146 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



bability, ultimately prove one of the most important in the annals of medi- 

 cine." ' 



Hahnemann's discovery of the atomic power of medicine was the 

 result of no speculation, but of practice, he having been induced 

 gradually to decrease the doses on account of the too violent effects 

 which were the result of the large doses. 



** It is for those, therefore, who doubt the possibility of such minute doses 

 as the hundredth, thousandth, millionth, and even decillionth part of a grain 

 of any medicine producing effects when administered homoeopathically in 

 disease, to retrace the steps of Hahnemann." 



HomtBopathii demonstrated to be true by facts — " The system of Hahnemann 

 as such, would long since have ceased to exist, had not the application of his 

 method to the treatment of disease been followed by such successful results 

 as to have obtained for it the suffrages of the public, and hence too at length 

 to have attracted the attention of the profession. Since the homoeopathic 

 principle was not discovered by the way of speculation, but solely by that of 

 experiment, out of which the theoretical side of Homoeopathy has since been 

 developed ; so all attempts to disprove it by theoretical arguments must be 

 altogether unavailing." Further, — "It may fairly be asserted, that the 

 rapid advancement of Homoeopathy within the last ten years is almost en- 

 tirely due to the scientific cultivation of it by practitioners bred up in the 

 old school." 



Dr. Simpson has the following observations in his chapter on 

 diet (to which the homoeopathists pay the strictest attention), in the 

 truth of which we entirely concur : — 



" The length to which the use of strong wine, cayenne pepper, and other 

 powerful excitants has been carried in England, calls loudly for reform, as it 

 is, probably, the cause of one half of the dyspepsies with which the English 

 are plagued. With this exception, the English diet in general, and the cook- 

 ing in particular, is superior to that of any nation in Europe, as, beyond all 

 others, it fulfils the great objects of the art — to present the food in the most 

 digestible, most nutritive, and most sapid form." 



We are next presented with thirty-two extremely interesting and 

 satisfactory cases, homoeopathically treated, mostly extracted from 

 German works, but one from our author's own practice. One ot 

 these cases was commenced by a physician of the old school ; but 

 when all hopes of the recovery of the patient were abandoned by 

 Dr. Kramer, he reluctantly, and as a last resource, permitted Dr. 

 Siegel, " an experienced physician of upwards of fifty years stand- 

 ing, but who for the last two years had adopted the new me- 

 thod," to prescribe for the young lady. " To the astonishment of 

 Dr. K., the patient the ensuing morning — the eighth day of the 

 disease — was much better. During the day, the patient took a few 

 more doses of aconite, and the following morning seemed altogether 

 freed from her dangerous disease." The convalescence of the lady 

 was, however, slow, on account of her extreme debility. In the 

 fourth week of her convalescence, she was imprudently exposed to a 

 current of cold air, and was again attacked by her former complaint. 



