Homœopathy : report of the speeches on irregular practice delivered at the nineteenth anniversary meeting of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, held at Brighton, August 13 & 14, 1851.

Date:: 1851

Credit: Homœopathy : report of the speeches on irregular practice delivered at the nineteenth anniversary meeting of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, held at Brighton, August 13 & 14, 1851. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$tained even as a subject of consideration, for an instant—only by an unhealthy mind. The simple fact is this, that Hahnemann’s doses cannot be demonstrated to exist, and are so small, that the mind of man can form no conception of their minuteness.* Some homoeopaths repudiate, in a sort of half-and-half way, the small doses; but the public who fee homoeopathic doctors generally conceive that their medicines are given to them in the attenuations of Hahnemann, in quantities ranging from a millionth to a decil- lionth of a grain. “Little pills” were yesterday lauded by a platform speaker at the Homoeopathic Meeting in Freemasons’ Tavern; but his laudations were perhaps applauded by men who give as freely, or more freely, than many of us would dare to do, strychnia, aconite, and other such like drugs, the most terrible doses of which may be administered in drops, and fractions of a grain. Large doses of our common medicines, as I well know, are also every day prescribed by men who come forward as can¬ didates for homoeopathic practice among the wealthy and the noble. “ Little pills” may be, but certainly a little quantity of physic is not a criterion by which to know the practitioners who range themselves under the flag of homoeopathy. Dr. Quin openly advised what I may term very large doses of camphor in cholera; and in my own experience, I have found that patients had been taking along with the globules, (under the name of adjuvants), the same medicines, and in the same doses which we employ, and which experience has sanctioned. What is now called homoeo¬ pathic practice may, I aver, mean any kind of practice. [Hear, hear.] I have said enough to show you how vain it is to define what is meant by homoeopathic practice, when I mention, that, at a recent meeting of the i( Annual Congress” of homceopathists, there was present, as a large participator in the business. Dr. William Dr. Alexander Wood, in his Homoeopathy TJnmashed, gives the follow¬ ing tabular view of the doses of some substances as employed by the homoeo- pathists : Charcoal, one or two decillionths of a grain. Chamomile, two quadrillionths of a grain. Nutmeg, two millionths of a grain. Tartar Emetic, two billionth of a grain. Opium, two decillionths of a drop of a spirituous solution. Arsenious Acid, one or two decillionths of a grain. Ipecacuanha, two or three millionths of a grain.$