•" :-iT.5 THE CHRONIC DISEASES: SPECIFIC NATURE HOMCEOPATHIC TREATMENT. BY Dr. SAMUEL HAHNEMANN. TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY CHARLES J. HEMPEL, M.D. WITH A PREFACE Br CONSTANTINE HERING, M.D. oft -un/; . r "% I- ill ::;. r. r, **Mny ■.■.V>v' NEW-YORK: WM. RADDE, 322 BROADWAY, 1845. WBK v. I Entebkd according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1845, by WILLIAM RADDE, La the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New-York, K. IUDWIS, FKID11B, 70 k 73, Vesey-street. TO THI HOMEOPATHIC PHYSICIANS 0 F THESE UNITED STATES, THIS P-ITBLICATION IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. This is the first English translation which has ever appeared of Hahnemann's Chronic Diseases. It is needless to inquire why this admirable volume which incloses so many important truths, the proper knowledge and appreciation of which is in- dispensable to the homoeopathic practitioner, should never have before appeared in an English .dress. As this omission cannot have originated in indifference on the part of Hahnemann's dis- ciples, the presumption is either that those few homoeopathic physicians who are really imbued with the spirit of Hahnemann's doctrine, have been prevented by the pressure of business from undertaking the translation of this work, or else, that they were not sufficiently conversant with both the German and the En- glish languages, to accomplish such a translation to their perfect satisfaction. 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 IV translator's preface. 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 pur- sued 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. Of the merits of Hahnemann's theory of chronic diseases, I have nothing to say. It is not received with the same unbound- ed confidence by all homoeopathic practitioners ; but I venture to say that its general principles are fully admitted by all those who have a true perception of the spirit of the homoeopathic doctrine. It cannot be expected that the homoeopathic doctrine should be fully understood as long as our knowledge of the nature and operations of the vital principle is deficient. Hahnemann's con- ception of the action of the homoeopathic drug was altogether vague, incomplete, and even erroneous. My own conception of the homoeopathic doctrine I have brought before the profession in my inaugural thesis. It is substantially as follows ; and I wish it to be understood that I give it not as a mere speculation, but as a demonstration, so far, that is to say, as any physical truth can be demonstrated in the present state of our knowledge. Inductive reasoning leads us necessarily to the admission of two orders of creative forces, one of which may be designated by the term harmonic, the other by the term subversive. The harmonic forces, by their action upon matter, produce those sub- stances, animals, plants, and minerals, which are necessary to the development of the harmonious or healthy organism ; the subversive forces, on the contrary, are those forces which pro- duce the substances adapted to the organism in disturbance, and destined to restore it to its original conditions of health. Both those forces, by their action upon matter, embody themselves in TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. V visible forms, each form representing or typifying a peculiar va- riety of those forces. The types or results which those forces create by their action upon matter, are united to those forces by that same indivisible bond which unites the effect to its cause. The idea of a machine, and the machine itself, though they seem to be two distinct things, are nevertheless united to each other in such an indivisible manner as to make it utterly impossi- ble to think of one separately from the other. The idea will at once call up the machine, and on viewing the machine, you are involuntarily reminded of the idea. The existence of a bond uniting effects to their causes, cannot be denied, although the na- ture of that bond may be totally unknown. So far I have shown the existence of subversive creative forces and their subversive results, these latter being indivisibly united to the former These results are the natural bases, or forms, or or- ders of existence of those forces. The embodying of those forces in their natural physical forms is effected according to or- der. But it often happens that those forces, instead of acting upon or embodying themselves in matter, act upon, and try to embody themselves in the animal organism. They then endea- vour to adapt the animal organism to their own nature. This adaptation can only be completed by first destroying the organ- ism, converting it to formless matter, and then impressing upon this formless matter their own creative energy. It is evident that the animal organism is not the type or natu- ral order of existence of those subversive forces. Hence there is no bond of union between these forces and the organism, and it must be possible to separate them. As the invasion of the organism by those forces and their attempts at adapting the or- ganism to themselves constitute disease, so does the separation of those forces from the organism constitute the cure of that disease. The question then is, how are those forces to be separated from the organism ] translator's preface. The answer to this question is perfectly simple and self-evi- dent. We introduce into the organism the natural types or forms of existence of that variety of subversive forces which has in- vaded the organism. These types being united to the forces by that indivisible bond which I have shown to exist between effects and their causes, the disease will, of its own accord, and with readiness, leave the organism which is not its natural product or type, and embody itself in its natural type which is the medici- nal substance. How this embodying takes place is to be shown by the farther progress of science. It is probable that the typi- cal substance acts upon the subversive force with a power of at- traction. The subversive force flows into or converges in the me- dicinal substance which is its type. In the same way do the sun's rays converge in the focus of a burning-glass, does the magnetic sphere of this globe converge in the point of a needle and its attractive force act upon the smallest molecule. In order to find out what medicinal substance is typical of any given va- riety of the subversive forces, we must, in the first place try to discover the symptoms of the diseases which are embodied in the various medicinal substances* For this purpose we try them upon the healthy organism. The symptoms which are thus evoked in the organism are indications of the effects which a certain order of subversive forces is capable of producing in the organism. To the medicinal substances producing those symp- toms, this certain order of subversive forces is therefore related as causes are to their effects, and as soon as they are brouo-ht in con- tact with each other, they become indissolubly united, the disease becomes a mere material point, and is separated from the organ- ism in perfect freedom, and what is essential, in perfect order. So far my conception of the homoeopathic doctrine, in its general nature at least, amounts to a demonstration. But now the question occurs : by what process, in what manner does the invasion of the organism by the subversive forces take place and translator s preface. vu is disease constituted 1 Here, I confess, science leaves us al- together, and any attempt at solving this problem, must neces- sarily be speculative reasoning. One thing however is yet sufficiently clear; it is this, that the human organism cannot be invaded by disease unless it has first undergone a process of adaptation to the nature of a certain order of the subversive forces. An indigestion, for instance, can only take place, when the original harmony or equilibrium of the organism has been interfered with by substances having been introduced which are not adapted to the organism, or by those substances having been introduced in too large a quantity or at improper hours. What is termed indigestion, is therefore the effects of a peculiar order of subversive forces acting upon the organism existing in a peculiar state of preparatory adaptation. It is so with every other disease. Disease is the totality of the effects by which we recognise or perceive the action of a peculiar order of subversive forces upon an organism which has been ex- ceptionally or specially adapted to, or prepared for their reception. Hahnemann's theory of Chronic diseases corresponds exactly with my conception of the homoeopathic doctrine. The itch- vesicle, the chancre, and the cauliflower excrescence, are vicarious embodiments of some internal disease, in a similar way as the homoeopathic medicinal substance is the external visible type or embodiment of the internally acting subversive forces. There is this difference between that vicarious embodiment of the in- ternal disease and the homoeopathic type, that the latter may be introduced into the organism and be again, by its own choice, separated from it together with the disease, whereas the vi- carious embodiment of the internal disease is the measure of the degree and mode of adaptation which the subversive forces have accomplished in the organism. Hence the vicarious em- bodiment or symptom is a mere palliative, whereas the ho- moeopathic type has a curative effect. Vlll translator's preface. Hahnemann's theory of Chronic diseases strikes a death-blow at those violent modes of invading the living organism, which are practised by the alloecpathic physicians. The contents or the secretions of an organ are exactly proportionate to, or are the exact measure of the peculiar state of vitality of the organ. If the organ be invaded by subversive forces, those contents or se- cretions indicate the degree of adaptation existing between the subversive forces and the organ. Those contents act as pal- liatives inasmuch as they appease to a certain extent the fury of the invading forces. To deprive those forces of results which they claim as their legitimate property, would be to excite them into a more violent action and to cause them to attack the more delicate parts of the organism. I have explained this view more fully in my inaugural thesis and in my note on blood-letting. Allceopathic physicians and people generally are inclined to believe that retching indicating a desire of vomiting, or that te- nesmus indicating a desire of going to stool, the system, in both these instances, may be and ought to be relieved by an emetic or a cathartic. To administer these violent remedial agents, is a foolish mode of relieving the system. Spontaneous vomiting or a spontaneous evacuation of the intestines may afford relief, because they are the natural terminations of a morbid develop- ment ; but those artificial evacuations, though they may, for ob- vious reasons, by establishing a momentary counter-irritation for example, be momentarily followed by a semblance of relief, are not natural terminations of a morbid process, but they are concussions of the system taking place independently of the ex- isting invasion of the organism by the subversive forces. Retch- ing and tenesmus simply show that the subversive forces have not yet succeeded in adapting the organism to their own action and that, so far from favouring this action by artificial means the organism may be the more easily disembarressed from it by the homoeopathic type. i. iviiiiojuAxOn. o rive. *'ACE • ix The conception which I have offered of the homoeopathic doc- trine explains to a certain extent the rationale of the peculiar mode prescribed by Hahnemann for the preparation of homoeo- pathic remedial agents. The medicinal substances are material forms in which the subversive forces have embodied their essence or spirit. That essence exists therefore in its fulness, though in a latent condition, in the medicinal substances. Now, in order that points of contact, of attractive affinity, may be established between the homoeopathic type and the subversive forces which have invaded the organism, it becomes first necessary that the medicinal substance should, from its material nature, be raised to what Hahnemann terms a semi-vital or spiritualized con- dition. We know of no better mode to obtain this result than the mode of trituration proposed by Hahnemann. To excite the latent life or heat-principle of any known substance we resort to friction. We draw fire from wood by rubbing one piece against another. By friction we excite sparks from pebbles. By fric- tion we excite the electric fluid. If any one knows a better mode than Hahnemann's of spiritualizing the typical forms of the forces productive of disease, let him propose it. The sub- sequent process of shaking is evidently analogous to the process of trituration. I believe, although I can only give this as a mere speculation, that the homoeopathic preparation, be it ad- ministered in the form of a globule, powder, or drop, introduces into the organism an intermediate sphere of a semi-spiritual and semi-material nature, that the subversive forces flow into or con- verge in that sphere by virtue of its attractive spiritual power, and become gradually materialized by uniting themselves with the material nature of the sphere ; after this process of material- isation is completed, the subversive forces leave the organism, together with their type, in perfect freedom, and, as 1 said above, in perfect order. It is evident from what I have here advanced that the attractive X translator's preface. spiritual force of the homoeopathic preparation increases in pro- portion as the process of trituration is carried up to a higher de- gree. Nevertheless there must be a limit beyond which the attractive spiritual force of the intermediate sphere may cease to act, on account of being raised above the spheres from which the subversive forces themselves emanate. The great difficulty, it seems to me, is, to discover the point, where the attractive force of the homoeopathic type will exercise its due influence over the subversive forces in the organism. Can this focus of attraction be determined by experiment 1 Does it depend upon the nature of the medicinal substance ? Does it depend upon the order in which the subversive forces creative of disease, are related to or super-imposed upon each other 1 Until questions like these shall have been solved, we shall have to depend greatly upon experience and careful observation for the de- termination of the most adequate degree of potency, in which homoeopathic preparations should be exhibited in any given form of disease. And we shall have especially to depend upon the word of the master. The recklessness with which many homoeopathic practitioners use either low or high potencies, and administer large or small doses, one, two, or three drops, just as it comes, or twelve, eigh- teen, or twenty globules just as they happen to drop out of the vial, is altogether unpardonable, and a species of quackery sui generis. There are even homoeopathic physicians who practise upon the principle that, if they do not know what remedy is homoeo- pathic to a disease, they give the remedy which they suppose to be homoeopathic, in a quantity sufficient to make an impression upon the system. Such horrible delusions can never blind the minds of those who/eeZ the homoeopathic doctrine in their souls. I intended to have here instituted a sort of inquiry into the PREFACE. XI scientific character of Hahneman's theory of the chronic miasm The results of my inquiry I shall communicate on some other occasion. Such an inquiry is necessarily connected with an inquiry into the whole physiological and psychological nature of man, and this preface is already too long to admit of any more space being devoted to farther considerations. I therefore take leave of the reader, and trust, that this little volume may prove acceptable to the veneration which he doubtless feels for the great author of homoeopathy. New-York, April, 1845. Charles J, Hempel, M.D. Mr. Radde takes this opportunity of informing the Profession, and those persons generally who are friendly to Homoeopathy, that the publication of the present volume will be immediately succeeded by that of the anti-psoric remedies, the first series of which, comprising *' agaricus muscarius, am- monium carbonicum, ammonium muriaticum, anacardium, baryta, borax, calcarea carbonica," is now in the press, and will be for sale at Mr. Radde's book-store on the 15th of June next. The anti-psoric remedies acquire an additional interest from the fact that Hahnemann himself has pointed out the diseases in which every anti-psoric remedy has been found most eminently useful. On the first of August next will appear the first series of the remedies constituting Hahnemann's Materia Medica Pura. This series will comprise belladonna, Pulsatilla, and arnica. If it is at all probable that the expenses of the publication of this great work will be covered, no efforts will be spared to secure it as speedy a termination as is ronsistent with the great care which the translation of Hahnemann's writings demands. Every ad- mirer of Homoeopathy should possess himself of Hahnemann's materia medica, as the greatest monument of his genius and perseverance. The translation of this work will be achieved by Dr. Hempel, who is in- timately acquainted with all the idiom3 and peculiarities of the German language, and will give a correct translation of every symptom contained in Hahnemann's Materia Medica. No one but a German scholar is competent to translate homoeopathic works from the German. All those who feel disposed to procure Hahnemann's great work, are re- spectfully requested to signify their intentions to Mr. Radde, so that he may be able to calculate the probable chances of his enterprise, and carry it out with proportionate energy. Every series, of about 200 pages each, will be paid for in proportion as it leaves the press. W. Radde takes also this opportunity to inform the Physicians and the Friends of Hahnemann's System, that he is the sole Agent for the Central Homoeopathic Pharmacy at Leipzig in the United States, and that he has always on hand a good Assortment of HOMCEOPATHIC MEDICINES in their different preparations, as E:>sences (Tinctures) Triturations and Dilutions, put up in cases containing 415 vials, with tinctures and tritura- tions; ditto with 175; ditto cases containing 144 vials, with low Dilutions and medicated pellets. Cases containing from 27 to 400 vials, with pellets medicated with different (low and high) dilutions. Boxes with 60-80 vials containing medicated pellets. Double and single leather pouket-cases of Medicines for Physicians. Boxes for family use from three to six dollars Also all Isopathic Remedies. Refined Sugar of Milk, pure globules vials' corks, diet papers, labels, homoeopathic chocolate, &c, &c. ' DR. HERING'S PREFACE. {The following article has been kindly furnished by Dr. Herixg of Philadelphia, in German. The Editor is responsible for 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 Hahnemann 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 Hahne- mann 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 em- ployed in the treatment of chronic diseases, and which he therefore called " anti-psorics." In the organon Hahnemann tries to es- tablish 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, ori- ginating 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!—pounced upon the theory of the psoric miasm with a view of attacking it with their hollow and unmeaning sarcasms. Making Psora to be identical with itch, they sneeringly pre- tended that according to Hahnemann's doctrine the itch was the 2 DR. HERING'S PREFACE. primitive evil, and that this doctrine was akin to the doctrine of the original sin recognised by the Christian Faith.* * Note of the Editor : I beg pardon of my distinguished and learned friend for annexing a few remarks to this passage. In doing bo I merely anticipate what I intend to express more fully on this sub- ject some other occasion. As it would be absurd for a philosophical Christian to reject the doctrine of original sin, so it is absurd for any one who professes to have a clear perception of Homoeopathy, to reject the doctrine of an hereditary morbific miasm. Both these doctrines must stand and fall together ; and, as truth is one and indivisible, they both hold and illus- trate each other. If we admit with Rousseau that every thing which leaves the hand of God, is perfectly holy, then the first created man must have been perfectly pure, and must have appeared in the image and likeness of his maker. It seems to me absurd to suppose that something perfectly pure can, of itself, by its own free and orderly de- velopment, produce things impure and evil. We do not know how far God permitted an adaptation to evil to co-exist in the first man to- gether with an adaptation to goodness. But this we certainly know that evil fruits must be the result of evil forces. In a certain moment man, or God through man, permitted the adaptation to evil to prevail in his nature ; and instaneously the forces of evil, be they called serpent, devil, or otherwise, invaded man's nature, engrafted themselves upon it, and have, up to this moment, perpetuated their existence in it. This is relatively speaking, a fall, although, this fall, having been the first necessary phasis of human development, it may, in reality, be con- sidered a progress. Man's destiny consists in reuniting himself again with the Divine Life through the universal expansion of all the faculties of his soul and the realization of all the celestial harmonies the germs of which God had deposited in his nature and towards the construction of which science and art will furnish him the means. The principle of division or dissolution which man had suffered to be introduced into his spiritual nature, must necessarily have embodied itself in a cor- responding principle in the material organism. It is this principle which Hahnemann calls Psora. In proportion as man's spiritual nature be. comes developed and purified, this psoric miasm will be diminished and will finally be completely removed from the life of humanity. This complete physical regeneration of human nature will necessarily be attended with great changes in all the external relations of man edu- cation, mode of labouring, living, etc., etc. The principle of division or dissolution existing in the human organ. DR. HERING'S PREFACE. 3 With the same impudence with which they had, on former occasions, asserted, that Hahnemann rejects all pathology in his organon, they now asserted that he himself advanced a patholo- gical hypothesis, and " that the true which it contained was not new, nor the new true." Equitable judges will not fail to recognise 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 pathology of his time has been set aside as a heap of foolish speculations, 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 hypotheses to the treatment of disease. He rejected and overthrew the foolish 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 disease. 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 1 Does it avail the patient any to be able to repeat his doctor's ipse dixit " that ism as an established and constituted fact, does not preclude the possi- bility of this organism being invaded by acute miasms. The psoric principle marks the general adaptation to evil, recognised and inherently received by the human organism ; acute diseases are violent and sud- den invasions of the organism by the forces of evil—which I have named subversive forces in my preface. Those sudden invasions could never have taken place without man having first admitted the psoric principle to be constitutional in his organism. 4 DR. HERING'S PREFACE. he is bilious, nervous, etc. ?" Do these words mean any thing definite ? Are there yet physicians foolish enough to believe that their speculative explanations mean any thing ? Does not every body acknowledge that they are mere igne3 fatui flitting to and fro upon the quagmire of the old decayed systems of pa- thology 1 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 practitioners of the old school have been such as have constantly modified and individualized the treatment of dis- ease. This is all that Hahnemann has tried to accomplish ; with this difference that he has individualized every case of disease with much more precision than any of the older phy- sicians had done. Hahnemann had courage enough, at once to face the contradictions which constantly existed between prac- tice and theory ; he declared that the speculative 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 respectable. 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 ac- cording to the symptoms of the patient. The physician should be governed by what is certain and safe, not by that which is more or less uncertain and unsafe, and which is changed accord- ing 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 certain remedy in scarlet fever, because some one else had found it useful; or a certain remedy in pulmonary inflammation, be- cause it had been successfully exhibited upon a former occasion; whereas 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 treat- ment of chronic diseases Hahnemann has been taught by expe- rience to give preference to the anti-psoric remedies'^ This pre- ference is not theoretical, and is constantly subordinate to the general principle. 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 agree- ably to the symptoms which they had produced upon healthy persons, looking at the same time to their remedial virtues hav- ing been tested by practice. This is the reason why the gene- ral views which have been expressed just now did not prevent him from admitting as chief anti-psorics borax and ammonium carbonicum, anacardium and clematis. Why, it may be asked, has a great number of homoeopathic physicians, neither recognised 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 trustworthy than the other remedies 1 For the same reason that the astronomical discoveries of our 6 DR. HERING'S PREFACE. Hersehel are doubted by people who have no faith in the dis- coverer, and are not able to verify his discoveries. To do this, knowledge, instruments, talent, care, perseverance, opportuni- ties, and many other things are required. Not one of all these requisites can be found with those who are mere dabblers in practice, scribbling 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 understanding 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 turpen- tine. 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 because the greater number of physicians is affected with the delusion that things which they do not see, do not exist. If such physicians succeed in effecting 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 ho- moeopathy that is deficient; this or that rule is not correct; the materia medica is at fault; or, if something in Hahnemann's system does not suit them, they are prone to say that 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, hooping cough, etc., or that he distinguished the vene- real miasm into syphilis and sycosis, we may afterwards, if ex- ACE. 7 perience should demand it, subdivide psora into several species and varieties. This is no objection to Hahnemann's theory. Hahnemann has taken the first great step without denyino- the faculty of progressive development inherent in his system. But let improvements be made in such a way as to become useful, not prejudicial, 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 disci- ples of Hahnemann hold relatively to the theory of psora, I will nevertheless, 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, which 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 reme- dies have been improperly chosen. The skin being the outer- most surface of the body, it receives upon itself the extreme ter- mination of the disease. This cutaneous eruption is not a mere morbid secretion having been chemically separated from the in- ternal 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 con- tinue either entirely, or more or less in spite of this cutaneous eruption. Nevertheless, this eruption always is a favourable symptom; it alleviates the sufferings of the patient, and gene- rally 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 8 DR. HERING'S PREFACE. 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 recognising this law of order. An improvement which takes place in a dif- ferent 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 hemorrhage ; the next succeeding fit shows how little 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 organ- ism 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 pa- tient. " 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 OK. HERING S PREFACE. 9 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 Ho- moeopathy lays down in the subsequent work with so much em- phasis, are not always practised, and therefore, cannot be ap- preciated. 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 his- tory 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 attack the author of our doctrine; he would burthen himself with infamy. Hahnemann was a great savant, inquirer, and dis- coverer ; 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 vigour 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 exclaimed Hahnemann's consort: " Why should'st thou who hast alleviated so much suffering, suffer in thy last hour ? This is unjust. Providence should have allotted to thee a painless death." Then he raised his voice as he had often done when he ex- horted his disciples to hold fast to the great principles of Ho- maeopathy. " Why should I have been thus distinguished 1 Each of us should here attend to the duties which God has im- posed upon him. Although 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, 10 DR. HERING'S PREFAC . 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 considered by Providence a fit instrument for the accom- plishment of the divine will, he will be called upon to fulfil 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, ah art whose sole possessor I was, and which, being kept secret, might have become a source of perma- nently increasing profit to me. In communicating these great discoveries to the pub- lic, I cannot help entertaining doubts as to the good will of my cotemporaries to appreciate the justness of my doctrines. Will they be practised with care, and yield to suffering humanity the benefit which must necessarily be derived from their conscientious applica- tion ; or will my cotemporaries, intimidated by the unheard-of newness-of my discoveries, prefer leaving them unexamined, unimitated, and therefore suffer them to remain useless ? I have no reason to expect that these communica- tions 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 homoeopathic cure and the higher develop- ment of their dynamic action were overlooked; and despite of the warning trials which enabled me to re- commend small doses as the most appropriate for the 12 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. cure of disease, my faithful assurances and reasonings were disdained, and medical men continued for years to jeopardize the lives of their patients by large doses, and were therefore deprived of an opportunity of wit- nessing the happy results of the homoeopathic treat- ment, as was indeed my own case before I had adopted the rule of administering small doses. What would they have risked, if they had first fol- lowed my indications and had employed small doses 1 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 exhibit- ing 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 rout which I had travelled upon before them with trembling hesitation, but the end of which I had just reached with success. Neverthe- less, after having done much mischief, and having squan- dered the best period of their lives, they were obliged, when they were really desirous of curing disease, to resort to the only true method which I had demonstra- ted 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 principles developed in these pages, freeing humanity from the innumerable sufferings which nameless chronic diseases have heaped upon the poor patients from time immemorial, 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 practised 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 allceopathic method, both in regard to acute diseases as well as epidemics and spo- radic 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 dis- turbing or destroying the local affection. But there remained 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 allceopathic 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 doses of violent medicinal substances, whose separate effects were unknown, or by using all sorts of baths, violent diaphoretics or expectorants, pretended anodynes and sedatives, clysters, ointments, fomentations, fumigations, vesicatories, cauteries, fontanelles, and es- pecially those everlasting purgatives, leeches, bloodlet- tings, and methods of starvation, and the various other fashionable medicinal torments, the disease was either made worse, and the vital energies, despite of the inter- mediate use of pretended tonics, were more and more diminished ; or else, in case a striking change had been pbtained, artolher nameless medicinal disease, being 1 14 much worse and much more incurable than the original natural disease, was substituted in the place of the pre- vious disturbance; whilst the physician consoled the patient by saying, that " the old disease had been hap- pily removed ; that unfortunately a new disease had in- deed 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 im- proper and noxious medicines, until the complaints of the poor patient ceased with his last breath, and the re- latives 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 al- luded, and provided the patients had not been too much ruined by the allceopathic practice, (as was unfortunately too often the case where some money was to be made out of the patient,) the homoeopathic practitioners, by practising the precepts contained in the writings which I had then published, and by following the advice which I had given on former occasions, both in lectures and conversations, did infinitely more good by their treat- ment 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 ho- moeopathic practitioners, having in the first place in- quired into and noted down all the perceptible symp- toms of the disease, were able to remove it by means of the smallest dose of a remedy which had been care- fully selected among the most appropriate homoeopathic drugs, whose genuine and true action had been ascer- tained up to that moment. The improvement which was obtained by the homoeopathic practitioner, exceeded all that allceopathic doctors had ever been able to ac- complish by some luckily successful inroad upon their medicine-chests ; for the cure was often * accomplished in a very short time, the patient never was deprived of his strength, as is always the case by the allceopathic method of cure, and he was again enabled to enjoy his life. The disease yielded in a great measure to a very small dose of that remedy which had been found capa- ble of producing upon a healthy person the existing se- ries of morbid symptoms ; and if the disease was not too old, and had not been too extensively mismanaged by allceopathic practice, the improvement often lasted for a good while ; so that mankind might already deem themselves fortunate on account 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 allow- ances for the difficulties of his condition previous to the homoeopathic treatment, and compared it with the im- proved 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 con- cussion of the system consequent upon great external * The cures here referred to concern diseases from an im- perfectly developed psora. In the treatment of those dis- eases my followers 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 pathogenetic effects of which upon the healthy system corresponded most accurately to the existing symptoms, and had 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, for 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 injuries, or some melancholy, heart-breaking event, fre- quent fright, deep sorrow and grief, or continual chagrin, were often sufficient in an enfeebled system, to cause one or more of the former ailments 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 homoeo- pathic treatment, but which were just as difficult to cure, and then fore 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 con- sequence 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 im- perfectly to the best adapted remedies, and often even remained when the cure was checked by the above men- tioned external influences. Sometimes the chronic malady was arrested in a re- markable manner, for a shorter or longer period, by the oc- currence of agreeable circumstances, by some fortunate improvement in the affairs of the patient—a pleasant jour- ney, a favourable season, and dry uniform weather ; in this case the homoeopathic physician had a right to consi- der the patient almost cured, and the patient did consider himself so, provided he was willing to overlook moderate ailments. However, this favourable 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 ower in a proportionate degree, notwithstanding they ad been selected with the greatest care according to 17 their homoeopathic nature, and exhibited in the smallest and most appropriate doses. They finally acted only as mere palliatives. Generally, however, after the phy- sician had repeatedly tried to conquer 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 homoeopathic remedies were unable to extirpate, and often even to diminish. These symptoms increasing in intensity, and becoming more and more dangerous by their progressive develop- ment, 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 favourable, 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 treat- ment of the great, standing, idiopathic diseases, the old scarlatina of Sydenham, the modern purple-rash, hoop- ing-cough, croup, sycosis, dysentery ; even acute pleu- ritis and epidemic 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 num- ber 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 18 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, provided they were not fatal from their begin- ning, were not only considerably alleviated by correctly chosen homoeopathic 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 object is to restore the integrity of the organism, and to be indefatigably active in completing the recovery from virulent acute diseases, have been insufficient to effect a durable 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 doc- trine ; 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, in- defatigable research, careful observations and the most accurate experiments.* * I kept my great efforts secret both from the public, and from my disciples, not on account of the ingratitude which I have frequently experienced—for I heed neither the ingratitude nor the persecutions that I meet upon my path, which, weari- some 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 improper, 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 19 I observed that the non-venereal chronic diseases, even after having been repeatedly and successfully removed by the then known homoeopathic remedies, continually reappeared 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 the ostensible disease, ought not to be re- garded as the whole boundaries of the disease—other- wise the disease would have been completely and per- manently 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 com- pletely developed maladies, nor that he ought to expect such a permanent cure of these diseases as would pre- vent them from appearing again in the system, either in their original or in a modified and often more disagree- able form. I became convinced that the first condition of finding out one or more homoeopathic medicines which should cover all the symptoms characterising the whole disturbance, was, to discover all the ailments and symp- toms 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 primitive disease evidently owed its existence to some chronic miasm. For as soon as it had readied a certain height, it never yielded to the simple ac lion of a robust constitution, or to the best regulated dk t or to the treatment of#hronic 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. Having reached my 73rd year, it was not im- probable, that I should have been called into eternity before having completed my work. 20 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 dis- ease on account of its not having been cured from within by mercury, its specific. Syphilis never becomes extinct of itself; in spite of the best mode of life and the ro- bustest constitution, it increases from year to year, and assumes new and more dangerous syrfiptoms to the end of life. I had reached this point, when my investigations and 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 diseases that appeared to be separate and coherent maladies, should not be cured by homoeopathic treat- ment. 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 prac- tices 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 * Phthisis often passed into frenzy, drying-up ulcers into dropsy or apoplexy, intermittent fever into asthma, affections of the abdomen into pains in the joints or paralysis, influenza into hemorrhage, etc. It was not difficult to pefceive that the new symptoms were founded in the existing primitive malady, and could only be parts of a much more extensive disease.. Mi both by other physicians,* and myself, in an infinite num- ber of cases—left me no doubt about the internal ene- my 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 obtained by their employment in cases where the pa- tient had no recollection of the itch, I inferred that they resulted from a psora which had been communicated to the patient in the cradle, or in some other way, of which he 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 con- vinced 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 dis- tinct names, originate, with a few exceptions, in this widely ramified psora. Such diseases are most of those eruptions upon the skin which have been distinguished with so much care, and separately denominated by Wil- lan ; almost all adventitious formations, from the com- mon even up to the largest sarcomatous tumours, from the deformities of the finger-nails up to ramollisse- ment of the bones and curvatures of the spine, and seve- ral 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 hemor- rhoids, hemoptysis, hematemesis, hematuria, amenor- * More recently, especially, by von Autenrieth, (see Tiibin- ger Blatter fur Naturwissenschaft und Arzneikunde, sec. vol., sec. part.) 22 rhoaa, monorrhagia; night-sweats and diairhcea of seve- ral years standing ; parchment-like dryness of the skin, permanent constipation and difficult evacuation of the bowels ; long-continued local pains ; convulsions 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 dif- ferent forms of hysteria and hypochondria. Careful observations, comparisons and experiments in latter years have revealed to me the fact, that the tedious ail- ments of both the body and the soul, (provided they do not belong to the class of syphilis or sycosis,) which differ so much from each other in their principal symp- toms, as well as in the different patients, are all of them nothing but partial manifestations of one primitive chro- nic 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 disturbance. Of this nature are the great epidemic typhus fevers, like that of 1813. One patient exhibits but a few symptoms of the epide- mic, a second patient a few others, a third and a fourth again other symptoms inherent in that disease, all of these different symptoms constituting the same pestilen- tial fever, and in their integrality, exhibiting the com- plete image of the disease. A few homoeopathic reme- dies* will cure such a typhus in every patient infected with the disease, though each patient may exhibit dif- ferent symptoms, and may seem to be afflicted with a different malady.t This is, upon a larger scale, the case with psora, this * In the typhus fever of 1813, bryonia and rhus toxicoden- dron were the specific remedies for all patients. f See Organon of the healing art, fifth edition, 1831, § 100, etc. Md 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 symp- toms constituting those ailments belong to many of them in common, 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 with- out having been made worse by wrong treatment—are so inveterate immediately after they have become devel- oped 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 ramifica- tions to spread through the human organism and to grow without end. 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 symp- toms, 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 misapprehended more than any other. For thou- sands 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-venereal diseases, with which the civilized portion of mankind becomes more and more infected upon the whole inhabited globe.* * Note of the translator.—This statement about the pro- gressive increase of disease is erroneous, though it does by no means invalidate the general truth of the principle. Professor 24 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. Unlegs it is thoroughly cured, it lasts until the last breath of the longest life ; not even the robustest constitution, by its own unaided ef- forts, 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 existing, which have not been produced by bad medical treatment, 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. Marx, of Gcettingen, in his treatise of the statistics of disease, which has been translated into English by Doctor W. R. Willis, has conclusively shown, that disease has been decreasing from age to age, and that there is much less of it now than there ever was before. The reason why even such men as Hahnemann believe in a progressing increase of disease, may perhaps be this, that there is yet an immeasurable quantity of disease exist- ing around us, and that we imagine the existence of so much disease impossible, unless it be the result of a constantly increas- ing accumulation. * Note of the translator.—Hahnemann thinks that this extension of the manifestations of psora may be explained by this miasm spreading through so many organisms. Hahne- mann s statement may lead us to infer that°the psoric miasm has increased m intensity. This is not so. By spreading through millions of organisms, the psoric miasm has become divided, and its intensity is, therefore, less. Division implies diminution—increase in extent, but decrease in quality or decree It is assuredly true that the psoric miasm must have infected all the progressive manifestations of man's inherent vital energies and even of the soul's vitality, but making allowance for this loss, there must yet be left a balance in favour of the opposing forces, otherwise life would gradually become extinct. ** 25 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 have already been delineated by Moses* 3400 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 various 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 disfigured. Names are of no consequence here, since the essence of this miasmatic itch is every where the same. In the middle ages Europe was visited for several centuries by the frightful psora of the occidental coun- tries, 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 2000 houses for the reception of leprous patients. Neverthe- * In the 13th chapter of the third book, and also in the 21st chapter, 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 h"]^ ; the Alexandrian translators render this by ^copa aypia, the Vul. gate by scabies jugis. The interpreter of the Talmud, Jona- than, defines it a dry itch spread over the body ; and, according to him, the expression used by Moses £1^^ represents lichen,* herpes. (See Rosenmiiller; scholia in Levit. P. II., edit, sec, page 1-31.) The interpreters of the so-called English bible-work agree with this definition. Calmet 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\vxv7it,xpov. Cicero speaks of the dulcedo of scabies. 26 less, psora, spreading farther and farther in the form of a horrible eruption upon the skin, found at least some external alleviation in those means of cleanliness which the crusaders had brought 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 increas- ing refinement and more select nourishment, succeeded, in a couple of centuries, in diminishing the disgusting appearance of psora so as to reduce the disease, to- wards 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 dis- ease, began to raise its fearful head. The psoric eruption which appeared after infection had taken place, and which, in civilized countries, had been reduced to a simple manifestation of the common itch, was easily driven from the skin by all sorts of contrivan- ces. By means of baths, lotions, sulphur ointments, preparations of lead, copper, zinc, and mercury, of which the middle and higher classes availed themselves, the psoric eruption was often, and is now so quickly sup- pressed, that it remained often unknown whether a child or a full-grown person, in those classes, had been infect- ed 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 tumours and scabs, and the vehement itching all around, enjoyed nevertheless a fair share of general health. For, the obstinately lasting erup- tion 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 impres- sion 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 sepa- rate houses, the contagion remained limited and was, comparatively speaking, rare. 27 The milder forms of psora which appeared again, as has been mentioned before, during the 14th and 15th centuries, in the shape of the itch, infected a far greater number than the leprous patients were able to do, whose frightful appearance caused them to be carefully avoided by every body. The itch vesicles do scarcely appear, and may be easily kept concealed ; but being constant- ly scratched open in consequence of the intolerable itch- ing, and the fluid being spread over the skin and those things which had been touched by such patients, the infection, being concealed, 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 communica- ted 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 physi- cian or the surgeon are ignorant of the nature of the eruption which is repelled by lead-water, &c. 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 remov- ing the eruption. The more concealed and proportionately easier and more frequent infection of the itch is not the only disad- vantage which has resulted for mankind from the psoric miasm having been reduced from leprosy to the com- mon itch. There is another disadvantage, which is this, that the essence of this reduced psora is unchang- ed, that it is equally formidable as before, and that, be- ing more easily repelled from the skin, it appears so much more imperceptibly upon the inner surfaces ; the chief symptom, which is the external eruption, having been suppressed,* it produces an innumerable quantity * The itch may not only be removed by the evil prac- tice of physicians and quacks; it often leaves the skin of 28 of secondary chronic ailments. Physicians lose sight of the origin of that host of secondary morbid symp- itself, as may be seen below from the observations of older phy- sicians, in \os. 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 ex- crescence, which never leave the external, parts, until they Jiave either been destroyed by external applications or else have fccn remm ed by a rational cure, together with the whole of the inter- nal disease. Hence syphilis, and the secondary symptoms of sycosis, are impossible as long as the chancre or the cauliflower excrescence are not violently removed from the external parts. 'i< Lh chancre and cauliflower excrescence are external, unchange- able 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 disappeared without any external applications. 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 excrescence. Although the eruption is often removed by the evil practice of phy- sicians 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 disappears in consequence of an untoward physical or moral impression, violent fright, permanent chagrin, deep urief, 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. 3!),) 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 rivers, warm mineral baths, (see No. 35 ;) but the old physi- cians heeded the evil consequences of such a treatment no more than the modern do the acute affections and the lingerintr mala- dies which constantly appear as results of the internal psora, after the voluntary or violent removal of the external eruption. 29 toms ; they are unable to discover it, and the secondary disease is just as incurable as had been the original ma- lady with its eruption 'existing upon the skin. This had-, in fact, never been thoroughly cured, as experience showed, but had constantly been made worse by a quan- tity 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, paralyses, consumptions, and degenerations of either body or soul, than there are now. These have especi- ally 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 pre- sently existing chronic maladies originate in the reck- less suppression 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 prepa- ration, and sycosis by a few doses of thuya employed in alternation with nitric acid. The cure of these mias- * The increased irritability of the muscular fibre and the ner- vous 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 to- wards 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 diseases, 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. 30 malic 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- out excepting almost any, either teacher or author, have established the rule, and have given it almost as an in- fallible 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 oint- ment of Jasser, by sulphur fumigations, by solutions of lead or zinc, but most speedily by mercurial prepara- tions ; that health is restored as soon as the external eruption has been removed ; that it is indeed true that, by neglecting the eruption and leaving it upon the skin, the morbid matter may be finally absorbed into the hu- mours ; that it may deteriorate the blood, and ruin the general health; that these perverted humours may how- ever be easily removed out of the system by purgatives and bloodlettings ; but that all these secondary diseases may be entirely avoided by speedily removing the erup- tion from the skin." There never was taught a doctrine which has been more fraught with evil consequences 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 asy- lums, in short, all those who are affected with the itch, are ordered, by common as well as distinguished physi- cians, to use external applications for the purpose of re- moving the eruption the sooner the better,* (as they * These gentlemen, agreeably to the fanciful notion which they have fashioned of the nature of this important disease, as- sert that, in this case, the psoric miasm has not had time to be absorbed into the humours and to deteriorate them. But sup- pose the first little itch vesicle, the voluptuous itching of which excites a continual desire for scratching, which is followed by 31 imagine;) they may use perhaps large quantities of ffowers of sulphur internally, and some strong purga- tives, 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 dismissed * without the least regard for the secondary ailments which will certainly sooner or later manifest themselves as results of the psoric reaction, t The deceived and unfortunate patients sooner or later return to the hospital, affected with the unavoidable consequences of the former treatment, such as swellings, obstinate pain in various parts of the body, hypochon- dria, hysteria, gout, consumption, tubercular phthisis, spasmodic asthma, blindness, deafness, paralysis, car- cinoma of the bones, cancerous ulcers, spasms, hemor- rhage, diseases of the mind and the soul, etc. These are 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 eruption 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 gradually to ramify into a host of chronic ailments, that torture mankind and paralyse their strength ] Can these be cured by the ordinary methods ? Ex- perience 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 instinctive wisdom, being based upon a natural law, is superior to the un3erstanding of its destroyers.) The patient then re- turns to the hospital, and the treatment by ointments and washes of zinc or lead in solution is renewed. To my knowledge, this ernicious removal of the eruption by external applications has een 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. j I 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 hair's breadth. 32 considered new diseases, and, without suspecting their origin, treated according to the usual routine of thera- peutics. But the remedies are directed against* phan- toms, imuginary causes, until, after many years of in- creasing suffering, death ensues, and frees the patients from the hands of the doctor.* In the treatment of psora the older physicians were much more conscientious than modern doctors are, and they were much more enlightened observers. Their practice was based upon experience, which showed them that the removal of the psoric eruption from the skin by external applications was followed by innumerable ail- ments, and the most grievous chronic maladies. Hence they concluded that every case of itch originated in some internal disease, which they endeavoured to cure, as well as possible, by an innumerable quantity of their therapeutic agents. Of course, their endeavours 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 removing the internal dis- ease, which had given origin to the eruption upon the skin, they deserve much praise. In this respect the older physicians differ from the modern, whose chief ob- ject is to remove the itch from the skin as though it . were a mere cutaneous disease, without dreaming of ihe subsequent injuries which the older physicians have, in a thousand instances, exhibited in their works as warning examples. * 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 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 af- terwards 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. 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 when- ever it has been deprived of its external substitute, the cutaneous eruption. Would that the physician might learn from these cases that all his efforts should be di rected against the internal disease, and that an adequate cure of this disease will not only cause the cutaneous eruption completely to disappear, but will prevent, and, in case they should already exist, will cure all the se- condary chronic ailments consequent upon psoric reac- tion, and undermining the patient's life to his last mo- ment. 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 in- ternal disease, is unavoidably followed—this mode of sup- pressing the eruption being falsely called, " repelling the itch into the system "—are as various as the peculiari- ties 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 — 18, by the experi- enced and honest Lewis Christian Juncker. He ob- served that in young people of a sanguine temperament, this suppression, was followed by tubercular phthisis; and that generally, in persons of a sanguine tempera- ment, it was followed by hemorrhoids, colic, with bloody stools, and gravel; in persons of a sanguine-choleric temperament, by swelling of the inguinal glands, stiffen- ing of the joints, and malignant ulcers, (called in German, Todtenbrueche;) in fat persons, by a suffocating ca- 34 tarrh and tabes mucosa, inflammatory fever, acute pleu- risy and inflammation of the lungs. He says that in opening the bodies of such patients, the lungs have been found indurated and interspersed with sacculated cavi- ties full of pus; that other indurations have likewise been discovered, together with swelling of the bones, and ulcers; that in persons of a phlegmatic tempera- ment, this suppression of the cutaneous eruption pro- duced in most cases dropsy; that the menses were de- layed, and that they were changed to hemoptysis in case the eruption had been suppressed during their flow; that persons of a melancholy temperament be- came sometimes deranged, and that in pregnant women, having this temperament, the foetus was killed ; that the suppression of the eruption sometimes caused sterility ;* that the secretion of milk in nursing women was arrest- ed ; 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.t From this suppression of the cutaneous eruption of the itch have resulted: * A pjregnant Jewess had the itch upon her hands ; she re- moved 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 lochial discharge was arrested, and she had an acute fever. It was now seven years since she had been sterile and afflicted with leucor- rhcea. Having become poor, she was obliged to go a great dis- tance barefooted ; this brought the itch out again; leucorrhcea and the hysteric affection disappeared, she became again preg- nant, and was delivered of a healthy child.—(Juncker, ibidem.) | In preparing the 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 suppression of the itch by external applications, con- firm perfeetly all that I had already found in hundred other au- thors. He too has observed that this suppression is succeeded by ulcers on the feet, pulmonary consumption, chlorosis, men- strual irregularities, white-swelling in the knee, dropsy of the Asthma*—F. H. L. Muzell, Wahrnehmungen, se- cond collection, 8th case ;l J. Fr. Gmelin in Gessner's Collection of Beobachtungen, v., p. 21 ;s Zieger, Diss. de Scabie Artificiali, Lips. 1758, p. 32 ;a Stanmen, Diss, de Causis Cur Imprimis Plebs Scabie Laboret. Helmst. 1792, p. 26 ;4 Pelargus (Storch) Obs. Clin. joints, epilepsy, amaurosis with obscured cornea, glaucoma, (opacity of the crystaline lens,) with complete amaurosis, men- tal derangement, paralysis, apoplexy, torticollis, etc. He attri- butes all these diseases (though incorrectly) to the use of oint- ments. But the slow removal of the itch, which he proposes to effect with hepar sulphuris and salves, is not a whit better ; it is likewise a mere local suppression 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 in- ternal remedies. * Note of the translator.—Hahnemann quotes a vast number of authors who have furnished cases of the evil conse- quences of the suppression of itch. For the sake of brevity, I have omitted the names of these authors, together with the in- dication 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 Jong time ago, which had been removed by ointments. Ever since then he became more and more asthmatic. Breath- ing became finally very short and painful, even when he was perfectly quiet. In breathing there was a sibilant sound, but lit- tle 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 swell- ing 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 ou year 1722, page 435 to 438 ;5 Breslauer Sammlungen, of the year 1727, p. 293 ;6 Riedlin, father, Obsi Cent. II., obs. 90. Augsburg, 1691.7 Catarrh with suffocation.—Ehrenf. Hagendorn, Hist. Med. Phys. Cent. I., Hist. 8, 9;3 Pelargus, Al. Loc. Jahrgang, 1723, p. 15.9 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 sub- stance ; 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 tenia 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 disap- peared a month after, when the itch broke out all over his body. (6) Tenia capitis was cured in a little girl by purgatives and other internal remedies. The child was then attacked with dyspnoea, cough and great lassitude. The child speedily re- covered his health as soon as the remedies were discontinued, and the tenia disappeared. (7) A boy of five years had the itch. It was removed by an ointment, whereupon he was seized with great melancholy and cough. (8) Tenia 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 sibilus in the chest, convulsive torsions of the limbs, as though he were in articulo mortis, and hematuria. Upon the tenia reappearing, he recovered from all these ailments. A girl of 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 of 12 years old had her itch removed by an oint- ment, whereupon she was attacked with an acute fever, hooping- 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 swell- ing, all her ailments disappeared. However, after the lapse of 24 days the itch dried up again, which was followed by inflam- mation of the chest, pleurisy and vomiting. Asthmatic Suffocations-—Wilh. Fabr. v. Hilden, Obs. Cent. III. obs. 39 ;'° Ph. R. Vicat, Obs. pract. obs. 35. Vitoduri, 1780;" J. J. Waldschmid, Opera, 244.12 Asthma, with swelling all over the body___Pelargus, Aliis Loc. Jahrgang, 1723, p. 504 ;13 Riedlin, father, Aliis Loc. Obs. 91." Asthma, with dropsy of the chest.—Morgagni, de sed. et Caus. Morb. XVI. art. 34 ;15 Hagendorn, Al. Loc. Cent. II. Hist. 15.15 Pleurisy and inflammation of the c^est^-Pelargus, Al. Loc. p. 10 ;17 the same, Jahrgang, 1721, p. 23 and (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 appli- cations. Soon after he was attacked with a periodically return- ing asthma, which became almost suffocating in consequence of a long journey in the heat of the summer; the face was tume- fied, 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. (13) A girl of 5 years had had, for some time, large itch vesi- cles on her hands, which had dried of themselves. Shortly after " she was seized with short breathing, and became sleepy and ex- hausted ; on the following day the asthma continued and her abdomen became distended. (14) A countryman of 50 years had been affected with the itch for a long time. He had it removed by some external ap- plication, whereupon there was difficult breathing, want of appe- tite 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 bloodlettings 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 tenia had been removed, was at! tacked with a lingering fever, swelling all over the body and difficult breathing; she recovered after the tenia 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 an- guish became almost intolerable; the pain in the chest increased on the third day. Then sweat broke out. After the lapse of a 2 38 114,18 and Jahrgang, 1723, p. 29,19 and Jahrgang, 1722, p.459 ;20 Jerzembsky, Diss. Scabies Salubris in Hydrope, Halae, 1777 ;S1 -Karl Wenzel, die Nachkrankheiten von Zuriickgetretener Kratze, Bamb. 1826, p. 49.M Pleurisy and cough.—Pelargus, Jahrg. 1722, p. 79.M Violent cough.—Hundertmark, p. 23.23* Hemoptysis. Hemoptysis and consumption.—Chn. Max. Spener, *■ Diss, de ./Egro Febri Maligna, Phthisi Complicate La- borante, Giess., 1699 ;24 Sicelius, Praxis Casual. Exerc. III. cas. I.vFrancf. and Lips., 1743 j25 Morgagni, XXI. art. 32 ;26 Unzers, Arzt, CCC. p. 508.27 fortnight the itch had broken out again, and he felt relieved. He had a relapse, the itch dried in again, and he died 13 days after. (18) A thin man died of inflammation of the chest and other ailments, 20 days after the itch had been removed. (19) A boy of 7 years, whose tenia and itch dried away from the skin, died, after the lapse of 4 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 4 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 3 days. (22) A country lad was attacked with an acute fever, pleurisy, dyspnoea, etc., in consequence of having had the itch suppressed by sulphur ointment 6 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 disap- peared after the itch had come out again. (23*) A man of 36 years had the itch removed 16 months ago by an ointment of lead and mercury; ever since then he suf- fered of a convulsive cough, combined with great anguish. (24) A young man of 18 years had the itch removed by a black ooking 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-coloured and°emaciated, the urine looked blood-red, without sediment. (25) In a young man of 18 years, whose itch had been re- moved 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 ay Collection of pus in the chest.—F. A. Waitz, Med. Chir. Aufsatze, Th. I., p. 114, 1J 5.38 Sacculated bags full of pus in the intestines.—Schu- bert, Diss.de Scab. Hum. Lips., 1779, p. 23.29 Great degeneration of a large portion of the intes- tines.—J. H. Schulze, in Act. Nat. Cur., Tom. I., obs. 231.30 Degeneration of the brain.—Bonet, Sepulchretum Anat., sect. IV., obs. L, § l,3' and § 2.32 Hydrocephalus. Ulcers upon the stomach. —L. Chn. Juncker, Diss de Scabie Repulsa, Hal. 1750, p. 16.33 Sphacelus of the stomach and duodenum.—Hundert- mark, p. 29.34 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 open- ing 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 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 tenia 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 tenia, one half of the brain was found putre- fied and filled with yellow pus. (33) A rich man of a cholerico-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 remov- ed, 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 on 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 orifice, and in the latter 40 General dropsy.™ Dropsy of the chest. Sioelling of the scrotum, (in boys.) Red swelling of the whole body. Jaundice. Sujelling of the parotid glands. Sioelling of the cervical glands.—Pelargus, Jahrg. 1723, p. 593 ;M Unzer, Arzt, Th. VI., St. 301.37 Obscuration of the eyes and presbyopia.—Fr. Hoff- mann, (Jon*.ilt. Med. I., cas. 50.3S that portion of the duodenum into which the ductus choledochu9 communis and the pancreatic duct open, were found destroyed by sphacelus. A similarly fatal mortification of the stomach occurred in a journeyman. See Morgagni, 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. Fick, Exercit. Med. de Scabie Retropulsa, Hal. 1710, § 6. He mentions a case of itch that, having been suppressed by mercu- rial ointment, produced dropsy. This was only alleviated by the reappearance of the dropsy. The author of Epidemion, which is attributed to Hippocrates, has been the first to mention, 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 erup- tion having 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 tenia, 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 suppressed by means of a gray ointment. In consequence of this suppression, 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 breath- ing and swallowing. All attempts at causing the glands to sup- purate, remained fruitless; 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 in 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 aque- 41 Inflammation of the eyes.—Hallmann, in Konigl. Vet- enskaps Handl. f. A. X. S. 210.39 Lenticular cataract.—Chr. Gottlieb Ludwig, Advers. Med., Tom. II. S. 157.40 Complete amaurosis.—Northof, Diss, de Scabie, Got- ting. 1792, S. 10 ;41 Chr. G. Ludwig;43 Fabricius ab Hilden, Cent. II., obs. 39.43 Deafness. Inflammation of the bowels. Hemorrhoids. —Acta Helvet. V. S. 192 ;44 Daniel, Syst. ^Egrit. II., S. 245.45 Abdominal complaints.—Fr. Hoffmann, Med. Rat. Syst. III., S. 177.46 Diabetes, (suppression of urine.)—Morgagni, XLI., art. 2.47 ous humour of the anterior chamber. She was unable to per- ceive little objects unless she used spectacles. The pupils we're dilated. (39) A girl had a violent eruption of the itch on her legs, to- gether with large ulcers in the bent 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, dyspnoea, and an inclination to vomit. Next day the fever and the symptoms in the chest abated. Sweat broke out, which increased 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. (14) Hemorrhoids re-appeared every month. ?45) Suppression of the itch was followed by a loss of blood of eight pounds within a few hours, colic, fever, etc. (46) Suppression of the itch was followed by the most vio- lent 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 42 Erysipelas.—Unzer, Arzt, Th. V. p.SOl.48 Discharges of acrid pus. Ulcers.^-Unzer, Arzt, Th. V. p. 301 ;49 Pelargus, Jahrg. 1723, p. 673 f BreslauerSamml. 1727, p. 107 ;M Muzell, Wahrnehm. II. cas. 6 ;M Riediin, son, Cent. obs. 3S.53 Cancer of the bones. Osteosarcoma of the knee. Pain in the bones. Rachitis and emaciation in children. Fever.—Ramazzini, Const. Epid. Urbis, II. No. 32, 1691 ;54 J. C Carl, in Act. Nat. Cur., VI. obs. 16/,s 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 cathe- ter. At last his whole body was distended ; slow difficult breathing came on, and he died twenty-one days after the sup- pression 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. (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 To.t away, and ended her life in a few days amidst violent 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 tearing pains for five weeks in the left axilla, after which seve- ral 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, suppress- ed it by an ointment. The suppression was followed by ul- cers on the arms and legs, with glandular swellings in the axilla. The 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 colour. (55) A man and a woman had the itch upon their hands for many years. Each suppression of the itch was followed by an 43 Fever,—Reil, Memorab. Fasc. III. p. 169 f Pelargus, Jahrg. 1721, "p. 276,67 and the same, Jahrg. 1723 f Schiller, Diss, de Scabie Humida. Erford, 1747, p. 44 ;" J. J. Fick, Exercitatio Med. de Scabie Retropulsa, Hal. 1710, § 2 ;60 Pelargus, Jahrg. 1722, p. 122 ;61 also Jahrg. 1723 p. 14 ;6i C. G. Ludwig, Advers. Med., II., p. 157 to 160;"Margagni, X., art. 9,M XII., art. 31,65 XXXVIII. art. 22,66 LV., art. 3.67 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 tenia had been suppressed by ointments, had a violent attack of fever. (58) A child of one year had for some time tenia and an eruption upon the face, which disappeared. A little while after, the child was seized with heat, cough and diarrhoea. Health was restored, when the tenia reappeared. (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 ov4 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 tenia, which disappeared 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 r^ake some kind of embroidery, freed himself from his itch by lead ointment. The itch had scarcely died away, when he was ^eized 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 attacked with catarrhal fever and an immense sweat, from which he recovered very slowly. All on a sudden he was again at- tacked with another fever without any perceptible cause. The attacks began with anxiety and headache, and continued increas- (64) See page 44. (66) See page 44. (65) Ibid (67) Ibid- 44 Fever.—Hochstetter, Obs. Med. Dec VIII., cas. 8 ;" Wehie, Diss. Nullam Medicinam Interdum esse Op- timam, Witemb. 1754 ;w Fick. § 1 ;7U Amatus, Lusit- ing with heat, quick pulse and morning sweat. These symp- toms were combined with great sinking of strength, talking de- lirious, anxious tossing about and groaning, breathing with suf- focation. In spite of all medicines, the disease ended in death. (64) The spontaneous suppression of the itch in a boy was succeeded by fever. The itch coming out again, the fever dis- appeared. But the child grew thin, and the itch dried in a se- cond time; diarrhoea, 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 ointment. This was followed by fever, with violent heat, thirst and violent headache, combined with talking delirious, immense asthma, tumefaction of the body, and great distention of the ab- domen. Six days after the breaking out of the fever she was dead. The abdomen contained only much air; the stomach, which was replete with air, filled up half of the abdomen. (67) A man whose tenia had been suppressed by cold, was seized with a malignant fever£nd 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 affect- ted with porrigo on the arms and other parts, which he removed by means of a shirt fumigated with sulphur. He was immedi- ately 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 af- fected 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 suddenly 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 reme- dies against it in vain. A mendicant at last taught him a remedy 45 Cent, IL, .Curat. 33 ;n Fr. Hoffmann, Med. Rat. System. T. III. p. 175.ra Tertian.—Pelargus, Jahrg., 1722, p. 103, compare With p. 79." Quartan.—-Fr. Hoffmann, Med. Rat. Syst., III., p. 175.74 Vertigo and total sinking of strength. Epileptic vertigo.—Fr. Hoffmann, Consult. Med. I., cas. 12.7fl Epilepsy with vertigo.—Fr. Hoffmann, p. 30.76 said to be infallible, composed of the Olium lauro-cerasi, flowers of sulphur and lard. This caused the eruption to disap- pear; but immediately after, he was seized with violent chills, then heat over the whole body, vehement thirst, panting breath- ing, sleeplessness, violent trembling in the whole body, and great lassitude; he expired 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 erup- tion came out again, and the fever disappeared. (73) A boy of fifteen years, who took a purge against tenia, was attacked with pain in the back, cutting pain during mictu- rition, 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 suppression of this kind of itch is generally followed by a quar- tan fever, which ceases the moment the itch comes out again." (75) A count of 57 years had been affected 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 occa- sion he would have fallen to the floor if he had not been caught. This occurred after a meal. He was covered with a cold clam- my sweat, his limbs trembled, all the parts of the body had the appearance of being dead ; he frequently vomited sour substan- ces. 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 stupefaction such as is consequent upon intoxication. At last the attack came on every day, al- though the violence of the attacks had abated. He was not per- mitted to read, or to think ; to turn quickly, or to stoop ; he was also affected with sadness, sighing, and melancholy thoughts. (76) A woman of 36 years had used mercurial ointment for 2* 46 Convulsions,—Welle, Diss. Nullam Medicinam In- terdum esse Optimam, Viteb, 1754, $ 13, 14 ;7T Si* celius, Decas Casuum I. cas. 5 ;T8 Pelargus, Jahrg. 1723, p. 545.79 the suppression of the itch; the consequence was that her men* ses became irregular, and were often interrupted for ten or fif- teen 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 position 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 at- tacks she was unable 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 the stomach, the fit came on. A woman re- moved 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. More- over, she has a violent pain and heat in the head, and her mem- ory 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 tenia, 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 waking she had convulsions, especially of the arms and hands; oppression in the pit of the stomach, consequent upon constriction of the chest; whining, then came on convulsions and startings of the limbs. (79) Tenia dried in a full-grown man who had been affected for some years with tremor of the hands. This caused great lassitude ; 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. 47 Epileptic convulsions. Epilepsy.—J. C. Carl, in Act. Nat. Cur. VI. obs. 16 ;80 E. Hagendorn, Hist. 9 f Fr. Hoffmann, Consult. Med. I. cas.31 ;82 Fabr. de Hilden, Cent. III. obs. 10 j83 Riedlin, Lin. Med. Ann. 1696, Maj. obs. 1 ;M G. W. Wedel, Diss, de ^Egro Epilepti- co. Jen. 1673 j85 Herrm. Grube, de Arcanis Medicor. non Arcanis, Hafn. 1673. p. 165 f Tulpius, Obs. lib. I. cap. 8 ;87 Th. Thompson, Medic. Rathpflege, Leip- sic, 1779, p. 107, 108 ;88 Hundertmark, p. 32 j89 Fr. Hoffmann, Consult. Med. I., cas. 28, p. 141.* (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 all on a sudden 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 epilepsy came on, with foam at the mouth and strange contortion of the limbs. The fits ceased the moment the itch broke out again. (82) In a boy whose tenia 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. (85) A youth of 18 years had fits of epilepsy after having suppressed 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 pa- rents were unwilling to admit that it came from suppressed itch. The mother at last confessed to the carefully inquiring physi- cian 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 tenia; the fits however returned as soon as the tenia 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 suf- fered for two years the most violent convulsions, until the itch was brought out again by birch-juice. (90) A young man of seventeen years suppressed his itch ; 48 Apoplexy. ParaJysis.—Unzer, Arzt, VI. p. 301 ;91 Hundertmark, p. 33 f1 Schub-Ti, Diss, de Scabie Human. Corp. Lips. 1779, p. 23.'13 Melancholy—Rei\, Memorab. Fasc III. p. 177.94 Frenzy.—Brune, Diss. Casus Aliquot Mente Aliena- torum, Hal. 1707, cas. I. p. 5 ;95 F. H. Waitz, he was of a robust constitution and had a sound understanding. After the suppression of the itch, three years ago, he was first at- tacked with hemoptysis, 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 clenched 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 bruis- ed 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. (91) A woman's leg became paralysed, and remained so through suppressed itch. (92) Hemiplegia ensued in a man of 53 years, after suppres- sion 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 therefore employed ointments. The consequence was that the upper extremities became paralysed, and that a hard and thick skin formed in the palm of the hands, itching terribly and mark- ed with bloody, shrivelled patches. At the same place mention is made of a woman whose finger contracted in consequence of suppressed 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 be- came covered with it to such an extent that he was unfit for his business. 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 increased from day to day, until finally hemiplegia 49 Medic. Chirurg. Aufsatze, Th. I. p. 130;" Gross- man, in Baldinger's Neuem Magazin. XI. I.97 These few cases, drawn from the writings of the older physicians and from my own experience,* are sufficient to convince the intelligent observer that the itch, together with its varieties, tenia 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, te- nia, herpes, etc., are mere cutaneous diseases, which may unhesitatingly be removed from the'skin by external ap- plications, 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 allceopathic physicians have made themselves guilty. He who is blind against the wisdom which the above quoted examples teach, wilfully prepares the ruin of mankind. > came on and he died. The intestines cohered like a firm mass. They were interspersed with little ulcers, with protuberances of the size of walnuts, which were filled with a viscid substance resembling plaster. (96) The same phenomena. (97) A man of 50 years was attacked with anasarca on ac- count of having suppressed his itch by ointments. The itch re- turned and the dropsical swelling disappeared. A second sup- pression was followed by frenzy, with head and neck swelled up to suffocation, lastly there supervened blindness and com- plete suppression of urine. Artificial stimulants applied to the skin, and strong emetics brought the itch out again. After it had spread over the whole body, all the former accidents dis- appeared. * An opponent from the old school has reproached me with not having shown, by examples from my own experience, that chronic 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 allce- opathic works 1 Have not our opponents from the old school often denied us belief, because our observations were not made 50 Are my opponents ignorant of the fact, that all miasmatic diseases, accompanied with cutaneous erup- tions, observe the same course from their very origin ? and that all miasms first attack the whole organism in- ternally, 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 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 secondary vicarious symptom of an internal disease ; on the contrary, they often denied the existence of the internal disease, and by removing the bubo, cauliflower excrescence 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 dis- eases, three cardinal points ought to be noticed much more carefully than has been the case heretofore. These are, 1st, the period when the infection took place; 2nd, the before their own eyes, and the names of the patients were only in- dicated by a letter, as if private patients were willing to have their names presented in full 1 I did not wish to expose my- self to similar proceedings. Moreover, by quoting the cases of honest practitioners of the old school, I furnish the most indubi- table and impartial proofs for my doctrines. 51 period when ihe whole organism began to be tainted with the miasmatic poison, until it had become a com- plete internal disease ; and, 3rd, the manifestation of the external symptoms, by means of which nature indicates the complete development of the miasmatic disease in the internal organism. My opinion is, that the miasmatic infection in acute as well as in chronic diseases, takes place in a moment, provided this moment is favourable to the contagious in- fluence. During the progress of inoculation or vaccination, the infection takes place at the time when the morbid mat- ter introduced under the bleeding skin, is brought in Contact with the exposed nerve. The whole nervous system becomes intected in a moment. After the in- fection 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 infected 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, to- gether with the cutaneous eruption, will break out a few days after the internal disease shall have completed its development* * The question whether any miasmatic infection by the skin can exhibit external symptoms before the internal disease has become completely developed, ought to beansweredm the nega- tive. Do not three, four or five days elapse after vaccination before inflammation sets in 1 Does not a sort of fever, which is the symptom of a disease pervading the whole organism, show it- self before the small-pox reaches its full development on the 7th or 8th day 1 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 1 What has nature been doing, during that space of time, with the contagious miasm which was introduced from without ] Was it not necessary that the disease should be first communi- cated to the whole organism, before nature became capable of 62 Among many other acute miasms, I may mention the infection of the human skin by the miasm of the epizoo- tic carbuncle. As soon as the infection has taken place, ablutions are of no avail; the black blister, which is al- most 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 miasms 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 knowledge, 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 in- fection 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 inter- nal disease becomes developed, the rage breaks out as an acute and quickly fatal disease. We know from ex- perience that, whenever the poison has caught, the infec- tion takes place at the moment when the bite occurs; for neither instantaneous exseclion,t nor amputation 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 gen- erally requires seven days before the fever and redness appear. What has nature been doing all this time with the miasm 1 What else except to communicate the disease to the whole or- ganism, which communication must first take place before the fe- ver and eruption can appear 1 * These statements we owe especially to the experience of English and American physicians, to Hunter and Houlston; (in the London Med. Journ. Vol. V.;) also to Vaughan, Shadwell, Per- cival, whose observations may be found recorded in James Mease's treatise " On Hydrophobia," Philadel., 1793. + A girl of 8 years, in the city of Glasgow, was bit by a mad dcg on the 21st of March, 1792. The wound was immediately exsected with great care, the suppuration was kept up, togethe ■ with ptyalism, for two weeks. Nevertheless hydrophobia broke 53 the bitten part, are capable of preventing the develop- ment of the disease in the internal organism ; hydro- phobia will occur in spite of the many boasted external applications for the purification, cauterization and sup- puration of the wound. From the course which these miasmatic diseases pur- sue, we clearly see that, after infection, the internal dis- ease, whether measles, scarlatina, or small-pox, must first have become fully developed in the organism, be- fore those eruptions 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 fe- ver, together with the eruption, are annihilated in the system. After this period man either dies of those dis- eases, or else recovers.* The mode of contagion which nature follows in the chronic miasmatic diseases, and the formation of the internal disease previous to the external symptoms ap- pearing upon the skin and indicating the completion of the internal malady, is the same as in the acute forms of the disease ; but after the internal disease is completed, out on the 27th of April, and on the 29th the patient died. See Duncan's Med. Com. Dec. II. Vol. 8., Edinb. 1793, and the new London Med. Jour. II. * Have those acute, semivital miasms the peculiar nature of becoming extinct in the organism, after having affected the vital powers, at the moment of the infection, each in its peculiar manner, 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 communi- cating the disease ? Are not the chronic miasms, on the contrary, continued by the peculiar contagious eruption which they leave behind, itch ves- icle, chancre, cauliflower excrescence, whereas the acute miasms become extinct of themselves 1 The chronic miasms are semi- vital morbid miasms of a parasitical nature, which can only be neutralized and annihilated by a more powerful remedy produ- cing analogous effects, (the antisporics ;) it is by means of these alone that the patient can be freed from the effects of those mi- asms. 54 there is this remarkable difference between it and the acute diseases, 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 morbid, 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 endea- vours to assimilate the syphilitic miasm, and becomes thoroughly tainted with the syphilitic disease. 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 dis- ease is completely developed, does nature try to alle- viate and to hush her sufferings by forming at the spot where the infection 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, call- ed bubo or chancre, about five, seven or fourteen days, or sometimes even three, four, and five weeks after {he infection has taken place. This vicarious chancre has the power of communicating to other persons the same miasm, which is the internal disease. If the internal disease is extinguished by means of the internal remedy, the chancre becomes also cured, and man recovers. 55 But if the chancre be removed by some local appli- cation,* as is done yet to this day by physicians of the old school, the miasmatic chronic venereal disease re- mains in the organism, and unless it be cured by inter- nal remedies, it gets worse to the end of life ; nor is the strongest constitution, by its own unaided efforts, capable of eradicating the virus. The chancre is most easily and thoroughly cured by curing the internal disease which pervades the whole system. I have taught and practised this for years. The best mode is to employ the internal remedy alone, without any external application. The merely local removal of the chancre, without any previous cure of the internal disease, is invariably 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 in- fection 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 nervous tissue ; such parts are the geni- tal 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, espe- cially that of children, by simply touching the skin. * 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 be- fore the so-called repulsion had taken place;—even the sudden removal of the chancre without any stimulants, brings on syphi- lis, 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 dis- ease pervaded the whole system even before the chancre had made its appearance! 56 Almost every body may, under any circumstances, 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 ab- solute than that by any other. This miasm may be so easily communicated that the physician often gives it to his patients in feeling their pulse.* It may be commu- nicated by linen which has been washed together with the linen of persons afflicted with the itch ; t by gloves which such a person had tried on before ; by a bed or a 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 carried 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 toman, 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, dun- geons, 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. Henceforth all washing and cleansing of the spot is useless. The skin during the first days, remains unchanged and apparently sound. There is neither eruption nor itching to be perceived upon the body, not even at the spot where the infection has taken place. * Car. Musitani Opera, de Tumoribus, cap. 20. f Willis observed this. See Turner, des Malades de la Peau traduit de l'Anglais, a Paris, 1783. Tom. II. cap. 3, p. 77. 57 Sec, A fh thG P80ric miasm had fi»t taken nervi h already ,co'nm^icated ,t to the remaining nerves by an invisible dynamic sympathy, and the livinS organism became so much disturbed by this specific n^ fluence, that it was forced to adapt itself to the action of this psoric miasm, until, by virtue of this universal adap- tation, the internal disease had become completely and nnally established. J Not till the whole organism has been adapted to the nature of the chronic miasmatic disease, do the mor- bidly affected vital powers endeavour to alleviate and to calm the internal disease by a local symptom, (the itch vesicle, for instance.) As long as this eruption con- tinues upon the skin in its natural form, the internal psora, together with its secondary ailments, remain slum- bering, latent and restrained. The perfect adaptation of the whole organism to the nature of the psoric virus usually required 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 sub- sequent night, heat all over the bodV, terminating in sweat. This heat is often supposed to be a little fever, which is believed to come from a cold, and is not re- garded. Then the eruption 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. Tins incessantly invites the patient to rub and to scratch the vesicles, and, if the itching is suffered to continue without scratching, there is a shuddering ex- perienced over the whole skin. Rubbing and scratching may ease the patient for a moment, but it is immediately * So far from being a separable local affection, the vesicles are on the contrary evident proofs of the psora having been com- pletely developed in the system; the eruption is merely the ul- l!S ?w? -r,the pSOric devel°Pment. This eruption, together with the itching, are a part of the whole disease in its natural, least dangerous form. 58 succeeded by long burning at the spots where the scratching took place. This itching occurs most fre- quently and is most intolerable, late in the evening and before midnight. 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 abund- ance of contagious material for those who come near the patient, and have not yet been infected. The ex- tremities, 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 Ger- mans call it kratze, itch,) the ulcers consequent upon this eruption, and accompanied with their peculiar itch- ing round the borders, and lastly, tenia and those forms of herpes which become moist on rubbing, and are dis- tinguished 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 artifi- cial suppression of the eruption, and which are the com- mon results of psoric reaction, never transmit the itch to other persons, no more than the 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 substi- tule for the internal disease, which, together with its secondary ailments, remains in a latent condition.* * 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 59 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 seme external application against the eruption,* the internal 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 in- ternal disease, and keep it in a latent condition. Even at this stage of the disease man apparently en- joys 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 intolerable, that even the robustest 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 ' 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 mercury taken internally, cured both the internal disease and the chancre. * Note of the translator.—This is not to be understood as if Hahnemann approved of the application of external reme- dies. The idea which Hahnemann means to convey is this,- that the internal disease may be apparently checked in its course by external applications; in reality the internal disease is not checked; it is surprised, or stunned, as it were, by the external application, but not cured, not even checked by it; for, from the moment that its external symptom, in which the disease has em- bodied itself, is suppressed, the morbific virus concentrates itself, gathers its forces, and constructs its mines, by means of which it prepares the ultimate and unavoidable destruction of the organ- ism. This gathering of the morbific virus and instilling itself into the inmost recesses of the animal economy, is necessarily the work of time, and often takes place so slowly and gradually that the patient is induced to believe that the suppression of the external vicarious embodiment of the internal disease was tanta- mount to a radical cure. 60 means are at once furnished him either by ignorant lay- men or by alloeopathic physicians and surgeons. All he cares for is to get rid of the external pain, without thinking of the evil consequences that attend the sup- pression 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 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 attend- ed with the most pernicious consequences ; for the in- ternal psora which has been increasing all the time, now breaks forth with its host of terrible sufferings. The badly informed layman may be pardoned for sup- pressing the troublesome itching and the eruption, by cold shower baths, rolling in the snow, cupping, or rub- bing 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,! * See above, the observation in case 86. ■f For, even at this stage of the disease, the eruption, together with the internal psora, may yet he 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 sup- pression 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 1 61 to prevent the accidents which will arise from the psoric reaction consequent 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 pur- gatives, the ointment of Jasser, washes of the acetate of lead, mercurial preparations, sulphate of zinc, and es- pecially by an ointment composed of lard and flowers of sulphur or quicksilver, pretending all the while," that it is simply an impurity in the skin, and that the skin being cleared, every thing is over, and man needs not to appre- 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 been so ignorant of its nature as not to perceive that the chancre is something more than a mere local affection ? Can the physicians be pardoned for having failed to perceive that the chancre being the external symptom of an internal syphilitic dis- ease, 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 dis- ease of its vicarious symptom, and, therefore, forces it to show itself in the formidable and much more inveterate character of syphilis ? Can this want of judgment be excused ? Why did physicians never reflect upon the origin of cauli- flower excrescence 1 Why did they constantly overlook the in- ternal disease which gives origin to these excrescences 1 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 1 But suppose we were willing to excuse this sad neglect and ignorance on the ground that the physicians had only three cen- turies and a quarter to obtain a correct knowledge of syphilis, which they certainly would have obtained by practising a little longer,—though I had several times tried to convince them of their error—nevertheless they cannot be excused for their obsti- nate blindness relative to the true treatment of psoric diseases, and for the pride with which they overlooked all those facts which had a tendency to show them that the itch originates in an internal psora; no, they were determined to deceive the world by the lamentable delusion, " 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.'" 3 62 hend 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, conscien- tious observers, or which the experience of modern physi- cians reveals to them? Ought not they to know that, by suppressing the eruption, they bring upon the patient either certain death, or a lingering disease, which lasts to the end of his life ? Do they not let loose the psoric dis- ease 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 de- velopment, 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 sup- pression 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 inter- nal psora had not time to develop its intensity, is attended with less immediate danger ; and that there are no im- mediate evil consequences attending such a suppres- sion. Hence it often happens that the children of rich parents are freed, in a day or two, from a few recently 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, wilful crime ?) from von Helmont down to the latest advocates of the allceopathic practice. The above quoted remedies were indeed sufficient to remove both the eruption and the itching. In their delusion the physi- cians 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 innumerable, striking testimonies of older and honest observers, which show that the consequences often follow the suppression bo rapidly that every body in his senses must acknowledge them as results of an internal psora, which, being deprived of its pri- mary cutaneous symptoms, was forced to embody itself in a host of secondary diseases. 63 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 attended, and which the ignorant family physician at- tributes to other slight causes, nevertheless, the inter- nal psora, be it ever so little developed, affects the whole organism ; the robustest constitution is incapa- ble 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 de- velopment 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 corres- ponding degree. Nevertheless, even in the most favour- able cases, the development of the internal psora goes on for years, often so slowly and imperceptibly that per- sons who are not perfectly acquainted with the symp- toms, 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.f By means of this knowledge I am able to * Up to this moment, at the age of 79 years, I have never been infected With the itch, although I am extremely susceptible of being attacked by acute or epidemic diseases, and have under- gone excessive mental exertions and moral sufferings. This may have been the reason why I should have had a better chance than hundreds of others to discover and to appreciate the symp- toms 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 have constantly enjoyed. t The allceopathic physicians have likewise supposed latent forms of disease, in order to have a pretence for the inroads which they 64 apply proper and successful remedies before the inter- nal psora has become a manifest secondary disease, and has reached that fearful height where its eradication is either very difficult or altogether impossible. There are many symptoms that reveal the existence of psora, slumbering in the depths of the organism, be- fore 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 progres- sively, in another they remain suppressed ; this de- pends in a great measure upon the constitution and the external circumstances of the patients. Symptoms of latent Psora. Frequent passing of ascarides, lumbricoides and ver- miculares—they cause an intolerable itching in the rec- tum, (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.) make upon the system by their violent medicines, bloodlettings, anodynes, etc. These " qualitates occulta? Fernelii " are alto- gether chimerical, since, by the admission of the physicians themselves, there are no symptoms by which they can be recog- nised. Things which do not manifest themselves by phenom- ena, have no existence 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 latent existence they reveal themselves under appropriate circumstances ;—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.' 65 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 smell- ing. (Burning upon the soles of the feet.) The arms or hands, legs or feet become benumbed by a slight cause. Frequent cramps in the muscles of the arms and hands. Painless subsultus of parts of muscles, here and there. Frequent or tedious coryza, or dry cold in the head,* or impossibility of catching cold, even though the per- son is much exposed to the causes of cold, and has been constantly affected with it formerly. Tedious obstruction of the nares, one or both. Ulcers in the nares, (sore nose.) Disagreeable sensation of dryness in the nose. Frequent inflammation of the throat, frequent hoarse- ness. Short and light coughing, early in the morning, in quick repetition. Frequent attacks of the asthma. Either the whole body or only the head, neck, breast, abdomen, feet, easily catch cold, especially in a draught of air;t these parts are then generally covered with sweat; the cold is attended with various symptoms, which often last a good while. Straining, which often occurs from the slightest cause, from carrying or lifting a light weight, from elevating . and stretching the arms after high objects ; this moder- ate stretching of the muscles is often succeeded by all . sorts of ailments, headache, nausea, sinking of strength, painful tension in the muscles of the back of the neck, or the back, etc. Frequent pain on one side of the head, or toothache, from even moderate mental emotions. * The catarrhal fevers, (for example, influenza,) which affect even the soundest constitution, do not come under this remark. f Persons whose organisms are not tainted with the psoric virus, do not catch cold from being exposed to a draught, or damp and cold air, though they may find it disagreeable. 66 Frequent flushes of heat and redness in the face, sometimes combined with a sort of anxiety. Frequent falling of the hair, dryness of the hair, scales upon the scalp. Inclination to erysipelas, on different parts of the body. Interruption of the menstrual functions ; irregularities occurring in those functions; the menses either flow too abundantly or too little ; they appear either too soon or too late, last too long, are watery, and are com- bined with many bodily ailments. Twitches of the limbs on falling asleep. Weariness on waking up in the morning; unrefresh- ing 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 coming 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.) 67 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- 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 in- tolerable 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 ail- ments, man may yet deem himself healthy, and is often considered so by others. These affections do not prevent him from leading a tolerably comfortable ex- istence, 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 * The north-easters in Europe are dry and cutting. 68 psora may continue slumbering in the organism for years, without being observed by any other except the attentive connoisseur, or without becoming developed into a per- manent chronic disease. However, in persons that are affected with those ap- parently slight infirmities, a trivial cause, an ordinary vexation, 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, erysipelas, fever, and similar diseases, the ve- hemence 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 psora, whether he be a child or a full- grown man, seems to enjoy good health, but passes into circumstances 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 ep- idemic fever,* by a contagious, acute disease, small-pox, measles, hooping-cough, scarlatina, purple-rash, etc., or by some severe injury, by a shock, a fall, a wound, a large burn, by fracturing a leg or an arm, by a hard labour, by the confinement consequent upon disease, and by the allceopathic remedies which have been im- properly given to the patient ; or the vital powers may have been weakened by leading a sedentary 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 become de- prived of the needful, and his strength and his fortitude * 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 existence 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 small-pox, measles or chancre, generate itself spontaneously; it can only show itself upon the skin after infection has taken place. 69 *iay have failed him in consequence of bad nourishment'. in that case the latent psora becomes roused and de- velops that host of inveterate symptoms which will be found enumerated below ; some one of the psoric chronic diseases breaks forth* and increases to a fearful height, especially by the improper treatment of allceopathic * This kind of disease depends upon the original constitution of the patient, his peculiar mode of life, his character, the in- fluences of education, or upon the weaker parts of the organism at- tracting the psoric miasms by their higher adaptation to its nature, and 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 favoured by an irritable, vehement temper, by the exhaustion consequent upon frequent preg- nancy, excessive nursing of children, great bodily exertions, im- roper, unsuccessful treatment, excesses at table and dissolute abrts. Owing to its peculiar nature, the psoric disease may re- main latent under favourable circumstances. In this case the patient appears to enjoy good health, until unfavourable circum- stances set in, which rouse the internal disease and cause it to break 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 suddenly. 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 in the 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 allceopathic 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 internal 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 con- sider them the true exciting causes of the secondary psoric disease, the often fearful character of which ought, on the con- trary, to be explained by the existence of a deep-seated latent disturbance, which 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, accord- ing to appearance, enjoys good health, or what is commonly so 3* I 70 physicians, unless more favourable circumstances set in, diminishing the intensity of the disease, and making its ulterior development more moderate. called. In the third month of her pregnancy, she has the mis- fortune of being upset in her carriage. The consequence of this accident, beside a slight external injury and fright, is miscarriage, accompanied with considerable hemorrhage, which exhausts her strength. In a few weeks she has almost recovered her former strength and health, when the hews 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 re- ceives 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; andf, though she may appear to do better for eight days or a fortnight, nevertheless, her ail- ments return without any visible cause. Every subsequent labour, 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 Important chronic disease, and it is impossible for us to comprehend why the full vigour of youth, existing moreover under favourable external circumstances, should not have succeeded in soon extinguishing 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 effects, as Is always the case in nature, it is difficult to under- stand how, in the case of this young woman, the subsequent ail- ments 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 remained 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 excep- tion of a few vestiges of psora, which are only known to the connoisseur, 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 favourable turn of his affairs, his health continues to decline from year to year, nor can prescriptions, or the most celebrated mineral baths do any 71 But suppose that the rapid development of the dis- ease should have been moderated, it cannot, however, be permanently cured, by the various fashionable reme- dies in use, such as baths, mercury, prussic acid, iodine, digitalis, china, starvation ; they merely accelerate the thing to restore it; on the contrary, they make, perhaps, the evil worse. y 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 allceopathic 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 suffering; she even hopes soon to have recovered perfect health ; for the cause of her disease has ceased to exist. She improves, indeed, but she remains sickly; and, despite of the vigour 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 du- ring the time of the proceedings ; before the suit commenced she seemed to enjoy good health, with the exception of a few symptoms of internal psora. Her innocence is at last acknow- ledged, and she is honourably acquitted. One should say that this happy event must infuse new life intc^her and free her from all her bodily sufferings. But this is not the case; on the con- trary, 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 1 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 supposed above, is not the real cause of the sufferings, but that it has merely roused into action a more deep-seated and much more formidable principle of disease, which was hitherto latent in the system. Science has now revealed to us the nature of this internal ene- my, and the means to conquer him ; we know now that it is a deep-seated psora slumbering in the inmost recesses of the or- ganism, and which the robustest constitution would have been in- sufficient to expel, unless aided by the efforts of art. 72 approach of death, which puts an end to the sufferings that physicians were unable to relieve. If, under unfavourable external circumstances, the formerly latent psora has been roused from its slumber, the patient loses all chance of recovery in the hands of allceopathic physicians; they assail his organism without mercy, undermining its very foundations by their violent and improper remedies. Even if the ex- ternal circumstances become favourable to the patient, the disease goes on in its course, and becomes worse and worse. When the internal psora, which has been latent hith- erto, and has been kept in bounds by a robust constitu- tion and favourable circumstances, is roused from its latent state and passes into its secondary severe mala- dies, all the above named symptoms, by which the inter- nal latent psora manifests its existence, become more distinct and violent; they vary in different individuals according to constitution, hereditary disposition, educa- tion, habit, mode of life, diet, occupation, the tenden- cies of the mind, morals, etc. The following symptoms may be considered charac- teristic of the secondary diseases in which the internal psora generally terminates. I have collected them from my own experience 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 having been complicated either by 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 symptoms there are many which are opposed to each other. This is owing to the constitu- tional 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, every thing around him seems to turn ; he is then attacked with nausea. 73 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 upon the floor, or on look- ing up. Vertigo, in walking along a road in a plain, which is not enclosed on either side. Vn TtigV 8he aPPears t0 herself either too large or too small; other objects, likewise, appear either too lame 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 labour. 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 walk- ing or stooping, or raising the head from stooping. Rush of blood to the head.1 Heat in the head, and in the face.8 Feeling of cold pressure on the head.3 Dull headache in the morning, on waking up, or m the afternoon, either on walking fast or speaking loud. & Headache on one side, at certain periods, (after twen- ty-eight, fourteen, or a less number of days ;) more fre- quently about the period when there is either full or new moon; or after vivid emotions, colds, etc., pressure or other pain on the top of the head or in the head, or a boring pain above one eye.4 (1) During which he is attacked with sadness, with anxiety and dread of labour. (2) The hands and feet are often cold. (3) Ordinarily accompanied with anxiety. (4) At the same time often a great inward uneasiness. Anx- 74 Headache, daily, at certain hours ; for example, shoot- ing pains in the temples.1 Attacks of pulsating headache, (for example, in the forehead,) 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.8 Headache, twinges in the head, (coming out by the ears.)3 Headache, shooting pains in the head coming out by the ears:4 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 iety, 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 flow- ing, swells up ; the feet are cold; sometimes the head is stop- ped up with a cold; chills, sometimes flushes of heat; conti- nual nausea, also retching and vomiting ; she is lying there either as if she were stunned, or throws herself about as if full of an- guish ; the attacks last twelve, twenty-four and more hours. After the attack, there is either great prostration, with sadness, or a feel- ing 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. (1) They sometimes swell up, with tears in one eye. (2) In some cases a drawing pain, coining 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. (3) Usually in walking, especially in walking and taking ex- ercise after eating. (4) They often see everything black. 75 by the open air ; at the same time hard glandular swell- ings on the back part of the neck. Hair feels as if it were dried ; hair falling out abund- antly, especially on the forepart and on the top of the head, 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 tumours.1 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.3 Yellowish colour, yellowness of the face. Gray, yellow colour of the face. Erysipelas on the face.3 Aching pain above the eyes, especially late in the evening; he is obliged to close them. He cannot look at anything long without everything appearing 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 par- alyzed or drawn together spasmodically. Eyes extremely sensible to the daylight; it makes them smart, and they shut involuntarily.4 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.) (1) In rare cases they terminate in suppuration. (2) He becomes very feeble, he feels exhausted or full of anxiety, and sweats all over the upper part of his body: some- times the eyes become dim, they see black, he is sad, the head seems to be too full, with burning in the temples. (3) In some cases there is much fever, sometimes also burn- ing, itching-, watery pustules with a shooting pain, in the face, which turn into scabs; (pustulous erysipelas.) (4) Usually with more or less inflammation. 76 Inflammation of the eyes, of various kinds.1 Yellowness of the white of the eyes.2 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 distinguish clearly small objects which are held near. Nearsightedness. He can see distinctly even very Bmall objects, when he holds them near; but the farther the object 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. Muscaa volitantes, black points,dark stripes, or a net- work move before his eyes, especially on looking into the bright daylight. Objects are seenas 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,4 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, pr in speaking, or chewing; there is a sensation of subcutaneous festering, or of stinging and lancinating ; in chewing6 especially there is twitch- (1) Fistula lachrymalis has probably no other origin than psora. (2) Or gray colour of the lens. (3) Even without having previously had an inflammation of the eyes. (4) More frequently without an obscuration of the crystalline lens than with it. (5) In chewing or speaking there is a similar twitching mo- tion on the sides of his head; at these places protuberances, painful boils, etc, are often formed. If the pain is insupporta- 77 ing, shooting and straining in the muscles, which pre- vents him from eating. TT • • Hearing is excessively irritable and sensitive ; she cannot 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.1 Crawling and itching in the ear.2 Dryness, dry scurf in the ears, without wax. 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 com- plete deafness, with or without noise, varying according to the weather. Swelling of the parotid glands.* Bleeding from the nose more or less abundantly and frequently. Nostrils as if stopped up.4 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.8 Smell too strong, high and highest sensitiveness, even to the weakest odours. ble and accompanied with a burning heat, it is called Fother- gill's pain in the face. (1) Especially while walking in the open air. (2) Such as singing, rustling, whizzing, snorting, buzzing, chirping, ringing, drumming, thundering, fluttering, flapping, murmuring, etc. (3) Often with shooting pains in the glands. (4) 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. (5) For example, a smell of manure, or some other peculiar smell in the nose. 78 Scurf in the nose, running of pus, or hardened clots of mucus.1 Fetid smell in the nose. Nostrils frequently ulcerating, surrounded with pim- ples 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.8 The inside of the lips is set with little ulcers or pus- tules.3 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.4 Glands of the lower jaw swollen, or passing into a stale 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. (1) Sometimes also with running of an acrid mucus from the nose. (2) Sometimes with a burning, biting pain. (3) Often very painful, coming and going. (4) Crusta lactea, pimples, herpes, carcinomatous ulcers on the nose, lips and face, with burning and shooting pain. 79 Painful pustules and sore places on the tongue. Tongue coated white, or unevenly covered with a white substance. Tongue pale, blueish white. Tongue covered with deep furrows scattered all over; the tongue looks as if it had been torn on the upper sur- face. Tongue dry. Feeling of dryness on the tongue, though there is the usual quantity of moisture. Stammering, stuttering, also sudden attacks of an in- capacity of speaking. Painful pustules, ulcerations on the inside of the cheeks. Flow of blood from the mouth, often in great abund- ance. Feeling of dryness on the whole inside of the mouth, or only at some places, or deep in the throat.1 Bad smell from the mouth. Burning in the throat. Constant flow of saliva, particularly in speaking, es- pecially 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.2 Sourish and sour taste in the mouth, especially after a meal, though the food tastes well.3 Fetid and putrid taste in the mouth. (1) 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. (2) Sometimes uninterruptedly. (3) In rare cases there is a repugnantly sweet taste in the mouth, even without eating or drinking. 80 Bad smell from the mouth, sometimes mouldy, some times putrid, like the smell of old cheese, or of fetid sweaty feet, or rotten sourcrout. 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 spasmodic 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 any thing greasy. Risings, putrid or mouldy, early in the morning. Frequent risings before eating, with a sort of rabid hunger. Heartburn, more or less frequent; there is a burning all along the chest, especially after breakfast, or on moving the body. Flowing of a sort of salivary fluid from the stomach, preceded by writhing pains about the stomach (the pancreas,) with weakness in the pit of the stomach ; a fainting 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, espe- cially of acid fruits, and of vinegar, (eating salad, etc.) Nausea, early in the morning.2 Nausea, even to vomiting, early in the morning, af- ter 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. (1) It also degenerates into vomiting of water, mucus, or acid, acrid substances, especially after having eaten flour dump- lings, flatuous vegetables, stewed prunes, etc. (2) Often arising very suddenly. 81 Spasms of the oesophagus often prevent swal- lowing ; this sometimes causes a man to die of hunger. Spasmodic, involuntary swallowing. Frequent sensation of fasting, and emptiness in the sto- mach, (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, other- wise 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 suddenly 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 fulness 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 meat; there is only a desire for black bread (and butter) or for potatoes.1 Thirst; constant thirst, or only in the morning on rising. In the pit of the stomach there is a sensation of swelling, painful to the touch. Feeling of cold in the pit of the stomach. Oppression at the stomach, or in the pit of the sto- mach, as if there were a stone, like a cramp.2 Beatings and pulsations in the stomach, even fasting. Spasm of the stomach ; pain in the pit of the sto- mach, as if from constriction.3 Painful griping of the stomach J1 there is griping of the stomach, especially after cold drinking. (1) Sometimes accompanied with vomiting of mucus and water ; unless this vomiting takes place, the griping continues unabated. 82 Pain at the stomach; the stomach feels sore, even on eating 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, etc.1 While eating, he is attacked with giddiness, threat- ens to fall to one side. After the slightest supper, he is affected with heat in the bed, (constipation and great lassitude early in the morning.) After a meal, a feeling of anxiety accompanied with sweat, such as is consequent upon anxiety.* On eating, sweat breaks out immediately. Vomiting, immediately after a meal. 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, distention of the abdomen.3 After a meal, weary and sleepy.4 After a meal, he feels as if he were intoxicated. After a meal, headache. After a meal, beating of the heart. Eating alleviates several, even remote, complaints. The flatuosities, instead of passing off, become dis- placed ; this causes a multitude of both bodily and men- tal ailments.5 (1) The slightest quantity of these things produces colic, pain or numbness in the jaws, tearing pain in the teeth, considerable accumulation of mucus in the throat, etc. (2) Pains which reappear at different places, for instance, shooting pains in the lips, griping and grinding pains in the ab- domen ; pressure in the chest, heaviness in the back and small of the back, even to nausea; in this case vomiting, artificially excited, alleviates the suffering. In some persons the anxiety consequent upon eating increases to such an extent that they de- sire to destroy themselves by strangulation. (3) Sometimes accompanied with lassitude in arms and legs. (4) The patient is often obliged to lie down and sleep. (5) 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. Flatuosities distend the abdomen;1 the abdomen feels full, especially after a meal. The patient feels as if the flatuosities ascended ; these are then succeeded by eructations, frequent burning in the throat, or 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 ori- ginate in displaced flatuosities, (or flatuosities that have become entangled ;) these pains are always accompa- nied with a sensation of fulness in the abdomen ; the flatuosities seem to rise. Cutting pains in the abdomen, almost daily, especi- ally in children ; more frequently early in the morning than at any other time of the day; in some cases, day and night, without diarrhoea. Cutting pains in the abdomen, especially in the hy- pogastric or lumbar regions of one side.2 A feeling of desolateness and wild confusion or un- pleasant emptiness in the abdomen;3 even immediately after a meal he felt as if he had not eaten at all. After having been constipated for several days, she experiences a sensation of constriction 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. (1) The flatuosities frequently ascend; sometimes, but less frequently, an enormous quantity of flatuosities passes off, espe- cially early in the morning; they are without smell and without alleviating the rest of the complaints; at other times there passes off a large quantity of uncommonly fetid wind. (2) The cutting pain sometimes descends all along the rec- tum and the thigh. (3) Sometimes existing in alternation with painful constric- tions of the abdomen. a 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. 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.8 Stitching pain in the fingers and toes.3 Stitches in the heels and soles of the feet, on standing up. (1) Have the different varieties of cancer of the breast any other cause but psora ? (2) In the places where the pain is located, the pain is excited by touching them ; they feel bruised or sore. (3) In worse and older cases, this pain becomes lancinating. 4# 94 Burning in the soles of the feet.1 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- swollen ; on bending them he suffers pain. The joints feel stiff, with painful and difficult motion ; the ligaments appear to be too short.3 Motion of the joints is painful.4 The joints creak on being moved. The joints are easily strained by being pulled or bent.6 Increasing susceptibility of straining a joint, even by a very slight muscular effort, by light mechanical la- bour, on stretching the arms above the head for the pur- pose of reaching something elevated, on lifting light things, on turning the body quickly, on rolling some- thing, etc. This, often slight, straining or extending the muscles, sometimes induces the most violent dis- eases, swoons, hysteric complaints of all degrees,6 fe- vers, hemoptysis, etc, whereas a person that is not af- (1) Especially during the night under a feather-bed. (2) The pains grow worse either m 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. (3) 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.) (4) For instance: the shoulder-joint on elevating the arm; the tarsus experiences pain on standing up, as though it would break. (5) For instance : The tarsus, the wrist-joint, the joint of the thumb. (6) Often violent pain in the crown of the head—the pain is also felt externally on touching the head—it comes on all on a sudden; or sudden pain in the small of the back, or pain in 95 fected 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.2 In the tarsus there is a feeling of pain, as though the joint would break on standing up. Mollities ossium, curvature of the spine, (hunch- back) 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.3 Insufferable pain in the skin4 (or in the muscles, or the womb; sometimes stitches in the side of the chest, or be- tween the scapulae,- that arrest breathing, or painful stiffness of the back of the neck or spine, frequent and loud eructations, etc. (I) 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 disposition for straining the joint remains. A female, whom the Germans call " Streichefrau," makes a few passes with the tips of her thumbs, generally across the scapulae towards the axillae, or along the spine, sometimes start- ing from the pit of the stomach, and moving along the lower border of the ribs ; she generally presses too hard. (2) 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. (3) Upon striking moderately against something, lie 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 something hard, leaves behind blue spots or streaks of blood under the skin. (4) Extremely various. These pains which produce a cor- responding sensitiveness of the mind, are often burning, shooting, lancinating, often they cannot be described ; they affect espe- cially 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 lingers. 96 ' the periosteum) of one part of the body, coming on in consequence of slightly moving this part or a part which is more remote ; the pain may come, for instance, from writing, in the axilla, or in the side of the neck, etc whereas sawing, and other violent labour performed with that hand causes no pain ; a similar pain is excited by any kind of motion of the mouth, speaking for exam- ple, in the neighbouring 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.1 Insensibility of particular fingers, or of the hands and feet.2 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 par- ticular parts, cold hands and feet, that cannot be warm- ed 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; he feels sud- denly, and excessively hot, in rest or on slight motion ; (1) Tact is wanting—the fingers feel like hollow bulbs, either periodically or permanently, (constant want of sensibility.) (2) The limb is white, bloodless, without feeling and cold, of- ten for hours, especially when the air is cool; (moving a piece of zinc over the fingers or toes, towards their extremities, re- lieves the symptoms quickly and entirely, but acts merely as a palliative.) 97 often already, on speaking, with or without sweat break- ing out. Warm air in the room, or in church, is extremely offensive 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 £y bleeding from the nose. Orgasm; also a sensation of pulsating in all the ar- teries ; 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 itching.1 Erysipelas in the face, with fever ; or on the ex- tremities, or on the mammae of nursing mothers, espe- cially 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 fingers ; the pain is itching and burning, lan- cinating. 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 prick- ing in the boils. Ulcers on the thigh, especially upon the ancles, and above them, on the inferior parts of the calves ; round the borders, there is a gnawing and itching pain ; at the base of the ulcers, there is a biting pain, such as is caused by salt; round about the ulcers, the flesh is co- loured brown and blueish ; in the neighbourhood of the (1) Aneurisms appear to spring from no other source than psora. 98 ulcers there are varices, with tearing pain, during stormy and rainy weather, especially in the night; often ac- companied with erysipelas, consequent 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 ven- tosa.) 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 scratch- ed, they are extremely similar to the genuine eruptions of the itch. Some forming a sort of nettle-rash, the vesicles being filled 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 colour, partly dry, partly moist; there is the same itching as in the eruption of the itch, and the same burning pain conse- quent 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 circinatus). 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. Large, brownish spots, often covering whole limbs, arms, neck, chest, &c. without sensation or with itching. Yellowness of the skin, yellow spots, homogeneous, 99 around the eyes, ihe mouth, on the neck, etc., without sensation.1 • Wens in the face, on the fore-arms, hands, etc." Sarcomatous enlargements of the adipose or cellular tissue, or the bursas mucosae of the tendons, of various forms and sizes, cold, without sensation.3. Glandular swellings around the neck, in the groin, in the bends of the joints, the bend of the elbow, of the knee, in the axilla?,4 also in the mammae. Dryness of the skin, either over the whole body with- out being able to perspire either through motion or heat, or only in some parts.5 Disagreeable sensation of dryness dver 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 instance, almost constant sweating of the hands or feet,6 in the axillae, and around the genital organs. Sweats, early in the morning every day ; the patient drips with sweat, which ismells sour or pungent; this symptom often lasts for years.7 (1) Riding in a carriage is followed by yellowness of the skin, in patients where the symptom is not lasting, but comes and goes. (2) Especially in youth. Many wens only exist for a short while, and then disappear to make room for another infirmity. (3) The fungus nematodes, which has lately become such a terrible disease, originates in psora ; I am inclined to infer thi3 from some cases. (4) Those swellings, after having experienced shooting pains, pass into a state of chronic suppuration, which secretes however colourless mucus, instead of pus. (5) 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. (6) This sweat is generally very foetid, and so abundant, that soles, heels and toes are already soaked, and feel sore, after very little walking. (7) The sweating of psoric children about the head, in the evening after falling asleep, comes under this observation. 100 Sweat only on one side of the body, or only on the upper half of the body, or only on the lower extremi- ties 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 parts j1 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, atmosphere pregnant with electricity. (Edematous swelling of the feet, or of one foot, of the hands or face, of the abdomen or scrotum, etc. (ana- sarca. 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 con- tinuing progressively. 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. During a walk in the open air, he has sudden attacks of weakness especially in the legs.2 (1) This susceptibility is attended with many important bad consequences which make their appearance immediately. Pains in the joints, headaches, cold in the head, sore throat and inflam- mation of the throat, catarrh, swelling of the cervical glands, hoarseness, cough, oppressed breathing, stitches in the chest, fever, dyspeptic complaints, colic, vomiting, diarrhoea, pain in stomach, rising of water from the stomach, sometimes convul- sions in the face and other parts of the body, jaundice-like colour of the skin, etc. No one, who is not psoric, suffers the least in- convenience from such causes. (2) Sometimes this feeling of weakness appears to reach the 101 While sitting the person feels insufferably tired; walking diminishes this feeling. ^ The joints are easily strained by wrong seizing or stepping ; this often increases to dislocation p for exam- ple 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 with 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 mo- ment 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.. Drowsiness during the day, often immediately after sitting down, especially after a meal. pit of the stomach ; here it assumes the form of a sort of rabid hunger, which deprives him of all his strength; he is attacked with tremor, and is obliged to lie down for a while. 102 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 ol sound sleep, from three o'clock in the morning. On closing the eyes, he sees all sorts of fanciful ima- ges, 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, fright- ful, 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, dryness 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 recovers 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 sporadic, nor epidemic,1 nor endemic; the forms, dura- tion, 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. Single chills every evening. (1) It may be asserted that epidemic intermittents never at- tack people free from psora ; wherever these attacks take place, it may be supposed that there is a disposition for them, originat- ing in psora. 103 Every evening the patient experiences heat with rush of blood to the head, red cheeks, often alternating with cjaills. Intermittent fever of some weeks duration; this is followed 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.1 Melancholy, either alone or united with alienation, sometimes alternating with frenzy and moments of ra- tionality. Oppressive anxiety early on waking up. Oppressive anxiety in the evening on lying down.3 Repeated attacks of fearfulness during the day (with or without pain), or at certain hours of the day or night; during 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 ap- pearance of the menses.) Mania of self-destruction ;3 (spleen ?) (1) Neither in my practice, nor in a lunatic asylum have 1 ever met with a patient attacked with melancholy, madness or frenzy, in whom these diseases were not based upon psora, sometimes complicated with syphilis. (2) In some patients these anxieties cause a violent perspira- tion to break out; others experience only orgasm and pulsations in all the arteries ; in others again this anxiety causes a feeling of constriction 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. (3) This kind of mental or moral disease which originates in psora, does not seem to have been sufficiently attended to. A certain feeling of necessity induces those patients to kill them- selves, 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 104 Whining mood; they often weep for hours, without knowing 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 insanity. He is easily frightened, often by the most trifling oc- currence ; this causes the patient to sweat and to trem- ble. Dread of labour, in persons who are otherwise extreme- ly active ; they have a decided repugnance to labour. Excessive sensitiveness. ) 3 Irritability from weakness. } 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 however, beside these attacks of the mania of self-destruction, 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 ac- companied 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 ap- pear to be of a physical nature and are not attended with pe- culiarly anxious thoughts, may be wanting whilst the attacks of the mania exist in a high degree; or the anxiety may return more frequently, when the mania had been almost cured by anti-psoric remedies. Thus, both affections appear to be independent of each other, although they originate in the same cause. (1) This symptom is especially frequent in the female sex, and appears to be intended by nature to ward off for a time, more important nervous affections. \2) A female was attacked with anxiety when she was about attending to some part of her domestic affairs; her limbs trem- bled and she became so faint, that she was obliged to lie down. (3) 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 as- tonishing complaints and suffering. Touching tales, even tho recollection thereof, excite the nerves, drive the anxiety to the head, etc. Reading indifferent things, attentive looking at one object, for example : in sowing ; attentive listening to indiffer- ent things, strong light, loud talking of several men together, even a few sounds upon a musical instrument, ringing, etc., are 105 Sudden change of humour; often the patient is very gay and even extremely so, and then suddenly low-spi- rited, for instance : on account of his disease, or some- thing of no importance. Sudden transition from cheerfulness to sadness, or peevishness without any apparent cause. These are some of the principal symptoms of latent psora which I have had occasion to observe. Their frequent 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 unfavourably situated, and as- suming all sorts of forms in proportion as a person's constitution, education, habits, occupation, external circumstances and the physical or moral impressions to which he is subject, differ. 'The number of those se- condary ailments, which are described as distinct and independent diseases in the older pathological works,* far exceeds the morbid symptoms which we find enu- merated in these works. attended with disagreeable consequences ; trembling, fainting, headache, chills, etc. Smell and taste are often excessively sensitive. In many cases, moderate exercise, talking, moder- ate warmth, coldness, open air, moistening the skin with water, etc. are injurious. Many are affected even in their rooms from the sudden changes of the weather; most of these patients com- plain 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 unfavourable impression. * Those secondary ailments bear the following names : scro- fula, rickets, spina ventosa, atrophy, marasmus, consumption, pul- monary consumption, asthma, tabes mucosa, laryngeal phthisis, chronic catarrh, constant cold in the head, difficult dentition, worms, and consequent diseases, dyspepsia, spasms in the abdo- men, hypochondria, hysteria, anasarca, dropsy, ovarian dropsy, dropsy of the uterus, hydrocele, hydrocephalus, amenorrhcea and dismenorrhoea, hemorrhage from the uterus, hematemesis, hemop- tysis, hemorrhages, discharges from the vagina, dysuria, ischuria, enuresis, diabetes, catarrh of the bladder, hematuria, stricture of the urethra, nephralgia, gravel, stricture of the intestines, blind and flowing hemorrhoids, fistula in ano, difficult stools, constipa 106 Those ailments are the characteristic secondary symptoms* of the psoric miasm, which manifests itself by these symptoms as a hydra-headed monster pregnant with disease.t tion, chronic diarrhoea, induration of the liver, jaundice, blue dis- ease, disease of the heart, beating of the heart, spasms of the chest, dropsy of the chest, miscarriage, sterility, metroniania, im- potence, induration of the testes, dwindling of the testes, prolapsus uteri, inversion of the womb, inguinal, femoral and umbilical her- nia, dislocations from some internal cause, curvature of the spine, chronic inflammation of the eyes, fistula lachrymal is, short and long-sightedness, day and night-blindness ; obscuration of the cor- nea, cataract, glaucoma, amaurosis, deafness, deficient smell or taste, chronic head-ache 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, scirrhus, cancer of the lips, cheeks, breast andrwomb ; fungus he- matodes, 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, nervous affections, etc. * Councillor Kopp, an allceopathic physician who is approach- ing to Homoeopathy, pretends having seen chronic diseases dis- appear of themselves ; he may have seen a few symptoms dis- appear, which the old school is so foolish as to consider com- plete diseases. f I admit that my doctrine : " All non-venereal chronic diseases that can neither be cured by regular diet nor favourable circum- stances, which on the contrary, increase in the course of time, originate in psora,'1'' is too comprehensive and even overwhelm- ing 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 reason why such a chronic disease should not be consid- ered psoric 1 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 prece- ding paragraphs, and which mere diet, were it ever so regular, a strong constitution and favourable external circumstances are not sufficient 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 trp- 107 on analogy, that' all other complaints which are similar to the preceding, both in nature and development, originate in psora, although the patient may not be aware of having ever been in- fected with the itch. It is an easy matter to doubt things which are not before us in visible forms; 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 nature of those maladies in case the infection by the itch- virus should be denied ; the salutary action of the antipsorics only serves in the same sense as the counter-proof of an accu- rately-solved arithmetical problem. Since it is proved that other medicines, even when chosen strictly homceopathically, do not heal the above mentioned chro- nic diseases as thoroughly and permanently as the so-called an- tipsorics, because the latter cover the whole extent of the pro- gressively appearing symptoms of the psoric disturbance :—I do not see why these should not be called antipsorics in prefer- ence to all other remedies. I sometimes consider 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 pretence, that those inflammations may be controlled by the antiphlogistic reme- dies, aconite, belladonna, mercury, etc. The proof that they ori- ginate in latent psora, is this, that their frequent return can only be prevented by the antipsorics. TREATMENT OF CHRONIC DISEASES. 5 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 traced 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 homceopathically adapted to those different classes of dis- eases, has secured the possibility of their successful treat- ment. Without a knowledge of that three-fold origin and these homoeopathic remedies, the successful treatment of chronic diseases is absolutely impossible. I shall first speak of those miasmatic chronic diseases which we designate by the terms Syphilis and Sycosis, in- eluding all their various ramifications. This will leave us free to treat at length of that immense host of chronic affections which originate in the most fearful, most com- mon 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 war with France ; ever since then the disease has been decreasing. Sycosis, being supposed to be homogeneous with syphilis, has been heretofore treated with mercury inter- nally, and exteriially by cauterization, burning, cutting, or ligatures. This violent external treatment has been em- ployed against the excrescences upon the genital organs. The excrescences 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 gonorrhoea* from the urethra, are some- times dry and 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 abundance. • In this kind of gonorrhoea the fluid which comes out of the urethra, looks like thick pus; micturition is not very painful, but the penis feels hard and swollen ; upon its back it is sometimes covered with glandular tubercles, and it is very painfulto the touch. 112 The natural and immediate consequence of such vio- lent treatment was, that the excrescences generally came out again, and were again subjected to painful and cruel treatment. In case, however, they did not re-appear in their original form, they broke forth in the shape of more disagreeable and more dangerous secondary ailments; for neither the violent removal of the external embodi- ment or vicarious symptom of sycosis, nor the internal administration of mercury, which is not homogeneous to the miasm of sycosis, had the least influence in dimin- ishing the intensity of this miasm and preventing it from affecting the whole organism. Beside the general health beings undermined 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 re- sults 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 eleva- tions 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 axillae, upon the neck, upon the hairy scalp, etc. The abuse of mercury may also be followed by other bodily affections, such as the con- traction of the tendons of the flexor muscles, 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 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 remedies should always be used, unless the patient has previously been weakened by allceopathic stimulants, or a latent psora has made its appearance ; in this case a secondary gonorrhoea is frequent- ly formed, which can only be cured by antipsorics. lid the internal administration of a few globules of the decil- lion preparation of thuya,* 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, letting it act during an equally long period. These two remedies are sufficient to cure both the go- norrhoea and the excrescences of sycosis. In the most inveterate and most difficult cases, the larger excrescen- ces may be touched once a day with the fresh juice of thuya half diluted with alcohol and squeezed out of the green leaves of the plant. It sometimes happens that, in consequence of the violent allceopathic 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 compound 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 mer- * Thuya is homoeopathic to sycosis ; see Materia Medica Pura, p. V. If other doses of thuya should be required, the inferior potencies may then be used, (Vlll., VI., fv., IT.;) these will then be found to affect the vital principle more ef- ficiently, f f Note of the translator.—In my inaugural thesis pub- lished by Mr. Radde, and also in the preface to this translation, I have conclusively shown that the remedial agent makes no direct impression upon the vital principle, but that the impres- sion is made upon the disease, and that, by means of this im- pression, the vital principle is freed from its embarrassed condi- tion. J 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. 114 curial preparation against syphilis. These different or- ders 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 excrescenses, dry clean lint may be applied. 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 its latent condition. Sometimes, but rarely, syphilis is complicated with sycosis ; whenever this complication exists, it never exists without the ad- ditional complication of psora. In the treatment of syphilis, three different conditions may occur. First, the syphilitic disease may exist in its genuine forrn, together with the chancre, or, in case the chancre should have been removed by external appli- cations, it may exist with the bubo, which must then be considered as the representative of the chancre ;* se- condly, it may exist without being complicated with an- other miasm, though both the chancre and the bubo may 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 ; * In rare cases, the bubo is the first and immediate re- sult of an impure coition, without any previous chancre ; generally, however, it is consequent upon the removal of the chancre by local applications, and is, in this case, a troublesome representative of the latter. lib it rarely appears either sooner or later, and generally af- fects 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 elevated border. This ulcer may remain upon the same spot 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 allceopathic physician, not knowing that the en- tire organism has become infected with the syphilitic miasm, even before the appearance of the chancre and immediately after the impure coition has been accom- plished, looks upon the chancre as a simply local ulcer which ought to be removed by the external applica- tion of desiccating and cauterizing substances, and / which will remain quite harmless, provided it is not left too long on the skin ; for, in this case, the absorbing ves- sels might carry the poison into the internal organism, and, in this way, produce a general syphilitic 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 throughout the organism with all the secondary symp- toms 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 * Treatise on the Venereal Diseases, Leipsic, 1787, p. 531. 11 I merely by local treatment;" and in another part of his work,* 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 in- ternal syphilitic disease." The same doctrine is emphatically taught by Fabre,t who says " that the local removal of the chancre is al- ways followed by syphilis ; that Petit had cut off a por- tion 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 expe- rience 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 unpardonable mistake to remove the chancre by external applications, 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 him- self of a sure and infallible indication 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 disappearance of the chancre consequent upon the internal administration of appropriate remedies, was a sure sign of the internal dis- ease having been completely and permanently 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 mismanaged by external treatment; it mattered not whether the chancre had been left standing for * The same work, p. 551—553. f Fabre, Lettres, Supplement a Son Traite des Maladies Veneriennes, Paris, 1786. 1 io years, increasing all the while, as every vicarious symp* torn of any other chronic miasm will do, for the simple reason that the internal disease is progressing all the time, and induces a consequent development of the ex- ternal symptom. As soon as the chancre is removed by external reme- dies, the syphilitic disease, which is engrafted upon the whole organism as soon as the infection has taken place, manifests its series of secondary symptoms. As soon as the syphilitic miasm has taken effect, it ceases to be circumscribed by the spot where the infec- tion first 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, with whatever liquid it may be, is fruit- . less; even exsecting the part is of no avail. During the first days, the infected spot does not show any mor- bid symptoms ; but the internal organism, 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 na- ture produces the chancre upon the primitively infected spot with a view, as it were, of hushing the internal af- fection. Hence it is that the internal disease is most effi- ciently 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 chan- cre or the bubo are yet existing, one single- minute dose of the best mercurial preparation is sufficient to effect a * Note of the translator : Hahnemann expresses this result thus : " The whole living body has perceived the presence of the poison." 119 permanent 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 dis- ease 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 la- tent condition in such persons, neither syphilis nor syco- sis 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 with a little quantity of laudable pus, which heals of itself without leaving the slightest cica- trix, or even a spot, the colour of which is different from that of the sound skin. This is a convincing proof that the internal disease has been completely annihi- lated. Inasmuch as the chancre is the external indica- tion of the internal disease, this disease cannot be con- sidered cured as long as the internal remedy has not acted sufficiently to remove even the slightest trace of chancre from the skin. Already in the second edition of the Materia Medica Pura, Dresden, 1822, have I indicated the mode of ob- taining the best mercurial preparation. Even at this moment I consider such a preparation the best anti- syphilitic remedy, although it is difficult to obtain it per- fect. In order to obtain 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 be- low. 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 pro- cess 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, 120 one, two, or three globules of the billion degree, for the cure ol syphilis. The higher degrees, however, even the decillion degree, act more speedily, more thorough- ly, 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 incontrovertible evidence of the internal disease, the disappearance of the chancre consequent upon the in- ternal use of the best mercurial preparation, without, however, the concomitant 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 dis- ease, leaves the 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 foolish- ly, removed from the skin by external applications with- out the organism having been much disturbed by either internal or external violent remedies. Such a compara- tively 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 affections, may be easily cured, and the secondary symptoms of syphilis may be prevented by the internal administration of the above described mer- curial 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 consequence of the internal disease having been cured by internal remedies. However, even in the presence of these disadvanta- ges, the attentive observer may discover a sign which 121 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 chan- cre had been developed, will exhibit a reddish morbid- looking, red, or blueish scar; whereas, if the chancre have been removed by the internal remedy and be no longer necessary as the vicarious embodiment of the internal disease, the original spot of the chancre can no more be traced, on account of that spot being covered by as healthy-coloured a skin as the rest of the body. If the homoeopathic physician has discovered that blueish spot, and by this discovery has become convin- ced that the internal disease is not yet cured, the patient, provided he is perfectly free from all secondary symp- toms of psora, may be perfectly cured by one single dose of the above described mercurial preparation ; and, as a proof that the cure is perfect, the blueish scar will completely disappear, and the skin at that spot assume the same healthy appearance as the rest of the body. Even in case the bubo should have already made its appearance, the patient may yet be completely cured by one dose of the above mentioned mercurial preparation, provided the syphilitic disease is not yet complicated with psora, and the bubo has not yet passed into the suppurative stage. Generally, however, syphilis, in this condition, is complicated with psora. The indica- tion of the cure being completed is the same as above. Neither in this latter, nor in the former case, an out- break of syphilis needs to be apprehended, provided the treatment 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 dis- ease, but it is impossible to effect the cure of the syphi- litic 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 122 psoric disease at the time when the syphilitic infection took place ; or else, the psora which existed in the organ- ism at the time when the syphilitic infection took place, may have been called out by the violent drugs and pain- ful external remedies of the alloeopalhic 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 combination with each other. Such a combination can only take place between syphi- lis and psora in a state of manifest development. These are the reasons why psora is so often found complicated with syphilis. The poor patient is often assailed for months with mercurial frictions, large doses of calomel, corrosive sublimate, and other violent mer- curial preparations, inducing fever, dysentery, never- ending and exhausting salivation, pains in the joints, sleeplessness, etc. But all these violent remedies not only leave the syphilitic miasm uncured, but, in combi- nation 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 treat- ment, 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 spurious, masked syphilis is formed, which the English physicians designate by the term pseudo syphilis. This is a sort of monstrous double-disease,* which no physi- * It is even more than a double-disease. The large and frequently repeated doses of the violent mercurial prepa- rations have added their inherent medicinal disease, which, together with the exhaustion consequent upon such treat- ment, reduces the patient to a truly, sad plight. In such 123 cian 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 combination 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 disease 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 physician has to do, is to remove from the patient all hurtful external influences, to put him upon an easily and vigorously nourishing diet, and to regulate his general mode of life to his greatest advantage. After this has been accomplished, 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 agreeably to the new symptoms ; and when this last remedy 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 treat- ment 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, in- asmuch as this disappearance of these syphilitic symp- toms, whose nature is so extremely changeable, is no cases hepar jsulphuris may be given in preference to pure sulphur, on account of its anti-psoric virtue. 124 positive proof of their radical cure, we allow the mercury to act until the skin has recovered its healthy colour at the spot upon which the venereal chancre had been develop- ed, and afterwards removed by cauteries. Manifest sy- philitic symptoms may be considered the following : ul- cers of the tonsils with lancinating pain, round copper- coloured spots shining through the skin, non-itching pus- tules, especially in the face, set upon blueish-reddish bot- tom ; cutaneous ulcers on the hairy scalp, and upon the skin of the penis, smooth, pale, clean, covered with noth- ing but mucus, and on a level with the sound skin ; bor- ing nightly pains in the nodes, etc. In my practice I have only seen two cases* of a com- plication of the three chronic miasms, sycosis, syphilis, and psora. This complication I treated according to the princi- ples laid down above. First, I directed my reme- dies against the psoric miasm ; and then against the other two miasms, beginning with the one whose symp- toms were most prominent at the time. Afterwards * 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 suffi- cient clearness to enable me to decide whether the primitive infection had been chancre or sycosis. The violent mer- curial preparations which had been used against the infec- tion, 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 fcefid smell. He had also a psoric ulcer on the leg. The anti- psoric remedies improved the ulcers to a certain degree, healed the ulcer upon the leg, and removed the burning pain, and also the foetid odour 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. 120 the remaining portion of the psoric symptoms was re- moved by the corresponding antipsorics, and then the last traces of syphilis and sycosis by other adequate remedies. The complete and radical cure of sycosis, may be recognised by the same indications, as the cure of the syphilitic miasm, viz., by the healthy colour 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. 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 infection, throughout the whole organism, requires more time. Not until several days have elapsed, during which the miasmatic disease has com- pleted 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 nervous 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 physi- cians. 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 con- clusions 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 some- thing, which had nothing to do with the internal or- ganism, and which, therefore, ought to be unhesitatingly 127 removed by cauteries in order to prevent the venereal poison from being absorbed 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 invariably been followed by an outbreak of secondary syphilis. Just as condemnable appears to me the reasoning of the allceopathic physicians, that the itch is a mere cu- taneous affection 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, cessat 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, quickest 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 in- fluences, 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 removal of the psoric eruption by means of external applications, and which frequently had lasted already for years, are often hushed, for a time, by the mere re-appearance 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 sup- pression of the psoric eruption has caused the internal disease to manifest itself in a series of secondary symp- toms, 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 128 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 cauliflower excrescence ; it oflen even disappears of itself, not by the use of external remedies, but by un- known 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 days. This may be considered a proof that this second eruption was much less perfect than the primitive and that,.therefore, the physician was not authorised to rely upon it for a thorough cure of the psoric disease. This changeable nature of the second eruption ap- pears to depend upon the fact, that the internal psora, having been in some degree forced into developing secondary affections, 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 pro- moted 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 circum- stances, 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 facili* 129 It is therefore a self-evident truth that the cure of the internal psoric disease by means of the anti-psoric rem- edies, 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 allceopathic physicians of removing the eruption from the skin by external ap- plications, is just as pernicious as the removal of this eruption by means of the appropriate homoeopathic internal remedy is rational and beneficent. By this lat- ter method the whole internal disease, together with its vicarious symptom, is effectually, thoroughly, and per- manently banished from the organism, and that host of horrible secondary affections with which the patient is tate 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 proceeding, to reproduce the erup- tion. For this purpose I ordered the patient to put a plas- ter 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 re- moved from the fire, was carefully mixed with an ounce of 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 vir- tue 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 efficacious 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 pro- duce 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 130 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 hospital physician has no excuse) avails himself, is quite delusive. 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 possi- ble." Such an excuse cannot be regarded; for every conscientious physician ought to know that no eruption whatsoever ought to be removed from the skin* by external applications. The human skin never produces less violent itching which occurred upon the skin, es- pecially at night, and often spread over those parts of the body that were not covered with the plaster. This itch- ing produced indeed a striking alleviation of the most vio- lent secondary psoric affections, such as tubercular phthisis. But, in most cases, such a result was either impossible (gen- erally 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 vehement 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 primi- tive 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 pro- duced eruption, and the exhaustion consequent upon that itching by far outweigh the little value which the method here indicated might otherwise possess. * See Organon of the Healing Art, fifth edition, § 187- 203. 131 an eruption out of itself; it never assumes a morbid condition without being invited, or rather, obliged to do so, by the abnormal activity of the whole organism. As every external eruption results from an abnormal activi- ty 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 internal 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 be • comes afterwards filled with pus, and is then surround- ed with a narrow, red border, or whether it look like the rash granule, or have the appearance of pimples, or lit- tle scabs which have become scattered by means of friction : every physician 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 full-grown people complain of a voluptuously itching eruption, (were it but a single pimple,) which is especially vehement in the evening and during the night, and becomes intolerable unless it be scratched, after which they experience 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 suffi- cient 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 erup- tion 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 132 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 imagines the itch may be cured. One of those ointments is made of sulphur mixed with tar; oth- ers 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 Celsus, as is reported by the author of the fifth book Epidemion, which is con- sidered due to Hippocrates. Sulphur was never given internally, for the simple reason that neither the older nor the modern physicians understand that the itch is chiefly an internal disease. Modern physicians, totf, never give sulphur only in- ternally, because they do not regard the itch chiefly as an internal 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 ex- cessive internal use of sulphur had been either hurtful or useful; at least it was impossible that the whole pso- ric 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 133 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 excessive doses rouse the vital principle into a hostile attitude, 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 al- together 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 re- cently formed itch, with the eruption existing upon the skin, cannot be cured by sulphur ointments used in combination with large quantities of sulphur taken in- ternally, it may easily be conceived that, when the erup- tion has been thus violently removed from the skin, and the psoric disease has already pervaded all the recesses * It may not be amiss to quote here, by way of illustra- tion, the words of an impartial and profound savant and in- defatigable inquirer, Count Buquoy, who is practically ac- quainted with Homoeopathy. We find them recorded in his " Anregungen far phil. wissens. Forschung." (Leipsic, 1825, p. 386. and f.) Having first supposed that the pa- thogenetic 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 char- acter of mutability, perishability, etc., he continues in this way : " The medicinal symptoms, a, b, g, which have re- ceived into themselves the symptoms of the disease, A, B, V, easily pass off on account of the extremely small dose which has produced them. If the homoeopathic physician gives too large a dose, the natural morbid symptoms 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-endangering disease is formed, or else the organism tries with all its might to free itself from the poison by means of diarrhoea, vomiting, etc." 6 134 of the organism in the form of secondary chronic affec- tions, these can much less be cured by powders of sul- phur, by sulphur baths, by drinking sulphuretted mineral water, 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-Chapelle, Neundorf, Warmbrunn, etc.;) but they are not cured for all that; the sulphur may have occasioned a medicinal disease, which, for a time, may lake the place of the natural disease, and is much less troublesome than this one ; but the medicinal dis- ease soon passing off again, the original disease returns, either with its original or with new and more trouble- some symnjoms, sometimes affecting the more delicate parts of the organism. The ignorant physician, on per- ceiving this change, rejoices at the primitive group of symptoms having, as he 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 symptoms, 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 positively ag- gravates the sufferings of the patient. I may, therefore, positively assert, that sulphur has done much injury in the hands of allceopathic physi- cians ; and that excessive use and frequent repetition * 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, with- out 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. 135 ■ have made this drug almost useless for the homoeo- pathic physician in the treatment of those endless se- condary psoric affections, for the cure of which allceo- pathic doctors had employed it in vain. In all those mismanaged cases of psoric diseases, sulphur will be much less useful Jo the homoeopathic physician than it is in a recently formed itch, with the eruption still existing upon the skin. Sulphur will in- deed show a curative effect, whether the psoric disease after the violent suppression of the eruption, be still slumbering in the system, 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 allceopathic physicians ; where- as, sulphur, and, indeed, most other antipsoric remedies, should never be given more than three or four times, even with suitable intermediate remedies, if the physi- cian 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 psora to manifest itself in the form of secondary chronic affections, or whether it be still slumbering in the system, sulphur alone is never suffi- cient to effect the cure of such a psoric disturbance. Hence it is, that sulphur baths, either natural or artifi- cial, are of no avail in the treatment of such secondary psoric affections. I repeat that, (with the exception of a recently form- ed 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 reme- * Recent itch, with the eruption, has often yielded to one small dose of homceopathically prepared sulphur in the space of 2, 3 or 4 weeks. Qm. 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 like dose of the same potency of Sepia. 136 dy, but that complete and radical cure of such seconda- ry 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, education, habits, occupation,* 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 dif- ferent psoric symptoms, and that the use of several an- tipsoric remedies should be required for a complete and radical removal of the psoric miasm.t As I have said before, only the recent itch, with the eruption 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 re- sult of the treatment. When the eruption has already existed for some time upon the skin and begins to dis- appear of itself, in that case the internal psora has al- ready obtained preponderance in the system. The erup- tion now ceases, to a certain extent, to be a vicarious symptom for the internal disease ; 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 anti- psorics are required for that purpose, according as their use is indicated by the existing symptoms. * I mean occupations which exert a special influence upon particular organs of the system, which affect certain functions of the mind more than others. f I forbear indicating the great exertions, the innumerable and careful observations, the inquiries, reflections and various ex- periments 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 chronic diseases, and in thus completing, as much as possible, the blessings which homoeopathy has bestowed upon mankind. 137 The homoeopathic treatment of the chronic non-vene- real 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 general-directions, which the physician will have to ap- ply 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 necessary to modify, more or less, the dietetic rules which homoeopathy enjoins upon the pa- tient with so much strictness and emphasis ; this modi- fication must especially take place when we have to treat lingering diseases which often last for a long time, and when it becomes necessary for the physician to con- sider 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 homoeopathy, 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 ef- fects the cure more certainly and more perfectly than by obstinately insisting upon a mode of life which it is im- possible for the patient to follow. If their strength permit, the journeyman ought to continue his labour, the artizan work at his trade, the farmer attend to his business in the fields, the house- keeper to her domestic concern ; only that which is gen- erally injurious to health, ought to be carefully avoided. 138 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, how- ever, totally abandoning their usual pursuits. Rich patients must walk more than they usually do. The physician may permit them moderate and proper dancing, rural entertainments, provided they do not con- flict with the necessary dietetic precautions, conversa- tion 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 physician ought to lay restrictions upon riding, either on horseback or in the carriage, and to interdict all exciting intercourse ; for, bad moral ef- fects re-act upon the body. All amorous intercourse and sensual excitement, reading lewd novels, and super- stitious or exciting books, are to be carefully avoided.* The literary man ought to take much exercise in the open air, and, in bad weather, do some light mechanical work in the house. While the treatment lasts, he ought to limit his intellectual labour to writing essays of his own composition; reading ought either never to be permitted, or, at any rate, the quality and quantity * 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 nor will be obeyed; otherwise a great family misfortune might come out of it. No laws should be passed which cannot be kept, or the ob- servation 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 inter- diction becomes useless. Sexual intercourse is a thing which can neither be properly recommended nor interdict- ed. All that homoeopathy ought to do in regard to sexual intercourse, is, to enable the parties to enjoy it (either by antipsoric or antisyphilitic remedies,) and to restore the morbidly excited desire of either party to its natural tone. 139 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 interme- diate medicines of any kind ; patients of the higher classes must carefully abstain from perfumes, scented water, tooth powders, 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. Fontanels, in important chronic diseases, should only be discontinued 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 substituted in their stead ; they may be used for the sake of cleanliness. Bleeding and cupping must be strictly forbidden, no matter how* much the patient may have been accustomed to such depletions. In regard to diet, I may observe, that men of a"l 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 pota- toes, boiled flour and fresh cheese, (moderately, 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 sat- isfy a moderate and natural appetite. What is the most difficult part of the treatment, is to regulate the drinks of the patient. Coffee has perni- cious effects upon both body and soul ; they may be found enumerated in my little work, (Wirkungen des 140 Kaffees, Leipsic, 1803.) Unfortunately coffee has be- come so necessary to the so-called civilized nations that, unless the homoeopathic physician interdicts the use of coffee once for ever during the treatment, he will find it just as difficult to abolish the use of that bever- age as it is difficult to eradicate superstition and preju- dice. Young people of twenty and even thirty years, may be deprived of it at once, without 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 impression that coffee might be permitted, in a small quantity, to old people, in case they should find it difficult to give it up. But I am now convinced that the protracted use of cof- fee does not make it harmless, and that the physician who is bound to take care of the best interests of his rlatients, ought to insist upon their depriving themselves of coffee altogether. If they have the necessary confi- dence 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 pro- cure 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 needs not to be completely interdicted to chro- nic patients. Old people cannot well be suddenly and completely deprived of wine, especially if they have 141 been in the habit of using it without water ever since their childhood.* 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 5 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 recommended 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 de- prived of brandy, a little pure wine may be substituted in the place, which may gradually be mixed with water according to circumstances. We know it to be a law of nature that the condition which a medicinal 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 com- plicated that the physician is obliged to abandon them at once. But were they ever so favourable, 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 medi- cine, by going for a few months into the country, fol- lowing a strict diet, and carefully regulating his mode of life. Medicine can do almost nothing against these chaotic devastations, of alloeopathic drugs. The vital principle, aided perhaps by an antipsoric in some degree, must first clear away all those artificial symptoms be- fore the true image of the original disease is reproduced.* * The most horrible chronic diseases, such as may be 148 Wo to the homoeopathic physician who means to make his reputation by the cure of such wofully mis- managed diseases ! He will fail in spite of all his care. An other obstacle to the cure of chronic diseases is the enervation of the system consequent upon ex- cesses. The sons of rich parents especially, carried away by the allurements of wealth) are too much in- clined to injure themselves by destructive passions, de- bauchery, 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 en- tering into combination with the badly managed syphi- litic poison, this union gives origin to the most dis- tressing disease. Even if the patient mends his ways, remorse will constantly assail the vital forces and will impede 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 cu- taneous eruption has, as many times, been repelled by external applications. By these means the internal psoric found in the families of poor peasants and mechanics, whom no fashionable physician visits, are cured in the most simple manner by antipsorics ; the cure is often effected in so short a time that it appears almost miraculous. * A pretty frequent obstacle to the cure of chronic dis- eases is " suppressed sexual intercourse.," In some cases this suppression does not depend upon the physician ; in other cases a foolish physician 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 sensible physician will cure these symptoms by permitting the moderate en- joyment of sexual intercourse. This subject deserves much more attention than is generally bestowed upon it. 149 disease has gradually assumed a fearful character. But even in these cases a cure is possible in the. course oi time, provided 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 disposition 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 eruption still exist upon the skin in its in- tegrity. By means of one or two doses of the suitable antipsoric remedy, the psoric miasm may be removed from the system, and all secondary chronic affections may be effectually prevented.* It would not be expedient, however, to favour the cure of psoric chronic affections by repeatedly pro- ducing an artificial 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 af- flicted with inveterate psoric diseases, such as sup- puration 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 in- * This is also the case with syphilis. Suppose the chancre or bubo have been violently suppressed and sec- ondary 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 sy- philitic 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. 150 telligent homoeopathic physician to the list of antipsoric remedies which he will find recorded at the end of this volume, and which he may use with advantage for the attainment of his noble ends. A few rules of precaution may, however, 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 characterise both latent and developed psora. It is for this reason that the homoeopathic physician should not pay any attention to the names which he finds arrayed ill works on pathology, and that he should above all, study the symptoms, and select a remedy in harmony with them. The physician must be on his guard against interrupt- ing 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 per- haps come the day after the antipsoric remedy was given; or another remedy for a sore throat, or diar- rhoea, or a little pain, etc. The rule is, that the carefully selected homoeopathic remedy 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 apparent aggravation and the development of new symp- toms 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 supposed to be inherent in the medicine ; in that case, the remedy should be permitted to act for a while; generally those symptoms disappear of themselves with- out retarding the course adopted by the physician ; but if they are troublesome and important, -they ought not to be tolerated ; they show that the homoeopathic reme- 151 dy 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 permanently 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 in- tensity than they usually manifest. They will diminish more and more one day after the other. This so-called homoeopathic aggravation is a proof that the cure is not only probable, but may even be anticipated with certainty. But if the original symptoms of the disease continue 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 homoeopa- thic, yet the magnitude of the dose makes the cure im- possible. The remedial 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 natural disturbance which is even strengthened by the medicine. 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 antidote, or, if the antidote should not be known, to .ad- minister 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 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 po- tency at a dose. Discite moniti! 152 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 can- not 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 experi- ence and close observation 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 the remedy acta 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 even in its smallest quantity, provided it corresponds perfectly to all the symptoms of the disease and its action is not interfered with by dietetic trans- gressions. The advantage of giving the smallest doses is this, that it is an easy matter to neutralize their ef- fects in case the medicine should not have been chosen with the necessary exactitude. This being done, a more suitable anti-psoric. 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 homoeopa- thic doctrine. The first duty of the homoeopathic physician who ap- preciates the dignity of his character and the value' of human life, is, to inquire into the whole condition of the patient, the cause of the disease as far as the patient remembers it, his mode of life, the nature of his mind, the tone and character of his sentiments, his physical constitution, and especially the symptoms of the disease. This 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 153 may avail himself of the existing Repertories with a view of becoming approximative^ acquainted with the true remedy. But, inasmuch as those Repertories only contain general indications, it is necessary that the rem- edies which the physician finds indicated in those works, should be afterwards carefully studied out in the Mate- ria Medica. A physician who is- not willing to take this trouble, but who contents himself with the general indi- cations furnished by the Repertories, and who, by means of these general indications, dispatches one patient after the other, deserves not the name of a true homoeopathist. He is a mere quack, changing his remedies every mo- ment, 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 injured. This ignominious propensity for laziness, in the most important of all professions, determines these pseudo- homceopathists to choose their remedies ab usu in mor- tis, by the directions which are found recorded at the head of each medicine. This proceeding is entirely wrong, and smells strongly of alloeopathy. Those gen- eral indications which are found at the head of each medi- cine in the different Repertories, only refer to special symptoms and most of them have no other object except to inform the homoeopathic physician that certain medi- cines, the virtues of which had been tried upon the healthy organism, have been found curative in the dis- eases named in the Repertories. Alas ! there are even authors who advise this kind of empiricism. The third great mistake which the homoeopathic phy- sician 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 fa- vourably acted for eight or ten days, can act no more ; this delusion is strengthened by the supposition that the morbid symptoms 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 154 days, this is a sure sign that the medicine is strictly ho- moeopathic. If, under these circumstances, an aggra- vation 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 ac- tion. 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 administered 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 dura- tion of that.action.* He who observes this rule with the greatest care, will be the most successful homoeo- pathic 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 decided beyond the shadow of a doubt. Considering the complex nature of the human organ- ism 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 * On one occasion I gave Sepia against a chronic head- ache 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 in- fer 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. 155 agent, acting as it does for a long period, should occa sionally appear to make a sort of inroad upon the organ- ism. Such exacerbations are only apparent aggrava- tions of the disease. They simply show that the dis- ease is writhing, as it were, under the action of the remedy,* and may occur even 16, 20, or 24 days after the period when the medicine was taken. The duration of the action of anti-psoric 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 considera- ble 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 30, 40, and even 50 days, as long as the improvement continues. 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.t * If the anti-psoric remedy have been chosen with strict regard to its homoeopathic nature, and have been exhibited in the smallest 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. f It will be difficult to induce physicians to avoid the mis- takes 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 disease 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, however, is not one of those which ought to be compre- 156 The whole cure fails if the anti-psoric remedies which have been prescribed for the patient, are not per- hended, nor one which ought to be blindly believed. No one is bound either to comprehend or believe that propo- sition ; I do not comprehend it, but the facts speak for themselves. The trutli of my proposition is demonstrated by experience, in which I have more faith than in my in- telligence. Who will undertake to weigh the powers which nature conceals in her depths ? Who will doubt of their existence? Whoever 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 any thing by imitating a method which I have adopted from long experience and observa- tion 1 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. 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 accessible 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 understand 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 tin- der 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 157 mitted 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 physician 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 for ever. The fundamental rule, in treating chronic diseases, is this : to let the carefully-selected homoeopathic anti- psoric act as long as it is capable of exercising a cu- rative influence and there is a visible improvement going on in the system. This rule is opposed to the hasty pre- scription 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 pa- tient continue without interfering with it. By means of a single dose of a carefully selected remedy, the homoeo- pathic practitioner often produces an improvement in the state of his patient, which continues even to the restora- tion of health. This result could not have been obtain- ed if the dose had been repeated, or if another remedy had been given. It is probable that an anti-psoric re- medy of the highest potency manifests its curative influ- ence for such a length of time, and finally cures the disease by developing in the organism an analagous 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 arti- ficially-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 anni- hilates the natural, which is the weaker. (See Organon, § 33.) This shows why every hasty repetition of the 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 comprehend the mysterious agency which that method involves. 15S same remedy, or every new dose of another remedy, would produce an increase of morbid symptoms and interrupt the process of cure. It often requires a long time before so much mischief can be remedied.* * Note of the Translator : The explanation which Hahne- mann gives of the modus operandi of the homoeopathic drug, is not satisfactory. With all due reverence for the great master of Homoeopathy, I take the liberty of offering the following re- marks relative to his explanation :— In § 29 of his " Organon," Hahnemann says, in explanation of the law similia similibus, " that every disease (which does not belong exclusively to surgery) being a purely dynamic and pe- culiar change of the vital powers in regard to the manner in which they accomplish sensation and action, a change that ex- presses itself by symptoms which are perceptible to the senses, it therefore follows, that the homoeopathic medicinal agent, se- lected by a skilful physician, will convert it into another medi- cinal disease which is analogous, but rather more intense. By this means, the natural morbific power which had previously ex- isted, and which was nothing more than a dynamic power without substance, terminates, while the medicinal disease which usurps its place, being of such a nature as to be easily subdued by the vital powers, is likewise extinguished in its turn, leaving in its primitive state of integrity and health the essence or substance which animates and preserves the body." What is meant by " terminates,'''' may be easily and clearly inferred from § 45 of the Organon, where Hahnemann discourses as follows: " Two diseases that differ greatly in their species, but which bear a strong resemblance in their development and effects—that is to say, in the symptoms which they pro- duce, always mutually destroy each other when they meet together in the system. The stronger annihilates the weaker; nor is it difficult to conceive how this is performed. Two dis- similar diseases may co-exist in the body, because their dis- similitude would allow of their occupying two distinct regions. But, in the present case, the stronger disease which makes its appearance, exercises an influence upon the same parts as the old one, and even throws itself, in preference, upon those which have till now been attacked by the latter, so that the old disease finding no other organ to act upon, is necessarily extinguished. Or, to express it in other terms, as soon as the vital powers, which have till then been deranged by a morbific cause, are at- tacked with greater energy by a new power very analogous to the former, but more intense, they no longer receive any im- pression but from the latter; while the preceding one, reduced to 159 If any given dose of a remedy should produce symp* toms which are not homogeneous to the symptoms of a mere state of dynamic power, without matter, must cease to exist. In the preceding paragraph it is distinctly stated that the ar- tificial disease cures the natural, on account of the former being stronger than the latter ; and it is also said that the natural disease reduced to a mere state of dynamic power without matter must cease to exist. The former of these assertions is too equivocal to be of any scientific value. If the natural disease has been powerful enough to reduce the organism to the last stage of vitality, how can we suppose, that a subversive agent which develops in the system a disease more powerful than the former, will not com- pletely destroy the organism 1 Nor is the latter of those propo- sitions more intelligible. How can a thing which continues to be a " dynamic power''' cease to exist ? How can any thing which is " power''' cease to exist 1 Such explanations have given rise on the part of the opponents of the homoeopathic system to objections like these: To cure a burn, you must burn the limb a little more ; to cure a simple fracture, you must make it compound. To be sure, such objections are absurd ; but they are justified by the incompleteness of Hahnemann's own ex- planations of his theory. Hahnemann seems to entertain the notion which many other physiologists, especially the vitalists, advocate, that the re- medial agent acts by making an impression upon the vital powers, and causing them to re-act by an increase of depression within conservative limits. This explanation is plausible, but not sufficient; indeed, it is only the smallest portion of the true explanation of the homoeopathic method of cure. In my inau- gural thesis, published by Mr. Radde, 322 Broadway, I have in- dicated the true reasons why the homoeopathic remedy should exercise such a great influence upon the disease. The reasons which I have stated there, do, by no means, explain the inmost agency of the homoeopathic drug; but they constitute, and will for ever constitute, the immoveable basis upon which the mys- terious workings of the homoeopathic remedial agent have to be investigated and explained. In my thesis I have demonstrated that every homoeopathic cure is a materialisation of that abnormal vital state which we call disease; that the homoeopathic remedy acts by reducing the disease to its own natural order or form of existence, which is the medicinal substance; arid that the dis- ease leaves the organism by a compound force, first by virtue of the irresistibly attractive power which the medicinal substance exercises over the disease and by the consequent restoration of free agency imparted to the vital principle. Hence, in the ho- * 160 the disease, and if the mind of the patient should become more and more depressed, though the progressive in- crease of this depression may be very gradual, then the next dose of the same remedy may become very preju- dicial to the patient. Even if a remedy should produce a sudden great improvement in the condition of the pa- tient, there is danger that the remedy may have acted as a mere palliative; in this case it never should be ex- hibited a second time, not even after other intermediate remedies. There are exceptions to this rule, which it is, how- ever, not the business of every beginner to discover.* A second dose of the same remedy may be given im- mediately 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 mceopathic process of curing there is no forcing, the disease leaves the organism of its own accord, in perfect freedom, for the simple reason that the human organism is not its natural order of existence, and that the medicinal substance is this order. Nor is the disease annihilated. On the contrary, }t is developed by the medicinal substance into its ultimate type; it is upon an ultimate physical type that all intellectual, spiritual and vital states of existence rest, whether they be normal or abnormal; the ultimate types of all abnormal vital states of existence are the medicinal substances. * Nevertheless, the immediate repetition of the doses of one and the same remedy, has been much abused lately. The young homoeopathic physician finds it convenient to resort to this repetition, especially when the remedy has pro- duced 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. 161 enough to cure the disease. This occurs but seldom in chronic diseases ; but it frequently occurs in acute dis- eases, and in 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 causing the morbid symptoms gradually to become less frequent 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 neio or troublesome 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 mag- nitude.t By way of example, I may state that the erup- tion 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 * If the remedy is perfectly homoeopathic, it may be dis- solved 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. | 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 nbove-named conditions are fulfilled, the same remedy may be repeated. 162 of an acute disease, and exhausts the curative power of a remedy in a shorter space of lime ; 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. Sometimes such a modification in the symp- toms may occur, as will make it necessary to alternate the sulphur with hepar sulphuris. If several doses of this latter remedy should be required, they are to be given in different degrees of potency, though always of the same magnitude. Sometimes even a dose of nux vomi- ca X., or of mercury x>* may have to be given as an in- termediate remedy. Sulphur, hepar sulphuris, and sepia excepted, the other anti-psorics seldom admit of a favourable repetition of the same drug. This repetition is, moreover, unnecessary on account of the great number of anti-psorics which we possess. One anti-psoric having fulfilled its object, the modified series of symptoms generally requires a differ- ent remedy. To repeat the same remedy for these mo- dified symptoms would be a censurable piece of daring. In cases of disease, which have been mismanaged by alloeopathic practice, it is often necessary to give at in- tervals sulphur or hepar* sulphuris, according as either remedy is indicated. These remedies ought to be given, even when the patients 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 anti-psorics are generally required for the cure of a chronic disease. If the physician alternates his re- medies in rapid succession, this is a sura sign that he has not chosen his remedies with strict reference to their homoeopathic action, or has but carelessly studied the existing series of symptoms. The homoeopathic physi- cian is very apt to commit' this mistake in urging cases of both chronic and acute diseases, especially when the * It is a matter of course that the psoric patient should carefully avoid, during the treatment, the use of washes, brown soap, etc. patient is dear to him. The practitioner cannot be suf- ficiently 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,* and that the least medicinal influ- ence is sufficient to extinguish completely the last spark of irritability. Under these ckcumstances medicines cease to be useful; but mesmeric action may succeed in calming the system. Let the palm of both your hands rest Tor 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. Beside 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 inspirations the power of the medicine may be increased a hundred fold. The remedy acts just as powerfully by communicating its medicinal influence to the system through the nasal fqjpi 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 * I have never seen a properly chosen homoeopathic re- medy producing no effect, when the treatment is properly conducted. Such a thing appears to me impossible. t 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 appara- tus. 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. 164 medicinal power for years. This kind of smelling of the remedy has great advantages.in ihe many accidents which ofien interrupt and prevent the cure. To neutral- ize the consequences of such accidents, the patient may smell of the antidote. By this means it acts more pow- erfully 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 anti-psoric remedy, which had been given before the accident occurred, con- tinues to act for a certain time. To obtain ihis result for cerlain, the inspirations and ihe number of the glo- bules must be regulated with the greatest care, so as to prevent any undue medicinal action being created in the organism. If the patient should wish to take medicine every day,* * No popular habit, were it ever so injurious, can be abol- ished all at once. This is the reason why the homoeopathic physician cannot avoid giving to his patients a powder every day; though this appears considerable, nevertheless, there is a good deal of difference between this daily administra- tion of a powder and the allceopathic practice. It is a great blessing for the patient, in taking these powders, marked with successive numbers, ejaecially when he has been predisposed against the more r«lonal 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 particular powder, he would often be im- posed 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 he 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 powder every day, the patient will expect the 165 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.* The sugar of milk is admirably adapted to this kind of inno- cent deception.t If the most troublesome symptoms of a chronic dis- ease, such as old, constant, acute pains, spasms or same effects from each. Of course, he ought not to know whether any or all of the powders contain medicine. * 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 pa- tient; such a course will never lessen their confidence. f There are hypercritical homoeopathic physicians who were afraid that even the sugar of milk might obtain medi- cinal qualities from being long kept in a bottle, or from long trituration. Long-continued experiments have convinced me that this apprehension is unfounded. Both the raw and the prepared sugar of milk may be taken as nourishment in considerable quantity without the least disagreeable symp- toms being experienced from it. Fears have also been en- tertained that, in triturating the medicinal suhstance 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 porce- lain mortar, the bottom of which had been recently polished ; thirty-three grains were taken at a time. They underwent the process of trituration eighteen times, each trituration last- ing six minutes. Every four minutes the mass was stirred up with a spatula. The object of this frequently repeated tri- turation, which lasted in all three hours, was to impart me- dicinal 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 nutritious. 7* 168 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 recov- ered, this is no reason why the physician should flatter himself, that he has chosen an anti-psoric which will cer- tainly promote the cure. This deceptive success shows that the medicine has acted enantiopathically, as a mere contrarium or palliative, and that a considerable exacer- bation of the original disease will shortly show itself. As soon as this exacerbation sets in, it becomes neces- sary either to give the antidote of the previous remedy, or else, in case no such antidote should be known, to prescribe a new remedy which will act more homceo- pathically. 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 se- cond dose of the same remedy may be given, which, by its antipathic action, will produce a permanent im- provement. I know this to be the case with ignatia. The exacerbation which is consequent upon an antipa- thic remedy, may sometimes be removed by means of a remedy which may be chosen to that effect from the materia 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 anti-psoric may be given. The following are some of the accidents by which the cure of chronic diseases may be temporarily dis- turbed : immoderate eating, the effects of which may be remedied by eating thin broth and taking a little cof- fee ; derangement of the stomach by eating fat meat, especially pork, (cured by fasting and pulsatilla ;) de- rangement of the stomach producing eructations tast- ing of the ingesta; nausea and inclination to vomit (by the highest potency of antimonium crudum ;) coldness of the stomach, consequent upon eating fruit, (by smell- ing of arsenic;) troublesome consequences of using spirituous drinks, (by nux vomica ;) derangement of the stomach with gastric fever, chills and coldness, (by bry- 167 onia ;) fright, (cured by opium, if this remedy can be administered immediately, and especially incases where fearfulness is consequent upon fright; if the physician is called in late, or, if chagrin and fright are combined, aconite may be exhibited ; ignatia ought to be exhibit- ed when the fright is succeeded by sorrow ;) vexation producing anger, vehemence, an irritated state of mind, peevishness, (by chamomile; if this peevishness is combined with chills and coldness, give bryonia ;) irri- tation combined with indignation, deep internal grief, (when the patient throws aside those things which he was just holding in his hands, by staphysagria ;) in- dignation with silent internal grief, (by colocynthis ;) unhappy love, with silent grief, (by ignatia ;) unhappy love with jealousy, (by hyosciamus ;) a violent cold, the patient being confined to his room or bed, (by nux vom- ica ;) when the cold produces diarrhoea, give dulcamara ; when the cold excites pain, give coffea cruda ; cold with fever and heat, (by aconite ;) cold, accompanied with suffocating fits, (by ipecacuanha ;) cold with sub- sequent pain and a desire to weep, (by coffea cruda;) cold, inducing a loss of smell and taste, (by Pulsatilla ;) straining in consequence of lifting or walking, (by ar- nica, but with more certainty by rhus toxicodendron ;) contusions and wounds inflicted by blunt substances, (by arnica ;) burning of the skin, (by applications of water mixed with arsenic of the higher degrees of potency, or by applying for hours spirits of wine which have been heated in very hot water ;) weakness consequent upon the loss of blood or humours, (by cinchona;) home-sickness with redness of the cheeks, (by capsi- cum.) During the treatment of chronic diseases we are of- ten required to use the other non-anti-psoric remedies constituting our materia medica. This is especially the case, when the patient is attacked with one of those intermediate diseases (morbi intercurrentes,) which owe their origin either to malaria or meteoric influences. By these" diseases the anti-psoric treatment is not only disturbed, but positively interrupted. If our patient 168 should be attacked with such an epidemic or sporadic disease, tiie anti-psoric treatment ought to be entirely sus- pended as long as that disease lasts ; the cure of this dis- ease may sometimes require several weeks. If the inter- mediate attack is not too violent, the cure may sometimes be considerably abbreviated by causing the patient to smell of the homoeopathic non-anli-psoric 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; th?y may also be one of the permanent miasms, small-pox, measles, dysentery, hooping-cough, etc. Inter- mittent fevers occur almost every year in a somewhat mod- ified form. Ever since I discovered and practised the suc- cessful treatment of chronic diseases by means of anti- psoric 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, mix in alternation with ipeca- cuanha, sal ammoniacum, natrum muriaticum, opium, cina, either alone or in alternation with capsicum, or capsicum only, menyanthes trifoliata, calcarea carbonica, pulsatilla, carbo vegetabilis or animalis, arnica, or arnica in alter- nation with ipecacuanha, etc., have been used in different years, and effected a cure in a few days. I do not wish to exclude any of the other non-anti-psoric remedies provided they are indicated by the totality of the symptoms in the beginning as well as in the apyrexia of the .symptoms, (See : Von Bonninghausen, Essay on the Homoeopathic Treatment of Intermittent Fevers, 1833, Munster.) I should except, however, cinchona. To suppress the type of an intermit- tent fever by means of cinchona, large doses of this druw are required, even in its concentrated form, quinine ; such large doses establish in the system an artificial morbid action which it is difficult to cure. Cinchona is onlv ho- moeopathic against theendemic intermittent fevers of marshy regions ; nevertheless they can only be cured by cinchona 169 left the patient, and the primitive chronic disease haa 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 ima- gined to be the proper remedy, before a careful exami- nation 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 subdued by those specific remedies which had been found available with other patients, the physician may nevertheless not be able to procure complete re- covery in spite of the most regular diet and mode of life. Other troublesome 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. in conjunction with the anti-psorics. In epidemic inter- mittent 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 per- mitted to act until no farther improvement is observed. In a few days after the sulphur had been administered, the physician exhibits the non-anti-psoric remedy which is in- dicated by the character of the prevailing epidemic ; one* or two doses may be 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. 170 I may here observe that the great epidemic diseases, such as : small-pox, measles, purpura, scarlatina, hoop- ing-cough, fall-dysentery, and other typhoid fevers, if they are improperly treated, and are permitted to com- plete their course, shake the organism so thoroughly, that the latent psoric miasm becomes roused in such patients and gives origin to cutaneous eruptions,* or to other chronic affections. Owing to the exhausted state of the organism, they often reach a high degree of in- tensity in a short while. If the patient should then die in spite of all the drugs which the alloeopathic physician gives him, the doctor declares that the patient has died of the effects of hooping-cough, measles, etc. These effects are nothing more than the visible con- sequences of the latent psoric miasm which may mani- fest 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 now feel convinced that epidemic and sporadic fevers, as well as miasmatic acute diseases, unless the patient recovers from both the diseases and their effects in a short while, require an anti-psoric after-treatment, even if a homoeopathic specific rem- edy should have been discovered and successfully em- ployed against them. For this purpose the best anti- psoric 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, an- other anti-psoric must be selected. * 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 contagious miasm, and cannot now oriorinate without being caught. The so-called scabies spontanea is merely the secondary phenomenal 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 spon- tanea often leaves the skin again very quickly ; we know not whether it is contagious. 171 The strikingly obstinate character of endemic dis- eases 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 inhab- itants. This is the reason why people from marshy regions, in spite of cinchona, drag their intermittent fe- vers even to healthier parts of the country, and do not recover till they have undergone an anti-psoric treat- ment. It is to the anti-psoric treatment that their re- covery is chiefly due. The marshy exhalations, espe- cially of hot countries, appear to be one of the most pow- erful excitants of the psoric miasm which is latent in the system ;*) without resorting to a thorough anti- psoric treatment, damp regions, so far from being in- habitable, will exercise a life-endangering influence. Man may accustom himself to the highest as well as the lowest temperature ; in both these temperatures he may be cheerful and healthy; why should he not become acclimated in marshy regions as well as upon dry moun- tains, if there were not some secret enemy lying in am- bush, 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 stagnant waters and by the vapours which warm air causes to exhale from the damp or 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 espe- cially 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 first to yield to the action of the anti- * The reason probably is, because those exhalations pos- sess the power of paralyzing the vital forces of the organ- ism and predispose this tor the so-called putrid, and for nervous fevers. While in their normal state, the vital forces are able to keep down the psoric miasm which al- ways strives to get the upper hand. 172 psorics; the older symptoms which have permanently existed disappear the last. Of this number are the lo- cal affections. These local symptoms only disappear after the general health has been completely restored. The general symptoms which show themselves period- ically, 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 inter- nal 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 having 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 suppressed 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 anti-psoric 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, inform the physician that the anti-psoric 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 lat-ent; 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 cur- ing itself, as common people and even the better classes * In the same way, a polypus in the water, though seve- ral of its branches may have been cut off, produces new branches in the course of time. 173 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 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 homoeopathic doctor, according to the principle of Cel- sus, " tuto, cito et jucunde," (safely, speedily and agree- ably.) This principle ought to hold good both in acute diseases originating in occasional causes, as well as in those periodical diseases which we designate by the term intercurrent (morbi intercurrentes.) As regards the short duration of the treatment of in- veterate 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 misman- aged by allceopathic treatment to the extent of having become incurable. One or two years ought to be con- sidered a short treatment. In young robust persons half this space of time is sufficient; in older people, on the contrary, this period has to be considerably pro- longed, in spile 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 ihe doctor is called upon to cure, without, how- ever, affecting the organism, has gradually ramified into its inmost recesses, then the patient will easily under- stand 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 * No one but an ignorant quack can promise to cure an inveterate 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 anything? Honour perhaps ? Indeed not, for his colleagues act like him. But conscience? Alas, is not his conscience already lost 1 174 master this parasitical enemy that had assailed the most delicate roots of the tree of life. If the anti-psoric 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 or- ganism is completely freed from the enemy, and unfolds anew its regenerate life.* The best time for taking an anti-psoric remedy is in the morning before breakfast; the evening is less appro- priate. The powder may either be taken dry upon the tongue, (in this case the medicine acts less powerfully,) and is kept upon the tongue until it is dissolved; or else it may be moistened in a tea-spoon 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 any thing.t The other powders are to be marked with successive numbers.^ * It is inconceivable that alloeopathic doctors should have continually 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 affections 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 aug- mented, 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. % 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 175 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 treat- ment, the patient ought to avoid all contrary emotions, nor ought he to fatigue his mind either by reading, or cyphering, writing, or by conversations that require much attention. The anti-psoric medicine should neither be taken im- mediately before, nor during the period of the menses ; it may, however, be taken on the fourth day, about nine- ty-six hours after their appearance. If the menses ap- pear 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 anti-psoric maybe taken. If the female be extremely irritable and nervous, she ought to smell of such a glo- bule, even during the anti-psoric treatment, seventy-two hours after every appearance of the menses.* Pregnancy in every stage, so far from being an obsta- cle to an anti-psoric treatment, makes it, on the contrary, essentially necessary, and offers a brilliant sphere of ac- tion to anti-psoric remedies.! 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 compare the different reports. * In such irritable and nervous patients, whose menstrual functions are deranged, the anti-psorics would not do the least good, without the intermediate use of nux vomica. Nux is especially adapted to restore in such patients the harmony of the nervous functions, and to calm that exces- sive irritability which would be an insurmountable obstacle to the curative action of anti-psoric remedies. f Is there a more adequate means to prevent the return of miscarriage, which originates almost exclusively in a pso- ric habit, except an anti-psoric treatment either before or during pregnancy? In wha^vay can we more effectually prevent the fatal circumstance which so often occur to the parturient woman, in spite of a proper presentation and na- 176 During pregnancy the anti-psoric treatment is more necessary than at any other period, because then the chronic ailments are more fully developed, the organ- ism and the mind of the pregnant female being highly susceptible of receiving impressions. During the period of pregnancy—which is altogether an essential and na- tural condition of the female—the action of anti-psoric remedies during that period is more marked and pre- cise.* 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 which spontaneously occur in chronic diseases, diarrhoeas, vomitings, sweats, ulcers, hemor- rhages, etc. All such palliatives produce only an appa- tural labour, than by a timely anti-psoric treatment during pregnancy ? Is not the unnatural presentation of the child frequently owing to the psoric habit of the mother? Hy- drocephalus and other defects of the child always originate in psora. By subjecting the female tp an anti-psoric treat- ment either before or during pregnancy, her incapacity for suckling her baby will be removed ; soreness of the nipples; soreness, abscesses, and erysipelatous inflammation of the mammae, and all uterine hemorrhages consequent upon weaning, are removed. * The reverse is sometimes the case. The female, who is constantly weak and complaining when she is not pregnant, sometimes enjoys excellent health during pregnancy. Also in this condition of things antigreoric remedies act very well. They ought to be given againsWhe symptoms which existed before pregnancy. 177 rent alleviation of the primitive malady ; and, in fact, in- crease it on account of the great loss of nutritious hu- mours which the patient has suffered. » The alloeopathic practice has been just as powerless in the treatment of chronic diseases as unaided nature. All that this practice has been able to accomplish, ha3 been, to imitate the palliating process of nature, with this difference, that the artificial secretions consequent upon alloeopathic drugs, inflict much greater losses upon the organism than natural evacuations do. So far from di- minishing the primitive disease, the allceopathic practice, on the contrary, favours the universal ruin by its pre- tended dissolvants, purgatives, bloodletting, cupping, leeching, which is now in immoderate use, diaphoretics, blisters, setons, fontanels, issues, etc. God be praised, the homoeopathic physician has dis- pensed with the necessity of employing those barbarous and homicidal contrivances. He ought even to be watchful that the patient, carried away by the alloeopathic routine, may not employ them in secret during the treat- ment. 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 pro- cess.* * Note of the Translator : No practitioner who has a clear perception of the homoeopathic principle and the nature of disease, will feel disposed to blame Hahnemann for using this condemnatory language. Disease, as I have shown in my preface, is not a negative something; on the contrary, it is a positive existence, or we may call it an influence, an agency, or, if you please, a dynamic force, whose action, with respect to the genuine action of the 178 There is but one exception to this general condemna- tion of all artificial evacuations. At the beginning of harmonious vital principle, may be called, and in fact is subver- sive. There is an order of subversive dynamic forces. There is an order of such subversive dynamic forces, which, in a man- ner which is absolutely unknown to us, subdues the circulatory system and endeavours to adapt it to its own nature and to govern it according to its own laws. By those subversive forces the action of the circulatory system may either be unnaturally excited or depressed. Let us suppose that it has been unnaturally excited. Upon what principle should we bleed, in such a case ? If my idea of disease be correct, and, I may say that, although it does not explain the inmost nature of disease, yet it indicates its general character—we must bleed the patient in the sup- position of depriving the subversive forces of their sphere of ac- tivity in the animal economy. But do we accomplish such a result by bleeding \ I maintain that we do not. There is always a portion of the circulating fluid left, which secures the subversive forces a hold upon the circulatory system. And then, is it not rational to suppose, that the subversive forces having been violently deprived of the sphere of action which they had conquered for themselves by virtue of their superior power, and which they now claim as their legitimate property, they will not leave the system, but will rather attack some other organ ? Because we have it in our power to diminish the vol- ume of blood, is this a proof that by diminishing the volume of blood we diminish the violence of the subversive forces? Why should not these forces throw themselves upon other parts of the organism, since the organism is in their power, and it cannot be a difficult matter for those forces to choose any of the intimately connected organic viscera as their principal seat of action ? There is another serious objection to bleeding and one which shows the absurdity of such a remedy. Not only do the sub- versive forces remain intact in the organism—though I am willing to grant that they may be less disposed to attack other organs of the animal economy than the circulatory system, and may therefore, in some rare cases, be induced to leave the or- ganism after a powerful depletion ;—but, on the other hand the true or harmonious vital forces are positively deprived of their support by every act of depletion. The vital forces are constantly engaged in restoring the losses which the organs undergo by motion; this restoration is a process of assimilation which can only be effected by means of the blood ; and this assimilative pro- cess continues as long as a vestige of the vital forces remains in the organism. Death ensues the moment that process stops. Now 179 the treatment, when the anti-psoric remedy has not had time to act, it sometimes happens that the patient can- let us consider for a moment. The blood is the material out of which the vital forces restore the metamorphosed organs. It is a self-evident truth that the vital forces, impressed with the necessi- ty of harmony from the divine fountain out of which they flow, will not assimilate more substance than the organs consume by motion. Hence, in an individual whose organs are bound by disease, there will be a disproportionate surplus of blood, which the vital powers will leave a prey to the subversive forces-. A hold is thus secured to the subversive forces upon the organism. Unless the subversive forces are induced to relinquish that hold, their action might become fatal. The advocates of blood-letting suppose that the subversive forces can be separated from the cir- culating fluid by violently depriving those forces of what they consider their legitimate property. I have shown that this is extremely speculative and that it is much more probable that depletion will rouse the energies of the subversive forces to new and reiterate assaults upon the organism, than separate them from it. We know that such a separation does not take place, that the fever may be momentarily subdued by depletion, but that the subversive forces exhibit again their full action in pro- portion as the loss of blood is restored by the vital forces. But suppose this separation is effected, and the fever leaves the organism 1 What will take place in the organism, if the vo- lume of blood which the vital principle had formed as the legiti- mate result of its activity, before the organism was assailed by disease, has been violently diminished ? The enemy having de- parted, the vital principle will claim to be reinstated in the en- joyment of its former property, which was the organism in its normal state, and having attained a certain degree of develop- ment and power. But the vital principle finds itself deprived of the very material out of which the wants of the newly active or- gans can alone be supplied. Hence the vital principle is forced to satisfy its claims to the full exercise of its former power, as developed and embodied in certain organs, by first creating the necessary quantity of blood, and taxing for that purpose the very organs that require the restorative action of the vital principle, for the purpose of recovering the losses which they have under- gone by successive bleedings, and of attaining that degree of strength and fulness which they would have acquired by their natural development and activity, if disease had not invaded the organism. The organs demand, as it were, of the vital principle, that it should restore the damage which it had suffered disease to inflict upon them. This demand is made by them through that necessity of harmony, which maintains among all the organs 180 not pass his stools, and that this kind of constipation causes him some trouble. In this case, the physician a system of true and counter-balancing relations, and stimulates each organ to that degree of activity which is necessary to the maintenance and development of the individual life of the organ, and to the perfect restoration of its integrity and progressive growth, in case its harmonious life should have been disturbed by disease. All derivatives are essentially wrong, for this reason, that they destroy the basis which the organic viscera had worked out as the legitimate results and true manifestations of their vital acti- vity ; it is in those results that the vitality of the organs is em- bodied. We have no more right to destroy or diminish those results than to take the property which a man has legitimately acquired through the free exercise of his various powers. Blood-letting is a hazardous process, originating in ignorance and speculation; no homoeopathic practitioner can resort to it without suffering himself to be classed among those half ho- moeopathists whom Hahnemann condemns in the paragraph to which this note is annexed. What then is to be done in a case of fever 1 The illustrious Rush felt that blood-letting is not entailed upon the practice of physic by a law of fatality. " In reviewing the prejudices of blood-letting in consumption," says Rush, " I have frequently wished to discover such a substitute for it as would with equal safety and certainty take down the morbid excitement and action of the arterial system. At present we know of no such remedy ; and, until it be discovered, it becomes us to combat the prejudices against bleeding, and to derive all the advantages from it which have been mentioned." The homoeopathic practitioner knows that we have an abun- dance of remedies which will prove useful in fever, and will in- variably and infallibly effect that separation of the organism and the feverishly-exciting subversive forces, which the various processes of depletion accomplish either never or only after pro- tracted and repeated assaults upon the organism. But why do aconite, belladonna, phosphorus, etc., effect such a separation 1 Simply because these substances are the natural order or mode of existence, in the physical world, of those subversive forces which, acting down upon this world of effects from the world of causes, have succeeded, by means of an evil spirit or some other hostile influence, in introducing themselves into the circulating fluid, exciting it to undue action and producing that state of the system which we call fever. Aconite, belladonna, phosphorus, coffea, etc., contain, and therefore are the natural or physical types of those subversive symptoms the aggregate of which we designate by the term fever. As soon as these types are intro- 181 may relieve him by prescribing an injection of pure, tepid water ; if one will not answer, he may prescribe duced into the organism, the subversive forces, being in the same inseparable connection with those types as cause and effect, are drawn to them, embody themselves in them and are, in this way, easily and of their own accord, separated from the or- ganism. There is a state of the system which is the opposite of what we commonly designate by the term fever: coldness, chills, thin and weak pulse. This state of the system evidently indi- cates the presence of subversive forces in the organism, which have depressed the action of the circulatory system. If blood- letting be the true mode of separating this part of the organism from the subversive forces, why do we not resort to that remedy in the condition of the system which I have supposed just now ? If, in this condition of the system, the advocates of depletion do not bleed, it is because they either do not know upon what prin- ciple they bleed at all, or because they bleed upon such fanciful principles that facts are all the time rebelling against them. The homoeopathist knows that this condition of the system corresponds to its types, bryonia, etc. To the advocates of blood-letting Hahnemann addresses the following severe remarks in a note : " Beginners and learners may be pardoned for using depleting processes; but if they dare to pride themselves on their pretended improvements, and to promulgate blood-letting and cupping as processes that are eminently homoeopathic, then they make themselves ridiculous; they ought to be pitied for their dabbling and for their bungling blindness, which inflicts suffering upon their patients. Is it laziness, or is it a foolish predilection for the pernicious routine of alloeopathy, which prevents them from making themselves acquainted with the true homoeopathic remedy that always acts with certainty and success 1 It is only by means of persever- ing study, and "indefatigable searching that the student of homoeopathy can penetrate to its inmost recesses and acquire that mastery of the science which is now possessed by some." . Blood-letting and all the other violent allceopathic practices of artificial evacuation, are on a par with the system of corporeal punishment in education, and with the doctrine of self-sacrifice, or mortification of the passions from the standing-point of an absolute and irretrievable necessity. Those who profess such a doctrine, of course, will be in favour of blood-letting ; those, on the contrary, who have faith in the integral goodness of hu- man nature ; who understand and feel that the true development of human nature is a free and unbounded evolution of all its 8 182 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 dis- tending the rectum and may be repeated every three or four days, until the anti-psoric remedies shall have sue ceeded in regulating the process of intestinal evacuation. Next to sulphur Lycopodium acts most favourably 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 anti-psoric treatment ought to have progressed already considerably before that suppression is accomplished. But already in the beginning of the treatment they may be diminish- ed, if this can be done without suppressing them en- tirely. Physicians often incommode the patient by direct- genuine tendencies and forces, and who have demonstrated to their'minds the glorious truth that human nature is destined and therefore able to work out for itself a circumambient order of things which will be an exact reflex of nature's varied and in- most life, and a solemn and consecrated acknowledgment of all its manifestations: all such will look upon blood-letting with abhorrence, and -will preach and practise the doctrine that vital harmony cannot be the result of a violent and chaotic invasion of the constitution of man. * Note of the Translator : To produce this kind of mechanical distention, a tampon may be inserted in the rectum, which sometimes acts very promptly and to the great relief of the patient. A potato answers the purpose of a tampon better than anything else. It may be cut in the shape of a wedge, and be gradually introduced into the rectum. To patients who are affected with chronic constipation I take the liberty of suggest- ing the following advice. Let them go to stool every morning, either before or after breakfast, even when there is no occasion for it; let them bear down for a while, and continue this prac- tice for some days. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred they will succeed in regulating their bowels in this way. But they must be careful of always going to stool at the same hour and even minute. It is a matter of course that the practice which I here recommend, is a mere adjuvans of the general treatment. 183 mg him to wear woollen fabrics upon the bare skin as preventatives against colds. These ought only to be dis- continued when the patient's susceptibility for catching cold has been considerably diminished by the anti-psoric 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 ho- moeopathic 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 chocolate, electuaries, tooth-tinctures, tooth- powders, and the various other fashionable com- pounds. Warm or hot baths cannot be permitted ; they always interfere with the treatment, and are, moreover, unne- cessary, if they are merely used for the sake of cleanli- ness. 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 anti-psoric treatment by animating those parts of the body which had been lofig affected with paralysis or insensibility. I am sorry that this ad- vice should have been given. I know from experience that, so far from following it strictly, it has been con- stantly transgressed. Large sparks have always been used to the great detriment of the patient, although it has been constantly asserted that they were 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 para- lysis or insensibility : cold water, from mountain sources 184 or deep wells *—(10° of Reaumur.) The water may be used conjointly with the anti-psorics. The parts may either be sprinkled with cold water every minute, 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 circumstances, once or several times. THE REMEDIES That have been found most efficacious in the treatment of chronic diseases, shall be described in the subsequent volumes according to the symptoms which they are capable of producing upon the healthy organism. I shall point out those which may be given against dis- eases 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 chronic diseases. It is not astonishing that the psoric miasm, having spread for thousands of years through millions of or- ganisms all of which differ in constitution and are ex- posed 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 ex- * Water of this temperature, or still lower, possesses the primary power of diminishing the sensibility and mobility of the living body ; hence it may afford homoeopathic aid in the»treatment of paralysis or insensibility. 185 tfernal contrivances or of some accidental concussion of the system. Owing to these causes the psoric miasm has succeed- ed in ingrafting its parasitical existence upon the or- ganism, 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 physical differences of clima and abode, or upon the different modes of life of the psoric pa- tients.* In the impure air of cities children become af- fected with rickets, spina ventosa, 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 originating in the psoric miasm, and assuming so many different forms on account of the constitutional differences of patients and the different physical influences to which they are ex- posed, require, for their radical cure, the use of a large number of anti-psorics. I have often been asked the question by what signs an anti-psoric remedy may be recognised beforehand 1 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 anti-psoric character of'the remedies. In Poland, for instance, the herb lycopodium is reputed to prove curative in trichiasis; hence I inferred the anti-psoric * In Norway and in the north-west of Scotland we have the Sibbens or Rade-Syge ; in Lombardy Pellagra; in Poland and Carinthia koltum or trichiasis; the leprous tumours of Surinam ; the raspberry-like excrescences of Guinea, known there by the name of yaws, and in America by that of pian ; in Hungary the exhausting fever called tsomor; in Virginia the asthenia virginensium; goitre in the valleys of the Alps, etc. 186 virtues of the pollen in similar diseases. I suspected the anti-psoric nature of the common table-salt from the fact that hemorrhages had been arrested by that sub- stance 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 first been removed by means of guaiacum, sassaparilla or mezereum. As a general rule I have found that most of the earths, alkalis, 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 com- bustible substances from the vegetable and the mineral kingdom, led me to rank all these substances in the same family with the chief anti-psoric remedy, which is sul- phur. Analogy of action has also induced me to add some animal substances. Generally, however, only such remedies have been arrayed under the head of anti-psorics, as have developed in the healthy organism symptoms analogous to those, which wejre known to emanate from repelled itch. In proportion 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 anti-psorics which are nowr known. Nevertheless, with the anti-psorics that are now known, we are able to cure all secondary psoric diseases provided the patients have not been overwhelmed by large portions of alloeopathic drugs, or too great a depression of the vital forces or other un- favourable causes do not make the cure impossible. There are certain conditions occurring in psoric diseases, where the other homoeopathic remedies, even mercury not excepted, become indispensable. The peculiar mode adopted for the preparation of homoeopathic remedies, enables us to develop the me- dicinal virtues of a drug into a series of degrees of poten- cy, 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 187 many medicinal properties in their unprepared form, (such as common salt, lycopodium ;) others, (such as gold, silicea, 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 homoeopathy. Other sub- stances, on the contrary, act so powerfully in their natu- ral form that the smallest portion of them, upon com- ing in contact with the animal fibre, exercises a cor- roding and• destructive action upon it; such substan- ces are arsenic, corrosive sublimate, etc. By the ho- moeopathic mode of preparing those substances, their otherwise powerful action is suitably modified by being developed into a series of degrees of potency, many of which were never known before. The alteration which is effected in the properties of natural substances, especially medicinal substances, either by triturating or shaking th»m in conjunction with a non-medicinal powder or liquid, is almost mar- vellous. This discovery is due to homoeopathy. Beside this alteration of their medicinal properties, the homoeopathic mode of preparing medicines pro- duces an alteration in their chemical properties. Where- as, 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 transfor- mation. This discovery is invaluable to the healing 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 homceopathically prepared by trituration, it be- comes also soluble in alcohol. Nothing can be extracted from petroleum by means of alcohol, except when that drug is adulterated with vegetable ethereal oil; in its unadulterated form, petro- leum 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 and on the surface 188 of water, without either of these substances having the least effect upon the drug ; lycopodium in its crude state, on being introduced into the stomach, is both tasteless and inactive. 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 as baryta carbonica, and magnesia, become per- fectly soluble by means of the homoeopathic process of trituration, which, moreover, develops their medi- cinal powers to an astonishing 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 wa- ter or alcohol, or»are endowed with medicinal proper- ties. However, silica may be made soluble both in water and alcohol by triturating it after it had first been melted by means of an alkali, and then precipitated again from that compound.* By this process, the me- dicinal 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 medici- nal 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 re- main for years enclosed in its paper in a desk, without * Quartz, or silica, unless they have first undergone this preparation will not show any medicinal properties. This is the reason why medicinal substances may be triturated in the porcelain mortar together with the non-medicinal sugar of milk, without any silica becoming mixed with it. Some hyper-critical homceopathists have apprehended such a result. 189 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 spirit- ualized, is no longer subject to the laws of neutraliza- tion. 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, provid- ed it is taken in a sufficient quantity, is not affected by a little crude calcarea, or natrum ; its strong specific action remains the same. All those homoeopathic drugs which constitute the pure materia medica,* are prepared in the manner pointed * Vegetable substances which can only be had dry are triturated in the same way. The millionth trituration may then be dissolved, 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, the fresh leaves, bark, roots, etc., and convert them to the mil- lionth 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 de- gree 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 to in regard to the recently obtained medicinal juices. Squeeze the juice out of the substance, triturate one drop of it with the necessa- ry quantity of sugar of milk to obtain the millionth tritu- ration. Of this you take one grain, dissolve it in a mix- ture 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 vir- tues of the drug are better developed than by simply mix- 8* 190 out below ; the following anti-psorics come under this remark :* silica, barita carbonica, calcarea carbonica, natrum carbonicum, ammonium carbonicum, magnesia carbonica, carbo vegelabilis, carbo animalis, graphites, sulphur, antimonium crudum, antimonium, gold, pla- tina, iron, zinc, copper, silver, tin,—lumps of those metals, not the foil, are triturated upon a hard, firie, grinding-stone under water, or sometimes under alcohol, like the iron. Of these pulverized 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; be- fore 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 pestlef ; then you triturate again with great force for 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 ing 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 dis- solved in both liquids. There are some precautionary rules to be observed, which will be pointed out below. | When the process of trituration is completed, mortar, pestle, and spatula, are to be repeatedly immersed in boil- ing water, being carefully wiped and dried after each im- mersion. The mortar, pestle, 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 adhering to either mortar, pestle, or spatula. 191 spatula, then triturate it for six minutes witn 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 portion 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 ioo, to show that this is the one hundredth potency of the substance.* In order to prepare the degree loooo, 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 minutes, triturate again for six minutes, and then stir up again for four. After this you add the second * The preparation of the one hundredth potency of phos- phorus by pulverisation requires some modifications. First 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, kneading them into a dough by means of the moistened pestle, together with the one hun- dred 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 phosphorus molecules may be triturated during the first two periods of six minutes each, into invisible atoms without a spark being elicited. During the third period of six minutes, the mass being sufficiently .pulverised, the kneading may be replaced by trituration. During the next eighteen minutes the process of trituration is carried on with mo- derate 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 degrees of potency 10U00 and I are prepared in the same way as those of the other dry medicinal sub- stances. 192 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 triturate again as before, and enclose the mass in^i well corked vial marked tottoo. To prepare the degree 1000000 or I, 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 preparing homoeopathic remedies, and especially the anti-psorics, I never carry the process of trituration above the million 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 million degree of trituration the solutions* in the various degrees may be obtained by dissolving these triturated substances in alcohol or water. Che- mistry is not acquainted with the fact that all substances after having been triturated up to the million 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 com- posed 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 * In the beginning of my practice I gave a small portion of a grain of the millionth trituration at a dose. But the un- certainty 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. Homoeopath* being based upon a law of nature, it should avoid and exclude all uncertainties. 193 alcohol,* and 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.f This vial is then marked with the name of the medi- cine, and the number ToFi. Of this solution you take one drop, and mix it with 99 or 100 drops of pure alco- hol, shaking the vial twice after it has been corked. This vial is marked looooi. 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 loooo 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 con- tinue the preparation and marking of the higher poten- cies too II, ioooo II, ni4 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 mode- rate 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 * These quantities are measured by means of vials which contain 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. J It is well to provide the vial with a mark stating the number of sllakes and the date when the solution was pre- pared. X Frequent observation has convinced me that it is better to shake the vials twice only in order to develop the me- dicinal 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 pro- gressively developed intensity of action of the medicinal properties of the drug and the degree of the potency was destroyed in favour 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 aa 194 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 uniform- that action is reduced to a milder tone. Two shakes are sufficient to establish the true proportion between these two effects. The degrees of potency may be indicated in various ways, thus: -— The first degree, The second degree, The third degree The fourth degree, 1 100 i 10000 1 100 10000 or 100 (2) moan-ing hundred multiplied by itself. I or 100 (3) 100 I or 100 (4) 1000000 1 1OOU00000 ' 1 The fifth degree, The sixth degree, 10000 I or 100 (5) II or 100 (6) 10000000000 ] 1000000000000 1 The seventh degree, 100 II or 100 (7) lOOOUOOOOOOOOO'O 1 The eighth degree, The ninth degree, 10000 II 0r 100 (8) III or 100 (9) . 10000000000000000 1 1000000000000000000 1 The tenth degree, 100 III or 100 (10) 100000000000000000000 1 The eleventh degree, The twelfth degree, 10000 III or 100 (11) IIII or 100 (12) etc. 10000000000000000000000 1 1000000000000000000000000 [Added by the translator.] 195 Hy both in the preparation and exhibition of medicines, the homoeopathic physicians will be enabled to compare with great certainty the results which they may obtain in their practice. The globules are moistened with the liquid in this way. A vessel of the size of a thimble, made either of earthenware, 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 lessj in order to make sure that the liquid has reached the bottom of the vessel, and all the globules have been moist- ened. This process may last about a minute. The ves- sel 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 adher- ing 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 and more shining. In order to take the globules you first prepare a cap- sule 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 anti-psoric remedies no iso- pathic remedies are mentioned, for the reason that their effects upon the healthy organism have not been suffi- ciently ascertained. Even the itch miasm, (psorin) in its various degrees of potency, comes under this objec- 106 lion. I call psorin a homoeopathic anti-psoric, because if the preparations of psorin did not alter its nature to that of a homoeopathic remedy, it never could have any effect upon an organism tainted with that same identical virus. The 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 simillimum of*the itch virus. There ijs no interrnediate degree between idem and simillimum ; in other words, the thinking man sees that simillimum is the medium between simile and idem. The only defi- nite meaning which the terms " isopathic and aequale" can convey, is that of simillimum ; they are not idem (tomitoh.) DEFINITION OF THE MOST IMPORTANT TECHNICAL TERMS CONTAINED IK THIS VOLUME. (Some of these definitions have been copied from Hooper's Dictionary.) Adipose tissue,—see tissue. Adventitious,—any thing that accidentally, and not in the common course of natural causes, happens to make a part of another. It is used in medicine in opposition to hereditary. Alloeopathy,—under this denomination Hahnemann ranges all those medical theories that are based upon principles different from his own doctrine. Amenorrhcea,—accidental cessation of the menstrual flux. Anasarca,—a species of dropsy from a serous tumour, spread between the skin and flesh. Aneurism,—a pulsating tumour formed by the dilatation of an artery. Atrophy,—nervous consumption. This disease is marked by a gradual wasting of the body, unaccompanied either by a difficulty of breathing, cough, or any evident fever, but usually attended with a loss of appetite and impaired digestion. Bursa mucosa,—a mucus bag, containing a kind of mucous fat. These bursae are generally found where tendons or muscles glide over bones. By means of those bursae, tendons and muscles glide easily over the bones. Cataract,—a species of blindness, arising almost always from an opacity of the crystalline lens or its capsule. 198 Cornea,—the thick and transparent part of the eye, placed between the two lids. Coryza,—running at the nose. Chlorosis,—green sickness, a species of disease which affects young females labouring under a retention or suppression of the menses. Carcinoma,—or cancer. Crusta lactea,—this disease mostly attacks some part of the face of infants at the breast. It is known by an erup- tion of broad pustules, full of a glutinous liquor, which form white scabs when they are ruptured. Diabetes,—an immoderate flow of urine. Diaphoretics,—a class of remedies which increase the dis- charge by the skin. Degeneration,—a morbid alteration of some organic viscus. Dysuria,—suppression or difficulty in discharging the urine. Ecstasy,—a trance. Empyema,—a collection of pus in the cavity of the thorax. Enantiopathic,—the same as alloeopathic. Enuresis,—incontinence of urine. Endemic,—a disease is so termed that is peculiar to a certain class of persons, or country. The goitre is en- demical to the inhabitants of certain low regions in Switzerland. Epistaxis,—bleeding from the nose. Epizootic carbuncle,—a species of anthrax common to the larger mammalia. In man it forms on the cheek, neck, or back, and, in a few days, becomes highly gangrenous. Erysipelas,—the rose or St Anthony's fire. This disease is an inflammatory affection of the skin or of the mucous membrane. Exanthema,—an eruption of the skin. Expectorants,—a class of medicines t which increase the discharge of mucus from the lungs. 199 Fistula,—a term in surgery applied to a long and sinuous ulcer that has a narrow opening, and which sometimes leads to a larger cavity, and has no disposition to heal. Fistula may be formed in the lower part of the rectum, in the bladder, in the inner canthus of the eye, etc. Fomentations,—a sort of partial bathing, by applying hot flannels to any part, dipped in medicated decoctions, whereby steams are communicated to the parts, and their vessels are relaxed. Fontanelles,—the French name for artificial issues. Fungus hematodes,—bleeding fungus, also called soft cancer or medullary sarcoma. It attacks most parts of the body, particularly the eye, breast, testicle, and the ex- tremities. It begins with a soft enlargement of the part, which is extremely elastic and, in some cases, painful. As it increases, it often has the feel of an encysted tumour, and at length becomes -irregular, bulging out here and there. When it ulcerates, it bleeds, and shoots up a mass of a bloody fungus. Gland,—an organic part of the body, composed of blood- vessels, nerves and absorbents, and destined for the se- cretion or alteration of some peculiar fluid. Glaucoma,—a cataract of the orystalline lens. Goitre,—an enlargement of the thyroid body in front of the trachea. Gutta serena,—a diminution or total loss of sight, arising from a paralytic affection of the retina and optic nerve. Hematemesis,—vomiting of blood from the stomach. Hematuria,—hemorrhage from the bladder. Hemoptysis,—spitting of blood from the lungs. Hemorrhoids,— or piles, excrescences arising from the in- ferior part of the rectum. They are divided into bleeding and blind piles. Hernia,—a rupture, or a protrusion of a part of the intestine. The places in which this protrusion most frequently takes place, are the groin, the navel, the labia pudendi, and the'upper and forepart of the thigh. 200 Herpes, tetter,—a genus of disease distinguished by an as- semblage of numerous little creeping ulcers, in clusters, itching very much, and difficult to heal; they terminate in furfuraceous scales. Humerus,—the long bone of the upper-arm. Hysteria, hysterics,—a disease common to females. The disease attacks in paroxysms or fits. Hypochondria,—those parts of the body, which lie under the cartilages of the spurious ribs. Idiopathic,—this name is given to diseases originating in some peculiar and distinct miasm. Inoculation,—the insertion of a poison into any part of the body ; it was mostly practised with that of the small-pox. Ischuria,—a suppression of urine. Issue,—an artificial ulcer made by cutting a portion of the skin, and burying a pea or some other substance in it, so as to produce a discharge of purulent matter. Leucorrhoea,—the whites, a secretion of whitish or milky mucus, from the vagina of women. Lypoma,—a solitary, soft, unequal, indolent tumour, arising from a luxuriancy of adeps or fat in the cellular mem- brane. Menorrhagia,—an immoderate flow of the menses. Mollifies ossium, or ramollissement of the bones,—softness of the bones, arising from a want of the phosphate of lime. In children this disease is called the rickets. Muscse volitantes,—particles of dust or motes which the patient imagines to see upon the eye or in the air. Oedema,—a synonyme of anasarca. See Anasarca. Oesophagus,—the membranous and muscular tube that de- scends in the neck from the pharynx to the stomach ; it carries the food into the stomach. Orgasm,—an unnatural agitation of the blood. Osteo-sarcoma,—a swelling of the bone ; the bone and the surrounding flesh become one putrefying mass. Paronychia,—a collection of pus formed in the fingers. Patella,—the bone in front of the knee. Parotid gland,—the gland situated directly behind the ear; the swelling of this gland is called the mumps. Prostatic fluid,—a fluid secreted by the prostatic gland situated in front of the bladder. Polypus,—a bleeding tumour generally found in the nose, uterus, or vagina. Ptyalism,—a morbid flow of saliva. Ramollissement,—see Mollities Ossium. Region,—in surgery, a circumscribed part of the body. Sarcoma,—a fleshy excrescence. Sedatives,—a class of medicines which diminish the ani- mal energy. Sphacelus,—the highest degree of mortification. Sporadic,—this is an epithet for such infections and other diseases as seize a few persons at any time or season. Spina Ventosa,—a tumour arising from an internal caries of a bone. Tabes Mucosa,—a wasting away of the mucous membranes. Tarsus,—the ankle-joint. Tinea Capitis,—the scald head ; a disease characterized by small ulcers at the root of the hairs of the head, which produce a friable white crust. Tissues,—or textures which compose the different organs of animals. Tonics,—medicines which are supposed to increase the tone of the muscular fibre (in the old school of course.) Trichiasis, Plica Polonica,—a disease of the hairs, in which they become long and coarse, and matted and glued in- to inextricable tangles. It is peculiar to Poland, Lithu- ania, and Tartary, and generally appears during the au- tumnal season. Tunica Vaginalis Testis,—one of the covering membranes of the testicles. 202 Vaccination,—the insertion of the matter of cow-pox. Varix,—a dilatation of a vein. Vesicatories,—applications which, exciting inflammation on the skin, occasion a thin serous fluid to be poured from the exhalants, raise the cuticle, and form the appearance of a vesicle. THE END. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Of the nature of chronic diseases ...... 13 Psora...........21 Critical remarks upon the treatment of psora .... 30 Cases illustrative of the bad treatment of psora ... 34 Mode of formation of the psoric syphilitic and sycosic diseases 50 Symptoms of latent psora.......64 Symptoms characteristic of the secondary diseases of psora . 72 Names by which the secondary diseases of psora are usually designated in treatises on pathology .... 105 Treatment of chronic diseases........109 Description and treatment of sycosis.....Ill Description and treatment of syphilis.....115 Treatment of psora.........126 Rules for the use of anti-psoric remedies.....157 Accidents by which the cure of chronic diseases may be dis- turbed ...... .... 16G Critical remarks on blood-letting......177 Preparation of the anti-psoric and other homoeopathic remedies 184 Definition of the most important technical terms, contained in this volume.........197 * ERRATA. Page 13, line 21, instead of doses, read portions. Page 13, line 24, instead of cauteries, read issues. Page 22, line 4, instead of local, read erratic. Page 36, line 14, and elsewhere, instead of tenia, read tinea. Page 72, line 12 and 13, instead of has, read had. Page 145, line 15, place a comma after nostra. ,f224S®i .: a.-. ^--K>v *««*l!OMs&>>**S£K*^«» NLM017442718