Homœopathy : its nature and relative value / by Archibald Reith ; with an appendix by D. Dyce Brown.

  • Reith, Archibald.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Homœopathy : its nature and relative value / by Archibald Reith ; with an appendix by D. Dyce Brown. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    has as yet defied all microscopical or chemical detection. What an infinitesimal particle must that be which spreads fever from one to another 1 Its dire effects are seen, but of itself not a trace exists. The vaccine matter, the snake poison, the virus of rabies, all consist of infinitesimal par¬ ticles suspended in a fluid, forming solutions which may be compared to the high Homoeopathic dilutions, but so in¬ finitely divided as to elude all detection: who does not know the effects of the least perceptible particle of those fluids ? The smell even of ipecacuan produces in some individuals a violent paroxysm of hay-asthma; so much so sometimes that it is enough to bring on the disease to go simply into a shop or room where the drug is lying. It must be an infinitesimal particle which causes such an effect. The various perfumes, odours, &c., good and bad, consist of particles which produce each a different impression on the nerves of smell, proving each to have an individuality of its own. These particles have not been detected ; they are infinitesimal Dr. Guy says, “ By any of these three me¬ thods satisfactory results should be obtained with the ToVoth of a grain of metallic arsenic, and in skilful and practised hands, with the Wo^th of a grain. . . . As it is very important that these and similar statements respec¬ ting the detection of minute quantities of arsenic, or of other poisons, should not be discredited, a short digression on the divisibility of matter may be permitted. Some mis¬ apprehension certainly exists on this subject in consequence of the bulk of matter represented by a grain being under¬ valued. The best way to correct this misconception appears to be the counting out of the number of distinct particles of common objects visible by the naked eye. I have caused this to be done in the case of certain small seeds, and have found that the seeds of digitalis number 1126 to the grain, and those of lobelia inflata 3176, while the fern seeds of the shops can be counted to the number of 50,900 to the grain. Wlien, therefore, we speak of the ready identification of the
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