CURING BY COMBATING THE CAUSE. 279 



speak, the resistance to any pathological dis- 

 charges of energy. 



A cure of another sort is seen when we suc- 

 cessfully combat malaria with quinine. Here 

 we introduce into the organism a substance 

 which in certain quantities is a poison : we 

 cast out the devil by the aid of Beelzebub ; we 

 take the risk that perhaps we may be intro- 

 ducing so much poison into the body that a 

 disease due to the drug will result. The same 

 thing is true when we treat syphilis success- 

 fully with mercury, or rheumatism with the sali- 

 cylicates. Indeed the reproach of the homoeo- 

 pathist is that with the ordinary large doses pf 

 medicine that are given, we do not effect a cure 

 but merely increase the suffering of the patient 

 by superinducing a disease due to the drug. 

 It is, however, noteworthy that under such 

 treatment malaria patients do get free from 

 malaria and become perfectly well, and that 

 the rheumatic patient gets rid of his painful 

 joints and swellings and is able then calmty 

 to discard his salicylicates. There must ob- 

 viously be something wrong with the homceo- 

 pathist's explanation. 



When bodies like quinine or the salicylicates 

 are used in this way, it is at once assumed by 

 some that such substances act antiseptically, 

 and that their efficiency in the body is due to the 



