MR. HAYCOCK ON HOMOEOPATHY. 
325 
One of the most serious of the many errors into which 
Homoeopathists have fallen, is their utter disregard of patho- 
logical changes, and their exclusive attention to the mere 
symptoms of disease. Mr. Haycock, in his £ Elements/ talks 
of symptoms as if they were the chief and only points to be 
regarded in the treatment of disease ; while Hahnemann says 
££ the symptoms in each individual case of disease must be the 
sole indication — the sole guide —to direct us in the choice of 
a curative remedy” (p. 120). Now, symptoms, although 
sometimes requiring special treatment, are but the visible 
signs and results of derangement and disease; while their 
removal, which is all that is aimed at in Homoeopathic treat- 
ment, does not always ensure the removal of those conditions 
on which they depend. Thus, rheumatism, pleurisy, enteritis, 
worms, and many other disorders, frequently remain unchecked 
long after their symptoms have been relieved. Instead of thus 
vainly attempting the removal of symptoms, it were therefore 
more rational at once to remove (as is attempted by allopa- 
thists) the morbid condition — the source of the evil. Causa 
sublata , tollitur effectus. The over- weening importance which 
Homoeopathists attach to the symptoms of disease must 
often, we should think, lead them into difficulty. The same 
diseases and the same remedies sometimes induce the most 
dissimilar symptoms, and would, consequently, according to 
Homoeopathy, require totally dissimilar treatment. On the 
other hand, cases of disease essentially different sometimes 
happen to manifest similar symptoms. Thus, stupor and 
vertigo result sometimes from an excessive and sometimes 
from a deficient quantity of blood sent to the brain ; difficulty 
of breathing from too much as well as from too little blood 
circulating through the lungs ; vomiting from irritation of the 
stomach, or from direct derangement of the functions of the 
vagus nerve ; diarrhoea from crudities in the alimentary canal, 
or irritant matters in the blood. Now, in these cases, similar 
symptoms, although depending on unlike morbid conditions, 
must according to Homoeopathy be combated by the same 
remedies ; for it is written : ££ Diseases are cured by such 
medicines as have the power of producing, in healthy in- 
dividuals, symptoms similar to those which characterise the 
diseases thenlselves” (Haycock’s £ Elements,’ p. 20). No pro- 
vision, let it be remarked, is here made for cases in which the 
same symptoms result from different or opposite conditions ; 
and yet we not only find the same symptoms produced by 
very different diseases, but also by the most opposite reme- 
dies. Strychnia and prussic acid, for example, although 
totally dissimilar in their modus operandi and general action 
xxvn. 43 
