282 BACTERIOLOGY. 



and others that awaken the " healing power " 

 of nature. Capable physicians, like Van Swie- 

 ten, Brown and others, recognized after him 

 that the action of small doses differs from that 

 of large doses of the same drug ; opium for in- 

 stance soothes in large doses and stimulates in 

 small. This important empirical fact was for 

 a time almost wholly lost sight of, and only the 

 significance of large doses was appreciated, 

 until Hahnemann attracted attention again to 

 the value of small doses. Even the childish 

 extravagance which found vent in homeopathy 

 could not .impair the sound kernel of truth 

 which the doctrine contained. In more recent 

 times accurate investigation along this line has 

 again been carried on by Nothnagel, H. Schulz 

 and Hueppe. It is now evident that we have 

 not to deal with any mystical " potentializa- 

 tion," with the supposed fact that a remedy be- 

 comes more potent the more it is diluted, but 

 with a fundamental biological law (cf. p. 90) 

 which Arndt, H. Schulz and Hueppe first ex- 

 pressed as follows : Every substance which can 

 paralyze or kill any cell or cell protoplasm can 

 also act in small quantities (on the other side 

 of an indifferent point), as a stimulus to cell 

 activity. The absolute quantities leading to 

 such effects are very different with different 

 substances. 



