MR. FINLAY DUN ON HOMOEOPATHY. 249 
he has totally neglected the first and most essential requisite, 
viz., to first understand it himself \ 
That Mr. Dun does not understand it, I will now endea- 
vour to prove from his own words, and the reader may after- 
wards form his own conclusions as to the value of this 
gentleman’s elucidation of the matter. 
In the motto “Similia Similibus curantur,” or, in 
other words, Similars cure Similars, the reader beholds a 
concise enunciation of the therapeutic law", w r hich is the basis 
of the Homoeopathic system. 
Now, before this question is more fully entered upon, and 
as a matter of course becomes more complicated, let us 
clearly define and determine the meaning of the words of 
which the above motto is composed. It is important that we 
should do so, as the right comprehension of the doctrine 
itself is dependent upon this. 
First, then, with reference to the proper meaning of the 
word Similar, or Similars, let us take the definition of this 
w r ord as given by Dr. Johnson, or, if the reader prefers, that 
of any otherlexicographer who is an established authority : 
he can do so, I am perfectly agreeable, I merely select John- 
son because his large dictionary happens to be upon my 
library table at the moment I pen these lines. £i Similar 
from the Latin word similis, having one part like another, 
uniform ; 2, resembling, having a resemblance, likeness, uni- 
formity.” Such is the definition of this word given to us by 
Dr. Johnson; it is the one which I shall adopt in the pre- 
sent instance ; and I may add, that it is precisely the mean- 
ing w 7 hich Hahnemann did, and every one of his disciples 
does, attach to the word ; but simple, and indeed self-evi- 
dent, as the meaning of this word is, yet not one individual 
in fifty who writes against Homoeopathy understands it in 
the sense now given : they continually confound it as mean- 
ing the same thing, not a similar thing, or as a thing having 
a resemblance merely. If, for example, I say, that Cinchona 
cures ague in virtue of its power of producing a similar 
affection within the healthy organism ; I do not mean (neither 
did Hahnemann mean) that the drug will produce ague; but 
I mean that it will produce a disturbance within the healthy 
body; the symptoms of which if compared w ith the symptoms 
of ague, would be found in most respects to bear a very close 
resemblance to ague. Having thus, I trust, made this mat- 
ter clear to the reader, — I mean clear as to the precise 
meaning I wish the word “ similar ” to be understood in, 
and which I contend is the only meaning which Hahnemann 
and all his disciples attach to it ; — let us see how Mr. Dun 
