History of homoeopathy : its origin, its conflicts ; with an appendix on the present state of University medicine / by Wilhelm Ameke, M.D. (of Berlin) ; translated by Alfred E. Drysdale ; edited by R. E. Dudgeon.

  • Ameke, Wilhelm, 1847-
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: History of homoeopathy : its origin, its conflicts ; with an appendix on the present state of University medicine / by Wilhelm Ameke, M.D. (of Berlin) ; translated by Alfred E. Drysdale ; edited by R. E. Dudgeon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    time, the number of its mutilated reprints and spurious editions was complained of.* Hecker, /. c, testifies that many patients used thousands of such clysters, and the method of treatment by clysters was in much vogue among physicians, patients and even healthy persons, for many years. Stases, stoppages and obstructions in all manner of organs figured as the chief cause of many diseases, so that a homoeopath could write, many years later, perhaps with a little exaggeration :| By the belief in the existence of stoppages, obstructions, &c, we can understand why among ten prescriptions nine contain senna, spirits of wine, dande- lion, rhubarb, sal-ammoniac, mercury, dog's grass and anti- mony ; for these drugs were originally suggested because they were supposed to cleanse the tubes and passages of the human body from their foul accumulations like brooms, scrubbing brushes and clearing rods. Whether the patient be red or pale, fat or thin, consumptive or dropsical, whether he have lost his appetite or suffer from ravenous hunger, be constipated or have diarrhoea, it is all one; he has obstruc- tions and stoppages, and must be sweated and purged, puked, bled and salivated. If you see a physician pausing in meditation, believe me, if he is not thinking of 1 inflammation,' he is thinking of ' stasis.' To illustrate this a well-known writer, Scheidemantel,+ is quoted. He says that a student was cured of melancholy through being greatly frightened during a sea voyage by a col- lision between two ships. Explanation: Perhaps the melancholy student had obstruction of the bowels which was removed when his ship struck against the other, and thereby shook him severely. Towards the end of 1790, the system of the Scotchman, John Brown (1736—1788), began to spread over Germany. Brown was possessed of great assurance. In his own opinion he first raised medicine to the position of a true * Medic. Jour., von Baldinger, 1787, XL. p. 25. t Die Alloopathie, 1834, No. 19. X Die Leidenschaftcn ate Heilmittcl betrachtet, Hildburghausen. 1787.