Some remarks on Dr. O.W. Holmes's lectures on homoeopathy and its kindred delusions : communicated to a friend / by Robert Wesselhoeft.
- Robert Wesselhoeft
- Date:
- 1842
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Some remarks on Dr. O.W. Holmes's lectures on homoeopathy and its kindred delusions : communicated to a friend / by Robert Wesselhoeft. 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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![The difference of the molecules and their cohesive power in the aromatic and in the not aromatic vegetable substan- ces, is of less importance, it may appear to Dr. Holmes, as he explains himself, p. 39, showing his classic acquaint- ance with aromatic and not aromatic odors, as if there were no poisonous exhalations without smell ! The developed odor of the metallic poisons, such as arsenic, gold, sulphur, hydrargyrum, lead, zinc, tin, copper, &c, &c, and of a great many mineral or basic drugs, has the same divisi- bility as the perfume of vegetables ; and its obnoxious fac- ulties, when set free by a proper medium, are manifested with nearly the same power as the aromatic virtue of flow- ers. This, sir, may satisfy you that a man who has his senses, cannot misunderstand, although he may misrepre- sent, the dynamic virtue of the drugs by which the world is now suffering, in consequence of the rational materialism, which has prevailed for two thousand years in the science of medicine : for one of the medicines that has the most power in setting free the dvnamic virtue of a poison is the bile. Now, sir, I venture to say, that when a poison does not operate simply to heal, it is no true medicine. This, sir, is my own conclusion, and I propose it for the first time to the censure of the world. 1 ransacked not like other German pedants, old volumes promiscuously, for evidence of its being a new idea or not; but if you should find the same idea in the Organon of Hahnemann, or elsewhere, I hope you will, according to the recommenda- tion of Dr. Holmes, not mention my authority. I shall take an opportunity of acquainting you how Dr. Holmes ransacked old volumes, such as Forestus, Ccelius Aurelianus, and the Byzantine writers. As to my before-mentioned detection, I have some recollection that Paracelsus had the same notion, but he again is an old author, and it is pe- dantic to ransack old volumes of authors wholly un- known to [his ?] science. (Page 45 of Dr. Holmes.) I do not indeed know, sir, for what purpose people visit the great literary institutions of Europe, with their highly esteemed libraries, where all knowledge is stored. Is their own wit worth more than all these stores of the intelligence of centuries? I know, sir, that we may do without a great deal of the latter, but then we ought to be very modest upon the subject of knowledge. Always yours. 2*](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21163455_0021.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
