====== VALUE OF UNPROVED REMEDIES====== 

{{anchor:s2}}— Our Materia Medica contains many remedies of which the provings are fragmentary in their character, and in which we fail to find symptoms that would suggest the use of the remedies in diseases which we nevertheless know by experience the remedies do cure. {{anchor:s3}}Prescriptions based on such a knowledge of remedies ex usu in morbis are of necessity uncertain and inexact. {{anchor:s4}}But histories of cures made by such prescriptions are of great interest, inasmuch as they direct our attention to the necessity of more extensive and thorough provings, by means of which we may learn the characteristic action of the remedy, and may define exactly the variety of the diseases in question which it is adapted to cure. {{anchor:s5}}In his view we read with great interest an article on the use of Argentum nitricum in Chorea by Dr. Gross, of Regensburgh, <span grade2>(Allg. Hom. Zeit.,</span> Vol. 64, pp. 123, <span grade2>et seq.)</span> Dr. Gross refers to the proving of Argentum nitricum, in <span grade2>OEsterr. Zeit.,</span> which, as is well known, is quite fragmentary, and frankly admits that he finds in the symptoms there recorded but little direct warrant for giving this remedy in the cases of Chorea which he details as treated by it. {{anchor:s6}}He nevertheless finds a resemblance between the general character of Chorea and the general action of Argent. nit. {{anchor:s7}}He refers to the well established fact that cures of Chorea have often been made by Allopaths with Nitrate of silver and finally he gives the details of several cases of Chorea, some of them of great severity, cured with great rapidity by doses of Argent. nit., from the fourth to the twelfth potency.

{{anchor:s8}}Such a publication would be of great value if it should encourage and give direction to the labors of our provers, and enable us to find out by their aid in what varieties of Chorea it is that this powerful remedy is especially indicated. and what symptoms analogous to those of Chorea are characteristic of it, as compared with Cuprum, Stramonium, Hyoscyamus, Cina and other remedies of well known value and frequent application in this disease.

{{anchor:s9}}And almost any physician in active practice in our large cities has opportunities to observe something of the pathogenetic action of Argent. nit., so extensively is the latter employed by the Allopaths, as a so-called <span grade2>local</span> application in assumed or real disease of the pharynx, larynx, uterus and vagina. {{anchor:s10}}— Repeated observations have convinced the writer that Nitrate of Silver applied to the os and cervix uteri does often produce symptoms in the regions of the eye and of the respiratory apparatus, that are clearly recognized and which, despite their imperfect character arising from the fact that they occur in unhealthy subjects, give us no little insight into the action of the Argent. nit., on these organs and point to its therapeutic use. {{anchor:s11}}Dunham.

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====== DOCUMENT DESCRIPTOR ======

^ Source: | The American Homoeopathic Review Vol. 03 No. 01, 1862, page 48 |
^ Description: | Value of Unproved Remedies |
^ Author: | Dunham, C. |
^ Year: | 1862 |
^ Editing: | errors only; interlinks; formatting |
^ Attribution: | Legatum Homeopathicum |