REVIEW — MANUAL OF VETERINARY HOMOEOPATHY. 715 
sive, as arguments -to support the doctrine. The question is, how 
small a quantity of a medical substance will affect the organism] 
Neither does the fact, that a very minute quantity of vaccine or 
variolous matter affects the system prove any thing in favour of the 
efficacy of minute doses of vegetable or mineral substances; for the 
former are specific poisons, producing specific results, which is not 
true of the latter. The leading homoeopathists of the present day 
speak of the decided effects of the deciliont.h dilution. The lowest 
dilution that can usually be obtained from these gentlemen is the 
third, which is very nearly in the proportion of one drop of the 
original tincture to one barrel of alcohol, or one grain of the extract 
to 400 weight of sugar. Some of them often profess to use the 
30th dilution. Let us try a little arithmetic here. The seventh 
dilution of one drop will be found, by any one who has the pa- 
tience to work out the problem, to be one hundred millions of 
barrels ; and if he went on to the 30th dilution, there would be 
needed, if all were preserved, a quantity of alcohol that could only 
be expressed by sixty consecutive cyphers, — a quantity of alcohol 
larger than the whole solar system, in order sufficiently to dilute 
the menstruum. If sugar was used instead of alcohol, the third 
degree of potence would require more pounds than a man could 
carry, — the fourth would freight a north river sloop, — and the sixth 
our whole navy. 
If it be said that homoeopathic medicines are not often given in 
these doses, we reply, that such are the doses recommended by 
homoeopathic writers — such are the doses recommended in the 
book we have been reviewing. They were ordered for the dog 
supposed to be rabid ; they were afterwards recommended for 
staggers. 
ON TUBERCLES IN DIFFERENT ORGANS. 
By M. Lugol. 
[Delivered at the Hospital St. Louis.] 
The cause of tubercles in various organs of the human being, 
and in the brute, is a subject wrapped in the deepest obscurity, 
and especially during the first period of its existence in both. 
When tubercles exist in the subcutaneous tissue, the mere local 
examination of the part will convince us of their presence ; but 
they may exist in parenchymatous organs wdthout their existence 
being revealed by any external symptom ; or, if they are disco- 
vered, it is at an advanced period of their existence, and when the 
malady has so far advanced that the resources of art are no longer 
available. 
When pulmonary tubercles are suspected, we avail ourselves 
of the aid of auscultation or percussion ; but in many cases 
auscultation and percussion remain mute even when there are- 
