Uniformity of drug proving : read before the semi-annual meeting of the Homoeopathic Medical Society of Oneida County, N.Y., June 18, 1861 / by H. Paine.

  • Paine, H. M. (Horace Marshfield), 1827-1903.
Date:
[1861]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Uniformity of drug proving : read before the semi-annual meeting of the Homoeopathic Medical Society of Oneida County, N.Y., June 18, 1861 / by H. Paine. 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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    UNIFORMITY OF DRUG PROVING. RE*D BEFORE The Semi-Annual Meeting of the Homoeopathic Medical Society of Oneida County, N.-Y., June 18, 1861. By H> PAINE, M.D., of Clinton, N.-Y. One of the essential principles of homoeopathy is the institut- ing of thorough and reliable provings of drugs by healthy persons; we need not therefore allude to its necessity or im- portance, or advocate such a procedure. It is doubtless con- ceded by each one of us, that the great work of the homoeopa- thic profession of the present day is to obtain, as far as may be, a complete pathogenesis of every known medicinal sub- stance, by the collection of which in future years there may be prepared a perfect materia medica. With this great work in view it is a source of encourage- ment to know, that the morbid effects of drugs upon the human system are essentially the same in all places and in all ages. The comparatively recent provings of Helleborus-niger by Hahnemann reveal precisely the same symptomatic aberra- tions that resulted from its administration by Hippocrates and his disciples. It follows therefore, that a perfect and use- ful materia medica must be based upon exhaustive :£} com- plete provings. Each remedy must be proved and reproved until no new symptoms are produced. Then, and not till then, can the work as far as performed, be considered finished and completed. What a mass of unimportant symptoms have been incorpo- rated into the works in use at the present day! So unsatis- factory is the study of the pathogenesis of many remedies now in frequent use, that probably many of us are obliged to depend upon our own experience rather than the published record, though this, imperfect as it is, forms a basis of our experience. Is this multitude of symptoms to be transmitted