A new and comprehensive system of materia medica and therapeutics, arranged upon a physiologico-pathological basis: for the use of practitioners and students of medicine (Volume 1).

  • Hempel, Charles J. (Charles Julius), 1811-1879.
Date:
1864-1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A new and comprehensive system of materia medica and therapeutics, arranged upon a physiologico-pathological basis: for the use of practitioners and students of medicine (Volume 1). 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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    In Hahnemann's case, theory preceded practice. He was a man of genius and the discoverer of a great law, interwoven in the very foundations of nature, and constituting an essential element in her infinite mechanism. Cullen might have seen it before Hahnemann, but although a fine thinker and an excellent physiologist who believed in the vitalizing forces of the nervous system, and was therefore far in advance of the massive humoralism which had been dispensing under Boerhaave's lead its dissolvant, its deobstruent, its discutient, its incrassant brews and decoctions: yet his was not the glorious destiny to interpret the specific curative relation which Peruvian bark holds to intermittent fever, as the result of an univer- sal law which would prove applicable to the treatment of diseases generally, and would be universally followed by the same positive and life-saving results. It is the perception of this specific relation of the bark to intermittent fever which establishes the genius of Hahnemann; the readiness with which he generalized his discovery, shows the vastness of his grasping intellect. The opponents of Homoeopathy deny that Peruvian bark is endowed with the specific power of producing a condition like fever and ague in the healthy organism. They affect to account for the effects of bark experienced by Hahnemann by the fact, that these effects resulted from a foregone conclusion in Hahnemann's mind. He had predetermined that the specific curative power of bark in fever and ague, was owing to the property it possesses of realizing a similar disturbance in the healthy organism; and therefore, when he experimented with bark in order to verify the correctness of his theory, the specific effects had to be such as he had decided in his own mind they should be. This is Professor Simpson's theory against Hahnemann. He too took the bark without experiencing any of its fever and ague symptoms, and therefore he concludes that, in the matter of Simpson versus Hahnemann, he, Simpson, being his own judge and jury, brings in a verdict in his favor without the least hesitation or compunction of conscience, and apparently satisfied that Hahnemann will go down to posterity, if he goes there at all, or does not go to a worse place, as a common impostor, covered with merited derision and contempt. But the Professor has failed to perceive that his argument against Hahnemann cuts both ways, for it certainly was a foregone conclusion in the Professor's mind'that bark should not produce fever and ague ; hence it did not produce it. The discovery of Homoeopathy will be viewed in another, I should say more heavenly light, by those who religiously believe that God's providence rules the destinies of this humanity. God knew that in the course of time diseases would invade the human frame, and He certainly must have provided means of meeting the adversary in an adequate manner. And inasmuch as God's providence operates by universal laws, He must have arranged, in the very framework of nature, an universal principle of cure, which, in due course of time, would be discovered and applied for the relief of the sick. We have a right to suppose that, if love and wisdom be not mere abstractions, but living and efficient attributes of the Divine Creator, His infinite love would prompt His wisdom to devise such a law of