What is homoeopathy? : a new exposition of a great truth / by Wm. H. Holcombe.

  • William Henry Holcombe
Date:
1864
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: What is homoeopathy? : a new exposition of a great truth / by Wm. H. Holcombe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    of it. It is a general, though by no means a universal pathological law, that two powerful diseases or forms of abnormal action, cannot exist in the whole system or in any part of it at the same time. If, therefore, we can produce a new disease or new mode of abnormal action in the exact position of one that may be existing or expected, we may possibly supercede the latter; and if the new disorder sub- side spontaneously, without injury, we cure our patients. The operation of numerous remedial agents may be explained in this way.—Wood's Therapeutics, vol. 1, page 54. Upon this ground we are disposed to suggest the use of strychnia in tetanus ; not that we have become followers of Hahnemann, but that it is a simple and undeniable fact, that disorders are occasion- ally removed by remedies which have the power of producing similar affections. It is quite unnecessary to explain this fact by an arbitrary principle, that one artificial irritation excludes a spon- taneous irritation of the same kind. A more rational ground for an expectation of benefit from Homoeopathic remedies may be found in the consideration, that such agents prove by their occasional pro- duction of symptoms like those of the disease to be treated, that they act on the part which is the seat of the disease, and conse- quently that there is a probability, that in their operation on that part (whether it be to the extent of producing a similar disease or not) they may effect a beneficial change. Oil of turpentine, for in- stance, having been known to produce a discharge of bloody urine, might be rationally administered in a case of spontaneous hema- turia.—Dr. Symouds' Article on Tetanus, Cyclop, of Pract. Medicine, vol. 4, page 375. For myself, I accept the above paragraphs as a very fair exposition of the principles upon which I practice what is called Homoeopathy. Out of the mouths of the most intelligent and independent regular physicians, I can establish the truth and rationality of the Homoeopathic law. I might multiply quotations by the dozen, but the above are sufficient. We differ, not as to the nature, but as to the extent of this great therapeutic principle immortalized by Hahnemann. Our Allopathic friends give it a subordinate place : we insist upon its suprem-
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