X INTRODUCTION. 



ercise of much imagination to understand that given a healthy 

 subject, whether among the human race or the lower ani- 

 mals, and you administer a non-poisonous dose of Arse?iic, 

 Mei'cury, Strychnine, Aconite, Belladonna or any other 

 drug, whether it belongs to the mineral, vegetable, or 

 animal worlds, you will in all probability be able to observe the 

 result, which result will make itself known by certain symptoms 

 either experienced by the subject in the way of sensation or notice- 

 able to the eye of anyone looking on; for instance, if a person 

 takes sufficient Belladonna to produce the ordinary effects of this 

 drug on the healthy, both kinds of symptoms will present them- 

 selves: first the subjective, or symptoms of sensation experienced 

 by the person, namely, a sore throat, headache and fever; second, 

 a symptom observable to the eye of one looking on, nameb', a 

 scarlet rash on the skin; this is an objective symptom. Now these 

 subjective and objective symptoms, namely, fever, headache, sore 

 throat and scarlet rash furnish a picture of the symptoms experi- 

 enced by one who is the subject of scarlet fever. Belladojina there- 

 fore is the remedy according to Hahnemann's law of drug selection 

 for scarlet fever, and so clinical or bedside experience has proved it 

 to be, times out of number; but in the practical application of this 

 law there is a pitfall into which many persons fall when attempt- 

 ing to put.it to the test, and not a few of these failures could be 

 found among members of the medical and veterinary professions, 

 what wonder, therefore, if a layman makes a mistake ! T\\^ pitfall 

 consists in taking one, two, three or more symptoms while two or 

 three others that may be present were overlooked or ignored; 

 Hahnemann states that the totality — which means the whole of 

 them, not leaving even one out — of the symptoms, either patent 

 to the naked eye, or experienced or felt by the patient, must be 

 included to enable the doctor to properly select the remedy for the 

 case before him ; byway of illustration take scarlet fever and i9^//a- 

 donna already referred to; a person might easily be the subject of 

 fever and have a headache and sore throat, but if there was no 

 bright scarlet rash on the skin depend upon it he was suffering 

 from something other than scarlet fever; in which case the fever, 

 headache and sore throat would not point to Belladonna as a 

 suitable remedy; provided, always, that those three symptoms 

 formed the totality of the symptoms of the case. With these facts 



