PAPAVER S0MN1FERUM. 87 



opinions agree with respect to the manner in which these dif- 

 ferent substances act. So that, everything considered, there is 



ours 



either in regard to medicine in general or to the advantage of 

 sick persons in particular. 



€€ Homoeopathy concerns itself only with simple medical sub- 

 stances, such as nature presents to us. Its only object is to 

 find out the simplest ways of preparing them, in order that 

 their inherent properties may all be equally obtained, and their 

 curative virtues be developed. It aims at nothing but the good 

 of mankind, and does not seek to establish its credit, as modern 

 pharmacy does, upon knowing how to prepare from Opium the 

 best poison to produce death without pain (the acetate of mor- 

 phine). It can do without such dangerous artifices. 



" The primary result of weak and moderate doses, during 

 whose action the organism is affected in a passive manner, 

 appears to be the exciting for a short time the irritability and 

 activity of the muscles subject to its action, but also to diminish 

 for a longer time that of those muscles which are not subjected 

 to its influence ; to excite the imagination and the courage, but 

 also to deaden and stupify the feelings, the sensibility, and 

 presence of mind. Under a longer continuance of its influence, 

 the organism, by its power of reaction, produces a condition 

 absolutely the reverse : a want of excitability and activity in the 

 involuntary muscles, an absence of ideas, languor of imagination, 

 with timiditv and over-sensibility of the general feeling. Cer- 

 tain symptoms are more palpable in some individuals than in 

 others. No medicine relieves suffering sooner than Opium. 

 It is this property which has induced physicians to employ 

 it so largely— a source of numberless evils. If the use of 

 Opium in disease were as beneficial as it is frequent, no other 

 medicine would make so many cures ; but exactly the reverse 



takes place. 



" The potency of this medicine and its rapid action indicate 



