ALLCEOPATHIA AND HOMffiOPATHIA, A POPULAR ESSAY, BRIEFLY ILLUSTRATING THE PREVAILING MEDICAL DOCTRINES, I AND ESPECIALLY THE h. MEDICAL SYSTEM 4 SAMUEL HAHNEMANN. .J3Y C. BRUCHHAU Non est fingendum, nee excogitandum Sed inveniendum quid Natura faciat vel ferat — Bacon. l& NEW YORK: W. E. DEAN .PRINTER, 2 A N*C ^TREET. ■* 1841. r ^9f ALLCEOPATHIA AND HOMCEOPATHIA, A POPULAR ESSAY, BRIEFLY ILLUSTRATING THE PREVAILING MEDICAL DOCTRINES, AND ESPECIALLY THE MEDICAL SYSTEM OF SAMUEL HAHNEMANN. C. BRUCHHAUS E?^Mw£US> Non est fingendum, nee excogitandum Sed inveniendum quid Natura faciat vel ferat.—Bacon. NEW YORK: W.E.DEAN, PRINTER, 2 ANN STREET 1841. ***a®sQm** THIS ESSAY IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO CHARLES F. HOFFENDAHL, M.D., FORMERLY PHYSICIAN TO THE COUNT SCHWERIN, OF GERMANY; AND TO GEORGE W. COOK, M. D. LATE MAYOR OF H0DSON, NEW YORK, By their much obliged and grateful friend, THE AUTHOR. k POPULAR ESSAY ON ALLEOPATHIA AND HOMOPATHIA. Non est fingendum, nee excogitandum Sed inveniendum quid Natura faciat vel ferat.—Bacon. Nothing is of more general interest to mankind, than health. Deprived of this good, even life, riches, and all opportunities of earthly happiness are unavailing. The care of it therefore, the restoration in case of disturbance, (disease,) must be a matter of the highest importance ; the peculiar province of the physician. But who, hearing that name, will not think of the bitter cup, the instruments of torture, and the often unsuccessful exertions of the medical art 1 Physicians ! Although no one wishes to dispense with their services, a feeling of awe and distrust clings to our heart in calling them. Physicians! There is a kind of mystery shrouding them, which, though medicine is no longer ad- ministered by priests, as in ancient Egypt and Greece, and among savage nations, makes people shrink from investigating its claims to reverence. Shall this always be so ? Is not their practice affecting life and health, a subject sufficiently serious to stir up our minds and to be accounted for by the profession. Every office of trust and profit is exposed to criticism ; why should the doctors be exempt from a rule as rational as it is re- publican ? An inquiry into the discipline and treat- ment of medical practitioners seems the more expedient at the present period, as war is in their own camp, of which only the unhappy sufferers will fall the victims. From their merits and dignity, if really deserved,such a proceeding will not detract, and on the contrary save us a great deal of trouble, money, and perhaps life itself. I will try to give a popular exposition of the science in general, and of the sys- tems now in vogue in particular. The public then will have a fair chance of judging and choosing accordingly. Truth, crushed to earth shall rise again, The eternal years of God are hers ; But erron wounded, writhes with pain, And dies among his worshippers. Bryant. I commence with a fable of Gellert's, adapted to the subject, by Dr. Werber, as an explanatory introduction. " A blind man and a lame man, propos- ed to arrive at the same time at the same place. The lame man, thanks be to his sound eyes ! was well aware of the way and the end of it, but he lacked the power of motion. The blind, enjoying well-con- ditioned limbs and strength of body, was able to move, but could not perceive either the path or the goal. Sensible of their reciprocal wants, they soon found out the means of satisfying each other. The lame placed himself upon the shoulders of the blind and directed him in the road : 6 POPULAR ESSAY ON ALLCEOPATHIA AND HOMCEOPATHIA. the blind bore the lame on his back, and both of them attained their end." The relation between the lame and the blind men shadows forth that of Nature and the physician. Nature is endowed with powers, which operate according to certain laws appropriate to the preserva- tion of a healthy condition against disturb- ing attacks. Thus constituted. Nature is always active to conserve the normal organization and its functions, and to counteract disturbances inflicted on it from some external cause. But Nature follows only a blind innate instinct; she is possessed neither of consciousness nor will, she has only the active faculty of producing organic and dynamic mutations. As she operates without intelligence or will, she, in extraordinary occurrences and hindrances, will be at a loss for expedi- ents, which are to be sought from another quarter. In this respect she resembles the strong, vigorous-limbed blind man, who wants a guide to reach his destina- tion without jeopardy and within a shorter space of time. The guidance of the blind active heal- ing power of nature, (vis naturae medica- trix,) is to be taken up by the reflective spirit of the physician ; he is the seeing and discriminating eye of Nature, he is her conscious reason and active will. Nature and spirit together constitute one whole. Nature, by her creative vital power and active instinct of healing, and the spirit, by its scientific recognizance and artificial action, would effect the nat- ural, rational process of healing. Nature, divested of the guidance of intelligence, by her blind active instinct would as often lead to destruction as to salvation of the organization. The physician's spirit leads her arid her activity to salvation. The physician's spirit, however, can only guide or lead, giving to the healing instinct, when it goes astray, the most suitable direction, moderating when it operates to excess, reviving it when ex- hausted, removing the obstacles of which the senseless instinct cannot rid itself without external assistance. Where the healing power of Nature is extinct, even the aid of the medical spirit is in vain. Medicus curat, Natura sanat morbos. (The physician takes care of dis- eases, Nature heals them.) This sentence is evidently right and true in all its bearings. Let us now consider how these require- ments are complied with in the various methods of curing diseases. It is not my intention to give here an historical review of the different systems prevalent from time to time from the As- clepiads* down to the Brownistsf during these twenty-three centuries ; it is use- less to mention theories past by and each overthrown by the other, proving only the uncertainty of speculative knowledge, and the insufficiency of a practice based upon transcendental hypotheses. Nor will I attend to quackeries destitute of all scien- tific foundation, which cannot boast of a cure unless made by some lucky hazard, and leave the dupes scarcely to be pitied. The question I will dwell upon is, the old school and the new school of privileg- ed physicians, pointing out the distinctive course of Alloeopathy and Homoeopathy. Claiming*for both the preliminary stud- * From the family of Asclepios or Aescula- pius. Aesculapius was accounted the most em- inent practitioner of his time. The Greeks at- tributed to him the invention of medicine. His name continued to be revered after his death ; he was even ranked among the gods, and the principal knowledge of the medical art remain- ed with his family till the days of Hippocrates, who reckoned himself the seventeenth in a line- al descent from Aesculapius.—James Thatclier Amer. Medical Biograph. p. 10. t John Brown, M. D. of Scotland, living about the middle of the last century, the framer of the Stimulative System. POPULAR ESSAY ON ALLCEOPATHIA AND HOMCEOPATHIA. 7 ies of anatomy, physiology and pathology, as indispensable to a profession engaged in the treatment of the human frame, and that of botany and chemistry to a certain extent, I will scrutinize and contrast the therapeutic part of the science, in which they principally differ, and which is the most essential to the patients. The old school of medicine dates from the Greek physician, Galen, who lived about 130 years after Christ at Al- exandria, (Egypt,) the then emporium of science, and collected and arranged the traditions of the art into a system, which, with only few substantial alterations and additions, (the number of recipes however is legion,) has since flourished through the middle ages amongst the Arabian and European physicians, and still remains the code of Alloeopathy.* It is an aggre- gate of sundry remedies reputed either from experience or suggestion to be ser- viceable in various maladies. Its sove- reigns are cathartics, emetics, opium, bleeding and calomel. The principle guiding in the application of most of these remedies, is : contraria contrariis oppo- nenda. (One thing [disease] is to be op- posed by its reverse.) This phrase appears at the first im- pression, most plausible. Fire, we see, is extinguished by its opponent, water, and again water dries up by fire. But will it hold good in animated N ature, in the human organism, living and compound of so many elements and powers, which, when affected by disease, ought not to be destroyed, but restored to harmony- health !f The fatal consequences of an- tipathic treatment are obvious. * Allceopathia, derived from the Greek words aXXo? (alios,) another, and ™9os (pathos,) suf- fering, signifies a kind of treatment which pre- tends to cure disease by means which bear any relation to it, impressing the system in anoth- er way. t Bear in mind ! In cases of costiveness, e. g. purgatives are administered ; by the evacuations they effect, a momentary relief is given indeed, but will the alimentary canal be more inclined to do its duty ? No, it is as unwilling as previous to that forced ac- tion : more purges are required to open the bowels. Their repeated use weakens the intestines and brings on alternately loose- ness and constipation—dyspepsia. In inflammations of the lungs and other organs, the antiphlogistic apparatus, espe- cially the lancet, is resorted to, and the Allceopathic physician is proud of the maxim : Tolle causam ; cessante causa cessat efTectus, (Take away the cause ; as soon as the cause ceases the effect ceases.) Does blood-letting eradicate the cause of the evil ? No more than letting out water takes the noisome filth of a sink away. It at best alleviates the violence of the malady, but enfeebles the patient, and the stream of life being thus lavished, disease often terminates in death.* x Speranza (an Italian physician,) re- marks, that amongst those laboring under pneumonia, who had been attended by Dr. Brera, the fatal results were just in equal proportion to the number of venesections. Of one hundred patients treated without bleeding, fourteen died; of those bled twice, nineteen ; of those bled three to nine times, twenty-two, of * I refer also to an opinion given by an old school physician, (Kruger-Hansen's Brillen- lose Reflerionen, page 87,) reading as follows : " An organ infiammatorily affected exhibits no activity above the normal state. Its contracti- bility is reduced, it does not resist the rushing on of the humidities, it cannot rid itself of those intruded, because its organic coherence is im- paired ; its form and texture is changed, it in- clines to chemical dissolution. This deficiency of contractibility, the impaired coherence will not be increased by drawing off blood from the over-filled organs,but by enhancing its reaction, its repulsive power." 8 POPULAR ESSAY ON ALLCEOPATHIA AND HOMCEOPATHIA. those bled more than nine times, sixty- eight in the hundred. Apparently prepos- terous is bleeding in cases of puerperal fever, after a female has endured so great a loss of blood in the natural way (lochia.) There is little doubt they will fall victims to this sanguinary inclination. And the convalescents after bleeding, seem to confirm the fable of vampy- rism, looking rather like phantoms than like human beings. I abstain from animadverting upon the abuse of bleeding caused by ignorance, so frequently occurring, and gladly observe that some intelligent practitioners, wise by experience, have of late come to the conviction, that even in cases of apoplexy and palsy, where bleeding seems to be more indicated than in many other in- stances, have found other remedies more salutary than venesection ; restraining at least phlebotomy for this French fash- ion of Broussais' recommendation. Not less pernicious and perverse is an English importation, the calomel-mania, exemplifying the proverb : Si non esset Mercurius, non esset Me- dicus. (If there was no Mercury, there would be no physician.) Since the days of Dr. Johnson,* who introduced its frequent use from his East India practice, in Europe the multitude of doctors, especially of English education, seeing a tongue clothed and a pulse irri- * Since I have written this, I learu from Thatchers American Medical Biography, that Dr. Benj. Rush, Professor in the Pennsylvania University at Philadelphia, (1769—1812,) car- ried bleeding and the depleting system farther than ever had been done before by any of his contemporary physicians, and in like manner, he urged the use of calomel, (which were con- sidered great improvements at his time,) and by his authority this mode of curing has most effectually been introduced in American prac- itce. tated, cannot forbear prescribing (if not laxatives, emetics or bleeding,) calomel to salivation. Dr. Rush termed this viru- lent agent the Sampson of the Materia Medica ; a name proper indeed, because it has slain its thousands, and it is in a great measure owing to its abuse, that scrophu- la, rachitis, liver complaints and dys- pepsia are so prevalent in this country.* Of the emetics I will only say, that they oftener injure than improve the condition of the stomach. Opium, so abundantly administered in nervous affections, will soothe them, but the sensibility is only suppressed by this powerful narcotic, not restored to the nor- mal tone ; it is increased sometimes to a frightful state of nervousness, or brought down to dull stupidity. The revulsives (derivativa,) are avowed- ly palliatives of a similar tendency. As long as blisters, plasters, setons and is- sues are applied, the sufferer feels some- what relieved, the disease is arrested for a while, to reappear when the artificial sores are healed. Still worse is the practice of curing eruptions (as the itch) by salves or some other external application. The morbid matter, so driven back from the surface of the skin, settles on the internal organs, stomach, lungs, &c, and causes spasms, phthisis, paralysis and apoplexy, which baffle the most skillful treatment com- mon for such diseases, and can only be remedied by treating the original evil, or by its spontaneous reappearance. The antipathic or alloeopathic method succeeds in part, because two diseases in the human system generally suspend each * During the discussion between Drs. Draper and Watson, at Boston, Dr. W. stated, that in the course of four years he had taken from the citizens of Boston and vicinity, 100 barrels of blood, and had administered 49 pounds of Mer- cury.—Albany Evening Atlas, March 8,1841. POPULAR ESSAY ON ALLCEOPATHIA AND HOMCEOPATHIA. 9 other, just as a master will not allow an- other of a diverse character to command in the same house. The sickness is si- lenced, but rarely done away. One demon having finished ravaging, the other too often returns the more angry, and consum- mates his course of pain and trouble. In most cases, allceopathy may be com- pared with an archer, who, to hit his mark, shoots at the opposite wall with all his might, to compass his end by the rebound- ing of his arrow. Such an archer, to say the least, will not often succeed. Even in those maladies, against which allceopathy, by some happy chance, re- joices in specifics acting to the very point, (such as Quinine for ague, Sulphur for itch, Mercury for syphilis,) the diseased are seldom restored to full health. The patients, after having been freed from the malady, begin to labor under a disease excited by the remedy, similar to, and sometimes more formidable than, the original one. This is owing to their max- im that the effect is in the ratio of quan- tity.* As they want large doses of medi- cine given on the antipathic or alloeopa- thic principle, to accomplish their end, which results properly in nothing else than to make no curative impression what- ever, so the very remedy they use, which, slightly and prudently applied, would have served to perform a gentle work of art, remains as a venom in the system, and ruins the constitution of the sufferer. Changing diseases, however, is not cur- ing them. On the whole it is evident, that suchtreatment does not help Nature along, in compliance with the intimation of our parable, nor will it stand the comparison * Their large doses, at all times pernicious, become peculiarly so in these cases ; but the habit is confirmed upon them by the apparent immensity with which large doses are exhibited in cases of a non specific character, and they cannot descend to safe and curative doses. with the ideal held out by one of its heroes, (Hufeland's Enchiridon Medicum,) who says : " A method of medicine which acknowledges and respects in all that it does, the law of life and the action of Na- ture as superior; which regards itself not as the agent but as an instrument of the internal process of healing, which takes the indications for acting only from the wants and demands of the affected Na- ture, and determines accordingly, which conceives all that passes within the or- ganism, (disease as well as its own ope- rations of healing,) as living and active, in short, which lives in life itself, and re- cognizing all that lives, elevated by life to a higher sphere of existence, also moves working in that sphere and be- comes one and the same with Nature— this is the only true art of healing, based upon the eternal laws of Nature," &c. Alas! the common practice tries to force, to oppress, to violate her, glorying in the motto, Medicus Naturae magister, (the physician is Nature's master.) Alas ! he is rather to be styled a tragedian, ex- hibiting so many acts of the same drama, and destined to accompany his hero to the burial ground. Even the living, those recovered by, or in spite of, their interference, do not gene- rally do much honor to Alloeopathists. The inhabitants of no part of the world possess, comparatively speaking, so great an abundance of comforts as those of the United States, favored by their political and social institutions ; notwithstanding these advantages, nowhere does sickness prevail to so large an extent; a calamity, which, besides luxury and climate, can mostly be retraced to drugs swallowed as medicines, and to the extraction of blood. It accounts for beauty decayed in its prime, strength prostrated in the vigor of life, fair complexion and full habit reduced to pallor and emaciation, the ornaments of the mouth blackened and rattling, leathern 10 POPULAR ESSAY ON ALLCEOPATHIA AND HOMCEOPATHIA' faces, rheumatic arthritic living thermom- eters, &c.—all effects of the abuse of Mercury, Iodine, Cinchona, Arsenic, Opium, and other drugs. Enough to arouse our commiseration and wrath. I believe I shall fulfill a duty by directing the public attention to these facts, and to warn them to be cautious in asking such assistance. By these animadversions I do not know which to blame most, the practitioner or the system. The most of the profession- al men would, as to their conduct, stand justified before a court of physicians : they act in compliance with the dogmata, which are preached from the professor's chair and preside over the pupil's examination. But can the result give satisfaction to the community ? And what is the prospect for the future 1 I will refer in the words of another Alloeopathist (Christoph Gir- tanner's Darstellung des Brownischen System, 1798)—" In the great Egyptian darkness of ignorance, in which the phy- sicians are erring, not even the least beam of light appears, by which they may set themselves right. When two doctors con- vene at the bed of a person dangerously ill, it often happens to them, as to the Ro- man augurs, that they can scarcely forbear laughing, when they look at each other. Nay, neither a universal medicine (pana- cea) nor a universal principle is known to them,, by which they may be guided in the labyrinth of the human system to an adequate treatment; for still they wander in the allceopathic, antipathic and specific methods." Here we may apply what the great Bacon says : " An innovation is to be made from the very foundations, if you do not like to move around in a circle with a tri- fling, contemptible progress." Such a revolution is now going on, a revolution which promises to become one of the greatest benefits ever bestowed by Providence on mankind by Homceopathia* discovered or revived by Dr. Hahnemann. He has furnished a principle to rely on, and materials to work with, and thus end- ing the uncertainty of experiments, the success is left to the adept's care and skill, to perform a fair work. The secret of Nature, the axiom for adapting medicine to disease, the key and rule for all physicians to cure, cito tuto et jucunde, (quick, sure and easy) as it is purported by Celsus, is contained in these few words : Similia similibus curantur, (like cured by like,)t which means a mal- ady is cured by a remedy, which, when administered to a healthy individual, would bring on symptoms similar to those of the disease it is intended to cure. It will be proper to enter briefly into the theory of the system. The sentence, " like is cured by like," strikes us as very strange and paradoxical. We feel compelled to believe, that a medi- cine creating symptoms similar to the * The name is derived from the Greek words bfxoios (omoios) like, similar, and nados (pathos,) suffering, and means a method which uses rem- edies analogous to the disease. ■f This implies not a logic like this : e. g., a wound inflicted by a sword is to be cured by a stroke with an axe, or that a man who has been hurt by a fall from a staircase, is to be thrown down from the second story. Such witticisms, which occasionally have been uttered, are be- low common sense. In the alleged cases, Ar- nica would be of use, internally and externally applied, because the essence of this herb ad- ministered to a healthy person would produce pains like those of a bruise. It stops bleeding, relieves the cutting pains, and introduces the natural process of healing. Surgieal assistance, in case of necessity, is not inconsistent with the Homoeopathic system. There are also antidotes given in considerable quantity, not excluded from the practice, in cer- tain urgent cases, e. g. of poisoning, to remove first the injurious substance. POPULAR ESSAY ON ALLCEOPATHIA AND HOMCEOPATHIA. 11 disease, should tend to increase and ag- gravate it. This is verily the primary effect. The symptoms are enhanced, al- though, if the right remedy be given in the right dose, scarcely perceptible and only for a while. But by this irritation, at the same time, the vital power of the or- ganism is aroused, and, by the specific re- lation of the medicine, directed and con- centrated towards the very affected organ or system. The human body possesses the property to keep up and to restore its integration, as a piece of Indian rubber pressed down reassumes its former posi- tion : this is the power of reaction. By the congenial medicament this reaction is en- forced. Nature begins to prosecute a course of exertions to rid the system of the disturb- ing cause, it works off, decomposes, des- troys or absorbs the morbid matter or dispo- sition. The endeavors of Nature must be supported in all the phases of the derange- ment by the appropriate medicine, and success will not fail if the innate vitality is strong enough to carry through the pro- cess ; the disorder is changed into order— health. The philosophy of Horn, is quite natural and conclusive. Disease is the reflection of something heterogeneous to our system, and Nature's endeavor is to thrust forth this morbid matter.* By what could the crisis be better promoted, than by something affinitive, sympathizing with such endeavor, joining her efforts,—by a medicine producing similar phenomena. The physician who thus imitates and aids Nature, (far from the mode of altering, di- recting or counteracting her sacred laws,) may be rightly recognized as Naturae Minister. We shall be still better satisfied with the reform, when we look at the manage- ment and the materials used for the pur- pose. * This definition is not expressly made up for the purpose, but given already by old Sy- denham Hahnemann, wise by so many failures of by-gone ages, gave up trying to di- vine the famous prima causa, the a pri- ori substance of life and disease, which is concealed from us as Divinity, although manifest in his creation. He relies on a basis of perceivable reality—ascertaining the totality of the symptoms which appear in the diseased. He trusts only to the most careful examination, and to the most mi- nute details. After these statements, due respect being paid to the diathesis in which the disease has sprung up, and to other pathognomical and physiological indica- tions, the medicament is chosen, which corresponds nearest with all the symp- toms, or at least the most prominent and characteristic of them. The remedy is continued or changed according to the then ensuing signs, until health is restor- ed. Dissimilar to the old school, the new one, depending only oh a natural de- velopment of the innate powers, dimin- ishes the doses and protracts the intervals of administering them, in proportion to the advancing reaction. As a secondary negative measure, a certain regimen is inculcated, (recom- mended also by good Allceopathists,) which enjoins to avoid all that might counteract or weaken the effect of the medicine and the operation of the healing power of Na- ture. It is however not the intention by this diet to starve the patient; spices, li- quors, acids, indigestible food, coffee, to- bacco, and in some cases fruits are the only things forbidden, all kinds of pure nu- tritious food being allowed. Individual cases may require particular prescriptions more or less strict, depending upon the doctor's arbitration. I will now speak of the Homoeopathic remedies. Homceopathia does not pre- tend that her stock is exclusively botanic : on the contrary, as man takes his food, she is supplied from every natural kingdom. Nor lays she claim to novelty in this re- PATHIA AND HOMCEOPATHIA. 12 POPULAR ESSAY ON ALLCEOl spect; most of the drugs are also used in the compounds of the old school, although many a valuable substance has been added. The superiority of them consists in their simplicity, in their being more accurately known as to their effects, and applied on a different principle, as already shown. Of the Allceopathic Materia Medica, Frederick Hoffmann complains in these terms : " The more useful it is, in the practice of the medical art, to have an in- timate acquaintance with the true and not fictitious virtues of the medicaments, in reference to the diverse character both of bodies and maladies ; the more it is to be regretted, to be wondered at, that, to say the truth, there are only few remedies, the virtues and operations of which are sure and well ascertained ; but most of them deceive the hope and expectation of the practitioner, because the true properties of the pharmaceutical substances are still hidden, as in Democrit's well. There re- main, of course, few of sure proved virtue ; the most are suspected, fallacious and fictitious." So says a refined writer of the old school. Hahnemann explains the fact : " Most of the assumed virtues of the sim- ple remedies were originally brought to light by domestic practice, by men who frequently were not competent to judge of the genuineness of the drug, often not to give its name, and least of all accurately to mark the diseased state in which it was said to have been useful. The old herb- alists collected these bald reports, mixed with superstition and conjecture (old wo- men-tales) very briefly, superficially and confusedly, and one copied from the other down to modern times. A few books which form an exception to the foregoing, Bergius and Cullen, are so much more meagre in their statements of the virtues of medicines, that little positive informa- tion is to be gained from them, since they generally, especially the latter, omitted every thing doubtful and uncertain. But one among thousands, Murray, specifies the cases in which the medicines were used. These authorities are generally contradictory, an affirmative side against a negative, and thus even here we are at a loss to decide." When they were ignorant of the effect of the simple remedies, what must be imagined of their medley, in which they address one drug to that, another to anoth- er organ, system or symptoms, entirely unaware that the mixture would change the nature of the ingredients, and that the address (superscription) might be lost or miscarried. I need not attempt to show the fatal consequences arising from such a state of an important branch of medical science. Hahnemann commenced his reform by trying on his person, his family and friends, and other individuals of either sex, a number (eighty-three) of drugs, (plants, roots, minerals, metals and substances of the animal kingdom,) and went through the task with a perseverance and accura- cy never surpassed in the history of med- icine. During thirty years he was thus employed, almost without interruption, suffering under the effects of one or the other drug, and three several times thereby nearly brought to the grave. His illus- trious example has been followed by his disciples, and within half a century a more glorious result of authentic notices on the virtues of medicines has been ob- tained, than during the 2000 years of al- lceopathic experience ; which alone de- serves the gratitude of the whole medical profession. In about 300 drugs hith- erto proved, the means have been dis- covered to meet every disease, against which the old school vaunts to possess a remedy, from the slightest cold, head or toothache and diarrhoea, to the most acute POPULAR kSSAY ON ALLCEOPATHIA AND HOMCEOPATHIA. 13 fevers, typhus, epidemics* and compli- cated chronic diseases ; also some pre- servatives, e. g. against scarlet fever, measles, cholera and hydrophobia ; even sometimes against amputation, which the Allceopathists are so ready to declare ne- cessary. All these remedies, except a few mine- rals, are not compounds, but simple pre- parations of single drugs, for the adminis- tration of which an innocuous substance is used as a vehicle. Tinctures or essences, dilutions, triturations, are given in a form to render them rather agreeable than dis- gusting, even to the most delicate palate.f It remains yet to say a few words con- cerning the minute doses, which have been made the scope of so much ridicule. " How," the controversialists exclaim, " how can atoms of a medicine, or at high- est a few drops have any, to say nothing of healing, effect." When referred to facts, they contend : " It is all imagina- tion !" Imagination, I confess, is in some cases a mighty lever, and many examples of the kind are related in the annals of the * Hahnemann was the first to advise the abundant use of Camphor in the first stage of the Cholera morbus, thereby most effectually checking this fiend of the human family. In all stages and forms of it, Homoeopathy proved superior to Allceopathy ; which did not a little contribute to attract public attention and to overcome prejudices, especially in Austria and Russia. The old school physicians were astounded to make out the prima causa, and to devise the means of meeting the new plague. Wo to them who asked the benefit of their assistance ! Thousands succumbed to their learned ignorance under augmented suffering. t Two entirely opposite rumors have been stated by our adversaries : they call the Ho- moeopathic physicians sugar doctors, and on the other hand they charge them with using poisons. It will be superfluous to refute them, after what has been said on this subject. science ; but, pray, how will you perform a cure by imagination on infant children, in whose maladies, (croup, hooping cough, convulsions, in the period of their cutting teeth, dropsy of the brain, &c.,) Homceo- pathy has proved so beneficial and suc- cessful 1 Nor will imagination hold good in bruises, eruptions, inflammations, ner- vous and typhus fevers. Or how will it influence brute animals ; for Homceopa- thy has been tried also on horses, cattle, and dogs by veterinarians, with the best success. So small a dose as is commonly adminis- tered by Homoeopathists, would, it is true, not much affect a healthy person, even not a sick one on the antipathic principle ; but elected by affinity, it touches a pre- disposed sensitive organ or system, which like a sore will feel the slightest impres- sion, and by its influence on the nerves, (dynamic operation) like that of a signal, communicate to the whole organism. Of this kind of affinitive spiritualism we find many instances in the physical world. A spark elicited by striking a flint, when directed to a piece of wood or stone, is entirely harmless ; but if brought near gunpowder, it will not be so indifferent and inoffensive ; when set in connection with a mine, it kindles a whole lot of combustibles and blows up rocks and walls of earth. The odors of flowers or musk, which, exhaling only millionth parts of smelling matter, affect the olfac- tory nerves, the electric fluid, the mag- netism, (which by the bye, operates ho- moeopathically,) the contagiousness,* the antipathy of certain persons anticipating certain objects before seeing the vestige of them, all neither tangible nor pondera- ble, demonstrate sufficiently the efficacy * Which conveys infection by breath and transpiration. >PATHIA AND HOMCEOPATHIA. 14 POPULAR ESSAY ON ALLCEO of small doses, and high dilutions.* They add only to the pre-eminence of the new system. How many sick are laboring under the afterpains of the rem- edies I have already had occasion to al- lude to, and will abstain here from expa- tiating upon. It was for that momentous reason, that Hahnemann descended to such diminutions. By all these arguments it will appear, that Homoeopathy, though not able to give immortality in this sublunary world, accom- plishes the cardinal object of medicine better than any other method, and that those who have espoused it, did by no means embark on a sea of moonshine, as a punster of the old school has said, but that they, by their good compass and vessel, have at last discovered and reached the land of promise, under the auspices of a second Columbus, the old sage of Meissen. I finally proceed to reason by facts, and to give some illustrations of the new theory. I. Observations elucidating the mutu- ality of the healing and affecting virtues, taken from domestic practice, and estab- lished beyond dispute : A frozen man must be covered with snow, to be restored to life. Burns are easily healed either by pla- cing the affected part near the fire or by applying something exciting a similar sensation, (heated spirits of wine or oil of turpentine,) whilst the antipathic cold water would give momentary relief, but afterwards cause much pain and delay of * There is still a variance of opinion in re- ference to the use of the so called low or high dilutions. The higher developements of the medicine however are commonly considered better suited to chronic diseases, whereas the lower are admitted to be more serviceable in acute cases. Experience will teach to settle the matter in question. the healing process, sometimes even sup- puration and mortification. The reaper in the summer's heat, or the over-heated dancer, for quenching their thirst and the feverish state brought on by their exercises, take but a sup of some- thing warm and stimulating, and continue moving; ice-water, or exposure to cold air, would lay them on the bed of sickness. Vaccination* exciting an eruption sim- ilar to the small pox, is a remedy or rather a preventive against this scourge. Sulphur baths produce itching and a kind of scab, which they are known to cure. Martial waters are roboratives, and color the hue of the weak and pale ; the same drunk by healthy persons in con- siderable quantity and for a longer time, produce pallor and debility. Ulceration of the throat, sanguineous stools, etc., are known to result from the abuse of mercury ; on the contrary mer- cury is known to be a specific against syphilitic ulcers and dysentery. II. I refer to a number of cures (re- corded in Hahnemann's Organon) per- formed on the principle similia similibus, by old physicians, who were not conscious of it, or thought it applicable only to soli- tary cases. The list contains the most celebrated names of the profession among diverse nations, Sydenham, Boerhave, Hunter, Bell, Heister, Thierry, Werlhof, Stahl, Haller, &c, and I appeal to the experience of every reflecting practi- tioner. III. I will give a few citations which have the authority of antiquity, so fiercely claimed by alloeopathists, and do justice * I cannot forbear here to mention, that Zabdiel Boylston, a physician of Boston first introduced, as early as 1721, the innoculation of the small pox in America (trying it first on his only son of 13 years of age,) and met with the severest opposition and persecution for his philanthropic undertaking. POPULAR ESSAY ON ALLCEOPATHIA AND HOMCEOPATHIA. 15 to illustrious predecessors, although Ho- moeopathia is an original conception of Hahnemann. Already the father of all rational medi- cine, Hippocrates, of the isle of Cos, esteemed by all parties for his subtile spirit of observation, living 450—301 B. C, says in his Aphorisms on Man :* " By the like,,from which a malady arises, convalescency ensues. Strangury not existing, is caused by the same by which it is stopped ; and cough like strangury is produced and removed by the same. By vomiting, vomitorition ceases." And in another place of the same work he says: " Administer to those who labor under melancholy and would strangulate them- selves, the root of Mandragora in less weight than what might create insanity in a healthy person, giving at the same time a hint as to the quantity of the doses required." Basilius Valentinus, in his book, " de Microcosmo," plainly comes out : " Like is to be expelled by its like, and not by its contrary, heat by heat, cold by cold, piercing by piercing ; for heat attracts heat, cold attracts cold, as the magnet does in regard to the iron. He who does not attend to that, is not a real physician, and may in silence boast of no medicine." And in his Curus triumphalis Antimonii repeating the sentence : Poison against poison, he adduces the following ex- amples : " A frozen egg thaws in cold water, a frozen limb gets sound by fomen- tations of snow water. On inflamed parts of the body apply an inflamative matter, namely alcohol, which is pure fire, or the quintessence of sulphur ; one heat then attracts the other, according to the mag- netic manner and form, espouses the heat of its equal, and brings to the inflamed limb not relief but recovery." Hierony- ♦ Heal t6ko>v tuv kct' M(>a>x°v—I- 51- mus Cardanus, rejecting the Galenian doctrine of contrariety of remedies to the disease, declared, that e. g. diarrhoea was to be treated by purgatives, and con- stipation of the bowels by opium. Theophrastus Paracelsus, an eccentric natural philosopher, (flourishing 1527— 43,) not less renowned for his astonishing cures, than for his alchemical mysteries, affords some remarkable anticipations of the principle as well as of the kinds of medicines, saying in his book " de Morbis metallicis:" " all is poison and medicine at the same time ; alchemy separates the good from the bad. What excites jaun- dice, cures also this disease ; from the bad yellows arise, but if the good be separated from the bad, it is an arcanum against yellows. The medicine which is inten- ded to cure paralysis, is to be taken from what causes lameness." As for his med- icaments, he abhorred compounds and tried to develope the virtues of herbs as well as of minerals simple, by a natural chemical process in essences (elixirs.) Dr. Stahl, once celebrated for his Au- rum potabile, confessed, that the wonder- ful effects of it, given in very small doses, were not owing to its composition, (which was but oil of vitrol,) but to the adaptation of these costly drops to the disease on a different principle, maintaining, that the phrase Contraria contrariis was false, and that Similia similibus was to be adopted. Albert Haller, conspicuous in poetry as in physic, writes in reprobation of the metaphysical speculations : " The depth of Nature is not penetrated By any human spirit pro-created," Haller, who first laid down a solid basis of physiology, recommended in his pre- face to the Helvetian Pharmacopcea(Basel 1771) the following course as a basis of 16 POPULAR ESSAY ON ALLCEOPATHIA AND HOMCEOPATHIA. medical scienee : " First, the medicine is to be tried without any additional mixture, on a healthy person, and the smell and test of it having been ascertained, a small dose of it is to be administered to him or her, and attention must be paid to all the affections which follow therefrom, as to pulse, warmth, breathing, and secretions. Then according to the phenomena appear ing in the healthy body, proceed to expe- riments on a sick one." All these admonitions, however, were as a voice in the desert, and it was not until the year 1790, an epoch, when in a new social order beginning in Europe, millions of men perished, that the genius of Hah- nemann also was struck with the idea, which, commencing a new medical era, would lead to preserve our race from lingering sickness and a premature tomb. A biographical notice of the author of Homceopathia will, I suppose, be of in- terest to the reader. Dr. Samuel Christian Hahnemann, is a native of Meissen, a small town in the kingdom of Saxony, Germany, and was born the 10th of April, 1755. After a careful collegiate education, a consump- tive sickness, which he had contracted in consequence of his laborious studies, determined him to apply himself to med- icine. Hisfather,a painter of chinaware,* could not afford to support him ; the young man had to gain his livelihood, whilst at the university of Leipsic (1775—76,) by his linguistical knowledge. By transla- ting English medical works he contrived also to continue his studies at Vienna, re- nowned for its medical institutions, (1777.) Here he, by his character and learning, won the friendship and confidence of Dr. Quarin, physician to the Leopold's Hos- pital, who frequently entrusted its patients * For which Meissen is so much known. to his care, and made the acquaintance of Baron von Briickenthal, Governor of Transylvania, (an Austrian province.) This gentleman employed Hahnemann as domestic physician, librarian and superin- tendent of a Museum of coins at Her- manstadt, allowing him at the same time to practice medicine in the city. His im- proved circumstances enabled him to resort to Erlangen, a German university, to attend a year more the lectures, and to graduate, 1779. For a period of ten years he resided successively in Mansfeld, Dessau, Magdeburg, practicing medicine. Dissatisfied, however, with the uncertainty of the medical art, he then relinquished the practice of it, settled at Leipsic, and devoted himself to chemistry and literary occupations. In the course of these pur- suits, he discovered a new mode of pre- paring mercury (Mercurius solubilis Hah- nemanni) and invented a composition, which exposed the adulteration of wines with lead (Hahnemannean wine-test.) It was also here that a consoling prospect dawned upon his researches after truth in medicine. Hahnemann in translating Cul- len's Mat. Med., was not content with the explanation attempted by the Scotch theo- rist, of the febrifuge power of the Peruvian Bark, Cinchona, according to that theory, should almost specifically remove inter- mittent fevers ; but his unwearied inves- tigations afforded incontrovertible evidence that there were numerous forms of this disease not under the control of the bark: he had also remarked, that the same applied to persons in health, produced symptoms singularly analogous to those of the fever. By the latter circumstance, he was induced to try the experiment on himself. Taking Cinchona in consider- able doses when in health, he perceived that the severe symptoms, under which he labored, were similar to the ague, which prevails in marshy regions, (pure intermittent fever) Encouraged by this POPULAR ESSAY ON ALLCEOPATHIA AND HOMCEOPATHIA. 17 hint, he went into a course of medicinal trials, the result of which is Homoeopathy. He in this course became fully convinced, that drugs are injurious to healthy per- sons, i. e. they produce disease ; that drug-diseases, in many instances, were remarkably similar to some forms of spon- taneous disease, and that drugs in gen- eral are only able to cure, if given in diseases similar to those which they pro- duce themselves. After having issued several essays on the subject, he published, in 1810, his Organon of the rational art of healing; from 1811—21, his Materia Medica Pura, in 6 Vols., and from 1828 —37, the Chronic Maladies, in 5 Vols., which are fundamental works of the new science.* In the year 1812, he commenced teach- ing and practicing his system, and had soon an opportunity for showing its effi- cacy. After the famous battle, near his then residence, (Leipsic, 16th, 17th and 18th October, 1813,) a contagious typhus was developed, which proved most fatal to those attacked with it. He gave instruc- tions to combat it successfully,(by Bryonia, Rhus tox. &c.,) and out of 180 under his own attendance, all recovered except one, already advanced in age. Selfish- ness and laziness of the interested, how- ever, opposed and decried him at every pace, and by the many intrigues of his an- tagonists, he was compelled, 1821, to leave his native state and to take refuge with the Duke Ferdinand, of Anhalt Coethen, who generously offered him an asylum,t favor- ed him with an entire immunity from the * Homoeopathy since has received a great many additions and improvements, and exhibits a considerable literature of standard works and periodicals, (especially in the German lan- guage.) A supply of the principal Homoeopathic medicines, and books, and pamphlets, written and translated on the system, may be found in New York and Philadelphia. t Employed him as domestic physician. apothecaries'monopoly, and raised him, by the titulary distinction of Court Counsel- lor, above the reach of petty personal rancors. Here he quietly labored, concen- trating his energies with Drs. Brunnow, Muhlenbein, Stapf and Moriz Muller, to perfect the edifice, so well designed, and began to enjoy enviable reputation, popularity and happiness in the midst of a family of affectionate children, who participated in the trials of their parent through weal and woe. In 1829 was celebrated his fiftieth anniversary of doc- torship. In the year 1835 he married Miss Marie Melonie d' Hervilly-Gohier,as his second wife, a French lady, forty years of age, perfectly independent as to fortune, and descended from an ancient family of wealth and rank, whom he had cured, and was induced by her to take up his resi- dence at Paris. Here he still lives, and exercises his mighty influence in teaching, writing and practicing.* Homceopathy is in the ascendancy : it will, as Mirabeau once prophecied of liberty, make the tour of the world. Origi- nated in Germany, the land of many a useful invention, it has taken ground in that country, in France, in Switzerland, and Italy ; it has been spread over Den- mark, Sweden and Russia ; it has crossed the seato settle in England, and Scotland, and in America ; it has made its appear- ance even in Turkey and Egypt.f * An interesting description of his personal appearance and of his noble consort, the bride of his eightieth year, may be read in Dr. Hull's valuable Homoeopathic Examiner, Vol. I, No. VII, 1840, published at New York, entitled : " A visit to Hahnemann, by the Editor." t In several universities of Germany and France, Homoeopathic professorships and dis- pensaries have been created, and in this coun- try an academy has been founded at Allentown, Pennsylvania, which, so soon as an appropiate organization of Professors shall be fully obtain- ed, will contribute its aid to the dissemination of Homoeopathic knowledge. ✓• 4 *n. .18 POPULAR ESSAYfON ALLCEOPATHIA AN i- The practitioners* of the old school, who have given it a fair trial and.have been initiated into'its mysteries, have em- • Dr. Gross, in his Homoeopathic Journal, already (1832) gave the names of 226 converts, of regular educated physicians, a list by no means complete at the time; now their num- ber is said'to exceed 2000. braced it, and no one has e^ or regretted this change. The patients benefited by it, gratefully look at it as a work of redemption. It redounds to its reputation, that the better educated classes, especially, were fore- most to bestow upon it their favor and pat- ronage.