shakes. The bottle is then to be marked 1, that is, the first attenuation. One drop from this vial, added to one hundred drops of alcohol in another new vial, with the hundred shakes, makes the second attenuation, and the vial is to be marked 2. One drop is next to be taken from the second, and added to one hundred drops of alcohol in another quite new vial, and after receiving its hundred shakes it becomes the third attenuation, and is marked 3. In this manner the fourth attenuation is made from the third, the fifth from the fourth, and so on up to any required number; and as the power of the medicine is increased by every attenuation, it is generally thought most prudent to stop at thirty, as it might be unsafe to carry it farther—although Hahnemann did carry some of his as far as two thousand, but says he came very near killing his patient by giving him six or eight drops of this high attenuation.
The rules for attenuation have already been given. Now let us suppose that the pharmaceutist—that is, the apothecary who prepares the medicine—in order to have a sufficient supply
