HAHNEMANN AND HIS DOCTRINES. ADDRESS, INTRODUCTORY TO THE FIRST COURSE OF LECTURES IN HAHNEMANN MEDICAL COLLEGE. DELIVERED OCTOBER, 15, I860. I By A. E. SMALL, A. M., M. D. Prof, of the Principles and Practice of Medicine. CHICAGO: BEEBE BROTHERS, NO. 102 WASHINGTON STREET. 1861. Chicago, Oct. 30th, 1860. Prof. A. E. Small, M. D.: The undersigned, members of the class of Hahnemann Medical College, would most respectfully request a copy of your valuable Introductory, delivered to them on the 15th instant. E. A. Ballard, 111. R. I. Curtis, Pa. F. N. Gordon, 111. J. A. COPELAND, 111. T. F. De Derky, 111. Geo. E. Hall, 111. L. D. Heminwat, 111. Geo. E. Hdsband, C. W. Geo. E. Kessler, Pa. E. M. P. Ludlam, 111. John Moore, 111. A. J. Murch. Mich. A. N. Phillips, N. Y. L. F. Smith, Mich. F. L. Vincent, IH. C. A. Williams, Mich. Chicago, Nov. 5th, 1860. Gentlemen : Your note of the 30th ult. was received. I cheerfully accede to your request, regreting, of course, that the manuscript is not more deserv- ing of the consideration you have given it. I have the honor to be, Very respectfully, &c, A. E. SMALL. Messrs. Ballard, Cdrtis, Gordon, and others. ADDRESS. Gentlemen : One of the commanding characteristics of the present age, is a tendency in all its movements, to give wings to truth, that it may shed its lustre in unusual benefits. The impulses of humanity have ever been at variance with those " ancient customs " which once excluded the lower classes from a measurable par- ticipation in the blessings vouchsafed to man. The time has come for a favorable interpretation of all combinations of effort to raise the multitudes from the dust;—to endow them with rights and privileges, helps and advantages once regarded the prerogatives of the few, and not of the many. Through the darkness that once curtained the hills of Christendom, and bid defiance to the noblest aspi- rations of the human soul, there is a glimmering of light, which discloses the fact that humanity belongs to every rank, that it possesses noble powers to culti- vate, and has important duties to perform, as well as inalienable rights to assert. It is obligatory on us to let this light shine more conspicuously, that bar- baric rage and gloomy superstition may be dispelled 6 from civilized life. To aid in the accomplibhinent of a work so worthy of effort, and to arm and equip with the weapons of truth, a class of men to go out into the world, to dispense its practical advantages, that the afflicted of all classes may derive consolation from it, the charter for instituting the Hahnemann Medical College was granted by the Legislature of Illinois. The name so appropriately chosen as worthy of honorable mention, to indicate the purpose and intention of the institution, is that of a distinguished reformer of medicine, who, in his time, undertook the Herculean task of pointing out the errors, follies, cruelties and uncertainties, which the ignorance and cupidity of the schoolmen had heaped upon the healing art. Every one will understand, that by the assumption of the name, it was intended that the scientific dis- covery of Hahnemann, which lies at the foundation of practical medicine, should enter the curiculum of positive sciences usually and necessarily embraced in a thorough medical education. Therefore in com- mencing the first course of instruction in this Insti- tution, it will be in place to exhibit a brief history of this illustrious man and his doctrines, with some account of the medical reform they have been in- strumental in accomplishing. But fifteen years have elapsed, since Hahnemann left the stage of action, and this brief period has witnessed an extension of his doctrines unequalled by their spread for years during his life. At the pe- riod of his decease, he could only reckon his disciples by hundreds, but now. thousands acknowledge him as their master. In all civilized and enlightened 7 nations, and in nearly every city and town, medical men of learning and rank have become his admirers, and although he was persecuted and driven from Leipsic in 1821, this city has now the honor of con- taining his bronzed effigies. In 1851, thirty years after his expulsion by the persecutions of the phy- sicians and the apothecaries, we find that the magis- trates and municipal authorities of Leipsic joined in the ceremonies of inauguration of the Hahnemann monument, erected to his memory by the united efforts of his admirers of all nations. Hahnemann belonged to that class of distinguished. men, who rise to eminence in spite of the greatest obstacles and under the most unfavorable circum- stances. He was not born rich; his father was a por- celain painter, and sought nothing more ennobling in the way of employment for his son. He was found however, at an early age, in the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties, and in opposition to his father's wishes. He was afterwards sent to a Grammar school, where his aptitude for study excited the admiration of the principal, with whom he became a favorite. Under the direction of this man, he was encouraged to pursue a higher order of studies than 4 those pursued in a Grammar school, but his father was opposed to the enterprise, and removed him from school, and moreover restricted him to some less intellectual employment. After awhile he was re- stored to his favorite studies, through the earnest im- portunity of his teacher, who as a gratuity, retained him as a pupil until he was twenty years of age. On leaving school, he wrote the customary essay, selecting for his subject, " the wonderful mechanism 8 of the human hand," in which he manifested a strong bias towards natural science; and shortly after, he left Meisen, the place of his birth and early education, and went to Leipsic, in order to pursue the study of medicine. With a sum of money in his pocket equal to about fifteen dollars in Federal currency, he com- menced the struggle for honorable attainments. He was allowed free access to the classes in Leipsic, and during his attendance upon them, he managed to support himself by teaching French, and by trans- lating English works into German. From Leipsic he went to Vienna, to witness the practice of medicine in the hospitals, where he re- mained for nine months under the special instruction of Doctor Von Quarin. At the termination of this period, he felt himself obliged to accept the situation of family physician and librarian of the Governor of Transylvania, which post he held for two years, and then he removed to Erlangen, where he graduated with more than usual honor in 1779. After this event, he spent two years in his native district, devoting his attention to chemistry, and to writing his first book on medicine, which gives the result of his experience of practice in Transylvania. He was in service as district physician in Gommern for three years, and then removed to Dresden, where he held the post of hospital physician for one year. While in Dresden, he published several works on chemistry, the most celebrated of which was a treatise upon poisoning by Arsenic, which to this day is quoted as an authority by the best writers on toxi- cology. In a letter to Hufeland written about this period, he complained of the uncertainty of medi' 9 cine, that it had no fixed principles, and it appears that this fact was so fastened upon his mind, that he discontinued the practice of medicine, and discounte- nanced the pursuit as being at variance with the interests of society, and the good of mankind. For a time, he devoted himself to chemistry and literature, and in these departments, according to the testimony of Berzelius, he acquired an enviable distinction. In 1789 he removed to Leipsic, and published a treatise on Syphilis, showing himself familiar with the best authorities upon the subject. In this work he described Soluble Mercury, a discovery of his own, which, even to the present time, is known among the chemists, as the Mercurius Solubilis Hahnemanni. The year following he translated Cullen's Materia Medica. It was about this time that the reputation of Hahnemann as a ripe scholar became widely known, and he enjoyed the friendship and confidence of the most distinguished physicians of his time. By his indefatigable industry in acquiring knowledge, and by his bold and independent deduction from facts, as well as his habit of careful observation, he had won for himself an enviable standing among authors. Up to this period of his life he had known no rest from his labors, and but little freedom from the restraints of poverty; he was always employed in the accomplishment of some literary task or work that might afford him a reasonable support. It was while translating Cullen's Materia Medica that he noted the peculiarities of the Peruvian bark, and discovered its fever-producing property; which, like the falling apple to the mind of Newton, and the swinging lamp to the reflections of Galileo, opened 10 up to his mind a new channel for more extensive experiment. From this isolated fact, that the Cin- chona bark would cause a fever, it occurred to his mind that this might afford a key to its therapeutic powers. Further experiment proved that the Cin- chona bark would produce in healthy subjects a fever bearing a close resemblance to that which it had cured. This fact led to the inference that other drugs might in a similar manner cure such diseases as resemble those which they were capable of pro- ducing, and careful experiment verified the fact. The next inference was, that all medicines possessed curative powers only in the degree that they were capable of producing morbid phenomena similar to the diseases they antidote. By multiplied experi- ments, this fact also became verified to the mind of Hahnemann. It does not appear, however, that he with imprudent haste made known his discovery. It was not till he had searched among the ancient authors for facts concerning the physiological action of various substances, that he ventured to make known his discovery. These researches resulted in bringing to light a multitude of facts confirmatory of the actual disclo- sure of a therapeutic law by Hahnemann, which not only generalizes the entire Materia Medica, but fur- nishes also, at all times, a test of the capability and powers of every substance included under this head. The first essay which Hahnemann wrote and pub- lished concerning this new principle, appeared in 1796. Two years after, he published two papers on continued and remittent fevers, and on hebdomadal diseases. 11 During his residence in Leipsic, Hahnemann ap- pears to have had but little opportunity for testing the practical advantages of his discovery. Beino- dependent upon his daily labors for support, he was obliged to devote his time to writing chemical essays, and the translating of works of value for the book- sellers ; for as yet there seemed to be no other alter- native for acquiring a support for his increasing family. How perplexed and fretted must have been that master mind, so burdened wTith the clog of pov- erty, in its longings for opportunity to test the prac- tical value of his unique discovery; and yet, says the historian, it was by reason of his poverty that he was led into a channel that resulted in his mak- ing it. Naturalists tell us that " the oyster forms the lus- trous pearl around certain extraneous substances that intrude themselves into the cavity of the shell, and vex and irritate its tender flesh;" and so it is with the great and good : the vexations and annoyances of life are often the means of eliciting and develop- ing those pearls of the mind that fill us with admir- ation. It appears to have been the order of an overruling Providence, that Hahnemann should have a new and more desirable field for labor, and in 1792 the reign- ing Duke of Saxe Gotha offered him the charge of an asylum for the insane, and therewith a pecuniary support for his family, while at the same time he was favored with sufficient leisure to pursue his interest- ing investigations, and for practically testing the " new principle." It was here that he created con- siderable sensation by effecting the marvelous cure 12 of the Hanoverian minister, who had fallen a victim to the satire of his enemies, and become insane. From an account of this case, published in 1796, it would seem that Hahneman, was in all probability the first who advocated mild instead of coercive treatment in such cases — a practice which has since obtained universal favor. " I never allow," said he, " any insane person to be punished by blows or other painful corporeal inflictions, since there can be no punishment where there is no sense of responsibility; and since such patients cannot be improved, but must be rendered wrorse by such treatment." We will not attempt, however, to claim all honor for Hahnemann as being the first to substitute moral treatment for the insane ; for in the very same year Pinel made his first experiment of unchaining the maniacs in the Bicehe, and therefore it is but just to divide the honors between these distinguished phil- anthropists. After Hahnemann had finished his engagement, and resigned his charge of the asylum, he removed to Konigsliitter, and published the first part of the " Friend of Health," a popular miscellany on hygiene, and also the first part of his Pharmaceutical Lexicon. Additional parts of each of these works he published subsequently. Not long after, he published in Hufe- land's Journal his remarkable essay on his new dis- covery, and its application in the cure of chronic diseases. Several other essays followed in rapid succession. In consequence of these papers he be- came the victim of persecution: the hostility of the physicians was openly proclaimed, and they induced the apothecaries to bring an action against him, 13 because he infringed upon their rights by preparing his own medicines. It was in vain that he appealed to the spirit of the law that regulated the apotheca- ries' business, securing to them only the privilege of compounding medicines. He argued that every medicinal man had the right to prescribe or vend uncompounded drugs, which were the only articles he employed, and these he administered gratuitously. But all in vain. The opposition was too powerful, and consequently he was denied the right of dis- pensing his own simple medicines. During his residence in Kbnigsliitter, the scarlet fever for a time prevailed epidemically, and in be- stowing his special attention to the malady, Hahne- mann discovered the prophylactic power of Bella- donna, which till the present time has been the subject of honorable mention by both friends and foes. Some of the most distinguished writers on medicine in modern times, have recognized Belladon- na as a medicine of rare curative powers, and of remarkable preventive properties, where scarlatina has prevailed. In our own country, Dunglison and Dewes have both alluded favorably to this discovery, and Watson and others in England have noted the fact, in connection with the name of Hahnemann. When the facts that led to the discovery of Bella- donna being a preventive of scarlet fever, were pro- mulgated by Hahnemann, the ire of jealousy wrangled still more violently in the breasts of the doctors, who contrived to drive him from Konigsliitter in 1799. Twenty years after, when an epidemic scarlet fever broke out in Leipsic, where Hahnemann then resided, some of the physicians complacently recommended 14 the employment of Belladonna as a preventive, claiming it as a recent discovery; thus withholding credit from the venerable sage in their midst, who so many years before was its author. From 1799 to 1806, Hahnemann was so unremit- tingly persecuted by physicians and apothecaries, that he was compelled to remove from one place to another; but all the while his powerful intellect and ready pen were employed to advantage. He trans- lated works of value for the publishers, wrote essays, and poured hot shot into the enemy's camp, by pub- lishing articles in Hufeland's Journal, denouncing the errors, follies and absurdities of the prevailing prac- tice of medicine. On one occasion he was employed to translate a collection of medical prescriptions, to which he was allowed to prefix a preface, which proved an excel- lent antidote to the book itself. By reason of such independence, his labors as a translator came to an abrupt termination; and with the single exception of his translation of Albert Von Haller's Materia Medica, executed in 1806, his works henceforward were all originals. A little later he published those masterly productions, "iEsculapius in the Balance," " Materia Medica Pura," and " Medicine of Experi- ence." This latter work was the most original, bril- liant and convincing of any essays that had appeared on the art of medicine. His enemies, unable to refute its masterly arguments, became captious, and fell to ridiculing his system. This was an easier task for them than it would have been to point out its imperfections. Hahnemann from this time acquired friends and 15 admirers of his writings; and while the press and the aristocracy of the profession indulged in harmless diatribes, he was ever at work in the new field which had been opened for his labors. In 1810 he pub- lished the " Organon of the Healing Art," which laid the foundation for a new school of medicine. From the time this work came into antagonism with old physic, disclosing its fallacies and absurdities that had descended from the dark ages, its author became marked as the victim of allopathic hatred, and from day to day his lot was to suffer from imprecations, calumny and persecution. But to vigorously assail a genius like Hahnemann, one of the ripest scholars of his age, and to hold him up as the victim of scan- dal and outrage, was nothing more than a sad com- mentary upon the bigotry and blind devotion to antiquity that characterized the physicians of that day. Instances are by no means rare, of men adher- ing pertinaciously to antiquated doctrines, and closing their minds against new openings of truth, until, like the bats and owls, they prefer the darkness of night to the dawn of day. It has ever been the custom of such men to vilify and impugn the motives of those who advance in new observations and discoveries. But, magna est Veritas et prwvalabit. It was fortunate for makind that persecution could only drive Hahnemann from place to place; it could not interrupt the progress of his doctrines. Every new field he entered, it was his fortune to gather fresh laurels; for, those very doctrines so scornfully rejected by the " Scribes and Pharisees " of the profes- sion, invariably found favor with candid and reflect- ing men. 16 In 1811 he completed the publication of the Ma- teria Medica Pura, which contained an account of the physiological action of a large number of remedies which had been proved by successive trials upon persons in health. In the same year he was permit- ted to defend a thesis before the " Faculty of Medi- cine " of Leipsic, in which he evinced a degree of scholastic attainment seldom equalled, and by few excelled. He afterwards gathered around him a school of learned adherents, to whom he lectured, and indoctrinated in the theory and practice of Hom- oeopathy. From year to year this school progressed and multiplied in numbers, while its founder, aided by his friends, augmented its literature, until its rivalry was severely felt in several of the European nations. In 1828-9 he published his celebrated work on chronic diseases, in five volumes. On the 10th of August, 1829, fifty years after he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine, he solemnly founded the " Central Society of German Homoeopathists," which still exists. It was not long after, that Homoeopathy spread beyond the limits of the German States, and gained a foothold in Russia, Prussia, Italy, France, and the United States of America. Hahnemann was twice married. His first wife, who was the daughter of an apothecary of Gommern, was the mother of his numerous family of children, and the sharer of all-the vicissitudes of his eventful life. She died in 1830. Five years afterwards, Mile. Melanie d'Hervilly came to Coethen, and suc- ceeded in captivating Hahnemann, then in the eigh- tieth year of his age, by the charms of her youth and beauty, and carried him off in triumph to Paris, 17 where by her influence with Guizot, she obtained for him authorization to practice; and for eight succes- sive years his house was the resort of invalid strangers from all countries. These last eight years were seemingly the happiest of his life, made so in part by the brilliant virtues of his attentive wife, and partly by witnessing the homage which the great and good of all nations began to pay to the great truths which had been the labor of his life to dis- seminate. He died, laden with honors, on the second day of July, 1843. Such is a brief outline of this man's eventful life and labors, wEbse name we delight to honor, as a true philanthropist, and an indefatigable student; whose entire life was but a continued scene of hard study, original thought and indomitable perseverance. To impart anything like a fair account of Hahne- mann's medical doctrines, would require more time and labor than can be devoted to a single lecture. We have already alluded to his discovery of a new principle in therapeutics, by him regarded as one of nature's unchangeable laws. When his attention was directed to the febrifuge properties of Cinchona, and perceiving that it would produce, in healthy persons, the several stages of a fever resembling that for which it had been regarded the antidote, he at once inferred that other drugs might produce affec- tions similar to those which they had cured; and in order to ascertain the fact, whether they did or not, he searched the writings of his predecessors, as far back as the time of Hippocrates, that he might gain some insight into the physiological action of drugs. He was surprised to find "that the fact had been 2 18 universally overlooked, that all well authenticated instances of cure had been effected by such remedies as produce, in healthy subjects, affections similar to the morbid ones they had cured;" while at the same time he was like Cicero, when he discovered the tomb of Archimedes, so overjoyed that he cried out, " Eureka I I have found the law of cure!" He found what the sages of medicine had long sought, to wit: a principle, universally applicable in determin- ing the capabilities and powers of all substances found in the Materia Medica. Therefore, instead of relying upon the numerous and diversified theories with which the books on medicine abounded, he held up the law of nature which he had discovered, as the only reliable guide in the selection of remedies to meet any and all cases of disease. He showed, by experiment upon himself and friends, when in health, "that a drug wrhich would produce morbid phenomena, would cure only such diseases as manifest similar morbid charac- teristics." Many of the older writers had wrought cures upon this principle, a fact which had become apparent to the mind of Hahnemann, from his re- searches, as well also as the probability of the fact that no cures had ever been effected upon any other principle. In order to test the principle, and prove its truth beyond all cavil, he instituted experiments upon himself and friends, with more than three hun- dred remedies, whose physiological chart or range of action he obtained; and so far as these remedies have been employed upon the similia principle, the result has been a satisfactory confirmation of its truth. Notwithstanding the extensive experiments 19 made by Hahnemann, he was unable to discover any other principle of cure than that expressed in the formula, "similia similibus curantur." Therefore he con- cluded that this great central truth generalizes the entire Materia Medica, and holds in perpetual contri- bution to its stores the three kingdoms of nature, that remedies may be multiplied, sufficient to anti- dote the various forms of disease. The discovery of this therapeutic law had nearly the same effect upon the numerous medical theories then extant, as had the science of chemistry upon the notions of philters* and charms, or that of astron- omy upon the terrors of astrology, or that of science in general, upon gnomes, ghosts, freebooters and witches,—to drive them all from the pale of enlight- ened and civilized life. It was never maintained by Hahnemann that his discovery superseded the utility of any of the positive sciences that had before come into use. He discarded nothing justly entitled to the dignity of a science, and yet it is not denied that theories, guesses, conjectures, incongruous compounds, mixt- ures and superstitions, were in his estimation of but little value. He was a man of science, a diligent inquirer of nature, and while he saw chemistry, anatomy, operative surgery, and other sciences that properly belong to the curriculum of medicine, to be indispensable, he wished to complete the circle by introducing a scientific basis for therapeutics and the practice of the healing art, that would command the respect of the student of nature, and inspire him with the grandeur of its importance, in no less a degree than would the science of astronomy, that 20 discloses the laws and motions of the heavenly bodies. It has been alleged by Hahnemann's opponents that he discarded the sciences of physiology and pathology, as useless appendages; but this needs qualification. He merely discarded the speculative physiology and pathology of his day, which were manifestly the offspring of conjecture, and. really possessed no scientific merit. He beheld in the ri- valry of the humoralists and solidists, that neither presented well founded doctrines. That his observa- tion was correct, may be inferred from the fact that the later writers, Bostwick, Carpenter, Mayo, Budge. Puget, Draper, Todd and Boman, by inductive obser- vation, have developed the facts of physiological science to a degree that excludes effectually the physiology and pathology which Hahnemann con- demned. It is remarkable that these later writers on physi- ology, as well as such writers on pathology as Schoen- lein, Skoda, Henderson and Henle, have pursued their investigations in their respective branches, as diligent interrogators of nature; and this in a correla- tive department, was precisely the course pursued by Hahnemann; and moreover, in the estimation of many liberal minded observers, the discovery of Hahnemann in therapeutics is likely to be called into requisition, as a test of the purity of physiological and pathological doctrines. It is evident that all schools must agree in the science of anatomy, for the human body presents the same tissues to every scalpel, the same elements to analysis. There must also be the same agreement 21 upon true physiological and pathological doctrines, and upon the principles of operative surgery and obstetrics. The necessity for studying all these branches found no abatement with Hahnemann. But when he came to Materia Medica and Polypharmacy, he opened up a new channel for the labors of the •student; he required of him a familiar acquaintance with chemistry and botany; with the former, that he might be able to obtain the pure elementary sub- stances used as medicines, and with the latter, that he might be able to collect the medicinal plants, and discriminate between them. The mixing of medi- cines together found no favor with Hahnemann, because in his estimation they exert upon each other a modifying influence which renders their action uncertain. He therefore maintained that only one medicine should be used at a time; that it was the merest charlatanism to mix two or more together for the sake of procuring a wider range of action upon disease, and thus to defeat all efforts to gain pure medical experience. His Materia Medica was a col- lection of medicinal substances as they exist in nature, each having been proved by itself, and its physiological action recorded. His therapeutic doc- trines were founded upon the law of simile, which he believed to be of universal application. He based his doctrines of physiology upon life and health, and in order to rightly comprehend them and be able to judge of the functions of the various organs in man, and to obtain a correct idea of their analogy, a knowledge of the elements of his constitution is requisite. When man was first created, mention was made of 22 matter, a vital fluid and a soul; "and these," says Michael Grander, " are the three sides of a triangle, disclosing the physiological unity of man, in whom there are solids, liquids, vapors, gases, fluids, and a soul." The solids engender the liquids, the liquids the vapors, the vapors the gases, the nervous fluid approaches the vital fluid, and the vital fluid is the transition of matter to the soul. In order to com- prehend more fully this doctrine of Hahnemann, the mysterious mechanism of man may be compared to a monarchy; the soul being the king, the organs, the subjects, the vital fluid, the minister, — all together constituting a unity; and all the parts which enter into the composition of his being are indissolubly united in the closest sympathy. This unity, accord- ing to Hahnemann, cannot be modified in the least degree, without its effects telling upon the functions; the undulations of the centre are transmitted to the circumference, and the slightest shocks upon the points of the circumference converge to the centre by an infinite number of rays. Thus in a liquid mass, the particles communicate their movements one to another, as an electric spark awakens and puts in motion the fluid which .circulates in a current of the most unbounded extent. There is then an intimate connection between spirit and matter, by means of the vital fluid, but how effected is an unfathomable mystery. It is the soul which is possessed of thought, volition, responsi- bility and freedom of action. It is the vital fluid which directs the material part of man and all his vital actions, the lever that moves the machinery of his organs and enables him to breathe, digest and 23 walk, that spends his strength by fatigue and repairs it by sleep. When this vital fluid is calm, he is in health, and when its equilibrium is disturbed, he suffers from disease. It is the matter, thus subject to the vital fluid, and \>y it chained to the soul, that often usurps the scep- tre, as in disease, and obliges the soul to submit to its tyranny. The physician exercises his art upon the physical rather than upon the moral, because this is more immediately the domain of his researches; nevertheless one part ought not to be excluded to the detriment of another, since man is a unit. We should not, on the one hand, confine our atten- tion to the body exclusively, nor yet, on the other, to the soul; but to the vital fluid more particularly, which binds soul and body together. For it is this fluid, when disturbed, that manifests the various forms of disease, and to it must all our remedies be addressed. It will be seen, then, that health, accord- ing to Hahnemann, is the result of the perfect equi- librium of the vital fluid, and the disturbance of which constitutes disease. Others as well as Hahne- mann, maintain that diseases are the virtual or dy- namic changes of the vital fluid. The term dynamic means, that diseases have a fluidic, immaterial or imponderable origin, a doctrine somewhat allied to the actual progress of the age, which all must agree, is remarkable for the development of fluidic powers. The vital fluid, which in a disturbed state is a con- dition of disease, sustains undoubtedly an analogy to the electric fluid, which in modern times is em- ployed to convey items of intelligence through wires, if not across the Atlantic, between the remotest cities and towns of our own country. 24 Another doctrine of Hahnemann is, that there are no diseases of purely a local character, although they may manifest themselves in particular localities. This doctrine, so manifestly in opposition to that of the school of Paris, he thought would better account for chronic maladies transmitted from generation to generation. These maladies are those of prolonged duration, being always much slower in running their course, than acute ones. It is evident that the chronic character of these maladies cannot alter their radical source; or in other words, diseases, whether chronic or acute, always originate from an intrinsic morbific cause, which has assailed the vital fluid. Therefore Hahnemann sup- poses that three very distinct miasmata have engen- dered in this vital fluid, the thousand modifications, more or less hidden and slow, which are termed chronic maladies. Psora, syphilis and sycosis are the three: the first, like Proteus in the fable, assumes a thousand different forms, and manifests itself in vari- ous affections, as itch, ringworm, dartre, scrofula, etc. etc.: the second engenders that loathsome dis- ease sometimes termed the French or Italian, and other times emphatically the American: the third begets all the maladies which grow, vegetate and bud, as excrescences, fungoid or fibrous tumors. Such, according to Hahnemann, being the origin of all chronic diseases, and all the suffering to which humanity is subject, it is only necessary to draw aside the veil that covers them, and the lid of Pan- dora's box is lifted. It is not necessary now to inquire whether this view of Hahnemann is true' or false, the object being merely to state them. It may 25 • be added, however, that this doctrine has many advo- cates, and appears to have received of late a marked degree of favor among many learned pathologists, who maintain that much can be adduced in favor of the theory. Hahnemann maintains that when any foreign agent assails the vital fluid or centre, the effects immediately radiate to the circumference, and by losing the equi- librium, the vital principle struggles and echoes the disturbance by signs, which are called symptoms, or pictures, which become the reflection of nature in pain. On account of this he has been sneered at as a mere symptomatologist, who directs the physician at the bedside of his patient to collect all the partic- ulars of the case, that he may obtain an exact idea of the totality of the disease, the manifest symptoms of which are to serve as a guide in the selection of a remedy whose pathogenetic symptoms form the counterpart, and must therefore operate in the same direction, as an antidote. It will be seen, therefore, that every disease was viewed by him as a distinct entity, individual in its character, requiring a corresponding individual treat- ment. He discarded Nosology as a subtle mischief breeder, which invariably leads to a routine practice. He counseled his disciples to regard every abnormal condition as something so new and distinct as to re- quire specific attention and study, with reference to its appropriate remedy. Such is a brief outline of Hahnemann's pathological views. His Materia Med- ica and therapeutics, based upon a knowledge of the pathogeneses of medicines, fully accord with these views and those he entertained of man's physiological 26 unity, thus rendering a correspondence of his doc- trines concerning the entire curriculum of medicine so full and complete, that the whole forms one entire system, equal in all its parts. In his doctrine of physiology and pathology, as well as in his system of therapeutics, we behold the prominent idea of vital force or fluid, from which diseases originate, and to which remedies must be addressed to effect their cure. When the vital fluidic force is in perfect equi- librium, the physical man is in health; when dis- turbed, he is smitten with disease, and remedial agents addressed to the same force are requisite, in order to restore the equilibrium, that he may regain the healthy standard. When Hahnemann first discovered the new princi- ple in therapeutics, he employed simple substances as remedies, in the ordinary doses; but as the action of such doses, upon the similia principle, was also upon organs and tissues already excited and inflamed by disease, and of course exceedingly sensitive, it was by no means an uncommon occurrence for dan- gerous aggravations to ensue from their employment. Hahnemann observing this fact, was led to attenuate medicines so as to adapt them more fully to the im- pressible states of the organism, and thus avoid the difficulty. By one experiment after another, in successive triturations and attenuations, he at last discovered that medicines possessed fluidic powers corresponding to those fluidic forces to which they were addressed. This gave rise to his theory of dynamization, in accordance with which, the expedi- ent of small or infinitesimal doses was necessarily resorted to. When the testimony of science and 27 scientific facts relating to Hahnemann's system, seem to support the reasonableness of his conclusions, it is to be expected that men of candor and science will, like Hufeland, Boerhaave and Recamier, admit the possibility of, if not the preference for, minimum doses. It is merely intended, however, to state the doctrine, without instituting anything like a defense of Hahnemann's theory of the fluidic powers of remedies. In submitting a brief summary of Hahnemann's pe- culiar doctrines, we will mention : 1. The law of cure, similia similibus curantur. 2. That medicines must be employed in simples and not in compounds. 3. That such medicines only should be employed in the treat- ment of the sick, as have been proved by numerous trials upon persons in health. 4. That medicines possess fluidic powers, which can be developed by successive triturations and succussions. 5. That health is the result of a vital fluidic force in the ani- mal economy, in perfectly calm equilibrium. 6. That disease consists of, or rather originates from, a dis- turbance of this equilibrium, and should be studied in connection with it. 7- That infinitesimal doses of rightly selected remedies, addressed to this force, will restore equilibrium, and consequently cure diseases. Such, it is believed, constitutes a brief outline of Hahnemann's peculiar medical doctrines, and it will be perceived that they contemplated a mighty reform in medicine. For more than a century, the great and the good of the medical profession have been pained on ac- count of its failures, as well as on account of the injuries that have been inflicted by the "heroic treat- 28 ment," and when the Homoeopathic practice was introduced by Hahnemann, many were led to behold that cures were rapidly effected without shedding of blood, or without an assault upon the stomach and bowels, with emetics and cathartics, or without pass- ing the sick through a purgatory of perspiration, etc., and they hailed the day as one prophetic of reform. Their hopes have not been disappointed. Hahne- mann disseminated his views, and made disciples who won for themselves glory and renown in the old world, by disclosing the errors and absurd practices of those who claimed to preside over the healing art. The effect was like magic. The dosing system fell into disrepute, and reckless heroism with the lancet and drugs began to fall back into the shade. Hahnemann honestly believed that the profession of medicine of his day was a positive evil; that it hur- ried thousands to untimely graves; that it was blood- thirsty and reckless. He was anxious to bring about a reform, and for this purpose he founded his new system, which forbids that evil shall be done that good may come. There has been no retrogradation of Homoeopathy for more than half a century. Accessions to its ranks occur quite frequently, from among those too who have hitherto held posts of honor and trust in allopathic institutions. Prof. Henderson, of Edinburg University in Scotland, Fewster Robert Horner, late President of the British Medical and Surgical Asso- ciation, and Tessier, physician of the H6pital San Marguerite of Paris, are among the number of those high in authority who have lent their aid of late to consummate the reform contemplated by Hahne- mann. 29 The reform has progressed until it has received the sanction of several of the enlightened nations of Europe, and in nearly every city and town upon the continent, where civilization extends, Homoeopathy receives a fair proportion of patronage. It has not only gained for itself a foothold wherever it has been tried, but it has changed the complexion of Old School Physic to a degree that all discerning minds behold it. There is less bleeding and leeching, less purging, less drugging of every description, and less of that heroism in the profession that once more than outgeneraled the forces of war, pestilence and famine, in sending victims to an untimely grave, and the reform is still advancing with the rising and set- ting of the sun. The young Homoeopathic giant will yet strangle the dragon of Allopathy, as did Hercules that older personification, when he carried off the golden apples from the gardens of the Hesperides. The reform thus contemplated by Hahnemann has been in a measure realized, and it consists, first, in ridding society of that universal system of malprac- tice known as the regular or heroic method, which has done more harm than good, from the time of its earliest introduction. It has multiplied diseases, says Dr. Rush, and made them more fatal. And secondly, it consists of furnishing in its place a more mild, safe and expeditious system of cure, that does no vio- lence to the constitution, and adds nothing to the natural duration of diseases. And will any one at- tempt to number the slain of regular or heroic med- icine, according to the testimony of some of the best authors of that school, and look upon the prostration of health, and the shattering of robust constitutions 30 which seem to have been the fruits of orthodox medicine, without conceding the necessity for some institution like that of Homoeopathy to operate as a restraint upon such proceedings, and to introduce a reform worthy of the true philanthropist ? The fact that in modern times people will not sub- mit to over medication as formerly, simply argues that the influence of Homoeopathy has been felt, and that the influence of what has been teamed " the sys- tem of thorough treatment," has been very greatly abridged. It is to Homoeopathy that we are mainly indebted for this reform, and it is humbly hoped it will continue till the last expiring groan of " Old Physic" will only be heard in the distant background, where it has been left by the advancing spirit of the age to go down to the vile dust " From whence it sprung, Unwept, unhonored and unsung."