t\i\l m,Ia*~»so  [*£ >2r
GENERAL
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS,
      DELIVERED BEFORE THE CLASS OF "THE

    WESTERN COLLEGE
             OF

HOMEOPATHIC MEDLINE,
C. D. WILLIAMS
\ '

PROFESSOR OF INSTITCTE3 AND PRACTICE OP BOJ^OPATHT,   ,
              ' f " '      I?
CLEVELAND, Ql{lO,
/ a"
v.
SESSION 1st, FOR 1850;AXD '51. '<* A
#" I
 !
 I    CLEVELAND:
PRINTED BY SMEAD <fe COWLES, 7 SUPERIOR ST,
        1850.
 
   Prof. C. D. Wllliams, Sir:  The  Students of  the Western
 Homeopathic College, through the  undersigned, their Committee*
 tender you their grateful acdnowledgments for your able Intro-
 ductory Address, and respectfully solicit a copy for publication.
              We have the honor to be, Sir, |
                        Your obedient servants,
                                   J.  N. WHEAT,
                                    H. ROBINSON, Jr.,
                                    H.  F. BENNETT,
                                   ISAAC L. DRAKE,
                                   GEO. H. BLAIR,
                                               Committed.
   Cleveland, Nov.  11, 1850.

        Western College of Homeopathic  Medicine,      )
                         Cleveland, Ohio,  Nov.  13, 1850. |
   Messrs. J. N. Wheat, H. Robinson, Jr.,  H. F. Bennett, Isaac
 L. Drake,  and Geo. H. Blair:  Your kind  note of the 11th inst
 Ls received,  requesting a copy of my Introductory Address, for pub-
 lication.  I  will most cheerfully comply with  your desire in this  re-
 spect, if the great cause in which we are all engaged can thereby
be advanced.   Yourselves, gentlemen, and through you,  the class
you represent, will please accept my sincere thanks for  this mark
of respect and esteem, which is cordially reciprocated by
               Your most ob't humble serv't,
                                      C. D. WILLIAMS. 
INTRODUCTORY  ADDRESS.
Fellow  Students and Fellow Citizens :
   The  circumstances calling  us together,  are full  of  abiding
interest, not only to the practitioners and students of Homeopathy—
but to every friend of Medical reform.  Hitherto, with but few ex-
ceptions, there  has been but  one school of Medicine, and that has
extended its branches into every  part of the habitable  globe.   It
has to a very marked extent,  controled the minds of  all  men enter-
ing the  profession.  Its teachings have been so strongly impressed
upon the new beginner, that it is with difficulty, he can  rid himself
of them through subsequent life.  The illuminations of truth may
ever so clearly reveal the errors, and expose the dangerous tenden-
cies of its principles  when  applied in practice; nevertheless, they
are first impressions, and are  not  easily  laid aside.   Nor are  its
principles alone committed to the profession,  and the student  for
safe  keeping.  The  minds of the masses in non-professional life,
haAre been impressed with the propriety and necessity of preserving
these principles, and the practice predicated upon them.
   The people are the recipients of Medical advice and practice,
growing out of these principles, and have from their earliest recol-
lections,  been taught to respect and regard them as  safeguards
when disease assailed.  HaA'ing known no other means  of relief in
times of peril and disease, they  have naturally enough settled down
in  something like confidence in  them,  Avhich will  continue until
other principles,  and other means are supplied,  better  adapted  to
their wants.  All past experience has shown that the discharge of
tb/s duty, implies professional martyrdom of him, who  undertakes
the  performance of it.  The  history of the Medical  reformer must
be like the history of every other man, who innovates upon estab-
lished usages.   There is no exemption.    He must  enter upon his
work with the facts and the consequences before him.   In Avhat I
may have to say on this occasion, it is not my purpose  to *peak in
terms of  disrespect, of the members of the  profession, or of the
profession itself.  We, hoAvever, can but feel and express a regret,
that as a school, and especially as individuals, they should meet us on
the threshold of our investigations with denunciations and reproach.
   Reformation in medicine has everywhere, and long been demand-
ed by those most acquainted with it.  Hence,  Hahnemann and his
coadjutors, relying upon the spirit of these  demands, attempted a
compliance.  Hoav they have been met, the position of  the ancient
school in reference to Homeopathy must decide.   If the improve-
ments suggested, were  not such as  the profession generally cuuUi 
4
approve and adopt,  the spirit of  fairness  and sincerity in  which
they were preferred,  and the high claims to science which accom-
panied them, should have entitled  their discoveries to respect, and
the principles upon which they were based, at least a candid exami-
nation. If this had been done, and the principles of the proposed re-
formation  had been shown valueless in their practical  applications,
the doors  of this  College Avould never have been opened, and the
name of Hahnemann and Homeopathy would long since have been
forgotten.   But this has not been accomplished.   The many and
bold attempts,  made to destroy the deep foundations  on Avhich
Hahnemann rested his principles, have ever proved abortive—and
while his  adversaries have  been sending forth  their empty denun-
ciations, he  has been appealing  to experience for the truth of his
positions.  I have said that this occasion is one of uncommon inter-
est to all the friends of medical reform.   It is  so for many reasons.
The organization  of a Medical College, wherein Homeopathy, and
its kindred branches can be fully and fairly taught, and openly in-
vestigated, is an unusual occurrence in America.   There has been
but one temple of the kind in the United States, where the doctrines
of Homeopathy  could be proclaimed and  respected,  the tones of
reform she has uttered could  be heard, and her advocates permitted
to speak out their comictions of truth.  As a school, Ave solicit in-
vestigation,  and believe that truth  is always the gainer by the meet-
ing of opposite opinions.  In  this spirit, then, I may be permitted to
allude to  the school of AUopathy, and its position towards  every
thing not strictly in accordance with its  peculiar tenets, and espe-
cially its bearing  tOAvards us,  as reasons why we should rejoice in the
privileges conferred upon us, in the  establishment of a College of
our choice.  I hardly need mention, that as a body, and as indi-
viduals, we have hitherto  been denied the right of possessing and
 exercising our medical faith, in harmony  with the school of Allo-
 pathy.  We have been proscribed,  and  not  allowed the civilities
 due from one member  of the profession to another; not  to speak
 of the prompt rejection of our principles in all cases of consultations,
 during the  prevalence of  epidemic diseases, or individual cases of
 emergency.  We are looked upon by the members of that school,
 as a body of  men moA-inginthe midst of  fictitious principles; and
 while the charity of the  sect, has in some feAv  instances  vouched
 safe to us a conscientious  desire, to advance  and inculcate the ele-
 ments of reform, for the purpose of benefiting mankind; yet they live
 in and act upon  the seeming conviction, that our practice is as frivo-
 lous and  chimerical as they aver our principles are fictitious and false.
 This conviction bears the impress  of candor in many instances, whila
 in others, it as plainly sets  forth  the  intention to pander truth for
 personal  interest.  But, perhaps in the  plurality of instances, it is
 based upon all the sincerity that motives of right can inspire. There
 is too, a  profound veneration entertained by those eoncehing them- 
5
selves the legitimate and lineal descendants of Esculapius—and the
age, and the time  honored sanction which their doctrines have re-
ceived,  has added confirmation to the reasons actuating them in
still  adhering to it as a science.   Its  age alone, has long been re-
garded as a shield of protection from disturbance or innovation.  The
inferences drawn from this circumstance are readily construed into a
belief, establishing the  truth of their science, and is made to say
that whatever is old is true—that what the Avorld has sanctioned for
three thousand years is right—that during this time, it has been
put to the rigid test of investigation, purified, refined and perfected,
until at this day, it presents the strongest possible  claims to confi-
dence and regard.  Fortified in  their belief, the old style medical
profession have arrogated to themselves  the power  to govern, and
the  apostolic  right to exercise it, but little  inferior to the priestly
powers of the old Avorld.  It is natural enough that such a vast associa-
tion of men, moved by the love of honors and personal gain, when cloth-
ed with so much influence, should thus act. It is a very easy matter to
conform the conscience,  and convince the judgment of the correct-
ness of the  views and feelings thus set up; and if Ave add the force
of habit, and  the absence of investigation  iuto  opposing  princi-
ples, we shall not only find the apparent  feeling of right spoken  of,
but a second confirmation of the reasons in still continuing to reject
everything  like reform.  Nor is  it a matter of astonishment, that
men individually and collectively, under such circumstances,  should
settle down in the ease and routine of the profession, to  be  startled
only when the voice of change and reform is distinctly pronounced
around their walls, and their ramparts.   However plainly Ave  may
concede to members of the old style practice, the right to persist in
their faith, and the right to exercise it at  the bedside, of the  patient,
 and  in  their  general dealings  with the sick, Ave  as  plainly and
emphatically deny, that the exercise of this  right  on  their part,
should  extend to a monopoly of mind.   Young  gentlemen,  who
are  entering the medical profession, should be left free  to exercise
their oAvn judgment,  and after  mature  examination of  the princi-
ples placed before them, be allowed to  determine  which they will
choose as the basis  of future action.    No attempt, whatever, should
be made, either personally or by state and national  conventions, or
college  restrictions, to shut out this privilege from them,  or  stay
their rights  to think  and act for themselves.  The freedom Avhich
characterizes and surrounds all other institutions of learning, protests
against monopolies  of  the mind.   The genius, and the ripe spirit of
the a»-e  will not permit it—every man must  be left  free to select
whom he will serve.   But in defiance of this spirit of conservatism,
and respect for individual rights—professional and indirectly non-pro-
fessional—the student is taught, so far as precept and example can
teach, to disreo-ard these principles, and to aid in sustaining  what is
presented to °him  as  the  only  true art of healing.   If  this is not 
6
enough to establish the u mpire of the profession over him, and he
still persists in exercising his own heaven-born rights, and is not
purely catholic in his orthodoxy, his ears are stunned with the thun-
ders of professional displeasure.  The heretic is turned away shorn
of all  the  rights, privileges  and honors, appertaining to  what
among them is worthy of being learned and retained.  In the exact
ratio, the valueless principles of then- school are set aside, and action
upon them respectfully declined by a large number of highly edu-
cated physicians, both in Europe and America, in the same ratio,
have the savans and men in power in the profession, exercised their
tactics and skill, to bring these  gentlemen  back  and arrest  the
innovation thus made.  The  school has not scrupled, or hesitated to
cover up the truth, to misrepresent, and in every possible manner,
hoodwink and blindfold the community, as  Avell as the profession, to
accomplish this end, as if the proposed reform contained the ele-
ments of death  for  every one,  who became the recipients of the
practice founded on its principles.  If any man doubts this, let him
read the severe productions of Leo Wolf—of Oliver Wendell Holmes,
of Chas. Merideth Reese—and last.tho' not least,the proceedings of the
the French commission,with M. Andral at its head.  Their denuncia-
tions and sarcasms have been, and are noAV repeated thro' the country,
by scores and hundreds of minor minds, more for the purpose of calling
the attention from what they cannot hinder,than any reasonable expec-
tations of reclaiming seceders from their ranks.  It requires but a cur-
sory glance at the present state of things, to determine the fact, that
the ancient school are fixed upon the course  they will pursue, to
sustain their  position.  They are bound to waive all  examinations
into opposing principles, denying all right  to  calm and unpredjudi-
ced investigation, under pain of displeasure, and forcing their meas-
ures through at all events*.   What other  inferences can be drawn
from the enactments  of their state and national conventions, and their
general course of conduct in private intercourse and practice ?  Who
ever  heard of a  national convention, for the purposes of elevating-
higher, the standard of medical education, and inquiring into the
use of adulterated drugs, until the school was broken  in upon by
the  doctrines of Homeopathy.  Before this  time,  the standard of
medical  education Avas  high enough,  drugs  were pure enough,
and no one suspected but all was right; so the people thought, and
the  profession  seemed to be satisfied.   This  extensive hoodAvink,
linked Avith stringent college rules, and evasion of social profession-
al intercourse, together with the use of  epithets, or  sub and
biting sarcasm, are the means employed, to crush the germs of re-
form,  that are now springing up all over the land.   Such in reality,
is the position the old school sustains to Homeopathy, and such the
determination to maintain it.  In view of  this fact,  it is indeed, a
source of  deep gratification, to know  that as a school, separate and
distinct  from them—embracing only  so much of theirs,  as we 
V
know is in pursuance and harmony with the laws of  life—ire are
no  longer compelled to acknowledge  allegiance  to them, for the
purposes of obtaining diplomas, or  certificates of qualification to
practice;  but  stand out upon our  own  platform,  entertain our
own medical faith, unmolested by the crushing influences that school
has hitherto wielded against us, and are  responsible to no power
on earth,  save that which enacts  the  laws of our country, and a
well regulated public opinion.  This Is now our position.  We are
to rest upon the merits embraced in the principles, upon which we
aver the  reforms Ave advocate are predicated.  In  the failure of
them Avhen applied in practice, will  be found our defeat, our over-
throw.  The  practical results of  Homeopathic practice, must de-
termine the fate of the school here and elsewhere.   Upon this test,
we  rely with confidence—the experiment has long enough  been
made, even while yet in the coils  of our adversaries, to  justify the
claims which Homeopathy  presents,  and fully portends the ulti-
mate establishment of  medicine upon the  sure foundation of cer-
tain science.   In vieAv, then, of the attitude which the two schools
now entertain, it is easy to perceive, that time sanctioned usages will
avail but  little, when put in competition with the practical results
flowing from them.  If the ancient school can cure the sick with more
certainty, and easier than the Homeopathic school, the public will
sustain them; otherwise their principles will no longer be invoked, and
that side of the medical profession  become paralyzed and obsolete.
  But independent of the reasons growing out of the relation now
existing, Ave may  well  feel disposed to congratulate ourselves as
friends of  reform ; because  those principles can be taught in their
purity, and publicly compared with every other mode of medical
practice.   The spirit Avliich pervaded the soul and body of  Hahne-
mann, when  first he entered upon the then  thankless task of re-
forming medicine, is noAv rife among the people.   They are aAvake
to the subject, and are looking on with the most intense anxiety, as
well as examining,  as for as is in their power, the  respective claims
each school is presenting for their sanction and support  And why
should they not ?  They are to become the subjects of treatment
The lives  of nations and families, are now, and will continue to be-
come  more or less dependent upon  the employment of correct
medical science.   It is, therefore, by no means unwise or unnatu-
ral, that the community should feel an indescribable desire to see
an  end of this warfare, by the  establishment of medicine upon  a
sure  foundation.   Under these circumstances, and with the public
eye gazing intently upon us,  and believing that the great central
law of our school,  is a  law of nature—likewise, believing that the
collateral  laws are also laAVs  of nature, and the basis of correct prac-
tice, Ave now have the opportunity of teaching them, and their ap-
plication  in the cure of diseases.   These laws rightly understood,
and duly  comprehended in their practical'relations, not only enables 
8
the physician to act intelligently in his profession, by measuring the
extent of his actual knowledge ; but like every great truth will be-
come established in  the minds of men, and all  further appeals to
theories and speculations will cease  to be made, and universal man
will  settle down in confidence upon them.  This has been the re-
sult of teaching the laws of nature,  in respect to other departments
of life, to which such laws apply, and why not in medicine ?
  But to the student of medicine, and the medical  profession
generally, the  opening of the doors of a  Homeopathic medical
college, is fraught Avith  uncommon interest.   The  application of
these laws, in a  more direct practical point of vieAV, constitutes the
duty of the physician—every practitioner is a practical teacher of
liis art.  The Professor of Chemistry or Mathematics, Avhile stand-
ing before his class, illustrating by experiment, is not more so than
the Homeopathic physician at the bed side of his patient  They are
ministers of nature, and acting under the guidance of her laws.  You,
fellow students,  are to become responsible, not only to your fellow
man,  for the right discharge  of your duty in this  respect, but to
Him who  has enacted these laws, and  ordained you to  observe,
fulfill and apply  them.   Hoav important then,  that they, the sole
basis of medical science, should be well  understood, and learned,
independent of,  and  unconnected with the idle theories, and false
philosophy of the schools of  the present day.  One single  fact,
sifted from the rubbish of all these schools, is Avorth them all.  Here
then, your mind may rest upon the  truth, stripped of the false cov-
erings that have surrounded and  hid it from the light, and use it for
the purposes designed by its great author.  If those,  whose duty it
is in this institution, to place before you one truth after another, as
they have been  developed, discharge these duties faithfully, you
will be prepared to apply them whenever you go forth to practice,
your minds will be free  from all that can tend to perplex and con-
fuse.  Hence, an opportunity to learn, not only the facts appertain-
ing to the  science, but the application  of them in detail, is now
proffered, and ought not to fail of exciting deep interest  To act
intelligently in this respect, and to  comply with the demands, the
application of truth will make upon you, will  sufficiently  enoross
your minds, and call out your  noblest powers.   To this end, it will
he the aim of every teacher to deal only with facts, and so  present
them, that your minds  will  readily perceive in what  place they
naturally belong, and where they  may  be properly used.   The
discharge of this duty is all that can be expected of you, or of the
science you practice.  The medical  profession cannot always pre-
vent ' death, and save the body  from  decay.  It was  not so or-
dered at man's  creation.   For  it  was given  unto him  once to
die,  and no human  agency can  avert the edict  This law  in its
place, is  equally true  with  all others,  emanating from creative
wisdom—nevertheless,  if mankind  generally  could be induced 
9
to inform themselves of the condition, on which  alone, life in this
world  is guarantied to them for three score and  ten years, the
medical profession need not necessarily have had an existence.   But
this  they refuse to do.   The affairs of life,  and the pursuit of
pleasure claim the undivided attention—leaving to the medical pro-
fession, the  duty of averting the penalty, resulting from the  con-
stant violation of the physical laAVs.   To accomplish this, he  must
be guided by a  due observance of the rules applied in  such cases,
or, he  must trust to rude empiricism,  or chance.   The  one  course,
or the  other must be pursued.  There is no medium course.  The
true remedy must be selected—that remedy must be applied as
directed by a law of nature—and in the quantity  suited to the laAV
demanding it, or failure must ensue.   It has been urged that dis-
ease, the result of a broken physical law, is produced in pursuance
of a counter law  of equal force.   This  we deny.  Without stopping
to discuss this question at this time, suffice it to say, that an aber-
ration  of health, is  no more the natural result, than crime is the
natural result of a broken law of human enactment.   The  human
organization is  controled by certain  rules, and its  continuance in
health depends upon the observance  of them, and the restoration,
equally results, by a compliance with their demands.  Having thus
briefly sketched  the relation, which Allopathy sustains  to Homeo-
pathy, and that  which Homeopathy  sustains to science,  we  may
be permitted to  allude to the respective claims of each school, and
their demands upon us  for  confidence.  The old school remains
much  the same at this day, as it was many hundred years ago.
The principles  are  the same—all, or nearly all, the real improve-
ments, have been made in  the collateral departments,  as in chem-
istry,  and the mechanical part of surgery.   A few new drugs, or
the  revival of old  ones, ha\re been  added to the materia  mediea.
The school relies upon the same general principles, and their drwrs
are grouped  into  the  same general  classes, in view of one or two
general results  knoAvn to  be produced by them.  These  results
have been learned only by  observation upon the  sick,  and it  is not
pretended that such observations have afforded any rule of applica-
tion.   There are but tAvo conditions of the organism, wherein any
remedial agent whatever,  is admissible.  The conditions  are desig-
nated, sthenic and asthenic, or fullness and debility.   As one, or
the other of these conditions are supposed to be present, so is the
selection of the drug made.  If the symptoms are inflammatory, such
means are selected as will produce debility.   If the symptoms are of
an opposite character, then the drugs Avhich are supposed to stimu-
late, will be chosen.   The profession is, therefore, reduced to  these
two  single propositions.  The old patriarchs taught, and practiced
upon the same  principles—they  bled their patients, and  applied
their other antiphlogistic means,  and for the same reasons.    They
administered stimulants when the life force was reduced, either by 
10
their science or by accident, just as is practiced at this day.  No new
principle has been developed—no real  improvement made.  True,
as already hinted,  some  new means of accomplishing one or the
other ends referred to, have been added to the  catalogue of the
materia medica.  It may be urged, that there are other classes
of drugs, not enumerated, and that act upon other principles.   But
where are they?  Where is the principle?  It is true,  there are
various classes of drugs, such as errhines, alteratives, escharotics,
astringents, narcoties,  &c, &c.  But it so happens, they all come
under one or the other action alluded to.   The principle of specific
action, is no where admitted in the school as a principle.  Every
drug  described within its lids, excites or depresses the life force in
the animal constitution, if administered in the doses therein directed.
If tartar emetic  is  employed—no matter what the vieAvs of the
prescriber are concerning its action—it will emeticise, andjjarrange
itself under the reducing doctrine.   If sugar of  lead is  employed
as an astringent, it must overcome the fife force just in the same
ratio it performs  that service.   If a narcotic  is given, the life force
must surrender in proportion to the impressions it creates, and thus
could be shown, if time permitted, that every drug, as employed in
Allopathy, must be arranged under the heads we have mentioned.
I repeat, then, that the noble profession of medicine, which claims
to be the only true representative of  the healing  art, with all its
lore  and flourish,  is  legitimately  narrowed to these tAvo points.
With this fact  before us, two questions naturally arise.  1st  Is
there a necessity for a materia medica, in that school  containing
a history of more than three drugs, and a lancet ?  2d.  Are these
principles true to  nature, and are they guides in the selection of
appropriate means  of  cure ?   To the first inquiry, I unhesitatingly
answer no.  The lancet is regarded as a powerful depletory agent,
and stands at the head of these measures—emetics and cathartics
 stand next.   Quinine and iron, represent the means  of elevating
 the  life force, and  restoring health from debility.  The former of
those means, will accomplish all that is requisite to a full compliance
 with the sthenic claims, and the latter  will correspond with the
asthenic demands marked on the  scale, from the  starting point of
 a permanent tonic,  to the boiling point of the most diffusive stimu-
 lant  In the place, then, of  a materia medica, containing a  thou-
 sand pages, lumbered and confused Avith descriptions of  drugs, the
 effect of which, ranging under one or the other condition,  is not only
 deceptive, but superfluous.   It  bears the impress of science and
 useful knowledge, when in fact, it is but the rehearsal of descriptions
 of nearly identical  properties.  There may be a difference in power,
 or degree of action, but in quality none.  This however, does not
 show that the lancet and the two drug powers mentioned in connec-
 tion with it, are not competent to accomplish the same purposes. The
 use and management of them, can be made to reduce  the human 
11
body to  any degree desired.   Give me the lancet, a vial of calo-
mel  and  tartar  emetic,  and I will comply with all the doctrine of
plethoia demands.  With them, I will tear down and prostrate the
patient, even unto death—I will emeticise or catharticise him—I will
sweat and  blister him—I Avill salivate and do all things necessary
to comply Avith the doctrine, and to about any degree desired.   I
Avill  with these agents, ruin and effectually destroy the finest con-
stitution  that man was ever blest with, or, I will only prostrate him
to order.  No other  means  are necessary—they are amply suffi-
cient. Hence, if the school possesses this abridged form of a materia
medica, it Avould be large enough.   I am not alone in this opinion.
On  the  authority of  T.  Romeyn  Beck, I may take the liberty of
repeating it  Before  his class, when a Prof, of theory and practice
of Medicine, while narrowing down the agents  necessary for the
treatment of disease in general, he declared that the  lancet, a vial
of calomel,  and a roll  of blister plaster, was all a physician need
arm himself with, when he went forth to practice and exercise the
principles of his profession.  An old  Scotch  physician, says Sir
Astley Cooper,  " for  whom  I had great respect, and whom I fre-
quently  met professionally in the city, used to say, as avc Avere en-
tering the patient's room together—' Weel, Mister Cooper, we ha'
only tAva things to keep in mecnd, and they'll searve us for here and
herea'ter: one is, always to have  the fear of the Laird before our
ees—that'll do  for herea'ter: and the tother is, to keep your booels
open; and that will do for here.' "   The multiplication of drugs ul-
timating in  the production of the same general results, has given un-
bounded license to quackery and quacks, and has encouraged them
to multiply, and if possible, head the profession  itself.  They have
well nigh done it  They claim, and we think Avith justice, that then-
pills w3l catharticise  as  faithfully, and as scientifically, as those  of
the  learned professors.   Their nauseating doses will emeticise  as
surely, as if prepared by the most erudite in the  profession.  Their
stimulants  will elevate the  tone of the organism with as much cer-
tainty as if  the  vender had passed through all  the forms prescribed
by the National Association of Physicians, to obtain his education.
The combinations of  the quack are prepared from some one or more
of the legion of drugs, the descriptions of which are spread out in
the  pseudo materia medica of the ancient school.  To that  school
solely, they oavc their birth.   These combinations act upon the same
principles, and produce  the same general results, that we notice  in
the  more orthodox and diplomatic compounds.  The M. D., will "su-
avetur in modo," pass his  elementary substances in his compound
through longer  tubes, or rub them together in his mortar with more
gravity and "solemnity, and administer with a more convincing look,
than does the mere man of  pills.
   But in reference to the  second inquiry, we have to say, that the
conditions expressed  by the terms sthenic and asthenic, are not, and 
12
cannot be true to nature; neither do they  furnish a sure guide  in
the selection of means for cure.   They are indeed the veiy opposite;
nothing more nor less than one condition with a positive and nega-
tive side, neither of  which can convey to the mind any idea of a ra-
tional cure.   The two sides are in direct opposition, and yet always
found blended in the same case.  Any attempt, therefore, to treat
one side  of the symptoms with  the set of' drugs corresponding Avith
that side, necessarily comes in contact with the  other  side of the
case, requiring opposite  treatment  Take for  example, a case  of
dropsy of the brain, or pleurisy.  There are nearly as many symp-
toms of debility in these cases as there are of fullness, or the oppo-
site of  debility; yet according to the rule  Avhich this double sided
doctrine sets forth,  the main treatment must be found in blood-let-
ting, the chief of depletients.   There is not a single stage of the
disease within the limits of effusion,  that according to this principle,
does not require reducing treatment.   Now, upon this hypothesis,
what shall be done Avith the opposite symptoms ?  The treatment
for them cannot be carried fonvard at the same time Avith that Avhich
is being  had for the symptoms characterizing fullness or plethora.
To bleed and otherwise reduce  the strength of the patient, and  at
the same time, administer means tliat Avill sustain the system against
the debilitating effects sought to be produced, would be folly in the
extreme.  The one  result would offset the  other, for a season,  until
at length the  patient would sink  under the secondary general re-
sults of both procedures, and death claim  the victory.   If such dis-
tinctions  in nature arose, as the doctrine claims, and all cases on one
side were purely phlogistic, or febrile, or inflammatory, i;i the sense
the ancient school  receives  them;  and more,  if these symptoms
were the results of  an undue elevation of the life force—the  cure
of which depended upon the reduction  of it—the facts and the prin-
ciple would harmonize, and the practice would  of  course  be cura-
tive.   But as I have shown, these are not  the facts.  No such cases
have ever occurred, and the  Allopathists may appeal in  vTain to the
books of their own school to find them.  They are not there.  The
same state  of facts pertain  to the opposite' side of  the question.
We challenge any man to show us a case of pure debility, except
he shoAv us a dead  man.   I mean debility, as defined by that school.
If such a case can be produced, then would there be  an exhibition
of science in the employment of pure stimulants.   Or, if in any one
stage of  a disease,  manifest  indications showing conclusively the
unmixed conditions the law requires, its claims would be strengthen-
ed, and appeals to our confidence more successfully made.  But un-
fortunately for Allopathy, these are not the facts.  No, not even in
Typhus Fevers—in Eresypelatous inflammations, or in cases of faint-
ing while the patient remains in this world.  I repeat, that disease
cannot be found-, which will not present one or  more symptoms in
the same case belonging to  both sides  of the principle.   There is 
13
alAvays a mixture of manifestation given by the organism, and  at
the same time.  Fainting, down to the departure of sensation, is not
an exception.  For these reasons, we reject the principle as being
untrue, and therefore inapplicable in practice.  But there is anoth-
er insuperable objection to be urged against the school.  The writers
of its  Materia Medica,  teach  only  the action of drugs they have
learned by observation upon the sick.  A close examination of this
subject will, Ave think, establish the fact, that drug action cannot be
thoroughly learned in this way.  The reason is obvious, and may be
illustrated by an appeal to experience and experiment.  The action
not being known, the drug is administered to a patient while he is
the. subject of disease characterized  by a given set  of symptoms.
These symptoms declare the presence of excitement,  as well as de-
bility.  A drug is chosen, the action of which has not been deter-
mined beforehand, and it is administered.  A change in the symp-
toms occurs; some are very sensibly increased; some partially dis-
appear ; and new ones are added.   Now I put the questions—Wbat
influence has the drug had in bringing about this change ?  What
symptoms are drug symptoms ?   What shades of drug poAver do
the original symptoms exhibit ?  To  what extent have  drug and pri-
mary symptoms blended ?   By Avhat means can the two be separa-
ted, for the purpose of assigning to the drug the influence due hs
 action ?  And if this cannot be done, what curative relation do the
drug poAvers sustain; and how do the  powers  thus developed cor-
 respond with the principles  by Avhich they are subsequently to be
 applied ?  We hazard nothing in asserting that satisfactory replies
 cannot be given to these inquiries.  The mind  of man cannot  com-
 prehend these distinctions,  and make them available in  practice;
 and yet this must be done,  in vieAv of attaching any utility whatev-
 er, even to the abridged form of a Materia Medica peculiar to that
 school.  In eAidcnce of this fact, we find  no tAvo writers or practi-
 tioners agreeing on what is  the true development of drug action
 and relation,  if we except one or two general indications; and not
 unfrequently these are questioned.   So that a\ hen the  student of
 medicine opens the volumes upon this subject, placed before him by
 his preceptor, he  encounters various opinions,   no tAvo of which are
 alike, but all bent in the direction of some  favorite theory.  What
 one man condemns, another  applauds; what one accepts, another
 rejects; and thus opinions differ  and  multiply "ad  infinitum."
 There is in the nature of the  case,  an impossibility  of  arriving at
 correct information upon this subject,  in  the manner  mentioned.
 Every intelligent  physician  is aware of  this fact, and  in justice and
 fairness to the community, should make the matter  public beyond
 the pale of the profession.  He should adopt the language quoted
 by Dr. Forbs, the great head of medicine in Scotland—" The more
 we feel our faults, and the more freely and heartily we confess them,
 the more likely we are to get rid of them."   The Avhole tendency 
14
 of medical practice, with no better knowledge of the means em-
 ployed, is pointedly to empiracy; and if in an  enlarged spirit of
 charity we change the phrase and call it analogical practice, by add-
 ing,  "when no analogy  whatever exists," a further modification
 could not conscientiously be expected.
   But analogy in medicine, of all other places,  is the most dan-
 gerous and unwarrantable; for who ever  saw two cases precisely
 alike, or two constitutions just alike ?   Where can two persons be
 found, wherein the circumstances affecting their mental and  physi-
 cal existence occur in the same manner, and in the same way ? And
 above all, who does not know that drugs do not impress alike, espe-
 cially when the organism itself modifies thai, action according to the
 condition in Avhich it is found ?   Notwithstanding a knoAvdedge of
 these facts, "our aneient mother,"  as Prof. Forbs  designates the
 profession, sets herself  up as the true guide for all coming time.
 There is no  more analogy  in diseases, than there  is in faces—
 no tAvo being alike in every particular—yet possessing general out-
 lines in common.  What would you say of the artist,  could he. have
 painted the portrait of Adam, and handed it down through all pos-
 terity, as the exact likeness of every man that has lived  since the
 fall ?  Would  you receive the age of  the painter, the antiquity of
 the subject, as sufficient reasons for adopting it as a  pattern ?  So
 it is in  medicine, or proving of drugs.  A very few of the mani-
 festations given are alike,  or someAvhat similar, scarcely amounting
 to a general outline.  Yet they are set up as the models for students
 to copy, under penalties of displeasure.  It is a notable fact,  and  I
 appeal again to the pages of the  Allopathic  Materia Medica, that
 not more than from two to four manifestations produced through the
 Organism by any given  drug, finds a place in that book as beinc the
 resultant of its action; and in the great majority of cases,  not more
 than one or two disturbances are accorded to the  agent producing
 them.  We have therefore the general classification, in the place of
 the specific and complete history of the agents they contain.  The
 fact that white hellebore will produce sneezing, is sufficient to place
 it among the sternutatories—that tartar emetic vomits the patient,
 therefore an emetic—that opium will sometimes relieve pain,  there-
 fore a sedative—and thus throughout the chapter.
   Such,  then, are the  claims of the old school, as we think, fairly
 detailed, though stated  in connection Avith a  few objections.   Fur-
 ther notice AAill be taken of the facts embraced under these heads, du-
 ring the winter. I will conclude what I wish to say, by reference to,
 the claims which the' practice of medicine,  predicated upon the law,
 " Similia  similibus  curantur," makes  upon our confidence and re-
 gard.  The first proposition which Homeopathy urges upon our con-
 sideration, embraces the fact,  that the action of all drugs can only
 be learned through the  disturbances they produce upon persons in
health.   Secondly—The application of  drug action must be guided 
,15
and governed by the totality of symptoms found in any given case,
and corresponding with those produced by the drug.   Thirdly—
Homeopathy requires that the size of the dose shall correspond with
and meet the wants of the diseased organism,  and collaterally the
indications thus given will determine the susceptibilities, and indi-
cate the extent of these Avants.  These are the three general propo-
sitions, and embody the claims of Homeopathy.   I cannot expect to
enlarge upon the bearing of these claims, and show all their adapt-
ations in a scientific point of view, in the brief space left me on this
occasion; but  will examine them at length during my course of in-
struction before the class.  Suffice it now to say, that the truth of
the first proposition is apparent from the following facts: First, the
drug to be proven, is administered singly.  Second,  the  pereon to
whom it is administered,  must be in health.   Third, the symp-
toms or disturbances thus produced, are  accurately and carefuliy
noted as they  arise, and therefore are known to be produced by the
drug.   Fourth, the peculiarity, or quality of disturbance becomes
manifest each drug produces.  Fifth, the organ or  organs which.
the drug elects to act upon, is thereby  discovered.   Therefore, ev-
ery property belonging  to the drug, as appreciated by the organ-
ism, becomes fully developed, and made tangible, even to the ordi-
nary observer.  This method of learning drug action, it will be  per-
ceived, is free from the  complications and embarrassments, that at-
tach to the old school manner of learning them.  We learn in  this-
Avay all that is necessary for  a physician to know,  respecting the
agents he is employing as medicines.   What more is useful for him
to knoAV, than is here set forth?  He knows what kind of action he
is employing—to what  extent it  acts upon his patient, and what
organs it will act upon.   Nothing  more  can  be known respecting
any medicinal agent  So far, then, the Homeopathist is  in posses-
sion of "positive knowledge.  There is nothing lacking, or surround-
ed by doubts; nor is any drug property discarded and lost sight of.
The trials of over two hundred drugs in  this way, and then respec-
tive results recorded, now constitute the Homeopathic Materia Med-
ica.  The knowledge of medicines thus accurate, and thus obtain-
ed can under a law of nature be  applied in practice, with an accu-
rate understanding of the powers employed,  and graduated to the
wants of the sick by  a  collateral  law  determining the  amount of
force requisite for the cure.  The practitioner is not kit in doubt
when a chance occurs in his case.   If it arises irom his medicines, he
knows it; and therefore he proceeds with a degree  of safety and
certainty no where known in any other  school  of medicine.  This
knowledge is put in practice  under the  guidance of an unerring
law of nature.  This law we have already expressed,  and is in med-
icine,  of universal applicability.  It is sustained by a constant ap-
peal to experience-cases of diseases cured by  thousands in every
part of the world, and recorded as a part of the history of Home©. 
16
pathy, attest the truth and justice of its claims.  Nor are the cases
alluded to of a character so mild as to get well by the efforts of na-
ture alone.  On>the contrary, those the most formidable known in
the annals of medicine, have yielded with promptness and dispatch;
and hundreds cured " that even affection had ceased to hope for."
Again, books of this school, now numbering thousands of volumes,
and read throughout the land, are attracting universal interest, and
commanding universal respect among the intelligent  The appear-
ance of the cholera first awakened general attention to this subject
in Europe, and subsequently aroused an investigation and inquiry
into the merits  of Homeopathy in America, that will be difficult to
quell.  That this pestilence is fictitious or imaginary,  is not claimed
by our opponents.   The desolation everywhere left in its  pathway,
declares its malignancy, and its destruction of human life.  Its rav-
ages, in proportion to the numbers treated,  have been more effectu-
ally stayed by  drug power applied under the law  of similarities,
than by any other means known among men.  The mortality found
in the prevalence of yellow fever, both in this country and in the
West Indies, according to experience  and statistics of the late la- ,
mented Dr. Tafft, of New Orleans, is much diminished, and thexlis-
ease rendered comparatively harmless by the application  of means
in pursuance of this law.   The small  pox  has by it, been arrested
in its destructive and loathsome progress, and means supplied which
will ultimately banish it from the catalogue of  diseases.   Scarlatina
too, has through the agency of this law, been deprived of malignan-
cy in the great majority  of cases,  and rendered comparatively a
mild and manageable disease.   In short, experience  is continually
affirming the truth of its claims, and like every law of nature, car-
ries with it the evidences  of its fitness,  and sustains the divinity of
its origin.  A  compliance with its conditions  is always demanded.
Therefore, collaterally, 'the means employed under its guidance,
must sustain a relation to the wants of the  organism, in quantity as
well as quality.  The expression  of this condition is contained in
the  third  proposition, and refers to the  size of the dose, ao-ainst
which so much wit and sarcasm has been  leveled.   The fact that
remedies are used as specifics,  and applied directly to an organism
rendered susceptible by disease, has been lost sight of, in these sal-
lies upon the small doses.  It  has been forgotten that agents thus
directed,  will act beyond  their destination, and produce  disease if
not confined to their proper sphere of action.  The rule applicable
in this case recognizes the fact, all things  being equal, that the or-
ganism is susceptible to the action of specifics, "in the ratio it is dis-
eased within the limits of  disorganization.  This rule beinc compli-
ed wjth in apportioning  the means of cure, as blending with the
facts contained in the propositions set forth, constitutes the basis on
which Homeopathy rests  her claims.