144 CRITICAL NOTICES OP NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



the end, stem the current of favour in the cause of truth ? Nay, 

 more, we conceive the violent attacks which this system has sus- 

 tained abroad, and with which it is beginning to be persecuted at 

 home, to be one of the best arguments in its favour. No one consi- 

 ders it worth while to refute the assertions of a notorious quack ; 

 but when there is a lurking consciousness of the truth of a new dis- 

 covery, then it is that all the wit and talent that can be mustered 

 are employed in its demolition On the continent the practical ad- 

 vance made by Horareopathy is great, and its opponents have long 

 been strong and active ; in England the system is but little known, 

 save by the profession, and to them often only by name ; and only 

 one weekly medical journal has as yet vented its petty spleen on the 

 subject. As the doctrine advances in public favour it will be suc- 

 cessively attacked by the higher periodicals. But let us now glance 

 at our author's work. 



Dr. Simpson's book is divided into three parts — homoeopathic 

 principle, homoeopathic practice, and homoeopathic materia medica ; 

 a few extracts from each may be useful. The grand principle of 

 Homoeopathy is, similia similibus curantur, and that specifics which, 

 in large doses, would excite a disease in a healthy person, cure the 

 same malady in a sick individual. Thus — 



*' The purgative power of rhubarb, in large doses, is universally known ; 

 in smaller doses it is not less efficient in checking certain forms of diarrhoea. 

 Opium, which, in large doses, constipates the bowels, is recommended by 

 many excellent practitioners as a most efficient remedy in ileus and incarce- 

 rated hernia. Its power as an intoxicating and stupifying remedy is not less 

 certain ; while in the comatose state of acute fevers, in small doses, it re- 

 lieves the symptoms like a charm. Arsenic produces shivering, dryness of 

 the throat, excessive thirst, twitching of the tendons, palpitations, a small, 

 quick, and feverish pulse, sometimes eruptions of the skin, vertigo, coma, 

 and convulsions ; and it is also a powerful remedy in intermittents, attended 

 with nervous symptoms and great prostration of strength. A remarkable 

 case is mentioned by Rau of a young lady who, from a peculiar irritability 

 of the skin and great susceptibility of cold, was subject to a nettle-rash, which 

 never failed to return at short intervals, but which as certainly gave way 

 upon her partaking of craw-fish, and did not return as long as these were to 

 be had. Craw-fish are well known to excite a similar eruption in many in- 

 dividuals, and hence, in all probability, their action in this case was homoeo- 

 pathic, though not sufficiently powerful to eradicate a disease so deeply 

 rooted in the organism." 



The asertion made by some, that the homoeopathic doctrine is not 

 novel, can never detract from the merit of Hahnemann. It was, 

 indeed, obscurely hinted at so long ago as the days of Paracelsus, 

 and by a few authors since that date; but to Hahnemann alone 

 belongs the transcendent merit of having first applied the principle. 

 There are, moreover, numerous instances on record of physicians, 

 who had practised the old method thirty years and upwards with 

 success, renouncing their former views, and publicly acknowledging 

 their belief in Homoeopathy. 



One great merit of Dr. Simpson's treatise is the calmness and im- 



