JESCULAPIUS. 503 



of "pigeon's" and "virgin's" milk, of the perfectly infallible 

 " calcined hen's feather's," which will " mundify, mollify, cica- 

 trize, and incarnate any ulcer whatsomever ?" What of all the 

 divine revelations concerning the Eose-Solis and the "herb- 

 Robert" ? Like "baseless fabrics" swept into the dust of the 

 past, the splendor of thine escutcheon is tarnished by thine 

 illustrious followers, Crollius and Hahnemann, the sage of 

 Meissen. The vis-medicatrix having made up her mind that 

 her golden key is " similia similibus," henceforward there is 

 to be no more " swilling down of whole beakers full of gross 

 and filthy drinks," her favorite formula being, " the conditions 

 on which the remedy which produced the disease in the 

 healthy body, already sick, are the following : first, the sick 

 person must adhere to the most rigid diet, so that the effect 

 of harmful food may not disturb that of the medicine ; 

 second, the medicine itself must be entirely simple, or 

 mixed only with perfectly indifferent substances, such as 

 water, sugar of milk, etc. ; third, the medicine must be 

 taken in the smallest, infinitesimally-microscopic portions, 

 because the operation, in virtue of its quality, increases in 

 the same proportion that its mass diminishes in quantity. 

 This is all the magic of homeopathy expressed in a few 

 words. There is nothing unintelligible, nothing unseemly, 

 nothing mysterious, nothing extraordinary," Simply, O 

 profound and erudite sage, because its nett result is simply 

 zero, is simply nothing! Nothing from nothing and nothing 

 remains. Go on registering the eternal chapter of "post 

 hoes," and pass them for sun-clear lt propter hoes," and no- 

 thing is extraordinary, nothing is impossible. And here it 

 is refreshing to reflect, that this party of ethereals have 

 bored no new artesian-wells, have struck no new leads of 

 gold, undreamed of in the philosophies. Crollius holds tlfe 

 absurd idea that those remedies that externally resemble the 

 symptoms of disease, in color, form, and smell, are the 

 safest: saffron for jaundice, quaking asp for ague, and tea of 

 the skin of a toad's back for small-pox. But, ridiculous as 

 this is, it is but a short step from this theory to homeopathy. 



