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SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



often very crude. We cannot wonder if many honest, 

 serious, thinking men then turned away in dissatisfaction 

 from medicine, or if they from principle embraced an 

 extreme empiricism." l " But the right kind of work 

 brought forth its fruits much sooner than many had 

 hoped. The introduction of mechanical notions into the 

 theories of circulation and respiration, a better insight 

 into the phenomena of heat, the more minutely elabor- 

 ated physiology of the nerves, speedily produced practical 

 results of the greatest importance ; the microscopical ex- 

 amination of parasitic tissues, the stupendous development 

 of pathological anatomy, led irresistibly from nebulous 

 theories to real facts." And again 2 : "Whilst in the 

 investigation of inorganic nature the different nations of 

 Europe progressed pretty evenly, the recent development 

 of physiology and medicine belongs pre - eminently to 

 Germany. The questions regarding the principle of life 



1 Cf. Helmholtz, ibid., vol. ii. 

 p. 178, in his discourse " Ueber das 

 Denken in der Medicin " : " At that 

 time there were many among the 

 younger doctors who, in despair 

 about their science, gave up all 

 therapeutics, and took to empiri- 

 cism, such as was then taught by 

 Rademacher. This on principle 

 regarded as vain all hope of scien- 

 tific insight." Not only the ex- 

 treme empiricism of Rademacher 

 (1772-1850), but still more the wild 

 theories of Hahnemann (1755-1843) 

 found during this age of general 

 unsettlement many followers. See 

 on the origin, the principles, and 

 the spread of homoeopathy, Haser, 

 ' Geschichte der Medicin,' vol. ii. p. 

 793, &c. Haser gives the year 1816 

 as the date at which Hahnemann 's 

 doctrines began to be accepted in 

 wider circles. " It must not be 



forgotten that the heyday of ho- 

 moeopathy fell in that age when 

 medicine, especially in Germany, 

 was in a very deficient state, so 

 that the accusations raised by 

 Hahnemann and his adherents did 

 not appear quite unfounded. It is 

 even to be admitted that homoeo- 

 pathy has contributed to the re- 

 action through which in our times 

 the regeneration of the art of heal- 

 ing has been brought about, though 

 this would have taken place with- 

 out Hahnemann" (p. 803). Homoeo- 

 pathy has no scientific represen- 

 tative at any of the German 

 universities, and yet it is admitted 

 that it " still enjoys a great repu- 

 tation in some influential circles 

 among the general public " (Hirsch, 

 ' Gesch. d. medicinischen Wissen- 

 schaften,' p. 570). 



2 Helmholtz, loc. cit., vol. i. p. 362. 



