HOMOEOPATHY. 
359 
HOMCEOPA.THY. 
An Address to Lord Robert Grosoenor on the Fallacies and 
Fatalities of Homoeopathy. By Charles Evans Beeves, 
B.A., M.D. 
— But to return to Hahnemann. It is well known, at least 
in Germany, that before he discovered the law of similars 
curing similars, he was the proprietor of an all-healing re- 
medy — the chief ingredient of which was borax, a substance 
of no remedial power. I have one of the papers which 
accompanied this medicine now before me. It promises 
wonders — “ cures the gripes — prolongs life to beyond one 
hundred years — prevents the flesh from drying up, and the 
hair from becoming grey — makes the old man of seventy 
brisker than the youth of seventeen — the barren fruitful — 
and the pains of birth easy . 55 It is, in fact, far more difficult 
to say what it did not, than what it did do. 
But it proved a failure, from what reason I do not know ; 
perhaps, because the stock-fish brain of Cousin Michael 
could not value the inestimable blessings thus offered to him 
for a few groschen. Somewhat later, I believe, he became an 
urinal caster , and told what disease ailed male and female by 
inspecting their water. The following anecdote I give on 
authority of Dieffenbach. A Bauer brought his wife’s water 
to the docter that he might prescribe for her. While in- 
specting it, he managed to learn that she had fallen down 
stairs. Putting down the fluid, he said boldly, “ She has 
fallen down ten pair of steps.” “ No , 55 said the man, “ she 
has fallen down sixteen . 55 “ But , 55 said the sharp-witted doctor, 
“Is this all the water?” — “No .’ 5 “That accounts for it: 
you have left six steps in the pot . 55 The man, of course, 
went away deeply impressed with the doctor’s acumen. 
If we follow him in his career, we find him constantly 
drawing largely on the gullibility, as well as on the pockets 
of those who consulted him ; for it was one of his maxims, 
and one which he never hesitated to avow, “ that persons 
never valued medical men unless they paid largely for their 
services. 5 ’ He invariably promised a cure, if they did but 
take the medicine sufficiently long ; for, like Sangrado, he 
held that persons died not of the disease, but because they 
had not taken his remedies a sufficient length of time — hence 
the lame were promised the agility of monkeys, the blind the 
keensightedness of hawks, and the barren the fecundity of 
two-year old sows. 
