April 24, 1891.] 



SCIENCE. 



233 



ened, reJucinp; Iheir yield below the normal. It might be clainied 

 also that from the reduced amount of pollen, and the shock of the 

 injury, the yield of the emasculated st'.lks was also reduced below 

 the normal, and thus that removing the tassels really reduced the 

 yield. 



All claims of decrease or increase rest on mere probabilities, 

 unless the control esperimenis are known. The produce of a like 

 number of rows in the corresponding situations on the other side 

 of the corn-field would give the normal yield Simpler, though 

 less accurate, the average yield of the untreated portion of the 

 general field would suffice for a standard. 



The great number of undeveloped grains on the ears of isolated 

 corn-stalks and on the borders of fields may be due to self-fertili- 

 zation ; but, as a like frequency of undeveloped grains occurs on 

 the cobs of corn whose tassels have been blasted by the western 

 hot winds, the non-development may be due to lack of pollen. 



As it does not seem reasonable that there was any lack of pol- 

 lination in the Cornell University corn-field, the results of the 

 control experiments may prove the claimed increased yield, and 

 may also be another proof of the injury of self-fertilization. But 

 the.'e results may show that the decreased yield of the abnormally 

 self-fertilized stalks more than counterbalances the increased 

 product of the maimed stalks. Dice McLaren.. 



Baltimore, March 31. 



HomcEopathy in Relation to the Koch Controversy.' 



Even the authority of Dr. Koch's eminent services has been un- 

 able to uphold parataloid in the terrible search-light of the Virchow 

 and Chiari necropsies; and it is questioned whether the reported 

 improvement of Kaposi's cases of lupus promises permanent cure 

 in that form of tuberculous disease. Experience with Koch's 

 fluid in this country has afforded results no more favorable. 

 Koch, nevertheless, hopes ' ' to extract from the tubercle bacillus its 

 curative substance alone," and there remains on all sides enduring 

 hope that true curative power can be liberated from the parata- 

 loid. = 



Is it generally known that the homoeopathic school has for 

 many years made use serviceably, not poisonously, of Koch's 

 material in the treatment of c 'nsumption and other luberculous 

 disease ? For twenty years this most misunderstood and maligned 

 body of observers has recognized the indispensable curative ser- 

 vice of the products of disease, and, in addition, the necessity ^ for 

 their extreme attenuation, before they might be safely adminis- 

 tered in sickness. '-Tuberculinum." "anthracin," and "sycotin" 

 belong wiih such drugs as arsenic, which develops dangerous 

 lesions if given to persons in health, but is curative in certain dis- 

 turbed conditions. The testimony given by these physicians ap- 

 pears singularly fitting, and their experience would he of vital 

 importance at this time of whole.=ale experiment threatened by 

 the followers of Koch. I will now attempt to describe the cultus 

 and professional training of these men who are accused by the 

 dominant school of failure to accomplish any thing for medical 

 science, of bigotry, of narrowness, and of '• having a fixed be- 

 lief." ■■ 



The college requirements for students of homoeopathy do not 

 differ materially Irom those of the older school. Many of these 

 stuJents are already graduates of Harvard or of foreign medical 

 schools, who afterward finish their studies at a homoeopathic 

 college. 



" By their fruits ye shall know them." Among the noteworthy 

 results of a professional education in the methods of this school 



^ Abstract of a paper by C. F. Nichols, M.D., in Popular Science News, 

 April. 



- See Report of the Imperial and Royal Soolet-, Vienna; Medical News, 

 Jan. 17; Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, Mar^h 5; Medical Record, March 

 7, U, 28; Lancet, March 28. 



^ "Koch usually iujects only one-mlllonth of a gram of the active princi- 

 ple. From the eff acts of this inconceivably minute quantity some idea may 

 be formed of the almost uncani y energy which the substance would dl&play 

 if let loose, so to i-peafe, in the fulness of its untamed strength " (Sir >loreli 

 Mackenzie, in the Contemporary Review). " One part to a ninety-eight bil- 

 lionth of the bulk of the whole oody in a man weighing fifteen stone," is Dr. 

 Hine's estimate (London Lancet, Feb. 14, p. 357). 



* See Professor H. C. Wood's Yale address, also addresses published in 

 Medical and Surgical Reporter, all previous to November, 1889. 



has been the discovery of unexpected remedial agents far in ad- 

 vance of other medical investigators. The homoeopaths have long 

 recognized the life resulting from death in natural growths, and 

 have not hesitaled to explore filth, decay, and disease for morbific 

 products or nosodes. Diseased material from animals and plants, 

 and the poisonous secretions of reptiles, fishes, and insects, are 

 found to be indispensably curative in desperate or obscure dis- 

 eases, hut are only thus helpful when the powers of each have 

 been clearly differentiated by a thorough proving. Is it generally 

 known what is meant by a proving or study of a remedial agent ? 

 Let me, then, briefly show you the labor, the research, and the 

 professional skill required to make a proving. 



A proving is made by administering to several healthy persons 

 a substance or extract, and recording its effects, with the ultimate 

 object of using the proven material in disease. Each agent must 

 be studied ' with regard to its chemical, functional, and the whole 

 pathological effects in the body. Study the pulse, actions of the 

 heart, lungs, brain, kidneys, liver, systems of nerves, blood-ves- 

 sels, lymphatics, glands, digestive organs, machinery of the senses, 

 each anatomical part and tissue. Study the connection of the 

 proven material with eruptions, parasites, contagions, climates, 

 influences iuherited or acquired. Note the resemblance of this to 

 other drugs and its antidotes. Above all, there must be percep- 

 tions of mental states, tact to avoid deceit, artistic insight,, and 

 quick sight; for all these matters, sought out by stethoscope, 

 ophthalmoscope, sphygmograph, microscope, analyses of the urine, 

 blood, etc , and the whole armentarium of a modem physician, 

 enter into the preparation of a proving, and must be brought to- 

 gether with laborious, painstaking care before the proving is 

 offered. 



Professor Constantine Hering prepared in the year 1850, for his 

 colleagues of the medical college at Mlentown, Penn , a scheme of 

 twenty closely written pages, —simply directions for epitomizing 

 and recording their provings. The systematic habit of German 

 university training which has given their prestige to German sci- 

 entists was thus early brought to bear upon students in this matter. 



A proving is accepted, and enters materia medica and text-book, 

 only after its characteristics have been confirmed by scores, often 

 by hundreds, of independent observers. 



At last the proving stands, full of interest, a new discovery, an 

 elaborate, sometimes a learned analysis, entirely unknown to old- 

 school methods, and one more weapon is ready for use. 



The authorized works of homoeopathic materia medica are very 

 numerous : fully eleven hundred remedies are available.' Many 

 practising physicians carry in memory the chief characteristics of 

 the greater proportion of these. 



Provings, and the repertories founded upon them, naturally 

 differ in value; yet a curious observer must, I think, find in the 

 general result the evidence of such persistent industry and scien- 

 tific research, that all statements which assume a lack in either 

 respect obviously proceed from uninformed persons. 



Regarding attainments in literature and the liberal sciences per 

 se, — a welcome addition, no doubt, to the real service of medical 

 men, and the supposed lack of which on the part of these prac'.l 

 tioners has been made the subject of grave comment,^— tj four 

 bright spirits only, in all these two thousand years of physicians, 

 have seats been assigned among the immorlalj. Hippocrates, 

 Galen, Sir Thomas Browne, finally Dr. Holmes, have severally 

 gained a place in letters. Each of these is a rebel and an innova- 

 tor, for without rebellion and innovation was never yet wrought 

 any good thing. But fifty years have pa.ssed since the death of 

 Hahnemann, himself a man whose vast learning was fully recog- 

 nized in his time.* Meanwhile neither poet nor sage has jet 

 chanced to be '' an ornament to his profession." The fact is, its 

 founders have been at work so hard that they have had no time 

 to hold up their heads to sing. 



1 Usually in a so-called college of provers. 



= BoenniDghausen's Repertory, an early publication, might fairly be com- 

 pared with Roget's Thesaurus or a modem lexicon. The recent compen- 

 diums (■ ( which three are avaUable) aggregate many hundred pages of closely 

 printed text. 



3 f^ee letter in the London Times, Jan. 8, 1889; also Dr. U. K. Newell"8 an- 

 nual hddress before the Massachusetts Medical Society, 1890. 



' See the writings of Jean Paul Richter and Broussais. 



