The homoeopathic materia medica : arranged systematically and practically / by A. Teste ; translated from the French and edited by Chas. J. Hempel.

  • Teste, Alph. (Alphonse), 1814-
Date:
1854
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The homoeopathic materia medica : arranged systematically and practically / by A. Teste ; translated from the French and edited by Chas. J. Hempel. 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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    INTRODUCTION. drug acts with more certainty or energy, than the scarlatina virus ? In order that drugs should be able to preserve the organism from an epidemic malady, their power to modify the vital force, must be superior to that of the epidemic.1 Not in the least. The drug and the contagious miasm are two principles which neutralize each other; for, if bella- donna prevents the effects of the scarlatina-virus, the virus, in its turn, opposes the development of the symptoms inherent in the belladonna,2 which would only manifest themselves in case the virus should not yet have been absorbed. Does the vaccine, which is a preventive against small-pox, possess in a higher degree than the disease, the power of modifying the vital force ? Nobody believes this. A single objec- tion -is sufficient to reject this erroneous hypothesis; if the vaccine prevents the development of small- pox, does not, on the other hand, the small-pox miasm prevent the development of the vaccine virus ? It is not then from the relative superiority of their dynamic power, that the natural or artificial mor- bific agents derive their efficacity against diseases similar to those which they themselves would pro- duce, if allowed to act alone, without being irresisti- 1 Organon, p. 120, note. . 2 Is it not moreover evident that an individual who takes a dm*, or is inoculated with a virus, vaccine for instance, voluntarily favors the absorption of the modifying agent, whereas he generally uses every effort m order to withdraw himself from the influence of the epidemic miasm ? At a time when the inoculation of the .mall pox virus was still the fashion, it frequently happened, especially m the country, that children were sent in the very midst of the epidemic, where they became infected with the virus without it having been necessary to inoculate it,