Homoeopathy : its nature and relative value / by Archibald Reith ; with an appendix by D. Dyce Brown.
- Date:
- 1868
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Homoeopathy : its nature and relative value / by Archibald Reith ; with an appendix by D. Dyce Brown. 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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![the body—a primary and a secondary—the latter being a reaction from, and a necessary consequence of, the former, and each being the very reverse of the other. Disease, in its most frequent forms, and medicines resemble each other in producing these two actions on the system in succession. In its ordinary manifestation, disease is anala- gous to the secondary action of a drug, and hence, to effect a cure, the drug is chosen which, in large doses, will pro- duce symptoms resembling those of the disease. It is ad- ministered, however, in a dose so small as only to excite its ]3rimary action, which, being the reverse of the diseased condition, thus effects a cm^e.* The small dose is further necessitated by the fact that a diseased organ is greatly more susceptible of the drugs which act on it than a sound one, so that doses of medicines which are inappreciable in health become powerful in disease. An analagous sus- ceptibility exists in an inflamed finger, or an inflamed eye, the slightest contact with the former, or the least particle of light admitted to the latter, producing extreme pain. How small the dose must be, which will produce a curative effect and no more, depends on the particular case, and in general has to be decided by exxDcrience. Some cases re- quire material*!- doses, while others can only be benefitted by such a reduction as has received the name of infinitesimal'. Of this I shall speak more hereafter. Tlie chief point in Homoeopathy is its principle—similia similibm curantur— likes are cured by likes; the dose being altogether a secondary matter. If the principle in the selection of medicines be adopted, the amount of the dose can be after- wards determined by experiment. The old system of medicine proceeds on the assumption that opposites are ciu-ed by opposites, or contraria contrariis * This subject is -fully discussed in my papers, Edinburgh Medical Journal, February, April, and September, 1868. + The term material is used here for convenience, and as a contrast to infini- tesimal. All doses which cure are, properly speaking, material.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21911101_0015.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
