738 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



by a single sentence. He says : " Hahnemann paid no attention to 

 pathology or cause of disease, but only sought for symptoms. For 

 instance, in a case of dropsy, the cause, whether it be from the heart, 

 the kidneys, or the liver, is not inquired into, but the symptom dropsy 

 is treated." 



It is clear that the writer here uses the term " cause of disease " as 

 synonymous with the part affected, which is to confound cause and 

 effect, and he substitutes his own nosology " dropsy " for the group of 

 symptoms which indicate, not dropsy, but the remedy to be selected. 

 The fact that the heart or kidneys or the liver is affected does not in- 

 dicate or prove that the one affected is the cause of disease. It proves 

 that the disease has affected that part, and it follows by an inexorable 

 law that the part affected can only be cured by removing the cause. 

 It is this inversion of cause and effect, of disease and its point of at- 

 tack or expression, this ignorance of Nature's laws, which induces the 

 allopath to attempt to cut out the core of what he calls cancer ; thus 

 trimming the branches of this mighty disease, to strengthen it at the 

 roots, seated deep down in the system. It is like cutting down a 

 locust, and producing a forest from the roots. How can a school, which 

 has been a thousand years dissecting dead bodies to discover the vital 

 principle, hope to free itself from its dogmas ? As well might it be 

 expected to discover the electric fluid by dissecting a yard of telegraph- 

 wire. Professor Calderwood, who is not a homoeopathist, demon- 

 strates, as a scientist, from the discoveries of the foremost physiolo- 

 gists and psychologists, that, by tracing up all of the group of symp- 

 toms along the nerve-fibers, we will reach a common nerve-center in 

 the brain, differing in area and location with differing groups of symp- 

 toms. This nerve-center is operated upon by certain sensor nerves. 

 The whole object of the homoeopathic physician, who is true to the 

 law, is to trace these symptoms to a common nerve-center, and then to 

 select a remedy which, acting upon that nerve-center, will, on the line 

 by which Nature cures, stimulate a reaction, and thus restore the equi- 

 librium, which is perfect health. 



The law of Nature's cure is, by rousing up reaction against dis- 

 ease, to restore the disturbed forces to their exact counterpoise, where 

 action and reaction are equal. The allopathic method of creating a 

 new disease to cure the old one is a violation of this law, and at the 

 very outset the regular school must begin by an apology or an excuse, 

 either that Nature has denied to men the means of executing her 

 laws, or that man is ignorant of the means she has placed at his 

 disposal. 



As an abstract question, preference must be given to that method 

 of cure which creates the least disturbance in the system, and, as a 

 consequence, leaves it less liable to relapse or a second attack ; which 

 does not by antagonizing the vital forces reduce or destroy its econo- 

 mies ; which does not work by rule of three ; as the remedy is to the 



