come capable of exercising an influence, if not superior, at any rate equal to that of the entire dose in its primitive condition."
According to this theory, each dilution and dynamization breaks down or lays open a new set of molecules, and allows their smaller corpuscles to escape from their confinement and become active; and reasoning abstractly upon the endless divisibility of matter, they arrive at the conclusion that the power of medicinal substances may be endlessly developed by these means. Now this absurd notion is contrary to all but homœopathic reasoning, is inconsistent with all experience and all analogy, and is positively contradicted by every day's observation in scientific and domestic operations. Every one knows that just in proportion as water is added to brine, alcohol, vinegar, or any other aqueous solution, its power is diminished, and that a hogshead of water in which one grain of common salt has been dissolved, has no perceptible saline properties; but if the grain of salt is dissolved in a single teaspoonful of water, it becomes sensibly strong—whereas, if the ho-
