# Quackery Unmasked/Chapter XI

CHAPTER XI.
HOMŒOPATHY CONTINUED. ITS CHANGING AND UNSETTLED CONDITION—DR. HERING'S SENTIMENTS—WORTH OF HOMŒOPATHIC PRACTICE—ANECDOTE BY DR. MEAD—DANGER FROM HOMŒOPATHY—SALIVA OF BOA CONSTRICTOR, ETC. ETC.
We have seen how, and when, and where, Homœopathy originated. We have examined its principles and considered their operations. We have seen that its theories are wholly visionary, and in direct opposition to those immutable laws by which all things are governed. We have seen the whole scheme contradicted and refuted, by all reliable history and experience; and if this is not enough, we shall now see it repudiated by its disciples and followers. We have seen what Hahnemann's Homœopathy was, and what all his honest followers professed and practised; and now we will endeavor to ascertain what Homœopathy is at the present time. As soon as Hahnemann had published his theories and plans of operations, all competent judges decided ​that they were untrue and could not be sustained. The whole system appeared like the dream of some wild fanatic—the vagaries of a disordered brain—a castle built in the air, which must be crushed to atoms by its own inertia. Yet his disciples announced it as a new and great discovery—the beginning of an important era in medicine, which was destined to overthrow and nullify all the knowledge which had been garnered up through all past time—a gift sent from Heaven to bless the world throughout all coming generations. Hahnemann was declared to be the spiritual messenger charged with the important mission of redeeming the whole human race from the curse of Allopathy.
   "For myself, I am generally considered as a disciple and adherent of Hahnemann, and I do indeed declare that I am one among the most enthusiastic in doing homage to his greatness; but nevertheless I declare also, that since my first acquaintance with homœopathy (in the year 1821), down to the present day, I have never yet accepted a single theory in the Organon as it is there promulgated. I feel no aversion to acknowledge this even to the venerable sage himself. It is the genuine Hahnemannean spirit totally to disregard all theories, even those of one's own fabrication, when they are in opposition to the results of pure experience. All theories and hypotheses have no positive weight whatever, only so far as they lead to new experiments, and afford a better survey of the results of those already made.
   "Whoever, therefore, will assail the theories of Hahnemann, or even altogether reject them, is at perfect liberty to do so; but let him not imagine that he has thereby accomplished a memorable achievement. In every respect it is an affair of little importance."
Hahnemann's whole scheme, as I have said before, was built upon two ideas, viz., his doctrine of attenuations, and his hypothesis that like is ​cured by like. The first he reduced to positive mathematical rules, which he ordained as the fixed and unchangeable law of Homœopathy. The latter could only be settled by repeated experiments and extensive observations. Accordingly, he made trials of various articles upon himself and others, and directed his followers to do the like; so that, after all, the selection of the remedy to be used in any given case was left to the judgment and choice of each individual practitioner. And as only infinitesimal doses were to be employed in such experiments, it is easy to see that the experience of no two would be likely to correspond, and consequently all homœopathic practitioners would be left without any guide in therapeutics, unless they followed some master spirit of their own sort, who knew no more than they did themselves, or borrowed our materia medica. Therefore some preferred one course, and some the other, and others both. But having no fixed bond of union, except the law of attenuations, and their faith in that also becoming attenuated, they were soon found to disagree in many essential particulars. Some ​adhered strictly to the rules laid down by Hahnemann, whilst others declared that Homœopathy should not be fettered by any rigid rules, but that every practitioner should be left to pursue such a course as his own judgment might dictate; so that in a short time many nominal homœopathists were found utterly to disregard every principle which Hahnemann had laid down. But as no possible harm can arise from administering attenuated doses indiscriminately in all cases, and as it is the most easy and most convenient course, many still choose to follow it, and leave their patients to the recuperative powers of nature. Others follow this course, or depart from it, as occasion seems to require. In his old age Hahnemann rejoiced in the thought that he had accomplished his object, and established his medical scheme upon a sure foundation. But, alas! even now when he has but just parted with his visions of infinitesimals, and bid adieu to his dear Organon, shuffled off his mortal coil, and laid himself down to rest, many of his beloved disciples repudiate all his doctrines. They do, indeed, preserve the name of Homœopathy, as a ​kind of banner, upon which they think they see inscribed, in mystic characters, "By this ye shall conquer."
We are now prepared to understand and estimate the nature and effects of homœopathic practice. If the practitioner adheres strictly and honestly to the principles and rules laid down by Hahnemann, and regulates his practice by such authors as Jahr, Possart, Laurie, Hull, Duglas, Teste, and Miss Emma Cote, he will do no positive harm. Everything which he pretends to administer will be so attenuated that neither good nor harm can possibly arise from its use in any case, or in any dose. It can only serve to amuse the patient or his friends, whilst the efforts of nature, if they are sufficient, restore him to health. But if nature cannot accomplish this without assistance, she sinks under the load, and the patient dies.
But I am told that Homœopathy is not now what it was once, and that many new discoveries have been made in Hahnemann's great discovery, and that great improvements have been made upon his great improvements; or, in other words, ​that Homœopathy now, is not Homœopathy at all. I am aware that many may have adopted the name of Homœopathy without sincerely adopting its principles, and only maintain an outward show because it is most fashionable and appears to promise the greatest pecuniary success. An anecdote, related some years since, by Dr. Mead, of London, may serve to explain the motives of this class of practitioners.
   "A man of good education had become a quack, and had a booth in one of the most frequented streets of London. He calculated on the weakness and credulity of mankind, and made a most fortunate speculation. Mead, regretting that an intelligent man, capable of advancing truth, should degrade himself to such a trade, advised him to abandon it. 'How many men a day' said the quack, 'do you think pass through this street?' 'Perhaps twenty thousand' said the doctor. 'And how many of these do you suppose possess the right use of their senses, and a sound judgment?' 'Five hundred.' 'The proportion is too great' said the quack. 'A hundred, then.' 'Still too much.' At last they agreed to reckon ​them at ten. 'Let me alone, then' said the quack; 'let me levy on these nineteen thousand nine hundred and ninety fools the tribute which they owe me, and I have no objection to the ten having in you that confidence which most assuredly you well deserve."
One homœopathist tells me, "You may no longer smile at the supposed inertness of homœopathic medicines, for I carry in my case a medicine of which, if a man should take one drop, he would never know what hurt him." Now if this medicine is an honest homœopathic attenuation of no matter what drug, the man who should swallow it would "never know what hurt him," because he would not be hurt at all. But if it is some powerful concentrated poison, which is capable of destroying life so suddenly, then this is a dangerous article and in dangerous hands. We have seen that white arsenic is a common homœopathic remedy; yet there are other poisons in constant use among this class of practitioners much more virulent and much more dangerous, such as strychnine, phosphorus, elaterin, atropine, and many others. Any of these, ​incorporated with sugar of milk, can be given in small white powders without the least trouble; and whilst the patient and his friends suppose it is the same harmless thing as before, it is a concentrated poison disguised by sugar. This is one of the great improvements in Homœopathy. Every intelligent practitioner knows that pure attenuations are useless except as placeboes; therefore when such men wish to use an active remedy, they have recourse to such concentrated articles as can be given in the guise of Homœopathy. In this way, the most dangerous weapons are concealed under the apparently inoffensive garb of Homœopathy—weapons, which are always dangerous in any hands, and doubly so in the hands of men whose reason has gone astray In chasing the phantoms of Hahnemann, and whose brain has been jarred by Jahr's Manual.
Homœopathists see that patients prefer to swallow little doses of tasteless powders, and they cater for that appetite. The sick man is struck with horror at the thought of castor oil—he can never endure it; but he will swallow, without reluctance, one-fiftieth of a grain of ​elaterin which is ten times more powerful than an ordinary dose of castor oil. These things come to us in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Some prefer to take the homoeopathic medicines because they are so very nice. But do they know that the poison saliva of the boa constrictor is a homœopathic remedy for weakness, gout, rheumatism, faintings, nervous affections, dyspepsia, vomiting, hysteria, palpitation of the heart in young girls, and just one hundred other complaints? (See Jahr's Manual, pages 310—311.) Do they know that spiders, worms, bugs, and lice, are homœopathic remedies for purifying the humors, and that the scab of the smallpox is the standing remedy for that disease? These and many more of the like kind are some of the exquisite morsels of Homœopathy.