NATIONAL LIBRARY OF ME _: - - Bethesda, Maryland Gift of The National Center for Homeopathy banning Panes Library 19- O^ M- °* CS \ M 74 rOMceo Gift of LIBRARY AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR HOMOEOPATHY I LIBKAKT AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR HOMOEOPATHY THE CHfiONIC DISEASES THEIR SPECIFIC NATURE HOMCEOPATHIC TREATMENT. DR. SAMUEL HAHNEMANN. TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY CHARLES J. HEMPEL, M. D. A PREFACE BY CONSTANTINE HERING. M. D. Ans Arbor, Mich. Adtance Publishing Company. •1889. LIBRARY AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR HOMOEOPATHY PRINTHD AT THE REGISTER PUBLISHING HOUSE, ANN AREOR, MICHIGAN. nlm": I TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. But for the admirable truths which Hahnemann points out in this volume, it probably would never be read in German. Hahne- mann's phraseology is so involved, and bears so little resemblance to the usual modes of constructing periods, either in German or any other language, that it is utterly impossible to furnish a bare translation of Hahnemann's writings. There is but one way of turning them into another language; this is, first, to master the sense of a period, and afterwards to embody it in the foreign tongue in a free manner. This is the course which I have pursued in translating this volume. I have not translated words but ideas. And the ideas I have rendered fully and faithfully; on this head I challenge criticism. Charles J. Hempel, M. D. New York, April, 1845. Note by Editor of Medical Advance — We are assured by critical German scholars to whom the original German work and the English translation were sub- mitted with a view to a new translation that the foregoing statement of Dr. Hempel is literally true. H. C. Allen, M. D. DR. HERING'S PREFACE, {The following article has been kindly furnished by Dk. Hehing, in German. The Editor U responsible fur the translation). Hahnemann's work on chronic diseases may be considered a continuation of his organon; the medicines which will follow the present volume may therefore be considered a continuation of his materia medica pura. As the principles and rules of general therapeutics have been developed in the organon, so does Hahne- mann develop, in the present treatise, the principles and rules which ought to prevail in the treatment of chronic diseases, whose name is "legion." In the materia medica pura Hahnemann describes to us the symptoms which the general remedies that he tried upon healthy persons, are capable of producing; the present treatise, on the contrary, will be succeeded by an account of those remedies, which Hahnemann especially employed in the treatment of chronic diseases, and which he therefore called "anti-psorics." In the organon Hahnemann tries to establish the fact that the principle "similia similibus curantur" is the supreme rule in every true method of cure, and he shows how this rule is to be followed in the treatment of disease; whereas in his treatise on the chronic diseases, which is based upon the organon and does not, in the least, modify or alter its teachings, Hahnemann shows that most chronic diseases, originating in a common source and being related amongst each other, a special class of remedies designated by Hahnemann "anti-psorics," should be used in the treatment of those diseases. This common source of most chronic diseases, according to Hahnemann, is Psora. The shallow opponents of Homoeopathy — and we never had any other! — pounce upon the theory of the psoric miasm with a view of attacking it with their hollow and unmeaning sarcasms. Mak- ing Psora to be identical with itch, they sneeringly pretended that according to Hahnemann's doctrine the itch was the primitive evil, and that this doctrine was akin to the doctrine of the original sin recognized by the Christian Faith. With the same impudence with which they had, on former occa- sions, asserted that Hahnemann rejects all pathology in his or- ganon, they now asserted that he himself advanced a pathological hypothesis, and " that the true which it contained was not new, nor the new true." 5 Equitable judges will not fail to recognize in this treatise on chronic diseases the same carefulness of study and observation which the great author of Homoeopathy has shown in all his other writings. Hahnemann had no other object in view except to cure. All the energies of his great soul were directed to this one end. His object was not to overthrow pathology, although the patho- logy of his time has been set aside as a heap of foolish specula- tions, and has been replaced by other systems, that may perhaps suffer the same fate in fifty years; he merely contended against the foolish and presumptuous application of pathological hypothesis to the treatment of disease. He rejected and overthrew the fool- ish belief which had been driven like a rusty nail, into the minds of the Profession and, by their instrumentality, into the minds of the people, that the remedies should be given against a name, against an imaginary disease, and that the name of this imaginary disease indicated the remedy. Up to this day physicians have been engaged in accrediting that superstition. Whence should otherwise spring the desire which so many patients manifest, of inquiring into the name of the disease, as if a knowledge of that name were sufficient to discover the true remedy against the dis- ease. Many patients are disconsolate when the doctor cannot tell them what is the matter with them. Do we gain anything by being able to say that the disease is rheumatism, dyspepsia, liver- complaint? Does it avail the patient any to be able to repeat his doctor's ipse dixit " that he is bilious, nervous, etc.?" Do these words mean anything definite? Are there yet physicians foolish enough to believe that their speculative explanations mean any- thing? Does not everybody acknowledge that they are mere ignes fatui flitting to and fro upon the quagmire of the old decayed sys- tems of pathology ? Assuredly, a physician of modern date, who has not remained altogether ignorant, would be ashamed of assuring his patients with the air of a deep thinker, that one has a disease of the spine, another consumption, a third a uterine affection, etc. Every tyro in pathology knows that all this means nothing definite, and that it is only to very ignorant persons that such assertions can be given as science. Every tyro knows that the question is, to find out what are the symptoms and the nature of that disease of the spine or the uterus. It is moreover known that this more precise knowledge is necessary as respects .prognosis, and for the purpose of regulating the mode of life of the patient; but it is also settled that to know merely the variety, to which the disease belongs, is not sufficient to cure it. All the successful and celebrated practi- tioners of the old school have been such as have constantly modi- fied and individualized the treatment of disease. This is all that Hahnemann has tried to accomplish; with this difference that he has individualized every case of disease with much more precision 6 than any of the older physicians had done. Hahnemann had cour- age enough, at once to face the contradictions which constantly existed between practice and theory; he declared that the specula- tive knowledge of physicians was merely learned dust which they were in the habit of throwing into people's eyes for the purpose of blinding them and inducing them to consider the ignorance of the doctors and the insufficiency of their knowledge as something re- spectable. Hahnemann dared to lay down this maxim: that, in treating disease, he had nothing to do with its name. Hahnemann teaches that the remedies should be chosen accord- ing to the symptoms of the patient. The physician should be gov- erned by what is certain and safe, not by that which is more or less uncertain and unsafe, and which is changed according to fashion. Both in the organon and in his treatise on the chronic diseases, Hahnemann insists upon the remedies being chosen in accordance with the symptoms. It is not an easy matter to choose a remedy according to symp- toms. This may be inferred from the manner in which tyros in Homoeopathy and physicians of the old school who come over to us, go to work. They constantly rely upon names, giving a cer- tain remedy in scarlet fever, because some one else had found it useful; or a certain remedy in pulmonary inflammation, because it had been successfully exhibited upon a former occasion; where- as Hahnemann teaches that, because a remedy has helped before, this is no reason why it should help again in a similar disease. The symptoms and not the name are to point out the remedy. This is also the case in chronic diseases. In the treatment of chronic diseases Hahnemann has been taught by experience to give preference to the anti-psoric remedies. This preference is not theoretical, and is constantly subordinate to the general prin- ciple. Hahnemann has never said that the principal constituents of mountains, which are the most important materials in nature — the metals, for instance —are the most important remedies for the cure of the most universal diseases. However, he has pointed out the oxydes or salts of ammonium, potassium, sodium, calcium, aluminium, magnesium, as the most important anti-psoric reme- dies. Hahnemann has said nowhere that the most important metalloids constitute the most important remedial agents, al- though he has introduced sulphur, phosphorus, silicea, chlorine, and iodine, in one form or another, as anti-psoric remedies. In selecting a remedy Hahnemann has never been guided by theo- ries, but always by experience. He chose his remedies agreeably, to the symptoms which they had produced upon healthy persons, looking at the same time to their remedial virtues having been tested by practice. This is the reason why the general views which have been expressed just now did not prevent him from 7 admitting as chief anti-psorics borax and ammonium carbonicum, anacardium and clematis. Why, it may be asked, have a great number of homoeopathic physicians, neither recognized Hahnemann's theory of psora, nor the specific character of the anti-psoric remedies? Why have some even gone so far as to set the theory sneeringly aside, and to decry the anti-psorics as less thrustworthy than the other reme- dies? For the same reason that the astronomical discoveries of our Herschel are doubted by people who have no faith in the discov- erer, and are not able to verify his discoveries. To do this, knowl- edge, instruments, talent, care, perseverance, opportunities, and many other things are required. Not one of all these requisites can be found with those who are mere dabblers in practice, scrib- bling authors opposing their own opinions and imaginations to facts and observation. Or, for the same reason that Ehrenberg's discoveries cannot be appreciated by those who have either no microscope, or who have one which is not good, or who have a microscope without under- standing the difficult art of using it; or else who know how to use it, but do not use it with the same exactness and carefulness as Ehrenberg, who discovered in the chalk-dust of visiting cards the shells of new species of animals, by simply making the cards transparent by means of the oil of turpentine. Or lastly, for the simple reason that physicians find it more easy to write something for print, than to observe nature; that it is more easy to impose upon people than to cure the sick, and be- cause the greater number of physicians is affected with the de- lusion that things which they do not see, do not exist. If such physicians succeed in affecting a cure, they are at once ready to boast of their exploits, whereas the cure was due to Hahnemann's doctrine, to the remedies which he has discovered to the researches of other physicians, to their instructions or ex- ample, or to so-called chance. But if they do not succeed, they impute their failure to anything but themselves: it is Homoeopathy that is deficient; this or that rule is not correct; the materia med- ica is at fault; or, if something in Hahnemann's system does not suit them, they are prone to say they have never seen this or that, that they cannot agree with it. And in talking in this way, they really imagine to have said something against the matter itself. Upon the same ground that Hahnemann carefully distinguished from the disease the symptoms which owed their existence to dietetic transgressions, or to medicinal aggravations; upon the same grounds that he acknowledged as standing and independent diseases the acute miasms, known as purpura, measles, scarlatina, small pox, whooping cough,etc., or that he distinguished the vene- real miasm into syphilis and sycosis, we may afterwards, if experi- 8 ence should demand it, subdivide psora into several species and varieties. This is no objection to Hahnemann's theory. Hahne- mann has taken the first great step without denying the faculty of progressive development inherent in his system. But let im- provements be made in such a way as to become useful, not pre- judicial, to the patients. We ought to raise our super-structure upon Hahnemann's own ground, in the direction which he has first imparted to his doctrine. Although it matters little what opinions the respective disciples of Hahnemann hold relatively to the theory of psora, I will never- theless, communicate a short extract from my essay, "Guide to the Progressive Development of Homoeopathy." "As acute diseases terminate in an eruption upon the skin, which divides, dries up, and then passes off, so it is with many chronic diseases. All diseases diminish in intensity, improve, and are cured by the internal organism, freeing itself from them little by little; the internal disease approaches more and more to the external tissues, until it finally arrives at the skin. "Every homoeopathic physician must have observed that the. improvement in pain takes place from above downward; and in diseases, from within outward. This is the reason why chronic diseases, if they are thoroughly cured, always terminate in some cutaneous eruption, wrhich differs according to the different con- stitutions of the patients. This cutaneous eruption may be even perceived when a cure is impossible, and even when the remedies have been improperly chosen. The skin being the outer-most sur- face of the body, it receives upon itself the extreme termination of the disease. This cutaneous eruption is not a mere morbid secretion having been chemically separated from the internal organism in the form of a gas, a liquid, or a solid; it is the whole of the morbid action which is pressed from within outward, and it is characteristic of a thorough and really curative treatment. The morbid action of the internal organism may continue either entirely, or more or less in spite of this cutaneous eruption. Nevertheless, this eruption always is a favorable symptom; it alleviates the sufferings of the patient, and generally prevents a more dangerous affection. "The thorough cure of a widely ramified chronic disease in the organism is indicated by the most important organs being first relieved; the affection passes off in the order in which the organs had been affected, the more important being relieved first, the less important next, and the skin last. " Even the superficial observer will not fail in recognizing this law of order. An improvement which takes place in a different order can never be relied upon. A fit of hysteria may terminate in a flow of urine; other fits may either terminate in the same way, or in haemorrhage; the next succeeding fit shows how little 9 the affection had been cured. The disease may take a different turn, it may change its form, and, in this new form, it may be less troublesome; but the general state of the organism will suffer in consequence of this transformation. " Hence it is that Hahnemann inculcates with so much care the important rule to attend to the moral symptoms, and to judge of the degree of homoeopathic adaptation, existing between the remedy and the disease, by the improvement which takes place in the moral condition, and the general well-being of the patient. " The law of order which we have pointed out above, accounts for the numerous cutaneous eruptions consequent upon homoeo- pathic treatment, even where they never had been seen before; it accounts for the obstinacy with which many kinds of herpes and ulcers remain upon the skin, whereas others are dissipated like snow. Those which remain, do remain because the internal disease is yet existing. This law of order also accounts for the insufficiency of violent sweats, when the internal disease is not yet disposed to leave its hiding-place. It lastly accounts for one cutaneous affection being substituted for another." " This transformation of the internal affection of such parts of the organism as are essential to important functions, to a cutane- ous affection— a transformation which is entirely different from the violent change effected by means of Autenrieth's ointment, ammonium, croton-oil, cantharides, mustard, etc.,— is chiefly effected by the anti-psoric remedies. "Other remedies may sometimes effect that transformation, even the use of water, change of climate, of occupation, etc.; but it is more safely, more mildly and more thoroughly effected by the anti-psoric remedies." This latter is altogether an individual opinion; others may have different opinions relative to the same subject; this needs not to prevent us from aiming all of us at the same end, side by side, in perfect harmony. But alas! the rules which the experienced founder of Hom- oeopathy lays down in the subsequent work with so much empha- sis, are not always practised, and therefore, cannot be appreciated. Many oppose them; cures which otherwise might be speedy and certain, are delayed; much injury is being done by the wiseacres who intrude themselves into our literature and mix with it as chaff with the wheat. On all this we may console ourselves with the expectation that also in the history of science there will be those great days of harvest, when the tares shall be gathered in bundles and thrown into the fire. It is the duty of all of us to go farther in the theory and prac- tice of Homoeopathy than Hahnemann has done. We ought to seek the truth which is before us and forsake the errors of the past. But wo unto him who, on that account, should personally 10 attack the author of our doctrine; he would burden himself with infamy. Hahnemann was a great savant, inquirer, and discoverer; he was as true a man, without falsity, candid and open as a child, and inspired with pure benevolence and with a holy zeal for science. When at last the fatal hour had struck for the sublime old man who had preserved his vigor almost to his last moments, then it was that the heart of his consort who had made his last years the brightest of his life, was on the point of breaking. Many of us, seeing those who are dearest to us engaged in the death-struggle, would exclaim: why should'st thou suffer so much! So too ex- claimed Hahnemann's consort: "Why should'st thou, who hast alleviated so much suffering, suffer in thy last hour? This is un- just. Providence should have allotted to thee a painless death." Then he raised his voice as he had often done when he exhorted his disciples to hold fast to the great principles of Homoeopathy. " Why should I have been thus distinguished? Each of us should here attend to the duties which God has imposed upon him. Al- though men may distinguish a more or less, yet no one has any merit. God owes nothing to me, I to him all." With these words he took leave of the world, of his friends, and his foes. And here we take leave of you, reader, whether our friend or our opponent. To him who believes that there may yet be truths which he does not know and which he desires to know, will be pointed out such paths as will lead him to the light he needs. If he who has sincere benevolence and wishes to work for the benefit of all, be consid- ered by Providence a fit instrument for the accomplishment of the divine will, he will be called upon to fulfill his mission and will be led to truth evermore. It is the spirit of Truth that tries to unite us all; but the father of Lies keeps us separate and divided. C. Hg. Philadelphia, April 22,1845. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, 1828. If I did not know, for what object I exist upon earth — " to make myself as good as possible, and to improve things and men around me to the best of my ability,"— I should have to consider myself deficient in worldly wisdom for promulgating, before my death, an art whose sole posses- sor I was, and which, being kept secret, might have become a source of permanently increasing profit to me. In communicating these great discoveries to the public, I cannot help entertaining doubts as to the good will of my contemporaries to appreciate the justness of my doctrines. Will they be practiced with care, and yield to suffering humanity the benefit which must necessarily be derived from their conscientious application; or will my contem- poraries, intimidated by the unheard-of newness of my dis- coveries, prefer leaving them unexamined, unimitated, and therefore suffer them to remain useless? I have no reason to expect that these communications will fare better than my previous publications on general Homoeopathy. The power of small and highly diluted doses was doubted; their greater fitness for effecting a hom- oeopathic cure and the higher development of their dyna- mic action were overlooked; and despite of the warning trials which enabled me to recommend small doses as the most appropriate for the cure of disease, my faithful assur- ances and reasonings were disdained, and medical men con- tinued for years to jeopardize" the lives of their patients by large doses, and were therefore deprived of an opportunity of witnessing the happy results of the homoeopathic treat- ment, as was indeed my own case before I had adopted the rule of administering small doses. 12 What would they have risked, if they had first followed my indications and had employed small doses? The worst which could have befallen them, was, that these doses would be of no avail. It was impossible that they should do any harm. But instead of exhibiting small doses, they employed, from a want of sense, and of their own accord, large doses for homoeopathic use, thus exposing the lives of their patients and arriving at truth by that circuitous route which I had travelled upon before them with trembling hesitation, but the end of which I had just reached with success. Nevertheless, after having done much mischief, and having squandered the best period of their lives, they were obliged, when they were really desirous of curing dis- ease, to resort to the only true method which I had demon- strated to them a long while ago. Would that they acted more discreetly in regard to the discovery which I promulgate in this volume! And suppose they do not act so,— in that case, a more conscientious and more intelligent posterity will have the advantage, by faithfully and correctly applying the prin- ciples developed in these pages, freeing humanity from the innumerable sufferings which nameless chronic diseases have heaped upon the poor patients from time immemo- rial, and thus conferring upon them a blessing which the previously taught doctrines of Homoeopathy had not been able to realize. OF THE NATURE OF CHRONIC DISEASES. The faithfully practiced precepts of the homoeopathic method of cure, as it is taught in my own writings and those of my disciples, have hitherto manifested to all men, and in a very striking and decisive manner, their natural advantage over the allopathic method, both in regard to acute diseases as well as epidemics and sporadic fevers. Venereal diseases have been likewise cured more safely, more conveniently, more thoroughly and without any secondary ailments, by the homoeopathic practice; for it eradicates the internal disease and cures it from within, by the best specific remedy, without either disturbing or des- troying the local affection. But there remains the chronic diseases which afflict humanity, and the number of which continued to be im- mensely large. The manner in which those diseases had been treated by allopathic physicians, has only served to increase the sufferings of such patients. By employing a quantity of disgusting mixtures, compounded by the apothecary out of large potions of violent medicinal substances, whose separ- ate effects were unknown, or by using all sorts of baths, violent diaphoretics or expectorants, pretended anodynes and sedatives, clysters, ointments, fomentations, fumiga- tions, vesicatories, issues, fontanelles, and especially those everlasting purgatives, leeches, bloodlettings, and methods of starvation, and the various other fashionable medicinal torments, the disease was either made worse, and the vital energies, despite of the intermediate use of pretended tonics, were more and more diminished; or else, in case a striking change had been obtained, another nameless med- icinal disease, being much worse and much more incurable than the original natural disease, was substituted in the 14 place of the previous disturbance; whilst the physician consoled the patient by saying, that" the old disease had been happily removed; that unfortunately a new disease had indeed made its appearance, but that he was confident he would conquer this new disease as successfully as the former." And in this way nothing was done except to modify the forms of the same disease, to increase it by the additional sufferings consequent upon the use of improper and noxious medicines, until the complaints of the poor patient ceased with his last breath, and the relatives were consoled by the delusive excuse, "that every known remedy had been employed in the case of the deceased." How different is God's great gift, Homoeopathy! In these cases of chronic disease to which I have just alluded, and provided the patient had not been too much ruined by the allopathic practice (as was unfortunately too often the case where some money was to be made out of the patient), the homoeopathic practitioners, by practicing the-precepts contained in the writings which I had then published, and by following the advice which I had given on former oc- casions, both in lectures and conversations, did infinitely more good by their treatment than all the previously known so-called methods of cure had been able to accomplish. By following the method which I had recommended, and which is much more conformable to nature, the homoeo- pathic practitioners, having in the first place inquired into and noted down all the perceptible symptoms of the dis- ease, were able to remove it by means of the smallest dose of a remedy which had been carefully selected among the most appropriate .homoeopathic drugs, whose genuine and true action had been ascertained up to that moment. The improvement which was obtained by the homoeopathic practitioner, exceeded all that allopathic doctors had ever been able to accomplish by some luckily successful inroad upon their medicine-chests; for the cure was often accom- plished in a very short time, the patient never was deprived of his strength, as is always the case by the allopathic method of cure, and he was again enabled to enjoy his life. The disease yielded in a great measure to a very small 15 dose of that remedy which had been found capable of pro- ducing upon a healthy person the existing series of morbid symptoms; and if the disease was not too old, and had not been too extensively mismanaged by allopathic practice, the improvement often lasted for a good while; so that mankind might already deem themselves fortunate on ac- count of this aid, and very often did so. The patient who had been thus treated, might have considered himself almost cured, and very often did consider himself so, when he made just allowances for the difficulties of his condi- tion previous to the homoeopathic treatment, and compared it with the improved state of health which he now enjoyed.* But, in case the apparently cured disease resulted from a more extensively developed psora, then a few excesses at table, a cold, the approach of unusually rough, damp or stormy weather, sometimes even the fall season, though mild, but especially winter and a winterly spring, a violent bodily or mental effort, a concussion of the system conse- quent upon great external injuries, or some melancholy, heart-breaking event, frequent fright, deep sorrow and grief, or continual chagrin, were often sufficient in an en- feebled system, to cause one or more of the former ail- ments to reappear after they had been conquered for a time; and then they were often accompanied with a series of new symptoms, which may not have denoted any more danger than the former symptoms did that had yielded to *The cures here referred to concern diseases from an imper- fectly developed psora. In the treatment of those diseases my fol- lowers did not employ the remedies which were afterwards found to be the principal antipsorics — they were not known then; — the treatment was carried on by means of those drugs the pathogene- tic effects of which upon the healthy system corresponded most accurately to the existing symptoms, and h;id power to remove them for a time. By means of these remedies the outbreaking psora was reduced back again to its latent condition; and, in this way, a sort of cure was effected, which gave often, lor many years, great bodily comfort to young vigorous persons, who must, on that account, have appeared really cured to a superficial observer. But the remedies which were known at that time, were then and are now insufficient for the complete cure of those chronic diseases where the psoric poison has established its full action. 16 the homoeopathic treatment, but which were just as diffi- cult to cure, and therefore so much more inveterate. Against these new symptoms the homoeopathic physician employed again, with tolerable success, the remedy which acted most homceopathically among the then known drugs, and the condition of the patient was again improved for a time. In case the* primitive symptoms which had been cured once already homceopathically, reappeared in conse- quence of one of the above mentioned causes, the remedy which had been first employed, helped again, though less perfectly; and still less so, on being given a third time- Under these circumstances, the remedy which had appeared most homoeopathic often produced new symptoms, and, despite of a correct mode of life on the part of the patient, they yielded but scantily and imperfectly to the best adapted remedies, and often even remained when the cure was checked by the above mentioned external influences. Sometimes the chronic malady was arrested in a remark- able manner, for a shorter or longer period, by the occur- rence of agreeable circumstances, by some fortunate im- provement in the affairs of the patient—a pleasant journey, a favorable season, and dry uniform weather; in this case the homoeopathic physician had a right to consider the patient almost cured, and the patient did consider himself so, provided he was willing to overlook moderate ailments. However, this favorable cessation of the disease never lasted long, and the return, especially the frequent return of the disease, which induced a repeated exhibition of the same remedial agents, weakened their power in a propor- tionate degree, notwithstanding they had been selected with the greatest care according to their homoeopathic nature, and exhibited in the smallest and most appropriate doses. They finally acted only as mere palliatives. Generally, however, after the physician had repeatedly tried to con- quer the disease, which reappeared again and again in a modified form, and in spite of a correct mode of life and perfect obedience on the part of the patient, there remained morbid symptoms which the then known numerous hom- oeopathic remedies were unable to extirpate, and often even 17 to diminish. These symptoms increasing in intensity, and becoming more and more dangerous by their progressive development, the homoeopathic physician lost all power of checking the onward course of the disease. This result occurred in the treatment of all great, chronic, non-venereal maladies, even when it appeared to be conducted according to the precepts of Homoeopathy, as far as it was then known. First, the treatment was satisfactory, then it became less favorable, and finally hopeless. Despite of these failures, the doctrine itself has then been, and will ever be founded upon the unshakeable pil- lars of truth. Facts have confirmed its excellence, yea, if this may be said of human things, its infallibility. The homoeopathic doctrine was the only and first doc- trine which made us acquainted with the proper treatment of the great, standing, idiopathic diseases, the old scarla- tina of Sydenham, the modern purple-rash, whooping-cough, croup, sycosis, dysentery; even acute pleuritis and epi- demic typhus are promptly cured by a few small doses of carefully selected homoeopathic remedies. What then was the reason why the continued homoeo- pathic treatment of the non-venereal chronic diseases should have been so unsuccessful? Why should Homoeo- pathy have failed in thousands of cases to cure such chronic ailments thoroughly and forever? These failures were perhaps owing to the small number of the homoeopathic medicines whose pure action had been ascertained. The followers of Homoeopathy were satisfied with this excuse; but the founder of Homoeopathy rejected it as a mere subterfuge. For, the yearly increase of powerful homoeopathic remedies left the treatment of chronic non- venereal diseases in the dark, whereas acute diseases, pro- vided they were not fatal from their beginning, were not only considerably alleviated by correctly chosen homoeo- pathic remedies, but even promptly and thoroughly cured by means of the vis medicatrix of the organism. Why should this vis medicatrix of the organism, whose 18 object is to restore the integrity of the organism, and to be indefatigably active in completing the recovery from viru- lent acute diseases, have been insufficient to effect a dura- ble cure of those chronic maladies, even when it was aided by those homoeopathic remedies, the symptoms of which corresponded most accurately to those of the disease? In trying to answer this question, I was led to the dis- covery of the nature of chronic diseases. Ever since the years 1816 and 1817, I had been em- ployed day and night, to discover the reason why the homoeopathic remedies which were then known, did not effect a true cure of the above named chronic diseases. I tried to obtain a more correct, and, if possible, a com- pletely correct idea of the true nature of those thousands of chronic ailments which remained uncured in spite of the incontrovertible truth of the homoeopathic doctrine; when, behold! the Giver of all good permitted me, about that time, to solve the sublime problem for the benefit of mankind, after unceasing meditation, indefatigable re- search, careful observations and the most accurate experi- ments.* I observed that the non-venereal chronic diseases, even after having been repeatedly and successfully removed by the then known homoeopathic remedies, continually reap- peared in a more or less modified form, and with a yearly increase of disagreeable symptoms. This proved to me the fact that the phenomena which appeared to constitute * I kept my great efforts secret both from the public, and from my disciples, not on account of the ingratitude which 1 have fre- quently experienced—for I heed neither the ingratitude nor the persecutions that I meet upon my path, which, wearisome as it is, is nevertheless not without pleasure on account of the great end to be attained. I never spoke of my exertions, because it is im- proper, and even dangerous, to speak of things that are but half accomplished. Not till the year 1827 did I communicate the most important part of my discoveries relative to the treatment of chronic diseases to two of my most deserving disciples, both for their own benefit and that of their patients. I did so in order to avoid the danger of seeing my discoveries lost for mankind. Hav- ing reached my 73rd year, it was not improbable, that I should have been called into eternity before having completed my work. 19 the ostensible disease, ought not to be regarded as the whole boundaries of the disease — otherwise the disease would have been completely and permanently cured by homoeopathic drugs, which was not the case,—but that this ostensible disease was a mere fragment of a much more deep-seated, primitive evil, the great extent of which might be inferred from the new symptoms which continued to appear from time to time. This showed me that the homoeopathic practitioner ought not to treat diseases of this kind as separate and completely developed maladies, nor that he ought to expect such a permanent cure of these diseases as would prevent them from appearing again in the system, either in their original or in a modified and often more disagreeable form. I became convinced that the first condition of finding out one or more homoeopathic medicines which should cover all the symptoms character- izing the whole disturbance, was, to discover all the ail- ments and symptoms inherent in the unknown primitive malady. The medicines being found out, the physician would then be able to conquer and completely to extinguish the whole disease, together with its successively appearing groups of symptoms. This primative disease evidently owed its existence to some chronic miasm. For as soon as it had reached a cer- tain height, it never yielded to the simple action of a ro- bust constitution, or to the best regulated diet or mode of life; on the contrary, it grew worse from year to year, to the end of life, gradually assuming different and more dangerous symptoms.* This is the case with every chronic, miasmatic disease,— for instance, the venereal bubo, when it has become a syphilitic disease on account of its not having been cured from within by Mercury, its specific. Syphilis never becomes extinct of itself; in spite of the * Phthisis often passed into frenzy, drying up ulcers into dropsy or apoplexy, intermittent fever into asthma, affections of the ab- domen into pains in the joints or paralysis, influenza into haemor- rhage, etc. It was not difficult to perceive that the new symptoms were founded in the existing primitive malady, and could only be parts of a much more extensive disease. 20 best mode of life and the most robust constitution, it in- creases from year to year, and assumes new and more dan- gerous symptoms to the end of life. I had reached this point, when my investigations aud observations upon non-venereal chronic patients led me at once to perceive that a previously existing itch, which they often confessed to have had, was the cause why many dis- eases that appeared to be separate and coherent maladies, should not be cured by homoeopathic treatment. All the subsequent sufferings were dated from the time when the psoric eruption had manifested itself. In many of these chronic patients, who were unwilling to confess having had the itch, or who had been too careless to heed it, or had no recollection of it, I often discovered, by careful inquiries, that vestiges of the itch had shown themselves upon their bodies from time to time, in the shape of small pustules or herpes, etc., as so many infallible symptoms of the chronic contagion. These circumstances, coupled with the fact, that psoric eruptions which had been removed by evil practices or by some other cause, were evidently followed in otherwise healthy persons by chronic ailments having the like or similar symptoms — as had been observed both by other physicians,* and myself, in an infinite number of cases — left me no doubt about the internal enemy which I had to combat in my medical treatment. This internal enemy I shall designate by the general term psora. It is an internal disease,— a sort of internal itch,— and may exist either with or without an eruption upon the skin. Little by little I discovered more ade- quate remedies against this internal disease, from which sprang so many sufferings. From the relief which I i >btained by their employment in cases where the patient had no recollection of the itch, I inferred that they re- sulted from a psora which had been communicated to the patient in the cradle, or in some other way, of which he *More recently, especially, by von Autenrieth, (see Tubinger Blatter fiir Naturwissenschaft und Arzneikunde, sec. vol., sec. part). 21 had no recollection. By carefully inquiring of the parents or old relatives, I discovered that my suspicion was well founded. Investigating with the utmost care the curative power of the antipsoric remedies which had been discovered for the last eleven years, I became more and more convinced that the milder as well as the more extensive, and even the most inveterate chronic diseases, owe their existence to the psoric miasm. I found that thousands of tedious ailments, which we find enumerated in our pathological works under distinct names, originate, with a few exceptions, in this widely ramified psora. Such diseases are most of those erup- tions upon the skin which have been distinguished with so much care, and separately denominated by Willan: almost all adventitious formations, from the common even up to the largest sarcomatous tumors, from the deformities of the finger-nails up to ramollissement of the bones and curvatures of the spine, and several other diseases of this kind, in early as well as a more advanced age; frequent epistaxis, varices of the veins of the rectum and the anus, blind or flowing haemorrhoids, haemoptysis, haemateniesis, haematuria, amenorrhcea, menorrhagia; night-sweats and diarrhoea of several years' standing; parchment-like dry- ness of the skin, permanent constipation and difficult evac- uation of the bowels; long-continued erratic pains; con- vulsions having occurred again and again for a number of years; chronic ulcers and inflammations; sarcomatous enlargement of the adipose tissue as well as emaciation; sur-excitation as well as weakness of the different senses; excessive as well as extinguished sexual desire; diseases of both the mind and the soul from imbecility up to ecstasy, from melancholy up to frenzy; swoons, vertigo, the so- called diseases of the heart, abdominal complaints, and the different forms of hysteria and hypochondria. Careful observations, comparisons and experiments in later years have revealed to me the fact, that the tedious ailments of both the body and the soul, (provided they do not belong to the class of syphilis or sycosis,) which differ so much 22 from each other in their principal symptoms, as well as in the different patients, are all of them nothing but partial manifestations of one primitive chronic psoric miasm, in which they all originate, and whose innumerable symptoms form but one integral disease, and ought, therefore, to be regarded and treated as parts of one and the same disturb- ance. Of this nature are the great epidemic typhus fevers, like that of 1813. One patient exhibits but a few symp- toms of the epidemic, a second patient a few others, a third and fourth again other symptoms inherent in that disease, all of these different symptoms constituting the same pes- tilential fever, and in their integrality, exhibiting the com- plete image of the disease. A few homoeopathic remedies* will cure such a typhus in every patient infected with the disease, though each patient may exhibit different symp- toms, and may seem to be afflicted with a different malady, t This is, upon a larger scale, the case with psora, this fountain-head of so many chronic ailments, each of which appears to be essentially different from the other. But this difference does not exist, as may be inferred from the fact, that the various successively appearing symptoms constituting those ailments belong to many of them in com- mon, and may be cured by the same remedies. I have already mentioned that all chronic diseases of mankind—even those which are left to themselves without having been made worse by wrong treatment — are so in- veterate immediately after they have become developed in the system, that, unless they are thoroughly cured by art, they continue to increase in intensity until the moment of death. They never disappear of themselves, nor can they be diminished, much less conquered or extinguished, by the most vigorous constitution, or the most regular mode of life and strictest diet. All chronic diseases, therefore, originate and are based upon fixed chronic miasms, which enable their parasitical ramifications to spread through the human organism and to grow without end. *In the typhus fever of 1813, Bryonia and Rhus toxicodendron were the specific rem', dies for all patients. fSee Organon of the healing art, fifth edition, 1834, § 100, etc. 23 In Europe, as well as in the other continents, we have been able to discover but three psoric miasms which cause diseases manifesting themselves by local symptoms, and in which most chronic ailments originate. These miasms are syphilis, (which I have also termed the venereal chancre,) sycosis, and then psora, which forms the basis of the itch. The last being the most important, I shall speak of it first. Though this psora is the oldest, most universal and most pernicious chronic miasmatic disease, yet it has been mis- apprehended more than any other. For thousands of years it has disfigured and tortured mankind; and, during the last centuries, it has become the cause of those thousands of incredibly different, acute as well as chronic, non-vener- eal diseases, with which the civilized portion of mankind becomes more and more infected upon the whole inhabited globe. Psora is the oldest miasmatic chronic disease known. The oldest history of the oldest nations does not reach its origin. Psora is just as tedious as syphilis and sycosis, and is, moreover, hydra-headed. Unless it is thoroughly cured, it lasts until the last breath of the longest life; not even the most robust constitution, by its own unaided efforts, is able to annihilate and to extinguish psora. In the many thousands of years since it has visited man- kind, the multitude of its morbid symptoms has increased to such an extent, that its secondary symptoms have be- come innumerable. All natural chronic ailments now ex- isting, which have not been produced by bad medical treat- ment, or by the fumes of quicksilver, lead, arsenic, etc., in the workshops, and which we find arrayed in the usual treatises on pathology as distinctly bounded and separately named diseases, originate in psora as their fountain-head. The diseases originating in syphilis, and those rare ones resulting from sycosis, do not come under this remark. According to the most ancient historical writings which we possess, psora existed already almost fully developed in the earliest ages of mankind. Several varieties of psora 24 have already been delineated by Moses * 3,400 years ago. At that time, however, and always afterwards, among the Israelites, psora appears to have especially infected the external parts of the body. This was also the case among the Greek barbarians, then among the Arabs, and finally in the uncivilized Europe of the middle ages. It is not my object to relate here the different names by which the vari- ous nations have designated the more or less malignant varieties of leprosy, (external symptoms of psora,) by which the external parts of the body become variously dis- figured. Names aro of no consequence here, since the essence of this miasmatic itch is everywhere the same. In the middle ages Europe was visited for several cen- turies by the frightful psora of the occidental countries, in the shape of a malignant erysipelas, called St. Anthony's Fire. In the thirteenth century it assumed again the form of leprosy; the crusaders brought this latter disease along with them. By this means leprosy spread in Europe more than it ever had done before, for in the year 1226 there were in France about 2,000 houses for the reception of leprous patients. Nevertheless, psora, spreading farther and farther in the form of a horrible eruption upon the skin, found at least some external alleviation in thoso means of cleanliness which the crusaders had brought * In the 13th chapter of the third book, and also in the 21st chap- ter, 20th verse of the same book, where Moses speaks of the defects which priests destined to do the offering ought not to have, the malignant itch is designated by the term (garab) the Alexandrian translators render this by *upa aypia, the Vulgate by scabies jugis. The interpreter of the Talmud, Jonathan, defines it a dry itch spread over the body; and, according to him, the expression used by Moses (bahereth) represents lichen, herpes. (See Rosenmiiiler; scholia in Levit. P. II., edit, sec, page 124.) The interpreters of the so-called English bible-work agree with this definition. Cal- met says that " leprosy is like an inveterate itch, with vehement itching." The ancients also mention the voluptuous itching, which has constantly been peculiar to and characteristic of the eruption of the itch. The scratching is followed by the painful burning. Plato calls the itch y'/.vn'nziKpov. Cicero speaks of the dulcedo of scabies. 25 along with them from the East, such as (cotton? linen?) shirts which had been unknown in Europe heretofore, and the frequent use of warm baths. These means, together with an increasing refinement and more select nourishment, succeeded, in a couple of centuries, in diminishing the dis- gusting appearance of psora so as to reduce the disease, towards the end of the fifteenth century, to the ordinary eruption of the itch. But alas! about this time, in the year 1493, syphilis, the second miasmatic chronic disease, began to raise its fearful head. The psoric eruption which appeared after infection had taken place, and which, in civilized countries, had been re- duced to a simple manifestation of the common itch, was easily driven from the skin by all sorts of contrivances. By means of baths, lotions, sulphur ointments, prepara- tions of lead, copper, zinc, and mercury, of which the mid- dle and higher classes availed themselves, the psoric erup- tion was often, and is now so quickly suppressed, that it remained often unknown whether a child or a full-grown person, in those classes, had been infected with the itch. But the cause of humanity was not improved by these proceedings; on the contrary, in many respects it grew worse. During the centuries when the psoric eruption was first known in the form of leprosy, the patients, though they suffered much in consequence of lancinating pains in the tumors and scabs, and the vehement itching all around, enjoyed nevertheless a fair share of general health. For, the obstinately lasting eruption upon the skin served as a substitute for the internal psora; and, what is more, the horrible and disgusting appearance of leprous patients made such an impression upon all healthy persons that they were frightened away already at a distance; in this way the leprous patients being kept apart from human society in separate houses, the contagion remained limited and was, comparatively speaking, rare. The milder forms of psora which appeared again, as has been mentioned before, during the 14th and 15th cen- turies, in the shape of the itch, infected a far greater num- ber than the leprous patients were able to do, whose fright- 26 ful appearance caused them to be carefully avoided by every body. The ilch vesicles do scarcely appear, and may be easily kept concealed; but being constantly scratched open in consequence of the intolerable itching, and the fluid being spread over the skin and those things which had been touched by such patients, the infection being con- cealed, takes place the more easily, and certainly, and affects a greater number. In this way psora has become the most contagious and the most universal of the chronic miasms. This miasm has generally already been communicated before the patient uses some external remedy (lead-water, mercurial ointment) against the eruption. Often he does not even admit having had the itch; perhaps he did not know it; and it even happens that the physician or the surgeon is ignorant of the nature of the eruption which is repelled by lead-water, etc. It may be easily conceived that, among persons of the inferior classes, who suffer the eruption to grow upon the skin until they become objects of horror to their fellow beings, the infection must have been widely spread by such patients before they do something towards removing the eruption. The more concealed and proportionately easier and more frequent infection of the itch is not the only disadvantage which has resulted for mankind from the psoric miasm having been reduced from leprosy to the common itch. There is another disadvantage, which is this, that the essence of this reduced psora is unchanged, that it is equally formidable as before, and that, being more easily repelled from the skin, it appears so much more impercep- tibly upon the inner surfaces; the chief symptom, which is external eruption, having been suppressed,* it produces * The itch may not only be removed by the evil practice of phy- sicians and quacks; it often leaves the skin of itself, as may be seen below from the observations of older physicians, in Nos. 9, 17, 26, 36, 50, 58, 61, 64, 65. In this respect syphilis and sycosis have an advantage over psora. In syphilis we have the chancre or bubo, and in sycosis the cauliflower excrescences, which never leaves the external parts, until they have either been destroyed by external 27 an innumerable quantity of secondary chronic ailments. Physicians lose sight of the origin of that host of second- ary morbid symptoms; they are unable to discover it, and the secondary disease is just as incurable as had been the applications or else have been removed by a rational cure, together with the whole of the internal disease. Hence syphilis, and the secondary symptoms of sycosis, are impossible as long as the chan- cre or the cauliflower excrescences are not violently removed from the external parts. Both chancre and cauliflower excrescence are external, unchangeable local substitutes for the internal disease leaving it latent to the end of life, and enabling the practitioner to cure the internal disease by the appropriate internal remedies, which ought to be continued until the local substitutes have dis- appeared without any external application. As soon as this shall have taken place, both syphilis and sycosis are thoroughly cured. In the last three centuries, the psoric miasm, which now mani- fests itself in the shape of the common itch, has been losing this benign character. The itch does not remain upon the skin as con- stantly and invariably as either chancre or cauliflower excres- cence. Although the eruption is often removed by the evil prac- tice of physicians and quacks, by desiccating washes, by salves of sulphur, drastic purgatives or cupping, yet it often disappears of itself, as it is called, without any known cause. It often disap- pears in consequence of an untoward physical or moral impression, violent fright, permanent chagrin, deep grief, violent catarrh, cold air, (as may be seen below, No. 67,) cold, tepid and warm mineral and river baths, a fever which may have resulted from any cause, or some other acute disease, (small-pox, see No. 39,) continuous diarrhoea, or perhaps a peculiar want of action in the skin; in all these cases the consequences are just as bad as if the eruption had been removed by irrational medical treatment. The secondary symptoms of the internal psora, and some one of the innumerable chronic diseases which owe their existence to this cause, break out sooner or later after the external eruption has disappeared by any of the above named causes. Nevertheless it ought not to be supposed that the psoric miasm, as manifested by the milder eruption, is essentially different from the ancient leprosy. Recent leprosy was, in old times, often removed from the skin by cold bathing, frequent ablutions in riv- ers, warm mineral baths, (see No. 35;) but the old physicians heeded the evil consequences of such a treatment no more than the modern do the acute affections and the lingering maladies which constantly appear as results of the internal psora after the voluntary or violent removal of the external eruption. 28 original malady with its eruption existing on the skin. This had, in fact, never been thoroughly cured, as experi- ence showed, but had constantly been made worse by a quantity of false remedies. At the time when the psoric poison was yet reduced to its formidable external substitute, leprosy, there were much less nervous affections, painful ailments, spasms, cancerous ulcers, adventitious formations, weaknesses, paralysis, con- sumptions, and degenerations of either body or soul, than there are now. These have especially appeared in the last three centuries from the above named causes.* Psora became, therefore, the common mother of most chronic diseases. It may be said that at least seven-eighths of the chronic maladies existing at present originate in the reckless sup- pression of the chief external symptom of psora, which acts as a substitute for the internal disease. The remaining. eighth originates in syphilis or sycosis, or in a complication of both miasms, or, what is very rare, in all three combined. Syphilis may be easily cured by the smallest dose of the best mercurial preparation, and sycosis by a few doses of Thuja employed in connection with Nitric acid. The cure of these miasmatic diseases is only then difficult and tedious when they are complicated with psora. Psora is most easily overlooked and misapprehended, and is, for this reason, treated in the worst and most pernicious manner. Modern physicians, even the most distinguished, with- * The increased irritability of the muscular fibre and the nerv- ous excitability consequent upon the use of coffee and Chinese tea, which has become so universal for the last two hundred years, have given the past generation an additional impulse towards a multitude of chronic sufferings, and have helped the psora to spread itself more and more. I, least of all, have a right to deny this, as I have shown, perhaps too strongly, in my little work on the effects of coffee, (Leipsic, 1803,) what a large share this beverage has in the bodily and spiritual ailments of mankind. At that time I had not yet discovered the principal source of most chronic dis- eases, which is psora. Coffee and tea are palliatives for several psoric symptoms. Psora could not have produced such inveterate chronic ailments, if it had not been aided by the immoderate use of coffee and tea. 29 out excepting almost any, either teacher or author, have established the rule, and have given it almost as an infalli- ble proposition, "that every psoric eruption is a mere local affection of the skin, with which the organism has nothing to do; that the eruption may be unhesitatingly removed by sulphur ointments, by the more active ointment of Jas- ser, by sulphur fumigations, by solutions of lead or zinc, but most speedily by mercurial preparations; that health is restored as soon as the external eruption has been re- moved; that it is indeed true that, by neglecting the erup- tion and leaving it upon the skin, the morbid matter may be finally absorbed into the humors; that it may deteriorate the blood, and ruin the general health; that these perverted humors may, however, be easily removed out of the system by purgatives and bloodlettings; but that all these second- ary diseases may be entirely avoided by speedily removing the eruption from the skin." There never was taught a doctrine which has been more fraught with evil conse- quences for mankind. Such horrible untruths were not only taught formerly, but they are taught and even practised in our days. In the most celebrated civil and military hospitals of the most enlightened countries and cities, and also among private patients of all classes, in prisons and orphan asylums, in short, all those who are affected with the itch, are ordered, by common as well as distinguished physicians, to use external applications for the purpose of removing the erup- tion, the sooner the better,* (as they imagine;) they may use, * These gentlemen, agreeably to the fanciful notion which they have fashioned of the nature of this important disease, assert that, in this case, the psoric miasm has not had time to be absorbed into the humors and to deteriorate them. But suppose the first little itch vesicle, the voluptuous itching of which excites a continual desire for scratching, which is followed by the burning pain, should prove, as we shall see below, that the psoric disease was already formed and completely developed in the inmost depths of the organism? What is to be done, if every removal of the erup- tion by external applications, so far from diminishing the violence of the internal malady, forces it, as is shown by thousands of facts, to break forth either in a vast number of acute affections, or else 30 perhaps, large quantities of flowers of sulphur internally, and some strong purgatives, with a view, as they suppose, of cleansing the system. This being done, they impudently assert that the disease is cured, and the patients are dis- missed * without the least regard for the secondary ailments which will certainhy sooner or later manifest themselves as results of the psoric reaction, f The deceived and unfortunate patients sooner or later return to the hospital, affected with the unavoidable con- sequences of the former treatment, such as swellings, obstinate pain in various parts of the body, hypochondria, hysteria, gout, consumption, tubercular phthisis, spasmodic asthma, blindness, deafness, paralysis, carcinoma of the bones, cancerous ulcers, spasms, haemorrhage, diseases of the mind and the soul, etc. These are considered new diseases, and, without suspecting their origin, treated according to the usual routine of therapeutics. But the remedies are directed against phantoms, imaginary causes, until, after many years of increasing suffering, death ensues, and frees the patients from the hands of the doctor. J gradually to ramify into a host of chronic ailments, that torture mankind and paralyze their strength ? Can these be cured by the ordinary methods? Experience shows that they cannot. * It sometimes happens that in vigorous patients affected with the itch, the eruption which had been removed by salves and purgatives, is brought out again by the vital power, (whose instinc- tive wisdom, being based upon a natural law, is superior to the understanding of its destroyers.) The patient then returns to the hospit al, and the treatment,by ointments and washes of zinc or lead in solution is renewed. To my knowledge, this pernicious removal of the eruption by external applications has been repeated three times in succession in military hospitals by senseless and homicidal quacks, their excuse being that the patient had caught the itch at three different periods, which is impossible. 11 wrote this six years ago; but even at this moment the same criminal doctrines are taught by physicians of the old school. In this most important of all medical interests, they have neither become wiser nor more charitable by one's hair's breadth. % By a kind of accident the patients were sometimes directed to use sulphur baths. But this direction was given without the doctor knowing why he gave it; it was mere empiricism, for he 31 In the treatment of psora the older physicians were much more conscientious than modern doctors are, and they were much more enlightened observers. Theirrprac- tice was based upon experience, which showed them that the removal of the psoric eruption from the skin by ex- ternal applications was followed by innumerable ailments, and the most grievous chronic maladies. Hence they con- cluded that every case of itch originated in some internal disease, which they endeavored to cure, as well as possible, by an innumerable quantity of their therapeutic agents. Of course their endeavors were fruitless, for they were ignorant of the only true method of curing psoric diseases, which it was reserved for Homoeopathy to reveal to the world. Nevertheless, their efforts being aimed at remov- ing the internal disease, which had ,given origin to the eruption upon the skin, they deserved much praise. In this respect the older physicians differ from the modern, whose chief object is to remove the itch from the skin as though it were a mere cutaneous disease, without dream- ing of the subsequent injuries which the older physicians have, in a thousand instances, exhibited in their works as warning examples. But the remarks of these honest practitioners are too striking to be left unnoticed, or to be treated with con- tempt. I shall subjoin here some of the innumerable cases of malpractice in the treatment of the itch, which the older physicians have left us, and which will be found sufficient, though I might double the number by quoting the cases which I have witnessed myself, to prove that the internal psora breaks forth with a perfect rage whenever it has been deprived of its external substitute, the cutaneous gave this direction because he had exhausted his whole stock of remedies, and did not know what else to prescribe. By these baths the chronic disease often disappeared for a time, but after- wards returned either with the same or analogous symptoms; in this case it was useless to resort again to the bath, because the cure of psora which has ceased to be latent, requires a much more adequate treatment than the brutal use of sulphur baths can afford. 32 eruption. Would that the physician might learn from these cases that all his efforts should be directed against the internal disease, and that an adequate cure of this dis- ease will not only cause the cutaneous eruption completely to disappear, but will prevent, and, in case they should already exist, will cure all the secondary chronic ailments consequent upon psoric reaction, and undermining the patient's life to his last moment. These ailments, either acute or chronic, — the latter being the more important,—by which a suppression of the cutaneous eruption acting as a substitute for the internal disease, is unavoidably followed—this mode of suppressing the eruption being falsely called, "repelling the itch into the system"—are as various as the peculiarities of the different constitutions, and the different modes in which they are affected by external influences. A short review of the evil consequences resulting from the suppression of the cutaneous eruption of the itch, may be found in a dissertation "De Damno ex Scabie Repulsa, Hal. 1750," p. 15 to 18, by the experienced and honest Lewis Christian Juncker. He observed that in young people of a sanguine temperament, this suppression was followed by tubercular phthisis; and that generally, in persons of a sanguine temperament, it was followed by haemorrhoids, colic, with bloody stools, and gravel; in per- sons of a sanguine-choleric temperament, by swelling of the inguinal glands, stiffening of the joints, and malignant ulcers (called in German, Todtenhruechej), in fat persons, by a suffocating catarrh and tabes mucosa, inflammatory fever, acute pleurisy and inflammation of the lungs. He says that in opening the bodies of such patients, the lungs have been found indurated and interspersed with saccu- lated cavities full of pus; that other indurations have likewise been discovered, together with swelling of the bones, and ulcers; that in persons of a phlegmatic tem- perament, this suppression of the cutaneous eruption pro- duced in most cases dropsy; that the menses were delayed, and that they were changed to haemoptysis in case the' eruption had been suppressed during their flow; that per- 33 sons of a melancholy temperament became sometimes deranged, and that in pregnant women, having this tem- perament, the fcetus was killed; that the suppression of the eruption sometimes caused sterility;* that the secre- tion of milk in nursing women was arrested; that the menses ceased to flow before women had attained the proper age; and that in older women the uterus became affected with carcinoma, accompanied with deep-seated, burning pains, and general emaciation. His experience has been frequently confirmed by the observations of others, f From this suppression of the cutaneous eruption of ths itch have resulted: * A pregnant Jewess had the itch upon her hands; she removed it in the eighth month of her pregnancy, in .order not to show it during the period of her delivery. She was delivered three days after the suppression of the eruption. The fochial discharge was arrested, and she had an acute fever. It was now seven years since she had been sterile and afflicted with leucorrhcea. Hav- ing become poor, she was obliged to go a great distance bare- footed; this brought the itch out again; leucorrhcea and the hys- teric affection disappeared, she became again pregnant, and was delivered of a healthy child.—(Juncker, ibid.). tin preparing my first edition of my Chronic Diseases, I was yet unacquainted with Autenrieth's Essays for the Practice of Medicine, based upon observations made in the clinical hospitals of Tubingen, 1808. His remarks on the diseases consequent upon the suppresion of the itch by external applications, confirm per- fectly all that I had already found in a hundred other authors. He too had observed that this suppression is succeeded by ulcers on the feet, pulmonary consumption, chlorosis, menstrual irregular- ities, white-swelling in the knee, dropsy of the joints, epilepsy, am.... .osis with obscured cornea, glaucoma (opacity of the crysta- line lens), with complete amaurosis, mental derangement, paraly- sis, apoplexy, torticollis, etc. He attributes all these diseases (though incorrectly) to the use of ointments. But the slow re- moval of the itch, which he proposes to effect with hepar sulphuris and salves, is not a whit better; it is likewise a mere local suppres- sion of the disease. He says that " it is ridiculous to undertake to cure the itch internally." This shows that he knows nothing about the proper treatment of the itch. It is indeed absurd to undertake to cure the internal psoric disease completely and thoroughly, by any other but internal remedies. c 34 Asthma.*—F. H. L. Muzell, Wahrnehmungen, second col- lection, 8th case;1 J. Fr. Gmelin in Gessner's Collection of Beobachtungen, v., p. 21 f Zieger, Diss, de Scabie Artifi- cial!, Lips. 1758, p. 32 ;3 Stanmen, Diss, de Causis Cur Im- primis Plebs Scabie Laboret. Helmst. 1792, p. 26;4 Pelargus (Storch) Obs. Clin, year 1722, page 435 to 438 f Breslauer * Note of the translator.— Hahnemann quotes a vast num- ber of authors who have furnished cases of the evil consequences of the suppression of itch. For the sake of brevity, I have omitted the names of these authors, together with the indication of their works and the cases quoted, leaving only those authors whose cases have been extracted by Hahnemann in full. (1) A man 30 or 40 years old, had been affected with the itch a long time ago, which had been removed by ointments. Ever since then he became more and more asthmatic. Breathing became finally very short and painful, even when he was perfectly quiet. In breathing there was a sibilant sound, but little cough. He was directed to take an injection of squills, 16 grains, and the same drug internally in the form of a powder, 3 grains. But by a mistake, he swallowed the 16 grains. He was in danger of losing his life. He had immense nausea and retching. But the itch coming out again in abundance on his hands, feet, and on the whole body, the asthma disappeared at once. (2) The vehement asthma was combined with general swelling and fever. (3) A man of 32 years had the itch removed by sulphur oint- ment, in consequence of which he suffered the most violent asthma for eleven months. The eruption was at last restored on the 23rd day. (4) A student caught the itch when he was about going to a dance. To be able to do this, he had the itch removed as soon as possible by a sulphur ointment. Soon after he was attacked with such a vehement asthma that it was impossible for him to take breath except with his head raised; during the attack he was almost suffocating. After having thus wrestled with death for an hour, he threw up little pieces of a cartilaginous substance; this gave him some ease for a time. Having returned to Osterode, his home, he suffered for two years of this disease. The attack came on at least ten times each day. His physician, Beireis, was not even able to give him the slightest relief. (5) A boy of 13 years had been affected with tinea ever since his childhood. His mother having removed it by an ointment, he had 8 or 10 days afterwards a violent attack of asthma and of acute pain in the limbs, back and knee, which only disappeared a month after, when the itch broke out all over his body. 35 Sammlungen, of the year 1727, p. 293 ;r' Riedlin, father, Obs. Cent. II., obs. 90. Augsburg, 1691.' Catarrh with- suffocation.— Ehrenf. Hagendorn, Hist. Med. Phys. Cent. Iv Hist. 8, 9;s Pelargus, Al. Loc. Jahr- gang, 1723, p. 15.9 Asthmatic Suffocations.—Willi. Fabr. v. Hilden, Obs. Cent. III. obs. 39 ;10 Ph. R. Vicat, Obs. pract obs. 35. Vito- duri,11 1780; J. J. Waldschmid, Opera, 244.12 (6) Tinea capitis was cared in a little girl by purgatives and other internal remedies. The child was then attacked with dysp- noea, cough and great lassitude. The child speedily recovered his health as soon as the remedies were discontinued, and the tinea disappeared. (7) A boy of five years had the itch. It was removed by an oint- ment, whereupon he was seized with great melancholy and cough. (8) Tinea capitis having been removed by the application of almond oil, there came on great weariness in all the limbs, head- ache on one side, want of appetite, asthma, waking up in the night from an attack of catarrhal suffocation, violent rhonchus and sib- ilus in the chest, convulsive torsions of the limbs, as though he were in articulo mortis, and hsematuria. Upon the tinea reappear- ing, he recovered from all these ailments. A girl three years old had been affected with the itch for some weeks, which was removed by an ointment. The next day the child was attacked with a suffocating catarrh, rhonchus, dumbness, coldness of the whole body; she recovered as soon as the itch came out again. (9) A girl 12 years old had her itch removed by an ointment, whereupon she was attacked with an acute fever, whooping-cough, asthma and swelling, and afterwards pleurisy. Six days later she took some internal medicine containing sulphur. This brought the itch out again, and with the exception of her swelling, all her ailments disappeared. However, after the lapse of 24 days the itch dried up again, which was followed by inflammation of the chest, pleurisy and vomiting. (10) In a man of 20 years, dyspnoea came on after the removal of the itch; it was so violent that it was impossible for him to breathe, in consequence of which he died of suffocation. (11) A young man of 19 years had a moist herpes on the left upper arm, which was removed by a great many external applica- tions. Soon after he was attacked with a periodically returning asthma, which became almost suffocating in consequence of a long journey in the heat of the summer; the face was tumefied, blue- red, and the pulse feeble and unequal. (12) Immediately after the removal of the itch, the patient was attacked with dyspnoea, and died of suffocation. 36 Asthma, niiJt swelling all over the body.—Pelargus, Aliis Loc. Jahrgang, 1723. p. 504;1J Riedlin, father, Aliis Loc. Obs. 91." Asthma, with dropsy of the chest. - Morgagni, de sed. et. Caus. Morb. XVI. art. 34; Hagendorn,1G Al. Loc. Cent. II. Hist. 15.10 Pleurisy and inflammation of the chest.— Pelargus, Al. Loc. p. 10;'7 the same, Jahrgang, 1721, p. 23 and 114,18 and Jahrgang, 1723, p. 29,19 and Jahrgang, 1722, p. 459 ;20 Jer- zembsky, Diss. Scabies Salubris in Hydrope, Halae, 1777 ;21 (13) A girl of 5 years had had, for some time, large itch vesicles on her hands, which had dried of themselves. Shortly after she was seized with short breathing, and became sleepy and exhausted; on the following day the asthma continued and her abdomen be- came distended. (14) A countryman of 50 years had been affected with the itch for a long time. lie had it removed by some external application, whereupon there was difficult breathing, want of appetite, and swelling of the whole body. (15) A girl of Bologna, on removing the itch by an ointment, had a most violent attack of asthma without fever. After two blood-lettings she became so exhausted and the asthma increased to such an extent, that she died the day after. The whole chest, as well as the cavity of the pericardium, were full of bluish water. (16) A girl of 9 years, whose tinea had been removed, was at- tacked with a lingering fever, swelling all over the body and diffi- cult breathing; she recovered after the tinea had reappeared. (17) A man of 46 years removed his itch by sulphur ointment. Thereupon he was seized with inflammation of the chest, bloody expectoration and great anguish. The day after, heat and anguish became almost intolerable; the pain in the chest increased on the third day. Then sweat broke out. After the lapse of a fortnight the itch had broken out again, and he felt relieved. He had a relapse, the itch dried in again, and he died thirteen days after. (18) A thin man died of inflammation of the chest and other ailments, twenty days after the itch had been removed. (19) A boy of 7 years, whose tinea and itch dried away from the skin, died, after the lapse of four days, of an acute fever accom- panied with asthma and expectoration. (20) A young man who removed his itch by means of a lead- ointment, died in four days of a disease of the chest. (21) Anasarca was quickly relieved by the itch breaking out again. Being suppressed again in consequence of a violent cold, pleurisy came on and death ensued in three days. 37 Karl Weiizel, die Nachkrankheiten von Zuriickgetretener Kratze, Bamb. 1826, p. 49.22 Pleurisy and cough.—Pelargus, Jahrg. 1722, p. 79.2" Violent cough.—Hundertmark, p. 23.28* Hemoptysis. Hemoptysis and consumption.—Chn. Max. Spener, Diss. de Mgro Febri Maligna, Phthisi Complicata Laborante, Giess., 1699 ;2t Sicelius, Praxis Casual. Exerc. III. cas. I. Francf, and Lips., 1743 ;J:' Morgagni, XXI. art. 32f Un- zers, Arzt, CCC. p. 508.27 Collection of pits in the chest.—F. A. Waitz, Med. Chir. Aufsatze, Th. I., p. 114, 115.2S Sacculated bags full of pus in the intestines.— Schubert, Diss, de Scab. Hum. Lips., 1779, p. 23.29 (22) A country lad was attacked with an acute fever, pleurisy, dyspnoea, etc., in consequence of having had the itch suppressed by sulphur ointment six weeks before those diseases. (23) A boy of 13 years, in whom the itch dried in, had cough and stitches in the chest. These symptoms disappeared, after the itch had come out again. (23*) A man of 36 years had the itch removed It! months ago by an ointment of lead and mercury; ever since then he suffered of a convulsive cough, combined with great anguish. (24) A young man of is years had the itch removed by a black- looking wash. A few days after, he was seized with chills and heat, weariness, anguish, headache, nausea, violent thirst, cough, difficult breathing; he spit blood in coughing, he began to talk delirious, his face became dead-colored and emaciated, the urine looked blood-red, without sediment. (25) In a young man of 18 years, whose itch had been removed by a mercurial ointment. (26) The itch disappeared of itself, and was succeeded by a lingering fever and fatal expectoration of pus; the left lung was found full of pus. (27) A robust-looking candidate for the ministry, wishing to free himself from his old itch on account of being obliged to preach in a few days, covered himself with an itch ointment in the morn- ing. In a few hours he was attacked with anxiety, short breath- ing, and tenesmus and died immediately after noon: on opening the body the whole lungs were seen filled with liquid pus. (28) Empyema consequent upon repelled itch, which had come out a few years ago, especially in the months of March and April. (29) A young man, heedless of the warning of the excellent 38 Great degeneration of a large portion of the intestines. —J. H. Schulze, in Act. Nat. Cur., Tom. I., obs. 231.,(' Degeneration of the brain.—Bonet, Sepulchretum Anat., sect. IV., obs. I., § l,31 and § 2.32 Hydrocephalus. Ulcers upon the stomach.—L. Chn. Juncker, Diss de Scabie Bepulsa, Hal. 1750, p. 16.*' Sphacelus of the stomach and duodenum.— Hundert- mark, p. 29.34 General dropsy.'7' Dropsy of the chest. Swelling of the scrotum, (in boys). Bed swelling of the whole body. Jaundice. Swelling of the parotid glands. Swelling of physician and professor, Krause, died of constipation in conse- quence of having used a sulphur ointment against the itch which had broke out again upon his skin. Collections of pus were found in his intestines. (30) The diaphragm and liver were also diseased. (31) A little prince of two years had tinea removed by oint- ments. After his death much bloody water was found under the skull. (32) In a woman who died on account of having used a wash for the removal of tinea, one half of the brain was found putrefied and filled with yellow pus. (33) A rich man of a choleric-sanguine temperament, had a gouty affection of the abdomen, and pain like that consequent upon stone. He removed the gout by all sorts of remedies. After this the itch broke out. The eruption having been removed, an ulcer formed on the stomach, which caused his death, as was made evident by a post-mortem examination. (34) A boy of seven weeks, and a young man of 18 years, died all of a sudden in consequence of the itch having been removed by sulphur ointment. In the body of the former the upper portion of the stomach immediately below the orfice, and in the latter that portion of the duodenum into which the ductus choledochus com- munis and the pancreatic duct open, were found destroyed by sphacelus. A similarly fatal mortification of the stomach occur- red in a journeyman. See Murgagni, LV., art. 11. (35) Innumerable cases of such dropsy may be found in a vast number of authors, among whom I shall simply refer to J. D. Pick, Exercit. Med. de. Scabie Retropulsa, Hal. 1710, § 6. He men- tions a case of itch that, having been suppressed by mercurial oint- ment, produced dropsy. This was only alleviated by the reap- pearance of the dropsy. The author of Epidemion, which is attributed to Hippocrates, 39 the cervical glands.— Pelargus, Jahrg. 1723, p. 593 ;36 Un- zer, Arzt, Th. VI., St. 301.37 Obscuration of the eyes and presbyopia.—Fr. Hoffmann, Consult. Med. I., cas. 50.38 Inflammation of the eyes.—Hallmann, in Konigl. Vet- enskaps Handle, f. A. X. S. 210.33 has been the first to mentoin, in No. 4, of the fifth book, the sad result which has been alluded to in the preceding paragraph. An Athenian was seized with a violently itching eruption, which was not unlike the eruption of lepra, and which extended over the whole body, and especially the genital organs. The eruption hav- ing been suppressed by warm baths upon the island of Melos, the patient died of subsequent dropsy. (36) A boy of 8 or 9 years had tinea, which was suppressed by ointment. There was much swelling of the cervical glands, which made the neck crooked and stiff. (37) A youth of 14 years had the itch in June, 1761. It was sup" pressed by means of a gray ointment. In consequence of this sup- pression, his parotid glands swelled considerably. The swelling of the left disappeared of itself, but the right became enormously enlarged, and, towards August, painful. All the cervical glands were swollen. The large ones on the outside felt hard and knotty; but on the inside there was an obtuse pain, especially during night; moreover, he suffered of difficult breathing and swallowing. All attempts at causing the glands to suppurate, remained fruit- less; they grew so large that the patient finally died of suffocation in the year 1762. [(38) A girl of 13 years was attacked with the itch, especially on the joints, upon the face and the pudenda. The itch having been suppressed by means of zinc and sulphur ointments, the girl's sight became affected. She saw dark bodies floating before her face, which might also have been seen floating in the aqueous humour of the anterior chamber. The was unable to perceive little objects ucless she used spectacles. The pupils were dilated. (39) A girl had a violent eruption of the itch on her legs, to- gether with large ulcers in the bend of the knee. Being attacked with the small-pox, the itch was suppressed. This suppression induced a moist inflammation of the white of the eye and the eye- lids, which lasted for two years, and was accompanied with itch- ing and suppuration of the lids, and a sensation of dark bodies floating before the eyes, After this, she put on for three days woollen stockings having been worn by a child affected with the itch. On the third day a fever broke out, with dry cough, dysp- noea, and an inclination to vomit. Next day the fever and the symptoms in the chest abated. Sweat broke out, which increased 40 Lenticular cataract.—Chr. Gottlieb Luclwig, Advers. Med., Tom. II. S. 157.40 Complete aumaurosis.—Northof, Dis. de Scabie, Gotting. 1792, S. 10;41 Chr. G, Ludwig;42 Fabricius ab Hilden, Cent. II., obs. 39.4:1 Deafness. Inflammation of the bowels. Hemorrhoids. —Acta Helvet. V. S. 192 ;44 Daniel, Syst. ,F,grit. II., S. 245.40 Abdominal complaints.—Fr. Hoffman, Med. Rat. Syst. III., S. 177.4fi Diabetes, (suppression of urine). — Morgagni, XLL, art. 2.47 Erysipelas.— Unzer, Arzt., Th. V. p. 301.4S until erysipelas appeared on both legs, which became true itch on the day following. The eyes improved. (40) A man of robust constitution, whose itch had been sup- pressed by ointment, was seized with cataract. (41) Suppression of the itch caused amaurosis, which disap- peared when the eruption broke out again. (42) A robust man, whose itch had been suppressed, was at- tacked with complete amaurosis and remained blind up to an ad- vanced age. (43) Complete amaurosis from a similar cause with terrible headache. (44) Hemorrhoids re-appeared every month. (45) Suppression of the itch was followed by a loss of eight pounds of blood within a few hours, colic, fever, etc. (46) Suppression of the itch was followed by the most violent colic, pain in the left lumbar region, uneasiness, lingering fever, anxiety, and obstinate constipation. (47) In a young peasant, suppression of the itch was followed by suppression of the urine, vomiting, and sometimes a pain in the left loin. Afterwards there was an occasional flow of urine, but in a small quantity and painful. The urine was dark red. They tried in vain to evacuate the bladder by means of a catheter. At last his whole body was distended; slow, difficult breathing came on, and he died twenty-one days after the suppression of the itch. The bladder contained two pounds of dark red urine; and the abdominal cavity contained water which, when kept for some time over the fire, formed a thick substance like the white of an egg. (48) A man having suppressed his itch by mercurial ointment, he had an erysipelatous inflammation on the neck, which ended his life in five weeks. 41 Discharges of acrid pus. Ulcers.—Unzer, Arzt, Th. V. p. 301 ;49 Pelargus, Jahrg. 1723, p.673;50 Breslauer Samml. 1727, p. 107 •/" Muzell, Wahrnehm. II. cas. 6;52 Riedlin, son. Cent. obs. 3853. Cancer of the bones. Osteosarcoma of the knee. Pain in the bones. Rachitis and emaciation in children. Fever. —Bammazzini, Const. Epid. Urbis, II. No. 32, 1691 ;54 J. C. Carl, in Act. Nat. Cur., VI. obs. 16.5S Fever. —Reil, Memorab. Fasc. III. p. 169;56 Pelargus, Jahrg. 1721, p. 276,57 and the same, Jahrg. 1723 ;5S Schiller, (49) A woman having used mercurial ointment against the itch, she had an eruption all over the body, which caused whole pieces of flesh to rot away, and ended her life in a few days amidst vio- lent pain. (50) A young man of 16 years having lost his itch, which he had had for some time, ulcers broke out on the legs. (51) A man of 50 years having suppressed his itch, he had tear- ing pains for five weeks in the left axilla, after which several ulcers were forming in the pit. (52) A quack gave a student an ointment against the itch. It disappeared, but an ulcer formed in the mouth, which could not be cured. (53) A student who had been afflicted with the itch, suppressed it by an ointment. The suppression was followed by ulcers on the arms and legs, with glandular swellings in the axilla. Tbe ulcers having been cured by external remedies, he was attacked with asthma, then with dropsy, and he finally died. (54) Many observations may be made when the suppression of the itch was followed by fever and blackish urine, and when, after the reappearance of the itch, the fever disappeared and the urine resumed its healthy color. (55) A man and a woman had the itch upon their hands for many years. Each suppression of the itch was followed by an attack of fever, which ceased as soon as the itch reappeared. The itch was only found upon a small portion of their bodies, nor was it ever suppressed by external remedies. (56) Scabies a febre suborta supprimitur, remota febre redit. (57) A boy of 9 years, whose tinea had been suppressed by oint- ments, had a violent attack of fever. (58) A child of one year had for some time tinea and an erup- tion upon the face, which disappeared. A little while after, the child was seized with heat, cough and diarrhoea. Health was restored, when the tinea reappeared. 42 Diss, de Scabie Humida. Erford, 1747, p. 44;'"' J. J. Pick, Exercitatio Med. de Scabie Retropulsa, Hal. 1710, § 2;80 Pe- largus, Jahrg. 1722, p. 122 ;61 also Jahrg. 1723 p. 14 ;62 C. G. Ludwig, Advers. Med., II., p. 157 to 160;63 Morgagni, X., art. 9,64 XII., art. 31,65 XXXVIII. art. 22,66 LV, art. 3.67 (59) A woman of 43 years suppressed the dry itch, with which she had been afflicted for a long time, by an ointment of mercury and sulphur. The suppression was followed by pain below the ribs of the right side, weariness in all her limbs, heat and feverish irritation. After having used diaphoretics for six days, large itch vesicles broke out over her whole body. (60) Two young men, who were brothers, suppressed the itch by the same remedy. They lost all appetite, were attacked with dry cough, lingering fever, emaciation, and stupor, and would have died, if the eruption had not come out again. (61) A child of three years was afflicted with tinea, which dis- appeared of itself. This was followed by inflammation of the chest, cough, and weariness. When the eruption came out again, the child recovered. (62; A journeyman purser, who was told to make some kind of embroidery, freed himself from his itch by lead ointment. The itch had scarcely died away, when he was seized with chills, heat, asthma, and rattling cough, which caused his death by suffocating him on the fourth day. (63) A man of 30 years, of a healthy and robust constitution, was affected with the itch. He removed it, and was afterwards at- tacked with catarrhal fever and an immense sweat, from which he recovered very slowly. All on a sudden he was again attacked with another fever without any perceptible cause. The attacks began with anxiety and headache, and continued increasing with heat, quick pulse and morning sweat. These symptoms were combined with great sinking of strength, talking delirious, anx- ious tossing about and groaning, breathing with suffocation. In spite of all medicines, the disease ended in death. (64) The spontaneous suppression of the itch in a boy was suc- ceeded by fever. The itch coming out again, the fever disappeared. But the child grew thin, and the itch dried in a second time; diar- rhoea, convulsions, and soon after, death, were the consequences of this suppression. (65) The itch disappeared of itself; this was followed by a lingering fever, expectoration of pus, and at last death. The left lung was found full of pus. (66) A woman of 30 years had for a long time pain in the joints and a considerable eruption of itch; she removed it by an oint- (67) See page 43. 43 Fever.— Hochstetter, Obs. Med, Dec. VIII., cas. 8;68 Wehle, Diss Nullam Medicinam Interdum esse Optimam, Witemb. 1754;"' Fick. § l;70 Amatus, Lusit. Cent. II., Curat. 33;T1 Fr. Hoffmann, Med. Bat. System. T. III. p. 175.'2 ment. This was followed by fever, with violent heat, thirst and violent headache, combined with talking delirious, severe asth- ma, tumefaction of the body, and great distension of the abdomen. Six days after the breaking out of the fever she was dead. The abdomen contained only much air; the stomach, which was re- plete with air, filled up half of the abdomen. (67) A man whose tinea had been suppressed by cold, was seized with a malignant fever and vomiting, eight days after the suppression; at last hiccup came on and the patient died on the ninth day. In the same article, Morgagni quotes the case of a man affected with porrigo on the arms and other parts, which he removed by means of a shirt fumigated with sulphur. He was immediately seized with drawing pains in the whole body, and fever, which prevented him from resting in the night, or from stirring from his place in day time. Tongue and fauces were also affected with the malady. With much trouble the eruption was brought out again upon the skin, and he recovered. " (68) Suppression of the itch was followed by a malignant fever and opisthotonos. (69) In a young merchant, the suppression of the itch was sud- denly followed by such a hoarseness that he was unable to utter a loud syllable; this was followed by dry asthma, loathing of food, violent cough, which tormented him, especially during the night, and robbed him of sleep; excessive and badly smelling night sweats, and finally death, in spite of all medical treatment. (70) A mayor of sixty years had the itch, which caused him much suffering, especially in the night. He used many remedies against it in vain. A mendicant at last taught him a remedy said to be infallible, composed of the Olium laurocerasi, flowrers of sul- phur and lard. This caused the eruption to disappear; but imme- diately after, he was seized with violent chills, then heat over the whole body, vehement thirst, panting breathing, sleeplessness, violent trembling in the whole body, and great lassitude; he ex- pired on the fourth day. / (71) Suppression produced frenzy, and a fever, resulting in death. (72) Suppression of the itch is generally followed by acute fevers and great sinking of strength. In a case of suppressed itch the fever had lasted seven days; after this period the eruption came out again, and the fever disappeared. • 44 Tertian.—Pelargus, Jahrg. 1722, p. 103, compare with p. 79/; Quartan.—Fr. Hoffmann, Med. Hat. Syst., III., p. 175.''' Vertigo and total sinking of strength. Epileptic vertigo. —Fr. Hoffmann, Consult. Med. I., cas. 12." Epilepsy with vertigo.—Fr. Hoffmann, p. 30.: (73) A boy of 15 years, who took a purge against tinea, was at- tacked with pain in the back, cutting pain during micturition, and afterwards a tertian fever; the disease was of long standing, and the purge administered by Pelargus. . (74) "Old people are mostly affected with dry itch. The suppres- sion of this kind of itch is generally followed by a quartan fever, which ceases the moment the itch comes out again." (75) A count of 57 years had been effected with dry itch for three years. The itch having been suppressed, he apparently enjoyed good health for two years, with the exception of attacks of vertigo, which increased to such an extent that on one occasion he would have fallen to the floor if he had not been caught. This occurred after a meal. He was covered with a cold, clammy sweat, his limbs trembled, all the parts of the body had the appearance of be- ing dead; he frequently vomited sour substances. The attack came on a second time six weeks after. It then came on every month for three months in succession. He retained his senses, but the attacks were followed by heaviness in the head and a sort of a stupefaction such as is consequent upon intoxication. At last the attack came on every day, although the violence of the attacks had abated. He was not permitted to read, or to think; to turn quickly or to stoop; he was also affected with sadness, sighing, and melan- choly thoughts. (76) A woman of 36 years had used mercurial ointment for the suppression of the itch; the consequence was that her menses be- came irregular; and were often interrupted for ten or fifteen weeks; moreover she was constipated. Four years ago, being pregnant, she was seized with vertigo: while standing or walking she fell to the floor when an attack came on. In the sitting po- sition she retained her senses during an attack; she was able to speak, to eat, and to drink. When the attack came on there was a sensation of crawling and formication in the left foot, which terminated in the foot being violently raised up and down. The attacks gradually deprived her of her senses, and on a journey in a carriage she was attacked with real epilepsy, which returned three times during the winter. During these attacks she was un- able to speak; the thumbs were not clenched, but there was foam at the mouth. The sensation of formication in the left foot announced the attack; when this sensation had reached the pit of 45 Convulsions.—Welle, Diss. Nullam Medicinam Intur- dum esse Optimam, Viteb., 1754, § 13, 14;" Sicelius, Decas Casuum I. cas. 5;78 Pelargus, Jahrg. 1723, p. 545.7° Epileptic convulsions. Epilepsy.— J. C. Carl, in Act. Nat. Cur. VI. obs. 16;S0 E. Hagendorn, Hist. 9;S1 Fr. Hoff- mann, Consult. Med. I. cas. 31 ;82 Fabr. de Hilden, Cent. III. obs. 10f Riedlin, Lin. Med. Ann. 1696, Maj. obs. I;84 G. the stomach, the fit came on. A woman removed this epilepsy by means of five powders; after this the vertigo reappeared with much greater violence than before; this too began with a sensation of crawling in the left foot, which rose to the pit of the stomach; this sensation was combined with great anxiety and fear, as though she fell from a height; she then became speechless, lost her senses, and the limbs were convulsively agitated. Even between the attacks her feet now are extremely painful to the slightest touch, like boils. Moreover, she has a violent pain and heat in the head, and her memory is gone. (77) Suppression of the itch, in a girl, was followed by a deep swoon, horrible convulsions, and finally death. (78) A girl of 17 years was affected with tinea, which disap- peared of itself. After this she constantly had heat in the head and attacks of headache. Sometimes she suddenly started up as if by fright, and while walking she had convulsions, especially of the arms and hands; oppression in the pit of the stomach, conse- quent upon constriction of the chest; whining, then came on con- vulsions and startings of the limbs. (79) Tinea dried in a full-grown man who had been affected for some years with tremor of the hands. This caused great lassi- tude; red patches, without heat, broke out all over his body; the tremor now passed into convulsive shaking, he coughed up bloody matter through the nose, the ears, and from the chest, and he died amidst convulsions on the twenty-third day. (80) A man who had suppressed his frequently returning itch by ointments, was attacked with epileptic fits, which disappeared on the reappearance of the eruption upon the skin. (81) A young man of 18 years suppressed his itch by means of a mercurial ointment. Two months after, he was seized sud- denly with convulsions attacking all the limbs of his body; they were accompanied with painful constriction of the chest and neck, coldness of the limbs and great weakness. On the fourth day epi- lepsy came on, with foam at the mouth and strange contortions of the limbs. The fits ceased the moment the itch broke out again. (82) In a boy whose tinea had been suppressed by almond oil. (83) In children, accompanied with suffocating catarrh. (84) Epilepsy came on in a servant girl after the itch had been suppressed twice. 46 W. Wedel, Diss, de .Egro Epileptico. Jen. 1673 ;v Herrm. Grube, de Arcanis Medicor. non Arcanis, Hafn. 1673. p. 165 ;86 Tulpius, Obs. lib. I. cap. 8;87 Th. Thompson, Medic. Rathpflege, Leipsic, 1779, p. 107, 108^'Hundert- mark, p. 32;8fl Fr. Hoffmann, Consult. Med. I., cas. 28, p. 141.90 (85) A youth of 18 years had fits of epilepsy after having sup- pressed the itch by mercurial ointment a few weeks before. The fits returned in four weeks, about new moon. (86) A boy of 7 years was attacked with epilepsy. The parents were unwilling to admit that it came from suppressed itch. The mother at last confessed to the carefully inquiring physician that the boy had had a few itch vesicles on the soles of the feet, which had soon yielded to lead ointment; but there had been no other eruption on any part of the body. The physician considered this, and correctly so, the cause of the fit. (87) Two children were freed from epilepsy by the eruption of moist tinea; the fits however returned as soon as the tinea had been suppressed. (88) Itch which had lasted for five years, disappeared from the skin; this disappearance caused epilepsy after a couple of years. (89) A young man of 20 years had his itch suppressed by means of a purge. In consequence of this suppression he suffered for two years the most violent convulsions, until the itch was brought out again by birch-juice. (90) A young man of 17 years suppressed his itch; he was of a robust constitution and had a sound understanding. After the suppression of the itch, three years ago, he was first attacked with haemoptysis, then with epilepsy, which grew worse by medicine, so that he had two attacks in an hour. A surgeon procured him relief for four weeks, by bleeding and medicines. But soon after the fits returned during a nap, and he had two or three attacks every night, accompanied with an intense cough and a suffocating catarrh, especially during the night; with all this he threw up a fetid liquid. He was obliged to keep his bed. At last he had ten fits during the night and eight during the day; the fits were caused by taking much medicine. Nevertheless the thumbs were never clinched during an attack, nor was there any foam at the mouth. His memory is now weakened. The fits came on a little before the time of the meals, but principally after the meals. During the nightly attacks he remains in the deepest sleep without waking up. In the morning he feels bruised all over. The only indication of a coming fit is his rubbing the nose and drawing up the left foot, after which he suddenly falls. 47 Apoplexy. Paralysis.—Unzer, Arzt, VI. p. 301 ;91 Hun- dertmark, p. 33;92 Schubert, Diss, de Scabie Human. Corp. Lips. 1779, p. 23.93 Melcancholy.^Reil, Memorab. Fasc. III. p. 177.94 Frenzy.- Brune, Diss. Casus Aliquot Mente Alienatorum,. Hal. 1707, cas. I. p. 5f F. H. Waitz, Medic. Chirurg. Aufsatze, Th. I. p. 130;96 Grossman, in Baldinger's Neuem Magazin. XI. 1.9T These few cases, drawn from the writings of the older physicians and from my own experience,* are sufficient to (91) A woman's leg became paralyzed, and remained so, through suppressed itch. (92) Hemiplegia ensued in a man of 53 years, after suppression of the itch by mercurial ointment. (93) A minister had for a long time used internal remedies against the itch; of these remedies he got at last tired. He there- fore employed ointments. The consequence was that the upper extremities became paralyzed, and that a hard and thick skin formed in the palm of the hands, itching terribly and marked with bloody, shrivelled patches. At the same place mention is made of a woman whose finger contracted in consequence of sup- pressed itch. The contractions lasted long. (94) Suppression of the itch was succeeded by melancholy and imbecility, which disappeared on the reappearance of the itch. (95) A student of 20 years caught the itch. His hands became covered with it to such an extent that he was unfit for his busi- ness. The itch was suppressed by means of an ointment. Shortly after he became deranged, sang or laughed where it was improper to do so, and ran until he fell down exhausted. His sickness in- creased from day to day, until finally hemiplegia came on and he died. The intestines cohered like a firm mass. They were inter- spersed with little ulcers, with protuberances of the size of wal- nuts, which were filled with a viscid substance resembling plaster. (96) The same phenomena. (97) A man of 50 years was attacked with anasarca on account of having suppressed his itch by ointments. The itch returned and the dropsical swelling disappeared. A second suppression was followed by frenzy, with head and neck swelled up to suffocation, lastly there supervened blindness and complete suppression of urine. Artificial stimulants applied to the skin and strong emet- ics, brought the itch out again. After it had spread over the whole body, all the former accidents disappeared. * An opponent from the old school has reproached me with not having shown, by examples from my own experience, that chronic 4* convince the intelligent observer that the itch, together with its varieties, tinea capitis, crusta lactea, herpes, etc., are the external vicarious symptoms of an internal disease affecting the whole organism, and that psora is the most pernicious of all chronic miasms. After reading the above cases no reasonable and inquiring physician will dare to assert that the itch, tinea, herpes, etc., are mere cutaneous diseases, which may unhesitatingly be removed from the skin by external applications, because the organism is not affected by them. This kind of treatment is the most pernicious, the most infamous and the most unpardonable malpractice of which allopathic physicians have made themselves guilty. He who is blind against the wisdom which the above quoted examples teach, willfully prepares the ruin of man- kind. Are my opponents ignorant of the fact, that all mias- matic diseases, accompanied with cutaneous eruptions, pbserve the same course from their very origin? and that all miasms first attack the whole organism internally, before the vicarious affection manifests itself upon the skin? By examining that course a little more closely, we shall find that all miasmatic diseases which form local affections upon the skin, are internal diseases, the last result of which is the local cutaneous affection. In acute diseases, the local symptoms, together with the disease, leave the ailments, which neither originated in syphilis nor in sycosis, are all of them derived from repelled psora. I should like to know whether examples, were they even drawn from my own experience, can be more strikingly convincing than those which I have quoted from both old and modern allopathic works? Have not our op- ponents from the old school often denied us belief, because our observations were not made before their own eyes, and the names of the patients were only indicated by a letter, as if private patients were willing to have their names presented in full ? I did not wish to expose myself to similar proceedings. Moreover, by quoting the cases of honest practitioners of the old school, I furnish the most indubitable and impartial proofs for my doc- trines. 49 system as soon as they have run through their regular course. In chronic diseases, however, the local affection may either be removed or disappear of itself, without the internal disease leaving the organism either in part or entirely; on the contrary, the internal disease may increase in the progress of time, unless it is cured by art. This circumstance relative to the course of chronic diseases, deserves so much more to be noticed, as the common physicians, especially the modern, have, from sheer blindness, overlooked it, although it was evidently the course of all acute miasmatic diseases. They neither suspected, nor noticed that the local affection was a second- ary vicarious symptom of an internal disease; on the con- trary, they often denied the existence of the internal dis- ease, and by removing the bubo, cauliflower excresence and itch by external applications, they brought ineffable misery upon mankind. In considering the formation of these three chronic maladies, as well as that of the acute miasmatic diseases, three cardinal points ought to be noticed much more care- fully than has been the case heretofore. These are, 1st, the period when the infection took place; 2nd, the period when the whole organism began to be tainted with the mi- asmatic poison, until it had become a complete internal disease; and, 3rd, the manifestation of the external symp- toms, by means of which nature indicates the complete development of the miasmatic disease in the internal or- ganism. My opinion is, that the miasmatic infection in acute as well as in chronic diseases, takes place in a moment, pro- vided this moment is favorable to the contagious influence. During the progress of inoculation or vaccination, the infection takes place at the time when the morbid matter introduced under the bleeding skin, is brought in contact with the exposed nerve. The whole nervous system be- comes infected in a moment. After the infection has taken place, ablutions, cauterization and burnings are unavailable to annihilate the disease, or even to arrest its progress in the internal organism. Even amputation of the part in- D 50 fected is of no avail. The human small-pox, the cow-pox the measles, etc., will run through their course, and the fever which is peculiar to each of those different forms of infection, together with the cutaneous eruption, will break out a few days after the internal disease shall have com- pleted its development* Among many other acute miasms, I may mention the in- fection of the human skin by the miasm of the epizootic carbuncle. As soon as the infection has taken place, ablu- tions are of no avail; the black blister, which is almost always fatal, and which generally appears upon the spot where the infection has taken place, comes out in about four or five days after this terrible disease has pervaded the whole organism. This same rule obtains relatively to the half-acute mi- asms without eruptions. Thanks to the kind Ruler of the world, only a few of those who are bit by mad dogs, are infected—scarcely one in twelve; often only, to my knowl- *The question whether any miasmatic infection by the skin can exhibit external symptoms before the internal disease has become completely developed, ought to be answered in the negative. Do not three, four or five days elapse after vaccination before inflammation sets in? Does not a sort of fever, which is the symptom of a disease pervading the whole organism, show itself before the small-pox reaches its full development on the seventh or eighth day ? Do not ten or twelve days elapse after infection by the small- pox has taken place, before the fever comes on, and the small-pox breaks out upon the skin ? What has nature been doing, during that space of time, with the contagious miasm which wris introduced from without? Was it not necessary that the disease should be first communicated to the whole organism, before nature became capable of enkindling the fever, and bringing the eruption out upon the skin ? The measles also require ten or twelve days after the infection has taken place, before the eruption comes out upon the skin, and fever sets in. The infection by the virus of scarlatina generally requires seven days before the fever and redness appear. AVhat has nature been doing all this time with the miasm? What else except to communicate the disease to the whole organ- ism, which communication must first take place before the fever and eruption can appear ? 51 edge, one in thirty; the rest, were they ever so much torn by a mad dog, generally recover with or without treatment.* Wherever the poison acts, the infection takes place at the moment when the bite occurs, by affecting at once the whole nervous system. In a few days, and often a few weeks, during which the internal disease becomes devel- oped, the rage breaks out as an acute and quickly fatal dis- ease. We know from experience that, whenever the poison has caught, the infection takes place at the moment when the bite occurs; for neither instantaneous exsection,f nor amputation of the- bitten part, are capable of preventing the development of the disease in the internal organism; hydrophobia will occur in spite of the many boasted ex- ternal applications for the purification, cauterization and suppuration of the wound. From the course which these miasmatic diseases pursue, we clearly see that, after infection, the internal disease, whether measles, scarlatina, or small-pox, must first have become fully developed in the organism, before those erup- tions can come out upon the skin. Against all these acute miasmatic diseases, nature adopts a mode of cure which is inexplicable to us. They run through their course of about two or three weeks, when a crisis ensues, by means of which the fever, together with the eruption, are annihilated in the system. After this period man either dies of those diseases, or else recovers. J * These statements we owe especially to the experience of En- glish and American physicians, to Hunter and Iloulston (in the London Medical Journal, Vol. V.); also to Vaughan, Shadwell, Percival, whose observations may be found recorded in James Mease's treatise " On Hydrophobia," Philadelphia, 1793. f A girl of eight years, in the city of Glasgow, was bit by a mad dog on the 21st of March, 1792. The wound was immediately ex- sected with great care, the suppuration was kept up, together with ptyalism, for two weeks. Nevertheless hydrophobia broke out on the 27th of April, and on the 29th the patient died. See Duncan's Med. Com. Dec. II, Vol. VIII, Edin., 1793, and the new London Medical Journal, II. X Have those acute, semivital miasms the peculiar nature of be- coming extinct in the organism, after having affected the vital powers, at the moment of the infection, each in its peculiar man- 52 The mode of contagion which nature follows in the chronic miasmatic diseases, and the formation of the in- ternal disease previous to the external symptoms appearing upon the skin and indicating the completion of the inter- nal malady, is the same as in the acute forms of the dis- ease; but after the internal disease is completed, there is this remarkable difference between it and the acute dis- eases, that the chronic miasm continues in the organism, and even develops itself from year to year, unless it is extinguished and thoroughly cured by art. To show this more fully, I shall here only mention those two chronic miasms which are best known, the chancre and the itch. The infection most probably takes place, during the act of coition, at those places which come in contact with the syphilitic virus, and receive it into themselves by friction. If the poison has taken effect, the whole system is at once tainted with it. Immediately after the infection has taken place, the formation of the internal disease begins. Those parts of the genital organs, where the infection has taken place, exhibit nothing unnatural, nothing mor- bid no traces either of inflammation or corrosion — all washing of the parts immediately after an impure coition is useless. According to all appearances the parts remain healthy; only the internal organism is roused by means of the infection (which generally takes place in a moment). The internal organism endeavors to assimilate the syph- ilitic miasm, and becomes thoroughly tainted with the syphilitic disease. ner, and having spread through the system like a parasitical growth, establishing each its peculiar fever, and leaving upon the skin an eruption which is, in its turn, capable of communicating the disease ? Are not the chronic miasms, on the contrary, continued by the i peculiar contagious eruption which they leave behind, itch vesicle, chancre, cauliflower excrescence, whereas the acute miasms become extinct of themselves ? The chronic miasms are semivital morbid miasms of a parasitical nature, which can only be neutralized and annihilated by a more powerful remedy producing analogous effects (the antipsorics); it is by means of these alone that the pa- tient can be freed from the effects of those miasms. 53 This complete adaptation of its organs to the syphilitic virus is the first object of the human organism, after the infection has taken place. Not till the internal disease is completely developed, does nature try to alleviate and to hush her sufferings by forming at the spot where the infec- tion has taken place, a local symptom as a substitute for the internal disease in the shape of a little blister, which is transformed to a painful ulcer, called bubo or chancre, about five, seven or fourteen days, or sometimes even three, four, and five weeks after the infection has taken place. This vicarious chancre has the power of communicating to other persons the same miasm, which is the internal dis- ease. If the internal disease is extinguished by means of the internal remedy, the chancre becomes also cured, and man recovers. But if the chancre be removed by some local applica- tion,* as is done yet to this day by physicians of the old school, the miasmatic chronic venereal disease remains in the organism, and unless it be cured by internal remedies, it gets worse to the end of life; nor is the strongest consti- tution, by its own unaided efforts, capable of eradicating the virus. The chancre is most easily and thoroughly cured by cur- ing the internal disease which pervades the whole system. I have taught and practiced this for years. The best mode is to employ the internal remedy alone, without any exter- nal application. The merely local removal of the chancre, ♦Syphilis does not only break out through the removal of the chancre by cauteries —which is called by quacks, repelling the virus into the system, as though the system had been sound before the so-called repulsion had taken place; — even the sudden removal of the chancre without any stimulants, brings on syphilis, which may incidentally teach us that the syphilis must have existed in the system before the appearance of the chancre. " Petit cut off a small portion of the labia minora which had been affected with chancre for some days; the wound healed but syphilis broke out nevertheless." See Fabre, Lettres, Supplement a son traite des Maladies Veneriennes. Paris, 1786.—How could this be otherwise, since the syphilitic disease pervaded the whole system even before the chancre had made its appearance! 54 without any previous cure of the internal disease, is invari- ably followed by the breaking out of the syphilitic disease, with all its sufferings. Psora is like syphilis, a miasmatic chronic disease, and resembles it in regard to the first development. Psora is the most contagious of all chronic miasms, and much more so than syphilis or sycosis. The infection by the latter two miasms can only take place with readiness in wounds, and at those parts of the body which are covered with a very thin cuticle and provided with a delicate nerv- ous tissue; such parts are the genital organs. Moreover a certain degree of friction is required to introduce the virus into the system. The psoric miasm, on the contrary, taints the system, especially that of children, by simply touching the skin. Almost everybody may, under any circumstan- ces, be infected with the psoric miasm; this is different with the other two miasms. As I said before, the infection by the psoric miasm is more common, more certain, more easy and more absolute than that by any other. This miasm may be so easily com- municated that the physician often gives it to his patients in feeling their pulse.* It may be communicated by linen which has been washed together with the linen of persons afflicted with the itch; f by gloves which such a person had tried on before; by a bed or towel which had been used by itch patients. Often even it is given to the child by the mother during its passage through the maternal organs, or by the midwife who just came from another parturient woman, or by the nurse upon whose arms the child is car- ried about, and who was either unclean herself or suffered the child to be touched by unclean hands. Considering the thousand different modes in which this miasm touches the various things which are necessary to man. and which he is far from suspecting and cannot help touching, we may say that those who remain free from the itch, con- stitute a lucky minority. Not only in hospitals, dungeons, *Car. Musitani Opera, de Tumoribus, cap. 20. t Willis observed this. See Turner, des Maladies de la Peau traduit de l'Anglais, a Paris, 1783. Tom. II. cap. 3, p. 77. 55 factories, or in orphan asylums and the huts of the poor, need we seek the psoric infection; we find it just as well among the rich, or among those who live in society or in retirement. The hermit upon Montserrat escapes it just as little as the little prince wrapped up in his cambric swaddling-clothes. The moment the psoric miasm has touched the hand, and has taken effect, it spreads through the system. Hence- forth all washing and cleansing of the spot is useless. The skin during the first days remains unchanged and appar- ently sound. There is neither eruption nor itching to be perceived upon the body, not even at the spot where the infection has taken place. The nerve in which the psoric miasm had first taken effect, had already communi- cated it to the remaining nerves by an invisible dynamic sympathy, and the living organism became so much dis- turbed by this specific influence, that it was forced to adapt itself to the action of this psoric miasm, until by virtue of this universal adaptation, the internal disease had become completely and finally established. Not till the whole organism has been adapted to the nature of the chronic miasmatic disease, do the morbidly affected vital powers endeavor to alleviate and to calm the internal disease by a local symptom, (the itch vesicle, for instance). As long as this eruption continues upon the skin in its natural form, the internal psora, together with its secondary ailments, remain slumbering, latent and re- strained. The perfect adaptation of the whole organism to the nature of the psoric virus usually requires a period of six, seven, ten, sometimes even fourteen days. After this period, towards evening, the patient experiences a more or less considerable chill and, during the subsequent night, heat all over the body, terminating in sweat. This heat is often supposed to be a little fever, which is believed to come from a cold, and is not regarded.* Then the erup- * So far from being a separable local affection, the vesicles are on the contrary evident proofs of the psora having been completely developed in the system; the eruption is merely the ultimate 5(i tion makes its appearance, first near the spot which has been the original seat of the infection, in the shape of fine vesicles, resembling rash, and increasing in size. They are distinguished by a voluptuously and almost intolerably delightful itching. This incessantly invites the patient to rub and to scratch the vesicles, and, if the itching is suf- fered to continue without scratching, there is a shuddering experienced over the whole skin. Rubbing and scratching may ease the patient for a*moment, but it is immediately succeeded by long burning at the spots where the scratch- ing took place. This itching occurs most frequently and is most intolerable, late in the evening and before mid- night. During the first hours of their existence, the vesicles contain a limpid lymph, which is quickly changed to pus, filling the tip of the vesicle. The itching is so terrible that the patient not only rubs the vesicles, but scratches them open. The liquid which oozes out from the vesicles, furnishes an abundance of con- tagious material for those who come near the patient, and have not yet been infected. The extremities, linen, cloths, utensils of every kind, which have been touched by this liquid, propagate the disease. The cutaneous eruption, which is an indication of the psora having pervaded the whole organism, (the Germans call it kratze, itch), the ulcers consequent upon this erup- tion, and accompanied with their peculiar itching round the borders, and lastly, tinea and those forms of herpes which become moist on rubbing, and are distinguished by a sort of psoric itching, are alone capable of transferring the disease to other persons, because they alone contain the miasm susceptible of communication. On the contrary, the secondary symptoms of psora which appear both after the spontaneous and the artificial suppression of the erup- tion, and which are the common results of psoric reaction, never transmit the itch to other persons, no more than the boundary of the psoric development. This eruption, together with the itching, are a part of the whole disease in its natural, least dangerous form. 57 secondary symptoms of syphilis transmit this disease to others. (This was first observed and taught by John Hunter). When the eruption is just coming out, and is not yet spread over the skin, the health of the patient seems to be unimpaired; there are as yet no traces of the internal psoric disease. The eruption acts as a sort of substitute for the internal disease, wdiich, together with its secondary ailments, remains in a latent condition.* While the disease is in this condition, it is most easily cured by the specific remedies taken internally. If the disease is permitted to develop itself according to its nature, without using an internally curative remedy, or some external application against the eruption, the inter- nal disease, increases rapidly. This increase of the internal disease inducing a corresponding increase of the external symptoms, the eruption will finally cover the whole surface of the body, in order to calm the internal disease, and keep it in a latent condition. Even at this stage of the disease man apparently enjoys good health, except the eruption. The external symptom keeping pace with the internal disease, keeps this one at bay. But the itching over the whole body becomes so in- tolerable, that even the most robust man cannot bear it in the end. He wishes to get rid of his torment at any price; and, for want of sound help, he contents himself with being freed from the eruption, even though it cost him his life. Unfortunately the means are at once furnished him either by ignorant laymen or by allopathic physicians and surgeons. All he cares for is to get rid of the external pain, without thinking of the evil consequences that attend * In the same way the chancre acts as a substitute for the in- ternal syphilis; which remains latent as long as the chancre re- mains at its place. I saw a woman who had been affected with a chancre for two years. The chancre had constantly remained at the same place, and had now reached the size of an inch in diameter. Nothing had been done for it. There was no trace of secondary syphilis in this patient. The best preparation of mer- cury taken internally, cured both the internal disease and the chancre. 58 the suppression of the vicarious external disease. By resorting to this suppression, he fares like the poor man who means to get rid of his poverty by stealing a large sum of money, and, instead of obtaining wealth, goes to the dungeon or the gallows. The longer the psoric disease has lasted, no matter whether the eruption has spread all over the skin, or whether it has been confined to a few vesicles, owing to a peculiar want of action in the skin,* in both these cases the suppression of even the smallest eruption is attended with the most pernicious consequences; for the internal psora which has been increasing all the time, now breaks forth with its host of terrible sufferings. The badly informed laymen may be pardoned for sup- pressing the troublesome itching and the eruption by cold shower baths, rolling in the snow, cupping, or rubbing the skin or only the joints with sulphur ointment; he knows not what dangerous symptoms of the internal psora he calls up in his system. But who can pardon men whose duty it is to know, and by proper treatment^ to prevent * See above, the observation in case 86. |For even at this stage of the disease, the eruption, together with the internal psora, may yet be cured more easily, and with more certainty, though less so than at the beginning of the dis- ease, by the proper homoeopathic remedies, than is possible after the external suppression of the eruption; for this external sup- pression is always succeeded by a host of nameless chronic dis- eases, into which the external psora develops itself. Before the suppression, the psoric disease forms yet a unit, and may, there- fore, be met more easily, with infinitely more certainty and more thoroughly by the appropriate specific remedies, than after the suppression of the cutaneous symptoms. External remedies are no more required in this disease than in the venereal affection, where one small dose of the best mercurial preparation is often sufficient to convert the chancre into a benign ulcer. The ulcer heals in a few days of itself,, and no secondary symptoms of syphilis ever appear, because the internal disease has been cured, together with the local affection. This is a doctrine which I have taught for years, and have constantly illustrated by my cures. Can it be excused, that after a lapse of three hundred years since the venereal disease has been known, the physicians should have 59 the accidents which will arise from the psoric reaction con- sequent upon suppressed eruption, when you see them treat their patients in an improper manner, and suppress the eruption with an incredible levity, by means of powerful internal and external remedies, drastic purgatives, the oint- ment of Jasser, washes of the acetate of lead, mercurial preparations, sulphate of zinc, and especially by an oint- ment composed of lard and flowers of sulphur or quick- silver, pretending all the while, "that it is simply an impurity in the skin, and that the skin being cleared, everything is over, and man needs not to apprehend any further trouble." Who can pardon them for not profiting by the many thousand warning examples which they find recorded in the works of older, conscientious observers, or which the experience of modern physicians reveals to them? Ought not they to know that, by suppressing the eruption, they bring upon the patient either certain death, or a lin- gering disease, which lasts to the end of his life? Do they been so ignorant of its nature as not to perceive that the chancre is something more than a mere local affection? Can the physi- cians be pardoned for having failed to perceive that the chancre being the external symptom of an internal syphilitic disease, it ought not to be removed by external applications? Ought not experience to have shown them that the removal of the chancre by external applications deprives the internal disease of its vicari- ous symptom, and, therefore, forces it to show itself in the for- midable and much more inveterate character of syphilis? Can this want of judgment be excused? Why did physicians never reflect upon the origin of cauliflower excrescence? Why did they constantly overlook the internal dis- ease which gives origin to these excrescences ? Why did they not cure the internal disease by homoeopathic remedies, which would have caused the excrescences to disappear without the use of an external agent? But suppose we were willing to excuse this sad neglect and ig- norance on the ground that the physicians had only three centu- ries and a quarter to obtain a correct knovvledge of syphilis, which they certainly would have obtained by practicing a little longer— though I had several times tried to convince them of their error— nevertheless they cannot be excused for their obstinate blindness relative to the true treatment of psoric diseases, and for the pride with which they overlooked all those facts which had a tendency (ill not let loose the psoric disease upon the deluded patient by tearing down the only barriers which kept the thousand- headed monster in bounds? It may easily be imagined, and experience teaches, that the internal psora will finally reach its greatest develop- ment, if the eruption is permitted to remain upon the skin. The intensity of the internal disease becomes manifest by the evil consequences with which the suppression of an old eruption is constantly attended. On the other hand, it is certain that the suppression of a few recently formed itch vesicles, when the internal psora had not time to develop its intensity, is attended with less immediate danger; and that there are no immediate evil consequences attending such a suppression. Hence it often happens that the children of rich parents are freed, in a day or two, from a few recently formed vesicles by means of lead ointment or lead washes, without any one suspecting them of having been infected with the itch. But, however trifling the ailments may be with which the suppression of a few recently formed vesicles is at- tended, and which the ignorant family physician attributes to show them that the itch originates in an internal psora; no, they were determined to deceive the world by the lamentable delu- sion, " that the intolerably itching vesicles were only an external cutaneous disease, and that their local suppression freed man from all disease and restored him, to health." Not only medical scribblers, but even the greatest and most celebrated physicians of modern times, have made themselves guilty of this gross error (or shall I say, willful crime?) from von Helmont down to the latest advocates of the allopathic practice. The above quoted remedies were indeed sufficient to remove both the eruption and the itching. In their delusion the physicians supposed to have destroyed the disease, and dismissed their patients with the assurance that they had entirely recovered. The ailments which succeeded the suppression of the eruption, they explained as new maladies. They were heedless of those in- numerable, striking testimonies of older and honest observers, which show that the consequences often follow the suppression so rapidly that everybody in his senses must acknowledge them as results of an internal psora, which, being deprived of its primary cutaneous symptoms, was forced to embody itself in a host of secondary diseases. (>1 to other slight causes, nevertheless, the internal psora, be it ever so little developed, affects the whole organism; the most robust constitution is incapable of annihilating it by its own unaided efforts, and unless it be extinguished by the aid of art, it will last to the end of life. It is indeed true that the first development of this internal disease is slower, when the eruption upon the skin is removed as speedily as it shows itself, than in cases where the eruption has been upon the skin for a long time, and the internal psora has been permitted to increase in intensity in a corresponding degree. Nevertheless, even in the most favorable cases, the development of the internal psora goes on for years, often so slowly and imperceptibly that persons who are not perfectly acquainted with the symptoms, by which the existence of this slumbering enemy shows itself, would suppose the patient to be perfectly healthy. Numerous observations* have, by degrees, made me acquainted with the symptoms by which the internal disease manifests itself, even in its incipient state of slumber, t By means of this knowledge I am able to apply proper and successful remedies before the internal psora has become a manifest secondary disease, and has reached * Up to this moment at the age of 79 years, I have never been infected with the itch, although I am extremely susceptible of be- ing attacked by acute or epidemic diseases, and have undergone excessive mental exertions and moral sufferings. This may have been the reason why I should have had a better chance than hun- dreds of others to discover and to appreciate the symptoms of psora, whether in the latent condition, or existing in the form of great chronic ailments. I had the means and was in the habit of comparing those symptoms with the state of health that I had constantly enjoyed. | The allopathic physicians had likewise supposed latent forms of disease, in order to have a pretence for the inroads which they make upon the system by their violent medicines, blood-lettings, anodynes, etc. These "qualitates occultse Fernelii" are altogether, chimerical, since, by the admission of the physicians themselves, there are no symptoms by which they can be recognized. Things which do not manifest themselves by phenomena, have no exist- ence for man, who can only become aware of their existence by observation; they are mere creations of the fancy. It is different with the slumbering or latent powers of nature; in spite of their 1)2 that fearful height where its eradication is either very dif- ficult or altogether impossible. There are many symptoms that reveal the evistence of psora, slumbering in the depths of the organism, before a complete outbreak of the disease has taken place; but they cannot all be found upon one person. One has more, the other less; in one they come out progressively, in an- other they remain suppressed; this depends in a great measure upon the constitution and the external circum- stances of the patients. Symptoms of latent Psora. [Nearly every symptom here recorded by Hahnemann can now be found in the pathogenesis of our antipsor- ics.—Ed.] Frequent passing of ascarides, lumbricoides and ver- miculares—they cause an intolerable itching in the rectum (especially in children). Frequent distention of the abdomen. Insatiable hunger and want of appetite following each other in alternation. Paleness of the countenance and deficient tonicity of the muscles. Frequent inflammation of the eyes. Swelling of the cervical glands (scrofula). Sweat upon the head, in the evening after having fallen asleep. Epistaxis in girls and young men, often very violent (it is less frequent in older persons). The hands are generally cold, and the palm of the hand is sweaty (burning in the palm of the hand). The feet are cold and dry, or sweaty and badly smelling (burning upon the soles of the feet). ■ The arms or hands, legs or feet become benumbed by a slight cause. latent existence they reveal themselves under appropriate circum- stances;—for example, the latent caloric in rubbing cold metals; the latent psora by drawing pain in the sheaths of the muscles which comes on whenever the psoric patient exposes himself to a draught of air. 4 late, last too long, are watery, and are combined with many bodily ailments. Twitches of the limbs on falling asleep. Weariness on waking up in the morning; unrefreshing sleep. Sweat, early, in the bed. Too easy sweating during the day, even with little mo- tion ; also, absence of sweat which nothing can bring out. The tongue is white, pale,—often parched. Much phlegm in the fauces. Bad smell from the mouth; this is either constant, or occurs only frequently, especially during the menses; the taste in the mouth appears insipid, or sourish, or as com- ing from a spoiled stomach; also musty and putrid. Sourish taste in the mouth. Nausea early in the morning. Sensation of emptiness in the stomach. Repugnance to boiled warm food, especially meat. Repugnance (in children) to milk. Dryness in the mouth, in the night and early in the morning. Cutting pain in the bowels, frequently; often every day, especially early in the morning (in children). Hard, knotty stools, often delaying a whole day, and covered with mucus; or also, constantly soft, liquid, acrid stools. Varices of the rectum; blood passes off with the stools. Passing of mucus by the anus, with or without faeces. Itching at the anus. Dark urine. Distended veins of the legs (varices). Chilblains; they are painful even in the summer season. The corns pain, even when the shoes do not pinch. This or that joint is easily strained, in stepping or seizing. One or more joints crack during motion. Drawing, straining pains in the back of the neck, in the back, the limbs, especially the teeth, (in damp, stormy weather, when the wind is from the north-west or north- 65 east,* after a cold, a strain consequent on lifting, or after disagreeable emotions, etc. The pains manifest themselves again during rest, they disappear during motion. The pains generally come on during night; they appear again and increase, when the barometer has fallen, when the wind is from the north or north-east, in the winter season and towards spring. Uneasy, frightful, or too vivid dreams. Unhealthy skin; every little wound ulcerates; the skin of the hands and the lower lips becomes easily chopped. Frequent boils, frequent paronychias. Dry skin upon the extremities, upper arms, thighs, also upon the cheeks. Here and there scaly places upon the skin, causing a voluptuously delightful sort of itching, and a burning after the place has been scratched. . Here and there a vesicle characterized by an intolerable but voluptuously delightful itching. At the top it is filled with pus, and there is a burning after it has been scratched; it is often found upon a finger, on the wrist, or elsewhere. Though frequently affected with some of these ailments, man can yet deem himself healthy, and is often considered so by others. These affections do not prevent him from leading a tolerably comfortable existence, provided he is young and robust, is not obliged to fatigue himself, has all his wants provided for, is not exposed to chagrin or grief, and has a cheerful, calm, patient and contented temper. In this case, the internal psora may continue slumbering in the organism for years, without being observed by any other except the attentive connoisseur, or without becom- ing developed into a permanent chronic disease. However, in persons that are affected with those appar- ently slight infirmities, a trivial cause, an ordinary vexa- tion, a cold, an irregularity in the diet, etc., may, in a more advanced age, cause a violent though short attack of disease, a violent colic, inflammation of the chest or throat, erysip- * The north-easters in Europe are dry and cutting. E i><; elas, fever and similar diseases, the vehemence of which often is out of proportion with the moderately exciting cause. Such diseases generally show themselves during the fall or winter season, but often also in spring more than at any other period. It sometimes happens that the patient who is affected with the latent j>sora, whether he be a child or a full-grown man, seems to enjoy good health, but passes into circum- stances which are the very opposite of those that I have described above; his organism may have been very much weakened and]disturbed by some ruling epidemic fever;* by a contagious, acute disease, small-pox, measles, whoop- ing-cough, scarlatina, purple-rash, etc.; or by some severe injury, by a shock, a fall, a wound, a large burn, by fractur- ing a leg or an arm, by a hard labor, by the confinement consequent upon disease, and by the allopathic remedies which have been improperly given to the patient; or the vital powers may have been weakened by leading a seden- tary life in a close damp room; the soul may have been depressed by the death of beloved relatives, or the patient's life may have been embittered by daily chagrin and grief; or he may have become exposed to want; he may have be- come deprived of the needful, and his strength and his fortitude may have failed him in consequence of bad nour- ishment; in that case the latent psora becomes roused and develops that host of inveterate symptoms which will be found enumerated below; some one of the psoric chronic diseases breaks, forth f and increases to a fearful height, * Acute fevers often terminate in causing a latent psora, which has become roused by the acute disease, to break out upon the skin in the form of itch. The physicians who were ignorant of the exist- ence of a latent psora, declare this eruption to be a new itch bred by the bad humours with which the system of the patient is said to be filled. But the itch can, no more than the smallpox, measles or chancre, generate itself spontaneously; it can only show itself upon the skin after infection'has taken place. f This kind of disease depends upon the original constitution of the patient, his peculiar mode of life, his character, the influences of education, or upon the weaker parts of the organism attracting the psoric miasms by their higher adaptation to its nature, and 67 especially by the improper treatment of allopathic phy- sicians, unless more favorable circumstances set in, dimin- ishing the intensity of the disease, and making its ulterior development more moderate. But suppose that the rapid development of the disease should have been moderated, it cannot, however, be per- manently cured by the various fashionable remedies in use, such as baths, Mercury, Prussic acid, Iodine, Digi- talis, China, starvation; they merely accelerate the ap- proach of death, which puts an end to the sufferings that physicians were unable to relieve. If, under unfavorable external circumstances, the formerly latent psora has been roused from its slumber, the patient causing it to form the diseases which are inherent in the peculiar vital activity of the affected organs. The eruption of the psoric disease is especially favored by an irritable, vehement temper, by the exhaustion consequent upon frequent pregnancy, excessive nursing of children, great bodily exertions, improper, unsuccessful treatment, excesses at table and dissolute habits. Owing to its peculiar nature, the psoric disease may remain latent under favor- able circumstances. In this case the patient appears to enjoy good health, until unfavorable circumstances set in, which rouse the internal disease and cause it to bre;ik out. Neither the relatives, nor the patient, or the physician himself can comprehend how it is possible that his health should have declined in this way so sud- denly. The diseases which then break out, often even after a trivial occurrence, such as being confined to the bed for five or six weeks in consequence of a fracture of the leg—as I have witnessed in my own practice—cannot be traced to any cause; they return in spite of a first successful treatment and of the strictest diet; they increase each time they appear again injhe system, especially in the fall, winter or spring, and finally settle down in the form of a lingering malady, against which the mineral baths are of no avail, and which cannot be treated according to the rules of the allopathic practice, without exposing the patient to the danger of having a more severe disease substituted in the place of his former ailment. There are innumerable causes which may rouse the in- ternal psora and cause it to develop its manifold germs; the evil effects of those causes often bear no sort of apparent relation to them, which makes it impossible for a sensible man to consider them the true exciting causes of the secondary psoric disease, the often fearful character of which ought, on the contrary, to be ex- plained by the existence of a deep-seated latent disturbance, which 6S loses all chance of recovery in the hands of allopathic physicians; they assail his organism without mercy, under- mining its very foundations by their violent and improper remedies. Even if the external circumstances become fa- vorable to the, patient, the disease goes on in its course and becomes worse and worse. When the internal psora, which had been latent hither- to, and had been kept in bounds by a robust constitution and favorable circumstances, is roused from its latent state and passes into its secondary severe maladies, all the above named symptoms, by which the internal latent psora man- ifests its existence, become more distinct and violent; they vary in different individuals according to constitution, he- has broke out on this occasion, and is the common mother of all such chronic secondary affections. Let us suppose, for example, the case of a young woman who has been infected with psora in her childhood, but who, according to appearance, enjoys good health, or what is commonly so called. In the third month of her pregnancy, she has the misfortune of being upset in her carriage. The consequence of this accident, besides a slight external injury and fright, is miscarringe, accom- panied with considerable haemorrhage, which exhausts her strength. In a few weeks she has almost recovered her former strength and health, when the news of a dangerous illness of her beloved and absent sister puts her back in her recovery, and adds to her former disease a multitude of nervous complaints and spasms, which make her really sick. In a little while she receives better news of her sister; at last the sister, perfectly cured, pays her a visit. But the young woman remains sick in spite of these agreeable influences: and, though she may appear to do better for eight days or a fortnight, nevertheless, her ailments return with- out any visible cause. Every subsequent labor, be it ever so easy, every stormy winter, adds new complaints to the former, or these appear to have yielded their place to other more inconvenient affections. In this way the patient becomes affected with an im- portant chronic disease, and it is impossible for us to comprehend why the full vigor of youth, existing moreover under favorable external circumstances, should not have succeeded in soon ex- tinguishing the consequences of that miscarriage; still less do we comprehend why the evil effects of that sad news should not have become dissipated by the news of the sister's restoration to health, or, at any rate, by the presence of the sister. If it be true that the cause is constantly proportionate to its 69 reditary disposition, habit, mode of life, diet, occupation, the tendencies of the mind, morals, etc. The following symptoms may be considered characteristic of the secondary diseases in which the internal psora gener- ally terminates. I have collected them from my own ex- perience at the bedside of patients whom I have treated successfully, and whom I knew, by their own confession, to have been infected with the itch, without the disease hav- ing been complicated by either syphilis or sycosis. I am willing to believe that others may have seen a great many more symptoms beside those which I shall now enumerate. I may observe that among these spmptoms there are many that are opposed to each other. This is owing to the con- effects, as is always the case in nature, it is difficult to understand how, in the case of this young woman, the subsequent ailments should not have disappeared as soon as the cause had ceased to act. The continuance of these ailments shows that they must have originated in a much more deep-seated cause, which re- mained latent in the system until the above mentioned contrary events (the miscarriage and the disagreeable news) had excited its action, and had roused it into a development hostile to the organism. A merchant who seems to enjoy good health, with the exception of a few vestiges of psora, which are only known to the connois- seur, often loses his health in consequence of great losses which reduce him to the brink of bankruptcy. We will suppose such a case, and we will also suppose that the health of this merchant declines more and more. However, his losses are amply repaired by the death of a rich relative, or the gain of a high prize in the lottery. But in spite of this favorable turn of his affairs, his health continues to decline from year to year, nor can prescrip- tions, or the most celebrated mineral baths do any thing to restore it; on the contrary, perhaps, they make the evil worse. A girl of good character, who, with the exception of a few symptoms of internal psora, enjoys good health, is forced to marry against her inclination. She feels wretched; her health declines, although there is no trace of venereal disease. Her sufferings are increasing without being relieved by the medicines which allo- pathic physicians give her. After she has suffered for a year, her husband is taken from her by death. She now seems to revive in the conviction of being soon freed from all bodily and mental suf- fering; she even hopes soon to have recovered perfect health; for the cause of her disease has ceased to exist. She improves, indeed, 70 stitutional differences of the patients, existing at the time when the psora first broke out, and is not in the way of a cure. One symptom often is met with more rarely than its opposing one. Vertigo; the patient reels in walking. Vertigo, on closing the eyes everything around him seems to turn; he is then attacked with nausea. Vertigo; on turning briskly he almost falls over. Vertigo; attacking him with a jerk in the head; he loses his senses for a moment. Vertigo; accompanied with frequent eructations. Vertigo, on looking down on the floor, or on looking up. Vertigo, in walking along a road in a plain which is not enclosed on either side. but she remains sickly; and, despite of the vigor of her youth, she is frequently attacked with illness, which seems even to increase from year to year, without any apparent cause, especially in the rough season. An unjustly suspected person, who has become entangled in a criminal suit, has become affected with various ailments during the time of the proceedings; before the suit commenced she seemed to enjoy good health, with the exception of a few symp- toms of internal psora. Her innocence is at last acknowledged, and she is honorably acquitted. One should say that this happy event must infuse new life into her and free her from all her bodily sufferings. But this is not the case; on the contrary, at times her disease returns, and it seems even to increase from year to year, especially in the winter season. If the disagreeable event had been the sole and sufficient cause of all these sufferings, does it not seem natural to conclude, that the cessation of the cause ought to be succeeded by a cessation of its effects? But the ailments do not cease; on the contrary, they are renewed from time to time in an increasing degree, which makes it manifest that the disagreeable event which we have sup- posed above, is not the real cause of the sufferings, but that it has merely roused into action a more deep-seated and much more for- midable principle of disease, which was hitherto latent in the sys- tem. Science has now revealed to us the nature of this internal enemy, and the means to conquer him; we know now that it is a deep-seated psora slumbering in the inmost recesses of the organ- ism, and which the most robust constitution would have been insufficient to expel, unless aided by the efforts of art. 71 Vertigo; she appears to herself either too large or too small; other objects, likewise, appear either too large or too small. Vertigo, resembling a swoon. Vertigo, causing a loss of consciousness. Numbness and giddiness of the head; the patient can neither think nor accomplish any mental labor. She cannot control her thoughts. At times she seems to be deprived of thought; she sits there as if she were absent. The head feels benumbed and drowsy in the open air. Sometimes he sees everything dim or black on walking or stooping, or raising the head from stooping. Rush of blood to the head.* Heat in the head and in the face.f Feeling of cold pressure on the head. J Dull headache in the morning, on waking up, or in the afternoon, either on walking fast or speaking loud. Headache on one side at certain periods, (after twenty- eight, fourteen, or a less number of days;) more frequently about the period when there is a full or new moon; or after vivid emotions, cold, etc. pressure or other pain on the top of the head or in the head, or a boring pain above one eye-§____________________________ * During which he is attacked with sadness, with anxiety and dread of labor. t The hands and feet are often cold. J Ordinarily accompanied with anxiety. 8 At the same time often a great inward uneasiness. Anxiety, especially in the abdomen, want of stools, or frequent, scanty, painful stools, weight in the limbs, tremblings in the whole body; tension of all the nerves, with great irritability and sensitiveness; the eye cannot bear any light; it is flowing, swells up; the feet are cold; sometimes the head is stopped up with a cold; chills, some- times flushes of heat; continual nausea, also retching and vomit- ing; she is lying there either as if she were stunned, or throws herself about as if full of anguish; the attacks last twelve, twenty- four and more hours. After the attack, there is either great pros- tration, with sadness, or a feeling of tension in the whole body; before the attack, she frequently experiences twitches in the limbs during sleep; she starts in sleep; has painful dreams; grating of the teeth in sleep, and tendency to start at sudden noises. 72 Headache, daily, at certain hours; for example, shooting pains in the temples.* Attacks of pulsating headache (for example, in the fore- head,) with nausea, which threatens to make him fall to the ground, or vomiting from morning till evening, every fortnight; sometimes before, sometimes after this period. Headache as if the skull would tear open. Drawing pain in the head.f Headache, twinges in the head, (coming out by the ears.) | Headache, shooting pains in the head, coming out by the ears.§ Din in the brain, singing, humming, noise, thunder, etc. The hairy scalp is covered with scales, with or without itching. Eruptions on the head, scald, malignant scabs, (the crust being more or less thick,) with shooting pain when a liquid is oozing out; intolerable itching during the wet stage; the whole top of the head painfully affected by the open air; at the same time hard glandular swellings on the back part of the neck. Hair feels as if it were dried; hair falling out abun- dantly, especially on the fore part and on the top of thehead, or in the centre of the crown, or baldness of some places. Painful tubercles on the skin of the head, coming and going, like boils; round tumors.|| Sensation of constriction in the skin of the head and face. Paleness of the face in the first sleep, with a blue circle round the eyes. Frequent redness and heat of the face.^j *They sometimes swell up, with tears in one eye. | In some cases a drawing pain, coming from the back of the neck, and going to the back part of the head, or extending over the whole head and face, which frequently swells up from the pain; the head is painful to the touch; frequently there is nausea. J Usually in walking, especially in walking and taking exercise after eating. §They often see everything black. !j In rare cases they terminate in suppuration. v He becomes very feeble, he feels exhausted or full of anxiety > and sweats all over the upper part of his body: sometimes the eyes 73 Yellowish color, yellowness of the face. Gray, yellow color of the face. Erysipelas on the face.* Aching pain above the eyes, especially late in the even- ing; he is obliged to close them. He cannot look at anything long without everything ap- pearing to flicker. Objects appear to move. The eyelids, especially in the morning, feel as if they were shut (for minutes, sometimes even for hours); he cannot open them; the eyelids are heavy, as if paralyzed or drawn together spasmodically. Eyes extremely sensible to the daylight; it makes them smart, and they shut involuntarily, f Sensation of cold in the eyes. Corners of the eyes full of purulent mucus, (gum). Edges of the eyelids covered with dry scurf. The meibomian glands round the edges of one of the eyelids are inflamed, either one or more, (stye). Inflammation of the eyes, of various kinds. J Yellowness of the white of the eyes.§ Yellowness round the eyes. Dark opaque spots on the cornea.)] Dropsy of the eye. Obscuration of the crystalline lens; cataract; squinting. Longsightedness. He sees at a distance, but cannot dis- tinguish clearly small objects which are held near. Nearsightedness. He can see distinctly even very small objects, when he holds them near; but the farther the ob- become dim, they see black, he is sad, the head seems to be too full, with burning in the temples. * In some cases there is much fever, sometimes also burning, itching, watery pustules with a shooting pain, in the face, which turn into scabs; (pustulous erysipelas). y Usually with more or less inflammation. J Fistula lachrymalis has probably no other origin than psora^ §Or gray color of the lens. | Even without having previously had an inflammation of the eyes. 74 ject the less distinctly does he see it; and at a distance, not at all. False sight. He sees objects double, or multiplied, or he sees only one-half of an object. Muscse volitantes, black points, dark stripes, or a net- work move before his eyes, especially on looking into the bright daylight. Objects are seen as if through a gauze or a cloud, the sight is dim at certain periods. Blindness by night. He sees very well in the day, but nothing during twilight. Blindness by day. He sees well only in the twilight, Gutta serena, uninterrupted dimness of the sight,* which finally increases to blindness. Painful sensibility of several parts of the face, the cheeks, the cheek bones, the lower jaw, etc., either on touching those parts, or in speaking, or chewing; there is a sensation of subcutaneous festering, or of stinging and lancinating; in chewingf especially there is twitching, shooting and straining in the muscles, which prevents him from eating. Hearing is excessively irritable and sensitive; she can- not hear,the sound of a bell without tremor; the noise of a drum throws her into convulsions, and the ear is painfully affected by various sounds. He has shooting pains coming out by the ear.^ Crawling and itching in the ear.§ Dryness, dry scurf in the ears, without wax. *More frequently without an obscuration of the crystalline lens than with it. | In chewing or speaking there is a similar twitching motion on the sides of his head; at these places protuberances, painful boils, etc., are often formed. If the pain is insupportable and accompanied with a burning heat, it is called Fothergill's pain in the face. X Especially while walking in the open air. §Such as singing, rustling, whizzing, snorting, buzzing, chirp- ing, ringing, drumming, thundering, fluttering, flapping, murmur- ing, etc. 75 Running, from the ear, of a thin, usually fetid pus. Pulsating sensation in the ear. Noise and different sounds in the ear.* Want of hearing in different degrees, even to complete deafness, with or without noise, varying according to the weather. Swelling of the parotid glands.* Bleeding from the nose more or less abundantly and fre- quently. Nostrils as if stopped up.t Troublesome sensation of dryness in the nose, even when the air passes freely. Polypi of the nose (usually with loss of smell), which often extend through the meatus down the throat. Smell either weak or lost. Perversion of smell. J Smell too strong, high and highest sensitiveness, even to the weakest odors. Scurf in the nose, running of pus, or hardened clots of mucus. § Fetid smell in the nose. Nostrils frequently ulcerating, surrounded with pimples and scurf. Swelling and redness of the nose, or of the tip of the nose, either frequently or permanently. Under the nose or on the upper lip, long continued scurf, or itching pimples. The vermilion border of the lips quite pale. The vermilion border of the lips is dry, scurfy, scaly; it cracks. Swelling of the lips, especially the upper one.|j * Often with shooting pains in the glands. t Either one or both of them at once, or alternately the one or the other; often there is only a feeling of being stopped up, though the air passes through with ease. J For example, a smell of manure, or some other peculiar smell in the nose. § Sometimes also with running of an acrid mucus from the nose. || Sometimes with a burning, biting pain. 76 The inside of the lips is set with little ulcers or pustules.* Cutaneous eruptions, where the skin is covered with the beard, or at the roots of the beard-hair, with itching. Innumerable kinds of eruption on the face.f Glands of the lower jaw swollen, or passing into a state of chronic suppuration. Glandular swellings down the sides of the neck. Gums bleeding on the slightest touch. The inside or outside of the gums feels sore. Gnawing itching at the gums. Gums whitish, swollen, painful to the touch. Gums disappear, leaving the front teeth bare, even their roots. Grating of the teeth during sleep. Looseness or decay of the teeth, of various kinds, even without toothache. Toothache of countless kinds, from many sorts of ex- citing causes. Cannot remain in bed from the toothache. Painful pustules and sore places on the tongue. Tongue coated white, or unevenly covered with a white substance. Tongue pale, bluish white. Tongue covered with deep furrows scattered all over; the tongue looks as if it had been torn on the upper surface. Tongue dry. Feeling of dryness on the tongue, though there is the usual quantity of moisture. Stammering, stuttering, also sudden attacks of an inca- pacity of speaking. Painful pustules, ulcerations on the inside of the cheeks. Flow of blood from the mouth, often in great abundance. Feeling of dryness on the whole inside of the mouth, or only at some places, or deep in the throat. J * Often very painful, coming and going. tCrusta lactea, pimples, herpes, carcinomatous ulcers on the nose, lips and face, with burning and shooting pain. J Chiefly on waking up in the night or in the morning, with or without thirst; a high degree of dryness in the throat is often accompanied with pricking pains in swallowing. 77 Bad smell from the mouth. Burning in the throat. Constant flow of saliva, particularly in speaking, espe- cially in the morning. Continual spitting. A quantity of pituitous matter in the throat, which he is obliged to loosen with great exertions; he often throws it up in the day, especially in the morning. Frequent internal inflammation of the throat, and swell- ing of the parts which aid in the process of swallowing. Insipid slimy taste in the mouth. Intolerably sweet taste in the mouth, almost constantly. Bitter taste in the mouth, especially in the morning.* Sourish and sour taste in the mouth, especially after a meal, though the food tastes well.f Fetid and putrid taste in the mouth. Bad smell from the mouth, sometimes mouldy, some- times putrid, like the smell of old cheese, or of fetid, sweaty feet, or rotten saurkraut. Risings from the stomach, empty, loud risings of air merely, incontrollable, lasting often for whole hours, and frequently in the night. Checked risings from the stomach, which occasion spas- modic straining in the oesophagus, without coming out at the mouth. Sour risings, either fasting, or after a meal, especially after having tasted milk. Risings, which excite vomiting. Risings, rancid, especially after having eaten anything greasy. Risings, putrid or mouldy, early in the morning. Frequent risings before eating, with a sort of rabid hun- ger. Heartburn, more or less frequent; there is a burning all along the chest, especially after breakfast, or on moving the body. ♦Sometimes uninterruptedly. t In rare cases there is a repugnantly sweet taste in the mouth, even without eating or drinking. 78 Flowing of a sort of salivary fluid from the stomach, preceded by writhing pains about the stomach (the pan- creas,) with weakness in the pit of the stomach; a faint- ing sort of nausea, and conflux of saliva in the mouth, even during the night;* (water-brash.) The complaints which are prevalent in any part of the body, are excited by the use of fresh fruits, especially of acid fruits, and of vinegar, (eating salad, etc.) Nausea, early in the morning, f Nausea, even to vomiting, early in the morning, after rising from the bed; it is lessened by motion. Nausea, always after having eaten greasy things or milk. Vomiting of blood. Hiccough after eating or drinking. Spasms of the oesophagus often prevent swallowing; this sometimes causes a man to die of hunger. Spasmodic, involuutary swallowing. Frequent sensation of fasting, and emptiness in the stomach (or abdomen,) often with much saliva in the mouth. Violent craving for food, (rabid hunger,) especially in the morning; he is obliged to eat immediately, otherwise he feels sick and trembling, (and when in the open air he is often obliged to stretch himself suddenly on the ground.) Violent craving for food, with rumbling and grunting in the belly. Appetite without hunger; a desire arises to swallow sud- denly all sorts of things without the stomach craving them. A kind of hunger; but by eating even ever so little, she is at once satisfied and feels full. When she wishes to eat she has a feeling of fullness in the chest, and her throat is filled with mucus. Want of appetite; only a gnawing, twisting and writhing in the stomach forces her to eat. Repugnance to boiled and warm food, especially boiled * It also degenerates into vomiting of water, mucus, or acid, acrid substances, especially after having eaten flour dumplings, flatuous vegetables, stewed prunes, etc. t Often arising very suddenly. 79 meat; there is only a desire for black bread (and butter) or for potatoes. Thirst; constant thirst, or only in the morning on rising. In the pit of the stomach there is a sensation of swell- ing, painful to the touch. Feeling of cold in the pit of the stomach. Oppression at the stomach, or in the pit of the stomach, as if there were a stone, like a cramp. Beatings and pulsations in the stomach, even fasting. Spasm of the stomach; pain in the pit of the stomach, as if from constriction. Painful griping of the stomach; * there is griping of the stomach, especially after cold drinking. Pain at the stomach; the stomach feels sore, even on eat- ing the most harmless food. Oppression at the stomach, even before breakfast, but especially after eating any kind of food, or particular kinds, such as fruit, green vegetables, black bread, food prepared with vinegar, etcf While eating, he is attacked with giddiness, threatens to fall to one side. After the slightest supper he is affected with heat in the bed, (constipation and great lassitude early in the morn- ing- ) After a meal, a feeling of anxiety accompanied with sweat, such as is consequent upon anxiety.J On eating, sweat breaks out immediately. Vomiting immediately after a meal. * Sometimes accompanied with vomiting of mucus and water; unless this vomiting takes place, the griping continues unabated. t The slightest quantity of these things produces colic, pain or numbness in the jaws, tearing pain in the teeth, considerable accu- mulation of mucus in the throat, etc. X Pains which reappear at different places, for instance, shooting pains in the lips, griping and grinding pains in the abdomen; pres- sure in the chest, heaviness in the back and small of the back, even to nausea; in this case vomiting, artificially excited, allevi- ates the suffering. In some cases the anxiety consequent upon eating increases to such an extent that they desire to destroy themselves by strangulation. 80 After a meal, oppression and burning at the stomach, or in the epigastrium, almost like heartburn. After a meal, a burning sensation in the oesophagus, from below upwards. After a meal, distension of the abdomen.* After a meal, weary and sleepy.t After a meal he feels as if he were intoxicated. After a meal, headache. After meal, beating of the heart. Eating alleviates several, even remote, complaints. The flatuosities, instead of passing off, become displaced; this causes a multitude of both bodily and mental ailments.| Flatuosities distend the abdomen ;§ the abdomen feels full, especially after a meal. The patient .^els as if the flatuosities ascended; these are then succeeded by eructations, frequent burning in the throat, of vomiting, by day and by night. Pain in the hypochondria on being touched, or during motion, also during rest. Painful constrictions in the epigastrium, close below the ribs. Cutting pains in the abdomen, which seem to originate in displaced flatuosities, (or flatuosities that have become entangled;) these pains are always accompanied with a sensation of fullness in the abdomen; the flatuositias seem to rise. Cutting pains in the abdomen, almost daily, especially in children; more frequent early in the morning than at any other time of the day; in some cases, day and night, without diarrhoea. * Sometimes accompanied with lassitude in arms and legs. ■fThe patient is often obliged to lie down and sleep. X Sometimes drawing pains in the limbs, especially the lower extremities, or stitches in the pit of the stomach, or in the sides of the abdomen, etc. §The flatuosis frequently ascends; sometimes, but less fre- quently, an enormous quantity of flatuosities passes off, especially early in the morning; they are without smell and without allevi- ating the rest of the complaints; at other times there passes off a large quantity of uncommonly fetid wind. 81 Cutting pains in the abdomen, especially in the hypo- gastric or lumbar regions of one side.* A feeling of desolateness and wild confusion or unpleas- ant emptiness in the abdomen; f even immediately after a meal he felt as if he had not eaten,"'/; all. After having been constipated ior several days she experienced a sensation of constri tion below the stomach, as from a band; this sensation comes from the small of the back and passes round the abdomen. Pain in the liver on touching the right hypogastric region. Pain in the liver; pressure and tension; tension below the ribs of the right side. Tension and pressure, coming from under the last ribs (in the hypochondria,) which arrests breathing, and pro- duces a feeling of anxious care. Pain in the liver; stitches, especially on stooping sud- denly. Inflammation of the liver. Pressure in the hypogastric region, as from a stone. J Hardness of the hypogastrium. Spasmodic colic, a cramp in the intestines. During the colic, coldness of one side of the abdomen. Audible rumbling and grunting in the abdomen. § Uterine spasms, resembling labor pains; cramp-like pains in the uterus, obliging the patient to lie down; they often distend the abdomen in a short time, without pro- ducing flatuosities. Pressure in the abdomen towards the genital organs. [| *The cutting pain sometimes descends all along the rectum and the thigh. t Sometimes existing in alternation with painful constrictions of the abdomen. J The pressure often rises to the pit of the stomach; it there causes a sensation of grinding, and excites vomiting. § These symptoms sometimes only exist in the left side of the abdomen; during an inspiration they rise, during an expiration they descend. || There is a pressure downwards, as if prolapsus wTere to come on; when the pressure ceases, she feels heavy in all her limbs; her F 82 Inguinal hernia; they become painful through singing and speaking.* Swelling of the inguinal glands, sometimes terminating in suppuration. Constipation; the stools often delay for several days, though there is frequently an unsuccessful desire for stool. The stools are hard, look burnt, come out in little clots, like the excrements of sheep, sometimes covered with a slimy substance and even with streaks of blood. Stools composed of mere slime (slimy hemorrhoids). Passing of ascarides by the anus. Passing of fragments of taenia. Stools, the first part of which is generally very hard and passes off with great pain; the latter half is liquid as in diarrhoea. Stools very pale, whitish. Gray stools. Green stools. Clay-colored stools. Stools smelling fetid and sour. Cutting in the rectum on passing the stools. Diarrhoea, lasting for weeks, months and years.f Diarrhoea frequently returning, lasting for several days and accompanied with cutting pains in the abdomen. Great and sudden loss of strength after having passed the stools, especially when they were rather soft and abun- dant, x limbs feel benumbed; she is obliged to stretch her arms and her body. * Inguinal hernias generally spring from internal psora; if we except the few cases where these parts have been injured by great external violence, or where hernia has been caused by superhu- man bodily efforts, through sudden lifting or pushing consequent upon anxious surprise. t Generally there is much rumbling from fermentation in the abdomen, especially early in the morning. J Especially loss of strength in the pit of the stomach, anxiety, uneasiness, sometimes chills over the abdomen, in the small of the back, etc. 83 Diarrhoea soon weakens her so much that she cannot walk alone. Varices* of the rectum, either painless or painful (blind hemorrhoids). Bleeding varices of the rectum,f especially on passing the stools; afterwards the varices are painful for a long time (flowing hemorrhoids). Haemorrhage from the anus is accompanied with short breathing and orgasm. Sensation of crawling and itching in the rectum, with or without the passing of ascarides. Itching and gnawing in the rectum and perineum. Polypi in the rectum. The patient complains of anxiety and loss of strength during micturition. Urine sometimes passes off in too large a quantity; this causes a sudden loss of strength.^ Painful retention of urine (in children and old people). When he feels cold (through and through) he is unable to urinate. She is sometimes so distended that she is unable to urinate. The urethra is constricted in different parts, especially early in the morning.§ * Sometimes a slimy liquid ekes out. tFistulas in ano most probably generally originate in psora, especially when stimulating diet, an abundance of spirituous liquors, purgatives, a sedentary mode of life and sexual abuses supervene.' {Dysuria, which is generally fatal when treated allopathically, has probably no other origin than psora. §The urine often passes off as thin as a thread, or it scatters; the urine often passes off in jerks, at long intervals. This passing off by intervals often comes from a cramp in the neck of the blad- der, which antagonizes the action of the bladder, and originates in the same psoric miasm. The inflammation of the bladder, aris- ing from strictures of the urethra, and the fistulse in vesica, conse- quent upon such strictures, likewise originate in psora, though it happens in a few rare cases, that there is a complication of sycosis and psora. 84 Pressure upon the bladder, as if from a desire to urinate, immediately after drinking. He is unable to hold his urine, there is a sensation of pressure upon the bladder; urine passes off while the pa- tient is walking, sneezing, coughing, laughing. The patient is frequently obliged to pass his urine in the night; for that purpose he has to rise frequently. After urinating, the urine continues to flow in drops for a long time. Urine passes off in great abundance in the shape of a whitish, sweetish-smelling and sweetish-tasting liquid; this is accompanied with thinness and an inextinguishable thirst (diabetes). In urinating there are burning and lancinating pains in the urethra and in the neck of the bladder. Urine has an acrid and pungent smell. Urine speedily deposits a sediment. Urine passes off cloudy and turbid. Red sand passes off from time to time together with the urine (gravel). Dark yellow urine. Brown urine. Blackish urine. Urine intermixed with blood, also haematuri. The prostatic fluid often passes off after urinating, espe- cially after difficult stools; the fluid sometimes passes off without interruption, drop by drop.* Nightly pollutions, once, twice, three times a week, and sometimes even every night, f Nightly effusion of semen in the woman succeeding vo- luptuously-delightful dreams. Nightly pollutions; they are attended with evil conse- quences, not often, but immediately.! * The constant loss of the prostatic fluid sometimes results in consumption. t In healthy and chaste young men, these pollutions take place every 12 or 14 days; this is the order of nature, and induces cheer- fulness, strength and contentment. J Gloominess of the intellect, numbness, dimness of thought, diminished vividness of the imagination, want of memory, depres- 85 Semen passes off during the day almost involuntarily, even when there is little irritation, and often, even with- out erection. Erections, very frequent, long continuing, very painful, without pollutions. The semen does not pass,* even after the embrace has lasted for a long time, and the erection has been sufficient; but afterwards it passes off either in nightly pollutions or with the urine. Accumulation of water in the tunica vaginalis testis (hy- drocele). There is never any complete erection, even in spite of the most voluptuous sensations. Painful twitches in the muscles of the penis. Itching at the scrotum; the scrotum is sometimes cov- ered with pimples and scabs. Chronic swelling or knotty induration of one or both testes (sarcocele). Dwindling, lessening, disappearing of one or both testes. Induration and enlargement of the prostatic gland. Drawang pain in the testes and the spermatic cord. Painful sensation of contusion in the testes. Want of sexual desire in both sexes, either frequent or constant, f Immoderate, insatiable desire for coition, J accompanied with a livid complexion and sickly body. sion of spirits, sadness; sight, digestion and appetite are weak- ened; stools cease to pass, there arises a pressing of the blood towards the head, the anus, etc. ♦During such an embrace the testes remain relaxed, and hang down more or less. t Often for many years. In this case, the sexual parts of either male or female are incapable of pleasurable sensations; the corpus penis hangs down relaxed, is thinner than the glans, which feels cold, and looks bluish or white; in the female parts, the labia majora are inaccessible to irritation, they are relaxed and small; the vagina is dull and incapable of being excited, generally dry; sometimes there is falling of hair, or total baldness of the female parts of generation. JMetromania and nymphomania have the same origin. 86 Sterility, impotence, without there being any organic defect of the parts of generation.* Disorder of the menstrual functions; the menses do not appear regularly on the twenty-eighth day after the ap- pearance of the former, do not appear without being ac- companied by other morbid symptoms, nor do they come on suddenly; do not continue uninterruptedly for four days, with a moderate flow of healthy-colored, good blood, until they gradually reach their end on the fourth day, without the general health of either body or mind being disturbed; they do not last until the forty-eighth or fiftieth year, nor do they then disappear gradually and without pain. The menses are delayed beyond the fifteenth year and later; or, after having made their appearance once or twice, they discontinue for months and years.f The period is not regular; it returns too soon by some days; sometimes it returns every three weeks or even every fortnight. J The menses flow7 only for one day, a few hours, or im- perceptibly. The menses flow five, six or eight days; but there is only a little flow every six, twelve, twenty-four hours; there are intervals of half and whole days. The menses are too abundant, last for weeks, or they return every day (flowing of blood).§ *Too frequent embraces from impotent desires; the imperfect, and watery semen passes off too soon; want of erection; the semen passes off too scantily; want of sexual desire; monthly menor- rhagia; constant flow of blood; menses either watery, or too scanty, or suppressed; abundant leucorrhcea, induration of the ovaries; the mammae have either dwindled down or have become knotty; insensibility, or painful sensibility of the genital organs are the first and usual symptoms of sterility in both sexes. t Consequent upon this suppression is livid paleness, tumefac- tion of the face; heaviness in the legs; swelling of the feet; chilli- ness, lassitude, asthma (chlorosis), etc. Jit rarely delays a few days, and then the flow is excessive; the patient threatens to fall from weariness, and has a great many other complaints. § This is followed by swelling of the face, of the hands and feet, 87 The menstrual blood is watery; it forms brown clots. The menses smell badly. The menstrual flow is painful, accompanied with swoons, shooting or spasmodically contracting pains in the head, cutting pains in the abdomen or in the small of the back; she is obliged to lie down or to vomit, etc. Polypi in the vagina. Leucorrhcea, sometimes a few days before, sometimes after the menstrual flux, or during the whole time from one period to another; this leucorrhcea diminishes the flow of the menses, or continues in their stead; flows like milk, like a white and yellow mucus, or like pungent, badly smelling water.* Premature delivery. During pregnancy there is great lassitude, nausea, fre- quent vomiting, swoons, painful varices of the veins of the thighs or legs, also, sometimes of the labia; hysteric com- plaints of various kinds, etc. Cold in the head, immediately on going out into the open air; in the room afterwards the head feels as if it were stopped up from the cold. Head and nose feel as if they were stopped up from a painful spasms in the breast and abdomen, innumerable nervous complaints, nervous weakness, excessive sensitiveness, both gen- eral and of some particular senses, etc. Before the blood begins to flow there are anxious dreams, frequent waking up in a "fit of orgasm; beatings of the heart, uneasiness, etc. When the flow of blood from the uterus is more considerable than usual, it is ac- companied with cutting pains in one side of the abdomen and in the groin; the cutting sometimes descends along the rectum and into the thigh; combined with these symptoms there is a difficulty of urinating; and the pain often prevents her from sitting; after these pains the abdomen feels sore, as if it were festering. *The leucorrhcea of a more malignant kind is accompanied by all sorts of complaints, even without mentioning the lesser ones (itching at the pudenda and in the vagina; with soreness on the outside of the pudenda and the neighboring part of the thigh, espe- cially in walking); the higher degrees of this troublesome dis- charge are frequently followed by hysterical symptoms of every 88 cold, either continually so, or often so, or almost continu- ally so. Catarrh from the slightest exposure to cold, mostly during the rough season and in wet weather. Catarrh, very frequently, or almost continually, some- times even uninterruptedly. Impossibility of catching cold, notwithstanding there are strong indications for it, and the patient is otherwise afflicted with great ailments originating in psora. Hoarseness after the slightest talk; she has to throw up in order to clear the voice. Hoarseness, sometimes aphonia (she cannot speak loud, has to speak in a low tone of voice), after a slight cold. Permanent hoarseness and aphonia, often for years; he cannot utter a loud word. Suppuration of the pharynx and larynx (laryngeal phthisis).* Hoarseness and catarrh, very frequently, or almost con- tinually; his chest is continually affected. Cough; there is frequently an irritation and a crawling in the throat; the cough torments him, until sweat breaks out upon the face (and upon the hands). Cough, which does not abate until there is retching and vomiting, mostly early in the morning or in the evening. Cough, each attack terminating in sneezing. Cough, mostly in the evening after lying down; it always comes on when the head lies deep. Cough, which wakes the patient after he has slept but a short while. kind, moral and mental derangements, melancholy, alienation of of the mind, epilepsy, etc. It often attacks the patient all of a sudden, being then preceded by grinding pains on one side of the abdomen, burning in the stomach, in the abdomen, in the vagina, stitches in the vagina and the os tinea?, or cramp in the uterus, or pressure towards the vagina, as though every thing were to be pressed out; sometimes, also, intense pain in the small of the back; the flatuosities become displaced, which cause pain, etc. Has cancer of the womb any other origin except psora f * Croup cannot come on in a child which is free from latent psora, or which has been freed from it by treatment. 89 Cough, especially in the night. Cough; it is worse early in the morning on waking up. Cough, most violent after a meal. Cough, at each deep breathing. Cough, producing a feeling of soreness in the chest, or sometimes stitches in the side of the chest or abdomen. Dry cough. Cough, with dry, pus-like expectoration, with or without spitting of blood.* Cough, inducing a considerable expectoration of mucus, and failing of strength (tabes mucosa). Attacks of spasmodic cough.f Violent, intolerable stitches in the chest at each breath- ing; pain will not allow him to cough; there is no inflam- matory fever (spurious pleurisy). Pain in the chest, on walking, as though the chest were to burst. Aching pain in the chest on breathing deep, and sneezing. Frequently a lightly oppressive pain in the chest; unless it passes away soon, it degenerates into the deepest dejec- tion of spirits. J Burning pain in the chest. Frequent stitches in the chest, with or without cough. Acute pleurisy; there is great heat of the body, and stitches in the chest which prevent him from breathing; accompanied with hemoptysis and headache; he is confined to his bed. ♦Suppuration of the lungs most probably always originates in psora, even when fumes of mercury or arsenic seem to be the cause; at any rate, most cases of suppuration of the lungs spring from inflammation of the chest, mismanaged by blood-letting; this disturbance ought always to be considered as an indication of excited psora. fShe is suddenly obliged to cough, but is not able to do so on account of her breath being suddenly cut off, which threatens suffocation; her face is dark-red, and tumefied; the oesophagus is generally constricted so that not a drop of water will pass; after the lapse of eight or ten minutes there is generally a rising from the stomach, which terminates the spasm. J The attacks generally last from evening till early in the morn- ing, through the night. 90 Night-mare; during the night he generally starts from an oppressive dream, but he is unable to stir, to call, to speak; and when he endeavors to move, he suffers intoler- able pain, as though he were being torn.* Displacement of breath with stitches in the chest, coming on at the slightest motion :f he cannot advance a step (pneumonia). Asthma, on moving his arms, not in walking. Attacks of suffocation, especially after midnight; the patient has to sit up, to leave his bed, to stoop, standing and leaning on his hands, to open the windows, or go into the open air, etc.; there is beating of the heart, followed by rising from the stomach or gaping; after this the spasm ceases with or without cough and expectoration. Beating of the heart with anxiety, especially during the night. Asthma; loud, difficult, sometimes sibilant breathing. Shortness of breath. Asthma during motion, with or without cough. Asthma; generally coming on whilst the patient is seated. Spasmodic asthma; her breath is cut short on going into the open air. Asthma; the attacks last for weeks. Dwindling of the mammae, or excessive enlargement of the mammae, with falling-in (retraction) of the nipples. Erysipelas on one of the mammae (especially in nursing). A hard, enlarging and indurating gland, with painful stitches in one of the mammae. J Itching eruptions around the nipples (or moist and scaly). Drawing, tearing, straining pains in the small of the back, in the back, in the back of the neck. Lancinating and painful stiffness in the back of the neck, in the small of the back. * These attacks are sometimes repeated in one night; especially when he has not taken any fresh air during the day. tEspecially on ascending a height. J Have the different varieties of cancer of the breast any other cause but psora ? 91 Aching pain between the scapulae. Sensation of weight upon the shoulders. Drawing, tearing, straining pains in the limbs, partly in the muscles, partly in the joints (rheumatism). Aching and drawing pains in the periosteum, here and there, especially in the periosteum of the long bones.* Stitching pain in the fingers and toes.f Stitches in the heels and soles of the feet, on standing up. Burning in the soles of the feet.J In the joints he feels a kind of tearing, like scraping upon the bones with red-hot swelling; touching it, or the contact with air gives him insupportable pain; he is at the same time extremely sensitive and peevish (gout in the feet, hands, etc.).§ The joints of the fingers are swollen, aching; touching or bending them gives him pain. Thickening of the joints; the joints remain hard-swol- len ; on bending them he suffers pain. The joints feel stiff, with painful and difficult motion; the ligaments appear to be too short/ Motion of the joints is painfull The joints creak on being moved. The joints are easily strained by being pulled or bent. ** Increasing susceptibility of straining a joint, even by a veryslight muscular effort, by light mechanical labor, on * In the places where the pain is located, the pain is excited by touching them; they feel bruised or sore. tin worse and older cases, this pain becomes lancinating. X Especially during the night under a feather bed. §The pains grow worse either in the day or in the night. After every attack, and when the inflammation has ceased, the joints of the hand, the knee, the foot, the big toe, experience pain on motion, on standing up; they feel insufferably benumbed, and the limb is weak. : For instance, the tendo Achillis on standing up, stiffness of the tarsus, the knees, partly momentary (after having been seated. or on standing up, etc.), partly permanent (contraction). If For instance, the shoulder-joint on elevating the arm; the tarsus experiences pain on standing up, as though it would break. **For instance, the tarsus, the wrist-joint, the joint of the thumb. 9>2 stretching the arms above the head for the purpose of reaching something elevated, on lifting light things, on turning the body quickly, on rolling something, etc. This, often slight, straining or extending the muscles, sometimes induces the most violent diseases, swoons, hysteric com- plaints of all degrees,* fevers, haemoptysis, etc., whereas a person that is not affected with psora, is able to lift any burdens he pleases, without any inconvenience.! The joints are easily strained or dislocated, in conse- quence of slipping or any sort of wrong motion. J In the tarsus there is a feeling of pain, as though the joint would break on standing up. Mollifies ossium, curvature of the spine (hunchback) curvature of the long bones in the thighs or legs (rickets). Fragility of the bones. Painful sensitiveness of the skin, of the muscles and of the periosteum on pressing moderately.§ * Often violent pain in the crown of the head—the pain is also felt externally on touching the head — it comes on very suddenly; or sudden pain in the small of the back, or pain in the womb; sometimes stitches in the side of the chest, or between the scapulae, that arrest breathing, or painful stiffness of the back of the neck or spine, frequent and loud eructations, etc. t The common people, especially in the country, try, in this case, to alleviate their sufferings by a few magnetic strokes; it is often attended with some success, though this is not lasting; the dis- position for straining the joint remains. A woman, whom the Germans call "Streichefrau" makes a few passes with the tips of her thumbs, generally across the scapula? towards the axillae, or along the spine, sometimes starting from the pit of the stomach, and moving along the lower border of the ribs; she generally presses too hard. X For instance, the tarsus on stepping wrong—also, the shoulder- joint. Under this head belongs the gradual luxation of the hip- joint; the head of the femur starts from the acetabulum, the leg becoming either longer or shorter, and causing limping. §Upon striking moderately against something, he feels a violent and long pain; those places of the body, upon which he rests in bed, are excessively painful; hence it is that he frequently changes his position in the night; the ischia and the muscles, which he compresses by sitting, are very painful; a slight blow with the hand upon the thigh, causes great pain, slight knocking against 93 Insufferable pain in the skin* (or in the muscles, or the periosteum) of one part of the body, coming on in conse- quence of slightly moving this part or a part which is more remote; the pain may come, for instance, from writ- ing, in the axilla, or in the side of the neck, etc., whereas sawing, and other violent labor performed with that hand causes no pain; a similar pain is excited by any kind of motion of the mouth, speaking for example, in the neigh- boring parts; the lips and the cheeks feel pain on the slightest motion. Numbness of the skin or of the muscles of particular parts and limbs, f Insensibility of particular fingers, or of the hands and feet4 Crawling, sometimes pricking and crawling in arms, legs, and other parts, even in the tips of the fingers, as if the parts were benumbed. Crawling or internal itching, especially of the lower extremities (in the evening in bed, or early on waking up in the morning); the position of those extremities has to be changed every moment. Painful coldness in some parts. Burning pain in some parts, often without having changed the external temperature of the body. Coldness, either frequent or constant, of the whole body, or of one side of the body; also, coldness of particular something hard, leaves behind blue spots or streaks of blood under the skin. * Extremely various. These pains which produce a correspond- ing sensitiveness of the mind, are often burning, shooting, lan- cinating, often they cannot be described; they affect especially the upper parts of the body, the face (tic douloureux), the skin of the neck, etc.; they come on on the parts being slightly touched, on speaking, chewing—they are excited in the shoulder by slight pressure or motion of the fingers. |Tact is wanting—the fingers feel like hollow bulbs, either peri- odically or permanently (constant want of sensibility). J The limb is white, bloodless, without feeling and cold, often for hours, especially when the air is cool (moving a piece of zinc over the fingers or toes, towards their extremities, relieves the symptoms quickly and entirely, but acts merely as a palliative). 94 parts, cold hands and feet, that cannot be warmed in the bed during night. Constant chilliness, even when there is no change in the external temperature of the body. Frequent flushes of heat, especially in the face, more frequently with redness than without it; lie feels suddenly and excessively hot, in rest or on slight motion; often already, on speaking, with or without sweat breaking out. Warm air in the room, or in church, is extremely offen- sive to her; makes her feel uneasy, causes her to move to and fro; sometimes there is a sensation of weight above the eyes, which is often alleviated by bleeding from the nose. Orgasm; also a sensation of pulsating in all the arteries; this symptom is often accompanied by total paleness and a feeling of weariness through the whole body. Rush of blood to the head. Rush of blood to the chest. Varices of the veins of the lower extremities, or of the pudenda, also of the arms (even in men); there are often tearing pains in the varices (in stormy weather), or itch- ing.* Erysipelas in the face, with fever; or on the extremities, or on the mammae of nursing mothers, especially on a place which is sore (with a pricking and burning pain). Paronychia (sore finger owing to festering skin). Chilblains (even when there is no winter), on the toes and fiugers; the pain is itching and burning, lancinating. Corns, that cause a burning and lancinating pain, even when there is no external pressure. Boils (furuncles), returning from time to time, espe- cially on the nates, the thighs, the upper arms and the neck. Touching them excites a sensation of fine pricking in the boils. Ulcers on the thigh, especially upon the ankles, and above them, on the inferior parts of the calves; round the borders, there is a gnawing and itching pain; at the base * Aneurisms appear to spring from no other source than psora. 95 of the ulcers, there is a biting pain, such as is caused by salt; round about the ulcers, the flesh is colored brown and bluish; in the neighborhood of the ulcers there are varices, with tearing pain, during stormy and rainy weather, espe- cially in the night; often accompanied with erysipelas, con- sequent upon chagrin or fright, or with cramps in the calves. Ramollissement and suppuration of the humerus, the femur, the patella, also the fingers and toes (spina ventosa). Thickening and stiffening of the joints. Eruptions, some of them being agreeably-itching pus- tules, separate from each other, appearing from time to time and passing off again, especially on the fingers or other parts; the pustules burn after having been scratched, they are extremely similar to the genuine eruptions of the itch. Some forming a sort of nettle-rash, the vesicles being rilled with water, with a burning pain; some in the shape of pimples, painless, in the face, upon the chest, back, arms and thighs; some of the genus herpes, the fine grains being set near each other, in round, more or less large and thick clusters of a reddish color, partly dry, partly moist; there is the same itching as in the eruption of the itch, and the same burning pain consequent upon friction. They are surrounded with a red border, continue spreading, while the centre appears to become freed from the eruption, with a smooth, shining skin. (Ringworm or herpes circin- atus.) Some form elevated crusts upon the skin, round, with highly red borders, painless, a violent shooting pain often occurring in those spots upon the skin, that are not yet affected; some form small round spots upon the skin, covered with bran-like, dry scabs, which often fall off and come on again, without sensation; some forming red places upon the skin, feeling dry, with a burning pain, raised a little upon the skin. Summer-freckles, spots in the face, upon the hands, and upon the chest, without sensation, small, round, brown or brownish. 96 Large, brownish spots, often covering whole limbs, arms, neck, chest, etc., without sensation or with itching. Yellowness of the skin, yellow spots, homogeneous, around the eyes, the mouth, on the neck, etc., without sensation.* Wens in the face, on the fore-arms, hands, etc.f Sarcomatous enlargements of the adipose or cellular tissue, or the bursas mucosae of the tendons, of various forms and sizes, cold, without sensation.J Glandular swellings around the neck, in the groin, in the bends of the joints, the bend of the elbow, of the knee, in the axilla3,§ also in the mammae. Dryness of the skin, either over the whole body without being able to perspire either through motion or heat, or only in some parts. || Disagreeable sensation of dryness over the whole body, also in the face, at the mouth and in the mouth, in the throat or in the nose, although the air passes freely. The patient sweats too easily by slight motion; he is even attacked with sweat over and over while he is seated, or there is sweat only on some parts of the body, for in- stance, almost constant sweating of the hands or feet,^[ in the axillae, and around the genital organs. Sweats, early in the morning every day; the patient drips * Biding in a carriage is followed by yellowness of the skin, in patients where the symptom is not lasting, but comes and goes. t Especially in youth. Many wens only exist for a short while, and then disappear to make room for another infirmity. JjThe fungus hematodes, which has lately become such a terri- ble disease, originates in psora; I am inclined to infer this from some cases. § Those swellings, after having experienced shooting pains, pass intoja state of chronic suppuration, which secretes, however, color- less mucus, instead of pus. || Especially upon the hands, the external side of the arms and legs, and even in the face; the skin is dry, rough, parching, feels chopped, often scaly like bran. Tf This sweat is generally very fetid, and so abundant, that soles, heels?Tand toes are already soaked, and feel sore, after very little walking. 97 with sweat, which smells sour or pungent; this symptom often lasts for years.* Sweat only on one side of the body, or only on the upper half of the body, or only on the lower extremities. Increasing susceptibility for cold, either of the whole body (wetting the hands with warm and then with cold water, as is done in washing, sometimes induces a cold), or of particular parts, head, neck, breast, abdomen, feet, etc., in a slight draught, or after slight moistening of the parte ;f even already in a cool room, or when the air is moist with rain, or the barometer low. The pains which have been formerly experienced in parts injured, wounded, broken, although they are now cured and cicatrized, become again very acute at the approach of an important change of the weather, intense cold, storm, atmo- sphere pregnant with electricity. (Edematous swelling of the feet, or of one foot, of the hands or face, of the abdomen.or scrotum, etc. (anasarca). Attacks of sudden heaviness in the arms or legs. Attacks of paralytic weakness, paralytic lassitude of one arm, one hand, one leg, without pain, either sudden and temporary, or beginning imperceptibly and continuing pro- gressively. Sudden bending of the knees. Children fall without any perceptible cause. Similar attacks of weakness in the legs may be perceived in full- grown persons; in walking, one foot glides this way, the other that way, etc. * The sweating of psoric children about the head, in the even- ing after falling asleep, comes under this observation. fThis susceptibility is attended with many important bad con- sequences which make their appearance immediately. Pains in the joints, headaches, cold in the head, sore throat and inflamma- tion of the throat, catarrh, swelling of the cervical glands, hoarse- ness, cough, oppressed breathing, stitches in the chest, fever, dys- peptic complaints, colic, vomiting, diarrhoea, pain in stomach, rising of water from the stomach, sometimes convulsions in the face and other parts of the body, jaundice-like color of the skin, etc. No one, who is not psoric, suffers the least inconvenience from such causes. G 93 During a walk in the open air, he has sudden attacks of weakness, especially in the legs.* While sitting the person feels insufferably tired; walk- ing diminishes this feeling. The joints are easily strained by wrong seizing or step- ping; this often increases to dislocation; for example in the tarsus, the shoulder-joint, etc. The creaking of the joints increases by slight motion; it is accompanied with a disagreeable sensation. The limbs feel easily benumbed; this numbness is induced by slight causes, for example, leaning the head upon the arm, crossing the legs while sitting, etc. The cramps in some muscles increase; this symptom comes on by slight causes. Slow, cramp-like straining of the flexor muscles of the extremities. Sudden twitches in some muscles and organs even in waking; for example, in the tongue, the lips, the muscles of the face, of the pharynx, the eyes, the jaws, hands and feet. Tonic shortening of the flexor muscles (spasms). Involuntary turning and twisting of the head or the extremities Avith full consciousness (St. Vitus' dance). Sudden attacks of fainting and sinking of strength with loss of consciousness. Attacks of tremor in the limbs, without anxiety. Long continued tremor, sometimes striking with the hands, arms and legs. Attacks of loss of consciousness, lasting for a moment or a minute; during these attacks, the head is inclined upon the shoulder to one side, and in one or the other parts of the body, there is a jerking motion, sometimes not. Different kinds of epilepsy. Constant gaping, stretching and straining of the limbs. * Sometimes this feeling of weakness appears to reach the pit of the stomach; here it assumes the form of a sort of rabid hunger, which deprives him o£ all his strength; he is attacked with tremor, and is obliged to lie down for a while. 99 Drowsiness during the day, often immediately after sit- ting down, especially after a meal. He finds it difficult to fall asleep in the evening on lying down; he often lies awake for hours. He spends the night in a sort of slumber. Anxiety prevents him from sleeping, every night; this anxiety often is so violent that he has to leave his bed, and to walk about the room. He is deprived of sleep, at any rate of sound sleep, from three o'clock in the morning. On closing his eyes, he sees all sorts of fanciful images, grimaces. On falling asleep she is disturbed by all sorts of fancies; she has to rise and walk about. Vivid dreams as if in a state of waking; sad, frightful, anxious, vexatious, libidinous dreams. Speaking or screaming during sleep. Somnambulism; in the night he rises with his eyes shut; he does all sorts of things, even dangerous things, with ease, without knowing anything about it on waking up. Suffocating fits during sleep, (night-mare). All sorts of troublesome pains in the night; thirst, dry- ness of the throat, mouth, frequent urinating. On waking up early in the morning, he feels drowsy, unrefreshed, more tired than he did in the evening before on lying down; after rising, it takes hours before he recov- ers from this weariness. After having spent an uneasy night, he often feels stronger, than after an easy, sound sleep. Intermittent fever, even when this disease is neither spo- radic, nor epidemic,* nor endemic; the forms, duration and type of the fever may be different—quotidian, tertian, quartan, quintan, or the fever may appear every seven days. Every evening there are chills with blue nails. * It may be asserted that epidemic intermittents never attack people free from psora; wherever these attacks take place, it may be supposed that there is a disposition for them, originating in psora. 100 Single chills every evening. Every evening the patient experiences heat with rush of blood to the head, red cheeks, often alternating with chills. Intermittent fever of some weeks duration; this is fol- lowed by a moist, itching eruption which lasts for some weeks, and disappears as soon as the fever sets in again; this alternation may continue for years. All sorts of moral and mental disturbances.* Melancholy, either alone or united with alienation, some- times alternating with frenzy and moments of rationality. Oppressive anxiety early on waking up. Oppressive anxiety in the evening on lying down.f Repeated attacks of tearfulness during the day (with or without pain), or at certain hours of the day or night; dur- ing these attacks the patient has no rest, is obliged to move this way and that way; sometimes sweat breaks out. Melancholy, beating of the heart and anxiety woke her up in the night (mostly immediately before the appearance of the menses). Mania of self-destruction; J (spleen?). * Neither in my practice, nor in an insane asylum have I ever met with a patient attaeked with melancholy, madness or frenzy, in whom these diseases were not based upon psora, sometimes complicated with syphilis. tin some patients these anxieties cause a violent perspiration to break out; others experienee only orgasm and pulsations in all the arteries; in others again this anxiety causes a feeling of con- striction in the throat, as if they were suffocating; others feel as though their blood ceased to flow, which causes the anxiety. In some the anxiety is accompanied with fear, exciting images and thoughts which seem to cause the anxiety; in others the anxiety exists without them. J This kind of mental or moral disease which originates in psora, does not seem to have Been sufficiently attended to. A cer- tain feeling of necessity induces those patients to kill themselves, although they have no anxiety, no anxious thoughts, and seem to enjoy their full understanding. Nothing can save them except the cure of their psora, provided its manifestations are noticed in time. I say " in time," for in the last stages of the malady, these monomaniacs never speak to any one of their fixed resolutions. This mania manifests itself in fits of half or full hours, at last daily, often at certain periods during the day. These persons, 101 Whining mood; they often weep for hours, without know- ing the cause of it.* Attacks of fear, for example: of fire, of being alone, of apoplexy, of mental alienation, etc. Attacks of a species of angriness, which looks like in- sanity. He is easily frightened, often by the most trifling occur- rence; this causes the patient to sweat and to tremble.f Dread of labor, in persons who are otherwise extremely active; they have a decided repugnance to labor. Excessive sensitiveness, ) + Irritability from weakness. \ however, beside these attacks of the mania of self-destruetion, sometimes have attacks of anxiety which come at different periods and do not seem to be connected with the attacks of mania. These attacks of anxiety are generally accompanied with an oppression at the pit of the stomach, but they are free from the desire which the patients otherwise experience, of destroying themselves. These attacks of anxiety which appear to be of a physical nature and are not attended with peculiarly anxious thoughts, may be wanting whilst the attacks of the mania exist in a high degree; or the anx- iety may return more frequently, when the mania had been almost cured by antipsoric remedies. Thus, both affections appear tx> be independent of each other, although they originate in the same cause. *This symptom is especially frequent in the female sex, and ap- pears to be intended by nature to ward off for a time, more impor- tant nervous affections. t A woman was attacked with anxiety when she was about at- tending to some part of her domestic affairs; her limbs trembled and she became so faint that she was obliged to lie down. X All physical and moral impressions, were they ever so weak, excite an excessive morbid sensitiveness. Emotions of both a sad. and vexatious and a cheerful nature, often cause astonishing com- plaints and suffering. Touching tales, even the recollection thereof, excite the nerves, drive the anxiety to the head, etc. Beading in- different things, attentive looking at one object; for example, in sewing; attentive listening to indifferent things, strong light; loud talking of several men together; even a few sounds upon a musical instrument, ringing, etc., are attended with disagreeable conse- quences; trembling, fainting, headache, chills, etc. Smell and taste are often excessively sensitive. In many cases, moderate exercise, talking, moderate warmth, coldness, open air, moistening the skin with water, etc., are injurious. Many are affected even in their 10-2 Sudden change of humor; often the patient is very gay and even extremely so, and then suddenly low-spirited, for instance, on account of his disease, or something of no im- portance. Sudden transition from cheerfulness to sadness, or peev- ishness without any apparent cause. These are some of the principal symptoms of latent psora which I have had occasion to observe. Their fre- quent occurrence, or their continuance, show that the latent psora is becoming active in the system. They are at the same time the elements which constitute the innumerable secondary complaints arising from the psoric reaction in persons unfavorably situated, and assuming all sorts of forms in proportion as a person's constitution, education, habits, occupation, external circumstances and the physi- cal or moral impressions to which he is subject, differ. The number of those secondary ailments, which are described as distinct and independent diseases in the older pathological works,* far exceeds the morbid symptoms which we find enumerated in these works. rooms from the sudden changes of the weather; most of these pa- tients complain in stormy and damp weather, few only when the sky is dry and bright. In some, the full moon, in others, the new moon make an unfavorable impression. * Those secondary ailments bear the following names: scrofula, rickets, spina ventosa, atrophy, marasmus, consumption, pulmo- nary consumption, asthma, tabes mucosa, laryngeal phthisis, chronic catarrh, constant cold in the head, difficult dentition, worms and consequent diseases, dyspepsia, spasms in the abdomen, hypochon- dria, hysteria, anasarca, dropsy, ovarian dropsy, dropsy of the ute" rus, hydrocele, hydrocephalus, amenorrhcea and dysmenorrhcea- haemorrhage from the uterus, haematemesis, haemoptysis, haemor- rhages, discharges from the vagina, dysuria, ischuria, enuresis, diabetes, catarrh of the bladder, haematuria, stricture of the urethra, nephralgia, gravel, stricture of the intestines, blind and flowing hemorrhoids, fistula in ano, difficult stools, consti- pation, chronic diarrhoea, induration of the liver, jaundice, blue disease, disease of the heart, beating of the heart, spasms of the chest, dropsy of the chest, miscarriage, sterility, metromania, impotence, induration of the testes, dwindling of the testes, pro- lapsus uteri, inversion of the womb, inguinal, femoral and umbili- cal hernia, dislocations from some internal cause, curvature of the 103 Those ailments are the characteristic secondary symp- toms* of the psoric miasm, Avhich manifests itself by these symptoms as a hydra-headed monster pregnant with dis- ease.f spine, chronic inflammation of the eyes, listula lachrymalis, short and long-sightedness, day and night-blindness, obscuration of the cornea, cataract, glaucoma, amaurosis, deafness, deficient smell or taste, chronic headache on one side, pain in the face, tinea capitis, scabs, crusta lactea, herpes, pimples, nettle rash, lypoma, goitre, varix, aneurisms, erysipelas, adipose sarcoma, osteo-sarcoma, schir- rus, cancer of the lips, cheeks, breast and womb, fungus hematodes, rheumatism, gout in the hips, in the joints and feet; apoplectic fits, spasms, convulsions, swoons, vertigo, paralysis, contractions, epilepsy, St. Vitus' dance, melancholy, insanity, imbecility, nerv- ous affections, etc. ^Councillor Kopp, an allopathic physician who is approaching to Homoeopathy, pretends having seen chronic diseases disappear of themselves; he may have seen a few symptoms disappear, which the old school is so foolish as to consider complete diseases. t I admit that my doctrine: " All non-venereal chronic diseases that can neither be cured by regular diet nor favorable circum- stances, which, on the contrary, increase in the course of time, originate in psora," is too comprehensive and even overwhelming for all who have not maturely reflected upon my arguments, or for narrow intellects. But my doctrine is not the less true. But because the patient is not able to recollect having had a few itch-vesicles between the time of his birth and the present mo- ment, or because he is ashamed of confessing having had the itch on account of its being considered a shameful disease, is this a rea- son why such a chronic disease should not be considered psoric? The non-confessing of the patient proves nothing to the contrary. As long therefore as the opponents of my doctrine cannot show that the chronic affections which I have alluded to in the preceding . paragraphs, and which mere diet, were it ever so regular, a strong constitution and favorable external circumstances are not suffi- cient to eradicate from the system, can originate in some other than the psoric miasm, which maintains, strengthens and develops them; there is an overwhelming probability based upon analogy, that all other complaints which are similar to the preceding, both in nature and development, originate in psora, although the pa- tient may not be aware of having ever been infected with the itch. It is an easy matter to doubt things which are not before us in visible form; but this proves nothing; according to the old rule, proving is the business of those who deny, "negantis est probare." The antipsorics are therefore not necessary to prove the chronic 104 nature of those maladies in case the infection by the itch-virus should be denied; the salutatorv action of the antipsorics only serves in the same sense as the counter-proof of an accurately- solved arithmetical problem. Since it is proved that other medicines, even when chosen strictly homceopathically, do not heal the above mentioned chronic diseases as thoroughly and permanently as the so-called antipsor- ics, because the latter cover the whole extent of the progressively appearing symptoms of the psoric disturbance:—I do not see why these should not be called antipsorics in preference to all other remedies. I sometimes considep certain acute diseases, such as inflamma- tion of the throat, of the chest, etc., results of an excited psora. This, too, cannot be denied, as it is done under the pretense, that those inflammations may be controlled by the antiphlogistic rem- edies, aconite, belladonna, mercury, etc. The proof that they orig- inate in latent psora, is this, that their frequent return can only be prevented by the antipsorics. TREATMENT OF CHRONIC DISEASES. I shall now pass to the treatment of chronic diseases, the number of which is almost Without end. Although I do not pretend to say that the fact of all chronic diseases having been Iraced by me to a three-fold origin, has made the treatment of those diseases an easy matter; yet I may say that the discovery of the remedies which are homoeopathically adapted to those different classes of diseases, has secured the possibility of their successful treatment. Without a knowledge of that three-fold origin and these homoeopathic remedies, the succesful treat- ment of chronic diseases is absolutely impossible. I shall first speak of those miasmatic chronic diseases which we designate by the terms Syphilis and Sycosis, including all their various ramifications. This will leave us free to treat at length of that immense host of chronic affections which orig- inate in the most fearful, most common and most inveterate of all chronic miasms, Psora. SYCOSIS. The chronic miasm which we designate by the term Sycosis, has only prevailed from time to time, and has given origin to the smallest number of chronic diseases. Sycosis was especially spread in Germany between the years 1809 and 1814, during the wTar with France; ever since then the disease has been decreasing. Sycosis, being supposed to be homogeneous with syphilis, has been heretofore treated with mercury internally, and externally by cauterization, burning, cutting, or ligatures. This violent external treatment has been employed against the excrescences upon the genital organs. The excrescen- ces first appear upon those parts of the body several days and often weeks, after the infection by the act of coition has taken place. They are accompanied with a sort of gon- orrhoea* from the urethra, are sometimes dry in the form of warts, but more frequently soft, spongy, emitting a fetid fluid, sui generis, of a sweetish taste, (almost resembling that of herring pickle), bleeding readily and having the form of a cox-comb or a cauli-flower (brassica botrytes). In man they appear upon the glans and around or beneath the prepuce; in woman they cover the parts surrounding the pudenda, and the pudenda themselves, in great abun- dance. The natural and immediate consequence of such a violent treatment was, that the excrescences generally came out again, and were again subjected to painful and cruel treat- ment. In case, however, they did not re-appear in their *In this kind of gonorrhoea the fluid which comes out of the urethra, looks like thick pus; micturition is not very painful, but penis feels hard and swollen; upon its back it is sometimes covered with glandular tubercles, and it is very painful to the touch. 108 original form, they broke forth in the shape of more disa- greeable and more dangerous secondary ailments; for neither the violent removal of the external embodiment or vicarious symptom of sycosis, nor the internal administra- tion of mercury, which is not homogeneous to the miasm of sycosis, had the least influence in diminishing the inten- sity of this miasm and preventing it from affecting the whole organism. Beside the general health being under- mined by the mercury which, in the case of sycosis, was generally given in the largest doses and the most active preparations, there are other pernicious results consequent upon this .abuse of mercury. There are excrescences formed in other parts of the body either in the shape of whitish, spongy, painful and flat elevations in the cavity of the mouth, upon the tongue, the palate, the lips; or in the shape of large, elevated, brown, dry tubercles, in the axil- he, upon the neck, upon the hairy scalp, etc. The abuse of mercury may also be followed by other bodily affections, such as the contraction of the tendons of the flexor mus- cles, especially those of the fingers, etc. Both the gonorrhoea* and the excrescences of sycosis are cured in the most thorough and durable manner by the internal administration of a few globules of the decillion preparation of Thuya, f which ought to be allowed to act for the space of fifteen, twenty, thirty, or forty days. After this lapse of time you give an equally small dose of Nitric acid, * The miasm of the common clap seems to affect the urinary organs only locally; it does not pervade the whole organism. The common gonorrhoea either yields to a drop of the recently obtained juice of parsley, provided its use is indicated by a frequent desire to urinate; or else to a small dose of Cannabis, Cantharides, or Copaiva, according as the other symptoms indicate the use of these different remedies. The highest preparations of these reme- dies should always be used, unless the patient has previously been weakened by allopathic stimulants, or a latent psora has made its appearance; in this case a secondary gonorrhoea is frequently formed, which can only be cured by antipsorics. tThuya is homoeopathic to sycosis; see Materia Medica Pura, Vol. V. If other doses of Thuya should be required, the inferior poten- cies may then be used, (VIII., VI., IV., II.); these will then be found to affect the vital principle more efficiently. 109 letting it act during an equally long period. These two remedies are sufficient to cure both the gonorrhoea and the excrescences of sycosis. In the most inveterate and most difficult cases, the larger excrescences may be touched once a day with the fresh juice of Thuya half diluted with alco- hol and squeezed out of the green leaves of the plant. It sometimes happens that, in consequence of the violent allopathic treatment of sycosis, other chronic affections may have been formed in the system, that, for instance, a latent psora may have become manifest,* and that the psoric and the syphilitic miasm may form a trinitary com- pound of disease, which will take place if the latter miasm should have been badly treated on a former occasion. In this case, the order of treatment is the following: First, we annihilate the psoric miasm by the subsequently indicated antipsorics; then we use the remedies indicated for sycosis, and lastly, the best mercurial preparation against syphilis. These different orders of remedies are alternately employed, if necessary, until the cure is completed. Leave to each medicine the necessary time to complete its action. In treating sycosis internally, according to my rule, no external remedies should be used, except the juice of the thuya in the cases indicated above. If there should be a watery discharge from the excrescences, dry clean lint may be applied. *In young people, recent sycosis is seldom found complicated with psora. Wherever this complication exists, it is owing to the pernicious assaults which have been made upon the constitution by the improper administration of Mercury for the cure of sycosis. SYPHILIS. The syphilitic miasm is much more general than the miasm of sycosis. For the last four centuries, it has given origin to a vast number of chronic affections. The treatment of syphilis is only difficult when there is a complication with the psoric miasm, after it has broke forth from a latent condition. Sometimes, but rarely, syphilis is complicated with sycosis; whenever this com- plication exists, it never exists without the additional com- plication of psora. In the treatment of syphilis three different conditions may occur. First, the syphilitic disease may exist in its genuine form, together with the chancre, or, in case the chancre should have been removed by external applications, it may exist with the bubo, which must then be consid- ered as the representative of the chancre;* secondly, it may exist without being complicated with another miasm, though both the chancre and the bubo have been removed; and thirdly, it may exist in a state of complication with another chronic miasm, either with the chancre or bubo, or after their removal by local applications. The chancre generally appears between the seventh and fourteenth day after the infection has taken place; it rarely appears either sooner or later, and generally affects the parts which have been first tainted with the virus. The chancre first appears in the form of a little vesicle, which is soon changed to a painfully stinging ulcer, with an ele- vated border. This ulcer may remain upon the same spot * In rare cases, the bubo is the first and immediate result of an im- pure coition, without any previous chancre; generally, however.it is consequent upon the removal of the chancre by local applica- tion and is, in this case, a troublesome representative of the latter. Ill during the life-time of the patient, and, although it may become enlarged, yet the secondary symptoms of syphilis will never make their appearance as long as the chancre remains. The allopathic physician, not knowing that the entire organism has become infected with the syphilitic miasm, even before the appearance of the chancre and immediate- ly after the impure coition has been accomplished, looks upon the chancre as a simply local ulcer, which ought to be removed by the external application of desiccating and cauterizing substances, and which will remain quite harm- less, provided it is not left too long on the skin; for, in this case, the absorbing vessels might carry the poison into the internal organism, and, in this way, produce a general syph- ilitic affection, whereas these evil consequences might be avoided by a speedy removal of the chancre. This is both the doctrine and the practice. By this practice the physi- cian deprives the internal disease of its vicarious symp- tom, the chancre; and by the removal of the chancre he forces the disease to embody itself externally in the more troublesome and speedily suppurating bubo. And after this too has been removed, as is foolishly done, by external treatment, the disease is forced to manifest itself through- out the organism with all the secondary symptoms of a fully developed syphilis. This unavoidable development of the internal syphilitic disease generally takes place after the lapse of two or three months. So far from relieving the patient, the physician positively injures him. John Hunter asserts* " Not one patient in fifteen will escape syphilis when the chancre is removed merely by local treatment;" and in another part of his workf he assures us "that the local removal of the chancre, should it even have been accomplished ever so speedily, was always followed by an outbreak of the internal syphilitic disease." The same doctrine is emphatically taught by Fabre,| * Treatise on the Venereal Diseases, Leipsic, 1787, p. 531. fThe same work, p. 551—553. X Fabre, Lettres, Supplement a Son Traite des Maladies Vener- iennes, Paris, 178(5. 112 who says " that the local removal of the chancre is always followed by syphilis; that Petit had cut off a portion of the labia of the genital organs of a woman, which had been affected, for some days, with venereal chancre; that the wound indeed healed, but that the syphilitic disease nevertheless broke out. It is incredible that physicians, in spite of the experience and emphatic statements of such great observers, should have shut their eyes to the fact: that the venereal disease existed already in its fulness in the organism before the chancre had made its appearance, and that it was an un- pardonable mistake to remove the chancre by external ap- plications, and to consider this local removal of the chancre a complete cure of the disease. On the contrary, by this local removal of the chancre, the syphilitic disease was not only forced to ramify into its secondary symptoms, but the physician deprived himself of a sure and infallible indica- tion of the thorough and permanent cure of the internal disease. As long as the chancre existed, the organism was yet tainted with the syphilitic virus; whereas, the disap- pearance of the chancre consequent upon the internal ad- ministration of appropriate remedies, was a sure sign of the internal disease having been completely and perma- nently cured. In my practice of fifty years' duration, I have never seen syphilis breaking out in the system, whenever the chancre was cured by internal remedies, without having been mis- managed by external treatment; it mattered not whether the chancre had been left standing for years, increasing all the while, as every vicarious symptom of any other chionic miasm will do, for the simple reason that the internal dis- ease is progressing all the time, and induces a consequent development of the external symptom. As soon as the chancre is removed by external remedies, the syphilitic disease, which is engrafted upon the whole organism as soon as the infection has taken place, mani- fests its series of secondary symptoms. As soon as the syphilitic miasm has taken effect, it ceases to be circumscribed by the spot where the infection first 113 took place; the whole nervous system is at once tainted with it;* the miasm has, so to say, become the property of the whole organism. Washing and wiping the parts, Avith whatever liquid it may be, is fruitless; even exsecting the part is of no avail. During the first days, the infected spot does not show any morbid symptoms; but the internal or- ganism, from the first moment of the infection, is being adapted to the action of the recently introduced miasm. When the syphilitic disease has been completely developed in the system by means of this progressive adaptation, then it is, that nature produces the chancre upon the primitively infected spot with a view, as it were, of hushing the inter- nal affection. Hence it is that the internal disease is most efficiently and most permanently cured while the chancre or the bubo are yet existing as its vicarious types. Of this genuine and unadulterated syphilis it may be said, that there is no chronic miasm, nor a disease produced by a chronic miasm which is more easily cured than syphilis. In that stage of the syphilitic disease where the chancre or the bubo are yet existing, one single minute dose of the best mercurial preparation is sufficient to effect a perma- nent cure of the internal disease, together with the chancre, in the space of a fortnight. Of course such a cure can only be effected when the syphilitic disease is not complicated by some psoric affection; it is especially in young persons of a cheerful temper that a speedy cure may be anticipated; psora being in a latent condition in such persons, neither syphilis nor sycosis can become adulterated by that miasm. A few days after the medicine has been taken, and without the use of any external application, the chancre is changed to a pure ulcer vath a little quantity of laudable pus, which heals of itself without leaving the slightest cicatrix, or even a spot, the color of which is different from that of the sound skin. This is a convincing proof that the internal disease has been completely annihilated. Inasmuch as the chancre *]S'ote or the Transistor: Hahnemann expresses this result thus: "The whole living body has perceived the presence of the poison." H 114 is the external indication of the internal disease, this dis- ease cannot be considered cured as long as the internal remedy has not acted sufficiently to remove even the slight- est trace of chancre from the skin. Already in the second edition of the Materia Medica Pura, Dresden, 1822, have I indicated the mode of obtaining the best mercurial preparation. Even at this moment I con- sider such a preparation the best anti-syphilitic remedy, although it is difficult to obtain it perfect. In order to ob- tain it as perfect as possible, and with the least trouble (for the greatest simplicity should be observed in preparing homoeopathic remedies), it is better to follow the method which I shall indicate below. Take a grain of the purest liquid quicksilver, and triturate it for three hours with three hundred grains of sugar of milk, taking one hundred grains at a time and triturating them for an hour. In this way you obtain the million degree of the trituration. Of this trituration you dissolve one grain in alcohol, continuing the process of dissolving through twenty-seven phials up to the decillion degree. (See the end of this volume, where the mode of preparing the different degrees of homoeo- pathic medicines is more fully described.) Formerly I was in the habit of using successfully, one, two, or three globules of the billion degree, for the cure of syphilis. The higher degrees, however, even the decillion degree, act more speedily, more thoroughly, and more mildly. If more than one dose should be required, which is seldom the case, the lower degrees may then be employed; In the same way as the chancre or the bubo gave incon- trovertible evidence of the internal disease, the disappear- ance of the chancre consequent upon the internal use of the best mercurial preparation, without, however, the con- comitant use of any external application, is an infallible indication of the internal disease having been completely and radically cured. But on the other hand, this correspondence between the internal disease and its vicarious symptom shows that the mere external removal of the chancre, inasmuch as it does not result from the cure of the internal disease, leaves the 115 deluded patient just as syphilitic after the removal of the chancre as he was before. The second stage of the disease is that rare stage in which the chancre has been speedily, though foolishly, removed from the skin by external applications, without the organism having been much disturbed by either in- ternal or external violent remedies. Such a comparatively easy removal can only take place in persons that are not affected with a difficult chronic disease, in whom psora is consequently in its latent condition.' Even in this stage, the disease, provided it is not complicated with psoric affec- tions, may be easily cured, and the secondary symptoms of syphilis may be prevented by the internal administration of the above described mercurial preparation; although the violent removal of the chancre by external remedies makes it more difficult to be certain of the cure of the internal disease, than if the chancre had first been transformed to a benign ulcer and had then disappeared of itself, in conse- quence of the iuternal disease having been cured by in- ternal remedies. However, even in the presence of these disadvantages, the attentive observer may discover a sign which will tell him whether the internal disease is or is not completely cured. For, in case the chancre should have been removed by external, though mild remedies, and the internal disease should not, therefore, have been completely cured, the original spot upon which the chancre had been developed, will exhibit a reddish morbid-looking, red, or bluish scar; whereas, if the chancre have been removed by the internal remedy and be no longer necessary as the vicarious embodi- ment of the internal disease, the original spot of the chan- cre can no more be traced, on account of that spot being covered by as healthy-colored a skin as the rest of the body. If the homoeopathic physician has discovered that bluish spot, and by this discovery has become convinced that the internal disease is not yet cured, the patient, provided he is perfectly free from all secondary symptoms of psora, may be perfectly cured by one single dose of the above described mercurial preparation; and, as a proof that the 116 cure is perfect, the bluish scar will completely disappear, and the skin at that spot assume the same healthy appear- ance as the rest of the body. Even in case the bubo should have already made its ap- pearance, the patient may yet be completely cured by one dose of the above mentioned mercurial preparation, pro- vided the syphilitic disease is not yet complicated with psora, and the bubo has not yet passed into the suppura- tive stage. Generally, however, syphilis, in this condition, is complicated with psora. The indication of the cure being completed is the same as above. Neither in this latter, nor in the former case, an outbreak of syphilis needs to be apprehended, provided the treat- ment has been rightly conducted. We have now to treat of the third stage of the disease in which the syphilitic disease is found complicated with psora. If this complication occur, the psoric miasm is not in the way of a thorough cure of the syphilitic disease, but it is impossible to effect the cure of the syphilitic disease, complicated with psora, by one remedy only. This complication may take place in two ways. The patient may either have been already affected with a psoric disease at the time when the syphilitic infection took place; or else, the psora which existed in the organism at the time when the syphilitic infection took place, may have been called out by the violent drugs and painful external reme- dies of the allopathic physician, the effect of which was to remove the external symptom of syphilis after protracted efforts, to undermine the general health of the patient, and to force the psoric and the syphilitic miasms into a com- bination with each other. Such a combination can only take place between syphilis and psora in a state of manifest development. These are the reasons why psora is so often found com- plicated with syphilis. The poor patient is often assailed for months with mercurial frictions, large doses of calomel, corrosive sublimate, and other violent mercurial.prepara- tions, inducing fever, dysentery, never-ending and exhaust- ing salivation, pains in the joints, sleeplessness, etc. But 117 all these violent remedies not only leave the syphilitic miasm uncured, but, in combination with the intermediate use of weakening warm baths and purgatives, they rouse the latent psora much before the time when a cure of the syphilitic disease could be effected by means of such an improper treatment, and, in this way, enable the psoric and the syphilitic miasms to combine. It may here be observed that it is the nature of the psoric miasms to break forth in consequence of great concussions of the system, and violent inroads upon the general health. By this combination of syphilis and psora a sort of spuri- ous, masked syphilis is formed, which the English phy- sicians designate by the term pseudo-syphilis. This is a sort of monstrous double-disease,* which no physician has been hitherto able to cure, because no physician has, up to this moment, known the extent and nature either of latent or developed psora, and has much less suspected its com- bination with syphilis. No one was therefore able to remove the psoric action which was the only cause of that pseudo-syphilis; no one was able to cure the syphilitic dis- ease by freeing it from its horrible combination with psora; and, on the other hand, the psoric miasm withstood every attempt at cure, because it cannot be cured unless syphilis is cured at the same time. In order to reach, with the greatest possible success, this so-called masked syphilis, the first thing which the physi- cian has to do, is to remove from the patient all hurtful external influences, to put him upon an easily and vigor- ously nourishing diet, and to regulate his general mode of life to his greatest advantage. After this has been accom- plished, the physician administers the most appropriate antipsoric, in the mode which will be indicated hereafter; this may be followed by a second antipsoric to be chosen *It is even more than a double-disease. The large and fre- quently repeated doses of the violent mercurial preparations have added their inherent medicinal disease, which, together with the exhaustion consequent upon such treatment, reduces the patient to a truly sad plight. In such cases Hepar sulphuris may be given in preference to pure Sulphur, on account of its anti-psoric virtue. 118 agreeably to the new symptoms; and when this last rem- edy has completed its action, a dose of the anti-syphilitic mercury may be exhibited, being permitted to act three, five or seven weeks, as long as it is capable of exercising a curative influence. In old difficult cases this course is not sufficient to effect a cure. There may remain ailments which are neither purely psoric or syphilitic and therefore require the last assistance of the physician. A similar treatment is here to be repeated. First we exhibit one or more anti-psorics, in proportion as they are indicated by the symptoms, until the last trace of all psoric action has vanished. After this we repeat the mercury, using an inferior potency, and allowing it to act until not only the manifest syphilitic symptoms have vanished, but, inasmuch as this disappear- ance of these syphilitic symptoms, whose nature is so extremely changeable, is no positive proof of their radical cure, we allow the mercury to act until the skin has recov- ered its healthy color at the spot upon which the venereal chancre had been developed, and afterwards removed by cauteries. Manifest syphilitic symptoms may be consid- ered the following: ulcers of the tonsils with lancinating pain, round copper-colored spots shining through the skin, non-itching pustules, especially in the face, set upon'blue- ish-reddish bottom; cutaneous ulcers on the hairy scalp, and upon the skin of the penis, smooth, pale, clean, cov- ered with nothing but mucus, and on a level with the sound skin; boring nightly pains in the nodes, etc. In my practice I have only seen two cases * of a compli- * A bricklayer had caught the syphilitic virus from his wife. The genital organs were the seat of the affection. The patient was not able to describe the disease with sufficient clearness to enable me to decide whether the primitive infection had been chancre or sycosis. The violent mercurial preparations which had been used against the infection, had destroyed the uvula, had pierced the palate, and had affected the nose to such an extent that the fleshy parts were mostly eaten away, and the remaining portion was swollen and inflamed, and pierced like a honeycomb by ulcers. He suffered great pain, and emitted an intolerably foetid smell. He had also a psoric ulcer on the leg. The anti- 119 cation of the three chronic miasms, sycosis, syphilis, and psora. This complication I treated according to the principles laid down above. First, I directed my remedies against the psoric miasm; and then against the other two miasms, beginning with the one whose symptoms were most promi- nent at the time. Afterwards the remaining portion of the psoric symptoms was removed by the corresponding anti- psorics, and then the last traces of syphilis and sycosis by other adequate remedies. The complete and radical cure of sycosis, may be recognized by the same indications, as the cure of the syphilitic miasm, viz., by the healthy color of the skin being restored at the places upon which the cauliflower excrescence had been located; whenever this excrescence is removed by mere external remedies, the place which had been covered with it, exhibits an unhealthy looking skin. psoric remedies improved the ulcers to a certain degree, healed the ulcer upon the leg, and removed the burning pain, and also the foetid odor of the nose considerably. The remedies employed against sycosis also helped some. But, upon the whole, very little was accomplished, until the patient received a small dose of the mercurial preparation, by means of which a cure was speedily effected, The nose, of course, was irretrievably lost. PSORA. Before I enter upon the exposition of my views on the third chronic miasm, it appears important to me, to premise the following general remarks. The infection by means of one of the three known chronic miasms is generally the work of a moment; but the complete development of the disease consequent upon such an infec- tion, throughout the whole organism, requires more time. Not until several days have elapsed, during which the miasmatic disease has completed its internal development, does kind nature cause that disease to ultimate in some local symptom, which receives the internal disease into itself, as it were, and hushes or calms it. The vital forces enjoy a sort of protection in this local symptom, which is formed upon one of the least dangerous parts of the external skin, generally upon the spot, where the ner- vous system has first become affected by the contagious miasm. It is astonishing that this mode of action on the part of nature should have escaped the observation of physicians. They might have seen it at least in the course which nature pursues in regard to the syphilitic miasm, which they had treated for the space of three hundred years, and would then not have failed in drawing conclusions relative to the two other chronic miasms. It seems to me unpardonable that physicians, in spite of all this experience, should have mistaken the venereal chancre for a mere external cutaneous something, which had nothing to do with the internal organism, and which, therefore, ought to be unhesitatingly removed by cauteries in order to prevent the venereal poison from being ab- sorbed into the organism. This system of cauterization appears to me unpardonable, because it had already been adopted in hundreds of thousands of patients and had in- 121 variably been followed by an outbreak of secondary syphilis. Just as condemnable appears to me the reasoning of the allopathic physicians, that the itch is a mere cutaneous af- fection with which the internal organism has nothing to do, and that the best way of healing it is to remove it by some external application; whereas the only natural way to remove the external eruption is to cure first the internal psoric disease, upon the principle, " cessante causa, ces- sat effectus." As long as the eruption is yet existing upon the skin, the psoric disease exhibits itself in its simple and most natural integrity and may be cured in the easiest, quick- est and safest manner. But as soon as the internal disease has been deprived of its vicarious symptom, the psoric miasm is forced to spread over the most delicate parts of the internal organism and to develop its secondary symptoms. How necessary it is carefully to avoid every removal of the cutaneous eruption by means of external influences, and never to attempt any other but internal cure of the psoric disease, may be inferred from the fact that the most painful chronic sufferings which had followed the re- moval of the psoric eruption by means of external appli- cation, and which frequently had lasted already for years, are often hushed for a time by the mere reappearance of the psoric eruption upon the skin consequent upon powerful revolutions in the organism. See above Nos. 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, (9) 16, (17) (21) 23, 33, 35, 39, 41, 54, 58, 60, 72, 81, 87, 89, 94. It must not be supposed however that after the suppres- sion of the psoric eruption has caused the internal disease to manifest itself in a series of secondary symptoms, the internal psora is brought back again into its former simple and natural condition by the mere re-appearance of the eruption upon the skin, and that this new eruption may be cured just as easily as the primitive eruption. This is not the case. The primitive eruption is much less constant upon the skin than the chancre and the cauli- 122 flower excrescence; it often even disappears of itself, not by the use of external remedies, but by unknown causes. Hence the physician has no time to lose, if he means to cure the internal disease while the external symptom is yet existing upon the skin. But he has yet much less time to lose with the second eruption, which generally is so changeable that the slightest cause drives it back again in a couple of clays. This may be considered a proof that this second erupti6n was much less perfect than the primitive and that, therefore, the physician was not authorized to rely upon it for a thorough cure of the psoric disease. This changeable nature of the second eruption appears to depend upon the fact that the internal psora having been in some degree forced into developing secondary af- fections has lost somewhat of its power to embody itself fully in its vicarious symptom. This is the reason why the treatment of this condition of the psoric disease is difficult. It is conducted in the manner which will be indicated hereafter. The cure of the psoric disease is therefore not promoted by this kind of pseudo eruption being brought out again upon the skin either by internal medicines (see Nos, 3, 9, ■59, 89) or by unknown causes (see Nos. 1, 5, 6, 8, 16, 23, 28, 29, 33, 35, 39, 41, 54, 58, 60, 72, 80, 81, 87, 89, 94, especially however through a fever (see Nos. 64, also 55, 56, 74); this kind of pseudo eruption is extremely changeable under any circumstances, and it should not be considered available by the physician in conducting his treatment. But even if we could not only bring the eruption out again upon the skin, but keep it there for a time, we ought not to rely upon it for facilitating the treatment.* * There was a time when I deemed it possible to facilitate the cure of the psoric disease by bringing the eruption out again by artificial means. My object was to check the secretive functions of the skin, and to induce it by this kind of homoeopathic pro- ceeding, to reproduce the eruption. For this purpose I ordered the patient to put a plaster upon his back, and, if possible, upon other parts of his body. The plaster was prepared by slowly melting six ounces of Burgundy pitch, which, after having been removed from the fire, was carefully mixed with an ounce of 123 It is therefore a self-evident truth that the cure of the internal psoric disease by means of the anti-psoric reme- dies, can only be accomplished in an easy manner, as long as the primitive eruption still exists upon the skin; and, on the other hand, we may infer from the above remarks, that the method used by allopathic physicians of removing the eruption from the skin by external applications, is just as pernicious as the removal of this eruption by means of the appropriate homoeopathic internal remedy is rational and beneficent. By this latter method the whole internal disease, together with its vicarious symptom, is effectually, Venetian turpentine. A portion of this mixture was spread warm upon soft goat-skin. For this purpose may also be used yellow wax mixed with fir turpentine; also taffetas silk covered with elastic resin. It is not the stimulating virtue of the mixture which helped to reproduce the eruption; for, upon a person not affected with the psoric virus, the above plaster produces neither eruption nor itching. I found this method to be the most effica- cious in exciting the skin for the reproduction of the eruption. Nevertheless, however patiently the patients bore the infliction of this plaster, a complete and sufficiently lasting eruption was never produced. All that I was able to obtain was, to produce a few itching vesicles, which, however, disappeared again from the skin as soon as the plaster was removed. More frequently the plaster induced a sort of moist soreness of the skin. The best result of the plaster was a more or less violent itching which occurred upon the skin, especially at night, and often spread over those parts of the body that were not covered with the plaster. This itching produced indeed a striking alleviation of the most violent secon- dary psoric affections, such as tubercular phthisis. But, in most cases, such a result was either impossible (generally there was but a slight itching) or, if I obtained the itching in a high degree, the patient found it so intolerable that he could not have borne it for a sufficient length of time to obtain permanent relief from his psoric affection. On removing the plaster, even the most vehe- ment itching was stopped, the eruption disappeared again, and the disease remained the same. This shows that the second eruption does not possess the same character as the primitive eruption did, and that it is therefore of no avail for the purpose of facilitating the cure by internal remedies. Moreover the troublesome itching of the artificially produced eruption, and the exhaustion consequent upon that itching by far outweigh the little value which the method here indicated might otherwise possess. 124 thoroughly, and permanently banished from the organism, and that host of horrible secondary affections with which the patient is invariably assailed after the violent external removal of the psoric eruption is destroyed in its very germ. The excuse of which the private physician (for the hos- pital physician has no excuse) avails himself, is quite de- lusive. He says that "not knowing when, where, and from what person the infection has been caught, he cannot be sure whether the few vesicles which appear upon the skin are really the itch, and that he cannot, therefore, be made responsible for the evil consequences which may attend the suppression of those vesicles by means of lead- water, or ointments of zinc and mercury; and that rich parents desired this suppression to be accomplished as speedily as possible." Such an excuse cannot be regarded; for every conscien- tious physician ought to know that no eruption whatsoever ought to be removed from the skin * by external applica- tions. The human skin never produces an eruption out of itself; it never assumes a morbid condition without being invited, or rather, obliged to do so, by the abnormal acti- vity of the whole organism. As every external eruption results from an abnormal activity of the whole organism, so ought the disappearance of that eruption from the skin to be the spontaneous result of the complete and radical cure of the internal disease by means of appropriate inter- nal remedies. In this way the eruption often disappears sooner than by the use of external contrivances. In the second place, no intelligent physician can be deceived as to the nature of the eruption, whether it be the original, genuine, transparent itch vesicle, which becomes afterwards filled with pus, and is then surrounded with a narrow, red border, or whether it look like the rash granule, or have the appearance of pimples, or little scabs which have become scattered by means of friction: every physi- cian ought to know that the itch is constantly indicated when the child or even the recently-born baby incessantly scratch the spot upon which the eruption is seen, or when *See Organon of the Healing Art, fifth edition, § 187-203. 125 full-grown people complain of a voluptuously itching erup- tion (were it but a single pimple),which is especially vehe- ment in the evening and during the night, and becomes intolerable unless it be scratched, after which they experi- ence a burning pain. In this case, it is undoubtedly the itch, although rich people seldom are able to tell when, where, and from whom they have caught the infection. As I said above, the unseen opportunities of catching the itch are innumerable. As soon as the family physician perceives this, one or two globules of sulphur, prepared according to the rules to be indicated hereafter, will be more than sufficient to cure the internal psoric disease, and to free the patient from the eruption. The Homoeopathic physician, in his private practice, seldom is called to a patient at the time when the eruption first shows itself. The patient, being tortured by the intolerable itching, first applies to some old woman, to an apothecary or to a barber, who cover him with a sulphur ointment, with a view, as they suppose, of helping him speedily. Only in military barracks, in prisons, hospitals, orphan asylums, the patients are obliged to apply to the physician, provided the surgeon of the establishment does not forestall him. Even in the remotest ages, Sulphur was looked upon as a specific against the itch; for the psoric miasm did not, in every instance, form leprosy; but it was used only as an external remedy. A. C. Celsus (V. 28), proposes several kinds of grease and ointment by means of which he im- agines the itch may be cured. One of those ointments is made of Sulphur mixed with tar; others contain copper. The oldest physicians already used warm Sulphur baths against the itch, as is the custom now. The eruption generally disappeared by these means. But subsequent ailments showed already then that the patients did not always recover. An Athenian, for instance, was attacked with anasarca on account of having removed his itch by using the warm Sulphur baths upon the island of Melos (now Milo). He died of this disease 300 years before 126 Celsus, as is reported by the author of the fifth book Epidemion, which is considered due to Hippocrates. Sulphur was never given internally, for the simple reason that neither the older nor the modern physicians under- stand that the itch is chiefly an internal disease. Modern physicians, too, never give Sulphur only inter- nally, because they do not regard the itch chiefly as an in- ternal disease. They give Sulphur internally, as a mere adjuvans of the external ointments, in frequently repeated doses of 10, 20, 30 grains, purging the patient and making it impossible to determine how far this excessive internal use of Sulphur had been either hurtful or useful; at least it was impossible that the whole psoric disease should ever be thoroughly cured by this treatment. The only object which was obtained by giving the Sulphur as a purgative, was to facilitate the removal of the external eruption; but this removal was just as pernicious as when no Sulphur at all had been taken internally. Such excessive doses of Sulphur* can never thoroughly cure a psoric disease, even though no ointment should have been used at all. Such *It may not be amiss to quote here, by way of illustration, the words of an impartial and profound savant and indefatigable inquirer, Count Buquoy, who is practically acquainted with Hom- oeopathy. We find them recorded in his "Anregungen fur phil. wissens. Forschung." (Leipsic, 1825, p. 386. and f.) Having first supposed that the pathogenetic symptoms of a remedy a, b, g, have received into themselves the symptoms exhibited by the disease, which we will designate A, B, V, and have impressed upon them the character of the medicinal symptoms, the character of muta- bility, perishability,etc., he.continues in this way: "The medicinal symptoms, a, b, g, which have received into themselves the symp- toms of the disease, A, B, V, easily pass off on account of the extremely small dose which has produced them. If the Homoeo- pathic physician gives too large a dose, the natural morbid symp- toms A, B, V, may indeed be changed to the medicinal symptoms a, b, g; but the new disease is now> just as firmly rooted as the primitive disease was; hence,the organism finds it just as difficult to free itself from the new disease as it did to free itself from the primitive. If a very large dose is given, a new, often life-endan- gering disease is formed, or else the organism tries with all its might to free itself from the poison by means of diarrhoea, vomit- ing, etc." 127 excessive doses rouse the vital principle into a hostile atti- tude, and cause it to reject the Sulphur altogether without having appropriated to itself the curative virtue of the drug; in some cases they even increase the disease or excite an altogether new disease in the system. The itch can only be cured by the homoeopathic preparation of Sulphur. Since experience teaches that the itch, even the recently formed itch, with the eruption existing upon the skin, can- not be cured by sulphur ointments used in combination with large quantities of sulphur taken internally, it may easily be conceived that, when the eruption has been thus violently removed from the skin, and the psoric disease has already pervaded all the recesses of the organism in the form of secondary chronic affections, these can much less be cured by powders of sulphur, by sulphur baths, by drinking sulphuretted mineral wrater, or any other water of this kind; in short, by the excessive use and repetition of sulphur, though it be a specific remedy against the itch.* It is indeed true, that many patients appear to be freed, for a time, from the original psoric affection by the use of sulphur baths, (hence the multitude of patients affected with all sorts of chronic affections, who flock to the baths of Teplitz, Baden, Aix-la-Ohapelle, Neundorf, Warmbrunn, etc.;) but they are not oured for all that; the sulphur may have occasioned a medicinal disease, which, for a time, may take the place of the natural disease, and is much less troublesome than this one; but the medicinal disease soon passing off again, the original disease returns, either with its original or with new and more troublesome symptoms, sometimes affecting the more delicate parts of the organ- ism. The ignorant physician, on perceiving this change, rejoices at the primitive group of symptoms having, as he * Sulphur, when administered in a small dose, seldom fails in effecting an incipient cure of the chronic non-venereal diseases. I know a physician in Saxony who obtained a great reputation for curing chronic diseases, by adding, without knowing why, flowers of sulphur to every one of his prescriptions. In the beginning, they produced a good effect, but only in the beginning, for, in a little while, the good effects ceased. 128 supposes, given place to a new disease, and persuades the patient that the renewed use of the baths will cure this new disease as well as it did the former; he knows not that this new disease is a mere modification of the former symp- toms, and is doomed to witness the sad result that the patient obtains much less relief from using the baths a second time, yea, that the repeated use of those baths posi- tively aggravates tne sufferings of the patient. I may, therefore, positively assert, that sulphur has done much injury in the hands of allopathic physicians; and that excessive use and frequent repetition have made this drug almost useless for the homoeopathic physician in the treatment of those endless secondary psoric affections, for the cure of which allopathic doctors had employed it in vain. In all those mismanaged cases of psoric diseases, sul- phur will be much less useful to the homoeopathic physi- cian than it is in a recently formed itch, with the eruption still existing upon the skin. Sulphur will indeed show a curative effect, whether the psoric disease after the violent suppression of the eruption, be still slumbering in the sys- tem, or whether it have already broke forth in the shape of all sorts of secondary chronic affections; but it can only be rarely exhibited in those mismanaged cases, on account of its virtues having been already misused by the allopathic physicians; whereas, sulphur, and indeed, most other anti- psoric remedies, should never be given more than three or four times, even with suitable intermediate remedies, if the physician does not wish the cure to retrograde in consequence of the too frequent use of that powerful antipsoric. Whether the violent suppression of the eruption have forced the internal psord to manifest itself in the form of secondary chronic affections, or whether it be still slumber- ing in the system, sulphur alone is never sufficient to effect the cure of such a psoric disturbance. Hence it is that sulphur baths, either natural or artificial, are of no avail in the treatment of such secondary psoric affections. I repeat that, (with the exception of a recently formed 129 itch with the eruption still existing upon the skin,)* every other psoric disturbance of the organism, whether the psora be yet in a latent condition or whether it have already assumed the various forms of secondary chronic affections, can never be cured by one antipsoric remedy, but that com- plete and radical cure of secondary psoric affections in bad cases, requires the use of a large number of antipsorics. The psoric miasm, having pervaded millions of organ- isms for thousands of years, has gradually developed out of itself an endless number of symptoms, varied accord- ing to differences of constitution, climate, residence, edu- cation, habits, occupation, f mode of life, diet and various other bodily and spiritual influences. Hence it cannot appear strange that not one antipsoric should be sufficient to correspond to that endless number of different psoric symptoms, and that the use of several antipsoric remedies should be required for a complete and radical removal of the psoric miasm.| As I have said before, only the recent itch, with the erup- tion still existing upon the skin, can be completely cured by one dose of sulphur. I am not prepared to assert that such a speedy cure is possible in every case; the age of the patient has a great influence upon the result of the treat- ment. When the eruption has already existed for some time upon the skin and begins to disappear of itself, in * Recent itch, with the eruption, has often yielded to one small dose of homceopathically prepared sulphur in the space of two, three, or four weeks. On one occasion such a cure was effected in a family of seven persons by means of half a grain of the million potency of carbo vegetabilis; and on three other occasions by means of a light dose of the same potency of Sepia. 11 mean occupations which exert a special influence upon par- ticular organs of the system, which affect certain functions of the mind more than others. JI forbear indicating the great exertions, the innumerable and careful observations, the inquiries, reflections and various experi- ments by means of which I have succeeded, after the lapse of eleven years, in filling up that large chasm in the system of the homoeopathic healing art, in indicating the cure of the countless chsonic diseases, and in thus completing as much as possible, the blessings which homoeopathy has bestowed upon mankind. I 130 that case the internal psora has already obtained prepond- erance in the system. The eruption now ceases, to a cer- tain extent, to be a vicarious symptom for the internal dis- ease; and the signs of latent psora or secondary psoric affections begin to manifest themselves. In such a case as this, sulphur is no longer sufficient to effect a cure; nor is any single antipsoric remedy capable of producing that result; several antipsorics are required for that purpose, according as their use is indicated by the existing symp- toms. The homoeopathic treatment of the chronic non-venereal diseases generally accords with what has been taught in the Organon of the healing art, relatively to the treatment of acute diseases. The particular rules to be observed in the treatment of chronic diseases I shall now point out. In regard to diet and mode of life I shall only give gen- eral directions, which the physician will have to apply in a special case according to his own discretion. Of course, whatever is injurious to the action of the remedies, must be carefully avoided. However, it will sometimes be neces- sary to modify, more or less, the dietetic rules which hom- oeopathy enjoins upon the patient with so much strictness and emphasis; this modification must especially take place when we have lingering diseases which often last for a long time, and when it becomes necessary for the physician to consider the age, the occupation and the social condition of the patient. Strict diet is not the curative agent in the treatment of chronic diseases, as is asserted by the opponents of hom- oeopathy, with a view of lessening its merit; the cure depends chiefly upon the medical treatment. This is proved by the fact that many chronic patients have followed, for years, the strictest diet without being able to obtain relief; the disease increases, as is the case with all chronic miasms. In order to make the cure possible and practicable, the homoeopathic practitioner is, therefore often obliged to modify the severe diet prescribed by homoeopathy. By wisely yielding to circumstances the physician effects the cure more certainly and more perfectly than by obstinately 131 insisting upon a mode of life which it is impossible for the patient to follow. If their strength permit, the journeyman ought to con- tinue his labor, the artisan work at his trade, the farmer attend to his business in the fields, the housekeeper to her domestic concern; only that which is generally injurious to health, ought to be carefully avoided. Persons whose business confines them to a room, and obliges them to lead a sedentary life, ought to take as much exercise as possible in the open air, without, however, totally abandoning their usual pursuits. Kich patients must walk more than they usually do. The physician may permit them moderate and proper dancing, rural entertainments, provided they do not conflict with the necessary dietetic precautions, conversation with friends; he may also permit them innocent music, and listening to amusing lectures; they may sometimes even go to the theatre, but they must never play cards. The physi- cian ought to lay restrictions upon riding, either on horse- back or in the carriage, and to interdict all exciting inter- course; for bad moral effects re-act upon the body. All amorous intercourse and sensual excitement, reading lewd novels, and superstitious or exciting books, are to be care- fully avoided.* The literary man ought to take much exercise in the open air, and, in bad weather, do some light mechanical *Some physicians are apt to give themselves importance by interdicting all sexual intercourse to married chronic patients. If both parties are capable of enjoying it, such an interdiction is, to say the least, of it, ridiculous; for in this case the interdiction neither can be or will be obeyed; otherwise a great family misfor- tune might come out of it. No laws should be passed which can- not be kept, or the observation of which would induce greater mischief than that which they were intended to prevent. In case one of the parties should be incapable of sexual intercourse, the interdiction becomes useless. Sexual intercourse is a thing which can neither be properly recommended nor interdicted. All that homoeopathy ought to do in regard to sexual intercourse, is, to enable the parties to enjoy it (either by antipsoric or antisyphiiitic remedies), and to restore the morbidly excited desire of either party to its natural tone. 132 work in the house. While the treatment last, he ought to limit his intellectual labor to writing essays of his own composition; reading ought either never to be permitted, or, at any rate, the quality and quantity of the reading matter ought to be carefully indicated. In mental diseases, reading is to be positively forbidden. Chronic patients of all classes must carefully avoid the arbitrary use of domestic remedies, or of intermediate medicines of any kind; patients of the higher classes must carefully abstain from perfumes, scented water, tooth pow- ders, etc. If the patient is accustomed to wear wool over the bare skin, he may continue to do so; but in proportion as the cure progresses, and the weather becomes warmer, cotton, and finally linen ought to be substituted. Fonta- nels, in important chronic diseases, should only be discon- tinued when the cure has already been progressing for some time. This remark is especially applicable to patients advanced in age. Baths have to be discontinued; ablutions may be substi- tuted in their stead; they may be used for the sake of cleanliness. Bleeding and cupping must be strictly for- bidden, no matter how much the patient may have been accustomed to such depletions. In regard to diet, I may observe, that men of all classes may consent to impose some restrictions upon themselves, in order to be freed from a troublesome chronic disease. If the abdomen is not the chief seat of the chronic disease, in this case all severe restrictions may be dispensed with, especially among the lower classes, and when the patient is capable of taking the necessary exercise by working at his trade. The poor may live on bread and salt, and yet recover from his disease by proper treatment; he may safely eat potatoes, boiled flour and fresh cheese (moder- ately, of course); but onions and pepper, he ought to use in a limited quantity. He who cares for his health may, even at the king's table, find something which will abundantly satisfy a moderate and natural appetite. What is the most difficult part of the treatment, is to 133 reguiate the drinks of the patient. Coffee has pernicious effects upon both body and soul; they may be found enu- merated in my little work (Wirkungen des Kaffees, Leip- sic, 1803). Unfortunately coffee has become so necessary to the so-called civilized nations that, unless the Homoeo- pathic physician interdicts the use of coffee once forever during the treatment, he will find it just as difficult to abolish the use of that beverage as it is difficult to eradi- cate superstition and prejudice. Young people of twenty and even thirty years, may be deprived of it at once, with- out any injury. Persons of a more advanced age ought to be persuaded to abstain from the use of coffee little by little, taking a little less of it every day; most of them will be found willing to leave off the use of that beverage at once, and they do so without experiencing any disagreeable consequences, except perhaps for the first two or three days. Even as late as six years ago I was under the im- pression that coffee might be permitted, in a small quan- tity, to old people, in case they should find it difficult to give it up. But I am now convinced that the protracted use of coffee does not make it harmless, and that the physi- cian who is bound to take care of the best interests of his patients, ought to insist upon their depriving themselves of coffee altogether. If they have the necessary confidence in their physician, they will all conform to his reasonable wishes with great readiness. Roast rye or wheat smell and taste very much like coffee, and procure a beverage which is now much used by both rich and poor people in different countries. The same criticism may be passed upon Chinese tea. Both the coarser and the finer kinds of this beverage are alluring to the taste and secretly and infallibly weaken the nerves. Tea, whether it be weak or strong, and whether it be taken by young or old people, were it only once a day, is always more or less injurious, and .ought, therefore, to be avoided during the treatment of chronic diseases. I have constantly found that also in regard to tea, the wishes of an intelligent and respected physician are at once obeyed. Wine need not to be completely interdicted to chronic 134 patients. Old people cannot well be suddenly and com- pletely deprived of wine, especially if they have been in the habit of using it without water ever since their child- hood.* This would be followed by sinking of strength; the cure might be retarded and even life endangered. During the first weeks the patients will mix their wine with equal portions of water; gradually they will mix the wine with two, three, four, five and even six portions of water and a little sugar; this last beverage may be recom- mended as a common drink to all chronic patients. As regards brandy, chronic patients must absolutely abstain from it. The physician will require a good deal of firmness in diminishing the quantity of brandy usually taken by the patient. In case the strength of the patient should sink in consequence of his being deprived of brandy, a little pure wine may be substituted in the place, which may gradually be mixed with water according to circum- stances. We know it to be a law of nature that the condition which a medicinal or spirituous substance realizes in the system, is followed by an opposite condition on the part of the organism, provided such an opposition is at all possible. Hence we may infer that the increase of strength and an- imal heat consequent upon the use of ardent spirits will be followed by a state of depression and diminution of heat. The physician is bound to shield the chronic patient against the injury which those opposing extremes would inflict upon him. Only the Allceopathic physician who cares nothing about conscientious observation, and does not wish to become convinced of the injurious effects of his pallia- tives, advises his patients to drink every day some pure wine as a tonic; the Homoeopathic doctor never makes him- self guilty of such malpractice (sed ex ungue leonem!) *It is both improper and injurious, even for healthy men. to use pure wine as an habitual drink; this can only be admitted on extraordinary occasions. The young man who uses spirituous drinks in abundance, will find it impossible to control his sexual desire until he is married; gonorrhoea and chancre are the conse- quences of such excesses. 135 The use of beer is liable to many restrictions. Brewers are now-a-days too much in the habit of mixing with the beer all sorts of vegetable substances, partly to preserve it from turning sour, partly and especially to tickle the palate, and to produce an intoxicating effect. Those substances are injurious to health. The different kinds of ale, though they contain a diminished quantity of malt, are also mixed with narcotic substances for the purpose of producing an intoxicating effect. The use of acetic and citric acid is likewise to be pro- hibited. Vinegar and lemon juice are especially hurtful to those who are affected with nervous and abdominal com- plaints; moreover, those substances either neutralize or increase the effects of certain remedies. Sour fruits, such as sour cherries, unripe gooseberries, currants, ought to be used only in very small quantities; sweet fruit may be used moderately; stewed prunes should not be used by those who are inclined to constipation. Young veal ought not to be used by those whose digestive organs are affected. Those whose generative powers are weakened, must mod- erate themselves in the use of chickens or eggs, and must avoid vanilla, truffles, caviare, all of which act as palliatives. From this last reason women whose menses flow too scantily, must avoid using saffron and cinnamon. Dys- peptic persons have to avoid cinnamon, cloves, ammonium, pepper, ginger, and bitters; all these substances act as palliatives and are injurious to homoeopathic medicines. Flatuous vegetables of all kinds ought to be avoided by those who are inclined to constipation and difficulty of passing their stools. Beef, wheat and rye-bread, cow's milk, and a moderate quantity of fresh butter, appear to be the most natural and the most harmless food for man, hence also for chronic patients. These substances ought not to contain much salt. Next to beef may be ranked mutton, game, old chickens, young pigeons; goose and duck are yet less admissable to chronic patients than pork. Salt and smoked meat must be used with great moderation. Raw chopped herbs, spices and old rancid cheese are to be carefully avoided. 136 Fish ought to be used boiled, not too much of it, with- out any spiced sauces; no smoked fish or such as has been dried in the air; herrings and sardines in moderate quan- tity. Moderation in eating and drinking is a sacred duty for all chronic patients. Tobacco may be permitted in some chronic diseases to patients who have constantly used tobacco, and who do not spit in using it. However, restrictions are to be imposed when the intellectual functions are affected, when the patient does not sleep well, is dyspeptic and constipated. When there is opening of the bowels every time the tobacco is used, this is an additional reason why its use should be prohibited, and why suitable antipsorics should be em- ployed towards removing the constipation entirely. The use of snuff against habitual catarrh, obstruction of the nose and chronic inflammation of the eyes is a great ob- stacle to the cure of chronic diseases; it, therefore, ought to be gradually abolished as soon as possible. There is another reason why the use of snuff should be interdicted. The medicinal preparations with which the snuff is moist- ened injure the olfactory nerve with which they are brought in immediate contact; this the smoking of tobacco is much less able to do on account of its virtues being considerably diminished by the fire. There are other obstacles to the cure of chronic diseases .which I shall now enumerate. Those events which are capable of rousing the latent psora which has hitherto manifested its existence in the organism by some of those slight deviations from its nor- mal condition that have been enumerated above, are also capable, if they should attack a patient in whom the chronic disease is fully developed, to make its cure difficult and even impossible, unless they speedily yield to more favor- able circumstances. These events being different in their nature, they are injurious in different degrees. Excessive fatigue, working in marshy regions, great in- juries and wounds, excessive heat or cold, starvation, 137 poverty, unwholesome food are less capable of rousing latent psora or aggravating a manifest psoric disease than an unhappy marriage or a gnawing conscience. Yes, ten years of hard labor in the penitentiary is much less injur- ious to the health of an innocent man than spiritual suffer- ings. The psoric miasm, which had been hitherto latent in his system and gave the favorite of a king the appear- ance of blooming health, quickly breaks forth into a chronic affection or induces a state of insanity, when contempt and indigence are substituted in the place of his former bril- liant position. The psoric mother whose health had already been vacillating, is attacked with an incurable suppuration of the lungs or with a cancer of the breast in consequence of the sudden death of her only son; disdained love induces a state of melancholy in the sensitive young woman, who had been affected with psoric hysteria. In such cases, even the best antipsoric treatment is scarcely capable of procuring relief to those unfortunate patients. Grief and sorrow are the principal causes which either develop latent psora, or aggravate an already existing secondary psoric affection. Even the least remains of the psoric miasm are by per- manent grief and vexation developed into all sorts of chronic psoric affections; grief and vexation act more cer- tainly, more frequently, and more suddenly than any other contrary influences could do. The physician ought to make it his duty and his delight to remove from the patient all those influences that might be an obstacle to the cure, and especially in the case of chronic patients, he ought to shield them, to the best of his ability, against grief and vexation. If both philosophy and religion should forsake the patient; if the patient is not capable of bearing with resig- nation the sufferings and tribulations which may befall him without his fault; if the patient is constantly assailed by grief and vexation without the physician being able to ward off those pernicious influences, then it is better that the 138 patient should be left to his fate;* for even the wisest, most skilful, and most conscientious physician will find it impossible to procure the patient relief under those unfav- orable circumstances. It would be foolish to continue the construction of an edifice upon a ground which is every day undermined by the waves slowly washing away one portion after the other. There is another class of chronic patients whose affec- tions are just as difficult to cure. They are those patients among the higher classes, who have used for years mineral baths,t and have resorted to those boasted methods of cure and nostra, which are sent over the whole world from France and England. These nostra, being taken in re- peated doses, develop the psoric miasm, even when uncom- bined with syphilis, so irresistibly, and aggravate the secondary psoric affections to such an extent, that those in- roads upon the vital powers of the organism, if they should be continued for some years, make the cure of chronic affections impossible. Why this should be so, is difficult to say.' It may be presumed that new affections have been added to the original malady by means of those heroic non- homoeopathic remedies, and that the magnitude and fre- quent repetition of these remedies have impressed upon those affections the character of chronic permanency. Or, the different powers of organic life, irritability, sensibility, the faculty of reproduction may have become so much weakened by this abuse, that all those causes united may have produced a disturbance which no sensible man will consider elementary; and no homoeopathic physician will lightly undertake to regulate the chaos of sufferings which is exhibited in such woefully misused organisms. Such violent and exhausting modes of treatment are not *This grief may be a symptom of the general disease without being occasioned by external influences. In this case, regard must be had to this symptom in the selection of an antipsoric. Such morbid states of the mind are sometimes cured with great ease. fEven if the water itself is not contrary to the disease; never- theless, the frequent use of baths must be considered a repetition of powerful doses, which often exercise a pernicious effect upon the disease, and very seldom do much good. 139 only incapable of curing the primitive psoric disease, but they aggravate it by producing dangerous medicinal affec- tions, and finally threaten to overwhelm the vital powers altogether. If the pernicious effects of the old method of cure merely resulted in dynamic derangements of the organism, the organism would soon recover from those effects, after the treatment should have been discontinued for a time, or else homoeopathic remedies would be able to neutralize those bad effects. But these effects never disappear. It is probable that the sensible and irritable fibre is unnatur- ally affected by the large and frequently repeated doses of allopathic medicines, and that the vital principle protects itself against their destructive agency, either by modifying or changing the viscera of organic life in such a manner as will effectually shield them against the assaults of sub- versive remedial agents. It is for a purpose like this, for instance, that the vital powers cover the delicate skin of the hand with a horny surface, in order to protect that part of the body against the bad effects which it might other- wise suffer from the contact with corrosive or otherwise injurious substances. In the same way, if the delicate vis- cera of organic life are assailed by medicines which are not in homoeopathic relation with the disease, those viscera are protected by the vital principle by having their sensibility and irritability diminished. Moreover, the more delicate fibre is found abnormally thickened or hardened; the stronger fibre, on the contrary, consumed or even annihi- lated, as is shown by the adventitious, irregular, or degen- erate formations or growths which post-mortem examina- tions exhibit to us, and which are then attributed to the malignant character of the primitive disease. Such a crip- pled condition of things occurs very often, and is, in many cases, incurable. Only in patients who are not too far advanced in age, and whose powers have not been too deeply sunk by the destructive drugs of Allceopathic physi- cians, as is unfortunately almost always the case, the care- ful and intelligent Homoeopathic physician may succeed in restoring the original health of the patient. But such a 140 result can only be obtained under the most favorable ex- ternal circumstances. When these occur and are main- tained, the physician may enable the vital principle, by disembarrassing it first from the influences of the psoric miasm, to gradually remove the degenerations which the unnatural doses of the Allceopathic doctor had forced the vital powers to form for the sake of preserving the system from utter ruin. Daily experience proves the fact that the system sinks more and more, in proportion as the Allceo- pathic physician, even if he should proceed with attention and care, assails it with his drugs. It is impossible that such mismanaged cases should be cured in a short time, by means of an art which has never pretended to have it in its power directly to act upon organic defects. In these cases the physician has not to deal with a simple psoric disease. These cases are often so complicated that the physician is obliged to abandon them at once. But were they ever so favorable, he ought never to promise more than relief after a long lapse of time. The first thing to be done is, that the various medicinal influences which undermine the system in all directions, should be removed from the system. This result may be obtained without the patient taking any new medicine, by going for a few months into the country, following a strict diet, and carefully reg- ulating his mode of life. Medicine can do almost nothing against these chaotic devastations of allceopathic drugs. The vital principle, aided perhaps by an antipsoric in some degree, must first clear away all those artificial symptoms before the true image of the original disease is reproduced.* Woe to the Homoeopathic physician who means to make his reputation by the cure of such woefully mismanaged diseases! He will fail in spite of all his care. Another obstacle to the cure of chronic diseases is the * The most horrible chronic diseases, such as may be found in the families of poor peasants and mechanics, whom no fashion- able physician visits, are cured in the most simple manner by anti- psorics; the cure is often effected in so short a time that it appears almost miraculous. 141 enervation of the system consequent upon excesses. The sons of rich parents especially, carried away by the allure- ments of wealth, are too much inclined to injure themselves by destructive passions, debauchery, abuse of the sexual organs, gambling, etc. By the practice of these vices the robustest bodies often dwindle down to a shadow; yea, the latent psora entering into combination with the badly man- aged syphilitic poison, this union gives origin to the most distressing disease. Even if the patient mends his ways, remorse will constantly assail the vital forces and wilr im- pede the action of the antipsoric remedies so much that the Homoeopathic practitioner will have to be very cautious in promising a successful treatment. Among poor people, where the aforesaid obstacles do not exist,* there are other difficulties in the way of a successful treatment. Among the poor the infection has generally been caught more than once and the cutaneous eruption has, as many times, been repelled by external applications. By these means the internal psoric disease has gradually assumed a fearful character. But even in these cases a cure is possible in the course of time, pro- vided the patients are not too far advanced in age, and are docile and not too much exhausted. But even in those difficult cases kind nature shows a dis- position to facilitate the cure, provided we know how to understand and profit by her indications. Experience teaches this important fact that, though the patient have caught the itch several times in succession, and though the psoric miasm have subdued the organism more completely now than during the first attack, yet the last infection may be cured as easily as if it were" the first, provided the erup- *A pretty frequent obstacle to the cure of chronic diseases is "suppressed' sexual intercourse." In some cases this suppression does not depend upon the physician; in other cases a foolish phy- sician feels called upon to interdict sexual intercourse on account of the delicate health of one of the parties. Such an interdiction often induces hysteria, hypochondriasis and even frenzy. A sensi- ble physician will cure these symptoms by permitting the mod- erate enjoyment of sexual intercourse. This subject deserves much more attention than is generally bestowed upon it. 142 tion still exist upon the skin in its integrity. By means of one or two doses of the suitable antipsoric remedy, the psoric miasm maybe removed from the system, and all sec- ondary chronic affections may be effectually prevented.* It would not be expedient, however, to favor the cure of psoric chronic affections by repeatedly produing an artifi- cial infection of the patient by means of the psoric virus, even though the patient should not dread such a course, although he often does reject it. The psoric miasm rarely takes effect in patients afflicted with inveterate psoric diseases, such as suppuration of the lungs, paralysis of one or more parts of the body, etc. I may observe that the psoric miasm takes effect much sooner when it is caught naturally, than when it is communicated by artificial inoculation. I have little else to say, relatively to the treatment of chronic diseases; I content myself with referring the intelligent homoeopathic physician to the list of antipsoric remedies which he will find recorded at the end of this vol- ume, and which he may use with advantage for the attain- ment of his noble ends. A few rules of precaution may, howrever, not be amiss. First, let me recall to mind the great truth, that most chronic diseases, excepting however those few diseases which spring from syphilis, originate in psora, and can, therefore, only be cured by antipsoric remedies, that is to say, remedies which produce, in a healthy organism, all those symptoms which characterize both latent and devel- oped psora. It is for this reason that the homoeopathic physician should not pay any attention to the names which he finds arrayed in works on pathology, and that he should above *This is also the case with syphilis. Suppose the-chancre or bubo have been violently suppressed and secondary syphilis has made its appearance. Suppose now that the patient has caught the syphilitic infection a second time; in this case as long as the chancre is yet existing, the syphilitic disease is cured by one dose of the best mercurial preparation. Of course there must not be any complication with psora; if this should be the case, the psoric affection must be removed first, as has been taught above. 143 all, study the symptoms, and select a remedy in harmony with them. The physician must be on his guard against interrupting the action of the antipsoric remedy which he has given to the patient; let him not exhibit an intermediate remedy on account of a little headache which may perhaps come the day after the antipsoric remedy was given; or another remedy for a sore throat, or diarrhoea, or a little pain, etc. The rule is, that the carefully selected homoeopathic rem- edy should act until it has completed its effect. Suppose the remedy calls out symptoms which have existed already weeks or months ago; in this case the appar- ent aggravation and the development of new symptoms show that the remedy has attacked the disease in its inmost nature, and will prove of great use hereafter. Therefore, the remedy ought to be left undisturbed. But, if the remedy produces symptoms which had never been witnessed before, and which may therefore, be sup- posed to be inherent in the medicine; in that case, the remedy should be permitted to act for awhile; generally those symptoms disappear of themselves without retarding the course adopted by the physician; but if they are troublesome and important, they ought not be tolerated; they show that the homoeopathic remedy has not been properly chosen. The effect of such a remedy must either be checked by an antidote, or, if no antidote should be known, another suitable antipsoric must be administered. After this the false symptoms may continue for a while, and occasionally re-appear, but they will speedily and per- manently vanish, and make room for adequate treatment. The physician needs not to feel the least uneasiness, if the ordinary symptoms of the disease are called out by the anti-psoric remedies, in a higher degree of intensity than they usually manifest. They will diminish more and more one day after the other. This so-called ho- moeopathic aggravation is a proof that the cure is not only probable, but may even be anticipated with cer- tainty. But if the original symptoms of the disease continue 144 with the same intensity in the succeeding days as in the beginning, or if this intensity increases, this is a sure sign that although the remedy may be homoeopathic, yet the magnitude of the dose makes the cure impossible. The re- medial agent, by its powerful action, not only neutralizes its genuine homoeopathic effects, but establishes moreover, in the system, a medicinal disease by the side of the natu- ral disturbance which is even strengthened by the med- icine. This pernicious effect of too large a dose may be seen already in the first 16, 18, 20 days of its action. In such a case it becomes necessary either to give an anti- dote, or, if the antidote should not be known, to adminis- ter a very small dose of such an anti-psoric as corresponds most homceopathically to the symptoms both of the natural and the artificial disease. If one anti-psoric should not be sufficient, another may be selected, of course with the same care.* The excessive action of the otherwise homoeopathic remedial agent having been subdued by the proper anti- dote or by anti-psoric remedies, the same agent may then be exhibited again, but of a much higher potency and in a more minute dose. There are three mistakes which the physician cannot too carefully avoid; the first is to suppose that the doses which I have indicated as the proper doses in the treatment of chronic diseases, and which long experience and close ob- servation have induced me to adopt, are too small; the second great mistake is the improper use of a remedy; and the third mistake consists in not letting a remedy act a sufficient length of time. Nothing is lost by giving even smaller doses than those which I have indicated. The doses can scarcely be too much reduced, provided the effects of the remedy are not disturbed by improper food. The remedial agent will act * The accident which is mentioned in this paragraph I have witnessed in my own practice, at the time when I was not yet fully acquainted with the remedial virtues of Sepia, and especially Lycopodium and Silicea. I was then in the habit of giving 4, 5, or 6 globules of the billion potency at a dose. Biscite moniti! 145 even in its smallest quantity, provided it corresponds per- fectly to all the symptoms of the disease and its action is not interfered with by dietetic transgressions. The ad- vantage of giving the smallest doses is this, that it is an easy matter to neutralize their effects in case the medicine should not have been chosen with the necessary exactitude. This being done, a more suitable antipsoric may then be exhibited. The second fault is generally owing to carelessness, laziness and levity. Many homoeopathic physicians, alas! remain guilty of these trespasses to the end of their lives; they understand nothing of the homoeopathic doc- trine. The first duty of the homoeopathic physician who ap- preciates the dignity of his character and the value of hu- man life, is, to enquire into the whole condition of the patient, the cause of the disease as far as the patient re- members it, his mode of life, the nature of his mind, the tone and character of his sentiments, his physical consti- tution, and especially the symptoms of the disease. The inquiry is made according to the rules laid down in the Organon. This being done, the physician then tries to discover the true homoeopathic remedy. He may avail himself of the existing repertories with a view of becoming approximately acquainted with the true remedy. But, inasmuch as these repertories only contain general indica- tions, it is necessary that the remedies which the physician finds indicated in those works should be afterwards care- f nlly studied out in the Materia Medica. A physician who is not willing to take this trouble, but who contents him- self with the general indications furnished by the reperto- ries, and, who, by means of these general indications, dis- patches one patient after the other, deserves not the name of a true Homoeopathist. He is a mere quack, changing his remedies every moment, until the poor patient loses his temper and is obliged to leave this homicidal dabbler. It is by such levity as this that true Homoeopathy is in- jured. This ignominious propensity for laziness, in the most j 146 important of all professions, determines these pseudo- Homosopathists to choose their remedies ab usu in morbis, by the directions which are found recorded at the head of each medicine. This proceeding is entirely wrong, and smells strongly of Allopathy. Those general indications which are found at the head of each medicine in the differ- ent repertories, only refer to special symptoms and most of them have no other object except to inform the homoe- opathic physician that certain medicines, the virtues of which had been tried upon the healthy organism, have been found curative in the diseases named in the reper- tories. Alas! there are even authors who advise this kind of empiricism. The third great mistake which the homoeopathic physi- cian cannot too carefully avoid in the treatment of chronic diseases, is the too hasty repetition of the dose. This haste is highly indiscreet. Superficial observers are very apt to suppose that a remedy, after having favorably acted for eight or ten days, can act no more; this delusion is strengthened by the supposition that the morbid symp- toms would have shown themselves again on such or such a day, if the dose had not been renewed. If the medicine which the patient has been ordered to take, produces a good effect in the first eight or ten days, this is a sure sign that the medicine is strictly homoeo- pathic. If, under these circumstances, an aggravation should occur, the patient need not feel uneasy about it; the desired result will be ultimately obtained, though it may take 24 or 30 days. It takes 40 and even 50 days before the medicine has completed its action. To give another remedy before the lapse of this period, would be the height of folly. Let no physician suppose that, as soon as the time fixed for the duration of the action of the remedy shall have elapsed, another remedy must at once be admin- istered with a view of hastening the cure. This is contrary to experience. The surest and safest way of hastening the cure is, to let the medicine act as long as the improvement of the patient continues, were it even far beyond the period which is set down as the probable period of the duration of 147 that action.* He who observes this rule with the greatest care will be the most successful homoeopathic practitioner. A new remedy should only be given when the older symptoms which had disappeared for a time, begin to appear again, and show a tendency to remain or to increase in intensity. Experience is the only arbiter in these matters, and, in my own long and extensive practice it has already been decided beyond the shadow of a doubt. Considering the complex nature of the human organism and the delicate structure of its organs, it cannot appear strange that the psoric miasm which ramifies through the organism as a parasitical growth, should tenaciously resist the action of remedial agents. The intelligent observer will find it natural that the remedial agent, acting as it does for a long period, should occasionally appear to make a sort of inroad upon the organism. Such exacerbations are only apparent aggravations of the disease. They sim- ply show that the disease is writhing, as it were, under the action of the remedy, f and may occur even 16, 20, or 24 days after the period when the medicine was taken. The duration of the action of antipsoric remedies is generally proportionate to the chronic character of the disease. And, vice-versa, even such remedies as Bella- donna, Sulphur, Arsenic, etc., which act for a considerable length of time in the healthy organism, have the duration of their action diminished in proportion as the disease is acute and runs speedily through its course. In chronic diseases the physician will therefore let the remedy act *On one occasion I gave Sepia against a chronic headache which came on at intervals. The attacks became both less frequent and less violent. Another dose stopped the headache for the period of 100 days, from which I infer that the remedy acted during all that time. At the end of 100 days another slight attack came on. A third dose of Sepia was given, and it is now seven years since the headache has completely disappeared. tlf the antipsoric remedy have been chosen with strict regard to its homoeopathic nature, and have been exhibited in the small- est dose, such exacerbations will progressively diminish both in frequency and intensity; whereas, if the dose is too strong, they may appear very often to the great prejudice of the patient. 148 30, 40, and even 50 days, as long as the improvement con- tinues. Nature permits the remedy to act for so many days; and, as long as this action continues, it ought not to be interfered with by a new remedy.* The whole cure fails if the antipsoric remedies which have been prescribed for the patient, are not permitted to act uninterruptedly to the end. Even if the second anti- psoric should have been selected with the greatest care, it cannot replace the loss which the rash haste of the physi- cian has inflicted upon the patient. The benign action of the former remedy, which was about manifesting its most beautiful and most surprising results, is probably lost to the patient forever. The fundamental rule, in treating chronic diseases, is this: to let the carefully selected homoeopathic antipsoric act as long as it is capable of exercising a curative in- *It will be difficult to induce physicians to avoid mistakes the which have been censured in these paragraphs. My doctrines in regard to the magnitude and the repetition of the doses will be doubted for years, even by the greater number of homoeopathic physicians. Their excuse will be," that it is quite difficult enough to believe that the minute homoeopathic doses have at all the power to act upon the disease, but that it is incredible that such small doses should be able to influence an inveterate chronic dis- ease even for two or three, much less for forty or fifty days; yea, that, after so long a space of time, important results should be obtained from those imperceptible doses." My proposition, how- ever, is not one of those which ought to be comprehended, nor one which ought to be blindly believed. Xo one is bound either to comprehend or believe that proposition; I do not comprehend it, but the facts speak for themselves. The truth of my proposition is demonstrated by experience, in which I have more faith than in my intelligence. Who will undertake to weigh the powers which nature conceals in her depths? Who will doubt of their existence? Who ever thought that the medicinal virtues of drugs could be developed in an infinite series of degrees by means of triturating and shaking the raw material? Does the physician risk anything by imitating a method which I have adopted from long experience and observation? Unless the physician imitates my method, he cannot expect to solve the highest problem of medical science, that of curing those important chronic diseases which have indeed remained uncured up to the time when I discovered their true character, and proper treatment. 149 fluence and there is a visible improvement going on in the system. This rule is opposed to the hasty prescription of a new, or the immediate repetition of the same, remedy. Indeed, nothing can be more desirable to a physician than to let the improvement of his patient continue without in- terfering with it. By means of a single dose of a carefully selected remedy, the homoeopathic practitioner often pro- duces an improvement in the state of his patient, which continues even to the restoration of health. This result could not have been obtained if the dose had been repeated, or if another remedy had been given. It is probable that an antipsoric remedy of the highest potency manifests its curative influence for such a length of time, and finally cures the disease by developing in the organism an analo- gous chronic disease, which has a stronger hold upon the natural disease than the natural disease has upon the organism. (See Organon, § 45,fifth edition). This seems to be the course that nature adopts. The artificially This is all that I have to say on this subject. I have fulfilled a duty by communicating to the world the great truths which I have discovered. The world was sadly in need of them. If physicians do not carefully practice what I teach, let them not boast of being my followers, and, above all, let them not expect to be successful in their treatment. Is it proper that we should reject a method of cure until the play of those natural forces upon which the method rests shall have been revealed to the sight and shall have been made accessi- ble to the minds of children? Would it not be foolish to reject the practice of eliciting sparks from flint by striking against it with steel, for no other reason than this: that we do not under- stand how so much caloric could be latent in the flint, or how this caloric after being elicited from the flint, could melt the little particles of steel which separate from the steel when we strike it against the flint, and, in the shape of incandescent globules, set the tinder on fire ? We understand nothing of all this, and we nevertheless have followed for thousands of years the practice of eliciting sparks from flint by means of steel. It would be foolish to decline learning to write because we do not understand how thought can be embodied in written words? Just as foolish would it be to reject the method which I have discovered for the cure of chronic diseases, on the ground that we do not compre- hend the mysterious agency which that method involves. 150 •excited disease is indeed analogous to the natural disease, both as regards symptoms and pain; but, in the organism, the artificial disease being the stronger, it annihilates the natural, which is the weaker. (See Organon, § 33). This shows why every hasty repetition of the same remedy, or every newT dose of another remedy, would produce an in- crease of morbid symptoms and interrupt the process of cure, It often requires a long time before so much mis- chief can be remedied. If any given dose of a remedy should produce symptoms which are not homogeneous to the symptoms of the dis- ease, and if the mind of the patient should become more and more depressed, though the progressive increase of this depression may be very gradual, then the next dose of the same remedy may become very prejudicial to the patient. Even if a remedy should produce a sudden great improvement in the condition of the patient, there is danger that the remedy may have acted as a mere palliative; in this case it never should be exhibited a second time, not even after other intermediate remedies. There are exceptions to this rule, which it is, however, not the business of every beginner to discover.* A second dose of the same remedy may be given imme- diately after the first, when the remedy had been chosen with strict regard to its homoeopathic character, and had produced a good effect, but had not acted long enough to cure the disease. This occurs but seldom in chronic dis- eases; but it frequently occurs in acute diseases, and in * Nevertheless, the immediate repetition of the doses of one and the same remedy, has been much abused lately. The young homoe- opathic physician finds it convenient to resort to this repetition, especially when the remedy has produced some good effects in the beginning; he imagines to hasten the cure by this repetition. It is the practice with many homoeopathic physicians to furnish the patient with several doses of the same remedy, advising him to take them at certain intervals according to his discretion. This is empiricism. The homoeopathic physician ought to examine the symptoms every time he prescribes; otherwise he cannot know whether the same remedy is indicated a second time, or whether a medicine is at all appropriate. 151 those chronic diseases that border upon the acute. The same remedy may be given a second time, "when the improvement which the first dose had produced by caus- ing the morbid symptoms gradually to become less fre- quent and less intense, ceases to continue after the lapse of fourteen, ten, or seven days; when it becomes, therefore, evident that the medicine has ceased to act, the condition of the mind is the same as before, and no new or trouble- some symptoms have made their appearance. All this would show that the same remedy is again indicated. To secure the second dose a stronger action upon the disease,* it would be expedient to exhibit the same rem- edy in a lower potency, the dose being of the same magni- tude, f By way of example, I may state that the eruption of the itch is one of those diseases which admit more readily than other diseases of an immediate repetition of the remedy, (Sulphur,) but only when the eruption is quite recent; for, in this case, it has somewhat the nature of an acute disease, and exhausts the curative powrer of a rem- edy in a shorter space of time; in six, eight, or ten days. The second dose of the same remedy is to be given in the same quantity, but in a different degree of potency. Some- times such a modification in the symptoms may occur, as will make it necessary to alternate the Sulphur with Hepar sulphuris. If several doses of this latter remedy should *If the remedy is perfectly homoeopathic, it may be dissolved in about four ounces of water, by stirring it; one third of this solution is taken immediately, the second third in the morning on rising, and the last third the next day; the solution may be stirred at each swallow, by which means the inherent power of the drug becomes more developed. This mode of exhibiting the remedy seems to secure it greater supremacy over the organism, in persons that are not too irritable or weak. t If the 30th degree have been chosen first, the 18th may be used next; then the 24th, after this the 12th, or 6th, etc.; these lower degrees are chosen when the chronic disease has assumed an acute character. It may also occur that the action of the remedy has been interrupted, and perhaps destroyed, by some important transgression of the dietetic rules, or some other cause; in this case, if the above named conditions are fulfilled, the same remedy may be repeated. 152 be required, they are to be given in different degrees of potency, though always of the same magnitude. Some- times even a dose of Nux vomica X., or of Mercury X.,* may have to be given as an intermediate remedy. Sulphur, Hepar sulphuris, and Sepia excepted, the other antipsorics seldom admit of a favorable repetition of the same drug. This repetition is, moreover, unnecessary on account of the great number of antipsorics which we possess. One antipsoric having fulfilled its object, the modified series of symptoms generally requires a different remedy. To repeat the same remedy for these modified symptoms would be a censurable piece of daring. In cases of disease, which have been mismanaged by allo- pathic practice, it is often necessary to give at intervals Sulphur or Hepar sulphuris, according as either remedy is indicated. These remedies ought to be given, even when the patient had taken much Sulphur, or had used sulphur baths; in such cases, however, a dose of Mercury X. ought to be given first, before the Sulphur is exhibited. Several antipsorics are generally required for the cure of a chronic disease. If the physician alternates his rem- edies in rapid succession, this is a sure sign that he has not chosen his remedies with strict reference to their homoeo- pathic action, or has but carelessly studied the existing series of symptoms. The homoeopathic physician is very apt to commit this mistake in urging cases of both chronic and acute diseases, especially when the patient is dear to him. The practitioner cannot be sufficiently on his guard against this practice. By mismanagement like this, the patient's system be- comes so irritated that remedial agents seem to lose all their power over it,f and that the least medicinal influence is sufficient to extinguish completely the last spark of irri- tability. Under these circumstances medicines cease to be * It is a matter of course that the psoric patient should carefully avoid, during the treatment, the use of washes, brown soap, etc. 11 have never seen a properly chosen homoeopathic remedy pro- ducing no effect, when the treatment is properly conducted. Such a thing appears to me impossible. 153 useful; but mesmeric action may succeed in calming the system. Let the palm of both your hands rest for about a minute upon the vertex; then move them slowly down the body, across the neck, shoulders, arms, hands, knees, legs, feet and toes. This pass may be repeated. Besides these passes the irritability of the patient may also be soothed by directing him to smell of a globule moistened with the highest potency of the homoeopathic remedy. This globule is kept in a corked vial, the mouth of which being inserted in one of the nares, the patient takes one quick inspiration.* By smelling of the medi- cine the influence of any medicine may be communicated to the patient in any degree. There may be one or more globules in the vial. By increasing the number of inspi- rations the power of the medicine may be increased a hun- dred fold. The remedy acts just as powerfully by commu- nicating its medicinal influence to the system through the nasal fossse and the lungs, as if a dose of the remedy had been swallowed. Such globules, when they are kept in corked vials, and protected from heat and sunshine, often preserve their medicinal power for years. This kind of smelling of the remedy has great advantages in the many accidents which often interrupt and prevent the cure. To neutralize the consequences of such accidents, the patient may smell of the antidote. By this means it acts more powerfully upon the nerves, and affords the greatest use; moreover, it does not establish any medicinal influence in the system which might be in the way of a cure. When the accident has been relieved by the process of smelling, it often happens that the antipsoric remedy, which had been given before the accident occurred continues to act for a certain time. * This mode of inspiring the imperceptible emanations from the globule contained in the vial, benefits those who are born without the sense of smell, or who had lost it, as much as those who are endowed with the finest olfactory apparatus. We may infer from this that the general nerves of sensation receive the impression of the remedial agent, and transmit that impression to the whole nervous system. 154 To obtain this result for certain, the inspirations and the number of the globules must be regulated with the great- est care, so as to prevent any undue medicinal action being created in the organism. If the patient should wish to take medicine every day,* the homoeopathic physician may give him every day a dose of sugar of milk of about three grains, all these powders being marked with successive numbers, f The sugar of milk is admirably adapted to this kind of innocent decep- tion. J *Xo popular habit, were it ever so injurious, can be abolished all at once. This is the reason why the homoeopathic physician cannot avoid giving to his patient a powder everyday; though this appears considerable, nevertheless, there is a good deal of dif- ference between this daily administration of a powder and the allopathic practice. It is a great blessing for the patient, in tak- ing these powders, marked with successive numbers, especially when he has been predisposed against the more rational method of cure by the artful insinuations of calumniators, not to be able to distinguish the powders containing the medicine from those containing the pure sugar of milk. If he knew that the medicine, of which he expects such brilliant results, is contained in any par- ticular powder, he would often be imposed upon by his fancy; he would imagine to experience effects which he would set down as real, and he would be in a constant state of excitement. By the system which I propose, all these disagreeable consequences are avoided. The patient, who knows from experience that be need not expect any painful effects from the medicine he takes, calmly observes the changes which are really going on in his system, and reports to his physician facts, and not illusions. By taking a pow- der every day, the patient will expect the same effects from each. Of course, he ought not to know whether any or all of the pow- ders contain medicine. t Patients who have firm confidence in the honesty and skill of their physician, will have no hesitation to be satisfied with a dose of sugar of milk, which may be exhibited every two, four, or seven days, agreeably to the wishes of the patient; such a course will never lessen their confidence. J There are hypercritical homoeopathic physicians who were afraid that even the sugar of milk might obtain medicinal quali- ties from being long kept in a bottle, or from long trituration. Long continued experiments have convinced me that this appre- hension is unfounded. Both the raw and the prepared sugar of milk may be taken as nourishment in considerable quantity with- 155 If the most troublesome symptoms of a chronic disease, such as old, constant, acute pains, spasms or cramps, etc., disappear speedily and entirely, as if by magic, to such a degree as to make the patient suppose that he is entirely free from pain, and has almost recovered, this is no reason why the physician should flatter himself, that he has chosen an antipsoric which will certainly promote the cure. This deceptive success shows that the medicine has acted enantiopathically, as a mere contrarium or palliative, and that a considerable exacerbation of the original disease will shortly show itself. As soon as this exacerbation sets in, it becomes necessary either to give the antidote of the pre- vious remedy, or else, in case no such antidote should be known, to prescribe a new remedy which will act more homceopathically. Such antipathic medicines seldom pro- duce good effects after an exacerbation has taken place. Some medicines produce effects and counter effects. In this case, after an exacerbation has taken place, a second dose of the same remedy may be given, which, by its anti- pathic action, will produce a permanent improvement. I know this to be the case with Ignatia. The exacerbation which is consequent upon an anti- pathic remedy, may sometimes be removed by means of a out the least disagreeable symptoms being experienced from it. Fears have also been entertained that, in triturating the medicinal substance in a porcelain mortar, particles might become detached from this latter, and that the triturating process might change them to powerfully active Silicea, (f.). To ascertain whether such fears were founded, I caused one hundred grains of sugar of milk to be triturated with a new porcelain pestle in a porcelain mortar, the bottom of which had been recently polished; thirty-three grains were taken at a time. They underwent the process of tri- turation eighteen times, each trituration lasting six minutes. Every four minutes the mass was stirred up with a spatula. The object of this frequently repeated trituration, which lasted in all three hours, was to impart medicinal qualities, either to the sugar of milk, or, at any rate, to the particles of Silicea which might have been separated from the mortar; but, from experiments which I have made upon highly susceptible subjects, I have been obliged to infer that the prepared sugar of milk is no more medicinal than the sugar in its raw state; its only quality is that of being nutri- tious. 156 remedy which may be chosen to that effect from the Ma- teria Medica, the archives of the homoeopathic art, or the annals. In a few days the psoric disease will resume its original form, when a new antipsoric may be given. The following are some of the accidents by which the cure of chronic diseases may be temporarily disturbed: Immoderate eating, the effects of which may be remedied by eating thin broth and taking a little coffee. Derange- ment of the stomach by eating fat meat, especially pork, by fasting and Pulsatilla. Derangement of the stomach producing eructations tasting of the ingesta; nausea and inclination to vomit, Antimonium crudum, high. Cold- ness of the stomach, consequent upon eating fruit, smell- ing of Arsenic. Troublesome consequences of using spir- ituous drinks, Nux vomica. Derangement of the stomach with gastric fever, chills and coldness, Bryonia. Fright; if this remedy can be administered immediately, and especially in cases where tearfulness is consequent upon fright, Opium. If the physician is called in late, or, if chagrin and fright are combined, Aconite. When the fright is succeeded by sorrow, Ignatia. Vexation produc- ing anger, vehemence, an irritated state of mind, peevish- ness, Chamomile. If this peevishness is combined with chills and coldness, Bryonia. Irritation combined with indignation, deep internal grief, when the patient throws aside those things which he was just holding in his hands, Staphysagria. Indignation with silent internal grief, Colo- cynthis. Unhappy love with silent grief, Ignatia. Un- happy love with jealousy, Hyosciamus. A violent cold, the patient being confined to his room or bed, Nux vomica. When the cold produces diarrhoea, Dulcamara. When the cold excites pain, Coffea cruda. Cold with fever and heat, Aconite. Cold accompanied with suffocating fits, Ipecac- uanha. Cold with subsequent pain and a desire to weep, Coffea cruda. Cold, inducing a loss of smell and taste, Pulsatilla. Straining in consequence of lifting or walk- ing, Arnica, but with more certainty, Rhus toxicodendron. Contusions and wounds inflicted by blunt substances. Arnica. Burning of the skin, applications of water mixed 157 with Arsenic of the higher degrees of potency, or by ap- plying for hours spirits of wine which have been heated in very hot water. [Or Cantharis in a high potency.—Ed.] Weakness consequent upon the loss of blood or vital fluids, Cinchona. Homesickness with redness of the cheeks, Capsicum. During the treatment of chronic diseases we are often required to use the other non-antipsoric remedies consti- tuting our Materia Medica. This is especially the case, when the patient is attacked with one of those intermediate diseases (morbi inter cur rentes,) which owe their origin either to .malaria or meteoric influences. By these dis- eases the antipsoric treatment is not only disturbed, but positively interrupted. If our patient should be attacked with such an epidemic or sporadic disease, the antipsoric treatment ought to be entirely suspended as long as that disease lasts; the cure of this disease may sometimes require several weeks. If the intermediate attack is not too violent, the cure may sometimes be considerably abbre- viated by causing the patient to smell of the homoeopathic non-antipsoric remedy; smelling is sometimes sufficient to produce recovery. An intelligent homoeopathic practitioner will easily observe the period when the intermediate disease* has * These intermediate diseases are generally fevers, a continuous acute fever, a slow remittent, or an intermittent fever; they may also be one of the permanent miasms, smallpox, measles, dysen- tery, whooping-cough, etc. Intermittent fevers occur almost every year in a somewhat modified form. Ever since I discov- ered and practised the successful treatment of chronic diseases by means of antipsoric remedies, I have observed that intermittent fevers appear every year in a more or less modified form both as regards character and symptoms. The treatment had to be varied accordingly. Arsenic, Belladonna, Antimonium crudum, Spigelia, Aconite, Xux in alternation with Ipecacuanha, sal Ammoniacum, Natrum muriaticum, Opium, Cina, either alone or in alternation with Capsicum, or Capsicum only, Menyanthes tritoliata, Calcarea carbonica, Pulsatilla, Carbo vegetabilis or animalis, Arnica, or Arnica in alternation with Ipecacuanha, etc., have been used in different years, and effected a cure in a few days. I do not wish 158 left the patient, and the primitive chronic disease has resumed its course. It frequently happens that, after the intermediate dis- ease has left the patient, the symptoms of the original chronic disease appear a little modified; sometimes even other parts of the body manifest morbid symptoms. In this case the homoeopathic physician will prescribe his remedy with strict regard to the existing symptoms, and will not give a remedy which he may have imagined to be the proper remedy, before a careful examination had been instituted. Sometimes the physician is called to a patient affected with this intermediate disease, whom he had never before treated as a chronic patient. The fever having been sub- dued by those specific remedies which had been found available with other patients, the physician may neverthe- less not be able to procure complete recovery in spite of to exclude any of the other non-antipsoric remedies provided they are indicated by the totality of the symptoms in the begin- ning as well as in the apyrexia of the symptoms, (See Von B6n- ninghausen, Essay on the Homoeopathic Treatment of Intermit- tent Fevers, 1833, Munster.) I should except, however, Cinchona. To suppress the type of an intermittent fever by means of Cin- chona, large doses of this drug are required, even in its concen- trated form, Quinine; such large doses establish in the system an artificial morbid action which is difficult to cure. Cinchona is only homoeopathic against the endemic intermittent fevers of marshy regions; nevertheless they can only be cured by Cinchona in conjunction with the antipsorics. In epidemic intermittent fevers the treatment should always begin with a dose of highly- dynamised Sulphur, or Hepar sulphuris, if this remedy should be indicated. This medicine should be permitted to act until no farther improvement is observed. In a few days after the Sul- phur had been administered, the physician exhibits the non-anti- psoric remedy which is indicated by the character of the prevailing epidemic; one or two doses maybe exhibited, always after the termination of the attack. Sulphur or Hepar sulphuris are exhibited before any other remedy is given, for this reason, that all epidemic intermittent fevers chiefly owe their existence to the psoric miasm. The previous action of Sulphur or Hepar sulphuris makes the subsequent treatment so much more safe and easy. 159 the most regular diet and mode of life. Other trouble- some symptoms (generally called after symptoms, after diseases) will appear and will threaten to become chronic. These symptoms indicate the development of an internal psoric disease, and have to be removed according to the principles taught in this work. I may here observe that the great epidemic diseases, such as smallpox, measles, purpura, scarlatina, whooping- cough, fall dysentery, and other typhoid fevers, if they are improperly treated, and are permitted to complete their course, shake the organism so thoroughly, that the latent psoric miasm becomes aroused in such patients and gives origin to cutaneous eruptions,* or to other chronic affec- tions. Owing to the exhausted state of the organism, they often reach a high degree of intensity in a short while. If the patient should then die in spite of all the drugs which the allopathic physician gives him, the doctor declares that the patient has died of the effects of whooping cough, measles, etc. These effects are nothing more than the visible conse- quences of the latent psoric miasm which may manifest itself in innumerable forms, and which never had been cured on account of its nature and mode of action having been unknown heretofore. The physician may nowT feel convinced that epidemic and sporadic fevers, as well as miasmatic acute diseases, unless the patient recovers from both the disease and their effects in a short while, require an antipsoric after treat- ment, even if a homoeopathic specific remedy should have been discovered and successfully employed against them. ♦If these eruptions are numerous, authors call them scabies spontanea (self originating itch). This is a mere chimera, a monstrum; the itch has originated, time out of mind, in a conta- gious miasm, and cannot now originate without being caught. The so-called scabies spontanea is merely the secondary phenom- enal development of the internal psoric miasm, whose first manifestation upon the skin had either been repelled by external applications or had gradually disappeared of itself. This scabies spontanea often leaves the skin again very quickly; we know not whether it is contagious. 160 For this purpose the best antipsoric is Sulphur. This may only be given in case the patient should not have been put upon the use of that drug previously. If this should have been the case, another antipsoric must be selected. The strikingly obstinate character of endemic diseases is due to some psoric complication, or the action of the psoric miasm modified by the peculiar influence of the locality and the peculiar mode of life of its inhabitants. This is the reason why people from marshy regions, in spite of Cinchona, drag their intermittent fevers even to healthier parts of the country, and do not recover until they have undergone an antipsoric treatment. It is to the antipsoric treatment that their recovery is chiefly due. The marshy exhalations, especially of hot countries, appear to be one of the most powerful excitants of the psoric miasm which is latent in the system,*) without resorting to a thorough antipsoric treatment, damp regions, so far from being inhabitable, will exercise a life endanger- ing influence. Man may accustom himself to the highest as well as the lowest temperature; in both these tempera- tures he may be cheerful and healthy; why should he not become acclimated in marshy regions as well as upon dry mountains, if there were not some secret enemy lying in ambush, whose energies are roused into fatal action by the influence of marshy regions to the prejudice of all new settlers? This secret enemy is the psoric miasm. By stag- nant waters and by the vapors which warm air causes to exhale from the damp and swampy soil, the psoric miasm is more certainly and more irresistibly roused than by any other physical influence, and is then developed into chronic diseases of all kinds, and especially such as affect the liver. The symptoms which have been recently developed by the inherent action of the psoric miasm, without having been superadded by the mismanagement of the doctor, are * The reason probably is, because those exhalations possess the power of paralyzing the vital forces of the organism and predis- pose for the so-called putrid, and for nervous fevers. While in their normal state the vital forces are able to keep down the pso- ric miasm which always strives to get the upper hand. 161 the first to yield to the action of the antipsorics; the older symptoms which have permanently existed disappear the last. Of this number are the local affections. These local symptoms only disappear after the general health has been completely restored. The general symptoms which show themselves periodically, hysteria, the different forms of epilepsy, etc., may easily be suppressed by a suitable anti- psoric, but the complete and permanent removal of those symptoms presupposes the radical cure of the whole of the internal psoric miasm. The patient sometimes desires his physician to cure a certain troublesome symptom first of all; this cannot be done, though the ignorant patient may be excused for hav- ing made such a foolish request. If the patient lives at a distance from his physician, the patient ought to be directed to underline in his written report both those older symptoms which had been sup- pressed for a time, and which have now re-appeared; and all new symptoms which have come out this very day. The former symptoms are underlined once, the latter twice. The former symptoms show that the antipsoric remedy has attacked the disease in its foundation, and will be of great service in the radical cure of the disease; the latter symptoms, on the contrary, if inordinately developed, in- form the physician that the antipsoric remedy is not quite homoeopathic, and ought to be replaced by a better one. About the period when the cure is half completed, the psoric miasm begins to become again latent; the symptoms decrease more and more, until, at last, mere vestiges of the psoric miasm are perceptible to the acute observer. But these too must be eradicated, for the least remains of a germ may eventually reproduce the full disease.* If we were to rely upon the disease curing itself, as common people and even the better classes of the public do, we should be very much mistaken. For, little by little, a new chronic disease is developed out of the remaining portion * In the same way, a polypus in the water, though several of its branches may have been cut off, produces new branches in the course of time. K 162 of the psoric miasm, and gradually conquers the organism. The patient may legitimately expect that he should be treated by any physician, especially, however, the hom- oeopathic doctor, according to the principle of Celsus, "tuto, cito et jucunde," (safely, speedily and agreeably). This principle ought to hold good both in acute diseases originating in occasional causes, as well as in those peri- odical diseases Avhich we designate by the term intercur- rent (morbi intercurrentes). As regards the short duration of the treatment of invet- erate chronic diseases, this is made impossible by the nature of the malady.* A great chronic disease may be cured in the space of one or two years, provided it has not been mismanaged by allo- pattiic treatment to the extent of having become incurable. One or two years ought to be considered a short treat- ment. In young robust persons half this space of time is sufficient; in older people, on the contrary, this period has to be considerably prolonged, in spite of the greatest care on the part of the doctor, and the strictest obedience on the part of the patient. If the patient consider that the psoric miasm, which the doctor is called upon to cure, without, however, affecting the organism, has gradually ramified into its inmost recesses, then the patient wall easily understand why the strictest mode of life on his own part, and the greatest attention on the part of the doctor should be required for a long period of time, in order to master this parasitical enemy that had assailed the most delicate roots of the tree of life. If the antipsoric treatment be properly conducted, the strength of the patient ought to increase from the very beginning of the treatment. This increase of strength will continue during the whole treatment, until the organism is * No one but an ignorant quack can promise to cure an invet- erate chronic disease in four or six weeks. He does not consider himself bound to keep his word. He risks nothing by making the disease worse by his treatment. Can he lose any thing. Honor perhaps? Indeed not, for his colleagues act like him. But con- science? Alas, is not his conscience already lost? 163 completely freed from the enemy, and unfolds anew its regenerate life.* The best time for taking an antipsoric remedy is in the morning before breakfast; the evening is less appropriate. The powder may either be taken dry upon the tongue, (in this case the medicine acts less powerfully,) and is kept upon the the tongue until it is dissolved; or else it may be moistened in a teaspoon with two or three drops of water, and taken in this fashion. The patient should wait an hour, or at least half an hour, after having taken the medicine before eating or drinking anything."}" The other powders are to be marked with successive numbers. J After having taken the medicine, the patient ought to remain quiet for an hour, without sleeping, however, (sleep retards the first effect of the medicine). During this hour, as well as during the whole time of the treatment, the patient ought to avoid all contrary emotions, nor ought he to fatigue his mind either by reading, or cyphering, writ- ing, or by conversations that require much attention. The antipsoric medicine should neither be taken irnme- * It is inconceivable that allopathic doctors should have con- tinually assailed the organism in the treatment of chronic diseases, without having ever been deterred by their bad success. The intermediate use of amara joined to Cinchona, induces new affec- tions without doing any good. f To increase the effect of the remedy, it may be dissolved in a larger quantity of water; this quantity may still be augmented, if it is desired that the effect should be increased still more. The solution may be divided into several parts, one part being taken every two or three days. Every time when a part is taken, the solution is stirred up again; by this means the solution increases in potency, and becomes more closely related to the disease. It is not advisable to give of the same solution for several days to come, for the reason that the water begins to spoil, if kept too long. I have shown above, how a dose is prepared for smelling in the various degrees of potency. X This marking of the powders with successive numbers has the advantage of enabling the physician to measure the effect which the medicine has produced. To accomplish this, the patient must prefix to every report the number of the powder and the date when he took it. By this means the physician is enabled to com- pare the different reports. 164 diately before, nor during the period of the menses; it may, however, be taken on the fourth day, about ninety-six hours after their appearance. If the menses appear too soon, are too abundant, or last too long, the patient may, on the fourth day, smell of a globule of the highest potency of Nux vomica; four, five, or six days after this, the antipsoric may be taken. If the female be extremely irritable and nervous, she ought to smell of such a globule, even during the antipsoric treatment, seventy-two hours after every appearance of the menses.* Pregnancy in every stage, so far from being an obstacle to an antipsoric treatment, makes it, on the contrary, essen- tially necessary, and offers a brilliant sphere of action to antipsoric remedies.* During pregnancy the antipsoric treatment is more necessary than at any other period, because then the chronic ailments are more fully developed, the organism and the mind of the pregnant female being highly sus- ceptible of receiving impressions. During the period of pregnancy—which is altogether an essential and natural *In such irritable and nervous patients, whose menstrual func- tions are deranged, the antipsorics would not do the least good, without the intermediate use of Xux vomica. Nux is especially adapted to restore in such patients the harmony of the nervous functions, and to calm that excessive irritability which would be an insurmountable obstacle to the curative action of antipsoric remedies. * Is there a more adequate means to prevent the return of mis- carriage, which originates almost exclusively in a psoric habit, ex- cept by an antipsoric treatment either before or during pregnancy ? In what way can we more effectually prevent the fatal circum- stances which so often occur to the parturient woman, in spite of a proper presentation and natural labor, than by a timely anti- psoric treatment during pregnancy ? Is not the unnatural pre- sentation of the child frequently owing to the psoric habit of the mother? Hydrocephalus and other defects of the child always originate in psora. By subjecting the female to an antipsoric treatment either before or during pregnancy, her incapacity for suckling her baby will be removed; soreness of the nipples; sore- ness, abscesses, and erysipelatous inflammation of the mammae, and all uterine haemorrhages consequent upon weaning, are re- moved. 165 condition of the female—the action of antipsoric remedies during that period is more marked and precise.* This should be a warning to the physician to reduce his doses as much as possible, and to employ only the highest potencies. Sucklings never are given any medicine. The mother or nurse takes the remedy which is intended for the baby; the medicinal effect is conveyed by the milk in a sufficient degree. When in chronic diseases the vital force is left to itself, it is only capable of shielding itself by palliatives against the pernicious assaults of the psoric miasm, and the acute diseases which that miasm develops from time to time. Such palliatives are the frequent secretions and evacuations w\hich spontaneously occur in chronic diseases, diarrhoeas, vomitings, sweats, ulcers, hseniorrhages, etc. All such palliatives produce only an apparent alleviation of the primitive malady; and, in fact, increase it on account of the great loss of nutritious humors which the patient has suffered. The allopathic practice has been just as powerless in the treatment of chronic diseases as unaided nature. All that this practice has been able to- accomplish, has been, to imitate the palliating process of nature, with this differ- ence, that the artificial secretions consequent upon allo- pathic drugs, inflict much greater losses upon the organ- ism than natural evacuations do. So far from diminishing the primitive disease, the allopathic practice, on the con- trary, favors the universal ruin by its pretended dissol- vants, purgatives, bloodletting, cupping, leeching, which is now in immoderate use, diaphoretics, blisters, setons, fon- tanels, issues, etc. God be praised, the homoeopathic physician has dis- pensed with the necessity of employing those barbarous *The reverse is sometimes the case. The female, who is con- stantly weak and complaining when she is not pregnant, some- times enjoys excellent health during pregnancy. Also in this condition of things antipsoric remedies act very well They ought to be given against the symptoms which existed before pregnancy. 166 and homicidal contrivances. He ought even to be watch- ful that the patient, carried away by the allopathic routine, may not employ them in secret during the treatment. The physician must positively forbid the patient ever to let blood, as he may have been in the habit of doing once a year, or to resort to cupping, purges, warm baths, etc. Homoeopathic physicians, who are masters of their art —and there are now many—never draw a single drop of blood; he carefully avoids a process which weakens the patient and is a sort of direct protest against cure. Only those homoeopathic doctors who are but half initiated into homoeopathic practice, feel obliged to resort to that sort of pseudo-curing, the bleeding process. There is but one exception to this general condemnation of all artificial evacuations. At the beginning of the treat- ment, when the antipsoric remedy has not had time to act, it sometimes happens that the patient cannot pass his stools, and that this kind of constipation causes him some trouble. In this case, the physician may relieve him by prescribing an injection of pure, tepid water; if one will not answer, he may prescribe another in a quarter of an hour, and even a third; this last will certainly act. This kind of injection is devoid of all mercurial influence; it acts mechanically by distending the rectum, and may be repeated every three or four days, until the antipsoric remedies shall have succeeded in regulating the process of intestinal evacuation. Next to Sulphur, Lycopodium acts most favorably under such circumstances. Fontanelles should not be suddenly suppressed by the homoeopathic physician, if the patient has used them already for a long time, often for years. The antipsoric treatment ought to have progressed already considerably before that suppression is accomplished. But already in the beginning of the treatment they may be diminished, if this can be done without suppressing them entirely. Physicians often incommode the patient by directing him to wear woolen fabrics upon the bare skin as preven- tives against colds. These ought only to be discontinued when the patient's susceptibility for catching cold has been 167 considerably diminished by the antipsoric treatment, and when the mild weather has set in. They may first be replaced by cotton, which produces less friction upon the skin, and excites it less than wool. Little by little the patient may be accustomed to wear linen upon the bare skin. There are many self-evident reasons, one of which is the delicate nature of homoeopathic drugs, why the homoeo- pathic physician should not permit the use of scents in any shape or manner, medicinal tea, mint, pastry, aniseed, bitters, liquors, lichen, spices of any kind, spiced choco- late, electuaries, tooth-tinctures, tooth-powders, and the various other fashionable compounds. Warm or hot baths cannot be permitted; they always interfere with the treatment, and are, moreover, unneces- sary, if they are merely used for the sake of cleanliness. The body may be kept clean by washing it quickly with soap-water that has the temperature of the body. This kind of washing does not injure the effects of the anti- psoric treatment. In the first edition of this treatise I have recommended to use the smallest possible electrical sparks for the pur- pose of aiding the antipsoric treatment by animating those parts of the body which had been long affected with paral- ysis or insensibility. I am sorry that this advice should have been given. I know from experience that, so far from following it strictly, it has been constantly transgressed. Large sparks have always been used to the great detriment of the patient, although it has been constantly asserted that they wrere as small as could be obtained. My advice now, is to abandon the use of sparks altogether. We should avoid the least suspicion of using enantiopathic aid, and then, we have an efficient homoeopathic local remedy for partial paralysis or insensibility: cold water, from moun- tain sources or deep wells*—(10° of Reaumur.) The * WTater of this temperature, or still lower, possesses the pri- mary power of diminishing the sensibility and mobility of the living body; hence it may afford homoeopathic aid in the treat- ment of paralysis or insensibility. 168 water may be used conjointly with the antipsorics. The parts may either be sprinkled with cold water every min- ute, or every two or three minutes; or else the whole body may be sprinkled over with fine water, in the form of dust, for one, two, three, or five minutes. This sprinkling may be resorted to more or less frequently according to circum- stances, once or several times. THE REMEDIES That have been found most efficacious in the treatment of chronic diseases, shall be described in the subsequent vol- umes according to the symptoms which they are capable of producing upon the healthy organism. I shall point out those which may be given against diseases of psoric origin, the syphilitic diseases, and the diseases from sycosis. The remedies against syphilis and sycosis are much less numerous than those against psora. This is no reason with the intelligent observer why psora should not be a chronic miasm and the head-fountain of most clrronic diseases. It is not astonishing that the psoric miasm, having spread for thousands of years through millions of organisms all of which differ in constitution and are exposed to a variety of influences, should have produced that host of chronic diseases which become manifest by the suppression of the psoric eruption upon the skin, whether that suppression be the result of violent external contrivances or of some acci- dental concussion of the system. Owing to these causes the psoric miasm has succeeded in ingrafting its parasitical existence upon the organism, and has produced varieties which always betray their common origin, but all of which are distinguished by some peculiar properties. These varieties depend either upon the physi- cal differences of clima and abode, or upon the different modes of life of the psoric patients.* In the impure air *In Norway and in the northwest of Scotland we have the Sib- bens or Rade-Syge; in Lombardy, Pellagra; in Poland and Carin- thia, koltum or trichiasis; the leprous tumors of Surinam; the raspberry-like excrescences of Guinea, known there by the name of yaws, and in America by that of pian; in Huugary the exhaust- ing fever called tsomor; in Virginia, the asthenia virginensium; goitre, in the valleys of the Alps, etc. 170 of cities children become affected with rickets, spina ven- tosa, ramollissement of the bones, curvatures, cancer of the bones, tinea capitis, scrofula, ring-worm; in full-grown persons there are nervous affections, nervous irritability, gout of the joints, etc. The various chronic affections orig- inating in the psoric miasm, and assuming so many differ- ent forms on account of the constitutional differences of patients and the different physical influences to which they are exposed, require, for their radical cure, the use of a large number af antipsorics. I have often been asked the question by what signs an antipsoric remedy may be recognized beforehand? There are no such external visible signs. The remedial virtue of certain remedies in psoric affections has been revealed to me by trying those remedies upon the healthy organism. Some of them were known to possess curative powers which seemed to me to hint at the antipsoric character of the remedies. In Poland, for instance, the herb Lycopodium is reputed to prove curative in trichiasis; hence I inferred the antipsoric virtues of the pollen in similar diseases. I suspected the antipsoric nature of the common table salt from the fact that haemorrhages had been arrested by that substance when given in large quantities. In former times already it was known that venereal diseases complicated with the psoric miasm, could not be cured by Mercury unless this miasm had been removed by means of Gua'ia- cum, Sarsaparilla or Mezereum. As a general rule I have found that most of the earths, alkalies, and acids, and their salts, together with several metals, are indispensable to the cure of the innumerable symptoms of the psoric miasm. The similarity of action existing between Sulphur, Phosphorus and other combusti- ble substances from the vegetable and mineral kingdom, led me to rank all these substances in the same family with the chief antipsoric remedy, which is Sulphur. Analogy of action has also induced me to add some animal substancas. Generally, however, only such remedies have been arrayed under the head of antipsorics, as have developed in the healthy organism symptoms analogous to those 171 which were known so emanate from repelled itch. In pro- portion as our knowledge of the pure effects of med- icinal substances increases, we may find it necessary to add a few more remedies to the antipsorics which are now known. Nevertheless, with the antipsorics which are now known, we are able to cure all secondary psoric diseases provided the patients have not been overwhelmed by large portions of allopathic drugs, or too great a depression of the vital forces or other unfavorable causes do not make the cure impossible. There are certain conditions occur- ring in psoric diseases, where the other homoeopathic rem- edies, even Mercury not excepted, become indispensable. The peculiar mode adopted for the preparation of hom- oeopathic remedies, enables us to develop the medicinal virtues of a drug into a series of degrees of potency, and by this means, to adapt the remedial influence of the drug with great precision to the nature of the disease. Some of those drugs do not seem to have many medicinal properties in their unprepared form, (such as common salt, lycopo- dium;) others, (such as gold, silica, argilla,) do not seem to possess any. But their medicinal properties exist in a latent state, and may all be developed to a high degree by the peculiar mode of preparation prescribed by Homoe- opathy. Other substances on the contrary, act so power- fully in their natural form that the smallest portion of them, upon coming in contact with the animal fibre, exer- cises a corroding and destructive action upon it; such sub- stances are Arsenic, Corrosive sublimate, etc. By the hom- oeopathic mode of preparing those substances, their other- wise powerful action is suitably modified by being devel- oped into a series of degrees of potency, many of which were never known before. The alteration which is effected in the properties of nat- ural substances, especially medicinal substances, either by triturating or shaking them in conjunction with a non- medicinal powder or liquid, is almost marvelous. This dis- covery is due to Homoeopathy. Beside this alteration of their medicinal properties, the homoeopathic mode of preparing medicines produces an 172 alteration in their chemical properties. Whereas in their crude form they are insoluble either in water or alcohol, they become entirely soluble, both in water and alcohol, by means of this homoeopathic transformation. This discov- ery is invaluable to the healing art. The brown-black juice of the sea-insect Sepia, which was formerly used only for painting and drawing, is soluble in water only, while in its unprepared form. When homoe- opathic dly prepared by trituration, it becomes also solu- ble in alcohol. Nothing can be extracted from Petroleum by means of alcohol, except when that drug is adulterated with vege- table ethereal oil; in its unadulterated form Petroleum is neither soluble in water nor in alcohol, (nor ether.) By means of trituration it becomes soluble in both those substances. Lycopodii pollen floats in alcohol aud on the surface of water, without either of: these substances having the least effect upon the drug; Lycopodium in its crude state, on be- ing introduced into the stomach is both tasteless and inac- tive. Trituration makes it soluble in both alcohol and water, and develops such a powerful medicinal action in the drug that its use requires great care. Who ever found marble or the shell of an oyster soluble in water or alcohol? This mild Calcarea, as well a3 Baryta carbonica, and Magnesia, become perfectly soluble by means of the homoeopathic process of trituration, which, moreover, develops their medicinal powers to an astonish- degree. No one will feel disposed to suspect that quartz, rock- crystal,— some of those crystals containing drops of water which had been enclosed there unaltered for thousands of years,— or white sand, are soluble in water or alcohol, or are endowed with medicinal properties. However, Silica may be made soluble both in water and alcohol by tritu- rating it after it had first been melted by means of an alkali, and then precipitated again from that compound.* *Quartz, or Silica, unless they have first undergone this prepa- ration will not show any medicinal properties. This is the reason 173 By this process, the medicinal properties of Silica are developed to an almost infinite extent. All metals and sulphurets become soluble in alcohol and water, after having undergone the homoeopathic mode of preparation, by means of which their medicinal virtues are also fully, yea, infinitely developed. The medicinal chemical substances which have been thus prepared, are no longer subject to chemical laws. A dose of Phosphorus of the highest potency may remain for years enclosed in its paper in a desk, without losing its medicinal properties, or even changing them to those of Phosphoric acid. A remedy which has been elevated to the highest potency, and, by this means, has become almost spiritual- ized, is no longer subject to the laws of neutralization. Highly dynamized Natrum, Ammonium, Baryta, Calcarea, Magnesia, when taken into the system, cannot, like their bases, be changed to neutral salts by Acetic acid; their medicinal properties are neither changed nor destroyed. The homoeopathic preparation of Nitric acid, provided it is taken in a sufficient quantity, is not affected by a little crude Calcarea, or Natrum; its strong specific action re- mains the same. All those homoeopathic drugs which constitute the pure materia medica,* are prepared in the manner pointed out why medicinal substances may be triturated in the porcelain mor- tar together with the non-medicinal sugar of milk, without any Silica becoming mixed with it. Some hyper critical Homceopath- ists have apprehended such a result. * Vegetable substances which can only be had dry are triturated in the same way. The millionth trituration may then be dis- solved, like all the other substances, either in water or alcohol. In this state they may be preserved much better and longer than the common tinctures which easily spoil. Of the juiceless vegetable substances, Oleander, Thuya, Mezereum, you may take one grain and a half of the fresh leaves, bark, roots, etc., and convert them to the millionth trituration with three times one hundred grains of sugar of milk. Of this trituration you take one grain and carry it through the vials, obtaining in this way, any degree of potency that may be desired. Shake each vial twice, first carrying the arm up, then down. The same process of trituration may be resorted 174 below; the following antipsorics come under this remark:* Silica, Baryta carbonica, Calcarea carbonica, Natrum car- bonicum, Ammonium carbonicum, Magnesia carbonica, Carbo vegetabilis, Carbo animalis, Graphites, Sulphur, An- timonium crudum, Antimonium, Gold, Platina, Iron, Zinc, Copper, Silver, Tin,—lumps of those metals, not the foil, are triturated upon a hard, fine, grinding-stone under water, or sometimes under alcohol, like the iron. Of these pul- verized substances, you take one grain; Mercury may be used in the liquid state; of Petroleum, you take one drop instead of one grain. Pour this grain into a non-glazed porcelain mortar, having before covered the bottom of it with sand slightly moistened and triturated. Then you take thirty-three grains of sugar of milk, and mix them with the drug by triturating the mass with some force for about six minutes by means of a porcelain pestle; before you triturate, stir the mass for a little while with a spatula. Having triturated the mass, you stir it again for about four minutes, scraping up that part which covers the bottom of the porcelain mortar, and also that which is adherent to the pestle f; then you triturate again with great force for to in regard to the recently obtained medicinal juices. Squeeze the juice out of the substance, triturate one drop of it with the necessary quantity of sugar of milk to obtain the millionth tritu- ration. Of this you take one grain, dissolve it in a mixture of half water and half alcohol, and then carry a drop of this mixture through the series of the twenty-seven vials, obtaining in this way the degree of potency that is desired. By triturating the juice first, the medicinal virtues of the drug are better developed than by simply mixing the juice with the alcohol by means of two shakes. I know this from experience. ♦Phosphorus, which is so easily oxydized in the open air, is dynamized in the same manner, and may be dissolved in both liquids. There are some precautionary rules to be observed, which will be pointed out below. t When the process of trituration is completed, mortar, pestle, and spatula, are to be repeatedly immersed in boiling water, being carefully wiped and dried after each immersion. The mortar, pes- tle, and spatula, may then be exposed to a heat which would make them red-hot. This will suffice to satisfy even the most anxious minds that no atom of the medicinal substance has remained ad- hering to either mortar, pestle, or spatula. 175 six minutes, without however adding anything new. This mass you scrape up again, for four minutes, add another thirty-three grains of sugar of milk, stir the new compound for a moment with the spatula, then triturate it for six minutes with the pestle, scrape it up for four minutes, triturate again with great force for six minutes, scrape the mass up again for four minutes, then add the last thirty- three grains of sugar of milk, and with this last added por- tion proceed as with the two former. This powder you enclose in a well-corked glass, and mark it with the name of the substance, and the figure Tm; to show that this is the one hundredth potency of the substance.* In order to prepare the degree 10000, you take one grain of the degree "Too and add to it thirty-three grains of sugar of milk. Stir up this mass for a moment with the spatula. Then triturate it for six minutes, stir it up for four min- utes, triturate again for six minutes, and then stir up again for four. After this you add the second thirty-three grains of sugar of milk, proceed then as before; afterwards add the last thirty-three grains of sugar of milk, stir up and *The preparation of the one hundredth potency of Phosphorus by pulverization requires some modifications. Eirst you take one hundred grains of sugar of milk, and, by means of fifteen drops of water you make them into a sort of dough or pap in the mortar. Then you cut one grain of Phosphorus into twelve pieces, knead- ing them into a dough by means of the moistened pestle, together with the one hundred grains of sugar of milk, the portions of the mass which remain adhering to the pestle being scraped off again while the process of kneading is carried on. In this way the Phos- phorus molecules may be triturated during the first two periods of six minutes ench, into invisible atoms without a spark being elicited. During the third period of six minutes, the mass being sufficiently pulverized, the kneading may be replaced by tritura- tion. During the next eighteen minutes the process of trituration is carried on with moderate force, the mass being scraped up every six minutes; this scraping can be easily accomplished on account of the mass being but slightly adherent either to the mortar or the pestle. After the sixth trituration the powder shines but feebly in the open air, and has but little smell. It is then enclosed in well corked vials and marked Phosphorus 100. The next two de- grees of potency 10000 and T are prepared in the same way as those of the other dry medicinal substances. 176 triturate again as before, and enclose the mass in a well corked vial marked 10000. To prepare the degree 1000000 or T. you take one grain of the degree 10000, and go through the processes of stirring and triturating in the same way as before, employing upwards of an hour for the preparation of each different potency. For the sake of establishing a sort of uniformity in pre- paring homoeopathic remedies, and especially the anti- psorics, I never carry the process of trituration above the millionth degree. From this degree I derive the solutions in their various degrees of potency. For the process of trituration a certain force should be employed; not too much, however, to cause the mass to adhere too tenaciously to the mortar to be scraped up in the space of four minutes. From the millionth degree of trituration the solutions* in the various degrees may be obtained by dissolving these triturated substances in alcohol or water. Chemistry is not acquainted with the fact that all substances after having been triturated up to the millionth degree, can be dissolved either in alcohol or water. Sugar of milk cannot be dissolved in pure alcohol; this is the reason why the first solution should be composed of one half water and one half alcohol. To one grain of the million trituration you add fifty drops of distilled water, and turn the vial several times around its axis. By this means the sugar of milk becomes dissolved. Then you add fifty drops of good alcohol,f and * In the beginning of my practice I gave a small portion of a grain of the millionth trituration at a dose. But the uncertainty of this mode of exhibiting the remedy, led me to the discovery of preparing the solution, and to the use of the globules, any definite number of which may be moistened with the dissolved drug. Homoeopathy being based upon a law of nature, it should avoid and exclude all uncertainties. t These quantities are measured by means of vials which con- tain exactly fifty drops. It would be too tedious to count fifty drops of water, especially when the water does not flow easily out of the vial. 177 shake the vial twice, first carrying the arm up and then down. Only two thirds of the vial ought to be filled with the solution.* This vial is then marked with the name of the medicine, and the number ico i. Of this solution you take one drop, and mix it with 99 or 100 drops of pure alcohol, shaking the vial twice after it has been corked. This vial is marked ioooo i. Of this solution you again take one drop, mixing it with 99 or 100 drops of pure alcohol. Then shake the vial twice, and mark it ioooo i. Of this potency you again take a drop, and mix it with 99 or 100 drops of pure alcohol, shaking this third vial twice, and marking it IT. In the same way you continue the preparation and marking of the higher potencies 100 n, ioooo ii, TiTf The intermediate vials are put in perpendicular boxes, and are kept in the dark in order not to be affected by the light of day. In practice only the full vials are used. The shaking being accomplished by means of moderate strokes with the arm, it is expedient that the vials should be large enough to have only two-thirds of their volume filled with the hundred drops. Vials that have contained one medicine ought never to be used for any other, even if they should have been previously rinsed ever so much. The globules of sugar of milk should be prepared of the same magnitude all over the world. I use them of the size of a grain of flaxseed. By establishing uniformity both in * It is well to provide the vial with a mark stating the number of shakes and the date when the solution was prepared. t Frequent observation has convinced me that it is better to shake the vials twice only in order to develop the medicinal virtue of the drug just enough to affect the disease in a proper manner. By shaking the vial ten times, as I was in the habit of doing, the proportion between the progressively developed intensity of action of the medicinal properties of the drug and the degree of the potency was destroyed in favor of the former. The object of the dynamising process is to develop the intensity of action of the medicinal properties of the drug, at the same time as that action is reduced to a milder tone. Two shakes are sufficient to establish the true proportion between these two effects. L 178 the preparation aud exhibition of medicines, the homoe- opathic physicians will be enabled to compare with great certainty the results which they may obtain in their prac- tice. The globules are moistened with the liquid in this way. A vessel of the size of a thimble, made either of earthen- ware, china, or glass, is filled with globules weighing in all a few grains; upon these you drop several drops of the medicine, taking a few drops more rather than less, in order to make sure that the liquid has reached the bottom of the vessel, and all the globules have been moistened. This process may last about a minute. The vessel is then turned over upon a double sheet of blotting paper; if any of the liquid should remain in the vessel, it is poured upon the globules, that will be found adhering to each other like a cone. After a while the globules are spread upon the paper, and dried. When dry, the globules are filled in a glass vial, which should then be well corked and marked. The globules having been moistened with the liquid, they obtain a faint appearance. The non-moistened globules look whiter aud more shining. In order to take the globules you first prepare a capsule of white paper, filled with two or three grains of sugar of milk. The globules having been deposited in this sugar, the upper surface of the capsule is pressed upon with a spatula or the nail of the thumb, until the globules are crushed; the powder may then be easily dissolved in water. When I speak of globules, I mean those mentioned above, two hundred of which, or thereabout, weigh a grain. In the subsequent list of antipsoric remedies no iso- pathic remedies are mentioned, for the reason that their effects upon the healthy organism have not been sufficiently ascertained. Even the itch miasm, (psorin) in its various degrees of potency, comes under this objection. I call psorin a homoeopathic antipsoric, because if the prepara- tions of psorin did not alter its nature to that of a homoe- opathic remedy, it never could have any effect upon an organism tainted with that same identical virus. The 179 psoric virus, by undergoing the processes of trituration and shaking, becomes just as much altered in its nature as gold does, the homoeopathic preparations of which are not inert substances in the animal economy, but powerfully acting agents. Psorin is a simiUimum of the itch virus. There is no intermediate degree between idem and simiUimum; in other words, the thinking man sees that simiUimum is the medium between simile and idem. The only definite mean- ing which the terms " isopathic and sequale " can convey, is that of simiUimum; they are not idem (raordv). THE GENIUS OF THE HOMEOPATHIC HEALING AKT, BY SAMUEL HAHNEMANN. Preface to the Second Volume of Hahnemann's Materia Medica Pura. 1833. Translated by Ad. Lippe, M. D. It is imposible to guess at the internal nature of diseases, and at what is secretly changed by nature in the organism, and it is folly to attempt to base the cure of them on such guess-work and such propositions; it is impossible to di- vine the healing-power of medicines according to a chemi- cal hypothesis or from their colors, smell, or taste; and it is folly to use these substances (so pernicious when abused) for the cure of diseases based on such hypotheses and such propositions. And had such a course been ever so much in vogue and been generally introduced; had it been for thousands of years the only, and ever so much admired, course, it would nevertheless remain an irrational and per- nicious method thus to be guided by empty guess-work; to fable about the diseased conditions of the internal organ- ism, and to combat them with fictitious virtues of medi- scines. In order that we may change disease into health * This paper appeared in a journal tioenty years ago, during those anxious days (March, 1813) which deprived the Germans of the leisure to read much, much less to contemplate scientific sub- jects. And so it happens that these words were not listened to. It is more likely that this paper may be read now, especially as its form is less incomplete.—IS. H. 11 it must be laid open to our senses what is discernably— clearly discernably—removable from every disease, and clearly must each medicine express what it can cure with certainty, before it may be applied to the cure of diseases; then the medical art will cease to be a lottery in human life and will then become a certain means of rescuing men from disease. I will now show what we discern as indubitably curable in diseases; how the curative virtues of medicines can be- come clearly perceivable, and how then they can be applied for the cure of the sick. What life is can only be empirically discerned by its manifestations and appearances; but it can never be ex- plained, a priori, through metaphysical speculations; what life is, in itself and in its internal essence, can never be comprehended by mortals, and cannot be explained by conjectures. The life of man, as well as his twofold condition (health and sickness), can never be demonstrated in a manner usual in demonstrating other objects according to definite principles; it cannot be compared with anything else in this world but with itself; it cannot be compared with a wheelwork, with a dydraulic machine, with chemical pro- cesses, with decomposition or formation of gases, with a galvanic battery, nor with anything inorganic. Life is in no respect controlled by any physical laws, which -govern only inorganic substances. The material substances com- posing the human organism are not governed in their liv- ing composition by the same laws to which inorganic substances are subjected, but they follow solely laws peculiar to their vitality; they themselves are animated and vivified, just as the whole organism is animated and vivified. Here reigns a nameless all-powerful fundamental force which suspends all forces of the constituents of the body inclined to follow the laws of pressure, collision, de- pression, fermentation, and decomposition; and only this force guides and governs by the wonderful laws of life* that is to say, it maintains the necessary conditions for the ill preservation of the living whole in sensation and action, and that in an almost spiritual dynamic condition. As the organism in its normal condition depends only on the state of its vitality, it follows that the changed con- dition which we call sickness must likewise depend not on the operation of physical or chemical principles, but on originally changed vital sensations and actions; that is to say, a dynamically changed state of man—a changed ex- istence—through which eventually the material constituent parts of the body become altered ill their character as is rendered necessary in each individual case through the changed conditions of the living organism. Further, the noxious influences which, as a general rule, create in us from without the various sicknesses, are gen- erally so invisible and immaterial* that it is impossible for them to change or disturb the form and structure of the components of our body mechanically, nor can they bring into the circulation pernicious or acrid fluids whereby all our blood would be chemically changed or vitiated; an in- admissable crude speculation of material brains which can in no way be proved. The causes producing disease affect, by virtue of their qualifications, the conditions of our life (our state of health) simply in a dynamic (similar to a spiritual) manner; and while at first the higher organs and vital forces become disturbed, there arises through this dynamic alteration of the whole living condition (dis- comfort, pain) a changed activity (abnormal function) of single or all organs; this necessarily causes secondarily a change of all the fluids in the circulation, and also the secretion of abnormal matter; and this is an inevitable result of that changed condition which is at variance with a state of health. These abnormal substances appearing in diseases are therefore only products of the disease itself, and as long as the sickness retains its established (present) character, they will necessarily continue to be secreted, and thereby * Rare exceptions are some surgical conditions, and complaints arising from indigestible or foreign substances occasionally com- ing into the alimentary cunal. , IV form a part of the signs of the sickness (symptoms); they are only effects, and, therefore, demonstrations of the , present internal sickness, and re-act* on the whole diseased body (while they frequently contain the germs of disease affecting other healthy persons) which produced them,not at all as disease-sustaining or creating matter, not as the material cause of disease. It is just as impossible for a person to infect his body or augment his disease with the poison of his own chancre, or with the gonorrhceic secretion from his own urethra, as it is for a viper to inflict upon itself with its own poison a dangerous or deadly sting. Therefore it is obvions that the diseases of mankind caused through the influence of a dynamic (morbid) nox- iousness can originally be but dynamic changes (caused almost only in a spiritual manner) of the life-character of our organism. We perceive easily that these dynamic disorders of the life-character of our organism, which we call disease, inas- much as they are nothing else but changes in sensations and actions, express themselves only through an aggregate of symptoms, and are recognized only as such by our powers of perception. As the work of healing is such an important one to human life, and as our steps must be guided only by our perception of the condition of the sick body (to be guided by conjectures and improbable hypoth- esis would be a dangerous folly, yes, even a crime against mankind), it is obvious that diseases, as dynamic disorders of our organism, express themselves only through changes in sensations and actions of the organism, that is, only through an aggregate of perceptible symptoms; therefore they alone must be the object to be healed in every case of illness. If all the symptoms of the disease are removed, nothing but health remains. For the reason that diseases * Expulsion and mechanical removal of these abnormal sub- stances, impurities and excrescences, cannot cure the origin of the disease itself, as little as a coryza can be shortened or cured by possibly frequent and perfect blowing of the nose. The coryza does not continue any longer than its stipulated time, if the nose were not cleaned at all by blowing it. V are nothing but dynamic disorders of the condition and character of our organism, they cannot possibly be cured by mankind in any other way than through potencies and forces which are equally able to produce dynamic changes in the condition of man; that is, diseases are cured virtually and dynamically by medicines.* These efficacious substances and powers ( medicines,) which are at our command, effect the cure of diseases through the same dynamic changes of the present con- dition; through the same changes in the character cf the organism in the sensations and actions as they would in the healthy man; changing him dynamically, and produc- ing in him certain sickness and characteristic symptoms, the knowledge of which, as we shall show, gives us the reliable indication of the diseased condition which can be most surely cured by each particular medicine. There- fore nothing in the world can produce any cure, no sub- stance, no force can effect any such change in the human organism as to make the disease yield; nothing except a powTer capable of changing dynamically the condition of * >.'ot by means of ostensibly dissolving or mechanically resolv- ing, evacuating properties of medicinal ^ubstancet-, nor by means of expelling (blood-purifying and secretion-improving) imaginary productions of disease, nor by means of antiseptics (only acting on and useful to purify dead matter), nor through chemical and physical forces of any kind imaginable, in such manner as they affect inorganic material substances; nor in the manner in which the medical schools have always erroneously imagined and dreamt. The more modern schools have begun to consider diseases in some measure dynamic changes, and to a certain degree they have tried to combat them through dynamic means; but they do not perceive the sensitive, irritable, reproductive forces (dimensions) of life, so endless and perpetually changeable in modo et gualitate, and do not look on the innumerable and changing symptoms of diseases (those endless and only, by us, by reflex discernible in- ternal changes) as the only reliable object to be healed, which they really are; and as they only accept hypothetically an abnormal increase or decrease of their dimensions quoad quantitatem, and as they ascribe arbitrarily to the medicines used by them for the cure this one-sided power to increase or decrease, and bring these dimensions to a normal condition, and thereby profess to cure, VI man, and therefore a power capable also of changing the healthy condition into a sick one.* On the other hand, there is no agent, no power in nature, capable of affecting healthy persons, which does not at the same time possess the capacity of curing certain dis- eased conditions as well as the powder of affecting healthy persons, is found inseparable in all medicines, and as both active powers derive their origin from the same source, that is. from their capacity to change dynamically the condition of man, and as they, therefore, cannot possibly follow different inherent laws of nature in sick persons than in healthy ones, it follows that it must be identically the same power of the medicine which cures the disease in sick persons and possesses sick-making properties in healthy ones.f We will, therefore, also find that the healing power of medicines, and what each of them is capable of curing in diseases, can not be expressed in any other possible way, and can never come to our knowledge in greater purity and completeness than through the diseased phenomena and symptoms (a kind of artificial disease) which medi- cines produce on well persons. If we have before us a record of the characteristic (artificial) symptoms which the various medicines have produced on well persons, it becomes only necessary to let the pure experiment decide what particular symptoms of diseases are invariably quickly and permanently removed by the medicinal symp- toms, so that we may know always in advance which of the proved medicines, and which of their known characteristic symptoms, wall be the surest curative remedy in each case of disease. J they have nothing but illusions before them—illusions of the object to be healed (the indication), an illusion as to the action of drugs (indicate). * Therefore none, as, for instance, merely nutritive substance. t The different result in both of these cases depends solely on the difference of the object to be changed. J As simple, as true, and as natural as this proposition is,—and therefore it would seem as if it should have been made the funda- mental means of ascertaining the curative powers of medicines,— it is evident that, in fact, up to this time this proposition has not Vll Finally, we appeal to experiment (experience), in order to determine what artificially sick-making powers (observed of medicines) should be applied successfully against cer- tain natural diseases. We ask:— 1. Whether they be such medicines as are capable of producing on the healthy organism different (allopathic) changes from those observed in the disease to be healed. 2. Or such medicines as are capable of producing on the healthy organism opposite (enantiopatic, antiphathic) changes to those observed in the disease to be healed. 3. Or, whether we can expect restoration to health (cure) with the greatest certainty, and in the most permanent manner, by such medicines as are capable of producing on the healthy similar (homcepathic) changes to those ob- served in the natural disease (there are only these three modes of administering medicines possible); experience most emphatically and indubitably decides for the last. It is even self-evident that medicines acting heterogen- been approached even distantly. During these thousands of years, and as far as the history of medicine is known, not one person conceived, a priori, the source of ascertaining in so natural a manner the healing properties of medicines before they were applied for the cure of the sick. For hundreds of years, up to the present time, it was surmised that the curative powers of medi- cines could only be ascertained by the effects they produced on diseases (ab usu in morbis.) It was attempted to ascertain them in cases in which a certain medicine (and then most frequently a compound of different medicinal substances) has been beneficial in a named given case of disease. It is impossible to learn from the curative effect of a single medicinal substance, even (which not often happened) in an accurately described case of disease, in what case of disease this remedy might again become curative; because (with the exception of diseases caused by fixed miasms, small-pox, measles, lues, the itch, etc., or those consequent on the same disturbing element, as the gout) all other cases of diseases are single cases, that is, they appear under varying and different symptom-combinations, have never appeared in just the same manner; it is on that account that we can not draw the conclu- sion that the same remedy will also cure another (different) case. The forciliie combination of such cases of disease (which nature produces in her wisdom in such an endless variety) under certain named forms, as is done arbitrarily by Pathology, is leading to con- Vlll eously and allopathically, capable of producing different symptoms on the healthy organism to those then observed in the disease to be cured, are in the very nature of things incapable of being suitable to the cure, and cannot cure. Their effects consequently must be injurious; otherwise every disease would be cured by means of any imaginable, ever so differently acting, medicine, quickly, safely, and permanently. Whereas each medicine possesses effects differing from all other medicines; and so each disease causes on the human organism, under the eternal laws of nature, different and varying ailments and sufferings; this in itself would demonstrate a contradiction (contradic- tionem in adjecto), and would by itself demonstrate the impossibility of a beneficial result. Furthermore, each demonstrated change can only be produced by a cause especially belonging to it, but not per quam libet causam. And experience proves it daily that the common practice of prescribing for the cure of the sick a compound of med- icines, the powers (effects) of each of these unknown, tin nous illusions, and a temptation to a mistaking of various conditions one with another—human guess-work without any reality. Equally seductive and inadmissible, although from times immemorial introduced, is the establishment of general (curative) effects, based on occasional results in diseases, which the Materia Medica does when, for instance, in some cases of diseases occa- sionally during the use of (generally compounded) medicines, increased urinary secretions, perspiration, appearance of the men- struation, cessation of convulsions, a kind of sleep, or oxpector- ation appeared; the medicine (which among the rest was honored with being charged with this effect) was credited with possessing the virtue of being diuretic or sudorific, or capable of restoring menstruation, or anti spasmodic, or soporific, or expectorant, thereby committing a fallacium causae by confounding the terms with and of. But there was likewise drawn a wrong conclusion, a particulari ad universale, in contravention of all the laws of reason, even changing the conditional into the unconditional. Because that which is not capable of causing, in every case of disease, an increase of urinary secretions, or perspiration, or men- strua! ion, or sleep; which can not allay, in all cases, convulsions, or loosen the cough, cannot, without violating comm§n sense, be pronounced unconditionally and absolutely diuretic or sudorific, or emmenagogue, or soporific, or anti-spasmodic, or expectorant. IX causes a variety of effects, but the least of all—a cure. The second method of curing (treating) diseases with medicines, is the application of means (a medicine acting as a palliative) changing and altering the observed disor- der (disease, or the most prominent symptom of it) enan- tiopathically, antipathically or contrarily. Such an ap- plication cannot* as is easily perceived, work a durable cure of the disease, because the disorder is sure to return again, and that in an aggravated form. This is the way it occurs:—It is a marvelous process of nature which orders that organic living bodies are not governed by the same laws by which inorganic substances of (inanimate) physical nature are governed. They do not accept the impressions passively, like the latter; do not follow, like them, external impressions, but they resist and endeavour to oppose these impressions by contraries.* The living human body can be influenced at first by physical forces; but this impression is not as permanent and lasting as that which is produced on inorganic bodies —(and so it would necessarily be if the medicinal powers, acting by contraries on the disease, could produce a lasting Furthermore, it is impossible that a medicine in these compound phenomena of our conditions, in such multiplied combinations of a variety of symptoms as are the nameless varieties of the dis- eases of men, can possibly reveal its original medicinal effects, and that wmich we expect to know with certainty of its sick-mak- ing, sensation changing properties. * The green juice of the plant obtained by expressing, no longer an animated organic substance, if spread on linen, soon fades under the rays of the sun, and is destroyed; while the plant bleaching in a cellar for want of daylight soon regains its green colour when exposed to the same rays of the sun. A root which has been dug up, and has been dried, will soon become entirely decomposed and destroyed if laid in warm and moist earth; while a fresh root laid in the same earth will soon bring forth hopeful sprouts. The foaming fresh beer, while in full fermentation, will soon be changed, when bottled, into vinegar, if exposed to a heat of 96 degrees (Fahrenheit). But in the healthy human stomach the same degree of heat will check the fermentation and soon change it into a mild nutriment. Half putrid, already badly- smelling game, and other meats when eaten by healthy persons produce the least smelling evacuations (excrement); while the X and permanent relief). More than that, the human or- ganism strives to produce the reverse condition through antagonism against the effects of the forces brought to bear upon it from without.* For instance, a hand which has been held long enough in ice-water does not remain cold; nor does the hand only show the warmth of the surrounding atmosphere when taken out of the ice-water, which would be the effect on a stone (an inorganic body); neither does it return to the warmth of the body,—by no means,—for the colder the water was, and the longer the hand has been kept in it, and thereby affected the healthy skin, the hotter and the more inflamed will it become afterwards. It cannot be otherwise than thus, that a symptom which yields to a remedy which acts contrarily on the disease does so but for a short time;*j" and it is bound to yield again, very soon, to the predominating antagonism of the living organism, which causes a contrary; that is, a con- trary condition to the one which the palliative has created bark of Cinchona Officinalis, which possesses the property of check- ing putrefaction in inanimate animal substances, is affected by the healthy intestines in a contrary manner, so as to cause very offensive ilatus. Carbonate of lime destroys all acids in inorganic substances; but when taken into the healthy stomach, is apt to cause sour-smelling perspiration. While the dead animal fibre is preserved from putrefaction with certainty by Tannin, healthy ulcers of the living man, if frequently treated with Tannin, be- come impure, green, and putrid. A hand bathed in warm water becomes afterwards colder than the hand which was not bathed; and proportionately colder the warmer the water used for bathing was. * This is a law of nature according to which the administration of each medicine causes, at first, certain dynamic changes and abnormal symptoms in the living human body {primary effects of medicines), but afterwards, by means of a peculiar antagonism (which in many cases might be termed an effort of self-preserva- tion), it causes a condition entirely the opposite of the first effect {secondary symptoms); for instance, narcotic substances produce primarily insensibility, and secondarily painf ulness. t Just as a scalded hand remains cold and painless not much longer than while it is held in cold water; it afterwards burns and pains much more. XI deceptively for a short time only (a condition correspond- ing with the original evil)—in fact, a true addition to the returning unextinguished original disease, the original disease in aggravated form. The disorder is always and surely aggravated, and as soon as the palliative (the con- trary and enantiopathic acting remedy) has exhausted its effects.* In chronic diseases, the true test-stone of the genuine healing-art, we perceive the pernicious effects of contrary- acting (palliative) medicines in a high degree; inasmuch as a repetition necessary to cause an illusive effect (a sudden passing appearance of relief), implies a larger and increasingly larger dose, frequently endan- gering the life of the sick, and not unfrequently causing death. There remains, therefore, but a third method of admin- istering medicines as a sure mode of'relief and cure, and this is the application of a remedy which is capable of causing on the healthy organism an affection (an artificial diseased condition) which is similar, very similar, to the present case of sickness. It is easy to prove, as .has been seen in innumerable cases, and also by those who followed my teachings, by * Thus the pain in a scalded hand subsides suddenly, but only for a few minutes, by applying cold water; but afterwards the inflammation and pain become much worse than bofore (the inflammation, as a secondary effect of the cold water, is an addi- tion to the original inflammation caused by the scalding, which the cold water is unable to remove). The painful iuiness in the abdomen caused by constipation seems to disappear, as if by magic, after the administration of a purgative; but as early as the next day this painful fulness and tension of the abdomen returns with the constipation, and increases the following days, becoming worse than it was before. The stupor-like sleep after opium causes a much greater sleeplessness the following night. It becomes evideut that this secondary condition constitutes a true aggravation, and is shown by the fact that if the palliative is to be repeated (for instance, opium for habitual sleeplessness or chronic diarrhoea), it must be administered in increased doses, as against an aggravated disease, if even then it can be for ced to produce, but for a short time, its seeming palliation. xii daily experience* as well as by reasoning, that this method of administering medicine constitutes the most complete, the best, and only mode of cure. It will, therefore, not be a difficult task to comprehend by what natural laws the only suitable homoeopathic heal- ing-art is and must be governed. The first unmistakable natural law is, that the living organism is comparatively much more easily affected by medicine than by natural diseases. Many sick-making causes affect us every day, every hour o£ the day, but they are not able to disturb the equilibrium of our condition, the healthy are not made sick; the activity of our life- preserving principle within us generally resists the most of them, and the individual remains well. If external noxious influences, increased to a high degree, affect us, and if we expose ourselves to them too much, then we sicken, and only to any great degree if our organism, just at that time, shows a weak side (a predisposition), which makes us more liable to be affected by the present (simple or complex) cause of the disease. Did the inimical, partly psychical, partly physical forces of nature, called noxious * We will mention only a few every-day experiences. The burn- ing pain which boiling water causes on the skin is cured by the cook's holding the burned hand near the fire, or by uninterruptedly moistening it with heated alcohol (or turpentine), which causes a still more intense burning sensation. This specific treatment has been followed by varnishers and similar artisans, and has been found reliable. The burning pain caused by these strong and heated spirits remains only for a few minutes, while the organism is homceopathically relieved of the inflammation caused by the burn. The destruction of the skin is soon repaired by the formation of a thin cuticle, through which no more alcohol penetrates. In this manner a burn is cured in a few hours by the remedy causing a similar burning pain (by highly heated alcohol or heated oil of turpentine); but if such a burn is treated by cool- ing palliatives or with ointments, a malignant ulceration follows, which is apt to last many weeks, and even months, causing much suffering. Professional dancers know from long experience that they are momentarily very much refreshed by drinking very cold water, and by taking off their clothing when extremely heated from dancing; but they know also that afterwards they will surely have to suffer from severe, often fatal, diseases. Wisdom has xiii disease influences, have unlimited power to affect and change our condition, then nobody would be well. Inas- much as they are found everywhere, everybody would be sick, and would not even have a conception of what health is. But, as in general, diseases are only the exception to the condition of men; and as it is necessary that a combina- tion of so many and various circumstances and conditions —partly by the disease-causing forces, partly by the condi- tion of the individual to be made sick—must exist before a disease really follows the effects of the sick-making forces, it becomes evident that man is not easily affected by these noxious influences; that they do not necessarily make him sick, and that the organism can only be affected by them under certain predisposing influences. Quite different are the relations of the artificial dy- namic forces, which we call medicines. Every true medi- cine affects every living organic body under all circum- stances, at all times, and causes on it its characteristic symptoms (clearly enough perceivable through the senses, taught such extremely heated persons, without allowing them- selves to go into the cool air or remove their clothing, to take a drink which is also heating, either punch or hot tea with ariack or brandy; and under its effects, while slowly walking up and down the room, they are very soon relieved of the hot fever caused by dancing. So even the old and experienced mower never takes any other drink to cool himself from the excessive thirst of labor under a hot sun than a glass of whisky; in an hour's time he is relieved from thirst and heat, and feels well. An experienced person will not expose a frozen limb to the fire, or to a hot stove, or put it in hot water, in order to restore it; covering it with snow, or rubbing it with ice-water, is the well-known homoeopathic remedy for it. The disorders caused by excessive joy (the fantastic mirth, the trembling restlessness, the excessive motion, the palpi- tation of the heart, the sleeplessness) are soon and permanently removed by coffee, which causes a similar ailment in those not used to take it» There thus exist many daily confirmations of the great truth, that men are relieved from long-lasting sufferings by other short-lasting evils, by a process of nature. Nations, for centuries fallen into apathy and slavishness, elevated their spirits, began to feel the dignity of men, and became again free men, after they had been crushed to the dust by the western tyrants XIV provided the dose is large enough), so that it becomes obvious that each and every living human organism must become thoroughly affected and seemingly infected by the medicinal disease; this, as is well known, is not the case with natural diseases.* All experience proves unmistakably that the human organism is much more predisposed and susceptible to medicinal forces than to diseased noxiousnesses and infec- tious miasms; or, to express it differently, that the medici- nal forces possess an absolute, but the diseased affections a merely limited, power to change the conditions of the human organism. This makes it already obvious that a possibility exists of curing disease by medicines (that is to say, that the diseased condition of the sickened organism can be oblit- erated by means of the most suitable alterations through medicines). But it becomes necessary also to comply with a second natural law, if the cure is to be made a reality; that is, a stronger dynamic affection overcomes the weaker one in the living organism permanently, if the first is similar in kind to the latter; because the dynamic change of the condition to be expected from the medicine must not, as I believe I have proved, be either differen- tially deviating from or allopathic to the diseased condi- tion; otherwise a much greater disturbance would follow, as is the case under the common practice; neither must it be opposite, so that only a palliative, fallacious improve- ment, which is invariably followed by an aggravation of the original disease, may be produced. But the medicine must possess the tendency to cause a condition similar to the disease (to cause similar symptoms on the healthy person), and observations must have shown this tendency,. and then only can it become a permanently curative med- icine. Whereas the dynamic affections of the organism (either * Even the plague like diseases do not necessarily infect every person; and other diseases leave many more persons unaffected, even if they expose themselves to the changes of the weather, the seasons of the year, and many other pernicious influences. XV by medicines or diseases) can be discerned only by means of expressions of changed sensations and changed func- tions; and whereas, also, the similarity of their dynamic affections reciprocally can be ascertained only through a similarity of symptoms; and as the organism (much more easily affected by medicines than by diseases) is more submissive to drug-action; that is to say, is more easily affected and changed by it, than from a similar affection of diseases; it follows that, without a possibility of contra- diction, the organism must necessarily be relieved from the diseased affections if a medicine is applied which, also entirely different in its nature from the disease,* ap- proaches it as near as possible in its similarity of symp- toms, that is, is homoeopathic to it; because the organism, as a complete living unit, is not capable of absorbing two similar dynamic affections at the same time without compelling the weaker to succumb to the stronger one; and as the organism is more apt to be affected by the stronger force (medicinal affection), then there will be a necessity created to part with the weaker one (diseased affection), and by that process the organism is healed of it. It is illusive for any one to think that the living organ- ism under the administration of a dose of homoeopathic medicine, for the cure of its disease, thereby becomes burdened with an addition to its ills; just as if a plate of lead already pressed by an iron weight were the stronger pressed by the adding of a stone to it; or a piece of copper heated by friction, by pouring hot water on it, must become still more heated! Nothing of the kind, not pas- sive, not according to physical laws of inorganic nature is our living organism governed. It reacts with its life- * Without this natural difference between diseased affections and the medicinal affections, no cure could be affected. If both were not only similar, but also of the same nature, therefore iden- tical, there would be no effect produced (probably only an aggra- vation of the evil). In the same manner, it would be vain to expect to cure a chancre by moistening it with the poison of another chancre. xvi antagonism, so that it, as a unit, as a living whole, sub- missively permits the diseased condition to be extin- guished, if a similarly strong force pervades the organism by means of a homoeopathic remedy. Our living human organism is spiritually reacting. It excludes by a spontaneous force a less powerful affection, as soon as the stronger force of a homoeopathic remedy produces a different but very similar affection. In other words, on account of the oneness of its life it cannot suffer, at the same time, from two similar general disturbances; but is compelled to part with the previous dynamic affec- tion (disease) as soon as it is acted upon by a second dynamic force (medicine), which is more apt to affect it, provided that medicine possesses the capability of affect- ing the organism (symptoms) in a very similar manner to the first affection. Something similar occurs in the human mind.* In proportion as the human organism is more easily affected by medicines when in a state of health than by disease, as I have demonstrated above, so is that organ- ism when diseased, without comparison, much more easily affected by homoeopathic medicines than by any other (for instance, allopathic or enantiopathic)—and it is acted upon easily and in a very high degree, as it is already inclined to certain symptoms by the disease, hence it becomes more susceptible to similar symptoms by the homoeopathic medicine—just as our own similar mental suffering causes the mind to become much more sensitive to similar stories of woe. Therefore, it becomes obvious that only the * For instance, a grieved girl, lamenting the death of a play- mate, becomes solaced through the strong effect of being intro- duced to a family where she finds half naked children who have just lost their father, their only support. She becomes more reconciled to her comparatively smaller loss; she is cured of her grief for her playmate, because the oneness of the mind can at the same time be affected only by a single similar emotion, and that emotion must be subdued if another similar emotion take posses- sion of her mind which affects her stronger, and in that manner becomes a homoeopathic remedy, extinguishing the former. The girl would not have been relieved of the grief she felt for the loss xvii smallest doses become useful and necessary for a cure; that is to say, for the changing of the sickened organism into a similar medicinal disease; and for that reason it is unnecessary to give it in a larger dose, because in this case the object is obtained not through the quantity but through potentiality and quality (dynamic conformity, Homoeopathy.) There is no utility in a larger dose, but there is harm done; the larger dose on the one side does not cause the dynamic change of the diseased affection with more certainty than the most suitable smallest dose; but it causes and supplants, on the other side, a multiplied medicinal disease, which is always an evil, although it passes by after a certain lapse of time. The organism becomes strongly affected, and becomes pervaded by the force of a medicinal substance which is capacitated to obliterate and extinguish the totality of the symptoms of the disease, through its endeavors to create similar symptoms. The organism becomes, as we have said, liberated from the diseased condition at the very time that it is affected by the medicinal power, by which it is decidedly more apt to be impressed. The medicinal forces, as such, even in larger doses, hold the organism only for a few days under their influence; and, therefore, it becomes apparent that a small dose, and in acute diseases a very small dose, of that medicine (such as it has been proven constitutes the dose for a homoeo- pathic cure) can affect the organism for a short time only of her playmate, if, for instance, the mother had scolded her (a heterogene allopathic force). On the contrary, she would have been much sicker in mind by the addition of a different mortifica- tion, and again would the grieved girl, had she been seemingly cheered for a few hours palliatively by a jocund festivity (because the emotion in this case was an opposite, enantiopathic), have fallen afterwards into deeper sadness when she was left to her solitude, and then would have cried more bitterly than before. What we here see in the psychological condition, we find also in the organic life. The oneness of our life does not allow itself to be occupied and possessed of two general similar dynamic affec- tions at the same time; because, if the second affection prove itself to be the stronger one, the first will become obliterated, just as soon as the organism becomes affected by the second. xviii (and in acute diseases the smallest dose is capable of affecting the organism for only a few hours), and that the medicinal affection which now occupies the place of the disease very soon and imperceptibly passes into pure health. It appears that the nature of the human organism is governed solely by the laws we have here presented if dis- ease is to be permanently cured by medicines; and really we may say that this action is a mathematical certainty. There exists no case of a dynamic disease in this world (with the exception of the death-agony, and, we may so class it here, advanced age and the destruction of indis- pensable viscera or limbs) which cannot be cured quickly and permanently by a medicine ichich has been found to cause in its positive effects symptoms in great similarity to it. The sick person can by no other possible means of cure* be more easily, more quickly, more certainly, in a more reliable and permanent manner, liberated from disease, than through homoeopathic medicines in small doses. Note by the Translator.—This very instructive and logical paper by the founder of our healing art has never been translated before. Why Dr. Charles Julius Hempel omitted it we know not. It is, without exception, the most concise and precise rendition of the fundamental principles governing our school of medicine. It requires a study to follow Hahnemann in his logical argument. It * Even in the common practice, and in rare cases, the strikingly effective cures are the results of a homceopathically suitable and homceopathically acting medicine (accidently prescribed). It was impossible for the physician to choose a homoeopathic remedy for the cure of diseases, as the positive (the positive effects observed on healthy persons) effects of medicines were never thought of, and therefore they remained ignorant of them; and even those medicines, with such as were made known by my writings, were not considered useful for curative purposes. Furthermore, they remained ignorant of the necessary conditions for a permanent cure, and of the effects of medicines on those symptoms of disease which were similar to them (the homoeopathic law of cure). xix has been our aim to give as verbal a translation as possible. Hahnemann's style of writing was quaint, and much of the force of the paper would have been lost by free (much less laborious) translation. As Hahnemann wrote this paper as early as 1813, we hope that all Homoeopathists will accept it, even those who find fault with his later writings, professing to detect in them signs of "senility." The liberal-scientific-peace- offering-reconciliation-and-amalgamation-seeking-men, and such as publicly declare that the laws of our healing art are tolerably good guides, but not applicable in all cases, and that then we are bound to seek other modes of cure, will, by this paper, receive their quietus. PREFACE *• Many persons of my acquaintance but half converted to Homoeopathy have repeatedly begged me to publish still more exact directions as to how this doctrine may be actually applied in practice, and how we are to proceed. I am astonished that after the very particular directions contained in the Organon of Medicine more special in- structions can be wished for. I am also asked, "How are we to examine the disease in each particular case?" As if special enough instructions were not to be found in the book just mentioned. As in homoeopathy the treatment is not directed toward imaginary or invented internal causes of the disease, nor yet towards names of diseases invented by man, of which nature knows nothing, and as every case of non-miasmatic disease in a distinct individuality, independent, peculiar, a complex of symptoms always differing in nature, never hypothetically presupposable, so, no particular directions can be laid down for it (no schema, no table), except that the physician, in order to effect a cure, must oppose to every aggregate of morbid symptoms in a case a group of similar medicinal symptoms as complete as can be met within any single known drug; for this system of medi- cine cannot admit of more than a single medicinal sub- stance (whose effects have been accurately tested) being given at once. (See Organon of Medicine, 4th edit., § 270, 271 ).f ■_______________________________________________ * From Vol. II, 3rd edit., Materia Medica Pura, 1833. (The cases here given originally appeared in 1816 in the first edition of the R. A. M. L., but the notes and most of the preliminary matter are of the date we have given, and we may therefore consider the whole to represent Hahnemann's opinion and practice, with the exception of the dose in these two cases, of the latter period). | The corresponding paragraphs of the 5th edit, are 272, 273. xxi Now we can neither enumerate all the possible aggre- gates of symptoms of all cases of disease that may occur, nor indicate a priori the homoeopathic medicines for these (a priori indeterminable) possibilities. For every indi- vidual given case (and every case is an individuality, differing from all others) the homoeopathic medical prac- titioner must himself find them, and for this end he must be acquainted with the medicines that have till now been investigated in respect of their positive action, or consult them for every case of disease; but besides this he must do his endeavor to prove thoroughly on himself or on other healthy individuals medicines that have not yet been in- vestigated as regards the morbid alterations they are capable of producing, in order thereby to increase our score of known remedial agents,* so that the choice of a remedy for every one of the infinite variety of cases of disease (for the combating of which we can never possess enough of suitable tools and weapons) may become all the more easy and accurate. That man is far from being animated with the true spirit of the homoeopathic system, is no true disciple of this beneficent doctrine, who makes the slightest objec- tion to institute on himself careful experiments for the investigation of the peculiar effects of the medicines which have remained unknown for 2500 years. Without this investigation (and unless their pure pathogenetic action on the healthy individual has previously been ascertained) all treatment of disease must continue to be not only a foolish, but even a criminal action, a dangerous attack upon human life. It is somewhat too much to expect us to work merely for the benefit of selfish individuals, who will contribute noth- ing to the complete and indispensable building up of the indispensable edifice, who only seek to make money by what has been discovered and investigated by the labors * Before the discovery of Homoeopathy, medicinal substances were known only in respect to their natural history, and besides their names, nothing was known regarding them but their pre- sumed qualities, which were either imaginary or altogether false. xxii of others; and to furnish them with the means of squander- ing the income derived from the scientific capital, to the production of which they do not evince the slightest incli- nation to contribute. All who feel a true desire to assist in elucidating the peculiar effects of medicines—our sole instruments, the knowledge of which has for so many centuries remained un- investigated, and which is yet so indispensable for enabling us to cure the sick, will find the directions how these pure experiments with medicines should be conducted in the Organon of Medicine, 4th edit., 111-136.* In addition to what has been there stated I shall only add, that as the experimenter cannot, any more than any other human being, be absolutely and perfectly healthy, he must, should slight ailments to which he is liable appear during these provings of the powers of medicines, place these between brackets, thereby indicating that they are not con- firmed, or dubious. But this will not often happen, see- ing that during the action upon a previously healthy per- son of a sufficiently strong dose of the medicine, he is under the influence of the medicine alone, and it is seldom that any other symptom can show itself during the first days but what must be the effect of the medicine. Further, that in order to investigate the symptoms of medicines for chronic diseases, for example, in order to develop the cut- aneous diseases, abnormal growths and so forth, to be expected from the medicine, we must not be contented with taking one or two doses of it only, but we must con- tinue its use for several days, to the amount of two ade- quate doses daily, that is to say, of sufficient size to cause us to experience an action from it, whilst at the same time we continue to observe the diet and regimen indicated in the work alluded to. The mode of preparing the medicinal substances for use in homoeopathic treatment will be found in the Organon of Medicine. § 267-269,t and also in the second part of The Chronic Diseases. I would only observe here, that for the *The corresponding paragraphs of the 5th edit, are 120-145. t The corresponding paragraphs of the 5th edit, are 269-271. xxiii proving of medicines on healthy individuals, dilutions and dynamizations are to be employed as high as are used for the treatment of disease, namely, globules moistened with the decillionth development of power.* The request of some friends, halting half way on the road to this method of treatment, to give some examples of this treatment, is difficult to comply with, and no great advantage can attend a compliance with it. Every cured case of disease shows only how that case has been treated. The internal process of the treatment depends always on the same rules, which are already known, and they cannot be rendered concrete aud definitely fixed for each individual case, nor can they become at all more distinct by the his- tory of a single cure than they were already by the publi- cation of these rules. Every case of non-miasmatic dis- ease is peculiar and special, and it is the special in it that distinguishes it from every other case, that pertains to it alone, but that cannot serve as a model for the treatment of other cases. Now, if it is wished to describe a compli- cated case of disease consisting of many symptoms, in such a circumstantial manner that the reasons that influence us in the choice of the remedy shall be clearly revealed, this demands a multiplicity of details fatiguing at once for the describer and for the reader. In order, however, to comply with the desire of my friends in this also, I may here detail two cases of homoeo- pathic cure of the most trivial character. Sch----, a washerwoman, somewhere about forty years old, had been more than three weeks unable to earn her bread, when she consulted me on the 1st September, 1815. 1. On any movement, especially at every step, and worse on making a false step, she has a shoot in the pit of the stomach, that comes, as she avers, every time from the left side. *In place of this paragraph the 2nd edition (published in 1824) has four paragraphs describing the mode of preparing the remedies then adopted, which an> superseded by the instructions in the Organon. In the older edition there is no mention of the decillionth potency being the appropriate dose for therapeutic and pathogenetic purposes. XXIV 2. When she lies she feels quite well, then she has no pain anywhere, neither in the side nor in the pit of the stomach. 3. She cannot sleep after three o'clock in the morning. 4. She relishes her food, but when she has eaten a little she feels sick. 5. Then the water collects in her mouth and runs out of it, like the water-brash. 6. She has frequent empty eructations after every meal. 7. Her temper is passionate, disposed to anger. When the pain is severe she is covered with perspiration. The catamenia were quite regular a fortnight since. In other respects her health is good. Now, as regards symptom 1, Belladonna, China, and Rhus toxicodendron cause shootings in the pit of the stomach, but none of them only on movement as is the case here. Pulsatilla (see symptom 387)* certainly causes shootings in the pit of the stomach, on making a false step, but only as a rare alternating action, and has neither the same digestive derangements as occur here at 4 compared with 5 and 6, nor the same state of the disposition. Bryonia alone has among its chief alternating actions, as the whole list of its symptoms demonstrates, pain from movement and especially shooting pains, as also stitches beneath the sternum (in the pit of the stomach) on raising the arm (448), and on making a false step it occasions shooting in other parts (520, 600). The negative symptom 2 met with here, answers espec- ially to Bryonia (638); few medicines (with the exception perhaps of Nux vomica and Rhus toxicodendron in their alternating action—neither of which, however, is suitable for the other symptoms) show a complete relief to pains during rest and when lying; Bryonia does, however, in a special manner (638, and many other Bryonia symptoms). Symptom 3 is met with in several medicines, and also in Bryonia (694). Symptom 4 is certainly, as far as regards "sickness after * The numbers are altered so as to suit the 3rd edit., which Hahneman neglected to do, when this edition appeared. XXV eating," met with in several other medicines (Ignatia, Nux vomica, Mercurius, Ferrum, Belladonna, Pulsatilla, Can- tharis), but neither so constantly and usually, nor with relish for food, as in Bryonia (279). As regards symptom 5 several medicines certainly cause a flow of salva like water-brash. Just as well as Bryonia (282); the others, however, do not produce symptoms similar to the remain- ing ones. Hence Bryonia is to be preferred to them in this part of the ailment. Empty eructation (of wind only) after eating (symptom 6) is found in few medicines, and in none so constantly, so usually, and to such a great degree, as in Bryonia (253, 259). To 7. One of the chief symptoms in diseases (see Organ- on of Medicine, § 213) is the "state of the disposition," and as Bryonia (772) causes this symptom also in an ex- actly similar manner, Bryonia is for all these reasons to be preferred in this case to all other medicines as the homoeopathic remedy. Now, as this woman was very robust, and the force of the disease must consequently have been very considerable to prevent her by its pain from doing any work, and as her vital forces, as has been observed, were not impaired, I gave her one of the strongest homoeopathic doses, a full drop of the undiluted juice of Bryonia root,* to be taken immediately, and bade her come to me again in 48 hours. I told my friend E., who was present, that within that time the woman would assuredly be quite cured, but he, being but half converted to Homoeopathy, expressed his doubts about it. Two days afterwards he came again to ascertain the result, but the woman did not return then, and, in fact, never came back again. I could only allay the im- *According to the most recent development of our new system, the ingestion of a single, minutest globule, moistened with the decillionsh (x) development of power would have been quite ade- quate to effect an equally rapid and complete recovery ; indeed, equally certain would have been the mere olfaction of a globule the size of a mustard seed moistened with the same dynamization, so that the drop of crude juice given by me in the above case to a robust person, should not be imitated. XXVI patience of my friend by telling him her name and that of the village where she lived, about a mile and a half off, and advising him to seek her out and ascertain for him- self how she was. This he did, and her answer was: " What was the use of my going back? The very next day I was quite well, and could again go to my washing, and the day following I was as well as I am still. I am ex- tremely obliged to the doctor, but the like of us have no time to leave off our work ; and for three weeks previ- ously my illness prevented me earning anything." W----e, a weakly, pale man of 42 years, who was con- stantly kept by his business at his desk, complained to me on the 27th December, 1815, that he had been already ill five days. 1. The first evening he became, without manifest cause, sick and giddy, with much eructation. 2. The following night (about 2 a. m.) sour vomiting. 3. The subsequent nights violent eructation. 4. To-day also sick eructation of fetid and sourish taste. 5. He felt as if the food lay crude and undigested in his stomach. 6. In his head he felt vacant, hollow and gloomy, and as if sensitive therein. 7. The least noise was disagreeable to him. 8. He is of a mild, soft, patient disposition. Here I may observe : To 1. That several medicines cause vertigo with nausea, as well as Pulsatilla (3), which produces its vertigo in the evening also (7), a circumstance that has been observed from very few others. To 2. Stramonium and Nux vomica cause vomiting of sour and sour-smelling mucus, but, as far as is known, not at night. Valerian and Cocculus cause vomiting at night, but not of sour stuff. Iron alone causes vomiting at night (61, 62), and can also cause sour vomiting (66), but not the other symptoms that should be attended to here. Pulsatilla, however, causes not only sour vomiting in the evening (349,354) and nocturnal vomiting in general (355), xxvii but also the other symptoms of this case not found among those of Iron. To 3. Nocturnal eructation is peculiar to Pulsatilla (296, 297). To 4. Fetid, putrid (259) and sour eructation (301, 302) is also peculiar to Pulsatilla. To 5. The sensation of indigestibility of food in the stomach is produced by few medicines, and by none in such a perfect and striking manner as by Pulsatilla (321, 322, 327). To 6. Besides Ignatia (21) which, however, cannot pro- duce the other ailments, the same state is produced by Pulsatilla (39 compared with 42, 94, 98). To 7. Pulsatilla produces the same state (995), and it also causes over-sensitiveness of other organs of the senses, for example, of the sight (107). And although intoler- ance of noise is also met with in Nux vomica, Ignatia, and Aconite, yet these medicines are not homoeopathic to the other symptoms and still less do they possess symptom 8, the mild character of the disposition, which, as stated in the preface to Pulsatilla, is particularly indicative of this plant. This patient, therefore, could not be cured by anything in a more easy, certain and permanent manner than by Pulsatilla, which was homoeopathic to the case. It was ac- cordingly given to him immediately; but, on account of his weakly and exhausted state, only in a very minute dose, i. e. half a drop of the quadrillionth of a strong drop of Pulsatilla.* This was done in the evening. The next day he was free from all ailments, his digestion was restored, and a week thereafter, as I was told by him, he remained free from complaint and quite well. The investigation in such a slight case of disease, and the choice of the homoeopathic remedy for it, is very speed- * According to our present knowledge and experience, the same object would have been attained by taking one of the smallest globules of Pulsatilla x (decillionth potency) and with equal cer- tainty a single olfaction of a globule the size of a mustard seed of the same potency of Pulsatilla. xxviii ily effected by the practitioner who has had only a little experience in it, and who either has the symptoms of the medicine in his memory, or who knows where to find them readily; but to give in writing all the reasons pro and con (which would be received by the mind in a few seconds) gives rise, as we see, to tedious prolixity. For the convenience of treatment, we require merely to jot down after each symptom all the medicines which can produce such a symptom with tolerable accuracy, express- ing them by a few letters (e. g. Ferr., Chin., Rheum., Puis.), and also to bear in mind the circumstances under which they occur, that have a determining influence on our choice; and proceed in the same way with all the other symptoms, noting by what medicine each is excited; from the list so prepared we shall be able to perceive which among the medicines homceopathically covers the most of the symptoms present, especially the most peculiar and characteristic ones — and this is the remedy sought for. ^k 3fc $k $k $k As regards the following catalogue of medicinal symp- toms, there are in this part also many observations by my disciples, mostly made on themselves. Their names will be found attached, with the addition, "in an essay." On every occasion when my Leipsic disciples delivered to me their essays, I questioned them respecting the symptoms they observed (and this I would advise every teacher to do under similar circumstances) in order to get as precisely as possible the verbal expressions of their sensations and sufferings, and to ascertain with exactness the conditions under which the symptoms occurred. By this means I have, as I believe, elicited the truth. I knew also that they had faithfully observed the carefully regulated diet, and had led a life undisturbed by passions during their provings, in order to be able to observe the alterations in their health purely and obviously due to the medicine taken. By conducting their trials in this manner, they be- came careful, delicately sensitive observers, and if with this they combine pure moral conduct and the acquisition XXIX of other useful branches of knowledge, they will become- proficients in the healing art.* * It was not until the first volume of the first edition had been published that Hahnemann obtained any assistance from others in his provings. This is the reason of the appearance of these last two paragraphs in the second volume, in which volume they are still retained in the last two editions. NOTES AND INTRODUCTIONS TO REMEDIES IN THE MATERIA MEDICA PURA AND CHRONIC DISEASES. ACONITUM NAPELLUS.* (Monkshood). Although the following symptoms do not express the whole significance of this most valuable plant, still they reveal to the thoughtful homoeopathic physician a prospect of relieving morbid conditions in which traditional medi- cine has hitherto employed its most dangerous methods, e. g. copious blood-letting and all its complex would-be antiphlogistic treatments, often ineffectually, and almost always with disastrous consequences. I allude to the so- called pure inflammatory fevers, in which the smallest dose of Aconite enables us to dispense with all the tradi- tional antipathic treatments, and relieves rapidly and with- out evil effects. In measles, in purpura miliaris, and in the acute pleuritic fevers, &c, its curative power is mar- velous, when, the patient being kept rather cool, it is given alone, all.other medicinal substances, even vegetable acids, being avoided, in the dose of a thousandth part f of a drop of the decillionth development of power. It is *From vol. i, 3rd edit, 1830. y That is, a small globule the size of a poppy seed moistened with it, of which more than a thousand are moistened by one drop of spirits of wine, and which are so small that 300 of them weigh only one grain. XXX11 seldom that a second similar dose is required thirty-six or forty-eight hours after the first. But in order to remove from our conscientious treat- ment all that routine practice which is only too apt to reg- ulate its treatment in accordance with delusive names of diseases, it is indispensable that, in all morbid conditions in which Aconite is given, the chief symptoms of the mal- ady, therefore also of the acute disease, should be found accurately reproduced among the symptoms of Aconite. The effect is then astonishing. It is precisely in the great acute inflammatory fevers in which Allopathy chiefly plumes itself as alone able to save life by means of bold, frequent venesections, and imagines that here it is superior in curative efficacy to all homoeopathic treatment—it is precisely here that it is most mistaken. It is precisely here that the infinite superiority of Homoeo- pathy is manifest, that it needs not to shed a single drop of blood, that precious vital fluid (which the Allopath recklessly draws off in streams, to the often irremediable disadvantage of the patient,) in order to transform this dangerous fever into health in as many hours as the allo- pathic vitality-diminishing treatment often requires months for the perfect restoration of those who are not carried off during the process by death, or, at all events, in the chronic after affections artificially caused by the means employed. In these acute cases of disease sometimes a homoeopathic intermediate remedy is required for the morbid symptoms remaining after twelve or sixteen hours' action of the first dose of Aconite; but it is very rarely that a second dose of Aconite is needed after this intermediate remedy. By means of Aconite carefully administered in this way in a disease of the above mentioned character all danger is removed even in four hours, and the excited circulation resumes its tranquil vital course from hour to hour. Although Aconite, on account of the short duration of its action (which in such small doses does not exceed forty-eight hours,) might seem to be useful only in acute diseases, yet it is an indispensable accessory remedy in xxxiii even the most obstinate chronic affections, when the sys- tem requires a diminution of the so-called tension of the blood vessels (the strictum of the ancients). On this sub- ject, however, I cannot enter more fully in this place. Its utility in such cases is shown by the symptoms it produces in the healthy subject, which are partially recorded in the following pages. Aconite is also the first and main remedy, in the minute dose indicated above, in inflammation of the windpipe (croup, membranous laryngitis,) in various kinds of inflam- mation of the throat and fauces, as also in the local, acute inflammations of all other parts, particularly where, in addition to thirst and quick pulse, there are present anx- ious impatience, an unappeasable mental agitation, and agonizing tossing about. It produces all the morbid states similar to those seen in persons who have had a fright combined with vexation, and is also the surest and quickest remedy for them. In the selection of Aconite as a homoeopathic remedy par- ticular attention should be paid to the symptoms of the disposition, so that they should be very similar. Hence it is indispensable after fright or vexation in women during the catamenia, which without this excellent soothing remedy are only too easily, often instantaneously suppressed by such emotional disturbances. For this pur- pose a single momentary olfaction at a vial containing a globule the size of a mustard seed, moistened with the decillionth potency of Aconite (which may be kept for this purpose for years in a well-corked vial without los- ing its curative power) is quite sufficient. Most of the apparently opposite Aconite symptoms re- corded below are merely alternating states, and it may be curative by means of both, but it is most so in respect of those which have a tonic character. XXX1P ARGENTUM. (Silver). This metal in its pure state, as leaf-silver (argentum foliatum), from the supposed impossibility of its being dissolved in our juices—an impossibility that has no bet- ter basis than theoretical speculation—is said by the teachers of materia medica to be just as powerful as gold (which see). At first I allowed myself to be deterred by these confi- dent assertions from using it medicinally, and therefore employed only the solution of nitrate of silver (in the dose of a drop of the quintillionth dilution), when I had the opportunity of observing the few subjoined symptoms caused by it. But, in spite of all the denials of theorists without ex- perience, who always persist in regarding the stomach as a cooking or digesting machine, containing gastric juice which, judging by their trials in the vessels of their labo- ratory, they found to be incapable of dissolving either me- tallic gold or metallic silver, and therefore considered these medicines to be incapable of exciting any action upon us as they do when chemically dissolved lege artis in the stomach, when they are methodice absorbed and in- troduced into the circulation of the blood; influenced by the reason I have adduced respecting gold, I could not refrain from employing pure silver in the metallic state. I therefore made experiments on the healthy body with leaf silver, after triturating it for an hour to the finest powder, with a hundred parts of milk sugar. The few symptoms observed from it and set forth in the following pages furnish the homoeopathic physician, in sil- ver under this form, with a curative instrument in many similar morbid states, which cannot be cured by any other medicinal agent, and for which the ordinary physician fails to find a remedy in all his therapeutics, clinical experience and voluminous prescription books. But I subsequently found that for homoeopathic use an- other hundred-fold attenuation, that is to say, a grain of XXXV powder containing 1:10,000 of silver, may be a still too large dose. The empirical reputation of nitrate of silver in the ord- inary forms of epilepsy is not well founded, and seems to have arisen from the circumstance that in some varieties of convulsions, where copper is indicated, a salt of silver containing copper has been used. But that pure silver, such as leaf silver is, should be efficacious in the worst and commonest form of epilepsy, is not borne out by the primary symptoms as yet revealed from its administra- tion. R. Boyle's so-called diuretic pills, which contain nitrate of silver, and which are so much praised by Boerhave, are quite unsuitable for their purpose, not only on account of the perilous size of the doses, but also because silver, as the subjoined symptoms produced by it show, only in- creases the urinary secretion in its primary action (conse- quently the opposite of the diminished urinary secretion in dropsical diseases), whereupon, by means of the ensu- ing reaction of the vital force, the opposite of the end aimed at must take place, which is its permanent second- ary action, to wit, a still greater diminution of the urinary secretion; a true antipathic and, for this case, injurious procedure. Such hurtful mistakes must have hitherto been commit- ted by the ordinary physicians, because they were unac- quainted with the primary effects of the medicines, and knew of no way whereby they could learn them, and took no pains to discover the right way. Indeed, for five and twenty centuries they have had no notion of primary and secondary actions, and knew not that the human organ- ganism develops as secondary action of medicines, as a permanent condition, the exact opposite of their primary action, and that, consequently, in order to effect any per- manent cure, medicine to be really curative must be able to produce in their primary action the simile of the mor- bid state actually present, to allow us to expect from the reaction of the organism the opposite of the medical me- dicinal primary and of the disease similar to it, that is to XXXVI say, the destruction and alteration into health of the de- ranged sensations and functions. On the other hand, silver can cure permanently some kinds of diabetes when the other symptoms of the disease correspond in similarity to the other primary symptoms of the remedy. ARSENICUM. . As I write down the word Arsenic, considerations the most momentous throng upon my mind. When the beneficent Creator made iron He no doubt permitted the children of men to fashion it either into the murderous dagger or the gentle ploughshare wherewith to kill or to feed their fellow creatures. How much happier would they be did they employ His gifts only for the pur- pose of doing good! This should be the aim of their life; this was His desire. It is not to Him, the All-loving, we can impute the wickedness practiced by men, who have misemployed the wonderfully powerful medicinal substances in enormous doses in diseases for which they were not suitable, guided only by frivolous ideas of some paltry authority without having subjected them to any careful trial, and without any substantial reason for their choice. If a careful tester of the uses of medicines and of their doses arise, they inveigh against him as an enemy to their comfort, and do not refrain from aspersing him with the vilest calumnies. The ordinary medical art has hitherto employed, in large and frequently repeated doses, the most powerful drugs, such as Arsenic, Nitrate of Silver, Corrosive sublimate, Aconite, Belladonna, Digitalis, Opium, Hyoscyamus, etc. Homoeopathy cannot employ stronger substances, for there are none stronger. When physicians of the ordinary stamp employ them, they evidently vie with one another who shall prescribe the largest possible doses of these drugs, and make a great boast of increasing these doses to such enormous extremes. xxxvii This practice they laud and recommend to their fellow practitioners. But if the homoeopathic medical art em- ploy the same drugs, not at random, like the ordinary method but after careful investigation, only in suitable cases and in the smallest possible doses, it is denounced as a practice of poisoning. How prejudiced, how unjust, how calumnious is such a charge made by persons who make pretensions to honesty and rectitude. If Homoeopathy now make a fuller explanation—if she condemn (as from conviction she must) the monstrous doses of those drugs employed in ordinary practice—and if she, relying on careful trials, insists that very much less of them should be given for a dose, that where ordinary practitioners give a tenth, a half, a whole grain, and even several grains, often only a quadrillionth, a sextillionth, a decillionth of a grain is required and sufficient, then see the adherents of the ordinary school who denounce the homoeopathic healing art as a system of poisoning, see how they laugh aloud at what they call childishness, and de- clare themselves convinced (convinced without trial) that such a small quantity can do nothing at all, and can have no effect whatever, is, indeed, just the same as nothing. They are not ashamed thus to blow hot and cold from the same mouth, and to pronounce the very same thing to be inert and ludicrously small which they had just accused of being a system of poisoning, whilst they justify and praise their own monstrous and murderous doses of the same medicines. Is not this the grossest and most wretched inconsistency that can be imagined, perpetrated for the purpose of being shamelessly unjust towards a doctrine which they cannot deny possesses truth and consistency, which is borne out by experience, and which enjoins the most delicate cautiousness and most unwearied circum- spection in the selection and administration of its remedies? Not very long ago a highly celebrated physician * spoke of pounds of opium being consumed every month in his hospital, where even the nurses were allowed to give it to *iYiarcusof Bamberg. XXXV111 the patients according to their fancy. Opium, mind! a drug which has sent many thousands of persons to their graves in ordinary practice! Yet this man continued to be held in honor, for he belonged to the dominant clique to which everything is lawful, even if it be of the most injurious and absurd character. And when, a few years since, in one of the most enlight- ened cities of Europe, every practitioner, from the betitled physician down to the barber's apprentice, prescribed Arsenic as a fashionable remedy in almost every disease, and that in such frequent and large doses, one after the other, that the detriment to the health of the people must have been quite palpable; yet this was held to be honor- able practice, though not one of them was acquainted with the peculiar effects of this metallic oxide (and con- sequently knew not what cases of disease it was suited for). And yet all prescribed it in repeated doses, a single one of which, sufficiently attenuated and potentized, would have sufficed to cure all the diseases in the whole habit- able world for which this drug is the suitable remedy. Which of these two opposite modes of employing med- icines best deserves the flattering appellation of " system of poisoning,'" the ordinary method just alluded to, which attacks with tenths of grains the poor patients (who often require some quite different remedy), or Homoeopathy, which does not give even a droplet of tincture of rhubarb, without having first ascertained whether rhubarb is the most suitable, the only appropriate remedy for the case. Homoeopathy, which, by unwearied multiplied experiments, discovered that it is only in rare cases that more than a decillionth of a grain of Arsenic should be given, and that only in cases where careful proving shows this medicine to be the only one perfectly suitable? To which of these two modes of practice does the title of honor, "thoughtless, rash system of poisoning," best apply? There is yet another sect of practitioners who may be called hypocritical purists. If they are practical physi- cians they, indeed, prescribe all sorts of substances that are injurious when misused, but before the world they XXXIX wish to pose as patterns of innocence and caution. From their professorial chairs and in their writings they give the most alarming definition of poisons, so that to listen to their declamations it would appear unadvisable to treat any imaginable disease with anything stronger than quick- grass, dandelion, oxymel and raspberry juice. According to their account poisons are absolutely (i. e. under all cir- cumstances, in all doses, in all cases) prejudicial to human life, and in this category they include, as suits their humor, a lot of substances which in all ages have been extensively employed by physicians for the cure of dis- eases. But the employment of these substances would be a criminal offence had not every one of them occasionally proved of use. If, however, each of them had only been of use on one single occasion—and it cannot be denied that this sometimes happened—then this definition, be- sides being blasphemous, is a palpable absurdity. Abso- lutely and under all circumstances injurious and destruct- ive, and at the same time beneficial, is a self-evident con- tradiction, utter nonsense. They seek to wriggle out of this contradictory assertion by alleging that these sub- stances have more frequently proved injurious than use- ful. But, let me ask, did the injury so frequently caused by these things come of itself, or did it not come from their improper employment? in other words, was it ftot caused by those physicians who made an unskillful use of them in diseases for which they were unsuitable? These medi- cines do not administer themselves in diseases; they must be administered by somebody, and if ever they were bene- ficial that was because they happened to be given appro- priately by somebody; it was because they might always be beneficial if nobody ever employed them otherwise than appropriately. Hence it follows that whenever these substances were hurtful and destructive, they were so only on account of having been inappropriately employed. Therefore, all the injury they did is attributable to the unskillfulness of their employer. These narrow7 minded individuals further allege: "That xl oven when we attempt to tame Arsenic by means of a cor- rective, e. g., by mixing it with an alkali, it still often does harm enough." Nay, I reply, the Arsenic must not be blamed for this; for, as I before observed, drugs do not administer them- selves, somebody administers them and does harm with them. And how does the alkali act as a corrective? Does it merely make the Arsenic weaker, or does it alter its nature and convert it into something else? In the latter case the neutral arsenical salt produced is no longer Arsenic proper, but something different. If, however, it be merely made weaker, then a simple diminution of the dose of the pure solution of Arsenic would be a much more sensible and effectual mode of making it weaker and milder than leaving the dose in its hurtful magnitude, and by the addition of another medicinal substance endeavoring to effect some, but nobody knows wdiat, alteration in its nature, as takes place when a pretended corrective is used. If you think a tenth of a grain of Arsenic too strong a dose, what is to prevent you diluting the solution and giving less, a great deal lesd of it? " A tenth of a grain," I hear some one say, " is the small- est quantity the etiquette of the profession allows us to prescribe. Who could write a prescription to be made up at the apothecary's shop for a smaller quantity, without rendering himself ridiculous?" Oh, indeed! A tenth of a grain sometimes acts so vio- lently as to endanger life, and the etiquette of your clique does not permit you to give less—very much less. Is it not an insult to common sense to talk in this way? Is the etiquette of the profession a code of rules to bind a set of senseless slaves, or are you men of free will and intelli- gence? If the latter, what is it that hinders you to give a smaller quantity when a large quantity might be hurtful? Obstinacy? the dogmatism of a school? or what other in- tellectual fetters? " Arsenic," they protest, would still be hurtful, though given in much smaller quantity, even if we were to descend to the ridiculous dose of a hundredth or a thousandth of a xli grain, a minuteness of dose unheard of in the posological maxims of our materia medica. Even a thousandth of a grain of Arsenic must still be hurtful and destructive, for it always remains an incontrollable poison. So we affirm, maintain, conjecture, and assert." What if with all this complacent asserting and conjec- turing you have for once blundered upon the truth. It is evident that the virulence of the Arsenic cannot increase, but must decrease as the dose is reduced, so that we must at length arrive at such a dilution of the solution and diminution of the dose as no longer possesses the danger- ous character of your regulation dose of a tenth of a grain. Such a dose would, indeed, be a novelty! What kind of dose would it be? Novelty is, indeed, a capital crime in the eyes of the orthodox school, which, settled down upon her old lees, subjects the reason to tyranny of antiquated routine. But why should a pitiful rule—why, indeed, should any- thing hinder the physician, who ought by rights to be a learned, thinking, independent man, a controller of nature in his own domain, from rendering a dangerous dose mild by diminishing its size? What should hinder him, if experience should show him that the thousandth part of a grain is too strong a dose, from giving the hundred-thousandth part or the millionth of a grain? And should he find this last act too violently in many cases, as in medicine all depends on observation and experience (medicine being nothing but a science of experience), what should hinder him from reducing the millionth to a billionth? And if this prove too strong a dose in many cases who could prevent him diminishing it to the quadrillionth of a grain, or smaller still? Methinks I hear vulgar stolidity croak out from the quagmire of its thousand-year-old prejudica: "Ha! ha! ha! A quadrillionth! Why, that's nothing at all! " How so? Can the subdivision of a substance, be it car- ried ever so far, bring forth anything else than portions of the whole? Must not these portions, reduced in size to the very verge of infinity, still continue to be somethingr xlii something substantial, a part of the whole be it ever so minute? What man in his senses could deny this? And if this (quadrillionth, quintillionth, octillionth, decillionth) continue still to be really an integral portion of the divided substance, as no man in his senses can deny, why should even such a minute portion, seeing that it is really something, be incapable of acting, considering that the whole was so tremendously powerful? But what and how much this small quantity can do can be determined by no speculative reasoning or unreasoning, but by experi- ence alone, from which there is no appeal in the domain of facts. It belongs to experience alone to determine if this small portion has become too weak to remove the disease for which this medicine is otherwise suitable, and to restore the patient to health. This is a matter to be set- tled not by the dogmatic assertion of the student at his desk, but by experience alone, which is the only competent arbiter in such cases. Experience has already decided the question, and is seen to do so daily by every unprejudiced person. But when I have finished with the wiseacre, who, never consulting experience, ridicules the small dose of Homoeo- pathy as a nonentity, as utterly powerless, I hear on the other side the hypocritical stickler for caution still inveigh against the danger of the small doses used in homoeopathic practice, without a shadow of proof for his reckless asser- tion. A few words here for such persons. If Arsenic in the dose of a tenth of a grain be, in many cases, a dangerous medicine, must it not be milder in the dose of a thousandth of a grain? And, if so, must it not become still milder with every further diminution of the size of the dose? Now, if Arsenic (like every other very powerful medi- cinal substance) can, by merely diminishing the size of the doses, be but rendered so mild as to be no longer dangerous to life, then all we have to do is merely to find by exper- iment how far the size of the dose must be diminished, so that it shall be small enough to do no harm, and yet large xliii enough to effect its full efficacy as a remedy of the diseases for which it is suitable. Experience, and that alone, not the pedantry of study, not the narrow minded, ignorant, unpractical dogmatism of the schools, can decide what dose of such an extremely powerful substance as Arsenic is, is so small as to be cap- able of being ingested without danger, and yet of remain- ing sufficiently powerful to be able to effect in diseases all that this medicine (so invaluable when sufficiently moder- ated in its action, aud selected for suitable cases of dis- ease) was from its nature ordained to do by the beneficent Creator. It must, by dilution of its solution and diminu- tion of the dose, be rendered so mild that while the strong- est man can be freed by such a dose from a disease for which it is the appropriate remedy, this same dose shall be incapable of effecting any perceptible alteration in the health of a healthy infant.* This is the grand problem that can only be solved by oft-repeated experiments and trials, but not settled by the sophistical dogmatism of the schools with its guesses, its assertions and its conjectures. No rational physician can acknowledge any such limita- tion to his mode of treatment as the rusty routine of the schools—which is never guided by pure experiment com- bined with reflection—would dictate to him. His sphere of action is the restoration to health of the sick, and the countless potent forces of the world are freely given to him by the Sustainer of life as implements of healing; naught is withheld. To him whose calling it is to van- quish the disease that brings its victim to the verge of * A medicine homceopathically chosen, that is to say, a medicine capable of producing a morbid condition very similar to that of the disease to be cured, affects only the diseased parts of the organ- ism, therefore, just the most irritated, extremely sensitive part of it. Therefore, its dose must be so small as only to affect the dis- eased part just a little more than the disease itself did. For this the smallest dose suffices, one so small as to be incapable of alter- ing the health of a healthy person who has naturally no point of contact sufficiently sensitive for this medicine or of making him ill, which only large doses of medicine can do. xliv corporeal annihilation, and effect a kind of recreation of life (a nobler work than most other, even the most vaunted performances of mankind), to him the whole direct expense of nature with all her curative powers and agents, must be available, in order to enable him to perform this creative act, if we may so call it. But he must be at liberty to employ these agents in the exact quantity, be it ever so small or ever so large, that experience in such trials show him to be most adapted to the end he has in view; in any form whatever that reflection and experience have proved to be most serviceable. All this he must be able to do without any limitation whatsoever, as is the right of a free man, of a deliverer of his fellow creatures, and a life restorer, equipped with all the knowledge pertaining to his art, and endowed with a God-like spirit and the tender- est conscience. From this God-serving and noblest of all earthly occu- pations let all hold aloof who are deficient in mind, in the judicial spirit, in any of the branches of knowledge re- quired for its exercise, or in tender regard for the weal of mankind, and a sense of his duty to humanity, in one word, who are deficient in true virtue! Away with that unhallowed crew who merely assume the outward sem- blance of health restorers, but whose heads are crammed full of vain deceit, whose hearts are stuffed with wicked frivolity, whose tongues make a mock of truth and whose hands prepare disaster! AURUM. (Gold). Just as superstition, impure observations, and credulous assumptions have been the source of innumerable falsely ascribed remedial virtues of medicines in the Materia Medica; in like manner physicians, by their failure to resort to the test of experiment and by their futile theoriz- ing, have quite as unreasonably denied the possession of any medicinal power whatever to many substances that are very powerful, and consequently of great curative virtue; xlv and by so doing they have deprived us of these medicines. In this place I will only speak of gold, and not of this metal altered by the ordinary chemical processes, conse- quently not of it dissolved by the action of acids nor pre- cipitated from its solution (fulminating gold) both of which have been declared to be, if not useless then abso- lutely noxious, apparently because they cannot be taken without dangerous consequences when given in what is called a justa dosis, or, in other words, in excessive quantity. No! I speak of pure gold not altered by chemical manip- ulations. Modern physicians have pronounced this to be quite inactive; they have at length expunged it out of all their Materia Medicas, and thereby deprived us of all its mighty curative virtues. " It is incapable of solution in our gastric juices, hence it must be quite powerless and useless." This was their theoretical conclusion, and in the medical art, as is well known, such theoretical dicta have always availed more than convincing proof. Because they did not question experience, the only possible guide in the medical art which is founded on experience alone; because it was easier to make mere assertions, therefore they usually pre- ferred bold dicta, theoretical, empty assumptions and arbi- trary maxims to solid truth. It is no excuse for them that the older physicians have also deemed gold to be quite useless and powerless, that, for example, Fabricius says: " What effect can the low temperature of our stomach have on gold-leaf, seeing that it is unaltered by the most intense heat." Or Nicholas Monardes: "Patients may take my word for it, and spare themselves the expense of employing gold as a medicine— they can never obtain any medicinal virtue from it for their maladies." Or Alston: "Seeing that gold in its metallic state cannot be dissolved or altered by the vital power, it can consequently have no medicinal action, but what it exerts on the intestines by its virtue of weight, hardness and mechanical form." Or, lastly, T. F. Gmelin: " As gold is not destructible, not resolvable into vapor, and xlvi is hence incapable of union with the juices of the animal body, therefore it cannot possess curative virtues."* They were all wrong, and so were all the modern phy- sicians. Gold has great, peculiar, medicinal powers. At first I allowed myself to be deterred by these deniers from hop- ing for medicinal'properties in pure gold; but as I could not persuade myself to consider any metal whatsoever as destitute of curative powers, I employed it atufirst in solu- tion. Hence the few symptoms from the solution of gold recorded below. I then gave, in cases where the symptoms guided me to the homoeopathic employment, the quin- tillionth or sextillionth of a grain of gold in solution for a dose, and observed curative effects somewhat similar to those 1 afterwards experienced from pure gold. But because, as a rule, I did not like, when I can avoid it, to give the metals dissolved in acids (when I cannot avoid doing so, I prefer their solutions in vegetable acids), and least of all in mineral acids, as that detracts from their noble simplicity, for they must assuredly undergo some alteration in their properties when acted on by these acids —as we must perceive on a comparison of the curative effects of the corrosive sublimate with those of the black oxide of mercury—I was delighted to find a number of Arabian physicians unanimously testifying to the medici- nal powers of gold in a finely pulverized form, particularly in some serious morbid conditions, in some of which the solution of gold had already been of great use to me. This circumstance inspired me with great confidence in the as- sertions of the Arabians. The first trace of this we meet with in the eighth cen- tury, when Geber, vaunts gold as a " materia lectificans et en juventute corpus conservans." Towards the end of the tenth century Serapion the * It was very stupid to attempt to decide theoretically the question whether gold can possess remedial properties—the only proper thing to do was to convince ourself by trial and experience whether it had remedial powers or not. If it has curative virtues then all the theoretical denials are ridiculous. xlvii younger recommends it in these words: "Powdered gold is useful in melancholy and weakness of the heart." Then at the commencement of the eleventh century Avicenna says: "Powdered gold is one of the medicines against melancholy, removes fetor of the breath, is, even when given internally, a remedy for falling out of the hair, strengthens the eyes, is useful in pain of the heart and palpitation, and is uncommonly serviceable in dys- pnoea." Abulkasem (Abulcasis), at the commencement of the twelfth century, is the first who describes the preparation of this gold powder in these words: "The gold is rubbed on a rough linen cloth in a basin filled with water, and the fine powder that falls to the bottom of the water is to be employed for administration." Johan von St. Amand in the thirteenth century describes the same method of its preparation. This mode of preparation was imitated by Zacutus, the Portugese, and he records the history of the case of a no- bleman who had long been troubled with melancholy ideas, whom he cured in a month by the sole use of a fine pow- der obtained by rubbing gold on a grindstone. I may refer here to the laudations of gold powder and of gold by many writers, ancient and modern. But leav- ing these authorities out of the question, I thought I might attach more value to the testimony of the Arabians as to the curative powers of finely powdered gold than to the theoretical unfounded doubts of the moderns, so I trit- urated the finest gold leaf (23 carats, 6 grains) with 100 parts of milk-sugar for a full hour, for internal medical use. I will not attempt to determine if in this fine powder the gold is only triturated smaller, or if by this ener- getic trituration it has become to some degree oxidated. Enough, that in proving it on some healthy adults, 100 grains of this powder (containing one grain of gold), dis- solved in water, sufficed to excite very great alterations in the health and morbid symptoms, which are recorded be- low. From these it will be perceived that the assertions xlviii of the Arabians are not without foundation, as even small doses of this metal given in the form mentioned caused even in healthy adults morbid states very similar to those cured (in unconscious homoeopathic manner) by those Ori- entals, who deserve credit for their discovery of remedies. Since then I have cured quickly and permanently of melancholia, resembling that produced by gold, many per- sons who had serious thoughts of committing suicide, by small doses, which for the whole treatment contained alto- gether from the 3-100 to the 6-100 of a grain of gold. I do not doubt that much higher attenuations of the powder and much smaller doses of gold would amply suffice for the same purpose. ***** Some time after writing the above I had an opportunity of convincing myself that a hundred-fold higher attenu- ation of the above preparation (made by triturating gold with a hundred parts of milk-sugar), consequently 1:10,000 part of a grain of gold for a dose, showed itself not less powerful in a curative point of view, especially in caries of the palatal aud nasal bones, caused by the abuse of mercury prepared with mineral acids. In the subjoined schema the symptoms of gold homoeopathic to these affec- tions will be readily observed. By further trituration and dilution the power of gold is still more developed and spiritualized, so that I now em- ploy for all curative purposes only a very small portion of a grain of the quadrillion-fold dilution for a dose. Would our physicians, by their customary method of fabricating the virtues of medicines out of airy hypothesis, and constructing a materia medica of such fanciful mate- rials, ever have discovered the remarkable power of a me- tal which their learned speculations had consigned to the category of utterly powerless substances? And which other of the favorite methods of our materia medica man- ufacturers would have taught us these remedial properties of gold? These have been clearly and certainly taught to the homoeopathic physician by the symptoms it produces,. which resemble the morbid states it is capable of curing. xlix Poor, fabulous materia medica of the ordinary stamp, how far dost thou lag behind the revelation which medi- cines in their action on the healthy human body clearly make by the production of morbid symptoms, which the homoeopathic physician can employ with infallible cer- tainty for the cure of natural disease. The duration of the action of gold in not extremely small doses is at least twenty-one days. BELLADONNA. The plant gathered in the garden (on a rather dry soil and preferably on the slope of a hill) is little if at all in- ferior in medicinal power to the wild plant, although some physicians have asserted the contrary. From the following complete list of the symptoms of Belladonna it will readily be seen that it corresponds in similarity to a number of morbid states not unfrequently met with in life, and that hence it must frequently be hom- ceopathically applicable for curative purposes, like a poly- chrest. Those small-souled persons who cry out against its poi- sonous character must let a number of patients die for want of Belladonna; and their hackneyed phrase, that we have well-tried mild remedies for these diseases, only serves to prove their ignorance, for no medicine can be a substitute for another. To take an example: How often are the worst forms of sore-throat (especially those combined with external swell- ing) given over to death, in spite of all their employment of venesections, leeches, blisters, gargles, emolient poul- tices, cooling powders, sudorifics and purgatives. And yet, without all these tortures, they might have been cured in a few hours with a single minute dose of Belladonna. And what other real medicine would not be hurtful, dangerous, and poisonous in the hands of the ignorant? Certainly every powerful medicine would be so if given in 1 unsuitable cases of disease and in disproportionately large doses—for which the so-called physician would be solely to blame. On the other hand, the most potent and ener- getic medicines will become the mildest by diminishing the dose sufficiently, and they will become the curative, even for the most delicate and sensitive bodies, when they are given in appropriate smallest possible doses, and when the case of disease consists of affections very similar to what the medicine itself has shown it can call forth in healthy human beings. With such potent drugs as Bella- • donna, we must never neglect to exercise the requisite care in the homoeopathic selection. But this would never enter the head of the routine practitioner who, as it is well known, is in the habit of treating all cases with a few pre- scriptions learned by rote. Taught by a hundred fold experience at the sick bed during the last eight or ten years, I could not help descend- ing to the decillion-fold dilution, and I find the smallest portion of a drop of this for a dose quite sufficient to ful- fil every curative intention attainable with this medicine. Two drops of the juice mixed with equal parts of alco- hol, taken as unity (as with other vegetable juices), and shaken with 99 to 100 drops of alcohol by two downward strokes of the arm (whose hand holds the mixing vial) gives a hundred fold potentized dilution; one drop of this shaken in the same way with another 100 drops of fresh alcohol gives the ten-thousand fold dilution, and one drop of this'shaken with 100 drops of alcohol, the million fold. And thus in thirty such vials the potentized dilution is brought to the decillion fold, with which the homoeopathic physician effects the cures he can expect to make with Belladonna. Belladonna, in the small dose just described, is, if the case is homceopathically adapted, capable of curing the most acute diseases (in which it acts with a rapidity pro- portionate to the nature of the disorder). On the other hand, it is not less serviceable in the most chronic ail- ments, in which its duration of action, even in the smallest dose, amounts to three weeks and more. li Almost all authors have asserted that vinegar is an anti- dote to Belladonna, but that is a mere conjecture, copied in simple faith by one from another, and yet nothing is further from the truth. Repeated experience has taught me that vinegar only aggravates the ill-effects of large doses of Belladonna. Opium relieves the paralytic symptoms and abdominal pains caused by Belladonna, but only in an antipathic and palliative way, very probably also it removes, in very small doses, the sopor caused by Belladonna. But the stupefied condition, the mania and the fury caused by Belladonna, are soonest and most surely homceo- pathically removed by one or two small doses of Henbane. But the intoxication by itself is best subdued by wine, as I have seen, and as Trajus and Moibanus long ago observed. When a small dose of Belladonna, unhomceopathically selected, causes lachrymose disposition with chilliness and headache, an equally small dose of Pulsatilla relieves. But suitable help is most urgently required in cases where Belladonna has been swallowed in considerable quantities, for example, in the form of its berries. In such cases relief is obtained by drinking a large quantity of strong coffee, which removes the loss of irritability and the tetanic convulsions, though it only does that antipath- ically. It also promotes the vomiting of the berries most certainly, the fauces being at the same time irritated wTith a long feather in order to empty the stomach. The erysipelatous swellings caused by Belladonna are readily removed by Hepar sulphuris. Camphor, too, dis- plays much antidotal power against some of the morbid effects caused by Belladonna. The prophylactic power of Belladonna (given in the smallest dose every six or seven days) discovered by me, against the true erysipelatoid smooth scarlet fever, as described by Sydenham, Plencitz, and others, was calumni- ated and ridiculed for nineteen years by a large number of medical men, who were not acquainted with this pecu- liar form of children's disease, and consequently mistook Hi for it the red miliary (purpura miliaris, roodvonk) that came from Belgium in 1801. This they falsely called " scarlet fever," and naturally they failed to get any result from the administration of my prophylactic and curative remedy for true scarlet fever, in this red miliary fever. I am happy to say that of late years other medical men have again observed the old true scarlet fever. They have amply testified to the prophylactic power of Belladonna in this disease, and have at last rendered me justice after having been treated so long with unmerited contempt. This red miliary (roodvonk) is quite a different disease, requiring quite different treatment. Belladonna naturally does no good in it, and the ordinary routine practice allows the majority of patients to die of it. These might be all cured by the alternate administration of Aconite and tinc- ture of raw coffee—the former for the heat and increasing restlessness and agonizing anxiety, the latter for the ex- cessive pains with the lachrymose humour. The Aconite should be given in the decillion-fold dilution of the juice, and the raw coffee of the million-fold dilution; both in the smallest portion of a drop, for a dose, the one or the other, according as they are indicated, given every twelve, six- teen, or twenty-four hours.. In recent times these two very different diseases (smooth scarlet fever and purple miliary) seem to have occurred complicated with one another in some epidemics; hence in some of the patients Belladonna, in others Aconite, seemed to have been most useful. BRYONIA-ALBA. The duration of the action of a somewhat larger dose of this vegetable juice can be perceived for a couple of weeks. The similarity of its effects to many of the symptoms of Rhus toxicodendron cannot fail to be noticed; in the pre- face to the latter medicine I have sufficiently dwelt upon this. At the same time Bryonia affects the disposition quite differently, its fever consists chiefly of chilliness, liii and its symptoms are mostly excited or aggravated by cor- poreal exertion, although its alternating effects, when the symptoms are relieved by movement, are not very rare. Hence, when using Bryonia in diseases, there occur cases where the remedy, although chosen as hoinceopathically as possible and given in sufficiently small dose, does not ren- der adequate service in the first twenty-four hours. The reason of this is that only one, and that the wrong series, of its alternating actions correspond. In such cases a fresh dose administered after twenty-four hours affects amelioration by the production of the opposite alternating actions. (The same happens with respect to all drugs, a second dose given immediately and quickly after the first one partially destroys the action of the first dose). This happens with only very few other medicines having alter- nating actions (vide the preface to Ignatia, but it occurs not rarely with Bryonia. When it has been really wrongly selected and was not truly homoeopathic, the bad effects are generally removable by Rhus, or, according to circumstances, by some other medicine corresponding more exactly to the bad effects produced, such as Camphor. From the rich treasury of symptoms it causes in the healthy human body, a number of artificial morbid states may be put together, of which we may happily avail our- selves for the homoeopathic relief of many ailments of daily occurrence, especially certain fevers, and some kinds of so-called abdominal spasms of the female sex. Hence its remedial powers are of great extent. In severe acute diseases, with great excitement, the most serviceable dose is a very high attenuation, one higher than I have previously used, to-wit, a very small globule of the decillionfold potency. The more or less strong olfac- tion of a globule the size of a mustard seed moistened with this attenuation acts more gently and certainly, and is equally efficacious in its effects upon the vital force—so amendable to accurately selected homoeopathic remedies— which has been appointed by the wise Creator for bring- ing about the cure. liv CALCAREA ACETICA. Experience, and experience alone, but not baseless con- jecture, can and dare pronounce respecting the power of drugs to effect alterations in the health of human beings. From the earliest times it has been firmly accepted as a maxim in ordinary medicine, that calcareous substances introduced and taken into the human body are useless and powerless. It was, no doubt, conceded that they absorbed and neutralized morbid acids present in the stomach, but even in such cases the calcareous neutral salt thence re- sulting was held to be unmedicinal. In the ordinary condition of the stomach there is no free acid in the gastric juice, and likewise none in many of its morbid states, and hence pure calcareous earth, consider- ing its nature, ma}' perhaps not be a medicine capable of altering the health of human beings; but the inference from this as to its non-medicinal character in a state of solution, without an appeal to experience on the subject, is, like all inferences a priori in medicine, which are not based on facts, to say the least, extremely premature and dogmatic; like most of these in ordinary medicine. Some cases of great disturbance of the health following the ingestion of pure carbonate of lime in persons who were manifestly suffering from morbid acidity in the stomach, induced me to institute experiments with it in a dissolved state, and I found it possessed of great medicinal power, as the following symptoms show. In order to obtain pure calcareous earth dissolved in pure Acetic acid, I boiled crude, well-washed oyster shells for an hour in pure spring water, then broke them into fragments without using any metal instrument, and dis- solved these fragments in distilled vinegar, which I heated up to a boiling point in a porcelain vessel until complete saturation Avas gradually effected. The filtered solution was evaporated to one-fifth in a similar vessel, and with this fluid neutral salt, without the addition of alcohol, the following experiments were made. lv CAMPHORA. I give here the symptoms hitherto observed from Cam- phor, not as a complete list of all the effects to be expected from it, but only as a commencement thereof, so that at some future period the remainder of its effects may be added to this list. From the earliest times this medicine has been blindly used and improperly employed in large and massive doses, so that its true action has never been ascertained, nor could it be ascertained, as it has almost always been given only along with several other drugs, either mixed up with, or administered at the same time with it, and moreover, and this is the worst, it has only been employed amid the tumult of the symptoms of diseases. For the pure effects of it, observed by Alexander, are very meagre and confined to mere general expressions. The action of this substance is very puzzling and diffi- cult to determine, even in healthy organisms, because its primary action more often rapidly alternates and becomes mixed up with the reactions of the life (secondary action) than is the case with any other medicine, so that it is fre- quently hard to distinguish what is to be ascribed to the reaction of the body, and what to the alternating action of the Camphor in its primary action. But, at all events, a commencement of a pure proving of it must be made, and as such I offer the following symp- toms. In its curative action Camphor is just as puzzling and wonderful, for it removes the violent effects of very many, extremely different, vegetable medicines (and even those of the animal drug Cantharides and of many mineral and metallic drugs), and hence it must have a sort of general pathological action, which, however, we are unable to indi- cate by any general expression; nor can w7e even attempt to do so for fear of straying into the domain of shadows, where knowledge and observation cease, whilst imagination lvi deceives us into accepting dreams as truth; where we, in short, abandoned by the guiding of plain experience, grope about in the dark, and with every desire to penetrate into the inner essence of things, about which little minds so presumptuously dogmatize, we gain nothing by such hyper- physical speculations but noxious error and self deception- Camphor, as I can testify from experience, removes the too violent action of very many drugs, whether unsuitably employed or given in too large doses, but generally only in the primary action, as a kind of contrarium, as a pallia- tive. For this purpose it must be given very frequently, but in very small doses—when requisite every five to fif- teen, or when there is great urgency every two or three minutes, about one drop of the saturated alcoholic solution (one-eighth of a grain) shaken up in half an ounce of water until dissolved, or by means of olfaction of a satur- ated alcoholic solution of Camphor every three, four, six, ten, fifteen minutes. One grain of Camphor (dissolved in eight drops of alco- hol) combines with 400 grains of tepid water, and when shaken becomes completely dissolved, contrary to the as- sertion in almost all works on materia medica that is quite insoluble in water. I have not found Camphor suitable as an antidote to the violent effects of Ignatia. The rapid exhaustion of its action and the quick change of its symptoms render it incapable of curing most chronic diseases. That cutaneous inflammation, which spreads in a radia- ting manner, is bright red, the redness disappearing for an instant when pressed with the finger, commonly called erysipelas (rose), when it arises from internal causes is always only a single symptom of the disease. Now, as Camphor when applied externally excites a kind of ery- sipelas, so, in acute diseases accompanied by erysipelas, it is useful as an external application, if the other symptoms of the internal malady are present among the symptoms of Camphor. When the influenza endemic in Siberia comes amon» us, lvii as it does occasionally, when the hot stage has already commenced, Camphor is of service, only as a palliative certainly, but an invaluable palliative, seeing that the dis- ease is one of short duration. It should be given in fre- quent but ever increasing doses, dissolved in water as above described. It does not shorten the duration of the disease, but renders it much milder, and hence it conducts the disease innocuously to its termination. (On the other hand, Nux vomica, in a single dose, and that the smallest possible, will often remove the disease homceopathically in a few hours). When dangerous effects ensue from a large dose of Cam- phor, Opium is useful as an antidote; and, on the other hand, Camphor is a prompt antidote in Opium poisoning; thus each of these substances removes the effects of the other. It is therefore astonishing how Opium and Cam- phor have hitherto been given in combination in one pre- scription! CAPSICUM ANNUUM. In both the Indies where " Spanish pepper," as it is called, is indigenous, it is chiefly used only as a spice. It was introduced as such into England, France, and Italy, and at length was adopted in Germany as a spice to season sauces at the dainty tables of high livers (the pulverized seeds of the still more pungent Capsicum baccatum, or "Cayenne pepper," being often used as a substitute) in order to stimulate the palate to an unnatural appetite, and thus—ruin the health. In the meantime but little was heard 'of the medicinal use of this powerful substance. Bergius alone (Materia Medica, p. 147) mentions having cured several agues of long standing with two-grain doses of Capsicum; but he did not give it alone, for the old original sin of traditional medicine, the mixture craze, induced him to combine it with bay berries, in the proportion of twenty of the latter to three of the former. He does not describe the agues lviii cured by it according to the totality of their symptoms, but only employs the expression "old agues" after the manner of his other old school colleagues, so that the vir- tus ab usu of the mixture prescribed is shrouded in dark- ness. On the other hand, the homoeopathic physician pro- ceeds much less doubtfully and with much greater cer- tainty in his cures with Capsicum, for guided by the pecu- liar, pure morbid states produced by this powerful med- icinal substance in the healthy body (some of which I here record), he only attempts the removal of those natural dis- eases the sum of whose symptoms is contained in the great- est possible similarity among those of Capsicum. The diseases curable by Capsicum are rarely met with in persons of tense fibre. CARBO VEGETABILIS. (Wood Charcoal.) From the earliest times physicians have considered char- coal to be non-medicinal and powerless. Empiricism only placed among the ingredients of her highly composite powders for epilepsy, the charcoal of lime-wood, without being able to adduce any evidence of the efficacy of this substance by itself. It is only in recent times, since Lowitz, of St. Petersburg, discovered the chemical proper- ties of wood charcoal, especially its power of removing from putrid and mouldy substances their bad smell, and of preserving fluids from fetid odors, that physicians be- gan to employ it externally. They advised rinsing of the mouth with powdered charcoal in cases of fetor of the breath, the application of the same powder to putrid ulcers, and in both cases the fetor was immediately removed. Administered internally in the dose of several drachms, it removed the evil odor of the stools in autumnal dysentery. But this is merely a chemical use of wood-charcoal, for it takes away the foul odor of putrid water when mixed with it in lumps not pulverized, and indeed it does so most effectually in coarse fragments. lxix This medicinal employment of it was, as I have said, merely a chemical one, and not at all a dynamical employ- ment penetrating into the inner vital sphere. The mouth rinsed out with it only remained free from fetor for a few hours. The evil smell of the mouth returned every day. The old ulcer was not improved by it and the fetor, chem- ically removed from it for the moment, always recurred. The powder ingested in autumnal dysentery removed the fetor of the stools chemically for but a short time; the disease remained and the disgusting smell of the stools soon returned. In such a coarse pulverized state charcoal can exercise almost none other than a chemical action. A considerable quantity of wood charcoal may be swallowed in its ordin- ary crude condition without producing the slightest alter- ation of the health. It is only by prolonged trituration of the charcoal (as of many other dead and apparently powerless substances) with a non-medicinal substance, such as milk-sugar, that its inner concealed, and in the crude state latent and, so to speak, slumbering dynamical medicinal power can be awakened and brought into life. This can be effected by triturating one grain of wood charcoal for an hour with 100 grains of milk-sugar; but its power will be developed still more vivaciously and powerfully if one grain of this powder be triturated for the same length of. time with 100 grains of milk-sugar, and it will be made far more efficacious (potentized) if one grain of this last powder be again tri- turated for an hour with another 100 grains of milk-sugar. In this way a million-fold powder attenuation is produced, a small portion of a grain of which moistened with a drop of water and ingested, produces great medicinal effects and derangement of the human health. The following peculiar, pure effects of wood-charcoal on the human health were caused by the ingestion of a few grains of this million-fold powder attenuation of wood charcoal. Its medicinal powers can be developed in a still higher degree by a further trituration with 100 parts of fresh milk sugar; but for homoeopathic medicinal use a Ix stronger potentization of wood charcoal than the million- fold attenuation should by no means be employed. The occasional production in sensitive patients of too energetic action from a small dose of this preparation is soon diminished by smelling several times at a saturated solution of Camphor in alcohol, and apparently completely removed by frequent repetitions of the olfaction. [The records of traditional medicine have contributed no symp- toms to this proving]. CHAMOMILLA. (Camomile.) It will be seen from the following symptoms of Camo- mile, though they are far from being exhaustive, that this plant must evidently be reckoned among the medicines of many uses (polychrests). Hence in their domestic prac- tice the common people have employed it in all kinds of maladies, especially those of an acute character. On this account physicians in their ludicrous pride have not deigned to regard it as a medicine, but, giving it the contemptuous name of " domestic remedy," they permitted their patients to use it by handfuls in infusion as a tea or as a clyster along with the medicines they prescribed,* just as if Cam- omile, being but a vulgar domestic remedy, was of no account. In like manner they allowed their patients to apply bagfuls of the warmed flowers in any quantity they pleased to painful parts, whilst they themselves directed quite different medicines to be taken internally. Ob- stetric practitioners permitted the midwifes and mothers to mix Camomile tea in almost all the drinks and food of *In order to avoid the degradation of admitting into their ele- gant prescriptions a vulgar folk's-remedy like the ordinary Camo- mile, when it was desired to give a medicjne of this sort, they pre- ferred to order the dearer and more aristocratic Chamomilla romana off., without considering that this, being quite a different plant, belonging, indeed, to a totally different genus of plants (Anthemis nobilis, L.). must possess different properties and ac- tions. But what does a man who only wants a name in his pre- scriptions care about the peculiar actions of medicines? lxi children at the breast and'wet-nurses, as though it were a purely wholesome, non-injurious, or at least a perfectly un- important and indifferent matter. To such an extent did the blindness of physicians go with respect to a plant which belongs to the category of powerful medicines, whose exact power and importance it was their duty to ascertain, in order not only to learn how to make a rational and wholesome employment of it, but also to prevent its misuse by the common people, and to teach them in what particular cases Camomile could only be employed beneficially, and in what cases its use was to be avoided. But hitherto physicians have neglected their duty in all these respects; on the contrary, they vied with the com- mon people in the thoughtless recommendation or permis- sion to use this powerful medicinal plant in all cases of disease, without any distinction, in any quantity or dose the patients chose. But it does not require much sense to perceive that no medicine in the world can be useful in all diseases, and that every one possesses an accurately defined curative sphere of action, beyond which every powerful medicinal substance, like Camomile,* must act in a thoroughly in- jurious manner, and so much the more injuriously the greater its powers are. Hence the physician who does not desire to act like a charlatan ought to be able to tell beforehand, not only the cases in which Camomile must be beneficial, but also those in which its use must be in- jurious. Finally, he should be able also to determine the exact dose, which shall be neither too large nor too small for the disease. By the administration of the appropriate dose the" cure of the disease by this plant may be antici- pated with the greatest certainty. Did we not know by thousands of other instances in what a melancholy state, in what incomprehensible blind- ness, so-called practical medicine has groped through so many centuries, and how it has done everything to emulate * Every medicine that is capable of curing serious ailments must naturally be a powerful medicine. 5 lxii the common herd in their folly, it would only be necessary to direct the attention of an unprejudiced person to the proceedings of physicians in regard to this powerful med- icinal plant, Camomile. For as it is impossible that any one medicine, be it ever so useful, can be serviceable and curative in one-tenth part of the enormous number of different morbid states that exist in nature, so neither can Camomile. But let us suppose the impossible case, that Camomile is curative in a tenth of all known diseases, must it not, if employed as hitherto, in almost all cases of disease with- out distinction, do harm in the other nine-tenths? Is it wise to purchase a single benefit* by a ninefold injury? "What! injury?" retorts the ordinary practitioner; "I never saw any injury from Camomile." Yes, as long as you are ignorant of the morbid symptoms and ailments that Camomile as a powerful medicine is capable of devel- oping per se and in a peculiar manner in the healthy human body, you cannot recognize the ailments due to its employment in diseases, as the injurious effects of Camo- mile; and in your ignorance you often attribute them to the course of the disease itself, to the malignity of the dis- ease, and thus you deceive yourself and the poor tortured patient. Look in this mirror, look at the following Camomile symptoms, and when you are practising your ordinary slipshod treatment with an unlimited simultaneous em- ployment of Camomile, behold the serious hurtful symp- toms and ailments caused by Camomile, consider how much t It would be sufficiently stupid if one should purchase all the tickets of a class lottery in order to obtain the several prizes in it, without considering that he thereby incurs a palpable loss of ten per cent. But what could possibly be more foolish than, supposing there was a lottery which obviously brought a loss of nine-tenths to its subscribers, for a person to buy up all the tickets and so in- cur a certain loss of nine whilst he could only win one ? And yet the ordinary practitioner who employs Camomile in every case is far more foolish; he does a much greater proportion of in jury, only with this difference, that the injury does not touch himself, but only his wretched patient. lxiii discomfort and torture you inflict on your patients by the abuse of this powerful plant in unsuitable cases and in ex- cessive doses.* See from this list of symptoms, incomplete though it be, how often, where the disease would frequently have passed away by itself, you have prolonged, doubled, multiplied the sufferings of the patient by exciting an accumulation of the peculiar Camomile ailments by your senseless con- tinued abuse of this drug! As long as you really did not know, did not suspect the peculiar sufferings Camomile is capable of occasioning, you sinned out of pure ignorance; but now that you have here displayed before you a list of the pure pathogenetic effects of Camomile, you may well begin to be ashamed of your sin in inflicting so much suf- fering on your patients, who come to you in order to obtain from you an alleviation of their sufferings, a cure and re- lief of their diseases, by your every day employment or un- limited permission to take it in cases for which it is un- suitable, and moreover, in such enormous doses. From the symptoms and ailments which Camomile ex- cites per se in the healthy human being (and the same is the case with all dynamically acting medicines) we see what are the natural morbid states it can and must cure rapidly, certainly, and permanently. I need not point out these to him who knows how to employ it homceopath- ically. In the cases for which this plant is suitable, indicated by the correspondence of the symptoms of the disease with the peculiar Camomile symptoms, it effects a perfect cure in very small doses, when the patient is protected from all ♦Often, when, in the ordinary hap-hazard practice, Camomile may have been administered in an appropriate case (for it must occasionally happen that a polychrest medicine, which is given in all sorts of cases, will by chance meet with a case of disease for which it is suited), it does harm, owing to the excessive quantity in which it is taken. It removes the symptoms of the malady to which it is Homoeopathic, but inflicts in addition many useless sufferings, by producing some of its other severe symptoms which are not developed by a small dose, and thus it does harm in even the most appropriate cases by the unnecessarily strong dose. lxiv other foreign medicinal influences, as he ought to be in* every rational mode of treatment. I have found a single' drop of the quadrillion-fold attenuation of the juice of the plant, prepared as above directed, not only sufficient, but sometimes (when the patient was very sensitive) rather too strong. Any one who has a fancy to compare these doses with the ordinary ones of a couple of ounces of Ca- momile flowers in infusion, the drug being also given at the same time in clysters and fomentations, as it often is in the ordinary stupid routine practice, may do so. Well- attested truth is on my side. Chamomilla has not a long duration of action, but in large doses its action extends over some, occasionally many- days. The injurious effects of its employment in excessive doses and in unsuitable cases are soon removed, according to the symptoms, sometimes by raw coffee, sometimes by Ignatia, sometimes by Pulsatilla; but if they consist of tearing and shooting pains relieved by moving the affected part, by Aconite. Coffee, when it is not used by the patient as his daily beverage, also removes many of the sufferings caused by Camomile, and, on the other hand, Camomile is often a powerful antidote to the hurtful effects of coffee,. when the symptoms do not rather point to Nux vomica. But when the injurious effects of coffee are continually re- newed by its daily use as a beverage, Camomile can no more relieve the coffee-drinker of his morbid symptoms than wiping up can avail while the rain continues to fall. Camomile in the smallest dose seems to diminish in a remarkable manner over sensitiveness to pain or the too acute sufferings of the organs of the emotions from exces- sive pain. Hence it alleviates many of the affections caused by coffee drinking and by courses of treatment with narcotic palliatives. On this account it is unsuited for persons who bear pain calmly and patiently. I attach great importance to this observation. Of late I have seldom been able to employ Camomile as a curative agent. When in new patients the symptoms in- dicated the employment of Camomile I have usually found lxv "that they were not original symptoms of disease, but as the history showed, symptoms resulting from the abuse of Camomile, so that I had only to give antidotes for the ail- ments occasioned by the latter in order to cure the disease that had been artificially produced thereby. CHEL1D0NIUM. The ancients imagined that the yellow color of the juice of this plant was an indication (signature) of its utility in bilious diseases. The moderns from this extended its em- ployment to hepatic diseases, and though there were cases where the utility of this plant in maladies of that region of the abdomen was obvious, yet the diseases of this organ differ so much among one another, both in their origin and in the attendant derangements of the rest of the organism; moreover, the cases in which it is said to have done good have been so imperfectly described by physicians, that it is impossible from their data to tell beforehand the cases of disease in which it must certainly be of use; and yet this is indispensably necessary in the treatment of diseases of mankind which are of such serious importance. Hence, a recommendation of this sort (ab usu in morbus) is of but a general, undefined, and dubious character, especially since this plant was so seldom given simply and singly by physicians, but almost always in combination with hetero- geneous, powerful substances (dandelion, fumitory, water- cresses), and along with the simultaneous employment of the so-called bitters, which vary so much in their effects. The importance of human health does not admit of any such'uncertain directions for the employment of medicines. It would be criminal frivolity to rest contented with such guesswork at the bedside of the sick. Only that which the drugs themselves unequivocally reveal of their peculiar powers in their effects on the healthy human body—that is to say, only their pure symptoms—can teach us loudly and clearly when they can be advantageously used with lxvi certainty; and this is when they are administered in mor- bid states very similar to those they are able to produce on the healthy body. From the following symptoms of Celandine, which it is to be hoped will be completed by other upright, accurate observers, a much more extensive prospect of the real cnrative powers of this plant is opened up than has hitherto been dreamt of. It is, however, only the physi- cian who is conversant with the homoeopathic doctrine who will be able to make this advantageous employment of it. The routine practitioner may content himself with the uncertain indications for the employment of Celandine to be found in his benighted materia medica. CINCHONA. Excepting Opium, I know no medicine that has been more and oftener misused in diseases and employed to the injury of mankind, than Cinchona bark. It was regarded not only as perfectly innocuous, but as a wholesome and universally beneficial medicine in almost all morbid states, particularly where debility was observed, and was often prescribed in large doses several times a day for many weeks, and even months, together. In so acting the ordinary physicians were guided by an utterly false principle, and they confirmed the reproach I have already frequently made against them to the more sensible portion of the public, that they have hitherto sought in traditional opinions, in guesses prompted by false lights, in theoretical maxims and chance ideas what they could and should find only by impartial observation, clear experience, and pure experiment, in a pure science of experience such as medicine from its very nature must only be. Setting aside all guesswork and all traditional unproved opinions, I adopted the latter method, and I found, as with the other medicines, so especially with Cinchona bark, by testing its dynamical powers on the healthy human being,. lxvii that as certainly as it is extremely curative in some cases of disease, so surely can it also develop the most morbid symptoms of a special kind in the healthy human body; symptoms often of great intensity and long duration, as shown by the following true observations and experiments. Thereby, first of all, the prevailing delusion as to the harmlessness, the childlike mildness and the all-whole- some character of Cinchona bark is refuted.* But equally evident is it, from the symptoms of disease produced by Cinchona bark in healthy observers recorded below, that the numerous unhappy results of the treatment by this bark occurring in the practice of ordinary physi- cians, and the frequently incurable aggravations of disease developed where bark in long continued and large doses was the main remedy in their prescriptions were owing solely to the noxious character of this drug when employed in unsuitable cases, and in too frequent and too large doses. This noxious character is demonstrated by the medicinal symptoms recorded below, which physicians till now were not aware of, and which they made no effort to ascertain. On the contrary, they innocently ascribed these aggrava- tions to the natural course of the disease itself. * As long ago as the year 1790 (see W. Cullen's Materia Medica, Leipzig, bei Schwickert, ii, p. 109, note) I made the first pure trial with Cinchona bark upon myself, in reference to its power of ex- citing intermittent fever. With this first trial broke upon me the dawn that has since brightened into the most brilliant day of the medical art; that it is only in virtue of their power to make the healthy human being ill that medicines can cure morbid states, and, indeed, only such morbid states as are composed of symptoms which the drug to be selected for them can itself produce in simi- larity on the healthy. This is a truth so incontrovertible, so abso- lutely without exception, that all the venom poured out on it by the members of the medical guild, blinded by their thousand years old prejudices, is powerless to extinguish it; as powerless as were the vituperations launched against Harvey's immortal discovery of the greater circulation in the human body by Riolan and his crew to destroy the truth revealed by Harvey. These opponents of an inextinguishable truth fought with the same despicable weapons as do to-day the adversaries of the homoeopathic medical doctrine. Like their modern congeners they also refrained from repeating his experiments in a true, careful manner (for fear lest lxviii But I refrain from blaming these physicians, whose judgment is biassed by the prejudices of their schools, on this account, (their conscience will doubtless reproach them for it) I will content myself with expressing my own convictions in a few remarks. 1. Cinchona bark is one of the most powerful vegetable medicines. When it is accurately indicated as a remedy, and when the patient is seriously and intensely affected by a disease that Cinchona is capable of removing, I find that a drop of a diluted tincture of Cinchona bark, which contains a quadrillionth of a grain of Cinchona power, is a strong (often a too strong) dose,* which can accomplish and cure all alone all that Cinchona is capable of doing in the case before us; generally without it being necessary to repeat this dose in order to effect a cure; a second dose being rarely, very rarely, required. In the case neither of this nor of any other medicine did a preconceived opinion or an eccen- tric fancy lead me to this minuteness of dose. No, multi- plied experience and faithful observation led me to reduce the dose to such an extent. Led by experience and obser- vations I clearly saw that larger doses, even where they did good, acted much more powerfully than was needed for the cure. Hence the smaller doses; and, as I repeatedly they might be confuted by facts), and confined themselves to abuse, appealing to the great antiquity of their error (for Galen's predecessors and Galen himself had arbitrarily decided that the arteries contained only spiritual air, -nve'vfia, and that the source of the blood was not in the heart but in the liver), and they cried out: Malo cum Gal eno errare, quam cum Harveyo esse circulator ! This blindness, this obstinate appeal to the extreme antiquity of their delusions (it was only after thirty years and more that Harvey had the satisfaction of seeing his true doctrine universally adopted), was in those days not more stupid than the blindness of to-day, and the present aiirdess rancour against Homoeopathy which ex- poses the pernicious rubbish talked about ancient and modern arbitrary maxims and unjustifiable practices, and teaches that it is only by the responses given by nature when questioned that we can with sure prescience change diseases into health rapidly, gently, and permanently. * Compare this with the large doses of this drug given in ordin- ary practice! lxix observed from these the same effects, though in a less de- gree, I gave still smaller, and the very smallest doses. These proved sufficient to effect a complete cure, and they did not display the violence of larger doses, which tends to delay the cure. 2. A very small dose of Cinchona acts for but a short time, hardly a couple of days, but a large dose, such as is em- ployed in the practice of every day, often acts for several weeks if it be not got rid of by vomiting or diarrhoea, and thus ejected from the organism. From this we. may judge how excellent the ordinary practice is of giving every day several and moreover large doses of bark! 3. If the homoeopathic law be right—as it incontestably is right without any exception, and is derived from a pure observation of nature—that medicines can easily, rapidly, and permanently cure cases of disease only when the latter are made up of symptoms similar to the medicinal symp- toms observed from the administration of the former to healthy persons; then we find, on a consideration of the symptoms of Cinchona, that this medicine is adapted for but few diseases, but that where it is accurately indicated, owing to the immense power of its action, one single very small dose will often effect a marvellous cure. I say cure, and by this I mean a " recovery undisturbed by after sufferings." Or have practitioners of the ordinary stamp another, to me unknown, idea of what constitutes a cure? Will they, for instance, call cures the suppression by this drug of agues for which bark is unsuited? I know full well that almost all periodic diseases, and almost all agues, even such as are not suited for Cinchona, must be suppressed and lose their periodic character by this power- ful drug, administered as it usually is in enormous and oft- repeated doses; but are the poor sufferers thereby really cured? Has not their previous disease only undergone a transformation into another and worse disease, though it may no longer manifest itself in intermittent attacks recur- ring periodically; but has become a continued and, we may say, a more insidious disease by this very powerful and, in this case, unsuitable medicine? True, they can no longer lxx complain that the paroxysm of their original disease re- appears on certain days and at certain hours; but note the earthy complexion of their puffy faces, the dulness of their eyes! See how oppressed is their breathing, how hard and distended is their epigastrium, how tensely swollen their loins, how miserable their appetite, how perverted their taste, how oppressed and painful their stomachs by all food, how undigested and abnormal their faecal evacua- tions, how anxious, dreamful, and unrefreshing their sleep? Look how weary, how joyless, how dejected, how irritably sensitive or stupid they are as they drag themselves about, tormented by a much greater number of ailments than afflicted them in their ague! And how long does not such a Cinchona cachexy often last, in comparison with which death itself were often preferable! Is this health? It is not ague, that I readily admit; but confess—and no one can deny it—it is certainly not health- It is rather another, but a worse, disease than ague. It is the Cinchona disease, which must be more severe than the ague otherwise it could not overcome and suppress (sus- pend) the latter. Should the organism, as it sometimes will, recover from this Cinchona disease after many weeks, then the ague, which has till now remained suspended by the superior force of the dissimilar Cinchona disease, returns in an aggravated form, because the organism has been so much deteriorated by the improper treatment. If the attack be now renewed in a still more energetic manner with Cinchona bark, and continued for a longer time in order, as it is said, to ward off the fits, there then occurs a chronic Cinchona cachexy, a faint picture of which will be found in the symptoms recorded below. Such are most of the bark treatments of our physicians, because they know not what are the cases for which bark is suited. They are suppressions of the original affection by the production of a stronger Cinchona disease, which is mistaken for a manifestation of the obstinacy of the original disease, the development of new symptoms being attributed to its peculiar malignity; because it is not. lxxi known that these ailments are due to Cinchona, because it is not recognized what they are, namely, artificially induced Cinchona disease. The following symptoms caused solely by bark acting on the healthy body, will open the eyes of physicians on this subject, those of them at least who have not yet acquired the faculty of silencing their consciences, and in whose bosoms a warm heart for the welfare of their fellow crea- tures still beats. Most intolerable and unjustifiable, however, is the mon- strous abuse made by the dominant school of medicine, which plumes itself on being the only rational school, of this powerful drug in all kinds of debility. There is no disease which is attended by weakness (as almost every one is naturally), or which physicians by their unsuitable allopathic medicinal mixtures have re- duced to exhaustion of the vital powers—where they did not consider it necessary to give this bark in large doses in order to strengthen as they call it; no patient prostrated, ruined and enfeebled by improper drugs to a condition of complicated cachexy whom they have not endeavored to set up and restore to a healthy condition by tonic potions of infusion, decoction, extract, electuary of Cinchona, or by the same drug in powder. He is stuffed and tortured with it for weeks and months under the pretence that it will do him good. Of the consequence of such treatment I would prefer to say nothing. If the death rolls could speak, they would most eloquently speak the praises of this abuse of bark; and so also would the crowds of the living victims of asthmatic, dropsical, and icteric diseases, and those other unfortunates who remain affected with neuralgic or spas- modic maladies, or with malignant growths, abdominal suf- ferings or lingering fever, if they but knew what mischief had been done to them. I would appeal to the common sense of these practition- ers and ask them how, without being guilty of the most unpardonable slipshod practice, they can venture to ad- minister bark in all those infinitely various diseases, which of themselves, as also especially in consequence of the tra- lxxii ■ditional medical treatment, must necessarily be attended by weakness? How can they ever imagine that they can strengthen a sick person whilst he is still suffering from his disease, the source of his weakness? Have they ever seen a patient rapidly cured of his disease by appropriate remedies who failed to recover his strength in the very process of the removal of his disease? If, however, as is natural, it is only by the cure of the disease that the weak- ness of the patient can cease and give place to strength and activity, and if, on the other hand, there can be no question of a removal of the weakness as long as its source is not dried up, that is to say, as long as the disease on which it depends is not cured, what a. perverse treatment must not that be, which seeks to make strong and active by the administration of Cinchona (and wine) a patient at whose vitals the disease is still gnawing! These practi- tioners cannot cure diseases, but they attempt to strengthen these uncured patients with Cinchona bark. How can such a stupid idea ever enter their heads? If bark is to make all sick persons strong, active and cheerful, it must needs be the universal panacea which shall at once deliver all patients from all their maladies, from all morbid sensations and abnormal functions, that is to say, make them in all their ailments in every respect well and free from disease! For so long as the plague of disease deranges the whole man, consumes his forces and robs him of every feeling of well being, it is a childish, foolish, self contradictory un- dertaking to attempt to give such an uncured person strength and activity. That Cinchona bark is no panacea for all diseases, we are taught by the sad experience of the ordinary practice; but its symptoms show that it can be an appropriate, real remedy for only a few cases of disease. It is no doubt true that by the first doses of bark the strength of the patient, be he ever so ill, is increased for a few hours; he is able to raise himself up in bed all alone, as if by a miracle; he wants to get out of bed and put on his clothes; all at once he speaks in a stronger more reso- lute manner, venturing to walk alone, and grows animated, Ixxiii eagerly desires to eat this or that; but a careful accurate observer easily sees that this excitation is only an un- natural tension (see below the note to § 895). A few hours pass and the patient sinks back, sinks deeper down into his disease, and the fatal result is often accelerated. Do not these gentlemen perceive that no one can become well (truly strong and active) as long as his disease lasts? No! the always suspicious semblance of strength com- municated to the patient for a few hours by bark is inva- riably attended by the saddest results, and this will ever- be so, except in those rare cases where Cinchona bark is at the same time the right remedy for the disease on which the weakness depends. In such cases the patient's weak- ness ceases immediately with the disease. But, as I have said, such cases are rare, for Cinchona bark is the true remedy (which relieves rapidly, permanently, and without after ailments) for but few diseases. In all the many other cases bark, as a medicine and so-called tonic, must do harm, and the more so the stronger its medicinal power (injur- ing when given improperly) is. For all medicines, without exception, can do no good when unsuitable for the case of disease, and must inflict so much the more injury the greater their medicinal strength (and the larger the doses in which they are given). Hence, physicians should first learn the peculiar power of action of Cinchona bark, and exactly what particular alter- ations in the health of human beings it is capable of causing, before they presume to undertake the cure of dis- eases, and consequently the morbid weakness, with this powerful medicinal agent. They should first know the symptoms of Cinchona before attempting to determine for what collection of morbid symptoms, that is, for what case of disease it may be curative; it can be curative for none but those whose symptoms are to be found in similarity among the symptoms of Cinchona. He who fails to do this will always commit mistakes, and do infinitely more harm than good to his patient. When Cinchona has been selected according to conscien- tious homoeopathic conviction (but not as hitherto, accord- lxxiv ing to theoretical views, deceptive names of diseases, or the misleading authority of equally blind predecessors), and is consequently the truly appropriate remedy of the case of disease to be treated, in such a case, and for that very reason, it is also the true strengthening remedy. It strengthens inasmuch as it removes the disease, for it is only the organism free from disease that restores the de- fective strength; strength cannot be materially poured into it by a decoction of Cinchona (or by wine). There are no doubt cases where the disease itself con- sists of weakness, and in such cases bark is at once the most appropriate curative and strengthening remedy. Such a case is that where the sufferings of the patient are solely or chiefly owing to weakness from loss of humors,, from great loss of blood (also from repeated venesections), great loss of milk in nursing women, loss of saliva, frequent seminal losses, profuse suppurations, profuse sweats, and weakening by frequent purgatives, where almost all the other ailments of the patient are wont to correspond in similarity with the Cinchona symptoms (see notes to 837 and 860). If, then, there is here no other disease in the back- ground to produce dynamically or to keep up the loss of humors, then for the cure of this peculiar weakness (from loss of humors), which has here become the disease, one or two doses as small as those above mentioned,* together *Here as elsewhere I insist on the sufficiency and efficacy of such small doses. And yet the vulgar herd can never understand me, for they know nothing of the pure treatment with one single simple medicinal substance to the exclusion of all other sorts of medicinal irritants, and their thoughts are enchained in the mazes of their old routine. Even when the ordinary physicians now and then constrain themselves to give in some (acute) disease one sin- gle medicine, they never have the heart to refrain from using at the same time several other things possessing medicinal power, which, however, they regard as of no consequence, and to which they apply the trivial name of domestic remedies. * * * In such an onslaught with heterogeneous drugs, which, although ignor- ance looks upon them as innocuous domestic remedies, are to all intents and purposes medicines, and some of them very powerful medicines; in this accessory quackery, I say, even a large dose of medicine of another kind can, of a truth, never display its peculiar lxxv with appropriate treatment in other respects, by nourish- ishing diet, open air, cheerful surroundings, etc., are as efficacious to effect recovery as larger and repeated doses are to cause secondary and injurious effects, as is the case with every nimium, every excess even of the best thing in the world. This suitableness of Cinchona bark in diseases of debil- ity from loss of humors led physicians of the ordinary sort, as it were instinctively, to a mode of treatment of many diseases which has been, and still continues to be, the most prevalent of all modes of treatment—the weakening treat- ment by means of squandering the humors (under pretense of loosening the morbid matter and expelling it from the body) by means of frequently repeated so-called solvents (that is, drugs of various kinds that purge the bowels), by action, and such an uncommonly small dose as Homoeopathy re- quires is completely powerless; it will be instantaneously over- powered and annihilated. No! in the language of rational men that alone can be called giving a single medicine in a disease, when, excepting this one, all other medicinal influences are ex- cluded from the patient and carefully kept away from him. But he who will do this must know what things brought in contact with the human body act medicinally on it. So long as he does not know this it must be ascribed to his ignorance that he con- siders as nothing, as not at all medicinal, such things as herb teas and clysters, poultices and baths of herbs and salts, and the other things just mentioned, and continues to use them thoughtlessly under the name of domestic remedies during the employment of medicine internally. Still more heedlessly in this respect is the treatment of chronic maladies conducted; for, in addition to what the patient takes from medicine chests and bottles, and the exter- nal applications and so-called domestic remedies that are usually administered to the patient, lots of superfluous hurtful things are allowed, and even prescribed, which are also regarded as indiffer- ent matters in spite of the disturbing effects they may exercise on the patient's health, and of the confusion they may cause in the treatment. * * * But is such a medley of medicinal luxury nec- essary and useful for the life and well being or compatible with the recovery of the patient ? It is inj urious, yes, extremely inj ur- ious; and yet, perhaps, it has been invented by physicians them- selves for the upper classes in order to please, to stimulate and to keep them ill. But even though physicians may not directly rec- ommend it, it is sufficiently sad that they do not know the med- lxxvi means of exciting an increased flow of urine and copious perspirations (by many tepid and warm drinks and quan- tities of tepid and warm baths), by means of blood letting by venesection and leeches, by means of salivation, by means of drawing off imaginary impure humors by open blisters, issues, setons, etc. If such a treatment, especially that by mild purgatives the use of which is so general, be long enough continued, then, by means of irritation of the intestinal canal, not only is the greater disease of the abdo- men that keeps in suspense the acute disease, so long kept up until the natural termination of the acute disease is reached, but also a disease of debility from loss of humors is induced, for wdiich, then, after months of treatment, when the strength and humors are much exhausted, Cin- chona bark will assuredly restore the health in the only re- maining malady (the artificially produced disease of de- bility from loss of humors). But none perceived by what a circuitous roundabout way such a cure was effected. icinal noxiousness of all this luxury, and that they do not prohibit it to their chronic patients. This hotchpotch of noxious influences, due partly to the luxurious habits of the patient himself, partly to the simultaneous use of domestic remedies ordered or permitted by the doctor, is so much the rule, so universally prevalent, that the ordinary practitioner cannot think of treatment without such a simultaneous medical confusion, and hence, under these circum- stances, he is unable to promise any decided effect from the inter- nal administration of a single medicinal substance in a disease, even when it is given in a large dose, far less from a very small dose of medicine homceopathically employed! Conradi was ac- quainted with no other treatment than such as is constructed amid such a confused medley of medicinal influences, as is evident when he says that the action ascribed by me to such small doses is be- yond all belief. Here, not to dwell upon the trifling circumstance that the determination of the action of medicinal doses is hardly a matter of belief, but rather of experience, he seems no more than other ordinary practitioners to have either the slightest conception or the slightest experience of the action of a small dose of appro- priate medicine in a patient completely excluded from the simulta- neous irritation of all other kinds of medicinal substances, other- wise he would have spoken in a different manner. A pure treat- ment with a single homoeopathic medicine, all counteracting med- icinal contaminations being removed (for it is only of such I speak. lxxvii Thus, inter alia, the spring tertian fevers, and most other diseases of an acute character, having of themselves a duration of only a few weeks, are spun out into (rational?) treatments of many months' duration; and the ignorant patient is happy in having escaped with his life, whereas a real cure of the original disease ought only to have occu- pied a few days. Hence the everlastingly repeated warnings in so-called practical works, not to administer Cinchona bark in agues, until all the (imaginary) impurities and morbid matters have been energetically and repeatedly evacuated upwards and downwards, or, according to the euphemistic expres- sions of the moderns (though the same thing is meant), until the solvent treatment (i. e., laxatives and purgatives to produce many liquid stools) has been employed to a sufficient extent and long enough; in reality, until the arti- ficially produced abdominal disease has lasted longer than the normal duration of the ague, and so the disease of de- bility from loss of humors which alone remains can be and only such I teach), never is seen or dreamt of in routine prac- tice. But the difference is enormous and incredible. So the glutton just risen from his luxurious meal of highly spiced food is incapable of perceiving the taste of a grain of sugar placed upon his over stimulated tongue; whereas a person con- tented with simple fare will, when fasting in the morning, expe- rience an intense sweet taste from a much smaller quantity of the same sugar. Similarly amid the multifarious noises in the most crowded part of a large town we can olten not comprehend the loudly spoken words of a friend at the distance of five or six paces, whereas in the dead of night, when all the sounds of day are hushed and perfect stillness prevails, the undisturbed ear distinctly per- ceives the softest tone of a distant flute, because this gentle sound is now the only one present, and therefore it exercises its full action on the undisturbed organ of hearing. So certain is it, that when all accessory medicinal influences are withheld from the patient (as should be done in all rational treat- ment), even the very minute doses of a simple medicinal substancei especially of one chosen according to similarity of symptoms, can and must exercise its adequate and complete action, as a thousand fold experience will teach any one whom prejudice does not deter from repeating the experiment accurately. Quite small doses of medicine are all the less likely to fail to ex- 6 lxxviii transformed into health by Cinchona bark, as of course it will be. This is what was and is still called methodical and ra- tional treatment, in many, many cases of disease. With equal justice might we rob widows and orphans in order to establish an asylum for the poor. * * * As Cinchona bark in its primary action is a powerful laxative (see the symptoms, 497 et seq.) it will be found to be very efficacious as a remedy in some cases of diarrhoea when the other symptoms of Cinchona are not inappropriate to the rest of the morbid symptoms. So also in those cases where we have to do with so-called moist gangrene in the external parts, we shall generally notice in the remainder of the patient's ailments, morbid symptoms similar to the symptoms peculiar to Cinchona bark; hence it is so useful in such cases. The too easy and too frequent morbid excitation to sem- inal discharges of the genitals, caused sometimes by slight irritation in the hypogastriurn, is very permanently re- moved by the smallest dose of bark (in conformity with its peculiar symptoms of this character). The attacks of pain which can be excited by merely touch- ing (or slightly moving) the part and which then gradually increase to the most frightful degree are, to judge by the patient's expressions, very similar to those caused by Cinchona. I have sometimes permanently removed them by a single small dose of the diluted tincture, even when the attacks had been frequently repeated. The malady was homceopathically (see note to 685), as it were, charmed ercise their peculiar action, inasmuch as their very smallness can- not excite the organism to revolutionary evacuations (what is mor- bid in the organism is altered by the small dose), whereas a large dose, by the antagonism it excites in the system, will often be rapidly expelled and bodily ejected and washed away by vomiting, purging, diuresis, perspiration, etc. Will the ordinary physicians at last understand that the small and smallest doses of homceopathically selected medicines can only effect great results in a pure genuine treatment, but are quite un- suitable in routine treatment ? lxxix away, and health substituted for it. No other known rem- edy in the world could have done this, as none other is cap- able of causing a similar symptom in its primary action. Bark will hardly ever be found curative when there are not present disturbances of the night's rest similar to those the medicine causes in the healthy (which will be found recorded below). There are some, though but few, suppurations of the lungs (especially accompanied by stitches in the chest, almost always only aggravated or excited by external pres- sure), that may be cured by bark. But in these cases the other symptoms and ailments of the patient must be found in similarity among the symptoms of Cinchona. In such cases only a few, sometimes but a couple of doses of the above minuteness, at long intervals, suffice for the cure. So also there are a few icteric diseases, of such a char- acter that they resemble the symptoms of Cinchona; when this is the case the disease is removed as if by magic by one, or at most two, small doses, and perfect health takes its place. An intermittent fever must be very similar to that which Cinchonacan cause in the healthy, if that medicine is to be the suitable, true remedy for it, and then a single dose of the above indicated minuteness relieves—but this it does best when given immediately after the termination of the paroxysms, before the operations of nature are accumu- lated in the body for the next fit. The usual method of suppressing an ague not curable by Cinchona bark, by means of large doses of this powerful substance, is to give it shortly before the paroxysm; it is then most certain to produce this act of violence, but its consequences are very injurious. Cinchona bark can only permanently cure a patient affected with intermittent fever in marshy districts of his disease resembling the symptoms of Cinchona, when the patient is able to be removed from the atmosphere that causes the fever during his treatment, and until his forces are completely restored. For if he remain in such an at- mosphere he is constantly liable to the reproduction of his Ixxx disease from the same source; and the remedy, even though frequently repeated, is unable to do any further good; just as the morbid state induced by over indulgence in coffee is rapidly relieved by its appropriate remedy, but while the hurtful beverage is continned to be taken, it will recur from time to time. But how could physicians act so stupidly as to think of substituting other things for Cinchona bark, which in its dynamic action on the human health, and in its power to derange that health in a peculiar manner, differs so im- mensely from every other medicinal substance in the world? How could they dream of finding a surrogate for Cin- chona, that is to say, a medicinal substance of identical and precisely the same medicinal power among other ex- tremely different substances? Is not every kind of ani- mal, every species of plant, and every mineral something peculiar, an entity never to be confounded, not even in ex- ternal appearance, with any other? Could any one be so short sighted as from their external appearance to mistake a Cinchona tree for a willow tree, an ash or a horse-chest- nut? And if we find these plants differ so much in their external characters, though nature cannot offer so much difference to a single sense—that of vision—as she can, and actually does, to all the senses of the practiced obser- ver in the dynamic action of these various plants on the health of the living healthy human organism, shall no at- tention be paid to these latter, the multiform peculiar symptoms which each single one of these plants elicits in a manner so different from those of the second and third, and whereon alone depends the specific medicinal power of each medicinal plant with which only we are concerned in curing disease? Shall we fail to perceive their high signi- ficance, shall we fail to recognize them as the highest cri- terion of the differences of drugs among one another? Or shall we consider all things that have a bitter and astrin- gent taste as identical in medicinal effects, as a kind of Cinchona bark, and thus constitute the coarse sense of taste in man (which can scarcely judge of similarity of lxxxi taste, but never of identity of medicinal power) the su- preme and sole judge for determining the medicinal signi- ficance of the various plants? I should think it were im- possible to act in a more short sighted and foolish manner in matters of such extreme importance for the welfare of humanity! I grant that all the medicinal substances that have been proposed as substitutes for Cinchona bark, from the lofty ash down to Camomile and the lichen on the wall, as also from Arsenic down to James's powder and Sal ammoniac, I grant, I say, that every one of those medicinal substances I have named, and others I have not named, has of itself cured particular cases of ague (their reputation proves they have done this now and then). But from the very circumstance that observers state of one or other that it was efficacious even when Cinchona bark did no good or was hurtful, they prove clearly that the ague which the one medicine cured was of a different kind from that the other cured! For had it been an ague suited for Cinchona, this medicine must have removed it, and none other could have been of use. Or else there must be foolishly attri- buted to the Cinchona in this case a peculiar malignity and spitefulness, making it refuse to be helpful, or to the other vaunted medicine, which was efficacious, a peculiar amiability and obligingness, causiug it to do as the doctor wished! It would almost appear as if some such foolish notion was entertained! No! the truth of the matter, which has not been per- ceived, is as follows: It is not in the bitterness, the astrin- gent taste, and the so-called aroma of the Cinchona bark, but in its whole intimate nature, that resides the invisible dynamical working spirit, that can never be exhibited in a material separated condition (just as little as can that of other medicinal substances), whereby it differentiates it- self from all other medicines in the derangements of the human health it causes. See the observations recorded below. Every one of the medicinal substances recommended in a»ues has its own peculiar action on the human health, lxxxii differing from the medicinal power of every other drug, in conformity with eternal immutable laws of nature. Every particular medicinal substance, by the will of the Creator, differs from every other one in its externals, (appearance, taste, and smell), and even much more so in its internal dynamic properties, in order that we may be enabled by means of these differences to fulfil all possible curative in- tentions in the innumerable and various cases of disease. Is it to be supposed that the all-good and omnipotent Creator of the infinite varieties of nature could, would, or should have done less? Now, if every one of the vaunted ague remedies, whilst leaving other agues uncured, has really cured some cases —which I will not deny as far as regards those cases where the observers have given the remedy by itself—and if every single one of these remedies has effected its cure, not as a matter of especial favor towards the doctor who prescribed it, but, as it is more rational to suppose, owing to a pecu- liar power bestowed on it in conformity with eternal laws of nature, then it must necessarily be that the case in which this remedy, and not another, did good, was a pecu- liar form of ague, adapted for this medicine only, and dif- ferent from that other ague which could only be cured by some other remedy. And so all agues, each of which re- quires a different medicine for its cure, must be agues ab- solutely dissimilar to qne another. Again, when two agues betray their difference, not only by symptoms palpably different from one another, but also, as I have said, by this, that the one can only be cured by one remedy and the other by another remedy, it plainly follows from this, that these two remedies must differ from one another in their nature and action,* and cannot be identical, consequently cannot be considered as the same thing, and therefore cannot reasonably be substituted for one another; in other words, the one ought not to be repre- sented as a surrogate for the other. * Otherwise the one medicine must have been able to core just as well that ague which yielded to the other medicine, if the action of both was the same. lxxxiii Or have these gentlemen, who do not see this, some mode of thinking peculiar to themselves and unknown to me, some logic of their own that stands in direct contradiction to that of the rest of mankind? Infinite nature is much more multiform in her dynamic endowment of medicinal substances than the compilers of medicinal virtues, called teachers of Materia Medica, have any idea of, and immeasurably more multiform in the pro- duction of innumerable deviations in human health (dis- eases) than the bungling pathologist enamored of his natty classification is aware of, who, by his couple of dozen, not even correctly * designated, forms of disease, seems only to give expression to the wish that dear nature might be so good as to limit the host of diseases to a small number, so that his brother therapeutist and practitioner—his head stuffed full of traditional prescriptions—may the more easily deal with the little collection. * * * That the ordinary physicians, by mingling iron in the same prescription with bark, often dish up for the patient a repulsive looking and unsavory ink, may be overlooked, but they must be told that a compound results from this mixture that possess neither the virtues of Cinchona bark nor those of iron. The truth of this assertion is manifest from the fact that when Cinchona bark has done harm iron is often its anti- dote and the remedy for its injurious action, as Cinchona bark is for that of iron, when indicated by the symptoms caused by the unsuitable medicine. Still iron can only remove some of the untoward symp- toms, those, namely, which it can produce in similarity in healthy persons. After long continued treatments with large doses of Cin- *What physician, except Hippocrates, has ever described the pure course of any disease where no medicine has been given from the beginning to the end? Consequently,do not the recorded his- tories of diseases contain the symptoms of the diseases mixed up with those of the domestic remedies and drugs given during their course ? lxxxiv chona many symptoms often remain for which other med- icines are required; for we frequently meet with Cinchona cachexias of such a severe character that it is only with great difficulty that the patient can be freed from them and rescued from death. In these cases, Ipecacuanha in small doses, more frequently Arnica, and in some few Bella- donna, is of use, the indication for the antidote being de- termined by the symptoms of the Cinchona disease. Vera- trum is useful when coldness of the body and cold sweats have been caused by bark, if the other symptoms of this drug correspond homceopathically. CiNA. For centuries no other use has been made of this very important vegetable substance, except for the expulsion of lumbrici in children, in doses of 10, 20, 30, 60, and more grains. I pass over the not unfrequently dangerous, or even fatal, effects of such doses, nor will I dwell on the fact that a few lumbrici are not to be considered as an im- portant disease in otherwise healthy children, and are com- mon in childhood (where psora is still latent), and gener- ally unattended by morbid symptoms. On the other hand, this much is true, that when they are present in large numbers, the cause of this is always some morbid condi- tion of the body, namely, the evolution of psora, and un- less this be cured, though large numbers of the lumbrici may be expelled by Cina, they are soon reproduced. Hence, by such forcible expulsion of the worms not only is nothing gained, but such improper treatment, if persisted in, often ends in the death of the tortured children. This vegetable substance has much more valuable cura- tive properties, which may be easily inferred from the sub- joined characteristic morbid symptoms produced by it in the healthy. Experience of what it can do, for instance, in whooping cough, and in certain intermittent fevers accompanied by vomiting and ravenous hunger will excite astonishment. I lxxxv will not dwell on the other morbid states for which it is adapted, as the initiated homoeopathic physician will be able to discover these by himself. Formerly I used to employ the tincture potentized to the trillion-fold dilution, but I have found that when raised to the decillion-fold development of potency, it displays its medicinal powers still more perfectly. One, two, or three smallest globules moistened with this serve for a dose. COLOCYNTHIS. The older physicians brought Colocynth into disrepute by giving it in large dangerous doses as a purgative. Their successors, terrified by this dreadful example, either re- jected it entirely, whereby the curative power it possessed was lost to mankind, or they only ventured to employ it on rare occasions, and then never without previous alteration and weakening of its properties by silly procedures, which they called correction, whereby its pretended poisonous character was said to be tamed and restrained. With the aid of mucilage they mixed up with it other purgative drugs, or they partially destroyed its power by fermenta- tion or by prolonged boiling with water, wine, or even urine, as had already been stupidly done by the ancients. But even after all this mutilation (their so-called correc- tion) Colocynth always continued to be a dangerous remedy in the large doses in which physicians prescribed it. It is really wonderful that in the medical school there has always been such an absence of reflection, and that in regard to matters like this the obvious simple thought never occurred to any one that, if the heroic medicines acted too violently in a certain dose, this was owing less to the drug itself than to the excessive magnitude of the dose, which yet may be diminished to any extent required; and that such a diminution of the dose, whilst leaving the drug unaltered in its properties, only reduces its strength so as to make it innocuous and capable of being employed with advantage, and hence must be the most natural and appro- lxxxvi priate corrigens of all heroic medicines. It is obvious that if a pint of alcohol drunk all at once can kill a man, this is owing not to the absolute poisonousness of the alcohol but to the excessive quantity, and that a couple of drops of al- cohol would have been harmless to him. It is obvious that whilst a drop of strong Sulphuric acid immediately produces a blister and erosion on the part of the tongue to which it is applied, on the other hand, when diluted with 20 or 100,000 drops of water it becomes a mild, merely sourish fluid, and that hence the most natural, the sim- plest, corrigens of all heroic substances is to be found only in the dilution and the diminution of the dose until it be- comes only useful and quite innocuous. In this way, and in this way only, can the inestimate curative powers for the most incurable diseases that have hitherto lain concealed in the heroic—much less in the weaker—medicines (called poisons by those afflicted with intellectual poverty) be elicited in a perfectly sure and mild manner to the advantage of suffering humanity. By means of the knowledge so obtained we may effect results in the treatment of acute and chronic diseases such as the whole medical school has hitherto failed to effect. This me- thod, so childishly simple, of rendering the strongest medi- cinal substances mild and useful never occurred to the minds of physicians, and they were consequently forced to dispense with the aid of the grandest and most useful remedies. Guided by the following peculiar pathogenetic effects produced in the healthy by Colocynth, I have been enabled by means of it to perform extraordinary cures on the homoeopathic principle by the administration of a small portion of a drop of the octillion or decillion-fold dilution of the above tincture as a dose. Thus, to mention only a single example, many of the most violent colics may, under the guidance of symptoms 69 to 109, be often very rapidly cured, when at the same time the other characteristic symptoms of the disease, or a portion of them, are to be found in similarity among the symptoms of Colocynth. The action of Colocynth is of long duration. lxxxvii CONIUM. Hemlock is one of those medicines whose primary and secondary actions are most difficult to be ascertained, and respecting which it is most difficult to form a judgment. Among its symptoms we find several of a somewhat oppo- site character which should only be regarded as alterna- ting actions (perhaps as a transient secondary action sup- pressed for some time by the repeated attack of the med- icine). On the other hand the sad effects resulting from the long continued employment of Hemlock in increasing doses, as we observe in the results of Stoerck's, Lnnge's, Ehrhardt's, Greding's, Baylies', Reismann's, Collin's, and Tartreux's disastrous treatments, are true secondary ac- tions of the depressed vitality overpowered by the repeated attacks of such large doses of Hemlock—a dissolution of all the connections of the fibres combined with asthenic in- flammation and the most painful sensitiveness—see 264 to 273, 276, 342 to 345, 349, 350, 205, 207, 209. The opposite of this seems to lie in the primary action of Hemlock, which appears to indicate a tension, condensation, contrac- tion of the fibres (and glandular swellings), with suppres- sion of the sensibility—compare 28, 60, 127, 147, 148; 178, 179, 212, 215, 216, 225, 23S, 249, 253, 254, 286. There are primary actions which seem to be corroborated by some of my homoeopathic cures (glandular indurations on the lip, the breasts, etc., arising from a bruise, and two cases of cataract produced by an external blow). These recorded primary actions of Hemlock (especially 127, 286), together with the symptoms 10, 11, 115, 117, 293, 333, 359 to 367, point to it as an excellent remedy for that bad kind of hypo- chondriasis which is sometimes observed in unmarried males who are strictly chaste, where it does not depend on a miasmatic cachexia. Experience must decide as to the value of Hemlock in the morbid long sightedness (presbyopia) of elderly per- lxxxviii sons, as indicated in 38, and perhaps it will confirm the curative power here hinted at The homoeopathic practitioner will knovhowto make use of the curative indications given in the other symptoms of the primary action of Hemlock. Coffee has been found to be the antidote of Hemlock. CYCLAMEM EUROPEUM. From the earliest times this valuable plant has lain un- der the unfounded suspicion of acting violently and uncer- tainly. Even should we grant that Dioscorides really re- ferred to this plant, still all he says about it was only from hearsay. The Arabians employed this root under the name of Arthanita as one of the ingredients of a purgative ointment for rubbing in (unguentum de Arthanita), which contains a number of the most powerful purgative reme- dies, and in this dangerous combination they brought it into the unmerited reputation of a drastic purgative med- icine, which it is far from being. Modern physicians know nothing more respecting it, scarcely as much as the ancients romanced about it. But as our new (homoeopathic) medical art takes noth- ing on the authority of unintelligent tradition, and neither accepts anything because it has been praised, nor rejects it because it has been condemned, without having first sub- jected it to impartial trial, I undertook the investigation of this much decried root. Just as the virtue of a man cannot be determined by the deceptive appearance of his outward form, nor by the color of his coat, nor by the shallow gossip of the multitude, but as it assuredly displays itself in no doubtful manner to the honest observer in the goodness of his conduct, so, truly, the real value of a medicine can be determined neither by its outward appearance, nor by any unfounded reputation it may have obtained. It is only by our own careful prov- ing of medicines on healthy persons that we can truly learn what are the peculiar qualities of a medicine, what lxxxix changes it can produce in the health, and thence the simi- lar changes in the sick it can cure. And so from the following few pure symptoms we may learn that Cyclamen is one of the most excellent remedies in the most desperate morbid states. Hitherto I gave given it in a very small portion of a drop of the million-fold dilution of the juice, but even this I have found to be a too strong homoeopathic dose for many cases. DIGITALIS. From the following symptoms, which are by no means complete as to their number, it is undeniably evident that the morbid conditions of a chronic character, physicians have sometimes hitherto cured with Foxglove, were all, without exception, cured homceopathically, although they were unaware of the fact. But the much more numerous instances of unsuccessful treatment with this extremely powerful plant, belong to those employments of Foxglove which were, as is usually the case, directed against mere pathological names (not the totality of the symptoms), and were effected with a medicine (Foxglove), which was esti- mated, in hap-hazard fashion, only in accordance with con- jectures respecting its general mode of action deduced from hypothesis (not known from its pure effects, i. e, from the morbid states it developed in the healthy body). As long as this theoretical blindness is persisted in, much more harm than good will be done with this great gift of God. The true physician, who selects his remedy homceopath- ically in accordance with its pure pathogenetic effects for very similar cases of disease, will never give Foxglove ex- cept where it can, will, and must do good, and will never fail to prescribe it in such suitable cases. Such treatment is immensely superior to the deplorable treatment of the ordinary practitioner. The homoeopathic practitioner, be- sides, will find in the following few symptoms the means of affording homoeopathic relief for many more morbid states than have hitherto been cured by it. xc A very small portion of a drop of the quintillion-fold or, still better, the decillion-fold dilution of the juice, will often be found to be a too powerful dose for homoeopathic treatment. The action of such a small dose lasts several days, that of an excessively large dose several weeks. DROSERA R0TUND1F0LIA. This plant, one of the most powerful medicinal herbs in our zone, was used by the older physicians mostly as an external remedy—in cutaneous eruptions—but not with the best effects. They also gave it internally, and sometimes, as it would seem, with advantage. The moderns who, guided by tradition, had no knowledge of any other than large doses, knew not how to employ this uncommonly heroic plant without endangering the life of their patients, hence they rejected it altogether. I first employed it in the trillion-fold dilution of the juice, but latterly in still higher potency, and at last in the 30th (decillion-fold) dilution (each diluting phial getting only two succusions), and of this I gave as a dose only the smallest portion of a drop, to wit, one, or at most two, glo- bules the size of a poppy seed (of which from 200 to 300 can be completely moistened with a drop of the dilution) in morbid conditions similar to the characteristic effects produced by the plant on healthy persons. Thus, for example, a single such dose is quite sufficient for the homoeopathic cure of epidemic whooping cough,* according to the indications given by symptoms 135, 137, 144, 149, but especially 145 and the second part of symp- tom 143. Allopathy, as may easily be understood, could hitherto *The cure takes place with certainty in from seven to nine days, under a non-medicinal diet. Care should he taken not to yive a second dose (or any other medicine) iimnedhitely alter the (irst dose, for that would inevitably not only prevent the good result, but do serious injury, as 1 know from experience. xci do nothing for this formidable disease, which does not pass off by itself like other acute diseases, without terminating fatally or tormenting its victim for twenty or twenty-two weeks. In consequence it allowed many children to die of the disease where it did not hasten death by large doses of unsuitable drugs. He who fails to perceive that in this as in other similar cases Homoeopathy is the only perfect, true medical art, let him continue blindly to employ unknown- drugs to the injury of sick mankind! Drosera requires further provings of its pure effects on the healthy human subject. Camphor alleviates and antidotes its effects. FERRUM. Although most of the following medicinal symptoms were observed from the employment of a solution of Acet- ate of iron, it is beyond doubt that they correspond essen- tially with those of Metallic iron as exactly as do the symp- toms obtained from dry Calcareous earth with those of Acetate of lime. This metal is said by ordinary physicians to be a strengthening medicine per se, and not only innocuous, but entirely and absolutely wholesome. How far from being true is this dictum pronounced without consideration and testing, and handed down by teachers to their principles equally without consideration and testing, we are taught by the reflection that, if iron possess medicinal power it must also for that very reason alter the health of human beings, and make the healthy ill, and the more ill the more powerfully curative it is found to be in disease. Nil 2^'odest, quod non Icedere jwssit idem. The actual sanitary condition of persons residing near waters impregnated with iron might have taught them that this metal possesses strong pathogenetic properties. The XC11 inhabitants of chalybeate * watering places, where all the springs and wells in the neighborhood usually contain some of this metal, show marked signs of its morbific in- fluence. In such localities there are few persons who can resist the noxious influence of the continued use of such waters and remain quite well, each being affected according to his peculiar nature. There we find, more than anywhere else, chronic affections of great gravity and peculiar character, even when the regimen is otherwise faultless. Weakness, almost amounting to paralysis of the whole body and of single parts, some kinds of violent limb pains, abdominal affections of various sorts, vomiting of food by day or by night, phthisical pulmonary ailments, often with blood spitting, deficient vital warmth, suppressions of the menses, miscarriages, impotence in both sexes, sterility, jaundice, and many other rare cachexies are common occurrences. What becomes of the alleged complete innocuousness, let alone the absolute wholesomeness of this metal ? Those who are constantly drinking chalybeate waters, called health springs, and the other iron impregnated waters of the neighborhood, are mostly in a sickly state! What prejudice, what carelessness has hitherto pre- vented physicians from observing these striking facts, and referring them to their cause, the pathogenetic property of iron? How can they, ignorant as they are of the action of iron and its salts, determine in what cases chalybeate waters are of use ? AVhich of their patients will they send thither for a course of treatment? Which will they keep away? *lt is mere charlatanry to call solutions of iron steel drops, and chalybeate mineral waters steel waters, steel baths. By these ex- pressions it is intended to convey the notion that they indubitably possess an absolute strengthening power in a high degree; for to steel is a metaphorical expression for to strengthen. But iron only becomes steel when its peculiar elasticity and hardness are devel- oped. In its solution by acids the steel disappears; the solution then only contains a substratum of iron, and the oxide (iron ochre) collected from chalybeate waters, when smelted, produces nothing but ordinary iron. xciii What, in short, seeing that they know nothing accurately concerning the peculiar effects of this metal on the human body, leads them to determine the cases suitable for chaly- beate waters? Is it blind fancy? Hap-hazard conjecture and guess work? Fashion? Do not, indeed, many of their patients come back from the chalybeate springs in a more miserable* and diseased condition, show- ing that iron was an unsuitable remedy for them? God preserve patients from a doctor who does not know, and can give no satisfactory reasons, why he prescribes this or the other drug, who cannot tell beforehand what medicine would be beneficial, what injurious to the pa- tient! Only a thorough knowledge of the characteristic primary effects of medicines, and whether they present a great similarity to the symptoms of the disease to be cured (as Homoeopathy teaches), could protect patients from such fatal mistakes. The following list of morbid symptoms which iron causes is far from being as complete as it might be, and yet it will contribute not a little to prevent such mistakes being made by those who will refrain from prescribing medicines in a hap-hazard manner, and from feeling no scruples of con- science whether they draw death or life for their patients in the lottery. Large and oft repeated doses of Iron, as also frequent baths in chalybeate waters, have a very long duration of action, extending to months even. Doses of even the thir- *The attempt of the common run of practitioners to produce a purely strengthening effect is a capital mistake. For why is the patient so weak? Obviously because he is ill! Weakness is a mere consequence and a single symptom of his disease. What ra- tional man could think of strengthening his patient without first removing his disease? But if his disease be removed, then he al- ways,even during the process of the removal of his disease, regains his strength by the energy of his organism freed from its malady. There is no such thing as a strengthening remedy as long as the disease continues; there can be none such. The homoeopathic physician alone knows how to cure, and in the act of being cured the convalescent regains his strength. xciv tieth potency (X), such as the homoeopathic physician now gives in ordinary cases, act for a good many days. Chronic ailments caused by Iron are mostly ameliorated by (Calcareous) Hepar sulphuris (l-100th or l-1000th of a grain in one or several doses), and most of the remaining sufferings by Pulsatilla, when the symptoms are not (as sometimes happens) of such a kind and complexity as to require some other medicine according to the rule of simi- larity of action. IGNATIA. The characteristic peculiarities of this very powerful vegetable substance, as far as they are known to me, are pointed out in the foot notes. On account of the alternating actions, that follow one another very rapidly, which it excites, it is particularly suitable for acute diseases, and for a considerable number of these, as may be seen from the symptoms corresponding in similarity to symptoms of disease frequently met with in daily life. It is therefore very properly regarded as a medicine created for great usefulness (polychrest). Its action is usually exhausted in a few days; yet there are constitutions and states of the body where it cannot effect any evacuation, and in such cases I have sometimes observed its action to last nine days. It is suitable for but few cases of chronic disease, and then only with the in- termediate employment of some other suitable medicine of more persistent action. In its employment it sometimes happens, which is sel- dom the case with other medicines, that where the first dose has not done what was intended, because (for some unknown cause) it first acted on the disease with its oppo- site symptoms and consequently soon caused an aggrava- tion of the disease in its secondary action, like a palliative remedy, then (without any intermediate medicine having been given in alternation) a second dose of the same dilu- tion can be given with the best curative effect, so that the xcv «ure is only obtained by the second dose. This is no doubt owing to the directly opposite symptoms (alternating ac- tions) of this remarkable drug, of which I shall speak further on. But such cases do not often occur, for, as a rule, in an acute disease, the first dose effects all that this medicine can do in a homoeopathic way, if it has been ac- curately selected according to similarity of symptoms. Where in the case of an over excitable system, perhaps also when given in too large a dose, it produces too great sensitiveness, or an anxious, exalted state of the sensibility, hastiness, etc., coffee is serviceable as a homoeopathic anti- dote. When it has been unsuitably chosen so that its symptoms do not correspond in sufficient similarity to those of the disease, the sufferings it causes may, according to their character, be relieved by the antidotal power of Pulsatilla or Chamomilla, and in rarer cases by Cocculus, Arnica, Camphor or Vinegar. Although its positive effects have a great resemblance to those of Nux vomica (which indeed might be inferred from the botanical relationship of these two plants) yet there is a great difference in their therapeutic employment. The emotional disposition of patients for whom Ignatia is ser- viceable, differs widely from that of those for whom Nux vomica is of use. Ignatia is not suitable for persons or patients in whom anger, eagerness, or violence is predom- inant, but for those who are subject to rapid alternations of gaiety and disposition to weep, or in whom we notice the other emotional states indicated at the end of the fol- lowing list of Ignatia symptoms, provided always that the other corporeal morbid symptoms resemble those that this drug can produce. Even in a high potency, Ignatia is a main remedy in cases of vexation in subjects who have no tendency to break out violently or to revenge themselves, but who keep their annoyance to themselves; in whom, in a word, the remem- brance of the vexatious occurrence is wont to dwell in the mind, and so also especially in morbid states which are produced by occurrences that cause grief. So also attacks of even chronic epilepsy, which only occur after mortifica- XCV1 tion or some similar vexation (and not from any other cause), may always be prevented by the timely adminis- tration of Ignatia. Epileptic attacks that come on in young persons after some great fright, before they become very numerous, may also be cured by a few doses of Ignatia. But it is very improbable that chronic epileptic fits of other kinds can be cured, or have ever been cured, by this medicine. At all events, the cases recorded in medical writings as having been cured by Ignatia are not to be relied on, for other powerful drugs were almost always administered at the same time or as intermediate reme- dies, or there is no evidence that the cure was perma- nent. When a person has, for the first time in his life, in con- sequence of some external disturbing circumstance, been seized with epilepsy which assumes a serious character by its duration of rapid recurrence, a single small dose of Ig- natia tincture may be relied upon for relief and generally for permanent cure (as I have seen). But it is otherwise with chronic epilepsies. In these cases it cannot be of per- manent benefit for the same reason that it is of no use in other chronic diseases. For its peculiar opposite primary actions (alternating actions) follow one another in this op- posite way when it is given in diseases, so that, if the first dose has removed the morbid state, a second must not be given soon afterwards, for this would cause a recurrence of the morbid state, because its opposite alternating action comes into play, which produces the injurious effects of the secondary action of a palliative.* Hence it is proved that it is only applicable and curative in sudden attacks and in acute diseases. It is best to administer the (small) dose in the morning, if there is no occasion for hurry. When given shortly be- *Thus, also, as above stated, a second dose of Ignatia tincture only acts curatively (in opposition) in those cases in which a first dose of the same remedy, though homceopathically selected (for some unknown reason) only acted on the disease with its pallia- tive alternating symptoms, whereby it must have caused an aggra- vation in the secondary action. xcvii fore bed time it causes too much restlessness at night. For all therapeutic purposes the administration of one small globule moistened by the thirtieth attenuation is sufficient, and still better, the olfaction of a globule the size of a mustard seed imbibed with the same potency, repeated once or twice daily. IPECACUANHA. It will be seen from the following symptoms, though they are not complete, that this powerful plant was not created merely for the purpose of causing a forcible eva- cuation of the stomach by vomiting (which in most cases is to be reckoned as one of the useless cruelties of ordinary practice), but that far higher and more important curative objects are attainable by its means. It was originally brought to Europe as a remedy for autumnal dysenteries, and hence it received the name of the dysentery root. One hundred and twenty years have elapsed since it was, on Leibnitz's recommendation, misused for this purpose, on the false indication that because it relieves some kinds of diarrhoea it must therefore cure dysenteries, for these mala- dies are the exact opposite of diarrhoea, i. e. of too frequent loose motions. It is only quite lately that this practice has been abandoned, because an extensive employment of it for many years in dysenteries has shown that it is of no use in these affections. All these unfortunate trials, whereby many lives have been sacrificed, might have been spared if the pure peculiar action of this root had first been ascertained, and it had been learnt what morbid states it was capable of originating in the healthy subject, and con- sequently what similar states in the naturally sick it could remove and cure. It would have been seen, as is now seen from the following symptoms of Ipecacuanha, that it, by similarity of action, can only diminish the excess of blood in the dysenteric stools and allay some kinds of abdominal pains in dysentery, but that it cannot remove the other far xcviii more important phenomena of this disease, because it can- not produce anything similar. On the other hand, we may learn from its symptoms that, as it can relieve some cases of tendency to vomit similar to its own, so it must, as experience has shown, exert a specific curative action more particularly in haemor- rhages, in paroxysmal, spasmodic dyspnoea and suffocative spasms, and also in some kinds of tetanus (provided that in all these affections the other symptoms of the patient are met with of a similar character among those of Ipe- cacuanha). Certain kinds of agues are so constituted that this root is their appropriate remedy, as is to be inferred from its own symptoms, in so far as they present a greater homoeo- pathic similarity to those of the case of ague than do those of other medicines. If the selection has not been quite suitable for this purpose it generally leaves the fever in a state in which Arnica (in other cases Cinchona, Ignatia, or Cocculus) is the remedy. Some after sufferings from the unsuitable employment of Arsenic and from the long continued abuse of Cinchona bark may be removed by a few doses of Ipecacuanha. In all these cases of the homoeopathic therapeutic em- ployment of this root only very small doses are indicated. Hitherto I have employed the diluted tincture in the dose of a drop containing the millionth part of a grain of Ipe- cacuanha, but I have seen, from the often unnecessarily strong action of this dose in many cases, that for homoeo- pathic employment the dose should be still further dimin- ished, care being, of course, taken that all other foreign and medicinal influences are avoided. It is only when we have to treat serious poisoning by a large dose of Opium that we must administer a large dose of Ipecacuanha (30, 40, 60 drops of the strong tincture)— when the circumstances do not rather demand the admin- istration of strong coffee (or Camphor). Ipecacuanha acts for but a short time; in large doses hardly a couple of days, in quite small doses about a couple of hours. xcix MENYANTHES TRIF0L1UM. Ordinary medicine has hitherto known no single true way of investigating the peculiar powers of each individual medicinal substance, in order to discover what each is capable of curing. In her want of resources she knew of nothing to rely upon for this purpose, except external re- semblance. She even imagined that the taste would reveal the inner medicinal power. Accordingly all plants that had a bitter taste were con- sidered as identical in action, and were mixed together in one mess. They were all held to possess one quality in common, which was this sole one: they were mild tonics and strengthened the stomach (in all the innumerable and heterogeneous morbid states). So for this purpose modern doctors (a more enlightened posterity will scarcely believe it) prescribed right away extractum amarum, without in- dicating any bitter plant in particular of which it should be made, so that it was left to the good will and pleasure of the apothecary to determine what plants (they might differ as much as they pleased in respect to medicinal powers, provided only they had a bitter taste) he chose to boil down, in order to make the decoction for such an ex- tract, in order to fulfil the imaginary intention of the doc- tor to effect God knows what sort of strengthening with these unknown vegetable juices. More thoughtlessly it would be impossible to act, more contemptuously it would be impossible to treat the noble human life. For as every plant differs so strikingly in its external characters from every other plant, that botanists think they cannot too carefully enumerate their visible differences, so must they differ in their inner nature and consequently in their medicinal properties. Hence it is impossible that such an obscure expression of their inter- nal character as a (bitter) taste can be intended to indi- cate the remarkable differences of the inner medicinal spirit of each of them. Consequently, we must not from c the mere bitter taste determine anything either in respect to their general or their special medicinal actions, or their identity; nor must we assume the unconditional tonic ac- tion of all bitter plants without distinction as their sole medicinal power—not to mention that each of these plants always has its own peculiar bitterness, besides some other collateral taste, which cannot fail to indicate an inner dif- ference of medicinal action, that no human reason can dis- cern from the mere taste. Such being the case, it follows that it would be absurd and nonsensical if we should be so foolish as to infer a stomach strengthening action from the quality of bitter- ness. If not, then why should not ear wax, the bile of ani- mals, Squills, Agaric, Staphisagria, Nux vomica, Ignatia, Colocynth, Elaterium, etc., be tonic, stomach strengthening remedies?—they are surely all bitter enough!—and yet several of them in moderate doses are capable of destroy- ing human life. So utterly has ordinary medicine misunderstood, so com- pletely identical with other bitter plants has she regarded the buckbean, a plant that differs from all other bitter plants in nature, in respect to its singular appearance, its habitat, and its peculiar bitter taste. Hence it is a fact that its true, pure, peculiar medicinal effects and the mor- bid symptoms it produces in the healthy human body, owing to which it can cure (homceopathically) similar natural morbid states, is so remarkably and so decidedly different from those of every other bitter plant, that it would be absurd to consider this plant as identical with other bitter plants. Physicians of the ordinary school maunder about the gout curing power of buckbean, just as they have done about that of other bitter plants, without concerning them- selves with the injuries and the fatal effects that have en- sued from the persistent employment of such unsuitable medicines in cases of this sort. We do not even know pre- cisely what they mean by that word of many meanings, " gout," for a number of very different painful diseases of Cl the limbs and joints, attended by many accessory symp- toms, are called by one and the same name. And so undiscriminating ordinary medicine idly asserts buckbean has cured a number of other pathological affec- tions (which in nature never occur in the same manner), yet when we examine for ourselves the so-called observa- tions, some twenty, thirty or fifty other powerful remedies were employed at the same time, or mixed up together, showing in the most palpable manner the incorrectness of the assertion that buckbean did good. Even when, as very rarely happened, it was used by itself in some cases of disease, and seemed to be of use all by itself, there is seldom anything worthy of imitation to be learned from these instances, because it was not administered on intelli- gible grounds but in a sort of random way, and the case of disease said to have been cured stands, like every other case, all alone by itself in nature, and an exactly identical case never occurs, consequently it never comes under our treatment. The accurate knowledge of the pure, peculiar, morbific effects of individual drugs on the healthy human subject can alone teach us in an infallible manner in what morbid states, even if they have never previously been seen, a medicine, accurately selected according to similarity of symptoms, can be employed as an unfailing remedy that shall overpower and permanently extinguish them. The smallest portion of a drop of the undiluted juice I have found to be an adequate dose for homoeopathic em- ployment in every case; further experience will perhaps show that a further dilution will suffice for sensitive per- sons or children. MERCURIUS. This is not the place to estimate the medicinal value of all the mercurial preparations. It would, indeed, be im- possible to do this, because even those of them in common- est use have been but little, and those more rarely em- ployed not at all, tested as to their true peculiar action on Cll the healthy human body. Consequently they cannot be homceopathically selected for particular morbid states with any certainty of a curative effect. This much only does careful proving enable me to express from experience, that they all display in their action a certain general similarity as mercurials; whilst, on the other hand, they differ greatly from one another in their peculiarities, and very much in the intensity of their action on the human health. Espe- cially should it be observed, that all the saline prepara- tions of mercury display a number of little known but generally very active accessory effects, according to the nature of their basic acid, which differ very much from the mild absolute effects of perfectly pure mercury, unaltered by any acid. Even mercury merely united with fatty substances in the form of ointment excites peculiar effects on the human body,* different from those produced by the internal ad- ministration of the mild, pure, semi-oxidized mercury (cethiops per se), probably because in the ointment it is chemically combined with fatty acids. Now, as the homoeopathic method rejects all medicinal substances that produce heterogeneous accessory effects in consequence of being combined with something else, I have long endeavored to obtain pure mercury in such a condition that it should be able to display its true, pure, peculiar effects on the human organism in a more power- fully curative manner than all other known preparations and saline combinations. What a long continued, mechanical succussion of fluid mercury, or as was practiced in ancient times, its tritura- tion with crab's eyes or solution of gum effected very im- perfectly, viz., its change into semi-oxide free from acids, * John Bell complains that he has never succeeded in curing the venereal chancre disease by merely rubbing in mercurial ointment, without being compelled to destroy the chancre by the aid of ex- ternal remedies. But by the internal use of a mercurial prepara- tion uncombined with any acid, such as the mercurius solubilis (hydrargyrum oxydulatum nigrum), the whole disease, including the chancre, is cured, without any external remedy for the latter being required. ciii this I sought to do in 1787 and 1788, by precipitating it from its solution in nitric acid made in cold, by means of caustic ammonia. This preparation of mercury, distin- guished by its black color, was, under the name of Mer- curius solubilis Hahn. (Mercurius oxydulatus niger), preferred in almost all countries to all other mercurials hitherto in use, on account of its much milder, more effica- cious antisyphilitic virtues. But a more careful investiga- tion showed me that even this did not possess the highest degree of purity. In fact, its dark black color was rather owing to an excess of the caustic ammonia required for the precipitation of the somewhat over acid nitrate of mer- cury. But nitrate of mercury with excess of acid gener- ally contains some muriate and sulphate of mercury (which even in very small quantities possess a deleterious acridity ). These are concealed by the dark color of the black oxide, are precipitated along with it, and thus render it somewhat impure. In order'to avoid this, in the preface to Mercury in the second edition of the first part of the Materia Medica Pura, published in 1822, I directed the mode of preparing a per- fectly pure precipitate of mercury, obtained by caustic ammonia acting on nitrate of mercury quite free from superfluous acid. This is of a dark grey color; it is a per- fectly pure oxide of mercury, like the powder obtained by prolonged succussion of the metallic mercury, and called cethiops per se. This preparation, being a perfectly pure mercurial med- icine, was quite unobjectionable, except that the process for making it required much care and labor. But as one of the rules of Homoeopathy, as also of com- mon sense, enjoins that we should attain our aim in the simplest and shortest way (quod fieri potest per pauca, non debet fieri per plura), so in this case the aim is at- tained in the speediest, easiest, and most perfect manner by acting according to the directions laid down in the sec- ond part of the Chronic Diseases, p. 5. One grain of per- fectly pure mercury (such as is employed for making ther- mometers) is triturated, as is done with other dry med- CIV icinal substances, with three times 100 grains of milk sugar for three hours, up to the million-fold powder atten- uation (as is described in detail in the place referred to),* and one grain of the last is dissolved in diluted alcohol; this solution is twice succussed, and a drop of this solution is raised through 26 dilution vials to the decillion-fold potency (hydrargyrumpurumpotentiatum X). One small globule (300 of which weigh one grain), moist- ened with the last dilution, is the appropriate dose of this very medicinal metal for all suitable cases. The following symptoms were produced by the adminis- tration of the black oxide of mercury (Mercurius solubilis), which was generally pure enough to develop mostly pure mercurial symptoms, whereby, as I hope, the knowledge of the peculiar powers of this metal has been increased in no small degree. They show that if we select Mercury only for such mor- bid states, the totality of whose symptoms is met with among those of the drug in striking similarity;—when, moreover, we only employ it in the most perfect, pure and highly potentized preparation and in the above named dilu- tion, we shall find in it an indispensable, highly serviceable remedy for very many cases. But Mercury has been only too often improperly em- ployed in all sorts of diseases in allopathic practice, in which either it was believed that benefit could not be ob- tained by milder remedies, or where it was taken for granted that induration and obstruction existed which had to be resolved by this metal which was held to be a univer- sal solvent, or where in obstinate ailments, as so many are, a concealed venereal infection was groundlessly imagined to lurk. When aggravation of the symptoms ensued from the daily repeated doses, the Allopath did not ascribe this * After the trituration of the grain of mercury with the first 100 grains of milk sugar, there still remains on the smooth surface of the porcelain mortar, in spite of the most diligent scraping, a con- siderable black discoloration, which is almost entirely taken up by the trituration of one grain of the first trituration with a second 100 grains of milk sugar, and is completely effaced by the third trituration. cv to the unsuitability of the medicine for the disease, but he usually attributed it to the dose^being too small for such a great disease, and he then attacked the patient with larger and more frequently repeated doses of more energetic mercurial preparations (if he wished to produce a very powerful effect he gave corrosive sublimate), he rubbed a quantity of mercurial ointment into the skin, and in this way destroyed life, or at least ruined the health beyond possibility of recovery, in innumerable cases. But, as we now know, all chronic diseases, with but few exceptions (pure syphilis and sycosis being among these), arise from more or less developed psora; and even where uneradicated syphilis or sycosis is complicated with devel- oped psora, the latter is more and first to be attended to in the treatment. But Mercury (and especially its impure, acrid preparations) can never serve for the radical cure of psora, but must always make it more incurable. This will easily explain the disastrous results of the mercurial treat- ment of chronic diseases of all sorts. I leave out of consideration the injudicious treatment by blood letting, by repeated purgatives, by the frequent abuse of Opium in order to allay all sorts of pains, to pro- cure sleep and check diarrhoea and spasms, by Cinchona bark, in order to cut short intermittent fevers and strengthen the patient, in cases where the uncured disease and the squandering of the juices and strength by the doc- tor Avere the only causes of the weakness. Apart from these injudicious operations, there is no remedy employed by the Allopaths, who plume themselves on being healers of diseases, whereby the life of patients afflicted with chronic diseases is oftener destroyed than their favorite calomel and corrosive sublimate. How different are the results obtained by Homoeopathy in its treatment of the sick! In it, the smallest dose of the purest Mercury in the above mentioned highest development of potency, de- mands, on the part of the true disciples of this method of treatment, the most careful selection of the case of chronic disease in which this remedy may be unhesitatingly given, CV1 and in which it is indispensable to the cure. I refer to other cases than to the pure venereal chancre disease (syphilis), uncomplicated with psora, where its employ- ment is positively indicated. In this case, too, one single smallest dose always suffices for the cure of this chronic miasm. This, the only rational employment of this noble metal, has nothing in common with the abuse of the drug which has for several years past been prevalent in the ordinary method of treatment, where calomel (Mercurius dulcis, in which the Mercury, owing to its combinationfwith muria- tic acid, has other properties very different from its ori- ginal, specific ones) is blindly employed in almost all dis- eases, without distinction, in large closes, generally com- bined with Opium, without any knowledge on the part of the practitioner of the real effects of either the calomel or the Opium, and without any attempt to distinguish the cases in which the former or the latter, or both together, are suited. We may well say that here the irrational prac- tice, Allopathy, has reached its climax. This homicidal practice deserves only condemnation, and is not worth further notice. The perfect saline combination of Mercury with muria- tic acid, the mercurial sublimate (corrosive sublimate, Mercurius corrosivus sublimatus) is somewhat better known by reason of its frequent abuse. On account of its solubility in water and alcohol, and hence its capability of being diluted to every degree, it is more adapted for hom- oeopathic use. I have given some of its symptoms further on, which are well worth being added to, that will serve to give some idea of its peculiar action, which is very differ- ent from that of pure Mercury. I have found a single dose of a small portion of a drop of the quintillion-fold, or better still, of the decillion-fold dilution, given'aZcme, to be almost specific in the common autumnal dysentery. In this case the truth of the homoeopathic law of cure is dis- tinctly corroborated. So also the sulphurous combination of Mercury—Cinna- bar—possesses its own peculiar properties, which differ CV11 from those of pure Mercury, though they are not yet well enough ascertained. In the symptoms I have given below I have made a small commencement to the knowledge of its medicinal worth. When even the purest mercurial preparation causes in- jurious effects, if administered in unsuitable cases of dis- ease, therefore unhomceopathically, then, according to the character of the untoward symptoms that arise, the anti- dote will be found either in Hepar sulphuris, Sulphur, Camphor, Opium, Cinchona, or Nitric acid. All these rem- edies must, however, be given in very small doses, selected in accordance with the symptoms present. Cases of slow poisoning by Mercury, especially the trembling of gilders, are said to be relieved by electricity. The symptoms here recorded that have been observed from the administration of the black oxide of mercury are mostly primary effects. Very few of them can with cer- tainty be said to be secondary effects. These are distin- guished by painlessness and non-inflammatory character. Among them I reckon, e. g., a kind of hard, cold, painless swelling of the glands and a certain cataleptic paralytic weakness of the muscles. NUX VOMICA. There are a few medicines, the majority of whose symp- toms correspond in similarity with the symptoms of the commonest and most frequent of human diseases, and hence very often find an efficacious homoeopathic employ- ment. They may be termed polychrests. To these belong particularly the Nux vomica seed, which it was formerly feared to employ, because it had hitherto been administered in enormously large doses (a whole grain or several grains) in unsuitable cases of disease, con- sequently with injurious effects. But it proves the mildest and most efficacious remedy in all the diseases whose symptoms correspond in similarity to the effects Nux vomica is capable of producing in the healthy human CV111 being, when administered in the small doses above in- dicated. Some practical instructions may be of use, deduced from the results of the careful experience of many years. Among these may be mentioned, that it is more fre- quently required by those persons who are of an anxious, zealous, fiery, hot temperament, or of a malicious, wicked, irascible disposition. If the menses usually come on some days too soon, and are too copious, the ailments remaining or occurring after their cessation are quite suitable for Nux vomica. It has been found that this medicine, administered some hours before bed time, acts more gently than when given at other times of the day; but there are exceptions to this rule in cases of urgent necessity. Its administration in the morning on an empty stomach is attended with the most inconveniences in very sensitive persons, for it dis- plays its most frequent and most severe symptoms imme- diately after waking in the morning. Next in frequency its symptoms occur soon or imme- diately after eating and during mental strain. Hence we should do wrong to give it immediately after a meal if we can avoid doing so, and hence, also, no mental labor, no meditations or declamations, no reading or writing should be engaged in immediately after taking it (and the same may be said of the administration of all other medicines). We ought to wait for at least a couple of hours if we would avoid giving its action an improper, injurious direction. Among other affections, many chronic maladies, also the evil consequences arising from drinking much coffee and wine, especially when the usual mode of life is a sedentary one in close rooms, and those affections caused by pro- longed mental labor, find their remedy in this seed; as also several epidemic diseases and other acute fevers, especially such as have heat before the chill or mixed up with it. Serious ailments from catching cold are often removed by it. So, also, this medicine is more especially suitable when the patient's state is worse in the morning and when he- cix wakes up about 3 a. m., and must lie for several hours awake with intrusion of irrepressible ideas, and only in- voluntarily falls into a sleep full of oppressive dreams when the morning is far advanced, from which he wakes more fatigued than when he lay down at night, and is lazy about getting up; as also for those who several hours be- fore bedtime in the evening cannot foibear sleeping, even while seated. In this, as in some other medicines, we meet with symp- toms which seem to be completely or partially antagonis- tic to one another, alternating actions, which at the same time are primary actions, and which make Nux vomica very applicable and efficacious for a number of morbid states. When, on account of the dose being too large, or on ac- count of unhomoeopathic employment, it causes consider- able ill effects, its action may be speedily completely re- moved by a little wine, brandy, and Camphor. For the headache and anorexia it causes, the appropriate antidote is coffee; for the paralytic symptoms it produces Cocculus; for the over sensitiveness and dyspnoea induced by it, Aconite; and for the great crossness and irascibility, Cha- momilla. Physicians who have hitherto been in the habit of ima- gining and evolving from their own fancy in their studies the powers of drugs and their antidotes, indicated vinegar and other vegetable acids as the surest antidotes to Nux vomica and other powerful vegetable substances. As re- gards Nux vomica this is contrary to all the experience that I have had the opportunity of obtaining on men and animals. OPIUM. It is much more difficult to estimate the action of Opium than of almost any other drug. In the primary action of small and moderate doses, in which the organism, passively as it were, lets itself be affected by the medicine, it appears to exalt the irritability ex and activity of the voluntary muscles for a short time, but to diminish those of the involuntary muscles for a. longer period; and while it exalts the fancy and courage in its primary action, it appears at the same time to dull and stupefy (the external senses) the general sensibility and consciousness. Thereafter the living organism in its active counter action produces the opposite of this in the secon- dary action: diminished irritability and inactivity of the voluntary, and morbidly exalted excitability of the involun- tary muscles, and loss of ideas and obtuseness of the fancy, with faint heartedness along with over sensitiveness of the general sensibility. In large doses the symptoms of the primary action not only rise to a far more dangerous height, but they pass from one to another with impetuous rapidity, often min- gled with secondary actions or quickly passing into the latter. In some persons certain symptoms are more con- spicuous, in others other symptoms. No medicine in the world suppresses the complainings of patients more rapidly than Opium, and misled by this, physicians have made immense use (abuse) of it, and have done enormous and wide spread mischief with it. Were the results of the employment of Opium in dis- eases as beneficial as its employment is common, there would be no medicine by which patients would be so often cured as by Opium. But exactly the opposite of this is universally the case. Its enormous power and rapid action imply that an un- common amount of knowledge of its actions and an uncom- monly accurate judgment and appreciation of it must be required.in order to employ it medicinally, if we would use it in a really beneficial manner, which is impossible without making a homoeopathic application of it. Hitherto Opium has been almost exclusively employed antipathically or palliatively, and hardly any but its pri- mary actions have been opposed to the contrary morbid states, contrariis curentur—except when the physician prescribed (by mistake? or numinis afflatu?) in a sense exactly opposite to this antiquity hallowed therapeutic rule CXI of Galen's, and so effected miraculous cures. No medicine in the world has effected more illusory relief, more decep- tive concealment and suppression of the morbid symptoms, with consequences more disastrous than the original dis- ease. No medicine in the world has done more harm (with preliminary apparent relief) than this Opium. • Opium has been employed as the supposed chief remedy against all kinds of coughs, diarrhoeas, vomiting, sleepless- ness, melancholy, spasms and nervous ailments—and more especially against all kinds of pains without distinction. But all these innumerable affections are not contained in the primary action of Opium, but just the opposite. Hence we can easily understand how far from permanent, how far from beneficial must be the result of such an employment of this drug in the majority of diseases of the body and mind! And daily experience teaches this. If in some few cases Opium removes cough, diarrhoea, vomiting, sleeplessness, trembling and so forth, this only happens when these ailments are of recent date or have arisen suddenly in a previously healthy body, and when they are of a slight character. Thus, for example, a cough brought on by a chill, a trembling caused by recent fright,* a diarrhoea suddenly excited by fear, a chill or other trilling cause, vomiting and other symptoms produced by mental excitement, loathing, etc., are sometimes quickly removed by Opium, because it is only necessary that it should sup- press these ailments in a superficial and temporary man- ner, in order to restore to the previously healthy body its freedom to ward off spontaneously all further tendency to these affections, and to continue its former condition of health by its own powers (vide Organon of Medicine, 4th edition, § 63, note). Though Opium succeeds in the palliative suppression of ♦Smelling at a globule the size of a mustard seed, moistened with a potentized dilution of Opium, gives almost immediate relief to one who has undergone a violent fright, but only on the condi- tion that he performs the olfaction immediately after the fright has been received. If employed later, it not only brings no relief, it rather does harm. cxii these rapid trivial ailments in the few instances indicated above, it by no means follows that it possesses a true cura- tive power of permanently removing such affections in every case and under all conditions even when they are of a persistent character. It cannot remove them and restore health when they are symptoms of another disease to which Opium does not correspond as a homoeopathic remedy in its primary effects, or if they have already lasted a considerable time, because these ailments are not con- tained in the primary actions of Opium.* Hence it has hitherto been universally employed in med- ical practice throughout the whole world, almost always with injurious and disastrous results, in old coughs, per- sistent diarrhoea, long continued sleeplessness, chronic vomiting, habitual spasms, anxiety and trembling. But when these affections existed for some time in the system and depended on totally different diseases for which Opium is not the homoeopathic remedy, they could never, not in one single instance, be cured by Opium, so that permanent health was restored by its use. In employing Opium in the above mentioned chronic maladies we learn that it effects only at first an illusory alleviation, a transient suppression of the affection for a few hours; that it then ceases to alleviate without increas- ing the size of the dose, that on further increasing the dose it only allays the symptoms for a short time, and even when it does this it creates on the other hand new affec- tions and a much more serious and a worse artificial dis- ease. Verily this is an injurious, though hitherto univer- sally practiced misuse of this gift of God which was created for the removal of quite opposite morbid states.f * They are only to be found in its secondary action (and in the preliminary, momentary reaction—their reflection—described be- low). tFor where shall we find a remedy equal to Opium for the most obstinate constipation and for acute fevers, with uncomplaining stupefied sopor, with snoring from a half opened mouth, and twitching of the limbs, with burning heat of the perspiring body, and in several other morbid states corresponding in similarity to the primary effects of Opium. CX111 But most striking was the abuse which all physicians over the whole world down to the present time * have made of Opium, in prescribing it as a powerful remedy for pains of all sorts, be they ever so old and deeply rooted. It is obviously contrary to common sense, and is almost equal to the folly of a universal remedy, to expect from one single substance the cure of all pains which differ so infinitely among one another. Seeing that the various kinds of pains in diseases differ so much from one another in their Beat, in the time and the conditions of their occurrence, recurrence, increase and diminution, etc., it might be sup- posed that the Creator would not fail to create a large number of different medicines for their cure; for every finite thing can only have a finite, limited sphere of action. But Opium is precisely not one of those pain allaying and curing remedies. Opium is almost the only medicine that in its primary action does not produce a single pain. Every other known drug, on the other hand, produces in the healthy human body each its own kinds of pains in its primary action, and hence is able to cure and remove (homceopathically) similar pains in diseases, especially if the other symptoms of the disease correspond in similarity to those observed from the administration of that medicine. Opium alone is unable to subdue homceopathically, i. e., * Although as long as twenty years ago, I showed incontrover- tibly in these very words (in the first edition of the Organon, 1810), the misuse universally made by physicians of Opium for pains to be a palpable injury to the well being of patients, yet we have not seen that their conscience was the least touched, and that they abandoned a practice that is as stupid as it is criminal. To such remonstrances they only exclaim that their routine is interferred with, and they abuse and persecute the man who calls attention to their erroneous practice, just as the sinner who feels himself hit by the words of a sermon on repentance only abuses the preacher, without reforming his own conduct. But why should I, who feel an inward call to enunciate such important verities, and who have truth and nature on my side, why should I bother myself about these incorrigible sinners? ' He who feels he has the power to expose errors and to extend the boundaries of science, is not only under an obligation to do so, but the public is bound to listen to him, even should it be disagree- CX1V permanently, any one single pain, because it does not cause in its primary action one single pain, but the very reverse, namely, insensibility, the inevitable corisequence (secon- dary action) of which is greater sensitiveness than before, and hence a more acute sensation of pain. Therefore all pains of any duration allayed in a pallia- tive and temporary manner by Opium by means of its stupefying and pain subduing power, return immediately when the stupefying primary action is exhausted, and that at least* as severely as before, as the experience of all ob- servant physicians testifies. These pains, indeed, generally return in a worse degree, and as long as no better plan than this old injurious routine is adopted, they must be again and again allayed, not only by repeated, but by larger doses of Opium, whilst it develops other worse ailments, from which the patient did not suffer previously. Sup- pressing pain of any considerable duration and intensity by Opium is therefore nothing but quackery—nothing but an imposition on the patient and his friends with illusory relief, to be followed by injurious results that are often disastrous, and not unfrequently fatal, but which are al- leged by such practitioners of the non-healing art to be new diseases that they have had no hand in producing, f able to a whole school which thinks its authority so firmly grounded that it will allow no appeal to nature from its verdict, or which at least does all it can to consign the revolutionary ob- server to oblivion."—Fr. Casimir Medicus. ♦Thus Willis in his Pharmacia rationalis, p. 298, says: "Opiates generally allay the most excruciating pains, and produce insensi- bility—for a certain time; but when this time is past the pains are immediately renewed, and soon attain their ordinary violence;" and p. 295: "When the duration of the action of Opium is over,the abdominal pains return, having lost nothing of their excruciating character, until we again employ the magic power of Opium." | The true (homoeopathic) physician never sees in his practice any inflammation of the brain, except at the commencement of the most dangerous forms of typhus fever, which he cures along with its cerebral inflammation; nor does he ever encounter inflamma- tion of the bowels, except in cases of poisoning and strangulated hernia or ileus; but fatal cerebral and intestinal inflammations frequently result from the efforts of the Allopaths to suppress severe headache and intolerable colic by increasing doses of Opium cxv Chronic diseases only are the test of the genuine healing art, because they do not of themselves pass into health; slight ailments that have come quickly pass away with or without medicine—evidently by the inherent powers of the organism; but with medicines acute diseases must dis- tinctly yield more quickly and permanently than when left to themselves, if what can be called a cure is accom- plished. If Opium sometimes seems to remove pains in acute dis- eases, this is owing to the very obvious fact that such dis- eases, if they do not kill, run their course spontaneously in a few days, and disappear together with their pains. Opium can only seem really to cure pains in those rare cases where it corresponds homceopathically in its other primary effects to the symptoms of the disease, and so re- moves the disease itself, for then the pains also must naturally depart; but this is only an indirect cure of the pains. For instance, as every dysentery depends on a re- tention of faeces in the upper part of the intestines, some varieties of it accompanied by heat and stupefaction can be cured by Opium, because these symptoms will be hom- ceopathically removed by the similar primary action of Opium, and as a necessary consequence their attendant pains also, because these generally depend on spasmodic retention of the fasces in the bowels. In like manner Opium cannot stop the pains of lead colic until it has homoeopathically removed the obstinate constipation produced by the lead by virtue of its consti- pating primary action; in this case also the cure of the pains is indirect and not owing to the stupefying power of the Opium, as it is given in small, not stupefying, doses. But Opium is never able to remove pains directly without injury; on the other hand, it is a principal remedy in those stupefactive diseases where the pain of a serious malady is not felt by the patient, as for example, in dangerous bed sores, where the patient, in the stupefied state of his con- sciousness, cannot complain of any pain, etc. The painful diseases of acute and chronic character can (whatever the whole world full of antipathic and allopathic cxvi physicians may allege to the contrary) only be cured and altered into health of a permanent character by a medicine which, besides corresponding in similarity in its other primary effects to the symptoms of the morbid state, is at the same time able to excite pains very similar in kind to those observed in the disease. If such a medicine be se- lected then pain and disease disappear together in a mar- vellously rapid and permanent manner, when the smallest dose is administered, as is taught in the Organon of Med- icine, and as experience will convince every one. But as this method was not employed, and as all kinds of pains were antipathically treated by Opium alone, many injurious results were observed from its use: stupefaction, constipation, and other troublesome and dangerous symp- toms which naturally resulted from this inappropriate an- tipathic employment of it, and these are the peculiar effects of Opium, without which it would not be Opium. But these inevitable disastrous effects of such an employment of Opium were not regarded as being what they actually are, to wit, the essential characteristics of Opium, but as a kind of bad behavior inherent in it, which must be elimin- ated from it by all sorts of devices, in order to render it in- nocuous and well behaved. Under this delusion attempts have been made from time to time, for now nearly two thousand years, to do away with this pretended improper action by means of so-called corrigentia, so that it should henceforth be taught to allay pains and spasms without producing delirium or constipation, check vomiting and diarrhoea without stupefying, and change chronic sleep- lessness into sound sleep without exciting heat, and with- out leaving behind it headache, trembling, exhaustion, chil- liness and prostration. Hence pungent spices were combined with it in order to prevent the chilling propensity observed in the secondary action, and purgatives and salines were added in order to counteract its constipating misconduct, etc. More espec- ially was it sought to separate from it its crude, and alleged useless and hurtful resin by repeated solution in water, fil- tration and iuspissation, and also to deprive it of the vola- cxvii tile, and supposed poisonous, narcotic quality attached to it by macerating it for months; and practitioners even went so far as to attempt to refine it and render it mild by roasting it over a fire, and in this way they imagined that they had produced a precious panacea for all ailments and troubles, for pains, sleeplessness, diarrhoea, etc., which was free from all the well known evil propensities of Opium. But they were completely mistaken; by these processes they only made the Opium weaker without altering its nature. Now much larger doses were required in order to obtain the same result, and when these larger doses were administered they always acted just like the original Opium; the new preparation caused the same stupefaction, the same constipation, and so forth, and hence it became evident that Opium possesses no removable bad qualities, just as little as any other medicine, but that its peculiar medicinal powers must ever prove injurious and dangerous when it is employed antipathically in large doses and when it is not understood how to make a homoeopathic employ- ment of it;—Opium might be employed in its natural powerful state or, weakened by a number of expensive arti- ficial processes, in the large doses required to produce its antipathic effects. Opium has this peculiarity more than many other med- icines, that in the case of persons unaccustomed to its use and in very excitable subjects, and still more when given in large doses, it sometimes at first displays a transient, often momentary, reaction of a peculiar sort, which, partly on account of its short duration, partly owing to its rarity, and partly owing to its very nature, must not be con- founded with its characteristic chief and primary action. These rare, momentary, preliminary reactions correspond almost exactly with the secondary action of the organism upon Opium (and are, so to speak, a reflection of this secon- dary action): deathly paleness, coldness of the limbs or of the whole body, cold perspiration, timorous anxiety, trem- bling and despair, mucous evacuations from the bowels, transient vomiting or short cough, and very rarely certain kinds of pain. cxviii Hardly any of the peculiar primary effects of Opium are observed from large poisonous doses, but this initiatory reaction passes at once, as secondary action, to death, as I myself have seen, and as Willis (Pharm. Rat., sect, vii, cap. I, p. 292) relates. The oriental indulgers in Opium, after sleeping off their Opium intoxication, are always in a state of secondary Opium action; their mental faculties are much weakened by too frequent indulgence in the drug. Chilly, pale, bloated, trembling, spiritless, weak, stupid, and with a per- ceptible anxious inward malaise, they stagger in the morn- ing into the tavern to take their allowance of Opium pills in order to quicken the circulation of their blood and ob- tain warmth, to revive their depressed vital spirits, to re- animate their dulled phantasy with some ideas, and to in- fuse, in a palliative way, some activity into their paralyzed muscles. The symptoms of Opium arranged below are mostly secondary action and counter action of the organism. Phy- sicians who cannot make up their minds to refrain from making a hurtful use of Opium in large doses for pallia- tive (antipathic) purposes, may be encouraged to do so by a perusal of these horrible secondary effects; their feel- ings of humanity can hardly fail to be shocked by them, and their conscience roused so as to compel them to do better. The antidotes to dangerous doses of Opium are tincture of Ipecacuanha, Camphor, but especially strong warm in- fusion of coffee, introduced in large quantities above and below, accompanied by frictions on the body. But when icy coldness of the body, insensibility, and loss of irrita- bility of the muscular fibres have already set in, a (pallia- tive) warm bath must be resorted to. When Opium has been given in large doses in order to allay pain and check diarrhoea, and, as not unfrequently occurs, true paralysis of the limbs has been produced, there is no cure for this kind of paralysis, just as paralysis can never be cured by strong electric shocks. Some of the primary effects of Opium last but a few cxix hours, others, especially those caused by large doses, last longer when they do not prove fatal. Opium belongs to those medicines whose primary effects seldom admit of a homoeopathic application in human dis- eases; but when it is so used a small portion of a drop of the decillion-fold potency suffices for a dose. PULSATILLA. The homoeopathic employment of this, as of all other medicines, is most suitable when not only the corporeal affections of the medicine correspond in similarity to the corporeal symptoms of the disease, but also when the men- tal and emotional alterations peculiar to the drug encoun- ter similar states in the disease to be cured, or at least in the temperament of the subject of treatment. Hence the medicinal employment of Pulsatilla will be all the more efficacious wrhen, in affections for which this plant is suitable in respect to the corporeal symptoms, there is at the same time in the patient a timid, lachrymose disposition, with a tendency to inward grief and silent peevishness, or at all events a mild and yielding disposi- tion, especially when the patient in his normal state of health was good tempered and mild (or even frivolous and good humoredly waggish). It is, therefore, especially adapted for slow, phlegmatic temperaments; on the other hand, it is but little suitable for persons who form their resolutions with rapidity, and are quick in their move- ments, even though they may appear to be good tempered. It acts best when there is a disposition to chilliness and adipsia. It is particularly suitable for females when their menses usually come on some days after the proper time; and especially also when the patient must lie long in bed at night before he can get to sleep, and when the patient is worse in the evening. It is useful for the ill effe cts caused by partaking of pork. cxx When Pulsatilla has been given in too large a dose, or in an unsuitable case, and has consequently produced dis- agreeable effects, these, according to their peculiar charac- ter, may be removed by Chamomilla (particularly when drowsiness, exhaustion, and diminution of the senses are permanent) or by an infusion of coffee (e. g., in the timo- rous anxiety), or by Ignatia or Nux vomica. The fever, the disposition to weep, and the pains of Pulsatilla with all their after sufferings can be most quickly removed by the tincture of raw coffee. The proper dose is a small globule moistened with the thirtieth potency, repeated at most every twenty-four hours; in acute diseases the olfaction of a globule the size of a mustard seed is preferable. RHUS. Careful consideration and comparison of the symptoms of this remarkable and valuable medicinal substance enable us to perceive a great number of characteristic pe- culiarities in it. To mention one only: we observe this curious action (which is found in very few other medicines, and in these never in such a great degree), viz., the severest symptoms and sufferings are excited when the bodg or the limb is at rest and kept as much as possible without movement. The opposite of this, namely, an increase of the symptoms by movement is much more rarely observed. The other re- markable peculiarities will be easily found in the following list of symptoms of Rhus, which are truthfully and faith- fully recorded. When we attentively examine the symptoms of Bryonia, we shall perceive, on the one hand, a strong resemblance to those of Rhus, and, on the other, remarkable contrasts. How striking is the aggravation of symptoms, almost iden- tical with those observed from Rhus during movement of the body in the case of Bryonia, and their amelioration by avoiding all movement—exactly the opposite of what Rhus cxxi does? From the symptoms of these two antagonistic sister remedies we can easily understand how both (each in its place) would prove the most suitable homoeopathic reme- dies for the disastrous pestilence which desolated the countries that were most exposed to the war that raged from the summer of 1813 onwards. No treatment of this typhus that is based upon inferences derived from ordin- ary therapeutics, as also no other mode of treatment what- ever, could do anything for the worst cases (the slighter cases would in any case have recovered by the power of dear nature, though but slowly and with difficulty). It was only the employment of the medicines homceopath- ically suited to them, viz., Rhus, in alternation with Bry- onia (as briefly described by me in the sixth number of the Allgemeiner Anzeiger der Deutschen in 1814), that could cure all cases of the disease, and which did actually cure them in the hands of careful practitioners; whilst the rest of the medical profession only carried on vain dispu- tations respecting the presumed internal nature of the dis- ease, and whilst so occupied allowed their patients in thou- sands to be gathered to their fathers. If ever there was a triumph for the only true, the homoeopathic treatment,* this was one. The duration of the action of large doses of Rhus ex- tends over six weeks, that of small doses is less proportion- ally to the smallness of the dose. On account of this long duration of action the preliminary homoeopathic aggrava- tion of symptoms is also of longer duration than with most other vegetable drugs; so that in the employment of even the smallest doses we often do not observe the ameliora- tion until after the lapse of twenty-four hours after taking the medicine. Hence, as with every other medicine, so- especially in the selection of this one, the homoeopathic rule must be strictly followed. The injurious effects of an erroneous selection are often removable by Bryonia, sometimes by Sulphur, at other times by Camphor or ♦Of 183 cases treated by me in Leipzic not one died, which created a great sensation among the Russians, then ruling in Dres- den, but was consigned to oblivion by the medical authorities. CXX11 raw coffee, according to the untoward symptoms pro- duced. After multiplied and repeated experience, I can assert that if we would act with certainty we should never employ homceopathically the pure undiluted juice, not even in chronic maladies or for patients who are otherwise robust. It should only be used in very high dilution (in accordance with careful trials during many years, the decillion-fold dilution). The strongest dose should never exceed a very minute globule moistened with the thirtieth dilution (X). And it is even preferable to employ a single olfaction of a globule, twenty of which weigh one grain, on account of the mildness of this mode of administration, while its cura- tive efficacy is just as great. The ordinary allopathic prac- titioner who knows nothing about the administration of vegetable drugs unless in drachms, scruples, or, at all events, grains and whole drops, may, in his ignorance, sneer at this. Pure experience and conscientious, unpreju- diced observations can and must be the only judge in such an important matter as the treatment of disease. Of late years multiplied experience has taught me that Rhus is the most efficacious and the specific remedy for the frequently fatal effects of over lifting, inordinate exertions of the muscles and contusions. One single olfaction of a globule, the size of a mustard seed, moistened with the thirtieth potency effects a magical cure. SARSAPARILLA. Because this root has some resemblance in external ap- pearance to the root of the carex arenaria, the teachers of Materia Medica recommended the latter to be used in dis- eases instead of Sarsaparilla, because, stupidly imagining that the root of the carex was quite as good if not better than Sarsaparilla, and the carex was an indigenons plant, whereas the Sarsaparilla was a foreign drug, it was to be preferred from patriotic motives. This is a sample of the ordinary capricious conduct of our beloved teachers of cxxiii Materia Medica, and illustrates the honorable and rational mode in which the medicines of the materia medica have come to be vaunted on account of their pretended virtues, viz., by the arbitrary decrees of writers on Materia Medical They reasoned thus: because carex arenaria is indigenous and has a stronger taste (which, however, differs toto coelo from that of Sarsaparilla) it ought to have the preference, for it must possess the same powers, as is evident from its similar long thin shape. Consequently, the similar form of the two roots proves that their powers must be identi- cal ! An excellent inference, altogether worthy of the or- dinary Materia Medica! And what pure peculiar effects do the one and the other possess so that we may know in what morbid states the one or the other may be employed with the certainty of a happy result? Not a syllable of in- formation on this point. In the following list I make a small commencement to reveal the peculiar action of the root of Sarsaparilla in some symptoms observed from its administration. From this will be seen in some degree, what good homoeopathic employment may be made of it, and that it is false to say that it is inert. It seems to lose the greater part of its medicinal powers by boiling. Apparently it acts for more than two weeks in a single not too small dose. For hom- oeopathic use the undiluted tincture in the dose of one drop is much too strong. SPONGIA. That remarkable swelling of the thyroid gland of the neck called goitre, which is peculiar to the inhabitants of deep valleys and their termination in plains, which arises from a concurrence of apparently tolerably identical causes, though most of these are unknown to us, constitutes a malady which is almost always uniform in its nature, for which a medicine, if it has in one case been proved ser- viceable, must be so always and in every case (specific). But the ordinary medical school did not know how to cxxiv obtain a knowledge of medicines a priori, before their ad- ministration in diseases, and knew not for what morbid states they would and must be curative, aud consequently it prescribed them in a blind sort of way in diseases, several medicines at once, always in mixtures. Hence the ordin- ary school was unable to discover any certain remedies for chronic ailments, not even for diseases that always re- mained the same. Hence common folk had to look to themselves for help, but this they could only obtain in the slowest and most tedious way in the world, namely, by in- cessantly trying all sorts of simple substances which chance offered them, whereby after some millions of fruit- less trials at last a remedy came into their hands, which having once been of use, must assuredly be always service- able in diseases of fixed character and identical nature. Thus medicine has to thank this thorough trial by the common folk of all conceivable medicinal substances, for the few surely curative drugs for such diseases as are al- ways the same, that is, arising from identical causes and hence of fixed character. The ancient medical school that thinks itself so wise could not do this for itself, as we see. In this way thousands of years might have elapsed ere the ordinary domestic medical practice, after innumerable trials of drugs, at length lighted upon roasted sponge as the remedy for this troublesome ailment, the goitre, and found it to be a specific for the disease. At all events, we find it first mentioned a specific for goitre in the thirteenth century by Arnald von Villanova. The medical art then reaped where it had not sowed, and appropriated this discovery of common folk. But as it has ever held simplicity to be dishonorable, it mixed the roasted sponge when employing it as a remedy for goitre with a number of other substances,* always varying them, in order as it declared in its learned way, to act as adju- vants to the sponge, but in reality this only spoilt its action. The mixture, on account of these perturbing additions, ♦In the Pharmacopoea Augustana, for example, ten other ingre- dients are added, and so the actual efficacious remedy, the Spongia sta, is deteriorated. cxxv often proved useless, or if it still did good, then in course of time the good effects were ascribed by subsequent practi- tioners to the auxiliary ingredients, so that at length it was not known which was the efficacious ingredient in the prescription. Thus roasted sponge, owing to this quackish but learned addition of other drugs, gradually lost its repu- tation, and, indeed, sometimes disappeared altogether from the goitre remedy, so that at length roasted sponge was dropped out of many modern works on Materia Medica as a useless thing. So the distinguished medical school, by means of its learned mixture art, succeeded once more in destroying and burying in oblivion a truth which the un- sophisticated experience of the common folk had discov- ered by an infinity of tedious trials carried on during thou- sands of years. This is a little specimen of the benefits which have been bestowed on the human race by the or- dinary medical art. But granting that practitioners of the ordinary stamp knew the original value of roasted sponge in the treatment of the goitre of residents in valleys, how can they apply the other great curative virtues of this medicinal substance in many other morbid states that do not occur in a uniform manner, when they do not know or scorn to follow the only sure way to discover the pure powers of drugs, experimen- tation on the healthy? The most powerful antidote of roasted sponge is Camphor. Homoeopathy has found the most remarkable remedial employment of roasted sponge in that frightfully acute disease membranous croup, guided thereto partly by other symptoms of this medicine, but chiefly by symptom 231. The local inflammation, however, should first be dimin- ished or removed by the exhibition of an extremely small dose of Aconite.* The accessory administration of a small dose of Hepar sulphuris will seldom be found necessary. * The smaller the drug doses in acute and the most acute dis- eases, the more quickly do they effect their action. In the case above alluded to one single olfaction of a globule the size of a mustard seed moistened with the thirtieth dilution of Aconite juice, fulfils this object in the best and most complete manner. cxxvi TARAXACUM. This plant, like many others, has been wrongfully ad- ministered in diseases in enormous quantities, on merely theoretical grounds, as a remedy of universal every day use. On account of its milky juice it was theoretically as- sumed that it must act like a soap, and as soap chemically dissolves all sorts of substances in a vessel, so dandelion must dissolve in the interior of the living body whatever the practitioner was pleased to imagine existed in the dis- eased human system of a viscid, inspissated and obstruc- tive character. Had the pure powers of dandelion to effect changes in the human health been ever tested, and had it thus been experimentally ascertained what peculiar morbid states it was able characteristically to produce, and had then a pure therapeutic trial been made of this plant, administered alone, in any case of disease, and it had been found to effect a rapid and permanent cure, it would have been seen convincingly on comparing the totality of the symptoms of the disease cured by this remedy with the morbid symp- toms dandelion can produce in the healthy body, that this plant can only cure in virtue of its symptoms being similar to those of the case of disease, and that it could not fail to cure it in accordance with the eternal homoeopathic law of nature, and that for that very reason it could not be of use in those morbid states the like of which dandelion is not able to produce. A knowledge of this fact would have converted practi- tioners, had they been capable of being converted, from a belief in their imaginary indication of an internal, non- existent, pathological obstruction monster, which they pre- tended had to be dissolved. The following pure pathogenetic symptoms of dandelion, which are far from complete, may perhaps help to dispel this pathologico-therapeutical self-deception. But they will do more, for they will teach us a priori for what mor- cxxvii bid cases this vegetable juice will be and must be a sure remedy, and prevent us torturing patients for whom it is un- suitable (unhomceopathic) in a useless and injurious man- ner by giving it in large doses, as has hitherto been done. When this drug is suitable from its homoeopathic simi- larity, we require to give it in the dose of scarcely a single drop of the juice in order to effect a cure. The juice as prepared above is much preferable to the officinal extract, which by prolonged stirring in a copper kettle is rendered impure by admixture with this metal. THUJA. No serious medicinal employment has been made in Europe before now of this plant, which somewhat resem- bles in external characters the Juniperus Sabina; for what Parkinson and Hermann say of it is evidently mere theoretical speculation, after the fashion of the dear old Therapia generalis. According to Boerhaave its distilled water has been found useful in dropsical diseases. Ac cording to Kalm it is popularly employed in North Amer- ica as an external remedy in some undefined pains of the limbs. The following elements of artificial diseases, the pure effects of this uncommonly powerful medicinal substance, will be regarded by the homoeopathic practitioner as a great addition to his medicinal treasury, and he will not fail to make a useful application of them in some of the most serious diseases of mankind, for which hitherto there has been no remedy. For example, he will perceive from these symptoms that the juice of Thuja must be specifically useful in that hideous disease arising from impure coitus, the fig warts, if they be not complicated with other mias- mata; and experience also shows that Thuja is the only efficacious remedy for them. And for a similar reason it most certainly cures that bad kind of gonorrhoea resulting from impure coitus if it be not complicated with other miasmata. CXXV111 I employed the decillion-fold dilution of the juice, in the dose of a very small portion of a drop, even in the worst cases. As the fig wart gonorrhoea is one of the few permanent miasmatic diseases, I was able to test in the most certain manner the degree of efficacy of the higher dilutions of Thuja juice. Thus I found that even the higher dilutions, e. g., the decillion-fold or even the vigesillion-fold dilution (Xx, made with sixty diluting vials, each of 100 drops), if each diluting vial were succussed ten times and oftener (that is, with ten or more shakes of a powerful arm), was not weaker in power than the less diluted preparations, nor, on account of the enormously diminished arithmetical fraction, had it sunk to complete powerlessness, to noth- ing, but, on the contrary, it had rather become even more intensely charged* with the medicinal virtue of Thuja. Innumerable accurate trials have so completely con- firmed this (also with regard to other high fluid medicinal dilutions prepared in a similar way) that I can certify to its truth from conviction. The duration of the action of even the smallest doses is nearly three weeks. Camphor appears to be the best antidote to mitigate the excessive action of this juice in larger doses. * The discovery that crude medicinal substances (dry and fluid) unfold their medicinal power ever more and more by trituration or succussion with nonmedicinal things, and in greater extent the further, the longer, and the stronger this trituration or succussion is carried on, so that all their material substance seems gradually to be dissolved and resolved into pure medicinal spirit;—this dis- covery, unheard of till made by me, is of unspeakable value, and so undeniable, that the sceptics, who from ignorance of the inex- haustible resources of nature in the homoeopathic dilutions, see nothing but mechanical division add diminution until nothing re- mains (therefore, annihilation of their medicinal power), must see their error as soon as they appeal to experiment. cxxix VERATRUM ALBUM. Though the subjoined symptoms indicate a powerful action of this medicinal substance on the human health, a great capacity for effecting changes in it, and consequently show that we may expect great things from its suitable employment, yet the investigation of all its medicinal symptoms is so far from complete, that the following can be regarded as only a fraction of its wealth of pathogenetic effects. Our modern physicians do not know how to make any good use of this valuable medicine, and, indeed, do not employ it at all, as they are unable to give it in a justa dosis, i. e., in drachms and ounces, without killing their patients. Consequently they must leave uncured those diseases which cannot be cured without this root. Physicians have no notion of the power possessed by this drug to promote a cure of almost one-third of the in- sane in lunatic asylums (at all events as a homoeopathic intermediate remedy), because they know not the peculiar kind of insanity in which to employ it, nor the dose in which it should be administered in order to be efficacious and yet not injurious. As there can be no rapid and permanent cure of dynamic diseases, unless by medicines endowed with the dynamic power of producing similar morbid states, as I have shown often enough, so we have only to make our- selves acquainted with the peculiar kinds of insanity in the following observations, regard being paid to the other symptoms, in order to know in which of the manias white hellebore root may be homoeopathically employed with good effect. We must not imitate the ancients in their doses. No doubt many of their patients were cured, but not a few suc- cumbed to their enormous doses. For even in those times, just as nowadays, the delusion existed in the medical art cxxx that diseases depended on a morbific matter in the body, and consequently that they could not be cured without the elimination of this (imaginary) morbific matter. Hence the ancients in their treatment of chronic diseases gave their white hellebore root almost always in such doses (a drachm and more of the medicine in the form of coarse sifted powder) as were capable of exciting excessive vomit- ing, and at last also purgation; and (blinded by the above theory) even those cases in which the patients were cured of their diseases by white hellebore, without undergoing vomiting or purging, failed to convince them that the cures were effected in quite another way than by evacuations upwards and downwards. It is also quite false that patients affected with emo- tional and mental diseases as a rule require and bear enor- mous doses of medicine, as our physicians still imagine. No doubt, allopathic and unsuitably chosen drugs, even in large doses, seem to have but little effect on the grosser part of the organism and the general health of such patients. But in such diseases the general health is but little implicated, and their subjects are often very robust in that respect; as a rule, the malady has settled in the fine invisible organs of the mental and emotional spheres undiscoverable by anatomy (which serve as the medium of the purely spiritual soul by which the grosser body is ruled). These subtle organs suffer most in those diseases, it is they that are most morbidly deranged. When unsuitable, unhomceopathic (allopathic) drugs in large doses were administered to such patients, the more massive body assuredly suffered but little from them (it was often seen that twenty grains of tartar emetic caused no vomiting, etc.); but, on the other hand (and this our physicians did not observe, for, as a rule, they are gifted with but small powers of observations), the mental and emotional organs were all the more severely affected; the mania or melancholia was much aggravated by such violent unsuitable remedies, sometimes even rendered incurable. On the other hand, it is undeniably true, though not cxxxi hitherto suspected, that patients suffering from mental and emotional diseases soon regained a healthy state of their mental and emotional organs, that is to say, perfect recov- ery of their health and reason, by means of doses as small as those that suffice for other non-psychical maladies, namely, by quite small doses, but only of the appropriate and perfectly homoeopathic medicine. I have never found it necessary to give a dose of more than a single drop, often only a small portion of a drop, of white hellebore tincture, diluted to such an extent that one drop contains a quadrillionth of a grain of this root. This dose may, when necessary, be given to the patient without his knowledge in his ordinary drink—consequently without it being requisite to employ the slightest force, which is always prejudicial in such cases, provided the regimen is so regulated that all the conditions generally required to sustain healthy life are simultaneously enforced, and every- thing that can interfere with the cure1, from heterogeneous medicinally acting food and drink to moral and psychical hindrances, is most carefully eschewed. This is not the place to treat this subject in greater detail. Paroxysms of pains similar to those the white helle- bore root can itself produce, and which always brought the patient for a short time into a sort of delirium and mania, often yielded to the smallest dose of the above solution. Also in agues which consist of outward cold only, or are attended by only inward heat and dark urine, this root is often employed advantageously, especially when cold sweat of the body or, at least, of the forehead, is present. In several hypochrondriacal affections, as also in certain kinds of inguinal hernia, it is very useful, at all events as an intermediate remedy. Sudden, grave accidents from taking white hellebore root are most surely removed by a few cups of strong coffee. But if the predominant state is pressive pain in the head with coldness of the body and unconscious sopor, Camphor is the antidote. cxxxn If an anxious, distracted state, accompanied by coldness of the body or burning sensation in the brain is present, then Aconite is of service. The other chronic affections caused by the abuse of white hellebore root, e. g., a daily forenoon fever, are best relieved by small doses of Cin- chona bark. HYOSCYAMUS. When dried the plant loses a great portion of its medici- nal powers. A dose containing a quadrillionth of a drop of the juice, or better, a small portion of such a drop, is more than suf- ficient for all homoeopathic curative purposes when all other foreign irritants and drugs are kept away from the patient. Frequent smelling at a saturated solution of camphor removes the troublesome effects of hyoscyamus when it has been given in too large a dose or in an unhomceopathic case. >> *to>q \ / J /so. (/(hes&ctuL /K^.,Jlf TUccti^c Tu^U^to. fi^yy^ j£ £°i. X%~, C^iCuu^Ccccca. xm. XXZEZ XXXV f. XLm XCJX. LIZ. LJY. LY LYZZ LYE., IX LXY hxn. LXXXVT. LXKKVTT. IXXXVNt. r it- J'ttx. ca. o-t^trvouA. cu&Oz