•ti V «b\0 <6lk W .v|,«^...'r, ...’ V" 
Off 'jus: 
g 0 $ oi 0 ? A T H. 1 0 
* \ r>s-r°r** *r% 
i •*//£&, W W> Al W .. „W 
• m YV i r W/WP 
U“- «H i/ U is li/ *y, d/A jl- i vi 11 ON THE 
Universality 
OF THE 
HOMOEOPATHIC 
LAW OF CURE, 
BY / 
CHAKLES NElDHABD, M.D., 
FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF CLINICAL MEDICINE IN THE HOMCEOPATHIC MEDICAL COLLEGE OF 
PENNSYLVANIA—MEMBER OF THE FREE HOMEOPATHIC SOCIETY OF LEIPZIG 
CORRESPONDENT OF THE HOMEOPATHIC SOCIETIES OF VIENNA, 
PARIS, MUNICH, MASSACHUSETTS, ETC. 
SECOND EDITION. 
BOERICKE & TAFEL 
NEW YORK: 
No. 145 Grand Street. 
PHILADELPHIA : 
No. 035 Arch Street. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by 
CHAKLES NEIDHAKD, M.D., 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
W. Hering <fc Co., Printers. PREFACE. 
Hahnemann first promulgated his discovery of a new 
law of cure, in a very humble manner, in the year 1796 
in Hufeland’s Journal. 
Seventy-seven years have elapsed since then, and this 
law has been adopted in their practice by a numerous 
body of educated physicians in all parts of the globe. 
Some twenty-two years ago, by invitation of the Rhode 
Island Homoeopathic Medical Society, we made an at- 
tempt to place the truth of this law on an impregnable 
and uncontrovertable basis. 
Since then, numerous new facts have been collected by 
the lecturer and added to his former essay. In this re- 
novated improved form, the lecture was delivered as a 
preliminary discourse to the students of the Homoeopathic 
College of Pennsylvania, during the winter of 1872. 
THE AUTHOR. 
Philadelphia, 1511 Arch St., March, 1874. 2 
At the annual meeting of the Rhode Island Homoeopathic Society, 
holden in Providence, Wednesday, May 7th, 1851, Dr. Charles Neid- 
hard, Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Homoeopathic Medical 
College of Pennsylvania, delivered the annual address. A large and 
discriminating audience listened with great interest and attention, 
to this, the first popular lecture on homoeopathy ever delivered in 
Rhode Island. After the lecture, the following resolutions were 
unanimously adopted by the society :— 
Resolved, That we offer our unanimous vote of thanks to Dr. C. 
Neidhard, for his able and interesting address delivered before us 
this evening, and that we request a copy of it for publication. 
Resolved, That a committee be appointed by the Chair, (the Chair 
to consider himself one) to present the above vote to Dr. Neidhard, 
and in case of his acceptance, to make arrangements for the publica- 
tion of his address. 
Drs. Okie, Preston, Barrows, D’Wolf and Hoppin were appointed 
the committee; whereupon the following correspondence then took 
place:— 
Providence, May 7th, 1851. 
Dr. C. Neidhard : 
Dear Sir:—The undersigned are appointed a committee, by 
the Rhode Island Homoeopathic Society, to offer you their unanim- 
ous vote of thanks, for your able and interesting address, delivered 
before them this evening, and to request a copy of it for publication. 
Heartily coinciding with the above vote of the society, we beg 
leave to add our individual requests, that an address, so useful to the 
cause of homoeopathy, may have a more extended circulation, to- 
gether with the very high consideration, with which we are, dear sir, 
Your obedient servant, 
A. H. Okie, M.D., 
H. C. Preston, M.D., 
Ira Barrows, M.D., 
J. J. D’Wolf, M.D., 
W. Hoppin, M.D., 
Committee. 
The following was returned by Dr. Neidhard : 
Provi ounce, May 7th, 1851. 
Messrs. A. H. Okie, H. C. Preston, etc., Committee :— 
Gentlemen:—I cannot but feel highly gratified that my ad- 
dress was so favorably received by your society, and by yourselves. 
It was written for you, at your request, and although I cannot but 
believe that you have over estimated its influence upon the cause, 
still I can but comply with the wishes of the society, so flatteringly 
expressed. 
Accept, gentlemen, for the society and for yourselves individually, 
my kind regards. 
Charles Neidhard. ON THE UNIVERSALITY 
OF TIIE 
H OMOEOPATHIC LAW OF CURE, 
BY * 
C. NEIDHARD, M.D. 
It seems late in the day to appear as an advocate of the 
truth of the Homoeopathic Law of Cure. 
In view however of the entire unbelief of its validity 
by many eminent and worthy physicians, it becomes 
clearly our duty to make another attempt to examine its 
pretensions. Most people when thinking or speaking of 
homoeopathy always have in their mind’s eye, the infinit- 
esimal doses, as if homoeopathy was entirely involved in 
them. 
It is true—homoeopathy generally requires smaller doses 
than the old school, but it is by no means the most salient 
point in its doctrines; for we can also cure with large 
doses as Hahnemann did at the beginning of his homoeo- 
pathic career. 
The prevailing practice of medicine, having acknow- 
ledgingly no law to guide it in the selection of its reme- 
dies for the cure of diseases, it becomes the duty of every 
physician, no matter to what school he may belong, to 
examine the pretensions of homoeopathy with regard to 
the universality of its curative law. 
The doctrine that many diseases are caused by vibriones 
3 4 
and vegetable growths, has much futurity in it. But 
even if that doctrine be true, the different influences on 
which these growths depend will require the use of the 
homoeopathic law for their eradication. 
There have been of late few direct attacks against the 
homoeopathic doctrine or practice. 
Its influence upon the old school is daily visible. Ex- 
amine the present prescriptions of the most noted practi- 
tioners and compare them with those some thirty or forty 
years ago, you will be struck with the great changes 
which have taken place. The simplicity of the modern 
formulas is evident. 
If this state of things is not produced by the influence 
of the homoeopathic school, what other influence is it 
owing to? Some physicians of the old school admit to 
the homoeopathic practice a conditional value. Professor 
Sidney Ringer of London University has accepted in his 
work on Materia Medica all the best homoeopathic reme- 
dies, without acknowledging the source from which he 
received his information. 
What we wish and must endeavor to establish and to 
place on the firmest foundation, by overpowering testi- 
mony from all sources, is the “ Universality of the Homoeo- 
pathic Law.” 
Not only has medical science furnished us innumer- 
able facts in elucidation of this law, but also chemistry, 
anatomy, agriculture and particularly the various opera- 
tions of the human mind. 
If this fundamental law can be overthrown, then homoeo- 
pathy, as a science, is as good as lost. If it is not a uni- 
versal law of cure, that will shorten the natural course of dis- 
eases, that will mitigate more permanently the pains of disease 
than any other method of cure, it will not deserve our respect 
nor our study. 
But if this law be once placed on a firm basis, beyond the 
doubt even of the most sceptical, its universal adoption 
by the scientific world cannot be far distant. 5 
When Hahnemann first promulgated the homoeopathic 
law to the medical world, the latter were perfectly amazed. 
Not a few independent medical men were struck with its 
manifest truthfulness ; many openly confessed their belief 
in its consonance with other laws of nature, hut at the 
same time declared that it was by no means new; a few 
vain-glorious professors at the universities, and authors of 
very sublime systems of medicine, completely denied the 
existence of such a law. But although many had more 
or less faith in the homoeopathic law of cure, few physi- 
cians, at that early period, practically adopted it, be- 
because it was connected with another doctrine, that 
of infinitesimal doses, which they were not prepared to 
adopt, although it was hut a necessary consequence of 
the former. Let us endeavor to grasp some of the hid- 
den meanings of this law, although in our obscure human 
mental vision we may never be able to unravel all its 
mysteries—never fathom its whole depth. Let us ex- 
amine the reasons and arguments which appear to us to 
place it upon an impregnable basis. These may be drawn 
from the realms of facts, of history, of familiar illustra- 
tions, and of the laws of mind, and also from science, 
nature and poetry. 
In the first place stands the great fact, that from the 
time of Hahnemann, from the time of Hippocrates, and 
as far as any records are left, from the beginning of all 
times, all true cures of diseases were always performed ac- 
cording to the homoeopathic law. This is a bold assertion, 
but it needs by no means a profound analysis of all the cures 
performed, and recorded in medical writings to sustain 
this position. Hahnemann, in his organon, quotes about 
fifty cases of such homoeopathic cures, which he has 
collected from the writings of different allopathic physi- 
cians of all times. You will naturally ask, are these all 
the cures ever performed by the adherents of the ancient 
method ? These are probably nearly all, where the homoeo- 
pathic action of the remedy could be clearly shown to 6 
be in accordance with the homoeopathic law, especially 
as Hahnemann at the same time has taken pains to 
quote the pathogenetic action of these remedies from 
allopathic authors. In the great majority of cases pub- 
lished by allopathic authors, inasmuch as generally more 
than one remedy was used for the cure of the disease, the 
homoeopathic action is very difficult to ascertain. All 
that we know is, that cures took place; but we claim 
those cures only to be truly homoeopathic which, while 
they shorten the natural duration of the disease, do not 
in the least impinge upon the integrity of the vital powers. 
The closest and most intimate correspondence between 
the character of the remedy and the disease must be 
established, in order to constitute such a remedy, a truly 
homoeopathic curative. All other modern systems of 
medicine are founded on no universal principle of cure, 
and are nothing but somewhat modified allopathic 
practices. One thing has been ascertained with consider- 
able accuracy by the investigations and researches of the 
homoeopathic school, which is that, where nature cures, 
where the empiric cures, where the people or the Indian 
savages instinctively gather their simple herbs for the cure 
of diseases, these cures are always performed, although un- 
wittingly according to this law. Ilad the eminent men 
of science taken the same pains in investigating the 
simple virtues of herbs and other substances, as they did 
in constructing speculative systems of medicine, and in- 
vesting certain remedies with imaginative properties which 
they had never discovered by pure experiment; had they 
not disdained to gather the experience of the people, how- 
ever, crude and imperfect it might be, had they not always 
united two and more remedies in one prescription; even 
allopathic medicine would have more nearly approached 
to certainty than it does at the present day, and the 
necessity for a supreme law of cure in order to arrange 
the numberless fragments of facts would have been sooner 
felt. 7 
The evidence in favor of the homoeopathic law from 
men distinguished in medical science, is not unimportant. 
In the writings attributed to Hippocrates, there occur the 
following remarkable words: “Vomiting is cured by 
vomiting. There are diseases whose cause and remedy 
are of the same nature or homogeneous.” 
In the case of two ladies of my acquaintance, who had 
been subject to chronic sick headache, with nausea and 
vomiting, a sea-voyage did not produce the artificial sea- 
sickness nor sick headache. ' They were entirely exempt 
from it, whilst other persons not liable to this disease 
suffered extremely. 
A Danish army physician by the name of Stahl, says 
distinctly: “ The rule generally acted on in medicine, to 
treat by means of oppositely acting remedies s quite false 
and the reverse of what it ought to be. I am, on the 
contrary convinced, that diseases will yield to and be 
cured by remedies that produce a similar affection 
(sirnilia similibus)—burns by exposure to the fire, frost- 
bitten limbs by the application of snow and the coldest 
water, inflammation and bruises by distilled spirits, and 
in like manner I have treated a tendency to acidity of 
the stomach by a very small dose of sulphuric acid, with 
the most successful result, in cases where a number of 
absorbent remedies had been fruitlessly employed.” 
Dr. Saint Marie, at the head of the Lyonncse faculty, 
has said in his medical formulary: “It is certain, that we 
sometimes cure by acting in the same direction as nature 
does, and by completing through our means the salutary 
efforts which she has commenced, but which she has not 
the power to accomplish. It is thus, that at an epoch, 
where quinine was unknown, irregular intermittent 
fevers, characterized by sopor, have been cured by opium.” 
He also refers to diarrhoeas as having been removed by 
drastic purgatives, and epilepsies cured by an empiric by 
means of a remedy which in the first twenty-four hours 
caused more violent attacks of the disease. He continues: 8 
“It is impossible that these cures should be nothing but 
lucky lilts, they are undoubtedly to be ascribed to some 
great therapeutic law.” 
Messrs. Herat and Delens have written:—“ It is a 
remarkable circumstance to see some remedies recom- 
mended to cure nearly the same disease, which other prac- 
titioners see them produce.” Messrs. Trousseau and 
Didoux: (Therapeutics, second edition) “ Experience has 
proved, that a jrreat number of diseases are cured by thera- 
peutic agents, which seem to act in the same manner, as 
the cause of the evil, to whieh the}7 are opposed,” Dr. 
Fodera: “A disease of irritability may be cured by irri- 
tants.” 
Haller, Stahl and Linnee, are of opinion, that to treat 
diseases by contraries is completely false and absurd. 
Descartes in his outlines of medicine has established 
the fact, that “like cures like.” 
Professor Eshenmayer says: “ Homoeopathy is the direct 
method, and allopathy the indirect. Of direct methods 
there can be only one, of the indirect many, as the anti- 
phlogistic, resolvent, revulsive, deobstruent, etc. By the 
direct method an impulse is given to the specific reaction 
of the healing power, so that the disease is not only 
attacked in its effects upon the different organs, or 
systems, as with the indirect method, but in its origin 
and seat, whereby it is prevented from passing through 
its different stages. Why should this not be possible? 
Why should we not be able to find agents having a direct 
effect upon the specific reaction of the healing power? 
There is no reasonable ground to doubt it. With homoeo- 
pathy, experience has already strongly corroborated this, 
by facts. To pretend to deny it, displays either ignorance, 
stubbornness, indolence or dread of the new system.” 
Similar admissions with regard to the truth of the 
homoeopathic law might be quoted from the works of 
Paracelsus, Van Ilelmont, Sydenham, lliester, Stoerk, 
Hunter, Brcra, and many others. 9 
At a later period Dr. Amador de Rosuero, one of the 
most distinguished Professor of *the University of Mont- 
pelier, uttered the following language:—“Practically, 
homoeopathy is a method which may he added to those 
already existing, hut generally surpasses the others. It 
is one road more, but one more direct, on which one 
passes with greater celerity and with more speed, and 
comfort even. The new therapeutics addresses itself to 
the vital forces in order to cure a disease, as the vital 
pathology investigates these forces in order to understand 
their growth. The doctrine of vitality has always pro- 
fessed the great principle, that above all, the vital force 
was the original source of the disease, and therefore it 
w'as, above all, against these same forces, that the agent 
was to he directed, which was to destroy the morbid 
changes. By the great and beautiful discovery of Hahne- 
mann the sphere of vitalism has been greatly enlarged, 
and what is more, he has placed this doctrine on a practi- 
cal basis, which will continue to exist henceforward 
beyond a doubt.” 
In addition to the above, an advanced section of the 
allopathic school, comprising some of the most eminent 
physicians of modern times, acknowledges the truth of 
the homoeopathic law in a limited sense, it strenously, 
however, denies its universality for which we contend. 
These physicians for instance could never disavow those 
familiar illustrations of the homoeopathic law, which are 
now known and understood by every one, such as the pre- 
vention of small pox by vaccination, the cure of frost- 
bitten limbs by snow, burns by application of heat, the 
quicker and more permanent removal of heat from the 
body by a cup of hot tea, than by a drink of cold water. 
Sea-sickness is best cured by following the motions of the 
ship, as every sailor knows. 
Other popular experiences are the following:—It was 
discovered during the last visit of the cholera in Paris, 
that workers in copper were rarely attacked by it; so 10 
notorious did the fact become, that copper armlets were 
worn by hundreds of persons as safeguards. A similar 
experience has been met with in Bagdad, when the dis- 
ease was very prevalent the past year, indeed to such an 
extent, that be:ween the end of April and the end of 
October about 800 persons died in a population of 80,000. 
Out of this latter number about 500 men were engaged 
in making or selling copper articles, and it is reported 
that among them there was not a single victim to the 
cholera. The superior efficacy of Cuprum in the most 
severe cases of cholera is well known to the homoeopathic 
school. 
Another experience is the following:—The proprietor 
of a large bleaching establishment near Baris discovered 
that his workmen were almost totally exempt from pul- 
monary disease, and that newly employed men, who were 
thus afflicted, speedily recovered after entering his service. 
He attributed this to the chlorine gas used in bleaching, 
which the atmosphere of his manufactory was always 
tainted. Now it is well known that Betzelius lost his 
life by attempting to breathe chlorine gas, which produced 
a violent irritation of the lungs, from which he never re- 
covered. With me the chloride of lime has been of the 
greatest service in chronic diphtheria and incipient 
phthisis. 
Third experience.—In Appleton’s Journal there is an 
account of a man, who was bitten by a rattlesnake. lie 
reached home with difficulty and his symptoms, when he 
arrived, were those of a man badly intoxicated. Whisky 
in large quantities is a well known frontier-man’s remedy 
for the bites of the rattlesnake and is often successful. 
According to my experience in several cases Crotalus is 
the best remedy to destroy the appetite for liquor. 
Fourth experience.—A friend throwing some flowers, 
withered by a hot July sun, into a basin of warm water, 
found them after some hours, to his astonishment as fresh 
as ever, completely revived. 11 
, , rr . Says Hahnemann :—“Why does the 
bight and Hearing, . . . 
brilliant planet Jupiter disappear in 
the twilight from the eyes of him who gazes at it ? 
Because a similar hut more potent power, the light of 
breaking day, then acts upon these organs. By what 
means does the soldier cunningly remove from the ears 
of the compassionate spectator the cries of him who runs 
the gauntlet ? By the piercing tones of the life, coupled 
with the noise of the drum. By wliat means do they 
drown the distant roar of the enemy’s cannon, which car- 
ries terror to the heart of the soldier? By the deep 
mouthed clamor of the big drum.—Neither the compas- 
sion nor the terror could be suppressed by reprimands 
ora distribution of brilliant uniforms. In the same man- 
ner, mourning and sadness are extinguished in the soul, 
when the news reaches us of a still greater misfortune 
occurring to another.” 
To the quotation from Hahnemann 
with regard to the simile of the sense 
of sight and hearing, I will add that of the taste. It 
is a well known fact, that the confectioner hardly ever 
partakes of the dainties he prepares with so much skill. 
Their very sight and odor is often disgusting to him. 
The natural appetite is destroyed as soon as the sense of 
taste is over stimulated by rich food. 
The nervous sensitiveness to the least 
touch in some patients is often cured 
by the more potent power of mesmerism or frictions pro- 
ducing a similar state. 
I will now review the different faculties of the mind 
which strikingly illustrate this law. 
We are most cognizant of our faults, and we are most 
disposed to correct them, if we see another exhibit the 
same fault or vice in a still greater degree, particularly if 
we despise this latter for his general bad character. We 
become ashamed and alter our course. 
What means did the Greeks devise to 
disgust their young men with the vi<*e 
Taste. 
Touch. 
Iiitemperancr. 12 
of intemperance ? They exhibited to them a slave in a 
state of intoxication. The most appropriate lecture on 
intemperance would hardly have produced an equally 
salutary effect. Some East Indians keep a drunkard in 
their pay for the same purpose. Neither can criminals 
be cured by the annihilation of other criminals. The 
statistics of crime clearly prove this proposition. That 
would be an allopathic measure. lie who keeps society 
in fear of him must be cured by the restraints of society. 
But how ? Certainly, not by destroying him ; this would 
not mend the matter. The treatment of such a charac- 
ter must consist in the constraints of a thorough physi- 
cal, mental and religious education, which may be to the 
delinquent worse than death, but which, however, will 
finally harmonize his whole being. 
The best thief-catcliers and detectives are those who 
formerly have been engaged in the same business,—that 
is have been thieves. 
Politicsil rings, united for the purpose of plunder, are 
best cured by similar rings united for the purpose of hon- 
est reform. 
You have often heard it laughingly 
said, that the best cure for love is the 
possession of the beloved object, which is quite true. Op- 
position to it on the side of parents, guardians, or friends, 
will only strengthen this passion, as the experience of all 
ages has shown. The love of Romeo and Juliet was par- 
ticularly kindled and kept alive by the opposition of their 
respective families. Abelard and Ileloise, furnish another 
example in proof of our position. 
A young gentleman afflicted with 
rheumatism and a severe cold in the 
breast was on the eve of being united to a beautiful young 
lady. In order to be cured and before his marriage, he 
went South, visiting the most famous hot springs of Ar- 
kansas, the mild climate of Florida, the genial shores of 
Cuba, but all to no purpose. All the medical gentlemen 
Love. 
Disappointed Love. 13 
with whom he consulted told him he could not live. 
Weary of physicians, he again went home to die. He 
was carried from the boat to the hotel more dead than 
alive. On the sixth day after his return he learned that 
his betrothed had been married a day previous to another, 
thinking her lover could not survive. All the friends of 
the deceived lover thought that this would prove fatal at 
once in his then state of health, but instead of their fears 
being realized, in a week from the day of the reception of 
the unsuspected news, he arose from his bed and rapidly 
recovered and in less than a month was as well as ever. 
Disappointed love can cause consumption and rheuma- 
tism, but when you have it, it may also cure it—a true 
homoeopathic cure. 
Nostalgia, home-sickness, that singu- 
lar disease, with which the Swiss nation 
are particularly affected, is cured by nothing but a return 
to their mountain home, or the removal of the patient to 
a mountainous country, similar to his own. A Swiss lady 
of my acquaintance, whose health, strength and spirits 
were rapidly failing from this disease, whilst living in a 
large and crowded Atlantic city—she was only the shadow 
of her former self—was immediately restored by removing 
with her family to a beautiful and romantic region in the 
Blue Mountains, which somewhat resembled her own 
Swiss home. All the gifts and wealth which may be 
showered upon her will not be equal to her home. 
We can best cure a timid man of 
fear, by placing him in situations of 
great danger, where all his courage must be exerted, 
causing him to disregard all fear. Thus young recruits 
are seldom able to stand the first onslaught of the 
enemy, they will only gradually become accustomed to 
scenes of danger, while the veteran of a hundred battle- 
fields, like the war-horse in Job, “ moeketh at fear, and is 
not affrighted, neither turneth he back from the sword.” 
Fear has paralyzed the strongest man, but we know 
Nostalgia. 
Fear. 14 
also of instances, when the effect of a sudden fear, e. g. 
the alarm of fire, has been the means of curing paralysis. 
People of the same temperaments, if 
they come in contact with each other, 
will never agree, until one or the other is subdued, or 
the stronger subdues the weaker. The Taming of the 
Shrew, in Shakspeare’s play, however paradoxical it may 
seem, has a deep meaning in it. We must only be sure 
in such cases, that we hit the right specific, and avoid 
the too much or too little. Quarrelsome characters be- 
come humanized with those who are like them. Do we 
not see every day fencers and bullies become very gentle 
and give up their overbearing humor, when in the com- 
pany of their equals ? 
Unreasonable, imperious and fault-finding tempers are 
often cured not by abject submission, but a similar be- 
havior of the oppressed party. By apparently assenting 
hut exaggerating the unreasonable demands their ah- 
©O © 
surdity is made manifest. Thus the eyes of the constant 
fault-finder arc gradually opened. In Harper’s Bazar, 
March 30th, 1872, a beautiful story is related, illus- 
trating this point. 
It has well been said, that the reac- 
tionary policy of the crowned poten- 
tates of Europe is best calculated to pro- 
mote the cause of liberty in future revolutions, rousing the 
dormant energies of the people, which will at once elevate 
them from their abject condition. Tyrannical laws passed 
for the oppression of nations or of any peculiar race of 
men, although deemed sometimes verjr efficient, will tend 
to the discomfiture of the enemies of liberty, and we, who 
are convinced of the truth of the homoeopathic law even 
in this respect, might well be tempted to say, God speed 
to the authors of such laws, well knowing that they will 
hasten the triumph of liberty. 
Despotical governments must resort to state loans, in 
order to obtain the means to destroy the liberties of the 
Temperaments. 
Freedom and Ty- 
ranny. 15 
people and it is only by the use of the people of the same 
means—of a people’s loan, that they shall be able to con- 
quer despotism. 
But if despotism and tyranny will be in the end their 
own executioners, liberty on the other hand will be crea- 
tive of liberty. From free men alone will freedom spring. 
It is only because our revolutionary ancestors had all the 
elements of a free race within them, that they consecrated 
this soil to liberty. 
In the oratorical contests of our legislative halls, our 
courts of justice, our congress, the power of this law is 
felt. Do we not see, that violent measures will never 
succeed in curing the evils under which the country 
labors. It requires the wise statesman, the powerful and 
sagacious mind to devise the exact and true plan for the 
impending emergency. 
A proud man is never cured of his 
pride by the utmost exercise of humil- 
ity on the part of his dependent, but only by a dignified 
and manly behaviour. The more the latter humbles him- 
self, the more arrogant becomes the former.—In the inter- 
course of our daily walks of life the due cognizance and 
exercise of this law will save us many a heartache. Those 
who do not help themselves, will never be helped by 
others. “ To him who hath, shall be given, and from him 
who hath not, shall be taken away even that which he 
hath.” 
The misanthrope in Schiller’s play 
was finally cured by the influence of 
other misanthropes of a similar character. 
The covetous man is the first to be 
tired of the riches and possessions he 
has so much coveted, as soon as he possesses them. It 
is well known, that hereditary wealth makes the possessor 
of it most indifferent to it. The proud baron or noble 
of the old world, spends his money too lavishly, only be- 
cause it is not the fruit of painful toil. 
Pride. 
Misanthropy. 
Covetousness. 16 
A l1 rench gentleman wished to eon- 
vert his son, who had been educated by 
distant relations in utilitarian views to his love of arts, 
sciences, and all that embellishes and enriches life. 
Would he have succeeded in convincing his son of 
the ultimate tendency of his utilitarian views by vio- 
lently opposing them? He would only have roused the 
spirit of opposition of the latter, and caused him to 
cling with still greater tenacity to them. What course 
did he pursue to change the views of his son ? By 
apparently seeming of his opinion, but overstepping its 
limits, he opened his eyes to the folly of merely living 
for the useful. For this gentleman to live, was not 
merely to keep alive the spark kindled by God in us all, 
but also to increase and brighten it by other sparks. lie 
had been at the head of every enterprise in favor of litera- 
ture, science and art, and the French museums had been 
enriched by his presents. He lived in the country and 
his residence was such as the taste of a gifted mind was 
able to make it. But in order to cure his son of his utili- 
tarianism, he had the flowers in his garden uprooted and 
the shrubs torn up. Two fine lilacs, which shaded the 
windows with their balmy flower-tufts, were cut down to 
make fire-wood. The hall in his manor was cleared of 
the curiosities with which it had formerly been filled, 
and in their places stands were arranged for canes and 
cloaks. In the saloon all the drawings and paintings had 
also disappeared, and the walls were completely bare. 
The whole house had undergone the same transformation. 
That which had no object but to please the taste had been 
sacrificed without pity. Everything left had a daily posi- 
tive use. The agreeable had entirely given place to the 
necessary. Ilis botanic garden was to become a manure 
store, and the gravestones of his family cemetery were to 
be used for paving the yard. But before the latter was 
accomplished, the son was already cured. The vigorous 
application of his own principles did the deed. lie began 
Utilitarianism. 17 
to understand the sacred sentence, that “ man lives not by 
bread alone.” 
A lady of my acquaintance lately 
wrote from the West Indies, that ac- 
cording to her opinion ladies could be easily cured of their 
love of finery by seeing the West India negresses extrava- 
gantly indulge themselves in the same propensity with- 
out measure or sense. The best lecture on the subject 
would not have an equally beneficial effect. 
Mental diseases of various kinds have 
long been instinctively cured according 
to the homoeopathic law. I will give a few instances ot 
the kind. A lady fancied that she had swallowed a pin, 
which she supposed was lying cross-wise in her throat; 
under this belief she refused to receive food, saying that 
it was impossible for her to swallow. Previous to the 
time she supposed she had swallowed it, she was a woman 
of stout constitution and strong habit, hut had now 
dwindled almost to a skeleton. Her throat was repeat- 
edly examined b}7 several physicians and they all agreed 
there was no pin there. There was a complete absence of 
inflammation in the throat, externally or internally, as 
far as could be seen, and she did not complain of pressure 
at the parts. After the physicians had several times told 
her that there was no pin there and that they could do 
nothing for her, she still continued sending for them. 
They thought at last of a plan by which she might he 
cured of this strange fancy. The attending physician 
provided himself with several surgical instruments and a 
rusty pin which he crooked for the purpose. He inserted 
in her throat, several times, one or more of these instru- 
ments having a hooked point, and at his last and greatest 
effort, pretended to draw out the very pin that had given 
her so much pain and trouble, producing it in his hand. 
This satisfied her. She knew that it was then out and 
thanked the doctor with the warmest expressions for the 
preservation of her life. 
Vanity. 
Insanity. 18 
Dr. Cabarus, who died at Paris last year, was one of 
those jovial physicians whose presence is equally sought 
in the sick room as in society, and who effects more with 
humor and pleasantry than by medicine. Being a brother- 
in-law of Lesseps, the celebrated engineer, and nearly 
related to a princely family of his native land, he moved 
in aristocratic circles, which deeply feel his loss. One 
cure by which, at the commencement of his career, he 
achieved a great reputation, is characteristic of the man. 
The Duchess of D , one of the most aristocratic 
ladies of the Faubourg St. Germain, had got possessed 
of the idea that she had swallowed a frog. She felt this 
said frog—she declared she did—and its presence robbed 
her of peace of mind, sleep, and even health. The Paris- 
ian physicians had the rudeness to deny the existence of 
this animal, ignorant, as they were, that the poor lady 
suffered martyrdom. A fortunate chance made her ac- 
quainted with Dr. Cabarus, and to him she told her tale 
of woe. He felt, with a seriousness worthy of Hippocrates 
himself, the pulse of the fair patient, inquired after vari- 
ous symptoms, and when the charming aristocrat had ex- 
hausted all her store of arguments to prove her pet delu- 
sion, the youthful doctor said, after a well-feigned pause 
—“ Madame, the frog is there, but I will remove it.” 
He then prescribed an innocent emetic, and went to the 
nearest flower shop, where he bought a small green frog. 
Armed with this confederate, he presented himself once 
more before the duchess, and placed a large basin of water 
in readiness. The emetic began to take effect, the duch- 
ess’ eyes filled with tears, and our doctor took advantage 
of the opportunity to slip the green frog into the basin. 
On seeing the frog a load was removed from the duch- 
ess’ heart, and for an instant all seemed well. The next 
moment she turned pale, and, as Dr. Cabarus supported 
her tottering frame, she cried in a despairing tone:— 
“Oh, doctor! I am not yet cured, for the frog has left 
little ones behind her !” 19 
“ Stop!” cried Cabarus, without allowing a trace of em- 
barrassment to be seen in his manner, “ that we shall soon 
see.” 
lie then threw a searching glance upon the frog, which 
he had by this time taken in his hand, and uttered with 
a certainty that settled the whole question, these words:—- 
“ Madame, that is an impossibility, for the frog is a 
male!” 
The modern treatment of the insane is entirely con- 
ducted on homoeopathic principles. The physician never 
flatly contradicts the absurd vagaries or ravings of his 
patient, but apparently enters into his feelings, and gradu- 
ally seeks to draw him out of it by his own inward im- 
pulse, by addressing the small portion of good sense that 
is still left to him. Thus a very beautiful girl in a state 
of insanity fancied slie had become very ugly, and was 
inconsolable. Her parents, friends and admirers did not 
contradict her, but pretended that they could hardly look 
at her on account of her extreme ugliness. This had the 
desired effect and she again became sane. 
One of my patients is the most nervous man in the 
world, when he has an attack of the gout. He has lost 
the control over his mind to such an extent that you can 
hear his screams for half a mile. Before he screams he 
always says to his wife or daughter, “ Now I am going to 
scream.” “ Well, father, scream,” says the daughter one 
time, “ if you think it will make you feel better.” lie felt 
so abashed that he has not screamed since. When for- 
merly she had tried to persuade him not to scream, he 
always screamed the louder. 
The celebrated Sir Astley Cooper had the misfortune 
on a journey to be carried by mistake into an insane asy- 
lum, and to be subjected to the medical treatment of a 
madman, who gave himself out for a physician. His pre- 
scription was the following:—First, venesection ; then the 
Douche-bath and starvation; finally the great shower- 
bath, extraction of three teeth, bastinado and incarcera- 20 
tion. Astley Cooper himself says :—“ I trembled all over, 
for such treatment would certainly have made me insane.” 
Mr. Lawrence, the Assistant Superintendent of the 
Boston Insane Asylum, says:—“ The secret of teaching- 
delirious patients is to humor them. Every time you oppose 
a crazy man, you just strengthen the hold of his delusion- 
Only join in with him, and he soon gets quiet. One night I 
had a big, strong fellow, who would weigh 250 pounds, 
to get up stairs. lie was brought in after the rest of the 
patients were asleep, and he was inclined to be noisy, and 
was as mad as a March hare. If I had asked him to go 
up to bed it would have taken several men like me to get 
him there, and there would have been a row likely to 
disturb all the house. So I let him have his own way for 
awhile. At last he mounted on a chair, and bemin to 
personate the clown of a circus. Such frantic fun, such 
mad mirth, it seems to me no one ever saw; but after a 
while he became disgusted with his small stage—the 
chair. ‘ Why, a fellow can’t turn round here,’ he said. 
Then was my time. ‘ That’s a fact’, I answered, sympa- 
thizingly. ‘ It just spoils the performance. I'll tell you 
what—I’ve got a place up stairs—a regular ring—a stage 
that’s something like a stage. Just let’s go up there and 
have it out! He went along, in a state of the uttermost 
satisfaction, and soon I had him in an upper room, where 
he was quite at liberty to stand on his head or his heels, 
as best suited him. There he went on with his perform- 
ance until he had tired himself out, and then I had no 
difficulty in getting him to take the proper medicine and 
o-o to bed. Another time I was summoned to the relief 
© 
of a patient who believed that rats were tearing away at 
his vitals. I found him in a condition of abject terror. 
1 They’re here, under my coat; he shouted, as I went in ; 
three of ’em gnawing away.’ ‘ How lucky that you sent 
for me; I’ll get ’em out in short meter.’ So, with an ap- 
pearance of desperate effort, I pretended to draw one out, 
and handed it to an attendant in my rear, to be thrown 21 
from the window. Then I tagged away at another. The 
third, he said, had worked himself lower down, and was 
desperate. Of eourse I had a struggle for him ; hut at last 
I eried out, triumphantly, ‘ They’re all gone now’, and 
the patient sank back in utter exhaustion, with great 
beads of sweat on his forehead! ‘ Yes, they are gone’, 
he said, with a sigh of relief; ‘but I should be a dead 
man now if I hadn’t sent for you.’ This illustrates our 
system.” 
“And the system always succeeds?”• the doctor in- 
quired. 
“ It hasn’t failed yet.” 
Mr. Lawrence carries his idea of freedom as an agent of 
reform so far that he thinks the location of a Washing- 
tonian Home should be, by all means, in a city where the 
patients, having constant liberty to go out, will at all 
times encounter the temptations which are likely to beset 
their after lives, lie takes no patients committed to him 
against their will—only those who come of their own 
acoord, led by their owit desire to reform, lie seems emi- 
nently the right man in the right place. The only draw- 
back to the wider success of the Home he rules so wisely, 
is want of sufficient room for those who fain would come 
to it. 
A vicious boy who pokes his um- 
brella into everybody’s side is cured by 
letting him stand in a eorner with an 
immense umbrella over his head until he is tired. 
Another bends his head under the table to catch at boys’ 
legs is told to lay with his head in a very uncomfortable 
position under the table until he is cured. 
A social philosopher says that he has kept children 
quiet in the house on stormy days, when otherwise they 
would have been crying to go out, by taking them at 
once to the door, exposing them to the storm and telling 
them to go—they would very soon turn back in surprise, 
homceopathically cured of wanting to go out for that 
time. 
Homoeopathic law in 
Education. 22 
On analysis of the different faculties of the mind, we 
find that they are all strengthened hy their due exercise 
and use. But if you wish to disgust a person with a cer- 
tain profession or faculty, let him only exercise it too 
much, let the scale of weight preponderate too much on 
one side, he will he the first to abandon the pursuit, how- 
ever dear it was to him at first. Daily experience points 
out to us numerous examples. On the other hand, if a 
young man he forced into a particular occupation or pro- 
fession, he will seldom or never succeed ; but give him one 
which he has himself selected, and which suits his indi- 
vidual nature, he will nearly always excel in it. You 
can easily perceive how much this subject might be 
extended, to furnish examples in explanation of our 
homeeopathie law, which throws new light upon the 
workings of all professions. 
Agriculture furnishes some import- 
ant data for our consideration. The 
scientific agriculturist, in his endeavor to fertilize a par- 
ticular soil, selects that manure which is best adapted to 
its nature, that one which exercises the most powerful 
influence on the quality of the soil, and which in conse- 
quence will produce the largest and most perfect crop. 
The modern system of agriculture may therefore, not 
inaptly be compared with the homeeopathie mode of treat- 
ment, which also selects, with the nicest accuracy that 
agent, which has a specific relation to the worn out or 
diseased soil of the human body, in which it is to pro- 
duce an abundant crop of rich and beautiful fruit, or 
health, and not like the old allopathic mode of farming, 
which by exhausting the field by draining all its resources 
destroys its very aptitude for producing any fruit at all. 
For it is now well ascertained that if a particular soil 
produces a good crop of one kind of vegetable but not of 
another, it is deficient in the characteristic mineral ele- 
ments necessary for the development of the latter. In 
other words there is a specific relation between the quality 
A griculture. 23 
of the soil and its vegetable product. But the analogy 
does not rest here. This specific manure is supplied in 
definite proportions to the different plants. 
Thus apples have affinity for lime, pears for iron and 
carbon, cherries for silex, and they will not be developed 
in a perfect manner, unless the soil has these specific sub- 
stances so necessary for their growths of which infinitesi- 
mal quantities arc quite sufficient. The minutest quantity 
of Iodine is necessary for the development of the whole 
species of sea-weeds. 
In this way all vegetables have in nature their corre- 
sponding minerals, twin-brothers of a common father— 
without which they cannot exist or flourish. The chemist 
has pointed out only a few of these correspondences, hut 
more will yet be discovered. It is the great aim of the 
homoeopathic school to trace these analogies from miner- 
als through plants to man, and that which we have seen 
in a simple state in mineral and plant, we shall find re- 
united in the wonderfully and mysteriously formed man. 
It will thus become clear to us, that there exists no par- 
ticular plant or animal, which does not owe its dis- 
tinguishing peculiarity or characteristic to some similar 
substance of the mineral kingdom. 
The relations of different substances in the human body 
are quite similar to those of agriculture, and if it was con- 
sonant to the purposes of this address, an immense num- 
ber of facts might be quoted to verify this statement. A 
few will suffice to show in what direction the progressive 
homoeopathic school is extending the boundaries of the 
great homoeopathic law. 
According to Hausman the propor- 
tion of nearly 2,000 equivalents of car- 
bon, water, nitrogen and oxygen to 
only one equivalent of sulphur is just 
as necessary a condition for the formation of the 
of the Crystalline lens, as e. y., the proportion of two 
equivalents of copper to one equivalent of sulphur, in 
Combinations of dif- 
ferent substances in the 
human body and in 
their chemical relations 24 
order to obtain from the melted mass of both, the sul- 
phuret of copper in Octoedrons. 
The laws govering the rays of light 
and those of homoeopathy are alike. 
Professor Tyndall’s assertion, that “bodies radiate and 
absorb the same rays” is precisely analagous to the 
homoeopathic assertion that “ medicines cause and cure 
the same symptoms.” Professor Tyndall has proved ex- 
perimentally that the quality and not the quantity is the 
essential point in such an action; that a ray of light whose 
vibratory form is millions upon millions of times less than 
another ray, will still have the decided effect, provided 
its vibrations synchronize with those of the substance 
upon which it falls. lie tells us that his own retina 
remained totally unconscious of the pressure of rays which 
had “twenty thousand million times the energy” of 
others which at once affected his eye, because the “ peri- 
ods were not those demanded by the retina,” whereas the 
latter were adapted to its physiological sensibility. 
In the case of the physiological action of light on the 
retina, it is thus proved that quality and not quantity, 
adaption and not brute-force, is that which rules the 
result. Who will presume to assert that the retina in its 
functions follows one law, and all the other organs quite 
a different law ? 
Microscopical observations have shown, that disease is 
something foreign, extraneous to the organic elements of 
the body ; something akin to crystalization, but, never- 
theless, in its structure is very similar to the structure of 
the body. 
In the same proportion as there exist combinations of 
individual minerals, there exist combinations of indi- 
vidual diseases, forming distinct family groups. Hence 
diseases form a complete kingdom of individualities, like 
that of organic bodies or of minerals. 
As iron, maganese, nickel, cobalt, 
copper in combination with one of the 
Light. 
Decomposition. 25 
chlorine group are decomposed by su’phates, in the same 
way diseased ligaments or cartilaginous tissues are decom- 
posed by one and the same diseased marrow of the hones. 
The law “ similia similibus” can never 
refer to diseases which decompose each 
other, much less to such as combine; 
but only and alone to those diseases, which mutually ex- 
tinguish each other in the same body. 
In many places of Central Europe the botanist has dis- 
covered a plant which takes a middle ground between 
Verbascum Thapsus (the great mullein) and Verbascum 
nigrum, partaking of the nature of both. It is called 
Verbascum semi-nigrum. When Kohlreuter made his 
experiments with mixing plants, he found that the Ver- 
bascum semi-nigrum originated in a mixture of both 
plants. In the mineral kingdom precisely similar rela- 
tions take place. 
After the formation of diseases, their 
ombination and homoeopathic extinc- 
tion have thus been traced by the light 
of these new discoveries, there still remains to be regarded 
the interior life of which these forms merely are the out- 
ward expression. This life, this inward individual char- 
acter becomes already visible from the first germ of the 
disease in the same way as we can prognosticate, however 
feebly, the future man from the original character and 
first budding qualities of the child. There is a power 
behind all these individual formations, which, I will not 
say, the chemical writers altogether disregard, but which 
according to the very nature of their investigations they 
have no time to examine. 
If I am told by them, for example, that the oil of turpen- 
tine, juniper, savine, pepper, etc., contain exactly the same 
proportion of organic elements, I must ask, what consti- 
tutes their difference of action, smell, color? It is their 
inward nature, which cannot be analyzed by the chemist 
Extinction of diseases 
by the homoeopathic law 
Dynamic origin of 
diseases as of remedial c 
action. 
+ 26 
and on which depends the whole difference of their action 
on the human organism. 
The light that chemistry may shed on the action of 
remedies is only the groundwork of a vast temple in 
which we can admire the harmony and beautiful propor- 
tions, the regularity and justness of its structure, but 
which is yet all dark, and in which we find no choir of 
music, no. ministering priest at its altar, no worshippers 
at its shrine. 
Nature, also, if left to her unaided 
exertions, will cure homceopathically. 
The microscopical discoveries of the 
allopathic physician Kaltenbrunner always seemed to me 
to contain the most powerful arguments in favor of the 
truth of the homoeopathic law. A person receives a 
wound, but leaves its cure entirely to nature. How does 
the latter effect it? In all cases for the cure and dissipa- 
tion of the morbid inflammation, a state perfectly similar 
to it is developed, which Kaltenbrunner calls the curative 
inflammation. u Driven with accelerated motion, masses 
of the globules'of the blood (here and there) rush by starts 
from the capillaries and pour themselves into the pa- 
renchyma of the inflamed part. Here they lie, as bright 
red spots or islands of different sizes. Soon the whole 
wound is surrounded by these islands, and the inter- 
vening tissue becomes highly turgid. This process which 
appears at first at the circumference of the inflammation, 
by degrees also involves the centre, completely resem- 
bling the morbid inflammation, and it is by its means 
that the morbid changes produced by the latter, are 
gradually extinguished.” 
Now the homoeopathic principle cannot be more beauti- 
fully illustrated than by these processes of nature. That 
which is called allopathic medicine is not in the least sup- 
ported bjr them. Thus nature itself confirms the homoeo- 
pathic law. 
Nature cures homceo- 
pathically. 27 
Many of the operations enjoined in 
the system of Swedish medical gym- 
nastics are strikingly in conformity 
with the homoeopathic principles. Thus for vertigo it is 
usual to use a whirling movement of the head or the 
neck ; for congestion to the head, pressure on the jugular 
veins; for hot palms and soles, frictions on these parts ; 
for swelling of the extremities, ligature above the swollen 
part; for hajinoptysis, percussion on the chest, etc., all of 
which operations produce the same symptoms they are 
employed to remove. 
If any thing, however, were wanting 
to convince us in a familiar and incon- 
trovertible manner of the truth of the 
homoeopathic fundamental principle, we need only refer 
to the cure of the diseases of the dumb creation by homoeo- 
pathic medicines. The most confirmed skeptic could not 
withhold his assent, if he saw old chronic diseases in 
animals gradually yield to the influence of the proper 
homoeopathic specifics, particularly if he had seen the 
same disease remain stationary, or gradually become 
aggravated under the other treatment. Although any 
allopathic physician can at any moment satisfy himself 
of the truth of this assertion by attending the different 
homoeopathic veterinary establishments existing in this 
country; he is too firmly convinced in his mind of the 
folly of the homoeopathic doctrine, to avail himself of 
these means of information. He prefers to dwell on the 
power of the imagination of the liomceopathist as a reason 
for opposing homoeopathy, which argument of course fails 
in the case of animals. Unfortunately for him, they are 
cured without knowing much about it. 
The poets also come to our aid in 
their advocacy of the homoeopathic 
law. The following beautiful verses are from Shakspeares 
Romeo and Juliet:— 
Swedish medical gym- 
nastics. 
Dumb creation equal- 
ly curable by homoeo- 
pathic means. 
Poetry. 28 
Tut man! one fire burns out another’s burning, 
One pain is lessened by another’s anguish ; 
Turn giddy and be holp by backward turning 
One desperate grief cures with another’s languish. . 
Take thou some new infection to thy eye, 
And the rank poison of the old will die. 
The celebrated physician and poet, Paul Flemming, also 
had a knowledge of homoeopathy and practised it in the 
seventeenth century, as may be seen from one of his 
poems, which I will here subjoin in a free translation :— 
“ A wise physician he, who, from the self same source 
Doth draw the antidote and bane. 
Of this, a single grain works more efficiently 
Than that long draught. 
Is that physician to be praised who writes 
Prescriptions yard in length to win 
The thanks of the apothecary? 
A Latin poet also gives the following:— 
“Balnea, vina, 
Venus consumunt corpora nostra; 
Sed vitam faciunt Balnea, vina, Venus.” 
It has been said by a great writer,* if some one were to 
tell the savages that the herbs, which every day they 
trampled under foot, were endowed with the most potent 
virtues, that one would restore to health a brother on the 
verge of death, that another would paralyze into idiotcy 
their wisest sage, that a third would strike lifeless to the 
dust their most stalwart champion, that tears and 
laughter, vigor and disease, madness and reason, wakeful- 
ness and sleep, existence and dissolution, were coiled up 
in those unregarded leaves, would they not have held him 
as a sorcerer and liar? Has the great Hahnemann fared 
any better? Have not the savages of our times pro- 
nounced him a liar, because he asserted that Staphysagria 
and Lycopodium would strengthen the memory, and ISTux 
* Bulwer. 29 
vomica particularly for words; Ignatia cause a depression 
of spirits and cure the same ; that Coffee may invite sleep- 
lessness and also cure it, etc. To half the virtues of the 
vegetable world, mankind are yet in the darkness of these 
savages. There are faculties within us, with which cer- 
tain herbs have affinity and over which they have power. 
If it were important, other poetical writers might be 
adduced who have raised their voices in favor of the law. 
I trust I have said enough to convince you that the evi- 
dence in favor of the homoeopathic law, no matter from 
what point of view you examine it, is absolutely over- 
powering, even without adding to it the testimony of the 
numerous cures which are constantly performed by a very 
numerous and daily increasing body of homoeopathic 
practitioners in all parts of the world. 
I have thought it might be of some importance to offer 
a defence of homoeopathy, based upon the intrinsic truth- 
fulness of its fundamental principle, and not upon the 
number of converts, however eminent their station. I 
have purposely, therefore, heaped illustration upon illus- 
tration, fact upon fact, ransacking the domains of science 
and art in order to make my position—the universal 
applicability of the law—as strong and impregnable as 
possible. But after all, how much more might be said on 
this inexhaustible subject! 
After we have once established the 
truth of the homoeopathic law, the com- 
prehension of the action of the infini- 
tesimal doses becomes comparatively easy, because they 
both are identical. This can hardly he controverted at the 
present day, when we remember that the disease and the 
homoeopathic remedy are so nearly related to each other, re- 
semble each other in so many points, that the medicine, pre- 
scribed according to the homoeopathic law,' would be most 
destructive in its operation, if it were taken in too large doses 
in the same way as the report of a cannon may completely 
The homoeopathic law 
and the small doses oc- 
cupy the same platform. 30 
destroy the hearing, already sensitive from disease. You will 
thus perceive that a dose of the true homoeopathic remedy, 
that which has some affinity to the disease, cannot accord- 
ing to its nature he otherwise than small. For some 
peculiar diseases the homoeopathic law requires us to give 
large doses. 
Allopathy on the other hand acts consistently in giving 
large doses of its remedies, because these remedies generally 
stand in no relation whatever to the disease ; but when this 
does accidentally happen, the consequences are most dele- 
terious. 
The mineral, vegetable and animal 
kingdoms contain innumerable sub- 
stances, which all have some affinity to man and his dis- 
eases, and this does not merely relate to what may strictly 
be called medicines, but every substance, particularly 
food, has some affinity to a particular constitution or 
man. As certain manures will only improve certain soils, 
in the same way definite articles of diet and medicines 
will only be consonant to the individual nature. It is 
here, where the law of idiosyncrasies becomes so closely 
united with that of homoeopathy. This will explain to 
us, why one person is made sick by the same diet that 
agrees so well with another. If these instincts, thus 
clearly imprinted on our nature by the Creator, were 
more generally heeded and followed, man would attain to 
a superior degree of health. But they are not, because 
the natural instinct for a certain kind of food is often 
mistaken for the false craving creature by artificial wants. 
These may seem to be necessary, but in reality are not 
required for his sustenance or the due developement of 
all his forces. In the selection of our diet we must there- 
fore pursue the same plan as the homoeopathic physician 
does with regard to the choice of the homoeopathic 
remedy. We shall thus sometimes find, that those arti- 
cles of food or drink, which at first seem to disagree with 
us, such as water or milk, are often those by which we 
Idiosyncrasies. 31 
are most benefitted in the end, whilst others, which at 
first exercise a beneficial influence, become more hurtful 
the longer we use them. But then there may exist cer- 
tain states of the constitution when such articles may not 
only be taken without injury, but even with benefit. 
Individualization is therefore as important in diet as in 
the choice of the homoeopathic remedy, and the most in- 
congruous food may agree with one, which in another 
would be highly detrimental. 
Viewing homoeopathic dietetics in this light, cannot 
fail to convince you that they are of equal importance to 
the prescribing of remedies; as Pliny has remarked, the 
true remedies often serve as daily food to the common 
people. If any substance then, taken in a small quantity, 
has had an unaccountable and powerful effect on a person, 
depend upon it, there is some homoeopathic relation be- 
tween the two; and when the person thus affected has 
gradually accustomed himself to its use, there is some 
chasm filled up, some disharmony in his constitution 
equalized. Thus have I often observed, that when at the 
commencement of a homoeopathic treatment certain spe- 
cific remedies could hardly be taken in the smallest quanti- 
ty, the more the health of the patient improved, the more 
massive doses could be given. In the same way certain 
articles of diet, which seemed at first very obnoxious to 
the patient, but which were in themselves healthy, could 
finally be used with impunity. The harmony with nature 
was established. 
Thus the doctrine of miasmatic diseases and homoeo- 
pathy occupy the same platform. If one not acclimated, 
or accustomed to a certain malaric effluvium, and inimical 
to his nature, is exposed to it, he falls sick, in the same 
way as he is cured by another agent similar to the nature 
of the miasma. This latter will probably be some plant 
growing in the neighborhood, or the poison of some ani- 
mal, luxuriating, and arriving at its full growth, in the 
very marshes from which the disease is generated. Do 32 
you think that the plants which cure the malignant 
fevers of miasmatic districts could grow on high moun- 
tains ? And why will the smallest doses he sufficient for 
its cure ? because there is the closest correspondence be- 
tween the poison of the plant and the miasma from which 
the disease takes its origin. 
The following case we can vouch for: 
Mrs. , of Arch Street, has been 
subject all her life to bilious fever and 
bilious complaints. On removing to a district in the sub- 
urbs of Philadelphia, where malignant bilious malaria 
were epidemically present, she became entirely cured of 
her bilious complaints. Her husband on the other hand, 
who had never been subject to these complaints any time 
of his life, was so violently and frequently attacked by 
bilious fevers, that it broke down his constitution. 
It is a fact now well known to the homoeopathic prac- 
titioner, the nearer the affinity between the remedy and 
the disease, the smaller need the dose be of the former for 
the extinction of the latter. This experience will enable 
us to distinguish between a true and false remedy. If I 
am told that in Hew Orleans they cure yellow fever by 
drachm doses of quinia, and croup by fifty grains of calo- 
mel, this is a priori evidence for me, that they cannot be 
the true remedies, because if they had a specific relation 
to these diseases, smaller doses must necessarily suffice for 
the cure of them. These large doses may suspend the 
disease for awhile, hut they will inevitably leave other 
medicinal diseases behind them, often more difficult to 
cure than the original one. A true remedy will always 
produce harmonious action between itself and the disease, 
and the system will almost always enjoy a superior degree 
of health after recovery than before, because it has estab- 
lished one more relationship between itself and nature. 
Thus Hahnemann has repeatedly observed that the prov- 
ing of remedies in homoeopathic doses, was calculated to 
Bilious complaint 
cured by removing to 
a miasmatic district. 33 
produce a greater degree of robust health in the individual 
experimenter, provided they are of that class to which his 
system has an affinity. 
A highly interesting science, and closely connected 
with our homoeopathic doctrine of small doses, is the 
chemistry of organic products, particularly of the blood. 
By it we are informed that the most powerful homoeo- 
pathic remedies are all found as ingredients in the blood 
of the human body. They are all necessary for its due 
development. For the present, we know this of lime, 
sulphur, phosphor, silex, salt, iron, copper, manganese, 
lead,* etc. New ones are almost daily discovered, and 
they can only be appropriated in the smallest quantities. 
It will hardly be necessary to advert in this place to 
the imponderable agents, like light, electricity, magnet- 
ism, the germination of plants, and other small things in 
nature which are known so powerful in their final mani- 
festation, and by which the action of infinitesimal doses 
has so often been explained by able men in the homoeo- 
pathic ranks. A full illustration of this subject on my 
part would require anoter lecture. 
My aim, which I hope I have at least in part attained, 
was to impress upon your mind my conviction of the fol- 
lowing truths;— 
1. That the homoeopathic law is not merely a rule devised 
by man, like allopathy, hydropathy and other methods, but a 
divine law of nature. It is and was practised unconsciously 
by physicians and the people from time immemorial long before 
Hahnemann proclaimed it to the world, and will be practised 
to the end, of all times. 
2. That all the greatest powers of nature are of the 
most subtile kind, but must have some affinity to man or 
his diseases, in order to produce a powerful and striking 
effect. 
3. That both being thus related to each other, the dose 
*Dr. Petreguin, Burin Dubuisson experiments. 34 
must be necessarily small, and consequently the law 
“ similia similibus” and the homoeopathic dose must stand 
or fall together. 
One word more in conclusion: The a-reat issue between 
the ancient and new system of medicine is the old contest 
between matter and spirit; and every one will he obliged 
to take part in it, sooner or later, and range himself on 
one side or the other. In the chemical laboratory, in 
Liebig’s theories, is now sought the health of mankind, 
and this at a time, when all over the world the best minds 
are proclaiming the advent of a more spiritual era. 
In a reformatory science like homoeopathy, which still 
requires much cultivation to perfect it, I would, however, 
rather favor a humility of spirit. Let its own inward 
truth be its only weapon, and that must surely prevail. 
In the distant horizon, I see a light arise, which is becom- 
ing gradually brighter and brighter. The great dis- 
coveries of the many good and great men who have cul- 
tivated medical science will not be extinguished by it, 
but the great importance of this law will be more and 
more acknowledged the more its inherent truthfulness is 
perceived. 
For my own part, I live in the hope thus beautifully 
expressed by Jean Paul Picliter: “There will come 
another period of time, when it shall be day, and when 
man shall awaken from his lofty dreams only to realize 
them, because he shall lose nothing but sleep; and upon 
the eastern gate of this century is written: This is the 
road to virtue and wisdom, even as upon the eastern gate 
of Chersonesus stood the inscription: ‘ This is the road to 
Byzantium.’ 
Infinite Providence! thou wilt cause the light to dawn! 
as yet, however, lingers the twelfth hour of the night. 
The midnight birds of prey are upon the wing,—the spirits 
knock,—the living dream.” OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
The following passages from Dr. Neidhard’s address before the 
Rhode Island Society, although not the most interesting parts of this 
excellent oration, cannot fail to interest our readers.—Homoeopathic 
Observer. 
Dr. Neidhard’s address is one of the best, for popular reading, ever 
delivered in this country. We wish the Rhode Island Society wrould 
issue an edition of 20,000 for gratuitous distribution. Such outlays 
are like bread cast upon water, etc.—Homoeopathist. 
The tenor of Dr. Neidhard’s address, which is original and highly 
interesting, is to show, that the principle similia similibus is true not 
only in medicine, but is a universal curative principle.—North-western 
Journal of Homoeopathy. BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
Diphtheria, as it Prevailed in the United States from 1860 to 
1866; Preceded by a Historical Account of its Phenomena, its 
Nature and Homceopathic Treatment. By C. Neidhard, M.D. 
Philadelphia : F. E. Boericke, 635 Arch Street. Boston: Otis Clapp. 
St. Louis: H. C. G. Luyties. 
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
Dr. C. Neidhard published in 1867 an important and exhaustive 
treatise upon Diphtheria, which has had a wide circulation. We 
have been interested in the history of this terrible disease as pre- 
sented by Dr. Neidhard. The work affords evidence of much re- 
search and careful observation, and is worth attentive examination. 
—Boston Journal of Chemistry. 
This may be considered the most complete monograph on Diph- 
theria that has been issued.—American Homoeopathic Observer. 
The author of this excellent monograph is not one of those bache- 
lors in medicine who croak and criticise the offspring of others, al- 
beit their own literary progeny is limited in numbers and influence. 
We have looked for this production with a great degree of interest, 
and now that it has appeared, are not disappointed. 
A careful perusal of Dr. Neidhard’s timely volume, warrants our 
calling attention to a few of its principal merits. Among these are 
the perspicuity of its style, its absolute clinical information, its free- 
dom from much of the chaff that is gathered into modern medical 
works, and the absence of the customary twaddle concerning the 
“glorious principle,” etc., with which the majority of our writers are 
wont to regale their readers. 
Books are like men : their language and manner betray the culti- 
vation and merit of their authors. When one has something to say, 37 
and says it in a downright, straightforward, practical manner, there 
is no need of a surplus verbiage. If it were an indictable offense to 
employ words without meaning, Dr. Neidhard would escape all cen- 
sure. This is the more remarkable, as the work before us was not 
written in his native language. 
The clinical facts incorporated into the text and coupled on with 
modest foot-notes, are of exceeding interest and value. We recog- 
nize them as the outcroppings of a real and reliable experience. 
In conclusion, we wish to say frankly and unreservedly, that, in 
our judgment, this is the best monograph upon Diphtheria and its 
homoeopathic treatment, with which we are acquainted.— United 
States Medical and Surgical Journal, Chicago. 
The latest, the most thorough and practically complete work on 
Diphtheria yet published.—North American Journal of Homoeopathy. 
This is by far the most complete treatise on the subject that we 
have met with. It is, in fact, exhaustive of all that can be said on 
the subject, with the facts that are as yet known. We have not 
only a most complete account of the history of this disease, but all 
that is known of its pathology according to the most recent re- 
searches. Likewise an outline of allopathic treatment; and lastly, 
the most complete and detailed experience of all homoeopathic physi- 
cians both in America and Europe. 
This is not a mere compendium made by book-makers, but an in- 
telligent criticism by one who has had very large experience, and 
who, while holding very decided opinions of his own, has weighed 
those of others with candor and impartiality. We cannot do better 
service to our fellow practitioners than express the wish that this 
book should be in the hands of every one of them.—British Journal 
of Homoeopathy. 
It is no slight praise to say that this little volume is one of the most 
valuable monographs ever published under the auspices of our school. 
We would recommend this book to all who desire a thorough 
and practical knowledge of this disease. It is a work of rare merit, 
an honor to the author and to our school.—New England Medical 
Gazette.