Homoeopathy Explained

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HOMCEoi'ATHYEXPLAINED

JOHN HENRY CLARKE, M.D.

LONDON

HOMCEOPATHIC PUBLISHING COMPANYn WARWrCK LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW, EC.

1905


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t


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Zo

THE MEMBERS

OF THE

BRITISH HOMCEOPATHIC ASSOCIATION

THIS BOOK IS

DEDICATED IN ALL HOPEFULNESS

BY THE AUTHOR

381839


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X PREFACE

Law which he knew must underlie the seem-nglychaotic phenomena of drug-action.

At the dawn of the nineteenth century, whenAutocracy in the politicalworld of Europewas tottering to its fall, Hahnemann, thenin his prime, was making his first attacks onthe power of Authority in medicine, andleading all who would to take their stand onthe ground of Natural Fact. The battle isyet far from won ; but Hahnemann has ledthe way into a new world of thought, andnow all who wish to know the thing thatiSy are no longer obliged to accept that onlywhich bears Authority's imprimatur.

At this stage of progress there is nolonger any need to treat homoeopathy as aquestion of belief. It is nothing of thekind : it is a matter of science a thing whichmay be known. No one has any right toclaim either belief or disbelief in homoeo-athy

he must either know it, or be

ignorant about it ; he must either under-tandit, or fail to understand it. To


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PREFACE xi

understand homoeopathy is not such an easymatter as some think it ought to be ; but itis not more difficult than is the understand-ng

.

of other sciences. The object of thiswork is to make the understanding possibleto all who wish to understand. To thosewho wish not to understand and they are,unhappily, a very numerous body I havenothing to say. The wish to know is allI ask of my readers ; if, inspired with thiswish, they fail after a careful reading of mybook, the blame must lie with me.

When one comes to think of it,that drug-action should have more than one side toit would seem to be a matter of course.The scientific mind revolts at the notionthat an active cause can produce identicalresults in opposite conditions. That a drugshould act differentlywhen given to a personunder conditions of disease from what itwould do in the same person when in health,is only what common sense would expect.And common sense would next demand to


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xii PREFACE

know just exactly what that difFerence maybe. The answer to that query is Hahne-ann's

life and work

the discovery of theLaw of Cure. It would seem to the unpro-essional

mind a trite observation to make,that the business of a doctor is to cure. Itseemed so to Hahnemann, and the firstsentence of his Organon states plainlyenough that the high and only business ofthe physician is to heal the sick to cure^ asit is termed. And yet we have respectedteachers at this time of day telling theirstudents that they may treat patientsthey cannot cure them. They speaklearnedly about the decadence of drugs,as if Mother Earth could not produce plantsand minerals of the proper potency in theselatter days. The fault according to themlies with Nature not in their own useof the forces Nature puts into their hands Homoeopathy disposes of all this childishnonsense.

There is an Art of cure, but it must belearned and practised with brains. Cures


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PREFACE xiii

rarely take place by accident, and unless aman makes up his mind to master the art ofcuring, he will not achieve much in thatline. The Faculty says, You cannot curepatients you can only treat them ; if youpretend to cure, you are a quack. Homoeo-athy

says, You may cure if you will takethe trouble to learn the art. Curing is theonly excuse for your existence as a physician,and if you do not cure, you are a failure.

The object of this work is to put thefacts of the case before the public,and beforethose members of the profession who havenot closed their intelligenceat the biddingof the goddess Authority.

For a long time past my publishers havebeen urging me to give them a revisededition of my little work entitled Homoeo-athy

: All about it. Hitherto* pressure ofother work has prevented me from complyingwith their request. Now that I have beenable to give some thought and time to thesubject, it has seemed to me desirable to


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xiv PREFACE

recast the work, enlarge its scope, and adaptit to more recent requirements. Thus ithas come about that although the formerwork is embodied in this volume, the workitself is rather a new book than a newedition, and I have therefore regarded it inthis light and have given it a new title.

Now that more than ten years haveelapsed since its predecessor appeared,there is no harm in telling the story ofhow it came to be written at all. Theauthor was a member of a debating clubcomposed of literary and professional men,and when his turn came to read a paperhe chose Homoeopathy for its subject. Anumber of medical men some of themlecturers in medical schools were mem-ers

of the club, all of them being allo-athswith* the exception of the author.

When the paper was read, the author hadwith him, as visitors. Dr. PuUar and thelate Drs. Cooper and Dudgeon. The occa-ion

was a very pleasant one ; a lively but


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PREFACE XV

amicable discussion followed, in which thelay members freelyjoined. The latter,whowere in a somewhat judicial position asbetween the two medical factions, had, curi-usly

enough, nearly all of them, somepersonal experience to relate which toldheavily on the side of homoeopathy.

At the end of the debate there were noconversions announced on either side aswas quite to be expected. But having takenthe trouble to put the paper together, Ithought some permanent use might be madeof it,and so published it, with additions, inbook form.

Within the ten intervening years manythings have happened. The HomceopaihicLeague has given place to a much largerand much more powerful body the BritishHomoeopathic Association. To the insightand energy of Dr. George Burford thisAssociation owes its origin ; and the causeof homoeopathy in Great Britain owes it thata new interest is being taken in the advance-


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xvi PREFACE

ment of Hahnemann's reform, and a newdesire has sprung up, on the part of thepublic, to know what homoeopathy is.

It is hoped that this book may help tomeet this appetite for knowledge, and maystimulate the interest which has beenawakened in the forward movement. Asthe English Homoeopathic Association ofa former generation founded the LondonHomoeopathic Hospital, the British Homoeo-athic

Association has determined to providethe complement to the Hospital by estab-ishing

a College in London for the teachingof homoeopathy. It is felt that this, andnothing short of this, will suffice to dojusticeto the cause of homoeopathy in thiscountry and Empire.

Although the Homoeopathic League hasceased to exist, it has left a permanentmonument of its labours in the threevolumes of Homoeopathic League Tracts^ towhich frequent reference is made in thefollowing pages. The great majority of

JI


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CONTENTS

PAGE

Preface. . .

ix

CHAPTER

I. How I BECAME A HoMCEOPATH.

1

II. Homoeopathy, Allopathy and Enantio-PATHY : Three Ways of Utilising

Drug Action. .

.5

III. The Principle of Cure by Medicines

Revealed by Hahnemann. . 9

IV. The Word Homceopathy. Advan-ages

OF THE HoMCEOPATHIC MeTHOD

OF Studying Drugs. Examples.

1 5

V, Sketch of Hahnemann's Career : The

Search for a Principle in Medicine. 20

VI. Hahnemann's Criticism of the Practice

OF His Time. Some Old-School

Appreciations of Hahnemann.

38

Vn. Homceopathy and Pathology or theTheory of Disease

. ..48

xix


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XX CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

VIII. Hahnemann's Doctrine of the ChronicMiasms

. . . -5^IX. The Infinitesimal Dose

. .d'j

X. The Power of Infinitesimals Recog-isedBY Non-Homceopathic Autho-ities

. . . * 11XI. Examples of Homceopathic Cures from

Hahnemann's own Practice . 90XII. More Illustrations. Meissonier's Dog.

Count Radetsky. .

.100

XIII. What are Homceopathic Medicines?. 107

XIV. The Different Meanings of the WordDose

. . ..112

XV. The Homceopathic Materia Medica.

116

XVI. Sensitives. The Case of CasparHauser

. . ..122

XVII. What are Likes ?. . .131

XVIII. Serum Therapeutics and Nosodes. 142

XIX. How to Practise Homoeopathy.

148XX. Some Comparative Statistics

. ^ 54

XXI. Is Homoeopathy Spreading?.

.161XXII. Some Objections Answered

..168

XXIII. The Hopefulness and Harmlessness ofHomgeopathy. Conservative Medi-ine

. . . ..181

XXIV. Conclusion: Homoeopathy in Aphorisms 186

Index. . . . ^93


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2 HOW I BECAME

in that city. This he promised to do, andeventually did I have the letters to this day.They were liever presented, for reasonswhich will be appreciated. The relativeswith whom I was staying happened to behomoeopaths ; and they suggested that Imight do worse than go to the HomoeopathicDispensary in Hardman Street and see whatwas being done there. As the letters camenot, by way of utilisingmy time I went.Like Caesar, I not only *'went, but I saw ; but here the parallelended I didnot conquer ; homoeopathy conquered me.

I may say that at this period, havingabsorbed over 80 per cent, (if marks gofor anything) of the drug-lore Sir RobertChristison had to impart, and having hadsufficient opportunity for testingits value inpractice,I had come pretty near the con-lusion

Oliver Wendell Holmes arrived atand put so neatly in his well-known saying :

If all drugs were cast into the sea, itwould be so much the better for man and somuch the worse for the fish. I believed


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A HOMCEOPATH 3

then (and the belief has become ratherfashionable since) that the chief function ofa medical man was to find out what was thematter with people if he could; and supplythem with common sense if he happened topossess any. His duty was to treat people ;to cure them was out of the question ; and itwould be the better for his honesty if hemade no pretence to it.

After a few weeks' observation at theLiverpool Homoeopathic Dispensary, a casewas presented to me in private. A smallboy of five, a relative of my own, was broughtto me by his mother. Two years before, hehad been badly scratched on the forehead bya cat, and when the scratches healed, a crop ofwarts appeared on the site of them. Andthere they remained up to that time in spiteof diligent treatment by the family doctor.As an allopath I could do no more than he,so I turned to homoeopathy to see if thatcould help me. I consulted the authorities,and found that the principaldrug which iscredited with producing crops of warts is


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4 MY FIRST CASE

Thuja occidentalis. I ordered this, more byway of experiment than expecting muchresult ; but I said, if there was truth inhomoeopathy, it ought to cure. In a fewdays improvement was manifest ; in threeweeks the warts were all gone. Rightly orwrongly I attributed, and still attribute, theresult to Thujay though it will no doubt besaid that charms have done the samething. Very well ; if any one will give me asystem of charms that I can use with precisionand produce with it such definite effects, andbetter, I shall be very glad to try it. As itwas, I concluded that if homceopathy couldgive me results like that, homoeopathy wasthe system for me. And with all duemodesty be it spoken, homoeopathy has beendoing this kind of work for me ever since for a period, that is, of some thirty years.Now I will leave personal matters and goon to my subject proper.


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CHAPTER II

HOMCEOPATHY, ALLOPATHY AND ENANTIO-

PATHY : THREE WAYS OF UTILISING

DRUG ACTION

Why the allopathic section of the pro-essionshould be so wrathful with Hahne-ann

is not a little surprising. For not onlydid Hahnemann discover homoeopathy, he dis-overed

allopathy as well. Allopathy existedbefore his time, just as homoeopathy did ina way, but it was unconscious of its own

existence. The profession had been prac-isingallopathy all its life

as M. Jourdainhad been talking prose without knowing it.It was Hahnemann who gave it its name ;and if he is the father of homoeopathy he is atleast the godfather of allopathy as well, and


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UTILISING DRUG ACTION 7

opposites except health, and these cannotbe treated by this method, and must betreated, if at all, in one of the other twoways.

When an emetic is given to relieve acold on the chest, an action is produceddifferent in place and kind from the con-ition

treated, and this is allopathic. Again,when a patient treats himself for headacheby taking an aperient, he practisesallopathy;and again, when a medical man puts a blisterbehind a patient'sear to cure inflammationof his eye, , the treatment is allopathic.When, on the other hand, in a case ofheadache we give a drug like Belladonnaor Glonoin (nitro-glycerine),both of whichproduce a variety of headaches of greatintensity when taken by the healthy,then weare practisinghomoeopathy.

It is true that the majority of the medicalprofession scorn the idea of there being anyrule to guide them in practice,and for thisreason, I suppose, on the lucus a non lucendo


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8 MEDICAL ANARCHISTS S

principle, insist on being called nothing elsebut *' regular. If they did not scorn logic Jas well as rule, these practitioners would call

themselves medical anarchists.


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lo HAHNEMANN REVEALS

it might have been said truly enough ; butever since the consciousness of a want ofprinciple in medicine was impressed withcrushing force upon the mind of Hahne-ann,

and impelled him to the giganticlabours by which he brought order out ofchaos, the reproach of unprincipledness liesonly with that section of the professionwhich has steadilyrefused to accept the gifthe has offered to the world.

How long it will take to bring about thechange none can tell ; but sooner or later theschool of Sir Andrew Clark will have to openits eyes to the fact that medicine is not theunprincipled, anarchic thing they delight inproclaiming it to be. Again and again inhis earlier writings,Hahnemann bewailed the absence of any principlefor discovering thecurative powers of medicines. That in anordered universe some law some principlemust exist, he could not doubt. How heset about the search which ended in his dis-overy

of the law of similars, on which hehas built a real Science and Art of Cure,


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THE PRINCIPLE OF CURE ii

will be duly set forth later in my sketch ofHahnemann's career. But I will append toche remarks of Sir Andrew Clark anotherutterance by one of his own school, recordedin Dr. Granier's Conferences on Homoeopathy.Sir Andrew Clark's predecessor,whilst givinga graphic descriptionof the anarchic state oftraditional medicine, has the candour toadmit that homoeopathy stands on ah entirelydifferent footing.

In the course of a debate on Revulsion,which took placein the Academy of Medicineof Paris about the year 1853, Dr. Marchal ofCalvi contributed a paper in which, whilsttaking care to say he did not constitutehimself a defender of homoeopathy, he thusdescribed the want of principle in his ownschool, and the possession of principle ordoctrine by the homoeopathic.

In medicine, says Marchal, there isnot, nor has there been for some time,either principle faith^ or law. We build atower of Babel, or rather we are not so far


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12 HAHNEMANN REVEALS

advanced, for we build nothing ; we are in avast plain where a multitude of people passbackwards and forwards ; some carry bricks,others pebbles, others grains of sand ; butno one dreams of the cement: the founda-ions

of the edifice are not yet laid, andas to the general plan of the work, it is noteven sketched. In other words, medicalliterature swarms with facts, of which themost part are periodically produced withmost tiresome monotony ; these are calledobservations and clinical facts^ a number oflabourers consider and reconsider particularquestions of pathology or therapeuticsthat is called original labour. The massof such labour and facts is enormous ;no reader can wade through them but noone has any general doctrine. The mostGENERAL DOCTRINE THAT EXISTS IS THE

DOCTRINE OF HoMCEOPATHY. ThJS ISSTRANGE AND LAMENTABLE, A DISGRACETO MEDICINE, BUT SUCH IS THE FACT.

The disgrace to old-school medicine in


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THE PRINCIPLE OF CURE 13

1853 is very much greater when it is un-blushingly proclaimed by one of its leadersin 1893, and this time without any reserve infavour of the only system that exists the onlysystem which has the principle of Cure for itsfoundation

the System of Homoeopathy.

Allopathy or orthodox medicine has, how-ver,this much to be said for it. Though it

has no rule, no doxy, no system, it has onefairlydefinite aim, namely, to palliate. Ithas developed with a great deal of successmany measures for relieving pain and forgetting rid of symptoms. That this isoften a matter of very great importance andadvantage, as in the use of anaesthetics,willnot be denied. But it is not without itsdangers also. A writer in the daily presshas recently put this point very forcibly inthe following passage :

Where modern pharmacy works itswonders is in the treatment of symptoms, and

herein is its danger for an impatient and un-hinkingpublic. Who can tell how much of


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14 DANGER SIGNALS

the nervous and physical breakdown of modernlifemay not be due to the abundant means whichthe chemist has provided for extinguishing thedanger signalsof nature ? '

The answer to this question is, that verymuch mischief is most certainlydue to thiscause ; but homoeopathy is a science whichis able to make use of symptoms withoutobscuring them ; to take them for its guideand remove them by curing the patient.Whereas allopathy seeks first of all to ex-inguish

the signals of danger, homoeopathyby means of the signals is able to reach andannihilate the danger itself.

Homoeopathy, by revealing the principleotcure, sheds a new light on all other methodsof using drugs. The homoeopath can availhimself of any of their uses which may seemto him to his patient'sadvantage. Only, hedoes not delude himself with the idea thatpalliatingsymptoms is equivalent to curingpatients.

^ Daily GrafhiCyNovember i, 190^.

V


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CHAPTER IV

THE WORD ** HOMCEOPATHY. ADVANTAGES

OF THE HOMCEOPATHIC METHOD OF

STUDYING DRUGS. EXAMPLES

It may be well here to make it plain thatthe word ** Homoeopathy in no wayincludes ** infinitesimal y small

in its signi-ication.It is of Greek origin, and means

literally like suflFering. Those who liketo have Scripture authority for all things maybe interested to know that, in its adjectiveform, it occurs twice in the New Testament,and is translated in both instances '*of like

passions (Acts xiv. 15; James v. 17).Curiously enough, St. Luke, the physicianamong the Evangelists, is one of the twowriters who used the word. So far as

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1 6 THE WORD HOMOEOPATHY

I am aware, there is no Scripture for'* allopathy/'

How the notion of infinitelylittle becameattached to the word Homoeopathy is notdifficult to trace ; and the importance ofHahnemann's discovery of the power otinfinitesimals will be dealt with later on ;but Hahnemann chose '* Homoeopathy asembodying in a single word the like tolike idea. Similia similibus curantur likesare cured by likes expresses the samething in Latin. This, and this only, is theetymological significationf the word. Theidea Hahnemann did not pretend to haveoriginated; in fact, he very laboriouslycollected from previous writers in all agesa mass of evidence to show that others beforehimself had recognised a relation between thediseasing action of drugs on the healthyand their curative action on the sick. WhatHahnemann did that others had not donebefore, was to study drugs systematicallybytesting them on the healthy.

The other way of studying drugs is the


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1 8 EXAMPLES

causing spasms in the healthy ; and he alsoshowed that each spasm-producing drug hassome peculiarityof its own which will be aguide to its selection in any case of disease.There are no such things as diseases in theabstract to treat, only diseased persons ; andeach case must be individualised and treatedon its own merits, and not according to thename of the disease by some drug that hasbeen named the anti to it. i

To take a concrete example, let us look attwo drugs Bryonia and Rhus toxicodendron.Each of these drugs, when taken by the healthy, |produces intense rheumatic pains in the joints, Iligaments, and muscles. But Hahnemann 1noticed in himself and fellow-experimenters jthis marked difference that whereas the rheu- imatic painsof Bryonia caused the experimenterto keep as still as possiblesince every move- Iment ' increased them, the pains of Rhus^on the other hand, made him extremelyrestless, motion giving temporary relief.This gave Hahnemann the key to theiremployment in disease, Bryonia relieving


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PROVINGS 19

cases in which the pains are made worse bymotion, Rhus those in which motion relieves.It would have been of no service to havedubbed them both anti-rheumatics, so hedispensed with such useless and misleadingdesignations, and contented himself withrecording their positive effects.

A new science necessitates a new termino-ogy,and it may be well to explain here

one of Hahnemann's technical terms. WhenHahnemann experimented on healthy personswith a drug, he called it proving the drug. Heused, of course, the German word Priifung

a testing. In mathematics we prove our results by doing our sum the reverseway. So Hahnemann ^' proved the powersof drugs to cure the sick by observing thesymptoms they caused when given to thehealthy. One who took a drug for the pur-ose

of observing its effects he called a prover. The recorded effects of such anexperiment he called a proving.


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CHAPTER V

SKETCH OF Hahnemann's career : the

SEARCH FOR A PRINCIPLE IN MEDICINE

But now it is time to tell something aboutHahnemann himself, and how he came todiscover this systematic method of studyingthe powers of drugs to discover the princi-le

in medicine which Sir Andrew Clark

said does not even now exist.

Samuel Frederick Christian Hahnemann

was born at Meissen, in Saxony, on the lothof April in the year 1755. ^^ ^^^ ^g^ ^^20 he commenced his medical studies at

Leipzig, and earned his living by translatinginto German foreign scientific works at thesame time that he pursued his studies.After two years at Leipzig he removed to

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' 1

HAHNEMANN'S CAREER 21

Vienna, to gain practical knowledge in thegreat hospitalsthere. He took his M.D.degree at Erlangen in 1779.

Hahnemann was an excellent linguist,being perfectlyfamiliar with English, Italian,French, Greek, Latin, and Arabic.

Whilst yet a student he translated fromEnglish into German, among other works,Nugent's Essay on Hydrophobia^ Stedman'sPhysiological Essays^ and Ball's ModernPractice of Physic. From 1779 onwardshe contributed to periodical literature, andin 1784, at the age of 29, he published hisfirst original work. On the Treatment ofChronic Ulcers. In this work he expressedpretty much the same sentiment as that Ihave quoted from Sir Andrew Clark as tothe want of principle in medicine. Helamented the absence of any principle fordiscovering the curative powers of medicines''He could not deny that drugs hadcurative powers, but what he wanted wassome principle to guide him in discoveringand defining what those powers were, and


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22 HAHNEMANN'S CAREER

the indications for their use. Hahnemannwas a master of practical chemistry, andwrote much on chemical subjects. His bookon Arsenical Poisoningspublished in 1786, wasquoted as an authority by Christison in hiswork on Poisons. In 1787 Hahnemann dis-overed

the best test for arsenic and otherpoisons in wine J3y means of acidulatedsulphuretted hydrogen water, having pointedout the unreliable nature of the '* WiirtembergTest, which had been in use up to thatdate. In 1788 he announced his discoveryof a new preparation of Mercury, known tothis day as '* Hahnemann's soluble Mercury,and still retained under that name in theGerman Pharmacopoeia. His intimate ac-uaintance

with drugs and their modes ofpreparation enabled him to write his Apo-theker lexicon

sor Pharmaceutical Dictionary,

which appeared in several volumes from1793 to 1799, and was for many years thestandard work on that subject.

It is not by any means exclusivelyas thediscoverer of the homoeopathic system that


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Hahnemann is distinguished. He was apioneer in many other medical reforms.

For example, it was he who was the firstto adopt the non-restraint system of treatinglunatics. I will quote from Dr. Dudgeonan account of an historic instance of this :

In 1792 Hahnemann undertook themedical care of the celebrated Hanoverianstatesman Klockenbring, who had gone mad,and had already been treated in the usualbarbarous manner of the period in an asylumof the ordinary stamp, with no benefit, butthe contrary. Hahnemann treated thisdangerous lunatic on a non-restraint plan,without the use of chains or corporal punish-ent,

which were in universal use at thatperiod. His treatment was perfectlysuccess-ul,

and Klockenbring was restored to hisfamily and friends perfectlycured. Hahne-ann

says in an account he gives of thiscase : * I never allow an insane person to bepunished either by blows or by any otherkind of corporal chastisement, because there


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is no punishment where there is no responsi-ility,and because these sufFerers deserve

only pity, and are always rendered worse bysuch rough treatment, and never improved.'

After his cure, says Ameke, Klockenbringshowed his deliverer, often with tears inhis eyes, the marks of the blows and stripeshis former keepers had employed to keephim in order.

But we will now go back again a little.After 1788 Hahnemann seems to have givenup practice in disgust. In a letter toHufeland, the Nestor of medicine of hisday (to whose journal Hufeland' s Journal Hahnemann was a constant contributor),hesays his withdrawal was chieflyoccasioned byhis disgust at the uncertainties of medicalpractice, owing to the want of any principlefor the administration of drugs in disease.During this time he occupied himself withchemical researches and the translation ofworks on chemistry, agriculture, and medi-ine,

from the English, French, and Italian.


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and it also caused, in a sensitive, healthyperson, symptoms indistinguishablefrom anattack of ague.

An observation of this kind was not likelyto remain unfruitful in a fertile brain likeHahnemann's. In the following year, 1791,he translated Monro's Materia Medica^ andin a note He again refers to his experimentswith Cinchona. Five years later, in 1796,being then 41 years of age, he published inHufeland's Journal his essay on a NewPrinciplefor Discovering the Curative Powersof Drugs. In this he discusses the severalways in which drugs had formerly beenstudied and used, and then describes the similar method, the rule ^' likes by likes (similia similibus) being first formulated inthis essay thus :

Every powerful medicinal substance pro-ucesin the human body a peculiar kind of

disease

the more powerful the medicinethe more peculiar,marked, and violent thedisease. We should imitate Nature, whichsometimes cures a chronic disease by super-


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adding another, and employ in the disease wewish to cure that medicine which is able toproduce another very similar artificial disease,and the former will be cured, similiasimilibus.^^

In this essay he referred to his early noteon CuUen, and said after mature experiencehe could say that not only probably, butquite certainly^ bark cured ague because ithad the power to produce fever. He quotesexamples of well-known drug actions tosupport his proposition, and sketched in amasterly way the characteristic features ofa number of drugs.

In 1 805 Hahnemann being now 50 yearsold

appeared two works of great importance:first,his jEsculapius in the Balance^ whichtakes a general survey of traditional medicineand pronounces on it the verdict '* weighedin the balances and found wanting averdict which has since received very ampleendorsement. Second, in two vols, in Latin,his Fragmenta de viribus medicamentorumfositivissive in sano corpore observatis (Frag-


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ments on the Positive Powers of Drugs, that is to say, their efFects observed in thehealthy body). This contained the firstefFort towards the reconstruction of theMateria Medica on a rational basis of pureexperiment on the healthy human body.

In 1806 appeared his Medicine of Experi-ence^ in which is contained the first completeexposition of the homoeopathic method nowthoroughly thought out by him after sixteenyears of unremitting work observation,experiment, and research. This was publishedin Huf eland's Journal that is to say, in theleading professionaljournal of his time. Thesame year Hahnemann published the last workhe translated

Haller's Materia Medica^

Haller being one of Hahnemann's forerunnersin recommending the testing of drugs onthe healthy body; but Haller did nothingtowards carrying his recommendation intoeffect.

In 1807 Hahnemann first used the word*' Homoeopathic in the title of a work an article also contributed to Hufeland's


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During these years of independent thoughtand action, as may easily be imagined,Hahnemann had no very easy time of itwith his medical brethren, whose ideas hewas upsetting, or with the apothecaries,whose trade he bade fair to undermine.The latter were paid according to thenumber and quantities of the drugs in theprescriptions they dispensed, and Hahne-ann

insisted on giving only one drug ata time, and not too much of that. Con-equently

he was driven from one place toanother, until, in 1 8 12, he gave up all hopeof influencingthe older men in the profession,and determined to proceed to Leipzig andthere devote himself to teaching the pupilsof the medical department of the University.Certain conditions had to be fulfilled beforehe could obtain permission to do this : hehad to write a thesis, and defend it beforethe Faculty of the University, and pay afee of fiftythalers. In compliance, he wroteand read his thesis entitled The Helleborism ofthe Ancients^ and so amazed his auditors with


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HAHNEMANN'S CAREER 3I

his mastery of his subject and the immenselearning and research his essay displayed,that the Faculty congratulated him publiclyand granted him his license to teach forth-ith.

Any one who wishes to read thetreatise (which is exceedingly interestingstill)will find it translated in Dr. Dudgeon's collec-ion

of Hahnemann's Lesser Writings. AtLeipzig he continued lecturingtwice a week,giving two courses of lectures a year until1 82 1. During this time he gathered abouthim an enthusiastic band of disciples,whohelped him in proving medicines, and whosenames are now immortalised in the Homoeo-athic

Materia Medica by the experimentsthey made on themselves with different drugs.

In 1 8 19 persecution was commenced bythe apothecaries, who took action againsthim for preparing his own medicines (whichthey were incompetent to prepare). Thepersecution was at last successful,and Hahne-ann

was driven from Leipzig in 1821 tofind an asylum with a former patient, DukeFrederick Ferdinand of Anhalt, who made


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him his private physician, with liberty toengage in general practice at his capitaltownof Coethen.

By this time Hahnemann's fame as apractitioner had spread far and wide. Theresult was that invalids flocked to the littletown of Coethen in search of his aid. Themajority of these were aflFected with ailmentsof long standing, and thus it came about thatHahnemann had abundant opportunity ofobserving the symptoms and course of chronicdiseases, and in amplifying and perfectingthehomoeopathic means of curing them. InCoethen there was comparatively little in theway of acute illness to distract him from thisspecial line of work. It was during thisperiod that Hahnemann's first work onChronic T)iseases was written and the firstedition was published. In 1828 the firstthree volumes appeared, nine years after hisarrival in Coethen. The fourth volume waspublished in 1830, and the fifth not till afterthe Coethen period, when Hahnemann hadremoved to Paris.


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doctrine, when, behold I the Giver of allgood permitted me, about that time, tosolve the sublime problem for the benefitof mankind, after unceasing meditation, inde-atigable

research, careful observations, andthe most accurate experiments.

In a later chapter I deal somewhat fullywith Hahnemann's doctrine of the nature ofthe chronic diseases ; but I wish to point outhere that in Coethen he found ample oppor-unities

for practicallytestinghis observations,for the proving of new remedies, and forperfecting the homoeopathic armamentarium.

On March 31, 1830, Hahnemann had themisfortune to lose his first wife, he beingthen near the completion of his seventy-fifthyear. She had been the stay and companionof his stormy life,and had borne him elevenchildren, two sons and nine daughters.

Nearly five years after this event therecame to Coethen among the number of thosewho sought the aid of the modern ^sculapius,the brilliant and talented Melanie d'HervillyGohier, As all the world knows, the acquaint^


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ance ended in the second marriage of Hahne-ann,he then being in his eightieth year,

and his bride being thirty-five. But it wasanything but an ill-assorted match, for all that.The second Madame Hahnemann perceivedthat her husband might fill a much largersphere of usefulness if he left Coethen andmade his home in Paris. Thither she in-uced

him to travel, and through her influencewith the Government of the time she obtainedfor Hahnemann a license to practise in theFrench capital. A student of science, anartist,and something of an anatomist as well,under her husband's tuition, she rapidlydeveloped no little skill in the practice ofmedicine and homoeopathy. She becamepracticallyhis assistant, as it was impossiblefor Hahnemann to attend to all who came tosee him. Madame Hahnemann acted as hisprotector, and would not allow more to haveaccess to him than he could attend to. Foreight years the Hahnemanns led in Paris alife of great activityand unclouded happiness,the centre of a brilliant circle. Hahnemann's


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presence in Paris gave a great impetus to thestudy and practice of homoeopathy, and theinfluence of his work in that city remains tothis day. On Sunday, July 2, 1843, hebreathed his last. He was buried in thecemetery of Montmartre.

The year 1 900 was marked by two eventsof great importance in connection withHahnemann. After prolonged negotiationswith the executors of the late MadameHahnemann, permission was obtained to re-ove

Hahnemann's body from its obscureposition in Montmartre to a site purchasedin the cemetery of Pere Lachaise. There amonument of Scotch granite from Peterhead,raised by his admirers from all parts of theworld, and surmounted by his bust in bronze,was unveiled on July 21, 1900, in the pre-ence

of the members of the InternationalHomoeopathic Congress then in session inParis.

The other event was the unveiling ofthe Hahnemann monument in Washington,


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erected at a cost of ^70,000 by Hahnemann'sfollowers in the United States of America.

This monument, which is one of the finest

pieces of sculptural art in the States, has acommanding position in the famous ScottCircle at Washington, and was unveiled June

21, 1900, by President McKinley.Whilst on the subject of Hahnemann's

statues, I may mention that Leipzig, whichrefused to Hahnemann a home in his life-ime,

accepted his statue a few years after his

death (1851), when his friends desired to

erect one in his memory.


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CHAPTER VI

Hahnemann's criticism of the practice

OF his time, some old-school ap-reciations

OF HAHNEMANN

So much for Hahnemann himself, andhow he came to discover and develop theHomoeopathic method of studying drugaction and prescribing drugs for the sick. It

may serve to give an idea of the state ofmedical practice as Hahnemann found it,and at the same time to illustrate the courageand independence of the man, if I refer totwo pieces of public criticism written in theearly part of his career.

The one thing Hahnemann was blamedfor by his contemporaries more than any-hing

else was his neglect of blood-letting.38


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HAHNEMANN'S CRITICISM 39

Seignare, purgare, clysterium donare wasthe rule in Hahnemann's time, and '' fool,

criminal, murderer, were the epithetsapplied to Hahnemann for his departurefrom the prevailing custom. Withoutshedding of blood, as it has been put,'' there was no salvation for patients inthose days. However, that did not preventHahnemann from speaking his mind.

The Emperor Leopold II. died afterrepeated blood-letting on the 1st of March,1792. Commenting on the case, Hahne-ann

said : His physician, Lagusius, ob-ervedhigh fever and swelling of the

abdomen early on February 28th ; hecombated the malady by venesection, andas this produced no amelioration, three morevenesections were performed without relief.Science must ask why a second venesectionwas ordered when the first had produced noamelioration. How could he order a third ;and, good heavens how a fourth, whenthere had been no amelioration after thepreceding ones ? How could he tap the


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40 HAHNEMANN CRITICISES

vital fluid four times in twenty-four hours,always without relief,from a debilitated manwho had been worn out by anxiety of mindand long-continued diarrhoea ? Science isaghast

Another custom of the time (which hasnot by any means yet died out) againstwhich Hahnemann ran atilt was the pre-cribing

of a variety of drugs in the samemixture. It was done quite artistically.There was a '* base {basis\ a receiver {excipiens)ya '' corrective {corrigens)^ a'' helper {adjuvans)^ director (^dirigens)^and more besides, in every prescription,andthe larger it was, the more the prescriberwas thought of by the apothecary, at anyrate, if not by the patientwho had to swallowthe dose.

In 1797, the year following that in whichhis Essay on a New Principle was pub-ished,

Hahnemann contributed anothernotable paper to Hufeland's Journal^ entitled,'* Are the Obstacles to Certainty andSimplicity in Practical Medicine Insur-

4

1


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44 SIR JOHN FORBES

for a moment to admit that he was a veryextraordinary man, one whose name willdescend to posterity as the exclusive ex-cogitator and founder of an originalsystemof medicine, as ingenious as many thatpreceded it, and destined, probably, to bethe remote, if not the immediate, cause ofmore important fundamental changes in thepracticeof the healing art than have resultedfrom any promulgated since the^ days ofGalen himself. Hahnemann was undoubtedlya man of genius and a scholar, a man ofindefatigableindustry, of undaunted energy.In the history of medicine his name willappear in the same list with those of thegreatest systematistsand theorists, surpassedby few in the originalityand ingenuity ofhis views, superior to most in having sub-tantiate

and carried out his doctrines intoactual and most extensive practice. By mostmedical men it was taken for granted thatthe system is not only visionary in itself,but was the result of a mere fancifulhypothesis, disconnected with facts of any


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PRAISES HAHNEMANN 45

kind, and supported by no processes otratiocination or logicalinference ; while itsauthor and his apostlesand successors werelooked upon either as visionaries or quacks,or both. And yet nothing can be fartherfrom the truth. Whoever examines thehomoeopathic doctrines as enounced andexpounded in the original writings ofHahnemann and of many of his followers,must admit, not only that the system is aningenious one, but that it professes to bebased on a most formidable array of factsand experiments, and that these are woveninto a complete code of doctrine withsingular dexterity and much apparent fair-ess.

Many among his followers are sincere,honest, and learned men.'

' It is interesting to remember,' saysDudgeon, * that these merely polite andcandid statements respecting homoeopathyand its practitionersproved fatal to thequarterly periodicalwhich Forbes had con-ucted

with eminent abilityfor more thantwelve years. His subscribers would have


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46 LISTON PRAISES

nothing to do with a periodicalwhich treatedhomoeopathy with a semblance of fair play,and which admitted that its practitionersmight be sincere, honest, and learned men ;and so for lack of support the MedicalReview^ after lingering for another year,was compelled to terminate its useful andhonourable career.'

Professor Liston, the eminent surgeon,in a lecture reported in the Lancet^ afterdetailingthe particularsof the cure of casesof erysipelas which he had treated withhomoeopathic remedies, says : * Of course wecannot pretend to say positively in whatway this effect is produced, but it seemsalmost to act by magic ; however, so longas we benefit our patients by the treatmentwe pursue, we have no right to condemnthe principlesupon which this treatment isrecommended and pursued. You know thatthis medicine, belladonna, is recommendedby homoeopathists in erysipelas,because itproduces on the skin a fiery eruption or i


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HOMCEOPATHY 47

efflorescence, accompanied by inflammatoryfever. I believe in the homoeopathicdoctrines to a certain extent, but I cannot

as yet, from inexperience on the subject,go the length its advocates would wish inso far as regards the very minute doses ofsome of their medicines. The medicines in

the above cases were certainly given in muchsmaller doses than have hitherto ever been

prescribed. The beneficial effects, as youwitnessed, are unquestionable. I have, how-ver,

seen similar good eff^ects of belladonna,prepared according to the homoeopathicpharmacopoeia, in a case of very severeerysipelas of the head and face, under thecare of my friend Dr. Quin. The inflamma-ory

symptoms and local signs disappearedwith very great rapidity. Without adoptingthe theory of this medical sect, you oughtnot to reject its doctrines without closeexamination and inquiry.'


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CHAPTER VII

HOMCEOPATHY AND PATHOLOGY OR THE

THEORY OF DISEASE

Homoeopathy is a science and an art of

comparisons.All we really know of any disease

is the sum total of the manifestations

symptoms and tissue changes it has pro-ucedin patients. Symptoms are the

language of disease. Nobody has ever seenanaemia, ''measles, scarlatina, or a headache, stalking abroad as a separateentity. Symptoms are the language inwhich the disturbing forces, which weknow as diseases, speak to us.

In the same way, all we really know ofthe powers of any drug over the human


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50 HAHNEMANN'S

science of disease),discards all merely patho-ogicaltheories as useless for drug selection.

Hahnemann has been severely criticised fordiscarding pathology. It is very much tohis credit that he did not accept the patho-ogy

of his day ; but neither he nor hisfollowers neglect anything which can helpto throw light on the nature of disease. Asa matter of fact, several of Hahnemann'smost distinguished followers were professorsof pathology, including Arnold of Zurich,Rapp of Tubingen, d' Amador of Montpelier,Zlatarovich of Vienna, and Henderson ofEdinburgh. A true appreciation of theessential pathology of a case is often ofvital importance in selecting the remedy.But it very frequently happens that thesymptoms which decide the choice of a drugare of little significancefrom the standpointof the pathology of the schools, as in theinstance of the differential indications ofRhus and Bryonia above mentioned.

It is a common saying among teachers of


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PATHOLOGY 51

medicine, '* First diagnose your case, and thentreat it. This may be all very

well when thecase is one of a recognised and well-definedmalady, the pathology of which is clearlyunderstood. But a vast number of cases arenot such.

A short time ago a picture appeared inone of the comic papers, showing two ad-oining

rooms in section in one a patient,and in the other two doctors who had justbeen examining him and had retired toconsult over his case.

.

The patient, wishingto get an unbiassed view of his state, hadleft his bed, and was shown with his earat the keyhole of the door in the party wall ;and this is what he heard :

1st Doctor, Have you any idea what isthe matter with him }

2nd Doctor.

Not the least ; have you ?

1st Doctor. Not the faintest ; but nevermind

it will all be cleared up at the post-ortem.^'

I hope I shall not be accused of tellingtales out of school when I say that there


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52 HAHNEMANN'S

is many a case that is not cleared up, even at

the post-mortem. What is to be done in casessuch as these to avoid the catastrophe ?It is here that homoeopathy is of suchenormous advantage in knowing the valueof symptoms. Symptoms are the naturallanguage of disease, and in any case thesum-total of altered sensations and appearancesgives solid ground on which the homoeopathcan work. Reading the symptoms he canfind the remedy, and many a case has beencured without having received a satisfactoryname. The signs and symptoms give anaccurate picture of the actual state of theorganic life ; and if we match that picturewith a like symptom-picture from a drug-proving, and give the corresponding drug,the symptoms will be removed and thepatient cured. If we had to wait untilpathology had settled what is the true natureof all diseases before we cured our patientsafflicted with them, we might all retire frompractice at once without being much missedin the world. The Lancet once remarked,

t\


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PATHOLOGY 53

*' Our knowledge of the true pathology ofmost diseases is still indefinite. ' This isquite true ; but still we go on treating ourcases all the same ; and taking Hahnemannfor our guide, we are on solid ground.Pathological theories are bound to changewith every fresh addition to our know-edge

; but disease manifestations remain thesame from the days of Hippocrates till thepresent.

It is a matter of no little importance tograsp the idea Hahnemann formed of theessential nature of disease. With him,disease was not primarily a change ofstructure or function, but an alteration ofthe invisible vital force which animates thewhole organism. The nature of this in-isible

change is outwardly pictured in thebodily changes and sufferingsproduced ; andthus, according to his view, it is necessaryto observe accurately all the symptoms oc-urring,

in order to get a true picture of' Lancet^ Dec. 30, 1893, p. 162^.


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54 HAHNEMANN'S

the vital disturbance in any case. Symptomsare the language of the disturbed vital force,and hence symptoms are the guide to treat-ent.

Superficialritics often accuse homoeopathyof treating only symptoms. Nothing couldbe further from the truth. Homoeopathyattaches importance to symptoms as revealingthe real state of the patient; but it no moreregards them as mere symptoms, than readersof Shakespeare's works look upon them ascomposed of mere words. In both casesthey have a meaning in them, and are ofsignificanceonly so far as that meaning isrevealed.

In Hahnemann's day diseases were lookedupon as something material to be got ridof by bleeding,purging, vomiting, salivation,sweating, issues, or in some such way, justas they are now looked upon as consistingprincipallyof microbes to be killed. Hahne-ann

perceived that they are nothing ofthe kind ; that the critical discharges whichfrequently occur in disease are not the


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PATHOLOGY 55

cause of the disease, nor the disease itself,but simply manifestations of the working ofthe vital force. A fit of anger in a nursingwoman will so change the quality of hermilk, that if she nurses her child just afterit, the child will be poisoned. But thepoisonous milk is not the cause of thewoman's mental disturbance, nor is thechanged milk the disorder from which sheis suffering.The invisible,intangibleemotionhas so disturbed her invisible,intangiblevitalforce that physical changes in her tissues andsecretions have resulted. The changes in hersecretions are symptoms of the inward change.So the causes of most diseases (excludingmechanical injuries)re of an invisible, in-angible

nature dynamic or spirit-ike,as Hahnemann called it.

The outward symptoms, which reveal thenature of the inward change in the vitalforce, only declare themselves after the dynamic disturbance has been some timein operation. In any case of disease wecan estimate the nature and gravity of the


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56 HAHNEMANN'S

vital disturbance only by a careful surveyof the symptoms and signs in the patient;so that, for practicalpurposes, the ** totalityof the symptoms constitutes what we haveto deal with, and the only way to get rid ofthe symptoms is to restore the vital forceto its normal condition.

Now, as Hahnemann pointed out, drugsare capable of producing artificial disease ;and, as his experience and experimentsshowed, they do it by virtue, not so much oftheir brute poisonous force, so to speak, as oftheir dynamic powers. They act on thevital force, producing disturbances peculiarto themselves which reveal their presence.It cannot be simply and solely by absorptionand distribution through the circulation thatremedies act, for in that case their actionwould manifest itself with all drugs in thesame period of time. This we know doesnot occur. Pure prussic acid acts with light-ing-lik

rapidity,before it has time to beabsorbed and distributed through the blood-


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CHAPTER VIII

Hahnemann's doctrine of the chronic

MIASMS

By chronic disease Hahnemann did not

mean exactly the same thing as is nowgenerally understood by the phrase

a disease

that lasts a long time and is incurable. Tomake his meaning clear, I cannot do betterthan quote Hahnemann's own definition of

acute and chronic diseases, from paragraph72 of his Organon :

The diseases to which man is liable areeither rapid morbid processes of the ab-ormally

deranged vital force, which have

a tendency to finish their course more orless quickly, but always in a moderate time

these are termed acute diseases ; or, they58


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CHRONIC MIASMS 59

are diseases of such a character that, withsmall, often imperceptible beginnings,dynamically derange the living organism,each in its own peculiar manner, and causeit to deviate from the healthy condition insuch a way that the automatic life energy,called vital force, whose office it is to pre-erve

the health, only opposes to them, atthe commencement and during their progress,imperfect, unsuitable, useless resistance, butis unable of itself to extinguish them, butmust helplesslysuffer (them to spread and)itself to be more and more abnormally de-anged,

until at length the organism isdestroyed ; these are termed chronic diseases.They are caused by infection from a chronicmiasm.

By miasm Hahnemann means an in-ectiousprinciple, which, when taken into

the organism, may set up a specificdisease.According to Hahnemann, there were notonly miasms of acute diseases, like the in-ectious

principleof scarlatina, for example,but also of chronic diseases. Among the


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6o HAHNEMANN'S DOCTRINE

latter he recognised three syphilis,sycosisand psora. The first is the lues venerea^which is recognised by all schools alike.The second is allied to this, but is distin-uished

by the production of characteristicwarty growths. The third is a discoveryof Hahnemann's, about which there hasbeen the greatest misconception.

Before giving an account of what Hahne-annmeant by psora, I will give a

familiar instance of a chronic miasm thedisease set up by vaccination. Vacciniaor Cow-pox, as the late Dr. MatthewsDuncan pointed out, is extremely analogous tosyphilisin many of its characters, and not theleast in the appearance of secondary disordersafter the primary illness is over. The courseof the disease is well known. The virushaving been introduced through an abrasionof the skin, in about a week inflammationoccurs at the spot. Then there appears firsta vesicle, then a pustule, then a scab, andfinally a scar when the scab drops off.During the time that this series of events is


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OF THE CHRONIC MIASMS 61

occurring, constitutional symptoms manifestthemselves, chiefly in the form of feverand undefined malaise. When the healinghas taken place, there may be nothingmore occur. The organism may have re-cted

perfectly and discharged the miasm.But this is not often the case. Thediminished susceptibilityo small-pox infec-ion

shows a change of a deep constitutionalcharacter. This constitutional change hasbeen named vaccinosis by Burnett, and,as I can attest, is the parent of muchchronic illness. Often skin eruptions occur,lasting for years, or various other kinds ofill-health,lasting,it may be, as long as lifelasts,and not seldom shortening life. Whensuch a series of disorders occurs, it is not(according to Hahnemann's doctrine, thoughhe did not use this illustration) successionof new diseases, but different evolutions ofone and the same disease, the miasmof vaccinia producing the chronic malady,vaccinosis.

In the early years of his homoeopathic


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62 HAHNEMANN'S DOCTRINE

practiceHahnemann noticed that in certaincases the remedies he gave only producedtemporary benefit. In these cases he foundthat the homoeopathicity of the remediesgiven was not complete. There was somefactor in the case which had not been matched.It became apparent to him, then, that he hadhot only to take account of the malady fromwhich the patients were then suffering,butalso of previous and apparently differentmaladies. And he found that remedieswhich corresponded, in their action, to thewhole course of the pathological life of apatient were needed for a cure ; and throughhis provings he discovered what these deeplyacting remedies were.

Many cases he met with in practice inwhich the ill-health dated from the suppressionof a skin disease, probably years before.That skin disease, said Hahnemann, is reallya part of the present disorder. To take acommon example, asthma is often found toappear after the '' cure by external means ofa skin disorder. The patient is not suffering


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OF THE CHRONIC MIASMS 63from two diseases : there is, according toHahnemann's pathology, one chronic miasmat work producing the two effects.

The large majority of chronic diseasesHahnemann traced to the chronic miasm hetermed *' psora, and he maintained that thecharacteristic manifestation on the skin of thismiasm was an eruption of itching vesicles,of which the itch vesicle was a type. It hasbeen stated that Hahnemann ascribed to theitch the production of nine-tenths of chronicdiseases,and he has been accused of ignorancein not knowing that itch was caused by aninsect. But Hahnemann not only knew ofthe itch-insect, he actually figured it in oneof his works. But he maintained that, inspite of the presence of the insect, this wasnot the whole of the disease just as thetubercle bacillus is not the whole of pulmo-ary

consumption. If it were, no doctorswould escape consumption, since they inhalethe bacillus constantly from their patients. The itch, Hahnemann maintained, ischiefly an internal disease. '' Psora is


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66 HAHNEMANN'S DOCTRINE

Diseases gives the symptoms of these reme-iesat length. This work, of which the

full title is The Chronic Diseases : their

Specific Nature and Homoeopathic Treat-ent,is the crowning work of Hahne-ann's

career.

It will be seen from the above sketch that

Hahnemann's theory of disease is profoundlyphilosophical and intensely practical. It is asfar as possible removed from the tentativeand fragmentary theories of disease current inhis own and in our day. Hahnemann's

pathology goes hand in hand with treatment,and is thus checked at every step by the testof practice.


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i.

CHAPTER IX

THE INFINITESIMAL DOSE

In an early chapter I mentioned that theinfinitesimal dose has become in the popularmind the most characteristic feature of

homoeopathy, though the word '' Homoeopa-hy itself in

no way includes infinitesimal

in its meaning. Its use arose in this way.When Hahnemann began to employ drugswith the precision his method required, hefound that the ordinary doses acted much toopowerfully, and caused great aggravation ofsymptoms before the cure took place. Hethen by degrees reduced his doses until hefound he could get the curative eflFect with-ut

aggravating. In some instances hefound that the attenuating process actually

67


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68 THE INFINITESIMAL DOSE

developed and increased the curative powersof the medicine. The method he adoptedwas to dilute tinctures in the proportion ofI to 99 of rectified spirit,and to grindinsoluble substances with sugar of milk inthe same proportions. For the higherattenuations the process was repeated, thesame proportions being observed at eachstep.

The importance of the invention of thismethod of preparing drugs is very great,scarcely second, in my opinion, to that ofthe discovery of the law of similars itself.It is highly probable that but for the questionof the infinitesimal dose, homoeopathy wouldhave been recognised by the profession atlarge long ago. But homoeopathy (thoughit may be practised by those who never useanything but material doses) never can bedissociated from a knowledge of the powerof the infinitesimal, and never could havebeen developed to anything like the perfec-ion

and power in which Hahnemann left it,apart from the use of Infinitesimals. Hence


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THE INFINITESIMAL DOSE 69the popular association of the two ideas ofhomoeopathy and infinitesimals is funda-entally

true, though it may be etymo-logicallyfaulty.

It will be seen that in Hahnemann's cen-esimalscale, each step of the process divides

the originalquantity by 100, and hence eachhigher number represents a higher degreeof attenuation. But the attenuation is sograduated that, no matter to what highfigureit is carried, something of the originalsubstances must remain, though it may be farbeyond the power of chemistry to detect itspresence.

Homoeopaths have also used a decimalscale of attenuation. This makes each re-ove

a divisor of ten. This is noted bythe letter x, ix being ^^th, 2x beingy^^th, 3x being y^^^^^th,and so on. Gra-uated

attenuation is the essence of. themethod, and the result is development ofpower.

The researches of Faraday, Tyndall,Helmholtz, Crookes, and, later, of the


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Curies and other investigatorsof the pheno-enaof radio-activity,ave made it easier to

conceive of infinitesimal quantitiesand theirpowers, and the infinitesimals of homoeopathyshould not therefore prove such stumbling-blocks to its friends and foes as they havedone heretofore. When we find Helmholtzsaying that at the period when our planetarysystem consisted of a sphere of nebulousmatter reaching to the path of the outermostplanet,it would require *' several millions ofcubic miles of such matter to weigh a singlegrain ; and when Faraday tells us that^^ each atom extends^ so to say^ throughout thewhole of the solar system^' it is plain that theeveryday conceptions of matter and itspossibilitiesill have to be revolutionisedThere is nothing more worthy of investiga-ion

by masters of physical science than thefacts connected with the action of homoeo-athic

infinitesimals. The human body is amuch more sensitive reagent than anythingknown to natural philosophy, and in con-eiving

and demonstrating the powers of


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THE INFINITESIMAL DOSE 71

infinitesimal quantities Hahnemann was asmuch ahead of his time as he was in de-onstrat

the existence of the law ofsimilars.

The quotations I have just made aretaken from a pamphlet entitled The Scienceof Homoeopathy y by Mr. Buist Picken, inwhich the author seeks to apply the knownfacts of the phenomena in the world ofphysics to explain the fact of homoeopathiccures. To this pamphlet (which the lateProf. Tyndall characterised as marked byextreme ingenuity ) I contributed a shortintroduction, summarising the argument, andit may be interesting to quote a passagetherefrom. It will serve at once to showthe line in which a scientific explanation ofthe apparent paradox of like curing'Mike may be found, and of the otherparadox of a smaller quantity of the rightremedy being actually more powerfullycurative than a larger one would be.

Here is my summary of the argument :The forces of the human organism are


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identical with the forces of nature, and obeythe same laws. Health and disease aredynamic or spiritualin nature, and originatein molecular and atomic motions. The lawsof motion apply to the phenomena of healthand disease, and the action of remedies isidentical with the phenomena of ' interference'recognised in the natural sciences. As equalwaves of water proceeding from differentdirections intersect each other ('interfere '),and either increase (as summit corresponds tosummit), or annul (as summit corresponds tofurrow), the motion of the molecules ofwater, so a medicine (whose power isdynamic) acts in disease. When the mole-ular

disturbance of the organism correspondsto the molecular motion of the medicine *;given, the intensity of the disturbance iseither aggravated or annulled, according asthe action is in the same or the oppositedirection. The action of the curative agentis like in appearance, but contrary indirection.

This is the main thesis of Mr. Picken's


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two spheres of power mutually penetrated,and the centres even coinciding; or, as heputs it in another place, '' Gravitation is aproperty of matter dependent on a certainforce, and it is this force which constitutesmatter. In this view, matter is not merelymutually penetrable ; but each atom extends,so to say, throughout the whole of the solarsystem, yet always retainingits own centre offorce. What do you know of the atom,asks Faraday, apart from its force ? Youimagine a nucleus which may be called a^and surround it by forces which may becalled m; to my mind the a^ or nucleus,vanishes, and the substance consists in thepowers of m : '* which provides the highestscientific authority for the suggestion that itmay be impossible to reach the limit of theattenuation to which homoeopathic medicinesmay be carried.

This conception of the action of infini-esimalsprovides a serviceable working

basis ; but it need not be regarded as either


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THE INFINITESIMAL DOSE 75

essential or final. It is an attempt to pro-idean explanation of the facts,but the facts

are in no way dependent on its correctness.

Many old-school authorities have adoptedhomoeopathic remedies into their text-books,but the effect on general practice has notbeen great, principally for the reason thatthey have not had the courage to adopthomoeopathic dosage. They reduced theirown doses very far as far as one-tenth orone-hundredth of a grain, or a drop of someremedies

but they have not gone far

enough. Pasteur and Koch, who have beenworking on homoeopathic lines, have spoiledtheir work for the same reason. If Pasteurhad simply taken the homoeopathic prepara-ion

of hydrophobic virus, which has been inuse since 1833, and which was preparedwithout any resort to cruelty,he would havegained no kudos, it is true ; but he mighthave advanced science, and saved himselffrom the reproach of having killed numbersof persons with laboratory hydrophobia.


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Koch, again, if he had taken the tuberculinof the homoeopaths, I and adopted thehomoeopathic dosage, might have sparedhimself the trouble of experimenting onguinea-pigs, and have saved Virchow thetrouble of making a number of post-mortemexaminations on the bodies of human beingswho died before their time in consequence ofhis tuberculin treatment. Koch reduced his

dosage as far as he dared down to milli-rammes

but these doses proved powerfulenough to kill, and to scare most prac-itioners

from ever using the drug again.Homoeopaths, however, use it with perfectsafety in their own dosage, guided by theeffects it has produced on persons who tookit in the trials that were made with it atfirst, and by the symptoms of homoeopathicprovings.

' See Dr. Burnett*s New Cure of Consumption,


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4

CHAPTER X

THE POWER OF INFINITESIMALS RECOGNISED

BY NON-HOMCEOPATHIC AUTHORITIES

Hahnemann has been derided for his

assertion that metallic bodies like flint and

copper become, after being triturated to thefourth centesimal degree, so far soluble asto yield up their dynamic powers to a waterysolution, and beyond that to solution inalcohol. That such is the fact, the effects ofthese solutions on healthy and diseasedhuman beings, who have taken them,abundantly prqve ; and now we haveplenty of evidence from the opposite campto confirm Hahnemann's observations. The

late Professor Stokvis, of Amsterdam, atthe International Medical Congress, held at

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78 THE POWER OF

Rome in' April, 1894, practicallyacknow-edgedthe truth of it. Professor Stokvis's

address appeared in an English translation inthe Lancet of April 26th of that year, andfrom this I will make three quotations, theitalics being my own :

How are we to understand the fact thatthe ingestion of infinitesimal quantities ofcertain substances which pass through theorganism without causing in it the least changecan provoke such disordered chemical actions asto occasion death ? How are we to under-tand

the fact that different parts of theorganism seem to be able to distinguishthese substances one from the other ? Wemust admit special elective functions properto the life of the cells. How are we tounderstand the facts that nothing but achange in the quantity of their dosage, theduration of their administration, and themethod of their application sufficeso make ofcertain toxic substances stimulants or paraly-sants ? How are we to understand the fact


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INFINITESIMALS RECOGNISED 79

that insoluble substances like arsenic, copper,and lead can defy that well-known axiom,Corpora non agunt nisi soluta (substances donot act except in a state of solution),andmanifest therapeutic and toxic action ? Wemust admit the presence and agency of someunknown power within the living cell.How, again, are we to understand thetherapeutic power exhibited by solutions ofiodine and bromine which have apparentlybeen diluted to the deprivation of all chemicalaction, unless we attribute to the living cellthe power of liberatingthe iodine and thebromine from such dilute solutions ? ''

By warming pure chlorate of potassiumwe obtain pure oxygen, but the presence ofthe smallest quantity of chloride of potassiumis sufficient to change part of the oxygen intoozone. In giving rise to this developmentof ozone, the choride of potassium remainsitself completely unaltered; but, what is moreremarkable yet, this chloride of potassiumitself has, like peroxide of manganese which


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8o THE POWER OF

acts In an identical manner the property ofdestroyingozone.

'* As for the manifestation of therapeuticand toxic action by bodies considered to beinsoluble, of which Nageli, in a posthumouswork, has made so profound a study, they arealso capable of the simplest interpretation.The insolubilityof these bodies is not abso-ute,

but only relative. If we throw, forexample, metallic copper into water and waitfor some days, we shall find that a certainproportion of the copper has dissolved i.e.,one pari to seventy-seven million parts ofwater.

^'

If Professor Stokvis can account for thepower of copper to produce symptoms inthe human body by its being soluble in77,000,000 parts of water, where is he tostop ? The only answer to this is,that thereis no stopping anywhere. If every atomextends throughout the whole solar system,there is no possibilityof our finding thelimits of its capacity for being attenuated.


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82 THE POWER OF

mained healthy. This proved conclusivelythat a copper force was imparted to water fromthe walls of the glass vessel. Rinsing, wash-ng,

brushing, and even boiling had littleeffect upon the glass; not until a mineral acidhad been used did the glass vessel lose itsoligodynamic properties. Again, he foundthat this oligodynamic water poured into anew, clean glassvessel transferred its poisonousproperties to the walls of the glass,and this,in turn, was again able to medicate neutraldistilled water. He says : * Glasses witholigodynamic after-effects {nachwirkung)^ losetheir power very slowly after being repeatedlyrefilled with neutral water, which is allowedto stand in them for a while, and somewhatmore rapidly if they are boiled in neutralwater.' This refers to the direct actionof the copper force on small vegetableorganisms. But the human organism isinfinitelyore sensitive ; and experience hasshown that when dilution has been carriedbeyond the point of direct poisoning power,a health-restoringdynamis remains in undi-


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INFINITESIMALS RECOGNISED ^iminished force, which the homoeopathic lawenables us with certainty to direct.

In this connection I may refer to Darwin'sresearches with the fly-catchingplant,Drosera,or Sun-dew. Darwin found that solutionsof certain salts of ammonia stimulated theglands of the tentacles and caused the latterto turn inwards. He made this solutionmore and more dilute, but still the plantwas able to detect the presence of the salt.Darwin was almost frightened by his results.Writing to Donders he says :

The I -4,000,000th of a grain absorbedby a gland clearly makes the tentacle whichbears the gland become inflected ; and I amfully convinced that i -20,000,000th of agrain of the crystallisedalt {i.e.ycontainingabout one-third of its weight of water ofcrystallisation)oes the same. Now I amquite unhappy at the thought of having topublish such a statement.' I

' See Dr. C. H. Black ley'sPower of the Infinitesimal^published as No. 3 1 of the Tracts of the HomoeopathicLeague Series.


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84 THE POWER OF

Poor Darwin Where would homoeo-athyhave been if Hahnemann had been

so diffident about publishing proved butunpalatable facts ? And Darwin, it shouldbe remembered, was once under the care ofa homoeopath, the late Dr. Gully, the fatherof the present Speaker of the House ofCommons, and derived much benefit fromhis treatment.

The world is moving rapidly, and sincethe above-named observations on the powerof the infinitesimal were made, they havebeen eclipsed and illuminated by theastounding discoveries in relation to radio-ctivity.

These were well summed upby Dr. Burford in his address as Presidentof the British Homoeopathic' Congressof 1904. Dr. Burford's authority is thewell-known work on Radium by Pro-essor

Rutherford, who has shown that** these radio-active bodies are continuallyforming in their own interstices a product,which in the case of radium is many


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INFINITESIMALS RECOGNISED 85thousand times more active than radiumitself; which, moreover, induces the sameradio-activityn all bodies exposed for sometime to it, and which, to the extent ofYo~ooo^h of its original potency, remains anew and permanent property of the acquir-ng

body. These processes are above andbeyond the cognisance and scope of themost refined chemical methods. Here is ademonstration : A tube out of which a per-ectly

invisible emanation from radium, andpossessing absolutely no weight, has beenemptied, is next washed out with an acid ;this is evaporated, leaving a radio-activeresidue more potent in some respects thanradium itself,requiring 200 years to decayto half value. Moreover, in rooms whereradium has been exposed to the air, aninvisible radio-activity,perfectlyindetectableby the balance or the spectroscope, is pro-uced

on the walls of the apartment, persist-ngeven though the radium has been removed

for some time.Now, says Dr. Burford, ' facts parallel


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to these, but where the human body, incertain defined states of disease, acted withsimilar susceptibilityto the electroscope inthe former instance, were observed byHahnemann a century ago, and have beenconfirmed by innumerable observationssince. That matter too attenuated to beobvious to the test of the balance, orof chemical reaction, or of spectroscopicanalysis should yet be detected by a suitablysensitive instrument, that of diseased proto-lasmic

condition ; that initiation of newconditions may be effected in a responsivestate by inconsiderable material agencies,andbearing absolutely no relation in point ofquantity to the effects produced ; that trans-ission

of specificqualitiesthrough a seriesof indifferent media may be eflFected,leavingthe ultimate product still potent to act ; thatmedia thus used for transmission retain per-anently

their new character ; and that aspecificand definite parallelismcontrols theinteraction of remedy and organism thesefactSj,say, have been known to homoeopaths


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INFINITESIMALS RECOGNISED 87

since Hahnemann, and may be verified byany competent observer who cares to takethe trouble.

Dr. Burford does well to point out thatthe phenomena of radium illustrate how it isthat indifferent media like water, spirit,or sugar of milk, once having been infected,as it were, with the power of a remedy cantransmit that drug-power to the patient whotakes it. Radium can transmit its ownpower to indifferent media which come incontact with its emanation, can endowthese with its own properties without itselfappreciably losingeither power or substance.

Thus have the observations of physicistsdemonstrated the truth of Hahnemann'steaching from another side. Homoeopathicattenuations have been described as bottle-washings. Well, Professor Rutherfordpracticallytells us that once a bottle hasheld radium or its intangible, unweighableemanation, no amount of bottle-washing canget it out. The bottle may be filled andemptied a million times and the power of


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CHAPTER XI

examples of homoeopathic cures from

Hahnemann's own practice

Exceedingly few of Hahnemann's own ^

cases have been published. He refrainedfrom publishing many, lest his disciplesshould fall into routine ways and givecertain medicines to patients affected withcertain diseases, because he had given thesame medicines to patients with the samediseases, and not because the medicines cor-esponded

to the cases to be treated. In the

second volume of the Materia Medica Pura^however, Hahnemann gives, at the requestof some friends halting half-way on theroad,

.

two cases which I will now quotejust to show the way in which he went to

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EXAMPLES OF CURES 91

work, and also to show that homoeopathyis not, as some would make out, a mereaffair of a little book and a box of pilules.Every genuine homoeopathic prescription ismade on the same plan as that followed inthe two cases I am about to quote ; only, theworking out of the problem is generally donementally, and more rapidly than a reading ofthese cases might lead one to suppose.

The figures in brackets refer to thenumber of the symptom referred to inHahnemann's Materia Medica Pura.

I. '^ Sch, a washerwoman, somewhere

about forty years old, had been more thanthree weeks unable to earn her bread, whenshe consulted me on the ist Sept., 1815.

I. On any movement, especiallyat everystep, and worst on making a false step, shehas a shock in the pit of the stomach, thatcomes, as she avers, every time from the leftside.

'' 2. When she lies she feels quite well ;then she has no pain anywhere, neither in theside nor in the pit of the stomach.


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94 EXAMPLES OF CURES FROM

monly, nor with relish for food, as in Bryonia(279)-

As regards symptom 5, several medicinescertainly cause a flow of water like water-brash, just as well as Bryonia (282); theothers, however, do not produce symptomssimilar to the remaining ones. Hence Bry-nia

is to be preferred to them in thisparticular.

'' Empty eructation (of wind only) aftereating (symptom 6) is found in few medi-ines,

and in none so constantly, so com-only,and to such a degree, as in Bryonia

(253. 259).To 7. One of the chief symptoms in

diseases (see Organon^ sec. 213) is the 'stateof the disposition,'and as Bryonia (772)causes this symptom also in an exactly similarmanner, Bryonia is for all these reasons to bepreferred in this case to all other medicines asthe homoeopathic remedy.

Now, as this woman was very robust, andthe force of the disease must consequentlyhave been very considerable to prevent her.


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HAHNEMANN'S PRACTICE 95

on account of pain, doing any work ; and asher vital powers, as stated,were not impaired,I gave her one of the strongest homoeopathicdoses, a full drop of the undiluted juice ofBryonia root, to be taken immediately, andbade her come to me again in forty-eighthours. I told my friend E., who was present,that within that time the woman wouldassuredly be quite cured ; but he, being buthalf-converted to homoeopathy, expressed hisdoubts about it. Five days afterwards hecame again to learn the result, but thewoman did not return then, and, in fact,never came back again. I could only allaythe impatience of my friend by tellinghimher name and that of the villagewhere shelived, about a mile and a half off, andadvising him to seek her out and ascertainfor himself how she was. This he did, andher answer was : ' What was the use of mygoing back ^. The very next day I was quitewell, and could again go to my washing ; andthe day following was quite well, as I amstill. I am extremely obliged to the doctor.

Homoeopathy Explained

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