ly seized upon this old false proverb, and used it for the foundation of his system. Because laxatives sometimes cure diarrhœa, frost-bitten parts are sometimes relieved by being rubbed with snow, and a dose of senna sometimes cures colic, Hahnemann fancied that he saw his theory confirmed. He forget another proverb, viz., "Like produces like in endless succession," and overlooked an established principle of philosophy which declares that (cœteris paribus) whatever increases the cause, increases the effect. His mind became riveted to this one idea, and he saw and heard nothing but "similia similibus curantur."
It is impossible to conceive a greater absurdity than is contained in this Homœopathic dogma. It is one of the wildest conjectures imaginable. The principle is contradicted by every rational thought and word and deed, throughout the world. Everywhere, in every vocation, and in every department of business, it meets with a flat contradiction. If the farmer's fields are too full of weeds, does he sow more weeds? If the soil is too wet, does he irrigate it? If his team
