HOMEOPATHY IN VETERINARY PRACTICE. 
623 
proving. That the provings include the sensations of the 
organism that occur during the proving period (but independ¬ 
ent of drug influence) there can be no doubt. 
One thing, however, was original with Hahnemann. It 
was the idea of the infinitesimal dose ; the potentizing of drugs. 
He believed that the higher the potency the greater would be 
the power of the drug. None were high potencies unless above 
the 30th. No known method of science can detect a trace of 
medicine in a potency above the fifteenth 5 scarcely above the 
third. It cannot be the medicine, then, that is so powerful to 
cure. It is now held to be the potentiality produced by giving 
the vehicle containing the drug a certain number of shakes* 
Twelve shakes for a tincture and so many turns for a triturate. 
The more shakes and turns the more power in the remedy until 
it may become very dangerous. Every drug is held to have a 
certain definite molecular activity, which by shaking is im¬ 
parted to the vehicle. Thus the vehicle becomes the remedy. 
It in turn imparts its molecular activity to the diseased pro¬ 
toplasm, which it restores to a normal condition. But this 
modern and ingenious explanation has not and cannot be de¬ 
monstrated. It is not, therefore, of any scientific interest. 
But, as before mentioned, since the safety of the law of similars 
depends upon the infinitesimal dose, it becomes necessary to re¬ 
sort to ingenious theories to prove there is virtue in the medi¬ 
cine prescribed in this manner. But we are not informed why 
the vehicle does not impart its molecular activity to the drug or 
why the drug as it grows infinitely less in higher dilutions yet 
imparts an increased molecular activity. Hahnemann taught 
that when an insoluble substance was raised the 3d potency in 
milk sugar, to obtain the 4th potency alcohol might be used, 
since the drug at this potency becomes soluble. It is to be pre¬ 
sumed that his sense of sight and taste gave him all his knowl¬ 
edge of chemistry. 
There are upwards of eight hundred remedies in the homeo¬ 
pathic pharmacopcea. The U. S. P. contains less than one half 
that number. The remedies are drawn from every department 
