Four letters on homoeopathy : addressed to a manager of the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, with an appendix on homoeopathic statistics / by Alexander Harvey.

Date:
1868
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Four letters on homoeopathy : addressed to a manager of the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, with an appendix on homoeopathic statistics / by Alexander Harvey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    be, to connect the two as standing to each other in the re- lation of cause and effect. Such being the position of the Homoeopath, the inde- pendent curative powers of nature besetting him on all sides (a lion always in his path), he falls back on statistics on the large scale, or the trial by numbers. How he fares at the hands of statistics, how statistics fare at his hands, and what the intrinsic value of medical statistics generally, will form the subject of my next letter and of the appendix. Let us turn next to the medicines and the doses of the Homoeopathic school. As to the former, I shall only take note of one of Dr. Keith’s allegations. He says, “For some years back, medical men have systematic- ally borrowed from their opponents, and prescribed some of the very drugs which the Homoeopaths have used for many years, and for the very same diseases” (p. 44). He names “ arnica and nux vomica''1 as examples in point, and he is indignant at “ such conduct.” Now, as to these two (and you may be very sure they are the chief, if not the only ones), the plain truth is that they were known and in use as drugs long before Hahnemann was born. As for the rest, in as far as they have no place in the British Pharma- copoeia—e. y., the bee and its sting (apis mel.), as a remedy used by them for diseases attended with a stinging pain, or with a swelling anywhere, we make them heartily welcome to them all.* * Apis Mel.—Lest it should be supposed that tho statement in the text is ironical, I here quote the following from the “ Homoeopathic Directory” for the current year (1868), p. 199 :—“Apis Melifica.—Writing of this medi- •cine, Mr. Nankivell, of York, says— * In simple renal anarsaca (dropsy) from congestion of the kidneys in consequence of a cold, I have been highly gratified with the potent action of this remedy. The following case is one of several which did well with this medicine only:—Ruth S., aged 51, was exposed to a violent storm of wind and rain, and took cold. She has a distressing feeling of sickness, but does not vomit; has a dead stinging