Homeopathy

“ Homeopathy Works with the Laws of Cure, Not Against Them. ~Similia similibus curantur~ (like cures like) translated into practice means that a drug capable of producing a certain set of disease symptoms in a healthy body, when given in large, physiological doses, will relieve or cure a similar set of symptoms in the diseased organism if the drug be given in small, homeopathic doses. ”

“ Since chemistry and physiology have acquainted us with the finer forces of Nature, demonstrating that they are mightier than the things we can apprehend by weight and measure, the claims of homeopathy do not appear so absurd as they did a generation ago. ”

“ Some judicious stock owners, taught by experience the fatality of the common methods of treatment, notwithstanding the torture and expense, have more humanely, if not more wisely, abandoned all treatment, preferring to let nature contend with disease alone, rather than with disease and drugs united. But, thanks to Homeopathy, there is a better way. ”

“ Nowadays, however, the more cultivated folk are beginning to be so suspicious of drugs, and the incorrigibly superstitious people so profusely supplied with patent medicines (the medical advice to take them being wrapped round the bottle and thrown in for nothing) that homeopathy has become a way of rehabilitating the trade of prescription compounding, and is consequently coming into professional credit. ”

“ However, in medicine one can, of course, take a completely different point of view, and that is the basic conception of biochemistry up to homeopathy, to which Himmler completely adhered. And here in two sentences we have described how all the elements which appear in nature also have traces in the human body. Now, if one small trace of an element is lacking, then the human being is susceptible to and suffering from some disease or other. ”

“ Nature has her way, the disorder runs its course, and the return to normal conditions will be quicker and more perfect than if the homeopathic remedy had not been employed or if Nature's healing processes had been forcibly interrupted and suppressed by large, poisonous allopathic doses. Homeopathy assists Nature in removing the old encumbrances, whereas allopathy changes the acute, inflammatory healing effort into chronic, destructive disease. ”

“ In the execution of this design I have consulted every authority and drawn upon every resource within my reach, and the experience of each has been made to contribute to the perfection of the whole, and all has been combined and compared with my many years of observation, study, and experience in the practice of Homeopathy. We flatter ourselves that for simplicity, completeness, and reliability it will commend itself to the judgement of a discerning public. ”

“ Not that every man who owns a horse, should be necessarily a veterinary surgeon; and yet the way is so simple that any intelligent person may readily cure a very large proportion, nay, almost every disease to which his animals are exposed, and yet bestow upon the subject only a moiety of attention.
Among the many blessings that Homeopathy has conferred upon the world, not among the least is the immense improvement which it has effected in the treatment of the diseases of Domestic Animals. ”

“ I have already explained that the savage opposition which homeopathy encountered from the medical profession was not a scientific opposition; for nobody seems to deny that some drugs act in the alleged manner. It was opposed simply because doctors and apothecaries lived by selling bottles and boxes of doctor's stuff to be taken in spoonfuls or in pellets as large as peas; and people would not pay as much for drops and globules no bigger than pins' heads. ”

“ Let us set out, then, to learn the two words. The best way is to learn them together. Allopathy means other suffering, homeopathy like suffering. An allopath uses remedies which create within the patient a condition that squarely conflicts with the further progress of the disease. A homeopath prescribes medicines (in small doses) which produce within the patient the same condition that the disease would produce; he "beats the disease to it," so to speak—takes the job himself and leaves the disease nothing to do. ”

“ II. of the Materia Medica Pura, the number of symptoms relating to the eye and its neighborhood is so large as to lead to the supposition that, if the theory of homeopathy be a correct one, this drug should prove of special value in the treatment of diseases of the visual organs. Never did an hypothesis receive better support when reduced to practice; and if the efficacy of the law of similia similibus curentur were compelled to rest upon a single test to demonstrate its truth, few better selections could be made than that of rhus tox. ”

“ In order to do justice to our patients and not neglect our responsibilities toward them we must use in the treatment of disease all that is good in all the natural methods of healing. In serious chronic cases any single one of these methods, whether it be pure food diet, hydrotherapy, massage, spinal treatment, mental therapeutics or homeopathy, is not by itself sufficient to achieve satisfactory results or to produce them fast enough. ”

“ Although at first sight it may seem strange, that animals should be successfully treated by the mild and apparently insignificant doses of Homeopathy, yet a moment’s reflection will suffice to give many reasons why this should be 6so. Even were it not susceptible of explanation, experience has abundantly demonstrated the fact, that animals are, if possible, even more susceptible to Homeopathic treatment than men, and its success in their case is even more striking and brilliant. ”

“ Becoming associated professionally with Dr. Carroll Dunham, he early adopted homeopathy, and soon rose to a prominent position among homeopathic practitioners.
In 1865 he received the degree of M.D. from the Homeopathic (Hahnemann) Medical College, of Philadelphia; two years later he became professor of materia medica in the New York Homeopathic College, and from 1882 was its dean. ”

“ Slighter diseases yield at once, and often from a single dose, while the most formidable cases that are almost absolutely incurable under old treatment, even when well conducted, often respond to the curative influence of Humphreys’ Homeopathic Remedies, while it is well known that even when animals recover under the old system of treatment such have been the ravages of disease and medicine, that their value and usefulness are generally destroyed. ”

“ It is an error to suppose that animals require very large doses of Humphreys’ Homeopathic Medicines, for experience has shown sick animals to be very impressible, and easily influenced by appropriate medicine, and in general, not to require as frequent repetitions as the human subject. Those who are accustomed to give large and powerful doses of poisonous medicines in order to produce some revulsive action, such as a cathartic or sudorific, or even as an alterative, can not from hence infer the proper quantity required when only a curative result is desired. ”

“ Probably from the fact that treatment of sick animals has been but little understood, and intrusted to the hands mainly of ignorant persons, who have pursued the most crude, cruel and destructive measures, often far more dangerous and life-destroying than the disease itself, a large proportion of the sick have died or been tortured to death. But when the same diseases are subjected to the mild and benign influence of intelligent Homeopathic treatment, it is found that almost every disease among them is within control, even the most fatal yielding to its magic influences. ”

“ They won’t act if you mix them up with other 16things; or bring the patient under the influence of other drugs, however harmless you may suppose them to be. The sure way of safety and success, is to trust to the Remedies alone. You will not improve the case by resorting to other medicines or other measures. ”

“ Osler's article, homeopaths have, as a matter of fact, lost less patients than allopaths. The effect of homeopathic medicine, moreover, is not altogether negative, as Dr. Osler implies. The discovery of the minute cell as the basis of the human organism on the one hand and of the unlimited divisibility of matter on the other hand explains the rationality of the infinitesimal dose. Health and disease are resident in the cell; therefore, the homeopath doctors the cell, and the size of the dose has to be apportioned to the size of the patient. ”

“ The manner in which the general, topical, or mechanical and hygienic portion of the treatment is handled is to be strongly approved. The homeopathic indications are well written. Like almost all books by homeopathic authors, it shows the peculiar bent of the homeopathic physician’s mind is upon the therapeutics or cure of the patient rather than upon the fine development of the pathology, ætiology, etc., of the disease. ”

“ With these symptoms it may not require much time to make a correct diagnosis, but it may be some time ere the patient is entirely free from the trouble even if he does use good homeopathic treatment. Then it is the treatment which interests us most. The patient at the beginning will ask if you can cure him and how long it will require to do it. The physician necessarily must guard his prognosis, especially if it is a case of long standing. If there is much atrophy, which has extended over several years, a permanent cure is very doubtful. ”

“ The one I consulted told me that homeopaths did not treat a disease name, but directed the remedy toward the symptoms at hand. This impressed me that he would treat my case on its merits and without any guess-work. My relief would depend upon correct statements in answer to all the doctor’s questions. He was very painstaking in this matter, and the questions asked were many and diversified. One was: “Do you ever imagine that you see a big spider [Pg 98] crawling up the wall?” Another was: “Do you at times imagine that you are falling from a high precipice?” ”

“ By its great therapeutic law, it has introduced new light, order, beauty and efficiency into the theory and practice of medicine. It has cured thousands of cases of chronic disease, beyond the reach of allopathic art, and has treated all acute diseases with admirable ease and success. In great epidemics, it proved always superior to the old system. I was converted by experiencing the wonderful effects of homœopathic medicine on myself, but particularly by witnessing the triumphs of Homœopathy in the treatment of the Asiatic cholera, in the terrible epidemic of 1849-'50 and '51. ”

“ All that pertains to the great field of medical learning is his by tradition, by inheritance, by right.”
It is claimed that the effect produced upon both the laity and the general profession of medicine by the introduction of homoeopathy was salutary in many ways. It diminished the quantity of medicine that was formerly considered necessary for the eradication of disease, and thus revealed the fact that the vis medicatrix naturae is often sufficient, with occasional and gentle assistance, to cure many diseases, especially those fevers that run a definite and regular course. ”

“ But that every cure ever performed by medicine should have been founded upon this principle, although without the knowledge of a physician; that the Homoeopathic axiom is, as Hahnemann asserts, "the sole law of nature in therapeutics," a law of which nothing more than a transient glimpse ever presented itself to the innumerable host of medical observers, is a dogma of such sweeping extent, and pregnant novelty, that it demands a corresponding breadth and depth of unquestionable facts to cover its vast pretensions. ”

“ They believe that in many cases of severe and acute pain palliatives are required, and that they are free to use all the adjuvants at present known to science for the relief of suffering humanity—massage, balneology, electricity, hygiene, &c. The American Institute of Homoeopathy, the national body of the United States, has adopted the following resolution and ordered it to be published conspicuously in each number of the Transactions of the society: “A homoeopathic physician is one who adds to his knowledge of medicine a special knowledge of homoeopathic therapeutics. ”

“ Most homoeopathists believe more or less in the action of minute doses of medicine, but it must not be considered as an integral part of the system. The dose is the corollary, not the principle. Yet in the minds of many, infinitesimal doses of medicine stand for homoeopathy itself, the real law of cure being completely put into the background. The question of dose has also divided the members of the homoeopathic school into bitter factions, and is therefore a matter for careful consideration. Many employ low potencies, [3] i.e. ”

“ Of course it is all otherwise in pseudo-medicine. Here “specifics” are as rank as weeds. Here little account is taken of natural provisions for the cure of disease. Here physic is everything, and nature and the physician are unimportant. Given the symptoms of a disease and a book of “testings,” every old lady thinks herself as competent a physician as Hahnemann. Every disease and symptom of disease has its corresponding remedy, or rather we should say two remedies, for it will nearly always be found that homœopathic patients take two medicines, in equal doses and with equal frequency. ”

“ Very little power is allowed to the curative efforts of nature. Hahnemann goes so far as to say that no one has ever seen the simple efforts of nature effect the durable recovery of a patient from a chronic disease. In general, the Homoeopathist calls every recovery which happens under his treatment a cure.
2. Every medicinal substance must be administered in a state of the most perfect purity, and uncombined with any other. The union of several remedies in a single prescription destroys its utility, and, according to the “Organon,” frequently adds a new disease. ”