HOMEOPATHY.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE SPECTATOR.

" Mark. how plain a tale shall set you down."—Saassesas.

Snt—The "disciple of this system," (who I opine might with equal truth and more candour have subscribed himself an Homoeopathic practitioner,) doubt- less considered that no one would take the trouble to reply to his lengthy com- munication in your last number ; which would in all probability have been the case had it appeared in any less reputable journal; but when an article is in- serted in the Spectator, it acquires a title to notice which it might not other- wise possess. It is the usual course of pseudo-sciences, particularly when pro- fessing to have a connexion with medicine, to appeal from the profession by whom the value of their pretensions is soon seen and the motives which give rise to them soon appreciated, to the public, upon whom they calculate (and frequently with reason) their one-sided statements and soi-disant facts will pass current; and also to cry persecution, citing the opposition which GALuxe, HARVEY, and other distinguished men whose discoveries have benefited hu- manity, had met with in their day. There is, however, this difference ; that the true always prevails, the false is always detected, although it may for a time succeed in imposing upon the multitude, and Homoeopathy has now been many years before the public in various countries ; and notwithstanding the ab- surdity of its doctrines, has been amply and impartially tested by individuals as well as in large establishments, and by order of governments, without being able to number among those who adopted it any name of note in the scientific or medical world ; but on the other hand, many persons never before heard have endeavoured through it, to bring themselves into notice which they could not effect by other means ; and the system is now exploded by all reputable

i practitioners n France and Germany.

I shall briefly expose the futility of the principles (as far as their general ap- plicability is concerned) which your correspondent lays down as the basis of Homceopathy. The first is, that "all medicines, when received into the human organization, respectively possess the power of exciting specific morbid symp- toms." Now everybody knows that active substances excite particular organs; though this action is frequently null ; and the effects vary in an infinite mea- ner in different individuals, according to the state of health or disease, &c.; bat very few can be said to produce any specific morbid symptoms. Thus, a per- son may take a few drops of laudanum, and sleep will ensue ; another, ap- parently similarly constituted, may take the same quantity, and headatffie, restlessness, &c. will be produced ; a person likewise in certain diseased condi- tions might often take with advantage as much of this substance as would poison him under other circumstances, when the indications for its exhibition did not exist. The " disciple " complains of the ridicule, and the mere as- sertions of the opponents of Ilomceopathy being unsupported by examination and facts, which merely proves that he is ignorant of much that has taken place on the subject and of the experiments on a large scale, which were made in France, Germany, Italy, and Russia, of which the journals of the time made mention, and which were referred to in a work published in London.* Thus with respect to the preparations of bark, which was the substance used in HAHNEMANN'S first experiment, and which he says produced an attack of ague, whence he inferred the principle of his doctrine, sunilia si,nilibus ourantzsr - it was found in the experiments made by Professor Animal, on one hundred and thirty persons in the hospital of La Charit6 in Paris, in the presence of numerous witnesses, (the preparations having been procured from a Homoeo- pathic chemist) that the various preparations of this substance, taken by M. AUDRA.L and by ten other persons, produced no effect when taken in Homoeo- pathic doses : ordinary doses were then taken, which were gradually increased up from six to twenty-four grains of sulphate of quinine per day. None of those per- sons experienced the least symptom of an attack of intermittent fever, the only effects produced by these large doses were slight indisposition and headache in some whose stomachs were not so strong as the rest. Like trials were made with aconite and other substances, with a similar result. Thus this first series of experiments, which were to ascertain whether symptoms can be produced in healthy persons by medicines which cure similar symptoms when arising from other causes, produced the following conclusion—the statement that remedies cause diseases similar to those which they cure, is an assertion utterly groundless.

The second kind of experiment was made to ascertain whether liomceopathic remedies would in any case affect the progress of disease, and the results as these will be a sufficient answer to this second position laid down by your cor- respondent; viz. " That when the human organization is in a disordered state, the restoration of health can more safely and certainly be effected by the ad- ministration of medicines which possess the power of exciting symptoms ana- logous to those exhibited by the patient, and which characterize his disease." Several cases of intermittent fever were treated Homeopathically. Some got well at the end of a certain period; which would in all probability have been the case had no remedies been employed ; in other cases no effect was pro- duced, and on the usual method of treatment being adopted the patients got rapidly well. Similar results were obtained in treating febrile diseases and se- veral chronic complaints, except that in some cases the patients got worse while under the Homoeopathic system. In order to ascertain and give publicity to the results, the Russian Govern- ment caused a certain number of patients to be treated Homeeopathically in one hospital, while in another an equal number of patients were merely sub- jected to diet and appropriate regimen, without the exhibition of any medicine

The results were very similar in both instances; and the Medical Council ap- pointed to superintend the experiments, thus states the conclusions at which it arrived : 1st, Acute diseases require energetic means of treatment, which are • Arista, Magnetism and Lianixepathse. Second edition, with notes illustrative of the influence of the mind °tithe body.—WurrrAnza and Co.

aot to be expected from Hormccipathy. 2d, The Homoeopathic treatment of external lesions and surgical diseases is altogether out of the question. 3d, Some slight affections get well while under Homoeopathic treatment; but similar affections disappear equally well without any medical treatment, by the adop- tion of an appropriate regimen, good air, and cleanliness." The commission appointed by a Roj al order at Naples to superintend the

Homoeopathic treatment of a certain number of patients, determined, in the first place, to ascertain whether some of the patients would not get well with- out the employment of any remedy : ten were consequently set apart, and all recovered ; one of them had a gastric fever: the Homeopathic physician wished to give him a drop of the tincture of St. Ignatius bean, at the twelfth dilution, representing a quadrillionth part of the original drop. He protested against waiting, saying that the delay might compromise the life of the patient. The

physicians reassured him ; they reckoned upon a crisis occurring, which accord- ingly did take place in the night, and the patient was well in two days. Had the Homoeopathic dose been taken, the cure would most assuredly have been attributed to it. From all the experiments, the commission deduced : 1st, That the Homeopathic treatment produced no effect ; and 2d, That it had the seri- ous inconvenience in several of the patients of preventing the employment of remedies by which they might be cured. I shall not obtrude upon your space by dwelling upon the influence of the imagination in the production of the so-called Homoeopathic cures; but may cite the following case as an amusing illustration, which is related by a physi- cian of St. Petersburg. "A. phthisical lady bad been treated by the Homoeo- pathic method during two years, when I became her physician ; and as my efforts were unsuccessful, she requested me to treat her Homeopathically. I consented; and gave her two grains of sugar, assuring her she would experience the effects of this powerful medicine for six days. The following day she re- ceived me with an ironical smile, saying 'One may easily see, doctor, that you are not accustomed to handle Homeopathic remedies; that which you gave me was too energetic ; it caused so much disturbance that I did not expect to outlive the night : however, its action is in the end salutary, for I have not felt myself so well for a long time as I feel today." It is hardly necessary to notice some other points upon which stress is laid by your correspondent in illustration of the principle of shnilia similibus ; which have been adduced by other Homeopathists, such as the application of snow to frost-bitten parts, &c. Snow is used, as is well-known, in these cases w th friction, in order to bring the parts gradually to their natural state ; w ereas, if used on Homeopathic principles it would be kept constantly ap- ed; and, as may be imagined, with a certainty of aggravating the evil; so Iso with respect to the application of heat to scalded parts, &c.

- That the activity of many substances is augmented by trituration, dilution, and admixture, has been long known, though the degree to which this principle was carried by HAHNEMANN is absurd; and I cannot better illustrate the ex- tent of this absurdity than by quoting his own words—" Besides, the Homeo- pathic medicament acquires at each division and dilution an extraordinary de- gree of power by the friction or the shock imparted to it as a means of develop- ing the inherent virtues of medicines unknown before me, and which is so ener- getic, that of late experience has obliged me to shake only twice, whereas for- merly I prescribed ten shakes to each dilution." This, as well as the follow- ing extract, is given in support of one of the fundamental principles of Homoeo- pathy, which is denied by your correspondent, viz, that the energy of the me- dicament is increased in proportion as it is more diluted. "Gold, silver, pla- tina, charcoal, are without action on man in their ordinary state; but from the continued trituration of a grain of gold with a hundred grains of powdered sugar, there results a preparation which has already great medicinal virtue. If a grain of this mixture be taken and triturated with another hundred grains of sugar, and if this process be continued until each grain of the ultimate pre- paration contains a quadrillionth part of the grain of gold, we shall have a medicament in which the medicinal virtue of the gold is so much developed, that it will be sufficient to take a grain, place it in a phial, and cause the air from it to be breathed for a few instants -by a melancholy individual in whom the disgust of life is carried so far as to incline to suicide, in order that an hour afterwards this person be delivered from his evil daemon, and restored to his taste for life."

HAHNEXANN also says, in speaking of silex or flint, "This earth being re- duced to a millionth degree of attenuation, a grain of the powder is reduced to the decillionth dilution. In fact, dilutions to the billionth or trillionth degree produce effects much too violent; that of the sextillionth degree only may be commenced with; but this only suits robust persons : in irrbable subjects it is prudent to use only the decillionth dilution." Again, of kitchen salt he says,

A grain of salt is reduced to the millionth degree of attenuation; this powder is dissolved in diluted alcohol, and the division extended to the deed- lionth degree ; carried to this degree of dilution, sea-salt is a powerful and heroical medicament, which can only be administered to patients with the 'greatest caution.'" * The above will be sufficient to illustrate the principles and practice of Homoeopathy, which some persons on the Continent as well as in England have endeavoured to keep before the public by the establishment of dispensaries, &c. The only one remaining of which I am aware is at Leipsic, and I think it not improbable that even this has ceased to exist ; for about two years ago the house-physician, having become convinced during a residence of some time in the dispensary of the nullity and danger of Homoeopathy, gave up the appointment, and published an exposition of the system pursued, with an account of cases; which clearly shows—what bad long been evident to the profession and the bulk of the public—that the so-called cures were recoveries from ordinary ailments by the efforts of Nature, which were frequently a long time under treatment ; whereas, by a proper medication and attention at the outset, they might probably have been removed in a few days; and that many of the more serious cases got worse instead of better, for the want of active treatment.t

It mint not be supposed that Homoeopathists always adhere in practice to the principles of the doctrine. It has not unfrequently happened that persons who attributed their recovery to Homoeopathy, were, in fact, treated allopa- thically without their being aware of it. Indeed, one practitioner at Leipsic, a profound Homeopathist, candidly acknowledged that he pursued both plans of treatment, and was in the habit of asking his patients by which method they would he treated, as both were equally good. The fate of the late Duke DE CANNIZZABO, with whom I was acquainted, may also serve as a warning for those who are disposed to tamper with their health& The Duke received three pills, which he neglected to take at the prescribed intervals, and believing them to be Homeopathic, thought that no harm could result from his taking them all at once—which he accordingly did; and did not survive more than twoor three hours. With apologies for the length to which this letter has ex- ended, I am your obedient servant, ANTI-HOMCEOPATHY. P.S. It is not my intention to enter into any further discussion upon the subject.

• Exposition, Sec.

t ber die Nichtikeil der Homeeoputhie—On the Nothingness of IFIconceopethy. LeiPsie,1840.

[This letter came as an immediate reply to the paper by " A Disciple of the System " ; but the pressure of temporary matter has for some weeks thwarted every effort to make room for it. Our correspondent is totally mistaken in sup- posing the "Disciple" to be a practitioner : though well informed on that as well as on other subjects, he has no connexion with the practice of medicine.—ED.3