THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



167 



rolling ill its favour, I have been compelled to surrender 

 the citadel of my scepticism, and to regard it as a rational, 

 humane, and efficacious system of medicine. 



The general reluctance of the public to impartially in- 

 vestigate any new theory or principle has long been pro- 

 verbial ; indeed since Solomon, thousands of years ago, 

 wrote, " He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, 

 it is a folly and a shame unto him," it has been the 

 almost uniform practice of the world to allow conclusions 

 and condemnation to precede enquiry, and to persecute as 

 impostors those discoverers of new trutlis, wbom subsequent 

 and more enlightened ages have been proud to honour . 



Galileo and Colombus, Ilai'vcy and Jeouer, and other 

 equally familiar and illustrious names now enshrined in the 

 plenitude of their fame, will ever shine as beacon-lights 

 of caution to the precipitate, and should teach us to honestly 

 investigate a question before venturing to pronounce an 

 opinion on its merits. 



That Enghsh farmers of liberal and enlightened views 

 may be led to take this course, in reference to homoeopathy 

 in the treatment of their cattle, is the desire of 

 Your obedient servant, 



ACEICOLA. 



Saxmundham, Dec, 26, 18G0. 



THE HOMCEOPATHIC TREATMENT OF CATTLE. 



Sm, — Having witnessed the effects of this treatment of 

 disease, as well on my quadrupeds as my bipeds, for the 

 last six years, I feel it my duty to add my testimony of its 

 value to that of your coi'respondent " Agricola." 



A few years ago my stock was attacked with pleuro- 

 pneumonia, and the result of a previous visitation having 

 convinced me that it was vain to look to the allopathic 

 veterinary surgeon for help, I resolved to trust to homoeo- 

 pathy. Though successful in a few cases, I was at fii'st 

 disappointed. I had administered a principal remedy for 

 the disease to the healthy stock as a preventive; not prov- 

 ing a preventive, I ceased to administer it so, and for about 

 seven weeks afterwards, fortunately, I had not a case ; but 

 the malady agam broke out. After this I had five cases, 

 two of which were most virulent, and all of them re- 

 covered. 



In consequence of this success I have been asked to 

 prescribe for others. To one of my neighbours the reme- 

 dies were useless ; but, as I discovered too late that he had 

 camphor (an antidote to the remedy) about his cattle, I 

 think it not unlikely his failure may be attributed to that 

 fact. In another case the farmer had lost two cows before 

 he came to me ; one, which I found too far gone, he lost 

 afterwards. The second I saw was well in two days ; and 

 having been told that in my own case I ought to have used 

 arsenicum as a in-eventive, I advised its immediate use in 

 this. From some cause, this farmer had not another case. 

 Is it not fair to give credit to the arsenicum ? A butcher 

 killed a fat beast which I had treated when in milk the 

 previous year for lung disease ; he assured me that one 

 lung was entirely gone, and the other fast to the side ; but 

 the animal had made a fine fat beast. 



I enclose a paper which was published by E. R. for the 

 good of his neighbours. I confess he is more sanguine than 

 myself of the success of homffiopathic remedies in pleui'o- 



pneumonia. I do believe them to be far the most effica- 

 cious remedies known ; but it is a fearful disease. 



In disease genei-ally this treatment will not be appre- 

 ciated till tried. I believe that a veiy large proportion of 

 the horses which now die of colic and inflammation would 

 be saved by their owners at once administering a homeo- 

 pathic remedy. Since I used it I have many a time and 

 oft had colic in my stable ; but, with one exception, it has 

 always been of very short duration. The one exception was 

 that of a brood mare I lost last July. She was from home ; 

 my groom had forgotten his case of medicines. She had 

 consequently the benefit (?) of the knowledge and most 

 persevermg attention of one of the most eminent allo- 

 pathic veterinary practitioners of the day, hut she died. 

 Probably the administration of drastics killed her. Pro- 

 bably the administration, in three doses, of eighteen drops 

 of colocynthis would have saved her. I have frequently, 

 also, witnessed the most happy results of this system upon 

 that most difficult of treatment of all animals— the pig. 



Would that men could be persuaded ! It is truly painful 

 to think how great a blessing scoffers east away. Most 

 men will not look at it because their doctors tell them 

 "it's all bosh!" And their doctors beUeve it to be so, 

 because they cannot understand how such remedies and 

 such infinitesimal doses can have any effect ; and yet how 

 few things in nature do they understand ! Why will they 

 not prove " whether these things he so." Many of the 

 homoeopathic practitioners are men who have proved 

 them with a view, as they thought, to their triumphant 

 exposure; hut they have become converts, and, notwith- 

 standing its " boshiness," homffiopathy has upwards of two 

 hundred educated practitioners in this kingdom. 

 Yours obediently, 



Alderley Edge, Cheshire, John K. Farnwohth. 



Jan. 1, 1861. 



AMERICAN TRADE AND FINANCE. 



There is no country in which we are more interested 

 by commerce than with the United States. Hence the 

 condition — political and financial — of that Republic is 

 watched with the closest interest by our merchants and 

 manufacturers. An aggregate trade of fifty millions 

 sterling is carried on between the two countries. For 

 breadstuffs, provisions, cotton, tobacco, and many other 

 important articles we are largely dependent on the 

 States, while they were customers of ours last year for 

 goods of the value of £22,500,000. 



After gradually recovering from the crisis of 1857, 

 the healthy and prosperous condition of the country 

 was a subject of congratulation to all, until marred by 

 the financial and commercial panic which has assumed 

 so threatening an aspect within the last few weeks. 

 Our last advices enable us to gather some particulars 

 In connection with the present and the future, which 

 are of much importance. 



The President, in his annual message, states that 

 throughout the year the country has been eminently 

 prosperous in all its national interests. The harvest 

 has been abundant, and plenty smiles throughout the 

 land. " Our commerce and manufactures," he adds, 

 " have been prosecuted with energy and industry, and 

 have yielded fair and ample returns. In short, no 

 nation in the tide of time has ever presented a spectacle 

 of greater national prosperity than we have done, until 

 a very recent period." The Secretary of the Treasury, 

 too, in his report writes in the same strain : "The 

 country was never in a more prosperous condition. 

 The exports of the last fiscal year ending June had 

 reached the enormous sum of jgSOjOOOjOOO— nearly ten 

 millions in excess of the previous year, and about as 

 much as Great Britain ships to foreign countries, ex- 

 clusive of the exports to her own colonies, about half as 

 much more." 



