By B. Fincke, M. D., Brooklyn, N. Y.

Fifth Series.

“I approve much more your method of philosophizing which proceeds upon actual observation, makes a collection of facts, and concludes no further than those facts will warrant.”-·Dr. Franklin To Abbe Souliave.

The case here reported were treated with High Dilution Potencies of my own preparation, carried up by further dilution on a new plan. The notation is on the centesimal scale. Every thousand is denoted by the letter “m,” e. g, Apis mel. 3/42m. means two pellets of the forty-two thousandth potency of Apis mel.

The success obtained by these potencies not only confirms the observations made in the first series, [“American Homoeopathic Review, Vol. 2 p. 282.”] but also established the fact, that the action and efficaciousness of homoeopathic potencies is not limited to 20000 or 40000 — the highest made by Jenichen - but evident even in higher centigrade dilutions as in the 42000 of Apis mel., in the 50000 of Nux vom., and in the 55000 of Sepia.

The question, then, where by potentiation, the terminus of medical action for homoeopathic remedies is to be found, at all, is still an open question.

The experience in case number eight settles the fact, that our high potencies, and more particularly doses of a third Globule Dilution Potency of a 10000 centesimal potency, preserve their medical properties, and exert their curative action, when prepared and prescribed in America, mailed in a letter to Europe, and taken at Dresden in Saxony.

In the observations subjoined we commence summing up. When the first series was published (March, 1860), von Boenninghausen did them the honor of noticing them, publishing a translation and glosses of his own, cordially approving and supporting the views advanced.[Allgem Hom. Zeitung, Vol. 61 pp. 63 134, 140, 159, 164 Now, before the last series reaches his eyes, they are closed forever. The great master of our art, the champion of true Homoeopathy, the standard-bearer of High Potencies in Europe - he is no more.

With feelings of gratitude I cherish, personally, the memory of him, who by words of encouragement and assurance strengthened my purpose when I first professed Homoeopathy. “Man kann Alles lernen,” he said, in true Franklinian terseness.

But with deep sadness comes the thought, that his powerful aid should be withdrawn now, when we most need it, to put down the false prophets, criticasters, double-dealers, and disunionists, who by supercilious misrepresentation and disparagement of Hahnemann's labors, betray and endanger the good cause. Oh, that he were still with us in the coming battle, to be fought on the true ground of Infinitesimality, which is finally to decide, by the high potencies of scientific truth, the final triumph of genuine Homoeopathy!

1. Angina. Ophthalmia.-Therese S., 7 years and 9 month old, of German descent, dark complexioned, at a time when diphtheria was prevalent in the neighborhood, presented the following symptoms.

December 28th, 1863, three, p.m. High fever with dry burning skin; aching in the forehead; maturating of the eyes which stick together, so that she can hardly open them; swelling of the throat on the left side, with pain in swallowing; nausea; pains in all her limbs; sent her one dose of Apia mel. 4/42m

29th. The fever had ceased very soon after taking the medicine. Otherwise she is about the same.

30th. Much better. The swelling went from the left to the right side. Tonsils very red, swollen, looking as if scratched.

January 1st, 1864. Stench from the throat in speaking. Lachesis 6/20m.

2d. The swelling goes down. Two days after she was well.

2. Herpes Circinatus. - Same patient.

February 13th, 1863.-Ringworm, red and burning, as large as a coppercent under the lower lip; for a week. Sepia 6/33 m.

After that the eruption subsided within a fortnight

3. Indigestio. - Mary S., sister or the same, 10 years old, blonde hair, blue eyes, short, fat.

December 7th, 1863. After eating potatoe-salad and pork, vomiting early in the morning in bed; diarrhea with tearing pains in the bowels; sour taste; coated tongue. Aluminium met. 2/24 m. Soon relieved.

4. Angina. Ophthalmia. - Same patient.

December 30th, 1863. Headache, both eyes watering and latterly maturating. Apia mel. 6/42m.

January 1st, 1864. Watering and maturating of the right eye; gum-boil Belladonna___ /40___ m.

January 3d, 1864. The right eye maturating yet; fever, red swollen

Cheeks; pain on swallowing still; in the throat on the left side, externally and internally; no appetite. Apis mel. -6/42 m.

4th. Slight fever in the night; slept but little; throat red, swollen; left tonsil swollen; pain on swallowing still; right eye maturating; no appetite; little thirst. After a day or two well.

5. Hemorrhoides Coecae. - Mrs. N., American, blonde hair and blue eyes, 30 years old; after the loss of a valued friend. February 27th, 1864, complains of aching in the lower part of the back, followed by blind piles with stinging pains; stool regular. Used to have piles when pregnant, which she is not now. Neck and shoulders rheumatic. She is unable to walk. Great depression of spirits. Took Opium 200 (Lehrmann) herself without effect. After Nux vom. 2/30 m., in some sugar of milk, she got well and went the next afternoon some distance to church. She said, “it acted like a charm.”

6. Rheumatismus. . -Ch. F. boy 10 years old, dark complexion.

February 4th, 1864. Rheumatic pain in the right knee on walking. Bryonia 40 m, some pellets.

6th. The pain disappeared in the morning after taking the medicine, and returned in the afternoon. Bryonia 24m., some pellets.

6th. The pain was gone.

7. Ablactatio - Mrs. B., of French descent, dark complexion, well formed, was, March 1st, 1864, delivered of a healthy child. She did not want to nurse the child, although she had nursed her previous children, and was in good condition to nurse again now.

March 4th. Breast very sore, swollen as far as the left arm; pressure and soreness in motion and on touch. The milk is running out. Bryonia 40m., some pellets, to be dissolved in about one gill of water, and one teaspoonful to be taken once in three hours.

5th. She is doing well. The swelling went down; but still the milk is being secreted and oozing out. Pulsatilla 51 m. in solution as before.

9th. The milk is gone; the breast is quite natural. She has no more uneasiness about it.

14th. Patient called at the office, reporting herself perfectly well.

8. Hernia Inguinalis, - J. F. F., of Dresden, Saxony, 75 years old, fat, middle stature, in

August 19th, 1861, during a walk, got stinging pains in the right inguinal region, shooting over into the right hip and the right thigh with difficulty in walking. Coming home, he noticed a swelling just above the pelvis near the hip. After Aconite 30 it disappeared, but afterwards it returned. He then must pass water more frequently than usual. The spine is curved on the right side in such a way that, when sitting, the lowest ribs touch the right hip-bone, the ribs having already assumed a corresponding curvature. Thereupon mailed him three doses. 1. Nux vom. 2/3 m. 2. Nux vom. 3/9 m. 3. Rhus tox . 3/10 m, to be taken dry, successively one a week .

June 1st, 1862. Patient reports, that the remedies had acted successfully, when by a sudden and violent motion in bed he got a relapse. The next physician on hand was called in, and he declared that it was an inguinal hernia which, besides the bowels, contained also some omentum; he then reduced the hernia and put on a truss. Mailed a powder with a quantity of pellets of Rhus tox. 10 m. 3/0, [High Globule Dilution Potency, see the “The American Homoeopathic Review,” Vol.3, p.88.] with the direction to take three pellets once a week.

November 23d. Patient reports that the hernia had no more protruded behind the truss as often as before, and that, whenever it occurred, it was hardly to be distinguished from a fold of loose skin.

April 3d, 1863. Mailed some more pellets of Rhus tox. 10 m. 3/0, three once a week.

December 7th, 1863. Received the good news that the hernia had come down no more, that there was no more any difficulty about it, and that patient had stopped taking medicine.

March 12th, 1864. Patient reports that the hernia did no more protrude.

Observations.

“E pauxillis atque minutis” - Lucretius

It remains, to gather the consequences and proper deductions, for general science, to be drawn from the facts and observations collected in the proceeding articles, and also to sketch the position which Homoeopathy, especially as determined by high potencies, deserve to occupy among the sciences. But we must here limit ourselves to the following suggestions:

1. The high potencies which form the basis of our observations, are fully known as to their preparation and elements, all having been carefully registered in our books, and the clinical effects of them having been taken from our journals. So there is no mystery, nor uncertainty, about these high potencies and they, at least, claim immunity from the sweeping objections by which heretofore even Goullon, Meyer and others, actually, excused themselves from considering high potencies at all.

2. The general principle of potentiating remedies appears to be a working out of the old theorema: corpora non agunt nisi soluta.

3. From the views presented in the observations, it results, that homoeopathic remedies are agents and reagents, and more particularly that they are as homoeodynamic with the organism in its actual condition, as the organism is homoeopathic with them in their proper application. Hence, when they are, indiscriminately termed homoeopathic, it is done metonymically.

The organism in its healthy condition is by homoeopathic remedies always similarly affected, as it is in its diseased condition by the disease, and it is always contrarily affected by them in either condition.

A further result is, that homoeopathic drugs are, likewise and· contrariwise, morbific and curative, pathopoetic and hygiopoetic., pathogenic and pathotonic, pathic and antipathic, nosantic and hygiantic, according as they are applied to the given state of the organism.

Conformably to these views, the character of homoeopathic remedies is always pathematic, and at the same time always homoeomatic, and always dynamic. It might be aptly designated as equally homoeopathopoetic and homoeohygiopoetic, equally homoeopathogenie and homoeopathoctonic. Such, or a similar terminology would seem to be serviceable for a short-hand description of the peculiar and distinctive nature ofmedical Homoeodynamicity, in which we recognize the basal principle of that Homoeopathy and Potentiation which were both discovered, and established, by Hahnemann, the true son of Hippocrates, the equal of Columbus upon the vast ocean of Medicine. These discoveries, being positive enrichments science, form his highest original merit, his monumentum aere perennius!

4. Inasmuch as the direction of the action of our remedies in relation to the organism, and its constituent or integrant parts, is in every case distinct, and peculiar, and unerringly specific, as has been recently so well elaborated by von Grauvogl; it is certain, that their effort is always specific in each individual case, where it is properly administered and proves curative; and in this sense a homoeopathic remedy is a specificum .

But this would seem to be about all that is tenable of the theory of the specificists and of the schools which enjoy the delusion of being ortbodox. There is no such thing as a specificum for any generic class of diseases, unless it means only a generalization and abstraction of pathognomonic symptoms of single remedies -Organon, 5th ed., § 147.

5. The specific direction of the several remedies, or drug-matters, compared with the equally specific direction of the several hypothetical nosopoeses, or disease matters, presents again a simility, and, on account of it, another property of homoeopathic remedies, which is recognizable in that they are homoeotropic.

6. In relation to Therapia the inferences from the views developed in the observations do not here need any more explicit elaboration. Generally these observations may contribute to a correct understanding of what Paracelsus described as the pith of our art, in these words: “Summum artis mysterium erit in naturoe et remedii convenientis cognitione.”

7. Inasmuch as each homoeopathic remedy has, and, especially in its high potencies, maintains, its own, and peculiar, pathematic sphere, and its own pathognomonic character, reflected In the pathogenetic picture, - the old Nosology will not be sufficient for anything else, than a mere nominal index.

But a better system of Nosology, that is, a true and real Pathology or Pathognosis might be built up on the basis of scientifically comparing, and contrasting, and carefully and cautiously grouping, the different symptoms of the different remedies according to the traits which they have similar and in common. This might be done by combining the true pathognomonic symptoms with cautious and correct generalization, in which already Hahnemann, von Boenninghausen, Hering, Lippe, Jahr and others have succeeded to a great extent. The nomenclature, then still desirable, would most naturally be taken from the names of the drugs which produce the same or similar symptoms; e. g., Aconitism, Carbonism, Digitalism, Helleborism, Iodism, etc.

Such a Pathognosis would mainly depend upon the study of high potencies, because they, as is confirmed by Jahr, “present the real, proper and peculiar characteristics of the remedy.”

True, such Pathognosis would certainly presuppose considerable help from micrological, microscopical, anatomical, microchemical, and other exact observations, finer than those hitherto made by physicists, chemists, and physiologists. Yet it may confidently be hoped, that, as science and arts proceed in their onward march, they will, with a fuller appreciation of the throughout micrological character of all matter, and of as natural processes, find, and acquire, those finer methods and instruments which are required to elucidate, palpably, what Homoeopathy, without them, has already commenced to secure by her experience and observations, and by her operation with finest substances upon the fine organization of the human body.

8. Inasmuch as the true Remedium is that drug which in quality, substance, and effect, is contrary to the given state of the organism, or its concerning organs, therefore capable of unmaking the disease in the sick, and making the disease in the healthy organism; and which, at the same time, in relation, quantity, form and modality, is conform and equal, ergo similar, to the given pathopoesis or morbification, and most nearly so, and in the exactest possible proportion unto the quantity and form of the disease; and which is, therefore, homoeotic, or capable of assimilating the disease; and inasmuch as the corresponding pathopoesis, or morbific agent, must be equally homoeotic, or capable of assimilating the drug, or hygiepoesis; it is clear, that such a remedium, necessarily is thorough, direct, positive, radical, and precise in its effect, and that any other drugs, selected and administered after other theories, can only be more or less indirect, negative, palliative, or alterative, and uncertain in their action-Positivity of Homoeopathy.

9. The correlation of physiological and pathological assimilation in the view we have taken, will find its illustration in an examination into the effects of our best known remedies from which we select Arsenic as an example.

The pure metallic Arsenic undergoes no oxydation in the alimentary canal, is eliminated in its pure metallic state, and not poisonous. (See Schmidt and Bretschneider in Moleschott Untersuchungen, Vol. 6, p. 140.)

The arsenious acid, if taken in large and massive doses, terminates life more or less rapidly, and is one of the most formidable poisons.

The same arsenious acid is taken habitually and regularly, in small doses, by mountaineers, in some places, for the purpose of improving their “wind” and of preserving and bettering their general health. And there its effects are, that the people who make a regular practice of Arsenic eating, with certain precautions, grow upon it sleek and fat and red-cheeked, and their appearance improves generally. Likewise it is given to horses, cattle and hogs for the purpose of fattening them up. And we are informed that in the Styrian stud of the King of Prussia it is made a rule to give Arsenic to the horses. The Arsenic serves as a nutritious element.

The same arsenious acid is, in some places, taken regularly, and in small Doses, by persons who are connected with the manufacture of Arsenic, for the purpose of avoiding the deleterious effects of the fumes of the poison, and this is done not only with impunity, but with marked benefit, as it preserves their lives. Thus Arsenic serves as a prophylactic, and at the same time as a remedy and a nutriment.

The same arsenious acid, if taken in infinitesimal quantities, cures such complaints as are similar to those produced by it in large doses. Thus Arsenic serves as a true remedium, and is one of the most efficacious remedies in our Materia Medica.

Arsenic, therefore, stands as full proof for the fact that the same substance may be indifferent, poisonous, nutritious, morbific, or curative, as the case may be; the effect depending upon the mutual action of the organism and the drug, according as it is assimilable in different degrees.

We are aware of the objection against considering arsenious acid as a nutriment, on the ground that it diminishes the ordinary waste of the tissues and causes an amount of fat and albuminous substances, equivalent to the repressed carbonic acid and urea, to remain in the body and to increase its weight, when the animal receives at the same time a sufficient amount of food. (Schmidt and Stuerzwage Jour., f. pr. Chem., 1859, Vol. 78, p. 373.

But tbis objection rest, on the narrow view physiologists take of assimilation. The arsenious acid must be assimilated by the tissues in some way or other, if it is to diminish their waste. And, that it is so assimilated, is conclusively proved by the chemical test in post mortem examinations.

10. Hippocrates already observed the correlation of physiological and pathological assimilation, and laid down illustrations, and rules drawn from it for practice, in various passages of the books which we have under his name. His views in this respect are concentrated in this sentence: “For any other thing is food to one and injurious to another.” (de morbo, sacro. ed. Adams, 2, p. 843).

But this, like many other good things, was mostly neglected by his epigones and so it is, that the profession generally, even homoeopathic physicians, still cling to the untenable definition or a “remedy” which assumes it to be unassimilable matter.

It must be acknowledged, however, that Falck, or the physiological school, refers to the difference in the effects or toxication as depending upon the dose and the state or the organism. But he, too, completely ignores what, before him and in the very same direction, was observed by Hahnemann and others, and what might be well made available for Toxicology.

11. With that understanding or remedial action, which is adopted in our observations, Boerhaave's, “Idem remedium aliter afficit, sanum hominem, guam, aegrotantem,” and Hartman's, “Corpus etiam aegrum longe alium ac sanum a medicamento effectum experiatur necesse est” are easily reconciled and scientifically confirmed. Or course the same drug operates differently upon different states or the organism. And by our Homoeopathy it is proved that it operates contrariwise as well as similarly.

Of the Holmesian witticism, “that, what is injurious to the healthy, must be injurious to the sick,” it is hardly worthwhile to say more, than that it is, at best, an injury to logic.

12. In regard to Biology our theory or homoeopathic high potencies leads to the following views:

Nutrition is the result: or assimilation of nutritious matter contained in the Particles or food, comminuted and refined by mastication and digestion, and combined with indigestible matter which serves as a vehicle to keep the nutritious matter in the required condition or fineness and comminution.

Nutrition is thus carried on by potentiation of nutritious matter in the organism, rendering it assimilable by the concerning parts or organs of the system.

Every part of the organism assimilates of the nutritious matter, presented to it in a variety of forms, whatever is affined to its own substance and nature, and required to meet its wants.

Consequently, any food which by such assimilation contributes to the self-preservation of the organism, is proper nutriment.

As there is an assimilation or nutritious matter, so there is an assimilation of Nozious matter, and whatever does not tend, or contribute, or agree to, or concur with, the self-preservation of the organism, is noxious to it.

The indigestible matter or the particles of food which, as a vehicle, keeps the nutritious matter suspended in a state of comminution or fineness, forms one source of assimilation, of noxious matter, being itself comminuted and refined by the process of digestion, in such a manner, that its assimilation is facilitated, which again is potentiation.

The ingestion of poisons and drug-matter in a crude state, by their contact and chemical action upon the organism, forms another source of assimilation of noxious matter.

The ingestion or nutritious matter, when nutrition is deranged, forms a third source assimilation of noxous matter, the nutriment, thus ingested, itself becoming noxious to the organism, by virtue of its chemical and physical properties.

The perversion of nutrition, taking place where the self-preservation of the organism does not require nutrition, and being contrary to self-preservation, forms a fourth source of assimilation of noxious matter.

The ingestion into the health, organism of drug-matter in- a condition of comminution or refinedness, obtained by high potentiation, forms a fifth source of assimilation of noxious matter.

All this taken together, it will be perceived, that all matter assimilated by the organism, through its various parts and organs, stands in the signification of nutriment or noxious matter, conversely, as the case may be. And whether it set as the one or the other, depends upon the place, and upon the part in the organism, where the assimilation is going on, and upon the velocity or the assimilating process, as well as upon the (infinitesimal) comminution, or fineness, or the matter, and, of course, upon the affinity of the assimilating particles to those assimilated, and vice versa.

Noxious matter may be assimilated; and by nature prevented from exerting its specific action, by being enveloped with indifferent tissues so as to remain indifferent, or innocuous, to the self-preservation of the organism for a longer or shorter - time. Innozious assimilation of noxious matter.

Assimilation, everywhere, is accomplished by potentiation, that is by rendering the infinitesimal particles of matter susceptible and active according to their inherent affinities. - _

Disease originates in the specific action of noxious matter which is either Produced - within the organism, or brought in from without, and it is always carried on by a process of assimilation.

As homoeopathic remedies are obtained by potentiation, that is by comminuting and refining drug-matter, by means of a vehicle easily assimilable, so nutritious matter appear to stand all the vehicle in the natural potentiation of those noxious materials which the organism itself prepares as remedies for its own self-preservation.

As the whole organism draws upon digestion, as the source of its nutrition, so every part and particle of the organism draws upon the various materials successively worked out by the different processes or animal chemistry, for its own proper nutriment, and assimilates them for its own particular use and subsistence. Thus the lacteats draw upon the chyle prepared by digestion; the lymphatics upon the transudation or the capillaries; the blood upon the fluids of either of these; and the nerves upon the blood.

Those parts of the organism which do not satisfy their wants and requirements By this intra-organic nutrition alone, assimilate from the outer world, whatever Is necessary, not only for their own existence; but also for their cooperation with others and for the self-preservation of the organism. Thus the blood assimilates from the air; the eye light; the ear sound; the nose olfactory matter; the tongue gustatory matter; the skin surfaces; the brain and nerves phosphorus; the mind operations of other minds by means of the senses, and so on; the organism, in fact, continually assimilating from the planet and the universe as long as it lasts. Consequently, the whole organism is the product of assimilation of matter, and its action is the results of potentiation matter. And so is disease. And so is health. And so is all life.

The hypothetical ether is, possibly, infinitesionally comminuted matter in space, forming, as it were, the reservior or the high potencies required for the Universal Assimilation or Homoeosis, which is continually going on and mediating all life in the world.

13. The inferences for Aetiology, to be drawn from the above advanced biological views, are easily understood.

Inasmuch as the properties and effects of homoeopathic remedies are similar to the properties and effects of what we must conceive to be the causes of the diseases which they cure, it would not seem unlikely that the material substance, or nature, of both, the drug-matter and the disease matter, should be also similar.

And, if so, it would give an important addition, if not a new basis, to Aetiology which, therefore, will have to direct its attention to the homoeopathic Materia Medica, and complete its investigations by the results of the homoeopathic Proving which are, in fact, as many aetiological studies.

The probative process is the reverse of the curative process, and there is no reasonable doubt, but that by proving the disease is produced under the same laws of nature under which the disease is produced otherwise.

14. The homoerotic hypothesis proposed in the course of these observations and deductions, is an unpretending effort of harmonizing, and subsuming under one common head, many important physiological and physical phenomena which appear to bear near relation and resemblance to the healing process by homoeopathic high potencies.

It can hardly be denied, that the homoerotic nature of our healing process Shows itself in the fact, that the remedies, in different degrees of potentiation, exert their natural selection and affinity for certain parts and conditions of the organism in different degrees of intensity and susceptibility.

Considering, that the conception of Mutuality of action is, indeed, as Herbart observes, transferable and application to Chemical Affinity; believing that the character of our Homoeosis corresponds to Newton's “propensity of nature to transmute everything into its contrary,” and to Leibnitz, “harmonie prectablie,” and remembering Kant's conception of “chemical interpenetration” which Herbart once thought, deserved to be made the foundation of all natural philosophy; - we may feel assured, that further examination will be accorded to this subject, for the purpose of more fully elucidating its comprehensive relations to science; and that it will ultimately lead to good practical results.

As it is, our Homoeosis presents a generalization and combination of Grove's and Faraday's universal correlation and mutual conversion of the physical forces of matter, and of Herbart's “concurousin completus” applied to Physiology, Pathology, and Therapia.

The homoeomatic idea in general is proverabially expressed in Pope's sentence:

“All nature's difference makes all nature's peace;” and poetically rendered in the lines of Tennyson:

“Nothing in this world is single,

All things, by a law divine,

In one another's being mingle.”

It is classically depicted by Goethe's master hand in the words:

“Und es ist das ewig Eine,

Das sich vielfach offenbart,

Klein das Gross, gross das Kleine

Alles nach der eignen Art,

Immer wechselnd, fest sich haltend

Nah und fern, und fern und nah

So gestaltend, umgestaltend

Zum Erstaunen bin ich da!”

And, it is, with characteristic emphasis and precision, embodied in Faust's exclamation;

“Wie Alles sich lum Ganzen webt,

Eins in dem Andern wirkt und lebt!”

But the practical realization of this homoeomatic idea, and its application to medicine, is properly due to Homoeopathy.

“It is the destiny of Homoeopathy not only to effect a glorious revolution in the

art of healing, but to lead to new views of the constitution of matter.

- Joslin. Princ.

15. It may occur to look for an explanation of the homoeotic process by some higher law.

Some of our homoeopathic systematists have introduced Magnetism (Altschul) and Electricity (Goullon) as a cosmological basis for the homoeopathic quality of our remedies. The high character of Science which we all claim for Homoeopathy, advises us to be very cautious, and never too willing to adopt a bold, however ingenious, speculation, when there are not yet facts enough to justify it.

The nature and relation of Electricity and Magnetism will be better understood, when the idea of Potentiation shall have thoroughly taken hold of the scientific mind. This idea is like a powerful telescope, apt to dissolve the nebulae of the so-called imponderabilia, which even Liebig already styles “Potencies.”

The facts and observations at our disposal, as yet, are hardly decisive enough, to warrant us in assuming that the quality of homoeopathic substances individually, is proprie magnetic or electric, or that our healing process is a magnetic or electric process, properly speaking.

But, whether or not the substances themselves, still their action, in relation to substances of the organism, may exhibit something like polarity; and Polarity of Action might indeed be taken for a property common and essential to all mutual action and all homoeotic manifestations.

There is a general signification of the term Polarity, here applicable, by which it is used to designate opposite or dissimilar properties or powers, simultaneously developed by a common cause in opposite or contrasted parts. And in this sense polarity is a phenomenon observed not only in magnet, light and electricity, but also in Homoeosis which embraces them all. Not that the matter concerned in the mutual action is itself polar, but the polarity appears to be in its motion and action with one another, that is, in its mutual action.

With such a conception of Polarity of Action, as being the property of all mutual action, it would seem, that in the homoeopathic healing process the action of the remedy is polar to the action of the disease, and vice versa, and that the convertibility of pathopoesis and hygiopoesis would have its analogy in the Exchange of the Poles.

16. Inasmuch as, by the preparation and effects of Homoeopathic High-potencies, it is proved beyond controversy, that, by variously comminuting, attenuating, fining and refining crude drug-matter, growing “fine by degrees and beautifully less,” certain properties of matter are not only kept and preserved, but also propagated, reproduced and improved, which are not perceived in the state of crudity; and that by the administration of so subtiliated substances certain matter of the organism is unerringly affected; we may safely concede, that by potentiation the remedies are rendered molecular, and molecular motion and molecular life, as Von Grauvogl has it, set free, which was latent and unperceived in the crude state of the drug substance and represents molecular forces (Anamorphosis, Metagenesis).

And we may also infer, that, as assimilation is a molecular process, so the proper condition of a homoeopathic remedy for being curative, is Molecularity, and potentiating is a process of Molecularization.

If we herein do not adopt Goullon's phraseology of atoms and atomization, we only give up his nomenclature, because it would imply absolute simplicity and indivisibility of the constituents and thus exclude the very idea of motion and composition, which belongs to molecules and is indispensable for any theory of potentiation and for Goullon's own.

17. Inasmuch as our own experience, conformably with that of Hahnemann, Aegidi, Burckhardt, and others, places it beyond doubt, that Homoeopathic High-potencies exert their action unmarred, and undisturbed; for a long time, as well as immediately after their preparation, and as soon as they are brought into proper contiguity with the organism; we have again evidence of the identity of the curative action of these potencies with the action of chemical affinity, because a very peculiarity of the latter is known to be, that it is capable of either waiting or acting at once, (Faraday.)

18. Lehmann says, “from the inorganic chemistry it is known, that the ablation or apposition of a single atom may determine such entire difference of properties in a single composed body; shall it, then, still appear to us so very strange, when in the organic composition, where, on the whole, atoms use to group variously with such facility (isomeric), such changes are produced by a plus or minus of one atom?”

This relates to Isomerism. Chemical science knows also Homomerism, Metamerism and Polymerism.

But homoeopathic experience would lead directly to an investigation of homoeomeric bodies, and of Homoeomerism, and it might for such purpose prove of interest to refer to the Anaxagorean Homoeomeria.

And, in as far as Allotropism is acknowledged to be another similar property of matter, also pointing to the facility of acquiring new properties by a mere infinitesimal change; the greater strictness of homoeopathic observation would induce us to judge, that in the action of homoeopathic drug-matter, as well as in that of disease-matter, a certain Homoeotropism is perceptible, and that such, in fact, constitutes one of their properties.

19. Inasmuch as self-preservation, propagation, reproduction and improvement of its kind are an undoubted criterion of organic life, it may be inferred, that Homoeopathic High-potencies, like the constituent and integrant parts of the organism, are organic and organized matter, living micro-organisms, each with an individual existence, which, comparable to Milton's spirits,

* * * “that live throughout,

Vital in every part, not as frail man,

Cannot but by annihilation die.”

20. And inasmuch as no terminus of annihilation of homoeopathic remedies by potentiation has been reached as yet, our High-potencies are new testimony for the imperishability of matter, which was successfully sustained by Moleschott, and has since become the basis of research in natural science. “Matter, however subtiliated, is matter still” (Boyle), and “Material substances can neither be created nor destroyed, and the distinctive qualities which appertain to them, remain forever unchanged,” (Draper).

This is the great truth, so beautifully illustrated by Dr. Du Bois Reymond in his celebrated Preface, that it bears repeating. “A particle of iron is and remains assuredly one and the same thing, no matter whether it is propelled into space in a meteoric stone, whether it thunders along upon the railway in the wheel of a locomotive, or whether it pulsates through the temples of a poet in a blood-cell; in the latter case, as little as in the mechanism of the human hand, was anything added to the properties at this particle nor was anything removed from it; those properties are from eternity, they are inalienable, intransferable.

Truly, a Homoeopathic High-potency, in the language of Pope,

“Lives through all life, extends through all extent,

Spreads undivided, operates unspent.”

21. It is an object of further investigation, how much of this preservative and reproductive organization of the drug, and of the medical properties, in the potentiation process, is to be attributed to the mode of preparation, (trituration, dilution, contact, succussion, etc.,) and how much of it to the vehicle, (sugar of milk, alcohol, water, etc.).

Probably the vehicle serves as the medium, menstruum, or means, for keeping the remedial matter in the state of fineness required, and thus for facilitating its assimilation when required. At all events, here again is Homoeosis observable, this time as mutual action between drug and vehicle.

22. It is likewise a matter of further inquiry, how much of the affects of Homoeopathic High-potencies is to be attributed to the velocity of the assimilating process in space and time. For the purpose of an instantaneous and perfect cure, ceteris paribus, the momentum of the remedial force must be similar to that of the pathopoesis or morbific force, that is, it must be homoeorrhopic; the facility of assimilation standing as the measure of the susceptibility of the organism, which is found and elicited by individual examination in each given case.

The velocity and intensity of the hygiopoesis or curative force, are mutually governed by the action of the organism as well as by that of the drug, and the curative action must therefore be homoeotachic and homoeorythmic.

And by comparing this action with the known velocities of circulation, light, electricity, in nerves, and in other bodies, we might possibly get at an approximative estimate, and infer, whether the effect of the remedy is in the given case conducted through the circulation, or the nerves, or how?

In any case, however, the least momentum possible, because sufficient to cause a change, is certain to be all that is necessary, to overcome the opposed force of the pathopoesis and to neutralize the same, as is always done by the mutual action of a cure or hygiopoesis.

23. Inasmuch as, by the established effects of Homoeopathic High-potencies, it is certain, that the substance of the drug, after refining or potentiating, is more pointed and more specific in its medical action, than the crude substance, or, in Jahr's words, that High-potencies present the peculiar characteristics of the remedy; it may be assumed, that they exist, and act, under the dominion of the great Law of Development first pointed out by Goethe, and, as Draper remarks, somewhat obscurely enunciated by Von Baehr in the following words: “The heterogeneous arises from the homogeneous by a gradual process of change,” by which is meant, that in the process of development the stages are not from forms degraded from a higher type.

This gradual change is clearly homoeotic, and depending upon Leibnitz's Law of

Continuity .

And inasmuch as Development, to continue with Draper, is a Differentiation of a higher order or a compound Differentiation, and by Differentiation is meant an increase involving modification of fabric and the assumption of new properties (symptoms); there seems to be no objection to the idea, that the processes of Potentiation, and also that of Healing through High-potencies, are processes of Differentiation and Development.

24. And if, agreeably to Draper's further observation, the great result of every Development is Heterogenesis, and Homogenesis, only apparent as the conditions bringing on Differentiation approach Simility; we adopt and apply this here, with the modification however, that in strictness and reality, it is not exactly Homogenesis, but Homoeogenesis, which becomes apparent. Nothing can express this better than the spiral whose curves are true asymptotes, ever tending to approach each other, but never meeting. (Rentsch.)

And here, and in this sense of Differentiation and Development with assumption of new properties, we understand, corroborate, and justify Hahnemann's often misrepresented theory that the medical characteristic of Potentiation consists in the “Kraftentwickelung” or “Dynamization,” i. e. development of force.

25. Besides quantity, quality and relation, also the modality and form, or the morphological condition of the drug-matter, as well as of the constituent and integrant parts of the organism, concerned in the mutual action of the curative process, and also perhaps the morphological condition of the hypothetical disease-matter, or pathopoesis, present further important elements for analyzing the nature of the matter which is in mutual action in the healing process.

Microscopical observation in this regard, has not yet given us sufficiently many of certain and positive facts, because the fineness of the object is so extreme, that it still escapes perception by the instruments now in use; and the effects of our Potencies, as perceived in the organism, are still the only means of observing them. This morphological condition, therefore, deserves further attention. Stereoscopic observations would help much.

Thus much, however, upon comparing the said effects in the given case, might be safely assumed, that, in form, the motions and functions proper to the remedial matter, are similar to those of the pathopoetic matter, and that, in form, the constituent and integrant organs or elements, and their motions and functions, as concerned in the mutual action of healing or diseasing, respectively, are similar to the substance, motions and functions of the remedial and morbific matter, respectively, that is, that they all are homoeomorphic.

Equally plausible it is, that all these matters are in a similar condition of fineness, and proportionate in form to each other, so as to admit of Susception and Assimilation, that is, that they are homoeoleptomeric.

26. Inasmuch as Homoeomorphism presents a legitimate scientific point of view of our subject, legitimate inferences may be drawn from it. Among such might be one in regard to those strange and interesting indications for discovering peculiar remedial properties in organic and inorganic substances by their certain peculiar form and appearance, which from old are known as Signatura Rerum.

Superstition is connected with this subject, as it used to be with Astrology and Alchemy before the scientific development of Astronomy and Chemistry; but the subject never fairly died: and Helbig and recently Von Grauvogl bestowed their attention upon it.

Now, it would not be unnatural nor supernatural, to think, that, because everything and every organ consists of a certain system of motions and functions peculiar to it and unique of its own and adapted to the intent for which it is existing and formed, the regularity and object of such functions and motions causates and conditions, by the plasticity of nature, a certain configuration and form in the thing or organ, which appears to the eye and acts visibly. The organic form is always a result of the operation of the substance.

And if it could be made out, as may be done by the conception of Homoeoplasticity of Nature, that such functions and motions, and the inferred configuration of the parts, constituting the thing or organ, are homoeomorphic; then simility of configuration, Homoeoplasia and Homoeoschematism, would be an expression and conception of what is commonly called Signatura Rerum, and it would explain how really such Signatura, as the effect of the homoeoplastic force of nature, might serve as an indication of certain medical properties, and that they, if correct, can only be homoeopathical, and that they can only be correct, as such, it homoeopathical.

27. Since there are in reality no two things identical and no two diseases identical, there can be in strictness no isopathic remedy, and Isopathy is impossible by nature and by logic.

The substances which are improperly caned isopathic, are products of the organism in certain diseased conditions; and whilst there is no question as to their efficacy, in praxi, there is no doubt, that, when curative, they are homoeopathic remedies. Such substances represent, incorporate, and typify in their formation, the whole complex of the disease from which they result and which is their pathogenesis. Upon this positive ground they may be properly applied against similar diseases and formations; but it will always have to be done with certain precautions, as for instance, that the isopathic substance, to be used, be taken from individuals presenting the disease or pathema in a most simple and uncomplicated form, and that it be subjected to the process of Potentiation.

When regular homoeopathic provings or those so-called isopathic substances shall have been consummated, lege artis, as has been done already with Hydrophobine, Psorine, etc., by Hering, Stapf, Gross, Coxe, and others, then we shall have most valuable additions to the Materia Medica Pura, and probably arrive at a fuller scientific explanation of their medical action.

28. Whether the remedial and the pathopoetic matter in mutual action, might be also similar in respect to the parts constituting either, is another question offering itself for speculation.

Generally speaking, the observed simility of both the drug and the disease-matter, in form, quantity, quality, properties, and effects, seems to allow an inference, that both might also be composed and constituted of similar parts, that is, homoeomeric.

And even the Anaxagorean conception of Homoeomeria would confirm this in a measure, because, if everything consists of similar parts compared with itself, those things which are similar to each other, must also have a simility of their constituent parts as compared with each other.

But this question pertains to the department of chemical science which will decide it, when it shall at length avail itself of the homoeopathic facts and when, taking a homoeomatic view of matter, and giving to Potentiation its due credit, it shall be able to develop its higher branches into Metachemics.

29. From the preceding spicilegia, it would seem, that the substances which we know to be homoeopathic remedies or Potencies, as conceived in their mutual action with the organism, are homoeodynamic and homoeopathic, homoeopathogenetic and homoeopathoktonic, homoeotropic, homoeomeric, homoeorrhopic, homoeotachic and homoeorhythmic, homoeomorphic and homoeoleptomeric, homoeoplastic and homoeoschematic, and homoeomatic withal.

All these several properties and effects, taken together, seem to warrant the further conclusion, that they are all under a similar government, and under the condition of similar laws, that is homoeonomic.

30. The remaining question, of their essence, might consistently be answered by drawing a final conclusion from property, form and effect, to essence, nature and origin, which would be, that, compared with one another, they are homoeousian.

Perhaps, for a conclusive determination of this question, further accumulation of facts may be wanted. But Schneider's hypothesis, that the Homoia are the remedies and the causes of disease, is very acceptable, being consistent with all the facts which are at our command, and comporting with the doctrine of Hippocrates and Hahnemann.

And, with Newton's caution about the use of the word “force,” [Philosophiae naturalis Principia mathematica Coloniae Allobrogum, 1760, 4o, Tom 1, p. 11 ”.. Mathematicus duntaxat est hic conceptus. Nam virium causas et sedes Physicas jam non expendo … Unde caveat lector, ne per hujusmodi voces cogitet me speciem vel modum actionis causamve aut rationem Physicam alicui definire, vel centris, quae sunt puneta Mathematica, vires vere et Physice tribuere; si forte aut contra trahere, aut vires centrorum esse dixero.”] it might be safely said, that the Homoia are the forces which operate in and upon organism and remedy, representing the effects of disease and medicine upon the healthy. The tertium comparationis is the pathema or the manner in which the organism is affected by either.

32.Hahnemann, and his greatest disciples, always stoutly maintained the hylozoic opinion, that everything in nature lives. The same belief is shared by the highest minds of every age, and among its adherents are Heraclitus, Anaxagoras, Aristoteles, Leibnitz, Forster, Goethe, Herbart, Ritter, Du Bois Reymond, Draper, Moleschott. Fechner, and a host of eminent scientists of our age.

The same opinion gains new confirmation and support by the nature, properties and efficaciousness of our High-potencies. They, in their preparation and mutual action with the organism, prove again, what Draper states, that “there is no essential difference between the process of organic and inorganic life, and the line of demarcation which natural history so far, vainly attempted to define with correctness between organic and inorganic world, is merely arbitrary; either of them is reducible to motion and governed by the same laws.”

33. Thus the proposed disquisition of our subject lends to the final question of the ultimate constitution of matter adverted to in Joslin's prognosticon at the head of this article.

And, indeed, it would be entirely proper to inquire, what service the study of Homoeopathic High-potencies might do in that direction.

Researches of that kind legitimately belong to Metaphysics. Newton's warning: “O! physicians, beware of Metaphysics!” was correct in his time. What, then, was called Metaphysics; was it in name only, quasi lucus a non lucendo, whilst he himself was, in fact, the greatest metaphysician, because the greatest natural philosopher, of his age.

But Metaphysics must not be understood to be mere mental philosophy and transcendentalism, but, according to Herbart's conception of it, as that branch of philosophy, the province of which is to explain experience by philosophical concept, and which therefore, proceeds from, and finally rests on experience, and reality. Metaphysics, says Herbart, must support Natural Philosophy and Psychology, and thereby show its accordance with itself; it must stick to facts the most certain, whilst experiments and observations multiply in infinitum, and experience only must be its ground and foundation, and no dwelling in castles of air will do instead of it.

Now, it must be owned, that we know nothing positively of the nature of health, disease, and remedy, and that their properties and existence are only inferred from the effects they produce in the organism. Equally so we know nothing positively of the nature of things and forces generally, and their properties and existence are only inferred from the effects they produce. Hence, as Astronomy, by judging from their apparent positions, and motions, finds the true position and motion of the celestial bodies, so Metaphysics has to find the real nature and essence of things and forces from the properties and effects of things and forces, as they appear to us by correct observation.

Among these, the phenomena of Attraction and Repulsion as Ii general property of matter, and the Origin of Matter by Contraries, are problems, to which our Homoeosis, or the mutual action of contrary similars, is referable. Its reality, and the solution of the seeming contradiction, that contraries co-operate, and by doing so produce thirds similar to them and to one another, becomes practically and scientifically explainable by the conception of Infinitesimality of all Action.

But this is not the place to enter, to any extent, into such metaphysical disquisitions, and a historical reminiscence must suffice.

34. The general principle of the Origin of all Matter by Contraries was in early times conceived by Pythagoras, Heraclitus and Anaxogoras. The latter, moreover, distinctly taught Simility, as a pivotal point for the constitution of matter, and also Infinitesimality of matter, mind, and motion. And he states especially the origin of the affections upon the organism to be by contraries, laying down as the reason for it: “the simile is impassible from the simile.”

This is a remarkable rectification of the common belief, that “simile simili gaudet,” and, together with Hippocrates' nice observation, that “the most contraries are not always the most contraries,” it affords a fine philosophical argument for our idea of Homoeopathicity, and medical action generally, according to which “similia similibus curantur.”

Singular, indeed, it seems, that Anaxagoras, the friend and teacher of Pericles, Euripides and Democritus, and who died, when Hippocrates was 32 years old, and to whom belongs the merit of anatomical research prior to Aristoteles, and of whom are preserved a few most interesting views on Biology and Cosmology, and whose life, in excitement, persecution and martyrdom, and in other respects, presents a parallel with that of Hahnemann; - singular it is, that this early Greek philosopher should have foreshadowed, as it were, the molecular theory of our own age and the homoeomatic principle, and the Affinity of Opposition, the elemental importance of Simility and Contrariety, and the Laws of Motion, and the Infinitesimality and micrological nature of all motion and all things, and almost the Law or the Least Quantity of Action, in short, the very elements and principles of our own Homoeopathic Science, which are no more nor less than the principles of all Natural Science.

But here we take leave of the subject, resting with confidence in our hope, that Herbart's prophecy will yet be fulfilled: “Much will Europe learn from North America when Philosophy shall come to blossom there.”

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