Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Reply to a French review of essay LII : essay LVI / by William Sharp. 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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![both above and below these, which have only one action. If the statement were true that every dose has two opposite actions, every dose that we give to a patient, however suitable the remedy, must first cause an aggra- vation of the disease before it can cure it. To contend that this double action belongs to all doses is a profound mistake. (8) . It has been said for many years, but it is quite in vain to say, that the primary action of some doses is so brief that it escapes our observation. This is an assump- tion we have no right to make. It is passing from the observation of facts to the invention of a theory. (9) . If it is asked, what are the intermediate doses of those drugs which in larger doses cause, and in smaller ones cure, perversions of functions and anatomical lesions ? It is replied—the middle doses are those which first aggravate, and then cure or mitigate the diseases for which they are given. Medical men accustomed to the old method, and beginning to try the new one, are often troubled by such aggravations ; because there is in their minds a natural unwillingness to make the doses sufficiently small. It was by the frequent occurrence of these aggravations that Hahnemann was compelled to make his doses smaller. All doses which have two opposite actions are, for that reason alone, unfit for use as medicines. The proper doses for physicians to prescribe are doses with an action in one direction ordy. (10) . Again another fact:—The “ medicinal ” or larger doses commonly given, often produce more powerful effects than was desired or expected, when they were prescribed. They have acted in the direction which was expected, not contrary to it, but in too violent a manner. The dose given has again been too large. Similar experience faces us with the smaller doses, but less frequently. Dr. Lauder Brunton’s experiments with Opium, for constipation will illustrate my meaning. He says:—“I began with one drop of tincture of opium given in a teaspoonful of water every night. To my astonishment this dose was not only in most cases suffi- cient, but in one case it proved excessive, doing no good, [the action of the larger dose], while half a drop acted as a brisk purgative * Pharmacology, 3rd ed., p. 386.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21970270_0020.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
