A  REVIEW
PROFESSOR C. B. COVENTRY'S
INTRODUCTORY  LECTURE,
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
Class of ledical Students of  Geneva College,
SESSION OF 1843-4.
BY DR. C. D. WILLIAMS.

             GENEVA:
IBA MEBBELL, FBINTEB: SENEOA-ST.
               1844. 
 
REVIEW.
   In a subject so important as that of seeking the best means
 for the preservation of human life, it is not surprising that all
 should feel a deep interest; and when any discovery that
^promises a melioration of the " ills that flesh is heir to,"  is
 offered, that we should, each and all, examine  whether the
 promises that are made, are founded on truth and reason ; and
 if found so, it is not strange that we should seek to avail our-
 selves in the best manner of such discoveries.   This desire
 to meliorate our condition, and neutralize more or less the
 evils that surround us, as regards  our health, extends also,  in
 a degree adequate to  their relative importance,  to  the other
 relations of life;  so that when any discovery is made, offer-
 ing a mitigation of physical labor, it is met by an examina-
 tion and experiments ; and if  found  practicable, is at once
 adopted, and  we  profit  by its advantages.  In matters  so
 nearly and so deeply  affecting our peculiar interests, it is  to
 be  expected different modes  will be offered,  and different
 means advocated of gratifying these interests ;  and it is also
 expected, that  the champions  of  each particular plan should
 be ardent in the advancement of the one  they have them-
 selves adopted; and this difference  and warmth can well  be
 tolerated and even approbated,  when  we suppose  the advo-
 cates themselves, after examining,  by every means in their
 power, the opposite or different modes, are actuated by candor
 in still supporting their own.   But what words can sufficient-
 ly express our contempt, our detestation of one, who, merely 
because he has been accustomed to any particular plan, still
adheres to it, obstinately refusing to examine a new doctrine,
although it may have received  the sanction and approbation
of wise and good men .; more especially, when this one occu-
pies a station to which men are accustomed to' look for infor-
mation and advice, and to judge, more or less, of the truth of
new doctrines,  according  to the views  of them emanating
from this station ?  When we behold men  possessing  age,
knowledge and wealth, and with these, the ability, to a cer-
tain extent, of guiding the minds of men, we  accord to their
opinions respect and esteem ; but when these powers are pros-
tituted to the accomplishment of wicked or sinister designs,
the possession of these high  qualities, instead of shielding*
them  from disrespect, should  rather heighten the contempt
with which we view them.*
   These remarks  are particularly, at present, excited  by
the fact of the recent publication of  a lecture,  delivered
by Professor  C. B.  Coventry, of Utica, before the   Stu-
dents  of Geneva Medical College,  during  the present term,
upon the subject, principally,  of Homoeopathy.  By this lec-
ture, it appears that he is  one of that  strange class, who, ac-
knowledging, as every one does, the want of  improvement in
medical  science, not  only refuses to examine Homoeopathy,
but has even proceeded so far as to vent his spleen upon it, sub-
jecting it to all the low phrases of contempt, that small minds
ever employ, when looking at things above their comprehen-
sion.   As a general thing, missives, such as these, are hardly
worth other notice than the contempt of silence ;  and this in-
deed, would have  been the fate of the "Lecture,"had it not
been that, from the situation of the author, as a professor in  a
respectable Medical College, and as he is pleased to style  him-
self, " one of the guardians of the profession," he might real-
ly be supposed to  know something of the subject of which
he is  speaking, beyond the common report  of its enemies,
   * Dr.  Samuel Johnson. 
5
and  to have submitted its principles to the test of some-
thing like experiment.  But  we  do not find in  the ' Lec-
ture,' even the pretence of having ever tried them, in any
manner whatever; and we can only account for his having
dismissed the subject so summarily, with hardly an attempt
at an argument against it, by supposing that "the knowledge
he was born with," on the subject  of Homoeopathy, is greater
than that of most men, and hence his more eminent ability
to decide upon it without an examination.  It has been well
said,  by Everest,  a  distinguished English clergyman, that
after  having sought faithfully  for the arguments advanced
against Homoeopathy, he had found four, "pithy, terse, that
ifcight be carried about in a jacket pocket," and  these four
were,  1. fool; 2.  knave;  3.  quack; 4. charlatan: and had
he written since the production of the " Introductory Lec-
ture,"  he would hardly have  had reason to extend his list •
for, after having searched thoroughly through the Lecture, I
can  find little besides these  four—though of them all the
last  division, "charlatanism," is the  one on  which he seems
most  to  rely to strike  with  terror the luckless abettors of
Homoeopathy, and to decide at once the wavering and the
faint-hearted.  In attempting a review of a work so manifestly
devoid of argument, the intention to reduce to any thing like
order his animadversions, would be useless, and we  shall
therefore take the liberty of examining them in detail as they
occur.  He  commences in a  manner  so desultory,  that  a
" school  boy," in his first composition, might well envy him ;
and informs us of  some general facts, which might or might
not, according to the opinion of the reader, be regarded as
necessary to a proper  understanding of the matter, and then
at once " wanders" into the  subject.  After telling  us that
he esteems it his duty, as a " guardian of the profession," to
caution his  pupils against  "the temptations to empiricism"
that  surround  them;  which empiricism attacks, as he says,
" the very citadel of the profession, by open foes without and 
6
by secret enemies within ;"  we  very naturally wish to in-
quire, why it is that he especially, should hold the station of
one of the " guardians ;" what and where this  " citadel" may
be ; and who are the " open foes  without and  secret enemies
within?"   And knowing no  other reason, why he should be
one of the " guardians," than because  he  is a professor in
Geneva Medical College, we  must hence conclude that he is
guardian ex officio, and that the "citadel" is none other than
the college itself;  and as it  is the Homoeopaths he subse-
quently " attacks" so fiercely, we are to suppose those Homoe-
opathic physicians, who happen to be practicing in Geneva,
are the "open  foes without;" and  that whatever Homoeo-
pathic students are attending lectures  must  be the  " secr^J,
enemies within."  After having fully understood this matter,
we next learn that the " humble followers of Thompson,"
and " the visionary advocates of  that most sublimated of all
humbugs—Homoeopathy,  have  all  united  in their efforts
against the regular profession ;"  so that it has now " become
a serious  question whether the profession [par excellence] is
to retain that rank among the liberal professions to which its
vast importance and  deep responsibilities entitle  it;" for al-
though Homoeopathy can never  be  established as the accus-
tomed practice of the land, except by its superior success in
curing disease ;  yet such an event would of  course be regard-
ed as removing the  " profession"  from  its " rank among the
liberal professions.   And this consummation he seems much
to fear ;  for, in the most moving terms, he appeals to " the
venerable clergy, to the legal profession—the sacred guardi-
ans of the temple of justice"—to pause  before they take from
him and his profession " the  influence of their bright names
and unsullied ermine," to place them in the  scale of Homoeo-
pathy ; for, having hitherto been " the most strenuous oppo-
sers of empiricism,'' they have now  " been beguiled by  the
pretensions of Homoeopathy—the assertion  that it is founded
on the inductive philosophy ;  and, incompetent to judge from 
/
their very ignorance [forsooth !] of the fundamental principles.
of the profession, [and he might have added from the success
of Homoeopathy in  curing  themselves  and families,]  they
have too often given their countenance and support to  this
sublimated humbug."  And so, although, after having  been
treated  in  disease by both  Allopath and Homoeopath,  and
finding  cures effected, uniformly, with more certainty, quick-
ness and ease, by the latter, they are called upon by Dr. Cov-
entry, because they do not understand the " fundamental prin-
ciples of the profession," to pause ere they lend their influence
and support to that which reason and experience demonstrate
to them to be truth.  Truly, I fear they will not hear him, or
if hearing, will  not  heed him.  Then again,  he  makes the
Homoeopaths give what he calls "  Allopathic doses and med-
icines ;" as though Allopathy or Homoeopathy consisted either
in  the " doses"  or " medicines" made use of,  instead of the
principles on which these doses are given.   And for giving
these Allopathic doses, (or, as we suppose he  means,  large
ones,) even though  in accordance with the  very principles
on which Homoeopathy sets out, he (Dr. Coventry) considers
" him morally as guilty as the man who obtains money under
false pretences, a crime which the  laws of this country  pun-
ish with imprisonment in the state-prison ;"  though, in the
very next sentence, he declares " the law prescribes no partic-
ular mode of practice : a physician has a right to give infini-
tesimal doses, or no  medicine, if he pleases."
   Then, after having consigned every Homoeopath to a state-
prison,  though confessedly without a.cause, he  thinks that ev-
ery physician, if truly honest,  will  trust to his  success for his
reputation, without publishing to the world that he has some
new and more successful mode of practice than his professional
brethren, even though by publishing the principles and suc-
cess of his practice, he  might seek to avoid the imputation
of quackery that  is attempted to  be fastened upon him  by
Dr. Coventry ; and if he does so,  he considers him resorting 
8
to the  arts of the " charlatan,"  instead of relying on  the
merits of his pretensions.   If this be true, why, let me ask,
has a medical book ever been  published ?  Why does every
physician, after having discovered any means of treating his
own patients, more successful than that followed by his pro-
fessional brethren, at  once publish it, " if he be honest," and
sustain his view  of  the subject  by every argument  in his
power ?  Can  we suppose it for  any other  reason, than be-
cause he is  influenced by the  desire of benefitting his race
and of meriting the best wishes, the gratitude and esteem of
the thousands who are suffering under disease ? And instead
of his being consigned to a companionship with felons, we
see honors, wealth and every earthly blessing showered upon
his head.  " But, it is said that regular  physicians have be-
come Homoeopathists, and, having tried both systems, should
be  competent  to judge.   Some  have asserted, and I doubt
not  with  truth, that they have been more  successful  than
when practicing on  their former principles.". For once in
his "Introductory," the Doctor has confessed that he does not
doubt what  is  really true.  For  the  large majority of  prac-
ticing  Homoeopaths  are,  not  those  who from their  incom-
petence to practice in the old school have left it; but men
who, after  seeking  every advantage of medical schools,
and receiving  from  them diplomas, some even in the very
school in which the Doctor himself graduated, and finding
how unsafe  a guide were the principles on which these diplo-
mas certified they were qualified to practice, have abandoned
them, and adopted a system whose principles they may fol-
low without being led continually into a labyrinth of error.
But these are  not the reasons assigned by  Dr.  Coventry:
these are not the cases he  cites.  To escape the unavoidable
conclusions  which the admission of the above facts would
lead to, he affects to explain the  manner in which they may
be converted.   And, first, he  supposes the case of a  physi-
cian whose  business has been  engrossed by a Homceopathist 
9
in his vicinity, becoming one  himself, to regain it.   Again,
a young man is about to  commence practice;  and that he
may obtain patronage, he proclaims himself a Plomoeopath;
hoping, by the rumor of the eminent  success which has at-
tended  this practice, to detract from the business of those
around  him.  Now, we wish to say, emphatically, and once
for all,  that no such Homoeopath do we recognize : as it is
against  the  arguments drawn from  the mal-success of these
pretended Homoeopaths, that we have most to contend ; for
that there are such, I, with Dr. Coventry, have no doubt.
   No man who is not a believer iti Homoeopathy, in truth
as well as pretence, can ever hope to have success over the
old  school, more than what he may derive from the benefit
of our  well-regulated diet rules, and the  absence of the in-
jury produced  by the enormous quantity of drugs adminis-
tered by the  Allopaths : for,  in Homoeopathy  there is no
quackery, and a man's  uniform success,  or frequent failure,
will proclaim him a  true  Homooepath and  one qualified to
practice our system,  or one of the supposititious cases of the
learned  professor.  " But," says he,  " where is the man in
the  profession,  in good business, of established reputation
and sound  judgment, who  has abandoned the regular prac-
tice of  his profession for Homoeopathy ?   I know of none."
   Very likely:  and  the gentleman has taken as  little pains
to seek the  truth in this matter, as he has in regard to what
are  the true  principles of Homoeopathy ; for cases  of  this
kind are not few, but are scattered through the  whole state;
and their  names amfcstanding might  here be cited, in proof
of his wilful ignorance on-this point.   But that we may not
be charged  with mis-stating this fact,  we shall hold ourselves
in readiness to furnish the Doctor the names of those who
will well answer the  qualifications  he has above specified.
From these premises he concludes that those of the profes-
sion who  have  candidly examined Homoeopathy have re-
jected  it:  but to make confirmation  doubly sure, and  still
                       2 
10
more perfectly to convince them, he tells his intelligent pu-
pils that, " were you acquainted with the operation of medi-
cines, I would prove to you that its very first principles were
in opposition to some of the best established facts  in  medi-
cine."   The class, then, some of whom he expected to gra-
duate with a diploma from his  own hand,  were so  ignorant
of the action of medicines, that they would be incapable of
appreciating his reasoning upon the subject, and therefore it
would be of no use to attempt to prove to them  the fallacy
of Homoeopathy.   But if the class were so ignorant of the
operation of medicines, could he not, in a note, have vouch-
safed  to the public, whose property the lecture becomes on
its publication, and among whom we may suppose there are
physicians at least  as well  qualified to judge  of the  action
of medicines as Dr. C,  some of the many weighty argu-
ments which he probably has in store, and of which so very
few are found in the Lecture ?   But since  he has  not  done
so, we must conclude that, either he has reserved the argu-
ments in question for his  own  peculiar gratification,  or  for
the head of  some  unfortunate Homceo  who may fall in his
way.   Thus far, we have regarded Dr. C. as good  authority
in matters  pertaining to his own school; as a man whom
we might suppose erring through ignorance of Homoeopathy,
and still have a knowledge of the principles and practice  he
professes: but the  next  sentence that occurs may, we fear,
destroy not only the reputation of the Doctor of having tho-
roughly learned the principles of Allopathy, but deprive us of
               " The stern joy that warriors feeA
               " In foemen worthy of their steel.
It is as follows : " They [the Homoeopaths] say their know-
ledge of the powers and properties of  medicines is derived
from  their effects on the system  in  health ;  whilst every
practitioner  of observation  knows that the operation of me-
dicines on the  healthy system is no  sure  criterion of their
effects in disease." 
11
  This principle is one which  I  had supposed  would have
been  the  last to be discussed ; one in which  I  had hitherto
supposed every Allopath would admit our superiority ;  for,
if the " action of medicines" is to be learned from the symp-
toms  following their administration  to  the sick, (who must
be the subjects if their action on the healthy afford no crite-
rion for their action in disease,) then  I  would solemnly ask,
Where  on the face of the earth is the man,  who, of the
thousand  demonstrations of  the  effects of disease given by
the organism, can  separate them on the one hand and on the
other, and say definitely, this is the  effect of the medicinal
agent and that of  the  natural morbid action ?
  "Almost  all modern writers  on medico-legal toxicology
have  declared such diagnosis impossible."*   True, by this
means  (the  action of medicines on the sick) they have
learned that  some medicines will produce emesis, catharses,
diuresis and  diaphoresis ;  that others are stimulants, seda-
tives, expectorants, &c.  But are these all?  Are there no
other organs  that are  especially affected by disease ? no  me-
dicines that will act on other functions than these medicines
are intended  for ?   Or are  these functions to be  the point of
departure for every unnatural action  of the system; so  that
its endless ramifications, its infinitely varied  deviations from
health, are  all to depend principally and primarily on  the
derangement  of these  eight  or  ten functions?  If this be
true,  farewell to the  hopes of health of those invalids who
are laboring under disease  that has its principal  seat in  any
other than  these  organs.   But to show (by authority  that
Dr. Coventry will hardly dare question)  his error, besides
the well-known opinion of Haller, the English  physiologist,
which we wish to refer him  to, let us quote from more  mo-
dern authorities :  And first, from Paris' Pharmacologia, where
he  says,  " that observation or experiment upon the effects
of medicine  is liable  to a thousand fallacies, unless  it be
  "Christison, p.  16 of preface. 
12
carefully repeated under the various circumstances of health
and disease, in different climates  and on  different constitu-
tions."  Again : Dr. Christison, after having  spoken of the
uses to be  derived  from a knowledge of toxicology, or the
effects of poisons (on the healthy, of course,) in medico-legal
questions, in the treatment of poisoning, &c, has the follow-
ing : " The information  furnished by toxicology,  however,
is sometimes more direct; the discovery of  remedies in par-
ticular diseases  having  been originally  derived  from  the
knowledge  of their action  as  poisons.   One  substance, at
least, has been introduced in this  way into the practice of
physic : I mean mix vomica, with its active  principle strych-
nia ; and it is not improbable that, as our knowledge of the
operation of poisons becomes more accurate,  further additions
may be made in like manner."*  Again : Dr. Dunglison, in
his new remedies, after having  confessed  "  the  difficulty of
sifting the  results of true from those of false observation,"
says: "To treat disease methodically  and effectively, the
nature of the actions of  the living tissues, in both the heal-
thy and morbid conditions, must be correctly appreciated ;
the  effects  which the articles of  the  materia medica are
capable of  exerting under  both  those  conditions must  be
known from accurate observation;  and  not until then, can
the practitioner prescribe with  any well-founded prospect of
success."   He further says, under the article of Hydrocyanic
Acid, after having given its pathognetic action on persons in
health,  that, " from the effects  produced  by the hydrocyanic
acid on the healthy body, we may infer the cases  of disease
in which it may be  indicated."   And this idea is  continued
throughout his work, by his giving the symptoms of nearly
all the remedies in  the  manner  above  stated.  Dr. Martyn
Paine, Professor of  the  Institutes of Medicine and  Materia
Medica in  the University of  New-York, in  an essay  on the
" modus operandi" of medicines, published in 1842, speak-
   *Christison on Poisons, p. 8 of preface. 
13
ing of the profound impression made by drugs on the system,
says :  " It is  for  this reason,  therefore,  that they produce
disease in the healthy organism ; and when  they contribute
to the cure of disease, it is in virtue of  that  morbific action
which they exert on healthy parts."
   These quotations, we hope, will convince Dr. C. that there
are at  least  some  practitioners of observation, who  believe
that the action of  medicines upon the healthy is a " criterion
for their action in  disease."
   In continuation, Dr.  C.  says:  " I do not  caution  you
against Homoeopathy itself.   Examine its claims:  scrutinize
its pretensions."   " If you become satisfied that infinitesimal
doses, or what is  equivalent, no medicine,  [which  he has
made synonymous with Homoeopathy,] is best for your pa-
tients, adopt it; but do not  proclaim  yourselves Homosopa-
thists  or  Allopathists, or pretend that  you  are wiser than
your medical brethren."   By the foregoing remarks,  we can
only infer that the learned Doctor is willing his pupils should
smuggle into their practice the  principles of our science, if
they find them beneficial, provided always that Homoeopathy
gets no credit for the same.   We make  the worthy professor
a present of the inference.  After this he  gives us, what I
had hardly hoped for, his  reasons for these wholesale denun-
ciations, in the following words: " On the  other hand, be
not discouraged by the temporary loss of business.   I know
how trying it is to  the feelings, to be deserted  by those for
whom you have labored."   It is pretty well known that a
Homoeopathist has located at Utica ; and  we may suppose
from  the  above, that  he is drawing largely upon Dr. C.'s
business : and to this fact the world probably owes its pos-
session of the Lecture  on  Homoeopathy.
   To sum up the whole and give a finishing stroke to the
attack, he has given, in a note, the mode of preparation of
the Homoeopathic  medicines, and has set down  a  long row
of sixty ciphers as a sample  of the thirtieth dilution.   From 
14
this  we are to conclude (for we think the conclusion is in-
evitable,)  that  he  thinks, or would have the public think,
that  the  doctrines  of the new school consist only in the ad-
ministration of  medicines, the size of the dose of which, as
compared  with  the primitive drop, is  expressed by  his  long
fraction; and that this and nothing but this constitutes Ho-
moeopathy.   " Verily, if this does not amount to an" absur-
dity, "it is a near approximation."
  And now, having finished our examination of a production
which, from the absence of all argument Upon the subject of
which it treats,  has been somewhat difficult to review, other-
wise  than by showing its absurdity ; we may be allowed to
present a fair view of the two opposing systems of medicine—
the principle upon which one, and  the  many on  which  the
other, attempts  the cure  of disease ;  and allow  a public
whom we dare  not denounce as " ignorant,"  but whom we
believe to be enlightened, to judge of the relative  merits of
the two systems, and  to  choose that which seems most ac-
cordant with reason and the  laws that govern human life.
   Three principles have been recognized by physicians, from
time  immemorial,  on  which to treat disease.  These three
are,  Allopathy, Antipathy  and  Homoeopathy.  Allopathy
and  Antipathy are those which  the old  school especially
view as the true  ones,  though they  make  use of another
class  of remedies,  which they apply  in disease,  generally
called specifics, and which, from every thing we  can gather
from  their books, they suppose to  act without any principle,
merely because they are good; or, as a learned professor in
Geneva Medical College lately said, because " they  excite an
action incompatible  with disease : "  while, believing  the
laws  of life are ever the same, that  they  do not change
while vitajity remains,  Homoeopathy  is the principle,  and
the only one, on which the new school act, in the application
of remedies.
   First, Allopathy, (from two  Greek  words signifying  fo- 
15
reign disease,) the principle of which  is, the excitation,  in
parts  more  or  less remote, of another disease, to cure one
already existing.   It is also called the derivative or revulsive
method.   The remedies made  use  of in this  system are,
blisters, rubefacients, setonSi  moxa, tartar emetic, ointment,
&c.;  and cathartics and  emetics,, when  used  with the in-
tention of producing what is called counter irritation.  This
mode  is  objected to, because, in its use the unity of vital
action is  not sufficiently  regarded ; for, considering disease
of any organ as a mere  local  alteration of the part,  they
think they may,  with impunity, produce a morbid change in
a  less important organ.; or, the injury of which would  be
less dangerous, without being detrimental to the first; and
by this means remove the disease from its original seat.  But
if it be true, as is believed and  contended by every enlight-
ened physician of the age, that  the  organism,  though com-
posed of many parts, is connected  by the vital  union  as a
harmonious whole ;  that whatever  injurious or other impres-
sion is received by any one part, is reflected, in a greater or
less degree, upon the rest;  and that the symptoms of disease
are but the manifestations given, by  all the organs, of the
affection of any particular one:  then must we believe that
this  vital union will not permit a separation of  its component
parts, in obedience to the will or- imagination  of the physi-
cian ;  and  that the irritation, the morbid state that  is pro-
duced, though it may at first procure some  alteration, will,
in proportion to its severity, be reflected  upon the original
disease,  which  it  will complicate  and  aggravate  without
curing: and their fear of an  occurrence of this kind is con-
tinually  manifested by the practitioners of the old school,
in the use of these  remedies,  by their always premising
venesection or some other depletion, when a state of excite-
ment exists, (which-is almost the  only  case in  which  this
mode is made use  of,) for the  avowed purpose of escaping
the ill effects which we have just anticipated.   So that when 
16
 a patient is treated upon  the Allopathic mode, the  obstacles
 to his restoration to health are  three: first,  the original dis-
 ease ;  second, the depletion ; third, the newly-excited disease.
 For these reasons, we regard the system  as not only ineffi-
 cient,  but often highly injurious.
   Second,  Antipathy,  (from  two Greek words signifying
 opposite affections or feelings,) in which it is intended to re-
 move  disease,  by exciting, in  the  part  already affected, a
 disease opposite to that  it is intended to cure.  The same
 idea is expressed by the phrase, " contraria contraris curan-
 ter"—diseases are cured by their opposites.   The objections
 to this mode are both practical and theoretical ; for, should
 we admit its truth in theory, the obstacles to its reduction to
 general practice we regard as absolutely  insuperable.   And
 this impracticability consists in  the  impossibility of finding
 in each  case the opposite of any particular disease.   We
 aver positively, that it cannot be found; that no man  can
 say, of the innumerable  variety of  symptoms that occur,
 what are the opposite of  more than an infinitely small num-
 ber; and we fearlessly challenge  the attempt to point them
 out, without any expectation that our challenge will be ac-
 cepted : for, in  every day's practice, we  meet symptoms that
 are not only analagous, but at the same  time absolutely con-
 tradictory to each other; as  the sensation  of  heat immedi-
 ately followed by cold, or that of cold immediately followed
 by heat; or both at the same time:  and in like  manner hun-
dreds of  others.   But, so well aware  are the practitioners of
 the old school of the impossibility of taking all  they abso-
lutely  know of disease,  the  totality of symptoms  evolved
during the action of that disease, and treating  them by the
application of remedies that they know will  produce a totali-
ty of  symptoms (on the healthy)  the direct  opposite  of
these;  they assume, from the symptoms,  what they call
" general indications," and direct their remedies to the marks
they have thus set  up, although the  disease, having its seat 
                            17

m any one organ, may also  have deranged  the  functions of
a large number as much as  those  of the  three or four from
which they have derived these " indications;"  and finding
this treatment  by indications unsuccessful, as well as the at-
tempts to cure  the disease by the use of blisters, or something
of that kind, (Allopathy,) recourse is usually had  to the use of
some of that class of remedies which are applied in disease, on
no other principle than because they are good, or,  (more scien-
tifically,)  "because they excite an action incompatible with
the disease;" and if,  of all the medicines that have been
known to be good in this disease, they happen to select  the
right one, and do not overpower him by the size of the dose,
the patient may recover.  Now, we think that  no one who
has carefully examined the course pursued by the old school,
in the treatment of disease, will say that we have either mis-
represented or distorted the facts in the case; and yet all this
absurdity arises from the  attempt  to  reduce to  practice this
absolutely impracticable theory:  and  did this  impracti-
cability not exist, it is false theoretically, that  diseases are
cured by those drugs that produce an affection opposite to
them ; and for this reason, that there is in the organism a vital
principle,  or power, which is continually opposing the action
of those agents foreign  to it, that tend to the excitation of an
anomal state of the system, and by this reaction, a state is
produced  exactly the reverse of that  to which these foreign
agents tend, those of course  excepted that by the intensity of
their action at  once destroy  life.  In proof that this  assump-
tion is sustained by facts, witness the effects of cold upon the
system.   This agent, it is universally understood, is a seda-
tive ; yet, when applied to  the system within  conservative
limits, i. e. in such a degree as the system may bear without
being overpowered, instead  of the  depression that should en-
sue were the Antipath's theory true, the result is  that of stim-
ulation.   Again : in  the effect produced by the action of me-
chanical causes on the body, we  see another expression of
this principle.  The cuticle  on the hands of the rower, 1n-
                     3 
18
 stead of being gradually worn off by the pressure and friction
 of the oar, (unless too severely applied at first,) becomes thick-
 er and thicker, until it finally may resist every injury by this
 cause.   The feet, pressed and rubbed  by tight boots, have,
 instead  of an abrasion, greater strength of cuticle.   And
 again: the habitude of drugs with the system affords a still
 more convincing proof of the existence of this law.   Whate-
 ver effects are produced  by  the  reception of drugs into the
 system,  by the repetition of these drugs, they gradually lose
 the power of at all affecting  the system, although the largest
 doses may be given of that of which at first, a very small quan-
 tity would suffice to produce death.
   The principle, of'which these examples are a few instances
 only, we believe to be as universal as life, and as absolutely
 essential to the preservation, for more than a short time, of
 our bodies from  total destruction ; for, without its existence,
 we should be subjected to injury from every external impres-
 sion, however slight: a breath of air,  a flake of snow,  the
 lightest  touch in nature—all would  have the same tenden-
 cy, the removal  of a portion of our frame, without our hav-
 ing the power to replace  it, until, from the gradual loss of its
 parts, the corporeal machine should cease to move.
   Having learned the existence  of this principle of  reaction,
 let us see what phenomena  will  occur  when medicines are-
applied to disease according to the Antipathic method.  Fro m
 what has been said, we may suppose, that  in every case of
disease the system is  endeavoring to throw it off;  and the
violence  of the symptoms are generally in proportion to the
extent of this attempted sanatory action ;  but  having found
the drug  which will produce symptoms opposite  to  those of
 the disease, it is  applied, and a veritable contest ensues  be-
 tween that and the  disease,  when the  drug  proving   the
stronger, (as it must  be to overcome the disease,) induces a
 state opposite to that which before existed.  But the  state
 produced by the medicinal agent, although unlike the former,
 is'still not health, but is now itself the  disease, the effect of 
19
a foreign agent; to remove which the vital power now turns
its action;  and as the effect of the medicines  gradually sub-
sides, we  have  the system producing a state  the reverse of
that to which the medicinal agent tends—the  original  dis-
ease, or one analogous to it.   So well aware  are the practi-
tioners of the old school of this fact, that, to  the state thus
produced, they have applied the term " secondary effects of
medicine;" though  they  must be equally well  aware, that
this secondary effect is never produced until  the drug itself
has ceased to act; and it must therefore be in  consequence of
the reaction of the vital forces.  That this is true is proved
by the facts already adduced, and by what often takes place
in the treatment of the sick, and  among the many instances
that occur, we may remark  the  increased constipation after
the use of purgatives ;  the return often more violent, of diar-
rheal affections after the use of astringents  ; the increased
diuresis after the use  of medicine intended to  diminish this
secretion; the greater severity of neuralgia after the use of
opium, or  other narcotics, &c. &c.  For this  reason, the fal-
 lacy of the theory of Antipathy, besides our inability to re-
duce it to general practice, we reject it as a principle in the
 treament of diseases.
    Third : Homoeopathy, (from  two Greek words signifying
 similar affections or feelings,) the principle of  which is, the
 excitation in the  part affected, of a disease  similar to  that
 already existing ;  or that medicines cure disease by virtue of
 their power  of exciting a similar disease.  The  same thing is
 expressed by  the  phrase, "similia similibus curanter," like
 cures like.  As this is the mode which, after mature exami-
 nation and deliberation, and a close observation resulting from
 the treatment of disease according to each of these different
 principles, we have candidly and earnestly adopted, we  may
 be allowed to  examine a little more in detail, its advantages
 or disadvantages, and the result to  which the practice of its
 principles lead.  And first, something of its history: 
20
   To Samuel Hahneman, a German, the world owes the con-
ception of the possibility of reducing this principle to  a sci-
ence ;  though its existence  in some isolated cases had been
before asserted.  This event occurred in 1790, while he was
engaged in some investigations with regard to the action of
Peruvian bark.  Knowing that this remedy, which was then
as now, regarded as a specific in intermittent fever,  while it
cured many cases, not only did not cure others but produced
absolute injury, he conceived that it must have some other
than tne received mode of action in disease ; since  this one
could neither account satisfactorily for its failures, nor deter-
mine beforehand in what cases it would prove beneficial ;
and knowing too the fallacy of that knowledge of medicines
derived from their action in disease, he resolved to seek some
clue to the facts, and the laws that governed them, in the
effects they produced on the healthy.   Being at that time  in
perfect health he took large and successive doses of the bark
with the intention of bringing  his system completely under
its action.   The result was, a train of symptoms resembling
a paroxysm of fever, chill, heat and sweat, with concomitant
symptoms.  The experiment was repeated on others, and all
the symptoms evolved during its action were carefully  noted
down.   He next collected from those who had been cured of
intermittantsby the  bark, a detailed account of the symptoms
in their cases, and compared them with the symptoms pro-
duced by the bark.  The striking similarity between  them,
and especially in their  relative order and succession, con-
vinced him that, with regard to this remedy at least, and this
disease, it would cure the  same  symptoms and groups  of
symptoms that it would produce.
   The  result in this case, stimulated him to similar  trials
with other remedies, which were, like  the bark, considered
as specifics, and the consequences  were, the conviction  in  his
mind, from its holding good in all these cases, of the  exist-
ence of the principle of  Homoeopathy as a universal law  in
medicine,  and his high success in  the subsequent treatment 
21
of disease on this principle amply confirmed the truth of these
convictions.
  Though Hahnemanwas the first to prove the universal ex-
istence of this law, yet  the  honor of its first discovery he
does not  claim ; suggestions with regard to it are found in
the earliest  annals of medicine..  In the works ascribed  to
Hippocrates, the passage vomitus vometum emat, occurs—a
vomit, (or emetic,) cures vomiting.   At a later period, Para-
celsus  hinted at its truth.   Later still,  Boulduc discovered
that rhubarb would cure diarrhea because it  would produce
the same  state :  Detharding supposed that senna would cure
colic because it would produce colic in  the healthy.  Stouck
thought that as stramonium would derange the intellects and
produce delirium, it would cure those who were already ma-
niacs.   In the works of Stahl we find the clearest avowal of
the principle, as follows:  "The  received method in medi-
cine of treating diseases by opposite remedies, that is to say,
by  medicines which are opposed to the effects they produce,
is completely false  and absurd.   I am convinced, on the con-
trary, that diseases  are subdued  by agents that produce a sim-
ilar "affection ;  as burns by the heat of a fire, to which the
parts are  exposed,  frost-bites by  snow or icy water, inflam-
mations and contusions by spirituous applications."  He. re-
marks, in addition, that he had often cured, the most obsti-
nate cases on this principle.
   It is hardly to be supposed that these physicians, distin-
guished as they were for their sound judgment and extensive
experience, had, with the exception  of Stahl, any clear idea
of the law which governed the operation of the remedies in
these cases ; and they must have regarded them as anomalies
that could not  be explained according to the rules that
governed their accustomed practice : though for some reason
that we do not learn, Stahl even  did not make an attempt at
the reduction of this law to practice, which would have co-
vered his name, instead of Hahneman's, with unfading hon-
ors.  If we have sufficiently proved, as we believe we  have,
the universality of the  principle  of  re-action, instead of re-
garding these  cases as  exceptions to Nature's laws—whose
faws are  without  exception—we shall  see them but as phe-
nomena resulting  from the  operation  of one of the  most
extensive.
   Besides the  evidences that  we have from analogy and
theory of the truth of similia similibus, we have a most posi-
tive confirmation of it in the practice of the old school  them- 
22
selves.  In the treatment of a large number of their cases of
disease, remedies are applied whose curative action can only
be explained by admitting the truth of this principle.  Among
these are specifics, a class of remedies, as I have already said,
of whose pathogentic  [disease-producing]  effects they know
nothing;  but  after careful  experimentation these remedies
are found to have the power of producing on the healthy the
very same affections to  which, by the old school, they are
applied as curative.
  Among the  many examples which might be cited, we give
only the following : The common use of cold applications in
frost-bite, of stimulating applications in burns and in  ophthal-
mia, and the use of rhubard and other cathartics in diarrhea.
Again, Eberle advises the use of balsam copaiva and  spirits
turpentine in chronic enteretis; and to -fill up the monstrous
gap between the well  known  pathology of disease and his
prescriptions, remarks, that whatever may be the conclusions
of reason, experience is  always a  better instructor.*   The
same author,  in his Therapeutics,  recommends the use of
small doses of ipicac in vomiting of the most obstinate char-
acter : he also  says that calomel,  " when  given in very mi-
nute doses,  has a direct  anticathartic effect;" and that satis-
factory testimony is adduced of " the utility of small doses
of this remedy in cholera, diarrhea, &c"  Hufeland and Pitts-
craft laud mercury in epilepsy ; yet we find in Christison on
Poisons the fact that it will produce this disease.  John Hun-
ter tells us that it is a specific in ill-conditioned ulcers, while
common experience as well as the testimony of Christison
and other authors prove its power of producing the most ex-
tensive ulcerations.  Strychnia is  praised in the journals of
the day for its curative powers in paralysis ; Christison again
informs us of  its powers  of  exciting like symptoms.  Bella-
donna is recommended as beneficial in amaurosis : the  author
last quoted  gives us the  symptoms  of this disease produced
by belladonna:  it is also celebrated by Hufeland, Cazenave,
Maisier and others, for its prophylactic, and by Gilbert (Bos-
ton Med.  and  Surg. Journal, p. 188,) for its curative, powers
in scarlatina.   On the  authority of  Christison, we learn that
it has the power of producing aphthous inflammation  of the
throat and  the  other prominent symptoms of  the most ma-

  * The recent admission, on the part of one of the Professors in Geneva Medical
College, that diseases are, among old school practitioners, occasionally cured by the
administration of medicine according to the Homoeopathic principle, augurs well
for his candor. 
23
lignant form of scarlatina.  A case is reported in the Boston
Med.  and  Surg.  Journal,  p.  178,  of vertigo, loss  of con-
sciousness, beating of carotids—in short,  all the symptoms
of approaching apoplexy,  in  which  Prussic  acid was pre-
scribed with almost  immediate relief and the  final  cure  of
the patient.   The symptoms  produced by Prussic  acid, ac-
cording to Christison, are decidedly of an apoplectic charac-
ter ; and he says that death by apoplexy has been produced
by a quantity of  this article taken by accident.
   The examples given might be very much extended ; but it
is believed that, given plainly and without comment as they
are, these will be sufficient to satisfy an unprejudiced public
of the practical as well as theoretical truth of Homoeopathy.
   Having finished  our  exposition of the principles of  the
science, a  few words upon the subject of the medicines and
doses made use of, may  not be unappropriate, as there seems
to be, in  the minds of many, some misapprehension  on
these points.   Dr. Coventry, in his Lecture, remarked that
Homoeopathists give, on particular  occasions, Allopathic  me-
dicines and doses.   The medicines made use of in Homoeo-
pathy are, to  a great extent, the same as those used by the
old school, though many others have been added.  All sub-
stances capable of  producing  a  change in the action of the
 organism, after being tried upon the healthy and the effects
 they produce fully,ascertained, are regarded as proper reme-
dial agents:  so that our researches in materia  medica are
 without limits, except  those  which bound the three grand
 kingdoms of  nature.
   With regard to doses, we may remark  that  the  only rule
for their size, recognized  by Homoeopathists, after having
 selected  their remedy in accordance with the rules already
laid down, is, to administer such a quantity only as will ex-
 cite the reactive force without producing an aggravation of
 the disease.   It will be  perceived that our range in  the  size
 of dose is most extensive, from the grain, dram, or ounce of
any particular drug, up  to what  the  professor very wittily
 calls " the near approximation to nothing."   They are almost
 always, we  may say invariably,  very much smaller than
 those used by the old school ; and for.the simple reason that
 when diseased, the organism, or any part of it, is far more sus-
 ceptible to the action of similar irritants than when in health.
   Familiar instances of this truth are every day presented to
 us.   The eye, when highly inflamed, becomes so exquisitely
 sensible to light, that the slightest degree causes the severest 
24
pain ; while in health it may bear the  full- blaze of the  sun
with impunity.   The bones, though in health insensible, be-
come, when diseased, the  seat  of the  most racking torture.
The  greatly increased sensibility of the ear to  sound,  of the
stomach to its contents, produced by disease, as well as some
other instances, might be adduced, but these are regarded as
sufficient to  illustrate the principle.
   It only remains to me, before closing what has extended to
far greater length  than was at first intended, to  remark that,
whatever maybe  our deductions from reason, the results of
the treatment  of  disease according  to  each mode  will best
show whether we  are to regard  the imputation of " quackery"
as most applicable to that  system whose practice  is founded
on the belief in one principle, and on the results derived from
pure  and unbiassed experimentation ; or to that whose prac-
tice consists in an indiscriminate application of two or three
principles without a definite idea of either, and whose expe-
rience is filled with  errors and  contradictions.   And we may,
perhaps, at  the same time, decide whether, on  the domineer-
ing assumption of one man, a  whole class, while seeking by
every meaus in their power  to  improve a science confessedly
so imperfect as medicine, for so doing are to be branded with
the epithets  of knave,  felon and fool, merely  because  our
observation and reason have not  led us to  the  same point to
which he has arrived without either reason or observation.

  Note.—We may remark, for the information of the public, that in addition to the
proofs  adduced in  the body of the work, of the necessity of a knowledge of the
effects  of drugs on the healthy, to their application to the  sick, that a still more
convincing one, of the opinion of Christison on this point, is found in the  following
quotations from the 3th and 9th pages of the preface to his work on Poisons :
  " I have likewise said that the science  of toxicology [the effects of drugs on the
healthy] aids the physician in his inquiries into the action of remedies.  Many  of
the most valuable remedies for combatting disease being,  in large doses, violent
poisons, their action as poisons,  in some instances, though certainly not in all,
throws light on their action as remedies.   Thus the direct paralysis which is pro-
duced by opium in the muscular fibres on which it is applied, furnishes an explana-
tion of its  influence in  spasmodic affections of the bowels.  The same paralyzing
property of sugar-of-lead appears to account for the beneficial effects of that sub-
stance in dysentery.  The peculiar influence of cantharides to excite, in poisonous
doses, inflammation of the urinary organs, accounts for its  power as a therapeutic
agent in stimulating the bladder.  The property possessed  by the acrid vegetables,
of exciting, in poisonous doses, violent inflammation of the bowels, explains their
purgative qualities when they are given in smaller doses,"  &.c.
  " There is yet another reason which renders toxicology, in reference to the action
of remedies, a subject of primary importance to the physician.  The most energetic
articles of the materia medica being, as  already observed, poisons in large doses,
it is indispensable to be well acquainted with their deleterious effects before they
can be safely employed in the treatment of disease; and this knowledge is particu-
larly called for in regard to those remedies (probably not few in number) whoae the-
rapeutic effects are not developed till their physiological [pathogenetic] effejcts have
begun to manifest themselves."