

LIBRARY 



TTNI VEK81T 



CALIFORNIA, 



HOMCEOPATHY. 



Samuel Hahnemann, the discoverer of this sys- 

 tem of medicine, was born at Meissen, in Saxony ; 

 and like Harvey, Jenner, and many other celebra- 

 ted benefactors of their age who have introduced 

 invaluable discoveries, and conferred invaluable 

 benefits to mankind, was persecuted to the ut- 

 most degree. He conceived that medicine, al- 

 though apparently highly scientific in its theories, 

 was in practice little more than an empirical and 

 routine application of remedial measures, of which 

 we know neither the certain effects, nor the laws 

 which determine their choice. In 1790, whilst 

 engaged in translating the Materia Medica of Dr. 

 Cullen, his attention was called to the properties 

 that physicians attributed to bark, and he was 

 induced to try the affects of that substance upon 

 himself. He was in good health at the time, and 

 to his astonishment, found that repeated large 

 doses of that drug produced on him febrile symp- 

 toms, bearing great resemblance to those of ague. 

 As bark had long been known as a specific for the 

 cure of ague, his penetrating mind suspected that 

 something more than accident had caused that 

 medicine to produce symptoms so nearly resem- 

 bling those of the disease which it cures; and 

 from this artificial febrile attack may be dated the 

 origin of Homoeopathy. *He consulted all authors 



^British Journal of Homoeopathy. 



