On the fallacies of homoeopathy : and the imperfect statistical inquiries on which the results of that practice are estimated / by C.H.F. Routh.
- Routh, C. H. F. (Charles Henry Felix), 1822-1909
- Date:
- 1852
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On the fallacies of homoeopathy : and the imperfect statistical inquiries on which the results of that practice are estimated / by C.H.F. Routh. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![drops inhaled, if undiluted with atmospheric air, will kill. High game, or, in other words, putrid flesh, may be taken by the mouth, and yet not only do no harm, but positively nourish. The inhalation, however, of putrid odours or miasmata, it is well known, will often produce most distressing symptoms of nausea, diarrhoea, or even in some rare cases death. Tlie black vomit of patients affected with malignant fever in Afriea has been swallowed with impunity; but the miasma from patients affected with this disorder is highly poisonous, and so on. The result obtained by some medicines, it is true, may probably be the same, whether taken by inhalation or ingestion; only in the former, we may, as a rule, expect it Avill be more marked, but commonly it differs not only in degree but in kind; and sometimes ingestion of poisonous miasmata may be quite inert. Tliere is no analogy, therefore, in the comparison made. Again, with reference to this subtle ethereal influence, this question is sometimes asked.—How much scent remains behind after a hare, so that the dogs may detect it ? Here is an example of an infinitesimal dose exerting a sensible effect. 1. I must answer, IIow is it that in frosty weather the scent is destroyed, and the dogs lose it, and yet the hare passed equally over the ground? 2. How do we know that it is not owing to an undulating movement, that smell is diffused? It is so for light,—so for sound,—so for touch. Must we necessarily imbibe an infinitesimal dose of light, sound, an opposing body, to see, hear, and feel? If we look at a bright light a few moments, the impression remains on the eye, though it be closed, and the light has disappeared. We hear a loud sound; it buzzes in the ears still, though the sound has ceased. If we travel on a railway or a steamer for some hours, at night we feel as if we were moving along still. So it is with smell. There is no more reason for believing, that the dog has imbibed] an infinitely small amount of the hai*e, to smell it, than that we should have imbibed part of a railway or steamer, because we seem after we have left it to be in it. 2nd. In reference to the cxaiiiples of vaccination and inoculation. It is commonly adduced in support of the action of homoeo- pathic remedies, that these operations are ^ instances:—1st. When very small quantities of medicine may produce very](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22334610_0017.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
