Homœopathy : its nature and relative value / by Archibald Reith ; with an appendix by D. Dyce Brown.

  • Reith, Archibald.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Homœopathy : its nature and relative value / by Archibald Reith ; with an appendix by D. Dyce Brown. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    in daily use long before by tlie despised sectarians. It is quite possible that all tliis is done unwittingly, some of it doubtless so, but suspicion, grave suspicion, rests on the whole. Some medicines, such as arnica and nux vomica, were long known as exclusively Homoeopathic, and the adoption of them by Allopaths cannot have been done without that knowledge; but there is no acknow¬ ledgement. There can be but one opinion of Such conduct. However, Homoeopaths need not complain. Their object should be the progress of truth, not of a sect. When they see the profession drifting inevitably towards their long- abused doctrines, it should afford them the greatest satis¬ faction. Step by step the old school advances towards the new; every new fact brought to light is a fresh argument for the law of similars; the literature of the leading men is fast becoming more and more Homoeopathic, and in a few years old physic will doubtless be in its grave, or quietly slumbering on the shelves of antiquarian libraries, a monu¬ ment alike of the credulity and intolerance of men. Indeed, already the writings of one or two of the most respected men of the day contain so much pure Homoeopathy, that their known character alone saves them from the charge of copying from Hahnemann.^' The wdiole difference between some of the leading Allopaths and the Homoeopaths, lies in the question of dose. The former are at present using comparatively large doses, on the principle of similia simili- hiis cui'antur; and it is amusing to read of the perplexity in which they confess they are often involved ])y the injurious effects of those doses. They will doubtless dis¬ cover, as Hahnemann did, that it is necessary to keep within certain limits, and to reduce their doses. It is a most remarkable circumstance that the few * It has recently been discovered that the Homoeopathy which abounds in Trousseau’s writings, which he denominates substitution,” and for which he and Pidoux get credit, is after all not original; it was obtained from Breto- nneau. Trousseau’s preceptor, who, in his turn, got it from Hahnemann. See Dr. Brown’s Note on this point.