334 
F. E. CARLETON. 
At first let me give briefly the history of homoeopathy, and 
the principle which underlies the application of medicines under 
the law of similia similibus curantur. 
The founder or the school was Samuel Hahnemann, a Ger¬ 
man physician, who, late in the eighteenth century, while 
experimenting with cinchona bark, discovered its power to 
produce certain symptoms similar to those existing in diseases 
for whose cure it was administered. The idea that he had dis¬ 
covered a universal law flashed upon him, and he proceeded to 
“prove” various other substances, and to bring into prominence 
medicine whose therapeutic virtues had not previously been 
known. 
As-you are doubtless aware, “proving” substance consists 
in administering to a number of healthy persons some sub¬ 
stance the nature of which is to them unknown, and noting the 
effect produced. It is customary to give one or more of the 
provers some innocuous substance, in order that symptoms due 
to the imagination may be eliminated. 
Under the law of similars, the remedy would be useful in the 
cure of a disease the symptoms of which resemble those pro¬ 
duced in the provers. 
Remember now that homoeopathy does not necessarily imply 
infinitesimal doses, although a good many of that school do 
believe that they can effect cures with quantities of drugs so 
small that our imagination cannot reach them. Be that as it 
may, the homoeopathic idea is not large dose of a remedy, nor 
small dose, but the right remedy. 
And now we come to a brief discussion of a number of 
remedies. Colocynth, the bitter cucumber, as many of you will 
testify, has in its proving the following symptoms: Intermittent, 
colicky and increasing spasmodic pains, accompanied by a cold 
sweat, and relieved by hard pressure, very severe while the 
paroxysms last, but the intermissions are free from pain. Colo¬ 
cynth will almost immediately relieve a case with the above 
symptoms, as I have demonstrated to my own satisfaction in 
several cases of spasmodic colic. The pain should be purely a 
