An introduction to the study of homoeopathy / edited by J.J. Drysdale and J. Rutherford Russell.

Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introduction to the study of homoeopathy / edited by J.J. Drysdale and J. Rutherford Russell. 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.

    72/274 page 58
    DR J. RUTHEElfURD RUSSELL ing an account of the effects of twenty-five substances on persons in health, greatly contributed. Indeed, what more was wanting for a system ] He had shewn that, to bring medicine to perfection, we must investigate the exact action of medicinal agents on those in health, exa- mine the relation between this and their action in curing disease, and thus ascertain the law which shall guide us in their administration. This law he announced, and he gave the facts from which it is deduced. He then pro- ceeded to teach its application, and afforded means of ap- plying it. Surely this looked liker a dawn in medical science than any thing that had yet appeared. In his last paper he enters more fully into the pro- priety of giving small doses.* He finds they answer better, and explains how this is. A diseased part is much more susceptible of the action of any substance fitted to affect it than when healthy; just as a burned finger is more sensitive to heat than a sound one; and as unreasonable would it be for a man whose finger was whole, because he felt no pain on hold- ing it to the fire, to insist that his neighbour was fanciful because he drew back his burned finger from the same position, as it is for those who ridicule the system of Hahnemann to require that doses, in order to cure dis- eases, must produce a sensible change on those in health. How can the same amount of heat cause pain in a burned finger, and not in a sound one ? Ridicule is a dangerous weapon, very apt to rebound on the head of those who use it. * The theory of small doses is fully considered in a subsequent chapter.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3