J 48 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS, 



Hom(eopathy Examined ; or Homccopathy in Theory, Allopathy in 

 Practice. By Robert Verity, M.D., Member of the Universities 

 of Edinburgh and Gottingen. Paris : Galignani & Co. 1836. 

 8vo., pp. 24. 



In this pamj)hlet of twenty-four pages, I>r. Verity has doubtless 

 pleased himself with the idea that he has been seeking after truth ; 

 but since he has taken a distorted view of the subject, and has evi- 

 dently no practical knowledge of the theory, his twenty-four pages 

 go for nothing. Although Dr. \'erity scarcely deserves the honour, 

 we will briefly undertake to refute a few of the erroneous notions 

 he has imbibed. He says — 



" The first fundamental proposition whence Homoeopathy derives its 

 name, and to which the others are appended as convenient corollaries — similia 

 similibus ciiranfiir— requires only a fair exposition to be refuted as paradoxi- 

 cal and logically absurd. For if similar qualities of action be added to each 

 other there must consequently ensue aggravation, and not annihilation, of 

 disease." 



This is mere assumption, as the author does not speak from expe- 

 rience. But the effect he reprobates is the very thing the disciples 

 of Hahnemann wish ; and the result of aggravating the disease for 

 a time is precisely the same as the result of introducing a current of 

 air into a stove, namely, that the flame is sooner extinguished. 

 This exacerbation is, however, by no means a necessary effect of 

 homoeopathic remedies. To proceed : — 



" The practice of homoeopathy in the exhibition of infinitesimal doses (tne 

 last link of the theory) is so thoroughly a deduction from the preceding as- 

 sumj)tions, that this rare-facted absurdity may safely be consigned, witnout 

 any further notice, to share the fate of their condemnation." 



Now Dr. V. has only very slightly touched upon the *' preceding 

 assumptions," without any attempt at refuting them ; to declare a 

 thing to be absurd because it is a deduction from such assumptions 

 is, therefore, manifestly irrational. But it happens, unluckily for 

 the Doctor's argument, that the size of the dose, whether large 

 or small, leaves the grand principle of the theory — similia similibus 

 curantur — wholly untouched ; indeed, Hahnemann practised his 

 method for a considerable time before he discovered the atomic 

 powers of medicine homceopathically prepared. The writer next 

 devotes three pages to the demonstration of the ignorance of the 

 homoeopathists of existing knowledge. This supposition on the 

 part of the pamphleteer can alone proceed from ignorance the most 

 culpable of the history of Homoeopathy. Is he not aware that by 

 far the greater number of enlightened advocates of the new doctrine 

 have previously served a long apprenticeship in the old school } that 

 some have been eminent as allopathic practitioners for forty years 

 and upwards } and that others, again, having instituted an investi- 

 gation in the subject, with a view of refuting its errors, have ended 



