MEDICINE 203 



• If, for instance, a woman is deficient in the element 

 of Mars, and consequently suffers from poverty of the 

 blood and want of nervous strength (anaemia), we may 

 give her iron, because the astral elements of iron corre- 

 spond to the astral elements represented by Mars, and 

 will attract them as a magnet attracts iron. But we 

 should choose a plant which contains iron in an ethere- 

 alised state, which is preferable to that of metallic iron.^ 

 In a case of dropsy it would be exceedingly injurious to 

 give any remedy that would help to attract the evil in- 

 fluence of the moon ; but the sun is opposed to the moon, 

 and those remedies which attract the astral essences of 

 the sun will counteract those of the moon, and thereby 

 the cause of dropsy can be removed. The same mode of 

 reasoning may be applied in all other astralic diseases." 



2. Diseases caused hy Poisonoios Substances and 

 Impurities. 



" Everything is perfect in itself and nothing is im- 

 pure if it is what it ought to be ; but if two things 

 come together, then one may be a poison to the other " 

 (Be Ente Veneni). 



"Impurities and injurious elements enter the human 

 organism in various ways. They may be taken in the 

 food or drink, inhaled with the air, or be absorbed by 

 the skin. There are visible and invisible poisonous 

 substances, that are not injurious if they enter the 

 organism alone, but will become poisonous if they come 

 into contact with others. There are poisons and im- 

 purities of various kinds, and what is healthy food for 

 one organism may be injurious if taken into another, 

 and each thing contains hidden virtues that will be 



where no such mistakeg have been made, or they are attributed to " meteo- 

 rological changes," of whose action upon the human system therapeutic 

 science knows less to-day than at the time of Paracelsus, because it is 

 fashionable among certain people to reject everything which they cannot 

 Bee, as being "unworthy of their consideration." 

 * For instance, elder-berries {Saniimout), 



