this alkali possesses of pro- ducing homoeopathic effects ? Arsenic, Avhose effects are so poAverful upon the human eco- nomy that Ave cannot decide Avhether it is more hurtful in the hands of the fool-hardy than it is salutary in those of the Aviso,— Arsenic could never have effected so many remarkable cures of cancer in the face, as witnessed by numerous physicians, among Avhom I will only cite Fallopius,!! Bernhardt,^ and RonnoA\r,§§ if this metallic oxide did not possess the homoeopathic power of producing, in healthy persons, very painful tubercles, which are cured with difficulty, as witnessed by Amatus Lusitanus ;||)| Arery deep and malignant ulcerations, according to the testimony of Ileinreich-** and Knape ;!!! nndcanccrous ulcers, as testified by Heinze. JJ$ The ancients Avould not have been unanimous in the praise Avhich they bestOAved on the magnetic arsenical plaster of Angelus Sala,§§§ against pestilential buboes and carbuncles, if * In the Memoires de la Soc Med. d'Emulation, I., p. 195. \ In Beddoes. X In the Sammlung auserles. Abhandl. fiir pract. Aertzte (Select Trea- tises for Practical Physicians), XIX., ii. § Ibid., XIX., i., p. 116. || In Hufeland's Journal, XII., i., p. 116. ** Versuch iiber die gereizte Muskcl- und Nervenfaser (Treatise on the Irritability of the Muscles and Nerves). Posen and Berlin, 1797. ff De Ulceribus et Tumoribus, lib. 2. Venice, 1563. XX In the Journal de Medecine, Chirurg. et Pharm., lvii., March, 1782. ft Konigl. Vetensk. Acad. Handl. f. a., 1776. I||| Obs. et cur. Cent, ii., cur. 34. *** Act. Nat. Cur., ii., obs. 10. fff Annalen der Staatsarzneikunde, I., i. XXX 1° Hufeland's Journal for September, 1813, p. 48. §ft Anatom, Vitrioli, tr. ii. in Opera Med. Chym. Frankfort, 1647, pp. 381, 463. INTRODUCTION. 79 Arsenic did not, according to the report of Degner* and Pfann,! give rise to inflammatory tumors Avhich quickly turn to gangrene, and to carbuncles or malignant pustules, as observed by Ver- zaschaj and Pfann.§ And Avhence could arise that curative poAver Avhich it exhibits in certain species of intermittent fevers (a A'irtue attested by so many thousands of examples, but in the practical application of which sufficient precaution has not yet been observed, and Avhich virtue Avas asserted centuries ago by Nicholas Myrepsus, and subsequently placed beyond a doubt by the testimony of Slevogt, Molitor, Jacobi, J. C. Bernhardt, Jiing- ken, Fauve, Brera, Darwin, May, Jackson, and Fowler) if it did not proceed from its peculiar faculty of exciting fever, as almost every observer of the evils resulting from this substance has re- marked, particularly Amatus Lusitanus, Degner, Buchholz, Heun, and Knape.|| We may confidently believe E. Alexander,** Avhen , he tells us that Arsenic is a sovereign remedy in some cases of angina-pectoris, since Tachenius, Guilbert, Preussius, Thilenius, and Pyl have seen it give rise to very great oppression of the chest; Gresselius!! to a dyspnma, approaching even to suffoca- tion; and Majault, JJ in particular, saAV it produce sudden attacks of asthma, excited by walking, attended' with great depression of the vital powers. The convulsions A\hich are caused by the administration of Copper, and those observed by Tondi, Ramsay, Fabas, Pyl, and Cosmier, as proceeding from the use of aliments impregnated with Copper; the reiterated attacks of epilepsy, Avhich J. La- zerme§§ saw result from the accidental introduction of a Copper coin into the stomach, and Avhich Pfiindel|||| saAV produced by the ingestion of a compound of Sal-ammoniac and Copper into the * Act. Nat, Cur., VI. \ Annalen der Staatsarzneikunde, loc cit. X Obs. Med. Cent. Basil, 1677, obs. 66. i Samml. merkwiird. Falle. (Collection of Remarkable Cases.) Nurem- berg, 1750, pp. 119, 130. || See my Mat. Med., vol. ii. ** Med. Comm. of Edinb. Dec. II., t. i., p. 85. ff Misc. Nat. Cur. Dec. I., ann. 2, p. 149. XX In the Sammlung auserles. Abhandl. fur Aerzte, VII., 1. ft De morbis internis capitis. Amsterdam, 1748, p. 253. || || In Hufeland's Journal, II., p. 264; and according to the testimony of Burdach, in his System of Medicine, i. Leip., 1807, p. 284. 80 INTRODUCTION. digesti\re canal, sufficiently explain, to those physicians Avho "will take the trouble to reflect upon it, how Copper has been able to cure a case of chorea, as reported by R. Willan,* Walcker,! Theussink, \ and Delarive,§ and Avhy preparations of Copper have so frequently effected the cure of epilepsy, as attested by Batty, Baumes, Bierling, Boerhaave, Causland, Cullen, Duncan, Feuer- stein, HeA-etius, Lieb, Magennis, C. F. Michaelis, Reil, Russell, Stisser, Thilcnius, Weissmann, Weizenbreyer, Whithers, and others. If Poterius, Wepfer, Wedel, F. Hoffmann, R. A. Vogel, Thierry, and Albrecht have cured a species of phthisis, hectic fever, chronic catarrh, and mucous asthma Avith Stannum, it is because this metal possesses the faculty of producing a species of phthisis, as Stahl || has observed. And hoAV could it cure pains of the stomach, as Geischlager says it does, if it Avas not capable of ex- citing a similar malady ? Geischlager himself,** and Stahl y\ before him, have proved that it does possess this poAver. The evil effects of Lead, Avhich produces the most obstinate. constipation, and even the iliac passion (as Thunbcvg, Wilson, Lazuriaga, and others, inform us), do they not also give us to understand that this metal possesses likeAvise the virtue of curing these two affections? Like every other medicine, it ought to subdue and cure, in a permanent Manner, the natural diseases Avhich bear a resemblance to those Avhich it engenders, by reason of the faculty which it possesses of exciting morbid symptoms. Angelus Sala^J cured a species of ileus, and J. Agri- cola§§ another kind of constipation, Avhich endangered the life of the patient, by administering Lead internally. The saturnine pills, with which many physicians (Chirac, Van Hebnont, Nau- deau, Pererius, Rivinus, Sydenham, Zacutus Lusitanus, Block, and others) cured the iliac passion and obstinate constipation, did not operate merely in a mechanical manner, by reason of their weight; for, if such had been the sources of their efficacy, Gold, * Sammlung auserles. Abhandl., XII., p. 62. f Ibid., XL, iii., p. 672. X Waarnemingen, No. 18. $ In Kiihn's Phys. Med. Journal, January, 1800, p. 58. || Mat. Med,, cap. 6., p. 83. ** In Hufeland's Journal. X., iii., p. 165. tf Mat. Med., loc cit. tf Opera, p. 213. vj Comment, in J. Poppii chym. Med. Lips., 1638, p. 223. INTRODUCTION. 81 whose Aveight is greater than that of Lead, would have been pre- ferable in such a case ; but the pills acted particularly as a saturnine internal remedy, and cured homoeopathically. If Otto Tachenius and Saxtorph formerly cured cases of obstinate hypo- chondriasis Avith the aid of Lead, Ave ought to bear in mind that this metal tends of itself to excite hypochondriasis, as may be seen in the description of its ill effects given by Lazuriaga * We ought not to be surprised that Marcus! speedily cured an inflammatory SAvelling of the tongue and of the pharynx witn a remedy (Mercury) Avhich, according to the daily experience of physicians, has a specific tendency to produce inflammation and tumefaction of the internal parts of the mouth, phenomena to which it gives rise when merely applied to the surface of the body in the form of ointment or plaster, as experienced by Degner,$ Frieze,§ Alberti,|| Engel,** and many others. The weakening of the intellectual faculties (Swediaurj-!), imbecility (DegnerJJ), and mental alienation (Larry§§), which have been seen to result from the use of Mercury, joined to the almost specific faculty which this metal is known to possess, of exciting salivation, ex- plain how G. Perfectj||j was enabled, Avith the use of Mercury, to cure, in a permanent manner, a case of melancholy alternating Avith increased secretion of saliva. How does it happen that preparations of Mercury proved so successful in the hands of Seelig,*** in the treatment of angina, accompanied with purpura ; in those of Hamilton.!!! Hoffmann,J$J Marcus,§§§ Rush,|||||| * Recueil period, de Litterature, i., p. 20. \ Magazin, II.. ii. X Act. Nat. Cur., VI. app. $ Geschichte und Versuche einer chirurg. Gesellschaft. (History and Experiments of a Chirurg. Soc.) Copenhagen, 1774. || Jurisprudentia Medica, V., p. 600. ** Specimina Medica. Berlin, 1781, p. 99. ft Traite des Malad. Vener., II., p. 368. XX Loc- cit- ft Memoirs and Observations in the Description of Egypt, vol. i. || || Annalen einer Anstalt fur Wahnsinnige (Annals of an Institute for Mad Persons). Hanover, 1804. *** In Hufeland's Journal, XVI., 1, p. 24 (•ft Edinb. Med. Comment., IX., 1., p. 8. XXX Medic Wochenblatt, 1787, No. 1. §ft Magazin fur Specielle Therapie, II., p. 334. || || || Medic. Inquir. and Observ., No. 6. 6 52 INTRODUCTION. Colden,* Bailey, and Michaelis,! in the treatment of other kinds of malignant quinsy ? It is evidently because this metal brings on of itself a species of angina of the worst description.^ It Avas certainly by homoeopathic means that Sauter§ cured an ulcerous inflammation of the mouth, accompanied with aphthae and footor of the breath, similar to that which occurs in salivation, Avhen he prescribed a solution of Corrosive Sublimate as a gargle and that Block || removed aphthae by the use of mercurial prepara- tions, since, among other ulcerations of the mouth, this substance particularly produces a species of aphthw, as we are informed by Schlegel** and Th. Acrey.!! Hecker Jf used A'arious medicinal compounds successfully in a case of caries succeeding small-pox. Fortunately, a portion of Mercury was contained in each of these mixtures, to which it may be imagined that this remedy will yield (homoeopathically), because Mercury is one of the feAV medicinal agents which excites of itself caries, as proved by the many excessive mercurial courses used against syphilis, or even against other diseases, among Avhich are those related by G. P. Michaelis.§§ This metal, AA'hich becomes so formidable when its use is prolonged, on account of the caries of which it then becomes the exciting cause, exercises, notwithstanding, a very salutary homoeopathic in- fluence in the caries which folloAvs mechanical injuries of the bones, some very remarkable instances of which have been trans- mitted to us by J. Schlegel,|||| Jordens,*** and J. M. Miiller.!!! * Medic. Observ. and Inquir., 1, No. 19, p. 211. i In Richter's Chirurg. Biblioth., V., pp. 737—739. X Physicians have likewise endeavored to cure the croup by means of Mercury; but they generally failed in the attempt, because this metal -cannot produce (of itself) in the mucous membranes of the trachea, a -change similar to that particular modification which the disease engenders. 'Sulphuretem-calcis. which excites cough by impeding respiration, and still more so the tincture of Sponga-tosta, act more homoeopathically in their special effects, and are consequently much more efficacious, particularly .when administered in the smallest possible doses. (See my Mat. Med., vi.) •$ In Hufeland's Journal, VII., ii. || Medic Bemerkungen (Med. Observations), p. 161. "** In Hufeland's Journal, VII., iv. ft London Med. Journal, 1788. 'XX In Hufeland's Journal, i.; p. 362. ft Ibid., June, 1809, vi., p. 57. IIH Hufeland's Journal, v., pp. 605, 610. *** Ibid., X., ii. ftt Obs. Med. Chirur., ii., cas. 10. INTRODUCTION. 83 The cure of caries (not venereal) of another kind, which has like- wise been effected by means of Mercury, by J. F. G. Neu* and J. D. Metzger,! furnishes a fresh proof of the homoeopathic curative virtue Avith Avhich this substance is endowed. In perusing the Avorks which have been published on the subject of medical electricity, it is surprising to see what analogy exists between the morbid symptoms sometimes produced by this agent and the natural diseases Avhich it has cured in a durable manner by homoeopathic influence. Innumerable are the authors Avho have observed that acceleration of the pulse is among the first effects of positive electricity; but Sauvages,J Delas,§ and Barillon|| have seen febrile paroxysms excited by electricity. The faculty it has of producing fever is the cause to Avhich we may attribute the circumstance of Gardini,** Wilkinson,!! Syme^J and Wesley§§ curing with it alone, tertian fever, and likeAvisc the removal of quartan fevers by Zetzel|||| andWillermoz.*** It is also knoAvn that electricity occasions a contraction of the muscles which resembles a convulsive movement. De Sans!!! Avas enabled to excite even continued convulsions, in the arm of a young g4rl, as often as he pleased to make the experiment. It is by virtue of this poAver Avhich electricity develops that De SansJJJ and Franlhtning, yet kept up a constant involuntary n ovement of the arms and legs, accompanied by a spasmodic contraction of the fino-ers of the left hand. Electricity likewise produced a kind of ischias, as observed by Jallobert**** and another;!!!! it has also cured this affection by similarity of effect (homoeopathically), as * Diss. Med. Pract. Gcettingae, 1776, t Adversaria, p. ii., sect. 4. X In Bertholon de St. Lazare, Medicinische Electricitat, von Kfihn. (Me- dical Electricity). Leip., 1788. t. i. pp. 239, 210. § Ibid., p. 232. !| Ibid., p. 233. ** Ibid. p. 232. tt Ibid., p. 251. Xt Ibid., p. 250. ft Ibid., p. 249. |||| Ibid., p. 52. *** Ibid., p. 250. ftt Ibid., p. 274. *±X Ibid., p. 274. §§y Recueil sur l'Electr. Medic, ii., p. 386. || || || Neue Bemerkungen und Erfahrungen, iii. (Recent Observations and Experiments). **** Experiences et Observations sur l'Elcctricite. "tftf Philos. Trans., vol. 63. SI INTRODUCTION. confirmed by Hiortberg, Lovet, Arrigoni, Daboueix, Manduyt, Syme, and Wesley. Several physicians have cured a species of ophthalmia by electricity—that is to say, by means of the poAver Avhich it has of exciting of itself inflammation of the eyes, as observed by P. Dickson* and Bertholon.! Finally, it has, in the hands of Fushel, cured varices; and it OAves this sanative virtue to the faculty which Jallobertf: ascribes to it, of pro- ducing varicose tumors. Albers relates that a warm bath, at one hundred degrees of the thermometer of Fahrenheit, greatly reduced the burning of an acute fever, in Avhich the pulse beat one hundred and thirty to the minute, and that it brought back the pulsation to the number of one hundred and ten. Loffler found hot fomentations very useful in encephalitis occasioned by insulation or the action of the heat of stoves,§ and Callisen|| regards affusions of Avarm water on the head as the most efficacious of all remedies in cases pf inflammation of the brain. If we except those cases where ordinary physicians have discovered (net by the:r own research, but by vulgar empiricism) the specific remedy for a disease which always retained its iden- tity, and by whose aid they could consequently cure it in a direct manner—such, for example, as Mercury in the chancrous venereal disease, Arnica in a malady resulting from contusions, Cinchona in intermittent fevers arising from marsh miasmata, Sulphur in a rece t development of itch, &c,—I say, if Ave accept all these cases, Ave shall find that those Avhich they have cured promptly and permanently by the bounty of Providence alone, are, to the mass of their other irrational cures, in the proportion of one to a thousand. Sometimes they are conducted by mere chance to a homoeo- pathic mode of treatment ;** but yet they did did not perceive the * Bertholon, loc cit., p. 466. f Loc. cit. ii., p. 296. X Loc cit. $ In Hufeland's Journal, iii., p. 630. || Act. Soc. Med. Hafn., iv., p. 419. ** Thus, for example, they always imagine they can drive out the perspi- ration through the skin (which, they say, stops up the pores after catching INTRODUCTION. 85 law of nature, by which cures of this kind are and ever must be performed. It is, therefore, highly important to the welfare of the human race that we should examine how these cures, which are as re- markable for their rare occurrence as they are surprising in their effects, are performed. The result is one of the deepest cold) by administering, in the cold stage of the fever, an infusion of the flowers of the Sambucus-niger, which is capable of subduing such fevers homoeopathically, and restores the patient to health. The cure is most effectually and speedily performed, without perspiration, when the patient drinks but little of this liquor and abstains from all other medicines. They often apply repeated warm cataplasms to acute tumors, whose excessive inflammation, attended with insupportable pain, prevents suppuration taking place. Under the influence of this treatment, the inflammation soon di- minishes, the pain decreases, and the abscess is quickly formed, as may be discovered by the fluctuation and appearance of the surface. They imagine that they have softened the tumor by the moisture of the cataplasm, while they have done nothing more than destroy the excess of inflammation ho- moeopathically, by the stronger heat of the cataplasm, and promoted sup- puration. "Why is the red oxide of Mercury (which forms the basis of the ointment of St. Ives) of such utility in certain cases of ophthalmia, when, of all substances, there is none more capable of producing inflammation of the eyes ? Is it difficult to perceive that in this case its action is homoeopathic ? How could the juice of Parsley procure instantaneous relief in cases of dysuria, so frequent among children, or in ordinary cases of gonorrhoea, which are principally distinguished by painful and vain attempts to pass water, if this juice did not cure homoeopathically, by the faculty which it possesses of exciting painful dysuria in healthy persons ? The Saxifrage, which excites an abundant mucous secretion in the bronchiae and pharynx, is a salutary remedy for the so-called mucous angina; and certain kinds of uterine haemorrhage are stopped by small doses of the leaves of Sabina, which has the property of exciting metrorrhagia: in both instances these remedies are applied without any knowledge of the therapeutic law of ho- moeopathy. Opium, which produces costiveness, has been found, in small doses, to be one of the principal and most certain remedies in constipation from incarcerated hernia and ileus, without ever leading to a discovery of the homoeopathic law which is evident in such cases. Ulcers in the throat (not venereal) have been cured homoeopathically by small doses of Mercury. Diarrhoea has frequently been stopped by the use of Rhubarb, which pro- duces alvine evacuations; rabies has been removed by means of Belladonna, which excites a species of hydrophobia; and, finally, coma, which is so dangerous in acute fevers, has been cured, as if by enchantment, by a small dose of Opium, a substance which occasions heat and stupefaction. And, after all these examples, Avhich speak loudly for themselves, there are still physicians who repulse homoeopathy with disdain! 86 INTRODUCTION interest. The examples Avhich Ave have cited, sufficiently prove that these cures have never taken place but by homoeopathic means—that is to say, by the faculty of exciting a morbid state, similar to the disease that Avas to he cured. They have been performed in a prompt and permanent manner, by medicines upon Avhich those Avho prescribed them (contrary to all the existing systems of therapeutics) have fallen, as it were, by chance, Avithout Avell knowing Avhat they were doing, or Avhy they acted in this manner. Contrary to their inclinations, they by this fact confirmed the necessity of the sole laAv of nature in therapeutics, that of homoeopathy; a laAV which medical prejudices, till now, would not permit us to search after, not- withstanding the infinite number of facts and visible signs which ought to have pointed towards its discovery. Even in the practice of domestic medicine, by persons ignorant of our profession, but who are gifted with sound judgment and discerning minds, it was discovered that the homoeopathic method of cure was the safest, the most rational, and the least subject to failure. Frozen sour-krout is frequently applied to a limb that is re- cently frozen, or, sometimes, it is rubbed with snow.* !* It is on such examples of domestic practice that Mr. M. Lux founds his so-called mode of cure, by identicals and idem, which he calls isopathy, which some eccentric-minded persons have already adopted as the ne plus ultra of a healing art, without knowing how they can carry it out in practice. But, if we examine these instances attentively, we find that they do not bear out these views. The purely physical powers differ in the nature of their action on the living organism from those of a dynamic medical kind. Heat or cold of the air that surrounds us, or of the water, or of our food and drink, occasion (as heat and cold) of themselves no absolute injury to a healthy body; heat and cold are, in their alternations, essential to the main- tenance of healthy life, consequently they are not of themselves medicine. Heat and cold, therefore, act as curative agents in affections of the body, not by A'irtue of their essential nature (not, therefore, as heat and cold per se, not as things hurtful in themselves, as are the drugs, Rhubarb, China, &c, even in the smallest doses), but only by virtue of their greater or smaller quantity, that is, according to their degrees of temperature, just as (to take an example from mere physical powers) a great weight of lead will bruise my hand painfully, not by virtue of its essential nature as lead, for a thin plate of lead would not bruise me, but in consequence of its quantity and massive weight. If, then, cold or heat be serviceable in bodily ailments, like frost-bites or INTRODUCTION. 87 A cook who has scalded his hand, exposes it to the fire at a certain distance, without heeding the increase of pain which it at first occasions, because experience has taught him that, by acting burns, they are so solely on account of their degree of temperature, just as they only inflict injury on the healthy body by their extreme degrees of tem- perature. Thus we find, in these examples of successful domestic practice, that it is not the prolonged application of the degree of cold in which the limb was frozen that restores it isopathically (it would thereby be rendered quite life- less and dead), but a degree of cold that only approximates to that (homoeo- pathy), and which gradually rises to a comfortable temperature—as frozen sour-krout laid upon the frost-bitten hand, in the temperature of the room, soon melts, gradually growing warmer from 32° or 33° (Fahr.) to the tem- perature of the room, supposing that to be only 55°, and thus the limb is recovered by physical homoeopathy. In like manner, a hand scalded with boiling water would not be isopathically cured by the application of boiling water, but only by a somewhat lower temperature; as, for example, by holding it in a vessel containing a fluid heated to 160°, which becomes every minute less hot, and finally descends to the temperature of the room, where- upon the scalded part is restored by homceopathy. Water in the act of freezing cannot isopathically draw out the frost from potatoes and apples, but this is effected by water only near the freezing point. So, to give another example from physical action, the injury resulting from a blow on the forehead with a hard substance (a painftil tumor), is soon diminished in pain and swelling by pressing on the spot for a considerable time with the ball of the thumb, strongly at first, and then gradually less forcibly, homoeopathically; but not by an equally hard blow with an equally hard body, which would increase the evil isopathically. The examples of cures by isopathy, given in the book alluded to—muscular contractions in human beings, and spinal paralysis in a dog, which had been caused by a chill, being rapidly cured by cold bathing—these events are falsely explained by isopathy. What are called sufferings from a chill are only nominally connected with cold, and often arise, in the bodies of those predisposed to them, even from a draught of wind which was not at all cold. Moreover, the manifest effects of a cold bath on the living organism, in health and in disease, cannot be reduced to such a simple formula as to warrant the construction of a system of such pretensions! That serpents' bites, as is there stated are most certainly cured by portions of the serpents, must remain a mere fable of a former age, until such an improbable assertion is authenti- cated by indubitable observation and experience, which it certainly never will be. That, in fine, the saliva of a mad dog, given to a patient laboring under hydrophobia (in Russia), is said to have cured him—that "is said" would not seduce any conscientious physician to imitate such a hazardous experiment, to construct a so-called isopathic system, so dangerous, and so highly improbable in its extended application, as has been done (not by the modest author of the pamphlet entitled, "The Isopathy of Contagions; Leip- 88 introduction;. thus, he can in a very short time perfectly cure the burn, and remove every feeling of pain.* Other intelligent individuals, equally strangers to medical science—such, for example, as the lacker-workers, apply a sub- stance to burns Avhich excites of itself a similar feeling of heat, that is to say, hot Alcohol or the oil of Turpentine,^ and by the e zig: Kollmann," but) by its eccentric supporters, especially Dr. Gross (v. Allg. Horn. Ztg., ii., p. 72), who vaunts this isopathy (cequalia cequalibus) as the only proper therapeutic rule, and sees nothing in the similia similibus but an indifferent substitute for it; ungratefully enough, as he is entirely indebted to the similia similibus for all his fame and fortune. * Fernel (in his Therapeutics, book vi., cap. 20,) considered that the best means to allay pain was to expose the part that was burnt to the fire. John Hunter (in his work on the blood, p. 218) mentions the great inconvenience that results from the application of cold water to burns, and prefers the method of exposing the parts to the fire. In tins he departs from the tradi- tional doctrines of medicine, which prescribe cooling remedies in cases of inflammation (contraria contrariis); but experience proved to him that a homoeopathic heat (similia similibus) would be most salutary. f Sydenham (Opera, p. 271) says that repeated applications of Alcohol are preferable to all other remedies in burns. B. Bell (System of Surgery, 1789) expresses himself equally favorable with regard to the efficacy of homoeopa- thic remedies, ^hese are his words: "Alcohol is one of the best remedies for burns of every description; on the first application it appears to increase the pain (see $ 157), but the latter is soon allayed, and gives place to an agreeable sensation of calm and tranquillity. This method is never more efficacious than when the whole part is plunged into Alcohol: but where the immersion is not practicable, it is requisite to keep the burn continually covered with pledgets imbibed with this liquid.-'* I further add, that warm, and even very hot Alcohol, affords still more prompt and certain relief, because it is far more homeopathic than Alcohol that is cold. This is confirmed by every experience. Edward Kentish treated seve ;:1 men who were often dreadfully burned in the coal mines by the explosion of fire-damp : he made them apply hot oil of Turpentine or Alcohol, as being the best remedies that could be used in severe burns. (Second Essay on Burns, London, 179H). No treatment is more homoeopathic than this, nor can there be any more efficacious. The worthy and skillful physician, Heister, also recommends this practice from his own personal experience (Instit. Chirurg., Tom. I., p. 33); he praises the application of the oil of Turpentine, of Alcohol, and of cataplasms as hot as the patient can bear them. But nothing can more strongly exhibit the surprising superiority of the homoeopathic method (that is to say of the application of substances that excite a sensation of heat and burning, to parts that arc burned) over the palliative (which consists of cold applica- tions), than those simple experiments where, in order to compare the results INTRODUCTION. 89 means cure themselves in a few hours, well knowing that the so- called cooling ointments would not produce the same result in an equal number of months, and that cold water* would only mak'i the evil worse. An experienced reaper, however little he may be accustomed to the use of strong liquors, will not drink cold water (contraria con- trariis) when the heat of the sun or the fatigue of hard labor have brought him into a feverish state: he is well aware of the danger that Avould ensue, and therefore takes a small quantity of some heating liquor—viz., a mouthful of brandy. Experience, the source of all truth, has convinced him of the advantage and of these two opposite proceedings, they have been simultaneously tried upon the same patient, and on parts that were burned in an equal degree. Thus J. Bell (Kuhn's Phys. Med. Journal, for June, 1801, p. 428), having to treat a lady who had scalded both arms with boiling liquid, covered one with the oil of Turpentine, and plunged the other into cold water. The first was no longer painful at the expiration of half an hour, while the other continued so during six hours: the moment it was withdrawn from the cold water the patient experienced far greater pain, and it required much longer time to cure this arm than it did to heal the other. J. Anderson (Kentish. loc. cit., p. 43) likewise treated a woman who had scalded her face and arm with boiling fat. " The face, which was very red and painful, was covered with oil of Turpentine a few minutes after the accident: as for the arm, the patient had already plunged it of her own accord into cbld water, and expressed a desire to await the result of the treatment for a few hours. At the expiration of seven hours, the face was better, and the patient relieved in this part. With regard to the arm, around which the water had been several times renewed, it became exceedingly painful whenever it was with- drawn from the water, and the inflammation had manifestly increased. The next day I found that the patient had suffered extreme pain in the arm; inflammation had extended above the elbow, several large blisters had burst, and a thick eschar had formed itself upon the arm and hand, which were then covered with a warm cataplasm. The face was no longer painful, but it was neeessary to apply emollients a fortnight longer to cure the arm." Who does not perceive, in this instance, the great superiority of the homeopa- thic mode of treatment (that is to say, of the application of agents which pro- duce effects resembling the evil itself) over the antipathic, prescribed by the ordinary physicians of the old school of medicine ? * J. Hunter is not the only one who has pointed out the evil results that attend the treatment of burns with cold water. Fabricius de Hilden (De Combustionibus Libellus. Basil, 1607, cap. V., p. 11.) likewise assures us that cold applications are very hurtful in such cases, that they produce the most disastrous effects—that inflammation, suppuration, and sometimes gan- grene are the consequences. 90 INTRODUCTION efficacy of this homoeopathic mode of proceeding. The heat and lassitude which oppressed him soon diminish.* Occasionally there have been certain physicians who guessed that medicines might cure diseases by the faculty which they possessed of exciting morbid symptoms that resembled the dis- ease itself.! Thus the author of the book, nepl tottgjv t&v kut' avdov-ov^ which forms a part of the works attributed to Hippocrates, ex- presses himself in the folloAving remarkable words : $ia to, o\ioia vovooc- yiverai, ical did, ra o/xota Trpoa^epo/zeva Ik vooevvruv vyta- ivovrat,—6ia ~b E\i£etv eirerog Travtrai. Physicians of a later period have likewise knoAvn and pro- claimed the truths of homoeopathy. Thus, B. Boulduc,§ for example, discovered that the purgative properties of Rhubarb were the faculty by which this plant cured diarrhoea. Detharding guessed || that the infusion of Senna Avould cure the colic in adults, by virtue of the faculty which it possesses of exciting that malady in healthy persons. Bertholon** informs us that, in diseases, electricity diminishes and finally removes a pain which is very similar to that which it also produces. Thouryf-f affirms that positive electricity accelerates arterial pulsation, but that it renders the same sloAver where it is already quickened by disease. * Zimmermann (Ueber die Erfahrung, II., p. 318) tells us that the in- habitants of warm countries act in the same manner, with the most bene- ficial results, and that they usually drink a small quantity of spirituous liquors when they are much heated. f In citing the following passages of Avriters w ho have had some pre- sentiment of homoeopathy, I do not mean to prove the excellence of the method (which establishes itself without further proof), but I wish to free myself from a reproach of having passed them over in silence to arrogate to myself the merit of the discovery X Basil, Froben, 1538, p. 72. § Mem. de l'Acad. Royale, 1710. jj Eph. Nat. Cur., cent, x., obs. 76. ** Medic. Eloctricit., II., pp. 15. 282. ft Mem. lu a l'Acad. de Caen. INTRODUCTION. 91 Storck* was struck with the idea that, if Stramonium disturbs the senses and produces mental derangement in persons Avho are healthy, it might very easily be administered to maniacs for the purpose of restoring the senses by effecting a change of ideas. The Danish physician, StahLj- has, above all other writers, expressed his conviction on this head most unequivocally. He speaks in the folloAving terms: " The received method in medi- cine, of treating diseases by opposite remedies—that is to say, by medicines Avhich are opposed to the effects they produce (contraria contrariis)—is completely false and absurd. I am convinced, on the contrary, that diseases are subdued by agents Avhich produce a similar affection (similia similibus): burns, by the heat of a fire to which the parts are exposed; the frost-bite, by snoAV or icy cold water; and inflammation and contusions, by spirituous applications. It is by these means I have succeeded in curing a disposition to acidity of the stomach, by using very small doses of Sulphuric-acid, in cases where a multitude of ab- sorbing poAvders had been administered to no purpose." Thus far the great truth has more than once been approached by physicians. But a transitory idea was all that presented itself to them; consequently, the indispensible reform which ought to have taken place in the old school of therapeutics, to make room for the true curative method, and a system of medi- cine at once simple and certain, has, till the present day, not been effected. * Lebell. de Stramon., p. 8. t In J. Hammel, ii., Comment de Arthritide tam Tartarea, quam scorbu- tica, seu podagra et scorbutico. Budingae, 1738—in 8, pp. 40—42 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. The sole duty of a physician is, to restore health in a mild, prompt, and durable manner. § 1.—The first and sole duty of the physician is, to restore health to the sick.1 This is the true art of healing. § 2.—The perfection of a cure consists in restoring health in a prompt, mild, and permanent manner; in removing and anni- hilating disease by the shortest, safest, and most certain means, upon principles that are at once plain and intelligible. The physician ought to search after what is to be cured in disease, and be acquainted with the curative virtues of medicines, in order to adapt the. medicine to the disease. He must also be acquainted with the means of preserving health. ^ 3.—When the physician clearly perceives the curative in dicalion in each particular case of disease—when he is ac quainted Avith the therapeutic effects of medicines individually —when, guided by evident reasons, he knows how to make such an application of that which is curative in medicine to that Avhich 1 His mission is not, as many physicians (who, wasting their time and poAvers in the pursuit of fame) have imagined it to be that of inventing systems, by stringing together empty ideas and hypotheses upon the imme- diate essence of life and the origin of disease in the interior of the human economy; nor is it that of continually endeavoring to account for the morbid phenomena, with their nearest cause (which must forever remain concealed), and confounding the whole in unintelligible words and pompous observations, which make a deep impression on the minds of the ignorant, while the patients are left to sigh in vain for relief. We have already too many of these learned reveries, 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 aet—that is to say, to afford relief, and cure the sick in reality. 94 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. is indubitably diseased in the patient (both in regard to the choice of the substances, the precise dose to be administered, and the time of repeating it) that a cure may necessarily folloAV —and, finally, when he knows Avhat are the obstacles to the cure, and can render the latter permanent by removing them;—then only can he accomplish his purpose in a rational manner— then only can he merit the title of a genuine physician, or a man skilled in the art of healing. § 4.—The physician is likewise the guardian of health, Avhen he knows Avhat are the objects that disturb it, which produce and keep up disease, and can remove them from persons who are in health. In the cure of disease, it is necessary to regard the fundamental cause, and other circumstances. § 5,—When a cure is to be performed, the physician must avail himself of all the particulars he can learn, both respecting the probable origin of the acute malady and the most significant points in the history of the chronic disease, to aid him in the discovery of their fundamental cause, which is commonly due to some chronic miasm. In all researches of this nature, he must take into consideration the apparent state of the physical constitution of the patient (particularly Avhen the affection is chronic), the disposition, occupation, mode of life, habits, social relations, age, sexual functions, &c, &c. For the physician, the totality of the symptoms alone constitutes the disease. § 6.—The unprejudiced observer (however great may be his powers of penetration), aAvare of the futility of all elaborate speculations that are not confirmed by experience, perceives in each individual affection nothing but changes of the state of the body and mind (traces of disease, casualties, symptom.*), that are discoverable by the senses alone—that is to say, deviations from the former sound state of health, which are felt by the patient himself, remarked by the individuals around him, and ob- served by the physician. The ensemble of these available signs represents, in its full extent, the disease itself—that is, they constitute the true and only form of it Avhich the mind is capable of conceiving.1 1 I cannot, therefore, comprehend Iioav it Avas possible for physicians, ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 95 To cure disease, it is merely requisite to remove the entire symptoms, duly regarding, at the same time, the circumstances enumerated in •$ 5. § 7.—As in a disease Avhere no manifest or exciting cause presents itself for removal (causa occasionalis1), Ave can perceive nothing but the symptoms, then must these symptoms alone (Avith due attention to the accessory circumstances, and the possibility of the existence of a miasm, § 5) guide the physician in the choice of a fit remedy to combat the disease. The totality without heeding the symptoms, or taking them as a guide in the treatment, to imagine that they ought to search the interior o? the human economy (which is inaccessible and concealer! from our view), and that they could there alone discover that which Avas to be cured in disease. I cannot con- ceive how they could entertain so ridiculous a pretension as that of being able to discover the internal invisible change that had taken place, and restore the same to the order of its normal condition by the aid of medicines, without ever troubling themselves very much about the symptoms, and that they should have regarded such a method .as the only means of performing a radical and rational cure. Is not that which manifests itself in disease, by symptoms, identified with the change itself which has taken place in the human economy, and which it is impossible to discover without their aid' Do not the symptoms of disease, which are sensibly cognizable, represent to the physician the disease itself? When he can neither see the spiritual essence, the vital power which produces the disease, nor yet the disease itself, but simply perceive and learn its morbid effects, that he may be able to treat it accordingly? What would the old school search out farther from the hidden interior for a prima causa morbi, whilst they reject and super- ciliously despise the palpable and intelligible representation of the disease, the symptoms which clearly announce themselves to us as the object of cure 1 AVhat is there besides these in disease which they have to cure ?* 1 It is taken for granted that every intelligent physician will commence by removing this causa occasionalis; then the indisposition usually yields of itself. Thus, it is necessary to remove flowers from the room when their odors occasion paroxysms of fainting and hysteria; extract from the eye the foreign substance which occasions ophthalmia; remove the tight bandages from a wounded limb which threatens gangrene, and apply others more suitable; lay bare and tie up a wounded artery where haemorrhage produces fainting; evacuate the berries of Belladonna, &c, which may have been swallowed, by vomiting; extract the foreign particles which have introduced themselves into the openings of the body (the nose, pharynx, ears, urethra, rectum, vagina); grind down a stone in the bladder; open the imperforate anus of the new-born infant. &c. * The physician who engages in a search after the hidden springs of the internal economy will hourly be deceived ; but the homceopathist, who, with due attention, seizes upon the faithful image of the entire group of symptoms, possesses himself of a guide that may be depended on; and, when he has succeeded in destroying the whole of them, he may be certain that be has likewise annihilated the internal and hidden cause of disease.—Ran, loc. cit., p. 103. 96 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. of the symptoms, this image of the immediate essence of the malady refected externally, ought to be the principal or sole object by Avhich the latter could make known the medicines it stands in need of—the only agent to determine the choice of a remedy that would be most appropriate. In short, the ensemble1 of the symptoms is the principal and sole object that a physician ought to have in vieAV in every case of disease—the power of his art is to be directed against that alone, in order to cure and transform it into health. When all the symptoms are extinguished, the disease is, at the same time, internally cured. § 8.—It is not possible to conceive or prove by any experience, after the cure of the whole of the symptoms of a disease, to- gether with all its perceptible changes, that there remains or possibly can remain any other than a healthy state, or that the morbid alteration Avhich has taken place in the interior of the economy has not been annihilated.2 1 Not knoAving, at times, what plan to adopt in disease, physicians have till now endeavored to suppress or annihilate some one of the various symptoms which appeared. This method, which is known by the name of the symptomatic, has very justly excited universal contempt, not only because no advantage is derived from it, but because it gives rise to many bad con- sequences. A single existing symptom is no more the disease itself than a single leg constitutes the entire of the human body. This method is so much the more hurtful in its effects, that, in attacking an isolated symptom, they make use solely of an opposite remedy (that is to say, of antipathies or palliatives), so that, after an amendment of short duration, the evil bursts forth again worse than before. 2 In one who has thus been restored from sickness by a genuine physician, so that no trace of disease, no morbid symptom any longer remains, and every token of health has again durably returned, can it for a moment be supposed, without offering an insult to common sense, that the entire cor- poreal disease still resides in such an individual ? and yet Hufeland, at the head of the old school, makes this identical assertion (in his work on Ho- moeopathy, p. 27, I., 19) in the following words, viz., "The homceopathist may remove the symptoms, but the disease will still remain." He affirms this partly out of mortification at the progress and salutary effects of ho- moeopathy, and partly because he entertains wholly material ideas of disease, which he is unable to regard as an immaterial change in the or- ganism, produced by the morbid derangement of the vital power; he does not consider it as a changed condition of the organism, but as a material tomething, which, after the cure is completed, may yet continue to lurk in ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 97 During health, the system is animated by a spiritual, self-moved, vital power, which preserves it in harmonious order. §9.—In the healthy condition of" man, the immaterial vital principle, which animates the material body, exercises an #ab- solute sway, and maintains all its parts in the most admirable order and harmony, both of sensation and action, so that our in-dwelling rational spirit may freely employ these living healthy organs for the superior purpose of our existence. Without this vital, dynamic power, the organism is dead. § 10.—The material organism, deprived of its vital principle, is incapable of sensation, action, or self-preservation ;a it is the immaterial vital principle only, animating the former in its healthy and morbid condition, that imparts to it all sensation, and enables it to perform its functions. In disease, the vital power only is primarily disturbed, and expresses its suf- ferings (internal changes) by abnormal alterations in the sensations and actions of the system. k H.—In disease, this spontaneous and immaterial vital prin- ciple, pervading the physical organism, is primarily deranged by the dynamic influence of a morbific agent, which is inimical to life. Only the vital principle, thus disturbed, can give to the organism its abnormal sensations, and incline it to the irregular actions which we call disease; for, as an invisible principle, and only cognizable through its operations in the organism, its morbid disturbances can be perceived solely by means of the expression of disease in the sensations and actions of that side of the or- ganism exposed to the senses of the physician and by-standers; in other words, by the morbid symptoms, and can be indicated in no other manner. By the extinction of the totality of the symptoms, in the process of cure, the some internal corner of the body, in order, one day or other, at pleasure, and during a period of blooming health, once more to burst forth with its material presence! So shocking is still the delusion of the old pathology! That such a one only could produce a therapeuhca, solely intent upon cleansing out the poor patient, is not surprising. i It is then dead, and subject to the physical laws of the external world; it suffers decay, and is again resolved into its constituent elements. 7 98 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. suffering of the vital power—that is, the entire morbid affection, inwardly and outwardly, is removed. § 12.—It is solely the morbidly affected vital principle which brings forth disease,1 so that the expression of disease, percep- tible by the senses, announces, at the same time, all the internal change—that is, all the morbid perturbations of the vital prin- ciple ; in short, it displays the entire disease. Consequently, after a cure is effected, the cessation of all morbid expression, and of all sensible changes Avhich are inconsistent with the healthy performance of the functions, necessarily pre-supposes, Avith an equal degree of certainty, a restoration of the vital prin- ciple to its state of integrity, and the recovered health of the whole organism. To presume that disease (non-chirurgical) is a peculiar and distinct some- thing, residing in man, is a conceit which has rendered allopathy so per- niciov,s. § 13.—Disease, therefore (those forms of it not belonging to manual surgery), considered, as it is by the allopathists, as some- thing separate from the living organism and the vital principle Avhich animates it, as something hidden internally, and material, hoAV subtile soever its nature may be supposed, is a nonentity Avhich could only be conceived by minds of a material mould, and which for ages, hitherto, has given to medicine all those pernicious deviations which constitute it a mischievous art. Every curable disease is made known to the physician by its symptoms. § 14.—There is no curable malady, nor any invisible morbid change in the interior of man which admits of cure that is not made known, by morbid indications or symptoms, to the physician of accurate observation—a provision entirely in conformity with the infinite goodness of the all-wise Preserver of men. The sufferings of the deranged vital power, and the morbid symptoms pro- duced thereby, as an invisible whole, one and the same. § 15.—The sufferings of the immaterial vital principle, which 1 In what manner the vital principle produces morbid indications in the system, that is, how it produces disease, is to the physician a useless ques- tion, and, therefore, will ever remain unanswered. Only that whicn is ne- cessary for him to know of the disease, and which is fully sufficient for the purpose of cure, has the Lord of life rendered evident to his senses. ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 99 animates the interior of our bodies when it is morbidly disturbed, and the mass of symptoms produced by it in the organism, which are externally manifested, and represent the actual malady, con- stitute a whole—they are one and the same. The organism is, indeed, the material instrument of life ; but without that anima- tion which is derived from the instinctive sensibility and control of the vital principle, its existence is as inconceivable as that of a vital principle Avithout an organism; consequently, both con- stitute a unit, although, for the sake of ease in comprehension, our minds may separate this unity into two ideas. It is only by means of the spiritual influence of a morbific agent that our spiritual vital power can be diseased; and, in like manner, only by the spiritual (dynamic) operation of medicine that health can be restored. k 16.—By the operation of injurious influences from without upon the healthy organism, influences which disturb the har- monious play of the functions, the vital principle, as a spiritual dynamis, cannot otherwise be assailed and affected than in a (dynamic) spiritual manner; neither can such morbid disturbances, or, in other words, such diseases, be removed by the physician, except in like manner, by means of the spiritual (dynamic virtual) countervailing agency of the suitable medicines acting upon the same vital principle, and this action is communicated by the sen- tient nerves everywhere distributed in the organism; so that curative medicines possess the faculty of restoring, and do actually restore health, with concomitant functional harmony, by a dynamic influence only, acting upon the vital energies, after the morbid alterations in the health of the patient which are evident to the senses (the totality of the symptoms) have represented the disease to the attentive and observant physician as fully as may be requisite to effect a cure. The physician has only to remove the totality of the symptoms, and he has cured the entire disease. § 17.—As the cure, which is effected by the annihilation of all the symptoms of a disease, removes at the same time the internal change upon which the disease is founded—that is to say, destroys it in its totality1—it is accordingly clear that the physician has ■ A dream, a presentiment resulting from a superstitious imagination, a solemn prediction, impressing a person Avith the belief that he will infallibly 100 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. nothing more to do than destroy the totality of the symptoms, in order to effect a simultaneous removal of the internal change— that is, to annihilate the disease itself. But by destroying disease we restore health, the first and sole duty of the physician who is sensible of the importance of his calling, which consists in afford- ing relief to his fellow mortals, and not discoursing dogmatically.1 The totality of the symptoms is the sole indication in the choice of the remedy. § 18.—From this incontrovertible truth, that beyond the totality of the symptoms there is nothing discoverable in diseases by which they could make knoAvn the nature of the medicines they stand in need of, Ave ought naturally to conclude that there can be no other indication whatever than the ensemble of the symptoms in each individual case to guide us in the choice of a remedy. Changes in the general state, in disease (symptoms of disease), can be cured in no other way, by medicines, than in so far as the latter possess the power, likewise, of affecting changes in the system. § 19.—As diseases are nothing more than changes in the general state of the human economy, Avhich declare themselves by symptoms, and the cure being impossible except by the conversion of the diseased state into one of health, it may be readily con- die on a certain day, and at a certain hour, have often produced the embryo of the growing disease, the signs of approaching death, and even death itself at the hour prognosticated. Such effects could never take place with- out some change having been operated in the interior of the body, corres- ponding with the state which manifested itself externally. In cases of this nature, it has also sometimes happened that, by deceiving the patient or in- sinuating a contrary belief, it has succeeded in dissipating all the morbid appearances Avhich announced the approach of death, and suddenly restored him to health: circumstances that never could have taken place without annihilating at the same time, by this moral remedy, the internal morbid change of which death was to be the result. 1 The wisdom and goodness of the Creator, in the cure of disease to which man is subject, could not be more manifest than in developing the incidents, in the malady to be removed, openly to the observation of the physician, in order to remove them and reestablish health. But what would be thought of those divine attributes, if (as the prevailing school of medicine, hitherto affecting a supernatural insight into the internal nature of things, have pre- tended) he had veiled what i-s to be cured in disease in mystic darkness, wrapt it in concealment within, and thus rendered it impossible for man to know distinctly the malady, and the cure equally impossible. ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 101 ceived that medicines could never cure disease if they did not possess the faculty of changing the general state of the system, which consists of sensation and action, and that their curative virtues are owing to this faculty alone. This faculty which medicines have of producing changes in the system, can only be known by observing their effects upon healthy individuals. § 20.—By a mere effort of the mind we could never discover this innate and hidden/acw^y of medicines—this spiritual virtue, by which they can modify the state of the human body, and even cure disease. It is by experience only, and observation of the effects produced by their influence on the general state of the economy, that Ave can either discover or form to ourselves any clear conception of it. The morbid symptoms which medicines produce in healthy persons are the sole indications of their curative virtues in disease. § 21.—The curative powers of medicines being nowise dis- coverable in themselves, a fact which few will venture to dispute, and the pure experiments which have been made, even by the most skillful observers, not exhibiting anything to our view which could be capable of rendering them medicines or curative remedies, except the faculty which they possess of producing manifest changes in the general state of the human economy, particularly with persons in health, in whom they excite morbid symptoms of a very decided character; we ought to conclude from this that, when medicines act as remedies, they cannot exercise their cura- tiAre Adrtue but by the faculty which they possess of modifying the general state of the economy, and giving birth to peculiar symp- toms. Consequently, we ought to rely solely upon the morbid appearances which medicines excite in healthy persons, the only possible manifestation of the curative virtues which they possess, in order to learn Avhat malady each of them produces indi- vidually, and at the same time what diseases they are capable of curing. If experience prove that the medicines which produce symptoms similar to those of the disease are the therapeutic agents that cure it in the most certain and permanent manner, we ought to select these medicines in the cure of the disease. If, on the contrary, it proves that the most certain and permanent cure is obtained by medicinal substances that produce symptoms directly 102 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. opposite to those of the disease, then the latter agents ought to be selected f01 this purpose. § 22.—But, as we can discover nothing to remove in disease in order to change it into health, except the ensemble of the symp- toms ; as Ave also perceive nothing curative in medicines but their faculty of producing morbid symptoms in persons Avho are healthy, and of removing them from those who are diseased, it very naturally folloAvs that medicines assume, the character of remedies, and become capable of annihilating disease in no other manner than by exciting particular appearances and symptoms; or, to express it more clearly, a certain artificial disease which destroys the previous symptoms—that is to say, the natural disease which they intend to cure. On the other hand, if Ave Avish to destroy the entire symptoms of a disease, Ave ought to choose a medicine which has a tendency to excite similar or opposite symptoms, according to that which experience may point out to us as the easiest, safest, and most permanent means of removing the symptoms of the disease, and of restoring health, Avhether it be by opposing to the latter medicinal symptoms that are similar or contrary.1 Morbid symptoms that are inveterate cannot be cured by medicinal symptoms of an opposite character (antipathic method). § 23.—From pure experience, and the most careful experiments 1 Besides these two, there is no other mode of applying medicines in disease but the allopathic; and in this latter, remedies are administered which produce symptoms that bear no reference whatever to those of the disease itself, being neither similar nor contrary, but wholly heterogeneous. I have already shown, in the Introduction, that this method is an imperfect imitation of the still more imperfect attempts made by the unintelligent vital powers (when abandoned to their own resources) to save themselves at all hazards, a power to which the organism was confided merely to preserve its harmony so long as health continued; but, when deranged by disease, to admit of being again changed to health (homoeopathically) by the intelligent physician, but not to cure itself, for which the little power it possesses is so far from being a pattern to be copied, that all the changes and symptoms it produces in the (morbidly deranged) organism, are ju6t the disease itself. However inapplicable this method may be, it has for so long a time been practised by the existing school of medicine, that the physician can no more pass over it unnoticed, than the historian can be silent on the oppression to which mankind has been subject for thousands of years beneath the absurd rule of despotic governments. ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 103 that have been tried, Ave learn that the existing morbid symptoms, far from being effaced or destroyed by contrary medicinal symp- toms, like those excited by the antipathic, enantiopathic, or pal- liatiA-e methods, they, on the contrary, reappear more intense than ever, after having for a short space of time undergone apparent amendment. (Vide § 58—62, and 69). The homoeopathic method, or that which employs medicines producing symp- toms similar to those of the malady, is the only one of which experience proves the certain efficacy. § 24.—There remains, accordingly, no other method of applying medicines profitably in diseases than the homoeopathic, by means of which we select from all others that medicine (in order to direct it against the entire symptoms of the individual morbid case) whose manner of acting upon persons in health is knoAvn, and which has the poAver of producing an artificial malady the nearest in resemblance to the natural disease before our eyes. § 25.—Plain experience,1 an infallible oracle in the art of heal- ing, proves to us, in every careful experiment, that the particular medicine Avhose action upon persons in health produces the greatest number of symptoms resembling those of the disease which it is intended to cure, possesses, also, in reality (when administered in convenient doses), the power of suppressing, in a radical, prompt, and permanent manner, the totality of these morbid symptoms— that is to say (§ 6—16), the Avhole of the existing disease; it also teaches* us that all medicines cure the diseases Avhose symp- toms approach nearest to their own, and that among the latter none admit of exception. 11 do not mean that kind of experience acquired by our ordinary practi- tioners after having long combated, with a heap of complicated prescriptions, a multitude of diseases which they never examined with care, and which (true to the errors of the old school) they regarded as being already included in our pathology, thinking that they perceived in them some .imaginary morbific principle, or some anomaly not less hypothetical. In fact, they were in the habit of seeing something, but they knew not what they saw, and they arrived at conclusions which a deity alone could unravel in the midst of so great a concourse of diverse powers acting upon an unknown subject, a result from which no information was to be gained. Fifty years of such experience are like fifty years passed in looking through a kaleido- scope, which, full of unknown things of varied colors, revolves continually upon'itself: there would be seen thousands of figures, changing their forms every instant, without a possibility of accounting for any one of them. 104 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. This is grounded upon the therapeutic law of nature, that a weaker dynamic affection in man is permanently extinguished by one that is similar, of greater intensity, yet of a different origin. § 26.—This phenomena is founded on the natural laAV of homoeo- pathy—a law unknoAvn till the present time, although it has on all occasions formed the basis of every visible cure—that is to say, a dynamic disease in the living economy of man is extinguished in a permanent manner by another that is more powerful, when the latter (without being of the same species) bears a strong resemblance to it in its mode of manifesting itself? The curative virtues of medicines depend solely upon the resemblance that their symptoms bear to those of the disease. § 27.—The curative powers of medicines are therefore grounded upon the faculty which they possess of creating symptoms similar to those of the disease itself, but which are of a more intense nature. (§ 12—26.) It necessarily follows that disease cannot be destroyed or cured in a certain, radical, prompt, and permanent manner, but by the aid of a medicine Avhich is capable of exciting (in the health of a human being) the entire group of symptoms 1 Physical and moral diseases are cured in the same manner. Why does the brilliant planet Jupiter disappear in the twilight from the eyes of him who gazes at it ? Because a similar but more potent power, the light of breaking day, then acts upon these organs. With what are we in the habit of flattering the olfactory nerves when offended by disagreeable odors? With snuff, which affects the nose in a similar manner, but more powerfully. Neither music nor confectionery will overcome the disgust of smelling, because these objects have affinity with the nerves of other senses. By what means does the soldier cunningly remove from the ears of the compassionate spectator the cries of him who runs the gauntlet ? By the piercing tones of the fife, coupled with the noise of the drum. By what means do they drown the distant roar of the enemy's cannon, which carries terror to the heart of the soldier ? By the deep-mouthed clamor of the big drum. Neither the compassion nor the terror could be suppressed by reprimands or a distribu- tion of brilliant uniforms. In the same manner, mourning and sadness are extinguished in the soul when the news reach us (even though they were false) of a still greater misfortune occurring to another. The evils resulting from an excess of joy are mitigated by coffee, which, of itself, disposes the mind to impressions that are happy. The Germans, a nation which had for centuries been plunged in apathy and slavery by their princes—it was not till after they had been bowed to the dust by the tyranny of the French invader, that a sentiment of the dignity of man could be awakened Avithin them, or that they could once more arise from their abject condition. ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 105 which bear the closest resemblance to those of the disease, but which possess a still greater degree of energy. Some explanation of this therapeutic law of nature. § 28.—As this therapeutic law of nature clearly manifests itself in every accurate experiment and research, it consequently be- comes an established fact, hoAvever unsatisfactory may be the scientific theory of the manner in which it takes place. I attach no value whatever to any explanation that could be given on this head; yet the following view of the subject appears to me to be the most reasonable, because it is founded upon experimental premises. § 29.—Every disease (which does not belong exclusively to surgery) being a purely dynamic and peculiar change of the vital powers in regard to the manner in which they accomplish sensation and action, a change that expresses itself by symptoms which are perceptible to the senses, it therefore follows, that the homoeopathic medicinal agent, selected by a skillful physician, will convert it into another medicinal disease, which is analo- gous, but rather more intense.1 By this means, the natural morbific power which had previously existed, and which was nothing more than a dynamic power without substance, termi- nates, while the medicinal disease which usurps its place, being of such a nature as to be easily subdued by the vital powers, is likewise extinguished in its turn, leaving in its primitive state 1 The brief operation of the artificial morbific powers, which are denomi- nated medicinal, although they are stronger than natural diseases, renders it possible that they may, nevertheless, be more easily overpowered by the vital energies than the latter, which are weaker. Natural diseases, simply because of their more tedious and burthensome operation (as psora, syphilis, svcosis), cannot be overcome or extinguished by the unaided vital energies, utjtil these are more strongly aroused by the physician, through the medium of a very similar yet more powerful morbific agent (a homoeopathic medi- cire). Such an agent, upon its administration, urges, as it were, the in- sensate, instinctive vital energies, and is substituted for the natural morbid affection hitherto existing. The vital energies now become affected by the medicine alone, yet transiently; because its effect (that is to say, the natural course of the medicinal disease thereby excited) is of short duration. Those chronic diseases which (according to $ 46) are destroyed on the appearance of sniall-pox and measles (both of which run a course of a few weeks only) furnish similar instances of cure. 106 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. of integrity and health the essence or substance which animates and preserves the body. This hypothesis, which is highly pro- bable, rests upon the following facts. The human body is much more prone to undergo derangement from the action of medicines than from that of natural disease § 30.—Medicines (particularly as it depends on us to vary the doses according to our own will) appear to have greater power in affecting the state of health than the natural morbific irritation; for natural diseases are cured and subdued by appropriate medicines. § 31.—The physical and moral poAvers, which are called morbi- fic agents, do not possess the faculty of changing the state of health unconditionally;] we do not fall sick beneath their influence before the economy is sufficiently disposed and laid open to the attack of morbific causes, and Avill alloAV itself to be placed by them in a state Avhere the sensations Avhich they undergo, and the actions which they perform, are different from those Avhich belong to it in the normal state. These powers, therefore, do not excite disease in all men, nor are they at all times the cause of it in the same individual. § 32.—But it is quite otherwise with the artificial morbific powers which we call medicines. Every real medicine Avill, at all times, and under every circumstance, Avork upon every living individual, and excite in him the symptoms that are peculiar to it (so as to be clearly manifest to the senses when the dose is poAver- ful enough), to such a degree that the whole of the system is always {(unconditionally) attacked, and, in a manner, infected by the medicinal disease, which, as I have before said, is not at all the case in natural diseases. § 33.—It is therefore fully proved, by every experiment2 and 1 When I say that disease is an aberration or a discord in the state of health, I do not pretend by that to give a metaphysical explanation of the immediate essence of diseases generally, or of any morbid case in particular. In making use af this term, I merely intend to point at that which diseases are not, and cannot be; or, to express what I have just proved, that they aro not mechanical or chemical changes of the material substance of the body that they do not depend upon a morbific material principle, and that they are solely spiritual and dynamic changes of the animal economy. 2 The following is a striking observation of the kind directly in point: previously to the year 1801, the genuine smooth scarlet fever of Sydenham ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 107 observation, that the state of health is far more susceptible of derangement from the effects of medicinal powers than from the influence o-f morbific principles and contagious miasms; or, what is the same thing, the ordinary morbific principles have only a conditional and often very subordinate influence, while the medicinal powers exercise one that is absolute, direct, and greatly superior to that of the former. The truth of the homeopathic law is shown by the inefficiency of non-homxo pathic treatment in the cure of diseases that are of long standing, and likewise by the fact that either of two natural dissimilar diseases, coexisting in the body, cannot annihilate or cure the other. § 34.—In artificial diseases produced by medicines, it is not the greater degree of intensity that imparts to them the power they possess of curing those Avhich are natural. In order that the cure may be effected, it is indispensable that the medicines be able to produce in the human body an artificial disease, similar to that Avhich is to be cured; for it is this resemblance alone, joined to the greater degree of intensity of the artificial disease, that gives to the latter the faculty of substituting itself in the place of the former, and thus obliterating it. This is so far a fact that even nature herself cannot cure an existing disease by the excitement of a new one that is dissimilar, be the intensity of the latter e\rer so great; in the same manner the physician is inca- pable of effecting a cure when he applies rrfedicines that have not the power of creating in healthy persons a morbid state, resem- bling the disease which is before him. § 35.—In order to illustrate these facts, Ave will examine suc- cessively, in three different cases, the proceedings of nature, where two natural diseases that are dissimilar meet together in the same patient, and also the results of the ordinary treatment of disease with allopathic medicines, which are incapable of exciting an artificial morbid state similar to that of the disease which is to prevailed epidemically among children, and attacked all, without exception, who had not escaped the disease in a former epidemic; whereas, every child who was exposed to one of the kind which came under my observation in Ronigslutter, remained exempt fron this highly infectious disease, if it had timely taken a very small dose of Belladonna. When a medicine can thus evince a prophylactic property against the infection of a prevalent disease, it must exorcise a predominating influonce over the vital power. 108 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. be cured. This examination will fully prove, on the one hand, that it is not even in the power of nature herself to cure an exist- ing disease by one that is dissimilar, be the intensity of the latter ever so great; and, on the other, that even the most energetic medicines, when not homoeopathic, are incapable of effecting a cure. I.—A disease, existing in the human body, prevents the accession of a new and dissimilar one, if the former be of equal intensity to, or greater than the latter. § 36. I.—If the two dissimilar diseases which meet together in the human body have an unequal power, or if the oldest of them is stronger than the other, the new disease will be repulsed from the body by that Avhich existed before it, and will not be able to estab- lish itself there. Thus, a person already afflicted with a severe chronic disease, will never be subject to an attack of slight autumnal dysentery or any other epidemic. According to Larry,1 the plague peculiar to the Levant never breaks out in places where scurvy prevails, nor does it ever infect those who labor under herpetic diseases. According to Jenner, the rickets pre- vent vaccination from taking effect, and Hildebrand informs us that persons suffering under phthisis are never attacked with epidemic fevers, except when the latter are extremely violent. Thus, non-homaopathic treatment, which is not violent, leaves the chronic • disease unaltered. § 37.—In the same manner, a chronic disease, of long stand- ing, Avill not yield to the ordinary mode of cure by allopathic remedies—that is to say, by medicines Avhich are incapable of pro- ducing in healthy persons a state analogous to that by Avhich it is characterized. It resists a treatment of this kind, provided it be not too violent, even prolonged during several years. Practice verifies this assertion, therefore requires no examples to support it. II.—Or, a. new and more intense disease suspends a prior and dissimilar one, already existing in the body, only so long as the former continues, but it never cures it. § 38. II.—If the new disease, which is dissimilar to the old, be more powerful than the latter, it will then cause its suspen- sion, until the new disease has either performed its own course or 1 Mem. and Observ. in the Description of Egypt, torn. i. ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 109 is cured; but then the old disease re-appears. We are informed, by Tulpius,1 that two children having contracted tinea, ceased to experience any further attacks of epilepsy to which they had till then been subject; but, as soon as the eruption of the head was removed, they were again attacked as before. Schopf saw the itch disappear Avhen scurvy manifested itself, and return again after the cure of the latter disease.2 A violent typhus has sus- pended the progress of ulcerous phthisis, which resumed its march immediately after the cessation of the typhoid disease.3 When madness manifests itself during a pulmonary disease, it effaces the phthisis with all its symptoms; but, when the mental aliena- tion ceases, the pulmonary disease again rears its head and kills the patient.1 Where the measles and the small-pox exist together, and have both attacked the same infant, it is usual for the measles, which have already declared themselves, to be arrested by the small-pox Avhich bursts forth, and not to resume their course until after the cure of the latter; on the other hand, Manget5 has also seen the small-pox, which had fully developed itself after inocu- lation, suspended during four days by the measles which inter- vened, and, after the desquamation of which, it revived again to run its course. The eruption of measles on the sixth day after inoculation has been known to arrest the inflammatory operation of the latter, and the small-pox did not break out until the other exanthema had accomplished its seven days' course.13 In an epidemic, the measles broke out among several patients four or five days after inoculation, and retarded until their entire disappear- ance the eruption of the small-pox, which subsequently proceeded in a regular manner.7 The true scarlet fever of Sydenham,8 1 Obs.. lib. i., obs. 8. 2 In Hufeland's Journal, XV., ii. 3 Chevalier, in Hufeland's neuesten Annalen der franz. Heilkunde, ii., p. 192. 4 Mania phthisi superveniens earn cum omnibus suis phamomenis auffe-rt, verum mox redit phthisis et occidit, abeunte mania. Reil, Memorabilia. Fasc. III., v., p. 171. 5 Edinb. Med. Comment., Pt. I., i. 6 J. Hunter on the Venereal Disease. ' Rainey, Edinb. Med. Comment., iii., p. 480. " It has also been very accurately described by Withering and Plenciz, and differs greatly from purpura, to which thoy often give the name of Bcarlet fever. Only within the last few years have both, originally very different diseases, approached more or less to each other in their symptoms. 110 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. with angina, Avas arrested on the fourth day by the manifesta- tion of the cow-pox, which went through its natural course; and not before its termination did the scarlet fever manifest itself again. But as these two diseases appear to be of equal force, the cow-pox has likewise been seen to suspend itself on the eighth day by the eruption of genuine scarlatina, and the red areola Avas effaced until the scarlatina had terminated its career, at which moment the cow-pox resumed its course, and terminated regularly.1 The cow-pox was on the point of attaining to its state of perfection on the eighth day, when the measles broke out, Avhich immediately rendered it stationary, and not before the desquamation of which did it resume and finish its course; so that, according to the report of Kortum,2 it presented on the six- teenth day the aspect which it usually wears on the tenth. The vaccine virus has been known to infect the system even Avhere the measles had already made their appearance, but it did not pursue its course until the measles had passed away; for this we have also the authority of Kortum.3 I have myself had an opportunity of seeing a parotid angina disappear immediately after the development of the cow-pox. It Avas not till after the cow-pox had terminated, and the dis- appearance of the red areola of the vesicles, that a great SAvelling, attended with fever, manifested itself in the parotid and sub- maxillary glands, Avhich ran its ordinary course of seven days. Li is the same in all diseases that are dissimilar; the stronger one suspends the weaker (except in cases where they blend together, which rarely occurs in acute diseases); but they never cure each other reciprocally. In the same manner, violent treatment with allopathic remedies never cures a chronic disease, but merely suspends it during the continuance of the powerful action of a medicine incapable of exciting symptoms similar to those of the disease; but afterwards, the latter re-appears, even more intense than before. § 39.—The ordinary schools of medicine have witnessed all these effects during Avhole centuries. They have seen that nature was never in any instance capable of curing a disease by adding another, whatever degree of intensity the latter might 1 Jenner, in the Annals of Medicine, for August, 1800, p. 747. a In Hufeland's Journal, XX., iii., p. 50. 3 Loc. cit. ORGANON OF MEDICINE. Ill possess, if it was not similar to the preexisting disease. What opinion, then, ought we to form of these schools of medi- cine, which continued, notAvithstanding, to treat chronic diseases with allopathic remedies—that is to say, Avith substances which were scarcely ever able to excite anything else but a disease dissimilar to the affection that Avas to be cured ? And though physicians had never before regarded nature with a due share of attention, would it not still have been possible for them to discover, from the miserable results of their mode of treatment, that they were pursuing a Avrong path, which could only lead them still farther from their purpose ? Could they not see that, in having recourse (according to their usual practice) to vio- lent allopathic remedies in chronic diseases, they did nothing more than provoke an artificial malady dissimilar to the primi- tive disease, which certainly had the effect of extinguishing the latter, so long as the other continued to exist, but which suffered it to re-appear as soon as the diminished powers of the patient could no longer support the vigorous attacks of allopathy on the vital principle ? It is in this manner that strong purgatives, fre- quently repeated, cause eruptions of the skin to disappear pretty quickly; but when the patient can no longer endure the dissimilar disease that has been violently kindled in the vitals, and is com- pelled to discontinue the purgatives, then the cutaneous eruption either flourishes again in its former vigor, or the internal psoric affection manifests itself by some bad symptom or another, while, in addition to the primitive malady (which is not in the least de- gree diminished), indigestion ensues, and the vital powers are exhausted. Thus, also, when ordinary physicians insert setons, and excite ulceration of the surface of the body, for the purpose of destroying chronic diseases, they never accomplish the object they have in vieAV—that is to say, they never perform a cure, because those factitious cutaneous ulcers are perfectly foreign and allopathic to the internal disease; but the irritation pro- duced by many cauteries, being often a more powerful disease than the primitive morbid state (although at the same time dis- similar), it frequently has the power of silencing the latter for a short time, which is nothing more than a suspension of the dis- ease obtained at the expense of the patient, whose powers are thereby gradually diminished. An epilepsy, which had been suppressed during several years by issues, constantly re-appeared, 112 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. more violent than before, whenever the exuditories Avere alloAved to heal up, as attested by Pechlin1 and others. But purgatives are no more allopathic in regard to psora, or issues in respect to epilepsy, than the compounds of unknown ingredients employed till the present time in ordinary practice are so in relation to the other innumerable forms of disease. These mixtures do nothing more than Aveaken the patient, and suspend the evil for a very short space of time, without being able to cure it, Avhile their con- tinued and repeated use, as it frequently happens, adds a neAV disease to the old one. III.—Or, the new disease, after having acted for a considerable time on the system, joins itself finally to the old one, which is dissimilar, and thence results a complication of two different maladies, either of which is incapable of annihilating or curing the other. § 40. III.—Or it sometimes occurs that the new disease, after having acted for a considerable period upon the system, joins itself finally to the old dissimilar one, presenting together a complicated form of disease, but in such a manner that each of them, notwithstanding, occupies a particular region of the economy, installing itself in those organs with Avhich it sym- pathizes, and abandoning the others to the diseases that are dissimilar. Thus a venereal affection may turn to one that is psoric, and vice versa. These two diseases being dissimilar, they are incapable of annihilating or curing each other. Venereal symptoms are effaced and suspended, in the first in- stance, as soon as a psoric eruption commences; but, in the pro- gress of time, the venereal affection being at least quite as powerful as the psoric, the two unite together2—that is to say, each seizes merely upon those parts of the organism that are appropriate to it individually, by which the patient is rendered worse, and the cure more difficult than before. In a case where two contagious acute diseases meet together, bearing no analogy 1 Obs. Phys. Med., lib. 2, obs. 30. 3 The cures which I performed of these kinds of complicated diseases, to- gether with the accurate experiments Avhich I have made, have convinced me that they do not arise from an amalgamation of two diseases; but that the latter exist separately in the organism, each occupying the parts that are most in harmony with it. In short, the cure is effected in a very complete manner, by administering alternately, and at the proper time, mercurials and antipsorics, each according to its appropriate dose and preparation. ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 113 to each other (such as, for example, the small-pox and the measles), one of them ordinarily suspends the other, as before stated. HoAvever, there have been some extraordinary instances in violent epidemic diseases, where two dissimilar acute maladies have simultaneously attacked the body of the same individual, and become, so to express it, complicated for a short time. In an epidemic Avhere the small-pox and the measles reigned to- gether, there were about three hundred cases in which one of these maladies suspended the other, and in which the measles did not break forth until twenty days after the eruption of the small-pox, and the latter till from seventeen to eighteen days after that of the measles—that is to say, until after the first disease had run its entire course; but there was a single instance in which P. Russell1 met with these two diss.'milar maladies simul- taneously in the same patient. Rainey2 saAV the small-pox and the measles together in two little girls; and J. Maurice3 remarks that he never met with more than two instances of this kind in the Avhole course of his practice. Similar examples may be found in Ettmuller,4 and a few other writers. Zencker5 saw the cow-pox pursue its course in a regular manner, conjointly with measles and purpura; and Jenner likeAvise observed it pursue its course tranquilly in the midst of a mercurial treatment directed a ainst tiie ene.xal < isease. Much m frequently t an a superadded natural disease, an artificial one, which is occasioned by the long continued use of violent and unsuitable allopathic remedies, is combined with the dissimilar prior and natural disease (the dissimilarity consequently rendering it incurable by means of the artificial malady), and the patient becomes doubly diseased. § 41.—The complication or coexistence of several diseas s in the same patient, resulting from a long use of medicines that Avere not homoeopathic, is far more frequent than those to which nature herself has given birth. The continued application of inappropriate medicines finishes by adding to the natural disease, which it is intended to cure, such fresh morbid symptoms as 1 Transactions of a Society for the Improvement of Med. and Chir. Know- ledge, vol. ii. 2 Med. Comment, of Edinb., iii., p. 480. 3 Med. and Phys. Journal, 1805. * Opera, ii., p. i., cap. 10. 5 In Hufeland's Journal, xvii. 8 114 ORGANON OF MEEICINE. those remedies are capable of exciting, according to the nature of their special properties. These symptoms, not being capable of curing by analogous counter-irritation (that is to say, homoeo- pathically), a chronic disease to which they bear no similitude, gradually associate themselves to the latter, and thus add a new factitious disease to the old one, so that the patient becomes considerably worse and far more difficult to cure. There are many observations and cases cited in the medical journals and treatises that support this assertion. One proof of it is also to be met Avith in the frequent cases of the venereal chancrous disease, especially Avhen complicated with psora, and even with gonor- rhoea, sycotica, Avhich, far from being cured by considerable and repeated doses of inappropriate mercurial preparations, station themselves in the organism alongside of the chronic mercurial disease, Avhich develops itself gradually,1 and form together a monstrous complication, generally designated by the name of masked syphilis (pseudo-syphilis), a state of disease Avhich, if not absolutely incurable, cannot, at least, but with the greatest difficulty, be changed to that of health. The diseases thus complicated, by reason of their dissimilarity, assume differen. places in the organism to which they are severally adapted. § 42—Nature, as I have before said, sometimes permits the coincidence of two, and even three spontaneous diseases in one and the same body; but it must be observed that this com- plication never takes place but in diseases that are dissimilar, and Avhich, according to the eternal laws of nature, cannot anni- hilate or cure each other reciprocally. Apparently, this is exe- cuted in such a manner that the two or three diseases divide, if we may so express it, the organism between them, and each takes possession of the parts that are best suited to it individually; a •division Avhich, in consequence of the want of similitude between them, can very well take place without doing injury to the unity of the vital principle. 1 For, besides the morbid symptoms analogous to those of the venereal ■disease, which would be capable of curing the same homoeopathically, Mer- cury produces a crowd of others, which bear no resemblance Avhatever to ithose of syphilis, and which, when administered in large doses, especially where there is a complication with psora, as is frequently the case, engen ■ ■ders fresh evils, and commits terrible ravages on the body. ORGANON OF MEDICINE. lib But very different is the result where a new disease that is similar and stronger is superadded to the old one, for in that case the former annihi- lates and cures the latter. § 43.—But the result is Arery different when two diseases that are similar meet together in the organism—that is to say, Avhen an analogous but more powerful disease joins itself to the preexisting malady. It is true that we here see how a cure is performed according to nature, and how man is to proceed in effecting the same object. § 44.—Tavo diseases that resemble each other closely, can neither repel (as in the first of the three preceding hypotheses, I.), nor suspend each other (as in the second, II.), so that the old one re-appears after the cessation of the new one; nor, finally (as in the third, III.), can they exist beside each other in the same organism, and form a double or complicated disease. This phenomenon explained. § 45.—No! Two diseases that differ greatly in their species,1 but Avhich bear a strong resemblance in their development and effects—that is to say, in the symptoms which they produce, always mutually destroy each other when they meet together in the system. The stronger annihilates the Aveaker; nor is it diffi- cult to conceive how this is performed. Two dissimilar diseases may coexist in the body, because their dissinilitude would alk>AV of their occupying two distinct regions. But, in the present case, the stronger disease which makes its appearance, exercises an influence upon the same parts as the old one, and even throAvs itself, in preference, upon those Avhich ha\re till now been attacked by the latter; so that the old disease, finding no other organ to act upon, is necessarily extinguished.2 Or, to express it in other terms, as soon as the vital poAvers, Avhich have till then been deranged by a morbific cause, are attacked with greater energy by a new poAver very analogous to the former, but more intense, they no longer receive any impression but from the latter, while the preceding one, reduced to a state of mere dynamic power Avithout matter, must cease to exist 1 See the note attached to $ 26. In the same way that the light of a lamp is rapidly effaced from tho retina by a sunbeam which strikes the eye with greater force, 116 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. Examples of the cure of chronic diseases, by the accidental accession of another disease, similar and more intense. § 46.—Many examples might be adduced where nature has cured diseases homoeopathically by other diseases Avhich excited similar symptoms. But, if precise and indisputable facts alone be required, it Avill be necessary to confine ourselves to the feAV diseases which arise from some permanent miasm, and constantly preserve their identity, for which reason they ought to receive a distinct appellation. The foremost that presents itself among these affeotions is the small-pox, so famous for the violence and number of its symptoms, and which has cured a multitude of diseases that were character- ized by symptoms similar to its own. Violent ophthalmia, extending even to the loss of sight, is one of the most ordinary occurrences in the small-pox; whereas, Dezoteux1 and Leroy2 have reported cases of chronic ophthalmia Avhich Avere cured in a perfect and permanent manner by inocula- tion. A case of blindness, of two years' standing, brought on by the metastasis of tinea, Avas, according to Klein,3 perfectly cured by the small-pox. Hoav often has the small-pox cured deafness and oppressed respiration? J. F. Closs1 has seen it cure both these affections when it had reached its highest state of intensity. Considerable enlargement of the testicle is a frequent symptom in small-pox, and, according to Klein,5 it has been known to cure homoeopathically a large hard swelling of the left testicle, the consequence of a contusion. Another observer has seen it cure a similar swelling of the testicle. Dysentery is one of the bad symptoms which occur in small-pox —for this reason it cures the former disease homoeopathically, as in a case reported by F. Wendt.7 1 Traite de l'Inoculation, p. 189. 2 Heilkunde fur Mutter (Medical Treatise for the use of Mothers), p. 384. 3 Interpres Clinicus, p. 293. * Neue Heilart der Kinderpocken (New System for the Cure of Small- pox), Ulm, 1769, p. 68, and Specim. Obs., No. 18. 5 Loc. cit. 6 Nov. Act. Nat. Cur., vol. i., obs. 22. 7 Nachricht von dem Krankeninstitut (Directions of the Medical Board) zu Erlangen, 1783. ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 117 The small-pox, Avhich comes on after vaccination, destroys the latter immediately, and does not permit it to arrive at perfection, both because it is more poAverful than the coAv-pox, and bears a close resemblance to it. By the same reason, Avhen the cow-pox approaches to its term of maturity, it diminishes and softens, in a very great degree, the small-pox Avhich has just broken out, and causes it to assume a milder form, as witnessed by Miihry1 and many others. The coAv-pox, in addition to the vesicles Avhich protect from small-pox, excites also a general cutaneous eruption of another kind. This exanthema consists of sharp-pointed pimples, usually small, seldom large and suppurating, dry, resting upon a small red areola, frequently interspersed with small round spots of a red color, and sometimes attended Avith severe itching In many children it precedes by several days the appearance of the red areola of the coAv-pox. But most often it manifests itself aftenvards, and disappears in a feAV days, leaving small hard red spots on the skin. It is by reason of this other exanthema, and the analogy which it bears to the same, that the cow-pox the moment it takes, removes in a permanent manner those cutaneous eruptions Avhich exist in some children, and Avhich are often troublesome and of long standing. This has been attested by numerous observers.2 Vaccination, Avhose special symptom is a swelling of the arm,3 cured, after its eruption, the tumefaction of an arm that was half paralyzed.4 The A'accine fever, which takes place at the period of the for- mation of the red areola, has, according to the information of Hardege,5 cured two cases of intermittent fever homoeopathically; which confirms the remark, formerly made by J. Hunter,6 that two fevers (or diseases that are similar) can never exist together in the body.7 1 In Pi. Willan on Vaccination. 2 Particularly Clavier, Hurel, and Desormeaux, in the Bulletin des Sc Med. de FEure, 1808. Journal de Medecine continue, xv., 206. 3 Balhorn, in Hufeland's Journal, X., ii. * Stevenson, in Duncan's Annals of Med. Lustr. ii., vol. i., pt. 2., No. 9 5 In Hufeland's Journal, xxiii. 6 Ueber die venerische Krankheit (on the Venereal Disease), p. 4. 7 In the former editions of the Organon, I have cited cases where chronic 118 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. The measles and Avhooping cough resemble each other, both in regard to the fever and the character of the cough. This Avas the reason that Bosquillon1 observed, during an epidemic of measles and whooping cough, that among the children who had the former there Avere many entirely free from the latter. All of them would have been exempt from Avhooping cough for ever after, and also beyond the reach of the contagion of measles, if the whooping cough Avas not a disease that only resembled the measles partially—that is, if it produced an eruption of the skin analogous to that of the latter; thus the measles are able to preserve but a certain number of children homoeopathically from the Avhooping cough, nor can they do this for a longer period than during the continuance of the reigning epidemic. But when the measles come in contact with a disease that re- sembles them in the principal symptom, viz., the eruption, they can beyond a doubt annihilate and cure it homoeopathically. It was under such circumstances that the eruption of measles cured a chronic tetter2 in a prompt, durable, and perfect manner, as observed by Kortum.3 A miliary eruption, that covered the neck, face, and arms, during a period of six years, attended with insupportable heat, and Avhich returned at every change of weather, was reduced to s aAvelling of the skin on the appearance of measles : after the cessation of the latter the miliary eruption was cured and never re appeared.4 diseases have been cured by psora, which, according to the discoveries I have made known in the first part of my Treatise on Chronic Diseases, can only be partially regarded as homoeopathic cures. The great affections which were thus, obliterated (such as suffocating asthma and phthisis of many years' standing), already owed their origin to some psoric cause. The symptoms of a psoric eruption of long standing, which were completely developed in the system, and threatened the life of the patient, were reduced by the appear- ance of a psoric eruption caused by a new infection, to the simple form of primitive p60ra, by which means the old disease, with its alarming symptoms, were removed. This return to the primitive form cannot, therefore, be re- garded as a homoeopathic cure of the old psora but in this sense, that the new infection places the patient in a much more favorable way of being subsequently cured of the entire psora by antipsoric medicines. 1 Cullen's Elements of Pract. Med., part ii., 1-3, ch. 7. 2 Or, at least, this symptom was removed. 3 In Hufeland's Journal, XX., iii., p. 50. 4 Rau, loc. cit., p. 35. ORGANON OF MEDICTNE. 119 Of any two diseases which occur in the ordinary course of nature, it is only that one whose symptoms are similar to the other which can cure or destroy it. This faculty never belongs to a dissimilar disease. Hence the physi- cian maty learn what are the remedies with which he can effect a certain cure, thai is to say, with none but such as are homoeopathic. § 47.—No instructions can be more simple and persuasive than these to direct the physician in the choice of the substances (medicines) Avhioh are capable of exciting artificial diseases, in order that he may be enabled to cure in a prompt and durable manner according to the course of nature. 4 § 48.—All the preceding examples prove to us that neither the efforts of nature, nor the skill of the physician, have ever been able to cure a disease by a dissimilar morbific poAver, Avhatever energy the latter may haAre possessed; also, that a cure is not to be obtained but by a morbific poAver capable of producing symp- toms that are similar, and, at the same time, a little stronger. The cause of this rests with the eternal and irrevocable laAV of nature, which Avas hitherto not understood. § 49.—We should have met Avith a much greater number of those truly natural homoeopathic cures if, on the one hand, obser- vers have been more attentive to the subject, and, on the other, nature had at her disposal more diseases capable of effecting ' • MT«.->n:ithic cures. Nature affords but few instances in which one disease can homaopathically destroy another, and her remedial resources in this way are encumbered by many inconveniences. § 50.—Even nature herself has no other homoeopathic agents at her command than the miasmatic diseases Avhich always retain their identity, such as itch, measles, and small-pox.1 But of these morbific poAvers, the small-pox and the measles are more dangerous and terrific than the maladies which they cure; and the other, psora, demands itself, after the performance of a cure, the application of a remedy that is capable of annihilating it in its turn: both of these are circumstances that render their use as homoeopathic remedies difficult, uncertain, and dangeroua, And hoAV few are the diseases to Avhich man is subject thai; would find their homoeopathic cure in psora, measles, or small- pox ! Nature can, therefore, cure but a very limited number of lAnd the exanthematic miasm which is contained in the cow-pox lymph 120 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. diseases with those hazardous remedies. Their use is attended with considerable danger to the patient, because the doses of these morbific agents cannot be varied according to circumstances, as in the case Avith doses of medicine; and, in curing an analogous disease of long standing, they weigh down the patient Avith the dangerous burden of psora, measles, and small-pox. Notwith- standing this, Ave have many examples Avhere their favorable junc- tion has produced the most perfect homoeopathic cures, Avhich are a living commentary upon the sole therapeutic laAV of nature: Cure with medicines that are capable of exciting symptoms ana- logous to those of the disease itself. On the other hand, the physician is possessed of innumerable curative agents, greatly preferable to those. § 51.—These facts Avill more than suffice to reveal to the under- standings of men the great laAV which has just been declared. And behold the advantage Avhich man has here over rude nature, whose acts are not guided by reflection! Hoav are the homoeo- pathic morbific powers multiplied in the various medicines which are spread over the creation, all of which are at his disposal, and may be brought to the relief of his suffering fellow-mortals ! With these, he can create morbid symptoms as varied as the countless natural diseases Avhich they are to cure. With such precious resources at his command, there can be no necessity for those A'iolent attacks upon the organism to extirpate an old and obstinate disease; and the transition from the state of suffering to that of durable health is effected in a gentle, imperceptible, and often speedy manner. From the process employed by nature, to which we have just adverted, the physician may deduce the doctrine of curing diseases by no other remedies than such as are homoeopathic, and not with those of another land (allo- pathic), which never cure, but only injure the patient. § 52.—After such evidence and examples, it is impossible any reasonable physician to persevere in the ordinary allopathic treatment, or continue to apply remedies whose effects have no direct or homoeopathic relation with the chronic disease that is to be cured, and Avhich attack the bcdy in the parts that are least diseased, by exciting evacuations, counter-irritation, derivations, ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 121 &c.x It is impossible that he can persist in the adoption of a method which consists in exciting, at the expense of the poAvers of the patient, the appearance of a morbid state entirely different from the primitive affection, by administering strong doses of mixtures which are of the most part composed of drugs whose effects are unknoAvn. The use of such mixtures can have no other result but that Avhich proceeds from the general law of nature Avhen one dissimilar disease joins itself to another in the animal economy—that is to say, the chronic affection, far from being cured, is, on the contrary, always aggravated. Three different effects may then take place : 1st. If the allopathic treatment, though of long duration, be gentle, the natural disease remains unchanged, and the patient will only have lost a portion of his strength, because, as we have seen before, the disease which already exists in the body will not permit a neAV dissimilar one that is Aveaker to establish itself there likewise. 2d. When the economy is attacked with violence by allopathic medicines, the primitive disease will yield for a time; but it re-appears, Avith at least the same degree of vigor as before, the moment this treat- ment is interrupted, because, as before stated, of two concurrent diseases, the new one, which is the stronger, destroys and suspends for a time that which existed before it, which is weaker and dis similar. 3d. Finally, if large doses of allopathic medicines h» continued for a length of time, this treatment only adds a new factitious disease, without ever curing the primitive one, and ren- ders the cure still more difficult; because, as Ave have already seen, when two dissimilar chronic affections of equal intensity meet together, one takes up its station beside the other in the system, and both are simultaneously established. There are only three possible methods of employing medicines in diseases, viz. § 53.—These cures are, as we see, performed solely by means of homoeopathy, Avhich Ave have at length attained to by consult- ing reason and taking experience for our guide (§ 7—25). By this metjhod alone can we cure disease in the most speedy, certain, and permanent manner, because it is grounded upon an eternal and unerring laAV of nature. 1 See the introduction, "A View," &c, and my book, " Die AllOopathie: ein Wort der Warnung an Krankejeder Art." Leipzig, bei Baumgartner 122 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 1.—The homeopathic, which only is salutary and efficacious. § 54.—I liaVe before remarked (§ 43—19) that there is no true method but the homoeopathic; because, of the only three modes of employing medicines in disease, this alone leads in a direct Avay to a mild, safe, and durable cure, Avithout either injuring the patient or diminishing his strength. II.—The allopathic or heteropathic. § 55.—The second mode of employing medicines in disease, is that Avhich I term the allopathic, or heteropathic, Avhich has been in general use till the present time. Without ever regarding that Avhich is really diseased in the body, it attacks those parts Avhich are sound, in order to draw off the malady from another quarter, and direct it tOAvards the latter. I have already treated of this method in the Introduction, and therefore will not speak of it farther. III.— The antipathic or enantiopathic, which is merely palliative. § 56.—The third and last mode of employing medicines1 in dis- ease is the antipathic, enantiopathic, or palliative. By this method, physicians have, till the present time, succeeded in afford- ing apparent relief, and gained the confidence of their patients by deluding them Avith a temporary suspension of their sufferings. We Avill noAV show its inefficacy, and to Avhat extent it is even in- jurious in diseases that run their course rapidly. In fact, this is the only feature, in the treatment employed by allopathists, that has any direct reference to the sufferings occasioned by the natural disease. But in Avhat does this reference consist? In precisely that Avhich ought most to be avoided, if Ave Avould not delude and mock the patient. An exposition of the method of cure where a remedy producing a contrary effect (.contraria contrariis) is prescribed against a single symptom of the disease.—Examples. § 57.—An ordinary physician, Avho proceeds upon the antipathic 1 A fourth mode of employing medicines in diseases has been attempted to be created by means of isopathy, as it is called—that is to say, a method of curing a given disease by the same contagious principle that produces it But, even granting this could be done, which would certainly be a most valu- able discovery, yet, after all, seeing that the miasm is given to the patient highly dynamized, and thereby, consequently, to a certain degree in an altered condition, the cure is effected only by opposing a simillimum to a simillimum. ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 123 method, pays attention to one symptom only—that of which the patient complains loudest, and neglects all the others, however numerous. He prescribes against this symptom a medicine that is known to produce the very opposite effect; for, according to the axiom contraria contrariis, laid doAvn fifteen hundred years ago by the old schools of medicine, it is from this remedy that he expects the most speedy relief (palliative). Accordingly, he administers strong doses of Opium in pains of every description, because this substance rapidly benumbs the feeling. He pre- scribes the same drug in diarrhoea, because in a short time it stops the peristaltic movement of the intestinal canal, and renders it insensible. He administers it likewise in cases of insomnolence, because it produces a state of hebetude and stupor. He employs purgatives Avhen the patient has for a long time been tormented Avith constipation. He plunges a hand that has received a burn into cold Avater, because its icy quality appears suddenly to re- move the pain as if by enchantment. When a patient complains of a sense of cold and loss of vital heat, he places him in u Avarm bath, whereby heat is immediately restored. Any one complain- ing of habitual Aveakness is advised to take Wine, Avhich imme- diately reanimates and appears to refresh him. Some other antipathies—that is to say, medicines opposed to the symptoms— are likeAvise employed; but, independent of those I have just enumerated, there are not many, because ordinary physicians are only acquainted Avith the peculiar and primitive effects of a very small number of medicines. This antipathic method is not merely defective because it is directed against an individual symptom only, but also, because in chronic diseases, after having apparently diminished the evil for a time, this temporary abatement is followed by a real aggravation of the symptoms. * § 58.—I will pass over the defect (see the note to § 7) which this method has in attaching itself to but one of the symptoms, and consequently but to a small part of the whole, a circumstance from which nothing could evidently be expected for the ameliora- tion of the entire disease, which is the only thing the patient aspires to. I will now ask, if experience can show me a single case where the application of these antipathic remedies in chronic or permanent diseases, and the short relief which they have pro- cured, has not been followed by a manifest aggravation, not only 124 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. of the symptoms thus palliated in the first instance, but, what is more, of the entire disease ? Every one Avho has paid attention to the subject will concur in saying that, after this slight anti- pathic amendment, Avhich lasts only for a short time, the condition of the patient invariably becomes worse, although the ordinary physician endeaA-ors to account for this too palpable augmentation by attributing it to the malignity of the primitive disease, which, according to his account, only then began to manifest itself1 Injurious consequences of some antipathic cures. § 59.—No severe symptom of a permanent disease has eArer been treated by these opposite remedies and palliatives, Avhere the evil did not re-appear, after a feAv hours, more aggravated than before. Thus, to cure a habitual tendency to sleep during the day, Coffee was administered, the first effects of Avhich are excitement and insomnolence; but, the moment that its first action was exhausted, the propensity to sleep returned stronger than ever. When a person Avas subject to frequent waking at night, without any regard being paid to the other symptoms of the disease, Opium Avas administered at bed-time, Avhich, by virtue of its primitive action, produces sleep, stupor, and hebetude; but on the following night the evil only became still more aggravated in consequence. Alike regardless of the other symptoms, Opium was administered in chronic diarrhoea, because its primitive effect is to constipate the boAvels ; but the alvine flux, after having been suspended for some time, re-appeared more grievous than before. 1 However unaccustomed physicians may have been till the present time to make correct observations, it could not have escaped their notice that disease infallibly increases after the use of palliatives. A striking example of this nature is found in J. H. Schulze (Diss, qua corporis humani momenta- nearum alterationum specimina qucedam expenduntur. Halle, 1741, $ 28). Something similar to this is attested by Willis (Pharm. rat., sec. 7, cap. i., p. 298): Opiata dolores atrocissimos plerumque sedant atque indolentiam...... procurant, eamque .... aliquamdiu et pro stato quodam tempore continuant, quo spatio elapso, dolores mox recrudescunt et brevi ad solitam ferociam au- gentur. And, p. 295: Exactis opii viribus illico redeunt tormina, nee atroci- tatem suam remittunt, nisi dum ab eodem pharmaco rursus incantuntur. J. Hunter (in his Treatise on the Venereal Disease, p. 13) says, that Wine increases the energy of persons who are weak, without bestowing on them any real vigor; and that the vital powers sink afterwards in the same pro- portion as they have been stimulated, so that the patient gains nothing by it, but, on the contrary, loses the greater part of his strength. ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 125 Acute and frequ3;it pains of all descriptions Avere momentarily calmed beneath the influence of Opium, which blunts and benumbs the feeling; but they neArer failed to return with greater ATiolence than before, or they Avere even sometimes replaced by another disease of a Avorse description. The ordinary physician knows no better remedy for a cough of long standing, which becomes Avorse at night, than Opium, Avhose first effects remove all kinds of irritation ; for the first night it may very well happen that the patient experiences some relief, but on the succeeding nights the cough returns more distressing than ever; and, if the physician persists in combatting it Avith the same palliative, by gradually increasing the dose, nocturnal perspirations and fever will then be added to the previous complaint. It has been imagined that tincture of Cantharides, which stimulates the urinary passages, Avould remedy a Aveakness of the bladder, and the retention of urine Avhich results from it; it may, indeed, effect some forced emissions of urine, but in the end the bladder is only rendered less irritable and less susceptible of contraction, Avhile paralysis of the bladder is likely to folloAV. Physicians have flattered them- selves that they could subdue an inveterate tendency to consti- pation by purgatives, administered in large doses, Avhich provoke frequent and abundant alvine evacuations; but the secondary effect of this treatment is generally that of constipating the bowels in a still greater degree. An ordinary physician prescribes Wine as a remedy in chronic debility; but it is only the primitive action of this agent that is stimulating, and its definite results are those of reducing the poAvers still more. It has been imagined that Bitters and Spices Avould warm and strengthen the cold and inactive stomach; but the secondary effect of these heating palliatives is to increase the inactivity of the o-astric viscera. Warm baths have been prescribed in cases of rigors, and a habitual deficiency of the vital heat; but, on coming out of the water, the patients are still Aveaker, more incapable of receiving warmth, and more subject to rigors than they were before. Immersion in cold Avater instantly relieves the pain occa- sioned by a severe burn; subsequently, however, this pain is increased to an insupportable degree, and the inflammation extends to the neighboring parts.1 To cure gravedo of long standing, ' See the close of the Introduction. 1H5 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. sternutatories are prescribed, Avhich excite the pituitary secretion; and it has not been perceived that the final result of this method was always that of aggravating the evil Avhich it was intended to cure. Electricity and galvanism, which at first exercise great influence upon the muscular system, quickly restore activity to members that haAre for a long time been feeble and nearly para- lyzed: but the secondary effect is absolute annihilation of all muscular irritability, and entire paralysis. It has been said that A-enesection is a fit remedy to stop long-continued congestions of blood in the head; but this mode is always succeeded by a still greater determination of blood to the upper parts of the body. The sole remedy that physicians in ordinary know to apply in cases Avhere the moral and physical powers are inactive and half paralyzed, Avhich are predominant symptoms in different kinds of typhus, is Valerian, administered in strong doses, because this plant is one of the most poAverful excitants they are acquainted with; but it escaped their notice that the excitement Avhich Valerian produces is merely its primitive effect, and after the re- action of the organism, the stupor and the incapability of motion— that is to say, the paralysis of the body, and the debility of the mind, increase—they haAre not observed that the patients on whom they lavished doses of antipathic Valerian are precisely those AA'ho have suffered the greatest mortality. The old school physician rejoices1 that he is able to reduce for several hours the velocity of the small rapid pulse in cachectic patients, with the very first dose of uncombined purple Fox-glove (Avhich, in its primary action,makes the pulse sloAver), its rapidity, hoAvever, soon returns; repeated, and noAv increased doses, effect an ever smaller diminu- tion of its rapidity, and at length none at all; indeed, in the secondary action, the pulse becomes uncountable, sleep, appetite, and strength depart, and a speedy death is invariably the result, or else insanity ensues. In short, the former schools of medicine have never calculated hoAv often the secondary effects of anti- pathic medicines have tended to increase the malady, or even bring on something that Avas still Avorse, of which experience has given us examples that are enough to inspire the soul Avith terror Where a palliative is employed, the gradual increase of the dose never cures a chronic disease, but renders the state of the patient worse. 1 See Hufeland, in his Pamphlet, "Die Homoopathie," p. 20. ORGANON 05" MEDIC"?7.. 127 § 60.—When these grievous consequences (which naturally might have been expected from the use of antipathic remedies) begin to manifest themselves, the ordinary physieian imagines that he Avill be delivered from his embarrassment, if he adminis- ters a stronger dose each time that the evil groAvs Avorse. But from this also there results nothing but momentary relief, while, from the necessity in Avhich he sees himself of constantly aug- menting the dose of the palliative, it sometimes follows that a still severer malady declares itself—sometimes that life is endan- gered, and eAren that the patient falls a sacrifice. A disease of long standing or of inveteracy has never been cured by such means. Wherefore, physicians ought to have inferred the utility of an opposite, and the only beneficial method—namely, that of homoeopathy. § 61.—If physicians had been capable of reflecting upon the sad results of the application of antipathic remedies, they would long ago have arrived at the great truth, that a path directly opposite would lead' than to a method of treatment by which they might cure disease perfectly and permanently. They Avould then have discovered that, if a medicinal effect, con- trary to the symptoms of the malady (antipathic treatment), only procures momentary relief, at the expiration of Avhich the evil constantly groAvs Avorse; by the same rule the inverse method— that is to sav, the homoeopathic application of medicines, ad- ministered according to the analogy existing betAveen the symp- toms they excite and those of the disease itself, constituting, at the same time, for the enormous doses that Avere in use, the smallest that could possibly be applied—must necessarily bring about a perfect and permanent cure. But, notwithstanding all these arguments—notAvithstanding the positive fact that no physi- cian ever performed a permanent cure in chronic diseases but in proportion as the prescriptions included some predominant homoeopathic medicine—notAvithstanding another fact, no less clear, that nature never accomplished a speedy and perfect cure but by means of a similar disease Avhich she added to the old one (§ 46); notwithstanding all this, physicians have, during so many centuries, never arrived at a truth on which alone depended the safety of the patient. 128 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. The reason that the palliativs method is so pernicious, and the homoeopathic alone salutary. § 62.—The source of all these pernicious results of palliative antipathic treatment, and the salutary effects proceeding from the reverse method, the homoeopathic, Avill be sufficiently explained in the folloAving observations, Avhich are draAvn from experience, and a number of facts that have hitherto escaped the notice of every other physician, although they were very palpable, per- fectly evident in their nature, and of the deepest importance to the medical art. Is founded upon the difference ivhich exists between the primary action of every medicine, and the re-action, or secondary effects, produced by the living organism (the vital power). § 63.—Every agent that acts upon the human economy, every medicine produces, more or less, some notable change in the existing state of the vital powers, or creates a certain modifica- tion in the health of man, for a period of shorter or longer duration: this change is called the primitive effect. Although this is the joint effect of both a medicinal and a vital poAver, it belongs, notAvithstanding, more particularly to the former, avIiosc action is exercised upon the body. But our vital poAvers tend always to oppose their energy to this influence or impression. The effect that results from this, and which belongs to our con- servative vital poAvers and their automatic force, bears the name of secondary effect or re-action. Explanation of the primitive and secondary effects. § 64.—So long as the primitive effects of artificial morbific agents (medicines) continue their influence upon a healthy body, the vital poAver appears to play merely a passi\re part, as if it were compelled to undergo the impression of the medicine that is acting upon it from without. But, subsequently, this also appears, in a manner, to rouse itself. Then, if there exists any state directly contrary to the primitive effect (a), the vital power manifests a tendency to produce one (b) that is proportionate to its own energy, and the degree of influence exercised by the morbid or medicinal agent; and, if there exists no state in nature that is directly contrary to this primitive effect, the vital poAver then seeks to gain the ascendancy by destroying the change that ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 129 has been operated upon it from without (by the action of the medicine), for which it substitutes its own natural state (re-action). Examples of both. § 65.—Examples of (a) are before the eyes of every one. A hand that has been bathed in cold Avater has, at first, a much greater share of heat than the other that has not undergone the immersion (primitive effect); but, shortly after it is withdrawn from the Avater, and Avell dried, it becomes cold again, and, in the end, much colder than that on the opposite side (secondary effect). The great degree of heat that accrues from violent exercise (primitive effect) is folloAved by shivering and cold (secondary effect). A man Avho has overheated himself by drinking co- piously of AA'ine (primitive effect), finds, on the next day, even the slightest current of air too cold for him (secondary effect). An arm that has been immersed for any length of time in freezing Avater, is, at first, much colder and paler than the other (primitive effect); but let it be withdrawn from the water, and carefully dried, it will not only become warmer than the other, but even burning hot, red, and inflamed (secondary effect). Strong coffee, in the first instance, stimulates the faculties (primitive effect), but it leaA-es behind a sensation of heaviness and droAvsiness (se- condary effect), which continues a long time, if Ave do not again have recourse to the same liquid (palliative). After exciting somnolence, or rather a deep stupor, by the aid of Opium (primi- tive effect), it is much more difficult to fall asleep on the suc- ceeding night (secondary effect). Constipation excited by Opium (primitive effect), is followed by diarrhoea (secondary effect); and evacuations produced by purgatives (primitive effect) are suc- ceeded by costiveness, Avhich lasts several days (secondary effect). It is thus that the vital poAver, in its re-action, opposes to the primitive effects of strong doses of medicine which operate powerfully on the healthy state of the body, a condition that is directly opposite, whenever it is able to do so. It is only by the use of the minutest homoeopathic doses that the re-acUon of the vital power shows itself simply by restoring the equilibrium of health. ^ 66.—But it may be readily conceived that the healthy state will make no perceptible re-action in an opposite sense, after weak and homoeopathic doses of agents that modify and change 9 ICO ORGANON OF MEDICINE. its vitality. On due attention, it is true that even small dosea produce primitive effects that are perceptible; but the re-action made by the living organism never exceeds the degree that is requisite for the rcestablishment of health. From these facts, the salutary tendency of the homoeopathic, as well as the adverse effects of the antipathic (palliative) method, become manifest. § 67.—These incontrovertible and self-evident truths, which nature and experience have laid before us, explain, on the one hand, why the homoeopathic method is so beneficial in its results, and prove, on the other, the absurdity of that which consists in treating diseases by antipathic and palliative remedies.1 How far these facts prove the efficacy of the homoeopathic r.'thod. § 68.—We find, it is true, in homoeopathic cures, that the very minute doses of medicine (§ 275—287) which they require to sub- 1 It is merely in urgent and dangerous cases, or in diseases that have just broken out in persons Avho were previously in health—such, for example, as in asphyxia, especially from lightning, suffocation, freezing, drowning, &c,— that it is either admissible or proper, in the first instance at least, to reani- mate the feeling and irritability by the aid of palliatives, such as slight electric shocks, injections of strong Coffee, stimulating odors, gradual warmth, &c* As soon as physical life is reanimated, the action of the organs that support it resumes its regular course, as is to be expected from a body that was in the full enjoyment of health previous to the accident. Under this head are also included the antidotes to several poisons, such as alkalies against mineral acids; liver of Sulphur against metallic poisons; Coffee, Camphor (and Ipecacuanha) against poison by Opium, &c. We must not imagine that a homoeopathic medicine has been badly selected in a case of disease, because a few of the symptoms of this remedy correspond antipathically with some morbid symptoms of minor or less im- portance. Provided the other symptoms of the disease—those which are the strongest and the most developed, and finally those which characterize it—find in the remedy similar symptoms which cover, extinguish, and de- stroy them, the small number of antipathic symptoms that are visible dis- appear of themselves after the remedy has expended its action, without retarding the recovery in the slightest degree. *And yet the new mongrel seet appaal to these remarks, though in vain, in order to And a pretext everywhere for such exceptions, to the general rule, and very conveniently to introduce th?ir allopathic palliatives, accompanied with other mischief of a like character, mere'y to ■apiro themselves the trouble of searching for suitable homoeopathic remedies for every caseoi disease—one might say, to save themselves the trouble of being homoeopathic physicians, though they wish to be considered such. But their deeds will follow them—they are of the little i moment. ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 131 due and destroy natural diseases by analogy to the symptoms produced by the latter, leave in the organism a slight medicinal disease, which outlives the primitive affection. But the extreme minuteness of the dose renders this disease so slight and suscep- tible of dissipating itself, that the organism has no need to oppose to it any greater re-action than that which is requisite to raise the existing state to the habitual degree of health—that is to say, to establish the latter. And all the symptoms of the primitive disease being noAv extinct, a very slight effort will suffice to accomplish this (§ 65-6). How these facts confirm the injurious tendency of the antipathic method. § 69.—But precisely the reverse of this takes place in the antipathic or palliative method. The medicinal symptom which the physician opposes to the morbid symptom (such as, for example, stupefaction, which constitutes the primitive effect of Opium, op- posed to an acute pain), is not Avholly foreign and allopathic to this latter. There is an evident affinity between the two symptoms, but it is inverse. The morbid symptom is to be annihilated here by a medicinal symptom opposed to it. This cannot possibly be accomplished. It is true the antipathic remedy acts precisely on the diseased part of the organism, just as certain as the homcec- pathic; but it confines itself to covering, in a certain degree, the natural morbid symptom, and rendering it insensible for a certain length of time. During the first moments of the action of the © © palliative, the organism undergoes no disagreeable sensation, neither on the part of the morbid symptom, nor on that of the medicinal one, Avhich appear to be reciprocally annihilated and neu- tralized, as it were, in a dynamic manner. This, for example, is what takes place in regard to pain and the stupefying powers of Opium; for, during the first moments, the organism feels as if it were in health, alike free from the painful sensation and the stu- pefaction. But as the medicinal symptom that is opposed cannot occupy in the organism the place of the preexisting disease (as is the case in the homoeopathic method, where the remedy exites an artificial disease similar to the natural one, but merely stronger), the vital poAver consequently not being affected by the remedy employed, with a disease similar to that which had pre- viously tormented it, the latter does not become extinguished. The new disease, it is true, keeps the organism insensible, during 132 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. the first moments, by a kind of dynamic neutralization,1 if we may so express it, but it soon dies away of itself, like all medicinal affections; and then it not only leaves the malady in its former state, but, still more (as palliatives can never be administered but in large doses to afford apparent relief), it compels the organism to produce a state contrary to that excited by the palliative medicine, and creates an effect opposite to that of the remedy— that is to say, gives birth to a condition analogous to the natural disease, Avhich is not yet destroyed. This addition, then, which proceeds from the organism itself (the re-action against the pallia- tive), does not fail to increase the intensity and severity of the dis- ease.2 Thus the morbid symptom (this single part of the disease) becomes worse the moment the effect of the palliative ceases, and that, too, in a degree proportionate to the effect of the dose of the palliative. And, to continue Avith the same example, the greater the quantity of the Opium administered to suspend the pain, in the same degree does the pain increase beyond its primi- tive intensity Avhen the Opium has ceased to act.3 1 Contrary or opposite sensations in the living economy of man cannot be permanently neutralized, like substances of opposite qualities in the laboratory of the chemist, where we may see, tor example, sulphuric acia and potash •form, by their union, a substance that is entirely different, a neutral salt that is no longer acid or alkali and which not even fire will decompose. Com- binations like these producing something thac is neutral and durable, can never take plaoe in the organs of sensation with regard to impressions of an opposite nature. There is, indeed, some appearance of neutralization or of reciprocal destruction, but this phenomenon is of short duration. The tears of the mourner may cease for a moment when there is some merry spectacle before hi-s eyes, but soon the mirth is forgotton, and the tears begin to flow again more freely than ever. 2 However intelligible this proposition may be, it has, nevertheless, been misinterpreted, and an objection made to it, that a palliative would be just as well able to cure by its consecutive effect, which resembles the existing disease, as a homceopathio remedy by its primitive effect. But, in raising this obstaole. it has never been considered that the consecutive effect is by no means a product of the remedy, that it always arises from the re-action exercised by the vital powers of the organism, and that, consequently, this re-action of the vital powers, by reason of the application of a palliative, is a state similar to the symptom of the disease which this remedy failed to annihilate, and whioh, consequently, was aggravated by the re-action of the vital power against the palliative. 3 As in a dungeon, where the prisoner scarcely distinguishes the objects that are immediately before him, the flame of alcohol spreads around a con- ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 133 A short analysis of the homoeopathic method. § 70.—From all that has here been stated, the following truths must be admitted: 1st. There is nothing for the physician to cure in disease but the sufferings of the patient; and the changes in his state of health which are perceptible to the senses—that is to say, the totality or mass of symptoms by which disease points out the remedy it stands in need of; every internal cause that could be attributed to it, every occult character that man might be tempted to bestow, are nothing more than so many idle dreams and vain imaginings. 2d. That state of the organism which we call disease cannot be converted into health but by the aid of another affection of the organism, excited by means of medicines. The experiments made upon healthy individuals are the best and purest means that could be adopted to discover this virtue. 3d. According to every knoAvn fact, it is impossible to cure a natural disease by the aid of medicines which have the faculty of producing a dissimilar artificial state or symptom in healthy persons. Therefore the allopathic method can never effect a real cure. Even nature never performs a cure, or annihilates one dis- ease by adding to it another that is dissimilar, be the intensity of the latter ever so great. 4th. Every fact serves to prove that a medicine capable of ex- citing in healthy persons a morbid symptom opposite to the dis- ease to be cured, never effects any other than momentary relief in disease of long standing, without curing it, and suffers it to re- appear, after a certain interval, more aggravated than ever. The antipathic and purely palliative method is, therefore, wholly opposed to the object that is to be attained, where the disease is an important one, and of long standing. 5th. The third method, the only one to which we can still have recourse (the homoeopathic), which employs against the totality of the symptoms of a natural disease a medicine that is capable of exciting in healthy persons symptoms that closely resemble those of the disease itself, is the only one that is really salutary, colatory light; but, when the flame is extinguished, tho obscurity is then greater in the same proportion as the flame was brilliant, and now the dark- ness that envelops him is still more impenetrable, and he has greater diffi- culty than before in distinguishing the objects around him. 134 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. and Avhich always annihilates disease, or the purely dynamic aberrations of the vital powers, in an easy, prompt, and perfect manner. In this respect, nature herself furnishes the example, when, by adding to an existing disease a new one, that resembles it, she cures it promptly and effectually. The three necessary points in healing, are: 1. To ascertain the malady; 2. The action of the medicines; and 3. Their appropriate application. § 71.—As it is no longer doubted that the diseases of mankind consist merely of groups of certain symptoms, which cannot be destroyed but by the aid of medicines, and the inherent faculty which those substances possess of exciting morbid symptoms similar to those of the natural disease, the points to be considered in the mode of treatment are the three following: 1st. By what means is the physician to arrive at the necessary information relative to a disease, in order to be able to undertake the cure? 2d. How is he to discover the morbific powers of medicines —that is to say, of the instruments destined to cure natural diseases ? 3d. What is the best mode of applying these artificial morbific poAvers (medicines) in the cure of diseases ? A general view of acute and chronic diseases. § 72.—Relative to the first point, it will be necessary for us to enter here into some general considerations. The diseases of mankind resolve themselves into two classes. The first are rapid operations of the vital power departed from its natural condition, which terminate in a shorter or longer period of time, but are always of moderate duration. These are called acute diseases. The others, which are less distinct, and often almost imperceptible on their first appearance, seize upon the organism, each accord- ing to its own peculiar manner, and remove it by degrees so far from the state of health that the automatic vital energy which is destined to support the latter, and which is called vital power, cannot resist but in a useless and imperfect manner; and, not being potent enough to extinguish them herself, she is compelled to alloAv them to grow until, in the end, they destroy the organism. The latter are known by the appellation of chronic diseases, and are produced by infection from a chroni; miasm. ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 135 Acute diseases which are isolated—sporadic, epidemic, acute miasms. § 73.—As to acute diseases, they may be classed under two distinct heads. The first attack single individuals, and arise from some pernicious cause to Avhich they have been exposed. Immoderate excess in either eating or drinking, a want of ne- cessary aliment, violent impressions of physical agents, cold, heat, fatigue, &c, or mental excitement, are the most frequent causes. But, for the most part, they depend upon the occasional aggravation of a latent psoric affection, which returns to its former sleep and insensibility when the acute affection is not too violent, or when it has been cured in a prompt manner. The others attack a plurality of individuals at once, and develop themselves here and there (sporadically) beneath the sway of meteoric and telluric influence, of Avhose action but few persons are at the moment susceptible. Nearly approaching to these are those which attack many individuals at the same time, arising from similar causes, and exhibiting symptoms that are analogous (epidemics); and usually become contagious Avhen they act upon close and compact masses of human beings. These maladies or fevers1 are each of a distinct nature, and the individual cases which manifest themselves being all of the same origin, they invariably place the patients everywhere in one identical morbid state, but which, if abandoned to themselves, terminate in a very short space of time, either by a cure or death. War, inundations, and famine frequently give rise to these diseases, but they may likewise result from acute miasms, which always re-appear be- neath the same form, for which reason they are designated by particular names ; some of which attack man but once during life, such as the bmall-pox, measles, whooping cough, the scarlet* fever of Sydenham, mumps, &c: and others which may seize him re- peatedly, such as the plague, yellow fever, Asiatic cholera, &c. i The homoeopathic physician, who does not share the prejudices of the ordinary schools of medicine—that is to say, who does not, like them, fix the number of those fevers to a certain few, forbidding nature to produce any others, nor affixes particular names to them in order that he may lollow this or that mode of treatment—he does not acknowledge the appellations of jail fever, bilious fever, typhus, putrid fever, pituitous lever, but cures all these diseases individually by a treatment suited to the symptoms they present. * Subsequent to the year 1801, a purple miliary fever came from the west of Europe which physicians have confounded with scarlatina, although the 136 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. The worst species of chronic diseases are those produced by the unskillful treatment of allopathic physicians. § 74.—Under the class of chronic diseases, we have unfor- tunately to reckon those numerous factitious maladies, of universal propagation, arising from the long-continued administration, by the allopathists, of violent heroic medicines in large and in- creasing doses, from the abuse of Calomel, Corrosive Sublimate, mercurial ointments, Nitrate of Silver, Iodine and its ointment, Opium, Valerian, Bark and Quinine, Digitalis-purpurea, Hydro- cyanic-acid, Sulphur and Sulphuric-acid, long-continued evacuants, venesection, leeches, setons, issues, &c, by which the vital poAver is either unmercifully weakened, or, if it be not indeed exhausted, gradually becomes so abnormally altered (in different manners, according to the particular medicine administered), that, in order to support life against such hostile and destructive assaults, it must effect changes in the organization, and either deprive this or the other part of its sensibility or irritability, or exalt these properties to excess, produce dilatation or contraction, relaxation or induration1 of parts, or else totally destroy them, and here and there induce organic changes, both internally and externally (maim, as it were, the interior and exterior of the body), in order to protect the organization against the entire destruction of life, from the reiterated assaults of such hostile and destructive influences. These are the most difficult of cure. § 75.—The most distressing and unmanageable chronic maladies affecting the human system are those which have been super- induced by the unskillful treatment of those allopathists (in modern times most injurious), and I regret to say that, when they signs of these two affections are entirely different, and Aconite is the cura- tive and preservative remedy of the first, and Belladonna of the second, while the former always assumes the epidemic character, and the latter is mostly sporadic. Of late years, both these two affections appear to have been combined into a particular species of eruptive fever, against which neither of these two remedies were found perfectly homoeopathic. 1 "When, at length, the patient sinks, his physician, who had prescribed such a course of treatment, takes care, on a post-mortem examination, to exhibit to the disconsolate relatives these internal organic arrangements (which are due to his own unskillfulness) as the original and incurable complaint ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 137 have attained a considerable height, it Avould seem as if no remedy could be discovered or devised for their cure. It is only as there is sufficient vital power yet remaining in the system, that the injury inflicted by the abuse of allopathic medicines can be repaired; to restore the patient, often requires a long time, and the simultaneous re- moval of the original malady. § 76.—The Dispenser of all good has granted us aid, by means of homoeopathy, for the removal of natural diseases only; but those which have been superinduced by a false art—those in which the human organism has been maltreated and crippled, both internally and externally, by means of pernicious medication, the vital power itself,—provided, indeed, if it be not already too much enfeebled by such assaults, and can employ, uninterruptedly, whole years to the serious process,—the vital power must remove those factitious diseases (assisted by appropriate aid directed against a chronic miasm, which probably still lies concealed Avithin). An art of healing, intended for reestablishing to their normal condition those countless morbid changes of the body which are often induced by the mischievous arts of allopathy, does not, nor cannot exist. Diseases that are improperly termed chronic. \ 77.—The name chronic is very improperly applied to those diseases which attack persons who are constantly exposed to baleful influences from which they might have screened them- selves—persons who constantly make use of aliments or drinks that are hurtful to the system—who commit excesses that are injurious to health—who are every moment in want of the articles necessary to support life—Avho inhabit unwholesome countries, and, above all, marshy places—who live in cellars and other con- fined dwellings—who are deprived of air and exeroise—Avho are exhausted by immoderate labor of mind or body—who are con- sumed by perpetual ennui, &c. These diseases, or rather these privations of health, brought on by individuals, disappear of them- selves by a mere change of regimen, provided there is no chronic miasm in the body, but they cannot be called chronic diseases. Diseases that properly claim that appellation, and which all arise from chronic miasms. § 78.—The true natural chronic diseases are those which are 138 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. produced by a chronic miasm, making continual progress in the body when no specific curative remedy is opposed to them, and Avhich, notwithstanding all imaginable care, both with regard to the regimen of the body and mind, never cease tormenting the patient with an accumulation of miseries that endure till the latest period of his existence. These are the greatest and most fre- quent of the human species, since the most robust constitution. the best regulated life, and the greatest energy of the vital powers, are insufficient to extinguish them. Syphilis and sycosis. § 79.—Hitherto, syphilis only Avas in some measure known as one of these chronic miasmatic diseases, Avhich, being uncured, continued to the end of life. Sycosis, Avhich likewise cannot be subdued by the vital poAvers alone, has never been regarded as a distinct species of chronic disease depending on an internal miasm; and it was supposed to be cured Avhen the excrescences on the skin were destroyed, Avhile no attention was paid to the source, which still continued to exist. Psora is the parent of all chronic diseases, properly so called, with the excep- tion of the syphilitic and sycosic. § 80.—But a chronic miasm, that is incomparably greater and far more important than either of the tAVO last named, is that of psora. The two others disclose the specific internal affection whence they emanate—the one by chancres, and the other by ex- crescences in the form of a caulifloAver. It is not until the Avhole of the organism is infected, that psora declares its huge internal chronic miasm by a cutaneous eruption (sometimes consisting only in a few pimples) that is wholly peculiar to it, accompanied by insupportable tickling, voluptuous itching, and a peculiar odor. This psora is the sole true and fundamental cause that produces all the other countless forms of disease1 which, under the names 1 It has cost me twelve years of study and research to trace out the source of this incredible number of chronic affections—to discover this great truth, whioh remained concealed from all my predecessors and cotemporaries—to establish the basis of its demonstration, and find out, at the same time, the principal antipsoric remedies that were fit to combat this hydra in all its different forms. My observations on this subject have been given to the world in the Treatise on Chronic Diseases, which I published in the year 1828-30, iv. vols. Dresden, by Arnold. (Second edition. 1835.) ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 139 of nervous debility, hysteria, hemicrania, hypochondriasis, insanity, melancholy, idiocy, madness, epilepsy, and spasms of all kinds, softening of the bones, or rickets, scoliasis and cyphosis, caries, cancer, fungus-hrematodes, pseudomorphge of all kinds, gravel, gout, haemorrhoids, jaundice and cyanosis, dropsy, amenorrhea, gastrorrhagia, epistaxis, haemoptysis, hematuria, metrorrhagia. asthma and phthisis, ulcerosa, impotency and sterility, deafness, cataract and amaurosis, paralysis, loss of sense, pains of every kind, &c, appear in our pathology as so many peculiar, distinct, and independent diseases. § 81.—The progress of this ancient miasm through the organ- isms of millions of individuals, in the course of some hundreds of generations, and the extraordinary degree of development Avhich it has by these means acquired, will explain, to a certain extent, why it is able at present to make its appearance beneath so many different forms, especially if we contemplate the multiplicity of circumstances1 that usually contribute to the manifestation of this great diversity of chronic affections (secondary symptoms of psora), besides the infinite variety of their individual constitution. It is, therefore, not surprising that such different organisms, penetrated by the psoric miasm, and exposed to so many hurtful influences, external and internal, which often act upon them in a Until I had examined the depths of this important matter, it was impos sible for me to teach the mode of subduing all chronic diseases but as isolated and individual affections by the medicinal substances that were till then known according to their effects upon healthy persons; so that the followers of my method treated each case of chronic disease separately as a distinct group of symptoms, which, however, did not prevent their cure to such an extent that suffering humanity had good cause to rejoice at the newly-dis- covered system of medicine. But how much more satisfactory must it be, now that remedies have been discovered which are still more homoeopathic for the cure of chronic diseases that owe their origin to psora! from among which the physician, who is truly skilled in his art, will select only such whose medicinal symptoms correspond best with those of the chronic disease which it is intended to cure. 1 Some of these causes, which, in modifying the manifestation of psora, give to it the form of a chronic disease, evidently depend, in a certain degree either on climate and the natural situation of the dwelling, or ou the diversi ties of the physical and moral education of youth, which has, in some in stances, been either neglected or too long delayed, and in others carried to excess, or on the abuse of it in respect to regimen, passions, morals, customs, and habits. 140 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. permanent manner, should also present such an incalculable num- ber of diseases, changes, and sufferings, as those which haATe, till the present time, been cited by the old pathology1 as so many distinct diseases, describing them by a number of particular names. 1 How many are found among them whose names bear more significations than one, and by each of which very different diseases are designated, that have no connection with each other but by a single symptom! Such as ague, yellow jaundice, dropsy, phthisis, leucorrhaa, hemorrhoids, rheumatism, apoplexy, spasms, hysteria, hypochondriasis, melancholy, insanity, angina, paralysis, &c, ( J^p3 in this country, dyspepsia, liver complaint, disease of the spine, and other fashionable terms), which are represented as fixed diseases that always preserve their identity, and which, by reason of the name they bear, are always treated upon the same plan. How can we justify the identity of medical treatment by the adoption of a name ? And, if the treat- ment is not always to be the same, why make use of an identical name, which also supposes a coincidence in the manner of being attacked by medi- cinal agents? Nihil sane in artem medicam pestiferum magis unquam irrepsit malum, quam generalia quadam nomina morbis imponere Usque aptare velle generalem quandam medicinam: it is thus that Huxham, a physi- cian as enlightened as he is admired for his candor, has expressed himself (Op. Phys. Med., t. i.) Fritz likewise complains (Annalen, i., p. 80) "that the same names have been given to diseases that, are essentially different." Even epidemic diseases, which are probably propagated by a specific miasm in each particular case of epidemy, receive names, from the existing medical school, as if they were fixed diseases, already known and always returning under the same form. It is thus they speak of hospital fever, jail fever, camp fever, bilious fever, nervous fever, mucous fever, &c, although each epidemic of these erratic fevers manifests itself beneath the aspect of a new disease that never existed before, varying considerably both in its course and in the most characteristic symptoms, and also in its whole department. Each of them differs so widely from all the anterior epidemics, whatever names they bear, that it is overturning every principle in logic to give to diseases so manifestly different from each other one of those names that have been introduced into the pathology, and then to regulate the medical treat- ment according to a name that has been so abused. Sydenham alone dis- covered the truth of this (Obs. Med., cap. 2, de morb. epid., p. 43); for he insists upon the necessity of never believing in the identity of one epidemic disease with another that had manifested itself before, or of treating it accord- ing to this affinity, because the epidemics which exhibit themselves suc- cessively havo all differed from each other. "Nihil quicquam (opinor), animvm universes qua patet medicinm pomaria perlustrantem, tanta admira- tione percellet, quam discolor ilia et sui plane dissimilis morborum Epidemico- rum fades; non tarn qua varias ejusdem anni tempestates, quam qua dis- crepantes diversorum ab invicem annorum constitutiones refcrunt, ab Usque ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 141 Every case of chronic disease demands the careful selection of a remedy from among the specifics that have been discovered against chronic miasms, par- ticularly against psora. § 82.—Although the discovery of this great source of chronic affections has advanced the science of medicine some steps nearer to that of the nature of the greater number of diseases that present themselves for cure, still the homoeopathic physician, at every chronic disease (psoric) that he is called upon to treat, ought not to be less careful than before in seizing upon the perceptible symptoms, and everything that is connected Avith them; for it is no more possible in these diseases than in others to obtain a real cure without particularizing each individual case in a rigorous and absolute manner. It is only necessary to distinguish whether the disease is acute or chronic; because, in the first case, the principal symptoms develop themselves more rapidly, the image of the malady is found in a much shorter time, and there are far fewer inquiries to be made, because the greatest part of the signs are of themselves more evident to the senses1 than is the case in dependent. Qua tarn aperto prcedictorum morborum diversitas turn propriis ac sibi peculiaribus symptomatis, turn etiam medendi ratione quam hi ab illis disparem prorsus sibi vendicant, satis illucescit. Ex quibus constat morbus hosce, ut ut externa quadantenus specie, et symptomatis aliquot utrisque pariter supervenientibus, convenire paulo incautioribus videantur, re tamen ipsa (si bene adverteris animum), alienee, admodum esse indolis, et distare ut sera lupinisP From all this, it is clear that these useless names of diseases, which are so much abused, ought to have no influence whatever upon the plan of treat- ment adopted by a true physician, who knows that he is not to judge of, and treat diseases after the nominal resemblance of a symptom, but according to the totality of the signs of the individual state of each patient; his duty is, therefore, to search scrupulously for diseases, and not to build his opinion upon gratuitous hypotheses. Should it, however, be thought sometimes necessary to have names for diseases, in order to render ourselves intelligible in a few words to the ordi- nary classes, when speaking of a patient, let none be made use of but such as are collective. We ought to say, for example, that the patient has a species of chorea, a species of dropsy, a species of nervous fever, a species of ague, because there certainly do not exist any diseases that are permanent and always retaining their identity, which deserve these denominations or others that are analogous. It is thus we might, by degrees, dissipate the illusion produced by the names given to diseases. 1 According to this, the method I am about to point out for the discovery of the symptoms is only suited in a partial degree to acute diseases 142 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. chronic diseases of several years' standing, whose symptoms are ascertained with greater difficulty. Qualifications necessary for comprehending the image of the disease. § 83.—This examination of a particular case of disease, Avith the intent of presenting it in its formal state and individuality, only demands, on the part of the physician, an unprejudiced mind, sound understanding, attention and fidelity in observing and tracing the image of* the disease. I will content myself, in the present instance, Avith merely explaining the general principles of the course that is to be pursued, leaving it to the physician to select those which are applicable to each particular case. Direction to the physician for discovering and tracing out an image of the disease. § 84.—The patient details his sufferings; the persons who are about him relate what he has complained of, how he has behaved himself, and all that they have remarked in him. The physician sees, hears, and obsen'es, with his other senses, whatever there is changed or extraordinary in the patient. He writes all this down, in the very words which the latter, and the persons around him, made use of. He permits them to continue speaking to the end Avithout interruption,1 except Avhere they wander into useless digressions, taking care to exhort them at the commencement to speak slowly, that he may be enabled to folloAV them in taking doAvn whatever he deems necessary. § 85.—At each neAV circumstance related by the patient or the persons present, the physician commences another line, in order that the symptoms may all be written down separately, and stand one beneath the other. By this mode of proceeding, he will be enabled to add to that which has, in the first instance, been related to him in a vague manner, anything he may subsequently acquire from a more accurate knowledge of the case. § 86.—When the patient and those about him have finished all they had to say, the physician then asks for more precise infor- mation Avith regard to each individual symptom, and proceeds as follows: He reads o\rer all that has been communicated to him, 1 Every interruption breaks the chain of ideas of the person who speaks, and things do not afterwards return to his memory in the same shape he would at first have described them. ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 143 and asks at each particular symptom, for example, At what epoch did this or that circumstance occur ? Was it previous to the use of the medicines which the patient has taken till the pre- sent time, or while he Avas taking them, or only a few days after he had discontinued their use ? What kind of pain, Avhat particu- lar sensation was it that Avas felt in such or such a part of the body? Which the precise spot that it occupied? Did the pain come on in separate attacks at intervals, or Avas it lasting and uninter- rupted ? How long did it continue ? At Avhat hour of the day or night, and in what part of the body was it most violent, or where and when did it cease entirely ? What was the precise nature of this or that particular circumstance or symptom ? § 87.—Thus the physician causes all the indications which Avere given in the first instance to be described to him more closely, Avithout ever appearing, by his manner of putting the question, to dictate the answer,1 or place the patient in such a position that he shall have nothing to reply but yes, or no, to his question. To act othenATise would only lead the person inter- rogated to deny or affirm a thing that is false, or only half true, or evenAvholly different from that which has really occurred, according as it may suit his convenience, or for the purpose of gratifying the physician. An unfaithful description of the disease would then result, and, consequently, an inappropriate choice of the curative remedy. § 88.—If, in this spontaneous narrative, no mention is made of several parts or functions of the body, and of the state of the mind of the patient, the physician may then ask if there is not something more to be said respecting this or that particular part or function, or relative to the disposition and state of mind,2 taking care, at the same time, to confine himself to general terms, in order that the 1 For instance, the physician ought never to say, " Did not such or such a thing take place in this manner V By giving this turn to his questions, he puts a false reply into the mouth of the patient, and draws from him a wrong indication. 2 For example—Has the patient had an evacuation from tho bowels ? How does he pass water—freely or otherwise? How does he rest by day and by night ? What is the state of mind and temper of the patient ? Is he thirsty ? What land of taste has he in the mouth ? What kinds of food and drink are most agreeable to him, and which are those ho dislikes.' i'o the dif- ferent articles taste as usual, or have they another taste wholly different? How dues he feel after meals ? Have you anything more to tell me relative to the head, belly, or limbs? 144 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. person who furnishes the explanation may, thereby, be constrained to ansAver categorically upon these various points. § 89.—When the patient (for it is to him we are to refer, in preference, for everything that relates to the sensations he expe- riences, except in diseases where concealment is observed) has thus personally given the necessary details to the physician, and furnished him Avith a tolerable image of the malady, the latter is then at liberty to question him more specifically, if he finds he is not yet sufficiently informed on the subject.1 1 For example—How often have the bowels been evacuated, and what was the nature of the discharges ? Did the whitish discharges consist of mucus or faeces ? Were they painful or otherwise ? What was the precise nature of these pains, and in what part were they felt ? What did the patient throw up ? Is the bad taste in the mouth putrid, bitter, or acid, or what kind of taste is it ? Does he experience this taste before, during, or after eating or drinking? At what part of the day does he feel it in particular ? What kind of taste was connected with the eructation ? Is the urine turbid at first, or does it only become so after standing a while ? Of what color was it at the time of emission ? What was the color of the sediment ? Is there any peculiarity in the state of the patient when he sleeps ? Does he sigh, moan, speak, or cry out ? Does he start in his sleep ? Does he snore in inspiration or expiration ? Does he lie on his back only, or on which side does he lay himself? Does he cover himself up close, or does he throw off the bed-covering ? Does he easily awake, or does he sleep too soundly ? How does he feel on waking ? How often does this or that symptom occur, and on what occasion? Is it when the patient is sitting up, lying down. standing up, or when he is moving about ? Does it come on merely when he has been fasting or at least early in the morning, or simply in the evening, or only after meals, or if at other times, when? When did the shivering come on ? Was it merely a sensation of cold, or was he actually cold at the time ? In what part of the body did the patient feel cold ? Was hia skin warm when he complained of being cold? Did he experience a sensa- tion of cold without shivering? Did he feel heat without the face being flushed ? What parts of his body were warm to the touch ? Did the patient complain of heat without his skin being warm ? How long did the sensation of cold, or that of heat, continue ? When did the thirst come on ? During the cold or heat ? Or was it before or after ? How intense was the thirst ? What did the patient ask for to drink ? When did the perspiration come on ? Was it at the commencement or at the expiration of the heat ? What space of time elapsed between the heat and the perspiration ? Was it when sleeping or waking that it manifested itself? Was it strong or otherwise? Was the perspiration hot or cold ? In what parts of the body did it break out ? How did it smell ? What did the patient complain of before or during the cold, during or after the heat, during or after the perspiration, &c. ? ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 145 § 90.—All the answers being committed to Avriting, the physician then notes doAvn Avhat he himself observes in the patient,1 and en- deavors to ascertain if that which he observes existed or not when the latter was in health. § 91.—The symptoms which appear, and the sensations of the patient during the use of medicine, or shortly after, do not furnish a true image of the disease. On the contrary, the symptoms and the inconveniences Avhich exhibited themselves previous to the use of the medicines, or several days after their discontinuance, give the true fundamental notion of the original form of the malady. These are, therefore, to be noted down in preference by the physician. When the disease is of a chronic nature, and the patient has already made use of remedies, he may be allowed to remain some days without giving him any medicine, or at least Avithout administering anything but substances that are not medi- cinal. A rigorous examination may likeAvise be deferred for the same space of time, because it is the means of obtaining permanent symptoms in all their purity, and of being able to form a true re- presentation of the disease. § 92.—But Avhere an acute disease is to be treated, so dangerous in its nature as not to admit of delay, and the physician can learn nothing of the symptoms that manifested themselves pre- Arious to the remedies, then he is to view the whole of the existing symptoms as they have been modified by the latter, in order that he may at least be able to seize upon the present state of the 1 For example—How he behaved during the time of the visit ? Was he irritable, peevish, quarrelsome, hasty, grieved, anxious, despairing, sad, calm, or resigned? Did he appear overcome with sleep, or lost in reverie? Was he hoarse ? Did he speak low ? Was his discourse incoherent, or how was it ? Of what color was the countenance, the eyes, and the skin generally ? Wkat degree of vivacity was there visible in the face and eyes ? How was the tongue, the respiration, the smell from the mouth, or the hearing? Were the pupils of the eyes dilated or contracted ? Did they contract and dilate quickly in light and darkness, and in what degree ? What was tho state of the pulse? What was the condition of the abdomen? Was the skin moist and warm, cold or dry, upon this or that part of the body, or was it so all over ? Did the patient lie with his head thrown back, with his mouth wholly or half open, with his arms crossed above his head; was he on his back, or in what position was he ? Did he raise hiriiself with difficulty? In short, the physician is to keep notes of everything he has observed that is strange and remarkable. 10 146 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. disease—that is to say, be enabled to embrace in one and the same image the primitive disease and the medicinal affection con- jointly. The latter of these being most frequently rendered more severe, and at the same time more dangerous than the former, by the application of remedies that are generally the very opposite of those which ought to have been administered, they often demand immediate assistance, and the prompt application of the appro- priate homoeopathic remedy, in order to prevent the patient falling a sacrifice to the irrational treatment he has undergone. § 93.—If the acute disease has been caused recently, or if the chronic one has been so for a longer or shorter period of time by some remarkable event, and if the patient or the parents, when interrogated secretly, do not disclose this cause, the physician must then use his address and prudence in order to arrive at a knoAvledge of it.1 © § 94.—On inquiry into the state of a chronic disease, it is re- quisite to Aveigh the particular circumstances in Avhich the patient may be placed, in regard to ordinary occupation, mode of life, and domestic situation. All these circumstances ought to be examined, to discover if there is anything that could give birth to, and keep up the disease, so that by its removal the cure may be facilitated.2 § 95.—In chronic affections, the symptoms before enumerated, 1 Should there be anything humiliating in that which has given birth to the disease, so that the patient, or those about him, hesitate in avowing the cause, or at least in declaring it spontaneously, the physician ought then to seek to discover it by questions that are skillfully turned, or by secret inqui- ries In the catalogue of these causes are ranked, poisoning or attempts to commit suicide, onanism, ordinary or unnatural debauchery, excesses at table, or in the use of wine, cordials, punch, and other spirituous drinks, riotous eating generally, or especially unwholesome food, venereal or psoric affection, disappointed love, jealousy, domestic disappointments, anger, grief •occasioned by a family misfortune, bad treatment, repressed vengeance, injured pride, embarrassment in pecuniary affairs, superstitious fear, famine, defect of the organs of reproduction, hernia, prolapsus, &c. 3 In chronic diseases in the female sex, it is, above all, necessary to pay attention to pregnancy, sterility, amorous desire, accouchement, miscarriage, lactation, and the state of the catamenia. As regards the latter, it is always necessary to ask if it returns at too short intervals, or at others that are too distant, how long it continues, if the blood flows uninterrupted or only at in- tervals, if the flow is copious, if it be of a dark color, if leucorrhoea appears before or after ; what is the state of the body and mind previous to, during, and subsequent to the menses; if the female is attacked with leucorrhoea, of ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 147 and every other appertaining to the malady, ought to be examined as rigorously as possible, going into all their minutiae. In short, it is in these diseases that they are most developed, and least resemble those of acute affections ; they also require to be studied Avith the utmost care if the treatment is to succeed. On the other hand the patients are so accustomed to their long sufferings that they pay little or no attention to the lesser symptoms, which are often very characteristic of the disease, and decisive in regard to the choice of the remedy; they look upon them as though they Avere in a manner belonging to their physical state, and consti- tuted a part of that health, the real sentiment of which they had forgotten during the fifteen or twenty years their sufferings have endured, and never entertain a suspicion that there can be any connection betAveen these symptoms and the principal disease. ■ § 9(3.—Added to this, the patients themselves are of such very opposite tempers, that some, particularly the so-called hypochon- driacs, and others Avho are sensitive and impatient, depict their sufferings in lively colors, and make use of exaggerated terms to induce the physician to relieve them promptly.1 97.—Others, on the contrary, either through indolence, mistaken modesty, or finally by a sort of mildness and timidity, are silent with regard to many of the sufferings they endure, and only hint at them in obscure terms, or point at them as being of little im. portance. § 9S.—If it be then true that we are to rely more particularly upon the patient's own language, in describing his sufferings and sensations, and prefer the expressions he makes use of to portray them (becaus-e his words are almost always changed in passing through the mouths of those who are about him), it is no less so what nature it is; in what quantity does it appear, and under what circum- stances, and on what occasion did it manifest itself. 1 Even the most impatient hypochondriac never invents sufferings and symptoms that are void of foundation, and the truth of this is easily ascer, tained by comparing the complaints he utters at different inteivals while the physician gives him nothing at least which is medicinal: it is merely re- quisite to retrench a part of his exaggeration, or at least ascribe the energy of his expressions to his excessive sensibility. In this respect, even the exaggeration he is guilty of in describing his sufferings becomes an impor- tant symptom in'the list of those which constitute the image of the diseased It is a very different case with maniacs, and those who feign disease through wickedness or other causes. 148 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. that, in all diseases, and more especially in those of a chronic character, the physician must be possessed of an uncommon share of circumspection and tact, a knowledge of the human heart, pru- dence, and patience, to be enabled to form to himself a true and complete image of the disease in all its details. § 99.—The examination into acute diseases, or those that haA'e recently broken out, is generally less difficult, because the patient and those about him are struck with the difference between the existing state of things and the health that has been so recently destroyed, of which the memory still retains a lively image. Here, also, the physician must necessarily be acquainted Avith everything; but there is less occasion for being urgent in acquiring the particulars, which, for the most part, come before him spon- taneously. Investigation of epidemic diseases in particular. § 100.—With regard to a search after the totality of the symp- toms in epidemic and sporadic diseases, it is wholly indifferent whether anything similar ever existed before in the Avorld or not, under any name Avhatever. Neither the novelty nor the pecu- liarity of an affection of this kind will make any difference in the mode of studying it, or in that of the treatment. In fact, we ought to regard the pure image of each prevailing disease as a thing that is new and unknoAvn, and study the same from its foundation, if we would really exercise the art of healing—that is to say, we ought never to substitute the hypothesis in the room of the obser- Aration, never regard any given case of disease as already known, either in part or wholly, without having first carefully examined all its appearances. This prudent mode of proceeding is so much the more requisite here as every reigning epidemic is, in many respects, a particular species of phenomenon, and which, upon attentive examination, will be found to differ greatly from all former epidemics to Avhich the same name has been wrongfully applied. We must, however, except those epidemics which are caused by miasm that ahvays retain their identity, such, for example, as the measles, small-pox, &c. § 101.—It may happen that a physician, who, for the first time, treats a person attacked with an epidemic disease, will not imme- diately discover the perfect image of the affection, because a knowledge of the totality of the signs and symptoms in these col- ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 149 lective maladies is not acquired till after having observed several cases. HoAvever, a practiced physician will, after having treated one or two patients, see so far into the real state of things as to be often able to form to himself a characteristic image of the same, and knoAV what homoeopathic remedy he is to have recourse to, in order to combat the disease. § 102.—By carefully noting down all the symptoms observed in several cases of this description, the image that has once been formed ©f the malady Avill be always rendered still more compre- hensive. It neither becomes extended in a greater degree, nor lengthened in the detail, but it is made more graphic and charac- teristic of the peculiarities of the collective malady. On the one side, the general symptoms (such, for example, as loss of appetite, insomnolency, &c.) acquire a still greater degree of precision; on the other, the special and more marked symptoms, Avhich are even rare in epidemics, and belong elsewhere to a small number of diseases only, develop themselves and form the character of the disease.1 It is true that persons attacked with an epidemic have all a disease arising from the same source, and consequently equal; but the entire extent of an affection of this nature, together with the totality of the symptoms—a knowledge of which is necessary to form a complete image of the morbid state, and to choose according to that the homoeopathic remedy most in har- mony with the ensemble of the symptoms—cannot be observed in the case of a single patient; in order to arrive at these, it will be requisite to abstract them from a view of the sufferings of several patients of different constitutions. In lijce manner must the source of chronic disease (not syphilitic) be investi- gated, and the entire image of psora brought into view. § 103.—In the same manner as is here taught in reference to epidemic, and chiefly acute diseases, I had to investigate those of a miasmatic and chronic character (always remaining identical in their nature), and particularly psora. This examination was con- ducted with much more accuracy than had hitherto been observed, 1 The physician who has already in a first case discerned an approximate homoeopathic remedy, will, by a study of successive ones, be enabled to prove whether the choice he made was appropriate, or this will point out to him a remedy that is still more suitable than the former, or even one that is better than all others. 150 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. in order to grasp the disease in its entire compass, since differont patients are affected with dissimilar symptoms, and each particu- lar case embraces but one disjointed part, as it Avere, of the symp- toms constituting the totality of one and the same disease. Hence it is manifest that the totality of the symptoms appertain- ing to such a chronic malady, to psora in particular, could only be collected by the examination of numerous indiA'idual patients, and, Avithout obtaining an entire vieAV, and forming a collective image of that malady, the medicines (viz., the antipsorics) Avhich are efficient for its entire remoAral, and Avhich, at the same time, are the true remedies for the particular cases of it, could not be discovered. The utility of noting down in manuscript the image of the disease at the com- mencement and during the progress of the treatment. § 104.—The totality of the symptoms which characterize a given case—or, in other terms, the image of the disease—being once committed to writing, the most difficult part is accomplished.1 The physician ought ever after to have this image before his eyes, to serve as a basis to the treatment, especially where the disease is chronic. He can then study it in all its parts, and draw from it 1 The physicians of the old school, in their treatment of the sick, adopt an extremely convenient method. No accurate inquiries are heard from them concerning all the circumstances of the case; and the patients, during the recital of their individual symptoms, are not unfrequently interrupted by the physician, to prevent disturbance in the rapid writing of his prescriptions, compounded of a medley of ingredients, the genuine effects of which are unknown to him. No allopathic physician, as already observed, desires to know a full and accurate account of the symptoms, much less to commit them to writing. If, after several days, he revisits his patient (numerous others having been seen in the interval), he will then have retained in his memory little or nothing of the minute circumstances of the case, as at first heard, and what had passed into one ear will have escaped from the other. In bis succeeding visits, he does little more than ask a few general questions, feels the pulse, looks at the tongue, and forthwith, without an intelligible reason, proceeds to write another prescription, or directs the former (in large and frequently repeated portions through the day) to be continued. , Then with mien polite he hastens to the fiftieth or sixtieth patient of those whom he has visited in the same thoughtless manner on the same day. Thus a pro- fession which, of all others, properly requires the most reflection, the con- scientious and careful examination of each and every case, and the special cure founded thereon,—such a profession is thus practised by persons Avfio call themselves rational physicians. ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 151 ;he characteristic marks, in order to oppose to these symptoms— that is to say, to the disease itself—a remedy that is perfectly homoeopathic, whose choice has been decided on according to the nature of the morbid symptoms Avhich it produces from its sim- ple action on the body. And if, during the course of the treat- ment, he inquires after the effects of the remedy, and the changes that have taken place in the state of the patient, it only remains to obliterate from the group of primitive symptoms those Avhich have entirely disappeared, to note down those of which there are still some remains, and add the new ones Avhich have supervened. Preliminaries to be observed in investigating the pure effects of medicines in the healthy human subject. Primary effect. Secondary effect. § 105.—The second point in the duty of the physician is to examine into the instruments destined to cure natural diseases, to study the morbific poAvers of medicines, in order, when he is to cure a disease, that he may be able to find one among the number whose list of symptoms constitutes a factitious disease that resembles as closely as possible the principal signs df the natural malady which he intends to cnre. § 106.—It is necessary to know the full extent of the power by virtue of which each medicine excites a disease. In other terms, it is requisite that all the morbid symptoms and changes of fhe health, which their action individually is capable of pro- ducing in the economy, shall have been observed, as closely as possible, before any one can hope to be able to find or select from among them homoeopathic remedies #that are appropriate to the greater number of natural diseases. § 107.—If, to arrive at this ohject, we were only to administer medicines to invalids, prescribing them, one by one, in a simple state, little or nothing Avould be seen of their pure effects, because the symptoms of the natural disease then existing, mingling with those which the medicinal agents are capable of producing, the latter can rarely be distinguished Avith any clearness or pre- cision. ^ 108.—Thus there is no safer or more natural method of dis- covering the effects of medicines on the health of man than by trying them separately and singly, in moderate doses, upon healthy individuals, and observing what changes they create in the moral and physical state; that is to say, Avhat elements of 152 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. disease these substances are capable of producing;1 for, as avc have before seen (§ 24—27), the entire curatiA'e virtues of medi- cines depend solely upon the poAver *.hey have of modifying the state of health, Avhich is illustrated by observing the effects result- ing from the exercise of this faculty. § 109.—I am the first who has pursued this path with a perse- verance that could alone result from, and be supported by the intimate conviction of this great truth, so valuable to the human race,2 that the homoeopathic administration of medicines is the «,ole certain method of curing disease.3 1 In the course of twenty-five centuries, no physician that I know of, ex- cept the immortal Haller, has ever thought of a method so natural—so absolutely necessary, and so perfectly true—as that of observing the pure effects of each medicine individually, in order to discover, by that means, the diseases they were capable of curing. Before me, Haller was the only one who conceived the necessity of pursuing such a plan (see the preface to his Pharmacopoea; Helvet. Basil, 1771, p. 12). '•' Nempe primum in corpore sano medela tentandaest, sine peregrina ulla miscela; odoreque el sapore ejus exploratis, exigua illius dosis ingerenda et ad omnes, qum inde contingunt. affectiones, quis pulsus, qui color, qua respiratio, quanam excretiones, atten- dendum. Inde ad ductum phcenomenorum, in sano obviorUm, transeas ad experimenta in corpore agroto," &c. But no physician has profited by this invaluable advice; no one has paid the slightest attention to it. 5 It is as impossible that there should lie any other true method of curing dynamic diseases (i. e., those not surgical) besides homoeopathy, as that more than one straight line can be described between two given points. How little can they be grounded in the true art of healing who imagine that there is yet another way of curing diseases, who, after having thoroughly contem- plated the basis of homoeopathy, and practised it with sufficient care, or, from upright motives, have either read of or witnessed homoeopathic cures, and. on the other hand, duly weighed the groundlessness of every species of allopathic treatment, and inquired into the sinister effects then arising— who, with a loose indifference, place upon an equality the true art of heal- ing with that injurious method, or pronounce it the sister of homoeopathv. whose company she cannot dispense with ! My conscientious successors, the genuine and accurate adherents of homoeopathy, who have practised it with almost infalliable success, could teach them a better lesson. 3 The first fruits of my labors, so far as they could then be perfected, are contained in a work entitled, Fragmenta de viribus medicamentorum positivis, sive in sano corp. hum. observatis, Pt. i., ii.; Leipsio, 1805, in 8vo. Others, that are still more matured, are contained in the two editions of my Materia Medica (Heine Arzncimittellehrc, 6 vols, in 8vo., third edition, 1833), and in the second and following volumes of my Treatise on Chronic Diseases (Die chronischen Erankheiten); Dresden, 1828, in 8v<>., second edition, 1833, ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 153 § 110.—On perusing the works of authors who have written upon the morbid effects caused by medicinal substances, which, through negligence, mischief, criminal intent, or otherwise, had got into the stomachs of healthy individuals in large quantities, I saw that the facts they contained coincided with the observations Avhich I had made in trying them on myself and other persons in health. These are reported as cases of poisoning, and as proofs of the inherent pernicious effects of these energetic agents, point- ing out the danger of making use of them. By some, they have be»n mentioned for no other purpose than that of making a parade of the skill they manifested in the discovery of remedies which gradually restored the health of persons that otherwise would have been lost by such violent means. Others, to free their con- sciences of the death of patients, have alleged the malignity of these substances which they then designated poisons. Not one among them has ever suspected that the symptoms, in which they Avished merely to see proofs of the poisonous qualities of drugs which produce them, were certain indications that disclosed the existence in these identical substances of the faculty of annihi- lating (under the title of remedies) similar symptoms in natural diseases. No one imagined that the evils which they excite were so many certain proofs of their homoeopathic effects. They never imagined that an observance of the changes to which medicines give birth in healthy persons Avas the sole means of* discovering their medicinal and curative virtues, because they can neither arrive at this result by any specious reasoning a priori, nor by the smell, taste, or appearance of the medicinal substances, nor by chemical analysis, nor by administering prescriptions to patients where they are associated Avith a less or greater number of other drugs. Finally, none of them ever had the slightest presentiment that these histories of diseases produced by medicine would one day furnish the elements of a true and pure materia medica—a science which, from its origin down to the present time, has con- sisted of a mass of false conjectures and fictions, or which, in other terms, never yet had any real existence.1 § 111.—The conformity of my observations upon the pure 1 See what I have said on this subject in my " Treatise on the Sources of the ordinary Materia Medica," in the third part of the " Reine Arznei- mittellehre." 154 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. effects of medicines Avith those of a more ancient date, Avhich were made Avithout reference to any curative aim, and even the correspondence of these latter Avith others of a similar kind that are spread throughout the Avritings of various authors, plainly prove to us that medicinal substances, in creating a morbid state in healthy persons, foWov fixed and eternal laws of nature, and are, in virtue of those laAvs, severally capable of producing (each according to its own peculiar properties) certain positive morbid symptoms. § 112.—In the descriptions that haAre been handed doAvn to us by early Avriters of the frequent dangerous consequences re- sulting from the administration of medicine in large doses, symp- toms have also been remarked that did not sIioav themselves at the beginning of these sad events, but merely toAvards the con- clusion, and which were perfectly opposite to those at the com- mencement. These symptoms, contrary to the primitive effect (§ 63), or to the so-called action of medicines on the body, are owing to the re-action of the vital force of the organism. They constitute the secondary and consecutive effect (§ 62—67), Avhose traces are seldom perceived when moderate doses, by Avay of trial, are employed; and, when the doses are small, no vestige ever remains : because, in homoeopathic cures, the liAdng organism never re-acts beyond Avhat is absolutely necessary to bring the disease back to the natural state of health (§ 67). § 113.—Narcotic substances, alone, are exceptions to this rule. As they, in their primitive effects, extinguish sensibility, sensation, and irritability, to a certain extent, it often happens that, Avhen they are tried on healthy persons, even in moderate doses, they have the secondary effect of exciting the sensibility and increasing the irritability. § 114.—But, with the exception of narcotic substances, all medicines that are tried in small doses, upon healthy persons, only manifest their primitive effects; that is to say, the symp- toms Avhich indicate that they modify the habitual state of health, and excite a morbid condition which is to last for a longer or shorter period. Alternative effects of medicines. § 115.—Among the primitive effects of some medicines, there are several to be found that are contrary, or, at least, in certain ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 155 respects, accessory, to other symptoms, which afterwards appear in succession. This circumstance, however, is sufficient to make us regard them as so-called consecutive effects, or as a simple result of the re-action of the organism. They merely mark the tran- sition from one to the other of the different paroxysms of the primitive action. They are called alternative effects. Idiosyncrasies. § 116.—Certain symptoms are excited by medicines more fre- quently than others—that is to say, in many patients; some are more rarely produced, and in a small number of persons, while yet others are only so in a few individuals. § 117.—To these last belong the so-called idiosyncrasies, by which are meant particular constitutions, Avhich, though in other respects healthy, yet have a tendency to be placed in a greater or less morbid state by certain things that do not appear to make any impression on many other persons, or cause any change in them.1 But this absence of effect upon such or such an individual is only so in appearance. In short, as the production of every morbid change whatever pre-supposes the faculty of action in the medicinal substance, and in the patient that of being affected by it, the manifest changes of health that take place in idiosyncrasies cannot be wholly attributed to the particular constitution of the patient It is necessary to ascribe these, at the same time, to the things that have given them birth, and which embrace the faculty of exercising the same influence over all men : with this exception, that, among healthy persons, there are but a small number who have a tendency to alloAV themselves to be placed in so decided a morbid condition. What proves that these agents really make an impression upon all individuals is, that they cure homoeopathi- cally in all patients the same morbid symptoms as those which they themselves appear to excite only in persons subject to idiosyncrasies.2 • x The smell of the rose will cause certain persons to faint; others are sometimes attacked with dangerous diseases after eating muscles, crabs, or the fry of the barbel, and after touching the leaves of a certain species of sumac. 3 Thus the Princess Maria Porphyrogeneta restored her brother, the Emperor Alexius, suffering from syncope, by sprinkling him with rose water, (to riiv ftSav craXay^a), in the presence of her aunt, Eudoxia Hist. Bya 156 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. Every medicine produces effects different from others. § 118.—Each medicine produces particular effects in the bod) of man, and no other medicinal substance can create any that arc precisely similar.1 § 119.—In the same manner that each species of plant differs from all others in its external form and peculiar mode of vege- tation—its smell and taste,—in the same manner that each mineral and each salt differs from others in regard to external character, as well as internal chemical properties (a circumstance Avhich alone ought to have sufficed to prevent confusion), in the same manner do all these substances likewise differ from each other in regard to their morbific effects, and, consequently, their curative powers.2 Each substance exercises upon the health of man a cer- tain and particular influence, which does not allow itself to be confounded with any other.3 Alexias, lib. 15, p. 503, ed. Posser), and Horstius (Oper. iii., p. 54), saw that Vinegar of Roses was very helpful in syncope. 1 This fact was also recognized by Haller, who says (in the preface to his Hist. Stirp. Helv.), " Latet immensa virium diversitas in lis ipsis plantis, quarum fades externas dudum novimus, animas quasi et quodcunque ccelestius habent, nondum perspeximusP ' He who knows that the action of each substance upon the body differs from that of every other, and who can appreciate the importance of this fact, will have no difficulty in discovering that there can be no such things (in a medical point of view) as succedanea—that is to say, medicines that are equivalent, and capable of replacing each other mutually. It is only he who is ignorant of the certain and pure effects of medicinal substances that can be so foolish as to endeavor to persuade us that one remedy can serve in the room of another, and produce the same salutary effect in any given case of disease. In this manner children, through their simplicity, confound things that are essentially different, because they hardly know them otherwise than by their exterior, and have no idea of their innate properties, or of their real intrinsic value. 3 If this be the pure truth, as it undoubtedly is, then can no physician who wishes to preserve a quiet conscience, and to be looked upon as a reasonable man, henceforward prescribe any other medicines than those with whose true value he is precisely and thoroughly acquainted—that is to say, those whose action upon healthy individuals he has studied with sufficient atten- tion to be convinced that any particular one among them was that wdiich of all others, produced the morbid state most resembling the natural disease it was intended to cure; for, as we have before seen, neither man nor nature ever effects a perfect, prompt, and durable cure but by the aid of a homoeo- pathic remedy. No physician can, therefore, in future, disregard a research ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 157 Every medicine must therefore be carefully tried, as to the peculiarities of its effects. ^ 120.—Thus we ought to distinguish medicines carefully one from another, since it is on them that life and death, disease and health, depend. To effect this, it is necessary to have recourse to pure experiments, made with care, for the purpose of developing the properties that belong to them, and the true effects Avhich they produce on healthy individuals. By this mode of proceeding we may learn to knoAv them properly, and so avoid their mis- application in the treatment of disease; for nothing but a judi- cious choice of a remedy that is to employed can ever restore to the patient, in a prompt and permanent manner, that supreme of all earthly blessings—a sound mind in a healthy body. Course to be adopted in trying medicines upon other individuals. § 121.—In studying the effects of medicines upon healthy per- sons, it must not be forgotten that even the administration of moderate doses of the so-called heroic remedies is sufficient to produce modifications in the health of the most robust individuals. Medicines that are more gentle in their nature ought to be given in larger doses if we would likewise prove their action. Finally, if Ave would try the effects of the Aveakest substances, the experi- ment must be made upon persons only Avho are, it is true, free from disease, but who, at the same time, are possessed of a deli- cate, irritable, and sensitive constitution. § 122.—In circumstances of this nature, on which depend the certitude of the medical art, and the welfare of future generations, of this nature, without which it would be impossible for him to acquire tho knowledge of medicines indispensable to the exercise of his art, which has been neglected till the present time. Posterity will scarcely believe that, until the present da)', physicians have always contented themselves with administering blindly, in disease, remedies of whose real value they were ignorant, whose pure and dynamic effects, upon healthy persons, they had never studied, and that they were in the habit of mixing several of those unknown substances whose action is so diversified, and then left it to chance to dispose of whatever might accrue to the patient from this treatment. It is in this manner that a madman, who has just forced his way into the work- shop of an artist, seizes with open hands upon all the tools within his reach, for the purpose of finishing a work which he finds in a state of preparation. Who can doubt but that he will spoil it by the ridiculous manner in which lie goes to work, or perhaps even destroy it entirely? 158 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. it is necessary to employ only medicines that are well known, such as we are convinced remain pure, unadulterated, and pos- sessed of their full energy. § 123.—Each of these medicines ought to be taken in its sim- ple and pure form. As to indigenous plants, the juice is expressed and mixed with a small quantity of alcohol, in order to preserve it from corruption. With regard to foreign plants, they are to be pulverized or prepared as spirituous tinctures, and mixed Avith a certain quantity of Avater previous to administration. Salts and gums, however, ought not to be dissolved in water till the moment they are to be used. If a plant cannot be procured but in its dry state, and if its powers are naturally feeble, it may be tried in the form of an infusion—that is to say, after having cut it up small, boiling Avater is poured upon it, in order to extract its virtues. The infusion ought to be drunk immediately after its preparation, and AArhile it is still Avarm, because all the juices of plants, and all vegetable infusions to which no alcohol is added, pass rapidly into fermentation and corruption, and thereby lose their medicinal virtues. § 124.—Every medicinal substance that is submitted to a trial of this nature ought to be employed alone, and perfectly pure. Care must be taken not to add any heterogeneous substance to it, or to use any other medicine, either on the same day and much less on those that follow, if we would observe the effect it is capable of producing. § 125.—During the whole time of this experiment the diet must be extremely moderate. It is necessary to abstain as much as possible from spices, and to make use of nothing but simple food that is merely nourishing, carefully avoiding all green vegetables,1 roots, salads, and soups Avith herbs, all of which, notwithstanding the preparations they have undergone, are aliments that still re- tain some small medicinal energy that disturbs the effect of the medicine. The drink is to remain the same as that in daily use, taking care that it is as little stimulating as possible.2 1 Green peas, French beans, and even carrots, may be allowed, as being vegetables that contain the least medicinal properties. a The subject of experiment must either have been previously unaccus- tomed to the use of wine, ardent spirits, coffee, or tea, or have for gome time thoroughly abstained from these stimulating and medicinally injurious beverages. ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 159 § 126.—The person on whom this experiment is tried ought to avoid all fatiguing labor of mind and body, all excesses, de- bauches, or mental excitement, during the Avhole of the time that it continues. No urgent business must prevent him making the necessary observations, and he must of his own accord be scru- pulously attentive to everything that passes in the interior of the body, without permitting anything to interrupt his care, and, finally, unite Avith a healthy body (in its kind) a necessary degree of judgment, that he may be able to express and describe clearly all the sensations he experiences. § 127.—Medicines should be tried on the persons of women as well as men, in order that those changes in the economy which are referable to difference of sex, may he clearly ascer- tained. § 128.—The most recent experience has taught that medi- cinal substances, Avhen taken by the experimenter in their crude state, for the purpose of testing their peculiar effects, do not for a long time display the full extent of those virtues which lie con- cealed within them, as is the case when they are taken in higher developments, i.e., exalted in power by due trituration and agi- tation. By means of this simple mode of preparation, the Arir- tues which, in the crude state of the medicines, lay concealed, and, as it Avere, dormant within them, become incredibly developed and aroused into activity. Thus, any one, even of those medi- cines whose virtues are considered weak, is noAv found to be the most advantageously investigated if from four to six minute sac- charine globules, impregnated with the thirtieth (decillionth) di- lution of such medicine, and mixed with a little water, be given to the experimenter every morning, fasting, and continued for several days. § 129.—When the effects of one such dose appear to be weak, then it may be daily increased a feAV globules, until the effects become stronger and more distinct, until the changes in the sys- tem be evident, for one particular medicine does not affect every individual in a like manner, or with the same degree of energy; on the contrary, there exists, in this respect, the greatest diver- sity possible. Sometimes a person apparently delicate is not at all affected by a medicine that is known to be very powerful, though administered in moderate doses, while other substances that are much weaker make a tolerable impression upon hira. At 160 ORGANON OF JttEDICINE. the same time, there are individuals of robust constitutions Avho experience very considerable morbid symptoms from medical agents that are apparently mild, and, on the other hand, they are likewise but little affected by others that arc powerful. But, as it can never be known beforehand Avhich of these tAVO cases Avill occur, it is proper that each should commence Avith a small dose, and be afterwards increased progressively, if deemed requisite ; advancing, from day to day, to higher and still higher doses. § 130.—If, at the commencement, and after administering the first dose, the effects are sufficiently powerful, one advantage results from it, Avhich is, that the person Avho undergoes the ex- periment becomes acquainted with the succession of symptoms which this agent principally excites, and is enabled to note them down with precision the moment they appear, a circumstance of vast import to a knowledge of the character of medicines, because the order of their primitive effects, and likewise that of their alternative effects, is thus exhibited in the least equivocal manner. A very weak dose often suffices, if the individual on whom it is tried is endoAved with great sensibility, and pays due attention to his state. The length of time that the action of a medicine con- tuiues can only be known by a comparison of til-e resnlts of seve- ral experiments. § 131.—If, to acquire at least some kuowledge of a medicine, it is found requisite to administer to the same person, several days in succession, doses of the same, progressively increased this may show us the various morbid changes that this substance is capable of exciting generally; but we do not learn the order of their succession, and a succeeding dose often extinguishes one or other of the symptoms produced by the preceding one, or creates in its place a contrary state. Symptoms of this kind should be noted between two parentheses, as being equivocal, until neAv experi- ments of a purer nature shall have decided whether they are to be considered as the re-action of the organism, or the alterna- tive effects of the medicine. § 132.—But Avhere it is intended merely to ascertain the symp- toms that a medical substance, particularly a weak one, is ca- pable of producing by itself, without paying any attention to the order of these symptoms, or to the duration of the action of the medicine, it is advisable to continue the experiment several days successively, only augmenting the dose each day. By this means ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 161 the effects of even the most gentle medicines that are unknoAvn will, come to light, especially if tested on a sensitive person. § 133.—Should any particular inconvenience arise from the action of the medicine, it is useful, and even necessary, to the exact determination of the symptom, that the experimenter should place himself successively in various postures, and observe the changes that ensue. Thus he will be enabled to examine Avhether the motion communicated to the suffering parts by walking up and doAvn the chamber, or in the open air, seated, lying doAvn, or standing, has the effect of augmenting, diminishing, or dissipat- ing the symptom, and if it returns or not upon resuming the original position. He will also perceive whether it changes when he eats or drinks, or by any other condition, when he speaks, coughs, or sneezes, or in any other action of the body Avhatsoever. He must also observe at what hour of the day or night the' symp- tom more particularly manifests itself. All these details are re- quisite, in order to discover what is peculiar and characteristic in each symptom. ^ 134.—All external agents, particularly medicines, produce changes in the state of the living organism that vary each in themselves. But the Avhole of the symptoms peculiar to any medicinal substance whatever, never manifest themselves in the same individual, neither do they appear simultaneously, or during a single experiment; on the contrary, the same person expe- riences, in preference, at one time, one set of symptoms, and in a second or third experiment yet others (with another person these or other symptoms will appear), so that by the fourth, eighth, or tenth person, perhaps, some or more of the symptoms which had already manifested themselves in the second, sixth, ninth, &c, will be visible. Neither do the symptoms re-appear at the same hour. § 135.-—It is only by repeated observations, made upon a great number of individuals of both sexes, properly selected for the pur- pose from among a variety of constitutions, that we can acquire a pretty accurate knowledge of the whole of the morbid effects that a medicine is capable of producing. There can be no certainty of having properly proved the symptoms of any medical agent— that is to say, of the faculty which it has of changing the health, until such time as the persons Avho make such further trials of it perceive but feAV new symptoms arising from its use, and observe 11 162 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. almost always only those that have been previously remarked by other persons. § 136.—Although, as before stated, the medicine that is tried upon a healthy person cannot manifest on a single individual all the modifications of health Avhich it is capable of producing, and only exhibits them in several persons, differing from one another in regard to physical constitution and moral disposition, it is, how- ever, equally true that the eternal and immutable laAV of nature has endoAved it Avith every faculty of exciting these symptoms in every human being (§ 117). This is the cause of all its effects, of even those which it is rarely seen to produce in healthy persons, hut Avhich do not fail to appear when administered to a patient attacked Avith a disease resembling the one it is capable of excit- ing. Provided the medicine be homoeopathically chosen, and ad- ministered even in the smallest doses possible, it Avill then produce in the patient an artificial state, approaching closely to the natural disease, and cure the latter in a prompt and durable manner. § 137.—The more moderate the dose (Avithout, hoAvever, going beyond a certain limit), the more are the primitive effects developed which are most important to be knoAvn. Scarcely any but the latter will then be perceptible, and there will be hardly any traces of re-action. But it is understood that the individual on whom the experiment is made must be one Avho can be relied upon in regard to veracity—that he is moderate in every respect, of a sensitive mind and body, and shall attend to his person Avith all possible care. On the other hand, if the dose be excessive, there will not only be several re-actions visible among the symptoms, but, yet more, the primitive effects will manifest themselves in a manner so precipitate, violent, and confused that it will be im- possible to make any correct observation. Let us add to this the danger that might result from it to the individual on whom the ex- periment is tried, Avhich cannot be regarded as a matter of indif- ference by one who has any respect for his fellow mortals, and who looks upon every human being in the light of a brother. § 138.—Provided all the conditions before stated (§ 124—127) (which are necessary to the trial of a pure experiment) be com- plied with, the symptoms, modifications, and changes of the health that are visible during the action of the medicine, depend upon that substance alone, and ought to be noted doAvn as properly be- longing to it, if even similar symptoms, occurring spontaneously, ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 1C3 should have been experienced a long time b'efore by the person on whom the experiment is made. The re-appearance of those symptoms, in the course of the experiment, only proves that in virtue of his own constitution this person has a special tendency to admit of their manifestation. In this case, they are the effects of the medicine, for it cannot be said that they came of themselves at a moment when a powerful medicinal agent exercised its sway over the entire organism. § 139.—Where the physician does not try the remedy on his OAvn person, and the experiment is made on another individual, it is requisite for the latter to note doAvn, Avith perspicuity, all the sensations, inconveniences, symptoms, and changes tbat he experiences at the very moment of their occurrence. He must also be able to tell Avhat time elapsed between the administration of the medicine and the appearance of each symptom, and, in case they continued any length of time, Avhat was the exact period of their duration. The physician is to read this report, immediately * after it is finished, in the presence of the person on Avhom the ex- periment Avas made; or, if it lasts several days, he then reads it over each day, in order that, by refreshing his memory, the person may be enabled to reply to the questions Avhich it may be neces- sary to put to him relative to the precise nature of each symptom,- and to give him an opportunity of adding fresh details, or making any necessary corrections.1 § 140.—If the individual cannot write, the physician must then interrogate him each day, in order to learn his sensations. But this examination ought, for the most part, to be confined to listen- ing to his narrative. The. physician must not indulge in any con- jectures or suppositions, and he is to ask as feAV questions as possible, taking care to maintain the same circumspection and reserve, which I have before recommended (§ 84—99),-as an in- dispensable precaution in seeking the information requisite to form the image of the natural disease. The experiments which a physician in health makes in his own person are preferable to othersi- 1 He who publishes to the medical world such experiments, is responsible for the credibility of the experimenter, as well as for the correctness of his statements, and very properly so. as the Avelfare of suffering humanity is at Btake. 164 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. § 141.—But of all the pure experiments relative to the changes which simple medicines produce, and the morbid symptoms they excite in healthy persons, those are ahvays the best Avhich a phy- sician (enjoying a good state of health, free from prejudice, and able to analyze his sensations) makes on his OAvn person, observing, at the same time, the precautions that have just been described. A thing is never more certain than when it has been tried on ourselves.1. The investigation of the pure effects of medicines by their administration in disease is difficult. § 142.—But how the symptoms,2 produced by a simple medicine, can be distinguished among the symptoms of the original disease, 1 The experiments that are made on our own persons have one advantage above all others. In the first place, they furnish a conviction of this great truth, that tho curative virtues of medicines depend solely upon the power they possess of creating changes in the physical economy of man. In the second place, they teach us to understand our own sensations, mind, and dis- position, which is the source of all true wisdom (yvu>9i atavrdv), and exercise our powers of observation, an indispensable talent in a physician. All our observations on others are by no means so interesting as those made on our- selves. In all the observations made on other individuals, it is continually to be feared that the person making trial of the remedy may not exactlv experience that which he Ktys, or will not express in a proper manner that which he feels. The physician must always remain in doubt, or at least partly so, whether he is deceived or not. This obstacle to a knowledge of the truth, which cannot be entirely obviated in a search after the morbid symptoms excited in another person by the action of the remedy, does not exist where the trial is made on our own persons. The individual who un- dergoes the experiment knows precisely what he feels, and everv fresh attempt that he makes is an additional motive for him to extend his re- searches still farther, by directing them towards other remedies. It renders him more expert in pursuing farther trials, while, at the same time, his zeal is redoubled, because he thereby acquires a true knowledge of the resources of the art, which can be considerably increased. Do not let him suppose, on the other hand, that the slight inconveniences which he subjects himself to in trying the medicines on his own person can be detrimental to his health. On the contrary, experience has shown us that they only render the body more apt to repel all natural and artificial morbific causes, and harden it against their influence. The same experience also teaches that thereby the health becomes more firm, and the body more robust. 2 Symptoms which had been remarked only a long time before, if at all, throughout the whole course of the disease, and which, of course, are new ones, and are the product of the medicine ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 165 even in those which mostly retain their identity, more especially chronic diseases, is an object for superior discernment, and to be left to masters in observation. It is by investigating the pure effects of medicines in the healthy subject only that a true materia medica can be framed. § 143.—After having thus tried a number of simple medicines upon the healthy body, faithfully and carefully noting all the symptoms they are capable of producing, as artificial morbific agents, then only can we acquire a true materia medica—that is to say, a catalogue of the pure and certain effects of medicinal substances. This will furnish us with a code of nature, in which Avill be inscribed, from every agent so investigated, a considerable number of particular symptoms, as they were manifested to the observation of the experimenter; among these are the (homoeo- pathic) morbid elements resembling those of several natural dis- eases which are hereafter to be cured by them; in a word, they comprehend artificial morbid states which supply, for the similar morbid states naturally induced, the only true, homoeopathic, i. e., specific instruments of certain and permanent cure. § 144.—A materia medica of this nature shall be free from all conjecture, fiction, or gratuitous assertion—it shall contain nothing but the pure language of nature, the results of a careful and faith- ful research. ^ 145.,—We ought certainly to be acquainted with the pure action of a vast number of medicines upon the healthy body, to be able to find homoeopathic remedies against each of the innu- merable forms of disease that besiege mankind—that is to say, to find out artificial morbific powers that resemble them.1 But, 1 At first I was the only individual who made it a chief and important study to find out the principal and pure effects of medicines. But what cures shall we nOt be able to perform in the vast empire of disease, when numerous observers,* upon whose accuracy and veracity we can rely, shall have contributed the result of their researches (trials on their own persons) to enrich this materia medica, the only one that is founded on fact. The art of curing will then approach to the same degree of certainty as the science of mathematics. * Among the remedies which have been tried more particularly, the following were at first in- troduced : 1. By Hahne!«ann.—Aconitum, Alumina. Amanita, Anibra, Ammoniae-carbonas, Angustura, Argentum, Arnica, Arseniosum-acidum, Artemisia-santonica, Asarum, Aurum ; Barytae-oar- bonas, Belladonna, Ilismuthi-subnitras, Bryonia; Caleis-carbonas, Calcis-sulphuretum. Cam- 166 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. thanks to the truth of the symptoms, and to the multitude of morbid elements Avhich each of the energetic medicines that have been tried till the present day upon healthy persons have exhibited, there now remain but feAV diseases against Avhich we do not find in these substances suitable homoeopathic remedies,2 which restore health in a gentle, certain, and permanent manner. An infinitely greater number of diseases are cured by these means, and in a far safer and more certain manner, than by a treatment guided by the general and special therapeutics of allopathy, with all its un- knoAvn and mixed medicines, which only alter and impair, but cannot cure chronic diseases, and rather retard than promote recovery from those that are acute. phora, Cannabis, Cantharis, Capsicum, Carbo-animalis, Carbo-vegetabilis, Causticum, Chamo- milla, Chelidonium, Cicuta, Cinchona, Cocculus, Colocynthis, Conium, Copaiva, Cyclamen ; Digitalis, Drosera, Dulcamara; Euphrasia; Ferrum; Graphites, Guaiacum ; Helleborus, Hy- drag.-solub., Hydrarg.-corros., Hyoscyamus; Iodium, Ipecacuanha; Ledum, Lycopodium ; Magnes.-carb., Magnes.-mur.. Manganum, Menyanthes, Moschus, Mur.-acidum ; Nitri-acidum, Nux-vomica ; Oleander, Opium ; Petroleum, Phosphorus, Phosphoric-acid., Potassae-carbonas, Pulsatilla; Rheum, Rhus-toxicodendron, Ruta; Sambucus-sassaparitla, Scilla, Sepia, Silica, Sodae-carbonas, Sodii-chloretum, Spigelia, Spongia, Stannum, Staphisagria, Stramonium, Sul- phur, Sulphuric-acid ; Taraxacum, Thuya ; Veratrum, A'erbascum. A'iola-tricolor. 2. By Stapf.—Agnus, Anacardium, Antimonii et Potassae-tartras ; Barytae-acetas ; Clematis, Coffea,, Colchicum; Euphorbium; Lamium; Marum-verum; Mezereum; Paris.: Sabadilla, Sabina. 3. By Gross and Staph. -Crocus ; Platina. 4. By Gross.—Epeira; Sodae-nitras ; Viola-odorata. 5. By Franz.—Assafcetida ; Cuprum; Ranunculus; Valeriana ;,Zincum. 6. By Hartlacb.—^ithusa, Antimon.-sulphuretum; Bovista; Cantharis ; Gratiola; Indigo; Krameria; Laurocerasus; Oleum-animale; Phellandrium, Phosphorus, Plumbum, Potasssa- iodidum ; Strontianum ; Tabacum, Terebinthi-oleum. 7. By Hesing.—Arum; Brucea; Caladium, Curcas; Jambos; Lachesis et Crotalus; Phos- phas-calcis, Psorinum; Selenium, Sericum, Solanum-mammodum; Thevidion; Urea. 6. By Heine.—Actaea, Alkekengi, Aquilegia ; Chenopodi'um, Chiococca; Nigella. 9. By Nenninq.—Ammoniae-murias; Magn.-sulphas, Millefolium; Niccolum ; SodaB-sulphas ; Tongo. 10. By Caspari.—Castoreum ; Terri-oxyd.-magneticum. 11. By Wahle.—Laurocerasus; Prunus-spinosa. 12. By Seidkl.—Rhododendron ; Senega. 13. By Schreter.—Potassae-nitras; Sodae-boras. 14. a. By Apel.—Amanita, b. By Attomttr.—Corallia. c. By Bote.—Rhus-vernix. d. By Helbig.—Myristica. e. By Hesse —Berberis. /. By Trinks.—Secale. At the same time, while making trials, they mutually assisted each other, and had help from many others, so that, in addition to the names above given, we find mentioned among those who tried them the following: Ahner. Adams. Becher, Bethman, Baehr, Behlert, Bauer, Becker, Cubitz, Flamming, Freitag. Gatmann. Gersdorff. Fr. Hahnemann, Hartmann, Haubold, Hroraa- da, Hempel, Hornburg.Hugo, Haynel, Ihm. Kummer, Langhammer, Lehmann, Lingen, Matlack, Meyer. Michler, MCiller, Pleyel, Preu, Th. and L. Ruckert, Rummel, Rosazewsky, Rom'ig, Reich- helm. Shoenke, Sonnenberg. Schweikert, Schmid. Schmoele, Teuthorn, Tieze, Wagner Wisli- cenus, AVesselhoft, De Young ; and a great many individuals participated, more or less, soma handing in their names, and others contributing anonymously. n. Hering 2 See the third note to § 109. ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 167 The most appropriate remedial employment of medicines whose peculiar effects are known. § 146.—The third point in the duty of a physician is to eight of an hundred pounds, and the pain will soon leacn them that even tho imponderable bodies can also produce on man the most violent medicinal effects ! Let any of these weak-minded mortals of a delicate constitution but gently apply, during a few minutes, to the pit of the stomach the extremity of the thumb of a vigorous mesmerizer who has fixed his intent, and the disagreeable Bensations that he experiences will soon make him repent having set limits to the boundless activity of nature. If the allopathist, in essaying the homoeopathic method, cannot resolve upon administering doses that are so feeble and attenuated, only let him ask himself what risk he ventures by doing so. If there is nothing real except that which is possessed of weight, an"d if everything which has no weight ought to.be looked upon as equal to nothing, a dose that appears to him like nothing could have no worse results than that of producing no effect at all, which is at least far more innocent than the effects resulting from the strong doses of allopathic medicines. Why will the physician believe his own inexperience, which is flanked by prejudice, more competent than the expe- rience of several years borne out by facts ? Added to this, the homoeopathic m°dicincs acquire at each division or dilution a new degree of power by tho 222 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. merits and vain assertions will be of little aArail Avhen opposed to the dictates of unerring experience. § 281.—All diseases have an extraordinary tendency to undergo a change Avhen operated upon by the influence of homogeneous medicinal agents. There is no patient, however robust his con- stitution may be, avIio, if attacked merely by a chronic disease, or by what is called a local malady, does not speedily experience a favorable change in the suffering parts after having taken the appropriate homoeopathic remedy in the smallest dose possible. In short, the effects of this substance will make a greater im- pression on him than they would upon a healthy child tAventy- four hours after its birth. How insignificant and ridiculous is mere theoretic incredulity, Avhen opposed to the infallible evidence of facts! § 282.—HoAvever feeble the dose of a remedy may be, provided it can in the slightest degree aggravate the state of the patient homoeopathically,—provided it has the power of exciting symptoms similar to those of the primitive disease, but rather more intense,— it Avill, in preference, and almost exclusively, affect those parts of the organism that are already in a state of suffering, and Avhich are strongly irritated and predisposed to receive any irritation analogous to their OAvn. Thus an artificial disease rather more intense is substituted in the place of the natural one. The organ- ism no longer suffers but from the former affection, Avhich, by reason of its nature, and the minuteness of the dose by Avhich it was produced, soon yields to the efforts of the vital force to re- store the normal state, and thus leaves the body (if the disease was an acute one) free from suffering—that is to say, in a healthy condition. § 283.—To proceed, therefore, in a manner conformable to nature, the true physician will only administer a homoeopathic remedy in the precise dose necessary to exceed and destroy the disease to Avhich it is opposed, so that, if by one of those errors, pardonable to human frailty, he had made choice of a remedy that was inappropriate, the injury that might result from it would be rubbing or shaking the}7 undergo, a means of developing the inherent virtues of medicines that was unknown till my time ; and Avhich is so energetic that latterly I have been forced by experience to reduce the number of shakes to two, of which 1 formerly proscribed ten to each dilution. I ORGANON OF MEDICINE, 223 so slight that the development of the vital force, and the adminis- tration of the smallest dose of another remedy more homoeopathic, Avould suffice to repair it. § 284.—The effects of a dose are by no means diminished in the same proportion as the quantity of the medicinal substance is attenuated in the homoeopathic practice. Eight drops of a tincture taken at once do not produce upon the human body four times the effect of a dose of tAvo drops; they merely produce one that is nearly double. In the same manner the single drop of a mixture composed of one drop of a tincture and ten of a liquid void of all medicinal properties, does not produce ten times the effect that a drop ten times more attenuated would produce, but merely an effect that is scarcely double. The progression con- tinues according to this law, so that a single drop of a dilution, attenuated in the highest degree, ought, and does in fact, produce a very considerable effect.1 fc 285.—By diminishing the volume of the dose, the power of it is also diminished ; that is to say, Avhen instead of one entire drop of attenuated tincture, merely a fraction of this drop be adminis- tered,2 the object of rendering tho effect less powerful is then A'ery perfectly attained. The reason of this may be easily conceived: 1 Suppose, for example, that one drop of a mixture containing the tenth of a grain of any medicinal substance produces an effect == a, a drop of another mixture containing merely a hundredth part of a grain of this same substance will only produce an effect = £ ; if it contains a ten-thousandth part of a grain of medicine, the effect will be = J; if a millionth, it will be = j; and so on progressively, to an equal volume of the doses; the effects of the remedy on the body will merely be diminished about one-half each time that the quantity is reduced nine-tenths of what it was before. I have often seen a drop of the tincture of Nux-vomica, at the decillionth degree of dilution, produce exactly half the effect of another at the quintillionth degree, Avhen I administered both one and the other to the same individual, and under the same circumstances. 3 The best mode of administration is to make use of small globules of sugar, the size of a mustard-seed: one of these globules having imbibed tho medi- cine, and being introduced into the vehicle, forms a dose containing about the three-hundredth part of a drop, for three hundred of such globules will imbibe one drop of alcohol; by placing one of those on the tongue, and not drinking' anything after it. the dose is considerably diminished. But if the patient is very sensitive, and it is necessary to employ the smallest dose possible, and attain at the same time the most speedy results, it will be suffi- cient to let him smell once. (See $ 288, note.) 224 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. the volume of the dose being diminished, it must necessarily folloAV that it will touch a less number of the nerves of the living organ- ism, by contact with which, it is true, the power of the medicine is communicated to the whole body, but it is transmitted in a smaller degree. § 286.—♦For the same reason, the effect of a homoeopathic dose is increased when we augment the quantity of the liquid in which it is .dissolved to administer it to the patient; but then the remedy comes in contact with a much more extended surface, and the nerves that feel its effects are far more numerous. Although theorists have asserted that the extension of a medicine in liquid weakens its action, experience proves the reverse, at least as far as regards homoeopathic remedies.1 § 287.—It ought, however, to be observed that there is a wide difference between mixing imperfectly the medicinal substance with a certain quantity of liquid, and incorporating it so intimately- that the smallest fraction of the liquid may still retain a propor- tion of the medicine equal to that which exists in all the others. In short, the mixture possesses a much greater medicinal, power in the second case than it. does in the first. Rules may be de- duced from this to serve as a guide in the preparation of homoeo- 1 Only wine and alcohol, which are the most simple of all excitants, lose a portion of their heating and exciting power wh0n they are attenuated in a large quantity of water. * When I make use of the word intimately, I mean to say that by shaking a drop of medicinal liquid with ninety-nine drops of alcohol once—that is to say, by taking the vial in the hand which contains the whole, and imparting to it a rapid motion by a single powerful stroke of the arm descending, I shall then obtain an exact mixture of them ; but that two, three, or ten such move- ments would render the mixture much closer—that is to say, they would develop the medicinal virtues still further, making them, as it were, more potent, and their action on the nerves more penetrating. In proceeding, therefore, to the dilution of medicinal substances, it is wrong to give the twenty or thirty successive attenuating glasses more than two shakes, where it is merely intended to develop the power of the medicines in a modorate degree. It would also be well in the attenuation of powders not to rub them down too much in the mortar; thus, for example, when it is requisite to mix one grain of a medicinal substance in its entire state with ninety-nine grains of sugar of milk, it ought to be rubbed down with force during one hour only, and the same space of time should not be exceeded in the subsequent triturations, in order that the power of the medicine may not be carried to too great an extent. More ample instructions on this head are to be found in the first part of my work on Chronic Diseases, second edition. OK0ANON OF MEDICINE. 225 pathic medicines, Avhere it is necessary to diminish the effects of the remedies as much as possible, in order to make them support- able to the most delicate patients.1 What parts of the body are more or less sensible to the action of medicines. § 288.—The action of medicines in a liquid form2 upon the body is so penetrating, it propagates itself Avith so much rapidity, and in a manner so general, from the irritable and sensitive part Avhich has undergone the first impression of the medicinal substance to all other parts of the body, that Ave might almost call it a spiritual (dynamic or virtual) effect. § 289.—Every part of the body that is sensible to the touch is equally susceptible of receiving the impression of medicines and of conA'eying it to all the other parts. 1 The higher the dilutions of a medicine are carried in the process of de- veloping its power by means of twice shaking, the more rapidly and with the more penetrating influence does it appear to affect medicinally the vital power, and produce changes in the economy Avith an energy but little dimin- ished, even if the process of dilution be carried to a great extent; for instance, instead of the ordinary dilution X. (which is mostly sufficient), it be carried up to XX., L., C, and even higher dilutions. 2 Homoeopathic remedies operate with the more certainty and energy by smelling or inhaling the medicinal aura constantly emanating from a saccha- rine globule that has been impregnated with the higher dilution of a medi- cine, and in a dry state enclosed in a small vial. One globule (of which 10, 20 to 100 weigh a grain) moistened with the 30th dilution, and then dried, provided it be preserved from heat and the light of the sun, retains its virtues undiminished, at least for eighteen or twenty years (so far my experience extends), although the vial that contained it had during that time been opened a thousand times. Should the nostrils be closed by coryza or polypus, the patient may inhale through his mouth, holding the mouth of the vial between his lips. It maybe appbed to the nostrils of small children while they arc asleep with the certainty of success. During these inhalations the medicinal aura comes in contact with the nerves, which are spread over the parietes of the ample cavities through which it freely passes, and thus influences the vital power in the mildest yet most powerful and beneficial manner. All that is curable by homoeopathy may with certainty and safety be cured by this mode of receiving the medicine. Of late I have become convinced of the fact (which I would not have previously believed) that smelling imparts a medi- cinal influence as energetic and as long-continued as when the medicine is taken in substance by the mouth, and at the same time that its operation is thus more gentle than when administered by the latter mode. It is therefore requisite that the internals for repeating the smelling should not be shorter than those prescribed for taking the medicine in a more substantial form. 15 226 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. § 290.-^-Next to the stomach, the tongue and mouth are the parts most susceptible of receiving medicinal influence. How- ever, the interior of the nose, the intestinum-rectum, the genitals, and all parts endowed Avith great sensibility, are equally suscep- tible of the influence of medicines. This is the reason that Avhen the latter are introduced into the body, through wounds or ulcers, they act as energetically as if administered by the mouth. $ 291.—Even those organs Avhich have lost the sense that was peculiar to them—such for example, as the tongue and palate deprived of taste, the nose of smell, &c.—communicate to all the other parts of the body the effects of the medicines acting imme- diately on themselves, in as perfect a manner as if they were in pos- session of their own peculiar faculties. § 292.—Although the surface of the body is covered with skin and epidermis, it is not less accessible to the action of medicines, especially of such as are liquid. However, the most sensitive parts of this covering are those which have the greatest tendency to receive it.1 Animal magnetism (mesmerism). On the application of positive and negative mesmerism. § 293.—I again find it necessary, in this place, to say a few words on the subject of animal magnetism, the nature of which differs so greatly from that of all other remedies. This curative poAver (which should be called mesmerism, after the name of its in- ventor, Mesmer), of Avhose efficacy none but madmen can entertain a doubt, which, through the poAverful will of a Avell-intentioned indi- vidual, influences the body of the patient by the touch, acts ho- moeopathically by exciting symptoms analogous to those of the malady—and this object is obtained by a single transit, the deter- 1 Rubbing-in appears only to favor the action of the medicine so far as it renders the skin more sensitive, and the living fibre more apt, not only to feel in a certain extent the medicinal virtue, but also to communicate the sensation to the whole of the economy. After having rubbed the inner part of the thighs once, it will suffice afterwards merely to lay the mercurial oint- ment on the parts, to obtain the same medicinal result as if direct friction had been used. What is called " rubbing-inj; is of questionable utility, as it is not certain whether the metal in substance can, by this process, pene- trate the interior of the body, or be taken up by the lymphatic vessels. The homceopathist has little to do with rubbing-in, and makes no use whatevev of mercurial ointments in his method of cure. ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 227 mination being moderately fixed, and gliding the hands slowly over the body from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet.1 In this form it is applicable to internal haemorrhages in their last stage, when they threaten death. It acts likewise by imparting a uniform degree of vital power to the organism when there is an excess of it at one point and a deficiency at another—such, for example, as where there is a determination of blood to the head, or Avhen a patient, in a state of debility, is subject to insomnolency, anxiety, &c. In this case, a single transit, similar to the pre- ceding one, but stronger, is to be practised. Finally, it acts by immediately communicating a degree of vital power to a weak part or to the entire organism—an effect that cannot be produced by any other means Avith such certainty, and Avithout interfering Avith the other medical treatment. This third indication is performed by assuming a very firm and decided manner, and applying the hands or tips of the fingers to the weak part, Avhich an internal chronic affection has made the seat of its principal local symptom—such, for example, as old ulcers, amau- rosis, paralysis of a limb, &c.2 To this class belong certain ap- parent cures that have, in all ages, been performed by magnetizers who Avere endoAved Avith great natural strength. But the most brilliant result of the communication of human vigor to the entire organism is where, by the resolute and fixed determination of a man in the full vigor of life,3 it recalls to life persons who have 1 The smallest homoeopathic dose, when properly applied, effects wonders. It not unfrequently occurs that patients are overwhelmed, by incompetent homceopathists, with a rapid succession of remedies, which, though well se- lected, and of the highest potence, yet produce a state of such excessive irritability that the life of the patient is placed in jeopardy, and another dose, however mild, may prove fatal. Under such circumstances, the hand of the mesmerizer, gently sliding down, and frequently touching the part af- fected, produces a uniform distribution of the vital power through the sys- tem, and rest, sleep, and health are restored. 3 Although this operation of locally supplying the vital power, which ought to be occasionally repeated, cannot effect a durable cure when the local affection is of an ancient date, and depends upon (what very frequently occurs) some general internal malady, still the positive communication of the vital power, which is no more a palliative than food and drink to hunger and thirst, is of no slight aid in the radical cure of the entire aflection by antipsoric remedies. 3 Particularly one of those men, of whom there are but few, Avho, possess ing great goodness of disposition and complete bodily power, have a very 228 ORGANON OF MEDICINE. remained in a state of apparent death during a long interval of time,—a species of resurrection of which history records many examples. § 294.—All these methods of applying mesmerism depend upon the afflux of a greater or less quantity of vital poAver in the body of the patient, and are, on that account, termed positive mesmer- ism.1 But there exists yet another, Avhich deserves the name of negative mesmerism, because it produces a contrary effect. To this class belong the customary transits to awaken a subject from a state of somnambulism, and all the manual operations Avhich are designated by the names calming and ventilating. The most simple and certain means of discharging, by the aid of negative mesmerism, the excess of vital power accumulated in any part of the body of a patient who has not been weakened, consists in pass- ing, in a rapid manner, the right arm, extended at about the dis- tance of an inch from the body, from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet.2 The quicker this passage is performed, the stronger is the discharge that it produces. It can, for example, when a woman, previously in the enjoyment of health,3 has been plunged into a state of apparent death by the suppression of her menses, occasioned by some violent mental commotion, recall her to life by carrying off the vital power which probably accumulated in the precordial region, and reestablish the equilibrium in the dat incination f exual intercoure, and are able without difficulty to suppress all their desires : in whom, consequently, an abundance of the subtle vital energy, which would else be employed in the secretion of semen, is disposed to communicate itself to other men through the medium of the touch, seconded by a strong intention of the mind. Some such poAverful mesmerizers whom I have known had all these singular peculiarities. 1 In treating here of the certain and decided curative virtues of positive mesmerism, I do not speak of the frequent abuses that are made of it, where, by repeating the passages during half an hour, and even a whole hour, daily, they occasion, in patients laboring under nervous affections that vast revolution of the human economy which bears the name of somnambulism— a state in which man, removed from the animal world, appears to belong more to the spiritual world, a highly unnatural and dangerous condition, by means of which a cure of chronic diseases has frequently been attempted. 2 It is a well-known rule that a person subjected to either positive or ne- gative mesmerism, ought not to wear silk on any part of the body. 3 Consequently, a negative transit, particularly if it is very rapid, would be extremely injurious to a person who had been for any length of time in a weak condition, or in whom the vital powers were not very active. ORGANON OF MEDICINE. 229 whole organism.1 In the same manner a slight negative passage, that is less rapid, frequently allays the great agitation and fatiguing insomnolency which are the results of a positive pas- sage that is too strong when exercised upon a very irritable patient. 1 A country lad, of robust constitution, about ten years of age, was mes- merized for some slight indisposition by a woman, who performed several strong passages on him with the ends of her two thumbs, from the praeeordial region down to the termination of the ribs; the boy immediately fell pale as death into such a state of insensibility and immobility that all means were tried in vain to recall him to life, and he was thought to be dead. I caused his elder brother to make as rapid a transit as possible on him from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet; he immediately recovered his Senses, and was healthy and cheerful. 4 * CATALOGUE OF JUL %/ M ttl 1/ X A X « X \J XJ\J%) IX 0 9 FOR SALE BY No. 300 Broadway, between Duane and Reale Streets. PUBLISHER OF H01KE0PATH1C BOOKS, AND SOLE AGEXT FOR THE LEIPZIG CENTRAL HOMEOPATHIC PHARMACY. Atkill, ^)r. Geo. The British and Foreign Homoeopathic Medical Direc Cory and Record. London. Bound. $1 25. Beck©3% Dr. A. C. On Constipation. Translated from the German. Bound. 38 Cents. Bpfk^:\ Dr. A. C. On Dentition. Translated from the German. Bound. 38 Cciits. BeckT, Dr. A. €. On Diseases of flie Eye. Translated from the German. Bound. 38 Cents. Beck?1*'. Dr. A. €. On Constipation, Consumption, Dentition, and Diseases of the Eye. In one volume. Bound. SI 00. BeckP?} Dr. A. C. Allopathy, Habnemannism, and Rational Homoeopathy. 13 Cents. Berk^y, iilcHen. 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