On the therapeutical action of medicines in dilated conditions of the blood vessels / by Archibald Reith.

  • Reith, Archibald.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the therapeutical action of medicines in dilated conditions of the blood vessels / by Archibald Reith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    germ of truth. That germ is its original dictum of similia similibus curantur.1 Hahnemann’s double error, in which he has been exceeded even to extravagance by his disciples, consisted in making that dictum universally applicable to all diseases, and in pushing the small dose to infinitesimals. Had he stopped where he began, there would have been an end of all controversy. But when he developed his extraordinary opinions, and intelligent minds had naturally revolted from a system so absurd, they recoiled also from the truth out of which it sprang. Hence the doctrine of similars came to be, as it is now almost always, associated and confounded with iniinitesimalism. The two, however, are essentially distinct. On the other hand, our error has been to push the principle of contraria contrariis to a corresponding extreme. The truth, I apprehend, lies midway between these two extremes. It is this middle position that I am endeavouring to establish. Let the homoeopaths abandon, as many of them are doing, their wild theories of potentization and infinitesimalism, agreeing to receive the principle of contraria con¬ trariis as having a certain range of application, and let us abandon our corresponding exclusiveness, adopting the principle of similia similibus where it is indicated by the pathology : let this take place, and we should have agreement upon a rational system of thera¬ peutics. It must come to this sooner or laterj for, after all, the doctrines of Hippocrates are still as true as they were on the day of their first declaration—some diseases are cured by'medicines which produce the opposite effects, and some diseases are cured by medi¬ cines which produce the same effect. In looking over the medical literature of the past few years, it is curious to notice how unconsciously homoeopathic is the practice of the profession in the literal sense of similia similibus curantur. Let us take the theory of substitution advocated by Trousseau, and named Homoeopathy by him. On this theory he proposes to cure existing inflammations by substituting, through the agency of irritants, a milder and more tractable inflammation, e.g., nitrate of silver for ophthalmia, saline purgatives for diarrhoea, etc. The principle, he says, is that the irritant drug creates an inflammation which is milder and more curable than the original. It does not appear from Trousseau’s writings that he had any idea of the patho¬ logical reasons for his theory. He seems to have acted on it empi¬ rically. The explanation, however, is easy. [See diagram.] By such means, an irritant medicine acting on the nerves in the con¬ dition represented by d (paralysis of sympathetic and dilatation of bloodvessels) would bring them to the opposite state, and being administered in toxic or physiological doses, would elevate the nerves as far as c (excitement of sympathetic and contraction of 1 I use the terra here for convenience, and not as recognising it to be a scientific law. The medicines given as I recommend really act on the principle of contraria contrariis, and can only be regarded as acting homoeopathically in respect of their physiological action.
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