THE STRENGTH of DRUGS and the DOSE. 



The subjects which we propose to treat of in this division of 

 our work demand the careful and thoughtful consideration of any 

 and all who would turn to best account the information we hope 

 to offer to our readers and students; the term ' ' strength of drugs ' ' 

 is here adopted not because it strictly represents the author's 

 views or is by any means a correct description of the various, 

 pharmaceutical processes to which all drugs, other than those in 

 the absolutely crude form, should be submitted by the honest hom- 

 oeopathic pharmaceutical druggist; we repeat it is not because the 

 term is a correct one that we use it, but because to the untrained 

 mind of the layman it more nearly conveys the idea which he has 

 been accustomed to accept as the explanation of the various 

 potencies or attenuations which all who have accepted Homoeo- 

 pathy as their law in medicine are acquainted with; at the same 

 time we shall try and explain why we do not consider it a correct 

 term to use, and further why it is calculated rather to mislead. 

 It has been already stated that potencies and dosage have nothing 

 to do with the law " Similia Similibus Curantur," nor do they in 

 the slightest degree bear upon the true meaning of the principle 

 laid down by Hahnemann. This fact cannot be too strongly em- 

 phasized by the author nor remembered too often by the reader,- 

 potencies and dosage are merely matters of experience; it has 

 been found that all drugs, generally, and some more than others, 

 are far more effective in their action — the same being more prompt, 

 deci-sive and permanent — after being submitted to the various pro- 

 cesses which will now be explained. In the first place let us 

 point out that the homoeopathic druggist has to be mathemati- 

 cally precise if he is to do his work correctly and according to the 

 rule of the homoeopathic pharmacy; to this end two forms of 

 calculation have been adopted in the reduction of drugs, the cen- 

 tesimal and the decimal; these words explain their own meaning: 

 and here it may be pointed out in passing, that although the term 



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