A text-book of pharmacology, therapeutics and materia medica / by T. Lauder Brunton ; adapted to the United States Pharmacopoeia by Francis H. Williams.

  • Brunton, T. Lauder (Thomas Lauder), 1844-1916.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A text-book of pharmacology, therapeutics and materia medica / by T. Lauder Brunton ; adapted to the United States Pharmacopoeia by Francis H. Williams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/1324
    imperfect; and as I omitted to expurgate ' Apis,' I may also possibly have overlooked other remedies. If any such omission has occurred I am sincerely sorry, and I can assure the homoeo- paths that it is perfectly unintentional. Perhaps it may be well to take this opportunity of saying a few words in regard to homoeopathic remedies and homceopathy generally. The mere fact that a drug in small doses will cure a disease exhibiting symptoms similar to those produced by a large dose of the drug does not constitute it a homoeopathic medicine, for this rule was known to Hippocrates, and the rule similia simi- lihus curantur was recognised by him as true in some instances. But Hippocrates was not a homoeopath, and he recognised the fact that, while this rule was sometimes true, it was not invari- ably so. It seems to me that, in founding the system of homoeopathy, Hahnemann has proceeded with his facts as he did with his medi- cines—diluting his active drugs with inert matter, and diluting his facts with much nonsense. In what I am about to say, I may be to some extent open to correction, for I cannot claim to know his doctrines so thoroughly as those who believe in and follow him. So far, however, as I know his doctrines, it seems to me that they consist in raising the rule similia similibus curantur to the rank of a regular law; in claiming a curative power for infinitesimal doses, and in be- lieving that the diminution in the dose of the drug was made up for by the potency conferred upon it through prolonged tritura- tion. It is no doubt true that in some instances the power of a drug may be increased by trituration, inasmuch as fine subdivi- sion either makes it more easily absorbed or alters its chemical composition, as in the case of mercurial compounds, where the prolonged exposure to the air and friction involved in the tri- turation may greatly increase the power of the drug by oxidising it, and changing it from a mercurous to a mercuric salt. But in both cases the increased activity conferred upon the drug is strictly limited, although it may be great in the case of the salts of mercury. To suppose it to be exerted ad infinitum is sheer nonsense, and the absurdity of infinitesimal doses has been so often demonstrated that it is useless to say more about it. I think one is justified in describing Hahnemann's experiment with cinchona bark as the foundation-stone of his doctrine of homoeopathy; for Dr. Nankivell, in his Presidential Address to