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Leader (1850-1860), 3rd May 1851, Edition Town of 1, Page 419

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      wise old saw . Many great physicians have from time to time recognised the value of the principle , so that it has long held a place in medical literature as the recognised antithesis to the dogmatic notion of cure conveyed in another antique alliteration , Contrana contrariis curanturj signif ying in theoretical shorthand , that opposite diseases cure one another . The stopping of a purge by means of a little laudanum , and the opening of the bowels with castor oil , are Contraria contrariis . The extent of the applicability of this principle , be it ever so good , is limited in the extreme , for the opposites of almost no diseases are known or knowable ; what is the opposite of a headache , a tic , the gout , or an

      intermittent fever ? It has , therefore , proved a plaything rather than a working truth ; and no practical structure has ever been founded upon it . It is logically useless . It is only by a play upon words , indeed , that it can ever be said to be tne general expression of a number of facts . If a spasmodic disease be cured by any medicine whatever , that medicine is certainly an antispasmodic ; and it may be written down so in the books . But the homoeopathist , as we shall find , says , True ; yet that very medicine is effective , not because it produces the opposite of a spasmodic disease in the system , but because it excites a similar spasmodic disease there . At the

      same time , the medicine is an antispasmodic , since it cures a spasmodic disease ; there is no disputing that sapient sequitur : and the ipso facto antispasmodic Contrarium had better retort with Dogberry , is Write me down an ass " ! Be these things as they may , Hahnemann at last conceived the idea that the principle of similar diseases curing one another , often adduced before his day , but never founded on , might be nothing less than the open secret of the healing art ; and that when he was five-and-thirty years of age , after having abandoned the public practice of physic as really a bad business , although his reputation was rising with unusual rapidity . Ransacking the

      history of medicine with the keen eye of a trained reader , he perceived that many recorded cures could be referred to that principle . Surveying the then practice of the profession , he noticed that several medicines , such as Jesuits' bark for one of the types of ague , could not be classified under any of the many orthodox heads . Being in good health , he took the bark himself day alter day , until it produced the opening symptoms of the aguish type , which former experience had shown it to be good for . In short he hypothetically generalized the principle of one fire burning out another ' s pain all over medicine ; and surmised that he was on the threshold of a vast and glorious discovery .

      Before this hypothetical outline , could be filled up so as to convert it from a castle in the air into a college of health , it is clear that a new world of work had to he undertaken . It was necessary to discover from recorded accidents , from well-described poisonings , but especially by means of an immense series of unheard-of experiments on healthy men and women , what diseases , that is to Kay , what symptoms each medicinal agent is productive of in the system of man . lie Hahnemann right or he he wrong , it was here that his magnanimity and industry were displayed as

      conspicuously as those of Copernicus or Newton , or whatsoever great names there are in the ever-laborious history of science . For the space of some twenty years ho was engaged in the most painstaking experiments upon himself , his immediate friends , and certain absolutely devoted disciples . We do not think it possible to overrate the quality and amount of labour this man went through for this purpose ; and all ingenuous men allow that , apart from homoeopathy , it was a new nnd great service done to inedieinu in general ; while a committee of houHEopathists , appointed to revise some of his experiments , find them to lie amazing for accuracy and arrangement . His

      multitudinous but orderly observations are contained iu the memorable Materiu Medim I ' nra ; but ninny had heen published in curlier works . The reader will easily see that a completed Matcna Mcdira , a hook in which should ho «« t down all the symptoms called forth in man b y all the medicinal agents of nature , would constitute a perfect preliminary to the treatment of all human disease , according to the Hahnemannian notion of things . In such a ease , the physician would note down and gather into a totality the nymptoms under which hi . s patient might he labouring ; he would then open his hook , and ^ discover which medicine produces a symptomatic totality tho most similar to what he has to cure ; and he would then administer it according to rule . Such is whnt the

      homoeopathist virtually does : only his book is yet far from completed , perhaps , and he is not necessarily a master in his art , so that both homoeopathy and homoeopathists may often fail . But the former is progressive , like the Copernican astronomy and th *; Lavoisierian chemistry , insomuch that the followers of Hahnemann are making ever new experiments with medical substances upon the healthy body ; scrutinizing certain of their leaders * more hypothetical views with the utmost rigour , and investigating all the collateral relations of their theory of cure ; while the latter , the homoepathist ,

      namely , is only a learner as well as his neighbours . Such is a brief glance into the nature of homoeo pathy . Cinchona produces a kind of intermittent , and it cures it ; nitric acid produces salivation , and it is a remedy for salivation produced by quicksilver ; sulphur can produce mucous piles , and it can cure them ; coffee produces wakefulness , and it cures it ; and so forth , through thousands of morbid symptoms and symptomatic combinations . This is not the place either to plead for so elaborate a scheme , or to assail it ; but such is the idea of the thing , expounded in a popular way , as one of

      the most remarkable intellectual curiosities ( if nothing more ) of the prolific century in which we live . It is to be suspected that argument will do little either for or against it . From experiment it came , to experience it must go , and by the verdict of experience will it eventually stand or fall . It can be fairly tried only at the bedside ; and it appears to be the imminent duty of the profession to accord it such a trial , an honest , a fearless , and especially a cautious trial . But the scientific critic

      will be cautious in two directions , and not only in one , as is too common among the orthodox . He will be equally on his guard against missing the truth and admitting- error . It may turn out to be an all-important matter for him . Suppose him to be converted to homoeopathy , and it happen to be a delusion after all ; or what if he reject it , and homoeopathy prove the rapid and triumphant truth in medicine , so as to leave him deserted alike of nature and the public in middle life or old age !

      This doctrine has met with not a little persecution , much abuse , and more contempt in all sorts of high medical quarters ; but it cannot be said to have been rejected by the profession at large . Every year is adding to the number of its regularly educated converts ; and , seeing they risk their good names and fortunes upon the choice , these may be considered as bona fide votes in its favour . It is also observable that the number of mediciners , whom homoeopathy , together with other recent influences , has brought to a stand , and converted into universal sceptics in their art , is not inconsiderable . As for the great body of the profession in Britain , we , as non-professional witnesses of the

      rising controversy , are not at all satisfied that one in a hundred has ever read a legitimate homceo pathic treatise , or , indeed , knows anything about the matter . Deducting , then , all these ignorunts as so many nothings , and all the universal sceptics as so many half-nothings , it remains to be proved that the real opponents of the new practice are more numerous than its friends even in this country . An experimental mind will probably insinuate , to carry the matter a little further , that the small remainder of real opponents must show that they have tried the case conscientiously at the bedside , before their suffrage a can be counted at their full value . JSo that it is just possible that not one real voice has yet been raised against it .

      The fact is , however , that the homoeopathic principle would not have had a more than ordinary and properly conservative opposition to encounter , but for its getting entangled , almost at its very outset , with a contingent practice which certainly looks most unreasonable at first sight , and even long after first si f ^ ht . Ilahnemann had not gone far in his newly-discovered way , when he was struck with the smnllness of the dose he needed to give , when prescribing uncording to his therapeutic ; maxim . He diminished it more and more , by way of experiment ; and was actually landed by sheer experience , as well as to his own amazement , on the conclusion that it may be reduced to an infinitesimal proportion . Hence the globules of his followers . But what could ho do ? It behoved

      him to follow Nature at all hazards Hiirely . It was even magnaninioiiH to peril the reception of his own discovery , by mixing it up with this strange and adventitious thing ; lor these small doses do not constitute homoeopathy ; they are merely ineidental to it ; and the right-minded critic will not forget the fact . Yet we cannot help perceiving that tho universal use of infinitesimal quantities , on tho

      part of practical homoeopathy , must stagger and repel the majority of inquiring minds at the very threshold of our subject ; and shall , therefore , do our best to procure some information on the point , since it is not unlikely that those who employ such doses may have something to say for themselves and their practice . There is an article expressly on the theory of small doses in one of the volumes of the British Journal now before us . We shall return to this subject in a third article .

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      BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . The First German Beading Book ; containing Dot T « u ? * - ^> f the Dove . With Introductory Grammar , and a Vocabulary con taining every word occurring m the Text . By F ^ , ^ g e ^ - One of Herr Falck Lebahn ' s admirable books of beginners , which indeed may be used without a master , as the instructions are copious and plain ; and a Vocabulary is added , which will enable the student to accomplish tnat desired and desirable object—the reading of a tale in the language he is just beginning . Only those who have had experience in teaching , can appreciate the stimulus given to the learner ' s amour propre by allowing the difficulties of the language to come late in the course of study , and by enabling the learner to read for himself , be it never so little . Schmid ' s story of Das TUubchen is the vehicle selected by Herr Falck Lebahn . The Cape and the Kaffirs : Diary of Five Years' Residence in Kaffirland , with a Chapter of Advice to Emigrants . By H arriet "Ward . Third Edition , with Frontispiece and Map oftne Seat of War . ( Bohn ' s Cheap Series . ) H . G . Bonm Before the recent events had given an unusual interest apropos to this pleasant diary , the public had alreadj exhausted two editions . It has been altered to " suit the crisis , " and will be very acceptable in its present cheap and portable form . Whitefriars ; or . The Days of Charles II . An Historical Romance . In 2 vols . ( Railway Library . ) Vol . 1 . G . Kouteledge and Co . The first volume of a reprint of the dashing romance by which the author made his reputation . Another volume will complete the work . The Convent . A Narrative founded on Fact . By K . M'Crindell , Authoress of " The English Governess . " Third Edition . Aylottand Jonef . This is a Protestant story , which owes its success more to the English animus ag " ain 6 t all things Catholic than to any intrinsic merits of its own . Every sect abounds with works as honest in intention and as dishonest in . execution ; so that we need not dwell upon this " Narrative founded on fact . " Everybody abuses everybody . Everybody misrepresents everybody ; and what is charm , ing in this universal execration is the belief each one has that he alone is perfectly pure , truthful , and just . The Duchess of Maine used to say naively— ' * C ' este'tonnant , je nevoisque moiqui aei toujoun raison / " " How strange it is that i never rind anybody always right but myself !" Sights of London and How to See Them for 1851 . By William Collier . Vicker » . A cheap and useful guide to Londoners as well as strangers . A Key to the Colonies ; or . Advice to the Million on Emigration . lSy a . < J . Ure

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      The Church of England in the Reigns of Ile . nry VIII .. Edicant VI ., and Mary ; with Preliminary Noticrs » J the Ecclcnastical Hilton / of our i . ' outitiy from the earliest ' limes . Anti-Mlale Church I'leu sura . Objects , ( mil Advantages of Literature . A Uiscour e . By the llcv . Hubert Arib \ V iilniott . T . IJ ( is worth . Letters to a Candid Inquirer , on Animal Magnetism . Ity Win . Grtrfjory , M . I ) . Taylor , Walton , and M abcrley . The lirittth Quarterly Review , No . XXVI . J . iclvsou and Walford . The Great Exhibition , its Palace and its 1 ' rinei p al Contents ; with Notices of tin : Public Huildin <> s of the Metropolis , Places of Amusement , H > c . ISy Kobc-rls bleplK-nMon-Cirorge ltoutlcdt ;« and Co . The Poems of Schiller , complete . ; including all his early Suppressed fiec . es . Atlempl « : il in Eu ^ liuli . l ^ y I ' -d ^ ar Aided Howling . J . W . I ' aikrr . t to

      St . Paul's Ep istles to the Corinthians : an attemp Convey their Sp irit and Significance . IVy John Hamilton Thoni . J . ( Jlmpinun Heaven and its H ' onders , the / forId of Spirits for the Intermediate Region , which is the first Receptacle of Ulan after Death J , and Hell : from the . Latin of limanuel Swedenburg . Translated by the Ili-v . Suunu-l Aoblc H'ilh a New Prejuca hi / the Translator , including Explanatory Aolvs and Observations , together with the Original English Piejace , by \\ u : K « : v . Tlioinua Hartley . A . M . J . H . Hudson . Infants in Heaven ; or the Probable future Stale of Deceased Children . Uv th « K < v . K . Kdli'Mton . J- Hudson . Official Dcicriplive , and Illustrated Catalogs of the Great Exhibition if the H ' urks of Industry of . III JNatimis , 1851 . 1 ' art 1 , Introduction ; « ikI ri < -otiuu 1 , Ka \ v M » l < 'i iiiIh . Clauses \ | o 4 _ tSpic . fr 111 other * . Dickens' Household Words . Dickens' Household Jn ' arralire . Penny Maps . 1 ' urt 10 . Chapman mid Hall . Tait's Edinburgh Magazine . No . CC 1 X . Hlmpkiii , Mnrtthull , nnd Co . Time-thrift : or . All Hours turned to Good Account . Conducted by AIih . Win ion . Nou . 1 mid 2 . Longman , ltrown , und Co . Familiar Things ; a Cyclopaedia of Entertaining Knowledge . / fruit / Useful 1 / formation Popularly Arranged . Hull , Virtue , and Co . Synopsis of the Contents of the ( Jreal Exhibition of 1 H 51 . My jloiiuit Hunt . Siiicvr lirotheru .

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      May 3 , 1851 . ] % f , t fLea&er . ' 4 I °

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 3, 1851, page 419, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1881/page/15/