Reply to the article of Dr. J. W. Metcalf, contained in the North American Journal of Homoeopathy, No. II, purporting to be a criticism of my "Domestic physician".

  • Joseph Hippolyt Pulte
Date:
1851
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reply to the article of Dr. J. W. Metcalf, contained in the North American Journal of Homoeopathy, No. II, purporting to be a criticism of my "Domestic physician". Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    ache, running of the ears and their inflamma- i or with earache. Sometimes with headache, tion, and will disappear with them; but when it appears alone, it is caused generally by conges- tion to the head, from catching cold or other di- seases. Pulsatilla relieves it if worse in the evenin». J\lux vomica, if worse in the morning. Dulca and determination of blood to the head. Give medicine according to these symptoms. If it comes, however, quite alone, is not of long standing, but from catching cold, give Nux-vom. if worse in the morning; Puis, if worse in the evening ; Dulc. if worse in the night; to per- mara, if worse at night. Mercury, in persons sons who perspire much, Merc-viv. ; to those inclined to perspire. Chamomile in persons ! who cannot perspire, Cham. ; to very sensitive who do not perspire easily. China in persons ; persons who have taken much mercury, or snffer who have taken much calomel or when the noise ', much from fever or liver complaints, when the in the ear is more a hissing, singing or ringing buzzing is more hissing, like a ringing or sing- noise. Ccrbo-veg. if China doos not relieve or | ing, give Chin., but if louder, more like the the noise is worse in damp weather. Sulphur ] noise of a humming-top, or when Chin, does no if Carbo-veg. does not relieve or the noise in good, give Carb-veg. * * Sometimes, when the combined with great sensitiveness to sounds, is I ears cannot suffer the least noise, Sulpk. given which case it ought to alterate with Aconite. | once, and Aeon, several times will do good. We might easily, had -we the space and inclination, thus trace almost every article in this first part of the •work to its proper owner; 'what we have given must suffice. The next eighty pages of the book, containing popular information on An- atomy and Physiology, Hygiene and Hydropathy, are taken without any ac- knowledgment, and almost word for word from a school-book in common u^e.4 The sixty following pages contain a Materia Medica in which, under each one of 68 remedies, a short abstract of their symptoms is given in the usual anato- mico-physiological schema. Here, if anywhere, might be found some valuable clinical contributions from the results of sixteen years' practice in the point- ing out of characteristic symptoms, the confirmation of therapeutic indications and the selection and isolation of useful and frequently recurring groups. But in Dr. Pulte's Materia Medica we have no such addition to the common stock of our knowledge—it is still mere scissors-work ; the symptoms printed m itlalies in the edition of Jahr's Manual, published in 1841, have been simply transcribed. To any one who is acquainted with the pepper-box principle, en which those italics were inserted, the value of this part of Dr. Pulte's work will be apparent. There remain but a few pages of glossary and an index. The index is proba- bly the work of the publisher, and the glossary is extracted from Laurie's Do- mestic Medicine, (1840, p. 550 et seq.) We have thus completed a most ungracious labor, and are glad to have done with it; we can only repeat that, for the sake of Homoeopathy, we regret thai such a book should have ever seen the light. J. W. M. It will be observed, that in my defense against the above libelous article of J. W. Metcalf, I have touched upon all the important points of his attack ; thereby showing conclusively the truth of the Proverb, as applied to Metcalf and accomplices, : whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein ; and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him. J. H. PULTE. Dr. Calvin Cutter's Anatomy, Physiology, etc. ERRATA Pao-e 5th, line \b\h-involuntarily, instead of involuntary. i? » « 29th—raisonement, instead of reasonment. 8th 3 l^t—v>ho, instead of which. 32d—that, instead of what. 40th—after former, insert the word ■■< ■ 7th—them, instead of it.