Si§? •" ■: ^~7" ^ :"^ ~^ r-L^rsz ALLOPATHY $1 HOMOEOPATHY CONTRASTED. % W w DE3Y EDWARD J. SWEENEY. It A V E X X A. OHIO I.. W. UAI.I., PKIXTBR. 1863. -=:^_^^ c^m. ALLOPATHY and HOMOEOPATHY CONTRASTED. D3Y EDWARD J. SWEENEY. RAVENNA, OHIO: L. W. HALL, PRINTER. 1863. I feel that I ought, perhaps, to apologize for intruding upon the public the few thoughts contained in this pamphlet My only object has been to correct error, and bring out the truth on a subject which I consider of vital importance to every one. During a period of fourteen years, I have patiently submitted to the misrepresentations of my opponents, and could still continue to do so but that the cause of truth demands an exposition of facts in reference to this subject And I do this the more willingly, now that it cannot be said with any show of reason, that I do it for my own intereBt. I have thought it best to take this method, which is an open and fair one, of answering the many interrogatories in the minds of the people, as well as to correct the many misrepresentations made by the opponents of Homoeopathy. E. J. S. ALLOPATHY AND HOMOEOPATHY CONTRASTED. Among all the things which concern our material existence, probably none more interests us than the subject of medicine. This is emphatically true when sickness invades the family circle, and death threatens to deprive us of the society of loved ones. No matter how much in health we may affect to despise the disciple of Esculapius, when death seeks to invade our home sanctuary, we gladly implore him to stand between the grim monster and those we hold dear. At such a time, no science, no art, seems so important to us as the healing art. And yet with all its importance, probably there is no subject of such general inrerest of which there is so little known by those most affected by it Who can estimate the almost unlimited changes in the destinies of a single human being, who has been hurried away into eternity by charlatan practice, based upon a want of knowledge on the one hand, or neglect to exercise the functions of nature's laws on the other. Well and truly has a learned professor said upon this point: "that upon the accuracy of the medical practitioner's knowledge, and the correctness of hie principles, depends perhaps a father's happiness, a mother's hopes, the support of infants, the enjoyment of a wide circle, the prosperity of neighborhoods, the liberties of a people, perhaps the peace of the world ; yea, happily the op- portunity of repentance. He tells the profession that such men should be well aware of the nature of their office; that they should shrink from the notion that all information is exhausted ; that they should doubt even their own powers ; that they should weary heaven with their prayers for light and knowledge, and that not a finger ache should be cured above the line of perpetual snows, but like fine ears in the tile, they should catch the whisper of it along the earth. Aside from the grief that wrings and wrecks the hearts of friends, aside from the lacerations in home and friendly circles, independent of national ca- lamities that it may bring upon us, there are still higher considerations. Death severs the bands that bind us to earth, and launches us into eternity. It is no trifling responsibility, then, which rests upon him who undertakes to step in between the monster death and those we love and hold most dear of all that is mortal; and that man is not excusable either before God or his fellow man, who, with such responsibilities resting upon him, refuses to investigate thor- oughly and honestly, the merits of the system upon which he stands, as well as those opposed to him. Progression is ignored at the present day in nothing unless it be in the principles upon which the healing art is based; and when we talk of innova- tion upon the antiquated dogmas of the old school of medicine, we are at once set upon by its votaries with the cry of heresy, and are generally told that theirs is the only system that can boast of having stood the test of time—that 4 they can trace it back to a period anterior to the Christian Era—that it alone is sanctioned by the experience of ages. There is, we all know, in the minds of mankind an inclination to venerate old established customs, and to be slow in parting with them. This to a cer- tain extent is laudable, and we ought to argue well in our own minds the merits and demerits not only of that system which we propose to cast aside, but also of that which we propose to substitute in its stead. I propose to take a brief retrospect of Allopathy, from the time of Hipocrates to the present, in order to see whether there is any reason in the claim which it sets up on the account of its long standing. It is highly probable that in the primitive ages few maladies, and those not generally of a serious nature, afflicted mankind; consequently, little skill was requisite to remove them; but as mankind multiplied, society became more dense, luxury, dissipation and vice became prevalent, diseases multiplied, and medical aid became propor- tionately necessary. From this necessity sprang the medical profession. Of Hipocrates, it is said, " He is reckoned the 18th lineal descendant from Esculapius, the profession of medicine having been hereditarily followed in that family, and under whose direction the Coan School arrived at its high degree of perfection. Not content with the Empirical practice which he de- rived from his ancestors, he studied under Herodocious, who had invented the gymnastic medicine, as well as other philosophers. He supposed and taught that there were four humors in the body: blood, phlegm, yellow and black bile, having different degrees of heat or coldness, moisture or dryness, and that to certain changes in the quantity or quality of these, all diseases might be referred. His treatment consisted in a great restriction of diet; but hardly any medi- cines were administered except gentle emetics, and laxatives and clysters,— " He bled freely in cases of extreme pain and inflammation, and advised tre- phining in cases of violent headache." In the year 131 Claudius Galenius was born. It is said of him that he spent much time in traveling, that he might converse with the most intelligent physicians of the age in which he lived. His leading dogmas were that the human body is composed of four elements, viz: Earth, air, fire and water; that the animal body consisted in addition to the four elements, of four humors. Accordingly in all cases the seat of the disease was in the humors, and that it resulted from a vitiated state of one more of these humors. A modern allopathic writer, in speaking of Galen, says: '; He has not much increased the stock of practical information. We must therefore regret that the splendor of Galen's talents so completely dazzled his successors that, until about the middle of the 17th century his opinions bore almost undivided sway." He assigned to all medicinal agents four qualities, which were identical with the four qualities in the human body, and that they were curative in the exact ratio in which they were found to contain one or more of the above qualities preponderating. 5 In 1527, Panacelsus overran for a time the European continent with his Alchemist theory, according to which, the animal body consisted essentially of mercury, sulphur and salts, and that these three elements must exist in mathe- matical proportions in each individual, in order to constitute health. He taught that life is the combined action of certain divinities, which reside in, and pre- side over the several organs. Each organ had its appropriate deity, and it was only through the harmonious action of the different deities that health could be preserved. It is due the Galen ists, to say that they combatted this theory vigorously, but this warfare only served to break down both schools sufficiently to produce a commingling of the different views. John Baptist Van Helmont, at the close of the 16th century, next assailed the Galenist theory. He endorsed Paracelsus' theory of presiding deities. He believed these divinities possessed of the human passions individually, and that any cause which would disturb either of them would produce disease. Accord- ingly all medical agents must have the power of appeasing some or all of these offended deities; and this power could only be determined by chemical analysis. Next we have the theory of Sylvius, who supposed he had succeeded in dis- covering that life was a sort of fermentative process, carried on by the action of an acid and an alkali. He attributed all deviations from health to a dispropor- tion of these two agencies. The materia medica was accordingly arranged upon the acid and alkali principle. This theory prevailed until about the beginning of the 17th century, when Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood. Says Dr. Hooper : " The promulgation of this important doctrine brought upon the author the most unjust opposition, some condemning it as an innova- tion, others pretending that it was known before; and he complained that his practice materially declined afterward." Soon after the discovery of the circu- lation of the blood, we have the mechanical theory, which maintained that the animal functions are wholly controlled by the laws of gravitation. Says the author above referred to, " Perhaps no hypothesis since that of Galen, was ever received with more enthusiasm, or adopted with more implicit faith. In pro- portion as mathematical reasoning prevailed, attention to chemistry was with- drawn, and so entirely was the learned world engaged with the fascinations of mathematics, that for nearly a century scarcely a single improvement was made in the science, and the application of chemical laws to pathology and therapeu- tics was altogether suspended. Now instead of acidity, alkalinity, fermenta- tion, putrescency, &c, we find the medical authors of this period constantly referring to calculations respecting the size of the pores and vessels, the friction of bodies against each other, the impulse of the fluids, their deviations and revulsions, the momentum of the blood, its viscidity and lentor, its obstructions. resolutions, and various other hypothetical expressions, derived directly from mechanical causes, and considered as the sole agents in every corporeal action." In 1691 we have a new theory in opposition to the mechanical theory, headed 6 by George Ernest Stahl. It had been observed that there is a certain power in the animal body of resisting injuries, and correcting some of its disorders. '• Stahl referred this power entirely to the soul, which, he affirmed, not only originally formed the body, but is the sole cause of all its motions, in the con- stant excitement of which life consists. Whence diseases were regarded as sal- utary efforts of the presiding soul, to avert the destruction of the body. This hypothesis, besides its visionary character, was justly deprecated as leading to an inert practice, and the neglect of the collateral branches of medical science which Stahl maintained, had little or no reference to the healing art. And in fact both he and his followers, trusting principally to the operations of nature, zealously opposed some of the most efficacious remedies, as opium, chincona, and mercury ; and were extremely reserved in the employment of bleeding, Tomiting,