88 FLORA HOMCEOPATHICA. 



that its effects should be thoroughly studied before using it, 

 in expectation of real benefit ; but such a result is only to be 

 obtained by homoeopathy. 



" Now, as Opium has hitherto been little used, excepting as 

 an antipathic and palliative, and its primitive effects only have 

 been opposed to diseases, no medicine has appeared so 

 soothing, or has so apparently suppressed morbid symptoms, 

 although soon followed by results more distressing than the 

 original disease. In short, nothing has caused more positive 

 evil after apparent good. 



" In all kinds of coughs, diarrhoeas, vomiting, sleeplessness, 

 melancholy, spasms, nervous affections, and, above all, in severe 

 pain, Opium is indiscriminately given, on the ground that it is 

 the best remedy in such cases. But its innumerable evil results 

 do not appear among the primitive effects of Opium, which are 

 exactly the reverse. 



" Therefore we may easily imagine how few salutary and 

 enduring effects can be obtained in the greater number of 

 morbid and physical affections, and this is proved by daily 

 experience. If Opium has been found to cure cough, diarrhoea, 

 sickness, spasms, etc., etc., in a few cases, it is only when these 

 symptoms first show themselves in persons previously in good 

 health, and are but slight. In such cases, as, for instance, in a 

 trifling cough caused by a recent chill, trembling arising from 

 terror, etc., Opium will sometimes restore the patient quickly 

 to health, because, if these symptoms are at once destroyed, the 

 body is restored to its former condition, and the tendency to 

 their return is suppressed. 



u But because this palliative action upon slight and recent 

 affections succeeds in a few instances, it does not follow that 

 Opium really possesses the power of curing them permanently 

 in all cases. 



" It cannot convert them into sound health, because they are 

 symptoms of other diseases, with which Opium does not coincide 

 homoeopathically in its primitive effects. For this reason, up 



