Homœopathy; its nature and evidence; : with a few words on small doses, / by Thomas Hayle, M.D.

  • Hayle, Thomas.
Date:
[1850?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Homœopathy; its nature and evidence; : with a few words on small doses, / by Thomas Hayle, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    HOMEOPATHY; 2^ ITS NATURE AND EVIDENCE ; WITH A FEW WORDS ON SMALL DOSES, * * BY THOMAS HAYLE, M.D. STRIKE, BUT HEAR.” The word “ Homoeopathy” is composed of two Greek words, optus (homoios) like, and Trddog (pathos) affection or suffering. As applied to the treatment of disease, it indicates the principle, on which the treatment is founded: that principle is the likeness between the symptoms produced on the healthy body by the medicine proposed to be given, and the symptoms of the disease to be treated. If, for instance, the symptoms were a whitish coating on the tongue, with inflammation and swelling of the tonsils; or if they were those of erysi¬ pelas, Belladonna would be given ; because, when given to people in health, it will produce like symptoms. Remark, the symptoms are only like, not the same ; and the medicine which produces the one set of symptoms is different, is another thing from the cause of the disease, which produces the other set. The proposition is not then u what causes, curesbut ee agents which produce, or have a tendency to produce similar actions in the healthy body, neutralize each other’s action, when they meet in the same body/’ It is not absolutely neces¬ sary that the medicine should infallibly produce the symptoms in question in all persons, but only that they should occur sufficiently often under its action, to prove its tendency to produce them. Remark again, the action of a medicine is to be ascertained by trials or provings on the healthy, not the diseased, body. If it be tried on the diseased body, who can distinguish the symptoms of the medicine from those of the disease, or from the compounded action of both ? If you want to find the North, by the help of a compass, would you go magnet in hand? You would have the North wherever the magnet was. Examples of the Homoeopathic Law abound. Mercury, which produces a certain kind of dysentery, will remove a similar kind. Peruvian bark cures a kind of inter¬ mittent fever, by virtue of its tendency to produce a similar kind; so does arse¬ nic : and volumes might be, indeed, have been filled, with examples of the same kind. After these assertions it may fairly be asked, on what evidence do you believe that medicines, given on this principle, cure disease? We answer, on the following:—• 1st. On the administration of a Homoeopathic medicine, acute diseases fre¬ quently yield so rapidly as to force on the patient the conviction that the medi¬ cine has caused his relief. Within a minute or two he has felt its action mani¬ fested in an indescribable feeling of comfort about the part affected ; and if, there be increased quickness of pulse, a fall of from 5 to 10 beats in the minute precedes, or accompanies the relief. So frequently does this occur, that when the Homoeopathic practitioner meets with a case of severe suffering, he feels convinced that, either he will be able to relieve his patient before he takes his leave, or, from a trial of different medicines, and an observation of their effects, he will be able to put him in the wray of getting relief. Most mothers, also, wTho have adopted Homoeopathy in the treatment of their families, are well aware of this fact, and owe many a quiet night to the speedy action of the Homoeopathic remedies. I once found a patient in a state of extreme nervous excitability. The room was quite dark; the shutters were closed ; tim curtains were drawn ; the eyes were tightly bandaged; not a ray of light could be en¬ dured. Sound was equally offensive; the footfall of a person moving across tire room, the jingle of keys, even the crumple of a piece of paper caused a s^regffi- By some management, I contrived through a chink in the shutter to lpok at my watch, while I felt the pulse. It beat 120 in the minute. By the help of