HOMCEOPATHY 41 



Hahnemann founded his system. But many diseases 

 exhibit no symptoms accurately similar, as the homceo- 

 pathists insist they should be, to those produced by the 

 medicine prescribed for their cure. Numerous drugs, 

 moreover, cause symptoms wholly unlike those of the 

 diseases in the treatment of which homceopathists use them. 

 The homoeopathic selection of so-called appropriate 

 remedies, on the presumption that ' like cures like,' is based 

 upon a fallacy, while the minute, finely triturated, and sub- 

 divided doses are too attenuated to affect veterinary 

 patients. The practice of homoeopathy has, however, 

 developed wholesome discussion, has suggested some useful 



is incurred by their insufficient dilution ! Medicines such as charcoal, sand, 

 and calcium carbonate, which, in doses of several drachms, have only slight 

 mechanical effects, when given in fractional parts of a grain are thought to 

 produce very powerful effects, and cause many hundred symptoms. The 

 extraordinary powers supposed to be conferred on these and other medicines, 

 even when given in doses of inconceivable minuteness, are chiefly ascribed to 

 the magic influence of careful and continued triturations and often-repeated 

 shakings, performed according to most precise directions. Some homoeo- 

 pathic authorities declare that there is little difference of activity between 

 different dilutions of the same medicine ; and it is said that, if the medicine 

 be well selected, it matters little whether the tenth, hundredth or thou- 

 sandth of a grain be used (Gunther and Haycock). There is probably some 

 truth in this observation, for, with most medicines, especially when ad- 

 ministered to the lower animals, all the dilutions mentioned would be equally 

 harmless. But homceopathists assert that, in spite of the errors which their 

 opponents discover in the system, it is nevertheless very successful in the 

 cure of disease. In judging, however, of homoeopathy as a system of prac- 

 tical medicine, it must be regarded as made up of two distinct parts : 1st, 

 The original and peculiar part of the system, consisting in the use of medi- 

 cines selected in accordance with a law embodied in the axiom similia 

 Nimilibus curantur, and administered in infinitesimal doses, usually varying 

 from one grain to one-millionth of a grain, and carefully prepared according to 

 certain precise directions ; and 2nd, Attention to diet and regimen the only 

 effectual and rational part of homoeopathy, the true source of all its boasted 

 cures, and that department of medical treatment which has always been 

 insisted upon by rational and successful practitioners, of human and 

 veterinary medicine. The value of medicines given homosopathically has 

 never been satisfactorily shown, and never can be until two series of cases, 

 as nearly as possible alike, be treated the one in the usual homoeopathic 

 fashion, the other with the same attention to diet and regimen, but without 

 the globules. In comparative experiments, made at the Edinburgh Veter- 

 inary College, in the treatment of pleuro-pneumonia and other diseases, it 

 appeared that those cases treated by diet and regimen alone were as speedily 

 and effectually cured as those treated with the globules in addition, so long 

 as the globules were given only in homoeopathic doses. 



