Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1843-10-06
VOL. X.-NO. 6.
WHAT is HOMEOPATHY 7


1t is the new system Of the practice of
medicine by the administration of minute
doses, without deranging the general organi-
eaton OF the patient. The medicines, which
embrace all those Of the shops, as we'll as ma
ny medicinal plants, have been tried upon
the physicians themselves, and their effects
or symptoms particularly recorded published
and never refuted. They neither purge,
puke, bleed nor blister, nor in any way de-
range the general organization, SO that il
the patient RECEIVERS, his strength is merely
diminished by the disease, and not by any
violent operations OF medicine.
Its founder was DIR. Hahnemann. a Ger
man physician of great skill and genius.
who lately died in Paris, in full practice. at
the age of Lightweight After commencing
practice he thought he ascertained that there
was no rule TO guide him in the selection of
remedies; and he retired to study out some
system, if possible, which might be regular
and certain. He watched the practice Of
the country people, in the administration of
their domestic medicines and he thought
he observed in the old authors something
dimly shadowed FORTH from which be could
deduce rule in the selection of remedies
which should be regular and consistent
He was struck with the Latin maxim, simika
simiibas curdntur-"the like cures the like"
and he observed that the German hay
makers, when broken down with heat and
fatigue, took a glass of Kirscherwater, as
strong as alcohol, TO refresh and cool them.
lie knew well that this, upon man not SO
excited, would produce heat and thirst. He
saw them when limb was frozen, apply
ice and snow, and he knew ice or snow
would produce these same symptoms. He
saw children when they ate Belladonna ber-
ries, break out in botches, and have all the
symptoms of scarlet fever, and he knew Bel
adonna to be the specific for scarlet fever.
He read in books that mercury would pro-
duce disease scarcely if at all perceptble
from Syphilis. lie observed that Peruvian
bark would produce all the symptoms Of Fe-
yer and Ague, and he knew Peruvian bark
was the remedy for those same symptoms
From these examples, and his reading, he
came to the conclusion-that the effect or
symptom that any medicine produces on any
person living nutritiously, will palliate or
cure that effect or symptom when it appears
in the sick man. Acting upon this rule,
he, with few lovers of science, commen-
ced taking the strongest medicines, as arse
mic, calomel, &c, recording daily every
symptom and effect produced thereby. Be-
ginning with the large doses then in use, he
was twice brot to the brink of the grave.
Acting on the established principle that ma
ture was always warning with disease, and
wanted but little assistance, if of the right
kind, to subdue and overcome it, he com
pounded his own medicines of the pnrest
materials, and reduced the doses to the small
est possible amount.
After thus experimenting for twenty years
he commenced practice, boldly proclaiming
TO the world his rule in the selection ofrem-
edies, that the medicines which had produ-
ced the same symptoms or effects on the
healthy man, were the medicines TO adj
minister when those same effects or symp-
toms developed themselves in the sick man,
that the doses never should be so large as
to derange the general organization of the
system, and that the strength of the patient
should he kept up by nutritious diet He
discarded the old classification of diseases,
being governed altogether by symptoms
~ II. Patriot.