Quackery Unmasked/Chapter IV
CHAPTER IV.
HOMŒOPATHY CONTINUED. INDICATIONS OF NATURE—BELLADONNA IN SCARLATINA—NECESSITY OF ATTENUATED DOSES—BEST DOSE ALWAYS THE SMALLEST—COMMON SALT—SILEX—ARSENIC.
A little attention may teach any one that Nature herself never acts homœopathically. If a man has swallowed poison, or other offensive material, she endeavors to throw it off by violent vomiting, or purging, and to protect the delicate villæ of the stomach and bowels by an increased secretion of mucus. If the subject is plethoric, she often relieves him by epistaxis, or hæmorrhage of some other kind. If dust has fallen into his eyes, she washes it out immediately by spontaneous lachrymation; or if the necessary amount of effete fluid is not conducted off by cutaneous perspiration, some of the mucous membranes, or the kidneys, or all of these, are exerted for its removal. Nor does she repudiate counter-irritation: an internal affection is often relieved or cured by eruptions upon the skin, by boils, carbuncles or other local inflammations. Even the sore legs of old people may often be regarded as Nature's method of prolonging life by counter-irritation. These are some of Nature's resources; and when unaided she can spontaneously accomplish her purposes, we would not interfere with her operations; but if she is not able to do so without assistance, rational medicine takes the hint, and endeavors to carry out her designs. But if the spontaneous efforts of Nature are excessive or unnecessarily prolonged, we endeavor to moderate or restrain them.
Whilst Hahnemann was occupied by his lucubrations upon his similia similibus, he discovered, as he thought, that belladonna administered to a person in health produced symptoms similar to scarlatina. Elated with the discovery, he proceeded to administer it as a prophylactic, and found, to his great joy, that those to whom it had been given, escaped the disease. This ha trial confirmed him in his opinion that belladonna was a specific in scarlatina. Just because the few persons to whom he had given the medicine did not happen to take the disease, he concluded tcat it must be a never-failing prophylactic. For a time, he and his disciples believed this to be a reliable discovery, and acted upon it with the utmost confidence. The idea spread, and was put to the test by physicians of all classes. Its insufficiency, however, was soon discovered, and trial after trial convinced all, who thoroughly tested it, of its entire futility as a prophylactic, and its value as a curative became very questionable. Still Homœopathy held to the delusion, and refused to give it up. As often as it was thoroughly tried, it failed, and yet the petty disciples of Hahnemann continued to ignore its failure, and to this day there may be some who continue to harp their groundless boastings. If Hahnemann's golden dreams had proved to be true, and future observation had confirmed his hypothesis, it would have been indeed a priceless boon. Physicians of every class and grade would have seized upon it with avidity—a thrill of rejoicing would have electrified the world—Hahnemann would indeed have been the first Jenner—people of every name and nation would have delighted to do him honor, and the profession would have crowned him with its proudest laurels and given him a monument higher than the Egyptian pyramids. Unborn ages would have blessed him, and his fame would have endured forever. But, alas! it utterly failed, and all the glowing anticipations of its author perished.
"We have seen that the two principal features of Hahnemann's system were the similia similibus curantur, and the infinitesimal dose. The latter seems to have been the consequence of the former. As one, in attempting to construct a machine for perpetual motion, soon finds himself under the necessity of altering some part to make it agree with some other part, so Hahnemann often found it necessary to change or modify some hypothesis to preserve the seeming harmony of the whole. According to his theory, he must give cathartics in dysentery, astringents in constipation, narcotics in coma, emetics in obstinate vomitings, &c. Now a very little practice in this way would be sufficient to convince any one that such measures would increase the difficulties and aggravate the complaints they were designed to relieve. Under these circumstances, he seems to have been driven by necessity to make the dose so small as not greatly to aggravate the disorder; and this led him to the use of infinitesimal doses, by which means the system was left undisturbed to overcome its derangement by its own inherent recuperative power. Unassisted Nature did the cure which Hahnemann ascribed to his potions. The infinitesimal dose became a fixed principle with Hahnemann, from which he never departed. In his Organon of Homœopathic Medicine, page 204, he says, "This incontrovertible axiom, founded upon experience, will serve as a rule by which the dose of all homœopathic medicines, without exception, are to be attenuated to such a degree, that after being introduced into the body they shall merely produce an almost insensible aggravation of the disease." In his Organon, page 289, he says, "The very smallest, I repeat, for it holds good as a homœopathic therapeutic maxim, not to be refuted by any experience in the world, that the best dose of the properly selected remedy is always the very smallest one in one of the high dynamizations (∓), or thirtieth dilution—a truth that is the inestimable property of pure homœopathy." Hahnemann declared that "liquid medicines do not become weaker by greater and greater attenuation, but always more potent and penetrating." According to him, also, succussion, or shaking, infinitely increases the power. He says, "Of late years I have been compelled, by convincing experience, to reduce the ten succussions, formerly directed to be given after each attenuation, to two." See Organon, p. 316. He gives this direction, he says, in order to set bounds to the dynamizing process, lest the medicine should by too many shakes be made so strong as to be unsafe.
Any one who wishes to try the experiment, can provide himself with thirty new vials, as directed in Hull's Laurie, page 51, and proceed to make the attenuations according to the rules there laid down. But if he attempts to carry a whole drop through to the thirtieth degree, without leaving any part of it in the lower stages, he will soon find it impossible to proceed. The ratio of increase being one hundred; a few manipulations will soon convince him of his inability to complete the process. But if he carries forward only one drop each time, he can easily arrive at the thirtieth attenuation.
Let the drop of medicine used in the beginning be whatever it might, of the deepest color or most virulent poison, no perceptible vestige of it will be found in the last hundred drops. No mortal can, by any sensible or physical signs, by any chemical tests or any medicinal effects, distinguish the vial containing the last hundred drops from another vial of simple alcohol. The quantity of the medicine in this hundred drops is only equal to that which would be contained in any hundred drops taken from an ocean of the size of the earth multiplied sixty-one times. But we are told that much higher attenuations are often used, and that the drops so obtained possess immense power. Can human credulity be taxed beyond this? The idea surpasses the utmost stretch of the most gigantic imagination. After one wild effort to grasp it, we instinctively look around to see if we are in or out of the body. A friend of mine has a fine morocco case containing eighty small vials—forty of these are filled with dry globules, and the other forty with a fluid, and labelled—one "opium," another "aconite," another "belladonna," &c. Now if the labels should be removed, and the vials disarranged in the case, no one could ever tell which was the opium, and which the aconite, or which the belladonna.
We will analyze a case in homœopathic practice. A man is sick with some rheumatic affection. The doctor visits him and leaves six or eight small white powders. The good woman inquires what is the name of the medicine, and is told that it is natrum muriaticum. She cannot comprehend the meaning of the term, but concludes that it is some newly-discovered homœopathic remedy, and therefore asks no further questions. Now let us examine this case a little. Natrum muriaticum, in common language, is common salt. Hahnemann's dose is one decillionth of a grain, and its effects last from forty to fifty days. The following are the diseases in which it is used by homœopathic practitioners. (See Jahr's Manual; Vol. I, p. 386).
"Allowing ourselves to be guided by the totality of symptoms, the cases in which this medicine may be used will be found to be:—Rheumatic affections, with contractions of the tendons; Paralysis of the limbs; Scrofulous affections; Enlarged glands; Bad consequence of vexation and anger: Weakness from loss of humors and other debilitating causes, also that resulting from onanism; Hysterical weakness and syncope; Warts; Varices; Intermittent fevers, also those which have changed their character from strong doses of cinchona; Typhus fever; Melancholy and hypochondria; Sufferings from excessive study; Megrim; railing off of the hair in consequence of acute diseases, also in the case of parturient women; Chronic ophthalmia and blepharophthalmia, especially in scrofulous individuals; Amblyopia amaurotica; Presbyopia; Otitis, with purulent discharge; Coryza; Crusta lactea?; Scorbutic affection of the gums; Stomacace?; Dyspepsia, gastralgia, and other gastric affections; Chronic hepatitis?; Flatulent colic; Chronic constipation; Chronic diarrhœa; Diabetes?; Chronic gonorrhoea? Priapisnms?; Impotence; Dysmenorrhea; Amenorrhea; Dysmenia in young girls; Sterility, with too early and too profuse catamenia?; Leucorrhœa; Catarrh; Phthisical complaints; Diseases of the heart?; Goitre; Panaritia; Suppression of foot sweat, &c. &c."
If the homœopathic doctor is an honest man, each of the powders contains, as he supposes, one decillionth of a grain of common salt. The patient has used salt, ad libitum, with his food, all his life, and may sometimes have swallowed an ounce in a day without any marked effects; but now he is to take one decillionth of a grain every four or six hours, to cure him of rheumatism. The bulk of these powders is sugar made from milk or whey; and whether they contain anything else, no person in the world, except the one who furnished the doctor with the article, can tell. How large a globule would a decillionth of a grain of common salt make? Placed upon a smooth surface, it could not be perceived by the touch, and it would not be visible to the eye, even with the aid of a powerful microscope.
Hahnemann manifested a fondness for mineral substances, particularly those which are totally inert—such as platinum, gold, silex, and others which are perfectly insoluble in the animal fluids, and can have no action upon the organism except mechanical, and as foreign bodies. Silica or silex is of that class, and is one of the most abundant of the earthy matters which compose the globe; forming a large part of all the primitive rocks. It is seen almost pure in quartz, agate, flint and rock crystal, and much of the sand upon the sea-shore is composed of the same material. Nearly insoluble and unchangeable in its nature, and yet capable of being reduced to a very fine powder, it was a good material for Hahnemann to submit to his dynamizing process, and accordingly he made it one of his standing remedies. The following are some of the cases in which he directs its use, as given in Jahr's Manual, Vol. I., page 547.
"Allowing ourselves to be guided by the totality of symptoms, the cases in which this medicine may be used appear to be:—Bad effects from the abuse of mercury; Hysterical sufferings; Physical weakness in children, with difficulty in learning to walk; Paralysis; Epilepsy; Nervous excitement, with sleeplessness; Chronic rheumatic and arthritic affections; Phlegmonous inflammations; Lymphatic tumors; Scrofulous and rachitic affections also with enlargement of the head, and slow closing up of the fontanelle; Obstruction, inflammation, induration and ulceration of the glands; Inflammation, softening, ulceration and other diseases of the bones; Abscess; Scirrhous induration; Ulcers, almost of all kinds, especially in squalid, cachectic persons, and those who are addicted to spirituous drinks; Scrofulous, mercurial and scorbutic ulcers; Cancerous ulcers; Hydarthra?; Hysteria; Megrim: Vertigo; Scald-head; Falling off of the hair in consequence of acute diseases; Fungus hæmatodes in the eye; Ulcers on the cornea; Cataract; Amblyopia amaurotica; Hardness of hearing; Cancer in the lips; Fever during dentition; Bulimy, pituita in the stomach, gastralgia, dyspepsia, and other gastric affections; Hepatic abscess; Vermiculous affections, especially in scrofulous subjects; Chronic gonorrhœa; Hydrocele, especially in scrofulous subjects; Excoriated mammæ; Ulceration and also cancerous affections of the mammæ; Chronic coryza and obstinate disposition to take cold in the head; Phthisical sufferings; Inflammatory swelling of the knee; Panaritium; Paralysis of the hands, also in leprous subjects; &c. &c."
One decillionth of a grain is the proper dose, and the effects last from seven to eight weeks.
It is not pretended that Hahnemann's Materia Medica consisted wholly of inert substances; far otherwise. Besides these, he also made use of many such articles as in common language are called poisons, such as arsenic, phosphorus, henbane, nox vomica, &c. Accordingly, arsenicum album, or white arsenic, has become one of the most common homoeopathic remedies;—its effects are supposed to last from thirty-six to forty days. It is directed to be used in the following cases. See Jahrs Manual, Vol. I, page 53.
"Allowing ourselves to be guided by the totality of the symptoms, the cases in which this medicine may be employed will appear to be:—Affections, especially of exhausted persons, of nervous, or of leucophlegmatic constitution, with tendency to catarrhs and to blenorrhœa, or to dropsical affections; or also affections of persons of lymphatic constitution, with tendency to eruptions, tetters, ulcerations, and suppurations; or persons of bilious constitution, of choleric or lively temperament, or with a tendency to melancholy, &c.; Suffering of drunkards; Evil effects of a chill in the water; Cachexia from the abuse of quinine or of iodium; Atrophy of scrofulous infants and atrophy of grown persons; Scrofulous affections; Icterus; Chlorosis?; Dropsical affections; Nervous weakness of hysterical persons with fainting fits; Spasms and convulsions; Epileptic convulsions; Paralysis?; Muscular weakness with trembling of the limbs; Trembling of drunkards; Miliary eruptions, nettle-rash and itchy eruptions; Plectonoides and furfuraceous tetters; Gnawing tetters; Putrid, cancerous and gangrenous ulcers; Carbuncles; Sanguineous pemphigus; Varioloid diseases and smallpox; Warts?; Chilblains?; Varices: Coma vigil and coma somnolentum; Intermittent fevers, even those from the abuse of quinine, and chiefly tertian and quartan fevers; Typhus fevers with symptoms of putridity; Inflammatory fevers with bilious or mucous state; Slow, hectic fevers; Gastric fevers; Religious melancholy: Gloomy melancholy, even with inclination to suicide; Mental alienation of drunkards; Madness?; Imbecility; Softness of the brain?: Megrim; Scald-head with swelling of the glands of the nape of the neck, and of the neck: Ophthalmia (arthritic?), Rheumatic? Ophthalmia in consequence of griping, or of a chill in the water: Specks and ulcers of the cornea; Cancer in the nose, in the face and in the lips; Milky scurf; Red pimples in the face; Mealy tetters in the face; Prosopalgia; Chronic coryza; Enlargement of the sub-maxillary glands; Stomacace; Aphtha in the mouth; Inflammatory swelling of the tongue; Angina, even that caused by the smallpox; Gangrenous angina?; State of indigestion in consequence of a chill of the stomach from ice, acids, &c.; Sea-sickness; Sufferings in consequence of bathing in the sea; Dyspepsia with vomiting of food; Hæmatemesis; Vomitings of drunkards and of pregnant women; Gastric and bilious affections; Melœna; Acute Gastritis; Scirrhus in the stomach?; Cholerine; Asiatic cholera; sufferings in consequence of cholera; Colic; Spasmodic colic; Abdomino-glandular obstruction of children; Ascites; Scrofulous buboes; Diarrhœa, also that of children during detention, and in consequence of the smallpox; Dysentery; Lienteria?; Hæmorrhoidal sufferings; Ischuria; Paralysis of the bladder; Dysuria; Inflammation and swelling of the genital parts; Erysipelas of the scrotum?; Amenorrhœa; Leucorrhœa; Cancer and scirrhus of the uterus?; Nausea and vomiting of pregnant women; Gripe; Acute and chronic laryngitis; Hooping-cough; Hæmoptysis?; Phthisical symptoms; Hydrothorax; Asthmatic affections; Spasmodic asthma; Asthma of Millar; Angina of the chest; Organic affections of the heart; Nostalgia; Sciatica; Ulcers of the legs; White swelling?; Phlegmonous inflammation of the feet; Coxalgia; Discolored nails; Gout in the feet."
Being in the form of a fine white powder, and nearly destitute of either smell or taste, it is easily incorporated with sugar of milk in any desirable proportions. Whilst most other poisons are either very acrid or extremely bitter, arsenic, having no sensible properties, is easily given in any quantity which the practitioner may think proper to administer. But if the homœopathic practitioner is always honest, and strictly adheres to the principles of his great master, no one need be alarmed if he uses the thirtieth attenuation of arsenic in every case each day of his life. If he should live to the age of Methuselah, and dispense powders of that kind all his life, the whole amount of arsenic that he would thus use would not in the least harm the smallest insect if given at a single dose.